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diff --git a/77067-0.txt b/77067-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..73b4d72 --- /dev/null +++ b/77067-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15617 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77067 *** + + + + + + OLD WORLD MASTERS + IN NEW WORLD COLLECTIONS + + + + + [Illustration] + + THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO . DALLAS + ATLANTA . SAN FRANCISCO + + MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED + LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA + MELBOURNE + + THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. + TORONTO + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. J. P. Morgan_ + + GIOVANNA TORNABUONI + + --_Domenico Ghirlandaio_] + + + + + OLD WORLD + MASTERS IN NEW + WORLD COLLECTIONS + + BY + ESTHER SINGLETON + + New York + THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + 1929 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1929, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + + SET UP AND ELECTROTYPED. PUBLISHED JANUARY, 1929. + + + SET UP AND ELECTROTYPED BY T. MOREY & SON + + PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + BY BERWICK & SMITH CO. + + + + + _PREFACE_ + + +It is noteworthy that the first book to be published in any country and +in any language treating of Old Masters in private Collections should +be devoted exclusively to treasures in America. + +_Old World Masters in New World Collections_ may be called a +permanent loan exhibition of the greatest and most renowned examples of +Art in America, which cannot be seen anywhere but in this volume. + +It is owing to the gracious response and courtesy of the most +distinguished American Collectors that I am able to present between +these covers a selection of a hundred and ten of the choicest paintings +in the country, representing portraits, religious and mythological +subjects, and _genre_ from the Thirteenth through the Eighteenth +Centuries. + +One of the principal factors in the formation of many of these +magnificent Collections has been the outstanding influence of Sir +Joseph Duveen, Bart., under whose guidance the foremost American +Collections have been raised to a dominating position in the world of +art. + +It is significant that among the paintings reproduced here, the greater +number have been brought to this country by Sir Joseph Duveen; and I am +happy to express my thanks to Sir Joseph for his enthusiastic interest +and encouragement to me throughout the entire preparation of this +volume. + +A very interesting feature in this book is the distinguished ownership +of these paintings: Frederick the Great, for instance, owned Lancret’s +_La Camargo_, the celebrated French dancer; Queen Christina of Sweden, +Raphael’s _Agony in the Garden_; Madame de Pompadour, Chardin’s _La +Serinette_ and Boucher’s _Les Deux Confidentes_; Sir Joshua Reynolds, +Rembrandt’s _Standard-Bearer_; Sir Horace Walpole, Rembrandt’s _Simeon +and Mary_; and Charles Le Brun, Poussin’s _Jupiter and Calisto_. Fra +Filippo Lippi’s _Madonna della Stella_ came directly to the present +owner from the Monastery of the Carmine (Florence) for which it was +painted; Raphael’s _Niccolini Madonna_, from the Niccolini Palace; +Titian’s _Caterina Cornaro_, from the Riccardi Palace, Florence; +Bartolommeo Veneto’s _Maximilian Sforza_, from the Sforza Palace, +Milan; Rubens’s _Louis XIII, King of France_, from the ex-Emperor +of Germany’s Palace of Charlottenburg; and Van Dyck’s _Dædalus and +Icarus_, from the famous Collection of Earl Spencer at Althorp and was +consequently in the home of the Duchess of Devonshire, whose beautiful +eyes must have frequently looked upon it. Holbein’s _Prince Edward of +England_ was painted for King Henry VIII; and with the portrait of +Sir Thomas More, Holbein’s great reputation began. Of all Sir Joshua +Reynolds’s portraits _Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse_ is considered +the greatest; and Gainsborough’s _Blue Boy_ and the _Duchess of +Devonshire_ rank among the world’s most famous pictures. Surpassing the +_Blue Boy_ in beauty and charm (though not so famous) and depicting +withal a far lovelier personality, is Romney’s _John Walter Tempest_; +and Romney’s _Lady Derby_ and the _Hon. Mrs. Davenport_ will stand +forever among the loveliest presentations of charming womanhood. On +a par with these are _La Marquise de Villemomble_, by Drouais; _La +Marquise de la Fare_, by Fragonard; and _La Marquise de Baglion_ by +Nattier. Many critics call the last named work the greatest French +portrait of the Eighteenth Century. + +We read with amazement of European Collectors and Collections of the +past: of the treasures owned by the wealthy Dukes of Burgundy; by +Lorenzo the Magnificent and by other members of the Medici family; +by the Sforzas, Gonzagas, d’Estes, and other Italian princes; by the +Fuggers, those wealthy bankers of Augsburg; by noble Austrian and +German barons; by the great merchant-princes and lords of England from +Queen Elizabeth’s day to the present; by Cardinal Richelieu, Cardinal +Mazarin and Cardinal de Rohan; and by the Rothschilds and other notable +bankers. Yet, in some respects--particularly in the high quality of +their Collections and the velocity with which these Collections have +been made--our American Collectors surpass them all. On this point Sir +Joseph Duveen remarks: + +“The particular thing that makes American Collections so unique and +so priceless is that their pictures are all masterpieces. In Europe +you will find much larger Collections and these will have, like the +Bridgewater for instance, a large number of very mediocre paintings +and a few of supreme excellence--gems--magnificent! Many Collections +in England and also on the Continent go into hundreds with just a few +fine things. In America, on the contrary, every Collector wants the +best. He may have only thirty pictures, but they will all be fine. +Americans make Collections of masterpieces. _That_ is why they are +different. That is why Americans are a new race of Collectors. American +Collections are Collections of Masterpieces.” + +_The Blue Boy_ purchased from the Duke of Westminster by Sir Joseph +Duveen for the late Mr. Henry E. Huntington at the then unheard of sum +of $800,000 set the imagination of the American public aflame. When +exhibited at the National Gallery, London, and afterwards at the Duveen +Galleries, New York, for charity in 1922, the whole world flocked to +see it. _The Blue Boy_ proved to be a “sensation.” Within a few months +Gainsborough’s masterpiece was followed by Sir Joshua Reynolds’s +_Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse_, also purchased from the Duke of +Westminster by Sir Joseph Duveen for the late Mr. Henry E. Huntington +for $500,000. _Mrs. Siddons_ was, in her turn, followed by eighteen +superb examples of Gainsborough, Romney, Reynolds, and Lawrence, +several of which appear in this book. It was, therefore, the English +School that started the ball rolling for a new type of Collector, who +sought gems of the first water only. + +From this period onward great paintings of all Schools--Italian, +French, Dutch, Flemish, and Spanish, as well as English--have been +coming across the Atlantic in amazing numbers, and with eagerly +awaiting purchasers to greet them. The result is that America has +become a great Repository of Art, in which the entire country is +beginning to take a personal and justifiable pride. + +On this question of Art-migration the noted critic and director of the +Berlin Museum, Dr. Wilhelm von Bode, wrote not long ago: + +“Any one who a decade ago had even hinted at the possibility of +Gainsborough’s _Blue Boy_ making its way across the Atlantic to become +the central gem in the Huntington Collection would have been thought +mad. He might as well have suggested the uprooting of England’s +century old oaks, or the removal of the Rock of Gibraltar. And yet the +impossible has happened; and not only the famous _Blue Boy_ but many +another of the world’s masterpieces has travelled the same route. + +“This is the greatest transplantation of art-works the world has known +since the Roman plundering of Grecian art and the rape of the churches +and museums of Europe whereby Napoleon enriched the Louvre. + +“No power on earth can turn back the pages of history to the first +of August, 1914, on which day forces were set in motion that were to +result in a complete reversal of all hitherto existing political, +geographical, social, and economic values. No one could have foreseen +at the time that the world’s accumulated art-treasures would also be +affected by these sweeping changes.” + +From the amazing wealth that has been so generously placed at my +disposition, I have been guided by one principle of selection,--that of +_Beauty_! + +Art, according to my way of thinking, is something to be enjoyed, +something to delight the senses, and something to refresh the mind; +and I feel sure that many _connoisseurs_ will agree with me and +gladly welcome a book devoted to Old Masters in which not the slightest +suggestion of suffering enters. Therefore, in this book there are no +Crucifixions, Pietàs, martyrdoms, nor tragedies. + +Nor in my definition of Beauty do I recognize any distortion of the +word that might include the cant phrase--the “beauty of ugliness.” +Beauty, when most subtle, is always obvious; and I agree heartily +with Bernard Berenson’s dictum: “And not what man knows but what man +_feels_ concerns Art. _All else is science._” + +Fashions may come and fashions may go, but while these changing tides +ebb and flow the great manifestations and expressions of genius shine +with undimmed splendor as shine the stars of Heaven over a world racked +with dissension and controversy and troubled with many shell-shocked +minds. Shakespeare and Shelley and Keats and Tennyson will charm, +inspire, and uplift generations to come when yawping _vers libre_ +has been thrown into the literary junk-heap; Beethoven and Chopin +and Wagner will delight, astound, and refresh sensitive spirits when +the scores of the Twentieth Century cacophonists will be unopened +and coated with dust; and Raphael, Botticelli, Watteau, Fragonard, +Chardin, Gainsborough, Reynolds, and Romney will fascinate, enthrall, +and enrapture lovers of the beautiful when works of jostled planes and +lurid color will have been hooted to extinction. + +The Torch of Beauty burns brightly through all the confusion of tongues +and wild ragings of Twentieth Century iconoclasts. In this belief +and hope I have the support of the noted French critic, Robert de la +Sizeranne, who says: + +“Art never dies, even when all that has maintained it and served as +the motive for its very existence--civilization, society, religious +belief, social authority--has fallen into irremediable decay. For it +has still another reason for existence, which is the powerful one of +_Beauty_. Humanity is not rich enough to dispense with a vision of +Beauty. The day comes when it will return to it gladly and acclaim it +as if it were a living being.” + +Some idea of the value of the paintings shown in this book will be had +if I mention a few sums which were reached at the last sales, although +the figures have risen considerably since those sales. Here are, for +example, twelve paintings: + +Gainsborough’s _Harvest Waggon_, $360,000; Lawrence’s _Pinkie_, +$377,000; Gainsborough’s _Blue Boy_, $800,000; Reynolds’s _Mrs. +Siddons_, $500,000; Raphael’s _Small Cowper Madonna_, $700,000; +Raphael’s _Niccolini Madonna_, $875,000; Frans Hals’s _Laughing +Mandolin Player_, $250,000; Botticelli’s _Giuliano de’ Medici_, +$240,000; Raphael’s _Agony in the Garden_, $500,000; Gainsborough’s +_The Mall_, $500,000; Romney’s _The Hon. Mrs. Davenport_, $304,700; and +Romney’s _Anne, Lady de la Pole_, $206,850. + +Hence it will be seen that these twelve paintings represent +considerably more than $5,500,000. + +With these figures in mind (and I have not attempted to estimate the +Memlings, Holbeins, Bellinis, Crivellis, Titians, Rembrandts, Van +Dycks, Fragonards, Nattiers, and others) it will be easily appreciated +that the value of the paintings shown in this book soars beyond +millions into the billion dollar class! + +It gives me pleasure to offer my thanks to all the Collectors whose +pictures are represented and very particularly to Mrs. Herbert L. +Satterlee, Mr. J. P. Morgan, Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft, and Miss +Helen C. Frick who permitted me to have photographs especially taken of +the Duchess of Devonshire, and Lady Betty Delmé; Eliza Farren, Countess +of Derby; Maria Walpole, Duchess of Gloucester and “The Jessamy Bride”; +and Sir Thomas More. + +I also wish to thank most cordially Mr. Felix Wildenstein for his +valuable advice and approbation and for important material sent to me +from Paris and to express my appreciation to Mr. C. R. Henschel of +Messrs. Knoedler & Co., and to Mrs. Paul Reinhardt of the Reinhardt +Galleries for their warm support and aid. + + E. S. + + NEW YORK, + November 8, 1928. + + + + + _CONTENTS_ + + + CHAPTER PAGES + + I. ITALIAN 3–153 + Sienese + Florentine + Umbrian + North Italian + Venetian + + II. FLEMISH 157–196 + + III. DUTCH 199–232 + + IV. GERMAN 235–253 + + V. SPANISH 257–272 + + VI. FRENCH, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 275–326 + + VII. ENGLISH, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 329–428 + + + + + _ILLUSTRATIONS_ + + + GIOVANNA TORNABUONI _Domenico Ghirlandaio_ Frontispiece + Mr. J. P. Morgan. + + PAGE + + ST. FRANCIS AND THE BEGGAR _Sassetta_ 7 + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay. + + MADONNA AND CHILD WITH + SAINTS AND ANGELS _Matteo di Giovanni_ 11 + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay. + + ADORATION OF THE MAGI _Benvenuto di Giovanni_ 13 + Sir Joseph Duveen, Bart. + + MADONNA AND CHILD _Giotto di Bordone_ 27 + Mr. Henry Goldman. + + THE ANNUNCIATION _Masolino_ 29 + Mr. Henry Goldman. + + GABRIEL, THE ANNOUNCING ANGEL _Fra Angelico_ 33 + Mr. Edsel B. Ford. + + THE VIRGIN RECEIVING THE DIVINE MESSAGE _Fra Angelico_ 35 + Mr. Edsel B. Ford. + + ST. COSIMAS AND ST. DAMIANUS _Fra Angelico_ 41 + Mr. Albert Keller. + + MADONNA DELLA STELLA _Fra Filippo Lippi_ 43 + Mr. Carl W. Hamilton. + + MADONNA AND CHILD _Alesso Baldovinetti_ 49 + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay. + + PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG LADY _Piero Pollaiuolo_ 53 + Mr. Nils B. Hersloff. + + GIULIANO DE’ MEDICI _Sandro Botticelli_ 57 + Mr. and Mrs. Otto H. Kahn. + + PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN _Sandro Botticelli_ 63 + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay. + + MADONNA AND CHILD _Sandro Botticelli_ 65 + Mr. Max Epstein. + + GIOVANNA TORNABUONI _Domenico Ghirlandaio_ 67 + Mr. J. P. Morgan. + + FRANCESCO SASSETTI AND + HIS SON TEODORO _Domenico Ghirlandaio_ 71 + Mr. Jules S. Bache. + + MADONNA AND CHILD _Gentile da Fabriano_ 75 + Mr. Henry Goldman. + + MADONNA AND CHILD WITH ANGELS _Benedetto Bonfigli_ 79 + Mr. and Mrs. Otto H. Kahn. + + MADONNA AND CHILD _Perugino_ 81 + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay. + + THE NICCOLINI MADONNA _Raphael_ 85 + Sir Joseph Duveen, Bart. + + THE SMALL COWPER MADONNA _Raphael_ 87 + Mr. Joseph E. Widener. + + AGONY IN THE GARDEN _Raphael_ 91 + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay. + + PORTRAIT OF A LADY _Pisanello_ 101 + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay. + + ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS _Andrea Mantegna_ 105 + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay. + + VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH THE + INFANT ST. JOHN AND ANGEL _Francia_ 109 + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay. + + PORTRAIT OF A LADY _Luini_ 111 + The Hon. Andrew W. Mellon. + + TITIAN’S SCHOOLMASTER _Moroni_ 113 + Mr. Joseph E. Widener. + + MADONNA AND CHILD _Antonello da Messina_ 123 + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay. + + MADONNA AND CHILD _Crivelli_ 127 + Mr. A. W. Erickson. + + MADONNA AND CHILD _Crivelli_ 129 + Mr. Philip Lehman. + + THE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ST. LUCY, + ST. CATHERINE, ST. PETER AND + ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST _Giovanni Bellini_ 131 + Mr. Jules S. Bache. + + THE VIRGIN AND CHILD _Giovanni Bellini_ 133 + Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas F. Brady. + + MADONNA AND CHILD _Giovanni Bellini_ 135 + Mr. Philip Lehman. + + FEAST OF THE GODS _Giovanni Bellini_ 139 + Mr. Joseph E. Widener. + + THE VIRGIN AND CHILD _Titian_ 141 + Mr. Jules S. Bache. + + CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS _Titian_ 145 + Mr. John Ringling. + + GIORGIO CORNARO WITH FALCON _Titian_ 147 + Mr. A. W. Erickson. + + MAXIMILIAN SFORZA _Bartolommeo Veneto_ 149 + Mr. Henry Goldman. + + A SCENE ALONG THE ADRIATIC COAST _Francesco Guardi_ 153 + Mrs. Charles B. Alexander. + + PORTRAIT OF A LADY _Roger van der Weyden_ 167 + The Hon. Andrew W. Mellon. + + PORTRAIT OF A CARTHUSIAN MONK _Petrus Christus_ 171 + Mr. Jules S. Bache. + + MADONNA AND CHILD WITH ANGELS _Hans Memling_ 173 + The Hon. Andrew W. Mellon. + + PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG GENTLEMAN _Hans Memling_ 175 + Mrs. John N. Willys. + + LOUIS XIII, KING OF FRANCE _Peter Paul Rubens_ 177 + Sir Joseph Duveen, Bart. + + RINALDO AND ARMIDA _Sir Anthony Van Dyck_ 183 + Mr. Jacob Epstein. + + DÆDALUS AND ICARUS _Sir Anthony Van Dyck_ 185 + Mr. Frank P. Wood. + + ROBERT RICH, EARL OF WARWICK _Sir Anthony Van Dyck_ 189 + Mr. Jules S. Bache. + + QUEEN HENRIETTA MARIA WITH + JEFFREY HUDSON AND A MONKEY _Sir Anthony Van Dyck_ 193 + Mr. William Randolph Hearst. + + THE STANDARD-BEARER _Rembrandt van Rijn_ 205 + Mr. Jules S. Bache. + + PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG OFFICER _Rembrandt van Rijn_ 209 + Mr. A. W. Erickson. + + AN OLD LADY SEATED IN AN ARMCHAIR _Rembrandt van Rijn_ 211 + The Hon. Andrew W. Mellon. + + SIMEON AND MARY PRESENTING THE + INFANT CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE. _Rembrandt van Rijn_ 213 + Mr. Nils B. Hersloff. + + PORTRAIT OF AN OFFICER _Frans Hals_ 221 + Mr. Henry Goldman. + + THE LAUGHING MANDOLIN PLAYER _Frans Hals_ 223 + Mr. John R. Thompson. + + A MUSIC PARTY _Pieter de Hoogh_ 225 + Mrs. John N. Willys. + + THE LACE-MAKER _Jan Vermeer_ 229 + The Hon. Andrew W. Mellon. + + PORTRAIT OF A MAN _Albrecht Dürer_ 239 + The Hon. Andrew W. Mellon. + + PRINCE EDWARD OF ENGLAND _Hans Holbein the Younger_ 241 + The Hon. Andrew W. Mellon. + + SIR THOMAS MORE _Hans Holbein the Younger_ 245 + The late Mr. Henry Clay Frick. + + DIRK BERCK OF COLOGNE _Hans Holbein the Younger_ 247 + The Hon. Andrew W. Mellon. + + JEAN DE DINTEVILLE _Hans Holbein the Younger_ 249 + Mr. Henry Goldman. + + CARDINAL ALBRECHT AS + SAINT HIERONYMUS _Lucas Cranach the Elder_ 253 + Mr. John Ringling. + + CARDINAL QUIROGA _El Greco_ 261 + The late Mr. Henry Clay Frick. + + THE VIRGIN APPEARING TO ST. DOMINIC _El Greco_ 263 + Mr. J. Horace Harding. + + MARIANNE OF AUSTRIA _Velasquez_ 265 + Mr. Philip Lehman. + + PHILIP IV OF SPAIN _Velasquez_ 267 + The late Mr. Henry Clay Frick. + + GENERAL NICOLAS GUYE _Goya_ 269 + Mr. J. Horace Harding. + + PEPITO COSTA Y BONELLA _Goya_ 271 + Mrs. William Hayward. + + JUPITER AND CALISTO _Nicolas Poussin_ 279 + Mr. Carroll Tyson. + + LA DANSE _Antoine Watteau_ 283 + Mr. Charles A. Wimpfheimer. + + MADAME BONIER DE LA MOSSON _Jean Marc Nattier_ 287 + Mr. Edward J. Berwind. + + LA MARQUISE DE BAGLION _Jean Marc Nattier_ 289 + Mr. A. W. Erickson. + + LA CAMARGO _Nicolas Lancret_ 293 + The Hon. Andrew W. Mellon. + + LE DUO _Nicolas Lancret_ 295 + Mr. and Mrs. Emil J. Stehli. + + UNE FÊTE CHAMPÊTRE _Jean Baptiste Joseph Pater_ 297 + Mr. Jules S. Bache. + + UNE FÊTE GALANTE _Jean Baptiste Joseph Pater_ 299 + Mr. Edward J. Berwind. + + LA SERINETTE _Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin_ 301 + The late Mr. Henry Clay Frick. + + LES DEUX CONFIDENTES _François Boucher_ 305 + Mrs. William R. Timken. + + A YOUNG GIRL READING A LETTER _Jean Baptiste Greuze_ 307 + Mr. John McCormack. + + YOUNG GIRL _Jean Baptiste Greuze_ 309 + Mr. William Randolph Hearst. + + LA MARQUISE DE BESONS + TUNING A GUITAR _Jean Baptiste Greuze_ 311 + Dr. and Mrs. Henry Barton Jacobs. + + LA MARQUISE DE VILLEMOMBLE _François Hubert Drouais_ 313 + Mr. Jules S. Bache. + + MADEMOISELLE HELVETIUS _François Hubert Drouais_ 315 + Mr. Mortimer L. Schiff. + + L’INVOCATION À L’AMOUR _Jean Honoré Fragonard_ 317 + Mr. Mortimer L. Schiff. + + LE BILLET-DOUX _Jean Honoré Fragonard_ 319 + Mr. Jules S. Bache. + + LA MARQUISE DE LA FARE _Jean Honoré Fragonard_ 321 + Mrs. James B. Haggin. + + THE FOUNTAIN IN THE PARK _Hubert Robert_ 323 + Dr. and Mrs. Henry Barton Jacobs. + + MADAME LABILLE-GUIARD + AND TWO PUPILS _Madame Labille-Guiard_ 325 + Mr. Edward J. Berwind. + + LADY BETTY DELMÉ _Sir Joshua Reynolds_ 339 + Mr. and Mrs. Herbert L. Satterlee. + + THE STRAWBERRY GIRL _Sir Joshua Reynolds_ 343 + Mrs. Francis F. Prentiss. + + DIANA, VISCOUNTESS CROSBIE _Sir Joshua Reynolds_ 345 + The late Mr. Henry E. Huntington. + + MRS. SIDDONS AS THE TRAGIC MUSE _Sir Joshua Reynolds_ 349 + The late Mr. Henry E. Huntington. + + GEORGIANA, DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE _Sir Joshua Reynolds_ 355 + The late Mr. Henry E. Huntington. + + THE COTTAGE DOOR _Thomas Gainsborough_ 359 + The late Mr. Henry E. Huntington. + + THE MALL _Thomas Gainsborough_ 365 + The late Mr. Henry Clay Frick. + + MARIA WALPOLE, DUCHESS + OF GLOUCESTER _Thomas Gainsborough_ 367 + Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft. + + GEORGIANA, DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE _Thomas Gainsborough_ 373 + Mr. and Mrs. Herbert L. Satterlee. + + THE BLUE BOY _Thomas Gainsborough_ 379 + The late Mr. Henry E. Huntington. + + GENERAL PHILIP HONYWOOD _Thomas Gainsborough_ 387 + Mr. John Ringling. + + THE HARVEST WAGGON _Thomas Gainsborough_ 391 + Sir Joseph Duveen, Bart. + + JOHN WALTER TEMPEST _George Romney_ 393 + Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Field. + + THE HON. MRS. DAVENPORT _George Romney_ 399 + The Hon. Andrew W. Mellon. + + LADY DERBY _George Romney_ 401 + Mr. Jules S. Bache. + + EMMA, LADY HAMILTON _George Romney_ 405 + The late Mr. Henry E. Huntington. + + ANNE, LADY DE LA POLE _George Romney_ 409 + The Hon. Alvan T. Fuller. + + THE HON. MRS. GRANT OF KILGRASTON _Sir Henry Raeburn_ 413 + Mr. C. Fisher. + + QUINTON MCADAM _Sir Henry Raeburn_ 415 + Mr. A. W. Erickson. + + MARY HORNECK, “THE JESSAMY BRIDE” _John Hoppner_ 417 + Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft. + + ELIZA FARREN, COUNTESS OF DERBY _Sir Thomas Lawrence_ 421 + Mr. J. P. Morgan. + + PINKIE _Sir Thomas Lawrence_ 427 + The late Mr. Henry E. Huntington. + + + + + ITALIAN + + Sienese + Florentine + Umbrian + North Italian + Venetian + + + _SIENESE_ + +There are no beginnings of art in Italy. The old civilizations of +Etruria, Rome, and Byzantium never perished entirely; and upon their +surviving traditions “Christian Art” was built. Old pictorial ideas +and old decorative motives were absorbed, rearranged, and worked over +again and again in conjunction with theological dogma until in the +Thirteenth Century, largely owing to the beautiful character, ideals, +and influence of St. Francis, to the intellectual teachings of Dante, +and to the fervor aroused by the Crusades, “Christian Art” became a +living movement, which inspired, among other important things, the +creation of magnificent Cathedrals. When the architects, the carvers +of wood and stone, and the makers of the jewel-like windows had +finished their work, the best painters of the day were called on to +produce altar-pieces that would stimulate religious devotion, charm the +worshippers by beauty, and instruct the people (unaccustomed to books) +by representation of saintly lives and scriptural stories. + +Italian Painting in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries thus +shows many of the old Byzantine traditions still lingering in the new +“Christian,” or “Gothic Art.” + +Siena and Florence were the chief early Italian Schools. Siena was at +first the more important of the two and greatly influenced Florentine +and also French Painting. The leading early artists of Siena were +Guido da Siena, Duccio di Buoninsegna, Ugolino da Siena, Segna di +Bonaventura, Simone Martini, Lippo Memmi, Pietro Lorenzetti, Ambrogio +Lorenzetti, Lippo Vanni, Andrea Vanni, Bartolo di Fredi, Taddeo di +Bartolo, and Stefano di Giovanni (Sassetta). + +The next group includes Domenico di Bartolo, Lorenzo Vecchietta, +Neroccio di Landi, Benvenuto di Giovanni, Girolamo di Benvenuto, and +Matteo di Giovanni. + +“To understand and appreciate the painting of Siena one should think of +it as the culmination of the art of the Middle Ages rather than as a +promise of anything modern. Therein lies the difference which caused so +great a gulf between the art of Siena and that of contemporary Florence +only forty miles away. Sienese Art may be regarded as the most perfect +expression of the Byzantine ideal. It was hieratic and mystic. While +Giotto was forecasting the development of modern art by studying nature +and making his figures act like the real people whom he saw about +him, Duccio and Simone Martini were sounding the Byzantine creed that +the Christian saints were not _human_ but _divine_, not _vulgar_ but +_regal_, not _approachable_ but _aloof_. To the early Sienese, as to +the Byzantine, the Raphaelesque conception of the Madonna as the most +tender possible human mother would have been blasphemous bad taste. + +“Although Sienese Art was founded on Byzantine and was in a sense the +culmination of Byzantine, it was, nevertheless, a Gothic art. In other +words it belonged to its period, but it selected certain elements of +Gothic style for emphasis. + +“In Florence Giotto was inspired by the plasticity of Gothic Art and +its naturalism. In Siena Duccio and his followers developed the Gothic +living line; and, later, the emotionalism of Gothic spirit. Thus both +Florentines and Sienese were Gothic, but in a different way. + +“Technically as well as spiritually, the Sienese approached the +artistic abstractions of China and Japan. The analogies between Sienese +and Oriental Art have been observed by practically every writer on +the Sienese School. They have been tacitly attributed however, to +accidental similarities in ideals and modes in Siena and the East. +As yet no one has been bold enough to suggest an influence derived +from actual contact with Eastern Art, but such contact is not beyond +the bounds of possibility. In the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries +overland communication with the Near East and with China was common and +secure. Merchants like the Polos, prelates like John of Monte Corsino, +Andrew of Perugia and Friar Odoric of Friuli readily found the way to +Cathay, as China was then called. Peking was made a Roman Catholic +diocese and Pegolotti of the Bardi banking-house in Florence was moved +to write a traveller’s itinerary, remarkably like a modern Baedeker, +giving the most minute instructions as to inns, food, servants, and +so forth, on the route from Constantinople to Peking. Moslems like +Ibn Batuta travelled as widely as Christians, and Oriental travellers +visited the Occident. Thus Bar Sauma, a Nestorian of Peking, visited +the Pope in 1287 and passed through Tuscany on his way to Paris and +Bordeaux two years after Duccio painted the _Rucellai Madonna_. +Not only the Near East and China, but India, was opened to the European +and we hear of the martyrdom of one Brother Peter of Siena at a place +near Bombay. It was not until the end of the Fourteenth and the +beginning of the Fifteenth Century that the conversion of the western +Tartars to Islam, the advance of the Seljuk Turks, and the overthrow of +the broad-minded hospitable Mongol dynasty in China closed the overland +trade-routes. During the next hundred and fifty years while the +sea-routes were being discovered Europe seems largely to have forgotten +the existence of the Orient. Wild as the theory may sound, therefore, +it is possible that actual contact with Oriental Art may account not +only for the occasional Mongolian types and bits of Oriental armor to +be observed in Sienese Art, but even for something of the spirit of the +style.”--_Mediæval and Renaissance Paintings_ (Fogg Art Museum, +Cambridge, 1927). + + + ST. FRANCIS AND THE BEGGAR. + + _Sassetta_ + (_1392–1450_). + + _Collection of + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay._ + +On September 5, 1437, the Minorites of Siena ordered an altar-piece +for the Church of San Francesco at Borgo San Sepolcro from Stefano di +Giovanni, better known as Sassetta. The artist promised “to paint it +with fine gold, ultramarine, and other good colors, to employ all the +subtleties of his art, and to make it as beautiful as he could.” Also +he promised to complete it in four years. Sassetta, however, made a +wrong calculation; for the work occupied him seven, instead of four, +years. It was finished on June 5, 1444, and placed above the high +altar at Borgo San Sepolcro, where it remained until 1752, when the +panels were dispersed. From contemporary documents nine panels were +proved in recent years to have been among the decorations of this +famous altar-piece; and these panels were shown at the Retrospective +Exhibition of Sienese Art held in Siena in 1904. + +Seven of these nine panels are now in the Collection of Mr. Clarence H. +Mackay: _St. Francis and the Poor Knight_; _St. Francis Renounces his +Heritage_; _St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio_; _St. Francis before +the Soldan_; _St. Francis before Pope Honorius III_; _St. Francis +Receiving the Stigmata_; and _The Burial of St. Francis_. + +Another panel, _The Marriage of St. Francis to Poverty_, is in the +Chantilly Museum and the central panel of the altar-piece, representing +_The Glory of St. Francis_, is in the Collection of Mr. Bernard +Berenson. + +The panel representing _St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio_ was long +in possession of the Comte de Martel at the Château de Beaumont, near +Blois, and the other six panels came from the Collection of the late M. +Georges Chalandon, Paris. + +It was obvious that for a church dedicated to St. Francis the story of +his life should be told in paintings. + +It is a little hard to realize that the frescoes by Giotto and his +companions depicting the _Life of St. Francis_ had been admired and +worshipped for a hundred odd years before Sassetta was called upon by +the Sienese Minorites to tell the story again. Sassetta produced an +entirely new version with regard to composition, color, and spiritual +interpretation. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Clarence H. Mackay_ + + ST. FRANCIS AND THE BEGGAR + + --_Sassetta_] + +There is much to attract an artist in the story of St. Francis, for +although his life is not one of much variety, it is full of striking +episodes, which afford splendid pictorial opportunities. St. Francis, +founder of the great Order of Friars Minor, or Franciscans, and called +“the Poor Man of Assisi,” was born in Assisi in 1182, and died there +in 1226. He was the son of a rich merchant, who, furious because his +son lavished money on the starving poor of the vicinity, demanded that +he should renounce his inheritance. This he did with a joyful spirit +in public and before the Bishop of Assisi, thereafter devoting himself +to the service of the poor. Disciples flocked to his little chapel, +called the Portiuncula; and when the New Order celebrated its General +Chapter in 1219, five thousand friars assembled there. The Order was +approved by Pope Innocent III and by his successor, Pope Honorius III. +Poverty was the leading characteristic of the Franciscans, or Begging +Friars; individually and collectively they refused to own anything +whatsoever. + +St. Francis journeyed about doing good. His wanderings took him as far +as Egypt and Palestine; and it was in the year 1224, on the desolate +Mount Alvernia, that he received the Stigmata, or Impression on the +flesh of Our Lord’s Five Sacred Wounds, in memory of which the Church +instituted a special festival. St. Francis was canonized in 1228, two +years after his death. + +_St. Francis and the Beggar_, shown here, tells two episodes of the +story. On the left and in the immediate foreground the young St. +Francis, having dismounted from his horse, whose head (very finely +drawn) appears above his shoulder, is in the act of giving his cloak to +a poor beggar; and the latter, very dramatically expresses his delight, +surprise, and gratitude. Beyond these figures a winding road, bordered +with cypress trees, leads to a handsome villa, presumably the home +of St. Francis, beyond which little hills appear on the horizon. The +sky, very expansive, is silvery above these hills and grows gradually +bluer and bluer until it reaches the top of the picture, or dome of +the sky, where a strange castle is seen with banners of the Holy Cross +floating from its battlements and turrets. This castle really belongs +to the second episode represented on the right, which shows St. Francis +sleeping in a little room. This heavenly castle is the vision he has in +his dreams. It would appear that the Angel, standing over St. Francis +and pointing to the mystical castle in the clouds, is inspiring this +mystical dream. It is interesting to note here that Giotto made at +Assisi two pictures of _St. Francis and the Beggar_ and _The Dream of +St. Francis_. Sassetta combined the two episodes into one picture. + +“Even without documents,” says Berenson, “we should know that this +Borgo San Sepulcro polyptych was painted by a contemporary of Masolino, +Pisanello, Jacopo Bellini, and Antonio Vivarini. And that the master +was a Sienese we should know not only from his pure, flat color and +his devotion to line, but in other ways as well. At all events it is +he, Stefano Sassetta, who has left us the most adequate rendering of +the Franciscan soul that we possess in the entire range of painting. + +“Sassetta was not only one of the few masters in Europe of imaginative +design, but the most important painter at Siena during the second +quarter of the Fifteenth Century, the channel through which Sienese +Trecento traditions passed and became transformed into those of the +Quattrocento, for nearly all the later painters of Siena were his +offspring.” + +Stefano di Giovanni was born at Siena in 1392. He was a pupil of Paolo +di Giovanni Fei and was deeply influenced by the earlier Sienese +painters, Duccio, Simone Martini, and the Lorenzetti brothers. In 1427 +he was asked to furnish a design for the font in the Siena Baptistery +and he painted the altar-piece of the _Madonna Enthroned with +Saints_ in the church, since known as the Osservanza, built for St. +Bernardine on the site of his hermitage. Sassetta’s work for the Borgo +San Sepulcro did much to popularize Sienese ideas in Umbria. Sassetta +made many paintings in Siena and at Cortona, where he was influenced by +Fra Angelico. In 1447 he was commissioned to complete the frescoes on +the Porta Romana at Siena, begun by Taddeo di Bartolo; and he died in +1450 from exposure while working on this gate. Fifteen years later the +frescoes were finished by Sano di Pietro, one of Sassetta’s many pupils +and followers. + +For a long time Sassetta was forgotten; but of late years there has +been much interest in his works, which are of great pecuniary as well +as artistic value. + + + MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SAINTS AND ANGELS. + + _Matteo di Giovanni_ + (_1430?–1495_). + + _Collection of + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay._ + +Among the most important pupils of the famous Sassetta was the painter +and sculptor, Lorenzo Vecchietta, who in turn was the principal master +of Matteo di Giovanni, the most celebrated Sienese painter of his time. +Therefore we have direct artistic ancestry for Matteo di Giovanni +through Vecchietta to Sassetta and to Duccio. + +Matteo di Giovanni, also called Matteo da Siena, was the son of a +tradesman who came from Siena to Borgo San Sepulcro, where Matteo was +born about 1430. His first master is supposed to have been the Umbrian, +Piero della Francesca (or Pier dei Franceschi). Removing to Siena, +Matteo spent the rest of his days there. His life was uneventful, +for he gave all his time to painting. His domestic life must have +been somewhat exciting for he was twice married--the second time to a +countess--and he had a large family. Matteo was particularly famous for +his Madonnas, tender and wistful, with very decorative accessories. + +The lovely _Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels_, represented +here, shows this decorative quality of Matteo in its highest +expression. The Sienese love for Oriental fabrics[1] appears in the +rich attire of the Virgin. Here is no peasant woman in simple robe and +mantle, but a lady of high degree, wearing a gown of handsome brocade +with the significant pattern of the pomegranate. A white veil, soft and +transparent, lightly covers her forehead and her mantle is gracefully +drawn up over her head to form a hood. The Holy Child rests comfortably +upon her left arm while her right hand, large and firm, gives Him +additional support. A light drapery passes around the body of the Holy +Child--the Sienese were Oriental enough in their discriminating taste +to avoid uninteresting nudity and they also knew how to manage both +heavy and light materials--who grasps the Virgin’s tunic with His right +hand and has placed his left hand over that of His mother. The golden +_nimbus_ of the Virgin is inscribed “_Ave (Maria) Gratia Plena_.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Clarence H. Mackay_ + + MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SAINTS AND ANGELS + + --_Matteo di Giovanni_] + +St. Catherine of Siena stands on the right, also wearing a handsome +brocade gown and a white veil. She is holding a missal and a fragment +of her wheel of torture. On the left we see St. Anthony, in monk’s +habit, writing in a book. Behind this group two Angels are singing +loudly and joyfully. The background and all the _nimbi_ crowning +the heads of the figures are of gold, made the richer by burnished +ornamentation. + +This picture, painted in tempera on a panel 29 × 20 inches, came from +the Collection of Lord Ashburnham, Ashburnham Place, Battle, Surrey, +England. Of it Berenson says: “It is not only his (Matteo di Giovanni) +most typical and his most characteristic, but also his most impressive +and beautiful work; it has every advantage of ivory flesh, golden +tone, and gorgeous brocade; and with all these decorative qualities it +possesses real humility.” + +Among Matteo di Giovanni’s other important paintings are: the _Madonna +Enthroned_ (1470) in the Accademia; the _Madonna della Neve_ (1477) and +the _Coronation of St. Barbara_ in St. Domenico, Siena; the _Assumption +of the Virgin_ in the National Gallery, London; and _St. Jerome in his +Cell_, in the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts. + + + ADORATION OF THE MAGI. + + _Benvenuto di Giovanni _Collection of + (1436–1518)._ Sir Joseph Duveen, Bart._ + +We have here a charming Sienese version of the ever-popular +subject--the _Adoration of the Magi_. Everything about this picture +is radiant, charming, and decorative. The groups in pyramidal form +with masses at the base, made rich and beautiful by means of the wise +lighting and graceful arrangement of draperies, balanced with lively +animals on the right and left, rise higher and higher with more and +more delicacy of treatment that suggests the technique of old ivory +carving or the miniature painting of Mediæval manuscripts, until the +peak is reached in the charming presentation of a lovely walled town +with spires lifted heavenward. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Sir Joseph Duveen, Bart._ + + ADORATION OF THE MAGI + + --_Benvenuto di Giovanni_] + +The picture is full of movement, life, joy, and expression. The Holy +Child is appreciative (which is an unusual feature) and the animals, +too, are taking an enthusiastic part in the ceremony. + +The tender and gentle Virgin, seated on a stone bench directly in +front and wearing a red robe and a blue mantle, has the Holy Child +comfortably placed on her knee. On her left hand she is holding one +of the presents. The Holy Child, according to the Sienese fashion, is +draped and the linen folded around Him is embroidered in gold. His +expression is animated and very sweet and He is raising His little hand +in blessing. The eldest of the Magi,[2] Melchior with white hair (what +there is left of it) and white flowing beard, is kneeling before the +Holy Child and kissing His right foot, wearing a rich golden mantle +with a damask pattern in _raised_ gold relief, held by a jewelled +girdle. The second Magus, on the left, Balthasar, is clothed in a red +brocade mantle embroidered in gold. He has a dark complexion and is +removing his crown from his thick black hair and holds in his right +hand a piece of gold plate. The third King, Caspar, on the right, is +the most attractive figure in the picture,--a typical young prince +and dandy of the period dressed in a pale tunic, cut with point in +front showing a rich brocade undergarment, and plaited and slashed +and bordered according to the latest Fifteenth Century fashions. The +sleeves are slashed and ornamented with puffs and a rich girdle holds +the dagger with hilt of gold. Lilac trunk-hose, red shoes, and a golden +crown complete the costume. His face is delicate and charming and his +wavy hair is blonde. He, too, is bringing a piece of gold plate. This +radiant figure looks as if he might have stepped from the pages of the +_Romaunt of the Rose_. St. Joseph, behind Balthasar, leans his head +on his hand as if he were puzzled. Each one of these six important +figures has a flat golden _nimbus_. Behind St. Joseph, on the left, +the ox and the ass, by the intelligent gleam in their eyes, allow us +to believe in the legend that animals are endowed with the power of +speech on Christmas Eve. Over the roof of their open shed sparkles and +scintillates the Star of the East and under the Star we note a bush +laden with fruit,--a real Christmas tree! On the right, the group is +that of the retinue of the three Kings--people on foot, wide-eyed and +curious, and knights on horseback. A beautiful white horse arches his +head majestically and surveys the scene; behind him are a very superior +horse and a very superior camel, who gaze downward somewhat haughtily, +while a third horse looks backward at these companions to see what they +are thinking of it all! + +As in many ancient paintings, the scene is enacted for us in two +episodes. If we look ardently we see the three Magi on their approach +to the shrine. We can identify Balthasar on the left; Caspar in the +centre; and Melchior on the left of Caspar, followed by their retinue +defiling through the gateway of the machicolated wall, behind which the +town, with its towers and turrets, domes and roofs, stands out clearly +and poetically from its golden horizon. + +This painting, tempera on panel (70 × 53 inches), came from the +Collection of Sir William Neville Abdy, Bart., Dorking, Surrey, and was +exhibited in Paris at the Salle des Etats, Musée du Louvre, in 1885. + +Benvenuto di Giovanni di Meo del Guata, also known as Benvenuto da +Siena, was, like Matteo di Giovanni, a pupil of Vecchietta. He was +born in Siena, September 13, 1436, the son of a mason. In 1453 he was +painting in the Baptistery in Siena. He painted in Siena all his life +and aided in designing the inlaid marble pavement in the Cathedral and +he also decorated the cupola. Benvenuto di Giovanni cared little about +the scientific experiments the contemporary Florentine painters were +essaying, content to paint in the decorative and charming traditional +Sienese manner, of flat and ornamental designs beautifully enriched +with gold. It is very interesting to compare this painting with the +pageants of Benozzo Gozzoli and Gentile da Fabriano. It holds its own, +thereby, for its high decorative quality and peculiar charm. + + + _FLORENTINE_ + +It is not strange when Sienese Painting was at its height that its +influence should have been felt in Florence, which is only about +forty miles distant. The fame of Cimabue (1240?–1301), the founder +of the Florentine School, indeed, rests chiefly on the _Madonna_ +in the Rucellai Chapel of S. Maria Novella, which modern criticism +attributes to Duccio of Siena. Vasari was responsible for accrediting +the _Rucellai Madonna_ to Cimabue; and Vasari’s story that when +finished “it was carried in solemn procession with the sound of +trumpets and other festal demonstrations from Cimabue’s house to the +church, Cimabue being highly rewarded and honored for it,” reads like +an echo of the triumphal procession of Duccio’s great altar-piece--the +_Majestas_--from the house of that painter to the Cathedral of Siena. + +Cimabue, whose name was Cenni dei Pepe, transitional from Byzantine to +Gothic, is particularly famed for being the discoverer and teacher of +Giotto. + +Giotto di Bordone (1276–1336), sculptor and architect as well as +painter, is the dominating personality in Trecento Art, and the first +Gothic painter of Florence. Giotto’s influence lasted for a hundred +years or more (see page 25). + +One of Giotto’s associates and followers was Bernardo Daddi, son of +Daddo di Simone, a Florentine. The date of his birth is supposed to +have been 1280. He died in 1348. About 1317 he was admitted to the +Arte de Medici e Speziale, the Guild of Doctors and Apothecaries, from +whom the painters obtained their pigments. According to the laws of +the period no painter could pursue his art unless he took his degree +in that confraternity. The early painters became independent of the +Guild of Doctors and Apothecaries after the Guild of St. Luke[3] was +formed--the special brotherhood of all painters, which spread to every +country and to every town--and there is a tradition that Daddi was one +of the founders of this Compagnia di San Luca, which would show that +this Florentine Guild of St. Luke was organized as early as 1348. + +Daddi painted the fresco over the San Giorgio Gate of Florence about +1330 and he also painted the frescoes of the Martyrdom of St. Stephen +and St. Lawrence in Santa Croce. Daddi comes very close to Giotto +(1276–1336), in dates and in style, although he shows great sympathy +with the Sienese painters. + +Giotto’s followers--the Giotteschi--worked from about 1330 to 1430 +and include: Taddeo Gaddi, Andrea di Cione (better known as Orcagna), +Giovanni da Milano, Agnolo Gaddi, Cennino Cennini, Andrea di Firenze, +Antonio Veneziano, Spinello Aretino, and Lorenzo Monaco. + +These painters prepared the way for greater changes by studying +perspective and the human form and by gradually introducing Classic +Architecture into their pictures in place of Gothic decoration. + +In studying Fifteenth Century Art in Florence we are struck by the +great number of goldsmiths and other workers in metal who became +painters. There is a reason for this. The most important work in +Florence for twenty-two years was the making of the four bronze doors +for the Baptistery, the competition for which was won by Ghiberti in +1401. The undertaking was so vast that Ghiberti engaged, at one time or +another, nearly all the most talented artists and artisans of Florence. +Many painters and sculptors who acquired fame afterwards, such as +Masaccio and Donatello for instance, received their early training +under Ghiberti. + +Of the last-mentioned painter Leonardo da Vinci wrote: + +“After the days of Giotto, painting declined again, because everyone +imitated the pictures that were already in existence; and this went on +until Tommaso of Florence, nicknamed Masaccio, showed, by his perfect +works, how artists who would take any teacher but Nature--the mistress +of all masters--labor in vain.” + +Tommaso Masaccio (1401–1429?) and Tommaso Masolino (1383–1447) worked +together in the Brancacci Chapel. Masaccio was the son of a notary in +the parish of Castel S. Giovanni in Val d’Arno, learned to draw and +paint, joined the Guild of St. Luke in 1424, and became Masolino’s +assistant for painting the frescoes in the new Chapel built by Felice +Brancacci in the Carmine. When Masolino went to Hungary, Masaccio +worked there alone. + +Masaccio’s frescoes made an epoch in art, although the painter was +little appreciated in his day. He left his work suddenly and went to +Rome. Nothing more was ever heard of him. He is thought to have died +in Rome in 1429. Almost immediately Masaccio’s work began to be valued +and all the Florentines of the Fifteenth Century flocked to study these +Brancacci frescoes. Masolino (1383–1447) was appointed in 1423 to paint +frescoes in the new Brancacci Chapel in the Carmine and two years +later went to Hungary. Returning home after several years, he painted +frescoes in various cities (see page 28). + +Gerardo, better known as “Starnina” (1354–1408), a pupil of Antonio +Veneziano, spent nine years in Spain and on his return to Florence, +achieved great fame by his frescoes in the Carmine. The name was taken +from that of his father, Jacopo Starna. It is said that “Starnina” was +the master of Masolino and Fra Angelico. + +Fra Angelico (1387–1455), brings us to another transitional +period,--this time from the Gothic to the Renaissance. Fra Angelico, or +Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, the angelic and mystical painter and the most +beloved of all the early artists, spent his life painting frescoes and +altar-pieces for churches and cloisters. He was frequently called by +the Pope to Rome, where he died (see page 32). + +To this period belong Andrea del Castagno (1390?–1457), a vigorous and +austere painter, and Paolo Uccello (1397–1475), named Paolo di Dono, +but called Uccello because he kept in his house and painted so many +birds. Uccello began life as a goldsmith and assistant to Ghiberti. + +No survey of painting in Florence in the Fifteenth Century, however +slight, would be complete without reference to the Medici. Art, like +all other branches of learning, owed its splendid development to +their intelligent sympathy and generous patronage. The Medici began +this patronage early. Giovanni de Bicci (1360–1428), the founder of +the family, was one of the judges who selected Ghiberti to make the +Baptistery doors and Cosimo, “the Father of his Country” (1389–1464), +was so liberal a patron of Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo Lippi, Benozzo +Gozzoli, Paolo Uccello, Domenico Veneziano, and many others, that we +may safely say the great flowering of Florentine Art is almost entirely +due to his taste and encouragement. + +The Florentine artists, too, were greatly stirred by the meeting of the +Council of the Eastern and Western Churches, which was one of the most +important gatherings ever held anywhere in the history of the world. +This Council was invited by Cosimo to Florence and all the dignitaries +and their suites were his personal guests, entertained by him in his +various palaces and villas. Picturesque and bizarre these dignitaries +were; and the painters had full opportunity to see them when they sat +in the Duomo under Brunelleschi’s newly completed dome (then the Eighth +Wonder of the World), or when they moved about the streets with their +suites. + +In his delightful book, _The Medici_, Col. G. F. Young has called +particular attention to the importance of this great Council; how +it led Cosimo to found the Platonic Academy; and how the Fall of +Constantinople, fourteen years later, changed the world so utterly that +no such meeting could ever take place again. In part he says: + +“This great gathering of 1439 in Florence had its effect also on +Art. We are often inclined to wonder where such painters as Fra +Angelico, Benozzo Gozzoli, and Gentile da Fabriano got the idea of +the gorgeous robes and strange-looking head-dresses which we see in +their pictures of Eastern subjects. It was all taken direct from the +life of Florence of this year. During that summer the inhabitants of +Florence saw a perpetual succession of grand processions and imposing +functions in which these visitors from the East appeared in every kind +of magnificent and strange costume. Vespasiano da Bisticci and other +writers of the time dilate upon their rich silken robes, heavy with +gold, and their fantastic-looking head-dresses, regarded with deep +interest by the learned on account of their ancient character. And the +painters reproduce these before us in pictorial records, which are +valuable to us on that very account, and because this was the last +occasion on which these costumes were destined to appear.” + +Piero il Gottoso (1416–1469), Cosimo’s son, “carried on” the traditions +of the Medici, encouraging Art to such an extent that practically every +great work produced in Florence in his time was made for, or inspired +by, him. Piero il Gottoso and his cultured wife, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, +recognizing Botticelli’s genius, took him into their home and made him +one of the family. All of Botticelli’s early works, therefore, belong +to the period he spent under the patronage of Piero de’ Medici. Yet, of +course, Botticelli is recognized as the particular painter of Lorenzo +the Magnificent (1449–1492), son of Piero, and a friend and boyhood +companion. + +“As had been the case with his father, Piero, the leading artists +of the day did most of their work for him, and nearly every work +of eminence in painting or sculpture belonging to Lorenzo’s time +remaining in Florence, was commissioned by him. Verrocchio did almost +all his work for him; that sculptor’s graceful tomb in San Lorenzo +over Lorenzo’s father and uncle, his bronze _David_, and his fountain +of _The Boy with a Dolphin_ were all executed for Lorenzo. Botticelli +he made his family painter as well as friend and all the pictures of +Botticelli’s second period were painted for him. It was Lorenzo who +caused Ghirlandaio’s frescoes in Sta. Maria Novella and Santa Trinità +to be painted; and it was he who selected and sent Leonardo da Vinci to +Milan to become ‘Il Moro’s’ great painter. Among others he also gave +commissions to Filippino Lippi, Signorelli, Baldovinetti, Benedetto +da Majano, Andrea del Castagno and the Pollaiuoli. The Medici Palace +became, Symonds says, ‘a museum at that period unique in Europe, +considering the number and value of its art-treasures;’ and these he +made available to all young artists for purposes of study. There being +at that time no school for sculpture, Lorenzo formed one in his garden +near San Marco, collected there casts from many antique statues, placed +the school in charge of Donatello’s pupil, Bertoldo, and invited all +young sculptors to study there. Among those who did so were Lorenzo di +Credi, Michelangelo, and many others afterwards famous.”--COL. G. F. +YOUNG, _The Medici_ (London, 1909). + +The roll-call is large and marvellous; and when we think of the +troubles of the time,--the quarrels, the conspiracies, the dangers +of murder, and the constant visitations of the Plague, we almost +comprehend refuge in the cloister rather than such extraordinary +activity in Art and Learning. Let us look at the greatest names. + +Domenico Veneziano (1400–1461), a native of Venice, as his name plainly +shows, but employed by Piero il Gottoso, classed in his day with Fra +Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi, a delightful musician, playing on the +lute and singing well, and said by Vasari, to have introduced into +Florence the Flemish method of using oils. Veneziano taught Piero della +Francesca, the Umbrian painter. Then there is Fra Angelico, already +mentioned, and there is Fra Filippo Lippi (1406?–1469), a monk, but +not a saint like Fra Angelico,--wild and adventurous yet a superlative +painter, whose reputation continues to increase and whose Madonnas, +usually with the face of Lucrezia Buti, are justly admired (see page +42). + +Francesco Pesellino (1422–1457), whose real name was Francesco di +Stefano, pupil of his grandfather, Giuliano, and a follower of Fra +Filippo Lippi, famous for his decorative qualities and his animals, +rare and valued to-day. Another painter of decorative taste, charming +and refined, is Alesso Baldovinetti (1425–1499), a follower of Domenico +Veneziano and teacher of Ghirlandaio (see page 48). + +Then come the famous brothers, workers in gold, silver, and bronze, +painters of heroic frescoes, and celebrated as draughtsmen--Antonio +Pollaiuolo (1432–1498) and Piero Pollaiuolo (1443–1496), sons, too, of +a goldsmith, all three busy, at various times, on the Ghiberti doors +(see page 51). + +Then there is Pier Francesco Fiorentino, an Umbrian, born in Borgo +San Sepolcro about 1430, pupil of Domenico Veneziano, and said to +have assisted Ghirlandaio at S. Giminiano in 1475. Next comes Andrea +Verrocchio (1435–1488), goldsmith and sculptor, pupil and assistant +to Donatello. Andrea di Cione’s nickname of “Verrocchio” (true eye) +is self-explanatory. Verrocchio was also an accomplished musician. +He was employed by the Medici all his life; and he trained in his +workshop, Leonardo da Vinci, Perugino, and Lorenzo di Credi. Verrocchio +also planned many of the splendid pageants, for which Florence was so +famous, and designed the artistic helmets worn by young Lorenzo and +Giuliano at their tournaments. When Lorenzo became head of the Medici +he continued the family patronage to Verrocchio. Cosimo Rosselli +(1439–1507), followed Paolo Uccello and Alesso Baldovinetti. + +Sandro Botticelli (1444–1510), who belongs to both Piero and Lorenzo +de’ Medici, was a pupil of Fra Filippo Lippi and was influenced +by Antonio Pollaiuolo before he blossomed forth in his full +individuality. For many centuries Botticelli has charmed the world, his +_prestige_ ever growing greater (see page 55). + +Botticelli leads us into another group. Here is Domenico del +Ghirlandaio (1449–1494), “the garland-maker,” first a goldsmith, then +a pupil of Alesso Baldovinetti and much influenced by Botticelli +and Verrocchio. Into his decorative scenes this painter introduced +portraits of distinguished Florentines (see page 70). + +Then we have one of the world’s greatest geniuses, Leonardo da Vinci +(1452–1519), painter, sculptor, architect, decorator, designer of +pageants and masques, musician, and engineer, and, moreover, a +personage of charm and many social gifts. Leonardo was apprenticed to +Verrocchio and patronized by Lorenzo de’ Medici, who sent him in 1482 +to Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (see page 93). + +Filippino Lippi (1457–1504), son of Fra Filippo Lippi and the nun, +Lucrezia Buti (see page 44), a pupil of Botticelli, achieved a fine +reputation as a painter and as a man. Lorenzo di Credi (1457–1537), +fellow-pupil with Perugino and Leonardo da Vinci in Verrocchio’s +studio, esteemed for his execution and careful finish, was an especial +favorite with Verrocchio. + +Piero di Cosimo, or Piero di Lorenzo (1462–1521?), called Cosimo after +his master, Cosimo Rosselli, assisted the latter in decorating the +Sistine Chapel in 1480. Piero di Cosimo is famed for his mythological +pictures and for a portrait of Simonetta Vespucci (see page 59), now in +the Chantilly Museum. + +Fra Bartolommeo (1472–1517), whose name was Baccio della Porta, an +apprentice of Cosimo Rosselli, became an ardent follower of Savonarola. +It was, therefore, a natural step for him to become a Dominican monk +in 1500; but he continued to paint and had for a partner Mariotto +Albertinelli (1474–1515), a pupil of Cosimo Rosselli and Piero di +Cosimo. + +Michelangelo (1475–1564), painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and +military engineer, was born at Castel Caprese, where his father, +Ludovico Buonarroti, was governor of the Castle. Apprenticed to +Ghirlandaio, he also worked in the Medici Gardens and became a favorite +with Lorenzo. After Lorenzo’s death in 1492, he worked for his son, +Piero. Michelangelo’s commanding work, however, was done in Rome, where +he went in 1508 to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. In 1547 +Michelangelo succeeded Antonio di San Gallo as architect of St. Peter’s. + +Raphael Santi (1484–1520) has to be included among the Florentine +painters for he worked in Florence during 1504–1508, when he fell under +the influence of Leonardo da Vinci and Fra Bartolommeo and painted +several important pictures, including the _Madonna del Gran Duca_ (now +in the Pitti) and the _Madonna del Cardellino_ (now in the Uffizi). +(See page 86.) + +Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Bartolommeo, and Michelangelo influenced Andrea +del Sarto (1486–1531), pupil of Piero di Cosimo. His real name was +Andrea d’Agnolo and because of his facile technique was called “_Andrea +senza errori_”. Francis I had Andrea come to Fontainebleau in 1518; but +he soon went home to Florence and died of the Plague. + +Franciabigio (1482–1525), son of Christoforo Bigio, partner of Andrea +del Sarto and pupil of Albertinelli and Piero di Cosimo, noted for his +religious pictures and portraits, and Bronzino (1502–1572), poet and +painter (whose name was Angelo Allori), pupil of Jacopo da Pontormo, +and famous for his portraits of the Medici family, bring us to the last +quarter of the Sixteenth Century. + +The great days of painting were over; and they had been great days! + + + MADONNA AND CHILD. + + _Giotto di Bordone_ + (_1276–1336_). + + _Collection of + Mr. Henry Goldman._ + +Framed by a slightly pointed arch, not sufficiently removed from +the old Romanesque curves to be full Gothic, and projected upon a +background of gold, appears this graceful Madonna, so unusual in type +and of such amazing beauty. Her face, with its almond-shaped eyes +(not set obliquely however) and its sweet flower-like mouth, has a +Chinese quality that bestows a great charm. On the face there is +also an Oriental radiation of gentleness, resignation, and spiritual +experience. While looking at us this lovely Madonna--who might answer +as well for the Chinese goddess Kuan Yin--seems to be trying to draw +us into a contemplation of the Infinite. The dress, too, is unusual. +All that we see is a blue mantle lined with silk, shaded in green, +white, and pink, decorated by a gold border with an Arabic inscription. +This mantle is carried over the head to form a hood and one end is +very gracefully thrown across the left arm. On the right shoulder a +conventionalized flower is embroidered in gold, reminding us of the +star that the Sienese Madonnas usually carry. A white drapery, also +having an Arabic border, is folded around the Holy Child, who grasps +His mother’s forefinger with His left hand, while with His right He +tries to take from her a white rose[4] that she is holding upward. Each +head is encircled by a _nimbus_: that of the Virgin is very large +and very decorative with an interlaced pattern of Oriental design; and +that of the Holy Child has a foliage design reminiscent of Byzantine +ornament. On both sides of the Virgin’s face a pink veil is visible. + +This picture, painted on a panel (34 × 25 inches), came from the +Collection of M. Eugène Max of Paris. + +Many legends have gathered around the name of the great Florentine, +doubly famed as painter of marvellous frescoes and as the architect of +the Campanile in Florence that is still called by his name. The story +of how Giotto, the little shepherd boy tending his father’s flocks on +the Apennines, was discovered drawing a sheep on a rock by Cimabue and +taken by him to Florence and trained, ultimately becoming the greatest +painter of his time and founder of a School, was told by Ghiberti and +Leonardo da Vinci many years before Vasari’s day. + +Giotto di Bordone is supposed to have been born at Colle di Vespignano, +about twenty miles from Florence, in 1266 and he died in Florence in +1337. He was a pupil of Cimabue but surpassed him. About 1300 he was in +Rome making the mosaics in the portico of St. Peter’s, a polyptych, and +some frescoes in the choir. In 1303–1306 Giotto painted the frescoes +in the Arena Chapel in Padua; at Assisi he painted the scenes from the +_Life of St. Francis_ in the Upper Church and also some of the +frescoes in the Magdalen Chapel in the Lower Church. After 1316 he +decorated the Bardi and the Peruzzi Chapels in S. Croce in Florence. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Henry Goldman_ + + MADONNA AND CHILD + + --_Giotto di Bordone_] + +“From the first,” says Mrs. Cartwright, “Giotto adopted a clear, +pale tone of coloring, which forms a marked contrast to the dark +and heavy tints in use among Byzantine artists, and produces the +effects of water-color, while that of the older painters more nearly +resembles oils. The technique which he used, both for tempera and +fresco-painting, and which remained in use among Florentine artists for +the next hundred and fifty years, was in reality founded on the old +Greek method which had been practiced during many centuries, although +the improvements which he introduced were sufficient to justify the +Giottesque artist, Cennino Cennini, in saying that Giotto changed +painting from the Greek to the Latin manner and brought in modern +art. Yet more striking were the innovations which he introduced in his +types, the almond-shaped eyes, long noses, and oval countenances with +square, heavy jaws which he substituted for the staring eyes and round +faces of Byzantine artists. The few and simple lines of his draperies +give a majestic effect to his figures and at the same time sufficiently +indicate the structure of the human form beneath; so that in spite of +his ignorance of anatomy and modelling, the result is remarkably good.” + +Giotto was working in Naples for King Robert in 1333 when he was sent +for by the Signoria of Florence and appointed Chief Architect of the +State and Master of the Cathedral Works, succeeding Arnolfo del Cambio, +who had died in 1310. All work had stopped since that date; but now +the authorities had decided to erect a bell-tower and they announced: +“For this purpose we have chosen Giotto di Bordone, painter, the great +and dear master, since neither in the city, nor in the whole world, +is there any other to be found as well fitted for this and similar +tasks.” The whole achievement of Giotto’s life was summed up more than +a hundred years later when Lorenzo the Magnificent commanded Angelo +Poliziano to write a Latin inscription for a bust of Giotto he was +placing on Giotto’s tomb in the Duomo: + +“Lo, I am he by whom dead Painting was restored to life, to whose right +hand all was possible, by whom Art became one with Nature. No one ever +painted more or better. Do you wonder at yon fair Tower which holds the +sacred bells? Know it was I who bade her first rise towards the stars. +For I am Giotto--what need is there to tell of my work? Long as verse +lives, my name shall endure!” + + + THE ANNUNCIATION. + + _Masolino_ + (_1383–1447_). + + _Collection of + Mr. Henry Goldman_ + +We have here a very interesting and important example of interior +decoration. The Renaissance has arrived as well as the Announcing +Gabriel! The round arch of grey stone (the spandrels of which contain +rosettes) frames a sumptuous room divided by a slender Corinthian +column. The walls and the _cassette_ ceiling are inlaid with mosaic +of different colors and the archway leading into another room--the +Virgin’s bedroom--has a blue sky sprinkled with gold stars. In +the centre of the background richly decorated doors lead into the +adjoining room. The general hues of the wall and ceiling are grey, +green, and red. The Virgin is seated on the right upon a tall and +not very comfortable Italian settee. She has on a light blue mantle +which falls around her in graceful folds. Her parted light hair is +surrounded by a golden _nimbus_ of decorative design. She holds an +open prayer-book with one hand and with the other makes a gesture of +submission and humility as she listens to the message of the Angel. +Whether she _sees_ Gabriel or not, she evidently _hears_ what he has to +tell her. The Angel, too, expresses reverence with hands crossed upon +his breast. He wears a rich claret-colored, velvet brocade embossed +with gold flowers and above his fair hair, which is tightly curled, +shines a golden _nimbus_ decorated with flower-like rosettes. His wings +seem not to have quite quieted down from the flight from Heaven to +earth.[5] Of this picture (painted on a panel 58¼ × 45¼ inches), which +came from the Collection of Lord Wemyss at Gosford House, Longniddry, +Haddingtonshire, Scotland, Berenson says: + +“The decorative effect is so strong and so enchanting that like the +rest of Masolino’s art it scarcely finds precedence in Florence or even +in Italy. The suavity, the grace, the splendor, although paralleled +in Gentile da Fabriano and in Sassetta, would seem inspired rather by +the ecstatic mood of Parisian painting toward 1400 with its figures of +angelic candor and skies of heavenly radiance than by Tuscan models.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Henry Goldman_ + + THE ANNUNCIATION + + --_Masolino_] + +Masolino, the son of a house painter, was born in Panicale in 1383. +His real name was Tommaso di Cristoforo di Fino, and he was familiarly +called Masolino da Panicale. According to Vasari he was a pupil +of “Starnina” and worked under Ghiberti. He was admitted into the +Florentine Guild of Painters in 1423. In that year he was commissioned +to paint the frescoes in the new chapel of the Carmine, built by Felice +Brancacci, and he took for his assistant, Masaccio, who went on with +the work when Masolino was sent to Hungary in 1425 to decorate a church +at Stuhlweissenburg. + +When Masolino returned to Florence--after several years--he found +that great changes had taken place in art, for the painters had been +busy with the new problems of perspective and light and shade and +the substitution of Classic for Gothic architecture and decoration. +Masolino availed himself of the new ideas, but could not quite forget +his Giottesque traditions. He painted frescoes in Rome, Naples, and +Lombardy. + +“Masolino,” Vasari wrote, “was a man of rare intelligence and his +paintings are executed with great love and diligence. I have often +examined his works and find his style to be essentially different +from the styles of those before him. He gave majesty to his figures +and introduced finely designed folds in his draperies. He began to +understand light and shade and to give his forms relief and succeeded +in some very difficult foreshortenings. He also gave greater sweetness +of expression to his women heads and gayer costumes to his young men, +and his perspective is tolerably correct. But, above all, he excelled +in fresco-painting. This he did so well, and with such delicately +blending colors, that his flesh tones have the utmost softness +imaginable; and if he could have drawn more perfectly, he would deserve +to be numbered among the best artists.” + + + GABRIEL, THE ANNOUNCING ANGEL. + + _Fra Angelico_ + (_1387–1455_). + + _Collection of + Mr. Edsel B. Ford._ + +This panel and the one succeeding it, _The Virgin Receiving the +Divine Message_, originally formed a diptych. In treatment +and expression they resemble the figures in Fra Angelico’s +_Annunciation_ in the Oratorio del Gesù at Cortona. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Edsel B. Ford_ + + GABRIEL, THE ANNOUNCING ANGEL + + --_Fra Angelico_] + +The Archangel, according to Dante’s expression, has brought the +long-desired tidings and he stands on a background of gold with wings +still extended like those of a dove, just alighted from the heavens, +looking into Mary’s face very earnestly, and pointing upward to +emphasize to her that he comes from the spheres above. This Gabriel is +one of the most beautiful of Fra Angelico’s most beautiful angels, his +wings being of an extraordinary elegance of _contour_ and a peculiar +loveliness of color--rose, violet, green, and yellow, scintillating in +iridescent play. His crimson robe, shading into high lights and fainter +tones, is richly, although very simply, decorated with bands of gold +embroidery in the Byzantine style. The hair is blonde and beautifully +curled and the head stands out in fine relief from the golden glory. +Notice the beauty of the ear and the distinguished line of the neck, +the calm, deep, unattached gaze of the eye, the refined and sensitive +nose, the pure and lovely mouth, and the graceful, strong, and _very +psychic hands_. This figure perfectly fits Ruskin’s tribute to Fra +Angelico in _Modern Painters_: + +“The art of Fra Angelico, both in drawing and color, is perfect, +and his work may be recognized at any distance by its rainbow play +and brilliancy, like a piece of opal among common marbles. In order +to effect clearer distinction between heavenly beings and those of +this world, he represents the former as clothed in draperies of the +purest color, crowned with glories of burnished gold and _entirely_ +shadowless; the flames on their foreheads waving brighter as they move; +the sparkles streaming from their purple wings like the glitter of the +sun upon the sea; while they listen in the pauses of alternate song for +the prolonging of the trumpet blast and the answering of psalm and harp +and cymbal, throughout the endless deep and from all the star-shores of +Heaven. This mode of treatment, combined as it is with exquisite choice +of gesture and disposition of drapery, _gives perhaps the best idea of +spiritual beings which the human mind is capable of forming_.” + + + THE VIRGIN RECEIVING THE DIVINE MESSAGE. + + _Fra Angelico_ + (_1387–1455_). + + _Collection of + Mr. Edsel B. Ford._ + +In an attitude of divine submission, devout humility, and serene grace, +the Virgin Mary is listening to the words of the Angel Gabriel. Her +brow is almost as clear and pure as that of Gabriel himself and her +features are beautiful, especially those heavy-lidded eyes. Her blonde +hair is exquisitely arranged, confined by a band of black velvet and +encircled by a _nimbus_, of which she is apparently unconscious. +Mary wears a crimson robe with bands of gold around the neck and +sleeves, over which is a blue mantle lined with yellow. Her hands are +capable, exquisite, and very high bred; and in the left one she holds, +with rare grace, a red book. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Edsel B. Ford_ + + THE VIRGIN RECEIVING THE DIVINE MESSAGE + + --_Fra Angelico_] + +Like the companion panel, _Gabriel, the Announcing Angel_, the +background is gold. The dimensions of each are 14½ × 10 inches. +Both pictures were long in the Collection of the Duke of Hamilton at +Hamilton Palace; and afterwards were in the Collection of Mr. John +Edward Taylor and in that of Mr. Carl W. Hamilton. In an unpublished +letter regarding these works Mr. Berenson writes: + +“They are among the sweetest, purest, and most candid of Fra Angelico’s +paintings. I could not easily point to others which better justify the +surname of ‘The Angelic’ given to this artist, who was so great that +he was child-like. These panels date from about 1425, that is to say +from the best year of Fra Angelico’s maturity. They show his best self, +emancipated from the cramping traditions he was heir to, but not yet +showing sign of spiritual fatigue leading finally to his painting a +little by rote. In coloring they are exquisite; and for pictures five +centuries old, they are almost miraculously well preserved.” + +Vasari’s words show how deeply Fra Angelico was appreciated by men who +lived closer to his time than we: + +“This truly angelic father spent his whole life in the service of +God and his fellow-creatures. He was a man of simple habits and most +saintly in all his ways. He kept himself from all worldliness and was +so good a friend to the poor that I think his soul must be already +in Heaven. He worked continually at his art, but would never paint +anything but sacred subjects. He might have been a wealthy man, but +he did not care for money and used to say that true riches consist in +being content with little. He might have enjoyed high dignities both in +his convent and in the world, but he cared nothing for these things, +saying that he who would practice painting has need of quiet and should +be free from worldly cares; and that he who would do the work of Christ +must live continually with Him. He was never known to be impatient with +the Brothers,--a thing to me almost incredible! When people asked him +for a picture he always replied that, with the Prior’s approval, he +would try and satisfy their wishes. He never corrected or retouched his +works, but left them as he first painted them, saying that such was the +will of God. He never took his pencil up without a prayer and could not +paint a _Crucifixion_ without the tears running down his cheeks. And +the saints that he painted are more like saints in face and expression +than those of any other master. And since it seemed that saints and +angels of beauty so divine could only be painted by the hand of an +angel, he was always called Fra Angelico.” + +Fra Angelico was born in 1387 in a little hamlet called Vicchio, in the +province of Mugello in Tuscany, about twenty miles from Florence. His +surname is unknown--if indeed he had one--for his father, who lived in +a cottage belonging to the lord of the Castle of Vicchio, was simply +known as Pietro of Mugello. Guido was the name his father gave him but +he changed this to Fra Giovanni, when he became a monk of the Dominican +Order at Fiesole in 1406. It is supposed that he had been thoroughly +trained as a painter, because he immediately began to paint frescoes +for the monks; and it is also supposed that “Starnina” was his master. +Owing to religious troubles, the Dominican monks were driven from +Fiesole to Foligno and thence to Cortona, where the earliest extant +works--movable altar-pieces--of Fra Angelico are preserved. In 1418 +the Dominicans returned to Fiesole, where Fra Angelico, or rather Fra +Giovanni, lived for the next few years and where he painted many of his +most famous altar-pieces. + +In 1434 Cosimo de’ Medici was recalled from banishment and he +immediately had the Convent of San Marco rebuilt for the Dominican +monks of Fiesole. When the new building was ready in 1436 he +commissioned Fra Angelico to decorate the walls. In a cell which Cosimo +de’ Medici had reserved for his own personal retreat from worldly +cares, he had Fra Angelico paint a large _Adoration of the Magi_, +for he desired to have “this example of Eastern kings laying down their +crowns at the manger of Bethlehem always before his eyes as a reminder +for his own guidance as a ruler.” + +While Fra Angelico was busy on a series of small panels depicting the +_Life of Christ_ for a _credenza_ in which the altar-plate was kept +and which had been ordered by Piero de’ Medici (Cosimo’s son), Pope +Eugenius IV called him to Rome, to paint a chapel in St. Peter’s. +Three of the remaining panels of the _credenza_ were painted by Alesso +Baldovinetti. + +After completing the chapel in St. Peter’s, Fra Angelico was invited to +paint in the Cathedral at Orvieto; and, on finishing the work there, +he returned to Rome to spend three years decorating the Pope’s Oratory +in the Vatican. In 1450 he was back in Florence, and he began the new +year of 1451 as Prior of his old monastery at Fiesole. Again he went +to Rome and died there in the House of his Order at Santa Maria sopra +Minerva on March 18, 1455. He was buried in the monastery church by the +high altar and not far from the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena. Pope +Nicholas V wrote for him a Latin epitaph, the last line of which reads: +“That city which is the flower of Etruria bore me, Giovanni.” + +The paintings of Fra Angelico are noted for their fine composition, +beautiful coloring, and variety and expression in the heads and faces +of his persons and Angels. Fra Angelico’s Angels are particularly +beautiful; and it is reasonable to infer that it is because of these +Angels so many of his works have been preserved. No other painter of +the Fifteenth Century has been treated with so much reverence as Fra +Angelico. The consequence is that there are somewhere between two and +three hundred of his compositions in existence. The greater number are +still in Florence. Every large gallery, however, possesses one or more. +Among the most famous ones that all the world knows and loves are _The +Virgin and Child surrounded by Twelve Angels_, ten of whom are playing +musical instruments (now in the Uffizi); _Christ with the Banner of +Resurrection_ (in the National Gallery, London); and _The Coronation +of the Virgin_ (in the Louvre), of which Gautier said the figures +represented “visible souls rather than bodies--thoughts of human form +enveloped in chaste draperies of white, rose, and blue, sown with stars +and embroidered, clothed as might be the happy spirits who rejoice in +the eternal light of Paradise.” Fra Angelico’s greatest frescoes are in +the Convent of San Marco at Florence and in the Vatican at Rome. + +Fra Angelico is classed variously as a “Primitive,” a “Gothic,” an +“International,” and an “Early Renaissance” painter. The fact is +he stands between the old and the new. His position in Art is very +definitively described by Berenson: + +“Yet simple though he was as a person, simple and one-sided as was his +message, as a product he was singularly complex. He was the typical +painter of the transition from Mediæval to Renaissance. The sources of +his feeling are in the Middle Ages, but he _enjoys_ his feelings +in a way which is almost modern; and almost modern also are his means +of expression. Moreover, he was not only the first Italian to paint +a landscape that can be identified (a view of Lake Trasimene from +Cortona) but the first to communicate a sense of the pleasantness of +Nature.” + +As a tribute to his spiritual qualities let us listen to Mrs. +Cartwright’s eulogy: + +“All the mystic thought of the Mediæval world, the passionate love of +God and man that beat in the heart of St. Francis, the yearnings of +Dante’s soul after a higher and more perfect order, the poetic dreams +of the monks who sang of the Celestial Country are embodied in the art +of Angelico. The depth and sincerity of his own religious feeling lent +wings to his imagination and the exquisite purity of his soul breathes +in every line of his painting: it is his own sweet and gentle fancy +that brings down these enchanted visions of Paradise.” + + + ST. COSIMAS AND ST. DAMIANUS. + + _Fra Angelico + (1387–1455)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Albert Keller._ + +About the year 1436 Cosimo commissioned Fra Angelico to paint the +altar-piece for the Church of San Marco in Florence (see page 37). +Underneath the group of the _Virgin and Child_ Fra Angelico painted for +the predella nine beautiful panels representing the legendary history +of _Cosimas and Damianus_, the patron saints of the Medici family. +The panel, shown here, tempera on wood (14¼ × 18 inches), which comes +from the collection of Mr. F. Böhler of Munich, is one of these nine +pictures. The companion pictures of this S. Marco altar-piece are now +in Dublin, Florence, Munich, and Paris. + +This composition, divided into two episodes in one building, represents +the traditional benevolence of the two Saints, Cosimas and Damianus. +In the scene at the left, enacted within a room, which we view through +a large, rounded, door-like opening, St. Cosimas and St. Damianus, +with golden _nimbi_, are administering to a sick man sitting up in a +bed which is elevated on a daïs. The two Saints, in the blue robe, red +mantle, and red and white _biretta_ of the physicians, are standing +on either side of the bed, offering nutriment to the invalid and +giving their benediction. Kneeling behind the bed-head are a man and +a woman, the latter wearing a red mantle and white hood, the former a +turban-like cap. Over the bed stretches a deep, square, brown canopy +with an olive-green curtain all around it. On the daïs rests a tray +with an ewer, and beside it on the floor, we see a round stool with +three legs, and a foot-stool. + +The scene on the right, takes place in a cobbled court-yard of a white +house, and here we see one of the Saints, in his physician’s gown, +colored as in the first scene, who has just handed to an aged woman +a loaf of bread, receiving no payment but raising his right hand in +benediction. The woman, dressed in a mauve gown and white veil, is +cleverly and gracefully posed within a small doorway, and behind her is +a room with an open door still farther back, through which flowering +shrubs are seen; and in this inner room a ray of light glints on the +floor. High on the top of the wall a large terra-cotta flower-vase is +silhouetted against a blue sky, and at the left of this there is a +narrow slit window. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Albert Keller_ + + ST. COSIMAS AND ST. DAMIANUS + + --_Fra Angelico_] + +“Cosimas and Damianus were two brothers, Arabians by birth, but they +dwelt in Ægæ, a city of Cilicia. Their father having died while they +were yet children, their pious mother, Theodora, brought them up +with all diligence, and in the practice of every Christian virtue. +Their charity was so great, that they not only lived in the greatest +abstinence, distributing their goods to the infirm and poor, but they +studied medicine and surgery, so that they might be able to prescribe +for the sick, and relieve the sufferings of the wounded and infirm; +and the blessing of God being on all their endeavors, they became +the most learned and the most perfect physicians that the world had +ever seen. They ministered to all who applied to them, whether rich +or poor. Even to suffering animals they did not deny their aid, and +they constantly refused all payment or recompense, exercising their +art only for charity and for the love of God; and thus they spent +their days. At length those wicked Emperors, Diocletian and Maximian, +came to the throne, in whose time so many saints perished. Among them +were the physicians, Cosimas and Damianus, who, professing themselves +Christians, were seized by Lycias, the proconsul of Arabia and cast +into prison. At first they were thrown into the sea, but an Angel +saved them; and then they were cast into fire, but the fire refused +to consume them; and then they were bound on two crosses and stoned, +but of the stones flung at them, none reached them, but fell on those +who threw them and many were killed. So the proconsul, believing that +they were enchanters, commanded that they should be beheaded, which +was done.” This Oriental legend, which is of great antiquity, was +transplanted into Western Europe in the first ages of Christianity. The +Emperor Justinian, having recovered, as he supposed, from a dangerous +illness, by the intercession of these saints, erected a superb church +in their honor. Among the Greeks Cosimas and Damianus succeeded to the +worship and attributes of Æsculapius; and from their disinterested +refusal of all pay or reward they are distinguished by the honorable +title of _Anargyres_, which signifies moneyless, or _without +fees_. + + + MADONNA DELLA STELLA. + + _Fra Filippo Lippi + (1406?–1469)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Carl W. Hamilton._ + +This picture came directly from the Monastery of the Carmine Brethren +in Florence to the present owner. It is painted in tempera on a panel +32⅝ × 25¼ inches. The Madonna, with head half turned towards the right, +is standing at half length and holding the Holy Child very lovingly +in her arms. She wears a dark-green, hooded mantle, with wide gold +border and fastened across the breast with two narrow straps of gold +embroidery. Under this is seen a bright crimson robe falling in tight, +formal plaits from the neck. The sleeve of the right arm shows a gold +embroidered band at the wrist. On the right shoulder of the mantle is +embroidered a golden star (reminiscent of the Sienese decoration), +from which the picture takes the name of _Madonna della Stella_. +The head-dress, which permits a little of the blonde hair to be seen, +is of a soft, white muslin, which is delicately folded and carried +around the base of the long, slender neck. Above the head-dress is a +very large golden _nimbus_ with lines radiating from the centre. +The Holy Child is firmly supported by both arms of the Virgin and rests +His left foot on her right arm, while His right leg hangs down behind +her wrist. The Holy Child is swathed in a drapery of purple hue and +His head is also encircled by a golden halo. With His left hand He +grasps the folds of His mother’s head-dress, where it falls upon her +neck, and with His right He supports His chin in a very mature and +contemplative way. The background is composed of a loosely hanging gold +brocade of decorative pattern. The extravagant use of gold produces a +warm and lustrous gleam and glow and the deep colors stand out from the +background with great richness and beauty. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Carl W. Hamilton_ + + MADONNA DELLA STELLA + + --_Fra Filippo Lippi_] + +It is generally accepted that Lucrezia Buti, the young nun whom Fra +Filippo Lippi stole from the Convent of Santa Margherita, served as the +model for this Madonna and that the Infant Jesus is none other than +Fra Filippino Lippi, the future painter. Comparison with the _tondo_ +in the Pitti Palace, representing the _Madonna with Saints_, in which +Lucrezia Buti is known to appear, shows the same oval face, slender +neck, expressive eyes, dilated nostrils, full lips, slightly dimpled +chin, and wistful glance. + +Fra Filippo Lippi is one of the strangest personalities in the history +of art. He became a Carmelite monk from circumstance rather than +choice; and nobody was ever less fitted to belong to Holy Orders than +this gay, adventure-loving Florentine. “Lippi was very fond of good +company,” Vasari notes, “and led a free and joyous life.” Fra Filippo +Lippi presents a strange contrast to the saintly Fra Angelico, who was +his contemporary and fellow-worker. Filippo Lippi, son of a butcher, +was born in or about 1406, in a street behind the Carmine Church in +Florence; and, being left an orphan, was cared for by an aunt, who took +him at the age of eight to the Convent of Sta. Maria del Carmine and +gave him to the Friars to rear. The Friars soon discovered the boy’s +extraordinary talent for drawing, and, fortunately, encouraged it, +sending him to study under Lorenzo Monaco. + +At this time Masaccio was at work in the Brancacci Chapel of the +Carmine Church, and young Lippi used to watch him with profound +interest and delight. In 1421 Filippo Lippi became a Carmelite monk; +but he was permitted to continue his painting and he executed many +frescoes for church and cloister. In ten years’ time he left the +monastery to give his whole life to his art. However, he always signed +his pictures “_Frater Philippus_.” Though not a copyist, by any means, +Fra Filippo Lippi shows in his works how much he admired and how +much he learned from Masaccio, Masolino, Domenico Veneziano, and Fra +Angelico. + +Adventures of many kinds filled his life; for instance, there is a +story that he was captured by Moorish pirates one day while sailing for +pleasure, and taken to Barbary as a slave and that because he drew his +master’s portrait so cleverly, he was given his freedom a year or so +later. This--if it happened at all--happened in 1431–1434. About the +last-named date Fra Filippo Lippi was employed by Cosimo de’ Medici, +who took a great fancy to the lively Friar and was most indulgent to +his pranks and misdemeanors, excusing everything he did because of his +genius and his attractive personality. Fra Filippo Lippi decorated many +churches, palaces, and villas for his patron. Among the first works +that Lippi painted for the Medici Palace (now the Riccardi) were the +_Annunciation_ and _St. John the Baptist with Six Other Saints_ (both +in the National Gallery, London). Lippi’s most important picture in +Florence is his _Coronation of the Virgin_. + +“Lippi’s character, however, only affects his credit as a painter by +accounting for the kind of success he achieved. He had, as was to be +expected, no ears for the message which Donatello was at this time +teaching, and consequently his pictures on religious subjects have an +exceedingly mundane character. Nevertheless, the sweet seriousness +of his Madonnas falls in no way short of those of Fra Angelico, and +the faces of his children are full of a quaint, mischievous character +which is delightful, while in both drawing and coloring he shows the +immense advance which had now taken place in Painting. And it is here +that Lippi’s true claim to fame lies. Masaccio, the only man who up +to that time had found out the true methods of the art of Painting, +had died too soon to be able to make known his discovery, except to +the few who could visit Florence and the Brancacci Chapel. It was +left for Lippi, the rough boy whom he had taught, to show the world +Masaccio’s discovery. And Lippi did so. Vasari says: ‘Taught as he had +been by Masaccio, he was a faithful follower of Masaccio’s style;’ and +he adds that he followed the latter’s methods so faithfully, that it +appeared that the spirit of Masaccio had entered Lippi’s body. Thus +what Masaccio had done for the art of Painting is chiefly to be seen +by a comparison of Lippi’s pictures with those of Masaccio’s immediate +predecessors, the Giotteschi. Lippi’s principal picture in Florence is +his _Coronation of the Virgin_ painted for Cosimo and now in the +Accademia delle Belle Arti; but his best work is considered to be his +frescoes in the Cathedral at Prato painted between 1456 and 1465. + +“It was not an easy thing to get any work out of Lippi. There is an +amusing story of how, when he was painting this picture for Cosimo, +the latter being at last in despair (owing to Lippi’s lazy ways) of +ever seeing the picture finished, had him locked up in the room in the +Medici Palace where it was being painted, declaring that he should not +be let out until the work was done. Whereupon Lippi tied his bedclothes +into a rope, let himself down from the window into the street and +disappeared into the slums of Florence, not to be found again for many +days.”[6] + +Lippi’s drunkenness and his unscrupulous behavior brought him many +times before the magistrates and on one occasion he was flogged for +embezzlement. However, the Medici family always came to the rescue and +helped him out. + +In 1452 he was made Chaplain of San Niccolò de Fieri, Florence, and in +1456 Chaplain of Santa Margherita, Prato, and here again it was Cosimo +de’ Medici, who obtained these posts for him. At Prato he painted some +of his finest pictures. Requested by the Abbess of Sta. Margherita to +paint a picture for the Chapel, the gay Friar, who was now over fifty, +fell in love with a young nun of twenty-one, Lucrezia Buti, who had +taken the vows two years previously. At the Festival of the Holy Girdle +in 1456, Fra Filippo Lippi managed to carry off the pretty nun and take +her to his house in the vicinity. The next year Filippino Lippi was +born, who appears in the arms of Lucrezia Buti in the _Madonna della +Stella_ represented here. Two years later Lucrezia Buti re-entered +the Convent; but she soon tired of it and returned to Fra Filippo +Lippi. A charge of abduction was then brought against the painter, +who again appealed to Cosimo de’ Medici; and, through the latter’s +influence, Pope Pius II absolved monk and nun from their religious vows +and declared them lawfully married. + +“I laughed heartily when I heard of Fra Filippo’s escapade,” Giovanni +de’ Medici, Cosimo’s younger son, remarked; and that remark shows +exactly how the Medici felt towards Fra Filippo Lippi. They adored him +as an artist and they did not take him seriously as a man. + +About 1465 Fra Filippo Lippi left Prato and went to Spoleto, taking +Lucrezia and his two children (there was now a daughter); and there, +still under the patronage of the Medici, the energetic painter-monk +produced a splendid series of frescoes depicting one of his favorite +subjects, the _Coronation of the Virgin_. Fra Filippo was working +on the Duomo at Spoleto when he died in 1469. Fra Filippo Lippi gains +additional fame for having been the first master of Botticelli. His +contemporaries--without dissent--regarded Fra Filippo Lippi as the +“rarest master of the time.” Fra Filippo Lippi was one of the first to +use the _tondo_ form. + +“His dreams were all of the earth and his thoughts never soared beyond +the gladness and beauty of the natural world. He paints the merry, +curly-headed boys whom he met in the streets of Florence as cherubs, +takes his mistress as a model for his Madonnas, and peoples the court +of heaven with fair maidens in rich attire and dainty head-gear. A +thorough-going realist at heart, his naturalism differed wholly from +that of his contemporaries, Paolo Uccello, or Andrea del Castagno. +He never troubled his head with scientific problems, or new technical +methods. The old tempera painting was good enough for him and he +carried this form of art to the highest perfection, while at the same +time he profited by all the advance which Masaccio and his followers +had made, and gave a marked impulse to the new realism by the strong +human element which he introduced in his works. His genial delight in +all bright and pleasant things, in the daisies and the springtime, +in rich ornament and glowing color, in splendid architecture and +sunny landscapes, in lovely women and round baby faces, fitted him in +especial manner to be the herald of that fuller and larger life which +was dawning on the men and women of the Renaissance.”[7] + +Fra Filippo Lippi’s son, Filippino Lippi (1457–1504), inherited his +father’s talent and was trained by Botticelli. It was Lorenzo de’ +Medici, who recommended to the Friars of the Carmine that they should +employ Fra Filippo Lippi’s son to finish Masaccio’s frescoes in the +Brancacci Chapel. Filippino did this to everyone’s satisfaction and +in _The Trial of St. Peter and St. Paul_ he introduced portraits +of Antonio Pollaiuolo, Botticelli, and himself. Filippino achieved an +enormous reputation and was beloved for his modesty and gentleness of +character. As in the case of his father, the next generation of the +Medici continued their patronage to a Lippi. + + + MADONNA AND CHILD. + + _Alesso Baldovinetti + (1425–1499)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay._ + +In the charming picture represented here, on canvas transferred from +panel (29 × 21 inches), which was formerly in the possession of Arnoldo +Corsi in Florence and afterwards in the Collection of Mr. William +Solomon in New York, the Madonna, seen at three-quarter length, is +seated in a chair. She is turned slightly to the left and wears a +red tunic edged with gold and a blue mantle. Over the white veil, +which covers her temples and hides her ears, is folded a golden-brown +head-dress that descends to her shoulders. Her head is encircled by a +gold _nimbus_. She is gazing at the Holy Child in her lap with +downcast eyes and pensive expression. The Holy Child, who is nude, +wears a red coral necklace, from which a “charm” hangs. Around His +head is a very decorative cruciform _nimbus_. In His right hand +He holds a narrow piece of white drapery and He raises His left hand +in a benediction in the Greek manner. The landscape in the background +recedes gently towards a distant range of hills, showing scanty +vegetation beneath a light-blue sky. Bernhard Berenson has pronounced +this a very characteristic work of Baldovinetti’s middle years, painted +before the pictures now in the Uffizi. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Clarence H. Mackay_ + + MADONNA AND CHILD + + --_Alesso Baldovinetti_] + +Alesso Baldovinetti, born in Florence in 1425, was a pupil of Domenico +Veneziano and became a member of the Painters Guild in 1448, when he +was twenty-three. His entry-book, a copy of which is preserved in the +Archives of S. Maria Nuova, containing his accounts and orders, begins +with the date 1449. One of his first commissions was to finish some +panels begun by Fra Angelico for a _credenza_ in the Medici Chapel +of the Annunziata (see page 37), and some paintings on the doors of +the vestry of Santa Annunziata (now in the Museum of San Marco), +which also completed a series begun by Fra Angelico. Thenceforward +he painted frescoes and altar-pieces, including an altar-piece +representing the _Annunciation_ for the Chapel of the Medici villa +at Caffagiuolo (now in the Uffizi) and the fresco representing the +_Birth of Christ_ in Santa Annunziata (1460–1462). In 1470–1473 he was +busy on the altar-piece in the San Ambrogio and the _Trinita_ (now in +the Accademia). Of the frescoes of Santa Trinità, on which he worked +until 1497, only a small portion remains. Other unquestionable works +by Baldovinetti are the _Madonna and Saints_ (in the Uffizi) and a few +pictures in private collections. + +Baldovinetti also painted a great number of panels for private +altars and he frequently turned from religious subjects to decorate +marriage-chests and other sumptuous furniture. He also worked in +mosaics, made cartoons for stained glass, and produced designs for +_intarsia_,--all of which developed his delightful, decorative +qualities. + +Baldovinetti’s entire life seems to have been absorbed in painting. He +married late. After the death of his wife, he entered the hospital +of S. Paolo of the Third Order of St. Francis and bequeathed what +few possessions he had to this house of charity. After his death in +Florence in 1499, a large chest that belonged to him was opened; but +the monks, instead of seeing the hoped-for gold, only found a book +on mosaic-work and some drawings. “No one was really surprised,” +says Vasari, who tells the story, “for Baldovinetti was so kind and +courteous that he shared everything he possessed with his friends. +Alesso was a very diligent artist, who tried to copy minutely every +detail in Mother Nature. He loved painting landscapes exactly as they +are, and you see in his pictures rivers, bridges, rocks, plants, +fruit-trees, roads, fields, towns, castles, and an infinite number of +similar objects. In his _Nativity_ you can count the separate +straws and knots in the thatched roof of the hut and you see the stones +in the ruined house behind, worn away by rain, and the thick root of +ivy growing up the wall is painted with so much accuracy that the green +leaves are differently shaded on either side; and among the shepherds +he introduced a snake crawling in the most natural manner along the +wall.” + + + PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG LADY. + + _Piero Pollaiuolo + (1443–1496)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Nils B. Hersloff._ + +In profile to the right, with features clear-cut and strongly outlined +against a light-green background, appears a young Florentine lady, +whose dress and bearing proclaim her to be a patrician. She has not +been as yet identified; but doubtless she was one of those elegant and +gay Florentines whom we meet with in song and story. We are very safe +to guess that she was a friend of the Medici and Tornabuoni group and +played her part in the brilliant life of the period. Her dress, pink +brocade with a floral pattern, is edged with white around the neck. Her +hair is fancifully plaited with pale blue ribbons and partly covered +with a head-dress of thin white gauze, which falls over the right ear +on to her neck; and her hair is also decorated with a jewel set in +pearls. According to the fashion of the time, her forehead and the nape +of her neck are shaven; for the long line of the neck was considered +of the greatest importance. It was also important to hold the head +properly; and this young lady has certainly acquired the correct and +noble carriage of the head. + +An unpublished letter of Berenson exclaims enthusiastically: “This +profile portrait of a _Young Lady_ by Piero Pollaiuolo I believe +to be one of the most delightful of the series of female profiles +which, from Paolo Uccello and Domenico Veneziano down to Botticelli and +Amico di Sandro, glorifies the art of Florence during the Fifteenth +Century. Few of them have survived to our own time. With the exception +of one in the Poldi Collection at Milan, this is the most satisfactory +of them all; for besides representing an extraordinarily attractive +personality of the highest Florentine society of the time (as, indeed +is confirmed by the dress and the jewels), it is a work of art of +exquisite draughtsmanship, subtle modelling, and delicate, pure color.” + +The painting in tempera is on a panel, 18 × 13 inches, and came from +several important Collections,--that of the Conte Isolani Bologna; +Baron Lazzaroni, Rome; and the late Mr. William Solomon, New York. + +Mr. Berenson notes the fine draughtsmanship in this picture. Unusual +drawing is to be expected from the brothers Pollaiuolo. Benvenuto +Cellini called Antonio “the best draughtsman of his day in Florence” +and tells us that all the goldsmiths worked from his designs; and, as +Antonio trained his youngest brother, Piero, we cannot be surprised +at the simple, direct, and commanding lines and these telling effects +produced by such economical methods. + +The real name of the talented brothers was Benci. Their father, Jacopo +d’Antonio Benci, was nicknamed by his friends, Pollaiuolo, because his +father kept a poulterer shop. Jacopo was a goldsmith and was employed +by Lorenzo Ghiberti; and it is said that he made a remarkable quail on +one of the Baptistery Gates. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Nils B. Hersloff_ + + PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG LADY + + --_Piero Pollaiuolo_] + +Antonio (1432–1498) was apprenticed to Bartoluccio Ghiberti, a +goldsmith, and soon achieved fame in Florence as a worker in jewelry +and _niello_. Lorenzo Ghiberti called him to work on the Baptistery +“Gates of Paradise” and the Bronze Doors. In 1459 he started to work +independently and became renowned as a painter, sculptor, and master +goldsmith. His _bottega_ near the Ponte Vecchio was the most popular +workshop in Florence; and here he remained until he went to Rome in +1484. Piero Pollaiuolo helped Antonio in his work and was also very +versatile. Engravings, drawings, _niello_, sculpture, and painting, +besides a vast amount of gold-work, silver-work, and bronze-work +prove these men to be as industrious as they were talented. They +also followed Alesso Baldovinetti in trying out new oil glazes and +varnishes. In 1460 the Pollaiuoli painted in the Medici Palace, and +about the same time executed the six life-sized _Virtues_ for the +Tribunal of the Mercatanzia. In 1471 Piero painted a portrait of +_Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan_, who was visiting Florence; and this +portrait, which hung for many years in the Medici Palace, is now in the +Uffizi. Piero’s fresco of _St. Christopher_, painted at San Miniato +outside the gates, is considered by most authorities to be the same +_St. Christopher_ now preserved in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. +Piero also painted a very fine _Annunciation_ (now in the Berlin +Gallery), which has a view of Florence and the Val d’Arno through the +open windows and which is remarkable for its Renaissance architecture; +for the profusion of pearls and other jewels adorning the Virgin’s +chair and the robes of the Angels; and for three Cherubs playing the +lute, viol, and organ. + +In 1489 Antonio was called to Rome by Pope Innocent VIII to make the +bronze tomb of Sixtus IV, and a monument for himself in St. Peter’s. He +was joined by Piero. The Pollaiuoli never saw Florence again; for, on +account of the raging Plague, no travellers were allowed to come within +twenty miles of Florence. Piero died in 1496 and Antonio in 1498; and +at the request of the latter he was buried in the same tomb with Piero +in the church of S. Pietro in Vincula. + +The Pollaiuoli were closely associated with Botticelli, Leonardo da +Vinci, Ghiberti, and Verrocchio. + + + GIULIANO DE’ MEDICI. + + _Sandro Botticelli + (1444–1510)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. and Mrs. Otto H. Kahn._ + +This proud, intellectual, refined, and cold face is painted almost in +profile; but, notwithstanding that we see only a part of the face, +we seem to see it all. Never did painter achieve a more complete +presentation of personality and of character. Moreover, Botticelli has +painted the whole of Florentine Society in this portrait. And with +what amazingly simple means! There is practically no costume,--a black +doublet, giving a glimpse of a red tunic below, and a severe white +linen band doing duty for a collar. Even the background is neutral! + +The simplicity of presentation and the economy of line are almost +Japanese in their severity. The skillful handling is almost Oriental, +too. Nothing seems to have been done here for _effect_,--yet what +_effect_ is here! There is almost no color; and the hair, too, which +falls to the neck, is black. If we did not know that Giuliano de’ +Medici was a dashing young Florentine of high mettle and full of the +zest of life, we might easily mistake him for a priest. + +The picture, painted on wood (21 × 13½ inches), gives us the impression +of a life-size portrait. It was formerly in the Collection of Conte +Procolo Isolani, in Bologna. + +Giuliano de’ Medici was one of the most romantic characters in +history; and the tragedy that cut the thread of his life at the age +of twenty-five adds no little to the romantic appeal he makes to us +to-day. Yet even at this age, he had so perfected himself in all the +accomplishments that belonged to a gentleman of the Fifteenth Century +that he stands as the very type of the elegant young man of his period. +Giuliano was, like his brother, Lorenzo, proficient in the arts, a +lover of pictures, music, and poetry; he wrote charming love-songs +and other lyrical verse; he was intellectual and witty and talked +extremely well; and he was a brilliant jouster and a well-trained +all-round athlete and devoted to the chase. For all these things the +Florentines _admired_ him; but they _loved_ him for his character, his +high-mindedness, and his courtesy. He adored his brother; and Lorenzo, +who was far from handsome, had no jealousy for the admiration that his +younger brother inspired. The terrible murder of this public idol at +High Mass in the Cathedral first shocked and then grieved the entire +community. The grief manifested at the great public funeral in the +church of the Medici family, San Lorenzo, was violent and sincere, for +Giuliano de’ Medici was the beloved of both high and low. + +In his book, _The Medici_, Col. Young writes: + +“Giuliano de’ Medici, the youngest of the five children of Piero il +Gottoso and Lucrezia Tornabuoni, was, unlike his brother Lorenzo, +exceedingly good-looking; he was gifted with considerable abilities, +and for his many endearing qualities was greatly beloved, not only in +his own family but also by the people of Florence. Before his early +death he had already shown on several occasions that he possessed +plenty of political capacity and could give valuable advice to his +brother. + +“The relations which existed between these two brothers is one of the +pleasantest things in the history of the Medici. At that epoch jealousy +between brothers placed in such a position as Lorenzo and Giuliano were +was the normal state of things. That it was entirely absent in their +case speaks well for both of them. + +“Giuliano was twenty-five at the time of his death. He left an +illegitimate son, born just at that time. Lorenzo took the child and +brought him up with his own sons; and this child became in the next +generation the well-known Giulio de’ Medici, afterwards Clement VIII.” + +Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi was born in Florence in 1444, the son of +a prosperous tanner who had four sons, the eldest of whom, Giovanni, +was called “_Bottecello_” from the sign of a barrel which hung +over his shop, and which name was given to all the other members of the +family. Sandro Botticelli, like so many other Florentine painters began +life as a goldsmith. Then he was apprenticed to Fra Filippo Lippi, who +was, of course, able to hand on to him the old Giottesque tradition. +Botticelli next fell under the influence of the Pollaiuoli, with whom +he worked. It was not long, however, before the young painter began to +exhibit his originality. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Otto H. Kahn_ + + GIULIANO DE’ MEDICI + + --_Sandro Botticelli_] + +Soon after returning from Prato, where he had gone to help Fra Filippo +Lippi with the frescoes in the Cathedral, he was immediately employed +by Piero il Gottoso, who with his wife, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, recognized +the genius and peculiar charm of the young painter, and took him +into the Casa Medici almost like a son. Botticelli was at this time +about twenty-one, only five years older than Lorenzo, the eldest son. +Consequently, Botticelli was on the most intimate terms with Lorenzo +and Giuliano. + +All the pictures of this period except _Fortitude_ were painted +for Piero, who bestowed large rewards on the painter. The _Madonna +of the Magnificat_, one of his most beautiful pictures (now in the +Uffizi) was painted in 1465 (when Lorenzo and Giuliano were about +sixteen and twelve); and it must have been done especially to please +Lucrezia Tornabuoni, for her two sons are represented as Angels +kneeling before the Madonna and holding the inkstand and the book. +Giuliano is the one facing us with the conspicuous lock of hair on his +forehead, while Lorenzo, of darker complexion, is in profile and in +full light. + +The _Adoration of the Magi_, painted in 1467 for Sta. Maria Novella +(now in the Uffizi) is also a Medici family group surrounded by their +_protégés_ in art and letters. Cosimo, “_Pater Patriæ_” (then dead), is +kneeling before the Holy Child; Giovanni, brother of Piero il Gottoso +(then dead), stands at the left in a red and black costume; Piero il +Gottoso is kneeling in the centre with back to the spectator; Giuliano, +in a robe of white and gold, is kneeling at the latter’s right and +Lorenzo, aged seventeen, stands at his left, holding a sword. The last +figure, standing on the right, is Botticelli himself. Botticelli’s +portrait of Lucrezia Tornabuoni is in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, +Berlin. + +When Lorenzo, destined to become known as the “Magnificent,” became, on +the death of his father, head of the Medici and ruler of Florence, he +continued the Medici patronage to Botticelli. + +“It was a period when the exuberant vitality of the Renaissance was +at its height; and the first nine years of his rule, when he was +from twenty to twenty-nine and his brother, Giuliano, from sixteen +to twenty-five, was a time in Florence of constant festivities of +music, art, and poetry, of joy and laughter and all the bright side of +life. It was the fashion of the day to import into all amusements an +imitation of the Classic times of ancient Greece, and the Florence of +that time appears set before us as a city ‘with youth at the prow and +pleasure at the helm’ and full of all the life, joy, and pleasure of +the old pagan ideal of Greece set in a Fifteenth Century dress. Besides +all his duties in regard to State affairs and labors in the founding +of institutions to advance Learning, not to mention his own literary +work, Lorenzo with his brother led these festivities organizing +pageants and other spectacles of the most costly description (permeated +with classical learning and poetical allusions) for the popular +amusement.”[8] + +These entertainments took the form of masques, _tableaux_, and +tournaments. Young Lorenzo, too, gathered at his villa in Fiesole +and even more particularly in that of Careggi the _literati_ of +the day and read classical authors with these scholars, particularly +commemorating once a year the birthday of Plato. In 1469 Lorenzo held +a magnificent tournament for his own glorification and in 1475 an even +more elaborate one in honor of Giuliano in the Piazza Sta. Croce, with +the beautiful Simonetta Cattaneo, who had lately been married at the +age of sixteen, to Marco Vespucci, as the Queen of Beauty. Giuliano, +now just twenty-two, wore a suit of silver armor and Verrocchio +designed his helmet, and Lorenzo’s also. + +Botticelli, of course, witnessed this tournament and did for it in +painting what Politian did in his poem, _La Giostra di Giuliano de’ +Medici_. The _Primavera_ or _Return of Spring_ (now in the Accademia, +Florence), the _Birth of Venus_ (in the Uffizi) and _Mars and Venus_ +(in the National Gallery, London), were all three painted for Lorenzo. +All the elaborate imagery of Politian’s verse is reproduced in +Botticelli’s painting representing the _Birth of Venus_ in allusion to +the Queen of Beauty, Simonetta, of Giuliano’s Tournament. In the second +picture, _Mars and Venus_, Botticelli again follows Politian’s poem. + +“And then having devoted one picture to the tournament’s Queen of +Beauty, and one to the victor in its mimic warfare, Botticelli makes +his _third_ picture (the most important of the three) relate to +Lorenzo and his part in all this, gathering up in one view the whole +subject of these pastimes. This Botticelli does with great talent and +in a manner all his own. He takes for his text the celebrated standard +which had been borne in front of Lorenzo at both his and Giuliano’s +tournaments, with its motto of _Le temps revient_, its device of +the bay-tree, which had appeared dead, again putting forth its leaves, +and its allusion to the new era of youth and joy which Lorenzo had +inaugurated, and had likened to the _Return of Spring_ after the +gloomy months of winter. Making the leading thought of his picture the +theme on Lorenzo’s standard, Botticelli paints for him the _Return of +Spring_ (the _Primavera_), perhaps the most widely admired of +all Botticelli’s pictures. + +“And so Botticelli depicts for us a scene of light-hearted, youthful +joy, representing the return of spring, and by his great talent +contrives that the entire picture shall speak of Lorenzo and breathe +the very spirit of the poems in which the latter had sung of the joys +of May-time in Tuscany. Shielded from rough winds and scorching sun +by a grove of orange trees, backed by the ever-present laurel (always +representing Lorenzo from the play on the Latin form of his name, +_Laurentinus_), Queen Venus (Simonetta) stands presiding over the +return of spring to Tuscany; the Graces dance before her; from out a +laurel grove at her side the three spring months, March, April and May +(or it may be Zephyr, Fertility and Flora), come bringing flowers of +every hue; Mercury (Giuliano) scatters the clouds of winter; and the +little blind God of Love aims his arrows recklessly around. + +“These pictures relating to Giuliano’s tournament could not have been +painted until some time afterwards, as in any case they could not have +been so until Politian’s poem had appeared; and they may have been +executed at any time during Lorenzo’s life. If painted, as is most +probable, subsequently to Giuliano’s death in 1578, they would remind +Lorenzo of a time of bygone joys; and would be all the more prized by +him on that account.”[9] + +A few months after Giuliano’s grand tournament the beautiful Simonetta +was lying dead and three years later Giuliano was foully murdered, +victim of the Pazzi conspiracy. + +In 1481 Botticelli was sent for by Pope Sixtus to assist Perugino and +Ghirlandaio in painting frescoes in the newly erected Sistine Chapel; +and when this work was completed Botticelli returned to Florence with +an added lustre to his name. It was the fashionable thing for wealthy +owners of villas to have frescoes painted in these country-houses; and +among many orders that Botticelli filled was an important series of +frescoes for Lorenzo Tornabuoni in the villa of the Tornabuoni family +(now Villa Lemmi) at Rifredi representing scenes in reference to the +marriage of Lorenzo Tornabuoni and Giovanna degli Albizzi in 1486 (see +page 68). These frescoes, recently discovered under whitewash, are now +in the Louvre. + +The death of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the banishment of the Medici, +and the rule of Savonarola changed Botticelli’s life and his style of +painting. In this third period the painter of nymphs and goddesses +paints his charming and wistful Madonnas with many suggestions of Venus +and Simonetta and the grace and loveliness of the pagan world. + +To the last period, when Botticelli had emerged from the Savonarola +influence, the great painter produced _Calumny_ (in the Uffizi) and the +_Nativity_ (in the National Gallery, London); and with these two works +the career of Botticelli ends. + +The theory that the _Birth of Venus_, _Mars and Venus_ and the +_Primavera_ were painted for Lorenzo di Pier Francesco has been +thoroughly examined and disproved by Col. G. F. Young in his splendid +history of _The Medici_. + + + PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN. + + _Sandro Botticelli + (1444–1510)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay._ + +Standing behind a balustrade and looking wistfully toward the observer, +this handsome young Florentine appears at half-length with his head +inclined towards the left. + +How we should like to penetrate his secret and help him away from the +melancholy mood that has overwhelmed him! + +Although we see that he is a dreamer (and most probably a lute-player +as his hands might seem to indicate), something has touched him very +deeply--far too deeply to be classed as a momentary sorrow. We should +also like to know his identity. It is unlikely that it will ever be +revealed. But of one thing we can be well assured,--he is an aristocrat +and a young gentleman of wealth, for he has all the air of _savoir +faire_ and sureness of his position. We might make a guess that he +is one of the Medici family. Could it be Giuliano? Look again at the +_Madonna of the Magnificat_, at Giuliano immediately below the +bending Angel! The resemblance is quite surprising and grows stronger +as we study the two faces, only in the _Madonna of the Magnificat_ +Giuliano is younger and is seen with the characteristic lock on his +forehead. + +His costume in this portrait shows up well from the black background: +the coat is purplish brown edged with fur with white puffs at the +shoulders; and a red cap contrasts well with his light-yellow hair. + +This picture, a tempera painting on panel (15¾ × 11¾), was long in the +Collection of Baron Arthur de Schickler in Martinvast, Normandy, where +it was attributed to Masaccio. + +“There can be no question,” Berenson thinks, “that this portrait is +Botticelli’s own handiwork. The glamor it cast when I first saw it +frightened me into doubts that were dispelled directly I could study +the painting at my leisure. There is no one, using this formula and +technique, but Sandro himself who has the sinuous line, the inevitable +contours, the structural articulation, the firmness, convincingness, +and delicacy of modelling this work possesses; nobody else who could +produce a rhythm so subtly vibrant, or could give this limpid, radiant, +and ethereal coloring. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Clarence H. Mackay_ + + PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN + + --_Sandro Botticelli_] + +“True, it is more Botticellian than any other Botticelli in existence. +He must have uttered this completest note of his own music just +before he was seized by the Savonarolian madness, from which he +never recovered, just at the moment when he was most peculiarly and +poignantly, and, if I may say so, most extravagantly, himself. The +isolation of this head, too, exaggerates the impression. Perhaps if +we found it as an Angel in a _Magnificat_, or a _Madonna with the +Pomegranate_, in a _Tobias_ or some Allegory, the other figures, +the landscape and all the accessories would prevent our attention +from concentrating on what is almost uncannily characteristic of the +master’s style.” + +Berenson also notes the important hand, which, by the way, is +especially lighted as if to draw our attention to it most particularly. + +“Perhaps the most interesting thing about this portrait,” he observes, +“is the manifest competition of the hand with the face. The hand is +studied just as carefully, drawn, and modelled with as much intention, +as the face itself. Its action reveals the automatic nervous tension +of an overstrung physique that the conscious mind, controlling the +expression, tries to keep in order. It thus becomes, in a sense, the +most important clue to understanding the character. If you think +it away, the expression, of course, remains, but what makes it +comprehensible disappears.” + +It is this peculiar intelligence and sensitiveness of the hand that +makes me suspect the musician. + + + MADONNA AND CHILD. + + _Sandro Botticelli + (1444–1510)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Max Epstein._ + +This picture is the latest Botticelli to have been brought to +this country for it arrived only in May, 1928. It was painted in +Botticelli’s early period, about 1470 or 1472. The Holy Child +is handsome, although robust, and His embrace of the Madonna is +touchingly affectionate and human. In this picture the Madonna would +seem to have had a vision of the coming tragedy and she is not yet +resigned. She loves her Child too well. That her eyes are full of tears +we can feel in those heavily drooping lids. Her face is full of pain. +But even in her suffering and quiet anguish this Madonna is beautiful +and graceful; and we cannot fail to see in her face some little +resemblance to Botticelli’s Venus in the _Primavera_ and Venus +in her scallop-shell borne over the waves in the early morning in the +_Birth of Venus_. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Max Epstein_ + + MADONNA AND CHILD + + --_Sandro Botticelli_] + +In this picture the Holy Child seems to have little or no consciousness +of His Divinity. The Mother here is the enlightened one. + +The picture is tempera on panel (35¾ × 23¼ inches) and came into +possession of M. Féral in Paris in 1907. It has been accepted by Bode +and Jashiro as a genuine and an early Botticelli. + +The Madonna’s robe is deep blue with a lining of dull green, which +shows at the left wrist and slightly down the front and on the left +shoulder a star is embroidered. She wears a closely folded diaphanous +veil and a red scarf, one end of which is gracefully thrown around the +Holy Child. The sleeve of the dress has a band of golden embroidery at +the wrist. + +The cruciform _nimbus_ of the Holy Child foretells His destiny. The +_nimbus_ of the Virgin is plain. The Angel wears a tunic of deep cream +white ornamented with gold on the sleeves and a black band ornamented +with gold at the throat. On the parapet stands a vase apparently of +alabaster containing myrtle leaves and white star-shaped flowers, +probably jasmine (see page 25). Through the open arch we see a gentle +landscape, with a river winding around distant hills. + + + GIOVANNA TORNABUONI. + + _Domenico Ghirlandaio + (1449–1494)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. J. P. Morgan._ + +With this picture, which is considered “one of the finest Italian +portraits in existence,” we step back into the period of the +Renaissance and into the very presence of one of the most gifted and +celebrated of the younger women of the Fifteenth Century. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. J. P. Morgan_ + + GIOVANNA TORNABUONI + + --_Domenico Ghirlandaio_] + +“Art coulds’t thou but portray character and the mind, then there would +be no picture in the whole world more beautiful than this.” + +Such is the translation of the legend inscribed in capital letters on +the cartel: + + “_Ars ultinam mores animumque effingere posses + Pulchrior in terris nulla tabella foret_” + +with the date MCCCCLXXXVIII. + +The charms of Giovanna degli Albizzi, who was married to Lorenzo +Tornabuoni in 1486, were sung by all the poets of Florence. Giovanna +came of the noted Albizzi family, famous for wealth and rank and for +leading the party of Nobles (_Grandi_) against the Medici, whom +they considered upstarts and enemies of the aristocratic faction +in Florence. By a former marriage, however, the Albizzi had become +connected with the Medici, for the wife of Piero de’ Medici (il +Gottoso) was Lucrezia Tornabuoni, one of the most accomplished women +of the age and whose portrait by Botticelli hangs to-day in the Kaiser +Friedrich Museum in Berlin. Giovanna’s husband, Lorenzo Tornabuoni +(Lucrezia Tornabuoni’s nephew), was, therefore, the first cousin of +Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici. + +Subsequent to the ownership by the Tornabuoni and Pandolfini families, +the portrait represented here passed to a private Collection in Paris +and thence to the late Mr. Henry Willett of Brighton, England; to the +famous Collection of Mr. Rodolphe Kann of Paris and, finally, to that +of Mr. J. P. Morgan. + +The picture is painted on a wooden panel (29¾ × 19½ inches). + +Standing in profile to the left and against an architectural +background, the lady appears at half-length. She wears a rich dress of +gold brocade of a handsome and decorative pattern with square neck, the +sleeves of a different material, dark-red in color and having yellow +diamond-shaped compartments bearing a floral design in the centre. A +handsome pendant, consisting of a ruby with three pearls, hangs from +a fine black silk cord around her neck. Her hair falls in light, wavy +tresses over her temples and covers her ears. In the recess at the back +is placed a cluster of precious stones. On the right is a _Book of +Hours_, and above is looped a necklace of coral beads. All of these +things undoubtedly have some particular and sentimental association +for Giovanna. Giovanna died the same year this portrait was painted; in +this year her father-in-law, Giovanni Tornabuoni, also uncle of Lorenzo +de’ Medici, commissioned Ghirlandaio to decorate the walls of the +choir of Sta. Maria Novella with the _Lives of John the Baptist and +the Virgin_; and here again the portrait of Giovanna degli Albizzi +appears. Let us turn to Mrs. Cartwright for a description of this +remarkable series of frescoes: + +“These twenty-one subjects have been much injured by damp and +restoration and the hand of inferior assistants is plainly seen in +many of the best preserved portions. But as a splendid illustration +of Florentine life the whole series is of rare interest. On the one +hand we have the public and official life of the Tornabuoni, their +stately banquets and processions; on the other, we catch a glimpse of +their private and domestic history. In the guests seated at _Herod’s +Feast_, in the crowds who throng the temple court, we recognize +the Tornabuoni and their kinsmen, the partners of the Medici bank, +Gianfrancesco Ridolfi, Roderigo Sassetti, and Andrea de’ Medici. On one +side we have a group of famous humanists--Angelo Poliziano, Marsilio +Ficino, Cristoforo Landino, and Lorenzo’s tutor, Gentile de’ Becchi; +on the other, we see the painter with his aged father and his brother, +David, and brother-in-law, Sebastiano Mainardi, the assistants who +helped in the decoration of the choir. Giovanna degli Albizzi, the +fair maiden who on the 16th of June, 1486, became the bride of Lorenzo +Tornabuoni, is here in her stiff brocades and rich jewels with her +young sister-in-law, Lodovica, and many noble dames on their way to +visit the mother and new-born babe. These frescoes, which were finally +completed in 1490, filled the Tornabuoni family with delight and +wonder, and Ghirlandaio was next employed to paint the chapel of their +_villa_ near Fiesole, which was unfortunately destroyed by floods +in the next century.” + +As in the case of so many Italian painters, the name by which +Ghirlandaio is known is only a nickname: it means “Garland-maker,” +and was given to him because his first reputation was derived from +the beautiful gold and silver garlands and wreaths he made for the +wealthy ladies of fashion. Ghirlandaio, son of Tommaso Bigordi, a silk +merchant of Florence, was born in that city in 1449. He began his life +as apprentice to a goldsmith--as so many superlative painters have +done--and early showed talent for drawing and sketching. Before long he +left the goldsmith and entered the studio of Alesso Baldovinetti (see +page 48); and he undoubtedly owed much to this painter in his fondness +for decorative effects. Ghirlandaio was tremendously industrious and +always worked with the best artists of his time. At San Gimigniano +in 1475 he worked with Pier Francesco Fiorentino and he assisted +Botticelli in the Sistine Chapel in 1481. His own independent work was +stupendous. Ghirlandaio devoted himself almost exclusively to sacred +subjects and his frescoes are practically scenes of the Florentine +world he knew so well. Whether he painted scenes from the life of St. +Francis, or of the Virgin, or Herod, or St. Zenobius, the characters +represented are members of the Medici, the Tornabuoni, the Sassetti, +the Albizzi, and other important Florentine families. In fact, his +attention to details and the careful way he rendered them, show that he +had some knowledge of contemporary Flemish paintings; and consequently +Ghirlandaio is regarded as chief of the Florentine realists. However, +Ghirlandaio ranked in his day with Botticelli and Filippino Lippi, and +he enjoyed the patronage and friendship of the Medici. Ghirlandaio’s +most important frescoes are those in Sta. Maria Novella representing +_Lives of the Virgin and John the Baptist_, commissioned by Giovanni +Tornabuoni, described above, and those in Santa Trinità depicting the +_Life of St. Francis_, ordered by Francesco Sassetti described on page +72. + +Ghirlandaio died in 1494 of the Plague, comparatively young, but having +accomplished a vast amount of work and having trained a number of +painters, the most important of whom was Michelangelo. Ghirlandaio’s +son, Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (1483–1561), became a painter and was an +intimate friend of Raphael. + + + FRANCESCO SASSETTI AND HIS SON TEODORO. + + _Domenico Ghirlandaio + (1449–1494)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Jules S. Bache._ + +Francesco Sassetti, a wealthy banker and Lorenzo de’ Medici’s agent at +Lyons, is shown here slightly under life-size, wearing a purple skull +cap and a red robe lined with fur and held at the waist by a black +cord, from which hangs a pouch, or purse. His right hand rests upon +the arm of the chair in which he is seated. His eyes look downward +upon his son, who stands at his left, in profile, gazing upward into +his father’s face. His hands are clasped and he is wearing a costume +of silvery grey brocade trimmed with white fur, undersleeves of +dark-green and slashed, and a scarlet cap. Through the window we have +an interesting view of an inlet of the sea (or a large river) with +mountains and buildings. On the top of the window-frame there is an +inscription: “_Franciscos Saxettvs Theodorus QVE_.” The picture +is an oil painting on panel (29½ × 20½ inches) and is supposed to have +been executed in 1487–1489. Francesco Sassetti was born about 1420 and +died in 1491. Teodoro was born on March 11, 1479, and is seen here at +about the age of eight or nine, which fixes the date of the picture. +It is interesting to note that Teodoro Sassetti was the grandfather of +Filippo Sassetti, an early traveller in India (see Marencci, _Lettere +di Filippo Sassetta_, Firenze, 1855). + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Jules S. Bache_ + + FRANCESCO SASSETTI AND HIS SON TEODORO + + --_Domenico Ghirlandaio_] + +This picture comes from the Benson Collection and was formerly owned +by Mr. William Graham. Francesco Sassetti also appears in the frescoes +depicting the _Life of St. Francis_, which Ghirlandaio painted in +the Sassetti Chapel in the Trinità in Florence. Ghirlandaio introduced +into this series other members of the Sassetti family, as well as many +of his illustrious contemporaries and friends, including Lorenzo de’ +Medici, Pope Honorius, Maso degli Albizzi, Palla Strozzi, and Angelo +Acciaiuoli. In the fifth fresco, where St. Francis is bringing a +dead child to life, Ghirlandaio has painted his own portrait. He is +conspicuous in a red cap and resting his hand upon his hip. + + + _THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL_ + +The Umbrian School occupied the relative place in the Early Renaissance +that the Sienese School held in the Middle Ages. At first, Umbrian +painting was the offspring of Siena, but it fell under and developed +under the influence of Florence. Florentine artists came to Umbria and +Umbrian artists went to Florence, and gradually the Umbrian School, +which had certain qualities of its own, developed and reached full +flower in the beloved of all the world,--Raphael. + +The word Umbrian is used rather loosely by critics to include many +Tuscan painters who have to be gathered into this group, which dates +from the end of the Fourteenth and beginning of the Fifteenth Century. +One particular quality of the Umbrians was their essentially deep +religious feeling. + +“Whereas the devotion of Sienese art had been hieratic, aristocratic, +and akin to the ideals of Mediæval Byzantium, that of Umbria became +ecstatically human. The Renaissance trend towards bringing to earth +the regal Christian gods of the Middle Ages was nowhere so strong +as in Umbria; and it is not an exaggeration to say that we owe to +the Umbrians our modern visual images of the Eternal, the Madonna, +and the other important members of the Christian Pantheon. The +piety and humility of the figures was deepened and dignified by +a specially emphasized space-composition, both architectural and +landscape. Landscape backgrounds were given unusual importance and +delicate beauty. The Umbrian School thus became the most charming, +the tenderest, and the most intimately human of Renaissance +Italy.”--_Mediæval and Renaissance Paintings_ (Fogg Art Museum, +Cambridge, 1927). + +The first great Umbrian painter was Gentile da Fabriano (1370?–1427), +pupil of an earlier Umbrian painter, Allegretto Nuzi (active from 1346 +to 1373), in turn a pupil of the Florentine Bernardo Daddi. + +The next important Umbrian was Piero della Francesca or Pier dei +Franceschi (1416?–1492), pupil of Domenico Veneziano of Florence, +important in his own work and important as a master, forming Luca +Signorelli, who in turn influenced Michelangelo. Piero della Francesca +was also influenced by the Florentine, Paolo Uccello, whose scientific +leanings towards perspective he shared. As a colorist, as a painter +of light and atmosphere, and as a master of composition, Piero della +Francesca ranks with the greatest Italian masters of the Early +Renaissance. + +By this time Perugia had become the most important centre of painting +in Umbria. Among its conspicuous artists was Benedetto Bonfigli +(1425–1496); Fiorenzo di Lorenzo (1440–1521), the supposed master +of Perugino and Pintoricchio; Perugino, whose real name was Pietro +Vannucci (1446–1523); Bernard Pintoricchio “the little painter” +(1454–1513), whose real name was Bernard di Betto, or Biagio; and the +great Raphael (1483–1520), son of the painter Giovanni Santi of Urbino; +and with this painter of the world’s favorite Madonnas the Umbrian +School practically ends. + + + MADONNA AND CHILD. + + _Gentile da Fabriano + (1370–1427)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Henry Goldman._ + +No little suggestion of the Giotto Madonna (shown on page 27), appears +in the _Madonna and Child_ by Gentile da Fabriano, which, according +to Colosanti, was painted in the best period of the artist, shortly +before he produced the _Adoration of the Kings_, now in the Uffizi. +In comparing it with the Giotto _Madonna_, we see that the arch has +become slightly more pointed than the one in the Giotto picture +and we find also a gold background; but in the Fabriano painting a +_graffito_ design of two winged Angels with flowing robes on either +side is slightly visible. As in the Giotto picture the two _nimbi_ +are different; the Virgin’s _nimbus_ having an Arabic inscription +and the _nimbus_ of the Holy Child having a Gothic foliage. The +Virgin is seated on a _cassone_, or chest (a not unusual but hardly +very comfortable seat in the Fourteenth Century), covered with a +dark-brown cloth with floral figure behind which a tiled floor is +seen. The Virgin wears a long tunic of claret-colored damask with gold +border, on which appears the motto “_Ave Maria Plena Dom---- Tecu---- +Ben_.” On the border around the neck the word “_Mater_” appears. The +mantle is slit at the sides through which the arm protrudes in a long +sleeve of rich gold brocade with the pomegranate pattern. A scarf of +thin yellow woollen material, decorated with red and blue flowers +and red fringe, is worn around her head and neck. The Holy Child +has on a little dress, very neatly made and fitting very snugly, of +dark-blue trimmed with a border of red and gold. He is standing with +His left foot on His mother’s knee and is stepping forward with the +other. He has raised His right hand as if to emphasize the words He is +speaking and to which His mother is listening with rapt admiration. +This movement of the Child takes something away from the solemnity of +the picture and the Virgin’s maternal pride shows her to be more of +this earth than the Giotto _Madonna_ whose calm, impassive yet tender +beauty, proclaims her to belong to a higher sphere than does the +Fabriano. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Henry Goldman_ + + MADONNA AND CHILD + + --_Gentile da Fabriano_] + +The picture, tempera on panel (38 × 22½ inches), belonged to the +Alexander Baker Collection, London, and to the Collection of Madame E. +J. Sartoris, Paris. + +Gentile da Fabriano’s full name was Gentile di Nicola di Giovanni +di Masso and he was born at Fabriano about 1370. He was a pupil of +Allegretto Nuzi and possibly of Ottaviano Nelli. Vasari says, too, that +he studied under Fra Angelico. He worked in Fabriano, Brescia, and +Venice; and in 1422 he became a member of the Guild in Florence. Later +he painted in Orvieto, Siena, and Rome, where Pope Martin V called +him to paint in San Giovanni Laterano. Subsequently Gentile painted +in Venice, Florence and other places, learning all that was new from +other painters he met and everywhere attracting followers; but never +forgetting his early Sienese inheritance in his love for beauty and for +decoration. + +Gentile da Fabriano became so much of a traveller and cosmopolitan +that he has to be classed as an “Internationalist” as well as a +Sienese painter. Gentile had a marvellous talent for presenting +brilliant and beautiful pictures of the courtly life he saw around +him and which was fast passing away for the styles and fashions of the +approaching Renaissance. His _Adoration of the Magi_, now in the +Accademia delle Belle Arti, Florence, is a gorgeous representation of +a procession such as the painter had doubtless many times witnessed. +It is while thinking of this brilliant _Adoration of the Magi_ +that Berenson exclaims: “Fair knights and lovely ladies, spurs of gold, +jewelled brocade, crimson damasks, gorgeous trains on regal steeds ride +under golden skies wherein bright suns flatter charmed mountain tops. +All the faces are aglow with blitheness. Why are they so happy? Have +they waked from nightmare hauntings of Purgatory and Hell? So it would +seem; and they rejoice in the blood tickling their veins, in the cool +breezes, in the smell of flowers. And what a love of flowers! Gentile +fills with them even the nooks and crannies of the woodwork enframing +his gorgeous Epiphany.” + +Gentile died in 1427,--the one great Umbrian of the Middle Ages. + +Michelangelo remarked of Gentile that his name was in perfect harmony +with the tone of his works. + + + MADONNA AND CHILD WITH ANGELS. + + _Benedetto Bonfigli + (1425–1496)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. and Mrs. Otto H. Kahn._ + +We have here a very unusual background, reminding us of the Arabian +desert,--tall, barren rocks; and against these the Virgin is seated. +Her costume is very lovely, consisting of a red tunic cut square +across the neck and finished with a broad band of gold embroidery, +and a blue mantle lined with yellow. Over her blonde hair, which is +arranged in the style favored by Italian ladies of fashion, waved and +parted and falling down at the sides of the cheeks, a white veil is +folded in intricate plaits and made to ripple gracefully down over the +shoulders. Above this complicated head-dress is a golden _nimbus_. +The Holy Child, resting on her lap, steadied by the Virgin’s hand +and additionally supported by the graceful hand of the little Angel, +is partly swathed in muslin. One of His little hands rests on His +mother’s veil and the other reaches for a pomegranate,[10] which she +is holding. The dress of the Angel is red bordered with ermine and the +bottom of the tunic is edged with a deep gold band of Cufic lettering. +The _nimbi_ are tooled in gold and that of the Holy Child is +cruciform. The strong wings of the Angels soar up boldly above their +heads and make a perfect balance to the rocks behind the Virgin. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Otto H. Kahn_ + + MADONNA AND CHILD WITH ANGELS + + --_Benedetto Bonfigli_] + +The picture is tempera on wood (31½ × 21 inches). + +Bonfigli is regarded as the founder of the School of Perugia which +became so famous through Perugino, who perpetuates the name of the town. + +Little is known of Benedetto Bonfigli, who was born about 1425, in +Perugia, and was buried there in the Church of St. Domenico in 1496. +Bonfigli shows in his work the influences of Piero della Francesca, +Fra Angelico, Camillo Boccatis, and Benozzo Gozzoli. Bonfigli was in +Rome in 1453 working for Pope Nicholas V, and in the following year he +was back in Perugia painting a series of frescoes for the Capella dei +Priori in the Palazzo del Consiglio depicting _St. Louis of Toulouse +and St. Ercolano_, which were unfinished at the time of his death. +Bonfigli painted processional banners and small pictures as well as +frescoes. Many of Bonfigli’s works are now in the Gallery at Perugia. + +“As an artist Bonfigli scarcely ranks as high as Niccolò da Foligno, +his fellow-pupil under Benozzo Gozzoli. He was a much more dependent +person, but being more imitative, with the models of Fra Angelico or +Benozzo before him, he at times painted exquisite things and by nature +he was gifted with that sense of the charming wherewith Perugia was +later to take the world captive. Some of the freshest and loveliest of +all angel faces may be seen in Bonfigli’s altar-pieces and standards. +His color has almost always that tint of gold which never fades from +Umbrian art.”[11] + + + MADONNA AND CHILD. + + _Perugino + (1446–1523)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay._ + +In red robe and blue mantle the Virgin appears seated three quarters +to the left and supporting the Holy Child on her left knee with both +hands. Her head is slightly inclined and the hair, parted above her +forehead, is brushed plainly down either side and looped up rather +curiously at the back and tied there by a narrow veil. The Holy Child +looks away towards the left. Behind the figures is seen one of those +delightful Umbrian landscapes made so famous by Perugino and Raphael. + +This picture, an oil painting on panel (27¾ × 19½ inches), has an +interesting pedigree. From the family of the Marquis of Villafranca it +came into possession of the Marquis de la Romana from the Palace of +Anglona, Madrid, and then belonged to the Collection of the Marquis de +Villamajor, Madrid. The wife of the latter says: + +“This painting of the _Madonna and Child_ by Perugino has been +for many generations in my husband’s family. It comes from the family +of the Marquises de Villafranca who lived in Italy in the Sixteenth +Century and of which several members were Viceroys of Naples (Alvarez +de Toledo). The Marquis of Romana, having acquired the Palace of the +Prince d’Anglona in Madrid, assembled all the pictures and works of art +inherited from his ancestors which were in the Palaces of Valencia, +Palma de Mallorque, and in Italy, thus forming a fine and important +Collection in which were paintings by Goya, Cameron, Ribera, Velasquez, +and many paintings of the Italian, Flemish, and French Schools. On the +death of the Marquis de la Romana, his son, the Marquis de Villamajor, +received a part of this Collection (which was divided between him and +his brothers), and this Perugino comes from the Marquis de Villamajor’s +heritage.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Clarence H. Mackay_ + + MADONNA AND CHILD + + --_Perugino_] + +Perugino was born at Città della Pieve, near Perugia, about 1446, and +died (probably of the Plague), at Castello di Fontignano, also near +Perugia, in 1523. His real name was Pietro Vannucci and he was also +called Pier della Pieve; but he is known always and everywhere as +Perugino from Perugia, where he spent his early life and learned his +art. It is uncertain under whom he studied before he went to Florence, +but he certainly assisted Piero della Francesca at Arezzo. At Florence, +he worked in Verrocchio’s studio, having Leonardo da Vinci and Lorenzo +di Credi for fellow-students. Then in 1475 he was commissioned to +paint in the Palazzo Pubblico, Perugia. In 1481–1482 he was working +in Rome in the Sistine Chapel with Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Cosimo +Rosselli, and Signorelli. Of his four frescoes here only one remains, +_Delivery of the Keys to St. Peter_; the other three were destroyed to +make room for Michelangelo’s _Last Judgment_. Perugino also painted +in the Vatican and remained about ten years in Rome. Then he returned +to Florence and had a studio there and also in Perugia. Besides, he +travelled about a great deal to execute commissions in various cities. +In 1490, for instance, he was in Rome again painting for Cardinal +della Rovere an altar-piece now in the Villa Albani; in 1494 he was in +Venice and Cremona; and in 1496 in Pavia, working for “Il Moro,” Duke +of Milan. The three principal pictures of the beautiful altar-piece +that Perugino painted for the Certosa, or Carthusian Convent near +Pavia--_The Virgin adoring the Infant Christ_; _Tobias and the Angel +Raphael_; and the _Archangel Michael_--are now in the National Gallery, +London. + +In 1495 Perugino was again working in Perugia; and it was then that +Raphael, a boy of about twelve, became his pupil. At this time Perugino +was the most celebrated of all the Umbrian painters. His best work +was accomplished between 1490 and 1505. To this period belongs _The +Marriage of the Virgin_, now in the Museum of Caen, Normandy, a picture +that Raphael very closely followed, but eclipsed in beauty, in his +_Sposalizio_, now in the Brera, Milan. + +About 1590 Perugino painted his famous frescoes in the Sala di Cambio, +Perugia, in which he introduced his own portrait; and in 1505 he +painted The _Triumph of Chastity_ for the Marchese Isabella of Mantua, +which is now in the Louvre. + +After another visit to Rome he worked principally in churches in the +neighborhood of Perugia, the last of which is supposed to be _The +Nativity_, painted for the Church of Fontignano (where he died), and +which is now in the South Kensington Museum. + +Perugino was one of the earliest of the Italians who mastered the use +of oil, then a new medium. In his constant moving around and visiting +so many important cities, Perugino had every opportunity of seeing what +the other artists of his day were doing. However, although he worked +with the latest materials, Perugino remained faithful to the style +of art known as the Quattrocento, which before his death was being +rapidly superseded by the Cinquecento, of which Leonardo da Vinci and +Michelangelo were the chief exponents. Like Piero della Francesca he +also advanced the science of perspective. For a time Perugino adopted +the Florentine style, especially with regard to composition; but +eventually he developed his own manner of grace, softness, delicacy, +tenderness of color, great expression in faces and figures, and his +unusually charming landscapes. + +Berenson speaks particularly of Perugino’s “space composition:”[12] +and in this art “Perugino surpassed all who ever came before him, and +indeed all who came after him, excepting, however, his own pupil, +Raphael, by whom even he was left far behind. Perugino had a feeling +for beauty in women, charm in young men, and dignity in the old, seldom +surpassed before or since. Then there is a well-ordered seemliness, a +sanctuary aloofness in all his people which makes them things apart, +untouched, and pure. Great reserve also does much for him. Violent +action he doubtless avoided because he felt himself unequal to the +task--indeed, so little did he ever master movement that his figures +when walking dance on tiptoe and on their feet they never stand; but +he as carefully kept away from unseemly expression of emotion. How +refreshingly quiet are his _Crucifixions_ and _Entombments_! The still +air is soundless and the people wail no more; a sigh inaudible, a look +of yearning, and that is all. How soothing must such paintings have +been after the din and turmoil and slaughter of Perugia, the bloodiest +town in Italy! Can it be wondered that men, women, and children ran to +see them? Nor yet is life so free from sordid cares and meaningless +broils that we can forego such balm for the soul as Perugino brings.” + + + THE NICCOLINI MADONNA. + + _Raphael + (1483–1520)._ + + _Collection of + Sir Joseph Duveen, Bart._ + +This picture came directly from the Niccolini Palace where it was +purchased in 1780 by George Nassau, third Earl Cowper, who was at that +time His Majesty’s Ambassador to the Court of Tuscany; and it was so +prized that in order to get the picture out of Florence without any +disturbance it had to be hidden in the lining of the Ambassador’s +carriage. Another name for the picture is _The Cowper Madonna of +1508_. The picture now comes from the Collection of Lady Desborough, +of Panshanger, Hertfordshire, who inherited it from her brother, +Francis Thomas, seventh Earl Cowper. + +The painting, an oil on panel (30½ × 22 inches), represents the Madonna +seated in the open air in a dark, rose-red robe with long close-fitting +undersleeves of yellow-green, ultramarine-blue mantle, and diaphanous +veil. Around the neck of the dress and the hem of the mantle what +appears to be a decorative band of golden embroidery is really the +signature of the painter “M(D or CCCC)VIII. R. U. Pin,” meaning 1508 +Raphael of Urbino Pinxit. And, by the way, is it not possible that +Sir Joshua Reynolds got the idea from this picture of painting his +name on the robe of _Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse_? It will be +remembered that Mrs. Siddons sat for that magnificent portrait in +1784. The _Niccolini Madonna_ was bought by Earl Cowper in 1780 and, +undoubtedly, Sir Joshua was very familiar with it. Moreover, at this +date, Raphael’s masterpiece was also very fresh in the mind of the +English picture-world. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Sir Joseph Duveen, Bart._ + + THE NICCOLINI MADONNA + + --_Raphael_] + +The Holy Child is seated on a white cushion in the Virgin’s lap +gently supported by her hand, which also lightly holds an end of her +floating veil. The suggestion of a light breeze rippling the veil is an +exquisite thought. The _nimbi_ of both Mother and Child are very +delicate. The background consists of a blue sky. + +It is very interesting to compare this picture with the other _Cowper +Madonna_ and on doing so we find that the same model was used for the +Child, although the women are different. The hand of the _Small Cowper +Madonna_ is noticeably more refined than the hand in the _Niccolini +Madonna_, yet, on the whole, the model used for the _Niccolini Madonna_ +seems to be of a slightly higher social status. In the latter, we find +the plucked eyebrows and forehead which Raphael’s taste has softened by +the hair, lightly blown about, like the veil, by the breeze. + +The _Niccolini Madonna_ was one of the last pictures painted by Raphael +in Florence, as he went to Rome in 1508, the date given on this +painting. It may be noted here that the _Madonna del Granduca_ (which +belonged to the Grand Duke Ferdinand III, who carried it with him +wherever he went), was the first picture Raphael painted in Florence. + +The _Madonna del Cardellino_ (of the Goldfinch), in the Uffizi, and +_La Belle Jardinière_ (in the Louvre), also date from the Florentine +period--painted when Raphael was about twenty-five,--which seems almost +incredible. + + + THE SMALL COWPER MADONNA. + + _Raphael + (1483–1520)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Joseph E. Widener._ + +This Madonna was painted in 1505, soon after the _Granduca Madonna_ +(now in the Pitti). It was purchased in Florence about 1780 by Lord +Cowper and was one of the ornaments of his Collection at Panshanger. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Joseph E. Widener_ + + THE SMALL COWPER MADONNA + + --_Raphael_] + +The Madonna is seated on a stone bench and wears a red dress and a +mantle of blue lined with green. The Holy Child throws His arms +lovingly around His mother’s neck and steadies Himself by planting His +left foot against her right hand. The hair of both mother and Child +are blonde and encircled by a thin golden _nimbus_. The eyes are, +in both subjects, of a warm and deep brown. A lovely Umbrian landscape +carries us many miles away to the left; and nearer the figures on +the right, there appears a building, identified as San Bernardino, a +Franciscan Convent near Urbino. + +The picture is painted on wood (23 × 17 inches). The original drawing +is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. + +“And now we are face to face with the most famous and beloved name +in modern art--Raphael Sanzio. Raphael was endowed with a visual +imagination, which has never even been rivalled for range, sweep, +and sanity. When it has been surpassed, it has been at single points +and by artists of more concentrated genius. Thus gifted and coming +at a time when form had, for its own sake, been recovered by the +Naturalists and the essential artists, when the visual imagery, of at +least the Italian world, had already suffered along certain lines, the +transformation from the Mediæval into what ever since has been for all +of us the _modern_, when the ideals of the Renaissance were for an +ineffable instant standing complete, Raphael, filtering and rendering +lucid and pure all that had passed through him to make him what he +was, set himself the task of dowering the modern world with the images +that to this day, despite the turbulent rebellion and morose secession +of recent years, embody for the great number of cultivated men their +spiritual ideals and their spiritual aspirations. ‘_Belle comme une +madonne de Raphael_’ is, among the most artistic people in Europe, +still the highest praise that can be given to female beauty. And, in +sooth, where shall one find greater purity, more utter loveliness than +in the _Granduca Madonna_, or a sublimer apparition of woman than +appeared to St. Sixtus? + +“When looking at the _Granduca Madonna_, has it ever occurred to +you to note that the whole of her figure was not there? So perfect is +the arrangement that the attention is entirely absorbed by the grouping +of the heads, the balance of the Virgin’s draped arm and the Child’s +body. You are not allowed to ask yourself how the figure ends. And +observe how it holds its own, easily poised, in the panel which is just +large enough to contain it without crowding, without suggesting room +for aught besides. + +“But great as is the pleasure in a single group perfectly filling a +mere panel, it is far greater when a group dominates a landscape. +Raphael tried several times to obtain this effect--as in the _Madonna +del Cardellino_, or the _Madonna del Prato_, but he attained to supreme +success once only--in the _Belle Jardinière_. Here you have the full +negation of the _plein-air_ treatment of the figure. The Madonna is +under a domed sky, and she fills it completely, as subtly as in the +_Granduca_ panel, but here it is the whole out-of-doors, the universe, +and a human being _supereminent_ over it. What a scale is suggested! +Surely the spiritual relation between man and his environment is here +given in the only way man--unless he becomes barbarized by decay or +non-humanized by science--will ever feel it. And not what man knows but +what man feels, concerns art. All else is science.” + +Raphael Santi--everybody’s Raphael,--best beloved of all painters, was +born in Urbino in 1483, the day unknown. He was the son of Giovanni +Santi, a painter, and was first taught by him. Then it is supposed that +he studied under Evangelista di Pian di Meleto, with whom he painted +an altar-piece and worked afterwards with Evangelista’s partner, +Timoteo Viti. Next we find him assisting Perugino at Perugia and also +Pintoricchio. In 1504 he went to Florence and fell under the influence +of Leonardo da Vinci and Fra Bartolommeo. During his four years in +Florence, Raphael painted a number of important works including the +_Terranuova Madonna_ (Berlin Museum); the _Small Cowper Madonna_ and +the _Niccolini Madonna_ (on page 87 and page 85); the _Madonna del +Cardellino_ (Uffizi); the _Madonna in the Meadow_ (Belvedere, Vienna); +_La Belle Jardinière_ (Louvre); and a number of portraits including +the famous self-portrait (Uffizi). He was but twenty-five! Called to +Rome in 1508 to decorate the Stanze in the Vatican this immense work +occupied him until 1514. In the meantime, he was given the decoration +of the Loggia, but while he made the designs, the actual painting of +“Raphael’s Bible” was done by his pupils. In the pressure of all this +stupendous work he found time to paint _The Triumph of Galatea_ for +Agostino Chigi in the Farnesina Palace, _The Madonna della Seggiola_ +(Pitti), the _Portrait of Tommaso Inghirami_ and many portraits. In +1516 he painted _Baldassare Castiglione_ (Louvre); in 1517 the _Madonna +di San Sisto_, for the convent of San Sisto at Piacenza (Dresden +Gallery) and the _St. Cecilia_ (Bologna Gallery). In 1518 he began _The +Transfiguration_, which was unfinished at the time of his death and +which was placed beside his bier. + +All this magnificent work which expresses such high creative power and +such vast technical knowledge is the performance of a young man of +twenty-seven! Had he painted but three pictures, _La Belle Jardinière_, +the _Madonna of the Chair_, and the _Sistine Madonna_, Raphael’s place +would have been with the greatest of the immortals. Taking his entire +list of works into consideration Raphael, perhaps, comes nearer than +any other painter to the term “inspired.” + + + AGONY IN THE GARDEN. + + _Raphael + (1483–1520)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay._ + +This panel (9½ × 11 inches), was one of four belonging to the Predella +of the large altar-piece representing the _Madonna Enthroned with +Saints_, painted by Raphael in 1505 for the Nuns of S. Antonio, +Perugia. It is, therefore, one of Raphael’s early works. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Clarence H. Mackay_ + + AGONY IN THE GARDEN + + --_Raphael_] + +The Saviour in a grey robe kneels in prayer at the right near a tree +and towards him an Angel holding a chalice descends from the clouds. +The other characters are sleeping: St. John the Evangelist in a green +and red robe lies upon a grassy bank at the left; St. Peter reclines +against a grassy mound at the right; and St. James, in a green and +yellow robe, has propped himself against the tree in the centre. Trees +and low-lying hills form the background. All four panels forming +the Predella were purchased from the Nuns of St. Anthony in 1663 by +Christina, Queen of Sweden. This particular panel--_The Agony in the +Garden_--passed from the Queen of Sweden’s possession into that +of Cardinal Azzolini, and thence into the Collection of Don Livio +Odescalchi, whose heirs sold it to the Regent, the Duc d’Orleans. The +Orleans Collection was sold in London in 1798 and _The Agony in the +Garden_ then went into the Bryant Collection. Lord Eldin bought it +next and subsequently the poet, Samuel Rogers, at whose sale in 1856 +the panel was purchased by the Baroness Burdett-Coutts. After the +sale of the W. Burdett-Coutts Collection at Christie’s in 1917, the +panel found its way to New York. The other three panels are: _St. +Anthony of Padua and St. Francis_ (now in the Dulwich Gallery); the +_Procession to Calvary_ (in the National Gallery, London); and a +_Pietà_ (in the Gardner Collection, Boston). + +The altar-piece--_The Madonna Enthroned with Saints_--was +presented to the Metropolitan Museum by the late Mr. J. Pierpont +Morgan. + + + _NORTH ITALIAN_ + +The greatest painters of Northern Italy were Altichiero Altichieri +(1330?–1395), Pisanello (1397–1455), Domenico Morone (1442–1503), +Liberale (1451–1536), Girolamo dai Libri (1474–1503), and Paolo +Veronese (1528–1588), in Verona; Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506), in +Padua; and Cosimo Tura (1420?–1495), in Ferrara; Vincenzo Foppa +(1427?–1515–16), Bramante da Milano (died about 1470), Bartolommeo +Suardi, called Bramantino (1450?–1536), and Bernardino Luini +(1475?–1531–2), in Milan; Lorenzo Costa (1460?–1535), and Francesco +Francia (1450?–1517), in Bologna; Moretto da Brescia (1498–1554), and +Giambattista Moroni (1520–5–1578), in Brescia; and Antonio Allegri, +better known as Correggio (1494–1534), in Parma. + +The towns of Northern Italy were more or less influenced by Florentine +artists who worked in various towns and who naturally attracted pupils +and local assistants. Painters travelled too, a great deal, wishing, as +they do now, to see the famous works of painters both living and dead +and of learning the newest and latest technique. Lords and dukes also +attracted celebrated painters to their courts; and, if they liked them, +bestowed lavish orders for portraits, for their relatives and friends; +small devotional pictures for their own cabinets; wall-paintings for +their villas; and altar-pieces and frescoes for their local churches or +cathedrals. + +Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, sent to Lorenzo de’ Medici on two or +three occasions to recommend painters from Florence for work that he +wished to have done. The great intellectual and artistic activity of +Lombardy at the end of the Fifteenth Century was largely owing to +Lodovico Sforza, whose Court was one of the most brilliant of the +day. “Here,” an enthusiastic contemporary exclaimed, “here the muses +of poetry and the masters of sculpture reigned supreme; here came the +most distinguished painters from distant regions; here, night and day, +were heard sounds of such sweet singing and such delicious harmonies of +music that they seemed to descend from heaven itself.” + +New churches and palaces arose in Milan, Pavia, Como, Cremona, +Piacenza, Lugano, and other places, and artists were necessary for +decorating them. In 1496, Leonardo having all he could do, Lodovico +wrote to Florence for a description of the best painters of the day. +This is what he received; and it is very interesting as showing the +estimation of the men mentioned while they were living: + +“Sandro de Botticello--a most excellent master, both in panel and +wall-painting. His figures have a manly air and are admirable in +conception and proportion. + +“Filippino di Frati Filippo--an excellent disciple of the above-named +and a son of the rarest master of our times. His heads have a gentler +and more suave air; but, we are inclined to think, less art. + +“Il Perugino--a rare and singular artist, most excellent in +wall-painting. His faces have an air of the most angelic sweetness. + +“Domenico de Girlandaio--a good master in panels and a better one in +wall-painting. His figures are good and he is an industrious and active +master who produces much work. + +“All of these masters have given proof of their excellence in the +Chapel of Pope Sixtus, excepting Filippino, and also in the Spedaletto +of the Magnificent Laurentio, and their merit is almost equal.[13] + +The glimpse Leonardo da Vinci has given us of his life charms us across +the long shadow of four centuries and more: + +“The painter describes himself as living in a fine house, full of +beautiful paintings and choice objects surrounded by musicians and +poets. Here he sits at his work, handling a brush full of lovely +color, never so happy as when he can paint listening to the sound of +sweet melodies. The spacious _atélier_ is full of scholars and +apprentices employed in carrying out their master’s ideas, or making +chemical experiments, but careless of the noise of tools and hammers, +the fair-haired boy, Angelo, sings his golden song, and, Serafino, the +wondrous _improvisatore_, chants his own verses to the sound of +the lyre. Visitors come and go freely--Messer Jacopo of Ferrara, the +architect, who was so dear to Leonardo as a brother, the courtly poet, +Gaspare Visconti, and Vincenzo Calmeta, Duchess Beatrice’s secretary, +or, it may be, the great Messer Galeaz himself, whose big jennet and +Sicilian horse the master has been drawing as models for the great +equestrian statue standing outside in the Corte Vecchia. There, among +them all, the painter bends over his canvas seeking to perfect the +glazes and scrumbles of his pearly tints, or trying to realize some +dream of a face that haunts his fancy with its exquisite smile. He +has, it is true, many labors--(_a tanta faccenda!_) as he wrote +to the councillors of Piacenza--and at times he hardly knows which way +to turn; but he is his own master, free to work as he will, now at +one, now at another. He has no cares nor anxiety. He can dress as he +pleases, wear rich apparel if he is so minded, or don the plain clothes +and sober hues that he prefers. He has gold enough and to spare; he can +help a poorer friend and educate a needy apprentice, or save his money +for a rainy day; and, above all, he has plenty of books and leisure +to meditate on philosophical treatises, or ponder over the scientific +problems in which his soul delights. He can find time to jot down his +thoughts on many things, to write his great treatise on painting, and +to draw the wonderful interlaced patterns inscribed with the strange +words which have puzzled so many generations of commentators. And he +has friends, too, dear to his heart--Messer Jacopo and the wise Lorenzo +da Pavia, that master of organs whose hands were as deft in fashioning +lyres and viols as in drawing out sweet sounds--with whom he loved to +commune of musical instruments and eternal harmonies, and the boy, +Andrea Salai, with the beautiful, curling hair, whom he loved to dress +up in green velvet mantles and shoes with rose-colored ribbons and +silver buckles. ‘Such,’ he tells us ‘was I, Leonardo the Florentine, at +the Court of the most illustrious Prince, Signor Lodovic.’”[14] + +In such surroundings Leonardo da Vinci spent sixteen happy years, +during which he exercised all his talents as architect, engineer, +sculptor, musician, and painter, also designing ingenious settings for +masques and tournaments and superintending decorations for weddings and +for other festivities. Here, too, he painted the _Last Supper_ +in the refectory of the Dominican Friars of S. Maria delle Grazie, +which “Il Moro” had taken under his special protection; the _Virgin +of the Rocks_ (now in the Louvre), originally for the Church of S. +Francesco of Milan, and many portraits, including those of Ludovico +Sforza and of his talented young wife, Beatrice d’Este. When the French +entered Milan in 1499 Leonardo returned to Italy. + +The presence of the supreme and superlative Leonardo in Milan for so +long a time naturally stimulated art and artists of all kinds and even +more particularly that of painting and painters. His style dominated +the Milanese School of painters just as Richard Wagner dominated the +musical composers of the Nineteenth Century; and we find, particularly +in the case of Luini, some of the Master’s most engaging qualities +appreciated and imitated (see page 110). + +“It has often been asked,” Marcel Reymond notes in a finely thought-out +criticism of the Milanese painters, “how it came to pass that Leonardo +left no disciples in Florence when he created such a strong School +in Milan. The first cause, in my opinion, should be sought for in +the laws that presided over the formation and development of the +Florentine School of painting. This School, created by fresco-painters +accustomed to works of vast dimensions, did not care to tarry over the +_finesse_ of execution, or the enumeration of minute details; +it simplified its vision, attaching itself particularly to the broad +lines and only retaining of the forms what was essentially expressive +in them. This character will be noticed at all periods of Florentine +painting from Giotto, Masaccio, Ghirlandaio, and Andrea del Sarto. When +the Florentine painters depart from this general conception, it is +only by accident and almost always in consequence of foreign action, +an action that will be sometimes that of Flemish painters, such as +Van der Weyden, or Van der Goes, and sometimes that of the Florentine +sculptors, who, at a given moment, about the middle of the Fifteenth +Century, exercised so powerful an influence upon the painters who were +their contemporaries. The action of Verrocchio in particular was such +as to transform the style of the Florentine School of Painting and to +give birth to the so entirely individual, and in certain respects so +little Florentine, of Leonardo da Vinci. + +“But the fact that this new style was outside the traditions of the +Florentine School of Painting must have hindered its development, and +in reality Leonardo had no disciple in Florence. With Fra Bartolommeo +and Andrea del Sarto, it is the old character of the School that +reappears to follow out its natural evolution through the whole course +of the Sixteenth Century. + +“In the North of Italy, on the contrary, the precision of line and +observation of detail form a predominant character of those Schools of +which Mantegna is the most illustrious representative. These Schools, +therefore, found in Leonardo a teaching that responded to their ancient +traditions; and we may thus understand how the seed planted by Leonardo +in the soil of Milan struck such deep root and produced such beautiful +flowers there. + +“But however this may be and whatever may have been the causes of +this admirable blossoming of Milanese Art in the early years of the +Sixteenth Century, we may say that it represents in a highly learned +form one of the researches that have the most occupied Italian +genius,--I mean the seeking after beauty pursued in the harmonious +accord between form and poetry.” + +Francesco Squarcione (1394–1474), was a native of Padua, the son of a +notary. Beginning life as a tailor and embroiderer, he chose to become +a painter, but first he decided to travel. He made a tour through +Italy and, it is said, visited Greece. It is in 1441 that his name +first appears in the Paduan Guild of Painters. Squarcione achieved +more reputation as a teacher than as a painter; and it seems that in +executing what commissions came to him he either gave over his orders +to his talented pupils, or had them, indeed, do most of the work under +his name. It is now thought that it was Mantegna’s refusal to continue +painting for Squarcione that led to the rupture between master and +pupil and not Squarcione’s anger at Mantegna’s marrying Nicolosia +Bellini, which has long been a favorite legend. Squarcione’s school, +however, was the most famous of its time and brought him the title of +“Father of Painters.” The list of his pupils runs to about a hundred +and thirty-seven. One of the features of Squarcione’s workshop was his +fine collection of fragments of statues which he used as models. It is +also said on good authority that Squarcione was a dealer in antiquities. + +In Padua also lived Jacopo Bellini, with whom Mantegna worked and +whose daughter Nicolosia he married, a relation that made him, of +course, brother-in-law to Giovanni and Gentile Bellini. For a number of +years--presumably from 1444 to 1460--Jacopo Bellini had a workshop in +Mantua and, here, himself a pupil of Gentile da Fabriano, he trained +and worked with his two gifted sons and also Andrea Mantegna. This +_bottega_ became quite a rival of Squarcione’s. Indeed such a +combination as the three Bellini artists and Andrea Mantegna would +certainly offer a formidable competition to any rival, at any time, or +in any place. + +The founder of the Ferrarese School was Cosimo Tura (1420?–1495), also +a pupil of Squarcione, the first Ferrarese painter of eminence; and, +from 1451, in permanent service of the Dukes at Ferrara. Tura had +certain affinities for Carlo Crivelli, Melozzo da Forli, and Andrea +Mantegna. + +At Bologna, in 1485, Lorenzo Costa (1460?–1535), a supposed pupil of +Tura, established himself, thus forming one of the main links between +the Schools of Ferrara and Bologna; and it was another pupil--also a +fellow-worker of Costa, Francesco Francia (1450?–1517), who is the +chief glory of the Bolognese School (see page 107). + +In Verona, first comes the Mediæval painter, Altichiero Altichieri +and next the greater Antonio (or Vittore) Pisano (1397–1455), called +Pisanello, worker in medals, painter of portraits, and mural decorator +(see page 99). + +The School of Brescia is represented by Alessandro Bonvicino, called +Moretto da Brescia (1498–1554), influenced by Titian and Raphael and +considered the greatest provincial painter in Northern Italy of his +time. Moretto is also famous for having formed Moroni, the great +portrait-painter (1520–5–1578). Moretto and Moroni are regarded as +ranking among the greatest portrait-painters of the Sixteenth Century. +In mode and technique they closely follow the greatest Venetian +Masters; but the Brecians have a more silvery and a much “cooler” tone +than Titian and Tintoretto (see page 112). + +We have now come to the High Renaissance, where Antonio Allegri, +called Il Correggio, from his birthplace, a small town near Modena +(1494–1534), is the dominating personality of the School of Parma. +Francesco Bianchi (1457–1510), of Ferrara, is his traditional master; +but he was influenced by Lorenzo Costa, Francesco Francia, and Andrea +Mantegna. Correggio has been called “an isolated phenomenon in Italian +art--we look in vain, after his earliest years of practice for any true +affinity between him and other masters. In his treatment of light and +shades and of atmosphere he contributed something new to Italian art.” + +As the Sixteenth Century progressed the North Italians fell more and +more under the spell of the Venetians. Dosso Dossi (1479–1541), for +instance, a painter of Ferrara and a pupil of Lorenzo Costa, went +to Venice and was charmed by Giorgione and Titian before he became +court-painter of Alphonso I, Duke of Ferrara, and his wife, Lucrezia +Borgia. + +Northern Italy also claims Paolo Caliari, better known as Paolo +Veronese (1528–1588), a native of Verona, whence his name; but classed +with the Venetian School, as he spent the greater part of his life in +Venice, gorgeously decorating its palaces, churches, and monasteries. + + + PORTRAIT OF A LADY. + + _Pisanello + (1397–1455)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay._ + +This is a particularly rare picture as it is one of only three +portraits of this painter so far known, the other two being a female +portrait in the Louvre and a male portrait in Bergamo. Berenson says of +this portrait: “It is in the most mature and the most sumptuous manner +of this greatest master of the fascinating epoch between Gothic and +Renaissance. It has all the direct simplicity of that happy moment when +art had recovered from the mannerisms of the late Gothic style and was +still far from the modishness of the ripe Renaissance. How fascinating +are its qualities of pure decoration!” + +The lady is dressed in dark-blue velvet with a curious collar of +white lawn and grey fur with another collar at its base of spangled +embroidery and around the waist a narrow girdle to match. The dress is +profusely decorated with gold filigree beads. + +Gold pins are placed in her blonde hair, over which is a head-dress +of curiously puffed and twisted material decorated by blue and gold +sequins. + +The background is black. + +This portrait, painted in tempera on a panel (20¾ × 14¾), was +purchased by M. Veil-Picard of Paris at the Villeroy Sale in Paris +in 1922. Adolfo Venturi writes in _L’Arte_ (April, 1925): “The +Mackay portrait cut off below the waist, rises in the canvas with +Gothic grace. Picturesqueness is the keynote. The relief, even in +its slightest parts, has an ideal softness of planes. But in this +picture Pisanello’s genius has attained its maximum of expression. +Everything shows an advance on the Louvre picture--the eye sunk deep +in its socket; the eyebrow like the valve of a shell molded over the +round, while in the Louvre picture it is a mere silken strip; the ear, +no longer a mere piece of cartilage, is downy velvet; above all, the +superb decorative effect of the oval face between the strange volutes +of the turban and the chains of perforated gold beads. + +“In the other portraits the decorative effect is helped by the +fantastic blossoms standing out against the dark background of the +hedge, making a greater contrast with the background than with the +face. In the Mackay portrait the background is equally dark throughout. +The interest of the face itself is accentuated by the myriad gold +lights in the gilded trefoils on the dress and in the golden beads of +the chains (light as balls of silk) and in the nebulous phosphorescence +of the little balls which adorn the neck of the dress and the dark +enamel of the ivy on the turban of Oriental splendor. The effect, +carefully prepared to isolate the face from the surrounding shadow, +acquires an intensity of refinement. The contrast between the dark +background and the phosphorescent dress is repeated in that between the +dark blue material of the dress and in the high lights of this; the +icy brilliance of the collar cuts into the softness of the fur with +unexpected suddenness; and the ivory of the flesh contrasts sharply +with the delicate softness of tone. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Clarence H. Mackay_ + + PORTRAIT OF A LADY + + --_Pisanello_] + +“The highest pictorial and decorative value in the art of Pisanello +as a colorist is reached in this Mackay portrait, which represents, +moreover, one of the most acute character-readings of the penetrating +eye of the medallist. The proud carriage accentuated by the rigid cut +of the high velvet collar; the clear-cut outlines of the profile; the +ram’s horn head-dress; the splendid cap; the well-defined lips, from +which one expects to hear the sibilant breath issue; above all, the +keen glance directed downwards under the heavy-veiled eyelids render +this a picture of frigid haughtiness. The fine lines of the mouth and +the narrow opening of the eyes are executed with an extraordinary +penetrating observation and the contour of the face is drawn with a +delicacy that does all honor to this great master of the silhouette. + +“The lines of the face are in complete harmony with the contours +of the whole figure. The curves repeat themselves in the fantastic +coiffure, in the fur border of the collar, in the lines of the arm +and in the chains hanging from the shoulders. And, contrarily, these +general sweeping curves of coiffure and costume lead up to the finely +concentrated line of the profile which stands out sharply against a +black background, as in Pisanello’s painting of _Saint Eustace_, +in London (National Gallery). The artist has understood perfectly the +value of contrast between the plastic and the decorative elements. +The flat planes of the delicate ivory-like face are emphasized by the +sculpturesque coiffure with its gold ornaments; and just where we would +naturally look for an accentuation of the physical attributes--on the +bust and arms--the artist has, through the broad curves of the chains +and the spacing of the patterns of the dress, emphasized the decorative +design. Finally, the color of this most decorative masterpiece is +of the greatest charm. There are tiny lines recalling the delicate +technique of a piece of Satsuma-ware on the surface of the ivory-tinted +face that rises from a white collar resting on grey fur while a +delightful blue predominates in the coiffure and the costume, which is +enhanced with yellow and gold ornaments. + +“The dress itself is of no little charm and belongs to a period +when costume and figure were attuned to a harmonious whole as has +seldom happened in the history of costume design. By plucking out the +hair from her forehead and eyebrows this young woman has created a +high-domed brow for herself and further emphasized the up-sweeping +lines by high-arched eyebrows applied with cosmetic. What a burden that +towering coiffure must have been and how uncomfortable the high collar +and the girdle drawn tight beneath the breast! Nevertheless she suffers +these discomforts in the name of fashion with dignity and equanimity.” + +Pisanello (whose real name was Antonio Pisano), born about 1397 +(some authorities say 1380 and some 1385), was a renowned painter of +portraits and religious pictures of highly decorative character as +well as a famous medallist. Pisanello was a follower of Altichiero and +was also greatly influenced by Gentile da Fabriano. Of his early life +little or nothing is known; but the rest of his days he spent wandering +throughout Italy, now in Mantua, now in Verona, now in Venice, now in +Rome, now in Naples, and now in Ferrara, cutting medals and painting +portraits of distinguished personages. In 1439 he was in Mantua as an +intimate friend of the Marchese Francesco Gonzaga, whom he followed +at the capture of Verona. Therefore he had to come under the Tribunal +of the Council of Ten at Venice in 1442. Pisanello’s career coincides +almost precisely in date with Fra Angelico, Donatello, Ghiberti, and +Brunelleschi. As a medallist Pisanello was unexcelled. In his paintings +he shows the spirit of a miniaturist rather than that of a mural +decorator. He shares with Gentile da Fabriano the charming quality +of chivalric grace and attention to interesting detail. Pisanello +must have been especially fond of animals, as his rarely beautiful +drawings of them preserved in various galleries would seem to prove; +and, moreover, he was fond of introducing them into his pictures. In +the _Vision of Saint Eustace_, for instance (National Gallery, +London), in addition to the stag bearing the cross upon his horns, +there are various animals and birds as well as the fine horse with its +gay trappings, on which the handsome Eustace is mounted. + +“Altichiero had scarcely ceased covering wall-spaces with pomp and +circumstance of Mediæval life,” writes Berenson, “when the task was +taken up by his better-known Renaissance follower, Vittorio Pisanello. +The larger part of this artist’s work, in fact all his decoration +of great houses and public palaces, has perished. Even now, after +earnest efforts to gather together the strewn limbs of his art, only +six paintings of his can be discovered: two frescoes, two sacred +subjects, and two portraits. His renown as a painter has, therefore, +been eclipsed by his fame as a medallist. And, in truth, never, since +the days when Greek craftsmen modelled coins for proud city states, has +there been such a moulder of subtle reliefs in miniature. Yet Pisanello +himself never signed his name without the addition of the word +_Pictor_ and it was as a painter that he received the stipends of +princes and the adulation of poets. + +“Although he was much more modern than his master, there was nothing in +his paintings to startle princes and poets, or even less distinguished +persons, whose education in art consisted then, no doubt, as it does +now, in confirming a fondness for the kind of picture to which their +eyes had grown accustomed during childhood and youth. Pisanello, +although counting as one of the great geniuses of the Renaissance, +by no means broke with the past. He went, it is true, as far beyond +Altichiero as Altichiero had gone from his immediate precursors, but +he betrays no essential difference of intention or spirit. In him +art-evolution produced a painter most happily fitted to hold up an +idealizing mirror to a parallel product of social evolution, the sunset +of Chivalry. No wonder that he was employed along with the kindred +Gentile da Fabriano by the rich and noble and that he was chosen to +continue the courtly Umbrian’s tasks.” + + + ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS. + + _Andrea Mantegna + (1431–1506)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay._ + +It is more than likely this is the picture described in 1586 as +“_Presepe_” (manger) in the Este Palace, Ferrara. At all events it +is an early work. + +The Virgin surrounded by cherubs is kneeling in adoration before +the Holy Child, who is asleep on the bottom of her gown. Near her +St. Joseph is seated, fast asleep. On the right two Shepherds are +approaching and, behind them, a Man and a Woman are crossing a bridge. +High up on the rocks, on the right, two Angels are watching over the +scene. Behind the simple wooden building, which shelters the group, +stretches a landscape. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Clarence H. Mackay_ + + ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS + + --_Andrea Mantegna_] + +The panel transferred to canvas (15 × 21½ inches), was formerly in +the Collection of Mr. C. A. Rouse-Boughton-Knight of Downton Castle, +Ludlow, Herefordshire, England. + +Andrea Mantegna was born in Vicenza in 1431. He was inscribed in the +Guild at Padua as pupil and adopted son of Squarcione (see page 97) in +1441 and made the most extraordinary progress in his studies, perfectly +fascinated with “the antique”. “At a little more than ten years of +age,” Berenson writes, “Mantegna was adopted by a contractor named +Squarcione. How much of a painter Squarcione was, we do not know, but +we do know that he undertook designing and painting to be executed by +people in his employ. He was also a dealer in antiquities and his shop +was frequented by the distinguished people who passed through Padua, +and by the Humanists teaching in the famous University. It happened +to be a moment when in Italy Antiquity was a religion, nay, more, a +mystical passion, causing wise men to brood over fragments of Roman +statuary as if they were sacred relics, and to yearn for ecstatic union +with the glorified past. To complete the spell, this glorified past +happened to be the past of their own country.” + +Another influence was Donatello, who was working in Padua in 1750 +and after; and still another was Jacopo Bellini. After his marriage +to Bellini’s daughter and his break with Squarcione, Mantegna went +to Venice to have his contract with Squarcione cancelled in the Law +Courts; and, returning to Padua, he continued his work on important +frescoes. In 1460 Mantegna removed to the Court of Mantua at the +invitation of the Marchese Lodovico Gonzaga and in addition to his +painting he designed for pageants and festivals, and decorated villas +and palaces, just as Leonardo da Vinci was destined to do a few years +later for another Lodovico,--“Il Moro,” Regent and, later, Duke of +Milan. Mantegna also at this period designed for goldsmiths. When +Francesco Gonzaga succeeded his father, Mantegna remained at the Court +of Mantua and became the supreme arbiter of the taste of the day. +For Francesco’s wife, Isabella d’Este (sister of “Il Moro’s” wife, +Beatrice d’Este) and for her mother, the Duchess of Ferrara, Mantegna +painted some of his most famous pictures, such as the _Triumph of +Cæsar_ (now at Hampton Court Palace) and the _Madonna and Child +with Singing Cherubs_ (now in the Brera). On leaving for Rome in +1788 Mantegna was knighted. In Rome he decorated the Belvedere Chapel +for Pope Innocent VIII. To his last period belong delicate and lovely +mythological pieces, including the _Parnassus_ (now in the Louvre) +and the strong and decorative painting of _Judith with the Head of +Holofernes_ (now in the Widener Collection). + +When Mantegna died in 1506, Lorenzo da Pavia (see page 95) wrote to +Isabella d’Este: “The death of our Master Andrea causes me great +sorrow, for in him a second Apelles has passed away; I do believe that +the Lord God wishes to employ him for the creation of some beautiful +work. I can never hope to meet a finer draughtsman nor a more original +artist.” + +Padua, Mantua, Venice,--all felt Mantegna’s influence. + + + VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH THE INFANT ST. JOHN AND ANGEL. + + _Francia + (1450?–1517)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay._ + +This picture came from the Collection of the Comtesse Edmond de +Pourtales of Paris and shows the Virgin seated and holding the nude +Infant Jesus on her right knee. She is wearing a crimson dress +edged with gold embroidery and a blue mantle, also edged with gold +embroidery, which is drawn over her head. Beneath this a white gauze +veil covers her hair. The Holy Child has raised His right hand in +benediction while in His left he holds a blue ball. The Angel on the +right wears a rose-colored tunic and yellow mantle and is adorned with +jewels. By his side and with one foot on a balustrade stands the Infant +St. John, dressed in blue and carrying a slender cross over his left +shoulder. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Clarence H. Mackay_ + + VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH THE INFANT ST. JOHN AND ANGEL + + --_Francia_] + +Of this panel (23½ × 19¾ inches), painted in oil, Berenson says: +“If this most famous of the Bolognese artists ever painted a more +delightful picture than the present one, it remains unknown to me. +Perhaps its only rival in my affections would be the Munich picture +of the _Virgin in the Rose Garden_ where, however, it is not the +faces but the pale roses against the flat green that give the work its +special charm.” + +Francesco Raibolini, who took the name Francia from a master-goldsmith +to whom he was apprenticed, was born in Bologna in 1450, the son of +a carpenter. He spent his early years working in metals and settings +for jewels and became very expert in _niello_, gold and silver +enamels, and designs for jewelry. He also acquired a reputation for his +coins and medals, so much so indeed that Giovanni Bentivoglio II, who +became his patron, appointed him his master of the mint. Moreover, in +1511 Francia was elected one of the _Golfalonieri_ of the people; +in 1512 re-elected to the mastership of the Goldsmith’s Guild; and in +1514 he became “Master of the Four Arts.” It is thought that he began +to paint about 1483, when Lorenzo Costa came to Bologna and formed a +friendship with Francia. Be this as it may, he worked with Costa on an +altar-piece for the Church of the Misericordia and the influence of +Costa is apparent in much of his work. Francia also painted with Costa +in 1505–1507 the series of frescoes in the Chapel of St. Cecilia and +the _Madonna del Terremoto_ in the Palazzo Communale, Bologna. +Francia painted Madonnas all his life; and in addition to these +religious pictures, he painted a number of splendid portraits. He died +in Bologna in 1517. One of his pupils was Timoteo Viti, who in turn was +Raphael’s early teacher and imparted to him some of Francia’s quality, +particularly in the general appearance of the Madonna and the full +rounded contours of the figures. About 1500 Francia began to develop +his own personal style. + + + PORTRAIT OF A LADY. + + _Bernardino Luini + (1475?–1531–2)._ + + _Collection of the + Hon. Andrew W. Mellon._ + +The first thing we notice in this picture is a very peculiar +head-dress--large and round and fleecy. + +The figure is half-length, life-size, and faces us so that we gain +a very good idea of the unknown lady, so boldly set forth from the +background of a green curtain. She wears a dark-grey dress, a white +embroidered _chemisette_ and a jewelled cross hanging from a +gold chain which she is fingering lightly. In her right hand is a pet +marten. The hands, it should be noted, are beautifully drawn. This, +an oil painting on panel (29 × 21½), came from the Benson Collection, +having been previously in the Collection of Mr. F. R. Leyland. + +Bernardino Luini was born at Luini, near the Lago Maggiore about +1475, and died in Milan in 1531 or 1532. Luini worked chiefly in the +vicinity of Milan and painted a great many frescoes. He is said to +have been a pupil of Borgognone; but whether that be true or not, most +certainly Leonardo da Vinci was his real master. It was assuredly +from the painter of the _Mona Lisa_ that Luini learned how to +paint a charming woman with refined features breaking into a radiant +and enchanting smile. Luini painted many notable religious pictures, +including admirable Madonnas, but his loveliest work is the portrait +of a Milanese lady known as _The Columbine_, in The Hermitage +Gallery, gazing at the flower she is holding in her hand, from which +the picture takes its name. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the Hon. Andrew W. Mellon_ + + PORTRAIT OF A LADY + + --_Luini_] + +“Luini’s female creations are so exquisite that for a long time +people supposed that Leonardo alone was capable of conceiving them,” +writes Marcel Reymond, “and permanently recording their loveliness; +but now this injustice has come to an end and Luini’s art appears +before us with sharply determined characteristics that prevent us from +confounding it with Leonardo’s art; first of all, from the point of +view of technique, it must be remembered that Leonardo works like a +master born about 1450 and Luini like one born after 1470. With Luini +the workmanship is less precise than with Leonardo, while the stroke is +less restrained and the modelling freer.” + + + TITIAN’S SCHOOLMASTER. + + _Giambattista Moroni + (1520–5–1578)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Joseph E. Widener._ + +In the National Gallery, London, there is a striking portrait of a +_Tailor_--known as the _Tagliapanni_--standing behind his board, at +half-length, with shears in his right hand and a piece of cloth in his +left, looking inquiringly at the spectator. It is forceful, attractive, +commands attention, and lives in the memory of all who have looked upon +it. Moroni’s _Tailor_ is one of the great portraits of the world. The +merest glance at the picture represented here would tell you that it +is by the same hand. The means of producing a striking effect are even +simpler than in the London portrait. + +The title is entirely fanciful, but it accords well with the subject, +a pleasant, genial man with an intellectual countenance. He seems to +be about sixty years of age and is dressed in black with white linen +collar and a black cap. His beard is grey. He is sitting sideways in +a chair that is often described to-day (and for no reason whatever) +as a “Savonarola Chair,” resting his left arm on the arm of the chair +and holding a book in his right. It would appear that he has just +been interrupted in his reading--pleasantly, too, it would seem--and +is keeping the page he has left off reading with one finger between +the leaves. The hands are marvellously drawn and painted, as is also +the ring on the left hand. Van Dyck admired this picture so much that +he made a sketch of it in his Italian sketch-book (which is now at +Chatsworth). + +This portrait in oils on canvas (38 × 29½ inches) was long in the +Borghese Gallery at Rome, and then at the beginning of the Nineteenth +Century it was purchased by the Marquis of Stafford. From the Duke of +Northumberland’s Collection, Stafford House, it passed to the present +owner. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Joseph E. Widener_ + + TITIAN’S SCHOOLMASTER + + --_Moroni_] + +Moroni’s great fame, even in his own day, was as a portrait-painter; +and it is said that when people from Bergamo and its vicinity went to +Titian to have their portraits painted, he told them to go home and sit +to their own countryman. Moroni was a pupil of Moretto at Brescia, was +influenced by Lotto and Titian, and he, in his turn, influenced Van +Dyck. + +Moroni was born at Bondo in Bergamo between 1520 and 1525 and died at +Bergamo in 1578. + + + _VENETIAN_ + +“It is evident,” wrote Taine, “that, while following a path of its own, +Venetian Painting developed as in the rest of Italy. It issued here, as +elsewhere, from missals and mosaics and was at first in sympathy with +purely Christian emotion; then, by degrees, the feeling for beautiful +human life introduced into the altar-frames vigorous and healthy +bodies taken from contemporary types; and we wonder at the placid, +expressions and religious physiognomies on the blooming faces in which +the youthful blood circulates and sustains innate temperament. This is +the confluence of two spirits and two ages: one, the Christian, which +is fading away; the other, the Pagan, which is in the ascendant. In +Venetian Art special traits are distinguished. The people are more +closely copied from life and are less transformed by Classic or mystic +sentiment, not so pure as at Perugia, not so noble as at Florence: +they are addressed more to the senses than to the mind or the heart; +they are more quickly recognized as men and give greater pleasure to +the eye. Strong and lively tones color their muscles and their faces; +living flesh is soft on their shoulders and on the thighs of little +children; clear landscapes open into the distance to make the deeper +tints of the figure stand out; saints gather around the Virgin in a +variety of attitudes unknown to the other Primitive Schools with their +uniform processions. At the height of its fervor and faith the national +spirit, fond of diversity and joy, allows a smile to escape.” + +Venice was slow in abandoning Byzantine tradition. Changes begin to be +apparent in the Fourteenth Century. Walter Pater notes: “The beginnings +of Venetian Painting link themselves to the last, stiff, half-barbaric +splendors of Byzantine decoration and are but the introduction into the +crust of marble and gold on the walls of the Duomo of Murano, or of St. +Mark’s, of a little more of human expression. And throughout the course +of its later development, always subordinate to architectural effect, +the work of the Venetian School never escaped from the influence of +its beginnings. Unassisted, and therefore, unperplexed by naturalism, +religious mysticism, philosophical theories, it had no Giotto, no +Fra Angelico, no Botticelli. Except from the stress of thought or +sentiment, which taxed so severely the resources of the generations of +Florentine artists, those earlier Venetian painters, down to Carpaccio +and the Bellini, seem never for a moment to have been tempted even to +lose sight of the scope of their art in its strictness, or to forget +that painting must be before all things decorative, a thing for the +eye, a space of color on the wall, only more dexterously blent than the +marking of its precious stone, or the chance interchange of sun and +shade upon it--this to begin and end with--whatever higher matter of +thought, or poetry, or religious reverie, might play its part therein, +between.” + +During the Fifteenth Century Venice began to be influenced by painters +from other cities, particularly by Gentile da Fabriano (see page 74) +and Pisanello (see page 99), who were sent for to decorate the Doge’s +Palace. Gentile da Fabriano represented all the latest “modernistic” +ideas of his day. Among the Venetians who were most profoundly +influenced by him was Jacopo Bellini (who later went to Padua). +Jacopo, in spite of his contact with Squarcione and Andrea Mantegna +(who married his daughter), remained “Gothic” in essentials. Jacopo +Bellini had one of the largest _bottegas_ in Venice; and this +_bottega_ was continued by his gifted sons, Giovanni and Gentile. + +Jacopo was a talented painter who had worked in Florence as well as +Padua, but who really belongs to Venice. + +The great rivals of the Bellini painters were the Vivarini on the +Island of Murano. The Vivarini, the first of whom was Antonio da +Murano (active 1440–1476 or 1484), who played a great part in the +development of the Venetian School and whose work consisted of enormous +altar-pieces of many compartments set in Gothic framework of very +ornate character and profusely adorned with gold; Bartolommeo Vivarini, +Antonio’s younger brother (1431?–1499?), in whose work the influence of +the Paduan School of Squarcione is marked and also that of Antonello +da Messina; and Antonio’s son, Alvise Vivarini (1447–1504), a pupil of +his father and uncle, who was working in 1474 with Giovanni Bellini +in the Scuola di San Girolamo in Venice and whose portraits show the +influence of Antonello da Messina. + +Carlo Crivelli (1430?–1493?), if not a Venetian by birth, which is most +probable, is classed as belonging to the Venetian School. Crivelli +was a fellow-pupil of Bartolommeo Vivarini under Antonio da Murano +(Vivarini), and Squarcione. Like Mantegna, Crivelli kept to tempera +painting; Crivelli stands alone for his wonderful decorative qualities +(see page 125 and page 128). + +Antonello da Messina (1430–1479) was a contemporary of Crivelli and +is particularly distinguished for introducing into Italy the Flemish +system of painting with oils. In his pictures the influence of the +Bellini is apparent (see page 124). + +Giovanni Bellini (1428–30–1516), one of the greatest painters of the +Fifteenth Century, was trained by his father, Jacopo Bellini. Next +he followed in the footsteps of Squarcione and Andrea Mantegna; but +he changed his style, as well as his technique, gradually abandoning +tempera for the new practice in oils, which he was one of the first to +master. In some respects Giovanni Bellini was influenced by his own +pupil, Giorgione (see page 118). Gentile Bellini (1426–9–1507), was +named, it is interesting to note, for Gentile da Fabriano, his father’s +master and friend. Gentile, trained by his father, Jacopo, was called +upon to paint the organ-shutters at St. Mark’s with colossal figures +of St. Mark, St. Theodore, St. Jerome, and St. Francis; was knighted +by Frederic III in 1469; and was employed to restore the frescoes of +Gentile da Fabriano in the Hall of the Grand Council in the Doge’s +Palace, a commission which carried with it the honor of painting the +portrait of every new Doge. Sent for by the Sultan of Constantinople, +Mohammed II, to paint his portrait, Gentile sailed for Constantinople +in 1479 and returned in 1480 with the title of Bey. Gentile then joined +his brother, Giovanni, who was working on the Fabriano frescoes. The +Bellini brothers also painted on canvas a series of pictures portraying +the legend of Frederic Barbarossa and Pope Alexander III, which +perished in the fire of 1577. Gentile’s _Procession of Corpus Christi +of 1496_ has been pronounced “the most important extant work of the +Venetian School previous to the advent of Titian.” + +The _bottegas_ of the Bellini and Vivarini naturally produced +a host of able painters, among whom were Marco Basaiti (active +1500–1521); Lazzaro Bastiani (active 1449–1512); Cima da Conegliano +(1460?–1517?); and Jacopo Bassano (1510?–1592). Vittore Carpaccio +(1450?–1526?), was a follower of Gentile Bellini; and the stories +he told in paint, such as the series depicting the _Life of Saint +Ursula_, belong to the great works of Venice. + +Giorgione (1477–1510) is the next important name. Little or nothing +is known of his life, except that he was born of humble parents at +Castelfranco. By 1500 his reputation was established, for he was then +painting important works. Among these was a picture for the Hall of +Audience in the Doge’s Palace and some fresco decorations for the +exterior of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, the bank of the German merchants +in Venice. Giorgione was a pupil and follower of the Bellini and had +much influence upon Giovanni Bellini. Giorgione died of the Plague in +his thirty-fourth year. Giorgione stands alone for his romantic and +lyrical qualities and for his penetrating charm. He is notable, too, +for having introduced music into his pictures, or rather persons who +are playing upon instruments. + +Apart from his delightful qualities Giorgione is of the greatest +importance in the evolution of painting. Walter Pater writes: +“Giorgione is the inventor of _genre_, of those easily movable +pictures which serve for uses, neither of devotion nor of allegorical, +or historical teaching--little groups of real men and women, +amid congruous furniture or landscape--morsels of actual life, +conversation, or music, or play, refined upon or idealized, till they +come to seem like glimpses of life from afar. Those spaces of more +cunningly blent color, obediently filling their place, hitherto, in +a mere architectural scheme, Giorgione detaches from the wall; he +frames them by the hands of some skillful carver, so that people may +move them readily and take with them where they go, like a poem in +manuscript, or a musical instrument, to be used, at will, as a means of +self-education, stimulus or solace, coming like an animated presence, +into one’s cabinet, to enrich the air as with some choice aroma, and, +like persons, live with us, for a day or a lifetime. Of all art like +this, art which has played so large a part in men’s culture since that +time, Giorgione is the initiator.” + +Titian, or rather Tiziano Vecello (1477?–1576), fellow-pupil of +Giorgione, of Gentile and Giovanni Bellini and assistant to Giorgione +in decorating the Fondaco dei Tedeschi (which established a new era in +Italian painting), was the leading painter of his day (see page 140). + +Bartolommeo Veneto, of Veneziano (1480–1555), pupil of Giovanni +Bellini, became a famous portrait-painter. (See page 148.) + +Tintoretto, the magnificent Venetian, was nicknamed “Il Furioso,” +because of his great technical powers that include astonishing display +of foreshortening and many curious effects in light and color, as +well as in form. Ruskin says Tintoretto (or Tintoret, call him as you +please) made “figures lovely in themselves, content that they should +_deserve_ not _demand_, your attention.” + +Playing with a full orchestra of color and understanding how to produce +the most luminous effects of light, the great Venetian filled Venice +with marvellous pictures. Tintoretto was equal to the immense work he +undertook and his noble brush never left anything that was unworthy of +it. Tintoretto, whose real name was Jacopo Robusti (1518–1594), was +apprenticed to Titian and was influenced by Titian, Palma Vecchio, +Michelangelo, and Parmigiano (of the School of Palma and follower of +Correggio). + +“There is one only--the last and greatest of the Venetians of the +Renaissance--who could sound all the notes of tragedy and pathos +as well as notes of joy. Tintoretto, the supreme Venetian, the +greatest exponent of the essential spirit of Venice, is the son of a +wider kingdom than hers and of a greater age than the Renaissance. +Unsurpassed as a designer and colorist, he is endowed throughout with +the peculiar gifts of Venice; but during those years of passionate +study, in which he was winning here and there the secrets of his +art, hungry for knowledge, careless of gain, and bargaining only for +material in which to realize his conceptions,--during those years in +which he lived alone in continual meditation on some fresh labor, he +was probing the deep and passionate things of humanity as no Venetian +artist had ever probed them before. The streets and churches of the +city seem to echo still to the steps of this genius at once so robust, +so tender, so profound, and so joyous.”[15] + +Paolo Veronese, or rather Paolo Caliari (1528–1588), a native of +Verona, whence his name, is one of the most delightful of painters. +J. Buisson considers Veronese of all the painters of Italy “the one +whose work best serves to particularize the art of painting” and this +able French critic goes on to say that “Veronese painted the Venetian +Beautiful as the Greeks sculptured the Hellenic Beautiful” and that +“Paul Veronese is of all the colorists, without a single exception, the +one who has most unity. He is the most ethereal of the colorists. He is +the painter of the air, both out-of-doors and in-doors. His values are +impeccable and his shadows are at once transparent and full of color, +without any artifice, such as Rubens’s exaggerated reflections, or the +excessive sacrifices, which in Rembrandt are almost equivalent to a +monotone in those parts that are lacking in light. His lights are broad +and steady although modelled without any gleams, but of so shining a +quality that they are positively radiant. Happy artist! He had the eye +of the most perfect colorist ever known, able to perceive at the same +time the different qualities of light and color and their variations +in intensity and values and he possessed the gift to reveal them with +marvellous art to ordinary mortals. Optics applied to his pictures show +no law that he did not know and practice. Moreover, around his perfect +visions of color are grouped other qualities, such as imagination, +taste, rhythm, elegance, nobility, and magnificence in decoration. His +hand is the equal of his eye. The rapidity of his brush may be compared +only to that of Velasquez and to that of Rubens.” + +This great period, Taine sums up as follows: + +“The more we consider the ideal figures of Venetian Art, the more we +feel the breath of an heroic age behind us. Those great, toga-draped, +old men with the bald foreheads are the Patrician Kings of the +Archipelago, Moorish Sultans, who, trailing their silken _simars_, +received tribute and ordered executions. The superb women in sweeping +robes, bedizened and jewelled, are Empress-daughters of the Republic, +like that Caterina Cornaro from whom Venice received Cyprus. There +are the muscles of fighters in the bronzed breasts of the sailors +and captains; their bodies, reddened by the sun and the wind, have +dashed against the athletic bodies of Janizaries; their turbans, their +_pelisses_, their furs, their sword-hilts constellated with +precious stones--all the magnificence of Asia is mingled on their +bodies with the floating draperies of Classic times and the nudities of +Pagan tradition.” + +Sebastian del Piombo (1485?–1547), pupil of Giovanni Bellini and +Giorgione, preferred oil to fresco and this led to a famous quarrel +between him and Michelangelo. Palma Vecchio (1480–1528), standing +first in the second rank of Bellini-Giorgione followers, is another +important painter. Lorenzo Lotto (1480–1556), pupil of Alvise Vivarini, +painted with Raphael in the Vatican in 1508–9 and naturally fell under +Raphael’s spell. Lotto spent much time in Bergamo; was touched by +Correggio’s spirit; and, after 1529, was affected by Titian. + +Paris Bordone (1500–1571), a gorgeous colorist, pupil and follower +of Giorgione and Titian (and slightly touched by Palma Vecchio), +was famous for his portraits, mythological pictures, and for that +masterpiece entitled _The Fisherman Presenting the Ring of St. Mark +to the Doge_ (now in the Accademia at Venice). + +“These Venetian artists of the Renaissance,” says d’Annunzio, “create +in a medium that is itself a joyous mystery--in color, the ornament +of the world, in color which seems to be the striving of the spirit +to become light. And the entirely new _musical understanding they +have of color_ acts in such a way that their creation transcends +the narrow limits of the symbols it represents and assumes the lofty, +revealing faculty of an infinite harmony.” + +To the Eighteenth Century belongs Giovanni Battista Tiepolo +(1696–1769), famous as a designer and colorist, influenced by Veronese, +and a decorator of palaces and villas in Venice, Genoa, Milan, +Würzburg, and Madrid, where he died. Tiepolo married Guardi’s sister in +1715. + +Canaletto, or Giovanni Antonio da Canale (1697–1768), son of Bernardo +da Canale, a scene-painter, is famous for his views of Venice and for +being the teacher of Guardi. + +Francesco Guardi (1712–1793), a native Venetian, but of Austrian +stock, a follower of his master Canaletto, was also celebrated for his +Venetian views (see page 153). + +“Venice herself” writes Berenson, “had not grown less beautiful in her +decline. Indeed, the building which occupies the very centre of the +picture Venice leaves in the mind--the Salute--was not built until the +Seventeenth Century. This was the picture that the Venetian himself +loved to have painted for him and that the stranger wanted to carry +away. Canale painted Venice with a feeling for space and atmosphere, +with a mastery over the delicate effects of mist peculiar to the city, +that make his view of the Salute, the Grand Canal, and the Piazzetta +still seem more like Venice than all the pictures that have been +painted since. Later in the century Canale was followed by Guardi, who +executed smaller views with more of an eye for the picturesque, and for +what may be called instantaneous effects, thus anticipating both the +Romantic and the Impressionist painters of our own century.” + +To the Eighteenth Century also belongs Pietro Longhi (1702–1785?), +influenced by Guardi, but called “The Goldini of painters,” because +of his bright comedies of manners, somewhat in the _genre_ of +Watteau, Pater, and Lancret. + +“Longhi painted for the picture-loving Venetians,” says Berenson, +“their own lives in all their ordinary domestic and fashionable phases. +In the hair-dressing scenes we hear the gossip of the periwigged +barber; in the dressmaking scenes the chatter of the maid; in the +dancing-school, the pleasant music of the violin. There is no tragic +note anywhere. Everybody dresses, dances, makes bows, takes coffee, +as if there were nothing else in the world that wanted doing. A tone +of high courtesy, of great refinement, coupled with an all-pervading +cheerfulness, distinguishes Longhi’s pictures from the works of +Hogarth, at once so brutal and so full of presage of change.” + + + MADONNA AND CHILD. + + _Antonello da Messina_ + (_1430–1479_). + + _Collection of + Mr. Clarence H. Mackay._ + +The Virgin, slightly under life-size, stands behind a stone parapet, +three-quarter face to left, apparently in a reverie with half-closed +eyelids. She wears a red and gold brocade gown and a blue mantle +carried up over her head and falling in a straight line, but for +one small plait, to her left arm. The Holy Child is seated upon a +green cushion on the parapet and is wrapped in a brick-red shawl. +With His left arm around His mother’s neck and right hand in her +bosom, He gazes straight ahead. The flesh-tones are pale with clear, +light-brown shadows and the rose-leaf lips and cylindrical fingers with +filbert-shaped nails are to be noticed and admired. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Clarence H. Mackay_ + + MADONNA AND CHILD + + --_Antonello da Messina_] + +This oil painting on panel (23 × 16 inches), comes from the Benson +Collection. Antonello da Messina, also known as Antonello di Giovanni +degli Antoni, holds a very important place in the development of +Painting, because _it is owing to him that the Flemish system of +painting in oil was adopted in Italy_, although Italian painters had +been previously acquainted with the process, for they knew the works of +the Van Eycks and Roger van der Weyden. It is supposed that Antonello, +who was born in Messina in 1430, visited Flanders. It is certain, +however, that Antonello was travelling in Italy in 1457–1460 and he may +have met Roger van der Weyden, who visited Italy in 1450. Antonello da +Messina was certainly in Venice in 1475–1476. He died in 1479, leaving +a son, Jacobello, or Jacopo degli Antoni, and a nephew, Antonello di +Saliba, both of whom were painters. It seems that Antonello da Messina +and the Bellini exchanged many ideas and were of great mutual benefit. +It is supposed that Antonello da Messina encouraged Giovanni Bellini to +try painting in oils. _St. Jerome in his Study_ in the National +Gallery, London, shows the new character that Antonello brought into +the Italian painting of his day. + + + MADONNA AND CHILD. + + _Carlo Crivelli_ + (_1430?–1493?_). + + _Collection of + Mr. A. W. Erickson._ + +Before analysing this delightful picture, let us read an appreciation +of a most fascinating and not too well-understood painter by Cosmo +Monkhouse: “Carlo Crivelli is a Venetian artist of whom we know +little but what can be gathered from pictures. He is supposed to have +been born about 1430 and his dated works range from 1468 to 1493. He +was a Venetian by birth and from his mode it would appear certain +that he studied under Squarcione at Padua and probably also under +Vivarini at Venice. But he perfected a style and one marked by so many +peculiarities that despite all affinities which may be traced with +other masters he stands out clear and distinct by himself. + +“In the first place, he is unique as a colorist. He belongs, indeed, +to the old mosaic and illumination school of color, not to the school +of ‘great schemes,’ in which the masses are blent into one great +harmony. The masses, or patches, of color are isolated and produce a +pleasant variegation without fusion. His color is thin, also, as of a +superficial tinting, not affecting the substance. His flesh is hard +and opaque, his flowers leathery, his fruit, though finely drawn and +beautifully colored, of a stony texture, his draperies anything but +soft. It is only in hard smooth things, like pottery and glass, that +you get the true consistency as well as the true color. Yet his color +is exquisite of its kind, brilliant and transparent like enamel, and +the different tints in themselves are lovely and varied. Such reds and +greens and lilacs and salmon-pinks and a hundred other combinations +of the primaries are scarcely to be matched in the work of any other +artist. Nor has anyone been more skillful in the use of gold in +connection with color. + +“There is scarcely any need to call attention to Crivelli’s special +gift as a designer of decoration. Almost every square inch of his +canvas attests the inexhaustible richness of his invention--an +invention fed no doubt from the rich products of Oriental looms of +which Venice was the emporium. + +“Crivelli wrought only for the Church and appears to have spent +most of his life at Ascoli, but neither restriction of subject and +feeling, nor provincial residence, could fetter his genius. There is, +indeed, no artist of more striking individuality than Carlo Crivelli, +no one who had more complete mastery over his means of expression, or +attained more nearly to his ideal. This ideal was not the ‘_beau +ideal_’--that is to say, the perfection of physical beauty--it was +an ideal of character, the embodiment of the essential qualities of +his subject. One cannot help regarding Crivelli as a man of knowledge +and intellect, of charming manners, refined almost to fastidiousness, +delighting in all things dainty and beautiful, a lover of animals and +of his kind.” + +This picture, an oil painting on panel (38 × 17 inches), came from the +Benson Collection, having been previously in the Collection of Mr. G. +H. Marland (sold in 1863), and in the Collection of Mr. William Graham +(sold in 1886). The Virgin, a small full-length figure, is seated on a +red and white marble throne, wearing a pale-red robe and a gold brocade +mantle lined with green carried up over the head, which is adorned +with a white veil. The Holy Child, standing on her lap, has on a gold +dress and a white sash. Behind these two figures there is a hanging +of pale-red, watered silk and behind the throne again there is a gold +hanging with the pomegranate pattern. The Holy Child turns to the +right in the act of blessing. On the step of the throne, which has a +conspicuous crack, two pears[16] are lying; and they have attracted a +fly. The step is inscribed: “Carolvs Crivellvs Venetvs Pinsit, 1472.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. A. W. Erickson_ + + MADONNA AND CHILD + + --_Crivelli_] + +“The effect is archaic and almost Byzantine,” G. McNeil Rushforth +writes in his _Carlo Crivelli_ (London, 1900), “but its merits +are very great.” “Though on a comparatively small scale the decorative +effect is superb. The Child’s head is heavy and inferior to that of +the Virgin, but the action is lively and realistic. The great charm, +however, of the picture is the Virgin. Her features are not beautiful +and the drawing of the hands might be criticized. But if ever grace +and dignity were conceived and executed by Crivelli, they are here. +Preëminently does this Virgin possess all that we understand by +distinction. Taken separately, the turn of the head and the action of +the fingers might be called affected. But they do not offend as parts +of the whole, so perfectly has the artist defined the ideal that was +before his mind. A curious feature in the picture is the treatment of +the drapery. The folds of the brocaded mantle are more elaborate than +anything which Crivelli had yet attempted, and they are expressed by +clear-cut lines without any shadow.” + + + MADONNA AND CHILD. + + _Carlo Crivelli + (1430?–1493?)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Philip Lehman._ + +This beautiful picture belongs to Crivelli’s greatest period, when +the artist had reached the height of his powers, had attained perfect +command of the problems of composition, and had gained the technique to +represent those materials he delighted in,--such as brocades, marbles, +and garlands of fruit, which he always combined with such decorative +beauty. Roger Fry says of this picture: “It has, in a supreme degree, +the delicacy and the almost metallic incisiveness of Crivelli’s contour +as well as the firmness and brilliance of his painting. The Madonna +supporting the Child upon her right arm, is seated in one of those +sumptuous Renaissance thrones, which Crivelli loved to elaborate with +every conceivable ingenuity of invention. Though the forms are intended +to be Classic, it is evident from the proportions of the mouldings +and something in the character of the detail that Crivelli is still +essentially an old Venetian artist, one who uses Classical conventions +with a Gothic exuberance. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Philip Lehman_ + + MADONNA AND CHILD + + --_Crivelli_] + +“This is a work of Crivelli’s prime. Indeed, it would be hard to +name another design in which he shows quite such mastery as he does +here. There is hardly another work in which the sequence of lines +is so suave, its flow so uninterrupted, or in which the movements +of the figures harmonize so perfectly. It is already almost a +_cinque-cento_ work as regards the amplitude of its forms and the +breadth of its divisions. One notes, for instance, that the fruits +hanging on the throne are even more enlarged and more massed than +usual, so that the quantities of relief support and carry out the +relief of the figures in a remarkable manner. Much of the earlier +intensity of feeling has undoubtedly gone. This has none of the +strange, brooding pathos of the early Madonnas, nor has it the sharp +individual accent of their faces. The works with which it appears to be +most akin are the Vatican _Madonna_ and the Triptych in the Brera, +both of 1482.” + + + THE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ST. LUCY, ST. CATHERINE, + ST. PETER AND ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. + + _Giovanni Bellini + (1428–30–1516)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Jules S. Bache._ + +This is the type of group picture known as a “Holy Conversation” and +represents the Virgin and Child with Saints. It seems to have been +painted when Bellini was between seventy-two and seventy-seven years of +age and between the years 1500 and 1505. + +The figures are three-quarter length and under life-size and the +picture, which is an oil painting on canvas, measures 38 × 60 inches. +The Virgin is seated in the centre with a dark-grey curtain behind +her and a marble balustrade in front of her. She wears a rose-colored +tunic and a blue mantle lined with a changeable green and yellow silk. +The Holy Child leans back against her right arm. On her right stands +St. Catherine with a rope of pearls twisted in her hair and St. Lucy, +on her left, wearing a myrtle wreath and holding a tall standing-cup +of Venetian glass. St. John the Baptist, wearing a green mantle, +stands on the right, looking downward with bended head; and St. +Peter, in orange-brown cloak with book and key, stands on the left. +A very decorative effect is derived from the palm-branches, which +curve upwards into the top corners of the picture. A range of distant +hills appears in the background and on the _cartellino_ on the +balustrade is the signature in script, “Ioannes Bellinus.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Jules S. Bache_ + + THE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ST. LUCY, ST. CATHERINE, ST. PETER + AND ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST + + --_Giovanni Bellini_] + +Authority for dating the picture is derived from the fact that the +features of St. Lucy reappear in the San Zaccaria altar-piece, which +is dated 1505, and the features of St. John the Baptist occur in the +_Baptism of Christ_ in Santa Corona, Vicenza, supposed to have +been begun in 1500. + +The picture came from the Benson Collection, having been formerly in +the Wynn Ellis Collection and in the Collection of Mr. William Graham. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas F. Brady_ + + THE VIRGIN AND CHILD + + --_Giovanni Bellini_] + +The date of Giovanni Bellini’s birth is not known. He was working with +his brother, Gentile, in his father’s studio in Padua and was painting +in Venice in 1464, where he produced two pictures for the Scuola di San +Girolamo. In 1475 he met Antonello da Messina, who came to Venice, and +seems to have adopted then his method of painting in oil. In 1479, when +Gentile Bellini went to Constantinople, Giovanni was appointed to carry +on his work in the Doge’s Palace; and when Gentile returned the two +brothers worked together. Giovanni was essentially a religious painter +and his Madonnas stand among the finest ever created. Most of his +portraits are lost; but one, the _Doge Loredano_ (in the National +Gallery, London), ranks as one of the finest of all known portraits. +This dates from 1501, painted when Giovanni was over eighty! Giovanni +died in 1516. + + + THE VIRGIN AND CHILD. + + _Giovanni Bellini + (1428–30–1516)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas F. Brady._ + +The Madonna at half-length turned towards the left, supports the Holy +Child with both arms as He reclines in her lap against her right knee, +which is raised. She is dressed in a blue mantle arranged to form a +hood, with embroidered border. A graceful white veil, also embroidered, +covers the head and falls below the neck. + +The Holy Child gazes upward into his mother’s face and she, with eyes +slightly veiled by drooping lids, looks tenderly downward towards him. +The background is hilly, with a castle on the left. The picture, oil on +a panel (28¾ × 23¾) is signed “Joannes Bellinus.” + +This Bellini Madonna comes from the Collection of the Grand Dukes +of Oldenburg, Oldenburg Castle, near Bremen, Germany, and was also +formerly in the Collection of Count Montija in Madrid. Much has been +written about Bellini’s Madonnas. They differ greatly from those +painted by the Florentines; and the following sympathetic note tells us +why: + +“If we turn to the religious art of Venice, we shall be struck by a +lack of anything like mystic rapture, or absorption in the sufferings +of Christ. We have but two examples in Venice of Bellini’s portrayal of +the facts of Christ’s mature life, but he has treated the theme of the +Madonna and Child with a unique profundity. The mystery of life seems +to be shadowed in the face of the Madonna; his saints and apostles, +so striking in their individuality, so virile in their piety, have a +significance beyond their perfect act of worship. No Venetian religious +painter before Tintoretto equalled Bellini in solemnity and depth +of conception; but in all we find the same pervading calm, the same +absence of tumult, or the disturbing elements of pain or agony.”[17] +Is it not the quietness of Bellini’s Madonnas that give them their +peculiar charm? + + + MADONNA AND CHILD. + + _Giovanni Bellini + (1428–30–1516)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Philip Lehman._ + +This picture came from the Collection of Prince Potenziani, of Rieti, +Italy, and represents the Virgin standing behind a parapet and +supporting the Holy Child who is standing upon it. Her mantle and tunic +are decorated with a border of embroidery and over the mantle falls +her heavy white veil which might be described as a hood, showing a +little of her wavy hair. The face of the Virgin is a perfect oval, her +eyes are set far apart, her nose is long and aquiline, and her mouth +a little discontented. Her arm and wrist are beautifully modelled +and so is the thumb of her right hand. This hand is noticeably wide. +The left hand does not seem to match the right; it is coarser. The +Holy Child is leaning against His mother’s left shoulder and looking +out of the picture. He wears a little tunic over a white shirt with +sleeves and a wide, blue sash with a striped pattern. A close-fitting +cap is tied with ribbons under His chin. His right hand is lifted in +blessing and His left is clasping the fingers of His mother’s right +hand. On the right of the parapet a crystal ball is lying and on the +left a capsicum-pod, and behind the Madonna’s head hangs a heavy swag +of capsicum. The landscape in the background is noticeably fine. On +the left, a road winds through trees to the gates of a city with high +Gothic towers; on the right, a river flows past hills crowned with +castles. Clouds fill the sky. The _nimbi_ are quite unusual. This +is evidently an early work and not a little of Mantegna’s influence is +apparent in it. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Philip Lehman_ + + MADONNA AND CHILD + + --_Giovanni Bellini_] + + + THE FEAST OF THE GODS. + +(IL BACCANALE.) + + _Giovanni Bellini + (1428–30–1516)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Joseph E. Widener._ + +“In the year 1514”--this is Vasari’s narrative--“Duke Alfonso +of Ferrara had caused a little chamber to be decorated and had +commissioned Dosso, the painter of Ferrara, to execute in certain +compartments stories of Æneas, Mars, and Venus and, in a grotto, Vulcan +with two smiths at the forge; and he desired that there should also be +there pictures by the hand of Gian Bellini. Bellini painted on another +wall a vat of red wine with some _Bacchanale_ around it and +Satyrs, musicians and other men and women all drunk with wine, and near +them a nude and very beautiful Silenus riding on his ass, with figures +about him that have their hands full of fruits and grapes; which work +was in truth executed and colored with great diligence, inasmuch +that it is one of the most beautiful pictures that Gian Bellini ever +painted, although in the manner of the draperies there is a certain +sharpness after the German manner (nothing, indeed, of any account) +because he imitated a picture by the Fleming,[18] Albrecht Dürer, which +had been brought in those days to Venice and placed in the Church of +S. Bartolommeo, a rare work and full of most beautiful figures painted +in oils. On that vat Gian Bellini wrote these words: ‘Joannes Bellinus +Venetus P. 1514.’ That work he was not able to finish completely, +because he was old, and Tiziano, as the most excellent of all the +others, was sent for to the end that he might finish it.” + +Titian’s work is to be found in the landscape-background,--which +is an exact view of Titian’s own Cadore. This landscape, with its +valley and rocky hill surmounted by a castle with towers, bathed in +warm, luminous light, was the finest that had ever been painted up to +that time. Bellini only lived two years after painting _The Feast +of the Gods_. In 1515 he painted the so-called _Venus of the +Belvedere_ and he died in the following year. + +“So easy is the passage from Bellini’s art to Titian’s, that the +transition creates no contrast. The tone throughout is harmonized, and +the art of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries meets and mingles in +perfect fellowship,” Crowe and Cavalcaselle note. + +This picture, an oil painting on canvas (67 × 74 inches) came from +the Collection of the Duke of Northumberland at Alnwick Castle, +England, having been previously in the Collection of Cardinal Pietro +Aldobrandini and in that of Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, Rome. + +These two villas, upon whose walls _The Feast of the Gods_ hung +for so many years, are very celebrated. The _Villa Aldobrandini_ +is one of the most notable residences near Rome. It is situated on the +slope of a mountain overlooking Frascati and was built by Cardinal +Pietro Aldobrandini, who entrusted its decoration to the most eminent +artists of his day, such as Jacopo della Porta, Domenichino, Giuseppe +Gesari, and Giovanni Fontana. Here, too, were gathered the most +precious relics of ancient art, while the gardens, adorned with vases, +statues, colonnades, and sparkling fountains, made the exterior a place +of marvellous beauty and charm. The view of mountains and sea suggested +the name of _Belvedere_. The Villa belongs to-day to the Borghese +family, who inherited it from the Aldobrandini. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Joseph E. Widener_ + + FEAST OF THE GODS + + --_Giovanni Bellini_] + +The _Villa Ludovisi_, frequently called the Piombino Palace, is +situated on the site of the ancient gardens of Sallust. This palace was +erected in 1622 by Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, nephew of Pope Gregory +XV, who selected Domenichino for his architect and the famous Le Nôtre +for his landscape-gardener. The property passed by inheritance to the +Princess of Piombino (Buonocampagni-Ludovisi). + +Art-lovers know the name in connection with the colossal and +magnificent head of the Juno Ludovisi (Fifth Century, B. C.); +and it will be remembered that the Juno Ludovisi and other antiques +from the Villa Ludovisi formed the Museo Buonocompagni. + + + THE VIRGIN AND CHILD. + + _Titian + (1477?–1576)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Jules S. Bache._ + +The Virgin, in profile, seated on a stone seat, has auburn +hair--“Titian hair”--which is relieved against a dark-green curtain. +Her robe is pale rose-color with slashes of white and her mantle of +cobalt blue like the landscape, “which resembles the sea at midday.” +She also wears a white veil. She is looking with great tenderness at +the Holy Child, lying at full length on her lap and smiling at her. + +The composition is most beautiful and the introduction of the trees +gives perpendicular lines which contrast delightfully with the general +horizontal effects. + +Lionel Cust calls it a picture of great charm, as indeed it is, and +says: “The Virgin leans tenderly over the Child lying upon her knees. +This composition is treated in the same manner as the picture at +Bergamo, the _Virgin and Child with St. Bridgit and St. Ulphus_, +in the Prado at Madrid, and a few others. In all of these works the +sentiment is that of Giorgione, even though the execution is of the +hand of Titian; and one could not think of attaching another name than +his to this picture and to that at Madrid. It will be noticed also that +the two tree-trunks, so much in evidence at the back of the picture, +constitute a _leit-motiv_, which Giorgione first employed and +which Titian imitated.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Jules S. Bache_ + + THE VIRGIN AND CHILD + + --_Titian_] + +Herbert F. Cook in his _Giorgione_ (London, 1907), gives this +painting to Giorgione, sustaining the claim by the following: “The +marble parapet is a feature in Giorgione’s work, but not in Titian’s. +But the most convincing evidence to those who know the master lies +in the composition, which forms an almost equilateral triangle, +revealing Giorgione’s supreme sense of beauty in line. The splendid +curves made by the drapery, the pose of the Child, so as to obtain +the same unbroken sweep of line, reveal the painter of the _Dresden +Venus_. The painting of the Child’s hand over the Madonna’s is +precisely as in the Madrid picture, where, moreover, the pose of +the Child is singularly alike. The folds of drapery on the sleeve +recur in the same picture, the landscape with the small figure seated +beneath the tree is such as can be found in any Giorgione background. +The oval of the face and the delicacy of the features are thoroughly +characteristic, as is the spirit of calm reverie and tender simplicity +which Giorgione has breathed into his figures.” + +Whether by Titian, or by Giorgione, or by both, the painting is a gem. +If by Giorgione, it would be even more valuable, as this master is so +rare. + +The painting, oil on panel (18 × 22 inches), came from the +Benson Collection and was formerly at Burghley House, Stamford, +Northamptonshire, having been acquired in Italy between 1690 and 1700 +by the Earl of Exeter. + +Tiziano Vecellio was born about 1477 at Pieve di Cadore, the son +of Gregorio Vecelli, and was taken to Venice at the age of ten and +apprenticed to a mosaic-worker. After this he studied in Giovanni +Bellini’s _bottega_, where he had for a fellow-pupil, Giorgione, +with whom he was associated in decorating the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. +Titian visited Padua, Rome, and, in 1516, Ferrara. Commissions of all +kinds followed rapidly and Titian became the most famous painter of +his time. He lived in splendid style and his long life was filled with +magnificent painting and magnificent results. Titian died of the Plague +in 1576. + +In his long life, crowned with every kind of success, Titian painted +with superlative skill every sort of subject. Titian was one of the +greatest masters the world has ever known. + +“In attempting to picture Titian,” writes Taine, “we imagine a happy +man, the happiest and the healthiest of his species, Heaven having +bestowed upon him nothing but favors and felicities: the first among +his rivals; visited in his house by the Kings of France and Poland; +a favorite of the Emperor, of Philip II, of the Doges, of Pope Paul +III, of all the Italian princes; created a knight and a count of +the Empire; overwhelmed with orders; liberally paid, pensioned, and +worthily enjoying his good fortune. He kept house in great state, +dressed himself splendidly, and entertained at his table cardinals, +lords, the greatest artists and the ablest writers of his day. Beauty, +taste, cultivation, and talent play and reflect back upon him, as if +from a mirror the brightness of his own genius. His brother, his son, +Orazio, his two cousins, Cesare and Fabrizio, and his relative, Marco +di Tiziano, were all excellent painters. His daughter, Lavinia, dressed +as Flora, with a basket of fruit on her head, supplied him with a model +of fresh complexion and ample form. His talent flows on like a great +river in its bed, nothing disturbs its course, and its own increase is +sufficient. Like Leonardo and Michelangelo, Titian sees nothing outside +of his art.” + + + CATERINA CORNARO, QUEEN OF CYPRUS. + + _Titian + (1477–1576)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. John Ringling._ + +Proud and handsome this famous Queen and beauty looks down upon us +from the centuries. She is wearing a dress of gold and green striped +velvet with a pink camelia at her neck and one of those fashionable, +tall, sugar-loaf head-dresses--called in France the _hennin_--with +jewelled band around the rim and a floating veil. Very beautifully are +her pearls painted; and, fastened by a chain to a bracelet on her left +wrist, is a pet chameleon. + +This portrait, oils on canvas (43 × 38 inches), came from the Ricardi +Palace, Florence, and from the Collection of R. S. Holford, Esq., +Dorchester House. + +Caterina Cornaro, “_La Reine de Chypre_,” famous in song and story, +was the daughter of Marco Cornaro, a noble Venetian and descendant of +the Doge of the same name, and Florence, daughter of Niccolò Crispo, +Duca dell’ Archipelago. Caterina was born in Venice in 1454, educated +at the Convent of San Benedetto in Padua, and reared in all the wealth +and elegance of the time. At an early age she was married to the King +of Cyprus, Jerusalem, and Armenia (Jacques de Lusignan), who chose +her from sixty-two of the most beautiful women of Venice. The Senate, +having adopted Caterina Cornaro as a daughter of the Republic, gave her +a dowry of a hundred thousand golden ducats and agreed to defend the +Kingdom of Cyprus against all enemies. + +The wedding took place by proxy in Venice in 1472 and was celebrated +with great magnificence. The Doge, himself, Cristoforo Moro, called +for the bride at her palace in the Bucentaur and accompanied her to +the Venetian ship in which she embarked with a regal suite for her +new home. After experiencing several accidents at sea, the beautiful +Venetian lady arrived in Cyprus, where her rare beauty and charming +manners captivated the entire population. Within two years her husband +died and Caterina then reigned over Cyprus for fourteen years, subject, +however, to the strict surveillance of Venice. At last, wearied by +restrictions and intrigues, the Queen of Cyprus in 1489 returned to +Venice with her beloved brother, Giorgio Cornaro, and made a solemn +transfer of all her claims in Cyprus to the Doge. + +Caterina then went to Frattalonga, situated at the foot of the Asolani +mountains, to meet the Emperor Maximilian, who was on his way home from +Milan to Vienna; and the place pleased her so much that she obtained +from the Doge, Agostino Barbarigo, the investiture of Asolo and its +district. A few months later--in October 1489--Caterina returned to +Asolo with a suite of four thousand persons and established a Court in +the Castle, where she lived for twenty-one years, protected by troops +granted to her by the Republic of Venice. In this beautiful residence +Caterina was said to have held three Courts--that of the Muses; that +of Love; and that of her own, which was of great magnificence. The +leading spirit there was the celebrated poet, Pietro Bembo, (in later +years Cardinal Bembo), who wrote his famous dialogues of love, _Gli +Asolani_, here in 1490, for the superb marriage festivities of one +of Caterina’s maids-of-honor. Every illustrious personage of the period +visited the Court at Asolo. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. John Ringling_ + + CATERINA CORNARO + + QUEEN OF CYPRUS + + --_Titian_] + +During the wars occasioned by the League of Cambrai (1508), Caterina +returned for safety to Venice and died there in 1510, in the palace of +her brother, Giorgio, who was then procurator of St. Mark’s. + +Titian painted several other portraits of Caterina Cornaro, of which +the one in the Uffizi is the most famous, representing the Queen +of Cyprus with her golden crown studded with large pearls and an +over-dress or coat of rich green brocade. + + + GIORGIO CORNARO WITH FALCON. + + _Titian + (1489–1576)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. A. W. Erickson._ + +We have here a famous Venetian statesman and general of the Sixteenth +Century, beloved brother of Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus (see page +143), representing him probably in the habit he liked best of all--that +of a sportsman with his pet falcon. Here he stands, three quarters to +the right, in a slate-colored hunting coat with brown fur collar and +with a black belt at the waist from which hangs a sword, bound with a +crimson sash. His curly hair and beard are chestnut color and his eyes +are very bright. His head is raised and he looks intently at his falcon +perched upon his left gloved hand, with hood, bill and jacket attached, +and with his right hand grasps the bird’s breast. + +From the left hand corner the head of a white, liver-spotted hound +looks up. The background is dark. The painting, an oil on canvas (43 +× 38 inches) was formerly in the Collections of the Carignan branch +of the Royal House of Piedmont; Louis François de Bourbon, Prince de +Conti; the Earl of Carlisle, Castle Howard, Yorkshire, England; and Dr. +Edward Simon, Berlin. Crowe and Cavalcaselle in their _Life and Times +of Titian_ (London, 1881) say of this work: “Titian never produced a +finer picture than which now adorns the gallery of Castle Howard. This +beautiful work is modelled with all the richness of tone and smoothness +of surface which distinguishes polished flesh. The attitude is natural, +the complexion warm and embrowned by the sun; and every part is blended +with the utmost finish without producing want of flexibility.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. A. W. Erickson_ + + GIORGIO CORNARO WITH FALCON + + --_Titian_] + +Giorgio Cornaro succeeded his father, Marco Cornaro in 1479, he being +about twenty-five. Italian historians are fond of attributing the +Victory of Cadore to Giorgio Cornaro, who lived until 1527, having +played an important part all his life in Venetian politics. + + + MAXIMILIAN SFORZA, DUKE OF MILAN. + + _Bartolommeo Veneto + (1480–1555)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Henry Goldman._ + +This portrait, oil on panel (30⅞ × 23¼ inches), was formerly in the +Palazzo Sforza and later hung in the Casa Perego, Milan, until the +entire Casa Perego Collection was bought in the early Nineteenth +Century by Senator Crespi of Rome, in whose gallery it remained until +the Crespi Collection was sold. It is doubly interesting as a work of +art and as the representation of an important character in Italian +history. Bernhard Berenson calls it “one of the most manly portraits +and one of the most beautiful paintings of the Italian Renaissance.” + +The half-length figure is seen almost full front, but the head is +turned slightly to the left. All the Italian Renaissance seems to be +expressed in this proud, distinguished person and in his rich dress, +which consists of a coat of green velvet trimmed with bands of gold, +a finely embroidered white shirt, black waistcoat with horizontal +gold stripes and a rich fur collar, which he clasps with his right +hand on the index finger of which is a handsome ring. His dark hair +falls to the shoulders and is surmounted by a black velvet cap, on the +side of which is a gold and enamelled medal showing an allegorical +female figure with the date 1512, of the kind that all the fashionable +gentlemen were wearing at that period. A red curtain falls behind the +figure and on the wall hangs a picture in which are introduced figures +from Dürer’s famous woodcut, _The Knight and the Lansquenet_. +In front of the sitter is a narrow ledge, or balustrade, with a card +in the centre, which originally carried the signature of Bartolommeo +Veneto. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Henry Goldman_ + + MAXIMILIAN SFORZA + + --_Bartolommeo Veneto_] + +Maximilian Sforza was the son of Ludovico Sforza, “Il Moro,” Duke of +Milan, the most illustrious prince of Italy, and Beatrice d’Este, one +of the most fascinating and brilliant women of the Italian Renaissance. +Maximilian was born on January 25, 1493, in the Castello of Milan, and +was named Ercole out of compliment to his grandfather, Duke Ercole of +Ferrara. He was brought up in the most brilliant of Courts and his +education and training were of the very best. His mother was devoted +to him and constantly mentions him in her letters. Ercole appears in +the great altar-piece attributed to Zenale, now in the Brera, kneeling +by the side of his father. The portrait of this little child must be a +good one, for we see the same face grown older in the Veneto portrait +before us. On the altar-piece, just mentioned, Ercole’s younger +brother kneels by the side of Beatrice d’Este. It was during a visit +of the Emperor Maximilian to Ludovico and his wife in 1496 that Ercole +received his new name. The Emperor, again charmed by Beatrice, took +great interest in her two sons and requested that the elder should be +called Maximilian. + +But the brilliant days passed and sorrows came. The beautiful, gifted +mother died in January, 1497, and the French invaded Milan. Ludovico +determined to seek safety in flight and sent his two sons to Germany +under the care of his brother, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, Cardinal +Sanseverino, and their kinswoman, Camilla Sforza. “A truly piteous and +heart-breaking sight it was,” wrote an eye-witness, “to see these poor +children embrace their beloved father, whose face was wet with their +tears.” Twenty mules laden with baggage and a large chariot drawn by +eight horses and containing Ludovico’s precious jewels and 240,000 +gold ducats followed in the train of the young princes. These young +gentlemen never saw their father again, for “Il Moro” was captured, +taken to Paris, and imprisoned in the castle of Loches, where he died +in 1508. + +An Italian writer, Marino Sanuto, exclaimed on the terrible fate of +Ludovico: “Only think, reader, what grief and shame so great and +glorious a lord, who had been held to be the wisest of monarchs and +ablest of rulers, must have felt at losing so splendid a state in these +few days, without a single stroke of the sword. Let those who are in +high places take warning, considering the miserable fall of this lord, +who was held by many to be the greatest prince in the world, and let +them remember that when Fortune sets you on the top of her wheel, she +may at any moment bring you to the ground.” + +The rest of the story is well told in Mrs. Cartwright’s _Beatrice +d’Este_ (London, 1889): + +“Meanwhile Beatrice’s sons grew up at Innsbrück, under the care of +their cousin, the Empress Bianca. It was a melancholy life for these +young princes, born in the purple and reared in all the luxury and +culture of Milan. And when their cousin, Bianca, died in 1510, they +lost their best friend. But a sudden and unexpected turn of the tide +brought them once more to the front. That warlike pontiff, Julius II, +who, as Cardinal della Rovere, had been one of the chief instruments in +bringing the French into Italy, entered into a league with Maximilian +to expel them and reinstate the son of the hated Moro on the throne of +Milan. They succeeded so well that in 1512, four years after Ludovico’s +death at Loches, young Maximilian Sforza entered Milan in triumph +amidst the enthusiastic applause of the people. Once more he rode +up to the gates of the Castello, where he was born, and took up his +abode there as reigning duke. But his rule over Lombardy was short. +A handsome, gentle youth, without either his father’s talents or his +mother’s high spirit, Maximilian was destined to become a passive +tool in the hands of stronger and more powerful men. His weakness and +incapacity soon became apparent, and when, three years later, the new +French King, Francis I, invaded the Milanese and defeated the Italian +army at Marignano, the young duke signed an act of abdication and +consented to spend the rest of his life in France. There he lived in +honorable captivity, content with a pension allowed him by King Francis +and with the promise of a Cardinal’s hat held out to him by the Pope, +until he died in May, 1530.” + +Bartolommeo Veneto (or Bartolommeo Veneziano), born in 1480, was a +pupil of Giovanni Bellini, whose influence is apparent in Veneto’s +early pictures. In 1506–1508 Veneto was painting for Lucrezia Borgia in +Ferrara and after that he was engaged at the Court of Milan, where he +painted this portrait of _Maximilian Sforza_. The picture bears +the date 1512, which was the year the young Duke returned to Milan. + +Bartolommeo Veneto was famous for his portraits. He lived for sometime +in Lombardy and, like all the painters of the time and place, fell +under the influence of Leonardo da Vinci. As the last trace of him +appears on a portrait in the Uffizi, dated 1555, it is supposed that +Veneto died in that year. + + + A SCENE ALONG THE ADRIATIC COAST. + + _Francesco Guardi + (1712–1793)._ + + _Collection of + Mrs. Charles B. Alexander._ + +Guardi, a pupil of Canaletto, devoted himself to the study of his +native city, Venice, where he was born in 1712 and where he painted +steadily until his death in 1793. Guardi ranks with Canaletto and +Turner as one of the three greatest painters of the “Dream City” as +Charles Dickens called Venice. In Guardi’s long list of pictures we +have a perfect history in paint of the “Queen of the Adriatic” during +the Eighteenth Century. There are innumerable views of the Grand Canal; +of both the exterior and the interior of San Marco; of San Giorgio, the +Salute, San Zaccaria, and other churches; of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi +(the German banking-house); the Doges Palace; the Piazza and the +Piazzetta; scenes on the outlying islands; views on the Lagoons; and +pictures of processions of the Doges and of festivals of the church. +The picture presented here shows a scene outside of Venice, but not far +away; and it is a beautiful and characteristic work of Guardi, both as +to composition and color. The painting came from the Collection of the +Baron Maurice de Rothschild of Paris to its present owner, Mrs. Charles +B. Alexander of New York. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mrs. Charles B. Alexander_ + + A SCENE ALONG THE ADRIATIC COAST + + --_Francesco Guardi_] + + + + + FLEMISH PAINTING + + + + + _FLEMISH PAINTING_ + + +Flemish Painting in the Fourteenth Century was based on the +miniature-painting that illustrated the Mediæval manuscripts: indeed, +many of the early paintings look like enlarged versions of the little +pictures that adorn the vellum pages of missals and old _romans_. +The early painters were influenced by the School of Cologne until +the two Van Eycks (Hubert, 1366–1426, and Jan, 1380–1441), by their +marvellous painting and by the followers they attracted, raised Flemish +Art into importance and gave it a standing by itself as the School of +Bruges. + +Little is known of the lives of these painters except that they stood +high in the favor of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, who frequently +sent Jan on missions to foreign countries, and that the brothers +painted the great and famous altar-piece, the _Adoration of the Lamb_, +for the Cathedral of St. Bavon in Ghent. This great work, which is +one of the most celebrated of all altar-pieces, is a landmark in the +history of painting. It may be said to have inaugurated the Flemish +School; and it marks an innovation as well. This _Adoration of the +Lamb_ was ordered by Jodocus Vydts, a burgomaster of Ghent, and his +wife, Isabella Borluut, for their mortuary chapel in the Cathedral of +St. Bavon; and Van Mander relates that when it was finished “swarms of +people” came to gaze upon it; but, as the wings were closed except on +special festivals, “few but the high-born and those who could afford +to pay the _custos_ saw it.” It must be remembered that at this period +changes were also taking place in Italy under Gentile de Fabriano, +Pisanello, and Masaccio. Whether the Van Eycks invented oil-painting or +not, they had much to do with perfecting the process and influencing +others to the use of the new method. + +The Van Eycks had as pupils and followers all the Flemish and German +painters of the day and their influence was even felt in Italy, where +their pictures sold for their weight in gold. + +In 1425 Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, took Jan van Eyck into his +service as painter and “_varlet de chambre_;” and Jan, thereafter, +seems to have spent his life at the Court, painting portraits and +designing variously, going on embassies for the Duke, and painting in +Bruges and in Lille. As a portrait-painter Jan van Eyck is ranked with +Dürer, Holbein, Raphael, Titian, Van Dyck, and the other great ones in +this line. Undoubtedly, Jan van Eyck moved about a good deal through +the Duke of Burgundy’s immense domain, which included all the Low +Countries and a great part of what is now France. + +We are apt to think of these early painters who laid the foundations +of modern art as living in a much simpler day than our own. It is true +that in the Fifteenth Century the Middle Ages were still holding their +own in Flanders--the Renaissance moved very slowly northward--but it +was a time of great prosperity and great luxury, especially in the +Burgundian country. + +Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, son of the King of France, was the +most luxurious prince of his time. His titles show his power. He was +Duke of Burgundy, of Brabant, of Lothier and of Luxembourg; Count +of Flanders, of Artois, and of Burgundy; Palatine of Hainault, of +Holland, of Zeeland, of Namur, and of Charolais; Marquis of the Holy +Empire; and Lord of Friesland, of Salins, and of Mechlin. The House of +Burgundy, therefore, by its inheritances, alliances and conquests, had +attained such power as even to overshadow the French throne. Philip +the Good (1396–1467) was even more luxurious than his grandfather, +Philip the Bold. His Court was unequalled in Europe and was subject to +the strictest rules of etiquette. His palaces in Brussels, Dijon, and +Paris were sumptuously furnished and his collections of tapestries, +gold-work, silver-work, jewels, embroideries, illuminated manuscripts, +and printed books excited the admiration of such travellers and +chroniclers as were privileged to see them and who, fortunately for us, +have left accounts for us to read. At this period, too, the Flemings +were the great craftsmen of Europe and they produced every kind of +article required for the tastes and comfort of the wealthy Burgundians. +Brussels and Dijon became veritable Meccas for Mediæval artists, while +Bruges, Tournay, Arras, Ypres, Ghent, and Dinant held a welcome for any +able craftsman or artist, who, driven from England, France, or Italy by +the civil wars, sought refuge and work. + +And there was plenty of work to be done! + +Artistic designs of all kinds were needed for tapestry-workers, for +the goldsmiths and silversmiths, for the furniture-makers, and for +craftsmen busy in making articles for household use or for personal +decoration. Moreover, for the great entertainments, such as weddings, +receptions of princes, or celebrations in honor of the Knights of the +Golden Fleece, and other important functions, a veritable army of +painters, sculptors, illuminators, carvers, and machinists was needed +to design, plan, and execute the _entremets_ exhibited during the +banquets and the grand decorations erected in the streets through which +the processions passed. + +We shall gain a better idea of the spirit of early Flemish Art if we +pause for a moment to look into the palace at Lille, in 1454, when +Philip the Good was celebrating the “Feast of the Pheasant.” The large +hall was hung with tapestry representing the _Labors of Hercules_. +The _dressoir_ of enormous size was adorned with magnificent gold +and silver vessels and there were three large tables, splendidly laden +with viands artistically decorated. One of the guests wrote: “On a +raised platform at the head of the first table sat the Duke. He was +arrayed in his accustomed splendor--his dress of black velvet serving +as a dark ground that heightened the brilliancy of the precious stones, +valued at a million of gold crowns, with which it was profusely decked. +Among the guests was a numerous body of knights, who had passed the +morning in the tilting-field, and fair Flemish ladies, whose flaunting +beauty had inspired these martial sports. Each course was composed of +forty-four dishes, which were placed on chariots painted in gold and +azure and which were moved along the tables by concealed machinery. +As soon as the company was seated, the bells began to peal from the +steeple of a huge pastry church with stained windows that concealed an +organ and choir of singers; and three little choristers issued from the +edifice and sang a very sweet _chanson_. Twenty-eight musicians, +hidden in a mammoth pie,[19] performed on various instruments and the +fine viands and wines were circulated.” + +After the exhibition of _entremets_, the _pheasant_ was brought in, the +Crusade proclaimed against the Sultan, and the vows registered. + +It is safe to conjecture that Hubert and Jan van Eyck were among the +painters who were employed to design the _entremets_, triumphal +arches, and curiosities executed in pastry and in confections made of +sugar, as well as to paint portraits of distinguished Flemings and +altar-pieces for their churches. + +The Flemish Primitives certainly had many occasions to feast their eyes +upon magnificence! + +John Paston, who went to Bruges to attend Charles the Bold’s second +marriage in 1468 to Margaret of York, was overwhelmed and dazed by +what he saw. “Nothing was like it save King Arthur’s Court,” he +wrote home. The streets were hung with tapestries and cloth-of-gold, +triumphal arches were erected and at intervals along her way the bride +was entertained by “Histories,” the joint production of painters, +decorators, dramatists, and machinists. The banquet-hall was superbly +decorated and the chroniclers say “lighted by chandeliers in the form +of castles surrounded by forest and mountains with revolving paths on +which serpents, dragons, and other monstrous animals seemed to roam +in search of prey, spouting forth jets of flame that were reflected +in huge mirrors, so arranged as to catch and multiply the rays. The +dishes containing the principal meats were ships, seven feet long and +completely rigged, the masts and cordage gilt, the sails and streamers +of silk, each floating in a silver lake between shores of verdure and +enamelled rocks and attended by a fleet of boats laden with lemons, +oranges, and condiments. There were thirty of these vessels and as many +huge pastries in the shape of castles with banners waving from their +battlements and towers; besides tents and pavilions for the fruit; +jelly-dishes of crystal supported by figures of the same material +dispensing streams of lavender and rose-water; and an immense profusion +of gold and silver plate.” + +When Charles the Bold was killed on the battlefield of Nancy (1477), +a New Era was about to dawn. America was soon to be discovered; Vasco +da Gama was to find an ocean route to the East Indies; the Moors +were to be expelled from Spain; the Wars of the Roses were to end in +England; Ferdinand and Isabella were to marry their daughter, the “mad +Joanna,” to Philip the Fair of Austria, heir through his mother, Mary +of Burgundy, to the Burgundian dominions (the issue being Charles V, +born in Ghent in 1500). Of still more importance to the world of Art +than these important events was the discovery of Italy by the French, +who crossed the Alps with Charles VIII. The French were dazzled by what +they saw in Italy. On their return the Renaissance in France and the +Netherlands may be said to have begun to blossom. _The ground had +already been prepared by the art-loving Dukes of Burgundy._ + +Let us return, however, to the Bruges painters: + +“The rise of the School was aided by the Fourteenth Century Art of +Cologne best shown in the work of Meister Wilhelm. The Art of the +movement was, for the period, strongly realistic. Natural objects +were painted with the utmost fidelity, interest in still-life and +_genre_ begin to appear, and details of architecture and landscape +were rendered as carefully as the heads of the most sacred personages +in the compositions. So pronounced was this tendency that superficial +observers are led to consider Flemish painting fundamentally material; +but a thoughtful analysis will reveal a spirituality in the art quite +as sincere, if not so obvious, as in the painting of contemporary +Italy. In the early School, the painting was almost wholly religious, +and scenes and actors were handled with reverence and deep feeling. + +“The Flemings, however, inherited from earlier art a religious type +to which they clung with great tenacity and which to the modern eye +is ugly. The exaggeratedly-domed forehead of the Madonna, a symbol of +intellect to the Fleming, is to the modern a distortion. Similarly the +tiny mouth, the eyes almost without brows,[20] and the other features +which Flemish symbolism demanded, are now somewhat disturbing to +the eye. When native realism and symbolism were coupled, as in the +over realistic rendering of the ascetic Christ-Child, the effect is +sometimes startling to the layman; and the beginner in the study of +Flemish Art should beware of mistaking accidents of convention for +artistic defects. If the conventions of Flemish Art make it at first +difficult to appreciate, the technical perfection of the work must +appeal to any one. Oil-painting, perfected if not necessarily invented +in Flanders, gave a richness of color and a lustre of surface which +specially distinguished the style. The play and delicate gradation +of light over richly-colored surfaces was rendered so skillfully +that the artists approached the expression of a complete visual +effect, finally reached in Seventeenth Century Holland in the work of +Vermeer.--_Mediæval and Renaissance Paintings_ (Fogg Art Museum, +Cambridge, 1927). + +Next in importance to the Van Eycks comes Roger van der Weyden +(1400?–1464). By 1432 Roger had made a name for himself, for he had +become a master painter in the Tournay Guild. In 1450 he went to Italy +and seems to have visited Cologne on his way home (see page 166). + +The Maître de Flémalle (Robert Campin?), who showed a great interest in +still-life, is thought to have been the master of Roger van der Weyden. +Petrus Christus (1410?–1473), a native of Baerle, Holland, free citizen +of Bruges in 1444, is regarded as one of the ancestors of _genre_ +painting (see page 169). + +Hans Memling (1430–5–1494), a native of Holland, was a supposed pupil +of Roger van der Weyden. It is believed that Roger van der Weyden took +Memling with him to Italy in 1450. Memling was closely associated with +his master Roger van der Weyden and sometimes painted the wing-panels +for Roger’s great altar-pieces. Memling’s chief painting was done in +Bruges (see page 172). + +Taine thus sums up the Flemish Primitives: “A Flemish Renaissance +underneath Christian ideas, such, indeed, is the two-fold nature of +art under Hubert and Jan van Eyck, Roger van der Weyden, Memling, +and Quentin Massys; and from these two characteristics proceed all +the others. On the one hand, artists take interest in actual life; +their figures are no longer symbols like the illuminations of ancient +missals, nor purified spirits like the Madonnas of the School of +Cologne but living beings and bodies. They attend to no anatomy, the +perspective is exact, the minutest details are rendered regarding +stuffs, architecture, accessories, and landscape; the relief is strong +and the entire scene stamps itself on the eye and on the mind with +extraordinary force and sense of stability; the greatest masters of +coming times are not to surpass them in all this, nor even go so far. +Nature is now discovered. The scales fall from their eyes; they have +just mastered almost in a flash, the proportions, the structure, and +the coloring of visible realities; and, moreover, they delight in them. +Consider the superb copes wrought in gold and bedecked with diamonds, +the embroidered silks, the flowered and dazzling diadems with which +they ornament their saints and divine personages, all of whom represent +the pomp of the Burgundian Court. Look at the calm and transparent +water, the bright meadows, the red and white flowers, the blossoming +trees and the sunny distances of their admirable landscapes. Observe +their coloring--the strongest and richest ever seen, the pure and full +tones side by side as in a Persian carpet and united solely through +their harmony, the superb breaks in the folds of purple mantles, the +deep azure of long, falling robes, the green draperies like a summer +field permeated with sunshine, the display of gold skirts trimmed with +black, the strong light which warms and enlivens the whole scene--and +you have a concert in which each instrument sounds its proper note. +They see the world on the bright side and make a holiday of it, a +genuine _fête_, similar to those of this day, glowing under a +more bounteous sunlight and not a heavenly Jerusalem suffused with +supernatural radiance such as Fra Angelico painted. They are Flemings +and they stick to the earth.” + +Contemporary with Memling is Hugo Van der Goes (1430–1482), one of +the last important figures in the Van Eyck School, more celebrated +in his day than in ours, but powerful and austere, and painter of an +altar-piece in 1476 for Tommaso Portinari, which was placed in the +Church of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence and was greatly admired by +Ghirlandaio and Piero di Cosimo. With Gerard David (1450–1523), a +follower of Memling and Massys, we leave the Flemish Primitives for a +world of newer ideas. + +Quentin Massys (1460–1530), creator of the Antwerp School, belongs to +an intermediate epoch. He is herald of the Italianiate Flemings--Jan +Mabuse, Bernard van Orley, Lambert Lombard, Jan Mostært, Bellegambe, +Launcelot Blondeel, and others--all of whom, dazzled by the +Renaissance, tried to combine their Flemish coldness with Italian +grace. Some of them lived to see the triumph of Rubens and the rise of +another School. + +Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), is the recognized head of the Flemish +School of Painting. His power was felt throughout Europe and he had +more influence on taste in the Seventeenth Century than any other +artist. Rubens painted more than two thousand pictures and made nearly +five hundred drawings. In every style he proved himself a great master +(see page 176). + +Anthony Van Dyck (1599–1641) studied under Hendrik van Balen and then +became assistant to and pupil of Rubens. After a long stay in Italy +he returned to Antwerp and thence settled in England where he became +Court-Painter to Charles I. In his short life he painted nearly a +thousand pictures and acquired such proficiency in portraiture that he +is ranked among the greatest in this line (see page 181). + +The important Brueghel (or Breughel) family affords an example of +heredity in painting and how in the course of generations there was +transition from the old to the new art. Pieter (Peasant) Brueghel +(1530–16--?) received lessons from Van Orley and Jerome Cœck, but his +real master was the long dead Jerome Bosch, whose fantastic works +fascinated him. Brueghel went to Italy and was delighted with the +Alpine scenery; but, on his return he tried to preserve the Flemish +ideas that were fast dying under the Italian cult. He persisted in +portraying the familiar scenes of his boyhood and familiar humorous +situations. Therefore, he received the sobriquets of “Peasant +Brueghel” and “Droll Brueghel.” His two sons were equally famous. +Jan or “Velvet Brueghel” (1568–1625), so-called from his fondness for +wearing velvet, was famous for his flowers; and he frequently painted +garlands in the pictures of Rubens. Pieter Brueghel (1574–1637), +so loved painting infernal scenes that he was nicknamed “Hell-fire +Brueghel.” Their sons continued their names and professions until the +close of the Seventeenth Century. + +Pieter Pourbus (1510–1584) and his son Frans (1540–1580) are among the +best portrait-painters of the Sixteenth Century. + +Frans Snyders (1579–1657) studied under Peter Brueghel and Hendrik van +Balen, became the friend and associate of Rubens, and a brilliant and +unsurpassed painter of fruits and animals. + +Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678), born in Antwerp, son of a cloth merchant, +depicted scenes from domestic life and popular festivities. He +was astonishingly able to render mirth and jollity. Jordaens is +distinguished for his unrestrained and boisterous humor and he often +repeated his somewhat crazy home-concert, “As the old ones sing, so +will the young ones twitter.” Jordaens sometimes collaborated with +Frans Snyders, Jan Fyt, Adriaen van Utrecht, and others. Jordaens was +entirely Flemish, absolutely unaffected by the foreign influences that +charmed Rubens and Van Dyck. + +David Teniers the Younger (1610–1690) is the greatest _genre_ +painter of the southern Netherlands. Teniers is one of those Flemish +painters who were sought after in Holland during their lifetime. +This may have arisen from the fact that he was closely allied with +the Dutch School and with Brouwer who lived and worked in Antwerp. +Teniers was an indefatigable painter and left more than eight hundred +pictures,--inn-interiors, _kermesses_, hawking-parties, drinkers, +bagpipe-players and other musicians, “conversations,” bowling-games, +kitchens, _Temptations of St. Anthony_, and monkey-scenes. Sir Joshua +Reynolds admired him and said: “The works of David Teniers, jun., are +worthy of the closest attention of a painter who desires to excel +in the mechanical knowledge of his art. His manner of touching, or +what we call handling, has perhaps never been equalled: there is in +his pictures that exact mixture of softness and sharpness which is +difficult to execute.” + +One of the best artists of the second period of the Antwerp School +is Gonzales Coques (1614–1684), a painter of interiors of elegance, +wealth, gaiety, and happy serenity, and also portraits. His distinction +he borrows from Van Dyck and his color is inspired by Rubens. However, +in the dimensions of his pictures and their minuteness of detail and +finish, Coques is reminiscent of the Dutch School,--particularly +Terborch and Metsu. + +In the Eighteenth Century there is little painting to claim attention. +Charles Blanc has put the matter most succinctly: + +“For the Flemish School the Eighteenth Century is a long +_entr’acte_ during which the stage, so nobly occupied of old, +is sad and deserted. Here and there an artist appears to remind us +what Flanders was in color and decoration for two centuries. France +was triumphing in spirit and grace; Italy, though decadent, was still +ingenious and smiling; England at last was producing original masters; +_but Flanders was asleep_.” + + + PORTRAIT OF A LADY. + + _Roger van der Weyden + (1400?–1464)._ + + _Collection of the + Hon. Andrew W. Mellon._ + +This very striking portrait, an oil painting on panel (14⅜ × 10⅝), came +from the Collection of the Duke of Anhalt, Ducal Castle of Dessau, and +was previously in the Gothic Palace, Wörlitz, Germany. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the Hon. Andrew W. Mellon_ + + PORTRAIT OF A LADY + + --_Roger van der Weyden_] + +The subject is a Flemish lady of high birth. She is not beautiful, +but she has an air of great distinction. Her half-figure is turned +three-quarters to the left and dressed in a dark robe with a +turned-over collar, opening at the throat, where a transparent piece of +soft, white muslin is arranged into a V-shape, and over this hangs a +fine gold chain. A crimson girdle fastened with a gold clasp encircles +her waist. The hair is brushed back from the forehead, or rather the +forehead is rendered bald by the fashionable style of plucking out +the hair, and covered by a close-fitting cap, composed of interlaced +bands edged with a black ribbon, holding in place a thin veil; and over +this a transparent white “wimple” is pinned to the cap, passing over +the forehead and fastened at the back where it spreads in a wing on +either shoulder. The right hand is placed over the left, presumably +resting on a parapet, and a simple gold ring is on a finger of each +hand. + +Dr. Max Friedländer writes in _Meisterwerke der Niederländischen +Malerei des XV u. XVI Jahrhunderts auf der Ausstellung zu Brügge_ +(1902): + +“This simple, proud, and very well preserved portrait, which has up +to the present time not received a great deal of attention, in my +estimation appears to be characteristic of Roger van der Weyden, in +the severe and somewhat Moorish outline of the face, in the economic +modelling of the shadows, and in the drawing of the lean hands. Similar +women’s portraits are in the National Gallery, London, and in Adolphe +de Rothschild’s Collection (from the Nieuwenhuij’s Sale). + +Roger van der Weyden, or Rogier de la Pasture, the son of Henri de +la Pasture, was born in 1400 in Tournai, where the family had been +settled since 1260. His father was a sculptor and gave Roger his first +training. Next he was apprenticed to the Maître de Flêmalle (Robert +Campin) and later went to Brussels to live. Here he quickly gained a +great reputation, for in 1436 he was appointed painter to the city +of Brussels. While busy on his great _Last Judgment_, commissioned +by Nicholas Rolin for the Hospital at Beaune (a polyptych, which has +been classed with the Van Eyck _Adoration of the Lamb_), Roger went on +a long trip to Italy. Visiting Rome, he greatly admired the frescoes +begun by Gentile da Fabriano in St. John Lateran. He also went to +Florence, Ferrara, and, it is supposed, Venice. Roger painted a good +deal in Italy and even had orders. Among other things he painted a +_Madonna and Child_ for Cosimo de’ Medici. + +Roger returned home, it is thought, by way of Cologne. While on this +trip, Roger was commissioned by Leonello d’Este to paint a picture. + +Roger van der Weyden left as much in Italy as he brought home. His +influence is seen in many of the contemporary Italians. In like manner, +the influence of the Italians appears in the pictures that Roger van +der Weyden painted on his return. German artists, too, fell under the +spell of Roger van der Weyden, particularly Martin Schöngauer, the +greatest German painter of the Fifteenth Century. + +Roger van der Weyden was extremely versatile: he produced paintings in +oil and painted miniatures, designed cartoons for tapestry-weavers, and +made wood-engravings. + +Fierens-Gevaert, the greatest authority on Flemish Primitives, says of +Roger van der Weyden: + +“His figures, among which males predominate, both in number and +interest, do not all possess the impassibility sometimes attributed to +them. Their beauty, or their moral significance, is merely restrained, +just like the artist’s own emotions. Both need to be discovered. As for +the expression of the color, the novel truth of the light, the profound +feeling of the landscape--these are the incontestable merits in the +Louvain painter. They explain his profound influence upon Memling, +Gerard David, Quentin Massys, the Master of the Death of Mary, his +_prestige_ with the Sixteenth Century Renaissants, and the growing +admiration of modern criticism for his genius.” + +Roger van der Weyden died in Brussels, June 16, 1464, leaving many +pupils and followers, the most noteworthy of whom was Hans Memling. + + + PORTRAIT OF A CARTHUSIAN MONK AS A SAINT. + + _Petrus Christus + (1410?–1473)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Jules S. Bache._ + +This interesting panel (8½ × 11⅝ inches) came to America by way of +Spain, having been in the Collections of Don Ramon de Oms, Majorca, and +the Marquis de Dos Aguas, Valencia. + +The picture is signed and dated 1446 at the base of the portrait, +below a ledge, on which an insect is slowly walking. The identity of +the subject and the reason for the presence of the fly, or grasshopper +(or whatever it is), are equally unknown. However, we have here a +marvellous human document, which grows more amazing the longer it is +studied. The portrait preserves the personality and features of a +strong, kindly, and interesting man, who must have been beloved and +honored, or he would not have been represented with a golden ring +around his head, proclaiming him a saint. + +And the painter has done more than this: he has thrown such atmosphere +around the man that the interesting life in the old abbeys seems to +rise before us. We see the picturesque buildings set in emerald swards +and shaded by leafy trees, and surrounded by cloisters where the monks +take exercise, or read in some traceried recess; and we peer into +the halls where the artistic members of the community are writing, +composing music, copying, or painting and illuminating beautiful +miniatures in manuscripts, destined--although undreamed of by these +painters and gold-leaf workers--to bring thousands of dollars at +auction-sales five hundred years in the future and to be prized as +treasures in a then undiscovered country across the Atlantic Ocean, +whose waters were thought by those very monks to break upon the shores +of Far Cathay! + +Our _Carthusian Monk_, in his white cassock, carries us into the +Chapel, where we see him and others of his Order in prayer at midnight, +at early dawn, or at the vesper hour; and again with him we stroll +to the near-by river in the golden sunlight of the afternoon and sit +under the soft willows, dangling a line from a long fishing-pole until +we have a sufficient catch for supper. On our return to the abbey we +notice how heartily our _Carthusian Monk_ welcomes a group of +arriving travellers--for the abbeys were the hostelries in the Middle +Ages--and we join them at supper in the refectory. Doubtless, too, our +Carthusian gives us a _petit verre_ of golden Chartreuse of his +own making. + +While the rules in the ancient abbeys were rigid and inflexible and +religion, of course, the chief business, it was in these secluded +places that art and learning were preserved and fostered. The world +to-day is apt to forget what civilization owes to the Mediæval Abbey, +and Petrus Christus has brought this _Carthusian Monk_ to tell us +something of what that is. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Jules S. Bache_ + + PORTRAIT OF A CARTHUSIAN MONK AS A SAINT + + --_Petrus Christus_] + +Petrus Christus was born at Baerle, on the southern border of Holland, +in 1410 (it is thought). In 1444 he became a free citizen of Bruges +and, as he was a follower and probably a pupil of Jan van Eyck and +Roger van der Weyden, he is classed as belonging to the School of +Bruges. Petrus Christus painted religious pictures and portraits and +is regarded as one of the direct ancestors of _genre_ painting. +He died in 1473. Of late years his pictures have come into special +prominence. + + + MADONNA AND CHILD WITH ANGELS. + + _Hans Memling + (1430–5–1494)._ + + _Collection of the + Hon. Andrew W. Mellon._ + +This painting, an oil on panel (23 × 19 inches), came from the +Collection of the Duke of Anhalt, Gothic Palace, Wörlitz, near Dessau, +Germany. + +The Virgin in a blue robe and red mantle is seated on a canopied +throne, behind which is an embroidered hanging. Her eyes are looking +downward upon a missal which she holds in her left hand. On her right +knee, and supported by her right arm, is seated the Holy Child, who +reaches out for an apple, offered to Him by a kneeling Angel. This +Angel holds in his left hand a viol and bow. At the right, another +kneeling Angel is playing a harp. The scene is framed in a Gothic arch, +flanked on either side by a circular column, each column supporting a +single male figure in a sculptured niche: on the right, St. Simon the +Apostle is holding a saw, and on the left, the Prophet David is holding +a harp. On each spandrel of the arch a cherub is holding a globe. +Beyond this again, on either side of the throne, we see a landscape +with a castle on the left and a church and river on the right. In the +foreground there is a tessellated floor covered with an Oriental rug. + +This idea of angels playing instruments[21] Memling may have learned +from Italy. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the Hon. Andrew W. Mellon_ + + MADONNA AND CHILD WITH ANGELS + + --_Hans Memling_] + +Hans Memling (or Memlinc), was born in 1430 or 1435, supposedly in +Memelynck (whence his name) near Alkmaar in Holland. Tradition says +that his family removed to the diocese of Mainz when he was fifteen. +Memling seems to have painted in Cologne before he went to Bruges about +1465, where it is thought he was a pupil of Roger van der Weyden. It +is certain that he was a master painter in Bruges in 1467. In 1479 he +painted his masterpiece, _The Marriage of St. Catherine_, ordered by +Jan Floreins for the St. John’s Hospital, Bruges, and also a smaller +triptych, _The Adoration of the Magi_, for the same building. Another +great work was the _Shrine of St. Ursula_, ordered by the Hospital +in 1480 to enclose some relics of St. Ursula brought from the Holy +Land,--a miniature Gothic chapel adorned with finials, statuettes, and +medallions representing episodes in the life of St. Ursula. Memling +died in 1494 in Bruges, which contains to-day a great number of his +works. + +Memling, in common with the Van Eycks and Roger van der Weyden was +fond of enamelling his grassy swards, where the people sit or walk, +with beautifully painted flowers; such as the daisy, the anemone, and +the iris. Hans Memling is the most attractive of all the painters +of the Netherlandish School, the most human, the most poetic, most +graceful and the tenderest, merging, as did Fra Angelico (1387–1455), +his contemporary, from Mediæval to Renaissance. Indeed Hans Memling is +often called the “Flemish Fra Angelico.” + + + PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG GENTLEMAN. + + _Hans Memling + (1430–1494)._ + + _Collection of + Mrs. John N. Willys._ + +Here we have the portrait of a young gentleman nearly full face, and +clad in a black doublet which is open at the neck showing a white linen +shirt with a narrow black circular band around the top. On his head is +a circular black felt cap with narrow brim. The dense masses of his +brownish red hair fall over his shoulders and completely cover his +forehead to the top of his eyebrows. He has blue eyes and an intensely +thoughtful and serious expression, and he holds in his left hand a +scroll of paper, which might seem to indicate that he is a poet. The +background consists of a woody landscape, and on the left is a river +with two swans. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mrs. John N. Willys_ + + PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG GENTLEMAN + + --_Hans Memling_] + +Dr. Max J. Friedländer, of Berlin, after examining the picture wrote to +the present owner: “I was greatly interested in the Memling portrait +from the Taylor Collection which I saw at your place. It is positively +a characteristic work of the hand of the Master.” + +This picture painted on panel (13½ × 9 inches) came from the John +Edward Taylor Collection, London, in 1912. + + + LOUIS XIII KING OF FRANCE. + + _Peter Paul Rubens + (1577–1640)._ + + _Collection of + Sir Joseph Duveen, Bart._ + +This interesting oil painting on canvas (46½ × 38 inches) came from +the Collection of the Emperor of Germany, Palace of Charlottenburg +near Berlin, and was originally in the Collection of the Archduke +Leopold William of Austria at the Ducal Palace, Brussels. It was +painted between 1622 and 1625, and is supposed to be a companion to the +portrait of _Anne of Austria_ (now in the Prado). + +Louis XIII is represented about the age of twenty-five, life-size, +and three-quarter length, looking at the observer from a background +of sky, portico, and red drapery. He has a slight moustache and his +hair is curled and falls down to the fine lace ruff around his neck. +He is dressed in a polished steel suit of armor and rests his left +hand, wearing a gauntlet, on a table covered by a cloth. A marshal’s +_bâton_ is in his right hand. The Cross of the Order of the Holy +Spirit hangs from a ribbon at his right side and on his left hangs a +sword from a belt. Over his shoulder is thrown a bright blue velvet and +ermine mantle embroidered with _fleur-de-lys_ and on the table is +seen his helmet surmounted by rich plumes of ostrich feathers. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Sir Joseph Duveen, Bart._ + + LOUIS XIII, KING OF FRANCE + + --_Peter Paul Rubens_] + +Louis XIII, son of Henri IV and his second wife, Marie de’ Medici, +was born in 1601 and became king at the age of nine, on his father’s +assassination in 1610. Marie de’ Medici, then becoming Regent, +determined to bring France into close relation with the House of +Austria and Spain, and, consequently, brought about the marriage of her +son in 1615 with Anne of Austria, daughter of the Spanish King, Philip +III. + +Louis does not seem to have inherited any of the talents of the Medici +family, nor any of the dashing charm of his father, the gallant “King +Henry of Navarre.” He acquiesced for a time in his mother’s government +and in the rule of her favorites, among whom the Marshall d’Ancre was +notable; but in 1617 he had the latter assassinated with the help of +Charles d’Albert, Sieur de Luynes. This caused a breach between him and +his mother and their relations continued hostile until death. + +In 1624 Cardinal Richelieu, who had been Marie de’ Medici’s chief +adviser, entered into the King’s council, and, thereafter, Richelieu +directed the policy of France and controlled Louis XIII. Many conflicts +resulted between the Protestants and the nobles of France; and Louis +was made the enemy of his mother, Gaston d’Orléans (his brother) and, +frequently, of his wife, Anne of Austria. On one occasion the Queen +Mother and Gaston d’Orléans gained influence over Louis and he was +about to dismiss Richelieu; but the Cardinal regained his power and +immediately punished his enemies. The Queen Mother was forced to flee +to Brussels and Gaston d’Orléans to Lorraine. Towards the end of his +reign Louis is quoted as having said to Richelieu: “We have lived +together too long to be separated.” + +Cardinal Richelieu died in December, 1642, and Louis died a few months +later, in May, 1643. + +Peter Paul Rubens was born in Siegen, Westphalia, in 1577, and received +his first education in the Jesuit College in Antwerp, and, for a few +years, thereafter, was page to a noble lady. At the age of thirteen he +began to study painting under Tobias Verhaagt, whom he left to study +under Adam van Noort. Next he worked under Otto van Veen. In 1600 +he went to Italy, entering the service of Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of +Mantua, with whom he remained for eight years, interrupted by missions +to various courts. In 1603 he visited Madrid and went to Venice, Rome, +and Genoa. In 1609, on the death of the Duke of Mantua, Rubens returned +to Antwerp and became Court-Painter to Albert and Isabella, Regents of +the Netherlands. In that year also Rubens married Isabella Brandt. His +studio at Antwerp now became famous and attracted students from every +town in Europe. + +He had barely established himself when he wrote to a friend in 1611: +“On every side I am overwhelmed with solicitations. Without the least +exaggeration, I may assure you that I have already had to refuse more +than a hundred pupils.” + +In 1621 Rubens was called by Marie de’ Medici to Paris to decorate the +gallery in the Palace of the Luxembourg. At this period the _style +Rubens_, which he introduced on his return from Italy and which was +inspired by the late Italian Renaissance, was all the rage. + +In 1622 he published a book on the _Palaces of Genoa_; and from +the preface we learn that he was perfectly delighted to see the “old +style known as barbarous, or Gothic, go out of fashion, to the great +honor of the country, and disappear from Flanders, giving place to +symmetrical buildings designed by men of better taste and conforming to +the rules of the Greek and Roman antique.” + +Rubens was a favorite with several kings and when he was neither +painting nor teaching, he was visiting some foreign court on an +embassy. On one of these visits to London in 1629–30 he was knighted by +Charles I. + +In 1630 he married again (Isabella Brandt having died in 1626), uniting +himself to his first wife’s niece, Helena Fourment, who was but +sixteen. Rubens now built a palatial house in Antwerp, where, as well +as in his _Château de Steen_ in the vicinity, he lived a happy, +industrious, and splendid life, having everything the world could give +in the way of honors and joys. Rubens’s influence upon the artists of +his own time was very great and he dominated the entire art taste of +Europe during the first three quarters of the Seventeenth Century. + +Religious subjects, mythological subjects, landscapes, hunting scenes, +portraits, and still-life,--everything came easily to his brush. Sir +Joshua Reynolds wrote a fine analysis of Rubens, in which he says: “The +striking brilliancy of his colors, and their lively opposition to each +other, the flowing liberty and freedom of his outline, the animated +pencil with which every object is touched, all contribute to awaken +and keep alive the attention of the spectator; awaken in him, in some +measure, correspondent sensations, and make him feel a degree of that +enthusiasm with which the painter was carried away. To this we may add +the complete uniformity in all the parts of the work, so that the whole +seems to be conducted and grow out of one mind: everything is of a +piece and fits its place. + +“Besides the excellency of Rubens in these general powers, he possessed +the true art of imitating. He saw the objects of nature with a +painter’s eye; he saw at once the predominant feature by which every +object is known and distinguished; and as soon as seen, it was executed +with a facility that is astonishing. Rubens was, perhaps, the greatest +master in the mechanical part of the art, the best workman with his +tools, that ever exercised a pencil. + +“This power which Rubens possessed in the highest degree enabled him +to represent whatever he undertook better than any other painter. His +animals, particularly lions and horses, are so admirable that it may +be said they were never properly represented but by him. His portraits +rank with the best works of the painters who have made that branch of +art the sole business of their lives; and of those he has left a great +variety of specimens. The same may be said of his landscapes. + +“The difference of the manner of Rubens from that of any other painter +before him is in nothing more distinguishable than in his coloring, +which is totally different from that of Titian, Correggio, or any of +the great colorists. The effect of his pictures may be not improperly +compared to clusters of flowers; all his colors appear as clear and as +beautiful; at the same time he has avoided that tawdry effect which one +would expect such gay colors to produce; in this respect resembling +Barocci more than any other painter. What was said of an ancient +painter may be applied to those two artists, that their figures look as +if they fed upon roses.” + + + RINALDO AND ARMIDA. + + _Sir Anthony Van Dyck + (1599–1641)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Jacob Epstein._ + +This picture, oils on canvas (90 × 96 inches), came from the Collection +of the Duke of Newcastle, Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire, to its present +home in Baltimore. + +Rinaldo is in shining, silver-blue armor with a flowing mantle of +golden yellow, which is clasped at the shoulder. Armida wears a blue +robe and a red mantle. The sky is blue with white clouds and there is a +tree in the background and an enchanted lake at the right. + +The influence of Van Dyck’s master, Rubens, is very apparent in this +gorgeous picture, where all the delights of the Garden of Armida are +set forth--that magic garden that Tasso described in his _Jerusalem +Delivered_, to which many a Crusader was lured. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Jacob Epstein_ + + RINALDO AND ARMIDA + + --_Sir Anthony Van Dyck_] + +Another _Rinaldo and Armida_ by Van Dyck is in the Louvre. + +Armida was a beautiful sorceress; and it was difficult to resist her +enchantment. Two messengers were sent from the Christian Army with a +talisman to effect Rinaldo’s escape. Armida followed Rinaldo and, not +being able to regain her power over him, rushed into the combat and was +killed. Rinaldo came of the noble Este family and ran away at the age +of fifteen to join the Crusaders. He was enrolled in the “Adventurers +Squadron” and is often called the “Achilles of the Christian Army.” + +Anthony, or Antoon, van Dyck, was born at Antwerp in 1599, son of a +silk-merchant. At the age of ten he became the pupil of Henrik van +Balen and entered Rubens’s studio as assistant in 1618, when only +seventeen. He soon achieved a reputation for his portraits and visited +England. In 1621, by Rubens’s advice, he went to Italy, having already +acquired a reputation. After a five years’ stay, much of which time +was spent in Genoa, Van Dyck returned home and painted his celebrated +picture of the _Crucifixion_ for the Church of St. Michael in +Ghent, which established his reputation. In 1630 he again visited +England; but, not meeting with the reception he had anticipated, +he returned to Antwerp. However, in 1632, Charles I, who had seen a +portrait of his Chapelmaster by Van Dyck, sent for him to come to +England. On this occasion the painter was warmly welcomed, lodged by +the King at Blackfriars, and, in the following year was knighted and +given a pension for life. Van Dyck was the second painter to have +an English Knighthood. Thenceforward Van Dyck lived very grandly, +having a town house and also a country house at Eltham. He was always +magnificently dressed, had numerous coaches and horses, and kept so +good a table that few princes were better served. Van Dyck died in +London in 1641, at the age of forty-two, having left a prodigious +amount of work and a fortune of £20,000 sterling, notwithstanding his +expensive manner of living. He was buried in Old St. Paul’s, near the +tomb of John of Gaunt; but his remains, of course, perished in the +Great Fire of 1666. + +In the short span of his life--forty-two years--he painted nearly a +thousand pictures. Van Dyck has three styles. The first is his Italian +period; the second, his Flemish period, dating from his return from +Italy in 1626 to his departure for England in 1631; and the third, his +English period, from 1631 to 1641. The latter period is the greatest +and the most distinguished for grace, elegance, and aristocratic +quality. + +“More noble than Rubens in his choice of form,” writes Charles Blanc, +“Van Dyck had fewer faults than his master, but perhaps also less +grandeur. His color was as charming without being so splendid. His +design was learned, but without pedantry; and his contours were always +governed by the sentiment of grace, or fire of genius. Very nearly +the equal of Titian in portraiture, Van Dyck has sometimes risen to a +great height in his historical compositions, in which the beauty of the +expression is often as admirable as the excellence of the touch.” + + + DÆDALUS AND ICARUS. + + _Sir Anthony Van Dyck + (1599–1641)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Frank P. Wood._ + +A treasure of art, long in England in the famous Collection of the late +Earl Spencer, K. G., at Althorp, Northumberland, is Van Dyck’s poetic +version of the ancient Greek myth regarding man’s attempt at flight. +Van Dyck was so fond of this subject that he painted it more than once. + +This work is an oil painting on canvas (46 × 35 inches). + +The figures are nearly life-size and very finely modelled. Icarus +is nude save for a red drapery caught around the waist by a narrow +band of bluish green,--a rather strange aviator’s suit to our way of +thinking to-day! The position of his right hand would seem to tell us +that Icarus is about to speak to his father, who, standing behind him, +has apparently just fastened on his son’s wings and who appears to be +giving him that sage advice about flying too near the sun. The flashing +eyes and knitted brow of young Icarus indicate that this advice is not +relished. + +Max Rooses has noted that Icarus is not unlike the Angels that Van Dyck +was fond of painting; calls attention to his beautiful, waving, golden +hair; and finds a strong likeness between Icarus and the artist himself +in his youth. One of the wings shows a white interior and the other, in +the shadow, a bluish green exterior. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Frank P. Wood_ + + DÆDALUS AND ICARUS + + --_Sir Anthony Van Dyck_] + +Dædalus was a mythical personage under whom the Greek writers +personified the earliest development of human flight and also the arts +of sculpture and architecture. Some traditions represent Dædalus as of +the royal race of the Erechthidæ and others make him a Cretan. Dædalus +devoted himself to sculpture and taught his sister’s son, Talus, who +soon surpassed him. Consequently, in envy Dædalus killed this young +rival. Condemned to death in Athens for this murder, Dædalus fled to +Crete, where his fame won him the friendship of King Minos. When Queen +Pasiphae gave birth to the Minotaur, Dædalus constructed the Labyrinth +at Cnossus in which the Minotaur was kept; and for doing this King +Minos imprisoned him. However, Pasiphae released him. This was of not +much advantage, however, because King Minos had seized all the ships +on the coast of Crete. “Necessity is the mother of invention:” Dædalus +had to get away. The question was “how?”. The result was that Dædalus +made wings for himself and for his son, Icarus, and fastened them on +the shoulders with wax, cautioning the youth not to fly too close to +the sun. Icarus would not pay attention to this advice and, flying too +high, the wax melted and he dropped down and was drowned in that part +of the Ægean Sea, which is now called after him the Icarian Sea. + +Dædalus, however, flew safely over the Ægean and reached Sicily, where +he was protected by Cocalus, King of that Island. When King Minos heard +where Dædalus had taken refuge he sailed with a great fleet to Sicily; +but was murdered there by Cocalus. According to some accounts, Dædalus +alighted on his flight from Crete at Cumæ in Italy, where he erected a +temple to Apollo in which he offered the wings with which he had flown. +Like Lindberg, his descendant, he placed his “We” in a museum! + +Many works of art were attributed to Dædalus in Greece, Italy, Egypt, +and the islands of the Mediterranean. Also the Greeks gave the name +of Dædala to the ancient wooden statues of the gods ornamented with +gilding, bright colors, and real drapery. + +It is appropriate to add here a sonnet by an old French poet, Philippe +Desportes (1545–1606) entitled “Icare”: + + _ICARE_ + + _Icare est chut ici, le jeune audacieux, + Qui pour voler au ciel eut assez de courage: + Ici tomba son corps dégarni de plumage, + Laissant tous braves cœurs de sa chute envieux._ + + _O bienheureux travail d’un esprit glorieux, + Qui tire un grand gain d’un si petit dommage! + O bienheureux malheur plein de tant d’avantage, + Qu’il rende le vaincu des ans victorieux!_ + + _Un chemin si nouveau n’étonna sa jeunesse, + Le pouvoir lui faillit, mais non le hardiesse; + Il eut pour le brûler des astres le plus beau;_ + + _Il mourut poursuivant une haute aventure; + Le ciel fut son désir, la mer sa sépulture; + Est-il plus beau dessein, ou plus riche tombeau?_ + + + ROBERT RICH, EARL OF WARWICK. + + _Sir Anthony Van Dyck + (1599–1641)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Jules S. Bache._ + +In silver doublet with slashed sleeves embroidered with flowers, +crimson knee-breeches edged with gold braid, pink silk stockings and +white shoes with lace rosettes (or “shoe roses,” as they were called +in those days), a crimson cloak thrown over his left shoulder and held +by his gloved hand, white lawn collar and cuffs edged with handsome +lace, Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick, stands before us, a picture of +elegance, manly beauty, and aristocratic _hauteur_. He is standing +full front with his head turned three-quarters to the left, in which +direction he is also looking, and he is holding his black felt hat in +his right hand. His armor and _bâton_ of command are lying on the +ground by his side. The embroidered curtain in the background does not +prevent us from seeing a naval engagement on his right. + +Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick, came of very distinguished ancestry on +the maternal line, for his mother was Penelope Devereux, the sister of +Essex, whose mother, Lettice Knollys, had been Maid of Honor to Queen +Elizabeth (and who captivated the Earl of Leicester), and whose father, +Walter Devereux, was first Earl of Essex (died 1576). Penelope’s father +had wished her to marry Sir Philip Sidney; but the Earl of Huntingdon, +Penelope’s guardian, ruled otherwise and forced her to marry Lord +Rich, “a man of independent fortune and a known estate but otherwise +of an uncourtly disposition, unsociable, austere, and of no agreeable +conversation to her.” + +Lady Rich, the most beautiful woman in all London, particularly famous +for her sparkling black eyes, plunged wildly into society and was the +most admired and courted woman of the Court. She played, too, a leading +part in the rebellion of her distinguished brother, Essex. Lady Rich +lives in literature as Sidney’s Stella. The romance between these +lovers, “Astrophel and Stella,” never cooled. When Sidney learned of +Penelope’s marriage to “the rich Lord Rich,” he played with her new +name as follows: + + “Towards Aurora’s court a nymph doth dwell, + Rich in all beauties which man’s eye can see; + Beauties so far from reach of words that we + Abase her praise saying she doth excel: + Rich in those gifts which give the eternal crown; + Who, though most rich in these and every part + Which makes the patents of true worldly bliss, + Hath no misfortune but that Rich she is.” + +Lord Rich was created Earl of Warwick in 1618; but he had been divorced +from Lady Rich in 1605, thirteen years before he succeeded to this +title. On obtaining her divorce Lady Rich then married Charles Blount, +Earl of Devonshire and eighth Baron Mountjoy, who, in defense of his +marriage, wrote the following: + +“A lady of great birth and virtue being in the power of her friends, +was by them married against her will unto one against whom she did +protest at the very solemnity and ever after; between whom, from the +first day, there ensued continued discord, although the same fears that +forced her to marry constrained her to live with him. Instead of a +comforter, he did study in all things to torment her; and by fear and +fraud, did practice to deceive her of her dowry.” + +Sidney was always writing of Stella’s marvellous black eyes and their +shining rays: + + “When nature made her chief work, Stella’s eyes, + In color black, why wrapt she beams so bright? + Would she in beauty black, like painter wise, + Fame daintiest lustre, mixt of shades and light? + Or did she else that sober hue devise + In object best to knit and strength our sight; + Least, if no veil these brave gleams did disguise, + They, sunlike, should more dazzle than delight? + Or would she her miraculous power show, + That, whereas black seems Beauty’s contrary, + She even in black doth make all beauties flow? + Both so, and thus--she, minding Love should be + Placed even there, gave his this mourning weed + To honor all their deaths who for her bleed.” + +There is every reason, therefore, why the subject of this picture +should be so handsome, so distinguished, and so fascinating. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Jules S. Bache_ + + ROBERT RICH, EARL OF WARWICK + + --_Sir Anthony Van Dyck_] + +Robert Rich was born in 1587 and was admitted to Emmanuel College, +Cambridge, in 1603 and in that year was created a Knight of the Bath. +He was quite old enough to have remembered the exciting days of the +Essex conspiracy, the part his mother took in this, her imprisonment +and release, and his uncle’s execution in 1601. At the age of +twenty-three he was elected to Parliament and was again elected in +1614. In 1619 he succeeded to the title. + +Robert Rich was one of the original members of the Company for the +Plantation of the Bermudas in 1614 and was granted a seat on the +Council of the New England Company in 1620, which two great enterprises +connect this handsome lord with our own country. Also in 1624 Robert +Rich was made a member of the Council of the Virginia Government. Yet +this was not all. Warwick’s Colonial interests brought him into close +relation with the leading men of the Puritan Party and link his name +with the early history of the New England Colonies. He was closely +associated with the origin of Connecticut, for in 1632 he granted to +Lord Say, Lord Brooke, John Hampden, and others what is known as “the +old patent of Connecticut,” under which the town of Saybrook (named for +Lord Say and Lord Brooke) was founded. + +In English politics Warwick opposed the policy of Charles I and, +consequently, after the dissolution of the Short Parliament, he was +arrested by the King’s order. + +As temporal head of the Puritans and opposed to the party in the +Established Church led by Archbishop Laud, Warwick concurred in +the prosecution of Archbishop Laud and the Earl of Strafford. In +1643 Warwick was appointed Lord High Admiral of the Fleet, serving +Parliament in opposition to Charles I, and he bore the title of +Governor-in-Chief of all the islands and other plantations subject +to the English Crown, on which authority he became associated with +the founding of the Colony of Rhode Island. After the monarchy and +the House of Lords had both been swept away, the Earl of Warwick gave +his support and encouragement to Oliver Cromwell. The marriage of +Cromwell’s daughter to Warwick’s grandson proves the strength of the +friendship. The Earl of Warwick died on April 19, 1658, and was buried +at Felsted, Essex. He had been three times married. + +This picture, in oils on canvas (83 × 49 inches), belonged in the +Collection of the Marquess of Breadalbane, Taymouth Castle, Scotland, +and to the Collection of the Hon. Mrs. Robert Baillie-Hamilton, +Langton, Duns, Scotland. + + + QUEEN HENRIETTA MARIA WITH JEFFREY HUDSON AND A MONKEY. + + _Sir Anthony Van Dyck + (1599–1641)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. William Randolph Hearst._ + +This full-length portrait in oils on canvas (85¼ × 52 inches) was +painted in 1633, the year that Van Dyck was knighted and when he +had been about a year in the service of Charles I. Its pedigree is +interesting. The painting was in the possession of the Newports, Earls +Bradford of the first creation, and was left in 1762, on the death +of the fifth Earl, to his sister, Diana, Countess of Mountrath. From +the Countess of Mountrath it descended to her son, the last Earl of +Mountrath, and from him to the first Earl of Dorchester, of Milton +Abbey, where it remained until removed by the Earl of Portarlington to +Emo Park, Queen’s County, Ireland. In 1881 Thomas George, first Earl of +Northbrook, acquired it by exchange from the Earl of Portarlington; and +from the latter it was inherited by Francis George, the second Earl of +Northbrook, whence it came to the present owner. + +The Queen of Charles I, proud and handsome, is very French and Italian +in general style; for be it remembered that Henrietta Maria was the +daughter of the gallant King Henry of Navarre and his second wife, +Marie de’ Medici, and that she was, consequently, the sister of Louis +XIII (see page 176). + +The Queen has brown hair curled in “ringlets” and one “ringlet” falls +on her shoulder. Her face is oval and delicate and her eyes are brown. +She is standing at full length on a step with her head slightly turned +to the left, dressed in a blue silk gown (of the shade we now call +“Alice blue”), trimmed with narrow gold braid, and a large black felt +hat with a white plume, lace collar and a kerchief over her shoulders +with two pink bows in front. Beautifully painted frills of lace adorn +the elbow sleeves. With her left hand she touches a stiff fold in +her dress and with her right hand she caresses a little brown monkey +perched on the shoulder of Jeffrey Hudson, the famous dwarf. The little +dwarf is about thirteen years of age and is much under size. He has +light hair and the slightly wizened face that usually goes with this +kind of freak. Indeed our little Jeffrey looks not unlike the pictures +of the famous “Gen. Tom Thumb” of Barnum days in the mid-Nineteenth +Century. Jeffrey Hudson wears a suit of brick-dust red velvet, a lace +collar, and long, brown boots. + +In the background, to the left, there is a stone wall and upon it +a flower-pot holding an orange tree, and farther away we note some +trees and, still farther beyond, the sky. To the right of the fluted +pillar on the right, there is a sort of ledge or shelf covered with a +brilliant orange silk curtain on which rests a crown of gold studded +with pearls, which informs us of the presence of Royalty. + +Queen Henrietta Maria was born in 1609, the year before her father, +Henri IV, King of France, was assassinated. In 1624, when she was about +fifteen, the Prince of Wales offered marriage; and this was consented +to by her brother, Louis XIII, on condition that the English Roman +Catholics should be relieved from the enforcement of the penal laws. In +June, 1625, Henrietta Maria was married by proxy and went to England, +thus encumbered with political and religious pledges that were certain +to bring unpopularity upon everybody concerned. The Prince of Wales had +now become King of England and he soon found an excuse for breaking his +promise to relieve the English Roman Catholics. This course of action +offended the Queen deeply. The early years of Charles’s married life +were very unhappy and the favorite, the dashing Buckingham, fanned the +flames of the King’s discontent. After the assassination of Buckingham +in 1628, the King and Queen became deeply attached to each other; and +from that moment the bond of affection that united them was never +loosened. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. William Randolph Hearst_ + + QUEEN HENRIETTA MARIA WITH JEFFREY HUDSON AND A MONKEY + + --_Sir Anthony Van Dyck_] + +For a number of years Henrietta Maria’s chief interests lay with her +young family. Her children were: Charles II (born 1630); Mary, Princess +of Orange (born 1631); James, Duke of York, afterwards James II, (born +1633); Elizabeth (born 1636); Henry, Duke of Gloucester (born 1640); +and Henrietta, Duchesse d’Orléans (born 1644). The Queen also delighted +in the amusements of the gay and brilliant Court. With political +matters she had nothing to do until 1637, when she opened a diplomatic +communication with the See of Rome, to help her co-religionists. She +appointed an agent to reside in Rome and Rome sent to her a Papal agent +(a Scotchman named George Conn), who soon made many converts among the +English nobility and gentry. + +Protestant England took alarm and, therefore, the Queen became very +unpopular. When the Scottish troubles broke out Queen Henrietta Maria +raised money from her fellow Catholics to support the King’s army on +the Borders in 1639; and in 1640, during the sitting of the Short +Parliament, the Queen urged her husband to oppose himself to the House +of Commons in defence of the Catholics. When the Long Parliament met, +the Catholics were believed to be the authors and agents of every +arbitrary scheme supposed to have entered into the plans of Strafford +or Laud. During the Long Parliament Henrietta Maria urged the Pope to +lend money to enable her to restore her husband’s authority and she +threw herself heart and soul into the schemes for rescuing Strafford +and coercing Parliament. The Army Plot, the schemes for using Scotland +against England, and the attempt upon the five members--Pym, Hampden, +Haselrig, Hoiles, and Strode--were the fruits of her political activity. + +Next the Queen effected her passage to the Continent and in February, +1643, she returned and, landing at Burlington Quay, placed herself at +the head of a band of Loyalists and marched through England to join +the King near Oxford. After little more than a residence there of a +year, on the 3d of April, 1644, she parted from her husband to see his +face no more; but as long as Charles I was alive she never ceased to +encourage him to resistance. Henrietta Maria found refuge in France, +for Richelieu was then dead and Anne of Austria proved compassionate, +yet she had much to suffer in her exile. The execution of her +husband was a terrible distress. There is a story with some truth +that she married her equerry, Lord Jermyn, which may account for the +estrangement of her children. + +When Henrietta Maria returned to England after the Restoration, she +found that she had no place in the new Court. Parliament gave her a +grant of £30,000 a year in compensation for the loss of her dower-lands +and her son, Charles II, added a similar sum as a pension from himself. +In January, 1661, Henrietta returned to France to be present at the +marriage of her daughter, Henrietta, to the Duc d’Orléans, but in July, +1662, she was back in England, taking up her residence at Somerset +House. Three years later she returned to France and died at Colombes, +near Paris, in 1666. + +The other personage in this double portrait, Jeffrey Hudson, was born +at Oakham, Rutland, in 1619. His father was a butcher, who kept and +baited bulls for George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham. Neither +of his parents was undersized. When he was nine years old his father +carried Jeffrey to Burleigh-on-the-Hill and offered him to the Duchess +of Buckingham, who took him into her service. At that time he was +scarcely eighteen inches in height and, if we may believe Fuller, +“without any deformity, wholly proportioned.” + +Shortly afterwards Charles I and Henrietta Maria passed through Rutland +and the Duke of Buckingham gave a dinner in their honor. During one of +the courses an enormous pie[22] was served; and when it was cut, out +jumped Jeffrey Hudson! The Queen was so delighted with the sprightly +little dwarf that she appropriated him at once and he became a Court +favorite. + +Jeffrey had a number of adventures. On one occasion, when he was sent +to France to procure a nurse for the Queen, the ship was captured on +the return voyage by a Flemish pirate and Jeffrey, the nurse, and the +Queen’s dancing-master were all taken to Dunkirk. Then Jeffrey also +saw some military service. When the Prince of Orange besieged Breda in +1637, “Strenuous Jeffrey” was in the Prince’s camp in company with the +Earl of Warwick (see page 187) and the Earl of Northampton, who were +volunteers in the Dutch Service. + +During the Civil Wars Jeffrey Hudson is said to have been a Captain of +the Horse. It is certain that he followed the Queen, for he was with +her in the flight to Pendennis Castle, in June, 1644, and he went with +her to Paris. “He was,” says Fuller, “though a dwarf, no dastard”; and, +accordingly, when insulted by Crofts at Paris in 1649, he shot him dead +with a pistol in a duel. Crofts had rashly armed himself only with a +squirt. In consequence of this, Jeffrey had to leave Paris, although +Henrietta Maria saved him from imprisonment, which, however, he had +frequently experienced. At sea Jeffrey was captured by a Turkish rover, +carried to Barbary, and sold as a slave. His miseries, according to +his own account, made him grow taller. Jeffrey managed to get back to +England about 1658, at which time Heath addressed some lines to him in +his _Clarastella_. + +After the Restoration, Jeffrey Hudson lived quietly in the country for +some time on a pension subscribed by the Duke of Buckingham and others; +but, on coming up to London to push his fortunes at Court, he, being a +Roman Catholic, was suspected of complicity in the Popish Plot (1679) +and was confined in the Gatehouse at Westminster. + +In June, 1680, and April, 1681, “Captain Jeffrey Hudson” received +respectively £50 and £20 from Charles II’s secret service fund. Jeffrey +Hudson died in 1682. + +Accounts of his height vary, but, according to his own statement (as +made to Wright, the historian of Rutland), after reaching the age of +seven, when he was eighteen inches high, he did not grow at all until +he was thirty, when he shot up three feet, six or nine. Hudson’s +waistcoat, breeches, and stockings are preserved in the Ashmolean +Museum, Oxford. + + + + + DUTCH PAINTING + + + + + _DUTCH PAINTING_ + + +It is not until we come to the Seventeenth Century that Painting in +that part of the Spanish and Austrian Netherlands now known as Holland +took on the national character of the Dutch race. The new political +and economic views inculcated by the States-General, and even more +particularly through the bias of the Protestant faith, produced an +entirely new kind of painting. The sacred subjects inspired by the +Roman Catholic religion, as well as the mythological and historical +subjects (made so popular by Rubens) were rejected for more prosaic +and literal interpretations of Biblical stories; for representations +of popular heroes in the late wars that overthrew Spanish tyranny; for +portrait groups of civic dignitaries, such as Regents and Presidents +of guild-halls, shooting-galleries, hospitals and other charitable +institutions (known as “_Regent_” and “_Doelen_” pictures); and +for those domestic scenes and social parties called “_Conversation +Pieces_,” in which are mirrored the Dutch home and its simple +pleasures with detailed representation of furniture, rugs, china, +glass, brass-ware, musical instruments, birds, animals, food, fruit, +and flowers. Landscapes and marines were also in harmony with the new +choice of subject, and, of course, portraiture of the most realistic +kind. + +This matter-of-fact art was given a somewhat “romantic” quality +by the extraordinary treatment of dark masses of shadow and of +sunlight effects and also by a fine use of color. Artists have always +appreciated these characteristics, agreeing with Sir Joshua Reynolds, +who wrote after his visit to the Netherlands: + +“A market-woman with a hare in her hand, a man blowing a trumpet, or +a boy blowing bubbles, a view of the inside or outside of a church, +are the subjects of some of their most valuable pictures; but there +is still entertainment, even in such pictures--however uninteresting +their subjects, there is some pleasure in the contemplation of the +imitation. But to a painter they afford likewise instruction in his +profession; here he may learn the art of coloring and composition, a +skillful management of light and shade and indeed all the mechanical +parts of the art as well as in any other School whatever. + +“The same skill which is practised by Rubens and Titian in their large +works is here exhibited, though on a smaller scale. Painters should go +to the Dutch School to learn the art of painting as they would go to a +grammar-school to learn languages. They must go to Italy to learn the +higher branches of knowledge.” + +In the long list of great and noteworthy Dutch painters the two +greatest names are Rembrandt and Frans Hals. Rembrandt van Rijn +(1606–1669), a powerful giant, excelling in painting, etching, and +drawing, producing masterpiece after masterpiece and standing alone as +an interpreter of Bible stories, profound searcher for character in +portraiture, and dramatist in light and shade (see page 204). + +Frans Hals (1580?–1666), painter of portraits, corporations and +military companies, and characters of low life, with an uncanny +analysis of the eye and an uncanny technique to register surely and +rapidly what his eye saw, whose pictures, long neglected, are of high +value to-day (see page 220). + +Not far below Frans Hals and Rembrandt as a painter of great civic +group pictures comes Bartholomew van der Helst (1612–1670), whose +enormous _Civic Guard Banquet_, painted in 1648 in celebration of +the Peace of Münster, with its twenty-four life-size portraits, ranks +as one of the great pictures of the world. Van der Helst’s _Company +of Captain Roelof Bicker_, in the same gallery, with its thirty-two +portraits, is its equal although not quite so renowned. + +Dutch Painting, however, did not leap into being with Rembrandt, Frans +Hals, and Bartholomew van der Helst. There were Dutch Primitives, +as there were Flemish Primitives, and they are not always to be +distinguished from one another. The famous Hubert and Jan van Eyck, for +instance, are thought to have been natives of Maaseyck on the Maas and +Hans Memling is supposed to have been born in Memelynck, near Alkmaar. + +The greatest of the Dutch painters was Lucas van Leiden (1494-1533), +who knew Italian Art well and who was a follower of Albrecht +Dürer. Some of his paintings are very decorative and his chess and +card-players may almost be said to begin Dutch _genre_ painting, +brought to such perfection by the Little Dutch Masters. By the end of +the Fifteenth Century a great many Dutch painters had visited Italy; +some of them had studied there; and some of them had worked there. Jan +van Scorel (1495–1562), for instance, was kept in Rome for five years +by Pope Adrian VI, who was, himself, a native of Utrecht. + +Jan van Scorel was the master of Antonio Moro, or Antonis Mor +(1512–1577), who went to Rome, was admitted to the Guild of Painters +in Utrecht in 1547, and leaped into fame with a portrait of Cardinal +Granvella, who took Moro in his train to Brussels. Moro soon became +Court-Painter to the House of Hapsburg and travelled about to various +courts, painting portraits of Royalty. Michiel Jansz Mierevelt +(1567–1641), was portrait-painter to the House of Orange and Nassau and +his pupil, Paulus Moreelse (1571–1638), a native of Utrecht, was hardly +less popular. The greatest painter of Corporation Pictures before Frans +Hals was Jan van Ravensteyn (1572–1657). + +The early Dutch landscape-painters travelled to Italy, Switzerland, +and even Norway; but none of them acquired the reputation of two +Dutchmen who found inspiration at home. Jan van Goyen (1596–1656), +and Jan Wynants (1620?–1682), were the first to take pleasure in +their own country. Van Goyen loved the water, the boats, the clouds, +the mist, and distant towns silhouetted against the sky. Wynants +showed the charm of the lonely walk that led through the dunes to the +sea. Wynants formed Adriaen van de Velde (1635–1672), who carried +landscape-painting so far that he comes very close to the Barbizon +School of the Nineteenth Century. Then there are two Dutch artists +who are doubly famous for their landscapes and animals: Aelbert Cuyp +(1620–1691), “the King of Dutch landscape-painters,” noted for his +golden light and elegant cavaliers riding fine horses; and Paul Potter +(1625–1654), known far and wide for his _Bull_, in the Hague Gallery, +painted when the artist was only twenty-two; but not so fine a work +as _La Vache qui se mire_ (_The Mirrored Cow_) in the same gallery. +Of these two pictures the French critic, Burger, wittily remarked: +“_La Vache qui se mire_ is a _chef-d’œuvre_ and not a _hors d’œuvre_, +like the _Bull_!” Supreme as landscape-painters stand Jacob Ruisdael +(1628–9–1682), who used as a rule a very dark green and who was able +to suggest immense perspectives in very small compass, also for his +harmonious relation of earth and sky, and Meindert Hobbema (1638–1709), +supposed to have been his pupil, and whose long neglected pictures of +long, straight roads beneath tall trees now bring high prices. + +Adriaen van Ostade (1610–1685), a pupil of Frans Hals, wandered about +the country finding material along the roads. Ostade often caught the +poetic side of a rustic scene and he had a commanding knowledge of +light. + +The Dutch, with their love of home and their simple pleasures, excelled +in depicting scenes of intimate life, “_Conversation Pieces_,” and +_genre_. The list of these worthy painters is long. A few, however, +stand out prominently,--Gerard Dou, Gerard Terborch, Jan Steen, Pieter +de Hoogh, Jan Vermeer of Delft, Gabriel Metsu, Nicholas Maes, and +Frans van Mieris--all painters of the Seventeenth Century, portraying +life as they saw it around them, according to the class in which they +moved. Terborch, Metsu, and van Mieris showed ladies and gentlemen, +beautifully dressed, enjoying music, or playing cards, or having +a light afternoon repast, or writing letters, or making love, or +talking in the garden, or sitting quietly in a comfortably furnished +room; Jan Steen depicted feasts, merry-making, weddings, St. Nicholas +celebrations, tavern-scenes, drunken brawls and quack doctors; and +Gerard Dou produced simple scenes in the home where servants are +at work and mothers sit by the cradle, and sometimes scenes by +candle-light with strange reflections, for Gerard Dou was a pupil of +Rembrandt and liked to play tricks with _chiaroscuro_. Another painter, +who was a magician with light, is Jan Vermeer of Delft (1632–1675), who +was a pupil of Rembrandt’s pupil, Carel Fabritius, and whose pictures +are rare and famous (see page 228). Still another artist, remarkable +for his knowledge of the complex problems of light, is Pieter de +Hoogh or Hooch (1629–1677?), hardly less remarkable for his solid and +splendid rendering of architecture, exterior as well as interior (see +page 226). + +Moreover, the Dutch excelled in two other _genres_,--birds and flowers. +Melchior d’Hondecoeter (1636–1695), caught all the beauties of the +feathered world and had an insight into its society. _The Floating +Feather_, in the Rijk’s Museum, is very celebrated. Burger delightfully +wrote of it: + +“No one has painted better than Hondecoeter the cocks and hens, +ducks and drakes, and particularly little chicks and ducklings. He +has understood such families as the Italians have the mystical Holy +Family; he has expressed the motherhood of the hen as Raphael has the +motherhood of the Madonna. In fact, the subject is more naturally +treated because it has less sublimity. Hondecoeter gives us here a +mother-hen who could face the _Madonna of the Chair_. She bends +over with solicitude with outspread wings, beneath which peep the +excited heads of the little chickens; while on her back is perched the +privileged _bambino_--she does not dare move,--the good mother!” + +Melchior d’Hondecoeter was taught by Jan Baptiste Weenix (1621?–1660), +painter of dead game, and teacher of his son, Jan Weenix (1640–1719), +who often arranged his dead game around the base of a large urn in a +private park. + +Of fruits and flowers--important subjects in Holland--come the two +de Heems, father and son, Jan Davidsz de Heem (1606–1684), the first +Dutchman to excel with fruit; Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750), painter of +flowers, fruits, bouquets with butterflies and moths fluttering about, +old logs and tree stumps in the forest, and deserted birds’ nests. +Jan van Huysum (1682–1749) “the Correggio of fruits and flowers,” was +famed for his skill in depicting a transparent dewdrop trickling down a +satiny petal; and Abraham Mignon (1640–1679), pupil of Jan Davidsz de +Heem was a brilliant painter of flowers, fruits, butterflies, insects, +and dewdrops. + +With Cornelis Troost (1697–1750), called “the Dutch Hogarth,” because +of his familiar scenes of comedy, the Decadence begins; and Dutch +Painting ceased to be interesting until the middle of the Nineteenth +Century. + + + THE STANDARD BEARER. + + _Rembrandt van Rijn + (1606–1669)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Jules S. Bache._ + +This picture, oils on canvas (55 × 45½ inches), has the distinction +of having belonged to Sir Joshua Reynolds and, after him, to the +Earl of Warwick at Warwick Castle. It is signed on the left at the +bottom, “Rembrandt fe 1654.” Consequently it was painted the same +year as the famous _Burgomaster Jan Six_. The person has never +been identified; but it is supposed that he was the standard-bearer +of one of the Amsterdam Shooting Companies. The man is life-size, +three-quarter length, with full light falling from the left foreground +upon the whole figure. A grey wall with a rusticated pillar at the +right forms the background from which the elderly Standard Bearer +stands out boldly. He wears a dark-brown coat with gold buttons, a dark +bluish green sash, and a rich gold-embroidered sword-belt crossing the +chest from the right shoulder. A black hat with a large white plume +covers his grey hair, but does not hide his face. In his gloved left +hand he carries a red and yellow banner bearing the Arms of the City +of Amsterdam and he holds a glove in his right hand. The picture is +rich in color and fine in its illumination. From the Earl of Warwick it +passed through the Collections of Mr. Charles Sedelmeyer of Paris, Mr. +Charles J. Wertheimer of London, and Mr. George J. Gould of New York +into that of its present owner. + +Rembrandt van Rijn was born in Leiden in 1606, the son of a miller, who +sent him to the Leiden University. Young Rembrandt, however, preferred +painting and for three years studied under Jacob van Swanenburch, +a Leiden painter, who had studied in Italy. Rembrandt had painted +a good many pictures before he removed to Amsterdam at the age of +twenty-three. He soon became famous in Amsterdam. From the year 1633 +the face of a good-natured, buxom young woman, Saskia van Ulenburgh, +daughter of a Friesland lawyer, appears on his canvases. In 1634 +Rembrandt married Saskia; and Fortune smiled thereafter on everything +he did. His orders made him rich and he had a splendid home, filled +with collections of many kinds, including antique busts, costumes, +curios, and paintings. At this period Rembrandt loved to dress Saskia +and himself in fantastic array and paint gay and somewhat theatrical +portraits of themselves. + + [Illustration: + + Collection of Mr. Jules S. Bache + + THE STANDARD BEARER + + --_Rembrandt van Rijn_] + +Who does not know the famous picture of Saskia seated on Rembrandt’s +knee in the Dresden Gallery, the artist clasping his wife’s waist +with his left hand and brandishing in his right hand a long glass of +sparkling wine, before them a table covered with an Oriental rug on +which is a pastry surmounted by a peacock? + +Not so familiar but more beautiful is the portrait in the Hermitage of +_Saskia_ dressed as a fanciful shepherdess with a mantle of pale +green thrown over her white brocaded gown, in her hand a flower-twined +crook, and on her head a heavy, thick wreath of ranunculus, anemones, +iris, columbine, and striped red and white tulips. “Innocent and +engaging in her brilliant draperies and gaily tinted flowers,” says +Emile Michel, “she stands a graceful apparition, the light falling full +upon her. Spring itself seems to be singing a paean of love and poetry +from the master’s palette, at the dawn of that year which was to bring +about the propitious union.” + +Rembrandt’s life changed entirely after Saskia’s death in 1642, which, +by the way, was the year he painted his most famous picture, _The Night +Watch_ (in the Rijks Museum), more properly called _The Sortie of the +Company of Captain Banning Cock_. + +Rembrandt became bankrupt in 1656 and his collections of antiques +and paintings were sold for a mere 5000 florins! In the following +year his house and collection of engravings came also to the hammer. +Thenceforward Rembrandt lived with his son, Titus, in a modest dwelling +in the Rozengracht, attended by his servant, Hendrickje Stoffels +(his reputed wife) until the latter’s death in 1664. The close of +Rembrandt’s life in 1669 found him poor, but as industrious as ever. +Rembrandt is said to have painted about 550 pictures and to have made +more than 250 etchings and 1500 drawings. + +The Hague is the place to see the great works of Rembrandt’s early +period, such as _The Anatomy Lesson_, the _Presentation in the Temple_ +or _Simeon in the Temple_, and several portraits of himself and +others; and the Rijks Museum has the great productions of his middle +and last period, including _The Syndics_ and _The Night Watch_. + +Apart from his individual and amazing portrayal of shadows and light +effects, Rembrandt stands alone as the interpreter of the Bible story. +In portraiture he is profoundly searching; and no one ever painted more +forcible self-portraits than Rembrandt van Rijn. + +Of all the qualities that Rembrandt possesses the most striking one is +understanding of light and shadow. Fromentin very aptly defines this +Rembrandtesque _chiaroscuro_ in his _Maîtres d’autrefois_ (Paris, 1876): + +“To envelop and immerse everything in a bath of shadow; to plunge +light itself into it only to withdraw it afterwards in order to make +it appear more distant and radiant; to make dark waves revolve around +illuminated centres, grading them, sounding them, thickening them; to +make the obscurity nevertheless transparent, the half gloom easy to +pierce, and, finally, to give a kind of permeability to the strongest +colors that prevents their becoming blackness,--this is the prime +condition and the difficulties of this very special art. It goes +without saying that if any one ever excelled in this it was Rembrandt.” + + + PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG OFFICER. + + _Rembrandt van Rijn + (1606–1669)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. A. W. Erickson._ + +This picture signed lower right, “Rembrandt f. 1636” is painted on +a panel, 20 × 25⅞ inches. It is one of Rembrandt’s finest and most +pleasing portraits. With masterly skill the artist has painted the +light in the eyes and the fine lines and texture of the lips. + +The subject is supposed to be François Copal, the brother-in-law of +Saskia van Ulenburgh, Rembrandt’s wife, and there is abundant evidence +in support of the theory. Dr. Bode in his _Rembrandt_ notes: + +“There is a pair of portraits in the Liechtenstein Gallery at Vienna, +dated 1636, of a _Young Officer with Thick Black Hair and His Wife_, in +costumes like those in which Rembrandt painted Saskia and himself. The +young couple here represented was probably closely connected with the +artist and his bride. The husband, whose features are regular, almost +handsome, and who has a slight moustache wears a steel gorget and a +small gaily-colored neck cloth over his finely plaited silk shirt, a +greenish blue cloak hangs from his right shoulder, and his gloved hand +rests on the hilt of his sword. + +“Portraits of the artist himself and of his relations and friends, +are nearly all executed with as much care as the numerous portraits +of other persons painted to order at this time. Some few may have +been presents to friends and relations; but the majority produced at +this period (1633–1635), and that immediately following it were very +probably commissions from friends and patrons of the master, the most +renowned artist in Holland whose name was soon to be associated with +those of the greatest painters in Europe. These pictures had a special +attraction over and above their interest as portraits, by virtue of the +highly individual costume and conception which add so much to their +picturesque effect.” + +Dr. W. R. Valentiner, also believing this to be a likeness of Saskia’s +brother-in-law, says: + +“The portrait of a cavalier, possibly François Copal, is one of the +most imposing and impressive of the portraits which Rembrandt painted +in the middle of the thirties, at the time when he was approaching +the height of his fame as a portrait-painter at Amsterdam. Among +the considerable number of portraits which the artist painted to +order during these years, the present one (and a companion piece +in the Liechtenstein Gallery, Vienna) stand out through the vivid, +passionate expression and the personal touch which undoubtedly reflects +the artist’s own mood. At no time Rembrandt expresses so much of a +youthful, almost wild, temperament in his compositions, at no time +he endeavors to give to them such an overpowering force and such an +intense, almost sensuous feeling of life, as in these stormy years of +his first successes at Amsterdam, which were accompanied by a happy +marriage, by social connections, by acquiring riches and almost luxury. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. A. W. Erickson_ + + PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG OFFICER + + --_Rembrandt van Rijn_] + +“Something of young Samson, of whom the artist was so fond in these +years, we feel also in the portrait of a handsome cavalier. We feel +the lion’s force behind those glowing, piercing eyes, behind the +energetic chin and cheek bones, and the exuberantly flowing, broad +waves of the bushy, dark hair remind us of a lion’s mane. + +“We easily recognize in Rembrandt’s work those portraits of which the +sitters were strangers to him. The present one, in which he put so +much of his own self, as he did only with friend’s portraits, does +not belong to these. He has ornated the young cavalier with a costume +which appealed to his imagination, the details of which we know from +portraits of persons in his surroundings and self-portraits: the +breast-plate, the colored scarf around the neck, the golden chain with +medal-lion, the green velvet mantle with gold-embroidered border. On +the companion-piece, on the other hand, the lady wears a costume and +pieces of jewelry which we find also in Saskia’s portraits. + +“Strange to say, the female figure itself has so much likeness to +Saskia that we would be tempted to believe it to be a portrait of her, +if there was not the portrait of the cavalier as the companion-picture +preventing us from this supposition. But we know that Saskia had a +sister, Titia, who visited the Rembrandt family frequently within +these years (a portrait-sketch, a pen-drawing made of her in 1639 by +Rembrandt is in the Stockholm Museum). She and her husband François +Copal, were witnesses at the baptism of Saskia’s first children. We +know also a portrait of François Copal’s brother, Antoni, in the +Rothschild Collection, Vienna, which Rembrandt painted in 1635. The +sitter of this portrait undoubtedly has a resemblance to the gentleman +in our picture, almost as much as the companion-piece resembles Saskia. +Is thus the theory too bold that the present portrait represents +François Copal and the companion-piece at Vienna, Titia, his wife?” + +The portrait came to the present owner, Mr. Erickson, directly from +the famous Liechtenstein Collection, Vienna, purchased by Prince +Liechtenstein from the Marchesa Incontri, Florence. Previously the +picture had been in the Collections of the Comte Koucheleff Besborodko, +Paris; the Duc de Choiseul Praslin, Paris (1793), and B. da Costa, The +Hague (1752). + + + AN OLD LADY SEATED IN AN ARMCHAIR. + + _Rembrandt van Rijn + (1606–1669)._ + + _Collection of the + Hon. Andrew W. Mellon._ + +This splendid portrait, oils on canvas (42½ × 35½ inches), takes rank +with Rembrandt’s famous study of _Elizabeth Bas_, widow of Admiral +Swartenhout, in the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam. It is three-quarters +length, life-size, and signed on the left “Rembrandt F. 1643.” The +subject is seated in an arm-chair of red leather with her head turned +slightly to the left and she is looking in the same direction. She +wears a black costume with a tightly fitting jacket lined with fur, a +large flat, round, and gauffered ruff, and a flat, dark velvet cap. Her +arms rest easily on the arms of the chair and in the right hand she is +holding her eyeglasses, while the fingers of her left hand are placed +between the leaves of a large book--presumably a Bible, with silver +clasps and gilt edges,--a marvellous piece of still-life painting. The +background is dark of the brownish Rembrandt tone and the light falls +from the left upon the face of the sitter and upon her large ruff. Dr. +Bode, in speaking of the lighting of this remarkable portrait, says: +“A strong light falls on the broad, gauffered ruff and is reflected +on the more softly illuminated face; another ray of light touches the +hands with their small white cuffs. The dull red of the chair-back, the +subdued glint of the gold edges and silver clasps of the book relieve +the blackish tone of the picture almost imperceptibly. It takes a +special place among Rembrandt’s portraits by reason of its peculiarly +distinguished harmony. In arrangement and illumination it stands midway +between the St. Petersburg _Portrait of the Old Woman_ and the +numerous studies of old women painted between 1650 and 1660.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the Hon. Andrew W. Mellon_ + + AN OLD LADY SEATED IN AN ARMCHAIR + + --_Rembrandt van Rijn_] + +The picture was sold in Amsterdam in 1764 and has passed through the +Collections of J. van der March, Amsterdam, 1773; M. Thelluson, Paris, +1777; an anonymous Parisian collection, 1788; M. C. A. de Calonne, +London, 1795; Mr. J. Allmutt, London, 1863; and M. Louis Lebeuf de +Montsgermont, Paris. + + + SIMEON AND MARY PRESENTING THE INFANT CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE. + + _Rembrandt van Rijn + (1606–1669)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Nils B. Hersloff._ + +This picture is interesting for two reasons. One, that it belonged to +Horace Walpole and hung for many years in _Strawberry Hill_; and +the other, that it is a recently discovered Rembrandt. + +It would seem from the present documents that the picture is not many +stages away from the painter’s studio. In a case like this, it is best +to tell the story of the identification of this _Strawberry Hill_ +picture with the Rembrandt studio picture in the words of those most +concerned in the matter. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Nils B. Hersloff_ + + SIMEON AND MARY PRESENTING THE INFANT CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE + + --_Rembrandt van Rijn_] + +But first let us read the interesting analysis written by the +Rembrandt specialist, Dr. Jan Veth, author of the _Life and Art of +Rembrandt_, published on the commemoration of the 300th anniversary +of his birth. This essay is dated Amsterdam, August 2, 1916, when this +picture from the Walpole Collection was discovered and sent to Holland. + +Dr. Veth speaking: + +“A rather large-sized picture, about 39½ × 31½ inches, has recently +been imported from England, a picture which one recognized without any +difficulty as being a late work by Rembrandt. This unknown work was +at first thought to be in a rather dilapidated condition. Evidently +long ago it had been relined by an unskilled hand, leaving the canvas +badly wrinkled in places. These have been easily removed, the picture +slightly restored and apart from a few local blemishes (nowhere +occurring in the vital parts) the beautifully crackled and original +coat of paint appears unimpaired. Many a museum piece giving the +impression of being in a perfect state of preservation is, in reality, +much less intact than this Rembrandt. + +“The figure of Simeon in the picture reminds us to a certain extent +of the figure of _Homer_ in the Collection of Dr. Bredius, but the +handling of the paint is more certain, the head firmer and more +plastic. In his later period, where his old men bear so much of a +resemblance to each other, it was not necessary that Rembrandt should +always use the same models. The character, however, of this Simeon +is akin to that of _St. Matthew_ in the Louvre, to the father in the +_Prodigal Son_ in Petrograd, to the man behind _Pilate_ in the picture +in New York, Altman Collection, and to the _Haman_ in the Collection of +the King of Roumania. + +“For the rest, the peculiar expression of Simeon’s rugged and full +bearded countenance can be traced quite easily in that dark, majestic +etching of the _Presentation in the Temple_ with the exception that the +head in the etching leans slightly more backward. Simeon’s expression +depicts in a striking manner the decrepit old man to whom the divine +revelation was made, and who, after walking into the Temple, seeing the +Child and taking Him into his arms, said: ‘Lord, now lettest Thou Thy +servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: For mine eyes have seen +Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people: +A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people, Israel.’ +Luke II, 29–32. + +“The hermit-like old man wears a wide gold-colored leather mantle. Full +of devotion he is holding the Christ Child, without touching Him with +his long and stiffened hands. + +“The little face appears foreshortened and recalls to one’s mind the +strange drawing of the uplifted face of the young Jesus where he walks +between his parents in that remarkable etching of the _Return from the +Temple_. Close to Simeon and behind, stands Mary, the inclination of +the head and attitude identical with the Virgin in the etching of the +_Presentation_. Over her head she wears a wide, drooping hood, and the +greater part of her face--a face of no ordinary maternity and with +something of the grandeur so characteristic in Mantegna’s Madonnas--is +deeply enveloped in shadows. In contrast with the bronze-like, warm +color of the ancient man, she appears cool in tone, the neck only +illuminated like enamel against the sombre purple of her frock. + +“The group is composed without any additional accessory to distract +or allure the spectator, being placed against a background deep and +sombre, a great and connected whole. Throughout, the handling of the +paint is full and direct without any small or useless accents, a great +design treated like sculpture. The stronger colors of brown and red are +dissolved in a sombre tone of bronze and with that singular mixture of +smothered lights and cave-like half-tones and shadows which give the +true expression of the quiet and pathetic event. + +“Out of the whole tonality emerges first the powerful head of the old +Seer, then the suppressed light of the strange Infant, and finally the +beautiful sibyl-like Mary. The picture is full of that inner power +of expression which Millet would have admired and Israels would have +revelled in. + +“In Holland we can point to more complete, perhaps more pompous and +more brilliant, Rembrandts, but a picture by the master of such +wonderful simplicity and at once of such great eloquence we hardly know +of in this country.” + +Turning to the Dutch records we learn the following: + +“The desire to obtain the minutest detail of information about +Rembrandt’s life and works, and perhaps with a wish to discover some +allusion to his pictures, has led such men as Dr. Bredius to search +among the old Dutch archives for records of ancient deeds in the +registries of Amsterdam and near-by towns and villages. This has been +no light task, for besides the numberless documents to be examined, +the difficulties of deciphering the curious legal language used in +the Seventeenth Century had to be combatted. Dr. Bredius’s efforts, +however, were rewarded, when, about ten years ago he discovered an +ancient deed relating directly to a painting by Rembrandt, and dated +May 12, 1671 (two years after his death), signed before a notary named +J. De Winter of Amsterdam. The document so unearthed threw light upon +a picture entitled _Simeon_, of which no record had up to the time of +Dr. Bredius’s discovery, been known. Dr. Bredius deemed the subject so +interesting that he wrote an article dealing with _The Last Year of +Rembrandt’s Life_, which appeared in _Oud-Holland_ in 1909.” + +Now we go to the number of _Oud-Holland_ and take this extract. + +Dr. Bredius speaking: + +“Although we have learned much of the last years of Rembrandt’s life, +of the very last and perhaps the saddest year of that rich life, we +have learned little up to the present time. Only one work, that of +his own portrait in the collection of Sir Audley Neeld in Griffleton +House, seems to bear the date of 1669. We have no other picture and no +etching, and in this portrait the master appears so feeble that we had +begun to believe that Rembrandt worked but little in the last year of +his life. + +“That he was, however, still working and planned to do some etchings +and also that there was a picture on his easel shortly before he died, +is proven by an old deed I have recently discovered. Short as this may +be, it nevertheless gives us much important information. Among other +things it is new to us _that Rembrandt was working up to the time of +his death_, and that Dirck van Cattenburch, a gentleman dealer with +his brother, Otto, as far back as 1654, had business connections with +Rembrandt. And here we see the aged master, as often happened and still +happens with artists, more or less in the hands of the Art-dealer, who +pays for the work before it is finished. + +“Perhaps Rembrandt really considered his _Simeon_ a finished picture, +but the buyers probably did not, and looked upon his broadly painted +canvases of his latest period as not being ‘entirely finished.’ We are +not acquainted with any _Simeon_ of his last period.[23] It is also +interesting to note from the deed that the artist planned to make a +series of etchings of the _Passion_, a subject which always attracted +him and of which he made some of his most wonderful plates. Deed: May +12, 1671, Appeared before me, Allart van Everdingen, age about fifty +years and Cornelius van Everdingen, age twenty-five years, both artists +living in this town, and on request of Dirck van Cattenburch, do hereby +declare that Allart van Everdingen, a few months before the death of +Rembrandt van Rijn, artist, had a conversation as to the settling of a +painting representing Simeon, painted by the aforesaid Rembrandt van +Rijn, not yet entirely finished, owned by Dirck van Cattenburch and +being in Rembrandt’s house. + +“That he, witness, went to see and examine the aforesaid picture in the +house of van Rijn, who told him at the time that the picture was owned +by said Dirck van Cattenburch. The aforesaid Cornelius van Everdingen +further declares that he went up to Rembrandt’s studio several times, +where, on each occasion, he saw and examined the said picture, +which was discussed by them, Rembrandt declaring that the picture +was owned by Dirck van Cattenburch. Also that Rembrandt had several +polished plates owned by Dirck van Cattenburch in order to engrave the +_Passion_. + + Signed Allart van Everdingen + Signed Cornelius van Everdingen.” + +“It is interesting to note that Allart van Everdingen was a well-known +painter of the time of Rembrandt and that he was born in 1612. He +excelled in painting rocky landscapes. He also executed sea-pieces and +storms with such surprising effect and spirit that his work entitled +him to the appellation, the ‘Salvator Rosa of the North.’ Allart van +Everdingen was also an etcher of repute and in this work there must +have existed a bond of sympathy between Rembrandt and himself. He +died in 1675, six years after the death of the master. His works are +represented in all the great museums. Cornelius van Everdingen, his +son, was also an artist, but not so universally known as his more +brilliant father.” + +Now then we turn to another Dutch authority to continue the story: + +“Dr. Bredius, by the remarkable discovery of the ancient deed, had +established the fact that a certain picture of _Simeon_ (always +identified in Art with _The Presentation in the Temple_) was in +Rembrandt’s studio a few months before his death. But what had become +of the picture there was nothing to show, none of the great biographers +of the artist has ever classified a work of this subject dating from +his last period. + +“And now commence the most interesting events connected with the +picture under consideration. Many inquiries were instituted. Dr. +Bredius, from his rich stock of material bearing upon the master, +searched exhaustively for some indication where the picture might be +found. The known and unknown private and public collections of Europe +and even America were examined through and through, until at last his +efforts were rewarded and nine years after the discovery of the deed +and his subsequent article, the picture was recognized and acclaimed as +the lost _Simeon_. + +“The painting was found in the collection of a nobleman in England, and +although it had lain neglected for centuries there could be no possible +doubt that it was the picture of _Simeon_ referred to in the deed. + +“This discovery occurred in the year 1916, at a time when the world was +in the midst of the Great War; but such was the importance of the find +that the masterpiece was sent at once to Holland, there to be admired +by all of the great Rembrandt authorities.” + +Critics have called attention to the fact that the _first_ important +picture painted by Rembrandt was _Simeon in the Temple_ which is now +in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, and which is also called _Presentation +in the Temple_. It is a little strange that the _last_ picture should +have been on the same subject. Yet any one can see they are by the same +hand. In the Hague picture it is beneath the high roof of a temple +that the Virgin and St. Joseph make the offering and present the Holy +Child to the Lord. Simeon, in a robe glittering with gold, holds the +Holy Child and the High Priest stands in front of the group, his hands +lifted in ecstasy. The latter’s robe of violet makes a beautiful note +of color which is carried through the lights and shadows and which +contrasts and harmonizes, too, with the Virgin’s dress of light blue. +In the vaporous distance persons are seen ascending and descending the +steps. All the light is concentrated on the central group and the cold, +mysterious depths of the vast fane are expressed with marvellous skill. + +_Homer Reciting his Poems_, also in the Hague Gallery, representing an +old man in a yellow robe, has the face of the _Strawberry Hill Simeon_ +and _Homer_ was painted in 1663. It could be possible that the same +model was used for _Homer_ and the _Strawberry Hill Simeon_. + +How did Horace Walpole get this Rembrandt? + +The information that we gain from the Catalogue of the _Strawberry +Hill_ Collection issued when Earl Waldegrave sold the contents of +_Strawberry Hill_ at Covent Garden in 1842 is rather tantalizing +than otherwise. + +The items read as follows. + +On Page XVII of prefatory remarks: + +“A Fine Rembrandt (No. 100) and a Nicholas Poussin adorn this end of +the chamber. Page 204. The great North Bed Chamber: No. 100. _The +Presentation in the Temple_, displaying all the power of light and +shade so peculiar to this great master, Rembrandt. + +“The above two pictures No. 99 and 100 were bought from a very old +gentlewoman for whose grandfather they had been painted, and till then +had never been taken out of their old black frames and are still in +their pure and genuine state.” + +Was the “very old gentlewoman” the grand-daughter of Dirck van +Cattenburch? + + + PORTRAIT OF AN OFFICER. + + _Frans Hals + (1580?–1666)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Henry Goldman._ + +The subject, which we might almost call a Dutch Falstaff, is seated +in a chair on the arm of which he rests his right elbow, while he +seems to be grasping a stick with his hand. The left hand is hidden. +Beneath his large grey felt hat with its wide turned-up brim a few +locks of straggly grey hair are visible. His doublet is of grey silk +with a dotted pattern (long anticipating the “Polka Dot” of the +early Nineteenth Century), a surcoat of buff leather, and a broad, +flat collar, trimmed with handsome and heavy lace, worn over a metal +breast-plate. The Officer looks directly at us with a half-humorous, +half-suspicious glance,--one of those characteristic Frans Hals’s +expressions. + +The picture, oils on canvas (32½ × 25¾) bears the monogram F. H. and +the words “Ætat 55. A. 1637.” It was sold from the Collection of Mr. J. +H. Töpfer in Amsterdam in 1841 and then it was in the Collection of Sir +Edgar Vincent (Lord d’Abercorn) at Esher. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Henry Goldman_ + + PORTRAIT OF AN OFFICER + + --_Frans Hals_] + +Frans Hals (1580?–1666), one of the greatest masters of painting, was +born in Antwerp, where his parents (natives of Haarlem, and of good +lineage), are supposed to have gone because of political disturbances +of the time. It seems that Hals was settled in Haarlem before 1591, +busily painting, and he lived there all the rest of his life. In +1637 he came under Rembrandt’s influence in Amsterdam. Hals’s life +was rather disgraceful and went from bad to worse until poverty and +comparative oblivion compelled him to accept charity. He died in +Haarlem in 1666, leaving a great many followers. The real life of the +man is to be found in such works as _The Laughing Cavalier_ in +the Wallace Collection and those vagabonds, lute-players, topers, and +other rascals that belong to the same class as Autolycus, Launcelot +Gobbo, Touchstone, Dogberry, Sir Toby Belch, Falstaff and our other +much-prized, although disreputable, Shakespearian low-comedy characters. + +Hals always accomplished his work by the greatest economy of means. A +few broad, rapid, and unhesitating strokes, or _swipes_, of the +brush, a dot here and there of light,--and that is all! + +Everything that Hals painted shows his dazzling genius, his astounding +instinct for striking effects, and his marvellous ability for catching +a likeness. Hals never worked out his ideas: he left no sketches, nor +studies. His extraordinary power of quick analysis with the eye and the +gift his hand had for expressing what his eye had seen, combined with a +rapid, sure, and skilled technique rank Hals as a master among masters. + +Moreover, he had a keen and gay humor. No painter has ever been able +like Hals to render the face in action and to fix forever, a rapid and +fleeting expression on canvas. He loved to catch and make permanent a +wink, a smile, a leer, or even hearty laughter. + +Frans Hals was a genius at portraiture. Those who have seen the large +number of Hals’s _Doelen_ pictures in the Town Hall of Haarlem, +each canvas containing from fourteen to twenty life-size portraits, +stand aghast at the power represented in just this one phase of his art. + +When we look upon these pictures we feel as if we were entering a +hall full of convivial officers, laughing, jesting and making merry +over their fine wines and choice food. They are richly dressed. Many +of them wear lace cuffs and ruffs and bright scarves. Flags flutter, +spears glitter, spurs and swords clink and rattle and flash in the +sunlight; and plumes on the large hats nod in the breeze, or with the +motions of these men’s bodies. Loud talk and bursts of laughter seem +to issue from the frames. These convivial men have fought against the +hated Spaniard and are ready “to trail a pike” again at any moment. A +gallant and a jovial crowd,--these Arquebusiers of St. George and St. +Andrew! + +The artist was commanded to paint each man accurately and according to +his rank in the Company; and Hals did more than fill his order,--he +made each and every man _live_. + + +THE LAUGHING MANDOLIN PLAYER. + + _Frans Hals + (1580–1666)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. John R. Thompson._ + +Here is a half-figure of a young man seated, turning his head towards +the spectator, and laughing merrily as he holds up a glass of wine in +his right hand. His mandolin is lying on the table beside him and his +left fingers close around its neck. He wears a dark cloak lined with +blue and a large black cap thrown carelessly at the side of his head +and his hair is unkempt and straggly. But what cares he? He has sung +his song and played his tune and has been rewarded well,--well enough, +indeed, to have a glass of good wine. So no wonder he laughs! Life is a +joke anyway--“So here’s to the company and thank you, gentlemen!” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. John R. Thompson_ + + THE LAUGHING MANDOLIN PLAYER + + --_Frans Hals_] + +The picture is an oil painting on panel (36 × 30 inches), and is signed +with the monogram F. H. + +The _Laughing Mandolin Player_ belonged to the Capello Collection, +Amsterdam, from which it was sold in 1767, and then it passed to Count +Bonde, Stockholm; to Jules Porges, Paris; to the late Baron Ferdinand +de Rothschild, Waddeston Manor, England; and to M. A. Veil-Picard, +Paris. + + + A MUSIC PARTY. + + _Pieter de Hoogh + (1629–1677?)._ + + _Collection of + Mrs. John N. Willys._ + +Here are six figures in the reception bedroom of a prosperous merchant +or citizen. The dominant note of the apartment is red. The floor +is paved with square blocks of marble. The primary interest of the +picture is in the group on the left, consisting of two fashionably +dressed gentlemen and an elegantly attired lady at a table over which +is spread an Oriental “table-carpet.” The lady, dressed in a scarlet +skirt, an old-gold overskirt and bodice and a deep white lace collar, +is looking at the spectator and singing from a piece of music which she +is holding in her left hand, her right being raised as if to beat time. +Standing near her and smilingly accompanying her in her song is a young +gentleman with long hair and wearing a white jacket and a broad-brimmed +hat. With his right hand he is holding a long funnel-shaped glass +partly filled with wine. Seated opposite and looking intently at the +lady is a middle-aged gentleman with long hair and yellow jacket, +holding a flageolet with both hands, and apparently waiting for the +note at which he may join in the accompaniment. On the table are the +flageolet player’s high-crowned hat with red feathers, an open book of +music and a glass. In the background are standing figures of a lady and +gentleman in conversation, and near-by is an attendant in brown dress +holding a wine-jar in his left hand and abstractedly looking out of the +window. In the background is a bed enclosed with curtains. Two windows +to left and right open on to a garden, a portion of which, adorned with +statues, is seen through an open doorway on the extreme right. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mrs. John N. Willys_ + + A MUSIC PARTY + + --_Pieter de Hoogh_] + +The picture, oil on a panel (24 × 28 inches), was formerly in the +Collections of Edmund Higginson of Saltmarshe Castle, England, 1846; +George H. Morland, Esq., London, a well-known amateur, a descendant of +George Morland, the artist, 1863; and Albert Levy, London, 1874. + +Pieter de Hoogh (or Hooch) is thought to have been born in Rotterdam. +Little is known of his life. He seems to have been a servant in his +early years employed by Justus de la Grange and to have lived in Delft, +in Leiden and in The Hague. In some way he learned to paint; some +authorities say he studied under Rembrandt’s pupil Carel Fabritius, +Houbraken says he was a fellow-student with Jacob Ochtevelt under +Nicholaes Berchem. In 1653 Pieter de Hoogh became a member of the +Guild of Painters in Delft and he married in that city and lived +there Until 1664. Next he is living in The Hague and after that in +Amsterdam. Pieter de Hoogh is ranked as one of the best of the “Little +Dutch Masters.” His pictures show a particularly fine mastery in the +action of light. He almost invariably opens a door in the background +leading into a garden or into an adjoining room. He groups his figures +interestingly and tells his simple story in paint graphically and +convincingly. His architecture is always remarkably fine and his +drawing is second to none. + +Pieter de Hoogh was neglected for many years, but to-day he is deeply +appreciated. Burger says he never saw any picture by de Hoogh that +was not of the first rank: “Sometimes he paints interiors--people are +playing cards, or having a family concert, or reading, or drinking, +or conversing. Sometimes he paints exteriors; and then the painter +introduces us to domestic occupations and the innocent recreations of +private life, as, for instance, a servant washing linen in a backyard, +or cleaning fish, or plucking fowl, or perhaps there are ladies and +their cavaliers playing at bowls in a garden with trim gravelled walks. + +“When he paints interiors this artist rarely neglects to show, on +the right or left, doors opening on a staircase or revealing a leafy +alley, or the trees along a quay, so that his pictures always seem to +be the antechamber of another picture. In this characteristic style of +de Hoogh when the interior of the apartment is moderately lighted the +sun shines outside. Pieter de Hoogh seems to have been in Rembrandt’s +secrets.” + + + THE LACE-MAKER. + + _Jan Vermeer + (1632–1675)._ + + _Collection of the + Hon. Andrew W. Mellon._ + +This delightful picture on panel (17¾ × 15½ inches) was only discovered +in 1926. On its exhibition at the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in 1926–1927 +in Berlin, Dr. Wilhelm Bode wrote: “I consider it a genuine, perfect, +and very characteristic work of Jan Vermeer of Delft. Not only has it +the true Vermeer charm as to the lighting and coloring, but at the +same time there is an extraordinary fascination in the expression of +the face, still half that of a child.” Dr. Max J. Friedländer also +pronounced it “a genuine and highly characteristic work by Vermeer of +Delft.” + +The young girl is seen at half-length with her head turned towards the +observer and her eyes looking straight out of the picture. She is busy +making lace on a pillow, or cushion, which is supported on a frame +with two upright posts. In her left hand she is holding a bobbin. Her +costume is a yellow jacket, or bodice, with broad white collar and +broad white cuffs. Her brown hair, arranged very simply, is adorned +with a tiny knot of blue ribbon. The handsome pear-shaped pearls in +her ears proclaim that she is in more than affluent circumstances and +that she is a young Dutch lady of some position, making lace for her +pleasure and not to earn a living. At her left elbow is a blue cushion +and a large pewter dish. + +_The Lace-Maker_ is in every way a picture of charm and one of the +most thoroughly attractive that Vermeer ever produced. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the Hon. Andrew W. Mellon_ + + THE LACE-MAKER + + --_Jan Vermeer_] + +When it came to light in 1926 it was cordially welcomed. Seymour +de Ricci published a long article under the title of _Le +Quarante-et-Unième Vermeer_ in the _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_ +(December, 1927), which says in part: + +“Seated, with her work on her knees and her bobbins in her hand, she +stops in her occupation for a moment to look at the spectator. On the +right, upon the corner of a table, covered with an Oriental rug, a flat +dish of pewter and a blue cushion ornamented with three rows of gold +braid and two gold tassels--that is the entire subject of the picture! + +“It needed the consummate art of a Vermeer to produce with this slender +material such a veritable _chef-d’œuvre_. Many painters would +doubtless have tried to place this fresh figure in a striking setting. +A Gerard Dou would have framed her in a window; a Metsu would have +surrounded her with furniture; and a Pieter de Hoogh would have felt +compelled to let us see through an open door into the next room, or +into a bright flower garden. The bolder and much greater painter, +Vermeer, places his model before a white wall, the plaster of which in +the course of two centuries has combined ivory reflections with the +pearly gray of clouds in springtime. Upon the clearness of this wall +this youthful figure stands out with striking clarity: the faint rosy +tints of the complexion, the whiteness of the broad flat collar and +cuffs and the bright yellow of the bodice form a scale of colors that +are juxtaposed with singular frankness and boldness. It is only in the +flesh tints that the painter allows himself to bring the model into +relief: in everything else he shows an affection for flat surfaces +and flat tints. His touch is so light that in places--noticeably in +the whites--each stroke of the brush has left its trace. The artist +has proceeded by circular blots juxtaposed, announcing therefore a +technique which certain French artists pretend to have discovered at +the end of the Nineteenth Century. + +“In everything here Vermeer the colorist takes precedence of Vermeer +the draughtsman. There is not a line in the entire picture,--nothing +but the juxtaposition of color-tones. A magnifying glass is impotent +to make us discover the bridge of the nose, the profile of the cheek +or the fingers. The eyebrows are barely indicated, the brown hair is +treated in large luminous masses, and even the bobbins which to the +naked eye seem to be drawn with such punctilious exactitude are merely +indicated, but with such correctness and such prodigious skillfulness +of touch that the illusion of the detail is most complete, even for the +instructed spectator. + +“In this charming composition, the greatest of Dutch colorists has +taken pleasure in playing the entire scale of his favorite colors. In +the brown masses of the hair he has placed a tiny blue ribbon, echoing +the large blue surface of the cushion. On the other hand, on this same +cushion three rows of dark yellow braid echo the bright ochre of the +bodice. In the very centre of the picture the cherry red of the little +smiling mouth throws a note more brilliant than the artist dared to +place on the rose cheeks of his model white with the reflections from +the large starched collar. All the lower part of the picture is in +deep half-light which is brightened by the red and blue tones of the +table-carpet and the luminous reflections of the pewter dish. The +curious observer will notice that the painter was not afraid to change +the centre of his composition towards the right, indifferent to the +traditions of its accepted place, just as he was to the methods of his +fore-runners with regard to the use of color. + +“It has been attempted more than once to elucidate the mystery of +the technical methods to which is due the incredible luminosity of +Vermeer’s pictures. It has even been thought that he painted on a +groundwork of some very bright color; but it has been correctly +remarked that such a groundwork--if he had employed it--would at +the end of two centuries have become visible under the painting and +would have necessarily assimilated the colors. Others have suggested +a preliminary preparation of water colors or gum. But, in truth, we +are perfectly ignorant of how this amazing and incontestable result +has been attained. This newly discovered picture reveals nothing to +us relative to Vermeer’s technique, and although the painting is so +lightly done and of so thin a coating, it has taken on its surface +something of the hardness and brilliance of porcelain; and fine +crackles have broken all through this suggesting the paste of porcelain. + +_The Lace-Maker_ was in the Collection of Harold R. Wright, Esq., +of London, before it passed to the Hon. Andrew W. Mellon. + +Jan Vermeer of Delft (1632–1675) was a pupil of Carel Fabritius, who +was a pupil of Rembrandt--consequently Vermeer had the best training. +Lemke’s eulogy is worth reading: + +“Vermeer was a painter of the light and sun school; and this was his +chief study--to catch and hold fast the moment. What Frans Hals did for +the physiognomy, grasping the flying moment in an incomparable manner +with winks, smiles, leers, gesticulation, etc., and fixing it in paint, +Vermeer as a landscape painter, delighted to do for the sunshine. He +shows its rays streaming into a room, or the play of light and shadow +when the light with the moving air falls through heavy foliage against +a bright house and paints it with rays of light and shade. Unlike the +moment of Rembrandt and Ruisdael, which is fixed for all eternity, with +Vermeer the moment vibrates in the light. The shadows lose their sharp +outlines and the fine brush-work suggests the living change and play +of the light. Rembrandt paints light in darkness and lets it glow in +the dark or streaming into it, or in a broad flood of brilliance; but +Vermeer prefers to set darkness or twilight against the light.” + + + + + GERMAN PAINTING + + + + + _GERMAN PAINTING_ + + +Painting reached its greatest development in Germany from the middle +of the Fifteenth to the middle of the Sixteenth Century during the +Renaissance and the Reformation. The dominating personalities were +Albrecht Dürer and Hans Holbein the Younger. + +The early German painters devoted their talents almost exclusively to +altar-pieces. The chief centres of activity were Cologne, Colmar, Ulm, +Nuremberg, and Augsburg. Cologne was the most important and had much +influence upon the neighboring Flemings. As early as the Thirteenth +Century Wolfram van Eschenbach, describing his handsome Knight in +_Parsifal_, declares that + + “From Koln nor from Maestricht + No limner could excel him.” + +The first important Cologne painter is Meister Wilhelm, first half of +the Fourteenth Century, followed by Meister Stephan Lochner (active +1430–1451), possibly his pupil, painter of the great altar-piece in +the Cologne Cathedral, the “_Dom-bild_”, which every painter tried to +see. Albrecht Dürer, for instance, wrote in his _Journal_: “Item. I +have paid two silver pennies to have the picture opened, which Meister +Stephan painted at Cologne.” + +Heine, many years later, sang of the wondrous eyes of the Madonna in +that picture in the Cologne Cathedral that reminded him of his beloved; +and the idea is most beautifully emphasized in the musical setting of +that little song by Robert Franz, who expresses in his accompaniment +all of the emotion aroused by the painting. + +The Cologne painters were much influenced by Roger van der Weyden, who +seems to have visited Cologne in 1450. Certainly Martin Schöngauer +(about 1445–1491) was a follower of Roger, if not a personal pupil. +Schöngauer is remarkable among other things for the weird and fantastic +creatures he frequently introduced into his pictures. Martin +Schöngauer, regarded as the precursor of Dürer, was much admired by the +Italian painters, who called him “_Il bel Martino_.” Michelangelo +is said to have copied in oils his celebrated print of _Saint Anthony +tormented by Demons_ and he was a friend of Perugino and exchanged +drawings with him. The two Germans of next importance were Bartholomäus +Zeitblom of Ulm (1450?–1521), who, like Martin, belongs to the Swabian +School, and Michael Wohlgemut (1434?–1519?), the leading spirit of the +Franconian School, who worked especially in the Nuremberg churches. + +In the picturesque town of Nuremberg, with its peaked gables, +overhanging balconies, and quaint façades, town of wood-carvers, +goldsmiths, and toy-makers, town of Hans Sachs and the Meistersinger, +the house of Dürer is still shown to tourists. + +Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), one of the giants in art, was supreme +master in wood-cuts, etchings, and drawings as well as in paintings. +Dürer, too, is one of the greatest portrait-painters (see page 237). + +In Augsburg, the leading commercial city of Southern Germany, +there were many wealthy art-lovers, such as the Fuggers, famous +merchant-princes of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. The leading +painter was Hans Holbein the Elder (1470?–1524), much influenced by +Martin Schöngauer and also by the Italians. He trained his gifted son, +Hans Holbein the Younger (1497–1543), who completely overshadowed him. +The latter went to Basle and eventually to London, where he became +Court-Painter to Henry VIII (see page 240). + +Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553), leader of the Saxon School, was a +contemporary of Dürer and Holbein, pupil of his father, and, in common +with most German artists, excelled as an engraver on wood and copper +and designer, as well as a painter. Cranach was Court-Painter to three +Saxon Electors (see page 251). + +Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515–1586) was a pupil of his father, but +was far below him in talent and performance. + + + PORTRAIT OF A MAN. + + _Albrecht Dürer + (1471–1528)._ + + _Collection of the + Hon. Andrew W. Mellon._ + +We should like to know--but we never shall--the name of the man who +looks so keenly from this picture (12¾ × 15⅝ inches). All that is +known of it is that it belonged to the Collection of Count Bonde, of +Stockholm, before it found its present home. + +Albrecht Dürer was a great painter of portraits. He began early. Indeed +the first authentic drawing by him is a portrait of himself at the age +of thirteen, which is preserved in the Albertina, Vienna. + +At all periods of his life, Dürer painted and drew portraits. To the +early Nuremberg period belongs _Frederic the Wise_, tempera on linen +(Berlin), and he painted a _Portrait of his Father_ in 1497 (of which +there are several versions). Then there is _Oswald Krell_ in the Munich +Gallery and a _Portrait of Himself_, a _Portrait of a Young Man_ at +Hampton Court Palace and the very famous _Hieronymus Holtzschuher_ in +Berlin. + +Dürer’s one idea was to give as exact a representation of the sitter as +possible; and if he painted character as well as the features, it was +because his penetrating eye saw directly through the person. There was +no conscious analysis or deep ponderings of any kind. Dürer simply saw +the person and painted him; and he painted him so well that we see him, +too, just the man he was. Dürer was like a camera; he depicted every +wrinkle and every hair with an amazing effect of reality and he caught +the personality as well. Nothing seems to have been hidden from his +eyesight and nothing seems to have been beyond the power of his brush. + +Albrecht Dürer was the son of a goldsmith of Hungarian origin who had +spent some time in the Netherlands. In 1455 he settled in Nuremberg, +where Albrecht was born in 1471, the third of eleven children. +His father intended him for a goldsmith, but, seeing his talent, +apprenticed him to Michael Wolgemuth to serve three years. Of this +period Dürer wrote: “God gave me diligence so that I learned well. And +when I had served my time, my father sent me away and I was absent four +years until my father needed me again; and I set out in 1490 after +Easter, so I returned in 1494 after Whitsuntide. And when I returned +home Hans Frey treated with my father and gave me his daughter, Agnes, +and he gave me with her two hundred florins; and the marriage was +celebrated on the Monday before St. Margaret’s Day in the year 1494.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the Hon. Andrew W. Mellon_ + + PORTRAIT OF A MAN + + --_Albrecht Dürer_] + +The story that Dürer’s wife was a shrew who led him an unhappy life is +now exploded. + +In 1505 Dürer went to Italy and spent some time in Venice, where +he painted for the Guild of German merchants and their Fondaco dei +Tedeschi, _The Feast of the Rosary_, which is now in the monastery of +Strahow near Prague. + +Returning to Nuremberg in 1507 Dürer painted some of his finest +altar-pieces. In 1511 he began his fine sets of wood-cuts and +etchings--the _Apocalypse_, the _Great Passion_, the _Little Passion_, +the _Life of the Virgin_ and _St. Jerome in his Study_. To this period +belongs the large altar-piece _Adoration of the Trinity_, in the +Belvedere at Vienna. In 1518 Dürer was in Augsburg and in 1520–1521 he +travelled in the Low Countries. Once back in Nuremberg, he seems to +have worked quietly and industriously until his death in 1528. + +In forming any estimate of Dürer it is essential to remember that +Dürer was a great expression and a great flowering of the German race. +Mrs. Heaton has well summed up his characteristics: “We do not find,” +she says, “in Dürer’s art the classic ideal of the perfection of +man’s physical nature, nor the spiritual ideal of the early religious +painters, nor the calm dignity and rich sensuous beauty of the +great masters of the Italian Renaissance, but in it we find a noble +expression of the German mind, with its high intellectual powers, +its daring speculative philosophy, its deep-seated reverence, its +patient laboriousness, and above all its strange love for the weird +and grotesque. Dürer was the companion of some of the most learned and +thoughtful men of his day. Luther and Melancthon were among the number +of his friends, and there is no doubt but the reforming spirit of the +age was powerfully at work within him, affecting his thought and art. +Melancthon bears testimony to his rare worth as a man by saying: ‘his +least merit was his art.’” + + + PRINCE EDWARD OF ENGLAND. + + _Hans Holbein the Younger + (1497–1543)._ + + _Collection of the + Hon. Andrew W. Mellon._ + +This portrait is one of the finest that Holbein ever painted. The +artist had every reason to do his best, for the picture was intended +as a New Year’s Gift to Henry VIII of his little son, the Prince of +Wales, who was nearly two years old. The King was so delighted with the +picture that he presented Holbein with a magnificent gold standing-cup +with cover. Prince Edward (who became Edward VI) was the son of Jane +Seymour, the third wife of Henry VIII, who only lived twelve days after +Prince Edward’s birth at Hampton Court Palace on October 12, 1537. +By the Peace Treaty of Scotland in 1543, it was arranged that Prince +Edward should marry Mary, Queen of Scots, at that time but a few months +old; but this came to nothing, owing to “the grasping greed” of Henry +VIII, whose ambition was to absorb the Crown of Scotland and whose +purpose was discovered by the patriotic Scotch. On the death of Henry +VIII in January 1547, the Prince of Wales succeeded to the throne and +was crowned on February 20, 1547, as Edward VI. Edward, on the point of +death, bequeathed the Crown in 1553 to Lady Jane Grey, daughter of his +cousin, Frances Grey, eldest daughter of Mary, the daughter of Henry +VII, and who was married to the son of the Duke of Northumberland. On +July 6, 1553, the young King Edward VI died and was buried the next day +in Henry VII’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey. + +The portrait in oil on a panel (21¾ × 17 inches) was painted in 1538. +The little prince is wearing a red and gold costume and red and gold +hat with white feather. The background is gold. + +His hands are marvellously painted, particularly the right, which is a +triumph of foreshortening. The left hand holds a silver rattle. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the Hon. Andrew W. Mellon_ + + PRINCE EDWARD OF ENGLAND + + --_Hans Holbein the Younger_] + +The Latin inscription painted at the base was written by Sir Richard +Morysin (who became English Ambassador to the Hanse towns in 1646 and +to the Court of the Emperor Charles V in 1550). The eulogy is addressed +to Henry VIII, through the child; and it is well for Edward VI that +he did not live to learn the verdict that time has passed upon this +Bluebeard of History. Translated it reads: + +“Little one, imitate thy father and be the heir of his virtue, the +world contains nothing greater. Heaven and Nature could scarcely give a +son whose glory should surpass that of such a father. Do thou but equal +the deeds of thy parent: the desires of man cannot go beyond this. +Surpass him and thou hast surpassed all the kings the world has ever +worshipped and none will ever surpass thee.” + +Can flattery go beyond this? + +For many years this portrait hung in the Royal Picture Gallery at +Hanover in Germany, probably taken there by one of the Georges, all of +whom preferred their Hanoverian Court to that of England. In late years +the picture belonged to the Duke of Cumberland, whose father was King +of Hanover until Prussia absorbed that kingdom in 1866. + +Hans Holbein, born in Augsburg in 1497, was taught by his father, +Hans Holbein the Elder, as was also his elder brother, Ambrose. About +1515 these two young Holbeins went to Basle, where there was plenty +of work for artists, for Basle had long been a centre of intellectual +and artistic life. Holbein’s talents won recognition; and among other +kinds of work he drew designs for title-pages and various decorations +for books. Some marginal drawings for _The Praise of Folly_ by +Erasmus, led to a friendship with that distinguished personage, which +was destined eventually to change his entire life. Holbein also painted +in fresco the council chamber of the new Rathaus in Basle and also +the famous votive picture _The Meier Madonna_, representing the +Burgomaster, Jacob Meier of Basle, kneeling with his family before the +Virgin. He also painted several portraits of Erasmus. In 1526 Holbein +decided to visit England, taking a letter of introduction from Erasmus +to Sir Thomas More and stopping on the way at Antwerp to visit Quentin +Massys. Holbein remained in London two years, returned to his family +in Basle in 1528, bought a house, designed for goldsmiths, worked +again on his unfinished frescoes in the Rathaus, made another portrait +of Erasmus and painted the faces of clocks. In 1532 Holbein decided +to return to London, where, after a period of working in the German +colony, he became Court-Painter to Henry VIII with a salary of thirty +pounds a year and rooms in the Palace. From that time onward Holbein +painted everybody of importance in Tudor England. He also aided in +the street decorations for Anne Boleyn’s Coronation procession and +festivities. Holbein was also sent on various missions by Henry VIII to +paint portraits; also in 1538 to Brussels, to paint the portrait of the +young widow, Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan; and in 1539, to +Cleves, to paint Anne, sister of the Duke. + +These two portraits were ordered by the King with a view to matrimony, +in case they met with his favor. The first portrait (now in the +National Gallery, London) representing, in her mourning garb of +black satin, Christina the young widow of Francesco Sforza, brother +of Maximilian Sforza (see page 148) and who was, moreover, niece of +the Emperor Charles V, in every way, therefore, a distinguished and +desirable bride, pleased Henry VIII so well that he offered his royal +hand on seeing it. But the wise young Duchess, declining the hand +replied sarcastically “that unfortunately she had only _one_ head; +if she had _two_, one would be at His Majesty’s service.” The other +portrait of _Anne of Cleves_ (now in the Louvre), in purple velvet +flashing with jewels, standing full face, with beautifully painted +hands laden with rings and clasped gracefully, gained for this lady +the Royal Bluebeard; but only for a short time. The portrait was too +flattering of the “Flanders Mare”, as Henry VIII called her, and the +_fourth_ wife was soon divorced. + +In 1538 Holbein went to Basle on a mission for the King, visited his +wife and children and, refusing liberal offers from the municipality of +Basle to remain there, returned to London. Back again in his English +quarters, he continued his painting until he died in 1543, supposedly +of the Plague, which was then raging. + + + SIR THOMAS MORE. + + _Hans Holbein + (1497–1543)._ + + _Collection of the late + Mr. Henry Clay Frick._ + +This was one of the first portraits that Holbein painted in England +and was done in 1526–1527, while Holbein was a guest in Sir Thomas’s +delightful home at Chelsea. It is a life-size, half-length portrait on +panel (23¼ × 29¼ inches), representing Sir Thomas in a dark-green coat +with purple velvet sleeves, fur collar, and large hat. The conspicuous +and heavy double S-chain of gold with a double rose pendant, +significant of the union of the Red and White Roses of Lancaster and +York, was only permitted to Knights. His right hand holds a paper and +the arm rests on a table, on which the date is inscribed. + +This portrait was painted before Sir Thomas More became Lord Chancellor +in 1529. + +“His face,” says Dr. Alfred Woltman, “shows that calm repose which +indicated the utmost harmony of nature and inward peace; but the +expression is one of the deepest seriousness, though gentleness is +linked with it. The finely-cut lips are firmly closed; there is +something almost visionary in the bright and penetrating glance, though +otherwise the features betoken clear judgment, combined with moral +strictness and nobility of feeling. In looking at the picture the words +occur to us with which Erasmus in another passage concisely sums up +More’s characteristics: ‘He possessed that beautiful ease of mind, or, +still better, that piety and prudence with which he joyfully adapts +himself to everything that comes, as though it were the best that could +come.’” + +Sir Thomas More was born in 1478 in Cheapside, London, the son of +Sir John More, and was beheaded in 1535 for refusing to support the +Act of Supremacy. More was one of the most intellectual and highly +cultured men of his time. He wrote one of the most famous of books, +_Utopia_. Sir Thomas was also a fine critic of painting. He was +knighted in 1521. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the late Mr. Henry Clay Frick_ + + SIR THOMAS MORE + + --_Hans Holbein the Younger_] + +Erasmus gives a picture of Sir Thomas and his home in a letter to +Ulrich von Hutten, written from Chelsea. He says: + +“More has built near London upon the Thames a modest but commodious +house. There he lives surrounded by his large family--his wife, his +son, his son’s wife, his three daughters and their husbands with eleven +grand-children. There is not any man living so affectionate to his +children as he, and he loveth his old wife as if she were a girl of +fifteen. Such is the goodness of his nature that whatsoever cometh +about which cannot be helped he is as cheerful and well satisfied as if +the best had happened. In More’s house you would say that the Academy +of Plato lived again save that whereas in the Academy the conversation +turned upon geometry and the power of numbers, the house at Chelsea is +a true school of Christian religion. In it is no one, man or woman, +but studdieth the liberal arts, yet above all piety is their care. +There is never any seen idle; the head of the house governs it, not by +lofty demeanor and frequent rebukes, but by gentle and lovable manners. +Everyone is busy in his place doing his business with diligence; nor is +sober mirth absent.” + + + DIRK BERCK OF COLOGNE. + + _Hans Holbein + (1497–1543)._ + + _Collection of the + Hon. Andrew W. Mellon._ + +When Holbein returned to England on his second trip in 1532, his +friend and patron, Sir Thomas More, was out of favor. However, he +found a cordial welcome among his compatriots--the German merchants of +the Steelyard. These German merchants had formed themselves into an +association of real power: indeed, they had made a little city of their +own, which went by the name of Stahlhof, where they managed all their +business, kept their stores, had their counting-houses, their Bourse, +their Guildhall, and their homes; and, being Germans, of course they +had a festival-hall and spacious gardens on the bank of the Thames, +where they could enjoy themselves. The company, forming a part of the +great Hanseatic League, was opulent and dealt largely in iron and +precious metals. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of The Hon. Andrew W. Mellon_ + + DIRK BERCK OF COLOGNE + + --_Hans Holbein the Younger_] + +Consequently, among the group were skilled goldsmiths, watch-makers, +armorers, and many other prosperous artisans as well as bankers. The +brilliant painter had no difficulty in getting orders for portraits; +and we may be very sure that after he had produced such a masterly +likeness as that of _Georg Gisze_ (now in the Berlin Museum), he +must have been in even greater demand, as the numbers of “steelyard +portraits” scattered in various galleries attest. + +This particular portrait in oils on panel (21 × 16¾ inches) was painted +in 1536, as we learn from the right hand corner, which bears the date +and the sitter’s age, “An 1536 Aeta. 30.” Dirk Berck of Cologne appears +at half-length facing us full face from a background of blue relieved +by a green curtain with red strings. Dirk Berck is dressed in a heavy, +black, and lustrous silk cloak with a wide collar, an embroidered +shirt showing at the opening at the neck, a flat cap (something like a +_biretta_) at a slight angle on his head, with his hair cut in a fringe +(or “bobbed”) that nearly covers his ears. He has a slight moustache +and a full square-cut beard, which makes him appear older than his +thirty years. His small eyes are dark blue and intelligent, his brows +are black, his cheek bones are prominent, and his general expression +is serious and rather kindly. His hands rest one upon the other, the +right one on top, while the left, placed on the table, holds a letter +addressed to himself: “_Dem Ersame ’U (N) d fromen Derick berk i. +London upt. Stalhof_” with the trademark of his house and the motto, +“_besad dz end_” (consider the end). A small piece of paper lying on +the red-covered table bears this Latin sentence from Virgil: “_Olim +meminisse juvabit_” (Hereafter I shall be remembered) which speaks well +for Dirk Berck’s estimation of Holbein and his intelligent forecast of +ours. + +The portrait came from the Collection of Lord Leconfield, Petworth, +Sussex, and was formerly in the Collection of Colonel Egremont Wyndham, +also of Petworth, Sussex, and the Earls of Egremont. + + + JEAN DE DINTEVILLE. + + _Hans Holbein + (1497–1543)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Henry Goldman._ + +This gentleman in black costume with black cap and white shirt sits +at a table covered with a red cloth (one of Holbein’s favorite +arrangements), and in front of an apple-green curtain. Around his neck +he wears a fine gold chain and a black ribbon, to which is attached a +little case of gold studded with jewels. His eyes are very blue but +rather cold, giving one the idea that Jean de Dinteville is something +of a dreamer. His hands, beautifully drawn and painted, gain additional +grace from the fine ruffles at his wrists. In his right hand he holds a +roll of paper (most likely a musical composition), and the left fingers +close around the neck of a lute. On the table before him two books are +lying--one shut and one open--and both books are supplied with green +book-marks, that draw the rest of the picture into harmony with the +green curtain at the back. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Henry Goldman_ + + JEAN DE DINTEVILLE + + --_Hans Holbein the Younger_] + +This portrait, in oils on panel (17½ × 17½ inches), is supposed to be +the same one listed in the inventory of Alethea, Countess of Arundel, +in 1654 as _Ritratto d’un Musico_. + +It was in the Collection of Ralph Bernal, London, and sold at +Christie’s in 1855 to Mr. Morant for 100 guineas; subsequently, the +picture was in the Collection of Sir John Ramsden, Bart., Bulstrode +Park, Buckinghamshire, having been purchased by him at an auction in +Scotland in 1860. + +Jean de Dinteville, Lord of Polisy and Bailly of Troyes, was born in +1504 and died in 1555. After having served as a diplomat in the Court +of Francis I, he was sent as Ambassador to England in 1553, in which +year Holbein painted him with George de Selve in the large picture +known as _The Ambassadors_, now in the National Gallery, London. +In this picture Jean de Dinteville stands on the left, wearing a black +kilted costume, which includes a cloak lined with white fur. Around his +neck is a heavy gold chain with the French Order of Saint Michel, at +his side is a dagger with gold hilt and sheath, and his black cap is +ornamented with a silver skull set in gold. A lute, a case of flutes, +and a music-book near him proclaim the musician. This picture is dated +1553. + + + CARDINAL ALBRECHT AS SAINT HIERONYMUS. + + _Lucas Cranach the Elder + (1472–1553)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. John Ringling._ + +This picture (49 × 35¼ inches), came into possession of the present +owner from Baron Viehweg of Hanover, in whose family it had been since +the time of Cranach. + +All of Cranach’s delightful characteristics are represented here. It +is interesting to compare this painting with Dürer’s print of _St. +Jerome in his Study_, the latter so serious and the one represented +here so merry. Cranach’s St. Jerome reminds us of a jolly old German +folksong. In this perfectly Teutonic setting with characteristic German +furniture and the favorite “antler” chandelier, nothing has been +forgotten; and St. Jerome in his red Cardinal’s robe and _biretta_ +sits propped up before his reading-desk truly monarch of all he +surveys. His crucifix and devotional books are placed conveniently +on his table and he has just looked up for a moment from his task of +translating the Scriptures. + +His big red Cardinal’s hat, too, is placed in the foreground, so that +we cannot miss it and the picture of the _Madonna and Child_ on +the wall is purposely turned out of proper perspective so that we +cannot lose any of its “beauties.” St. Jerome takes good heed of time; +for on the wall, at his left, an hour-glass trickles away the minutes. +It is to be hoped that he feeds his birds and animals regularly! And +how deliciously these little friends are painted. Every member of St. +Jerome’s menagerie looks happy except the lion. There is still the +“call of the wild” in his eye and he seems to be trying to control +himself; but if St. Jerome does not watch his hour-glass and should +happen to delay the dinner-hour, it looks as if things might go very +badly for the pheasant family. + +There were three traditional ways of representing St. Jerome: St. +Jerome as Penitent in the Desert; St. Jerome as Patron Saint and Doctor +of the church; and St. Jerome as Translator and Commentator of the +Scriptures. When St. Jerome is seen translating the Bible, the lion is +so frequently present that he seems to be an editorial necessity; and +almost invariably the Cardinal’s hat is lying somewhere near St. Jerome. + +There is no authority for making St. Jerome a Cardinal; because +Cardinals were not ordained until three centuries after St. Jerome’s +death. + +Lucas Cranach the Elder was born in Kronach in Franconia in 1472 and +died in Weimar in 1553. Cranach was the first painter of importance of +the Saxon School and took his name from his native town. He was a pupil +of his father and has as important a reputation for his engravings on +wood and copper as for his paintings. Cranach seems to have lived in +Vienna, Innsbrück, Augsburg, Wittenberg, and Weimar; and it is said +that he visited the Holy Land in 1493, with the Elector Frederic the +Wise. In 1504 he settled permanently in Wittenberg as Court-Painter to +the Elector Frederic the Wise; and he continued as Court-Painter to +the three succeeding Electors. In 1509 he was sent by the Elector on +an embassy to the Emperor Maximilian; and on this visit he painted the +portrait of his son, the Archduke Philip (father of Charles V). Cranach +was evidently of importance in Wittenberg, for he was Burgomaster in +1537 and 1540. He had an art-studio, a book-printing business, and an +apothecary-shop. His house, called the “Adler,” was burned down in 1871. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. John Ringling_ + + CARDINAL ALBRECHT AS SAINT HIERONYMUS + + --_Lucas Cranach the Elder_] + +Cranach was an intimate friend of Luther and Melancthon and, +consequently, was greatly affected by the Reformation. He painted +Luther many times. Cranach always painted with oils on panels of wood +and his coloring is warm and rich. His drawing is somewhat archaic; but +often very amusing. His cheerful fancy led him to introduce birds and +animals into his pictures. Cranach excelled in portraiture and always +gives a realistic and somewhat gay presentation of the German people of +his day. + + + + + SPANISH PAINTING + + + + + _SPANISH PAINTING_ + + +Spanish Painting developed slowly although there were schools in all +the provinces. Even in the Fourteenth Century little was known about +Spanish Art in other countries. Starnina, who spent nine years in Spain +(having taken refuge from his part in civil disturbances in Florence), +painting pictures in the Escurial for John of Castile, had much to tell +when he returned to Florence in 1387 and introduced Spanish costumes +into the frescoes he made in the Carmine. + +Other Italian painters followed Starnina and Italian ideas dominated +Spanish Art until the Emperor Charles V became King of Spain. Charles, +although heir of Maximilian and of the Holy Roman Empire, was also +a direct descendant of the Dukes of Burgundy, the great-grandson of +Charles the Bold. Charles V was born in Ghent and spent his first +sixteen years in the Netherlands, brought up by his aunt, Margaret of +Austria. Charles’s devotion to his birthplace is well-known; and his +pun that he could put the whole of Paris into his _Gant_ (glove), shows +how far superior he considered Ghent to Paris. Charles took with him to +Spain a vast horde of artists and artisans from the Low Countries; and +he also imported the punctilious and traditional etiquette of the old +Burgundian Court, which, absorbed into Spain, eventually became known +as “Spanish etiquette.” + +Spanish artists were profoundly affected with Flemish technique and +realism. The leading early Spanish painters are Bartolomé Vermejo, +active in the late Fifteenth Century, a native of Cordova in Andalusia, +who combined Flemish and Arabian ideas with native traditions; Pedro +Berruguete (active 1483–1504); Luis de Vargas (1502–1568); and Luis de +Morales (1509?–1586). + +Then again an important foreigner arrived--Antonio Moro (or Mor), +who, after serving Cardinal Granvella, was sent by Mary of Hungary +to Madrid, where he became Court-Painter to the House of Hapsburg. +Thenceforward Moro was constantly employed by Philip II to paint +portraits in various Courts, although his headquarters seem to have +been in Utrecht. + +Moro trained the Spaniard, Alonso Sanchez Coello (1515?–1590), +who, like himself, was rather stiff and hard, but able to paint a +satisfactory portrait. + +Then in 1575 another foreign painter arrived. This time it was a Greek, +Domenico Theotocopoulos (1545?–1614), a native of Crete and said to +have studied under Titian in Venice. “El Greco,” however, caught none +of the glowing colors of Venice on his palette. Austere and gloomy, he +settled in austere and gloomy Toledo, where he lived all the rest of +his life painting religious pictures and portraits from a strange and +morbid point of view. + +Francisco de Ribalta (1551?–1628), revolting against Classic +taste, founded his style on Caravaggio and painted darkly in the +“_tenebroso_” manner. His pupil, Jusefe Ribera (1589–1652), called “_Lo +Spagnoletto_,” born near Valencia, settled in Naples, where he filled +many orders for Philip IV. + +Francisco Pacheco (1571–1654), and Francisco de Herrera the Elder +(1576–1656) are chiefly notable because they were the masters of +Velasquez. Herrera originated the “_bodegones_” (shop-pictures), +which are scenes of popular life. + +Francisco Zurbaran (1598–1662), of the School of Seville, was called +“the Spanish Caravaggio.” Through the influence of his friend, +Velasquez, he entered the service of the King. It is said that Philip +IV called him “_Pintor del Rey y Rey de los Pintores_” (Painter +of the King and King of the Painters). Zurbaran painted the great +altar-piece in the Cathedral of Seville. + +Don Diego de Silva y Velasquez (1599–1660), a native of Seville, became +painter to Philip IV in 1623 and continued in his service all his life. +His works range from such groups as _Las Meninas_ and _Las Hilanderas_ +to portraits of kings, queens, princes, princesses, ladies, gentlemen, +dwarfs, and idiots. + +Bartolomé Estéban Murillo (1617–1682), a native of Seville, came +of the poor, laboring class and developed into a beloved painter, +particularly famous for his Holy Families and Immaculate Conceptions. + +After Velasquez and Murillo there was no important painter until +the original, versatile, and prolific Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828), +a native of Aragon, who rose from a laborer in the fields to +Court-Painter. Goya had a profound influence on modern art, greatly +affecting, for instance, Manet and John Singer Sargent. + + + CARDINAL QUIROGA. + + _El Greco_ + (_1545?–1614_). + + _Collection of the late + Mr. Henry Clay Frick._ + +This picture, oil on canvas (37½ × 43¼ inches), was discovered, coated +with the dust and dirt of ages, in a dark corner of the sacristy of +the Cathedral of Valladolid, where it had evidently been hidden for +centuries. A Parisian dealer, having heard of it, purchased it, and +from him it passed through several hands until it reached its present +home. The subject represents a Cardinal seated before a table on which +a volume is lying and the Cardinal’s hands are conspicuously posed upon +opposite pages. The right thumb pointed downwards emphatically upon a +certain verse might possibly point to a special text that the Cardinal +was associated with as betokening a famous sermon delivered by him, or, +perhaps, an important controversy with which his name was associated. +The figure, face, and hands are very elongated, as in all of El Greco’s +performances; but the general effect is more reposeful than usual +with this painter. Perhaps El Greco pulled the Cardinal out on his +bed of Procrustes as far as he dared, but the Cardinal was long and +thin and attenuated anyway, so that he was a model, as it were, ready +made. It is one of El Greco’s best works. The silvery hair and mist of +beard are marvellously painted, as are also the piercing eyes, keen +and searching, yet betraying the philosopher and man of much reading. +The face is intensely intellectual, but hard and cruel. No one would +care to attempt to break a lance with this gentleman in any kind of an +argument. With all his high-bred atmosphere, as both gentleman and +student, Quiroga expresses a narrow bigotry and remorseless cruelty. + +The picture is also known as _St. Jerome_; and there are five +replicas of it, one of them being in the National Gallery, London. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the late Mr. Henry Clay Frick_ + + CARDINAL QUIROGA + + --_El Greco_] + +“El Greco” is the name by which Domenico Theotocopoulos became known +to his contemporaries. He was born in Crete, and in 1570, when he +was about twenty-five or thirty, he went to Venice, and, it is +said, studied under Titian. About 1575 he settled in Toledo, where +he lived for thirty-four years until his death in 1614, and where +“La casa del Greco” is still shown to tourists. El Greco painted a +number of pictures, chiefly religious, notwithstanding the fact that +“the individuality and strangeness of his work always more or less +disconcerted his patrons.” El Greco also painted portraits and seems +to have elongated every sitter to conform to his own ideas. Everything +that he painted proclaims his own fervor and love of motion. El Greco +also designed the dome for the then unfinished tower of the west front +of the Toledo Cathedral, which presents a very strange contrast with +its companion, the ornate Gothic tower. + +Hugh Stokes says: + +“El Greco stands apart, both in his portraiture and his large subject +compositions. A Greek by family, Theotocopoulos does not fail to +remind us of the archaic Byzantines. At first his limited palette, +his crudity, his angularity excite repulsion. All his figures are +muscularly distended as if they had recently passed the ordeal of the +rack. Gradually these very defects attract. There is a movement and +passion in his pictures which can be found in very few purely Spanish +works. These agitated patriarchs and apostles, with draperies caught +by every wind of heaven, are almost demoniac. Nature herself assists, +for each horizon in the background frowns with a gathering maelstrom of +black thunderclouds.” + + + THE VIRGIN APPEARING TO ST. DOMINIC. + + _El Greco_ + (_1545?–1614_). + + _Collection of + Mr. J. Horace Harding._ + +The Virgin, in the traditional red robe and blue mantle, has floated +on a cloud into the church where St. Dominic has been praying. The +vision, as told here by El Greco, seems as real to us as it does to the +astonished monk. Dominic de Guzman, who founded the Dominican Order of +Preaching Friars in 1215, was born in Calaroga, Old Castile, in 1170. +St. Dominic went on a mission to the Albigenses in Languedoc. and the +Dominican Order grew out of the volunteers who joined him there. The +rest of his life was spent in Toulouse and Rome. He died in 1221 and +was canonized in 1234 by Gregory IX. The Dominican Order was known in +England as the Black Friars (from their black habit) and in France as +Jacobins, because their chief house in Paris was in the rue St. Jacques. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. J. Horace Harding_ + + THE VIRGIN APPEARING TO ST. DOMINIC + + --_El Greco_] + +This picture, oils on canvas (24 × 39¼ inches) came from the Collection +of Henri Rouats of Paris and shows El Greco’s ecstasy with less +exaggeration and eccentricity than is customary with him. Elie Faure +has well defined the characteristics of El Greco: “Remorse at having +been born,” he says “pursues the painter until the end, but when he +expresses it in his art, the magnificence which it takes on atones +for his terrors. At the end of his life he painted like one in an +hallucination, in a kind of ecstatic nightmare, where preoccupation +with expressing the spirit engrossed him. Deformation appears in +his pictures more and more, lengthening the bodies, attenuating the +fingers, and hollowing the faces. His blues, his wine-like reds, and +his greens seem lit by some livid reflection sent to him from the +near-by tomb and from Hell, caught sight of from eternal bliss. If +there is a place where shadows wander, if in some sinister valley +there are corpses that stand upright and living spectres that have not +yet lost their form, Domenico Theotocopoulos alone after Dante has +found it. One would say that he is exploring a dead planet, that he is +descending into extinct volcanoes, where ashes accumulate and a pale +half moon sheds her light.” + + + MARIANNE OF AUSTRIA. + + _Velasquez_ + (_1599–1660_). + + _Collection of + Mr. Philip Lehman._ + +This picture (14½ × 19 inches) was for many years a valued possession +of the Zenon Gallery, Cadiz, and represents the little girl, daughter +of Ferdinand II, who became the wife of Philip IV in 1649 and who had +first been betrothed to Philip’s son, Don Balthazar Carlos. The latter +died in 1646. Three years later Philip IV sent for the little Grand +Duchess to be his second wife. The reason for this marriage was a +dynastic one, for it united the Spanish branch of the House of Hapsburg +with the German branch of the House of Hapsburg, Marianne being a +descendant of Ferdinand, brother of Charles V, and, therefore, of +exactly the same blood as Philip IV. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Philip Lehman_ + + MARIANNE OF AUSTRIA + + --_Velasquez_] + +Velasquez was one of those painters favored by the gods. Like Rubens, +he early attracted Royal patronage and held it all his life. There +were no struggles of genius for recognition: all he had to do was to +complete and develop his gifts and talents. In 1623 he was introduced +to Philip IV by Olivares and Philip took him into his service. +Rubens, visiting Madrid in 1628, begged Velasquez to go to Italy. +Velasquez did so and spent a year in Rome, visited Naples, where he +met his countryman, Ribera. On his return to Madrid, he was given a +painting-room in the Royal Palace. Velasquez visited Italy several +times in the future; and on one visit to Rome painted the famous +portrait of Pope Innocent X, now in the Doria Gallery (with a replica +in The Hermitage). Back again in Madrid, Velasquez was decorated with +the Cross of St. Iago by Philip IV, who made him Aposentador Major +(grand marshal of the palace). To the last period belong his most +important portraits, the series of court freaks, and the famous _Las +Hilanderas_ and _Las Meninas_. + +Velasquez died in Madrid in 1660. + + + PHILIP IV OF SPAIN. + + _Velasquez_ + (_1599–1660_). + + _Collection of the late + Mr. Henry Clay Frick._ + +This portrait known as the “Parma Velasquez,” because it belonged +to the Grand Duke of Parma, is painted in oils on canvas (38¾ × 52½ +inches). It was painted in 1644 in Cataluna, where Philip had gone to +try to raise the siege of Lerida invested by the French. Velasquez +went with the King and painted the picture in a dilapidated hovel, +which was fitted up for the purpose of a studio. A contemporary record +says: “The King dressed as a soldier posed to Velasquez in fitted hose +edged with silver embroidery, sleeves of same, plain buck jerkin, red +sash edged with silver, cape of red fustian, falling collar, and black +_sombrero_ with crimson plumes.” + +The King was kept amused by his dwarf, El Primo, while the portrait was +being painted. The costume is the one that Philip usually appeared in +before his army as commander-in-chief. + +“From the figure itself,” says Carl Justi, “it is evident that it was +taken far from the atmosphere of the Alcazar. It is freer than those +tall figures in black, which are perpetually receiving despatches, and +which are the incarnation of unrelenting monotony, of the weariness of +etiquette. To this effect the color contributes much, for the picture +is all light and brightness. The legs seem to stand in profile, but the +body and head face to the right; the white _bâton_ in the right +hand is planted against the hip; the elbow of the left which holds +the hat, rests on the hilt of the sword, and, curiously enough, both +arms are disposed in a somewhat parallel position. The lines of the +King’s features, now in his thirty-ninth year, are firmer, the color +fresher than hitherto. The otherwise inseparable _golilla_ is here +replaced by a broad lace collar falling on the shoulders; the hands +are white in unison with the white sleeves, the most luminous parts +of the whole picture--well nurtured, royal hands, ringless, but by no +means ‘washed out,’ as has been supposed by those unacquainted with the +master’s habit of dispensing with shade to indicate the fingers. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the late Mr. Henry Clay Frick_ + + PHILIP IV OF SPAIN + + --_Velasquez_] + +“Philip wears a rich, light red doublet with hanging sleeves, the +narrow opening showing the leather jerkin underneath. Of like color and +also covered with silver embroidery are the _bandolier_ and hose. +The only patch of gold is the Golden Fleece, all else--collar, sleeves +of jerkin (pearl tone), lace cuffs, lace ruffle of boots, silver +sheath--being white. This white on the red produces the well-known +effects of a lighter or ‘camellian red.’ The hat alone is black, which +is not in keeping with the costume, and may probably be due to license +on the part of the artist, who here wished to avoid white on white, +and who needed a dark part in softening contrast to the silvery red +of the whole. At the same time the red of the _bandolier_ and +plume on the red of the doublet shows the painter’s indifference to +such matters. To all this must be added the full flood of daylight +which even projects an oblique shadow from the _mustachios_ on to +the cheek. The stupendous relief is effected by the empty, dark-grey +surface of the ground and by the spare brown shadows, which help to +bring out the collar, arm, and hat.” + +When the portrait was finished “it was hung in the church under a +canopy embroidered in gold where much people congregated to see it.” +The record adds that “copies thereof are already being made.” The one +in the Dulwich Gallery, England, is one of these. + +The picture was sent by Ferdinand VI, King of Spain, to his +step-brother, the Grand Duke of Parma; and it remained in the Parma +Palace until recent times, when it was sold by Prince Elias. + +Philip IV was born in 1605, died in 1665, and ascended the throne when +he was only sixteen. He was a solemn person, with coarse tastes and +was fond of horse-play. He, however, gave his patronage to Velasquez, +Calderon, and Lope de Vega, which is much to his credit. + + + GENERAL NICOLAS GUYE. + + _Goya_ + (_1746–1828_). + + _Collection of + Mr. J. Horace Harding._ + +The Spanish General represented in oils on canvas (33⅜ × 41¾ inches) +wears a brilliantly colored uniform resplendent with gold lace and +decorated with medals. His knee-breeches are white, and he holds his +_chapeau bras_ in his hand. The picture was given to Vincent Guye, +the General’s brother, in 1810. + +Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was born in Fuendetodos in Aragon, +March 30, 1746. His parents were humble cottagers and he worked in the +fields until he was eighteen. Through the interest of a monk he was +sent to Zaragoza to the studio of José Martinez. Goya distinguished +himself both in the studio and in quarrels, which sometimes resulted in +bloodshed. After a fight Goya fled to Madrid, where he copied Velasquez +and became embroiled in more disturbances. He escaped to Italy; and in +1772 took the second prize for painting at the Academy in Parma. Back +in Zaragoza in 1771, he painted a fresco in the Cathedral. Revisiting +Italy he formed a friendship with Jacques Louis David. In 1774 he +returned to Spain, married the sister of a painter, and began to paint +furiously. In 1789 Goya became painter of the Chamber--“_pinter de +camera_”--to Charles IV, with a large salary. During the occupation +of Spain by the French and the expulsion of the latter by Wellington, +Goya lived quietly without taking any part in the exciting events; but +he had been observing. On the return of Ferdinand VII, he published +his series of _Desastres de la Guerra_, in which the horrors +and bestialities of war are set forth in so frank a manner and with +such commanding technique that they make a magnificent appeal for the +abolition of war. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. J. Horace Harding_ + + GENERAL NICOLAS GUYE + + --_Goya_] + +Goya had previously published his series of prints, _Los Caprichos_, +a most amazing presentation of humanity in brutal and revolting +caricatures, the origin and significance of which are neither +fully known nor understood; but, mingled with the demonology and +repulsiveness, there are occasional gleams of beauty. Equally +celebrated are his plates, the _Tauromachia_, dealing with the +bull-ring. + +Goya had an uncanny facility for every medium,--etching, lithographs, +drawings, and aquatints, as well as oil-paintings. Goya spent the year +1825 in Bordeaux and returned to Madrid, where he died in 1828. + +“My only masters have been Nature, Velasquez, and Rembrandt,” Goya +said. Being so independent Goya left no pupils and founded no school. +He was always hostile to the academic: “Always lines and never +_body_,” he exclaimed when criticising his contemporaries, “but +where do we find these lines in Nature? I can only see masses in light +and masses in shadow, planes which advance or planes which recede, +reliefs or backgrounds. My eye never catches outlines or details. I do +not count the hairs on the head of the man who passes me in the street. +The buttons on his coat are not the chief object to catch my glance. My +brush ought not to have better eyesight than its master!” + + + PEPITO COSTA Y BONELLA. + + _Goya_ + (_1746–1828_). + + _Collection of + Mrs. William Hayward._ + +This delightful picture, oils on canvas (33¼ × 41⅝ inches), is +brilliant with many colors delightfully harmonized and contrasted. The +little boy, with fair hair and dark complexion, wears a green velvet +jacket with gilt braid, lace collar, white trousers, rose-colored +stockings, light-yellow slippers, and red and white plumes in his dark +hat. The drum is blue. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mrs. William Hayward_ + + PEPITO COSTA Y BONELLA + + --_Goya_] + +The picture comes from the Collection of the Countess Uda de Gandomar +of Madrid. + + + + + FRENCH, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + + + + + _FRENCH, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY_ + + +We have now come to the age of elegance in painting. In the preceding +sections of this book we have passed through many periods and many +schools and have brought forward superb examples of great masters of +several countries, but we now come to a time when the Art of Painting +may be said to have reached _perfection_. The French Painters +of the Eighteenth Century show us something entirely new in manner +and in subject. They have grace, elegance, delicacy, style, beauty, +brilliancy, clarity, and translucence of color. What can, for instance, +equal the lightness of Watteau and Fragonard, or the dewy freshness of +Greuze? + +There are such things as the floating silk of the thistle’s parachute; +such things as the feathery dust on the wings of “painted butterflies”; +such things as the velvet pile on the petals of flowers; such things +as the purple bloom on the plum and the grape; such things as the down +on the breast of the cygnet; such things as the roseate gleam of the +Oriental pearl; such things as the prismatic twinkle of the morning +dew; and such things as the liquid silver of the moon’s bright ray. + +All these most precious and evanescent beauties Watteau, Lancret, +Pater, Fragonard, Drouais, Chardin, and other painters of the +Eighteenth Century caught upon their palettes. + +It was the genius Antoine Watteau (1684–1721) who opened the magic +casements into this new world of fairy-like color and fairy-like +lightness. + +In the reaction from the heavy solemnity and gloom of the last years +of Louis XIV, when the Sun-King was setting under the dark clouds of +the bigoted and severe Madame de Maintenon’s influence, French taste +swung to the other extreme of gaiety, fancy, gallantry, and caprice. +Law’s Mississippi Bubble, while it lasted, enabled a great many persons +to become suddenly rich; and, as is always the case with a new state +of society, new styles of fashion came to meet its requirements. +Moreover, the tastes of the Regent--the Duc d’Orléans--and the young +King Louis XV were gay and playful; and, consequently, they were both +glad to see all the traditions of Louis XIV swept away. The _Art +nouveau_ of the period was most graceful and charming in its early +expression. The playful curves and fantastic motifs from the Far +East--pagodas, mandarins, umbrellas, monkeys, little bells, dripping +water, and strange, wreathing vines, were all transmuted by the great +decorative artists and designers into that delicious and delightful +French _mélange_ known as _Chinoiserie_, which is, perhaps, more +_French_ than Chinese. The riotous curves, most of which were derived +from the volutes of the shell, the shell itself, and the dripping water +(or hanging icicles), were used so prolifically and so universally +that their name _rocaille_ (rock and shell) or _rococo_, is almost +synonymous with that of the “_style Louis Quinze_,” although it does +not include all the motifs nor all the spirit of the age. + +Watteau was followed in his fascinating portrayal of _pastorales +galantes_, _fêtes champêtres_, and all the light pleasures of society +and its beautifully dressed men and women, by Nicolas Lancret +(1690–1743) and Jean Baptiste Joseph Pater (1695–1736); and to this +group belongs Jean Baptiste Huet (1745–1811), who in his first years +followed Watteau closely; and as a decorative designer, he also +expressed the taste of the Directoire and Empire period through which +he lived. + +Of the portrait painters, Jean Marc Nattier (1685–1766) stands first +as Court-Painter and portrayer of lovely ladies in flowing draperies, +rose-colored or blue scarfs, and wreaths and garlands of flowers, +appearing as Hebe, Diana, Flora and other goddesses of Grecian +mythology. Close to him comes Maurice Quentin de la Tour (1704–1788), +who early abandoned oil-painting for pastels (his masterpiece, the +portrait of Madame de Pompadour is now in the Louvre), was called a +magician by Diderot and his work is described by de Goncourt as “a +magic mirror, in which is seen all the talent, all the glory, all the +wit, and all the grace of the reign of Louis XV.” + +Carle Van Loo (1705–1765) is another portrait-painter of delicate +and distinguished taste and performance. François Hubert Drouais +(1727–1775) also expresses all the beauty, charm, and grace of the day +in his presentations of the fashionable world. + +François Boucher (1703–1770), the friend and successor of Carle Van Loo +as first painter to the King, is so idyllic and fanciful that he has +been characterized as the “Anacreon of Painting.” + +Alexandre François Desportes (1661–1743), painter of hunting-scenes +and animals, and Jean Baptiste Oudry (1686–1755), painter of +hunting-scenes, animals, flowers, fruit, and still-life, blazed +the trail for Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin (1699–1779), one of the +greatest colorists in the entire history of painting. Jean Baptiste +Greuze (1725–1805), full of grace, charm, and freshness, painter +_par excellence_ of pretty girls, and Jean Honoré Fragonard +(1732–1806), pupil of Chardin and Boucher, famous for his delicate +color and lightness of touch, lived into the new _régime_ and +their work became unappreciated. Hubert Robert (1733–1808), painter +of delicate and highly decorative garden-scenes and classical ruins, +and Madame Labille-Guiard (1749–1803) also lived into the Directoire +and Napoleonic period when they were forced to leave their quarters +in the Louvre formerly accorded to them by Royal permission. Madame +Labille-Guiard was in her day ranked with Madame Vigée LeBrun +(1755–1842), wife of the grand-nephew of the great painter, Charles +LeBrun, who won distinction for her portraits, her brilliant +_salon_, and her charming personality. + + + JUPITER AND CALISTO. + + _Nicolas Poussin_ + (_1594–1665_). + + _Collection of + Mr. Carroll Tyson._ + +This famous picture was first owned by the great painter Charles +LeBrun. It subsequently belonged to the Collections of Baron Holback, +1789; Baron Clary, 1868; and Baron de Tournelle in Paris. Painted +about 1635, this large canvas (53½ × 70½ inches), is in a fine state +of preservation, the colors, in consequence, appearing richer than +is usual in Poussin’s works. The greens, browns, and pinks are warm; +the flesh tints are glowing; and the draperies and the sky are a deep +_lapis-lazuli_ blue. + +The puzzle is to find Jupiter! In Smith’s _Catalogue raisonné_ we +read: + +“The god under the form of Diana is represented sitting on a shady bank +embracing the beautiful nymph, who sits by his side with a spear in +her hand; seven Cupids are sporting around them, one of which, while +flying, is discharging an arrow from his bow; a second is playing with +the hounds of the supposed huntress; a third holds up the blazing torch +of love; and two others, buoyant among the trees, are casting flowers +on the heads of the lovers. + +“In his very beautiful pictures illustrative of ancient mythology +Poussin has treated the various subjects in a style that proves he +perfectly understood the mystery of the allegories therein contained +and employed with the happiest effect the numerous symbolical +figures to denote qualities, places, and things. His style, although +unquestionably of French origin, owes all its beauty to his subsequent +study of a few of the great Italian Masters, and of ancient sculpture. +To such an extent was he carried in his enthusiastic admiration of +the latter, that most of the celebrated statues and monuments, both +of Greek and Roman origin, may be recognized in his pictures. This +fondness for the chaste beauty of the antique may have led him in +some instances so far as to give to his figures a rigidity which ill +accords with the elasticity of nature. This defect (if it be one), +is amply compensated by the grace and dignity of attitude and the +chaste correctness of drawing which pervades his works. Execution, +that medium by which the conceptions of a painter are embodied, and by +which the connoisseur is frequently enabled to judge of the originality +of a picture, is distinguished in the Artist (in his best period) by +breadth and precision of hand, and a firm and decided outline; every +touch of the pencil appears the result of consideration and profound +knowledge, and in this respect it is the very reverse of that rapidity +and dexterous freedom of hand observable in the works of Rubens, Paul +Veronese, and Giordano.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Carroll Tyson_ + + JUPITER AND CALISTO + + --_Nicolas Poussin_] + +Poussin spent almost his entire life in Rome. Born at Villiers near +Les Andelys in Normandy in 1594, he went to Paris at the age of +eighteen to study art, having had some training under Quentin Varin +at Les Andelys. In Paris he studied under Ferdinand Elle, a Flemish +portrait-painter, and L’Allemand, a native of Lorraine. In 1620 he +started for Rome, but only got as far as Florence. Compelled to return +to Paris he now formed a friendship with Philippe de Champaigne (also +a pupil of L’Allemand) and worked with him on the decorations of the +Luxembourg under Duchesne. Four years later Poussin arrived in Rome, +his long desired goal, and plunged enthusiastically into the study of +ancient art, also working in the studio of Domenichino. For a long time +Poussin had to struggle with poverty, illness, and Italian hatred,--for +the Italians and French were enemies at this time. Marriage with the +daughter of a wealthy compatriot changed matters and Poussin bought +with his bride’s dowry a handsome house on the Pincian Hill. Cardinal +Barberini’s patronage now brought Poussin fame, for the Cardinal +commissioned two paintings, _The Death of Germanicus_ and _The +Capture of Jerusalem_--besides other important orders. Poussin’s +reputation soared rapidly and in 1640 Louis XIII called him to Paris, +appointed him first painter-in-ordinary, and gave him a residence in +the garden of the Tuileries for life. For two years Poussin worked +industriously, producing many paintings, cartoons for tapestries, and +illustrations for books; but he longed for his beloved Rome and in +1642 returned to that city, where he spent the remainder of his life +in the tranquil pursuit of his art. Poussin painted for twenty-three +more years and died in Rome in 1665. His works are numerous; and, with +the exception of a few portraits, are chiefly devoted to mythological, +classical, historical, and Biblical subjects. Titian was his idol. +However, despite his Italian inspiration and taste, Poussin is regarded +as the head of the French School. His devotion to classical subjects +and his deep study of the antique in all its expressions make Poussin +one of the most scholarly of painters. + +Sir Joshua Reynolds says: “In contemplating his classical pictures the +mind is thrown back into antiquity or remote ages; and it would be +no difficult matter for the spectator to imagine that such pictures +were coeval, or nearly so, in their production with the mythological +metamorphosis and Bacchanalian festivals that are set before him. His +shepherds, fauns, nymphs, satyrs, and Bacchanals appear a primitive +progeny, the native inhabitants of the mountains and woodlands of the +genial climate of Greece and of that Golden Age when Hellas and Asia +Minor may be supposed to have been overspread with aboriginal forests +and life was careless resignation to present enjoyment.” + +From Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain (1600–1682), landscape-painter +of idealized Classic scenes, poetic in spirit and suffused with +dreamful, golden light, the Eighteenth Century French painters may be +said to have found their fountain-head of inspiration. + + + LA DANSE. + + _Antoine Watteau._ + (_1684–1721_). + + _Collection of + Mr. Charles A. Wimpfheimer._ + +With the exception of the superb _Embarquement pour l’Ile de Cythère_, +we do not think of individual paintings of Watteau. We consider his +work as a whole and we have a composite picture in our minds of +_assemblées galantes_ under the trees in beautiful parks and gardens. +Although he derived his themes from his master, Gillot, who was +painting all the fashionable follies and fancies of the time, Watteau +surpassed him so entirely in his approach to these subjects, as well +as in his technique, that we are wont to look upon Watteau as the +originator of _fêtes champêtres_, _pastorales galantes_, _concerts +champêtres_, monkeys in all kinds of attitudes and costumes satirizing +the modes and manners of the day, ladies and gentlemen playing Blind +Man’s Buff (_Colin Maillard_) under the trees, ladies swinging or +flirting with their fans, love-scenes beside statues in leafy dells, +members of the Italian Comedy--Pierrot, Arlequin, Scaramouche, Mezetin, +Columbine, and Scalpin--and charming people making music or dancing +under the trees. + +This characteristic picture which came from the S. R. Bertron +Collection to its present owner, is a charming illustration of +Watteau’s style. Here we have dancing and music and merry conversation. +The light is concentrated on the chief figure--the dancer--clad in +that white satin that Watteau painted so marvellously. But why single +out any special object for that facile and versatile brush? Did not an +eminent critic of the Nineteenth Century proclaim that Watteau was “the +most brilliant and vivid painter the world has ever seen”? + +Watteau created an Arcadia of his own--a Watteau world; and it is not +without reason that another critic called him “the Shakespeare and the +Aristophanes of Art.” + +The world has long recognized that Watteau was a poet. Élie Faure asks +why it is that the _ensemble_ always produces the sensation so +near to sadness, and then he gives the reason: + +“The spirit of the poet is present. Watteau had brought back from his +Flemish country and from a visit he had made to England the love of +moist landscape, where the colors in the multiplied prism of the tiny +suspended drops take on their real depth and splendor. Music and trees, +the whole of Watteau is in them. The sound does not interrupt the +silence, but rather increases it. Barely, if at all, a whispered echo +reaches us from it. We do indeed see the fingers wandering from the +strings: the laughter and the phrases exchanged are to be guessed from +bodies bending forward or turning backward and from fans that tap on +hands. The actors in the charming dramas are at a distance from their +painter and are dispersed in the depths of the open spaces. Watteau +fears to come near them, to penetrate their mystery; for to see them +too close would destroy the aërial veil that trembles between them and +himself. He caresses them only with his delicate tones that hover here +and there as would some bee from the north flying about in the damp +forests or under the lights of the _fête_, among the powdered +gold of the hair, the rose of the costumes, the bluish, milky haze, +the flower-sprinkled moss, the grass on which rest skirts and mantles +of silk and satin, and the nocturnal phosphorescence given to jewels +and velvets by the gleam of moonlight and the flare of waving torches. +It is the irised air which makes the marble statues seem to quiver, +which gives agitation to the sprightly and piquant faces, movement to +the fingers plucking guitars, and to delicate fine legs in stockings +of transparent silk. Watteau never comes near the scene: the vision +is as distant as an old dream. Observe it in detail. The structure +of the figures--solid, moving, and substantial--makes them appear as +if on the plane of man. Watteau’s little personages are as large as +his conception of them: he paints with the breadth, the fire, and the +freedom of Veronese, of Rubens, of Velasquez, and of Rembrandt.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Charles A. Wimpfheimer_ + + LA DANSE + + --_Antoine Watteau_] + +Antoine Watteau, born at Valenciennes, Oct. 10, 1684, was turned +adrift by his father, a tile-maker, and he went to Paris, where he +gradually became a fine draughtsman. He entered the studio of Claude +Gillot (1673–1722), well known for his mythological pictures, his +_Chinoiserie_, his _fêtes galantes_, his _singerie_, and his buffoonery +of the Italian Comedy. Watteau soon surpassed his teacher and left +him to study for a short time with Claude Audran (1658–1734). In 1717 +Watteau became a member of the Academy; in 1719 he visited England; and +in 1721 he died at Nogent, near Paris. + +The de Goncourts have summed up his qualities so well that no excuse is +needed for placing their analysis here: + +“It is doubtless owing to the early decorative work executed by +Watteau that he acquired a taste for the theatre of which in after +days his cunning brush drew so many pleasing representations, so many +curious pictures and that he so often depicted the Italian and French +Comedians, those friends and intimates of his brush, whose motley +family he painted in that beautiful and striking picture which is a +companion to _Comédiens Français_. He painted their companion picture +when Madame de Maintenon drove them out of France in 1697; he painted +their amusements, their nocturnal amours and serenades, their holidays, +their open-air sports. Mezetin and Columbine appear on a hundred +panels. But there would be little reason to thank the chance that led +Watteau at the outset of his career to work under an obscure decorator +if he had only copied the silken folds of their costumes and had not +conceived the idea of using these Trans-alpine types as the poetic +habitants of his _scènes galantes_ and _scènes champêtres_. In fact, by +the introduction of these Merry Andrews, these gracious mummers, these +elegant incarnations of dainty laughter and fine comedy, these men and +women whose materiality is so vague and their reality so veiled beneath +symbol and myth, the compositions of the painter no longer seem like +pictures of a real world. The greensward of his _scènes galantes_ +seems peopled with mythical beings to whom Watteau’s imagination and +lightness of touch have left nothing of the actors who served as his +models; and we have the illusion of looking into a verdant country +inhabited by creations of whim and fancy.” + + + MADAME BONIER DE LA MOSSON. + + _Jean Marc Nattier_ + (_1685–1766_). + + _Collection of + Mr. Edward J. Berwind._ + +Nolhac calls the portrait of Madame Bonier de la Mosson “_une des plus +belles de ses Dianes ou de ses Nymphes chasseresses_.” The picture (51 +× 38 inches) was exhibited in the Salon of 1742. From the Collections +of Debatz, Reims, and Tamvaco, Cairo, it passed into that of Mr. +Berwind. This handsome lady, radiant in her leopard skin and flowers, +was the wife of M. Bonier de la Mosson, who was also painted by Nattier +four years later (1746), in his “cabinet of curiosities,” for M. Bonier +de la Mosson was one of those amateur scientists of the age. In his +rich _hôtel_ in the rue Saint Dominique in Paris, he had a laboratory +and an “_apothicairerie_,”--his pots, bottles, mortars and pestles +and crucibles surrounded by furniture of the most superb description. +The portrait of M. Bonier de la Mosson was in great contrast to that +of his beautiful wife. The portrait of the gentleman is a fine work, +but the portrait of the lady shows Nattier in his most characteristic +aspect. Here is the _real_ Nattier, for Nattier specialized in what +was called in his day the “historic portrait,”--that is to say the +sitter was represented as a mythological, or historical, personage with +all the attractive symbolical and picturesque accessories. Nattier’s +vogue during his lifetime was very great and all the aristocratic +and fashionable ladies wanted, above all things, to have themselves +perpetuated as Dianas, Floras, Hebes, and Auroras. Consequently, many +old families in France cherish a fine allegorical portrait of a +handsome ancestress caught as it were on Mount Olympus with the gods +and goddesses. + + “_Nattier l’élève des Graces, + Et le peintre de la beauté_” + +is a tribute in some verses in 1727. + +“It may seem fantastic,” Sir Walter Armstrong writes, “to bracket +Van Eyck with a painter like Nattier, but a little consideration +will show that in a sense they belonged to the same faction, that is +to say that if Van Eyck had lived in Paris in 1760, he would have +conceived a portrait much in the same way as Nattier, and so _mutatis +mutandis_ with the Frenchman. The conscious desire of both was +to _reproduce_ their sitter, choosing a moment when he or she +was thinking of nothing in particular, and surrounding him with his +familiar properties carefully marshalled into a design.” + +Jean Marc Nattier came of a family of artists. His father, Marc +Nattier, was an Academician, his mother, Marie Courtois, was a +miniature-painter of reputation, and his brother, J. B. Nattier, was +also a painter. Jean Marc Nattier was born in Paris, March 17, 1685, +and was trained at a very early age by his father. Admitted to the +classes at the Académie, he won a prize in drawing and at the age +of fifteen was given a stipend. In 1715 Nattier went to Holland, +where Peter the Great was staying, and painted the Czar, the Empress +Catherine II, and several members of the Russian Court; but he declined +all inducements to follow the Czar to Russia and returned to Paris. + +In 1718 Nattier was received at the Académie and, thenceforth, devoted +himself to portraiture. In 1724 he married Mademoiselle de la Roche, +daughter of an old _mousquetaire_ of the King; and it was not long +before he became official painter of the court and, in consequence, the +most fashionable portrait-painter in France. + +Nattier was made assistant professor of the Académie in 1745 and full +professor in 1752. Every year brought him more fame and more honors +until his death in Paris in 1766. + +Nattier depicts the delicate, charming, and aristocratic beauty of +the early Louis XV period and has the gift of expressing also grace and +alluring qualities. Louis XV had Nattier make replicas of many of the +court portraits most pleasing to him, which he sent to European Courts; +and this explains how it is that so many splendid Nattiers are hanging +to-day in European galleries. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Edward J. Berwind_ + + MADAME BONIER DE LA MOSSON + + --_Jean Marc Nattier_] + +Nattier has a unique place as the painter of beautiful women, yet, +although he painted individuals, his work, taken as a whole, presents +the French Society woman of the Eighteenth Century with her peculiar +charm, elegance, and _finesse_, appearing in his portraits as +she really was,--experienced, flexible, high-bred, gay, witty, and +accomplished, graceful in manner and in speech, perfect in the arts of +the toilet and in dress, conscious of her charm, and tactful, polished, +and fascinating in society. + + + LA MARQUISE DE BAGLION AS FLORA. + + _Jean Marc Nattier_ + (_1685–1766_). + + _Collection of + Mr. A. W. Erickson._ + +This masterpiece is also known as the “Chaponay Nattier,” from having +been long in the Collection of the Marquis de Chaponay in Paris. +Previously the picture graced the Collection of la Comtesse Armand née +Gontoud-Biron and subsequently that of M. Nicolas Ambatielos in London. +Many critics regard _La Marquise de Baglion_ as the finest French +portrait of the Eighteenth Century. Its first appearance in public was +at the Salon of 1746 and it was shown in the Paris Exhibition of the +One Hundred Masterpieces in 1892 (No. 28) and in the Paris Exhibition +of the One Hundred Portraits of Women of the French and English Schools +in 1909 (No. 85). + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. A. W. Erickson_ + + LA MARQUISE DE BAGLION + + --_Jean Marc Nattier_] + +The picture (53⅛ × 41¼ inches) is signed and dated 1746, hence it +was shown as soon as it was finished. The subject of the picture, +Angélique Louise Sophie d’Allouville de Louville was born Feb. 10, +1710, daughter of Charles Augustin d’Allouville, Marquis de Louville, +Gentleman-in-waiting to the King of Spain, Lieutenant-General of his +armies and Governor-General of Courtray. Her mother was Hyacinthe +Sophie de Bechameil de Nointel. On June 10, 1733, Angélique Louise +Sophie was married to Pierre François Marie de Baglion, Comte de la +Salle. After twenty-three years of marriage the Marquise de Baglion +died in 1756. Her only daughter, Françoise Sophie Scholastique de +Baglion (who was married to Denis Auguste Grimoard de Beauvoir, +Marquis du Roure, Colonel of the Grenadiers of France of Saintonge, of +Dauphine, and later brigadier), was lady-in-waiting to the Dauphine +(Marie Antoinette), and was a great friend of Madame de Pompadour, whom +she usually accompanied on her visits to Choisy. + +In this exquisite picture, La Marquise de Baglion, an unusually +beautiful woman, who has great intelligence in her face, as well as +beauty, appears in a very _décolleté_ dress, which shows her dazzling +neck and shoulders. Her aristocratic hand, long and beautifully shaped, +lightly holds a blue scarf--“Nattier blue”--filled with lovely flowers. +Flowers are as nearly important as the Goddess of Flowers herself; and, +consequently, Nattier has shown himself here the equal of any painter +who specialized in flowers. + +The picture was much talked of in its day at Versailles; in the +_boudoirs_; at the toilet of the marquise; and at the _petits soupers_ +of the King, Louis XV. Many poets have sung its praises. One of the +latest and best tributes is by Roger Milès called a _Madrigal for a +Portrait of the Marquise de Baglion painted by Nattier_. In reading it +we cannot help regretting that the beautiful Flora could not have read +these sympathetic verses: + + + _MADRIGAL_ + + (_Pour un Portrait de la Marquise de Baglion peint par Nattier_) + + _Dès le matin, dans la rosée, au fond du parc, + La Marquise s’en fut, pour saluer l’Aurore, + Et les cerfs inquiets qui sommeillaient encore, + Pour Diane la prenant, des yeux cherchaient son arc._ + + _Mais elle n’était pas la Déesse farouche + Et, si parfois ses yeux ont pu lancer ces traits, + Ses victimes devaient y trouver des attraits, + Tant le sourire avait de douceur sur sa bouche._ + + _Elle allait simplement, fière de sa beauté, + Humilier les fleurs écloses pour lui plaire, + Sachant leur jalousie aimable et sans colère, + Ames où des parfums chantent la volupté._ + + _Et voici que ses mains cruelles et câlines + Ont fait leur choix parmi la fraicheur des buissons, + Pour les encourager, de leurs nids, les pinsons + Raillaient à plein gosier les branches orphelines._ + + _Et de ses belles mains déborde son butin. + Sa cueillette fut bonne, et ses touffes fleuries. + Suffiraient à parer la mousse des prairies + Quant la Nature dit sa prière au Matin._ + + _Sur un banc, souriante, elle s’est reposée, + Une rose retient l’épaulette qui fuit, + Et le Zephyr qui passe en balayant la nuit, + S’attarde à la splendour de sa gorge rosée._ + + _L’étoffe la possède entre ses plis légers, + Des joyaux précieux se serrent à sa hanche, + Et, sur un chiffonné de mousseline blanche, + Ses genoux par un tissu bleu sont assiégés._ + + _Mais un charme divin s’epanouait en elle, + Et l’on tremble, en voyant son pur rayonnement, + Que Dieu pour nous ravir à cet enchantement, + Ne fasse palpiter à son épaule ... une aile._ + + + LA CAMARGO. + + _Nicolas Lancret_ + (_1690–1743_). + + _Collection of the + Hon. Andrew W. Mellon._ + +This painting came into this country directly from the Collection of +the Emperor of Germany, having long hung in Potsdam Palace, “Sans +Souci,” near Berlin. It was originally in the Collection of the +Prince de Carignan in Paris, from whom it was acquired in 1744 by the +Count von Rothenburg, Prussian Ambassador, for Frederick the Great +(1712–1786), to adorn his castle at Rheinsberg. + +The picture is in oils on canvas (30 × 41¾ inches). We have here a +typical scene of French Eighteenth Century life, laid in a beautiful +park of emerald swards, lovely trees, and graceful foliage, a +“terminal” figure of a Muse in the middle distance, and a fountain +tossing its spray at the extreme right. Mademoiselle Camargo and her +partner occupy the left centre of the picture dancing to music played +by a small orchestra on the left. Seated and standing around them +beneath the trees are groups of interested spectators; and among them +at the extreme left Lancret has painted his own portrait. He is wearing +a dark mantle and a _biretta_, and looks directly toward the observer. + +The dancer, who gives the name to the picture, is the celebrated Marie +Anne de Cuppi de Camargo, born in Brussels in 1710. The Princess de +Ligne became interested in her and sent her to Paris at the age of +ten to be trained for a dancer. Under Madame Prevost, a dancer at the +Opéra, her progress was so rapid that she made her _début_ at the Opéra +at the age of seventeen, when her extraordinary grace and her wonderful +clothes caused her to be acclaimed as a star. Through the lessons of +Blondy and Dupré she perfected her talents and became the most famous +Parisian dancer of her time. A _liaison_ with the Comte de Clermonte +Abbé of Saint-Germain-des-Prés caused her to leave the Opéra in 1734; +but she returned in 1740 and regained her former triumphs. This was +the time when Lancret painted some wonderful portraits of the great +_danseuse_, including the fine picture presented here. Mademoiselle +Camargo retired permanently in 1751 and died in Paris in 1770. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the Hon. Andrew J. Mellon_ + + LA CARMARGO + + --_Nicolas Lancret_] + +Nicolas Lancret was born in Paris in 1690 and died there in 1743. He +was a pupil of Pierre d’Ulin and Claude Gillot; but he adopted Watteau +as his model. Indeed, his close imitations of Watteau estranged the +latter. Lancret, however, won a great reputation for his beautiful +sense of composition, his fine design, and his charming color. He +was elected a member of the French Academy of Painting in 1719. His +landscapes are always delicate and romantic, and as a painter of +_Fêtes galantes_ he almost equals Watteau and Pater. + + + LE DUO. + + _Nicolas Lancret + (1690–1743)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. and Mrs. Emil J. Stehli._ + +At first glance we might take this painting for a Watteau, for +Lancret has shown in it the same appreciation of park scenery, leafy +and fresh foliage, charming figures of grace and refinement, and, +even more particularly, the suggestion of music. We seem to hear the +liquid, silvery, cool notes of the flute and the sweet, clear voice +of the pretty young lady who is singing from a book of music while +the young gallant looks over her shoulder and plays his part in the +duet. The costumes are lovely; the young lady is dressed in white and +the flute-player wears a brownish-red suit. The flute-player’s pose +is interesting: all his weight is placed on his right foot. Note his +hands: they are properly placed on the holes of his instrument, which +he is holding as a musician. The French have always been superlative +flute-players and it was only natural that Lancret would select a +capable musician for his model. We can make a safe guess that the music +we are hearing from these musicians is an air by Rameau, whose operas +and ballets were enjoying great vogue when this picture was painted. +The work, oils on canvas (19¾ × 16¾ inches), belonged to the Collection +of Sir William Knighton, Bart., and came from that of Mr. Pitt Rivers +of London to the present owner, Mr. Emil J. Stehli of New York. + +Comparing Lancret with Watteau, Eugène Langevin writes: + +“First the style of the master was not adopted by him in its entirety; +he modified it in accordance with his own disposition; he has played +some of Watteau’s melodies, but in a lower key and with a slower +movement. It is _conversations galantes_ rather than _fêtes +galantes_ that he paints. He seems to feel that he does not possess +the fire, the caprice, the vivacity, the imagination, and the supreme +poetic distinction that are required for _Departures for the +Enchanted Isle_. He halts half-way. Where Watteau painted sumptuous +and impassioned eclogues, Lancret portrays rural amusements, richly +adorned and at the same time frolicsome as he had seen them on the +boards. Watteau revels in the most magical of fictions: he is the +Shakespeare, the Aristophanes of Art. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Emil J. Stehli_ + + LE DUO + + --_Nicolas Lancret_] + +“Like Watteau, Lancret broke with the academic traditions of the day, +which were all for reddish or brown tints: he acknowledged a wholesome +horror of burnt colors. And if he lacks that distinction which his +master owed to his constant practice of Flemish and Venetian Art and +to his own natural gifts, if he cannot produce those glowing and +_rutilant_ tonalities full of golden sheen, those rich colors, and +those subtle harmonies of infinitely delicate beauty, he, at least, +possessed a palette both rich and refined.” + + + UNE FÊTE CHAMPÊTRE. + + _Jean Baptiste Joseph Pater + (1695–1736)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Jules S. Bache._ + +This brilliant picture, painted in 1733, the height of the Regency +period, came from the Collection of Lady Carnarvon, having been +bequeathed to her by Alfred Charles de Rothschild of Seymour Place, +London. + +The scene is laid in a romantic landscape with the ruins of an old +_château_ and other ancient buildings surrounded by beautiful, feathery +trees. Upon the green sward groups of men, women, and children have +gathered to enjoy themselves in various ways. The merry assemblage, +dressed in brilliant costumes of delightful colors, charmingly +harmonized and contrasted, are dancing, feasting, making love, and +watching actors and mountebanks perform. Even two little dogs in the +foreground have partaken of the general gaiety. The movement, _brio_ +and general _joie de vivre_ make this a veritable panorama of the +Eighteenth Century. The picture is also noteworthy for being the +largest ever painted by Pater. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Jules S. Bache_ + + UNE FÊTE CHAMPÊTRE + + --_J. B. J. Pater_] + +Jean Baptiste Joseph Pater was born at Valenciennes in 1695, the son +of a wood-carver who appreciated his son’s talent, taught him what +he could, and then took him to Paris, where he became a pupil of +his fellow-townsman, Watteau. The irritable temper of Watteau caused +a separation; but in 1721 Watteau sent for Pater to come to him at +Nogent-sur-Marne and gave him daily instruction. + +Pater was very “modernistic” in his time, for in 1728 he was received +into the Academy as a member of the new class of “_peintres de sujets +modernes_.” + +Pater was entirely absorbed in his art. He rarely left his studio, +formed no friendships, painted all day and every day, and gave himself +no pleasures. His feverish industry coupled with his parsimonious +living--he was haunted by the fear of poverty in old age--at last told +upon him and he died in Paris in 1736. + +Pater is a very close follower of Watteau in subject and composition as +well as in his charming and delicate color. + + + UNE FÊTE GALANTE. + + _Jean Baptiste Joseph Pater + (1695–1736)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Edward J. Berwind._ + +It is interesting to compare this picture with the _Fête Champêtre_ +preceding it. We have two characteristic examples of Pater’s work. In +the _Fête Champêtre_ we look upon a large gathering and a miscellaneous +crowd. In the picture represented here we have a more intimate group. +There are certain elements in this picture that suggest Watteau; others +that suggest Lancret; and still others that show us that the later +Boucher and Fragonard did not deign to take a few ideas from Pater. The +picture is very individual. The colors are soft and delicate--“pastel” +tints we like to call them to-day--pale blues, and pinks, and yellows, +and rich mauves, contrasting beautifully with the exquisite green of +the foliage. Pater never produced a more artistic background, with its +distant hills and picturesque buildings. The painting came from the +Wertheimer Collection, London, to the present owner. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Edward J. Berwind_ + + UNE FÊTE GALANTE + + --_J. B. J. Pater_] + + + LA SERINETTE. + + _Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin + (1699–1779)._ + + _Collection of the late + Mr. Henry Clay Frick._ + +Madame de Pompadour, whose taste in art was always superlatively good, +was the first owner of this charming picture, which has passed through +many notable collections. The work is known under three titles: _La +Serinette_ (the Bird-Organ); the _Education of a Canary_; and _The +Diversions of a Lady_. According to tradition this lady is Madame +Chardin, wife of the painter. The sitting-room gives us an idea of +her varied occupations and it would appear that she has just left her +tapestry-work to give her canary a singing-lesson. The bird is seen +in a cage, which stands on a little table near the window, and Madame +Chardin is turning the handle of the bird-organ. We would like to know +the tune the little music-box produces. Both as regards subject and +treatment the picture is a masterpiece. Jean Guiffrey considers the +work most charming and admires the way all the many accessories are +brought into perfect harmony. “It would be impossible to find,” he +says, “a more correct design and a better color scheme and tonality.” + +Chardin sent this picture to the Salon of 1751 and again to that of +1755. After Madame de Pompadour’s death _La Serinette_ passed into +the notable Collections of Monsieur de Vandières, director of the +Royal Buildings; the Marquis de Menars, Madame de Pompadour’s brother +(sold in 1783); Baron Denon, Director of Museums (sale 1826); Count +d’Houdetot (sale 1859); Duke de Morny (sale 1865); Mr. G. du Tillet of +Paris; and, finally, to the late Mr. Henry Clay Frick. + +The picture was shown in 1860 at the Exposition of the Association for +the Mutual Relief of Artists, Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (No. +92). + +Chardin was one of the greatest colorists of the French School and one +of the greatest painters of the Eighteenth Century. Few painters have +equalled him in his broad and free style and in his luminous effects of +color and light. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the late Mr. Henry Clay Frick_ + + LA SERINETTE + + --_J. B. S. Chardin_] + +Chardin was born in Paris, Nov. 2, 1699, the son of a master-carpenter +and upholsterer, who was employed to make billiard-tables for Louis +XIV. After studying under Pierre Jacques Cazes, Chardin entered the +studio of Noël Nicolas Coypel. Before he was thirty he had made a +name as a painter of still-life. In 1728 Chardin was admitted to the +Académie Royale and eventually became its treasurer. In 1752 Louis XV +bestowed a pension upon him and in 1757 gave him rooms in the Louvre. +In his middle period Chardin struck out in a new path--that of frank +realism, selecting for subjects scenes from the domestic life of the +_bourgeoisie_; but he treats everything, however, with the distinction +and taste that belonged to France in the Eighteenth Century. Therefore, +he throws a poetic glamour around a loaf of bread, a bunch of +grapes, a plate of peaches, a sleeping cat, or a copper _casserole_. +Consequently, while his subjects are similar to those of the “Little +Dutch Masters,” Chardin introduces an elegance and a quality of which +those painters never dreamed. Neither Pieter de Hoogh, nor Vermeer, +excelled Chardin in effects of light, atmosphere, and iridescence. +“Chardin,” Élie Faure writes, “did not paint much because he paints +slowly with a laborious and passionate application. He has no models, +but his wife, children, a few familiar animals, the everyday tableware, +and cooking-utensils and then there are meat, vegetables, bread, and +wine brought that same day from the butcher, the meat-roaster, the +baker, and the vegetable seller. With these he writes the legend of +domestic labor and of obscure life: his images speak to us after the +manner of La Fontaine’s words and he is, with Watteau and Goya, the +greatest painter there is in Europe between the death of Rembrandt and +the maturity of Corot and of Delacroix.” + +Chardin is an artist beloved by artists. In a sympathetic criticism, +Armand-Dayot writes: + +“It is not by accident that I am using this word _métier: beauté +du métier_--all is comprised in that phrase. By this phrase the +greater number of the French artists of the Eighteenth Century should +be judged. _La beauté du métier_--that expresses all their +efforts. And, indeed, what formula could better define Chardin than the +_beauté du métier_? An illumination, meticulous and systematic, +because it has been so well ordered and arranged; light departing +from one point to appear at another and showing the various objects +according to the place they occupy with relation to the distance from +the luminous centre; a beautiful paste of the best composition in its +own day and which time has converted into a transparent and limpid +enamel; and, above all, that classical arrangement, which is like that +of Poussin, Le Brun, Le Sueur and Claude Lorrain, add to the play +of great sweeps of color; the enchanting reflections that cross one +another and that are superimposed without breaking the original balance +of the contrasting colors; and the rigorous drawing--such are the +reasons why we class Chardin high in the French traditions of clarity +and beautiful arrangement of light. In his richness of color he is +derived from the Venetians and he became the ancestor of Fantin-Latour.” + +Chardin’s vogue is increasing day by day, for he belongs to that small +group of great masters who have played with light. Perhaps, more than +any other painter, Chardin succeeded in producing the most subtle +overtones of color. M. Armand-Dayot, as we have just seen, claims +Chardin as the ancestor of Fantin-Latour. May we not also suggest that +in Chardin, Matisse has found inspiration for his delicate and tenuous +effects in the upper reaches of the color scale? + +We get a glimpse of Chardin at work from Diderot who, after a visit to +his _atelier_, wrote: + +“Chardin, who has such a keen feeling for color, keeps his eyes glued +upon his canvas: his mouth is half-open; and he breathes heavily. +His palette is a picture of chaos and into this chaos he dips his +brush. From it he draws his work of real creation,--birds with all the +delicate _nuances_ of tint in their plumage; flowers with velvet +petals; trees of varied foliage and greenery, the blue of the sky, the +spray of water, animals with their soft fur and the fire flaming from +their brilliant eyes. The painter rises, walks some distance away, and +throws a rapid glance upon his picture; then he seats himself again +before this canvas and you soon see appear flesh tints, cloth, velvet, +damask, taffetas, transparent muslin, or heavy linen. You also see the +ripe yellow pear falling from the tree and the green grapes hanging on +the vine.” + + + LES DEUX CONFIDENTES. + + _François Boucher + (1703–1770)._ + + _Collection of + Mrs. William R. Timken._ + +Madame de Pompadour was the first owner of this picture and it looks +as if it might have been painted at her suggestion. It is signed and +dated 1750 and measures 32 × 29 inches,--a perfect size for a boudoir +or a small _salon_. Next the picture was in the Collections of +Pillet-Will, the Marquis de Marigny, and the Marquis de Menars. + +Here we have two young ladies of high degree playing at pastoral life. +Their bare feet and the presence of sheep are the only suggestion that +they are shepherdesses. They are, however, shepherdesses of the kind we +read of in the eclogues of poets. + +In every way the picture is charming. The composition is faultless, +the lights splendidly concentrated and diffused, and the colors are +of exquisite beauty. Against the green of the feathery trees in the +background and the verdant turf in the foreground the lustrous silken +dresses--palest blue and palest rose--of the young ladies who are +exchanging confidences (doubtless of faithful or faithless lovers) +appear to the greatest advantage. The flowers, tumbling out of the +basket which has fallen down, are most sympathetically painted by one +who rarely, if ever, omitted roses in any picture. All the colors melt +and mingle in perfect harmony. + +Boucher painted at the height of the Louis XV period and of this period +Élie Faure says: + +“François Boucher is its soul. Fashion is always present in his facile +and fecund work--on ceilings, screens, carriage-panels, _dessous +portes_, boxes and fans--shepherdesses and pastorales everywhere +and on every thing. Charming in manner, generous, pleasure-loving and +adored by both men and women, Boucher stands with the King’s mistress, +Madame de Pompadour, as the centre of his own revolving circle of +winged Cupids and garlands of flowers.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mrs. William R. Timken_ + + LES DEUX CONFIDENTES + + --_François Boucher_] + +François Boucher, born in Paris, Sept. 29, 1703, began his career as +an illustrator and engraver and went to Italy with Carle Van Loo. +Returning to Paris in 1731 he frequented the gay society of operatic +and theatrical circles and acquired reputation. In 1734 he was admitted +to the Academy with his picture of _Rinaldo and Armida_ now in the +Louvre. Boucher became associated with the tapestry-manufactory at +Beauvais and also at the Gobelins and in 1765 succeeded Carle Van Loo +as first painter to Louis XV. Boucher attracted the attention of Madame +de Pompadour and decorated her boudoirs and _salons_, and painted +several portraits of this handsome lady. Boucher died in the Louvre in +1770, while painting _Venus at her Toilet_. According to his own record +Boucher painted a thousand pictures and made ten thousand drawings and +sketches. + + + A YOUNG GIRL READING A LETTER. + + _Jean Baptiste Greuze + (1725–1805)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. John McCormack._ + +This picture, an oil painting on canvas (27½ × 21½ inches), comes from +the Collection of Alfred Charles de Rothschild, Seamore Place, London, +and represents a young girl seated in an upholstered chair wearing a +white chemise, which has slipped from her shoulders. An open letter is +spread on her lap,--a letter before envelopes were known, for this has +the seal still attached. However, letters bring tidings of delight or +sorrow, with or without envelopes, and we have no clue to the contents +of this one. We gather, however, that the missive is a love-letter. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. John McCormack_ + + A YOUNG GIRL READING A LETTER + + --_Jean Baptiste Greuze_] + +Jean Baptiste Greuze was born at Tournous, near Macon, Burgundy, and +was the son of a thatcher. He first studied painting with a travelling +picture-pedlar named Grondon and went with him to Lyons and lived +there for eight years, painting pictures and hawking them about the +country. However, Grondon was the father of the wife of Grétry, the +composer, so Greuze probably had a little taste of art. In 1746 he +went to Paris and worked at the Academy, making some progress in +historical painting and portraits. One day he astonished everybody by +his picture of _Un père de famille expliquant la Bible à ses enfants_ +and _Le Paralytique servi par ses enfants_, which caused him to be +received as an _Académicien_. Others of this type of pathetic, or +homely, story-telling in paint followed. This, then new style of art, +won Greuze many admirers, among them Diderot. In 1756 Greuze went to +Rome for two years and on his return to Paris began to exhibit his now +famous busts and heads of beautiful young girls. Between 1755 and 1769 +Greuze exhibited about one hundred and twenty pictures at the Louvre +and, after the Revolution, about thirty works. He was entirely broken +by the Revolution and died in 1805 in poverty and oblivion. + + + YOUNG GIRL. + + _Jean Baptiste Greuze + (1725–1805)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. William Randolph Hearst._ + +We hardly know which face to admire the most--that of the little girl +or that of her little dog with the bright, intelligent eyes, so loving +and so trustful. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. William Randolph Hearst_ + + YOUNG GIRL + + --_Jean Baptiste Greuze_] + +This picture (14 × 14 inches) Greuze has painted with the tenderest +care,--depicting the budding beauty of the child; and he has, moreover, +used the swirling curves in such a distinguished manner that we think +of the circles and the curves in Raphael’s _Madonna della Sedia_ in +the Pitti. There is a gentle sadness in the face of the little girl of +which the little companion and friend, so confidently nestled in her +loving arms, seems to be conscious; and, perhaps, a little worried as +well. + + + LA MARQUISE DE BESONS TUNING A GUITAR + + _Jean Baptiste Greuze + (1725–1805)._ + + _Collection of + Dr. and Mrs. Henry Barton Jacobs._ + +At the Salon of 1757 Greuze exhibited this portrait under the title of +_Madame X Tuning a Guitar_. Many who saw the picture recognized +Madame X as Anne de Bricqueville de la Luzerne, wife of Jacques Bazin, +Marquis de Besons, a very prominent and powerful lord of the Houses +of Hupin, Neuvill, etc., and Lieutenant-General of the King’s armies. + +Madame de Besons is wearing a pale pink silk dress with a deep flounce +with sleeves of the favorite Mechlin lace and a large cape with collar. +Her hair is waved in fine shells and adorned with the little spray of +flowers that Madame de Pompadour had made the fashion at this moment. A +necklace consisting of three rows of perfectly matched pearls proclaim +Madame de Besons a lady of wealth. The chair in which Madame de Besons +is sitting is a handsome example of Louis XV furniture, gold frame +upholstered in light green brocade. The background is dark grey. The +painting (37 × 29¼ inches) is an unusual and a most artistic work of +Greuze. + + + LA MARQUISE DE VILLEMONBLE. + + _François Hubert Drouais + (1727–1775)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Jules S. Bache._ + +One is often asked to define the _style Louis XV_. Could there possibly +be a better definition than is expressed in this exquisite portrait +of an exquisite lady,--La Marquise de Villemonble? Is not the very +essence, the spirit, the perfume of the Eighteenth Century seen in the +face, the dress, the pose, the manner, the charm, and the “grand style” +of the Marquise? + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Henry Barton Jacobs_ + + LA MARQUISE DE BESONS TUNING A GUITAR + + --_Jean Baptiste Greuze_] + +It is very evident that Drouais took deep delight in painting this +aristocratic lady and her beautiful costume as well. We can see with +what pleasure the painter’s brush swept into being the lustre and the +folds of the pale lemon satin dress; traced the delicate pattern of +the Mechlin lace that forms the ruffles of the bell-sleeves and the +garniture of the neck; tied the bows of rich pink satin adorning the +corsage and holding the lace at the sleeves; touched up the cluster of +shaded grey feathers and rounded the pearls in the _coiffure_; +placed the little string of black velvet around the neck; and lingered +upon the sheet of music which the Marquise is holding so gracefully. +The words below the notes show that the lady is a singer. Yet all +these carefully painted details do not detract from the beauty of +the lady herself. Her features are high-bred, sweet, and perfect, +and her expression shows great loveliness of nature. Altogether the +Marquise de Villemonble is a beautiful and charming person and Drouais, +we may be sure, has not flattered her in this beautiful and charming +portrait. The canvas (46 × 35 inches) is signed and dated 1761 and it +is interesting to relate that it came directly from the Villemonble +family to its present owner, Mr. Jules S. Bache. + +François Hubert Drouais was born in Paris in 1727 and studied under +his father, Hubert Drouais (1699–1767), a portrait-painter who was +also famous for his miniatures. Young François grew up with the great +painters of the day, who were friends of his father--Nattier, de Troy, +Oudry, and others--and he became a pupil of Carle Van Loo and Boucher. +With such masters is it any wonder that Drouais should have developed +_style_? + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Jules S. Bache_ + + LA MARQUISE DE VILLEMONBLE + + --_François Hubert Drouais_] + +Drouais began to exhibit at the Salon of 1755 and appeared every +year subsequently until his death in 1775. His talents brought him +recognition and he became painter to the King, to Monsieur and Madame, +and practically all the nobility and aristocracy of France sat to +him. Naturally, the world of fashion followed suit. Drouais painted +Madame de Pompadour and owed much to her patronage. He also painted +Madame du Barry many times and his vogue continued through the reign +of Louis XVI. One of his most successful portraits--Marie Antoinette +as Hebe--now hangs at Chantilly and gives a most distinguished +presentation of the young Queen, a proud figure in yellow draperies, +rose-colored waist ribbons, and lilac scarf, holding a golden cup in +one hand and a silver ewer in the other. + +Drouais holds his own with Watteau, Pater, Lancret, Fragonard, Greuze, +Chardin, and de la Tour, for he, too, like these artists of radiant +style, knew how to present with skillful and polished technique, +flowing lines, fluent grace, piquant expression, characteristic +gesture, and fashionable dress. Moreover, his quick observation and +light touch produce something akin to sparkling comedy; and yet in +all the play of his brush and his airy manner Drouais never failed to +create an atmosphere of elegance and distinction. + + + MADEMOISELLE HELVETIUS. + + _François Hubert Drouais + (1727–1775)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Mortimer L. Schiff._ + +That Drouais was a master who could succeed with any subject for +portraiture will be appreciated by comparing this sympathetic +presentation of a pretty little girl with the preceding portrait of La +Marquise de Villemonble, who appears in the full beauty of maturity. +Even Greuze, with all his skill in representing youthful charm, never +produced a lovelier work than this Mademoiselle Helvetius. Here the +little girl looks at us smiling beneath her big “shepherdess” hat, +holding in her dress clusters of purple and jade colored grapes. +Drouais evidently appreciated the decorative beauty of the grape and +its leaves, for he has brought out their character and lusciousness +with a loving surety of touch that shows him to be on a par with any +painter who has specialized in fruit. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Mortimer L. Schiff_ + + MADEMOISELLE HELVETIUS + + --_François Hubert Drouais_] + +The delightful painting, which is signed, came to its present owner +from the J. P. Morgan Collection. + + + L’INVOCATION À L’AMOUR. + + _Jean Honoré Fragonard + (1732–1806)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Mortimer L. Schiff._ + +The de Goncourts remarked in their _L’Art du Dix-huitième Siècle_ that +the two great--and the only great--poets in France in the Eighteenth +Century were Watteau and Fragonard; and they very fancifully and very +truly said that the saucy little Loves hovering about in the sky of +_L’Embarquement pour L’Île de Cythère_ were “getting ready to fly to +Fragonard and to put on his palette the hues of their butterfly wings.” + +Of that tragic painting, _Corésus and Callirhoé_ (in the Louvre) the +de Goncourts, noting the extraordinary movement and whirl in the work, +said “a great mute cry seems to rise in the composition,” and then +added: “This cry of a picture, so new for the Eighteenth Century, is +Passion.” + +Fragonard had the genius for expressing movement and emotion to such a +degree that sometimes “a cry” seems to issue from his canvas. This rush +of movement and this torrent of emotion, this outburst like leaping +flames and whirling clouds, is expressed in full power in the picture +represented here, which bears some likeness to the _Fountain of +Love_ in the Wallace Gallery, London. + +_L’Invocation à l’Amour_ (20½ × 24¾ inches) was painted between 1780 +and 1785. It came into public notice at the La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt +Sale in Paris in 1827 and has since belonged to the Collections of M. +le duc de Polignac; to Madame la duchesse de Polignac née Crillon; to +Mr. L. Neumann, London; and to M. Jean Bertoloni, Paris. _L’Invocation +à l’Amour_ was shown at the Fragonard Exposition, Musée des Arts +Décoratifs, Paris in 1921, and came thereafter into possession of Mr. +Mortimer L. Schiff. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Mortimer L. Schiff_ + + L’INVOCATION À L’AMOUR + + --_Jean Honoré Fragonard_] + +Jean Honoré Fragonard was born at Grasse in 1732 and died in Paris in +1806. He studied under Chardin and Boucher, won the _grand prix_ +de Rome at the age of twenty, studied in Rome, visited Naples and +Sicily with Hubert Robert, and, returning to Paris, leaped into fame +with his _Corésus and Callirhoé_ in 1765. Fragonard painted every +subject--love-scenes, portraits, _genre_, and landscape--equally +well and always with the lightest touch, the most delicate colors, and +infinite charm. + +“His method,” says Louis Hautecœur, “is even more dexterous than +that of Boucher, because he is better instructed; this rapidity of +brush-work is not negligent, because it is guided by previous study; +this freedom of handling is not hap-hazard: it springs from the joy of +creating; that is what makes Fragonard a great painter. Thus a natural +sensibility, which gave to his works movement, picturesque character, +and color seems to be the master faculty of Fragonard; and out of this +movement, this feeling for the picturesque, and this color arises a +fantasy composed of intelligence and imagination. The _Fête of St. +Cloud_ becomes a fairy scene; the _Garden of Fontainebleau_ the setting +of a dream; and the _Fountain of Love_ flows in a world of mystery. +Fragonard was not only a _painter_ unique in style, but he was a _poet_ +of that century of which he saw the close--a _poet_ whose sensibility +was shown less in the nature of his works than in the manner in which +he treated them: in his golden rays of light; in the shadowy recesses +of the parks; in the cloud forms of a tempest; in the youthful charm of +children; and in the grace of women--and herein lies his originality.” + + + LE BILLET-DOUX. + + _Jean Honoré Fragonard + (1732–1806)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Jules S. Bache._ + +In studying this graceful composition with its subtle harmonies of +color and its amazing play of iridescent reflections and ever changing +lights it is easy to see that Fragonard spent some time in the studio +of Chardin, having the benefit of instruction from that great master. +Charm is the keynote of the picture. The colors are indescribable as +they are constantly changing; but the general tonality is golden-brown +in all the shades of leaves at autumn with sunlight playing upon +them and combined with the softest blue of the sky; and these browns +and blues are so merged and mingled that they shimmer and vary like +“changeable velvet.” The effect is, therefore, both rich and, at the +same time, tender, soft, and brilliant. A few high lights of pink are +discreetly used. The charming, piquant, and lovely lady, is said to be +the daughter of Boucher and was married to another painter, Baudouin, +and, after his death, to M. de Cuviller. The lady is half rising from +her writing-table and is holding in her left hand a bouquet of pink +roses in a conical paper-holder into which she is placing a letter, +addressed to “Monsieur M. C.” Her head is turned a little to the front +and her expression seems to indicate that she does not wish to be +detected in her pretty romance. She is a person of elegance and fashion +and her dress is altogether _comme il faut_, in what we please to +call to-day a “Watteau costume,” with the panniers and the “Watteau +plait” at the back. The material is a very pale blue velvet with +brownish lights. Her hair is dressed fashionably and surmounted by +a modish little “butterfly cap” brightened with pink ribbons, which, +with the pink roses, are the only notes of bright color in the picture. +Lying on the chair and looking directly out of the picture is a darling +little poodle dog. In the “_Billet-Doux_,” Louis Hautecœur says, +“we can best appreciate the skill of the master who delighted in making +a golden light play across a yellow curtain upon a blue robe.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Jules S. Bache_ + + LE BILLET-DOUX + + --_Jean Honoré Fragonard_] + +This painting (33¾ × 26⅜ inches) passed through the Collections of the +Baron Feuillet de Conches; Madame Jagerschmidt; M. Ernest Cronier; and +M. Joseph Bardac,--all of Paris. The _Billet-Doux_ was shown at the +Alsace-Lorraine Exhibitions of 1874 and 1927, and is lauded in all the +standard works on Fragonard. + + + LA MARQUISE DE LA FARE. + + _Jean Honoré Fragonard + (1732–1806)._ + + _Collection of + Mrs. James B. Haggin._ + +Could anything be lighter, lovelier, and more graceful in the way of +painting than this distinguished representation of the distinguished +Marquise de la Fare? For elegant simplicity as well as technique this +portrait is without a peer. Only Fragonard could have painted it. There +is something here that reminds us of the flicker and flutter and quick +movement and vitality of the flame,--that symbol of the soul and of +eternal life. Unconsciously, perhaps, by these leaping, flashing lines +the painter symbolized his own genius and the spirit of the exquisite +lady he was privileged to portray. With his butterfly touch and his +liquid, rapid brush, Fragonard caught this charming personality. Yet, +behind this quick impressionistic work--as light in key and ethereal in +harmony as Claude Monet or Matisse--what knowledge, what skill! Here +is all the majesty of Greek sculpture at its climax of perfection, +but Greek sculpture rendered dynamic and human. And what a pose! What +exquisite arms and hands! What style! What _chic_! The dress is cream +and the drapery, old rose, harmonizing with the ash-blonde hair and +blue eyes. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mrs. James B. Haggin_ + + LA MARQUISE DE LA FARE + + --_Jean Honoré Fragonard_] + +The picture (31¾ × 25 inches) came directly from the de la Fare family +to its present owner. + + + THE FOUNTAIN IN THE PARK. + + _Hubert Robert + (1733–1808)._ + + _Collection of + Dr. and Mrs. Henry Barton Jacobs._ + +When Hubert Robert exhibited for the first time in August, 1765, he +won instant recognition. The French public at a period when taste was +supreme, praised the originality of Hubert Robert’s design and his +exquisite delicacy of coloring and decided, moreover, that although his +study of the antique had been thorough and sympathetic, the new artist +was, above all, a Parisian of Parisians. + +Hubert Robert plays on two themes: one, the ruins of +antiquity--especially Rome--and the other, garden-scenes. In fact, his +success with ruins as subject-matter gave him the _sobriquet_ of +“_Robert des Ruines_.” Hubert Robert was born in Paris in 1733 +and after some preliminary art education went to Rome in 1754, where +he studied for eleven years, devoting himself almost exclusively +to antiquities. On his return to Paris he was made a member of the +Academy and his pictures brought him instant fame. He lived in the +studios in the Louvre until the outbreak of the Revolution, when he was +imprisoned for ten months; but during this time he painted and produced +a _Taking of the Prisoners by Torchlight in Open Carts from St. +Pélagie to St. Lazare_. He was lucky in his release, which occurred +through the mistake of the jailer, who sent another prisoner of the +same name to the guillotine. Hubert Robert died in Paris on April 15, +1808. Equal to his reputation as a painter was his reputation as a +landscape-gardener. He was the successor of Le Nôtre, whose style had +given place to the Anglo-Chinese gardens. Hubert Robert, as architect +of the King’s Gardens, designed the _Baths of Apollo_ in the +Park of Versailles in 1784, and he laid out the very famous grounds +of Mézéville near Étampes-in-Beauce, in which work Joseph Vernet was +associated. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Henry Barton Jacobs_ + + THE FOUNTAIN IN THE PARK + + --_Hubert Robert_] + +The distinguished picture shown here (57½ × 39 inches) from the +Collection of M. S. Bardac, Paris, presents the artist also as a +garden-lover. All the poetry produced by a tossing stream of spray +among green trees is expressed here. + +“Hubert Robert,” writes Henri Frantz, “is one of those who, brought +back into fashion by the de Goncourts and their generation, enjoy a +reputation increasing every day; and thus drawings in red chalk or in +water-colors which one might easily have picked up years ago in the +boxes of the petty dealers of Paris or of Rome are found to-day in +museums and in the most celebrated Collections and fetch the highest +prices in European sales. Moreover, Hubert Robert did not go out of +fashion till the commencement of the Nineteenth Century and no artist +was _fêted_ and admired by his contemporaries more than he.” + +Hubert Robert has again become the fashion. + + + MADAME LABILLE-GUIARD AND TWO PUPILS. + + _Madame Labille-Guiard + (1749–1803)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Edward J. Berwind._ + +Here we have a picture painted in the grand style, a beautiful +composition, a marvellous expression of technique, and a portrait-group +including a self-portrait of the artist. + +Madame Labille-Guiard, a handsome women of dashing style, is seated +before her easel busy at work, wearing a very handsome costume and not +one exactly appropriate to working in a studio. However, the painter +being as delightfully feminine in her tastes as she was masculine in +her artistic performance, has the vanity of her sex to wish to be +perpetuated in rich and fashionable attire,--_comme il faut_ in +every respect. + +The two young ladies, who are observing the work of Madame +Labille-Guiard are her favorite pupils, Mesdemoiselles Capet and +Rosemond. + +Madame Labille-Guiard’s dress is blue-grey satin with lace at neck +and sleeves and hat of golden straw with blue-grey ostrich feathers +matching the dress. The chair in which the artist is seated is +upholstered in green velvet. The pupil in front wears a dark brown +dress. Most beautifully is painted the diaphanous ruffle at her elbow. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Edward J. Berwind_ + + MADAME LABILLE-GUIARD AND TWO PUPILS + + --_Madame Labille-Guiard_] + +The picture of large dimensions (82½ × 60 inches) is signed and dated +1785 and was exhibited at the Salon in that year. From the Collection +of Madame Griois, a descendant of the artist, the painting came to its +present owner, Mr. Edward J. Berwind. + +Adélaïde Labille-des-Vertus was born in Paris, April 11, 1749. She +studied art under François Élie Vincent, a clever miniature-painter +and afterward under Latour. She married twice: first, the sculptor +Guiard, and, after his death, François André Vincent, the son of +her former teacher, himself a capable painter and etcher. Madame +Labille-Guiard became an Académicien in 1783 at the same time with +Madame Vigée Lebrun. She painted a great number of large oil-portraits +and miniatures, and in 1787 and 1789 attracted attention by her +portraits of the King’s daughters, Madame Adélaïde and Madame Victoire. +She also painted a large picture for Monsieur (afterwards Louis +XVIII), called the _Initiation of a Knight of Malta_, which was +finished at the outbreak of the Revolution; but which was destroyed. +Madame Labille-Guiard died in Paris on Floréal 4, _An XI. de la +République_, or April 8, 1803. + + + + + ENGLISH, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + + + + + _ENGLISH, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY_ + + +When Théophile Gautier saw Gainsborough’s portrait of _Mr. and Mrs. +Hallet_, now known as _The Morning Walk_, he said that he felt “a +strange retrospective sensation, so intense is the illusion it produces +of the spirit of the Eighteenth Century. We really fancy we see the +young couple,” he adds, “walking arm-in-arm along a garden avenue.” + +It is this “strange retrospective sensation” that we feel when we look +upon the canvases of Gainsborough, Reynolds, and Romney. + +The Eighteenth Century was one of those periods in the world’s history +when Society reached its peak, when Society was the goal of all things +and of every one, and when it was dominated by taste, elegance, gaiety, +lightness, brightness, wit, beauty, and charm. There was charm in +everything--in art, in music, in literature, in conversation, and in +dress. There was a _chic_ and dainty grace with which the Eighteenth +Century belle wore her large hat, tied her sash, and pointed the toe of +her high-heeled satin slipper on the polished floor of the ball-room, +or the greensward of the garden or lawn; and there was a corresponding +_chic_ and dashing elegance with which the Eighteenth Century _beau_ +made his bow, tapped his snuff-box, or handed the “ladies of St. +James’s” in and out of their sedan-chairs. + +This sparkling, iridescent age, with its taste, grace, and wit can +never come again--for our world has travelled far along another +path--but if the Eighteenth Century cannot return to us, we can return +to it by means of its literature, its music, and its art. + +At such a period, when the social world was of exceptional brilliance, +it is only natural that the art of portraiture should have flourished +with unparalleled lustre. + +Three great geniuses arose in England to bring this special branch of +painting up to a pitch that had never been reached there before. + +It is true that Holbein’s portraits are magnificent, stately, and true +to life, and that they present wonderful portrayals of character; but +Holbein was painting in a world of drastic change, of adventure, of +political agitation, when nearly everyone whom he painted had the fear +of the axe descending upon his neck. It is true that Van Dyck painted +people of elegance and distinguished manner--the portrait of Robert +Rich, Earl of Warwick on page 189 would alone prove this--and gives us +a glimpse into a charming world. + +But Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Romney were the first to paint +Society--that brilliant, witty, provocative, frivolous, graceful, +charming, _chic_, and altogether delightful Society of the +Eighteenth Century. + +The Eighteenth Century! How we delight in it! + +We are not too far away to feel at home in it; and, moreover, much +of our beautiful Georgian architecture survives in this country with +Chippendale, Sheraton, and Heppelwhite furniture and Spode, Wedgwood, +Chelsea, Lowestoft and various china, with other relics besides, to +show us that our Colonial forefathers lived in style and elegance. The +latest fashions in household furnishings and dress travelled here from +London even quicker than they travelled to the English provinces. + +To lift the curtain upon the Eighteenth Century is like lifting the +cover from a Chinese jar of _pot-pourri_; and just as that subtle +yet pungent scent of rose-leaves, lavender, sweet spices, and musk +float from it, so visions appear before another sense. Our inherited +memories bring before us pictures of brocade gowns or “hoops,” +flowered silk overdresses, high-heeled satin slippers with glittering +buckles, ruffles of Mechlin lace, “chicken-skin” fans gay with Watteau +or Lancret or Pater pictures, rustling silks, shimmering satins, +nodding feathers, cinnamon coats, Ramilies tie-wigs, lace-solitaires, +wrist-ruffles, cocked-hats, swords, and snuff-boxes. + +We seem to stand in lovely gardens, bright with roses and hollyhocks, +larkspur, foxglove, amaranth, love-in-a-mist, bleeding-hearts, and +gilliflowers, noting the moving shadow on the sundial and watching the +stately peacocks behind the well-clipped hedges of box and holly; or +we follow the fashionable world to Ranelagh or Vauxhall, where we look +with fascinated gaze on the beautiful women in hoops of brocade or +lutestring silk, much painted, powdered and patched, glancing archly +beneath their coquettish “gipsy hats” at their gallant escorts, who +know so well how to lead them through the steps of a minuet or a +gavotte to the rococo tunes of Rameau, Dr. Arne, or Couperin with their +quirls and pretty runs and trills and long pauses for stately bows. + +That world is so fascinating to us that we fancy we, too, could wear +without embarrassment the elaborate costume and that we, too, would +feel much at home with Horace Walpole and his friends at _Strawberry +Hill_. We, too, might be able to prepare minced chicken in a +chafing-dish, just as satisfactorily as the Miss Berrys; and we like +to fancy that we could take part in their airy conversation of charm, +banter, and light mockery. At any rate, if we should not be able to +succeed in entertaining Horace Walpole, we are very certain that Sir +Horace could entertain us! + +All the Society people of London of this time seem very friendly to us +and we are strangely “at home” with the portraits of Gainsborough, Sir +Joshua, and Romney. + +When we look upon _Diana, Lady Crosbie_, _Lady Betty Delmé_, +_Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire_, _Maria Walpole, Duchess of +Gloucester_, _Lady Derby_, and _The Hon. Mrs. Davenport_ do we not feel +that we have known and talked to these people in the flesh? Their eyes +meet ours and our thoughts meet theirs,--and we are not strangers to +one another. + +And when we look upon Gainsborough’s _Mall_ does it not bring back +memories of the time when we, ourselves, walked there with all the gay +throng of a bright morning? + +Lord Gower said very aptly: + +“Gainsborough created a new school by making a lady’s petticoat a thing +of beauty. He could even throw a halo upon a ribbon or a scarf.” + +That is true; but Lord Gower forgot the fact that the lady had by her +taste and her high-bred elegance conferred distinction on her clothes +by the fitness with which she selected them and by the manner in which +she wore them. + +Thrice in England have pairs of geniuses appeared at the same time, +inviting comparison and attracting partisans--Keats and Shelley; +Thackeray and Dickens; and Reynolds and Gainsborough. + +There should be no partisans. The more we love and admire Keats, the +better we are able to admire and love Shelley; the more we appreciate +and delight in Dickens, the more we are able to appreciate and delight +in Thackeray; and the more we comprehend and enjoy Sir Joshua, the more +we are able to comprehend and enjoy Gainsborough. + +Although they were rivals--and quite bitter ones at times--the two +supreme English painters of the Eighteenth Century admired each other +prodigiously. + +“Damn him! how various he is!” Gainsborough exclaimed of Reynolds; and +Sir Joshua remarked to Sir George Beaumont of Gainsborough; “I cannot +imagine how he manages to produce his effects.” + +“What is it then that gives Romney his hold upon this generation and +will continue to give him a hold so long as a love of art endures +among us?” Humphrey Ward asks; and then he answers his own question as +follows: + +“In part, of course, it is because he shares with Reynolds and +Gainsborough the good fortune of having kept alive for us a society of +which the fascination is enduring--that limited and privileged society +of the Eighteenth Century which has realized such a perfect art of +living and with which we can clasp hands across the gap as we cannot +with the men and women of Charles the Second’s time, or even of Queen +Anne’s. Much more is it because of temperament and training. Romney was +an artist in love with loveliness; because he found it in the women and +children of his time and stamped it on countless canvases. + +“To our problem-haunted painters of to-day it may be seen that his +sense of form was ‘generic and superficial’; they may condemn him +because he did not try to penetrate deep into character and because he +simplified too much, like the Greek sculptors. The lover of mere human +beauty will care little for such objections, provided that a portrait +gives him the essentials of a beautiful face. + + ‘The witchery of eyes, the grace that tips + The inexpressible douceur of the lips’-- + +and has blended them with the aristocratic dignity of the Lady Sligo, +or with the melting sweetness of many of the sketches of Emma. This is +what he finds in every first-rate Romney; and he finds much more. He +finds pure and unfaded color, the fruit of the painter’s knowledge and +of a self-restraint which forbade him to search for complex effects +through rash experiments. He finds a quality of painting which, though +it wants the subtlety and preciousness that Gainsborough reached +instinctively and Sir Joshua by effort, is a quality to which nobody +but a master can attain. To be convinced of this we have only to look +closely at the brush-work of the eyes in any of the National Gallery +Romneys, or the draperies in such pictures as the _Lady Warwick and +Children_ or the _Lady Derby_. + +“When all is said, Romney remains one of the greatest painters of the +Eighteenth Century and one of the glories of the English name.” + +We are apt to think that it was easier to conquer a reputation in the +Eighteenth Century than it is to-day and that Sir Joshua Reynolds, +Gainsborough, Romney, Hoppner, and Raeburn stepped easily into their +commanding positions. Let us remember that Horace Walpole mentions the +fact that there were two thousand portrait-painters in London in his +time! + +The story of English Painting previous to the Eighteenth Century is +interesting and very different from that of any nation on the Continent. + +The Wars of the Roses, which lasted thirty years (1455–1485), coincide +with the great developments of Painting in Italy and Flanders. During +this period, while York and Lancaster were, like the Lion and the +Unicorn, fighting for the Crown, no attention could be paid to the +painting of pictures. Up to this period England had had a notable +past in portraiture, fresco-painting, and, even more particularly, +in the art of illumination and miniature-painting. In the decoration +of manuscripts from about 1250 to 1350 the Anglo-Norman painters +stood first in this branch of art. The old monastic artists had great +traditions to follow and superb models to draw upon, such as the +_Book of Kells_ (dating from the Eighth or Ninth Century); and +the Winchester School of the Tenth Century stood very high before the +advent of the Normans in 1066. + +Our own country to-day can show many examples of this splendid work in +private collections. After William Caxton set up his printing-press at +Westminster in 1471, there was little more need for the laboriously +written manuscripts with their exquisite miniature-painting and +illumination. + +Oliver Cromwell’s Roundhead bandits and other Puritans with their +wholesale demolishing and slashing of all art and everything beautiful +together with the Great Fire of London in 1666 destroyed all the +paintings that could have told us just what had been accomplished in +England at the time when Fra Angelico, Fra Lippo Lippi, and Botticelli +were creating masterpieces in Italy and when Roger van der Weyden +and Memling were painting gloriously in the great realm of the Dukes +of Burgundy. Such works as the _Romaunt de la Rose_ and other +Anglo-Norman manuscripts give us a hint of what Painting in England +must have been; for, of course, English, or Anglo-Norman Painting, in +Plantagenet days must have been--as in other countries--an enlarged +version of the brightly colored miniatures touched up with gold-leaf in +the manuscripts. + +Henry VIII seems to have been the first English King who was a +patron of art in the modern sense. But there was no English artist +of power to be patronized. The German Hans Holbein (see page 240) +was made Court-Painter. Holbein painted all the great personages +in Tudor England and his influence lasted long after his death. +Miniature-portraits were also popular. The greatest artist in this line +was Nicholas Hilliard (1547–1619), a native of Exeter, trained as a +goldsmith, a follower of Holbein, and appointed goldsmith, carver, and +portrait-painter to Queen Elizabeth (whose portrait he painted many +times). Later he was portrait-painter to James I. It was Hilliard, too, +who engraved the Great Seal of England in 1587. Hilliard’s pupil, Isaac +Oliver (1556–1617?), also a pupil of Federigo Zuccaro, was unsurpassed +as a miniature-painter and taught his son Peter (1601–1660), who +was famous for his drawings and water-colors as well as for his +miniatures. Samuel Cooper (1609–1672), achieved a great reputation as +a miniaturist portrait-painter and painted Charles II, Henrietta Maria, +all the celebrities of the Court, and also John Milton and Oliver +Cromwell. Collectors appreciate his works to-day. + +Holbein left no School and there was no one to succeed him. +Consequently when Antonio Moro (see page 257), came to England from +Spain in 1553 to paint Mary Tudor, he stayed in London for some time +painting celebrities. + +In Queen Elizabeth’s time another foreign portrait-painter, Federigo +Zuccaro (or Zucchero) arrived from Italy with a great reputation, +having worked for Pope Gregory XIII and the Cardinal of Lorraine, and +also in Antwerp and Amsterdam. Zuccaro painted Queen Elizabeth, Sir +Francis Walsingham, Sir Walter Raleigh, the Earl of Leicester, and many +other English notables. + +Another foreigner, Daniel Mytens (1590?–1656), arrived in the reign +of James I, became his Court-Painter and continued in the post in +the reign of Charles I, until Van Dyck’s popularity sent him back to +Holland. Mytens painted in the style of Rubens and Van Dyck. Hampton +Court Palace contains many full length portraits by him. A portrait +by Mytens of Jeffrey Hudson (see page 191), holding a dog by a leash, +hangs in Buckingham Palace. + +However, in the reign of Charles I, Anthony Van Dyck (see page 181) +dominated Painting just as Holbein had in the reign of Henry VIII. For +years after his death every painter tried to follow Van Dyck’s style; +but they all missed his distinction, not having his genius to start +with. + +Civil war and Puritanism killed art completely. Consequently +when “Charlie came over the water” and the “King Enjoyed his Own +Again,” there was nobody in the kingdom able to paint an acceptable +portrait. Again a foreigner met the need. This time it was Peter Lely +(1618–1680), who was a Dutchman, born in Westphalia, Germany, the son +of Pieter van der Faes, a captain of infantry, who had changed his name +to Lely. In 1640 young Lely was in England, painting landscapes and +trying to imitate Van Dyck in portraiture. The marriage of Princess +Mary to William, Prince of Orange gave Lely his first opportunity and +he painted the Royal couple with Charles II, who made him a knight and +baronet in 1679. Sir Peter only enjoyed his honors a year, for he died +in 1680. Sir Peter Lely painted a great number of portraits, including +the “Court Beauties,” which now hang in Hampton Court Palace. + +The Court-Painter of Queen Mary II and Queen Anne was another +foreigner, Godfrey Kneller (1646–1723), a native of Lübeck, a pupil of +Ferdinand Bol, Carlo Maratti, and Bernini, with painting experiences in +Rome and Venice. Kneller painted portraits of Charles II, Louis XIV, +James II, William III, Queen Mary, Queen Anne, and George I. For Queen +Mary II he painted the “Beauties” at Hampton Court, in a certain sense +a continuation of Sir Peter Lely’s “Beauties.” Kneller was knighted in +1692 and made a baronet in 1715. + +Sir Godfrey painted the members of the Kit-Cat Club and every person of +distinction in England. In 1705 he settled near Twickenham. Pope wrote +an epitaph for Kneller’s monument in Westminster Abbey. + +William Hogarth (1697–1764) who now enters the lists, is the first +really English painter. Hogarth was a native of London and an engraver +as well as a painter. Hogarth became Sergeant-Painter to the King +in 1757. He first attracted attention by his prints for Butler’s +_Hudibras_ in 1726 and at this time began to paint in oils. In 1731 he +painted _The Harlot’s Progress_ and followed this with _Southwark Fair_ +and _The Rake’s Progress_ which gave him great fame as a satirist. In +1745 he painted his own _Portrait_ and the _Marriage à la Mode_ (six +scenes). The vigor and personality of his portraits, the beautiful +coloring of his palette, and the atmosphere of the Eighteenth Century +make Hogarth one of the great names in art. England was a long time +producing an artist; but when he came he was a very great one. + +Hogarth was so pre-eminently a chronicler of the fashions and follies +of his time that we are apt to forget his beautiful use of color, and +Hogarth’s technique is so solid and so sure that his colors are as +fresh to-day as when they were painted. + +Hogarth did not believe in his powers of portraiture; but the world +does not agree with him. The portrait of _Lavinia Fenton as Polly +Peachum in the Beggar’s Opera_, (National Gallery, London) ranks +as one of the great portraits of the world. And there are others: +_David Garrick and his Wife_ in Windsor Castle; his own _Portrait_ +(National Gallery, London); _Archbishop Herring_ (Lambeth Palace); _Peg +Woffington_; and many others. + +Hogarth’s book _The Analysis of Beauty_ had the following origin. In +his own portrait painted in 1745 he drew on a palette in one corner +of the picture a serpentine line with the words: “The line of beauty +and grace.” So much discussion ensued that Hogarth wrote the book to +explain what he meant and to establish a standard of beauty. + +The Eighteenth Century saw the great period of English Painting +expressed in Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792); Thomas Gainsborough +(1727–1788); and George Romney (1734–1802). Others of importance +were Richard Wilson (1714–1782), famous for his landscapes in many +of which ruins were introduced; Francis Cotes (1725–1770), famous +portrait-painter; and, lapping over into the Nineteenth Century, +Sir William Beechey (1753–1839), who became portrait-painter to the +Queen; John Hoppner (1758?–1810), portrait-painter (see page 416); +John Opie (1761–1807), historical portrait-painter; Sir Thomas +Lawrence (1769–1830); Sir Henry Raeburn (1756–1823); Joseph Mallord +William Turner (1775–1851); John Constable (1776–1837); John Wilkie +(1785–1841); and John Crome, known as “Old Crome” (1793–1842). + + + LADY BETTY DELMÉ. + + _Sir Joshua Reynolds + (1723–1792)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. and Mrs. Herbert L. Satterlee._ + +This, one of Sir Joshua’s finest group pictures (93 × 57 inches), was +painted in 1777, a year in which the artist made many notable portraits +including that of Diana, Viscountess Crosbie (see page 345). Lady Betty +Delmé is seated at the base of an old beech-tree on her estate between +London and Portsmouth, her arm around her children. The little Scotch +terrier seems much interested in his master. The whole is a wonderful +study in amber and russet tones. The picture came to Mrs. Satterlee +from her father, the late Mr. J. P. Morgan. + +Joshua Reynolds was born in Plympton Earl Plymouth, July 16, 1723, the +son of the Rev. Samuel Reynolds, headmaster of the grammar school. +Early showing great talent for drawing, young Joshua was apprenticed +in 1740 to Thomas Hudson, the portrait-painter, in London. Three years +later he returned home and established himself as a portrait-painter +at Plymouth Dock, where he met William Gandy, a painter, who had no +little influence upon his style. In 1744 Reynolds was back in London +and in 1749 back in Devonshire, this time settling in Devonport. In +this year he met at Mount Edgcumbe young Commodore Keppel (afterwards +Admiral), whose portrait he painted and with whom he formed a great +friendship. Accepting Keppel’s invitation to sail with him on the +_Centurion_ for a Mediterranean trip, Reynolds eventually reached +Rome, where he spent two years. While studying in the Vatican he caught +a severe cold which resulted in a life-long deafness. Returning home in +1753, Reynolds took rooms in St. Martin’s Lane, then the headquarters +of art, and people began to flock to his studio. He then removed to +Newport Street and in 1760 established himself in Leicester Fields (now +Leicester Square), which for thirty years was the _rendez-vous_ +for the artistic, literary, and distinguished world of London. +In 1768 Reynolds was unanimously elected first President of the +just-established Royal Academy and in 1769 was knighted by George III. +In 1784 Sir Joshua succeeded Allan Ramsay as Painter-in-Ordinary to the +King. In 1789 his eyesight began to fail and he soon had to relinquish +his art. Sir Joshua died in 1792 and was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral +with great pomp. In addition to his enormous list of paintings Sir +Joshua designed the windows for New College, Oxford, and Oxford gave +him the degree of D. C. L. Sir Joshua’s famous _Discourses on Art_ +were delivered between 1769 and 1790 at the Academy “to encourage a +solid and vigorous course of study.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert L. Satterlee_ + + LADY BETTY DELMÉ + + --_Sir Joshua Reynolds_] + +When we think of the thousands of pictures that Sir Joshua painted--all +of them _fine_ and many of them _great_--we stand amazed at the +capacity of the artist who produced them. They were all creations! +The five portraits of little Isabella Gordon known as _Angels’ +Heads_ (National Gallery, London), which in lightness, delicacy, and +iridescence have been compared to the petals of a flower and the +melting softness of the rainbow; _Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse_; +the _Strawberry Girl_; the _Age of Innocence_; _Nelly O’Brien_; _Kitty +Fisher_; _Penelope Boothby_; _Mrs. Abington_; _Lord Ligonier_; _The +Graces Decorating a Terminal figure of Hymen_; _Diana, Lady Crosbie_; +_Mrs. Hardinge_; _Lady Cockburn and her Children_;--all belong to the +first rank of original and artistic achievement. + +“Reynolds,” Sir Walter Armstrong writes, “arrived at results scarcely +to be distinguished from those of genius, and did so entirely by the +action of an original mind and a profound taste upon accumulated +materials. His path towards excellence was conscious, discriminative, +judicial. Every step he took was the result of a deliberate choice. +He felt no heats driving him into particular expression in his own +despite. Just as by fairness of mind he produced the effect of sympathy +among his friends, so by unerring judgment he produces the effect of +creation on us who value his art. He appears to me the supreme, if +not the only, modern instance of a painter reaching greatness along +a path, every step of which was trodden deliberately, with a full +consciousness of why it was taken and whither it was leading, and with +the power unimpaired to turn back or to change the goal at any moment. +Superficially the art of Sir Joshua resembled that of Raphael as little +as it well could; mentally the processes of the two men were curiously +alike. Both possessed taste to such a degree that it became genius; +and both were endowed, for the service of their taste, with a mental +industry which is rare.” + +It is unfortunate that Sir Joshua experimented so deeply with his +pigments and glazes so that we can see none of his pictures in their +pristine beauty and brilliance. That he was a rare colorist we would +know from _Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse_ and the _Angels’ +Heads_--the former rich and gorgeous and the latter iridescent and +delicate--showing the two extremes. + +Here is Sir Joshua’s palette given in the _Farington Diary_ under +date of August 14, 1806: + +“Marchi (Sir Joshua Reynolds’s assistant) I called on before dinner to +desire him to call upon J. Taylor to give his opinion of a picture +said to be a portrait of Garrick by Sir J. Reynolds. I desired Marchi +to state to me what colors Sir Joshua Reynolds had placed upon his +palette and the order in which they were laid. He named them as +follows. He used a handle palette as it is called: White; Naples +Yellow; Yellow oker; Vermillion; light red; lake; black. Asphaltum he +used occasionally, but that he had it in a galley-pot. His vehicles +were: Mastick varnish and drying oil made into Macgilp in a pot. Nut +oil which he used with his white in a pot. Mastick varnish _only_, +which he sometimes used alone; and Marchi observed that it caused his +colors to crack and fly off. Wax (white virgin wax) he had in a tin pot +which he melted at the fire when he proposed to use it. This vehicle +Marchi observed caused his colors to scale off from the canvas in +flakes.” + +To mention the sitters who came to Leicester Fields and the company +that gathered there every evening when Sir Joshua was not dining out +would be to list the entire society of London in the Eighteenth Century. + +“In these days we are apt to forget that to many of Sir Joshua’s +contemporaries, with the stricter notions of social precedency in vogue +a century ago,” Sir Walter Armstrong notes, “the painter’s station in +London society must have seemed almost an outrage, especially as it had +been won without any kind of pretence or undue submission to those who +were then called the great. Fond as he was of the best that Society +could give, he lived his life in his own way, invited whom he chose +to his table, leaving his guests to shake down among themselves as +best they could, and, so far as we can discover, paying little heed to +prejudices on the matter of birth, and still less to those which had to +do with politics or conventional morality.” + +Lord Ronald Sutherland Gower has made this very interesting comparison +of Romney and Reynolds: + +“The mighty events which were in progress around him--the war with +the American Colonies, and the supervening naval war with France and +Spain--ran their course without personally affecting him, whereas +Reynolds was in constant touch with the men who were most vigorously +opposing Lord North’s policy, with Burke and Charles Fox; and it +was his own intimate friend of nearly thirty years standing, Admiral +Keppel, whose trial in this very year 1778, formed the central +battle-ground between the Court and the popular party. In all these +things Reynolds was intimately concerned, as he was in the lighter +events of social life, with his constant dinner-parties at Leicester +Fields, his still more constant attendance at the tables of the great +and the assemblies of Mrs. Montagu and Mrs. Ord, his outings to +Streatham, and his mild flirtation with ‘Little Burney.’ But Romney +lived remote, as remote in his shyness and isolation as Gainsborough +lived in his fondness for a Bohemian world--the world of artists that +painted and played and left war to the soldiers and politics to the +politician. It is true that a couple of years afterwards politics +were brought pretty closely home to both of them, as they were, +_nolentibus volentibus_, to all the householders in London. The +Keppel riots in 1778, celebrating the acquittal of the popular Admiral, +were festive and pleasant enough; noblemen and gentlemen went out +with the crowd; young Pitt, it is said, helped to break Lord North’s +windows; and young Rogers, the banker-poet, to unhinge the gates of the +Admiralty. This was very well and very pleasant; but two years later +the mob improved upon their lesson, and in the Lord George Gordon Riots +London was ablaze.” + + + THE STRAWBERRY GIRL. + + _Sir Joshua Reynolds + (1723–1792)._ + + _Collection of + Mrs. Francis F. Prentiss._ + +James Northcote in his _Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds_ notes: “The +picture of a little _Strawberry Girl_ was painted about this time +(1775?) and he considered it one of his best works, observing that no +man ever could produce more than about half a dozen really original +works in his life; “and this picture,” he added, “is one of mine.” + +This little girl is about three years old and is shown at three-quarter +length with a handkerchief folded around her head after the fashion +of a turban, the curls escaping from her forehead. She wears a +lightcolored dress with a pinafore caught over her arm. At her neck +is a ribbon bow. Her hands are demurely folded at the waist and over +her right arm hangs a cone-shaped strawberry “pottle.” The background +is composed of large rocks and trees at the right. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mrs. Francis F. Prentiss_ + + THE STRAWBERRY GIRL + + --_Sir Joshua Reynolds_] + +The picture is painted in oils on canvas (29 × 24 inches) and is a +replica of the original in the Wallace Collection, London. + +Leslie and Taylor voiced so well the impression that every one has when +looking at this fascinating work that what they said bears quoting: + +“_The Strawberry Girl_ with her pottle on her arm, creeping +timidly along and glancing round her with large, black eyes, might be +Little Red Riding Hood hearing the first rustle of the wolf in the +wayside bushes, could we substitute a red hood for the odd turban-like +head-dress with which the painter has crowned his little maiden, and +which even Sir Joshua’s taste can barely make becoming, and hang on her +arm the basket of butter and eggs for her sick grandmother instead of +the strawberry pottle which gives her a name.” + +The model for _The Strawberry Girl_ was Miss Theophila Palmer, Sir +Joshua’s favorite niece, who lived with him and looked after him until +her marriage. Her name Theophila was divided into two pet names. “The” +and “Offie,” upon which Sir Joshua once wrote a playful-verse: + + When I’m drinking my tea, I am thinking of The, + When I’m drinking my coffee, I’m thinking of Offie, + So, whether I’m drinking my tea or my coffee, + I always am thinking of thee, my The-Offie. + +In the _Farington Diary_ (Vol. IV), by Joseph Farington (London, 1924), +we also learn that Miss Theophila Palmer was the “My dear Offy” of +Sir Joshua’s letter, dated Jan. 30, 1781, in which he wished that she +and Mr. Robert Lovell Gwatkin of Kellrow, Truro, Cornwall, her future +husband, “may be as happy as both deserve--and you will be the happiest +couple in England. So God Bless you!” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the late Mr. Henry E. Huntington_ + + DIANA, VISCOUNTESS CROSBIE + + --_Sir Joshua Reynolds_] + +Fanny Burney, in a description of a reception at Sir Joshua Reynolds’s +house in Leicester Square, refers to young Gwatkin, the Cornish Squire, +“making sheep’s eyes at Offy, whose uncle, Sir Joshua was very fond +of her.” “I never was,” he wrote to Offy, “a great friend to the +efficacy of precept, nor a great professor of love and affection, and, +therefore, I have never told you how much I loved you for fear you +should grow saucy upon it.” + +The well-known picture of _Simplicity_ is of Theophila Gwatkin, +daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Gwatkin and this little girl was +also known affectionately as The. + + + DIANA, VISCOUNTESS CROSBIE. + + _Sir Joshua Reynolds + (1723–1792)._ + + _Collection of the late + Mr. Henry E. Huntington._ + +Sir Joshua Reynolds pronounced the _Strawberry Girl_ one of his most +original creations. The portrait of _Diana Lady Crosbie_ certainly +ranks as another. All critics are united in considering it one of the +finest productions of the master’s brush. Who but Sir Joshua would ever +have thought of such a pose? + +The Honorable Miss Diana Sackville, daughter of Lord George Sackville, +aged twenty-one, was engaged to be married to Viscount Crosbie (son and +heir of the first Earl of Glandore) and was visiting his seat, Ardfert +Abbey, Kerry, Ireland. Lord Crosbie sent for Sir Joshua Reynolds to +come and paint the portrait of Lady Diana; and the story goes that soon +after arriving Sir Joshua caught sight of Lady Diana running across the +lawn. He was so fascinated by her lightness and grace that he begged +permission to paint her as he had first seen her. + +Consequently, we have Lady Diana surprised in the act, as it were, of +tripping over the park, holding up her dress with her right hand and +extending her left in graceful attitude. The dress is white silk, bound +at the waist by a gold sash, and beneath the folds of the dress, so +exquisitely painted, the tip of a small slipper is seen. The picture +was painted in September, 1777, and two months later Lady Diana was +married to Lord Crosbie. In 1781, when her husband succeeded to the +title, Lady Crosbie became, of course, Countess of Glandore. She died +in 1814. For painting this portrait Sir Joshua received £78.15. + +The picture, oils on canvas (93 × 58 inches), left the Crosbie home +only within recent years to occupy a place of honor in Sir Charles +Tennant’s drawing-room in London. From the Tennant Collection it went +directly to California. The picture has been engraved several times +and the best known engravings are by W. Dickinson (1779); James Scott +(1863); and R. S. Clouston (1890); and “proofs before letters” of these +plates bring very high prices in the auction-rooms. + +“Here is a miracle of vivacity,” says Spielmann, “so natural, so +alive, that you almost forget that you are in front of a picture as +you look at this lady who moves across the canvas with outstretched +hand to greet you as you approach. Rarely have animation and movement +been so completely realized on canvas. The design is finely sustained +by the mellow, golden tone of the white dress and the telling note of +the golden scarf, all seen against a convincing landscape that seems +entirely novel in Reynolds’s open-air portraits.” + + + MRS. SIDDONS AS THE TRAGIC MUSE. + + _Sir Joshua Reynolds + (1723–1792)._ + + _Collection of the late + Mr. Henry E. Huntington._ + +This gorgeous portrait, oils on canvas (93 × 56 inches), was painted +in 1785, when the famous actress was twenty-eight, in the full bloom +of her beauty and fruition of her talents; and it is rightly described +by Mrs. Jameson as “the apotheosis of her genius and beauty.” It is +painted in the “grand style” with rich coloring of amber and purple, +the _Tragic Muse_ seated on a throne among the clouds with her +head lifted as if listening to some inspiring voices and her hand +raised as if to command silence. A coronet of pearls adorns her hair, +and heavy ropes of pearls are wound around her neck and are knotted +loosely in front. Over her lap is thrown a drapery, on the hem of which +Sir Joshua painted his name. + +The poetic and dramatic conception of the picture show how much Sir +Joshua admired Michelangelo’s _Prophets_ and _Sibyls_ in the Sistine +Chapel. + +In this magnificent work Sir Joshua certainly realized his theories +regarding the “grand style” as expressed in his _Fourth Discourse_ +to his pupils: “To give a general air of grandeur at first view all +trifling or artificial play of little lights, or an attention to a +variety of tints, is to be avoided; a quietness and simplicity must +reign over the whole work; to which a breadth of uniform and simple +color will very much contribute.” + +In the theatrical annals of England the Kemble family rank with the +later Trees and Terrys; and Mrs. Siddons was a Kemble. Sarah Siddons, +the eldest daughter of Roger Kemble, actor and theatrical manager, +was born in 1755 in Brecon, Wales, where her father was managing a +troupe of players. She was the sister of Charles Kemble, the famous +comedian and manager of the Covent Garden Theatre, and aunt of Fanny +Kemble, the noted actress. At an early age, Sarah played small parts +in her father’s company and when she was eighteen was married to a +young actor named Siddons, also in the Kemble company. Soon afterward +Mr. and Mrs. Siddons appeared in _The Clandestine Marriage_ in +the provinces. Sarah Siddons soon attracted Garrick’s attention and +he gave her an engagement at Drury Lane; but she was not a success. +She then went to Bath, where she became a favorite and established her +reputation. In 1783 she reappeared at Drury Lane and this time she took +London by storm. Then she went to Dublin, where more triumphs added +to her confidence as well as to her fame; and, when she returned to +London, it was to Covent Garden, where her brother, John Philip Kemble, +was manager. Mrs. Siddons shone especially in tragedy and achieved, +perhaps, her greatest success as Lady Macbeth. When Byron saw her in +this _rôle_ he wrote: “It was something transcending nature; one +would say that a being of a superior order had descended from a high +sphere to inspire fear and admiration at the same time.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the late Mr. Henry E. Huntington_ + + MRS. SIDDONS AS THE TRAGIC MUSE + + --_Sir Joshua Reynolds_] + +Mrs. Siddons’s great parts were Lady Macbeth, Portia, Constance, +Isabella, Jane Shore, Almeira, Lady Ann, Calista, Belvedera, and Mrs. +Beverly. In 1812 she retired from the stage with a large fortune and +died in 1831. Thomas Campbell wrote her life in 1834. + +All the portrait-painters of the day had Mrs. Siddons sit to them. The +most famous pictures, however, were Reynolds’s _Tragic Muse_; +Gainsborough’s beautiful one in an afternoon costume of light blue, +striped silk, black hat, yellow scarf and muff, in the National +Gallery, London; and two by Lawrence, also in the National Gallery, +London. + +“It was probably after his return from his tour of the Low Countries +that Mrs. Siddons, now in the very flush of her popularity, sat to +him. She had not yet acted in Shakespeare, unless her first appearance +as Isabella (_Measure for Measure_) and as Constance (_King John_) +with her brother, John Kemble (for whom her success had procured a +leading engagement at Drury Lane), preceded her first sittings, which +is possible, though not probable. Her fame has been won in such parts +as Isabella (in _The Mourning Bride_), Euphrasia (in _The Grecian +Daughter_), Jane Shore, Calista, Belvedera, Zara, and Mrs. Beverly. The +Royal Family, little as they loved tragedy, had already distinguished +her by every mark of favor. Her house was besieged by the noble and +fashionable. The managers of Drury Lane had gladly supplemented her +modest salary of ten pounds a week by a double benefit; and in June +she had left London--after a series of successes which almost eclipsed +the still recent fame of Garrick--for Ireland and a short round of +provincial performances. Mr. Russell, author of the _History of Modern +Europe_, had sung her praises under the title of The Tragic Muse, +before she left London. His verses are forgotten, but they may have +suggested to Reynolds the subject of his picture. It could not have +been prompted, as Boaden imagines, by an allusion in the epilogue to +_Tancred and Sigismunda_, as her first appearance in that tragedy was +on the 24th of April, 1784, when the picture was already in its place +on the walls of the Exhibition-Room. The conception of this noble work +was no doubt suggested by Michelangelo’s _Isaiah_. Mrs. Siddons told +Mr. Phillips that it was the production of pure accident. Sir Joshua +had begun the head and figure in a different view; but while he was +occupied in the preparation of some color she changed her position +to look at a picture hanging on the wall of the room. When he again +looked at her and saw the action she had assumed, he requested her not +to move; and thus arose the beautiful and expressive figure we now see +in the picture.”[24] + +Yet there is still another story, which is told by Mrs. Jameson. Mrs. +Siddons used to describe Sir Joshua as taking her by the hand and +leading her up to his platform with the words: “Ascend your undisputed +throne; bestow on me some idea of the Tragic Muse.” On which, Mrs. +Siddons said: “I walked up the steps and instantly seated myself in +the attitude in which the Tragic Muse now appears.” It is most likely +that both stories are true. Sir Joshua’s leading the Queen of the +London Stage to her throne on his painting-platform with his courtly +compliment was thoroughly in character and that he also encouraged The +Tragic Muse to act her part and create expression as well as take a +dramatic pose, is also most in keeping with the exciting moment. Sir +Joshua undoubtedly foresaw that he had the opportunity of producing his +greatest masterpiece. + +Mrs. Siddons also related that when Sir Joshua was putting the last +touches to the work he said: “I cannot resist the opportunity for going +down to posterity on the edge of your garment,” upon which he painted +his name and the date 1784 on the hem of the robe. + +However, Sir Joshua had already done this ten years before in the +portrait of _Lady Cockburn and her Children_, in the National Gallery, +London, where the name and date make a decorative finish to Lady +Cockburn’s amber-colored robe trimmed with white fur thrown across her +lap and that famous picture was begun in 1773 and finished in 1775. + +_The Tragic Muse_ was greatly admired when it first appeared. _The +Public Advertiser_, April 28, 1784, said: + +“It is impossible to be too lavish in its praise; it is, indeed, a most +sublime and masterly performance and undoubtedly one of the very best +that ever was produced by Sir Joshua. He seems to have conceived and +executed it with enthusiasm. Mrs. Siddons is drawn in the character +of _The Tragic Muse_, the composition is in a grand style, the figure +possesses great dignity, and that fine expression of countenance for +which the original is preëminent and almost unrivalled. Sir Joshua has +been said to paint the _mind_; and perhaps there never _was_ a more +striking instance of it than in this performance. The accompanying +genii ready to administer the dagger or the bowl have also great +expression, and in the effect of the _tout ensemble_ there is a +grandeur and a solemnity suited to the subject and highly worthy of +universal admiration.” + +It is illuminating, too, to dip into the _Farington Diary_ (London, +1925), and note in 1801: + +“Opie thinks the Mrs. Siddons by Sir Joshua the finest picture he +knows. Opie thinks the picture of Mrs. Siddons much superior to any of +the Titians which were brought by Day from Rome. + +“Bourgeois mentioned that Sir Joshua had said the principle to work +upon is to fix a high light and a lowest depth to which all other +lights and dark parts should be subordinate.” + +In 1808 we read: + +“Lawrence spoke with the highest admiration of Sir Joshua Reynolds’s +portrait of _Lord Heathfield_ now at the European Museum, having +been sent there by Boydell to be sold for 350 guineas. He said this +picture and the portrait of _Mrs. Siddons_ by Sir Joshua are the top +of his Art.” And again in the same year: “We looked at the picture of +_Mrs. Siddons_ by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Lawrence said, it was his best +picture. I said, it was a high refinement of Rembrandt. Mr. Smith[25] +said he gave £320 for it, which was not half what Calonne paid. It cost +the latter £800.” + +On the authority of Lord Ronald Sutherland Gower in _Sir Joshua +Reynolds_ (London, 1902), we learn: + +“There is another version of _The Tragic Muse_ in the Dulwich Gallery. +This was sold by Reynolds to M. Desenfans for seven hundred guineas +in 1790 and the date on the hem of her garment is 1789, from which it +appears that he completed this five years after the Grosvenor House +picture. Both of these may be regarded as the authentic work of the +master. There is a replica also of _The Tragic Muse_ at Langley Park, +near Stowe, which is said to have been given by Reynolds to Mr. Harvey +in exchange for a painting by Snyders of a _Boar Hunt_; and another was +in the possession of Mrs. Combe in Edinburgh. I think there is no doubt +that these replicas are by the hands of Reynolds’s assistants.” + +Mrs. Siddons in the Dulwich Gallery (canvas 93 × 57 inches) described +as follows: + +“She sits on a throne in front view and looks up towards the right; the +right arm and the left elbow rest on the throne; with the hand raised +as if listening to some inspiring voice; a coronet on the back of her +hair; wearing an amber brown dress, with rows of pearls round her neck; +across her lap is a robe, on the hem of which Sir Joshua has inscribed +his name. Paid for, February 1790, Mrs. Siddons, sold to Mr. Desenfans +£735.” + +The picture was purchased from Sir Joshua in 1790 by Noel Desenfans +and by him bequeathed to Sir Francis Bourgeois, R. A., by whom it was +left to Dulwich College. It hangs in the picture gallery there. It is +interesting to note that the date on the hem of the robe is 1789--five +years after the Duke of Westminster’s picture! Some critics think that +Sir Joshua also painted this replica himself. + +Leslie and Taylor mention in their _Life of Reynolds_ that they failed +to find any note relative to Score’s making a copy of _The Tragic +Muse_; but they draw attention, on the contrary, to the following +extract from Northcote’s _Life of Reynolds_: + +“The picture of a little _Strawberry Girl_ with a kind of turban on +her head was painted about this time (1772) and he considered it one +of his best works, observing that no man ever could produce more +than about half a dozen really original works in his life; ‘and this +picture,’ he added, ‘is one of them.’ The picture was exhibited (1773) +and repeated several times; not so much for the sake of profit as for +that of improvement, for _he always advised as a good mode of study, +that a painter should have two pictures in hand of precisely the same +subject and design and should work on them alternately; by which means, +if chance produced a lucky hit, as it often does_, then instead of +working on the same piece, and by that means destroy that beauty which +chance had given, he should go to the other and improve upon that. Then +return again to the first picture, which he might work upon without any +fear of obliterating the excellence which chance had given it, having +transposed it to the other. Thus his desire of excellence enabled him +to combat with every sort of difficulty or labor. + +“The compilers’ theory, then, is: after the sketch of _Mrs. Siddons’s_ +portrait was laid in, he took up a fresh canvas, made a replica and +worked on both alternately until ‘the lucky hit’ was produced and +that appeared to Sir Joshua in the picture finished and exhibited in +the Royal Academy, 1784. Notwithstanding the glowing eulogiums passed +upon it, a purchaser was not found for it until 1788, when it was sold +to M. de Calonne. Sir Joshua did not record the sale in his ledger, +or note-book, and it only transpired when Skinner and Dyke sold at +their rooms, Spring Gardens, 1795, the English pictures of the Calonne +Collection and specified in the Catalogue that M. de Calonne paid Sir +Joshua 800 guineas for the portrait of Mrs. Siddons in the character of +the Tragic Muse. + +“At this time M. Desenfans was Consul-general in Great Britain for the +Kingdom of Poland, a writer of marked ability, a recognized authority +on art, an extensive picture-dealer, employed by the King of Poland +to purchase high-class Old Masters to complete his Collection and who +kept up an acquaintance with Sir Joshua, notwithstanding the trick he +played of selling him, through Cribb, his frame-maker, the copy of a +Claude, specially made by Marchi for the purpose as an original. The +compiler’s surmise is, then, that he knew Sir Joshua had the unfinished +replica on hand, and came to an understanding with him to complete it +in its present form, ‘signed and dated 1789 on the edge of the robe.’ +This investigation leads to three inferences; first, that Sir Joshua +would not condescend, for any consideration, to sign and date a copy +of _The Tragic Muse_ made by Score; secondly, that an astute man +of business, such as Desanfans was, would not give £735 for a copy; +thirdly, that The Dulwich picture must now be regarded in the same +light as the Westminster one--both from the hand of Reynolds; but which +was first commenced cannot be ascertained.” + + + GEORGIANA, DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE. + + _Sir Joshua Reynolds + (1723–1792)._ + + _Collection of the late + Mr. Henry E. Huntington._ + +It is interesting to compare this picture by Sir Joshua with +Gainsborough’s _Duchess of Devonshire_ (see page 373), which is +probably the earlier of the two. This picture, oils on canvas (94 × +57 inches), was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1776 as No. 233. +The Duchess had not long been married when this picture was painted, +as her marriage took place in 1774. There is something in the pose +that suggests the portrait of _Diana, Lady Crosbie_, which was painted +later. The Duchess is represented full-length facing the left, in the +act of descending a flight of stone steps, her right hand placed on the +balustrade and her left holding her dress very gracefully. The dress +is cream-colored cut low in the neck and fashioned with full sleeves. +The skirt is gracefully cut and abounds in plaits and draperies. A +gauzy scarf is wound around her right arm and floats below. The hair +is dressed very fashionably with a long and round curl pinned tightly +at the back of the neck and reaching the shoulder, and above the braid +which forms a coronal the hair mounts higher and is ornamented by +pearls and grey and red feathers. Vines are growing gracefully around +the balustrade, beyond which and through the near-by trees we see an +open vista of the park with a statue at the left. Presumably this is +_Chatsworth_, the seat of the Duke of Devonshire. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the late Mr. Henry E. Huntington_ + + GEORGIANA, DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE + + --_Sir Joshua Reynolds_] + +The picture was in the Collection of Earl Spencer, K. G., at Althorp, +Nottinghamshire, before it was taken to California. + + + THE COTTAGE DOOR. + + _Thomas Gainsborough + (1727–1788)._ + + _Collection of the late + Mr. Henry E. Huntington._ + +The little group is assembled in front of a thatched cottage, beside +which a gnarled and withered tree rises scarred and seared by the +storms of many years. Overhanging the roof a large tree droops its +feathery Gainsborough foliage and, on the left, half of another +feathery Gainsborough tree is waving in the summer breeze. By this +tree, and farther back as well, a stream is seen falling in a little +cascade beneath a rustic bridge. Luxuriant weeds grow in the foreground +and by the side of the cottage, the door of which is open and beside +which a peasant’s family is grouped. The mother, in yellowish brown +skirt and white bodice, has a suggestion (save for the costume) of the +beautiful ladies that sat to Gainsborough. In her arms is a baby. On +her right, is a little boy, scantily dressed, who is eating something; +in front of her are two children, one holding a bowl and the other +dipping from it with a spoon; a fifth child, with one hand on his head +and the finger of his left hand in his mouth, looks forward shyly; +and the sixth is seated on the ground by his side. “Old pimply-nosed +Rembrandt,” as Gainsborough called him, never lighted a scene more +beautifully, nor more marvellously than this. + +The picture, oils on canvas (57 × 46 inches), is one of Gainsborough’s +most mature works and dates from about 1776–1778. + +Bought by T. Harvey of Catton, Norfolk, in 1786, it passed to Mr. +Coppin of Norwich in 1807. Then it became the property of Sir John +Leicester, Bart., created Lord de Tabley in 1826; and at the Sale of +the effects of the latter it was bought by Earl Grosvenor, created +Marquess of Westminster in 1831. In 1921 _The Cottage Door_ was +sold by the second Duke of Westminster to Mr. Henry E. Huntington. + +“There is no painter of English birth more widely appreciated than +Gainsborough whose art touches every observer, great and simple, +learned and unlearned. As we look at his pictures, said Constable, +we find tears in our eyes and know not what brings them. A thread +of romance runs through the whole of Gainsborough’s career, from +his marriage to a beautiful and well-dowered bride, whose origin is +shrouded in mystery, down to the pathetic termination of the long +years of jealous rivalry with Reynolds. And romance and mystery are +inseparably connected with his pictures--with the portraits of that +_Duchess of Devonshire_, whom tradition has brought us to regard as +typical of English beauty, with that masterpiece at Edinburgh, the +portrait of _Mrs. Graham_, hidden from sight for fifty years on account +of one of the tenderest of love stories; and with the famous _Blue +Boy_, the secret of whose history still remains undiscovered.”[26] + +“Old pimply-nosed Rembrandt and myself were both born in a mill,” +Gainsborough used to say, because his father, John Gainsborough, was +a manufacturer of woollens in Sudbury. Thomas was born there in 1727. +At twelve he was said to be a “confirmed painter.” His first portrait +seems to have been a great success. Some one had been stealing pears +from the Gainsborough orchard and one day, when young Thomas was +sketching there he saw a man’s face peering over the fence. Instantly +he made a quick sketch and took it into the house. By means of this +sketch the culprit was identified. Gainsborough then enlarged the +sketch, painted an oil portrait, mounted it on a board, and stuck “Tom +Peartree” up to the delight of all the neighbors and confusion of +strangers. This picture was lent to the Gainsborough Exhibition held at +the Grosvenor Gallery in 1885 and is now in the Elizabethan Mansion in +Christchurch Park, Ipswich. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the late Mr. Henry E. Huntington_ + + THE COTTAGE DOOR + + --_Thomas Gainsborough_] + +In 1741 Gainsborough went to London and, after studying under Hubert +Gravelot and Francis Hayman, took a studio in Hatton Garden and tried +to start as a portrait and landscape-painter. A year of failure decided +the young artist to return home. In a short time he married Margaret +Burr (supposed to be a natural daughter of the Duke of Bedford) and +removed to Ipswich. Here he painted chiefly landscapes. About 1760 he +settled in Bath and immediately became the fashion. Fourteen years +later Gainsborough removed to London, where his success continued and +he became the rival of Reynolds. Gainsborough had already in 1768 been +nominated by George III one of the thirty-six Academicians on the +foundation of the Academy and he exhibited almost yearly at the Royal +Academy from 1769 to 1788, when there was a misunderstanding about the +hanging of his pictures. Gainsborough died in 1788, closing one of +the most remarkable careers in art, for this great painter was almost +entirely self-taught. Reynolds called attention to this remarkable fact +in his _Fourteenth Discourse_, in which he cites Gainsborough as +an example of an artist who has arrived “at great fame without the +assistance of an academical education, or any of those preparatory +studies which have so often been recommended.” + +Yet his genius was such that he attained the greatest eminence in his +day and his place in art to-day is in the small circle of the very +great ones. + +Ruskin did not exaggerate in the least when he wrote: “Gainsborough’s +power of color is capable of taking rank beside that of Rubens; he is +the purest colorist of the English School; with him, in fact, the art +of painting did in great part die and exists not now in Europe. In +management and quality of single and particular tint, in the purely +technical part of painting, Turner is a child to Gainsborough. His +hand is as light as the sweep of a cloud, as swift as the flash of a +sunbeam. He never loses sight of his picture as a whole. In a word +Gainsborough is an immortal painter.” + +Gainsborough painted about seven hundred portraits and two hundred +landscapes. Strange as it may seem, he preferred to paint landscapes. +At least he told George III this. And he told his friend Jackson +in a letter “I’m sick of Portraits and wish very much to take my +viol-da-gamba and walk off to some sweet village where I can paint +landskips and enjoy the fag-end of life in quietness and ease.” + +This seems strange coming from one of the greatest of all +portrait-painters. + +To read the list of Gainsborough’s portraits is to run through the +Social Register of London and Bath. Gainsborough painted “everybody +that was anybody.” The great personalities of the day wanted their +portraits “limned” by both Reynolds and Gainsborough, often adding +Romney and Hoppner as well. The fourteen years that he lived in Bath +Gainsborough’s painting-room was almost as much of a _rendez-vous_ +as the Pump Room and his sitters ranged from the most aristocratic +and wealthy, such as Earl Spencer, his wife, and little daughter, the +future Duchess of Devonshire, to statesmen, like Pitt, and actors like +Garrick and Quin. The latter sat three times to Gainsborough. The +following little piece of amusing acting usually took place. Quin, +suffering from gout, would hobble to the painting-room and tapping at +the door would ask “Is Old Grumpus in?” Gainsborough would reply “Come +in”; and, placing a chair for his friend and a stool to rest his foot +upon, would put on a grave, doctorial look and, resting his chin on his +maul-stick, would inquire in the Bath phrase: “Well, how is _toe_?” + +Quin evidently was a critic: “Sometimes, Tom Gainsborough,” he +said, “a picture in your rigmarole style appears to my optics the +veriest daub,--then, the devil’s in you, I think you a Van Dyck!” And +Gainsborough would tell Quin that “nothing could equal the devilism of +portrait-painting.” + +“Indeed, he told me,” Angelo relates, “at his house in Pall Mall, +that he was sure the perplexities of rendering something like a human +resemblance from human blocks was a trial of patience that would have +tempted holy St. Anthony to cut his own throat with his palette-knife.” + +Gainsborough was devoted to music, played several instruments and was +a great friend of the oboe-player in the Queen’s Band, John Christian +Fischer, who married his daughter Margaret; of John Christian Bach, +son of the great John Sebastian Bach; and of Bach’s associate, Charles +Frederick Abel, the celebrated virtuoso on the viol-da-gamba, whose +portrait Gainsborough painted with his instrument by his side, and +which is now in the Huntington Gallery. + +Gainsborough’s portrait by Zoffany in the National Portrait Gallery, +London, presents a handsome and rather dashing man of about thirty-five +with classic features and large, fine eyes with penetrating glance and +an intelligent, interior light. Had he not been a painter he might have +easily become a _beau_, or a gallant officer of the Major André type, +or of that impudent young dog, Jack Absolute, who captivated Miss Lydia +Languish in _The Rivals_. + +It was the same in London as it had been in Bath. Gainsborough became +the fashion. He barely had time to fill all the orders that came thick +and fast and he enjoyed society and still more his cronies, and, to +judge from numerous anecdotes, was not averse to wild companions; but +for all that he was generous, sympathetic, outgoing, and much beloved +by his friends. + +As an instance of his ready wit on one occasion, when he was in court +regarding a picture the councillor tried to embarrass him. “I observe,” +he said, “you lay great stress on a painter’s eye. What do you mean by +that expression!” “A painter’s eye,” replied Gainsborough, without a +moment’s hesitation, “is to him what a lawyer’s tongue is to you!” + +Gainsborough was sprightly, humorous, and lively in conversation and +indeed, in society, to use the word of the period, something of a +“rattle.” + +Whenever he appeared, either at a morning lounge at Christie’s amidst +the enlightened and polite, or at My Lady’s midnight rout surrounded by +bowing _beaux_ and curtseying belles, his gaiety enlivened every +group. He knew everybody and everybody knew him; he was, however, most +at home with the worthies of the auction-room. For some years Garrick +was frequently his companion at Christie’s, where the amusement caused +by the humor common to both never failed to give an additional zest to +the proceedings. Mr. Christie often declared that “the presence of this +choice pair added fifteen per cent to his commission on a sale.” + +And this was a “choice pair,”--Garrick and Gainsborough! + +“We know as little about Gainsborough’s tools and methods of painting +as we do of his pigments, but if his daughter’s memory may be trusted, +her father worked with paint so thin and liquid that his palette ran +over unless he kept it on the level. It is generally agreed that he +used very long brushes, and Nollekens Smith who saw him at work, says: +‘I was much surprised to see him sometimes paint portraits with pencils +on sticks full six feet in length and his method of using them was +this: he placed himself and his canvas at a right angle to the sitter, +so that he stood still and touched the features of his pictures exactly +at the same distance at which he viewed the sitter.’ The anonymous +biographer of the _Morning Chronicle_ who knew the painter excuses +his supposed want of finish by saying that he worked with a very long +and broad brush. Another contemporary, John Williams (Pasquin), in a +biographical note declares that Gainsborough always prided himself +upon using longer and broader tools than other men and upon standing +farther away from his canvas when at work. That he always stood to +paint we know from Thicknesse, but it is obvious that all his work +could not have been done with broad tools of hog-hair. Probably he used +camel-hair brushes sometimes, as did Gainsborough Dupont, who inherited +his uncle’s implements and colors and in painting followed his manner +exactly. Dupont left behind him, in addition to a great quantity of +hogtools, ‘twelve bundles of camel’s hair pencils.’ Fulcher says that +when Gainsborough’s sitters left him it was his custom to close the +shutter, in which was a small circular aperture, the only access for +light and by this subdued illumination work on his picture and get rid +of superfluous detail. No authority is given for this statement, but +there can be little doubt that Gainsborough loved to subdue the light +in his painting-room. Williams says that it was sometimes subdued to +such an extent that objects were barely visible.”[27] + +And Osias Humphrey, R. A., tells us a little more, drawing from his +memories of Bath,... “Exact resemblances in his portraits was Mr. +Gainsborough’s constant aim, to which he invariably adhered. These +pictures, as well as his landscapes, were frequently wrought by +candle-light and generally with great force and likeness. But his +painting-room--even by day a kind of darkened twilight--had scarcely +any light and I have seen him, whilst his subjects have been sitting to +him when neither they nor the pictures were scarcely discernible.” We +also learn that Gainsborough let in more light when the picture reached +its finishing stages. + + + THE MALL IN ST. JAMES’S PARK. + + _Thomas Gainsborough + (1727–1788)._ + + _Collection of the late + Mr. Henry Clay Frick._ + +Horace Walpole characterized this delightful picture as airier than +a Watteau and “all in motion and flutter like a lady’s fan.” It is +one of Gainsborough’s latest works, painted in 1786, and one of his +masterpieces, oils on canvas (57¾ × 47½ inches). The picture was among +those in the painter’s studio at the time of his death. After a few +changes of ownership, it passed into the Collection of George Frost, +an artist and fellow-townsman of Gainsborough, and then to Sir Audley +Dallas Neeld, Bart., Grittleton House, near Chippenham, Wiltshire. + +_The Mall_ is a perfect epitome of London society in the Eighteenth +Century--the London of Austin Dobson. + +“The Mall from the days of the Stuarts until the closing years of the +Eighteenth Century was the field upon which fashion, and feminine +fashion especially, chose to disport itself. Twice a day social London +donned its best apparel and took a turn under the trees, once at +midday and again, in summer, in its evening clothes after the early +dinner. Here fashion met its friends, exchanged its repartees, made +appointments for evening _rendez-vous_ at Ranelagh or Vauxhall, +ate fruit or bought flowers from Betty’s girl out of St. James’s +Street, or drank syllabubs from the red cow’s milk which was one of +the attractions of the London parks. Nothing in the external aspect of +London more struck the intelligent foreigner than the amenities of the +promenade in the Mall. One of these gentlemen concluded an eloquent +pæan on the beauty of the lady promenaders, by recording with rapture +that of a morning the very ground glistened with the pins which they +had dropped. The Mall, indeed, was the very shrine of flounce and +furbelow until somewhere about 1795, when fashion unaccountably moved +northward to the walk in the Green Park at the back of Arlington +Street, and from there later to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the Mr. Henry Clay Frick_ + + THE MALL + + --_Thomas Gainsborough_] + +“The very spirit of this life is preserved in Gainsborough’s picture, +one of the few canvases in which he represents figures in motion; +singular also among his work is that it contains a score or so of +figures. There is a central group of four ladies with an attendant +cavalier advancing towards the spectator, a pair on the right, two +pairs on the left passing each other, others again seated on the +right. The accidental episodic quality of such a subject is perfectly +conveyed--the transient glance of a passing woman, the turn of the neck +appropriate to that attitude, the ground dotted with an occasional dog. +Technically it represents Gainsborough at his highest, where the solemn +tones of his earlier manner have disappeared, and the very painting +itself seems to echo his delight in the mastery of heightened, luminous +color.”[28] + + + MARIA WALPOLE, DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER. + + _Thomas Gainsborough + (1727–1788)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft._ + +The subject of this portrait was famous under three names: her maiden +name of Maria Walpole; as Lady Waldegrave; and as the Duchess of +Gloucester. She was very beautiful (no one could compete with her but +the Gunning sisters); she was very witty and brilliant; and, moreover, +she was noted for her rich qualities of heart and character. Her uncle, +Horace Walpole, was devoted to her. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft_ + + MARIA WALPOLE, DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER + + --_Thomas Gainsborough_] + +Maria Walpole began life under a cloud, but this was soon dispelled and +the rest was all sunshine. The Hon. Edward Walpole, second son of Sir +Robert, was her father and her mother was a milliner’s apprentice at +Bath. Maria was baptized July 10, 1738, at St. James’s, Westminster, +and was made legitimate by His Majesty’s warrant. Recognized as a +Walpole, everything was done for her. The old _London Town and +Country Magazine_ gives us this very good idea of her preparation +for life: “Maria’s education was suited to the rank of life in which +she has ever figured; and the advantages she derived from it were +entirely noticed by every man of taste and discernment who was happy +enough to be in her company.” + +Horace Walpole brought about her first marriage to the Right Honorable +James, Second Earl of Waldegrave, K. G., in 1759; and he wrote to Sir +Horace Mann: + +“I have married, that is, I am marrying my niece, Maria, my brother’s +second daughter, to Lord Waldegrave. What say you? A month ago I +was told he liked her--does he? I jumbled them together and he has +already proposed. For character and credit he is the first match in +England--for beauty I think she is. She has not a fault in her face and +person and the detail is charming. A warm complexion tending to brown, +fine eyes, brown hair, fine teeth, and infinite wit and variety.” + +In another letter Sir Horace wrote: “The second daughter of my brother +is beauty itself. Her face, bloom, eyes, hair, teeth, and person all +are perfect. You may imagine how charming she is when her only fault, +if one must find one, is that her face is rather too round. She has a +great deal of wit and vivacity with perfect modesty.” + +To George Montagu on May 16, he wrote: + +“Well! Maria was married yesterday. Don’t we manage well? The +original day was not once put off; lawyers and milliners were all +ready canonically. It was as sensible a wedding as ever was. There +was neither form nor indecency, both which generally meet on such +occasions. They were married at my brother’s in Pall Mall just before +dinner by Mr. Keppel;[29] the company, my brother, his son, Mrs. Keppel +and Charlotte,[30] Lady Elizabeth Keppel, Lady Betty Waldegrave and +I. We dined there. The Earl and new Countess got into the post-chaise +at eight o’clock and went to Navestock (Lord Waldegrave’s seat near +Brentwood, Essex) alone, where they stay till Saturday night; on Sunday +she is to be presented. Maria was in a white and silver nightgown[31] +with a hat very much pulled over her face; what one could see of it +was handsomer than ever; a cold maiden blush gave her the sweetest +delicacy in the world.” + +Maria was a friend of the Countess of Coventry, who had attained fame +as the beautiful Maria Gunning and used to walk with her in the Park +and they must have been a very striking pair, for after the Countess +of Coventry’s death, Lady Waldegrave was considered the handsomest +woman in England. A month after Maria’s marriage Sir Horace noted in a +letter: “My Lady Coventry and my niece Walpole have been mobbed in the +park.” + +There were three daughters of this marriage--Laura, Maria, and +Horatia--remembered to-day especially for the group portrait Sir Joshua +Reynolds painted of them and which belonged to Sir Horace Walpole in +1782. + +Lord Waldegrave died in 1763; and on Sept 6, 1766, Maria, now Dowager +Countess of Waldegrave, was married privately to H. R. H. William +Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, seven years her junior. +The marriage was performed in her own house in Pall Mall by her own +chaplain and she thus became the sister-in-law of George III. The +secret was kept for some time and the King banished his brother from +Court, but after two years the Duke was taken back into Royal favor and +the Duchess bore her honors with such grace and dignity that she became +very popular at Court. + +The portrait represented here, oils on canvas (35½ × 27½ inches), was +painted about 1779, or before. + +“We hear,” the _Public Advertiser_ printed on May 4, 1772, “that the +gentlemen upon the Committee for managing the Royal Academy have been +guilty of a scandalous meanness to a capital artist by secreting a +whole-length picture of an English Countess for fear their Majesties +should see it; and this only upon a full conviction that it was the +best finished picture sent in this year to the Exhibition.” Again in +1775 a society reporter for the _Morning Chronicle_ gathered up this +piece of gossip: “The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester are often going +to a famous painter’s in Pall Mall; and it is reported that he is now +doing both their pictures, which are intended to be presented to a +great lady.” + +The picture is nearly three-quarter length and represents the Duchess +in a gold-tinted dress with hair dressed high and powdered and wearing +lovely pearls. Her head is posed upon her left hand and the arm rests +upon a pedestal that is barely visible. There is good reason for +thinking this portrait was originally full-length and that it has been +cut down. It is interesting to compare this portrait of the _Duchess +of Gloucester_ with _The Hon. Mrs. Graham_ in the National Gallery, +Edinburgh, who is painted, full length, and is resting her arm, +likewise, on a pedestal. + +“The introduction of a parapet, or indeed, of any kind of architectural +setting in a portrait of kit-cat size is most unusual. The left arm +resting on the parapet and the large scale on which the head is here +painted, confirm our view that our canvas was originally, as Fulcher +claims, a whole length. This canvas to-day is almost exactly kit-cat +size. It may well have been cut down to meet the requirements of +hanging. Half a century ago such a practice was not unknown, especially +in the English Royal Collections. It will be remembered that the lower +portions of the canvas of Gainsborough’s _Eldest Princesses_ was +very inceremoniously cut away in the early part of the Nineteenth +Century. + +“A kit-cat, strictly speaking, is a canvas for a portrait less than a +half-length, but including the hands, and measuring 36 by 28 inches. +It is so called from the portraits of the members of the Club at Barn +Elms, who seem to have originally met in the pie-house kept in Shire +Lane, London, by one Kit (i.e. Christopher) Cat. These portraits are +now in the Baker Collection at Bayfordbury, near Hertford.”[32] + +In June 1904 _The London Times_ stated that “The Duke of +Cambridge’s pictures, which are now hung on Christie’s walls, form +the largest collection of portraits of the reigning house that has +ever been offered for sale. All, in fact, represent George III and +his family, with their husbands and wives. By far the finest is +Gainsborough’s _Maria Walpole, Countess of Waldegrave and Duchess of +Gloucester_, Horace Walpole’s beautiful niece.” + +These art-treasures, as well as Gloucester House, had been inherited +by the Late Duke of Cambridge from his aunt, the second and last +Duchess of Gloucester, who died in 1857. + +The sale of this picture created a sensation. Again referring to the +_London Times_ (June 13, 1904), we read: “The honors of the day +distinctly fell to Gainsborough, whose beautiful portrait of _Maria +Walpole_ has established a record price for this artist’s pictures +at auction. Bidding was started on Saturday at 5000 guineas and in +rather more than half a dozen bids reached 12,000 guineas, at which +it was knocked down to Messrs. Agnew & Sons. The price, therefore, +quite eclipses the 10,000 guineas paid in 1876 for the famous stolen +_Duchess of Devonshire_, which remained the record price for a +Gainsborough until Saturday.” + +In the following November, the _Majestic_ brought the +$60,000-Gainsborough to New York. + +This portrait, when exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1799, was +described by Sir Horace Walpole as “very good and like.” + +Maria Walpole died in 1807, two years after the Duke of Gloucester, +leaving one son and two daughters. Of her other portraits Lionel Cust +in _The Royal Collection of Paintings_, Vol. I, 1905, says: + +“The beautiful Countess of Waldegrave was one of Sir Joshua Reynolds’s +favorite sitters. She sat to him in 1759, after her marriage, for the +full-length portrait in peeress’s robes, which belongs to the present +Earl Waldegrave, and again in 1761 and 1762, for the well-known +portrait in a turban and for the Madonna-like group with her child, +which was bequeathed by Frances, Countess Waldegrave, to the Duc +d’Aumale, and is now in the Condé Collection at Chantilly. She sat +again to Reynolds in 1764, as a widow in mourning for her husband, and +more than once again during her widowhood. She sat to him in October, +1767, when really Duchess of Gloucester, for a portrait to be given to +her father, Sir Edward Walpole. + +“After the marriage had been revealed to the world, the Duchess sat +to Reynolds in 1771, for the full-length seated portrait now at +Buckingham Palace. This was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1774. +This portrait descended to her daughter, H. R. H. Princess Sophia +Matilda of Gloucester, who at her death in November, 1844, bequeathed +the portrait to H. R. H. Prince Albert, the late Prince Consort. + +“The Duchess of Gloucester sat for the last time to Reynolds in 1779, +for a group of herself and her daughter, Princess Sophia Matilda.” + + + GEORGIANA, DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE. + + _Thomas Gainsborough + (1727–1788)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. and Mrs. Herbert L. Satterlee._ + +She stands here--proud, elegant, disdainful, stylish, aristocratic, +beautiful, and altogether charming, in her dashing, large, black hat +worn at a _debonnaire_ angle, white dress, and light petticoat and +light blue sash, looking at us with the most marvellous eyes ever put +upon canvas and a mouth that matches them in such naturalness that we +expect the Duchess to smile at any moment. Her eyes have such fire and +sparkle that they pierce right through us. It is hard to believe that +we are looking upon a painted portrait--it must be the Duchess herself +who gives us that alert, penetrating, fiery, and mocking glance. + +This picture has had a most romantic history. It is the famous “Lost +Duchess,” stolen in London, and found after twenty-five years in +America. + +The Duchess, in some unknown way, fell into the hands of a Mrs. +Maginnis, an old schoolmistress, who had it cut down to fit the space +over the chimney-piece in her sitting-room and burned up the cut-off +piece. Mr. Bentley, a dealer bought the picture from Mrs. Maginnis for +£56 and then sold it to Mr. Wynn Ellis, a wealthy City merchant, who +sent this _Portrait of a Lady_ to be engraved by Messrs. Henry +Graves & Co. This firm, having already engraved the Clifden Duchess of +Devonshire, at once identified the subject. When the Wynn Ellis Sale +took place at Christie’s, June 6, 1876, this portrait created a great +deal of excitement. It was catalogued as follows: + +“T. Gainsborough, R. A. _The Duchess of Devonshire_, in a white +dress and blue silk petticoat and sash, large black hat and feathers, +59½ × 45 inches.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert L. Satterlee_ + + GEORGIANA, DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE + + --_Thomas Gainsborough_] + +As this portrait of the Duchess was the first “star” that ever rose +in an auction-sale, it is worth while putting forward here the +contemporary account of an event which has passed into history. The +_London Times_ records: + +“The sale of the modern pictures belonging to the Wynn Ellis Collection +on Saturday last created such a sensation as has never been experienced +in the picture world of London. Throughout the week the pictures had +attracted a considerable number of visitors, but on the day preceding +the sale the interest came to a climax and crowds filled the rooms of +Messrs. Christie, Manson, & Woods. Anyone passing the neighborhood of +St. James’s Square might well have supposed that some great lady was +holding a reception and this, in fact, was pretty much what was going +on within the Gallery in King Street. All the world had come to see +a beautiful Duchess, created by Gainsborough; and so far as we could +observe, they all came, saw, and were conquered by her fascinating +beauty. + +“When the portrait was placed before the crowded audience a burst of +applause showed the universal admiration of the picture. The biddings +commenced at one of 1000 guineas, which was immediately met with one of +3000 guineas from Mr. Agnew; and, amid a silence of quite breathless +attention, the bids followed in quick succession until 10,000 guineas +was announced. Mr. Agnew then called 10,100 guineas and won the battle +in this most extraordinary contest. The audience densely packed on +raised seats round and on the floor of the house, stamped, clapped, and +bravoed.” + +And now comes the story! + +Twenty days after this sale, on the night of May 26, 1876, the +galleries of Messrs. Agnew were entered, the canvas was cut from the +stretching frame, and the Duchess was carried off! + +Where? + +By whom? + +The picture was already too well-known to be saleable and to make +it still better known photographs of the picture were immediately +placed in every shop-window in London. The subject became of universal +interest: pictures of the Duchess were printed on every article of +merchandise possible; and fashion decreed that once again the Duchess’s +huge hat should be the proper thing to wear. For many years afterwards +the “Gainsborough Hat” and the “Picture Hat” continued to be worn in +country towns across the Atlantic, far away from London, by persons who +had never heard of the beautiful Duchess of Devonshire. + +Sensation No. 2. + +In March, 1901, the newspapers all over the world announced that the +“Lost Duchess” had been found! + +Mr. Morland Agnew, after various negotiations, was handed a parcel in +the Auditorium Hotel in Chicago which proved to be the Gainsborough +canvas. The discovery had been made by the New York Pinkerton Detective +Agency, who found the thief, one Adam Worth alias Henry Richmond, son +of a German Jew, who had settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and who +was one of the most famous and clever criminals ever known. + +A few days after its return the picture was purchased by Mr. J. P. +Morgan at a price beyond £30,000. + +Many years before, in 1762–3, Gainsborough had painted in his studio at +Bath the Duchess of Devonshire when she was little Georgiana Spencer, +aged six, in a white dress, pink ribbons, and dainty cap. At the +same period Gainsborough painted portraits of her parents, Earl and +Countess Spencer of Althorp, the one of the Countess ranking very high +among Gainsborough’s works of the Bath period. The Countess, Margaret +Georgiana, daughter of the Hon. Stephen Poyntz, was a very beautiful +and extremely wealthy woman and the Earl also possessed enormous wealth +and became famed for the magnificent Collection he made at Althorp. The +marriage of this couple in 1755 created a sensation and was much talked +of in the gossipy letters and memoirs of the day. One eye-witness +related: “The bride followed in a new sedan-chair lined with white +satin, a black page walking before and three footmen behind, all in the +most superb liveries. The diamonds worn by the newly married pair were +given to Mr. Spencer by Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, and were worth +£100,000. The shoe-buckles of the bridegroom alone were worth £30,000.” + +Lady Harvey related that the wedding-party went from London to +Althorp “in three coaches with six horses and two hundred horsemen. +The villages through which they passed were in great alarm, some of +the people shutting themselves up in their houses, and others coming +out with pitchforks, spits, and spades, crying out ‘The invasion has +come’, believing that the Pretender and the King of France were both +come together; and great relief was experienced when the formidable +cavalcade had passed without setting fire to the habitation, or +murdering the inhabitants.” + +The year after this marriage Mrs. Delany, Horace Walpole’s friend, +met “Mrs. Spencer, one of the finest figures I ever saw, in white +and silver with all her jewels and scarlet decorations; her modest, +unaffected air gives a lustre to all her finery that would be very +tinsel without it.” + +Is it any wonder that with such parentage Georgiana Spencer should have +had brains, beauty, charm, and perfect equipment in every way for that +world of society which was her inheritance? + +Georgiana was born on June 9, 1757, and was married at the age of +seventeen to the fifth Duke of Devonshire, regarded as the “first +match” in England. “Georgiana was a lively girl,” said Walpole, +“natural and full of grace.” Immediately the Duchess became “the +irresistible queen of ton” and the most conspicuous leader of society +whenever and wherever she appeared. She dazzled every gathering by +her beauty; astonished everyone with her elegant and extravagant +dress; and charmed everybody by her wit and her grace. The Duchess +was always among the gay butterflies who masqueraded at the Pantheon, +promenaded at Ranelagh, danced at assemblies, or played for high-stakes +at fashionable gaming-tables. To think of London society in the late +Eighteenth Century without the Duchess of Devonshire, is impossible. + +Walpole writes that she “effaces all without being a beauty; but her +youthful figure, flowing good nature, sense, and lively modesty and +modest familiarity make her a phenomenon.” + +The Duchess had a clever mind and she delighted in the society of +persons of talent. Fox, Sheridan, and Selwyn were among her special +friends. The story of her campaigning for Fox with Fox’s sister, Lady +Duncannon, and even selling “a kiss for a vote” is told by many pens +and by pencils as well, for the Duchess afforded fine material for +the caricaturists. The Duchess was much pleased, it is said, by the +compliment paid to her during the Fox campaign by an Irishman, who +exclaimed: “Sure I could light me pipe at her eyes!” And Gainsborough +managed to fix this flaming glance in the famous Satterlee portrait. + +Coarse satire attacked the Duchess of Devonshire as it attacks all +who enter the political arena; but, on the other hand, there are many +tributes from contemporary pens to her sweetness of disposition and to +her noble and generous qualities of heart. + +In 1806 upon hearing of her death at Devonshire House, Piccadilly, +(just lately demolished), the Prince of Wales exclaimed: “We have lost +the best-loved woman in England” and Charles James Fox replied: “We +have lost the kindest heart in England.” + +The Duchess of Devonshire occasionally wrote verse. Her _Passage +of the Mountain of St. Gothard_, dedicated to her children (she +had a son and two daughters), was published with a French translation +in 1802; an Italian translation was printed in 1803; and a German +translation in 1805. This poem gave occasion to Coleridge’s ode with +the lines: + + “O lady nursed in pomp and pleasure + Whence learned you that heroic measure?” + +Gainsborough could not have made this or any other portrait of the +Duchess of Devonshire until after 1782, because, in that year, Bate +published in the _Morning Herald_, the following lines: + + “O Gainsboro! thou whose genius soars so high, + Wild as an eagle in an unknown sky, + To Devon turn!--thy pencil there shall find + A subject equal to thy happy mind! + Amidst thy fairest scenes, thy brightest dyes, + Like young Aurora let the Beauty rise.” + +Another portrait of the Duchess of Devonshire by Gainsborough is also +in this country, owned by the Hon. Andrew W. Mellon. It represents a +whole length life-size figure leaning against a pedestal and came from +the Collection of the late Earl Spencer at Althorp, Nottinghamshire. + + + THE BLUE BOY. + + _Thomas Gainsborough + (1727–1788)._ + + _Collection of the late + Mr. Henry E. Huntington._ + +The _Blue Boy_ is without doubt the most famous picture in the world. +When it passed from the Duke of Westminster’s Collection in Grosvenor +House, London, by private sale to the late Mr. Henry E. Huntington, the +event created a sensation in the art-world, which soon extended to the +general public. No painting was ever exploited so widely in the press +and when exhibited at the Duveen Galleries in New York, before starting +on its journey to California, the _Blue Boy_ attracted unusual crowds. + +Before it bade farewell to London the famous picture was exhibited at +the National Gallery and the following extract from a letter of Sir +Charles J. Holmes, Director of the National Gallery, dated January +24, 1922, to Sir Joseph Duveen, gives an idea of how the portrait is +regarded in England: + +“My dear Duveen: I saw the last, for the time being anyhow, of the +_Blue Boy_ this afternoon at ten minutes past four and feel bound +to write these lines to thank you and Mrs. Huntington for the pleasure +which the sight of it has given to more than 90,000 people during the +last three weeks. It is indeed a most brilliant thing, outshining in +its present condition all our English pictures at Trafalgar Square and +when the natural mellowing of the varnish during the next two or three +years has taken place its perfections will be enhanced. And though its +passing from us has been the cause of universal regret, that regret has +not been tinged with bitterness. It is generally recognized that while +in the process of recovering from the War, the Nation could not have +paid the price which its fortunate owner was able to afford.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the late Mr. Henry E. Huntington_ + + THE BLUE BOY + + --_Thomas Gainsborough_] + +The picture, an oil painting on canvas, is large (5 feet, 10 inches × +4 feet) and represents a young boy, Master Jonathan Buttall of London, +life-size, dressed in a blue suit, holding a broad-rimmed hat in +his right hand and very conspicuously standing forth from a landscape +background with a dark, cloudy sky. + +The following notes from the _Farington Diary_, recently published, +bring us into relation with the two early sales. + +Under date of Dec. 15, 1796, we find: + +“Buttall’s sale. I went to Gainsborough’s picture of a _Boy in a Blue +Vandyke Dress_ sold for 35 guineas. Several of his drawings were sold +in pairs. Some went so high as 8 guineas and a half the pair.” + +“May 25, 1802. I painted till four o’clock and then went to Nesbitt’s +sale in Grafton Street, where I met Hoppner, who had purchased the +_Boy in Blue Dress_ by Gainsborough, which was Buttal’s, for 65 +guineas. At Buttalls sale it was sold for 35 to Mr. Nesbitt.” + +The picture is in marvellous condition. When Lord Ronald +Sutherland-Gower saw it in the Duke of Westminster’s Collection before +it came to America, he exclaimed: + +“The _Blue Boy_ at Grosvenor House has all the glamor and charm of +a portrait of a fairy prince.” + +These few words explain the spell that the picture seems to cast upon +every one who sees it, for whenever _The Blue Boy_ has been exhibited +crowds have stood enraptured before it. + +Regarding Mr. Nesbitt’s connection with the picture we have the +following story from the Rev. J. T. Trimmer, Vicar of Marston-on-Dove, +Derbyshire: + +“Many years ago there resided at Heston a Mr. Nesbitt, a person of +substance and a companion of George, Prince of Wales. He once possessed +Gainsborough’s _Blue Boy_ and in the following way. He was dining with +the Prince. ‘Nesbitt,’ said the Prince, ‘that picture, (pointing to +the _Blue Boy_) shall be yours.’ At first he thought the Prince must +be joking, but, finding he was decidedly serious, Nesbitt, who was a +_beau_ of the first water, made all suitable acknowledgments for H. R. +H.’s generosity and next morning the _Blue Boy_ arrived, followed in +due time by a bill for £300, which he had the satisfaction of paying. I +heard Mr. Nesbitt many years ago tell the story at my father’s table.” + +From Mr. Nesbitt the _Blue Boy_ came into possession of John Hoppner, +the artist, who sold it to Earl Grosvenor. Then, of course, _The Blue +Boy_ passed as an heirloom to his successor, the Duke of Westminster. +For many years _The Blue Boy_ hung in Grosvenor House, London, in the +same room with Sir Joshua Reynolds’s _Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse_, +the two most famous portraits of the two most famous English painters. +And it is one of the romances of art that these two portraits should +have crossed the Atlantic and to be again united, as it were, this time +in a California mansion. + +Gainsborough had doubtless some reason for painting this portrait; +but it is not the reason usually given,--namely that it was done in +refutation of a theory expressed by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1778. Apart +from the reasons now accepted to disprove this theory, the picture +is too joyously painted for a controversial and academic _tour de +force_. + +One of Gainsborough’s latest biographers, Mr. William T. Whitley,[33] +discovered the following in a number of _The European Magazine_ (August +1798), which would seem to give the real reason for the genesis of +Gainsborough’s famous portrait: + + + _Mr. Gainsborough_ + +“One of the finest pictures this great artist ever painted, and which +might be put upon a par with any portrait that ever was executed, is +that of a boy in a blue Vandyke dress, which is now in the possession +of a tradesman in Greek Street. Gainsborough had seen a portrait of +a boy by Titian for the first time, and, having found a model that +pleased him, he set to work with all the enthusiasm of his genius. ‘I +am proud,’ he said, ‘of being of the same profession with Titian, and +was resolved to attempt something like him.’” + +So much has been written about this portrait and the copies that have +been made of it that great confusion has resulted, and the constant +repetition of the same story by writers has tended to obscure rather +than to clarify the subject. However, the theory now accepted is +that the portrait of _The Blue Boy_ first appeared in public at the +Royal Academy in 1770, sent there by Gainsborough himself,--a theory +supported by a letter written by Mary Moser, R. A. to Fuseli, then in +Rome, in which she said: “It is only telling you what you know already +of the Exhibition of 1770, to say that Gainsborough is beyond himself +in a Vandyke habit.” Another argument in favor of this date is found in +a conversation with an old artist, John Taylor, recorded by J. T. Smith +in his _Book for a Rainy Day_. + +The person, chiefly, if not wholly, responsible for the first +suggestion of the theory that Gainsborough painted the picture to +disprove Sir Joshua Reynolds’s pronouncement regarding color seems +to have been John Burnet, the engraver of some of Wilkie’s pictures +and a writer on art. The legend began to be circulated in 1817, when +Burnet published his _Practical Treatise on Painting_, where, after +challenging the rules laid down by Sir Joshua, he says: “I believe +Gainsborough painted the portrait of a boy dressed in blue, now in the +possession of Lord Grosvenor, to show the fallacy of this doctrine.” + +That seems to be all there is to it; and, once started, the story +became widespread and was handed on from pen to pen and from lip to +lip, until nearly everybody believes it. + +Let us turn, however, to some of the authorities. First to F. G. +Stephens: + +“Master Jonathan Buttall was the son of Mr. Jonathan Buttall, an +ironmonger in an extensive way of business, living at 31 Greek Street +(at the corner of King Street), Soho, between 1728 (if not before) +and 1768, when he died. According to the _Book for a Rainy Day_, +he was ‘an immensely rich man.’ The younger Buttall continued in the +business of his father until 1796, when his effects were sold by Sharpe +and Coxe, the well-known auctioneers. These effects included premises +in Soho and the City, a share in Drury Lane Theatre, many drawings +by Gainsborough, and pictures by the same hand and others, wine, and +musical instruments. It has been asserted that a _Blue Boy_ (for +there can hardly be a doubt that more than one version of the work +exists) was sold on this occasion. + +“A story has been credited that _The Blue Boy_ was produced by +Gainsborough to refute a dictum of Sir Joshua Reynolds, delivered in +his _Eighth Discourse_ to the Students of the Royal Academy, December +10, 1778: ‘It ought, in my opinion to be indispensably observed, that +the masses of light in a picture be always of a warm, mellow color, +yellow, red, or a yellowish-white; and that the blue, the grey, or the +green colors be kept almost entirely out of these masses, and be used +only to support and set off these warm colors; and for this purpose, a +small proportion of cold colors will be sufficient. Let this conduct +be reversed; let the light be cold and the surrounding colors warm, as +we often see in the works of the Roman and Florentine painters, and it +will be out of the power of Art, even in the hands of Rubens or Titian, +to make a picture splendid and harmonious.’ + +“It is obvious that the _Eighth Discourse_ may have been delivered +covertly to depreciate a picture which had been exhibited eight years +before, but this is not likely; or it may be assumed that the painting +was produced to demonstrate the futility of the President’s counsel. +It is obvious that Gainsborough might, and probably did, find occasion +to illustrate a principle which is apparently opposed to the dictum of +Reynolds, without reference to the _Eighth Discourse_, or previous +utterance of the P. R. A. Van Dyck repeatedly employed masses of blue +in draperies, with results which are at least equal to those of the +picture before us. The _Children of Charles the First_ at Windsor +is an example of the fact.[34] Leslie and every practical critic +recognized that Gainsborough had evaded the full and just method of +controverting the declaration of Sir Joshua rather than successfully +assailed it. + +“The picture before us is known to have been exhibited at the British +Institution with a collection of Gainsborough’s works--the first formed +independently of the artist and his wife--in 1814, under the title of +_Portrait of a Youth_ and again at the same place, in 1834, as ‘117, +_A Young Gentleman in a Landscape_; the Picture known as _The Boy in +Blue_.’ It was at Manchester in 1857; the International Exhibition +in 1862; and at the Royal Academy in 1870. The last occasion evoked +the discussion above alluded to, when the other _Blue Boy_ became +prominent. The question may be summed up by saying that probably the +younger Buttall had a version of his own portrait, while the Prince had +another. + +“Reynolds, by the way of supporting his own dictum, produced _A Yellow +Boy_ in the ‘_Portrait of Charles, Earl of Dalkeith_’ with an owl and +a dog, which was No. 132 at the Grosvenor Exhibition, in 1884. ‘_A +Portrait of a Lady_,’ by Gainsborough, known as ‘_The Blue Lady_’ was +at the British Institution in 1859; ‘_The Pink Boy_’ (Master Nicholls, +grandson of Dr. Mead), by Gainsborough, was at the Academy in 1879, +No. 39; it has recently been sold to a member of the Rothschild +family. _The Blue Boy_ is at once the complement and the antithesis of +_Mrs. Graham_ (born Cathcart), now in the Scottish National Gallery +(Edinburgh).” + +Turning now to M. H. Spielmann in _British Portrait Painting_: + +“In the view expressed by the late F. G. Stephens and others--an +opinion I am inclined to share--the portrait known as _The Blue Boy_, +more properly Master Jonathan Buttall, belongs to the year 1770, or +thereabouts, and not to a period ten years later, as is argued by +those who desire, in the face of internal evidence, to apply to it a +passage--usually cited incorrectly--in Sir Joshua Reynolds’s _Eighth +Discourse_ (delivered in 1778), against the use of masses of cold blue. +The stricture could not possibly apply to this picture, which triumphs +by virtue of its _warm_ blue, as it does by nobility of pose (more +suggestive of a prince, as we imagine a prince should be, than of the +son of a wealthy ironmonger of Greek Street), by the well controlled +power and dignity made manifest throughout and by the brilliant brush +charged with fat paint. The finely posed head with its admirably +expressed character of boyhood and a good deal of sturdy doggedness +behind the intelligent eyes, is rendered a little more heavily than is +Gainsborough’s wont; but that it is a masterpiece of portraiture, as it +is of color, cannot be challenged. This portrait, which from its manner +may be believed to have been painted eight years before the father’s +death and not two years after it, is the first to show Gainsborough’s +outstanding genius as a painter of independent thought and striking +modernity. At the same time it should be pointed out an earlier _Blue +Boy_ by him exists in the portrait of his nephew, Edward Gardiner, +painted in 1768. + +“Here in Master Buttall is Gainsborough’s first great invention both +in matter and manner, almost a challenge to Van Dyck’s reputation, +but painted in a scheme of color Van Dyck never thought of, and would +probably never have tried if he had. In handling it is Gainsborough’s +first link with Watteau in its broken tints and fearless lightness of +handling of the drapery, in its fascinating play of light and shade, +its delightful silhouette and cast shadows. It is difficult to imagine +how the composition could be bettered; the picture, by itself, had no +others come from the same brush, would have immortalized the painter.” + +Finally, Sir Walter Armstrong agrees, too, with the Stephens theory: + +“Those who cling to the old traditions quote the style of _The Blue +Boy_ in support of the notion that it could not have been painted +before 1779. I confess that, to me, it now seems, after much and +close observation, to point the other way. The loaded _impasto_, the +ruddy carnations, the tendency to brown and beyond it in the shadows, +the preoccupation with force, seem all to belong to about the same +period as the group at Knole and to be inconsistent with the feathery +lightness, freedom, and gaiety which mark Gainsborough’s work towards +the end of his life. The most significant comparison may be made with +the National Gallery _Mrs. Siddons_. Here again blue, and a franker +blue than that of the Master Buttall, is the dominant note. But the +painting is more assured, the handling lighter and more prompt, the +shadows more transparent, and the figure, as a whole, truer to its +illumination. It would not be fair to dwell too much on the contrast +between the flesh painting of _The Blue Boy_ and that of the _Mrs. +Siddons_, for I fancy the peculiar white bloom of the latter’s skin +is due to the fact that she sat in her paint. But it must not be +overlooked that even in the portraits of pretty women, that of _Eliza +Linley_ for instance, painted about 1770, there is a fullness of color +we do not find ten years later. Taking everything into account, it +seems to me that the old tradition of _The Blue Boy_ must be given +up, and that the Duke of Westminster’s picture, so far from being an +answer to Reynolds, was one of the many things that provoked his +dictum, Gainsborough replying, if he took the trouble to reply at all, +with the _Mrs. Siddons_ and those other portraits, painted in the last +ten years of his life, in which blue, canary yellow, and other cool +tints are made the centres of the color scheme.” + +Buttall and Gainsborough continued their relations. Buttall was one +of the “few friends Gainsborough respected and whom he desired should +attend his funeral at Kew. Buttall outlived Gainsborough seventeen +years and died in December, 1805, as the _Morning Herald_ notes: “Died, +on Friday last, at his house in Oxford Street, Jonathan Buttall, Esq., +a gentleman whose amiable manners and good disposition will cause him +to be ever regretted by his friends.” + + + GENERAL PHILIP HONYWOOD. + + _Thomas Gainsborough + (1727–1788)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. John Ringling._ + +When Gainsborough exhibited this portrait in London in 1765 it created +quite a stir, as it was a departure from the style of any portrait by +that artist; and when it was sent home to _Mark Hall_, the seat of +the Honywood family in Essex, a new room had to be built in order to +accommodate it, as the canvas measures nearly ten feet square (96¾ × +82¼). + +This has the reputation of being the finest equestrian portrait ever +painted by Gainsborough. Fulcher writes of it: + +“Never was the amenity of landscape more happily displayed. Through a +richly wooded scene wherein the sturdy oak and silvery-barked birch +are conspicuous, the soldier, mounted on a bay horse, appears to be +passing, wearing a scarlet dress which contrasts finely with the mass +of surrounding foliage. Nothing can be easier than his attitude, +as with one hand he curbs his charger and with the other holds his +sword which seems to flash in the sun. The picturesque design of this +portrait, its brilliant coloring, its bold yet careful execution, +Gainsborough never surpassed. No wonder that George III wished to +become the possessor of it and no wonder that Horace Walpole wrote of +it in his catalogue ‘very good.’ Of the nine pictures which decorated +the walls of _Mark Hall_ grand staircase, three were by Gainsborough +and included the remarkable portrait of General Honywood. It is the +largest work by that master and has the reputation also of being the +finest equestrian portrait ever painted by Gainsborough, competing only +with Van Dyck’s _Portrait of Charles I_ in the Prado Gallery, Madrid, +with which it has more than once been compared.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. John Ringling_ + + GENERAL PHILIP HONYWOOD + + --_Thomas Gainsborough_] + +The landscape, it is interesting to say, is a part of the park at _Mark +Hall_. General Philip Honywood of _Mark Hall_ came of an old Kentish +family deriving its origin from a place called _Honewood_ or _Hunewood_ +in the parish of Postling in Kent, where they had held lands since the +Norman Conquest. General Philip Honywood was born in 1710 and succeeded +his nephew in 1758. He was a General of His Majesty’s forces, Colonel +of the Third Royal Dragoon Guards, Governor of the Town and Citadel +of Kinston-upon-Hull and was also member of Parliament for thirty-one +years for the borough of Appleby in the County of Westmoreland. Philip +Honywood was always familiarly called “the General” and he died in 1785. + +Until 1878 this portrait remained in possession of the Honywood family +at _Mark Hall_. + +Sir Walter Armstrong in his _Gainsborough_ writes: + +“It represents the General riding across the canvas from left to right. +He wears a scarlet uniform and carries his sword, unsheathed, in his +right hand; he has no scabbard. The horse, a rich bay, is a little +too long. The painter has not taken the precaution to draw him in +before commencing the figure, and so the fore-quarters are separated +from the hind by rather too much middle-piece. This mistake is still +more conspicuous in the _Colonel St. Leger_ at Hampton Court, where a +quite unreasonable amount of horse shows behind the figure. Otherwise, +the Honywood picture is as successful in design as it is in all other +ways. The landscape is one of the finest backgrounds ever painted and +reminds one of the backgrounds to some of those equestrian portraits by +Velasquez which Gainsborough never saw. It is curious that Reynolds had +sent a _General on Horseback_ to the Exhibition of 1761. Many things +point to the probability that Gainsborough made an annual visit to +London during the exhibition and it is quite likely that the apparition +of Sir Joshua’s ‘General’ suggested the treatment of his own.” + +The Reynolds referred to above is the portrait of _Lord Ligonier_ now +in the National Gallery, London. + + + THE HARVEST WAGGON. + + _Thomas Gainsborough + (1727–1788)._ + + _Collection of + Sir Joseph Duveen, Bart._ + +This picture bears comparison with Gainsborough’s famous _Market Cart_ +in the National Gallery, London. Some critics even prefer it. It is +painted in oils on canvas (48 × 59 inches) and represents a countryside +and a scene very familiar to the painter. The country is rugged with +a wheel track winding from the left foreground away into the distance +towards the blue hills. On the left, there are massive boulders +overgrown with shrubbery and trees with russet foliage overhanging +the lane. The rustic dray-cart, laden with laughing country folk, is +halted to enable a young girl to clamber up over the wheel and into the +arms of a youth who bends forward to help her. The three horses stand +placidly while the driver adjusts the collar of the leader. A panting +dog capers by the cart and two sheep that have strayed from their flock +are seen resting by the boulders. The rock in the foreground is signed +with the initials “T. G.” + +_The Harvest Waggon_ gains particular interest because the two young +girls--one seated in the waggon and one climbing up over the wheel--are +Gainsborough’s daughters. The horses, too, are portraits--horses that +belonged to John Wiltshire, the chief carrier of Bath, and the cart +is one of Wiltshire’s “flying waggons.” In some accounts of John +Wiltshire he is represented as an ordinary dray-man, who drove his +own carts and made deliveries. This was not the case, however. John +Wiltshire was a man of importance in Bath, having built up a large +“carrying business” (which we would to-day call express), with a +regular service of “flying waggons,” always going back and forth from +his warehouses in Broad Street, Bath, to the _White Swan_ at Holborn +Bridge, London. Wiltshire was elected Mayor of Bath in 1772 and gave a +great entertainment at the Town Hall to the gentry and fashionables, +giving thereby “much offense to the people in trade” who were not +invited. Some idea of the speed of these “flying waggons” may be had +from Gainsborough’s letter to Garrick relative to the delivery of the +latter’s portrait: + +“The picture is to go to London by the Wiltshire fly-waggon on +Wednesday next and I believe will arrive by Saturday morning.” + +John Wiltshire, who came of a good old family that had attained +the rank of squires, lived in a fine mansion at Shockerwick near +Bath, which had belonged to his father. This was quite a place of +_rendez-vous_ for the notable personages who visited Bath. “There,” it +was said, “Anstey had a beech tree, Gainsborough an elm, and Quin an +arm-chair, while Fielding, Allen, and their hospitable host, Wiltshire, +enjoyed the shades of its sylvan glades.” + +Wiltshire was so devoted to Gainsborough and such an admirer of +his paintings that he would never allow him to pay any bills for +“carrying.” Yet he delivered all of Gainsborough’s finished pictures. +After a time, upon Gainsborough’s insisting, Wiltshire replied: “When +you think I have carried to the value of a little painting, I beg you +will let me have one, sir; and I shall be more than paid.” + +By degrees Wiltshire thus acquired his small, but very choice, +collection of Gainsboroughs, which was sold at Shockerwick in 1867. + +_The Harvest Waggon_ was one of these; and the way the picture came +to be painted was this. On one occasion Gainsborough asked Wiltshire +to lend him a horse for a model. The generous Wiltshire saddled and +bridled one of his horses and sent it to Gainsborough for a present. +Gainsborough painted this horse and made, as Fulcher says, “a +remarkably fine study of this animal.” Gainsborough now returned the +compliment. He painted _The Harvest Waggon_ and sent it to Wiltshire as +a present. Wiltshire was overjoyed, for here was his own waggon; here +were his own horses; and here were the artist’s own daughters! + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Sir Joseph Duveen, Bart._ + + THE HARVEST WAGGON + + --_Thomas Gainsborough_] + +On giving _The Harvest Waggon_ to Wiltshire, Gainsborough said it +_pleased him more than any picture he had ever painted_. + +From the Collections of Thomas Gibbons, Esq., Hanover Terrace, Regents +Park, of the Rev. Benjamin Gibbons, Hanover Terrace, Regents Park, +and of Sir Lionel Phillips, London, _The Harvest Waggon_ passed into +the Collection of the late Judge Elbert H. Gary. It attracted great +attention at the Gary Sale in New York, April, 1928, when it was sold +at the Plaza Hotel for $875,000, the highest figure that any picture +has ever reached at auction. + + + JOHN WALTER TEMPEST. + + _George Romney + (1734–1802)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Field._ + +It would be hard to find in all the range of portraiture, at any time +and in any place, a work more charming, true, sincere, natural, and +ingratiating than this adorable boy with his beloved horse. You can see +at a glance that they love each other. + +Everything about the picture is delightful: the coloring, the handsome, +sweet, and dreamy boy with his unspeakable grace and gentleness, the +fine horse, so contented, and the suave landscape--all make both +a portrait and a picture that will live for all time. No changes +in fashion can ever destroy its beauty and its appeal. Moreover, +Romney has succeeded in suggesting here a young boy’s dreams and the +friendship between a boy and a horse. The relation between the two, as +they enjoy a pause in their jaunt through the woodland, is marvellously +expressed. The relation of these figures to the landscape is such that +we feel as if we, too, were in this lovely, English, sylvan spot. We +seem to hear the plash of the tiny waterfall and the sound of the +horse’s lips as he quenches his thirst. In just one moment more and the +sweet, gentle, dreamy boy will pat his friend’s warm, brown neck, leap +lightly on his back and off they will go merrily + + “to seek fresh woods and pastures new.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Field_ + + JOHN WALTER TEMPEST + + --_George Romney_] + +The picture is in oils on canvas (90 × 58 inches) and was painted in +1779–1780. In the _Catalogue Raisonné_ of Romney’s works we read: + +“Whole length, when a youth, standing, facing towards and looking to +the front; long hair; purple dress, white turned-down collar, white +stockings and black shoes with silver buckles; standing by his horse, +which is drinking at a stream to the left; right hand holding the +reins; left hand holding whip; trees in the distance.” + +For several years this lovely picture was in the Collection of Asher +Wertheimer, Esq., of London. + +John Walter Tempest was the only son of John Tempest, Esq., of +Sherburn, County Durham, and member of Parliament for Durham. He died +in 1793 at Brighthelmstone, where he had gone for his health. + +The German critic, August Grisebach, has a profound admiration for this +portrait. Writing in _Die Kunst für Alle_ (1908), he says: + +“As a new representation of the half-grown boy Romney’s _John Walter +Tempest_ stands next to the _Blue Boy_. In place of the warm lighting +of the brilliant silk of the correctly adorned boy in Van Dyck style +and the aristocratic pose of the manufacturer’s son, is the simple +cloth coat of subdued violet against the light-brown horse, so quiet +and reserved in color and line, similar to an antique relief.” + +_The Strawberry Girl_ is reckoned among the most original of Sir Joshua +Reynolds’s works. Surely _John Walter Tempest_ is one of Romney’s most +brilliant triumphs! Moreover, the picture is highly original. + +For a great number of years George Romney in his house, No. 32 +Cavendish Square, shared the patronage of the aristocracy with Reynolds +and Gainsborough. Romney’s career was remarkable, for he had almost +no training. Romney was born in 1734 at Beckside, near Dalton in +Cumberland, the son of a cabinet-maker, who wrote his name Rumney. He, +too, was destined for a cabinet-maker, but made the acquaintance in +Kendal of a portrait-painter named Christopher Steele, who had studied +with Carle Van Loo, and became his pupil and apprentice in 1755. Romney +soon painted a number of portraits in Kendal and also a hand holding a +letter for the town post-office, which attracted much attention. + +Undoubtedly Romney acquired something of the French style through +this teacher and we may regard him indirectly as a pupil of Van Loo. +Certainly there is a quality in Romney that finds response in the +French painters of the Eighteenth Century. + +Lord Gower says in his _Romney_ (London, 1904): + +“Apparently the Count made use of his pupil to prepare and grind +his colors and to carve frames for his portraits. Later these +color-grindings must have been of great use to Romney, and the +preparation and mode of laying on the oil colors may account for the +excellence and permanency of his paintings, which have stood admirably +and unfadingly the test of time and which are in most cases as fresh +and brilliant, as clear and transparent, as when they left Romney’s +studio nearly a century and a half ago. It is not without interest that +one recalls how all the great Italian and Flemish Masters instructed +their pupils in the preparation of the minutest detail in all things +relating to their painting, from the preliminary grinding of the colors +and the laying on of the groundwork of their subject, whether on paint +or canvas; for not only were the great Italian and Flemish old painters +past masters in all that appertained to the technicalities of their +art, but honest and loyal in seeing no detail, however irksome, omitted +which could give permanency and endurance to their creations; hence +those marvels of color, paintings three and four centuries old which +still glow with all the brilliancy of gems and flowers, as radiant as +some noble stained-glass window in some glorious Gothic fane.” + +In 1762, when he was but twenty-eight, Romney moved to London (leaving +his wife, son, and daughter) and established himself in the great +city. As a painter of excellent portraits at low prices Romney soon +saved enough money for a visit to Paris, and hard work enabled him to +close his studio and spend two years in Italy. Soon after his return +in 1775, Romney removed from Gray’s Inn to No. 32 Cavendish Square, +formerly occupied by the painter, Francis Cotes, (who had died in +1770). A portrait of the _Duke of Richmond Reading_ launched Romney +into fame and fortune. Thenceforward there was nothing to do but work. +Romney became the fashion and ranked with Gainsborough and Reynolds; +and, as his prices were considerably less than theirs, his studio was +never empty of sitters. Romney’s _Diaries_ show his amazing industry +and a golden register of the nobility and gentry besides people of +fashion and artistic distinction. The year 1777, for instance, shows +six hundred sittings which Mr. Ward calculates as representing from a +hundred and twenty to a hundred and fifty finished portraits. Romney’s +charming style was now fully developed and some of his loveliest +portraits date from this period: the _Countess of Warwick and her +Children_; _Lady Susan Lenox_; _Lady Derby_ (see page 401); _Lady +Albemarle_; _Lord Gower’s Children Dancing_; _John Walter Tempest_; and +_Lady Craven_, which inspired Horace Walpole to write: + + “Full many an artist has on canvas fix’d + All charms that Nature’s pencil ever mix’d-- + The Witchery of Eyes, the Grace that tips + The inexpressible douceur of Lips + Romney alone, in this fair image caught + Each Charm’s Expression and each Feature’s thought. + And shows how in their sweet assemblage sit + Taste, Spirit, Softness, Sentiment, and Wit.”--H. W. + +Therefore, it will be seen that Romney had been producing beautiful +work before the advent of the beautiful Emma Hart, the future Lady +Hamilton. + +Romney left Cavendish Square in 1798, having bought a house at +Hollybush Hill, Hampstead, from which he removed two years later +to return to his wife and son at Kendal. He bought the estate of +Whitestock, near Ulverstone, where his son finished the house he did +not live to complete. Romney died in 1802, having been for two or three +years in a state of complete imbecility. + +“For the first half-century or more after his death his work was +neglected. Hidden in private houses, the public never saw it; +his biographies did not interest people; he had left no group of +influential friends to hand down his memory. There was no such +machinery of celebrity in his case as had existed so abundantly in +Sir Joshua’s who lived not only by his pictures but by a multitude of +lovely engravings and by the written and spoken word of colleagues, +pupils, and friends. So Romney’s fame may almost be said to have +died away during the dark ages between 1820 and 1850; and Christie’s +Catalogues show that in those days he was ignored by collectors and +by galleries, such as then existed. In the general revival of æsthetic +intelligence which began about the middle of the century--a revival +of which the Pre-Raphaelite movement, the eloquence of Ruskin, and +the growth of a new class of wealthy amateurs were so many symptoms +and conditions--Romney began to emerge once more. Never was there an +artist who lived more wholly in his art. ‘In his painting-room,’ said +his pupil, Robinson, ‘he seemed to have the highest enjoyment of life, +and the more he painted the greater flow of spirits he acquired.’ It is +true that, by one of the ironies of history, it was not primarily in +portrait-painting that he was interested, but in those larger schemes +and subjects to which, according to the classification of his time, he +gave a higher place.”[35] + + + THE HON. MRS. DAVENPORT. + + _George Romney + (1734–1802)._ + + _Collection of the + Hon. Andrew W. Mellon._ + +The _Hon. Mrs. Davenport_ (Charlotte Sneyd) is another of Romney’s +superlative creations. She is the personification of a gentle English +beauty, who might well have sat for the portrait of Tennyson’s “Queen +of the Rosebud Garden of Girls” in _Maud_. + +Mrs. Davenport, dressed in perfect taste, is posed against a lovely +landscape background. Her gown is a delicate, yet glowing pink, and her +cape is white velvet trimmed with white fur. She also wears a white +scarf with brown ribbon and a white felt hat trimmed with brown and +white ribbons. Her powdered hair is arranged in soft ringlets and a +black velvet band around her neck affords a note of contrast to the +general lightness of the color of the costume. A fashionable muff adds +a _chic_ touch. The face is remarkably sweet and intelligent, as well +as beautiful, and the whole impression given by the portrait is of a +charming, gentle, gracious, and lovable personality. + +Charlotte Sneyd, born in 1756, was the daughter of Mr. Ralph Sneyd +of _Keele Hall_, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, descended from +an ancient family of Chester, one of whom had been knighted on the +battlefield of Pinkie in 1547. Her mother was the daughter of Sir W. +W. Bugot, fifth Baronet of Blithefield, and the grand-daughter of the +first Earl of Dartmouth. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the Hon. Andrew W. Mellon_ + + THE HON. MRS. DAVENPORT + + --_George Romney_] + +Charlotte Sneyd was married in 1777 to Mr. Davies Davenport, High +Sheriff of Cheshire in 1783, and M. P. from 1806 to 1830. His seats +were Capesthorne, Crewe, and Calvely, Nantwich. Their youngest son took +the extra surname of Bromley and owned _Baginton Hall_, Coventry. +The Hon. Mrs. Davenport died in 1829. She was a cousin of Honora +Sneyd, whose name has been associated with that series of portraits by +Romney known as the “Serena” portraits. Honora was also famous for her +engagement to the talented, charming, and ill-fated Major John André. + +The picture, painted in oils on canvas (30 × 25 inches), came from the +Collection of Brigadier-General Sir William Bromley-Davenport, K. C. +B., Lord-Lieutenant of the County of Chester, _Capesthorne Hall_, +Cheshire, England. + + + LADY DERBY. + + _George Romney + (1734–1802)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. Jules S. Bache._ + +Of _Elizabeth, Countess of Derby_, Romney made one of his most +beautiful portraits and one of the most beautiful portraits, moreover, +of that great portrait period in which Romney worked. Everything about +it is lovely. There is no color in the picture except Lady Derby’s +golden hair and the green and brown tones of the distant landscape and +of the tree behind her. The dress, a thin white India mull of exquisite +fineness and transparency, is draped over a white brocade skirt, making +a costume which is the quintessence of purity and lightness; and Romney +has treated the white so perfectly that the picture seems to emit a +celestial radiance. Lady Derby has the fresh English complexion of rose +and white, and her golden hair is like sunshine and amber. The pose +is so easy and natural that we may safely guess it was a characteristic +one. Lady Derby seems unconscious of her charm; but she was certainly +too beautiful not to know it. + +Elizabeth, Countess of Derby, was the only daughter of James, sixth +Duke of Hamilton and the famous Irish beauty, Elizabeth Gunning, who, +with her sister, Maria, took London by storm when they removed there in +1751 from Dublin. The career of the Gunning sisters was extraordinary, +for they had no money; but their handsome faces, fine figures, stylish +dressing, and charming manners, soon brought them into notoriety. +Crowds surged around them whenever they appeared: in the streets, in +Hyde Park, at Ranelagh, at Vauxhall, at routs, at assemblies, or at the +theatre. Horace Walpole said “it was extraordinary that two sisters +should be so beautiful.” Maria Gunning married in 1752 the Earl of +Coventry and also in the same year Elizabeth married surreptitiously +James, sixth Duke of Hamilton “using the ring of the bed-curtain for +her wedding ring.” On his death, six years later, she married John, +fifth Duke of Argyll. Elizabeth, now Duchess of Argyll, was still +as beautiful as ever and people ran after her as usual whenever she +appeared in public. “One Sunday evening in June, 1759,” so Horace +Walpole notes, “she was mobbed in Hyde Park. The King ordered that to +prevent this for the future, she should have a guard; and on the next +Sunday she made herself ridiculous by walking in the Park from eight +to ten P. M. with two sergeants of the Guards in front with +their halberds and twelve soldiers following her.” Elizabeth, Countess +of Derby, with such a beautiful mother, had, therefore, the right to +be a beauty. On June 12, 1774, “Lady Betty Hamilton” was married to +Edward Smith Stanley, afterwards twelfth Earl of Derby, known as the +“Cock-fighting Earl.” She soon tired of him and ran away with the Duke +of Dorset, who had been working on the Derby estate for some time in +the guise of a gardener in order to be near the beautiful Elizabeth +and to perfect their plans for elopement. Who can look upon Romney’s +portrait and blame him? Lord Derby married in 1797 the celebrated +actress Miss Farren (see page 420). Elizabeth Hamilton died in 1797, +aged forty-four. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. Jules S. Bache_ + + LADY DERBY + + --_George Romney_] + +This portrait, oils on canvas (49½ × 39 inches), was painted in +1776–1778, after twelve sittings: Nov. 27, 1776; Jan. 31, Feb. 11, 14, +21, and March 19, 1777; Feb. 13, March 2, 9, 14, 23 and May 4, 1778. A +mezzotint was made by John Dean in 1780. + +After having been for many years in the Tennant Collection this +_chef-d’œuvre_ passed to Mr. Jules S. Bache. + +A charming picture of Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, or “Lady Betty +Hamilton,” as a child of five years, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, +now hangs in the Widener Collection at _Lynnewood Hall_, Elkins Park, +Pennsylvania. The little girl is seated on a bank facing the spectator +and is shown at full length, wearing a pink dress over a large hoop, +with low neck and short sleeves, and a spray of flowers at her neck. In +her hands she holds a bouquet of bright flowers. This picture, painted +in 1758, belonged to the Duke of Argyll and afterwards to the Earl of +Normanton. + +“The Eighteenth Century,” says Max Roldt, “has often been called the +_Age of Grace_. If I were asked how this name could best be justified, +I should point without a moment’s hesitation to the portraits by George +Romney. Others painted graceful women in graceful dresses and graceful +poses, but Romney personified Grace, made her his goddess; and it was +her portrait which he painted over and over again under different +lineaments and with various features. See his _Lady Derby_ as she +sits on a bank quietly dreaming under the trees; her legs are lightly +crossed; her elbow rests on her knee so that her long, fine hand just +touches her chin without actually supporting the pure oval of the +head; with her white, muslin dress pulled up showing the underskirt of +the _broché_ satin of the same hue, is she not the very embodiment of +grace?” + + + EMMA, LADY HAMILTON. + + _George Romney + (1734–1802)._ + + _Collection of the late + Mr. Henry E. Huntington._ + +Who tied that white band over the big hat--Romney or Emma? It was +certainly a very original idea! + +“_Three quarters in a straw hat called Emma_, finished for Mr. +Crawford,” is the way this picture is referred to in John Romney’s +_Memoirs_; and in Romney’s own Ledger this note occurs: “Three quarters +paid for by Mr. Crawford, 30 guineas, Sept. 15, 1792, and sent home to +Mr. Crawford’s No. 48 Brook Street, July 21, 1792.” + +At three-quarter, then, seated in a chair, dressed in white and wearing +the conspicuous “straw hat,” trimmed with a broad band of ribbon tied +into large bows, “Emma” looks at us rather pensively,--almost sadly. +The pose is alluringly graceful and easy, but the swirling lines, when +analysed, show the thought and art of a master. It is like a graceful +melody of Mozart. Contour, beauty, and rhythm all are here! + +Romney painted no fewer than thirty pictures of the “Divine Emma,” in +character and with titles, and fourteen portraits, without titles; and, +besides, he painted many replicas and variants of these portraits. + +Emma Hart came into Romney’s life in 1782, taken to the painter’s +studio in Cavendish Square one April morning by the Hon. Charles +Francis Greville, second son of the Earl of Warwick, with whom she was +then living. Romney was instantly struck by her extraordinary beauty, +vivacity, and talent for posing. From this first picture, entitled +_Nature_ and representing Emma with a little black spaniel under +arm, for which Greville paid twenty guineas, Romney produced portrait +after portrait in various characters: Alope; Ariadne; Bacchante; In a +Black Hat; Calypso (perhaps the same as Ariadne); Cassandra; Circe; +Comedy; Comic Muse; Cybele; Daphne (perhaps the same as Bacchante); +Contemplation; Emma in a Straw Hat (see page 405); Euphrosyne; Gipsy; +Iphigenia; Joan of Arc; Kate (same as Ariadne); Magdalen; Medea; +Meditation; with Miniature in Belt; Miranda; Lady Hamilton in Morning +Dress; Nature; Nun; Pythian Priestess; Reading the Gazette; St. +Cecilia; Sensibility; Serena; Servant’s Cap; Shepherdess; Sigismunda; +Spinning-Wheel; Supplication; With Vesuvius in the Distance; Welsh +Girl; Wood Nymph (same as Alope). + +Portraits without titles are: Seated resting head on right hand, +white dress; Bust to left showing hands, head leaning on right hand, +forefinger on chin, bare neck and shoulders, blue and white drapery; +Half-length, life-size, head facing, resting on crossed hands, light +dress, colored scarf twisted around the head, arms bare to elbow, +leaning on table; Head looking up to left; Head looking up to left +(oval); Head to left with startled expression (sketch); Three-quarter +length figure seated to left looking back over left shoulder, head +resting on left hand, white dress and cap and colored sash; Half figure +turned to right, white dress, white drapery around head (several +versions); Head, shoulders, full face, low cut white dress, dark curly +hair; Bust facing front, face looking down reading a book, white dress, +brown background; Bust, life-size looking upward and smiling; White +veil over head; Head and shoulders looking at spectator and smiling, +dark red dress cut low, brown hair falling over shoulders, turban; Half +figure directed to left looking at spectator, dark dress, white fichu, +dark felt hat with broad brim and bunch of feathers, hair bound with +blue ribbon, hands resting on lap, white lace cuffs. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the late Mr. Henry E. Huntington_ + + EMMA, LADY HAMILTON + + --_George Romney_] + +The story of Emma, Lady Hamilton, is a strange one. She was born on +April 26, 1761, at Denhall, Chester, the only child of Henry Lyon, a +blacksmith: no one knows why she took the name of Hart. While she was +a child, her mother moved to Hawarden, entering the service of Mrs. +Thomas, wife of the parish doctor, and Emma remained there until she +was sixteen, earning her living as nursery-maid and waiting-woman. We +find her in London in her eighteenth year employed in the celebrated +Temple of Health, of which the notorious empiric, Dr. Graham, was +the originator and proprietor, presiding there as the “lovely Hebe +Vestina, Rosy Goddess of Health.” Here, at certain times of day, the +“lovely Hebe” and the famous quack could be seen buried up to their +necks in the mudbaths, Dr. Graham’s hair dressed according to the +latest expression of the perruquier’s taste and Hebe with one of those +towering head-dresses of the day, powdered and decorated with flowers, +feathers, ropes of pearls, and gewgaws of many kinds. + +Sir Walter Armstrong is of the opinion that Emma Hart sat for +Gainsborough’s _Musidora Bathing her Feet_ (in the National Gallery, +London). “The features,” he says, “are those of Emma Lyon refined, the +hair is hers, and the rest of the figure is what we find in several of +Romney’s pictures.” + +There is a very good reason that this might be so, for Gainsborough +rented one part of Schomberg House, Pall Mall, and Dr. Graham rented +the other. Consequently, Gainsborough had every opportunity of seeing +the lovely Emma very frequently. + +While presiding at Dr. Graham’s establishment, Emma attracted the +attention of Sir Henry Featherstonehaugh of _Up Park_, Sussex, who +persuaded her to leave the Temple and reside at _Up Park_. In the +following year she placed herself under the protection of the Hon. +Charles Greville. + +In 1784 Sir Charles’s uncle, Sir William Hamilton, his Majesty’s +Ambassador at Naples, came to London on a visit, a widower, a man of +distinguished tastes, an art-connoisseur, a lover of music, and a +descendant of a noble family. Sir William became fascinated with Emma +and there was a clever transfer of Emma, not to the credit of either of +these dashing “blades.” Ultimately Emma joined Sir William in Naples, +where she was lodged at the British Embassy and treated with the +distinction due royalty, having, moreover, her carriage, boat, livery, +and other appurtenances of state. In a letter to the Hon. Charles, Emma +says: “Sir William is very fond of me and very kind to me. The house +is full of painters painting me. He has now got nine pictures of me +and two a-painting. Marchant is cutting my head in stone, that is in +cameo for a ring. There is another man modelling me in wax and another +in clay. All the artists is come from Rome to study from me, so that +Sir William as fitted up a room that is called the painting-room. Sir +William is never a moment from me. He goes no where without me. He has +no dinners but what I can be of the party. Nobody comes without they +are civil to me.” + +On Sept. 6, 1791, the infatuated Ambassador married Emma in Marylebone +Church, the Marquis of Abercorn, Sir William’s kinsman, acting as best +man. During the months preceding the wedding Emma sat almost daily to +Romney. + +On June 19, 1791, Romney wrote to William Hayley: “At present and the +greatest part of this summer, I shall be engaged in painting pictures +from the _divine lady_. I cannot give her any other epithet for +I think her superior to all womankind. I have two pictures to paint +of her for the Prince of Wales. She says she must see you before she +leaves England, which will be in the beginning of September. She asked +me if you would not write my life. I told her you had begun it; then +she said she hoped you would have much to say of her in the life, as +she prided herself on being my model.” + +Romney also gave a party in Emma’s honor, on which occasion she +displayed her remarkable talents. Romney wrote: + +“She performed in my house last week, singing and acting before some of +the nobility with most astonishing power. She is the talk of the whole +town, and really surpasses everything, both in singing and acting, +that ever appeared. Gallini offered her two thousand pounds a year and +two benefits if she would engage with him, on which Sir William said +pleasantly that he had engaged her for life.” + +Directly after her marriage Lady Hamilton gave Romney a sitting. His +_Diary_ has these dates: + + “Sept. 5 Mon. Mrs. Hart at 9. + Sept. 6 Tues. Lady Hamilton at 11.” + +Sir William and Lady Hamilton left soon afterwards for Naples and +Romney and Emma never met again. + +Sir William Hamilton died in 1803; but from 1796 Emma had lived with +and for Lord Nelson until his death in the Battle of Trafalgar. Emma +died at Calais, Jan. 15, 1815. + +The portrait shown here (30 × 25 inches), belonged to Tankerville +Chamberlayne, Esq., and then passed into the Collection of Alfred C. de +Rothschild, Esq. + +England indirectly owes to Lady Hamilton one of Nelson’s great +victories. When Nelson was in pursuit of the French, it was Lady +Hamilton who obtained the order from the King of Naples for the fleet +to enter port for provisions and water. Nelson thereupon entered the +harbor of Syracuse, watered his fleet, and fought the victorious Battle +of the Nile. A few months later Lady Hamilton and Nelson managed to +rescue the Royal family of Naples by taking them through a subterranean +passage and by boats to Nelson’s ship, the _Vanguard_. “The world +owes it to Lady Hamilton,” says John Paget, “that the sister of Marie +Antoinette did not share her horrible fate--that another head, as fair +as that which fell into the basket of sawdust in front of the Tuileries +on the 16th of October, 1793, did not roll on the scaffold at Naples in +1799. When we come to take the account as it stood between the world +and Lady Hamilton when it finally closed in 1815, we find it strangely +changed since 1791. The balance has turned. It is the world, it is +humanity, that is the debtor.” + +What a strange career! A woman of matchless beauty, artistic gifts of +a high order, mental brilliance, generosity, charm, and kindness of +heart, and, moreover, able to educate herself in the ways of society, +admired, and courted by princes, artists, and men of powers, the +intimate friend of the Queen of Naples, the beloved of Lord Nelson, the +deity of Romney, enjoying at one time all that wealth and distinction +could give and at the end forlorn, poor, and deserted, and dying in a +foreign country--such was the life of Emma, Lady Hamilton! + +How beautifully Humphrey Ward sums up the whole situation: + +“We know that in later years many painters tried their skill upon +her--Reynolds once, Madame Vigée Le Brun at least twice, Angelica +Kauffman probably, and many an Italian painter and sculptor to whom +she sat in Sir William’s painting-room at Naples. But none of these +artists, not even Reynolds himself, in the well-known _Bacchante_, +made of the most beautiful woman in the world anything that was +distinctive, anything that was much removed from the commonplace. It is +Romney alone who has preserved the life of those wonderful features, +of that radiant hair, and of the multitudinous phases of expression +through which this born actress, inspired by his suggestions, passed +seemingly at will. Her name remains inseparably bound, though in very +different ways, with the names of two great men--a hero and a painter. +In the _Chronique scandaleuse_ of a hundred years ago, Emma +belongs to Nelson; in the history of art, she belongs to Romney.” + + + ANNE, LADY DE LA POLE. + + _George Romney + (1734–1802)._ + + _Collection of the + Hon. Alvan T. Fuller._ + +The portrait represented here of Anne, Lady de la Pole, oils on canvas +(49 × 39½ inches), was painted in 1786 after the great Lady Hamilton +period. The dress is of white satin with puffed sleeves of white mull +and a sash of pale green with gold fringe. The slippers, of pale green, +match the sash. The hair is powdered and draped with a white veil. + +A critic notes that “the sheen of the white satin dress has since it +was painted one hundred and forty years ago become slightly tinged with +mauve thus completely harmonizing with the light color of the sash and +shoes. The manipulation of the light on the right side of the picture +gives a mellow autumnal atmosphere to the portrait of a dignified and +beautiful woman.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the Hon. Alvan T. Fuller_ + + ANNE, LADY DE LA POLE + + --_George Romney_] + +Anne, Lady de la Pole, was the only daughter of John Templer, Esq., +of Stover House, Devon, and was married in January, 1781, to Sir John +William Pole, sixth Baronet and son of Sir John Pole of Shute, Devon, +whom he succeeded in 1766. Sir John assumed by “sign-manual” the name +of de la Pole. + +At the same time that he made this beautiful portrait, Romney also +painted Sir John de la Pole, as a companion piece. Lady de la Pole died +in 1832. + + + THE HON. MRS. GRANT OF KILGRASTON. + + _Sir Henry Raeburn + (1756–1823)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. C. Fisher._ + +This picture comes from the Collection of Colonel Walter Brown of +Renfrew and was formerly in the Collection of the Hon. Mr. Stuart Gray. + +It is an oil on canvas (30 × 24 inches), depicting _Mrs. Grant of +Kilgraston_, daughter of Francis, Lord Grey. The lady is turned +three quarters to the left and wears a dark gown with deep loose frill +of white around the neck. Her hair falls in careless curls over her +brow. The background is plain. + +Compared with Sir Joshua Reynolds’s some two thousand portraits, +Raeburn’s some seven or eight hundred is small; but it is, after all, a +goodly number. + +“Raeburn,” in the words of his fellow-townsman, Robert Louis Stevenson, +“was a born painter of portraits. He looked people shrewdly between the +eyes, surprised their manners in their face and had possessed himself +of what was essential in their character before they had been many +minutes in his studio. What he was so swift to perceive he conveyed to +the canvas almost in the moment of conception.” + +Raeburn, born in Stockbridge, a suburb of Edinburgh, in 1756, became +the leading Scottish portrait-painter, President of the Royal Society +of Artists at Edinburgh, and a Royal Academician in 1815, presenting in +1821 his diploma picture _The Boy with Rabbit_. Raeburn was knighted by +George IV in 1822. + +Raeburn was almost entirely self-taught; and it seems strange that with +practically no training, as the world understands this word, that he +should have risen to the circle of great painters. Many of the greatest +Italian painters of the Renaissance began life as goldsmiths. So did +Raeburn. After a preliminary education at the famous Heriot’s Hospital +in Edinburgh, he was apprenticed to a goldsmith in that city. Next he +took up miniature-painting and passed on to oils, devoting himself to +portraits. Success came quickly and early. At the age of twenty-two +Raeburn was thoroughly established as the leading portrait-painter in +Scotland and had married a wealthy widow of title. A visit to London +and Rome in 1785–7 was the only break in his enviable life, passed +in the greatest serenity replete with domestic happiness, social +distinction, and artistic fertility. Practically an entire generation +of the men and women of Scotland, most of them celebrities--sat to +Raeburn in his studio. + +As Raeburn’s portraits are neither signed nor dated and no very marked +periods emphasize his style, it is difficult to assign accurate dates +to any of his works unless some special year is attached to them. +Moreover, no lists of the sitters and note-books are known. If he +kept them they were destroyed. However, as Raeburn advanced in years +he attained more and more command of technique, his appreciation of +character became deeper, and his expression of it more complete. + +Raeburn was appreciated by his contemporaries. When he showed some of +his portraits to Sir Joshua Reynolds in London in 1785, Sir Joshua took +him at once into favor and friendship; Sir Thomas Lawrence pronounced +the portrait of _The Macnab_ (the Highland Chieftain) the best +representation of a human being he had ever seen; and Sir David Wilkie +compared Raeburn to Velasquez. Writing to a brother artist from Madrid +in 1828 Sir David remarks: + +“There is much resemblance between Velasquez and the works of some of +the chiefs of the English School; but of all Raeburn resembles him +most, of whose square touch in heads, hands, and accessories, I see +the very counterpart of the Spaniard.” Wilkie also wrote to Alexander +Nasmyth from Spain: “There are some heads by Velasquez in Madrid, +which, were they in Edinburgh, would be thought to be by Raeburn; and I +have seen a portrait of _Lord Glenlee_, I think, by Raeburn, which +would in Madrid be thought a near approach to Velasquez.” + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. C. Fisher_ + + THE HON. MRS. GRANT OF KILGRASTON + + --_Sir Henry Raeburn_] + +Dr. John Brown, one of Raeburn’s best friends, described his methods +as follows: “Like Sir Joshua, Raeburn placed his sitters on a high +platform, shortening the features and giving a pigeon-hole view +of the nostrils. The notion is that people should be painted as if +they were hanging like pictures on the wall, a Newgate notion, but it +was Sir Joshua’s. Raeburn and I have had good-humored disputes about +this. I appealed to Titian, Van Dyck, etc., for my authorities; they +always painted people as if they were sitting opposite to them, not +on a mountebank stage, or dangling on the wall. This great question +we leave to be decided by those who know best. His manner of taking +his likenesses explains the simplicity and power of his heads. Placing +his sitter on the pedestal, he looked at him from the other end of a +long room, gazing at him intently with his great dark eyes. Having +got the idea of the man, what of him carried farthest and ‘told,’ he +walked hastily up to the canvas, never looking at his sitter, and +put down what he had fixed in his inner eye; he then withdrew again, +took another gaze and recorded his results, and so on, making no +measurements.” + +It is pleasant to catch a glimpse of a painter from another painter. +Farington writes in his _Diary_, Sept 21, 1801: + +“I next went to Mr. Raeburn, the portrait-painter most esteemed here +who lives in York Place, New-Town. The house is excellent and built +by himself. His show room is lighted from the top. His painting-room +commands a view of the Forth and the distant mountains. Here I found +pictures of a much superior kind to those I saw at Mr. Nasmyth’s. Some +of Mr. Raeburn’s portraits have an uncommonly true appearance of nature +and are painted with much firmness, but there is great inequality in +his works. That which strikes the eye is a kind of Camera Oscura effect +and from those pictures which seem to be his best, I should conclude +he has looked very much at nature, reflected in a camera. Raeburn and +Nasmyth do not associate much with other artists and hold themselves +very high. Raeburn scarcely indeed with any of the profession. The +prices of Raeburn are 100 guineas for a whole length, 50 guineas half +length, 30 guineas for a kit-cat and 25 guineas for a three-quarter +portrait.” + + + QUINTON McADAM. + + _Sir Henry Raeburn + (1756–1823)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. A. W. Erickson._ + +Raeburn was particularly happy in painting portraits of children, full +of naturalness and charm and character; and it will be remembered that +he chose for his contribution to the Royal Academy the lovely _Boy +with a Rabbit_. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. A. W. Erickson_ + + QUINTON McADAM + + --_Sir Henry Raeburn_] + +On a par with this masterpiece stands the portrait represented here +of _Quinton McAdam_, a little boy twelve years old, the only son of +Quinton McAdam of Craigengillan, Ayrshire, to whom Burns wrote an +“_Epistle_” addressed to Mr. McAdam of Craigengillan. Quinton McAdam +was born in Angus in 1805 and died in 1826 and this picture hung for +over a hundred years at Camlarg, the dower-house of Craigengillan until +it was purchased by the Agnews of London in 1926. The family still +possess Raeburn’s receipt for payment for the picture. + +The portrait is painted on canvas (61 × 47 inches), life-size, and +represents the boy in light yellowish-brown trousers, dark jacket, +and white, ruffled shirt. The light shines beautifully on his satiny, +blonde hair. His eyes are violet blue. + + + MARY HORNECK. + + (THE JESSAMY BRIDE.) + + _John Hoppner + (1758–1810)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft._ + +This canvas (29 × 24½ inches), a portrait of _Mrs. Gwyn_, better +known as Mary Horneck, Oliver Goldsmith’s “Jessamy Bride,” remained +in the possession of the Gwyn family until it was sold at Christie’s +in 1889. Subsequently it passed into the Collection of Mr. Henry G. +Marquand and thence into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft in +Cincinnati. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft_ + + MARY HORNECK “THE JESSAMY BRIDE” + + --_John Hoppner_] + +The “Jessamy Bride” appears in a low-cut, white dress with blue sash +and a white cap with a peacock-blue bow and tied under her chin with a +narrow, black ribbon, or cord. A black spotted scarf is thrown around +her waist and draped over her arms. The complexion is rosy, the eyes +are brown, and the hair is powdered _à la mode_. + +Mary Horneck was the daughter of Captain Kane William Horneck of the +Royal Engineers and Hannah Mangles, known in her day as “the Plymouth +Beauty.” Both were painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Captain Horneck +died in 1755, leaving his widow in comfortable circumstances and +she immediately removed with her three children, Charles, Mary, and +Catherine, to London. About 1769 the Hornecks became acquainted with +Oliver Goldsmith, who had three years before that date written _The +Deserted Village_, which he dedicated to Sir Joshua Reynolds, then +President of the Royal Academy. Goldsmith soon found appropriate names +for the Horneck children. Mary was the “Jessamy Bride”; Catherine was +“Little Comedy” and Charles was the “Captain in Lace.” They are all +three mentioned in Goldsmith’s acceptance to a dinner given by Dr. +Baker to the Hornecks and to which the Horneck girls sent an invitation +to Goldsmith in rhyme. Goldsmith’s reply was as follows: + + “Your mandate I got, + You may all go to pot, + Had your senses been right + You’d have sent before night; + As I hope to be saved, + I put off being shaved; + For I could not make bold + While the matter was cold, + To meddle in suds, + Or to put on my duds; + So tell Horneck and Nesbitt + And Baker and his bit, + And Kauffman beside + And the Jessamy Bride, + And the rest of the crew, + The Reynoldses too, + Little Comedy’s face, + And the Captain in Lace-- + (By the bye, you may tell him + I have something to sell him)-- + Tell each other to rue + Yon Devonshire crew + For sending so late + To one of my state. + But ’tis Reynold’s way + From Wisdom to stray + And Angelica’s[36] whim + To be frolick like him; + But alas! your good worships, how could they be wiser + When both have been spoiled in to-day’s _Advertiser_?” + +It was after Goldsmith’s death that Mary Horneck married Col. Gwyn of +the 16th Dragoons, who eventually became an equerry to the King. On his +appearance at Court, Fanny Burney noted that “Colonel Gwyn is reckoned +a remarkably handsome man and he is husband of the beautiful eldest +daughter of Mrs. Horneck.” Of Mary Horneck, now Mrs. Gwyn, Fanny Burney +wrote in 1788, she was “as beautiful as the first day I saw her; all +gentleness and softness;” and a year later, as “soft and pleasing and +still as beautiful as an angel.” + +Mrs. Gwyn became a Woman of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte and died +in London in 1840, at the age of eighty-seven. + +Catherine Horneck (“Little Comedy”) married in 1771 the artist, Henry +William Bunbury. Their son, Charles John Bunbury was painted at the age +of eight or nine, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. + +John Hoppner born in Whitechapel, London, of German parents, in +1758, was a follower of Sir Joshua Reynolds. He exhibited at the +Royal Academy and became a Court-Painter and a rival of Lawrence. +Hoppner married in 1782 the daughter of Mrs. Wright, the American +sculptress and maker of wax-works, who often sat to him as a model. +Hoppner exhibited his first picture at the Royal Academy in 1780; and, +through the patronage of the Prince of Wales, became a fashionable +portrait-painter. After the death of Gainsborough and Reynolds, Hoppner +and Lawrence commanded the field of art. Hoppner’s charming canvases, +which are very characteristic of the period, are gaining in vogue day +by day and bring very large prices. + + + ELIZA FARREN, COUNTESS OF DERBY. + + _Sir Thomas Lawrence + (1769–1830)._ + + _Collection of + Mr. J. P. Morgan._ + +Lawrence was only a young man of twenty-one when he sent to the Royal +Academy Exhibition of 1790 this portrait of _Miss Farren_, which was +catalogued as _The Portrait of an Actress_. + +The picture, oils on canvas (80 × 57 inches), shows the graceful young +woman walking in a beautiful English park with a blue sky overhead, +and who has paused for a moment. She wears an ivory-white, satin cloak +trimmed with brown fur over a soft white muslin gown. Her gloved left +hand is holding a large muff on which is a blue bow. + +The picture was very much criticized. On hearing many adverse opinions, +Miss Farren wrote to Lawrence: + +“One says it is so thin in the figure that you might blow it away; +another that it looks broke off in the middle; in short, you must make +it a little _fatter_ at all events diminish the _bend_ you +are so attached to, even if it makes the picture look ill, for the +owner of it is quite distressed about it at present. I am shocked to +tease you and dare say you wish me and the portrait in the fire; but +as it was impossible to appease the cries of friends, I must beg you +to excuse me.” The owner Miss Farren refers to was most probably Lord +Derby. + +At the death of Eliza, Countess of Derby, the portrait became the +property of her daughter, Mary Margaret, wife of Thomas, second Earl +of Wilton. From her descendant, Lord Wilton, the picture passed into +the Collection of Mr. Ludwig Neumann of Manchester, and thence into +possession of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, from whom it was inherited by his +son. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of Mr. J. P. Morgan_ + + ELIZA FARREN, COUNTESS OF DERBY + + --_Sir Thomas Lawrence_] + +This picture is very well known by the famous engraving by Bartolozzi, +published in 1792, and re-issued in colors in 1797. On the death of +Lady Derby in March, 1797, the Earl of Derby married, two months later, +the subject of this portrait, to whom he had long been attentive. In +the _Farington Diary_, under date of October 15, 1797, we read: + +“Miss Farren (the actress afterwards Lady Derby) was bridesmaid to +Lady Charlotte Stanley (Lord Derby’s daughter). Lord Derby’s attachment +to Miss Farren is extraordinary. He sees her daily and always attends +the play when she performs. When she came to _Knowsley_ her mother +was with her, so careful she is of appearances.” + +And again on May 20, 1797: “Lady Gage told Hoppner that when Lady Derby +(Miss Farren the actress recently married to Lord Derby) was presented, +the Queen _advanced to her_, which is a great compliment.” + +Eliza Farren, born in 1759, was the daughter of George Farren, a +surgeon and an apothecary of Cork, who went on the stage and attained +a little success. His wife and daughters also followed him and, +consequently, Eliza was brought up in the theatre. She played juvenile +parts in Bath, acting with her family, and often sang between the acts. +At the age of fifteen she appeared in Liverpool as Rosetta in _Love +in a Village_ and soon afterwards as Lady Townly in _The Provoked +Husband_. In 1777 she made her London _début_ at the Haymarket as +Miss Hardcastle in _She Stoops to Conquer_ with great success and for +many years she was the favorite actress of the Haymarket and of Drury +Lane. When the charming Mrs. Abington left Drury Lane in 1782, Miss +Farren was accepted as her successor. Miss Farren’s specialty was the +fine and fashionable lady and her big part was Lady Townly. She was +greatly admired in the _rôles_ of Lady Fanciful in _The Provoked Wife_; +Berinthia in the _Trip to Scarborough_; Belinda in _All in the Wrong_; +Angelica in _Love for Love_; Elvira in _The Spanish Friar_ and also in +the Shakesperian parts of Juliet and Olivia in _Twelfth Night_. + +Thomas Lawrence was born in Bristol in 1769 and spent his early years +in Devizes, where his father was proprietor of the Black Bear Inn. +Very early the boy showed remarkable talent for drawing portraits in +crayons. He was so successful that he went to Bath, took a studio, and +began his remarkable career which reached its climax when he became the +foremost portrait-painter in England. + +“In 1787 the wish of Lawrence’s heart was realized, and we find the +young painter, then eighteen, established in rooms in what was then +known as Leicester Fields--the present Leicester Square. He was +accompanied to London by his father and on the thirteenth of September +of that year he was admitted as a student of the Royal Academy. Armed +with a letter of introduction from Prince Hoare, one of Lawrence’s Bath +patrons, a member of the Dilettanti Society and Secretary for Foreign +Correspondence to the Royal Academy, Lawrence obtained an interview +with Sir Joshua Reynolds, and as a specimen of his ability and artistic +skill he took to the President an oil-portrait of himself, painted in +1786. He was kindly received by the courtly old Sir Joshua, who praised +his work and spoke most encouragingly to the young artist. “You have +been looking at the _Old Masters_, I see,” he said, “but my advice is +this: Study Nature! Study Nature!” + +Three years later the young artist, who was extremely handsome and +“romantic” in appearance, exhibited his picture of _Miss Farren_ +at the Royal Academy, which attracted much attention. + +In 1791 Lawrence made a drawing of a much more beautiful subject, +_Emma, Lady Hamilton_, from which a print was engraved. + +“Hoppner who was ten years older than Lawrence,” writes Lord Ronald +Sutherland Gower, “had been for some time the favorite painter of +George, Prince of Wales, with the result that half the smart ladies of +the town sat to him. But the King, who allowed the Queen’s and Princess +Amelia’s portraits to be painted by Lawrence, became so much interested +in him, that, on the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds in February, 1792, +he decided that the young painter, then not twenty-three years of age +and not yet a full member of the Academy, should be appointed to the +post of Painter-in-Ordinary, an office that had been filled by the late +President. ‘Never perhaps, in the country,’ writes Redgrave, in his +account of Lawrence, ‘had a man so young, so uneducated, so untried +in his art, advanced as it were _per saltum_ to the honors and +emoluments of the profession.’ The King’s favorite painter was the +American, Benjamin West, Sir Joshua’s successor in the Presidential +Chair, and Windsor was filled with his historical pictures, which, +although once valuable, would not now fetch even a modest sum if they +were sold at Christie’s.” + +About 1790 Lawrence removed to Old Bond Street, installing himself in +a handsome apartment with his friend, Farington, as his secretary. + +Lawrence tried to paint imaginary and historical pictures, but it soon +was evident that portraiture was his forte. The death of Opie in 1807 +and of Hoppner in 1810, left him without a rival. On the death of +Benjamin West in 1820, Lawrence was unanimously elected President of +the Royal Academy. Fuseli, a little dissatisfied, exclaimed: “Well! +well! since they must have a face-painter to reign over them, let them +take Lawrence; he can at least paint eyes!” The period between 1820 and +1830 (when Lawrence died) is practically a “Lawrence Age.” Sir Thomas +painted everybody of note from George IV and the Duke of Wellington +to fashionable ladies of no particular distinction save their wealth. +His full-length portrait of George IV in his Coronation robes was so +frequently copied and given by the King to his friends that nearly +every Royal Collection in Europe can show a replica. + +The spirit of the age was certainly expressed in Lawrence’s portraits. +We have only to look at such portraits as the _Countess of Blessington_ +(Wallace Gallery), _Lady Peel_ (Frick Collection), _Lady Dover and +her Son_, and _La Duchesse de Berri_ to realize how true this is. +These ladies look as if they had stepped from the pages of Akermann’s +_Repository_. + +It is always interesting to learn what an artist has to say about his +own work. To Mrs. Jameson, Lawrence wrote the following: + +“My thoughts have almost invariably been devoted to Sir Joshua, and, +generally, to the Italian School--Raphael, Correggio, Titian, even +Parmigiano. An admirer of the very finest works of Van Dyck, and +acknowledging the consistent ability of his pencil, I have been less +his votary than, perhaps, hundreds since his time, of distinguished +taste and talent (Gainsborough, for instance), to whose judgment in +other cases I should justly bend. Rubens has been infinitely more the +object of my admiration; but, as you know, presents very little as +example for portrait-painting. + +“Sir Joshua continues to be more and more my delight and my surprise. +Rembrandt has another and still higher place in my affection. In my +men, then, I have thought of both, and of Titian and of Raphael, as +the subjects approached their style. In women, of Sir Joshua, Raphael, +Parmigiano, and Correggio. In children, of Sir Joshua and the two +latter. In my portraits of Kemble and of Mrs. Siddons, of the highest +Italian School.” + +In 1825 the King of France gave Lawrence the Cross of the _Legion +d’honneur_. Lawrence died in 1830, unmarried, a fashionable “man +about town,” courted, admired, and not unlike Lord Byron, in some +respects. Lord Gower says: + +“That his fame underwent a marked decline during the half-century after +his death in this country cannot be doubted; but within the last few +years a reaction has set in, which is tending to place him again in the +forefront of our greatest portrait-painters. + +“Both as a man and as an artist Lawrence was impressionable, and in +his work was entirely influenced by the spirit of his period, a period +of affectation that frequently bordered upon vulgarity. If Lawrence’s +art in portraiture had been genius instead of talent of the highest +order, he would have created a public taste instead of slavishly +following that set by the Court or Society of his day. As it was, his +work was the ultimate expression of the curtain and column school of +portraiture, and his success set a fashion that was followed for years +afterwards by innumerable portrait-painters. These, in imitating the +style, missed the spirit and perception by which Lawrence, trammelled +as he was by the absurdities of dress and conventionality of attitude +and surroundings, was enabled to place upon his canvases some +suggestion of the actual identity of his sitters. And it was not until +the advent of George Frederick Watts and the late Sir John Everett +Millais that the effects of the imitation of the obvious points of +Lawrence’s style finally disappeared from English portraiture. + +“Lawrence’s chief defect was that he turned his art too much into a +trade; he would have attained a far higher position had he contented +himself with painting half the people he did, and his name would have +stood on a higher pinnacle in the Temple of Fame. During the last +twenty years of his life he painted but little more, as a rule, than +the face of his sitter, the rest of the picture being completed by +his pupils; or rather his assistants. This practice has, of course, +lessened the value of his portraits. + +“These are grave failings; but on the other side, his great merits are +incontestable and weigh the scale in his favor. Where, except among the +very greatest of those whose fame chiefly rests on their excellence in +the art of portrait-painting--such giants as Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt, +Velasquez, and Van Dyck, Reynolds, and Gainsborough--can finer work be +shown them than in such astonishing likenesses as those of Lawrence +when at his best; and the master must be judged by his master-works. +His style, when once he had adopted it, had the great merit of being +a style of its own, of much refinement and excellence in drawing; +although his work was, perhaps, too smooth in technique and somewhat +affected in feeling. His paintings have lasted, whereas those of many +of his contemporaries are mere wrecks and shadows of their former +selves; for he attempted no experiments in glazings and pigments, as +was Sir Joshua’s wont, and his pictures are, as a rule, as fresh as +when they were painted. + +“I believe it only fair to place him immediately beneath our +three greatest portrait-painters,--that immortal trio, Reynolds, +Gainsborough, and Romney: at a time when Hoppner, Opie, and Raeburn +were all working, this is high praise.” + + + PINKIE. + + _Sir Thomas Lawrence + (1769–1830)._ + + _Collection of the late + Mr. Henry E. Huntington._ + +This radiant portrait is generally considered to be Lawrence’s +masterpiece. How fresh, how sweet, how breezy it is! “Pinkie” stands +on a high hill with a beautiful low-lying landscape of wooded hills +spreading out and undulating towards the distant horizon. The sky is +dappled with swiftly moving clouds and the morning breeze is blowing +pretty freshly, for Pinkie’s light gown is rippling with it and the +strings of her bonnet are fluttering and flapping rather violently. +These ribbons are pink, matching the sash which holds the diaphanous, +white gown in place. Pinkie’s eyes are brown, large, and lustrous and +her brown hair is touzled by the wind; but she looks at us so sweetly +and brightly that we love her at first sight. How daintily her little +slippered foot is planted on the flower-sprinkled turf! Her airy, +youthful, billowy figure suggests the idea of Spring beneath whose +every footstep flowers instantly appear in full bloom. + + [Illustration: + + _Collection of the late Mr. Henry E. Huntington_ + + PINKIE + + --_Sir Thomas Lawrence_] + +How far she has come! Do we not see her home in the distance on the +right, encircled by a crescent of leafy trees and with a wide driveway +through the clearing? + +“Pinkie’s” name was Sarah Moulton-Barrett, and she was the only +daughter of Charles Moulton, Esq., and his wife Elizabeth Barrett +Moulton. Pinkie was born March 22, 1783, and the lovely child died at +the age of twelve, the year in which this portrait was painted. It is +interesting to note that Pinkie was the aunt of the famous poet, Mrs. +Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who was the daughter of Pinkie’s brother, +Edward Moulton-Barrett of Coxhoe Hall, Durham, and Hope End, Hereford. + +The portrait, oils on canvas (57½ × 39¾ inches), was painted in 1795 +and was formerly in the Collection of Octavius Moulton-Barrett, Esq., +Westover, Calbourne, Isle of Wight, and thence it passed to the Right +Hon. Lord Michelham, K. C. V. O., London. A modern critic rapturously +expresses what every one feels on looking at this enchanting picture: + +“If ever canvas was instinct with life, this picture lives and +breathes. If ever the vehicle of oil paint spread on canvas has caught +the wind as it blows, the light that dances in a mischievous child’s +eyes, the breath of life and joy in living, Lawrence, in this picture, +achieved the miracle. You feel, as you look at it, that you could read +small print by its light in the dead of night. The color of it is the +color of sea-downs on a May morning; the joy of it is of the joy of the +first warm day of Spring. And in the little girl’s graceful figure are +comprised whatever things are lovely, whatever things are pure, to the +minds of men.” + + + + + INDEX + + [Titles of Paintings in this book appear in italics.] + + + Abbey, mediæval, 170 + + Abel, Charles Frederick, 361 + + Act of Supremacy, 244 + + Adoration of the Kings (Gentile da Fabriano), 74, 77 + + Adoration of the Lamb (Van Eycks), 157, 168 + + _Adoration of the Magi_ (Benvenuto di Giovanni), 12–16 + + Adoration of the Magi (Botticelli), 58 + + Adoration of the Magi (Fra Angelico), 37 + + Adoration of the Magi (Memling), 174 + + _Adoration of the Shepherds_ (Mantegna), 104 + + Adoration of the Virgin (Lippi), 46 + + Age of Innocence (Reynolds), 340 + + Agnolo Gaddi, 18 + + _Agony in the Garden_ (Raphael), 90 + + Akermann’s Repository, 424 + + Albert, Charles d’, 178 + + Albertinelli, Mariotto, 24 + + Albigenses, 262 + + Albizzi family, 68 + + Allegri, Antonio, 93, 99 + + Alphonso, Duke of Ferrara, 99 + + Altichiero Altichieri, 93, 98, 103, 104 + + Ambassadors, The (Holbein), 250 + + “Anacreon of Painting,” The, 277 + + Anatomy Lesson, The (Rembrandt), 206 + + Analysis of Beauty, Hogarth’s, 337 + + Ancre, Marshall d’, 178 + + André, Major John, 398 + + Andrea d’Agnolo, 24 + + Andrea del Castagno, 19 + + Andrea del Sarto, 24 + + Andrea di Cione (Orcagna), 18 + + Andrea di Cione (Verrocchio), 23 + + Andrea di Firenze, 18 + + “Andrea senza errori,” 24 + + Anemone, 174 + + Angelo Allori, 24 + + Angels, Fra Angelico’s, 32–34, 38 + + Angels’ Heads (Reynolds), 338, 340 + + Anglo-Norman painters, 333 + + Anne of Austria, 176, 178, 194 + + _Anne, Lady de la Pole_ (Romney), 410 + + Annunciation, The, 28, 30 + + _Annunciation, The_ (Masolino), 28 + + Annunciation, Lily, 30 + + Annunzio, D’, quoted, 121 + + Antonello da Messina, 117, 124, 132 + + Antonello di Giovanni degli Antoni, 124 + + Antonio di San Gallo, 24 + + Antonio Veneziano, 18, 19 + + Antwerp School, 164, 166 + + Apple, 126 + + Arlequin, 281 + + Armand-Dayot, quoted, 302 + + Armida, 181 + + Armida, Garden of, 181 + + Armstrong, Sir Walter, quoted, 286, 340, 341, 385, 388, 406 + + Army Plot, 194 + + Arne, Dr., 331 + + Arnolfo del Cambio, 28 + + Arte de Medici e speziale, 17 + + Asolo, 144 + + Astrophel and Stella, 187–188 + + Audran, Claude, 284 + + Augsburg, 236 + + + Baccio della Porta, 24 + + Bach, John Christian, 361 + + Balen, Hendrik van, 164, 165, 181 + + Baldovinetti, Alesso, 22, 23, 37, 48–51, 52, 70 + + Baptistery doors, 18, 20, 52 + + Barbizon School, 201 + + Barry, Madame du, 312 + + Bartolo di Fredi, 3 + + Basaiti Marco, 118 + + Bassano, Jacopo, 118 + + Bastiani, Lazzaro, 118 + + Bath, 348, 358, 361, 390, 422 + + Battle of the Nile, 408 + + Beatrice d’Este, 96, 107, 148, 150 + + Beauvais tapestry, 306 + + Beechey, Sir William, 337 + + Bellini, Gentile, 98, 116, 117, 118, 119, 132 + + Bellini, Giovanni, 98, 116, 117, 118, 119, 121, 124, 130–139, 151 + + Bellini, Jacopo, 8, 98, 116, 117 + + Bellini, Nicolosia, 97, 98 + + Bembo, Pietro (Cardinal), 144 + + Benci, Jacopo d’Antonio, 52 + + Benvenuto di Giovanni, 3, 12–16 + + Berenson, quoted, 8, 12, 36, 52, 62–63, 77, 83–84, 99, 103, 106, + 122 + + Bermudas, Plantation of the, 190 + + Bernard di Betto, 74 + + Bernardo da Canale, 122 + + Berruguete, Pedro, 257 + + Birds, Painters of, Dutch, 203 + + Birds, Painters of, Italian, 19 + + _Billet-Doux, Le_ (Fragonard), 318 + + Birth of Venus (Botticelli), 59, 61, 66 + + Black Friars, 262 + + Blanc, Charles, quoted, 166, 182 + + Blount, Charles, Earl of Devonshire, 188 + + _Blue Boy, The_ (Gainsborough), 378–386 + + Boccatis, Camillo, 78, 172 + + Bode, Dr. Wilhelm, quoted, 207–208, 212, 228 + + Bodegones, 258 + + Bologna School, 98 + + Bonfigli, Benedetto, 74, 77–78 + + Bonvicino, Alessandro, 98 + + Bordone, Paris, 121 + + Borgia, Lucrezia, 99, 151 + + Borgognone, 110 + + Borgo San Sepolcro, 5, 9, 10, 22 + + Borluut, Isabella, 157 + + Bosch, Jerome, 164 + + Botticelli, Sandro, 21, 23, 47, 48, 55–66, 82, 94, 334 + + Boucher, François, 272, 304, 312, 316 + + Boulton, William H., quoted, 366 + + Boy with a Rabbit (Raeburn), 411, 416 + + Bramante di Milano, 93 + + Bramantino, 93 + + Brancacci Chapel, 19, 31, 45, 46, 48 + + Brancacci, Felice, 19, 31 + + Brancacci frescoes, 19, 31 + + Brandt, Isabella, 178 + + Bredius, Dr., quoted, 217–218 + + Brescia School, 98 + + Bronzino, 24 + + Brooke, Lord, 190 + + Brown, Dr. John, quoted, 412 + + Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 428 + + Brueghel, “Hell-fire,” 165 + + Brueghel, “Peasant,” 164 + + Brueghel, “Velvet,” 165 + + Bruges, School of, 157, 161, 170 + + Brunelleschi, 103 + + Buisson, J., quoted, 120 + + Buckingham, Duke of, 192, 195, 196 + + Bull, The (Paul Potter), 201 + + Bunbury, Charles John, 419 + + Bunbury, Henry William, 419 + + Burger, quoted, 201, 203, 227 + + Burgundian Court, 158–160, 257 + + Burgundy, Dukes of, 334 + + Burnet, John, 382 + + Burney, Fanny, quoted, 344, 419 + + Buttall, Jonathan, 378–386 + + Byron, quoted, 348 + + Byzantine traditions, 3, 115 + + + Cadore, 137–142 + + Cadore, Valley of, 146 + + Caliari, Paolo, 99, 120 + + Calonne, 252, 354 + + Campanile (Giotto’s), 26 + + Campbell, Thomas, 350 + + Campin, Robert, 162, 169 + + Canaletto, 121, 152 + + Caprichos, Los (Goya), 170 + + “Captain in Lace,” 418 + + Caravaggio, 258 + + _Cardinal Albrecht as St. Hieronymus_ (Cranach), 251 + + Cardinal Bembo, 144 + + Cardinal Granvella, 201, 257 + + _Cardinal Quiroga_ (El Greco), 259 + + _Camargo, La_ (Lancret), 291–292 + + Carnations, 25 + + Carpaccio, Vittore, 118 + + Cartwright, Mrs. Julia, quoted, 26, 39, 47–48, 69, 95, 150 + + Castiglione, Baldassare, 90 + + _Caterina Cornaro_ (Titian), 143 + + Caxton, William, 334 + + Cazes, Pierre Jacques, 302 + + Cenni dei Pepe, 17 + + Cennino Cennini, 18, 26 + + Champaigne, Philippe de, 278 + + “Chaponnay Nattier,” 288 + + Chardin, J. B. S., 277, 300–303, 316, 318 + + Charles I (England), 164, 179, 182, 190, 192, 194, 195 + + Charles II (England), 194, 195 + + Charles V (Emperor), 161, 240, 243, 257 + + Charles the Bold, 160, 161, 257 + + Château de Steen, 179 + + Cherries, 126 + + Chinoiserie, 276, 284 + + Christian Art, 3 + + Christina of Denmark, 243 + + Christus, Petrus, 162, 169–172 + + Cimabue, 17, 26 + + Cima da Conegliano, 118 + + Civic Guard Banquet (B. van der Helst), 200 + + Classic Architecture, 18, 31 + + Clement VIII, 56 + + Cleves, Anne of, 243 + + “Cock-fighting Earl,” 400 + + Coeck, Jerome, 164 + + Coello, Alonzo Sanchez, 258 + + Coleridge, quoted, 377 + + Colonel St. Leger (Gainsborough), 388 + + Columbine, 281, 284 + + Columbine, The (Luine), 110 + + Comédiens français, 284 + + Compagnia di San Luca, 18 + + Company of Capt. Roelof Bicker (B. van der Helst), 200 + + Connecticut, 190 + + Constable, John, 337 + + Convent of San Marco (Florence), 37, 38 + + Conversation-pieces, 199, 202 + + Cook, Herbert F., quoted, 140 + + Cooper, Samuel, 334 + + Copal, François, 207–210 + + Copal, Titia, 210 + + Coques, Gonzales, 166 + + Coronation of the Virgin (Lippi), 46 + + Corporation pictures, 201 + + Corésus and Callirhoé (Fragonard), 314, 316 + + Cornaro, Caterina, 121, 143–145, 146 + + Cornaro, Giorgio, 144, 146 + + Correggio, 93, 99, 119 + + “Correggio of Fruits and Flowers,” 203 + + Cosimas and Damianus, 39–42 + + Costa, Lorenzo, 93, 98, 99, 108 + + Costumes, Eastern, 20 + + Cotes, Francis, 337, 395 + + _Cottage Door, The_ (Gainsborough), 357 + + Council of the Eastern and Western Churches, 20 + + Countess of Coventry, 369 + + Couperin, 331 + + Court Beauties (Kneller), 336 + + Court Beauties (Lely), 336 + + Court of Mantua, 107 + + Court of Milan, 94–95, 151 + + _Cowper Madonna, The Small_ (Raphael), 86–88 + + Cowper Madonna of 1508 (Raphael), 84–86 + + Coypel, Noel, 302 + + Cranach, the Elder, Lucas, 251–252 + + Cranach, the Younger, Lucas, 236 + + Crivelli, Carlo, 98, 117, 125–130 + + Crome, John, 337 + + Cromwell, Oliver, 190, 334, 335 + + Crowe and Cavalcaselle, quoted, 138 + + Cust, Lionel, quoted, 138 + + Cuyp, Aelbert, 201 + + + Daddi, Bernardo, 17, 18, 73 + + Dædalus, 184–186 + + _Dædalus and Icarus_ (Van Dyck), 184 + + Daisy, 174 + + _Danse, La_ (Watteau), 281 + + Dante, 3, 32 + + Davenport, The Hon. Mrs., 397–398 + + David Garrick and His Wife (Hogarth), 336 + + David, Gerard, 164 + + David, Jacques Louis, 270 + + Delany, Mrs., quoted, 376 + + Delmé, Lady Betty, 337 + + Derby, Earl of, 400, 420–422 + + Desastres de la guerra, 270 + + Deserted Village, The, 418 + + Desportes, A. F., 277 + + Desportes, Philippe, quoted, 186 + + _Deux Confidentes, Les_ (Boucher), 304 + + Devereux, Penelope, 187 + + Devereux, Walter, 187 + + _Diana, Viscountess Crosbie_ (Reynolds), 331, 337, 340, 346–347, + 356 + + Diderot, quoted, 276, 303 + + _Dirk Berck of Cologne_ (Holbein), 246 + + Discourses on Art (Reynolds), 338 + + Doelen pictures, 199, 222 + + Doge Loredano (Giovanni Bellini), 132 + + Dom-bild, Cologne, 235 + + Domenichino, 138 + + Domenic de Guzman, 262 + + Domenico di Bartolo, 3 + + Domenico Veneziano, 22 + + Dominican Order, 262 + + Donatello, 18, 103, 106 + + Dosso Dossi, 99, 137 + + Dou, Gerard, 202 + + Drouais, F. H., 276, 310–314 + + Duccio di Buoninsegna, 3, 4, 5, 9, 17 + + Duchess of Argyll, 400 + + Duchess of Devonshire, 331, 356, 358, 361, 371 + + Duchess of Ferrara, 107 + + Duchess of Gloucester, 366 + + Duchess of Marlborough, 375 + + Duke of Gloucester, 369 + + Duke of Mantua, 178 + + Dulwich, Mrs. Siddons as Tragic Muse at, 353–356 + + _Duo, The_ (Lancret), 294 + + Duomo, 26 + + Dürer, Albrecht, 137, 200, 235, 236, 237–238 + + Dürer, etchings by, 238 + + Dürer, portraits by, 237 + + Dürer, wood-cuts by, 238 + + “Dutch Hogarth,” The, 203 + + Dutch School, 165 + + Duveen, Sir Joseph, 378 + + Dyck, Sir Anthony Van, 112, 164, 181–196, 300, 335 + + + Edward VI (England), 240 + + Eighteenth Century French women, 288 + + Eighteenth Century Society, 229–231 + + El Greco, 258, 259–262 + + _Eliza Farren_ (Sir Thomas Lawrence), 420 + + Elizabeth Bas (Rembrandt), 212 + + Elizabeth Hamilton, Countess of Derby, 398–402 + + Embarquement pour l’Île de Cythère (Watteau), 281, 314 + + _Emma, Lady Hamilton_ (Romney), 403–410, 423 + + Erasmus, 242 + + Erasmus, quoted, 244 + + Ercole of Ferrara, Duke, 150 + + Essex, Earl of, 187, 190 + + Este family, 181 + + Este, Lionello, 168 + + Evangelista di Pian di Meleto, 89 + + Everdingen, Allart Van, 217–218 + + Everdingen, Cornelius Van, 217–218 + + Eyck, Hubert van, 157, 160, 200 + + Eyck, Jan van, 157, 158, 160, 170, 200, 286 + + + Fabrics, Oriental, 10 + + Fabritius, Carel, 202, 227, 231 + + Fantin-Latour, 303 + + Farington Diary, quoted, 340–341, 344, 352, 380, 414, 420, 421 + + Farren, Miss, 400, 420–422 + + “Father of His Country, The,” 20 + + “Father of Painters,” 97 + + Faure, Élie, quoted, 262, 282, 302 + + _Feast of the Gods_ (Bellini), 137 + + Feast of the Pheasant, 159–160 + + Feast of the Rosary (Dürer), 238 + + Featherstonehaugh, Sir Henry, 406 + + Ferrarese School, 98 + + _Fête Champêtre, Une_ (Pater), 296 + + _Fête Galante, Une_ (Pater), 298 + + Fêtes galantes, 276, 284, 292 + + Fierens-Gevaert, quoted, 169 + + Filipepi, Alessandro di Mariano, 56 + + Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, 74 + + Fischer, John Christian, 361 + + Fisherman Presenting the Ring of St. Mark to the Doge (Paris + Bordone), 121 + + “Flemish Fra Angelico,” The, 174 + + Flemish Painting, 161, 162 + + Flemish School, 157 + + Floating Feather, The (M. d’Hondecoeter), 203 + + Floreins, Jan, 174 + + Florentine School, 17–72 + + Flower painters, 203 + + Flowers (Memling), 174 + + Fly represented, 128, 169 + + Fondaco dei Tedeschi, 118, 119, 152, 238 + + Fontainebleau, 24 + + Foppa, Vincenzo, 93 + + Fourment, Helena, 179 + + _Fountain in the Park, The_ (Hubert Robert), 322 + + Fox, Charles James, 342, 377 + + Fra Angelico, 19, 20, 32–42, 50, 76, 78, 103, 334 + + Fra Bartolommeo, 24, 89 + + Fra Filippo Lippi, 20, 22, 23, 42–48, 58, 334 + + Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, 19, 37 + + Fragonard, J. H., 272, 314–320 + + Francesco di Stefano, 22 + + _Francesco Sassetti and His Son Teodoro_ (Ghirlandaio), 72 + + Francia, Francesco, 93, 98, 99, 107–108 + + Franciabigio, 24 + + Francis I, 24 + + Franciscans, Order of, 6 + + Franconian School, 236 + + Frans, Robert, 235 + + Frantz, Henri, quoted, 324 + + Frederick the Great, 291, 296 + + French women of the Eighteenth Century, 288 + + Friars Minor, Order of, 6 + + Friedländer, Max J., quoted, 168, 176, 228 + + Fromentin, quoted, 207 + + Fruit, 126 + + Fry, Roger, quoted, 128 + + Fuggers, The, 236 + + Fulcher, quoted, 386 + + Fuller, quoted, 196 + + Fuseli, quoted, 424 + + Fyt, Jan, 165 + + + Gabriel, Angel, 28, 30, 32, 34 + + _Gabriel, the Announcing Angel_ (Fra Angelico), 32 + + Gainsborough, Thomas, 329, 330, 331, 332, 333, 337, 357–392, 394, + 426 + + Gandy, William, 338 + + Garden Scenes, 320 + + Garrick, David, 348, 350, 361 + + “Gates of Paradise,” 52 + + Gautier, Théophile, quoted, 38, 229 + + _General Nicolas Guye_ (Goya), 270 + + _General Philip Honywood_ (Gainsborough), 386 + + Genre painting, Dutch, 201 + + Gentile da Fabriano, 10, 16, 20, 31, 73, 74–77, 98, 103, 104, + 116, 117, 157, 168 + + _Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire_ (Gainsborough), 372–378 + + _Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire_ (Reynolds), 356 + + Gerardo, 19 + + Ghiberti, Lorenzo, 18, 20, 31, 52, 103 + + Ghirlandaio, Domenico, 23, 61, 66–72, 82, 164, 194 + + Ghirlandaio, Ridolfo, 70 + + Gillot, Claude, 281, 284, 292 + + _Giorgio Cornaro_ (Titian), 146 + + Giorgione, 99, 117, 118, 119, 121, 140, 142 + + Giotto di Bordone, 4, 6, 10, 17, 25–28, 74 + + Giotteschi, The, 18 + + Giovanna degli Albrizzi, 61, 68–69 + + _Giovanna Tornabuoni_ (Ghirlandaio), 66 + + Giovanni Antonio da Canale, 121 + + Giovanni da Milano, 18 + + Girolamo di Benvenuto, 3 + + Gisze, Georg, 247 + + _Giuliano de’ Medici_ (Botticelli), 55–61 + + Gli Asolani, 144 + + Gobelins, 306 + + Goes, Hugo van der, 163 + + Golden Fleece, Knights of the, 159 + + “Goldini of Painters, The,” 122 + + Goldsmith, Oliver, 418 + + Goldsmith, Oliver, verse by, 418–419 + + Goldsmiths, 18, 411 + + Goncourts, de, quoted, 284, 314 + + Gonzaga, Marchese Francesco, 103 + + Gonzaga, Vincenzo, 178 + + Gordon Riots, Lord George, 342 + + Gothic Art, 3, 4 + + Gothic Style, 179 + + Gower, Lord, quoted, 331, 341, 353, 380, 395, 423, 425 + + Gourd, 126 + + Goya y Lucientes, 258, 270–272, 302 + + Goyen, Jan van, 201 + + Gozzoli, Benozzo, 16, 20, 78 + + Graces Decorating a Terminal Figure of Hymen (Reynolds), 340 + + Graham, Dr., 404 + + Gravelot, Hubert, 358 + + Great Fire of London (1666), 182, 334 + + Great Seal of England, 334 + + Greco, El, 258, 259–262 + + Greuze, J. B., 277, 306–310, 314 + + Greville, the Hon. Charles Francis, 403 + + Grey, Lady Jane, 240 + + Grisebach, August, quoted, 394 + + Guardi, Francesco, 122, 152 + + Guido da Siena, 3 + + Guiffrey, Jean, quoted, 300 + + Guild of Doctors and Apothecaries, 17 + + Guild of St. Luke, 17–18, 19 + + Gunning, Elizabeth, 369, 400 + + Gunning, Maria, 369, 400 + + Gunnings, The, 366 + + + Hals, Frans, 200, 202, 220–224 + + Hamilton, Sir William, 406 + + Hampden, John, 190, 194 + + Hanseatic League, 246 + + Harlot’s Progress, The (Hogarth), 336 + + Hart, Emma, 396, 403 + + _Harvest Waggon, The_ (Gainsborough), 389–390 + + Hautecœur, Louis, quoted, 316, 320 + + Hayman, Francis, 358 + + Heaton, Mrs., quoted, 238 + + Heem, Jan Davidsz de, 203 + + Heine, 235 + + Helst, B. van der, 200 + + Henri de la Pasture, 168 + + Henri IV (Navarre), 176, 191, 192 + + Henrietta, Duchesse d’Orléans, 194, 195 + + Henry VIII (England), 240, 243, 334 + + Herrera, Francisco the Elder, 258 + + Hervey, Lady, quoted, 376 + + Hilliard, Nicholas, 334 + + Hobbema, Meindert, 202 + + Hogarth, William, 236–237 + + Holbein, Hans the Elder, 236 + + Holbein, Hans the Younger, 235, 236, 240–250, 330, 334, 335 + + Holy Conversation, 130 + + _Hon. Mrs. Davenport, The_ (Romney), 397 + + Hon. Mrs. Graham, The (Gainsborough), 358 + + _Hon. Mrs. Grant of Kilgraston_ (Raeburn), 411 + + Hondecoeter, Melchior d’, 203 + + Honywood, General Philip, 386, 389 + + Hoogh, Pieter de, 202, 226–227 + + Hoppner, John, 333, 337, 361, 380, 381, 419, 423, 424, 426 + + Horneck, Catherine, 418, 419 + + Horneck, Charles, 418 + + Horneck, Mary, 416–419 + + Hudson, Jeffrey, 195–196, 335 + + Hudson, Thomas, 338 + + Hudibras, 336 + + Huet, J. B., 276 + + Humphrey, Osias, quoted, 363 + + Huysum, Jan van, 203 + + + Ibn Batuta, 5 + + Icare, poem, 186 + + Icarus, 184–186 + + _Invocation à l’Amour, L’_ (Fragonard), 314 + + Iris, 174 + + Isabella d’Este, 107 + + Isabella of Mantua, 82 + + Italian Comedy, 281, 284 + + Italianate Flemings, 164 + + + Jacobins, 262 + + Jacopo da Pontormo, 24 + + James I (England), 334, 335 + + Jardinière, La Belle (Raphael), 86, 89, 90 + + Jasmine, 25, 31 + + _Jean de Dinteville_ (Holbein), 350 + + Jermyn, Lord, 195 + + Jerusalem Delivered (Tasso), 181 + + _Jessamy Bride, The_ (Hoppner), 416–419 + + _John Walter Tempest_ (Romney), 392 + + Jordaens, Jacob, 165 + + Judith with Head of Holofernes (Mantegna), 107 + + Juno Ludovisi, 138 + + _Jupiter and Calisto_ (Poussin), 277 + + Justi, Carl, quoted, 266 + + + Kauffman, Angelica, 408, 419 + + Kells, Book of, 333 + + Kemble, Charles, 348 + + Kemble, Fanny, 348 + + Kemble, John Philip, 348, 350 + + Kemble family, 348 + + Keppel, Admiral, 338, 342 + + Keppel, the Hon. Frederick, 368 + + Keppel riots, 342 + + Kit Kat Club, 336 + + Kitty Fisher (Reynolds), 340 + + Kneller Godfrey, 336 + + Knollys, Lettice, 187 + + + _Labille-Guiard and Two Pupils, Madame_ (Labille-Guiard), 324–326 + + _Lace-Maker, The_ (Jan Vermeer), 228 + + _Lady Betty Delmé_ (Reynolds), 337 + + Lady Betty Hamilton (Reynolds), 402 + + Lady Cockburn and Her Children (Reynolds), 340, 351 + + Lady Derby, Eliza Farren (Lawrence), 420 + + _Lady Derby_, Elizabeth Hamilton (Romney), 333, 398–402 + + Lady Duncannon, 377 + + Lancret, Nicolas, 276, 291–296, 330 + + Landscape, first Italian, 39 + + Landscape painters, Dutch, 201 + + Last Supper (Leonardo da Vinci), 95 + + Laud, Archbishop, 190, 194 + + Laughing Cavalier (Frans Hals), 222 + + _Laughing Mandolin Player, The_ (Frans Hals), 224 + + Lavinia Fenton (Hogarth), 336 + + Lawrence, Sir Thomas, 337, 352, 412, 419, 420–428 + + Lawrence, Sir Thomas, quoted, 424–425 + + League of Cambrai, 144 + + LeBrun, Charles, 277 + + LeBrun, Vigée, 277, 326, 408 + + Leicester, Earl of, 187 + + Lely, Sir Peter, 235–236 + + Lemké, quoted, 231–232 + + Le Nôtre, 138, 322 + + Leonardo da Vinci, 21, 23, 24, 82, 89, 106, 110, 151 + + Leonardo da Vinci, quoted, 18, 94 + + Leslie and Taylor, quoted, 344, 350–351 + + Liberale, 93 + + Libri, Girolamo dai, 93 + + Lilies, 25, 30, 31 + + Line of Beauty, Hogarth’s, 337 + + Lippi, Fra Filippo, 44 + + Lippi, Filippino, 23, 47, 94 + + Lippo Memmi, 3 + + “Little Comedy,” 418, 419 + + Little Dutch Masters, 201, 202, 227 + + Lochner, Meister Stephan, 235 + + Longhi, Pietro, 122 + + Lord Glendee (Raeburn), 412 + + Lord Ligonier (Reynolds), 389 + + Lorenzetti, Ambrogio, 3, 9 + + Lorenzetti, Pietro, 3, 9 + + Lorenzo da Pavia, 95, 107 + + Lorenzo di Credi, 23, 82 + + Lorenzo Monaco, 18 + + Lorraine, Claude, 281, 303 + + “Lost Duchess, The,” 372 + + Lotto, Lorenzo, 121 + + Louis XIII, 176–180, 191, 192 + + _Louis XIII, King of France_ (Rubens), 176 + + Lucas van Leiden, 200 + + Lucrezia Buti, 22, 23, 44, 47 + + Luini, Bernardino, 93, 110–112 + + Lusignan, Jacques de, 143 + + Luther, 238, 253 + + Luxembourg Palace, 179 + + + Macnab, The (Raeburn), 412 + + _Madame Bonier de la Mosson_ (Nattier), 285 + + _Mademoiselle Helvetius_ (Drouais), 314 + + Madonna, Cardellino, 24, 86, 89 + + Madonna of the Chair (Raphael), 90 + + _Madonna and Child_ (Antonello da Messina), 124 + + _Madonna and Child_ (Alesso Baldovinetti), 48 + + _Madonna and Child_ (Bellini), 334 + + _Madonna and Child_ (Botticelli), 64 + + _Madonna and Child_ (Crivelli), 125 + + _Madonna and Child_ (Crivelli), 128 + + _Madonna and Child_ (Gentile da Fabriano), 74 + + _Madonna and Child_ (Giotto di Bordone), 25 + + _Madonna and Child_ (Perugino), 80 + + _Madonna and Child with Angels_ (Bonfigli), 77 + + _Madonna and Child with Angels_ (Memling), 172 + + _Madonna and Child with Saints and Angels_ (Matteo di Giovanni), 9 + + Madonna and Child with Singing Cherubs (Mantegna), 107 + + Madonna Enthroned with Saints (Raphael), 90, 92 + + Madonna del Gran Duca (Raphael), 24, 86, 88, 89 + + Madonna of the Magnificat (Botticelli), 58, 62 + + _Madonna della Stella_ (Fra Filippo Lippi), 42 + + Madonna di San Sisto (Raphael), 90 + + Madonna, costume of the, 10 + + Madonna, flowers of the, 25, 30–31 + + Madrigal, Roger Milès, 290 + + Maes, Nicholas, 202 + + Maintenon, Madame de, 275, 284 + + Maître de Flémalle, 162, 169 + + Majestas, The, 17 + + _Mall in St. James’s Park, The_ (Gainsborough), 364 + + Mall, The, 331, 364–365 + + Manet, 259 + + Mantegna, Andrea, 93, 97, 98, 99, 104–107, 116 + + Margaret of Austria, 257 + + Margaret of York, 160 + + _Maria Walpole, Duchess of Gloucester_, 366–372 + + _Marianne of Austria_ (Velasquez), 264 + + Marie Antoinette, 290, 312 + + Marie de’ Medici, 176, 178, 179, 191 + + Market Cart (Gainsborough), 388 + + _Marquise de Baglion, La_ (Nattier), 288 + + _Marquise de Besons, La_ (Greuze), 208 + + _Marquise de la Fare, La_ (Fragonard), 320 + + _Marquise de Villemonble, La_ (Drouais), 310 + + Marriage à la Mode (Hogarth), 336 + + Marriage of St. Catherine (Memling), 174 + + Marriage of the Virgin (Perugino), 82 + + Mars and Venus (Botticelli), 59 + + Martini, Simone, 4, 9 + + _Mary Horneck_ (Hoppner), 416 + + Mary of Burgundy, 161 + + Mary of Hungary, 257 + + Mary, Queen of Scots, 240 + + Mary Tudor, 335 + + Masaccio, Tommaso, 18, 19, 31, 45, 46, 48, 157 + + Masolino, Tommaso, 8, 19, 28–32 + + Masolino da Panicale, 31 + + Massys, Quentin, 164, 242 + + Matisse, 303, 320 + + Matteo da Siena, 10 + + Matteo di Giovanni, 3, 9–12 + + Maximilian, Emperor, 144, 150, 257 + + _Maximilian Sforza_ (Veneto), 148 + + Medici, Cosimo de’, 20, 37, 39, 45, 168 + + Medici, Giovanni de Bicci, 20 + + Medici, Giuliano de’, 23, 55–61, 68 + + Medici, Giulio de’, 56 + + Medici, Lorenzo de’, the Magnificent, 21, 23, 24, 28, 58, 59, 61, + 68, 72, 93, 94 + + Medici, Piero de’, 21, 22, 56, 58 + + Medici, The, 20–22 + + Medici Palace (Riccardi), 45 + + Meier Madonna (Holbein), 242 + + Meister Wilhelm of Cologne, 161, 235 + + Meistersinger, 236 + + Melancthon, 238, 252 + + Melozzo da Forli, 98 + + Memling, Hans, 162, 172–176, 200 + + Metsu, Gabriel, 166, 202 + + Mezetin, 281, 284 + + Michel, Emile, quoted, 206 + + Michelangelo, 24, 70, 74, 77, 119, 121 + + Mieris, Frans van, 202 + + Mignon, Abraham, 203 + + Milès, Roger, Madrigal by, 290 + + Millais, Sir John Everett, 425 + + Milton, John, 335 + + Miniature painting, 157 + + Miniature portrait-painters, 334 + + Minorites of Siena, 5, 6 + + Minotaur, 184 + + Mierevelt, Michiel J., 201 + + Mississippi Bubble, The, 275 + + Mona Lisa (Leonardo da Vinci), 110 + + Monet, Claude, 320 + + Monkhouse, Cosmo, quoted, 125 + + Morales, Luis de, 257 + + More, Sir Thomas, 242, 244–246 + + Moreelse, Paulus, 201 + + Moretto da Brescia, 93, 98 + + Moro, Antonio, 201, 257, 335 + + “Moro, Il,” 21, 23, 82, 93, 106, 148–151 + + Morone, Domenico, 93 + + Moser, Mary, quoted, 382 + + Moroni, Giambattista, 93, 98, 112 + + Morysin, Sir Richard, 240 + + Moulton-Barrett, Sarah, 428 + + Mrs. Abington (Reynolds), 340, 422 + + Mrs. Hardinge (Reynolds), 340 + + Mrs. Siddons (Gainsborough), 350, 385 + + _Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse_ (Reynolds), 340, 347–356, 381 + + Murano, Antonio da, 116, 117 + + Murillo, 258 + + Musical Instruments, 172 + + _Music Party_ (Pieter de Hoogh), 226 + + Musidora (Gainsborough), 406 + + Myrtle, 25 + + Mytens, Daniel, 335 + + + Nasmyth, Alexander, 412, 414 + + Nattier, Jean Marc, 276, 285–290, 312 + + Nelli, Ottaviano, 76 + + Nelly O’Brien, 340 + + Nelson, Lord, 407, 408, 410 + + Neroccio di Landi, 3 + + Netherlands, Spanish and Austrian, 199 + + New England Company, 190 + + _Niccolini Madonna, The_ (Raphael), 84–86 + + Niccolo da Foligno, 78 + + Night Watch (Rembrandt), 206, 207 + + Noort, Adam van, 178 + + Northcote, James, quoted, 342, 353 + + North Italian School, 93–114 + + Nuremburg, 236 + + Nuzi, Allegretto, 73, 76 + + + Oils, 83, 117, 121, 124 + + _Old Lady Sealed in an Armchair_ (Rembrandt), 212 + + Old Woman (Rembrandt), 212 + + Olive branch, 31 + + Oliver, Isaac, 334 + + Oliver, Peter, 334 + + Opie, John, 337, 424, 426 + + Orcagna, 18 + + Oriental Art and Sienese Art, 4–5 + + Orléans, Duc d’ (the Regent), 92 + + Orléans, Gaston d’, 178 + + Orley, Bernard van, 164 + + Ostade, Adriaen van, 202 + + Oudry, J. B., 277, 312 + + + Pacheco, Francisco, 258 + + Paduan School, 116 + + Paget, John, quoted, 408 + + Palette, Reynolds’s, 341 + + Palma, School of, 119 + + Palma Vecchio, 119, 121 + + Palmer, Theophila, 344 + + Paolo di Dono, 119 + + Paolo di Giovanni Fei, 9 + + “Parma Valasquez,” 266 + + Parmigiano, 119 + + Parliament, Long, 194 + + Parliament, Short, 190, 194 + + Parnassus (Mantegna), 107 + + Parsifal, 235 + + Paston, John, quoted, 160 + + Pastry, curiosities in, 159–160, 161 + + Pater, J. B. J., 276, 296–299, 330 + + Pater, Walter, quoted, 115, 118 + + Pears, 126 + + Peg Woffington (Hogarth), 337 + + Penelope Boothby (Reynolds), 340 + + _Pepito Costa y Bonella_ (Goya), 272 + + Perspective, 31, 83 + + Perugia, 74, 80, 89 + + Perugia, School of, 78 + + Perugino, 23, 61, 74, 78, 80–84, 89, 94 + + Pesellino, Francesco, 22 + + Philip the Fair (Austria), 161 + + Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, 158 + + Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, 157, 158, 159 + + Philip IV, 258, 264, 266–268 + + _Philip IV, King of Spain_ (Velasquez), 266 + + Pie, mammoth, 160 + + Pier Francesco Fiorentino, 22, 70 + + Piero della Francesca (Pier dei Franceschi), 10, 22, 74, 78, 82, 83 + + Piero di Cosimo, 23, 24, 164 + + Piero di Lorenzo, 23 + + Pierrot, 281 + + Pink Boy (Gainsborough), 384 + + _Pinkie_ (Sir Thomas Lawrence), 426–428 + + Pintoricchio, Bernard, 74, 89 + + Pisanello (Antonio Pisano), 8, 93, 98, 99–104 + + “Plymouth Beauty, The,” 418 + + Poliziano, Angelo (Politian), 28, 59, 69 + + Pollaiuolo, Antonio, 22, 23, 48, 52 + + Pollaiuolo, Piero, 22, 51–54 + + Pomegranate, 78 + + Pompadour, Madame de, 276, 290, 300, 304, 306, 310, 312 + + “Poor Man of Assisi, The,” 6 + + Pope, Alexander, 336 + + Popish Plot, The, 196 + + Portinari, Tommaso, 164 + + Portiuncula, The, 6 + + _Portrait of a Carthusian Monk_ (Petrus Christus), 169 + + _Portrait of a Lady_ (Luini), 110 + + _Portrait of a Lady_ (Roger van der Weyden), 166 + + _Portrait of a Man_ (Albrecht Dürer), 237 + + _Portrait of an Officer_ (Frans Hals), 220 + + _Portrait of a Young Gentleman_ (Memling), 174 + + _Portrait of a Young Lady_ (Piero Pollaiuolo), 51 + + _Portrait of a Young Man_ (Botticelli), 62 + + _Portrait of a Young Officer_ (Rembrandt), 207 + + Potter, Paul, 201 + + Pourbus, Frans, 165 + + Pourbus, Pieter, 165 + + Poussin, Nicolas, 277–281, 303 + + Praise of Folly, Erasmus, 242 + + Presentation in the Temple (Rembrandt), 206, 219 + + Primavera (Botticelli), 59–60, 61, 66 + + Primitives, Dutch, 200 + + Primitives, Flemish, 162–163, 169, 200 + + _Prince Edward of England_ (Holbein), 240 + + Procession of Corpus Christi of 1496 (Gentile Bellini), 117–118 + + Puritan Party, 190 + + + Queen Christina of Sweden, 90 + + Queen Elizabeth, 334, 335 + + Queen Henrietta Maria, 191–195, 196, 335 + + _Queen Henrietta Maria with Jeffrey Hudson and a Monkey_ (Sir + Anthony Van Dyck), 191 + + Quin, 361, 390 + + _Quinton McAdam_ (Raeburn), 416 + + + Raeburn, Sir Henry, 337, 411–416 + + Raibolini, Francesco, 108 + + Rake’s Progress, The, 336 + + Rameau, 294, 331 + + Ramsay, Allan, 338 + + Raphael, 24, 70, 73, 74, 82, 84–92, 98, 99, 121 + + “Raphael’s Bible,” 89 + + Ravensteyn, Jan van, 201 + + Reformation, 235, 252 + + Regent pictures, 199 + + Reine de Chypre, La, 143 + + Rembrandt, 200, 204–220, 231, 232 + + Rembrandt, Titus, 206 + + Renaissance, The, 28 + + Renaissance in France, 161 + + Renaissance in the Netherlands, 161 + + Return of Spring, 59–60, 61 + + Reymond, Marcel, quoted, 96, 110 + + Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 84, 204, 329, 330, 331, 332, 333, 337–356, + 360, 371, 394, 408, 412, 418, 423, 426 + + Reynolds, Sir Joshua, quoted, 115, 179–180, 199–200, 280, 383 + + Rhode Island, Colony of, 190 + + Ribalta, Francisco de, 258 + + Ribera, Jusefe, 258, 264 + + Ricci, Seymour, quoted, 228–231 + + Richelieu, Cardinal, 178, 194 + + Rinaldo, 181 + + _Rinaldo and Armida_ (Sir Anthony Van Dyck), 181 + + Robert, Hubert, 277, 316, 322 + + “Robert des ruines,” 320 + + _Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick_ (Sir Anthony Van Dyck), 187–190, 195 + + Roger de la Pasture, 163, 334 + + Roger van der Weyden, 124, 162, 166–169, 170, 174, 235 + + Rogers, Samuel, 92 + + Roldt, Max, quoted, 402 + + Romaunt de la Rose, 15, 334 + + Romney, George, 329, 330, 331, 332, 333, 337, 341, 361, 394, 426 + + Romney, George, quoted, 407 + + Rooses, Max, 184 + + Roses, 25, 31 + + Rosselli, Cosimo, 23, 24, 82 + + Royal Academy, 338, 354, 356, 360 + + Rubens, Peter Paul, 164, 176–180, 181, 182, 272, 335 + + Rucellai Madonna, 5, 17 + + Ruisdael, Jacob, 202, 232 + + Rushford, G. McNeil, quoted, 128 + + Ruskin, quoted, 34, 119 + + Ruysch, Rachel, 203 + + + Sachs, Hans, 236 + + “Salvatore Rosa of the North,” 218 + + Sano di Pietro, 9 + + Sans Souci Palace, 291, 296 + + Santi, Giovanni, 74, 89 + + Sanuto, Marino, quoted, 150 + + Sargent, John Singer, 259 + + Saskia van Ulenburgh, 204, 207, 208 + + Sassetta, 3, 5–9, 31 + + Sassetti, Francisco, 72 + + Sassetti, Roderigo, 69 + + Sassetti, Teodoro, 72 + + Savonarola, 24, 61 + + Saxon School, 236, 252 + + Say, Lord, 190 + + Saybrooke, 190 + + Scalpin, 281 + + Scaramouche, 281 + + _Scene along the Adriatic Coast_ (Guardi), 152 + + Schöngauer, Martin, 168, 235–236 + + Scorel, Jan van, 201 + + Sebastian del Piombo, 121 + + Segna di Bonaventura, 3 + + Sélincourt, Beryl de, quoted, 119–120, 134 + + “Serena portraits, The,” 398 + + _Serinette, La_ (Chardin), 300 + + Seymour, Jane, 240 + + Sforza, Francesco, 243 + + Sforza, Ludovico (“Il Moro”), 21, 23, 82, 93, 106, 148–151 + + Sforza, Maximilian, 148–151, 243 + + Siddons, Mrs., 84 + + Sidney, Sir Philip, 187–188 + + Sidney, Sir Philip, quoted, 188 + + Siena, 3 + + Siena, Cathedral, 16, 17 + + Sienese Art, 4 + + Sienese School, 3–16 + + Signorelli, Luca, 74 + + _Simeon and Mary Presenting the Infant Christ in the Temple_ + (Rembrandt), 214 + + Simeon in the Temple (Rembrandt), 206, 219 + + Simone Martini, 3, 9 + + Simonetta, Vespucci, 24, 59, 60 + + Simplicity (Reynolds), 346 + + Singerie, 284 + + _Sir Thomas More_ (Holbein), 244 + + Sistine Chapel, 24, 61, 70, 82 + + Six, Burgomaster Jan, 204 + + _Small Cowper Madonna_ (Raphael), 86 + + Smith, Nollekens, quoted, 362 + + Sneyd, Charlotte, 397 + + Sneyd, Honora, 398 + + Snyders, Frans, 165 + + Sortie of the Company of Captain Banning Cock (Rembrandt), 206 + + Southwark Fair (Hogarth), 336 + + Space Composition, 83 + + Spagnoletto, Lo, 258 + + Spencer, Countess of, 375 + + Spencer, Earl of Althorp, 356, 361, 375, 378 + + Spielmann, M. H., quoted, 347, 384 + + Spinello, Aretino, 18 + + Sposalizio (Raphael), 82 + + Squarcione, Francesco, 97, 106, 116, 117, 125 + + _St. Cosimas and St. Damianus_ (Fra Angelico), 39 + + St. Francis, 3, 6–8 + + _St. Francis and the Beggar_ (Sassetta), 5 + + St. Francis (Ghirlandaio), 72 + + St. Francis (Giotto), 6, 26 + + St. Francis, panels, 6 + + St. Jerome, 252 + + St. Jerome (El Greco), 260 + + St. Paul’s (London), Old, 182 + + St. Ursula (Carpaccio), 118 + + St. Ursula, Shrine of (Memling), 174 + + _Standard-Bearer, The_ (Rembrandt), 204 + + Stanley, Edward Smith (Derby), 400 + + Starnina, 19, 31, 257 + + Steelyard (London), 246 + + Steen, Jan, 202 + + Stefano di Giovanni, 3, 5–9 + + Stephens, F. G., quoted, 382 + + Stevenson, Robert Louis, quoted, 411 + + Stoffels, Hendrickje, 206 + + Strafford, Earl of, 190, 194 + + _Strawberry Girl, The_ (Reynolds), 340, 342–346, 353, 394 + + Strawberry Hill, 214, 219, 220, 331 + + Style, Louis Quinze, 276, 310 + + Style, Rubens, 179 + + Suardi, Bartolommeo, 93 + + Swabian School, 236 + + Swanenburch, Jacob van, 204 + + Syndics, The (Rembrandt), 207 + + + Taddeo di Bartolo, 3, 9 + + Taddeo, Gaddi, 18 + + Tagliapanni (Mononi), 112 + + Taine, quoted, 115, 120, 142, 162–163 + + Tasso, 181 + + Tauromachia (Goya), 270 + + Tempest, John Walter, 392–394 + + Temple of Health, 404 + + Teniers, David the Younger, 165 + + Terborch, Gerard, 166, 202 + + Theotocopoulos, Domenico, 258, 260–262 + + Tiepolo, Giovanni Baptista, 121 + + Tintoretto (Tintoret), 119 + + Titian, 119, 137, 138, 140–147, 272 + + _Titian’s Schoolmaster_ (Moroni), 112 + + Tiziano Vecello, 119, 142 + + Tom Thumb, General, 192 + + Tondo form, first use of, 47 + + Tornabuoni, Giovanna, 66, 68 + + Tornabuoni, Giovanni, 69, 70 + + Tornabuoni, Lorenzo, 61, 68, 69 + + Tornabuoni, Lucrezia, 21, 56, 68 + + Tour, Maurice Quentin de la, 276 + + Tournament (Giuliano de’ Medici), 59 + + Tournament (Lorenzo de’ Medici), 59 + + Travellers to the Far East, 5 + + Trimmer, Rev. J. T., quoted, 380 + + Triumph of Cæsar (Mantegna), 107 + + Triumph of Galatea (Raphael), 90 + + Troost, Cornelis, 203 + + Tura, Cosimo, 93, 98 + + Turner, J. W. M., 337 + + + Uccello, Paolo, 19, 20, 23, 74 + + Ugolino da Siena, 3 + + Umbrian School, 73–92 + + Utrecht, Adriaen van, 165 + + + Vache qui se mire (Paul Potter), 201, 202 + + Valentiner Dr., quoted, 208 + + Van Eyck School, 163 + + Van Loo, Carle, 276, 277, 304, 306, 312, 394 + + Van Mander, quoted, 157 + + Vanni, Andrea, 3 + + Vanni, Lippo, 3 + + Vannucci, Pietro, 74, 80 + + Vargas, Luis de, 257 + + Vasari, quoted, 17, 32, 36, 39, 51 + + Vatican, 38, 82, 89, 121 + + Vecchietta, Lorenzo, 3, 9, 15 + + Veen, Otto van, 178 + + Velasquez, 258, 264–268, 270, 272 + + Velde, Adriaen van der, 201 + + Venetian School, 115–153 + + Veneto, Bartolommeo, 119, 148–151 + + Veneziano, Bartolommeo, 119–151 + + Veneziano, Domenico, 20, 74 + + Venturi, Adolfo, quoted, 100 + + Verhaaght, Tobias, 178 + + Vermeer, Jan, 162, 202, 228–232 + + Vermejo, Bartolomé, 257 + + Vernet, Joseph, 322 + + Veronese, Paolo, 10, 93, 99, 120 + + Verrocchio, Andrea, 21, 22–23, 59, 82 + + Veth, Dr. Jan, quoted, 214–216 + + Villa Aldobrandini, 138 + + Villa Ludovisi, 138 + + Vincent, François Élie, 326 + + _Virgin and Child_ (Bellini), 134 + + _Virgin and Child_ (Titian), 140 + + _Virgin and Child with the Infant St. John and Angel_ (Francia), + 107 + + _Virgin and Child with St. Lucy, St. Catherine, St. Peter and St. + John the Baptist_ (Bellini), 130 + + _Virgin Appearing to St. Dominic_ (El Greco), 262 + + Virgin of the Rocks (Leonardo da Vinci), 96 + + _Virgin Receiving the Divine Message_ (Fra Angelico), 34 + + Virginia Government, 190 + + Vision of St. Eustache (Pisanello), 102, 103 + + Viti, Timoteo, 89, 108 + + Vivarini, Antonio, 8, 116, 125 + + Vivarini, Bartolommeo, 117 + + Vydts, Jodocus, 157 + + + Waldegrave, Lady, 366 + + Walpole, Charlotte, Countess of Dysart, 368 + + Walpole, Edward, 366 + + Walpole, Horace, 214, 219, 331, 333, 366, 368 + + Walpole, Horace, quoted, 364, 368, 376, 400 + + Walpole, Louisa (the Hon. Mrs. F. Keppel), 368 + + Walpole, Maria, 366 + + Walpole, Sir Robert, 366 + + Ward, Humphrey, quoted, 332, 397 + + Wars of the Roses, 333 + + Watteau, Antoine, 275, 281–285, 294, 296, 314, 330 + + Watts, George Frederick, 425 + + Weenix, J. B., 203 + + West, Benjamin, 423, 424 + + Wilkie, Sir David, quoted, 412 + + Wilkie, John, 337 + + Wilson, Richard, 337 + + Wiltshire, John, 389–390 + + Winchester School, 334 + + Wohlgemut, Michael, 236, 237 + + Wolfram von Eschenbach, 235 + + Woltman, Dr. Alfred, quoted, 244 + + Wright, Mrs. (Patience), 419 + + Wynants, Jan, 201 + + + Yellow Boy, The (Reynolds), 384 + + Young, Col. G. F., quoted, 20, 21, 45–46, 56, 58, 59–60 + + _Young Girl_ (Greuze), 308 + + _Young Girl Reading a Letter_ (Greuze), 306 + + + Zeitblom, Bartholomäus, 236 + + Zuccaro, Federigo, 334, 335 + + Zurbaran, Francisco, 258 + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] “The early Byzantine masters represented the Madonna’s garments +enriched with lines of gold. Giotto and the early Florentine painters +as a rule preferred to suggest a plain material, often of delicate +color except when the Madonna was portrayed as Queen of Heaven. In +their devotional pictures the Sienese masters used gorgeous gold and +red, or white and gold fabrics. Some of the Giotteschi and perhaps +Gentile da Fabriano inherited from Siena their love of representing +splendid textiles. Later color effects were made more of a study and +deeper, richer tones appeared; but simple materials were represented +except among the Venetians, who frequently in their pictures of both +sacred and profane subjects painted elaborate, richly colored fabrics. +This cult of splendor reached its height in the Sixteenth Century under +Paolo Veronese.”--_Mediæval and Renaissance Paintings_ (Fogg Art +Museum, Cambridge, 1927). + +[2] “The incident of the Adoration of the Magi is related only in the +Gospel of Saint Matthew, and there very briefly; but many legends grew +up around the Magi and Kings from the East. The number of the Magi was +at first indeterminate, but about the Fourth Century the number three +became general. It was not until the Fifth and Sixth Centuries that the +Magi became Kings and not until the Tenth Century were they represented +as crowned Kings. The Magi were for the first time pictured as of +different ages, an old man, a middle-aged man, and a young man, in an +Eastern manuscript dating from about 550. During the Middle Ages the +exact age of each was given--the eldest was sixty, the youngest twenty, +and the other forty years old. Their names, the Latin forms of which +were Jaspar--later Gaspard--Balthasar, and Melchior, first appeared +in a Greek Sixth Century manuscript. A passage attributed to Bede, +quoted in Male’s _Religious Art in France, Thirteenth Century_, +states that ‘Melchior, an old man with long, white hair and a long +beard, offered gold, symbol of the divine kingdom. The second, named +Caspar, young and beardless, with a ruddy countenance, honored Christ +in presenting incense, an offering pointing to his divinity. The third, +named Balthasar, with a dark skin and a full beard, testified in his +offering of myrrh that the Son of Man must die.’ It was not until the +Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries that artists represented the third +King as a negro, in accordance with the teachings of the theologians +that the three Kings represented the three races of mankind coming +to render homage to the Christ Child. The subject of the Adoration +of the Magi was a favorite one with artists, particularly in the +Fifteenth Century, as it lent itself to the richest and most elaborate +treatment. The early legends asserted that St. Joseph did not appear; +but in representations dating from the Fifteenth Century he is almost +invariably present.”--_Mediæval and Renaissance Paintings_ (Fogg +Art Museum, Cambridge, 1927). + +[3] “The legend which makes St. Luke a painter was of Eastern origin +and was introduced into the West at the time of the First Crusade. +There may have been a Greek painter of Madonnas named Luca whom the +Western Church confused with the Evangelist, but the Evangelist was +always regarded an authority on the characteristics of the Madonna. +His Gospel gives the fullest account of her. The subject of St. Luke +painting the portrait of the Madonna was frequently treated in the +Middle Ages and in the Renaissance.“--_Mediæval and Renaissance +Paintings_ (Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 1927). + +[4] “Double roses, pink or red, were the symbol of divine love and +were consecrated to the Madonna. One of her titles was the Madonna +della Rosa, doubtless based on the verse in the _Song of Solomon_ +(ii. 1)--‘I am the Rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys’--for as +early as the first centuries the Fathers of the Church applied to the +Madonna the imagery of the _Canticles_. The tradition is that when +the roses were massed together in garlands or baskets they symbolized +heavenly joys. The painters of Central Italy during the Fourteenth and +Fifteenth Centuries represented clusters of lilies and roses in the +foreground of their Madonna pictures as votive offerings to her of +sacred flowers. Often angels present bowls of flowers to her. + +“Myrtle was one of the Madonna’s flowers and symbolized her purity and +other virtues. The jasmine, though not strictly a sacred flower, is +often found in religious paintings--the star-shaped blossom apparently +symbolized divine hope or heavenly joy. It is often found with roses +and lilies beside the Madonna. The carnation had no definite symbolic +meaning, but was frequently used instead of the rose; then it had the +same significance as the rose, the symbol of divine love, sacred to the +Madonna.--_Mediæval and Renaissance Paintings_ (Fogg Art Museum, +Cambridge, 1927). + +[5] “In general, representations of the _Annunciation_ before the +Twelfth Century are rare; but after the beginning of the Thirteenth +Century they become very frequent, appearing somewhere on every +altar-piece--in medallions, or quatrefoils above the main panels, in +the pinnacles, or in the predella, or painted, or carved on the outside +of the shutters. The subject was often treated as a mystery, not as an +actual scene. Generally only the Virgin and Angel were represented, +although it was not unusual to find other figures. From the end of the +Fourteenth until the Sixteenth Century, God the Father is often seen +in the sky and the Dove of the Holy Spirit descends from Him to the +Virgin on rays of light. The Virgin was represented seated, standing, +about to rise at the approach of the Angel, or kneeling. Gabriel was +pictured standing, or kneeling, before her, or just alighting on +the earth, his feet not yet touching the ground. In the Thirteenth +Century representations, notably in the painted glass windows, the +Virgin and the Angel stand face to face; later the Italian artists +represented the scene as taking place in an open _loggia_, while +the Flemish artists painted the Virgin in meditation in her room when +the Angel appeared to her. Before the Thirteenth Century, Mary was +often represented with a basket of wool, or distaff as, according to +the Protevangelion, she continued to spin for the Temple after she had +become affianced to Joseph and was working when the Angel came. Gabriel +bears the light staff, or sceptre, of a herald, a scroll on which is +inscribed his greeting, an olive-branch, or a stalk of lilies. + +“The lily probably was developed from a flower with a long stalk +which was introduced during the Thirteenth Century appearing in +glass-painting and miniatures and signifying springtime, ‘the time +of flowers,’ when the _Annunciation_ took place. Later, lilies +were used to symbolize the purity of the Virgin and were placed in +a jar, or vase, near her, or were carried by the Angel. In Spain +the vase of lilies was almost essential to representations of the +_Annunciation_ and became the special and distinguishing attribute +of the Virgin. The Spanish Order of the Lily of Aragon, established by +Ferdinand of Castile in commemoration of a victory over the Moors in +1410, had for its badge ‘pots filled with white lilies interlaced with +griffins, to which was pendent a medal having thereon an image of the +Virgin Mary.’ In Italy, neither the vase of lilies nor the stalk was +considered essential in representations of the _Annunciation_, +although they are of frequent occurrence. Certain of the Florentine +artists, notably Fra Filippo Lippi, represented both. Ghirlandaio, +in his _Annunciation_ at San Gimigniano, placed a vase beside +the Virgin’s desk and combined other flowers--roses, daisies, and +jasmine--with the lilies. The Angel bears the lily-stalk. + +“It is interesting to note that while in the majority of Fourteenth- +and Fifteenth-Century _Annunciations_ the Archangel Gabriel +was represented bearing a lily, the Sienese painters seldom used +this flower, preferring the olive-branch, always a favorite symbol +with them. In the _Annunciation_ it referred to the Christ +Child as the bringer of peace on earth. One interpretation of the +avoidance of the use of the lily by Sienese artists is that it was +due to the hatred of Siena for Florence, the lily being the flower of +Florence.”--_Mediæval and Renaissance Paintings_ (Fogg Art Museum, +Cambridge, 1927). + +[6] Col. G. F. Young, _The Medici_ (London, 1910). + +[7] Julia Cartwright, _The Painters of Florence_ (London, 1916). + +[8] Col. G. F. Young, _The Medici_ (London, 1909). + +[9] Col. G. F. Young, _The Medici_ (London, 1909). + +[10] “The pomegranate in the hand of the Child, bursting open and +showing the seeds, has been variously interpreted. It may be a symbol +of the hope in eternity, which the Christ gave to man, signified by the +unexpected sweetness of the fruit within the hard rind. In the writings +of the early Fathers the fruit is also interpreted as the emblem of +congregations, because of its many seeds, or as the emblem of the +Christian Church because of the inner unity of countless seeds in one +and the same fruit.”--_Mediæval and Renaissance Painting_ (Fogg +Art Museum, Cambridge, 1927). + +[11] Berenson. + +[12] “Space composition differs from ordinary composition in the first +place most obviously in that it is not an arrangement to be judged +as extending only laterally, or up and down, on a flat surface, but +as extending inwards in depth as well. It is composition in three +dimensions and not in two, in the cube, not merely on the surface.... +Painted space composition opens out the space it frames in, puts +boundaries only ideal to the roof of heaven. All that it uses whether +the forms of the natural landscape, or of grand architecture, or even +of the human figure, it reduces to be its ministrants in conveying a +sense of untrammelled, but not chaotic, spaciousness. In such pictures +how freely one breathes,--as if a load had just been lifted from one’s +breast; how refreshed, how noble, how potent one feels; again, how +soothed; and, still again, how wafted forth to abodes of far-away +bliss!” + +[13] Julia Cartwright, _Beatrice d’Este_ (London, 1908). + +[14] Julia Cartwright, _Beatrice d’Este_ (London, 1908). + +[15] Beryl de Sélincourt, _Venice_ (London, 1907). + +[16] “In the north of Italy garlands of fruit took the place of votive +flowers. In pictures of Florentine origin, when the Madonna holds a +single rose, she is represented as the _Madonna del Fiore_--Our +Lady of the Flower--to whom the Cathedral at Florence was dedicated. + +“Fruits in general symbolized the fruits of the spirit, or a votive +offering, or were often used purely for decorative purposes. The +cherries which the Angels offer to the Child are the fruit of Heaven, +typifying the delights of the blessed. In a picture by Memling in the +Uffizi, the Child holds in one hand a cluster of cherries--the fruit of +Paradise--while with the other He reaches out for the apple offered Him +by an Angel. This typifies His relinquishment of heavenly joys and His +taking upon Himself the sin of the world. + +“The apple and the gourd were often painted together by artists, +notably Crivelli. The use of the gourd dates back to the wall-pictures +in the catacombs, where Jonah was represented as the type of the +Risen Christ and the gourd as the symbol of the Resurrection. As the +apple was the fruit of Eden which brought sin into the world, so +the gourd represented the Resurrection which saved the world from +the consequences of its sin. In early pictures the apple sometimes +represents the fruit of Paradise, which the King of Heaven brings down +to earth with Him. In general, however, it is used as the symbol of the +sin of the world which Christ takes upon Himself.”--_Mediæval and +Renaissance Paintings_ (Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 1927). + +[17] Beryl de Sélincourt, _Venice_ (London, 1907). + +[18] It is interesting to see that Vasari calls Dürer a Fleming! + +[19] This reminds us of the old Nursery rhyme: + + “Sing a song of sixpence, + A pocket full of rye; + Four-and-twenty blackbirds + Baked in a pie. + When the pie was opened, + The birds began to sing; + Wasn’t that a dainty dish + To set before the King?” + +Undoubtedly this jingle is an echo of the jokes and “pleasantries” +in confectionery and pastry that were perpetrated by the Mediæval +_chefs_.--E. S. + +[20] This was a _fashion_ of the period, originating in Italy (see +pages 51, 86, 103). + +[21] “The introduction of little angels singing vigorously and playing +on musical instruments about the Madonna’s throne was a favorite motif +of the Umbrian Boccatis. Indeed, angel musicians were represented by +artists of all Schools from the Twelfth to the Seventeenth Century. +They stand or kneel before the Madonna and Child, or--particularly in +Venetian and North Italian paintings--sit on the steps of the throne, +playing on lutes, harps, viols, miniature organs, blowing horns and +trumpets, striking cymbals and triangles or beating drums and timbrels, +and singing their songs of praise and adoration. They make a delightful +note of joyousness in representations of the Madonna and Child and are +among the happiest creations of painters and sculptors.”--_Mediæval +and Renaissance Paintings_ (Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 1927). + +[22] For surprises in pastry, see page 160. + +[23] _Strawberry Hill Simeon_ had not then been discovered. + +[24] Leslie and Taylor, _Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds_ +(London 1865). + +[25] William Smith (1756–1835) was a politician who took a great +interest in literature and art. He was a friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds, +for whose _Mrs. Siddons as The Tragic Muse_ he paid £320 at the +Calonne Sale in 1795 and sold it to Mr. G. W. Taylor for £900. At the +Taylor Sale in 1823 the picture cost Earl Grosvenor £1,837. It passed +recently to America along with Gainsborough’s _Blue Boy_. + +“This picture Sir Joshua Reynolds valued at 1000 guineas--a large sum +in his day--but notwithstanding all the encomiums passed upon it, +_The Tragic Muse_ remained on his hands for several years. At +length it was purchased from the artist for £800 by M. de Calonne, the +ex-minister of finance in France. + +“When M. de Calonne’s pictures were sold by Skinner and Dyke on March +28, 1795, _The Tragic Muse_ was bought by Mr. Smith of Norwich for +£700 and Mr. Smith sold it privately to Mr. G. Watson Taylor for £900. +At the sale of Mr. Taylor’s pictures in 1823 it was purchased by Earl +Grosvenor for £1,837-10. Inherited by the Dukes of Westminster, _The +Tragic Muse_ hung for many years in Grosvenor House, in company with +Gainsborough’s _Blue Boy_ until it was sold in 1921 to the late +Mr. Henry E. Huntington.” + +[26] William T. Whitley, _Gainsborough_ (London, 1915). + +[27] William T. Whitley, _Gainsborough_ (London, 1915). + +[28] William B. Boulton, _Gainsborough_, 1907. + +[29] Maria’s sister Louisa had married the Hon. and Rev. Frederick +Keppel, second son of the Earl of Albemarle. + +[30] Maria’s sister who married Lionel, fifth Earl of Dysart. + +[31] Name for evening dress. + +[32] Maurice W. Brockwell, _Taft Catalogue of Paintings_ (New +York, 1920). + +[33] _Thomas Gainsborough_ (London, 1915). + +[34] The portrait of Henrietta Maria (see page 193) is another example. + +[35] Humphrey Ward. + +[36] Angelica Kauffman, the famous painter. + + +Transcriber’s Notes: + +1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been +corrected silently. + +2. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have +been retained as in the original. + +3. Superscripts are represented using the caret character, e.g. D^r. or +X^{xx}. + +4. Italics are shown as _xxx_. + +5. Bold print is shown as =xxx=. + + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77067 *** |