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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/17395-h.zip b/17395-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c03485e --- /dev/null +++ b/17395-h.zip diff --git a/17395-h/17395-h.htm b/17395-h/17395-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c2feac1 --- /dev/null +++ b/17395-h/17395-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5573 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> + +<html> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> + <title>The Project Gutenberg e-Book of The Book of Art for Young People by A.E. and Sir Martin Conway</title> + <style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body {margin:5%; text-align:justify} + h4 {text-align:center} + h3 {text-align:center} + h2 {text-align:center} + h1 {text-align:center} --> + </style> +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Book of Art for Young People, by +Agnes Conway +Sir Martin Conway + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Book of Art for Young People + +Author: Agnes Conway +Sir Martin Conway + +Release Date: December 26, 2005 [EBook #17395] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF ART FOR YOUNG PEOPLE *** + + + + +Produced by Ron Swanson + + + + + +</pre> + + +<a name="illus1"></a> +<center><img width="80%" src="images/redridinghood.jpg" alt="Red Riding Hood"></center> +<br> +<center>R<small>ED</small> R<small>IDING</small> H<small>OOD</small><br> +<small>From the picture by G. F. Watts, in the Birmingham Art Gallery</small></center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h1>THE<br> +BOOK OF ART</h1> +<h3>FOR YOUNG PEOPLE</h3> +<br> +<br> +<center>BY</center> +<h3>AGNES ETHEL CONWAY</h3> +<center>AND</center> +<h3>SIR MARTIN CONWAY</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<center>WITH SIXTEEN FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS<br> +IN COLOUR</center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>A. & C. BLACK, LTD.<br> +4, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.1</h4> +<br> +<center><small>First published September 1909 as "The Children's Book of Art"<br> +Reprinted in 1914, 1927, and 1935</small></center> +<br> +<br> +<center><small>Made in Great Britain.<br> +Printed by R. & R. C<small>LARK</small>, L<small>IMITED</small>, Edinburgh.</small></center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>TO<br> +MY LITTLE FRIENDS</h4> +<h3>AGNES AND ROSANNE</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>NOTE</h4> + +<p>My thanks are due and are cordially rendered to the Earl of Yarborough, +Sir Frederick Cook, and the authorities of Trinity College, Cambridge, +for permission to reproduce their pictures; to Lady Alfred Douglas +and Mr. Henry Newbolt for leave to quote from their poems; to Mr. +Everard Green, Somerset Herald, for all that is new in the +interpretation of the Wilton diptych; to Miss K. K. Radford for the +translation in Chapter VIII., and to all the friends who have helped +me with criticism and suggestions.</p> + +<div align=right>A. E. C. </div> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" summary="table of contents"> + <tr> + <td width="10%" align="right"><small>CHAP.</small></td> + <td align="left"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">I</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap1">I<small>NTRODUCTORY</small></a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">II</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap2">T<small>HE</small> T<small>HIRTEENTH</small> + C<small>ENTURY IN</small> E<small>UROPE</small></a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">III</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap3">R<small>ICHARD</small> II.</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">IV</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap4">T<small>HE</small> V<small>AN</small> E<small>YCKS</small></a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">V</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap5">T<small>HE</small> R<small>ENAISSANCE</small></a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">VI</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap6">R<small>APHAEL</small></a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">VII</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap7">T<small>HE</small> R<small>ENAISSANCE IN</small> V<small>ENICE</small></a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">VIII</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap8">T<small>HE</small> R<small>ENAISSANCE IN THE</small> N<small>ORTH</small></a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">IX</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap9">R<small>EMBRANDT</small></a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">X</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap10">P<small>ETER DE</small> H<small>OOGH AND</small> C<small>UYP</small></a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">XI</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap11">V<small>AN</small> D<small>YCK</small></a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">XII</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap12">V<small>ELASQUEZ</small></a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">XIII</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap13">R<small>EYNOLDS AND THE</small> E<small>IGHTEENTH</small> + C<small>ENTURY</small></a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">XIV</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap14">T<small>URNER</small></a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">XV</td> + <td align="left"><a href="#chap15">T<small>HE</small> N<small>INETEENTH</small> C<small>ENTURY</small></a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right"> </td> + <td align="left"><a href="#index">INDEX</a></td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> +<center>I<small>N THE</small> C<small>OLOURS OF THE</small> O<small>RIGINAL</small> P<small>AINTINGS</small></center> +<br> +<br> +<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" summary="table of illustrations"> + <tr> + <td width="60%" align="left"><a href="#illus1">Red Ridinghood</a></td> + <td align="left"><i>G. F. Watts</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus2">Richard II. before the Virgin and Child</a></td> + <td align="left"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus3">The Three Maries</a></td> + <td align="left"><i>H. Van Eyck</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus4">St. Jerome in his study</a></td> + <td align="left"><i>Antonello da Messina</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus5">The Nativity</a></td> + <td align="left"><i>Sandro Botticelli</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus6">The Knight's Dream</a></td> + <td align="left"><i>Raphael</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus7">The Golden Age</a></td> + <td align="left"><i>Giorgione</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus8">St. George destroying the Dragon</a></td> + <td align="left"><i>Tintoret</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus9">Edward, Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward VI.</a></td> + <td align="left"><i>Holbein</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus10">A Man in Armour</a></td> + <td align="left"><i>Rembrandt</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus11">An Interior</a></td> + <td align="left"><i>P. de Hoogh</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus12">Landscape with Cattle</a></td> + <td align="left"><i>Cuyp</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus13">William II. of Orange</a></td> + <td align="left"><i>Van Dyck</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus14">Don Balthazar Carlos</a></td> + <td align="left"><i>Velasquez</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus15">The Duke of Gloucester</a></td> + <td align="left"><i>Sir J. Reynolds</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="left"><a href="#illus16">The Fighting Temeraire</a></td> + <td align="left"><i>Turner</i></td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br><a name="page1"></a> +<h2>THE CHILDREN'S BOOK<br> +OF ART</h2> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div><h3><a name="chap1">CHAPTER I</a></h3></div> +<h4>INTRODUCTORY</h4> +<br> +<p>Almost the pleasantest thing in the world is to be told a splendid +story by a really nice person. There is not the least occasion for +the story to be true; indeed I think the untrue stories are the +best—those in which we meet delightful beasts and things that talk +twenty times better than most human beings ever do, and where +extraordinary events happen in the kind of places that are not at all +like our world of every day. It is so fine to be taken into a country +where it is always summer, and the birds are always singing and the +flowers always blowing, and where people get what they <a name="page2"></a>want by just +wishing for it, and are not told that this or that isn't good for them, +and that they'll know better than to want it when they're grown up, +and all that kind of thing which is so annoying and so often happening +in this obstinate criss-cross world, where the days come and go in +such an ordinary fashion.</p> + +<p>But if I might choose the person to tell me the kind of story I like +to listen to, and hear told to me over and over again, it would be +some one who could draw pictures for me while talking—pictures like +those of Tenniel in <i>Alice in Wonderland</i> and <i>Through the +Looking-Glass</i>. How much better we know Alice herself and the White +Knight and the Mad Hatter and all the rest of them from the pictures +than even from the story itself. But my story-teller should not only +draw the pictures while he talked, but he should paint them too. I +want to see the sky blue and the grass green, and I want red cloaks +and blue bonnets and pink cheeks and all the bright colours, and some +gold and silver too, and not merely black and white—though black and +white drawings would be better than nothing, so long as they showed +me what the people and beasts and dragons and <a name="page3"></a>things were like. I could +put up with even rather bad drawings if only they were vivid. Don't +you know how good a bad drawing sometimes seems? I have a friend who +can make the loveliest folks and the funniest beasts and the quaintest +houses and trees, and he really can't draw a bit; and the curious thing +is, that if he could draw better I should not like his folks and beasts +half as much as I do the lop-sided, crook-legged, crazy-looking people +he produces. And then he has such quaint things to tell about them, +and while he talks he seems to make them live, so that I can hardly +believe they are not real people for all their unlikeness to any one +you ever saw.</p> + +<p>Now, the old pictures you see in the picture galleries are just like +that, only the people that painted them didn't invent the stories but +merely illustrated stories which, at the time those painters lived, +every one knew. Some of the stories were true and some were just a +kind of fairy tale, and it didn't matter to the painters, and it doesn't +matter to us, which was true and which wasn't. The only thing that +matters is whether the story is a good one and whether the picture +is a nice one. There is a delightful old picture painted on a wall +away <a name="page4"></a>off at Assisi, in Italy, which shows St. Francis preaching to +a lot of birds, and the birds are all listening to him and looking +pleased—the way birds do look pleased when they find a good fat worm +or fresh crumbs. Now, St. Francis was a real man and such a dear person +too, but I don't suppose half the stories told about him were really +true, yet we can pretend they were and that's just what the painter +helps us to do. Don't you know all the games that begin with 'Let's +pretend'?—well, that's art. Art is pretending, or most of it is. +Pictures take us into a world of make-believe, a world of imagination, +where everything is or should be in the right place and in the right +light and of the right colour, where all the people are nicely dressed +to match one another, and are not standing in one another's way, and +not interrupting one another or forgetting to help play the game. +That's the difference between pictures and photographs. A photograph +is almost always wrong somewhere. Something is out of place, or +something is there which ought to be away, or the light is wrong; or, +if it's coloured, the colours are just not in keeping with one another. +If it's a landscape the trees are where we don't want them; they <a name="page5"></a>hide +what we want to see, or they don't hide the very thing we want hidden. +Then the clouds are in the wrong place, and a wind ruffles the water +just where we want to see something reflected. That's the way things +actually happen in the real world. But in the world of 'Let's pretend,' +in the world of art, they don't happen so. There everything happens +right, and everybody does, not so much what they should (that might +sometimes be dull), but exactly what we want them to do—which is so +very much better. That is the world of your art and my art. +Unfortunately all the pictures in the galleries weren't painted just +for you and me; but you'll find, if you look for them, plenty that +were, and the rest don't matter. Those were painted, no doubt, for +some one else. But if you could find the some one else for whom they +were painted, the some one else whose world of 'Let's pretend' was +just these pictures that don't belong to your world, and if they could +tell you about their world of 'Let's pretend,' ten to one you'd find +it just as good a world as your own, and you'd soon learn to 'pretend' +that way too.</p> + +<p>Well, the purpose of this book is to take you into a number of worlds +of 'Let's pretend,' most of <a name="page6"></a>which I daresay will be new to you, and +perhaps you will find some of them quite delightful places. I'm sure +you can't help liking St. Jerome's Cell when you come to it. It's not +a bit like any room we can find anywhere in the world to-day, but +wouldn't it be joyful if we could? What a good time we could have there +with the tame lion (not a bit like any lion in the Zoo, but none the +worse for that) and the jolly bird, and all St. Jerome's little things. +I should like to climb on to his platform and sit in his chair and +turn over his books, though I don't believe they'd be interesting to +read, but they'd certainly be pretty to look at. If you and I were +there, though, we should soon be out away behind, looking round the +corner, and finding all sorts of odd places that unfortunately can't +all get into the picture, only we know they're there, down yonder +corridor, and from what the painter shows us we can invent the rest +for ourselves.</p> + +<p>One of the troubles of a painter is that he can't paint every detail +of things as they are in nature. A primrose, when you first see it, +is just a little yellow spot. When you hold it in your hand you find +it made up of petals round a tiny centre with little things in it. +If you take a magnifying glass <a name="page7"></a>you can see all its details multiplied. +If you put a tiny bit of it under a microscope, ten thousand more little +details come out, and so it might go on as long as you went on magnifying. +Now a picture can't be like that. It just has to show you the general +look of things as you see them from an ordinary distance. But there +comes in another kind of trouble. How do you see things? We don't all +see the same things in the same way. Your mother's face looks very +different to you from its look to a mere person passing in the street. +Your own room has a totally different aspect to you from what it bears +to a casual visitor. The things you specially love have a way of +standing out and seeming prominent to you, but not, of course, to any +one else. Then there are other differences in the look of the same +things to different people which you have perhaps noticed. Some people +are more sensitive to colours than others. Some are much more sensitive +to brightness and shadow. Some will notice one kind of object in a +view, or some detail in a face far more emphatically than others. Girls +are quicker to take note of the colour of eyes, hair, skin, clothes, +and so forth than boys. A woman who merely sees <a name="page8"></a>another woman for a +moment will be able to describe her and her dress far more accurately +than a man. A man will be noticing other things. His picture, if he +painted one, would make those other things prominent.</p> + +<p>So it is with everything that we see. None of us sees more than certain +features in what the eye rests upon, and if we are artists it is only +those features that we should paint. We can't possibly paint every +detail of everything that comes into the picture. We must make a choice, +and of course we choose the features and details that please us best. +Now, the purpose of painting anything at all is to paint the beauty +of the thing. If you see something that strikes you as ugly, you don't +instinctively want to paint it; but when you see an effect of beauty, +you feel that it would be very nice indeed to have a picture showing +that beauty. So a picture is not really the representation of a thing, +but the representation of the beauty of the thing.</p> + +<p>Some people can see beauty almost everywhere; they are conscious of +beauty all day long. They want to surround themselves with beauty, +to make all their acts beautiful, to shed beauty all about <a name="page9"></a>them. Those +are the really artistic souls. The gift of such perfect instinct for +beauty comes by nature to a few. It can be cultivated by almost all. +That cultivation of all sorts of beauty in life is what many people +call civilization—the real art of living. To see beauty everywhere +in nature is not so very difficult. It is all about us where the work +of uncivilized man has not come in to destroy it. Artists are people +who by nature and by education have acquired the power to see beauty +in what they look at, and then to set it down on paper or canvas, or +in some other material, so that other people can see it too.</p> + +<p>It seems strange that at one time the beauty of natural landscape was +hardly perceived by any one at all. People lived in the beautiful +country and scarcely knew that it was beautiful. Then came the time +when the beauty of landscape began to be felt by the nicest people. +They began to put it into their poetry, and to talk and write about +it, and to display it in landscape pictures. It was through poems and +pictures, which they read and saw, that the general run of folks first +learned to look for beauty in nature. I have no doubt that Turner's +wonderful sunsets made plenty of people <a name="page10"></a>look at sunsets and rejoice +in the intricacy and splendour of their glory for the first time in +their lives. Well, what Turner and other painters of his generation +did for landscape, had had to be done for men and women in earlier +days by earlier generations of artists. The Greeks were the first, +in their sculpture, to show the wonderful beauty of the human form; +till their day people had not recognised what to us now seems obvious. +No doubt they had thought one person pretty and another handsome, but +they had not known that the human figure was essentially a glorious +thing till the Greek sculptors showed them. Another thing painters +have taught the world is the beauty of atmosphere. Formerly no one +seems to have noticed how atmosphere affects every object that is seen +through it. The painters had to show us that it is so. After we had +seen the effect of atmosphere in pictures we began to be able to see +for ourselves in nature, and thus a whole group of new pleasures in +views of nature was opened up to us.</p> + +<p>Away back in the Middle Ages, six hundred and more years ago, folks +had far less educated eyes than we possess to-day. They looked at <a name="page11"></a>nature +more simply than we do and saw less in it. So they were satisfied with +pictures that omitted a great many features we cannot do without.</p> + +<p>But painting does not only concern itself with representing the world +we actually see and the people that our eyes actually behold. It +concerns itself quite as much with the world of fancy, of make-believe. +Indeed, most painters when they look at an actual scene let their fancy +play about it, so that presently what they see and what they fancy +get mixed up together, and their pictures are a mixture of fancy and +of fact, and no one can tell where the one ends and the other begins. +The fancies of people are very different at different times, and you +can't understand the pictures of old days unless you can share the +fancies of the old painters. To do that you must know something about +the way they lived and the things they believed, and what they hoped +for and what they were afraid of.</p> + +<p>Here, for instance, is a very funny fact solemnly recorded in an old +account book. A certain Count of Savoy owned the beautiful Castle of +Chillon, which you have perhaps seen, on the shores of the Lake of +Geneva. But he could not be happy, because he and the people about +him thought that <a name="page12"></a>in a hole in the rock under one of the cellars a +basilisk lived—a very terrible dragon—and they all went in fear of +it. So the Count paid a brave mason a large sum of money (and the payment +is solemnly set down in his account book) to break a way into this +hole and turn the basilisk out; and I have no doubt that he and his +people were greatly pleased when the hole was made and no basilisk +was found. Folks who believed in dragons as sincerely as that, must +have gone in terror in many places where we should go with no particular +emotion. A picture of a dragon to them would mean much more than it +would to us. So if we are really to understand old pictures, we must +begin by understanding the fancies of the artists who painted them, +and of the people they were painted for. You see how much study that +means for any one who wants to understand all the art of all the world.</p> + +<p>We shall not pretend to lead you on any such great quest as that, but +ask you to look at just a few old pictures that have been found charming +by a great many people of several generations, and to try and see +whether they do not charm you as well. You must never, of course, +pretend to like <a name="page13"></a>what you don't like—that is too silly. We can't all +like the same things. Still there are certain pictures that most nice +people like. A few of these we have selected to be reproduced in this +book for you to look at. And to help you realize who painted them and +the kind of people they were painted for, my daughter has written the +chapters that follow. I hope you will find them entertaining, and still +more that you will like the pictures, and so learn to enjoy the many +others that have come down to us from the past, and are among the world's +most precious possessions to-day.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br><a name="page14"></a> +<div><h3><a name="chap2">CHAPTER II</a></h3></div> +<h4>THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY IN EUROPE</h4> +<br> +<p>Before we give our whole attention to the first picture, of which the +original was painted in England in 1377, let us imagine ourselves in +the year 1200 making a rapid tour through the chief countries of Europe +to see for ourselves how the people lived. The first thing that will +strike us on our journey is the contrast between the grandeur of the +churches and public buildings and the insignificance of most of the +houses. Some of the finest churches in England, built in the style +of architecture called 'Norman,' one or more of which you may have +seen, date before the year 1200, as for example, Durham Cathedral, +and the naves of Norwich, Ely, and Peterborough Cathedrals. The great +churches abroad were also beautiful and more elaborately decorated, +in the <a name="page15"></a>North with sculpture and painting, in the South with marble +and mosaic. The towns competed one with another in erecting them finer +and larger, and in decorating them as magnificently as they could. +This was done because the church was a place which the people used +for many other purposes besides Sunday services. In the twelfth, +thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, the parish church, on week-days +as well as on Sundays, was a very useful and agreeable place to most +of the parishioners. The 'holy' days, or saints' days, 'holidays' +indeed, were times of rejoicing and festivity, and the Church +processions and services were pleasant events in the lives of many +who had few entertainments, and who for the most part could neither +read nor write. Printing was not yet invented, at least not in Europe, +and as every book had to be written out by hand, copies of books were +rare and only owned by the few who could read them, so that stories +were mostly handed down by word of mouth, the same being told by mother +to child for many generations.</p> + +<p>The favourites were stories of the saints and martyrs of the Catholic +Church, for of course we are speaking now of times long before the +<a name="page16"></a>Reformation. The Old Testament stories and all the stories of the life +of Christ and His Apostles were well known too, and just as we never +tire of reading our favourite books over and over again, our +forefathers of 1200 wanted to see on the walls of their churches +representations of the stories which they could not read. Their daily +thoughts were more occupied with the Infant Christ, the saints, and +the angels, than ours generally are. They thought of themselves as +under the protection of some saint, who would plead with God the Father +for them if they asked him, for God Himself seemed too high or remote +to be appealed to always directly. He was approached with awe; the +saints, the Virgin, and the Infant Christ, with love.</p> + +<p>We must realise this difference before we can well understand a picture +painted in the twelfth, thirteenth, or fourteenth centuries, nor can +we look at one without feeling that the artist and the people for whom +he painted, so loved the holy personages. They thought about them +always, not only at stated times and on Sundays, and never tired of +looking at pictures of them and their doings. It is sometimes said +that only <a name="page17"></a>Catholics can understand medieval art, because they feel +towards the saints as the old painters did. But it is possible for +any one to realize how in those far-off days the people felt, and it +is this that we must try to do. The religious fervour of the Middle +Ages was not a sign of great virtue among all the people. Some were +far more cruel, savage, and unrestrained than we are to-day. Very +wicked men even became powerful dignitaries in the Church. But it was +the Church that fostered the impulses of pity and charity in a fierce +age, and some of the saints of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, +such as St. Francis of Assisi and St. Catharine of Siena, are still +held to be among the most beautiful characters the world has ever known.</p> + +<p>The churches of the eleventh and twelfth centuries in Florence were +lined with marble, and a great picture frequently stood above the altar. +It is difficult to realize to-day that the processes which we call +oil and water-colour painting were not then invented, and that no shops +existed to sell canvases and paints ready for use. The artist painted +upon a wooden panel, which he had himself to make, plane flat, and +cut to the size he <a name="page18"></a>needed. In order to get a surface upon which he +could paint, he covered the panel with a thin coating of plaster which +it was difficult to lay on absolutely flat. Upon the plaster he drew +the outline of the figures he was going to paint, and filled in the +background with a thin layer of gold leaf, such as is to-day used for +gilding frames. After the background had been put in, it was impossible +to correct the outline of the figures, and the labour of preparing +the wooden panel and of laying the gold was so great that an artist +would naturally not make risky attempts towards something new, lest +he should spoil his work. In the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey +there is a thirteenth-century altar-piece of this kind, and you can +see the strips of vellum that were used to cover the joins of the +different pieces of wood forming the panel, beneath the layer of +plaster, which has now to a great extent peeled off.</p> + +<p>The people liked to see their Old Testament stories and the stories +from the Life of Christ painted over and over again. They had become +fond of the versions of the tales which they had known and seen painted +when they were young, and did not wish them changed, so that the range +<a name="page19"></a>of subjects was not large. The same were repeated, and because of the +painter's fear of making mistakes it was natural that the same figures +should be repeated too. Thus, whatever the subject pictured, a +tradition was formed in each locality for the grouping and general +arrangement of the figures, and the most authoritative tradition for +such typical groupings was preserved in Constantinople or Byzantium, +from which city the 'Byzantine' school of painting takes its name.</p> + +<p>Before 1200, Byzantium had been a centre of residence and the +civilizing influence of trade for eighteen centuries. It had been the +capital of the Roman Empire, and less civilized peoples from the north +had never conquered the town, destroying the Greek and Roman traditions, +as happened elsewhere in Europe. You have read how the Romans had to +withdraw their armies from England to defend Rome against the attacks +of the Goths from the north, and then how Britain was settled by Angles, +Saxons, Jutes, and Danes, who destroyed most of the Roman civilization. +A similar though much less complete destruction took place in Italy +a little later, when Goths and Lombards, who were remotely akin to +the Angles and <a name="page20"></a>Saxons, overwhelmed Roman culture. But next to +Constantinople, Rome had the best continuous tradition of art, for +the fine monuments of the great imperial days still existed in the +city. In Byzantium the original Greek population struggled on, and +continued to paint, and make mosaics, and erect fine buildings, till +the Turks conquered them in 1453. The Byzantines were wealthy and made +exquisite objects in gold, precious stones, and ivory. While they were +painting better than any other people in Europe, they too reproduced +the same subjects and the same figures over and over again, only the +figures were more graceful than those of the local Italian, English, +and French artists, who in varying degrees at different times tried +to paint like the Byzantine or Greek artists, but without quite the +same success. So long as there was no need for an artist to paint +anything but the old well-established subjects, and so long as people +desired them to be painted in the old conventional manner, there was +little reason why any painter should try to be original and paint what +was not wanted. But in the thirteenth century a great change took place.</p> + +<p>Let us here refresh our memories of what we <a name="page21"></a>may have read of that +delightful saint, Francis of Assisi. He was born in 1182, the son of +a well-to-do nobleman, in the little town of Assisi in Umbria, and +as a lad became inflamed with the ideal of the religious life. But +instead of entering one of the existing monastic orders, where he would +have been protected, he gave away every possession he had in the world +and adopted 'poverty' as his watchword. Clad in an old brown habit, +he walked from place to place preaching charity, obedience, and +renunciation of all worldly goods. He lived on what was given to him +to eat from day to day; he nursed the lepers and the sick. Ever described +as a most lovable person, he won by his preaching the hearts of people +of all classes, from the King of France to the humblest peasant. He +wrote beautiful hymns in praise of the sun, the moon, and the stars, +and had a great love for every living thing. The birds were said to +have flocked around him because they loved him, and we read that he +talked to them and called them his 'little sisters.' An old writer +tells this story in good faith:</p> + +<blockquote>When St. Francis spake words to them, the birds began all of them to +open their beaks and spread their wings and reverently bend their heads +down to the ground, and by <a name="page22"></a>their acts and by their songs did show that +the holy Father gave them joy exceeding great.</blockquote> + +<p>Wherever he preached he made converts who 'married Holy Poverty,' as +St. Francis expressed it, gave up everything they had, and lived his +preaching and roaming life. St. Francis himself had no idea of forming +a monastic order. He wished to live a holy life in the world and show +others how to do the same, and for years he and his companions worked +among the poor, earning their daily bread when they could, and when +they could not, begging for it. Gradually, however, ambition stirred +in the hearts of some of the followers of Francis, and against the +will of their leader they made themselves into the Order of Franciscan +Friars, collected gifts of money, and began to build churches and +monastic buildings. At first the buildings were said to belong to the +Pope, who allowed the Franciscans to use them, since they might not +own property; but after the death of St. Francis, the Order built +churches throughout the length and breadth of Italy, not of marble +and mosaic but of brick, since brick was cheaper; but the brick walls +were plastered, and upon the wet plaster there <a name="page23"></a>were painted scenes +from the life of St. Francis, side by side with the old Christian and +saintly legends. This sudden demand for painted churches with +paintings of new subjects, stirred the painters of the day to alter +their old style. When an artist was asked to paint a large picture +of St. Francis preaching to the birds, he had to look at real birds +and he had to study a real man in the attitude of preaching. There +was no scene that had ever been painted from the life of Christ or +of any saint in which a man preached to a bird, so that the artist +was driven to paint from nature instead of copying former pictures.</p> + +<p>Let us now read what a painter who lived in the sixteenth century, +Vasari by name, wrote about the rise of painting in his native city. +Some learned people nowadays say that Vasari was wrong in many of the +stories he told, but after all he lived much nearer than we do to the +times he wrote about, and it is safer to believe what he tells us than +what modern students surmise, except when they are able to cite other +old authorities to which Vasari did not have access.</p> + +<blockquote>The endless flood of misfortunes which overwhelmed unhappy Italy not +only ruined everything worthy of the <a name="page24"></a>name of a building, but completely +extinguished the race of artists, a far more serious matter. Then, +as it pleased God, there was born in the year 1240, in the city of +Florence, Giovanni, surnamed Cimabue, to shed the first light on the +art of painting. Instead of paying attention to his lessons, Cimabue +spent the whole day drawing men, horses, houses, and various other +fancies on his books and odd sheets, like one who felt himself compelled +to do so by nature. Fortune proved favourable to his natural +inclination, for some Greek artists were summoned to Florence by the +government of the city for no other purpose than the revival of painting +in their midst, since the art was not so much debased as altogether +lost. In this way Cimabue made a beginning in the art which attracted +him, for he often played the truant and spent the whole day in watching +the masters work. Thus it came about that his father and the artists +considered him so fitted to be a painter that if he devoted himself +to the profession he might look for honourable success in it, and to +his great satisfaction his father procured him employment with the +painters. Thus by dint of continual practice and with the assistance +of his natural talent he far surpassed the manner of his teachers. +For they had never cared to make any progress and had executed their +works, not in the good manner of ancient Greece, but in the rude modern +style of that time. Cimabue drew from nature to the best of his powers, +although it was a novelty to do so in those days, and he made the +draperies, garments, and other things somewhat more life-like, natural, +and soft <a name="page25"></a>than the Greeks had done, who had taught one another a rough, +awkward, and commonplace style for a great number of years, not by +means of study but as a matter of custom, without ever dreaming of +improving their designs by beauty of colouring or by any invention +of worth.</blockquote> + +<p>If you were to see a picture by Cimabue (there is one in the National +Gallery which resembles his work so closely that it is sometimes said +to be his), you would think less highly than Vasari of the life-like +quality of his art, though there is something dignified and stately +in the picture of the Virgin and Child with angels that he painted +for the Church of St. Francis at Assisi. Another story is told by Vasari +of a picture by Cimabue, which tradition asserts to be the great Madonna, +still in the Church of Santa Maria Novella at Florence.</p> + +<blockquote>Cimabue painted a picture of Our Lady for the church of Santa Maria +Novella. The figure was of a larger size than any which had been +executed up to that time, and the people of that day who had never +seen anything better, considered the work so marvellous that they +carried it to the church from Cimabue's house in a stately procession +with great rejoicing and blowing of trumpets, while Cimabue himself +was highly rewarded and honoured. It is reported, and some records +of the old painters relate, that while <a name="page26"></a>Cimabue was painting this +picture in some gardens near the gate of S. Piero, the old King Charles +of Anjou passed through Florence. Among the many entertainments +prepared for him by the men of the city, they brought him to see the +picture of Cimabue. As it had not then been seen by any one, all the +men and women of Florence flocked thither in a crowd with the greatest +rejoicings, so that those who lived in the neighbourhood called the +place the 'Joyful Suburb' because of the rejoicing there. This name +it ever afterwards retained, being in the course of time enclosed +within the walls of the city.</blockquote> + +<p>For this story we may thank Vasari, because it helps us to realize +the love the people of Florence felt for the pictures in their churches, +and the reverence in which they held an artist who could paint a more +beautiful picture of the Virgin and Child than any they had seen before. +It is difficult to think of the population of a town to-day walking +in procession to honour the painter of a fine picture; but a picture +of the Madonna was a very precious thing indeed to a Florentine of +the thirteenth century, and we may try to imagine ourselves walking +joyfully in that Florentine procession so as the better to understand +Florentine Art.</p> + +<p>I have repeated this legend about Cimabue, <a name="page27"></a>because he was the master +of Giotto, who is called the Father of Modern Painting. The story is +that Cimabue one day came upon the boy Giotto, who was a shepherd, +and found him drawing a sheep with a pointed piece of stone upon a +smooth surface of rock. He was so much struck with the drawing that +he took the boy home and taught him, and soon he in his turn far +surpassed his master. In order to appreciate Giotto we need to go to +Assisi, Florence, or Padua, for in each place he has painted a series +of wall-paintings. In the great double church of Assisi, built by the +Franciscans over the grave of St. Francis within a few years of his +death, Giotto has illustrated the whole story of his life. An isolated +reproduction of one scene would give you no idea of their power. In +many respects he was an innovator, and by the end of his life had broken +away completely from the Byzantine school of painting. He composed +each one of the scenes from the life of St. Francis in an original +and dramatic manner, and so vividly that a person unacquainted with +the story would know what was going on. Standing in the nave of the +Upper Church, you are able to contrast these speaking scenes of the +<a name="page28"></a>lives of people upon earth, with the faded glories of great-winged +angels and noble Madonnas with Greek faces, that were painted in the +Byzantine style when the church was at its newest, before Giotto was +born. These look down upon us still from the east end of the church.</p> + +<p>Giotto died in 1337, and for the next fifty years painters in Italy +did little but imitate him. Scenes from the life of St. Francis and +incidents from the legends of other saints remained in vogue, but they +were not treated in original fashion by succeeding artists. The new +men only tried to paint as Giotto might have painted, and so far from +surpassing him, he was never even equalled by his followers.</p> + +<p>We need not burden our memories with the names of these 'Giottesque' +artists; and now, after this glimpse of an almost vanished world, we +will turn our attention to England and to the first picture of our +choice.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br><a name="page29"></a> +<div><h3><a name="chap3">CHAPTER III</a></h3></div> +<h4>RICHARD II.</h4> +<br> +<p>Our first picture is a portrait of Richard II. on his coronation day +in the year 1377, when he was ten years old. It is the earliest one +selected, and the eyes of those who see it for the first time will +surely look surprised. The jewel-like effect of the sapphire-winged +angels and coral-robed Richard against the golden background is not +at all what we are accustomed to see. Nowadays it may take some time +and a little patience before we can cast ourselves back to the year +1377 and look at the picture with the eyes of the person who painted +it. Let us begin with a search for his purpose and meaning at least.</p> + +<p>The picture is a diptych—that is to say, it is a painting done upon +two wings or shutters hinged, so as to allow of their being closed +<a name="page30"></a>together. You have no doubt been wondering why I called it a portrait, +for the picture is far from being what to-day would commonly be +described as such. Richard himself is not even the most conspicuous +figure; and he is kneeling and praying to the Virgin. What should we +think if any living sovereign, ordering a state portrait, had himself +portrayed surrounded on one side by his predecessors on the throne, +and on the other side by the Virgin and Child and angels? But, in the +fourteenth century, it was nothing strange that the Virgin and Child, +the angels, John the Baptist, Edward the Confessor, Edmund the Martyr, +and Richard II. should be thus depicted. When we have realized that +it was usual for a royal patron to command and an artist to paint such +an assemblage of personages, as though all of them were then living +and in one another's presence, we have learnt something significant +and impressive about a way of thinking in the Middle Ages. Richard +II. thought of himself as the successor of a long line of kings, +appointed by the Divine Power to rule a small portion of the Divine +Territories, so what more natural than that he, as the newly reigning +sovereign, <a name="page31"></a>should have his portrait painted, surrounded by his holiest +predecessors upon the throne, and in the act of dedicating his kingdom +to the Virgin Mary?</p> + +<p>In an account given of his coronation we read that, after the ceremony +in Westminster Abbey, Richard went to the shrine of Our Lady at Pewe, +near by, where he made a special offering to Our Lady of eleven angels, +each wearing the King's badge, one for each of the eleven years of +his young life. What form this offering of angels took, we know not; +they may have been little wooden figures, or coins with an angel stamped +upon them; but it is reasonable to connect the offering with this very +picture of Our Lady and the angels. The King's special badges were +the White Hart and the Collar of Broom-pods which you see embroidered +all over his magnificent red robe. The White Hart is pinned in the +form of a jewel beneath his collar, and each of the eleven angels bears +the badge upon her shoulder and the Collar of Broom-pods round her +neck. One of the King's angels gives the Royal Standard of England +with the Cross of St. George on it to the Infant Christ in token of +Richard's dedication of his kingdom to the Virgin and Child.</p> + +<a name="page32"></a><p>Edward III. died at Midsummer 1377 and Richard succeeded him in his +eleventh year, having been born on January 6, 1367. It is necessary +to note the exact day of the year when these events took place, for +it can have importance in determining the saint whom a personage +chiefly honoured as patron and protector. In this instance St. John +the Baptist, whose feast occurs on June 23, near to the day of Richard's +accession, obviously stands as patron saint of the young King. Next +to him is King Edward the Confessor, the founder of Westminster Abbey, +who was canonized for his sanctity and who points to Richard II. as +his spiritual successor upon the throne. In medieval art the saints +are distinguished by their emblems, which often have an association +with the grim way in which they met their death, or with some other +prominent feature in their legend. Here Edward holds up a ring, whereof +a pretty story is told. Edward once took it off his finger to give +it to a beggar, because he had no money with him. But the beggar was +no other than John the Evangelist in disguise, and two years later +he sent the ring back to the King with the message that in six months +Edward would be <a name="page33"></a>in the joy of heaven with him. William Caxton, the +first English printer, relates in his life of King Edward that when +he heard the message he was full of joy and let fall tears from his +eyes, giving praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God.</p> + +<a name="illus2"></a> +<center><img width="100%" src="images/richard.jpg" alt="Richard II. Before the Virgin and Child"></center> +<br> +<center>R<small>ICHARD</small> II. <small>BEFORE THE</small> V<small>IRGIN AND</small> C<small>HILD</small><br> +<small>From a picture by an unknown artist in the Wilton House Collection</small></center> + +<p>St. Edmund, who stands next to Edward the Confessor, is the other +saintly King of England; after whom the town of Bury St. Edmunds takes +its name. He was shot to death with arrows by the Danes because he +would not give up Christianity. If I could show you several suitably +chosen pictures at once, you would recognize in the arrangement of +the three Kings here (two standing, one kneeling before the Virgin +and Child) a plain resemblance to the typical treatment of a well-known +subject—the Adoration of the Magi. You remember how when the three +Wise Men of the East—always thought of in the Middle Ages as Kings—had +followed the star which led them to the manger where Christ was born, +they brought Him gold and frankincense and myrrh as offerings. This +beautiful story was a favourite one in the Middle Ages, often +represented in sculpture and painting. One King always kneels before +the Virgin and <a name="page34"></a>Child, presenting his gift, whilst the other two stand +behind with theirs in their hands. The standing Kings and the kneeling +Richard in our picture, are grouped in just the same relation to the +divine Infant as the three Magi. The imitation of the type is clear. +There was a special reason for this, in that the birthday of Richard +fell upon January 6, the feast of the Epiphany, when the Wise Men did +homage to the Babe. The picture, by reminding us of the three Wise +Men, commemorated the birthday of the King as well as his coronation, +the two chief dates of his life.</p> + +<p>You have some idea now of the train of thought which this +fourteenth-century painter endeavoured to express in his picture +commemorative of the coronation of a King. A medieval coronation was +a very solemn ceremony indeed, and the picture had to be a serious +expression of the great traditions of the throne of England, suggested +by the figures of St. Edward and St. Edmund, and of hope for future +good to the realm, to ensue from the blessings of the Virgin and Child +upon the young King. Religious feeling is dominant in this picture, +and if from it you could turn to others of like date, you would find +<a name="page35"></a>the same to be true. The meaning was the main thing thought of. When +Giotto painted his scenes from the life of St. Francis, his first aim +was that the stories should be well told and easily grasped by all +who looked at them. Their beauty was of less importance. This +difference between the aim of art in the Middle Ages and in our own +day is fundamental. If you begin by picking to pieces the pictures +of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries because the drawing is bad, +the colouring crude, and the grouping unnatural, you might as well +never look at them at all. Putting faults and old fashions aside to +think of the meaning of the picture, we shall often be rewarded by +finding a soul within, and the work may affect us powerfully, +notwithstanding its simple forms and few strong colours.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, after the painter had planned his picture so as to convey +its message and meaning, he did try to make it beautiful to look upon, +and he often succeeded. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries +it was beauty of outline and a pleasant patching together of bright +colours for which the painters strove, both in pictures and in +manuscripts. If you think of this picture for a moment as a <a name="page36"></a>coloured +pattern, you will see how pretty it is. The blue wings against the +gold background make a hedge for the angel faces and look extremely +well. If the figure of Richard II. seems flat, if you feel as though +he were cut out of cardboard and had no thickness, then turn your mind +to consider only the outline of the figure. It is very graceful. Artists +in the thirteenth century sometimes made their figures over-long if +they thought that a sweep of graceful line would look well in a certain +position in their picture; the drapery was bent into impossible curves +if so they fell into a pretty pattern.</p> + +<p>In the fourteenth century, beauty of outlines still prevailed, even +when they contained plain masses of brilliant colour so pure and +gem-like that the pictures almost came to look like stained-glass +windows. In fact probably the constant sight of stained-glass windows +in the churches greatly influenced the painters' way of work. The +contrast of divers colours placed next one another was more startling +than we find in later painting, whilst an effort was made to finish +every detail as though it were to be looked at through a magnifying +glass.</p> + +<a name="page37"></a><p>In this picture which we are now learning how to see, the Virgin was +to be shown standing in a meadow of flowers. A modern artist knows +how to paint the general effect of many flowers growing out of grass, +but the medieval painter had not the skill to do that. He had not learnt +to look at the effect of a mass of flowers as a whole, nor could he +have rendered such an effect with the colours and processes he +possessed. He knew what one flower looked like, and thought that many +must be a continued repetition of one. But it was impossible to paint +a great number of flowers close together, each finished in detail, +so he chose instead to paint a few as completely as he could, and leave +the rest to the imagination of the spectator. That was his way of making +a selection from nature; thus he hoped to suggest the idea of a flowery +meadow, since he could not hope to render the look of it.</p> + +<p>Likewise, all the details of the dresses are minutely painted. The +robes of Richard and of Edmund the Martyr are beautiful examples of +the careful and painstaking work characteristic of the Middle Ages. +No medieval painter spared himself trouble. Although he had not +mastered the art of drawing the figure, he had <a name="page38"></a>learnt how to paint +jewellery and stuffs beautifully, and delighted in doing it. The +drawing of the figures you can see to be imperfect, yet nothing could +be sweeter in feeling than the bevy of girl angels with roses in their +hair surrounding the Virgin. Most of them are not unlike English girls +of the present day, and the critics who say that this picture must +have been painted by a Frenchman may be asked where he is likely to +have found these English models for his angels.</p> + +<p>Possibly the face of Richard himself may have been painted from life, +for the features correspond closely enough with the large full-face +portrait of him in Westminster Abbey, and with the sculptured figure +upon his tomb. He certainly does not look like a child of ten, for +his state robes and crown give him a grown-up appearance. But if you +regard the face carefully you can see that it is still that of a child.</p> + +<p>The gold background in the original shines out brilliantly, for after +the gold was laid on, it was polished with an agate, which gives it +a burnished effect, and then the little patterns were carefully punched +so as not to pierce the gold and thereby expose the white ground beneath. +There <a name="page39"></a>is a jewel-like quality in the colour such as you can see in +manuscripts of the time, and it is possible that the painter may have +learned his art as an illuminator of manuscripts. Artists in those +days seldom confined themselves to one kind of work. We do not know +this man's name, and are not even certain whether he was French or +English.</p> + +<p>Before, as in the time of Richard, painting had been mainly a decorative +art, and the object of making pictures was to adorn the pages of a +book, or the walls and vaults of a building. The most vital artistic +energies of Western Europe in the thirteenth century had gone into +the building of the great cathedrals and abbeys, which are to-day the +glory of that period. Most medieval paintings that still exist in +England are decorative wall-paintings of this kind, and only traces +of a few remain. In many country places you can see poor and faded +vestiges of painting which adorned church walls in the thirteenth +century, and occasionally you may come upon a bit by some chance better +preserved. These old wall-paintings were done upon the dry plaster. +The discovery, or rather the revival, of 'fresco' painting (that is, +of <a name="page40"></a>painting done upon the wet surface of freshly plastered walls, a +more durable process) was made in Italy and did not penetrate to +England.</p> + +<p>Richard II. was not the only art-loving King of his time. You have +read of John, King of France, who was taken prisoner at the Battle +of Poitiers by the Black Prince, father of Richard. During his +captivity he lived in considerable state in London at the Savoy Palace, +which occupied the site of the present Savoy Hotel in the Strand; he +brought his own painter from France with him, who painted his portrait +which still exists in Paris. This King John was the father of four +remarkable sons, Charles V., King of France, with whom Edward III. +and the Black Prince fought the latter part of the Hundred Years' War; +Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy; John, Duke of Berry; and Louis, +Duke of Anjou. In this list, all are names of remarkable men and great +art-patrons, about whom you may some day read interesting things. +Numerous lovely objects still in existence were made for them, and +would not have been made at all if they had not been the men they were. +It was only just becoming possible in the fourteenth century for a +prince <a name="page41"></a>to be an art-patron. That required money, and hitherto even +princes had rarely been rich. The increasing wealth of England, France, +and Flanders at this time was based upon the wool industry and the +manufacture and commerce to which it gave rise. The Lord Chancellor +in the House of Lords to this day sits on a woolsack, which is a reminder +of the time when the woolsacks of England were the chief source of +the wealth of English traders.</p> + +<p>After the Black Death, an awful plague that swept through Europe in +1349, a large part of the land of England was given up to sheep grazing, +because the population had diminished, and it took fewer people to +look after sheep than it did to till the soil. Although this had been +an evil in the beginning, it became afterwards a benefit, for English +wool was sold at an excellent price to the merchants of Flanders, who +worked it up into cloth, and in their turn sold that all over Europe +with big profits. The larger merchants who regulated the wool traffic +were prosperous, and so too the landowners and princes whose property +thus increased in value. The four sons of King John became very wealthy +men. Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, by marrying the heiress of +the <a name="page42"></a>Count of Flanders acquired the Flemish territory and the wealth +obtained from the wool trade and manufacture there. Berry and Anjou +were great provinces in France yielding a large revenue to their two +Dukes. Each of these princes employed several artists to illuminate +books for him in the most splendid way; they built magnificent châteaux, +and had tapestries and paintings made to decorate their walls. They +employed many sculptors and goldsmiths, and all gave each other as +presents works of art executed by their favourite artists. In the +British Museum there is a splendid gold and enamel cup that John, Duke +of Berry, caused to be made for his brother King Charles V.; to see +it would give you a good idea of the costliness and elaboration of +the finest work of that day. The courts of these four brothers were +centres of artistic production in all kinds—sculpture, metal-work, +tapestries, illuminated manuscripts and pictures, and there was a +strong spirit of rivalry among the artists to see who could make the +loveliest things, and among the patrons as to which could secure the +best artists in his service.</p> + +<p>These four princes gave an important impulse <a name="page43"></a>to the production of +beautiful things in France, Burgundy, and Flanders, but it is needless +to burden you with the artists' names.</p> + +<p>In the fourteenth century an artist was a workman who existed to do +well the work that was desired of him. He was not an independent man +with ideas of his own, who attempted to make a living by painting what +he thought beautiful, without reference to the ideas of a buyer. Of +course, if people prefer and buy good things when they see them, good +things will be likely to be made, but if those with money to spend +have no taste and buy bad things or order ugly things to be made, then +the men who had it in them to be great artists may die unnoticed, because +the beautiful things they could have made are not called for. To-day +many people spend something upon art and a few spend a great deal. +Let us hope we may not see too much of the money spent in creating +a demand for what is bad rather than for what is beautiful.</p> + +<p>It was not unusual in the fourteenth century for a man to be at one +and the same time painter, illuminator, sculptor, metal-worker, and +designer of any object that might be called for. One of these many +gifted men, André Beauneveu of Valenciennes, a <a name="page44"></a>good sculptor and a +painter of some exquisite miniatures, is sometimes supposed to have +been the painter of our picture of Richard II. In the absence of any +signature or any definite record it is impossible to say who painted +it, but it is unnecessary to assume that it must have been painted +by a French artist, since we know that at the end of the fourteenth +century there were very good painters in England.</p> + +<p>It was by no means an exception not to sign a picture in those days, +for the artists had not begun to think of themselves as individuals +entitled to public fame. Hand-workers of the fourteenth century mostly +belonged to a corporation or guild composed of all the other workers +at the same trade in the same town, and to this rule artists were no +exception. Each man received a recognized price for his work, and the +officers of the guild saw to it that he obtained that price and that +he worked with good and durable materials. There were certain +advantages in this, but it involved some loss of freedom in the artist, +since all had to conform to the rules of the guild. The system was +characteristic of the Middle Ages, and arose from the fact that in +those troublous times every isolated person <a name="page45"></a>needed protection and was +content to merge his individuality in some society in order to obtain +it. The guilds made for peace and diminished competition, so that a +guildsman may have been less tempted to hurry over or scamp his task. +The result was much honest, careful work such as you see in the original +of this picture. We are told by those who know best that there has +never been a time when the actual workmanship of the general run of +craftsmen was better than in the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>This picture of Richard II. has not faded or cracked or fallen off +the panel, and it seems as though we may hope it never will, for it +was well made and, what is even more important, it seems always to +have been well cared for. If only the nice things that are produced +were all well cared for, how many more of them there would be in the +world!</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br><a name="page46"></a> +<div><h3><a name="chap4">CHAPTER IV</a></h3></div> +<h4>THE VAN EYCKS</h4> +<br> +<p>Before passing to Hubert van Eyck, the painter of the original of our +next picture, please compare carefully the picture of Richard II. and +this of the Three Maries, looking first at one and then at the other. +The subject of the visit of the Maries to the Sepulchre is, of course, +well known to you, but let us read the beautiful passage from St. +Matthew telling of it, that we may see how faithfully in every detail +it was followed by Hubert van Eyck.</p> + +<blockquote>In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day +of the week, came Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, to see the +Sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the Angel +of the Lord descended from Heaven, and came and rolled back the stone +from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, +and <a name="page47"></a>his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did +shake, and became as dead men.</blockquote> + +<p>Surely this would be thought a beautiful picture had it been painted +at any time, but when you compare it with the Richard II. diptych does +it not seem to you as though a long era divided the two? Yet one was +painted less than fifty years after the other. It is the attitude of +mind of the painter that makes the difference.</p> + +<p>In the diptych, although the portrait of Richard himself was a likeness, +the setting was imaginary and symbolic. The artist wished to tell in +his picture how all the Kings who succeed one another upon the throne +of England alike depend upon the protection of Heaven, and how Richard +in his turn acknowledged that dependence, and pledged his loyalty to +the Blessed Virgin and her Holy Child. That picture was intended to +take the mind of the spectator away from the everyday world and suggest +grave thought, and such was likewise in the main the purpose of all +paintings in the Middle Ages. But we are now leaving the Middle Ages +behind and approaching a new world nearer to our own.</p> + +<p>Hubert van Eyck, in attempting to depict the <a name="page48"></a>event at the Sepulchre +as it might actually have occurred outside the walls of the City of +Jerusalem, was doing something quite novel in his day. His picture +might almost be called a Bible illustration. It is at least painted +in the same practical spirit as that of a man painting an illustration +for any other book. It is not a picture meant to help one to pray, +or meditate. It does not express any religious idea. It was intended +to be the veracious representation of an actual event, shown as, and +when, and how it happened, true to the facts so far as Hubert knew +them.</p> + +<a name="illus3"></a> +<center><img width="100%" src="images/threemaries.jpg" alt="The Three Maries"></center> +<br> +<center>T<small>HE</small> T<small>HREE</small> M<small>ARIES</small><br> +<small>From the picture by Hubert van Eyck, in Sir Frederick Cook's Collection, Richmond</small></center> + +<p>He has dressed the Maries in robes with wrought borders of Hebrew +characters, imitated from embroidered stuffs, such as at that time +were imported into Europe from the East. The dresses are not accurate +copies of eastern dresses; Hubert would scarcely have known what those +were like, but was doing his best to paint costumes that should look +oriental. Mary Magdalen wears a turban, and the keeper on the right +has a strange peaked cap with Hebrew letters on it. Hebrew scholars +have done their best to read the inscriptions on these clothes, but +we must infer that Hubert only copied the letters without knowing <a name="page49"></a>what +they meant, since it has not been possible to make any sense of them. +In the foreground are masses of flowers most carefully painted, and +so accurately drawn that botanists have been able to identify them +all; several do not grow in the north of Europe. The town at the back +is something like Jerusalem as it looked in Hubert van Eyck's own day. +A few of the buildings can be identified still, and a general view +of Jerusalem taken in 1486, sixty years after the death of Hubert, +bears some resemblance to the town in this picture. The city is painted +in miniature, much as it would look if you saw it from near at hand. +Every tower, house, and window is there. You can even count the +battlements. The great building with the dome in the middle of the +picture, is the Mosque of Omar, which occupies the supposed site of +Solomon's Temple.</p> + +<p>Some people have thought that perhaps Hubert van Eyck, and his brother +John, actually went to the East. Many men made pilgrimages in those +days, and almost every year parties of Christian pilgrims went to +Jerusalem. It was a rough and even a dangerous journey, but not at +all impossible for a patient traveller. Dr. Hulin, who has made +<a name="page50"></a>wonderful discoveries about the early Flemish painters, found a +mention, in an old sixteenth-century list, of a 'Portrait of a Moorish +King or Prince' by Van Eyck, painted in 1414 or perhaps 1418. If he +painted a portrait of an oriental prince, he may have visited one +oriental country at least, or at any rate the south of Spain. Probably +enough during that journey he made studies of the cypress, stone-pine, +date-palm, olive, orange, and palmetto, which occur in his pictures. +They grow in the south of Spain and other Mediterranean regions, but +not in the cold north where Hubert spent most of his days.</p> + +<p>It is difficult at first to realize what an innovation it was for Hubert +van Eyck to paint such a landscape. In the Richard II. diptych there +is just a suggestion of brown earth for the saints to stand upon, but +the rest of the background is of gold, as was the common practice at +the time. The great innovator, Giotto, in some of his pictures had +attempted to paint landscape backgrounds. In his fresco of St. Francis +preaching to the birds there is a tree for them to perch on, but it +seems more like a garden vegetable than a tree. Even his buildings +look as though they might fall together <a name="page51"></a>any moment like a pack of cards. +Hubert not only gives landscape a larger place than it ever had in +any great picture before, but he paints it with such skill and apparent +confidence that we should never dream he was doing it almost for the +first time.</p> + +<p>St. Matthew says: 'As it began to <i>dawn</i> towards the first day of the +week, came Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, to see the Sepulchre.' +Even in this point Hubert wished to be accurate. The rising sun is +hidden behind the rocks on the left side of the picture, for it was +not until years later that any painter ventured to paint the sun in +the heavens. But the rays from the hidden orb strike the castles on +the hills with shafts of light. The town remains in shadow, while the +sky is lit up with floods of glory. An effect such as this must have +been very carefully studied from nature. Hubert was evidently one who +looked at the world with observant eyes and found it beautiful. When +he had flowers to paint, he painted the whole plant accurately, not +the blossoms individually, like the painter of Richard II. He liked +fine stuffs, embroideries, jewels, and glittering armour. He was no +visionary trying to free himself from <a name="page52"></a>the earth and live in +contemplation of the angels and saints in Paradise, like so many of +the thirteenth and fourteenth century artists.</p> + +<p>In this new delightful interest in the world as it is, he reflected +the tendency of his day. The fifty years that had elapsed between the +painting of Richard II.'s portrait and the work of the Van Eycks, had +seen a great development of trade and industry in Flanders. Hubert +was born, perhaps about 1365, at Maas Eyck, from which he takes his +name. Maas Eyck was a little town on the banks of the river Maas, near +the frontier of the present Holland and Belgium. He may have spent +most of his life in Ghent, the town officials of which city paid him +a visit in 1425 to see his work, and gave six groats to his apprentices +in memory of their visit. Where he learnt his art, where he worked +before he came to Ghent, we do not know for certain, but there is reason +to think that he was employed for a while in Holland by the Count.</p> + +<p>John, his brother, concerning whom more facts have been gathered, is +said to have been twenty years younger than Hubert. He was a painter +too, and worked in the employ of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy +and Count of Flanders, the grandson <a name="page53"></a>of Philip the Bold, who was one +of those four sons of King John of France mentioned in our last chapter. +Philip the Good continued the traditions of his family and was in his +time a great art-patron. His grandfather had fostered an important +school of sculpture in Flanders and Burgundy, which culminated in the +superb statues still existing at Dijon. Like his brother the Duke of +Berry, he had given work to a number of miniature painters. The Count +of Holland also employed some wonderful miniature painters to beautify +a manuscript for him. This manuscript and one made for the Duke of +Berry were among the finest ever painted so far as the pictures in +them are concerned. The Count of Holland's book used to be in the +library at Turin, where it was burnt a few years ago, so we can see +it no more. But the fortunate ones who did see it thought that the +pictures in it were actually painted by the Van Eycks when they were +young. The Duke of Berry's finest book is at Chantilly and is well +known. Both this and the Turin book contained the loveliest early +landscapes, a little earlier in date than this landscape in the 'Three +Maries' picture. So you see why it is said that the illuminators first +invented beautiful <a name="page54"></a>landscape painting, and that landscapes were +painted in books before they were painted as pictures to hang on walls.</p> + +<p>The practical spirit in which Hubert van Eyck worked exactly matched +the sensible, matter-of-fact Flemish character. The Flemings, even +in pictures of the Madonna, wanted the Virgin to wear a gown made of +the richest stuff that could be woven, truthfully painted, with jewels +of the finest Flemish workmanship, and they liked to see a landscape +behind her studied from their own native surroundings.</p> + +<p>No man could try to paint things as they looked, in the way Hubert +did, without making great progress in drawing. If you compare the +drawing of the angel appearing to the Maries with any of the angels +wearing the badge of Richard II., you will see how much more life-like +is the angel of Hubert. The painter of Richard II. was not happy with +his figures unless they were standing up or kneeling in profile, but +Hubert van Eyck can draw them with tolerable success lying down, or +sitting huddled. He can also combine a group in a natural manner. The +absence of formal arrangement in the picture of the Maries is quite +new in medieval art.</p> + +<a name="page55"></a><p>The painter of Richard II. had known very little about perspective. +The science of drawing things as they look from one point of view has +no doubt been taught to all of you. You know certain rules about +vanishing points and can apply them in your drawing. But you would +have found it very hard to invent perspective without being taught. +I can remember drawing a matchbox by the light of nature, and very +queer it contrived to become. Medieval artists were in exactly that +same case. The artists of the ancient world had discovered some of +the laws of perspective, but the secret was lost, and artists in the +Middle Ages had to discover them all over again. Hubert van Eyck made +a great stride toward the attainment of this knowledge. When you look +at the picture the perspective does not strike you as glaringly wrong, +though there was still much that remained to be discovered by later +men, as we shall see in our next chapter.</p> + +<p>The brothers Van Eyck were, first and foremost, good workmen. Few other +painters in the whole of the world's history have aimed at anything +like the same finish of detail. In the original of this picture the +oriental pot which the green Mary <a name="page56"></a>holds in her hand is a perfect marvel +of workmanship. There is no detail so small but that when you look +into it you discover some fresh wonder. A story is told of how Hubert +van Eyck painted a picture upon which he had lavished his usual +painstaking care. But when he put it in the sun to dry, the panel cracked +down the middle. After this disappointment Hubert went to work and +invented a new substance with which colours are made liquid, a 'medium' +as it is called, which when mixed with colour dried hard and quickly. +It was possible to paint with the new medium in finer detail than before, +and the Flemish artists universally adopted it. While very little was +remembered about the facts of Hubert van Eyck's life, his name was +always associated with the discovery of a new method of painting, and +on that account held in great honour.</p> + +<p>The 'Three Maries' is in many respects the most attractive of the +pictures ascribed to Hubert, but his most famous work was a larger +picture, or assemblage of pictures framed together, the 'Adoration +of the Lamb,' in St. Bavon's Church at Ghent. It is an altar-piece—a +painting set up over an altar in a church or chapel to aid the devotions +of those worshipping there. Many of the panels of the <a name="page57"></a>Ghent altar-piece +are now in the Museums of Berlin and Brussels. They belonged to the +wings or shutters which were made to close over the central parts, +and which used also to be painted outside and inside with devotional +or related subjects. The four great central panels on which these +shutters used to close are still at Ghent. The subject of the 'Adoration +of the Lamb' was taken from Revelations, where before the Lamb has +opened the seals of the book, St. John says:</p> + +<blockquote>And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under +the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard +I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that +sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.</blockquote> + +<p>Hubert has figured this verse by assembling, as in one time and place, +representatives of Christendom. They who worship are the prophets, +apostles, popes, martyrs, and virgins. On each side of the central +panel the just judges, the soldiers of Christ, the hermits, and the +pilgrims, advance to join the throng around the Lamb. Most beautiful +of all is the crowd of virgin martyrs bearing palms, moving over the +green <a name="page58"></a>grass carpeted with flowers, to adore the Lamb of God, the +Redeemer of the World. Above, God the Father, the Virgin Mother, and +St. John the Baptist, with crowns of wonderful workmanship, are throned +amid choirs of singing and playing angels on either hand.</p> + +<p>The picture does not illustrate the description of the Adoration of +the Lamb in the fifth chapter of Revelations so faithfully as the +picture of the 'Three Maries' illustrated St. Matthew. The Lamb has +not seven horns and seven eyes, and the four beasts and twenty-four +elders are not falling down before it and adoring. The Lamb is an +ordinary sheep, and the picture is a symbolic expression of the +Catholic faith, founded upon a biblical text, but not what could be +described as 'a Bible illustration.' People in the Middle Ages liked +to embody their faith in a visible form, and we are told that +theologians frequently drew up schemes of doctrine which painters did +their best to translate into pictures, and sculptors into sculpture. +Such works of art were for instruction rather than beauty, though some +also served well the purpose of decoration.</p> + +<p>Josse Vyt, who ordered the picture, and whose <a name="page59"></a>portrait, with that of +his wife, is painted on the shutters, no doubt explained exactly what +he wanted, and Hubert sought to please him.[1] But although the design +of the central panel was old-fashioned and symbolic, Hubert was able +to do what he liked with the landscape, and with the individual figures. +They are real men and women with varieties of expression such as had +not been painted before, and the landscape is even more beautiful than +the one at the back of the 'Three Maries.' Snow mountains rise in the +distance, and beautiful cypresses and palms of all kinds clothe the +green slopes behind the Lamb. There are flowers in the grass and jewels +for pebbles in the brook. Behind, you can see the Cathedrals of Utrecht +and Cologne, St. John's of Maestricht, and more churches and houses +besides, and the walls of a town, and wide stretches of green country.</p> + +<p><small>[Footnote 1: There are reasons for thinking that the picture may have +been ordered by some prince who died before it was finished, and that +Vyt only acquired it later, in time to have his own and his wife's +portraits added on the shutters.]</small></p> + +<p>Hubert van Eyck died in 1426, and the picture was finished by his +younger brother John, of whose life, though more is known than of +Hubert's, we need not here repeat details. Many of his <a name="page60"></a>pictures still +exist, and the most delightful of them for us are his portraits. He +was not the first man to paint good portraits, but few artists have +ever painted better likenesses. It seems evident that the people in +his pictures are 'as like as they can stare,' with no wrinkle or scratch +left out. Portraits in earlier days than these were seldom painted +for their own sake alone. A pious man who wanted to present an +altar-piece or a stained-glass window to a church would modestly have +his own image introduced in a corner. By degrees such portraits grew +in size and scale, and the neighbouring saints diminished, till at +last the saints were left out and the portrait stood alone. Then it +came about that such a picture was hung in its owner's house rather +than in a church. One of the best portraits John van Eyck ever painted +is at Bruges—the likeness of his wife. The panel was discovered about +fifty years ago in the market-place of Bruges, where an old woman was +using the back of it to skin eels on; but so soundly had the picture +been painted that even this ill-usage did not ruin it. The lady was +a very plain Flemish woman with no beauty of feature or expression, +but John has revealed her character so <a name="page61"></a>vividly that to look at her +likeness is to know her. It is indeed a long leap from the Richard +II. of fifty years before, with its representation of the outline of +a youth, to this ample realization of a mature woman's character.</p> + +<p>John lived till 1441, and had some pupils and many imitators. One of +these, Roger van der Weyden by name, spread his influence far and wide +throughout the whole of the Netherlands, France, and Germany. How +important this influence was in the history of art we shall see later. +Many of the imitators of John learnt his accuracy and thoroughness +of workmanship, but none of them attained his deep insight into +character.</p> + +<p>During the next fifty years many and beautiful were the pictures +produced throughout Flanders. All of them have a jewel-like brilliance +of colour, approaching in brightness the hues of the Richard II. +diptych. The landscape backgrounds are charming miniatures of towns +by the side of rivers with spanning bridges. The painting of textures +is exquisite. But the Flemish face, placid, plump, and fair-haired, +prevails throughout. In the pictures of Paradise, where the saints +and angels play with the Infant Christ, we still feel <a name="page62"></a>chained to the +earth, because the figures and faces are the unidealized images of +those one might have met in the streets of Bruges and Ghent. This is +not a criticism on the artists. The merit of their work is unchallenged; +and how could they paint physical beauty by them scarce ever seen? +Yet when all has been said in praise of the Flemish School, the brothers +Van Eyck, the founders of it, remain its greatest representatives, +and their work is still regarded with that high and almost universal +veneration which is the tribute of the greatest achievement.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br><a name="page63"></a> +<div><h3><a name="chap5">CHAPTER V</a></h3></div> +<h4>THE RENAISSANCE</h4> +<br> +<p>Who is this old gentleman in our next picture reading so quietly and +steadily? Does he not look absorbed in his book? Certainly the peacock, +the bird, and the cat do not worry him or each other, and there is +still another animal in the distance—a lion! Can you see him? He is +walking down the cloister pavement on the right, with his foot lifted +as though it were hurt. The story is that this particular lion limped +into the monastery in which this old man lived, and while all the other +monks fled in terror, this monk saw that the lion's fore-paw was hurt. +He raised it up, found what was the matter, and pulled out the thorn; +and ever afterwards the lion lived peacefully in the monastery with +him. Now, whenever you see a lion in a picture with an old monk, him +you <a name="page64"></a>will know to be St. Jerome. He was a learned Christian father who +lived some fifteen hundred years ago, yet his works are still read, +spoken, and heard every day throughout the world. He it was who made +the standard Latin version of the Scriptures. The services in Roman +Catholic churches in all countries are held in Latin to this day, and +St. Jerome's translation of the Bible, called the Vulgate, is the +version still in use.</p> + +<p>Here you see St. Jerome depicted sitting in his own study, reading +to prepare himself for his great undertaking; and what a study it is! +You must go to the National Gallery to enjoy all the details, for the +original painting is only 18 inches high by 14 inches broad, and the +books and writing materials are so tiny that some are inevitably lost +in this beautiful photograph. The study is really a part of a monastery +assigned to St. Jerome himself, his books, manuscripts, and other such +possessions. He has a pot of flowers and a dwarf tree, and a towel +to dry his hands on, and a beautiful chair at his desk. He has taken +off his dusty shoes and left them at the foot of the steps.</p> + +<p>The painter of this picture, must have had in his mind a very happy +idea of St. Jerome. Others <a name="page65"></a>have sometimes painted him as they thought +he looked when living in a horrible desert, as he did for four years. +But at the time this picture was painted, about the year 1470, St. +Jerome in his study was a more usual subject for painters than St. +Jerome in the desert. One reason of this was that in Italy, in the +latter half of the fifteenth century, St. Jerome was considered the +patron saint of scholars, and for the first time since the fall of +the Roman Empire, scholars were perhaps the most influential people +of the day.</p> + +<a name="illus4"></a> +<center><img width="80%" src="images/stjerome.jpg" alt="St. Jerome in his Study"></center> +<br> +<center>S<small>T</small>. J<small>EROME IN HIS</small> S<small>TUDY</small><br> +<small>From the picture by Antonello da Messina, in the National Gallery, London</small></center> + +<p>Of course you all know something about the remarkable revival of +learning in the fifteenth century, which started in Italy, spread +northward, and reached England in the reign of Henry VIII. Before the +fifteenth century, Italians seem to have been indifferent to the +monuments around them of ancient civilization. Suddenly they were +fired with a passion for antiquity. They learnt Greek and began to +take a keen interest in the doings of the Greeks and Romans, who in +many ways had lived a life so far superior to their own. Artists studied +the old statues, which taught them the beauty of the human figure. +The reacquired wisdom of the ancients by degrees broke down <a name="page66"></a>the +medieval barriers. There was born a spirit of enterprise into the world +of thought as well as into the world of fact, which revolutionized +life and art. The period which witnessed this great mental change is +well known as the Renaissance or 'rebirth.'</p> + +<p>When you first looked at this picture you must have thought it very +different from the two earlier ones. Such a subject could only have +been painted thus in an age when men admired the scholar's life. Though +the figure is called that of St. Jerome, there is really nothing +typically saintly about him; he is only serious. The subjects chosen +by painters of the Renaissance were no longer almost solely religious, +but began to be selected from the world of everyday life; even when +the subject was taken from Christian legend, it was now generally +treated as an event happening in the actual world of the painter's +own day.</p> + +<p>The manner in which this picture is painted is still more suggestive +of change than the subject itself. Our artist knew a great deal about +the new science of perspective, for instance. One might almost think +that, pleased with his new knowledge, he had multiplied the number +of <a name="page67"></a>objects on the shelves so as to show how well he could foreshorten +them. Medieval painters had not troubled about perspective, and were +more concerned, as we have seen, to make a pretty pattern of shapes +and colours for their pictures. The Van Eycks, as we noted, only +acquired the beginnings of an understanding of it, and were very proud +of their new knowledge. It was in Italy that all the rules were at +last brought to light.</p> + +<p>The Renaissance Period in Italy may be considered as lasting from 1400 +to 1550. The pioneer artists who mastered perspective and worked at +the human figure till they could draw it correctly in any attitude, +lived in the first seventy-five years of the fifteenth century. They +were the breakers of stone and hewers of wood who prepared the way +for the greater artists of the end of the century, but in the process +of learning, many of them painted very lovely things.</p> + +<p>The painter of our picture lived within those seventy-five years. He +was, probably, a certain Antonello of Messina—that same town in Sicily +recently wrecked by earthquakes. Of his life little is known. He seems +to have worked chiefly in Venice where there was a fine school of +painting <a name="page68"></a>during the Renaissance Period; his senior Giovanni Bellini, +one of the early great painters of Venice, some of whose pictures are +in the National Gallery, taught him much. It is also said that Antonello +went to the Netherlands and there learnt the method of laying paint +on panel invented by the Van Eycks. Modern students say he did not, +but that he picked up his way of painting in Italy. Certainly he and +other Venetians and Italians about this time improved their technical +methods as the Van Eycks had done, and this picture is an early example +of that more brilliant fashion of painting. There is here a Flemish +love of detail. The Italian painters had been more accustomed to +painting upon walls than the Flemings, for the latter had soon +discovered that a damp northern climate was not favourable to the +preservation of wall-paintings. Fresco does not admit of much detail, +as each day's work has to be finished in the day, before the plaster +dries. Thus, a long tradition of fresco painting had accustomed the +Italian painters to a broad method of treatment, which they maintained +to a certain extent even in their panel pictures. But in our St. Jerome +we see a wealth of detail unsurpassed even by John van Eyck.</p> + +<a name="page69"></a><p>One needs a magnifying-glass to see everything there is to be seen +in the landscape through the window on the left. Besides the city with +its towers and walls and the mountains behind, there is a river in +the foreground where two little people are sitting in a boat. Observe +every tiny stone in the pavement, and every open page of the books +on the shelves. Here, too, is breadth in the handling. Hold the book +far away from you, so that the detail of the picture vanishes and only +the broad masses of the composition stand out. You still have what +is essential. The picture is one in which Italian feeling and sentiment +blend with Flemish technique and love of little things. There has +always been something of a mystery about the picture, and you must +not be surprised some day if you hear it asserted that Antonello did +not paint it at all. Such changes in the attributions of unsigned +paintings are not uncommon.</p> + +<p>One of the greatest pioneer artists of the fifteenth century was Andrea +Mantegna of Padua in the north of Italy. More than any other painter +of his day, he devoted himself to the study of ancient sculpture, even +to the extent of sometimes painting in monochrome to imitate the actual +<a name="page70"></a>marble. Paintings by him, which look like sculptured reliefs, are in +the National Gallery; and at Hampton Court is a series of cartoons +representing the Triumph of Julius Caesar, in which the conception +and the handling are throughout inspired by old Roman bas-reliefs. +In other pictures of his, the figures look as though cast of bronze, +for he was likewise influenced by the sculptors of his own day, +particularly by the Florentine Donatello, one of the geniuses of the +early Renaissance. Mantegna's studies of form in sculpture made him +an excellent draughtsman. Strangely enough, it was this very severe +artist who was, perhaps, the first to depict the charm of babyhood. +Often he draws his babes wrapped in swaddling clothes, with their +little fingers in their mouths, or else in the act of crying, with +their eyes screwed up tight, and their mouths wide open. Such a +combination of hard sculpturesque modelling with extreme tenderness +of feeling has a charm of its own.</p> + +<p>We have now just one more picture of a sacred subject to look at, one +of the last that still retains much of the old beautiful religious +spirit of the Middle Ages. The painter of it, Sandro Botticelli, a +Florentine, in whom were blended the <a name="page71"></a>piety of the Middle Ages and the +intellectual life of the Renaissance, was a very interesting man, whose +like we shall not find among the painters of his own or later days. +He was born in 1446, in Florence, the city in Italy most alive to the +new ideas and the new learning. Its governing family, the Medici, of +whom you have doubtless read, surrounded themselves with a brilliant +society of accomplished men, and adorned their palaces with the finest +works of art that could be produced in their time. The best artists +from the surrounding country were attracted to Florence in the hope +of working for the family, who were ever ready to employ a man of +artistic gifts.</p> + +<p>In such an atmosphere an original and alert person like Botticelli +could not fail to keep step with the foremost of his day. His fertile +fancy was charmed by the revived stories of Greek Mythology, and for +a time he gave himself up to the painting of pagan subjects such as +the Birth of Venus from the Sea, and the lovely allegory of Spring +with Venus, Cupid, and the Three Graces. He was one of the early artists +to break through the old wall of religious convention, painting frankly +mythological subjects, and he did them in an exquisite manner all his +own.</p> + +<a name="page72"></a><p>The true spirit of beauty dwelt within him, and all that he painted +and designed was graceful in form and beautiful in colour. If, for +instance, you look closely into the designs of the necks of dresses +in his pictures, you will find them delightful to copy and far superior +to the ordinary designs for such things made to-day. In his love of +beauty and his keen appreciation of the new possibilities of painting +he was a true child of the Renaissance, though he had not the joyous +nature so characteristic of the time. Moreover, as I have said, he +retained the old sweet religious spirit, and clothed it with new forms +of beauty in his sacred paintings. There is something pathetic about +many of these—the Virgin, while she nurses the Infant Christ, seems +to foresee all the sorrow in store for her, and but little of the joy. +The girl angels who nestle around her in so many of his pictures, have +faces of exquisite beauty, but in most of them, notwithstanding the +fact that they are evidently painted from Florentine girls of the time, +Botticelli has infused his own personal note of sadness.</p> + +<p>At the end of the fifteenth century, when Botticelli was beginning +to grow old, great events <a name="page73"></a>took place in Florence. Despite the revival +of learning, we are told by historians that the Church was becoming +corrupt and the people more pleasure-loving and less interested in +the religious life. Then it was that Savonarola, a friar in one of +the convents of Florence, all on fire with enthusiasm for purity and +goodness, began to awaken the hearts of the people with his burning +eloquence, and his denunciations of their worldliness and the deadness +of the Church. He prophesied a great outpouring of the wrath of God, +and in particular that the Church would be purified and renewed after +a quick and terrible punishment. The passion, the conviction, the +eloquence of Savonarola for a time carried the people of Florence away, +and Botticelli with them, so that he became one of the 'mourners' as +the preacher's followers were called.</p> + +<p>At this time many persons burnt in great 'bonfires of vanities' all +the pretty trinkets that they possessed. But when the prophecies did +not literally come true, and the people began to be weary of +Savonarola's vehemence, we read that a reaction set in, which afforded +a chance for his enemies within the Church, whom he had lashed <a name="page74"></a>with +his tongue from the pulpit of the cathedral. They contrived to have +him tried for heresy and burnt in the market-place of Florence, in +the midst of the people who so shortly before had hung on every word +that fell from his lips.</p> + +<p>This tragedy entirely overwhelmed Botticelli, who thenceforward +almost abandoned painting, and gave up his last years to the practices +of the religious life. It was at this time, says Mr. Horne, and under +the influence of these emotions, in the year 1500, when he was sixty +years of age, that he painted the picture here reproduced, as an +illustration to the prophecies of Savonarola, and a tribute to his +memory. Savonarola had been wont to use the descriptions, in the Book +of Revelations, of the woes that were to fall upon the earth before +the building of the new Jerusalem, to illustrate his prophecy of the +scourge that was to come upon Italy, before the Church became purified +from the wickedness of the times. At the top of the picture is written +in Greek:</p> + +<blockquote>I, Sandro, painted this picture at the end of the year 1500, during +the troubles of Italy, in the half year after the first year of the +loosing of the Devil for 3½ years, in accordance with the fulfilment +of the 11th chapter of the <a name="page75"></a>Revelations of St. John. Then shall the +Devil be chained, according to the 12th chapter, and we shall see him +trodden down as in the picture.</blockquote> + +<p>The Devil which was loosed for three and a half years stood for the +stage of wickedness through which Botticelli believed that Florence +was passing in 1500. In the bottom corners of the picture you can see +minute little devils running away discomfited; otherwise all is pure +joy and peace, symbolic of the gladness to come upon Italy when the +Church had been purified:</p> + +<blockquote>When Life is difficult, I dream<br> + Of how the angels dance in Heaven.<br> + Of how the angels dance and sing<br> + In gardens of eternal spring,<br> + Because their sins have been forgiven....<br> + And never more for them shall be<br> + The terrors of mortality.<br> + When life is difficult, I dream<br> + Of how the angels dance in Heaven....[2]</blockquote> + +<p><small>[Footnote 2: By Lady Alfred Douglas.]</small></p> + +<p>That is what Botticelli dreamed. He saw the beautiful angels in green, +white, and red dancing with joy, because of the birth of their Saviour, +and into their hands he put scrolls, upon which were written:—'Glory +to God in the Highest.' The <a name="page76"></a>rest of the verse, 'Peace and goodwill +towards men' is on the scrolls of the shepherds, brought by the angel +to behold the Babe lying in the manger. The three men, embraced with +such eagerness and joy by the three angels in the foreground, are +Savonarola and his two chief companions, burnt with him, who, after +their long suffering upon earth, have found reward and happiness in +heaven.</p> + +<a name="illus5"></a> +<center><img width="80%" src="images/nativity.jpg" alt="The Nativity"></center> +<br> +<center>T<small>HE</small> N<small>ATIVITY</small><br> +<small>From the picture by Sandro Botticelli, in the National Gallery, London</small></center> + +<p>Such is the meaning of this beautiful little picture, as spiritual +in idea as any of the paintings of the thirteenth and fourteenth +centuries. But while the earlier painters had striven with inadequate +powers to express the religious feeling that was in them, Botticelli's +skill matched his thought. His drawing of the angels in their Greek +dresses is very lovely, and one scarce knows in any picture a group +surpassing that of the three little ones upon the roof of the manger, +nor will you soon see a lovelier Virgin's face than hers. Botticelli +had great power of showing the expression in a face, and the movement +in a figure. Here the movements may seem overstrained, a fault which +grew upon him in his old age; the angel, with the two shepherds on +the right, has come skimming over the ground and <a name="page77"></a>points emphatically +at the Babe, and the angel in front embraces Savonarola with vehemence. +The artists of the early Renaissance had learnt with so much trouble +to draw figures in motion that their pleasure in their newly acquired +skill sometimes made them err by exaggeration as their predecessors +by stiffness.</p> + +<p>The way in which Botticelli treated this subject of the Nativity of +Christ, is, as you see, very different from the way in which Hubert +van Eyck painted the Three Maries at the Sepulchre. We saw how the +latter pictured the event as actually taking place outside Jerusalem. +To Botticelli the Nativity of Christ was emblematic of a new and happier +life for people in Florence, with the Church regenerated and purified, +as Christ would have wished it to be. To him the Nativity was a symbol +of purity, so he painted the picture as a commentary on the event, +not as an illustration of the Biblical text.</p> + +<p>The angels rejoice in heaven as the shepherds upon earth, the devils +flee away discomfited, and Savonarola and his companions obtain peace +after the tribulations of life. Such was the message of Botticelli +in the picture here reproduced.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br><a name="page78"></a> +<div><h3><a name="chap6">CHAPTER VI</a></h3></div> +<h4>RAPHAEL</h4> +<br> +<p>The original of our next picture is very small, only seven inches square, +yet I hope it will instantly appeal to you. The name of the artist, +Raphael, is perhaps the most familiar of all the names of the Old +Masters, mainly, it may be, because he was the painter of the Sistine +Madonna, the best known and best loved of Madonnas.</p> + +<p>When Raphael drew and painted this picture of the 'Knight's Dream,' +about the year 1500, he was himself like a young knight, at the outset +of his short and brilliant career. As a boy he was handsome, gifted, +charming. His nature is said to have been as lovely as his gifts were +great, and he passed his short life in a triumphant progress from city +to city and court to court, always working hard and always painting +so beautifully that he won the <a name="page79"></a>admiration of artists, princes, and +popes. His father, Giovanni Santi, was a painter living in the town +of Urbino, in Central Italy, but Raphael when quite young went to +Perugia to study with the painter Perugino, a native of that town.</p> + +<p>Perugia stands upon a high hill, like the hill in the background of +the picture of the 'Knight's Dream,' only higher, for from it you can +overlook the wide Umbrian plain as far as Assisi—the home of St. +Francis—which lies on the slope of the next mountain. That beautiful +Umbrian landscape, in which all the towns look like castles perched +upon the top of steep hills, with wide undulating ground between, +occurs frequently in the pictures of Perugino, and often in those of +his pupil Raphael. If you have once seen the view from Perugia for +yourself, you will realize how strongly it took hold of the imagination +of the young painter. Raphael had a most impressionable mind. It was +part of his genius that, from every painter with whom he came in contact +he imbibed the best, almost without knowing it. The artists of his +day, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the other great men, were +each severally employed in working out <a name="page80"></a>once and for all some particular +problem in connection with their art. Michelangelo, a giant in +intellect, painter, sculptor, architect, and poet, studied the human +body as it had not been studied since the days of ancient Greece. His +sculptured figures on the tombs of the Medici in Florence rank second +only to those of the greatest Greek sculptors, and his ceiling in the +Sistine Chapel is composed of a series of masterpieces of +figure-painting. He devoted himself largely in his sculpture and his +painting to the representation of the naked human body, and made it +futile in his successors to plead ignorance as an excuse for bad drawing. +As a colourist he was not pre-eminent, and his few panel pictures are +for the most part unfinished.</p> + +<p>Leonardo da Vinci, the older contemporary of Raphael, first in Florence +and afterwards in the north of Italy, left a colossal reputation and +but few pictures, for in his search after perfection he became +dissatisfied with what he had done and is said to have destroyed one +masterpiece after another. For him the great interest in the aspect +of man and woman was not so much the form of the body as the expression +of the face. What was fantastic and weird fascinated him. At Windsor +<a name="page81"></a>are designs he made for the construction of an imaginary beast with +gigantic claws. He once owned a lizard, and made wings for it with +quicksilver inside them, so that they quivered when the lizard crawled. +He put a dragon's mask over its head, and the result was ghastly. The +tale gives us a side light on this extraordinary personage. When you +are led to read more about him you will feel the fascination of his +strong, yet perplexing personality. The faces in his pictures are +wonderful faces, with a fugitive mocking smile and a seeming burden +of strange thought. By mastery of the most subtle gradations of light, +his heads have an appearance of solidity new in painting, till Raphael +and some of his contemporaries learnt the secret from Leonardo. +Heretofore, Italian painters had been contented to bathe their +pictures in a flood of diffused light, but he experimented also with +effects of strong light and shade on the face. His landscape +backgrounds are an almost unearthly cold grey, and include the +strangest forms of rock and mountain. His investigations into several +of the scientific problems connected with art led to results which +affected in an important degree the work of many later artists.</p> + +<a name="page82"></a><p>If Raphael had less originality than Michelangelo or Leonardo, if +Leonardo was the first artist to obtain complete mastery over the +expression of the face and Michelangelo over the drawing of the figure, +Raphael was able to profit at once by whatever they accomplished. Yet +never was he a mere imitator, for all that he absorbed became tinged +with a magical charm in his fertile brain, a charm so personal that +his work can hardly be mistaken for that of any other artist.</p> + +<p>Our picture of a 'Knight's Dream' was probably painted while Raphael +was under the influence of a master named Timoteo Viti, whose works +you are not likely to know, or much care about when you see them. It +was just after he had painted it that he came into Perugino's hands.</p> + +<p>Although the 'Knight's Dream' is so small, and Raphael was but a boy +when he painted it, the picture has the true romantic air, +characteristic of the joyful years of the early Renaissance. He does +not seem to have felt the conflict between the old religious ideal +and the new pursuit of worldly beauty as Botticelli felt it. Yet he +chose the competition of these two ideals as the subject of this picture. +The Knight, clothed in bright <a name="page83"></a>armour and gay raiment, bearing no +relation at all to the clothes worn in 1500, rests upon his shield +beneath the slight shade of a very slender tree. In his dream there +appear to him two figures, both of whom claim his knightly allegiance +for life: one, a young and lovely girl in a bright coloured dress with +flowers in her hair, tempts him to embrace a life of mirth, of</p> + +<blockquote>Jest and youthful Jollity,<br> + Quips and Cranks and wanton Wiles,<br> + Nods and Becks and wreathed Smiles.</blockquote> + +<p>The other resembles the same poet's</p> + +<blockquote>Pensive Nun, devout and pure,<br> + Sober, steadfast, and demure.</blockquote> + +<p>She holds sword and book, symbols of stern action and wise +accomplishment. Which the knight will choose we are not told, perhaps +because Raphael himself never had to make the choice. He was too gifted +and too fond of work to be tempted from it by anything whatever. Always +joyous and always successful, he was able to paint any subject, sacred, +profane, ancient, or modern, so long as it was a happy one. He was +too busy and too gay to feel pain and sorrow, as Botticelli felt <a name="page84"></a>them, +and to paint sad subjects. To him the visible world was good and +beautiful, and the invisible world lovely and happy likewise. His +Madonnas are placid or smiling mothers. The fat and darling babies +they hold are indeed divine but not awesome. Yet the extraordinary +sweetness of expression, nobility of form, and beauty of colouring +in the Madonnas make you almost hold your breath when you look at them.</p> + +<p>In the 'Knight's Dream' there is a simple beauty in the pose and +grouping of the figures. You can hardly fancy three figures better +arranged for the purpose of the subject. There is something inevitable +about them, which is the highest praise due to a mastery of design +in the art of composition. Raphael's surpassing gift was in fitting +beautiful figures into any given space, so that it seems as though +the space had been made to fit the figures, instead of the figures +to fit the space. You could never put his round Madonnas into a square +frame. The figures would look as wrong as in a round frame they look +right. If you were to cut off a bit of the foreground in any of his +pictures and add the extra piece to the sky, <a name="page85"></a>you would make the whole +look wrong, whereas perhaps you might add on a piece of sky to Hubert +van Eyck's 'Three Maries' without spoiling the effect.</p> + +<a name="illus6"></a> +<center><img width="80%" src="images/knight.jpg" alt="The Knight's Dream"></center> +<br> +<center>T<small>HE</small> K<small>NIGHT'S</small> D<small>REAM</small><br> +<small>From the picture by Raphael, in the National Gallery, London</small></center> + +<p>The colouring of the picture, too, is jewel-like and lovely, but the +uncoloured drawing is itself full of charm. The grace of line, which +was to distinguish all the works of his mature years, is already +manifest in this effort of his boyhood. It seems to foretell the sweep +of the Virgin's drapery in the Sistine Madonna, and the delightful +maze of curves flowing together and away again and returning upon +themselves which outline the face, the arms, hands, and draperies of +St. Catherine in the National Gallery. You will find it well worth +a little trouble to look long and closely at one of Raphael's well-known +Madonnas till you clearly see how the composition of all the parts +of it is formed by the play of long and graceful curves.</p> + +<p>You can see from the drawing of the 'Knight's Dream,' which is hung +quite near the painting in the National Gallery, how carefully Raphael +thought out the detail of the picture before he began to paint. He +seems even to have been <a name="page86"></a>afraid that he might not be able to draw it +again so perfectly; therefore he placed the drawing over the panel +and pricked it through. The marks of the pin are quite clear, and it +brings one nearer this great artist to follow closely the process of +his work. It makes the young boy genius of 1500 almost seem akin to +the struggling boy and girl artists of the present time.</p> + +<p>From Perugia Raphael went to Florence, where he painted a number of +his most beautiful Madonnas. Then, in 1508, he was called to Rome by +Pope Julius II. to decorate some rooms in the Vatican Palace. The +Renaissance popes were possessed of so great wealth, and spent it to +such purpose, that its spending influenced the art of their age. Many +of the rooms in the Vatican had been decorated by Botticelli and other +good artists of the previous half-century, but already the new pope +considered their work out of date and ordered it to be replaced by +Michelangelo and Raphael. For nine years Raphael worked at the +decoration of the palace, always being pressed, hurried, and even +worried by two successive popes who employed him. The wall spaces which +he had to fill were often awkwardly broken up with windows and <a name="page87"></a>doors, +but he easily overcame whatever difficulties were encountered. To +succeed apparently without struggle was a peculiar gift granted to +Raphael above any other artist of his day. The frescoes painted by +him in the Vatican illustrated subjects from Greek philosophy and +medieval Church history, as well as from the Old and New Testament. +As an illustrator of sacred writ he never attempted that verisimilitude +in Eastern surroundings to which Hubert van Eyck leaned, neither was +he satisfied with the dress of his own day in which other painters +were wont to clothe their sacred characters. The historical sense, +which has driven some modern artists to much antiquarian research to +discover exactly what Peter and Paul must have worn, did not exist +before the nineteenth century. Raphael felt, nevertheless, that the +clothes of the Renaissance were hardly suitable for Noah and Abraham, +so he invented a costume of his own, founded upon Roman dress, but +different from oriental or contemporary clothes. The Scripture +illustrations of Raphael most familiar to you may probably be his +cartoon designs for tapestry in the South Kensington Museum, which +were bought by Charles I. In these you can see <a name="page88"></a>what is meant about +the clothes, but you will not be surprised at them, because the same +have been adopted by the majority of Bible illustrators ever since +the days of Raphael. His pictures became so popular that it was thought +whatever he did must be right. The dress was a mere detail in his work, +but it was easy to copy and has been copied persistently from that +day to this. It is curious to think that the long white robes, which +Christ wears in the illustrations of our present-day Sunday School +books and other religious publications, are all due to imitation of +Raphael's designs.</p> + +<p>The first room he finished for Julius II. was so rich in effect and +beautiful in colour that the Pope could scarcely wait for more rooms +as fine. Raphael had to call in a large number of assistants to enable +him to cover the walls fast enough to please the Pope, and the quality +of the work began to deteriorate. The uneven merit of his frescoes +foretold the consequence of overwork despite his matchless facility +and power. But in his panel pictures, when he was not hurried, his +work continued to improve until he reached his crowning achievement +in the Sistine Madonna painted three years before his death.</p> + +<a name="page89"></a><p>Raphael was thirty-seven when he died in 1520, and very far from coming +to the end of his powers of learning. Each picture that he painted +revealed to him new difficulties to conquer, and new experiments to +try, in his art. We seem compelled to think that had he lived and +laboured for another score of years, the history of painting in Italy +might have been different. In Rome and Florence no successor attempted +to improve upon his work. His pupils and assistants were more numerous +than those of any other painter, but when they had obtained some of +his facility of drawing and painting they were contented. None of them +had Raphael's genius, yet all wished to paint like him; so that for +the following fifty years Rome and Florence and Southern Italy were +flooded with inferior Raphaelesque paintings, which tended to become +more slip-shod in execution as time went on, and more devoid of any +personal note. It was just as though his imitators had learnt to write +beautifully and then had had little to say.</p> + +<p>Leonardo da Vinci died a few months before Raphael. Several of his +pupils were artists of ability, and lived to carry on his traditions +of <a name="page90"></a>painting in the north of Italy. Leonardo himself had been so erratic, +produced so little, and so few of his pictures survive, that many know +him best in his pupils' work, or through copies and engravings of his +great 'Last Supper'—a picture that became an almost total wreck upon +the walls of the Refectory in Milan, for which it was painted. His +influence upon his contemporaries at Milan was very great, so that +during some years hardly a picture was painted there which did not +show a likeness to the work of Leonardo. He had created a type of female +beauty all his own. The face will impress itself upon your memory the +first time you see it, whether in a picture by Leonardo or in one by +a pupil. You can see it in the National Gallery in the great 'Madonna +of the Rocks,' and in the magnificent drawing at Burlington House. +It is not a very beautiful face, but it haunts the memory, and the +Milanese artists of Leonardo's day never threw off their recollection +of it.</p> + +<p>With far less power than Leonardo, one of his imitators, Bernardino +Luini, painted pictures of such charm and simplicity that almost +everyone finds them delightful. If you could see his picture of the +angels bearing St. Catherine, robed in red, <a name="page91"></a>through the air to her +last resting-place upon the hill, you would feel the beauty and peace +of his gentle nature revealed in his art. But the spell of Leonardo +vanished with the death of those who had known him in life. The last +of his pupils died in 1550, and with him the Leonardo school of painting +came to an end.</p> + +<p>There is one more painter belonging to the full Renaissance too famous +to remain entirely unmentioned. This is Correggio, a painter affected +also by the pictures of Raphael and Leonardo, but individual in his +vision and his work. He passed his life in Parma, in the north of Italy, +inheriting a North Italian tradition, and hearing only echoes of the +world beyond. His canvases are thronged with fair shapes, pretty women +and dancing children, ethereally soft and lovely. But it is in his +native town that the angels soar aloft with the Virgin in the dome +of the cathedral, and the children frolic on the walls of the convent. +These are his masterpieces you would like best.</p> + +<p>In 1550 the impetus given to painting in Italy by the Renaissance was +drawing to an end. The great central epoch may be said to have +terminated in Tuscany a few years after the deaths of <a name="page92"></a>Leonardo and +Raphael in 1520. But we have said nothing yet of Venice, where, in +1520, artists whose visions and whose record of them were to be as +wonderful as those of Botticelli and Raphael, were as yet sleeping +in their cradles.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br><a name="page93"></a> +<div><h3><a name="chap7">CHAPTER VII</a></h3></div> +<h4>THE RENAISSANCE IN VENICE</h4> +<br> +<p>A visit to Venice is one of the joys which perhaps few of us have yet +experienced. But whether we have been there or not, we all know that +the very sound of her name is enchanting for those who are fresh from +her magic—her sunrises and sunsets unmatched for colour, and her +streets for silence.</p> + +<p>The Venetians were a proud and successful people, wealthier by virtue +of their great sea-trade than the citizens of Florence or of any other +town in Italy; their foremost men lived in great high-roomed palaces, +richly furnished, and decorated with pictures of a sumptuous pageantry. +But the Venetians were not merely a luxurious people. The poetry of +the lagoons, and the glory of the sunset skies, imparted to their lives +the wealth of a rare romance. Even in Venice to-day, now that <a name="page94"></a>the +steamers have spoilt the peace of the canals and the old orange-winged +sailing-boats no longer crowd against the quays, the dreamy atmosphere +of the city retains its spell.</p> + +<p>Few artists ever felt and expressed this atmosphere better than +Giorgione, the painter of the first of our Venetian pictures. He was +one of the great artists of the Renaissance who died young, ten years +before Raphael, but their greatness is scarcely comparable. Like +Raphael, Giorgione was precocious, but unlike him he painted in a style +of his own that from the very beginning owed little to any one else. +He saw beauty in his own way, and was not impelled to see it differently +by coming into contact with other artists, however great. Unlike +Raphael, he was not a great master of the art of composition. In the +little picture before us the grouping of the figures is not what may +be called inevitable, like that in the 'Knight's Dream.' It seems as +though one day when Giorgione was musing on the beauties of the world, +and the blemishes of life, even life in Venice, he thought of some +far-off time beyond the dawn of history when all men lived in peace. +The ancient Greeks called this perfect time the <a name="page95"></a>'Golden Age' of the +world. In many ways their idea of it tallies with the description of +the Garden of Eden, and they were always contrasting with it the 'Iron +Age' in which they thought they lived, as the Hebrews contrasted the +life of Adam and Eve in the garden with their own. As the fancy flashed +across Giorgione's mind, perchance he saw some just king of whom his +subjects felt no fear seated upon a throne like this. A dreamy youth +plays soft music to him, and another hands him flowers and fruit. Books +lie strewn upon the steps, and a child stands in a reverent attitude +before him. Wild and domestic animals live together in harmony; the +ground is carpeted with flowers; all is peaceful. Such a subject suited +the temperament of Giorgione, and he painted it in the romantic mood +in which it was conceived. Nothing could be further from everyday life +than this little scene. It has the unlaboured look that suits such +an improvised subject. Of course no one knows for certain that this +is a picture of the Golden Age, and you may make up any story you like +about it for yourselves. That is one of the charms of the picture. +It has been said that the throned one is celebrating his birthday, +and <a name="page96"></a>that his little heir is reciting him a birthday ode accompanied +by music. You may believe this if you like, but how do you then account +for the leopard and the peacock living in such harmony together?</p> + +<a name="illus7"></a> +<center><img width="80%" src="images/goldenage.jpg" alt="The Golden Age"></center> +<br> +<center>"T<small>HE</small> G<small>OLDEN</small> A<small>GE</small>"<br> +<small>From the picture by Giorgione, in the National Gallery, London</small></center> + +<p>Giorgione painted a few sacred pictures and many mythological scenes, +besides several very beautiful portraits of dreamy-looking poets and +noblemen. But even when he illustrated some well-known tale, he did +not care to seize upon the dramatic moment that gives the crisis of +the story, as Giotto would have done, and as the painter of our next +picture does. Violent action did not attract him. Whatever the subject, +if it were possible to group the figures together at a moment when +they were beautifully doing nothing, he did so. But he liked still +more to paint ideal scenes from his own fancy, where young people sit +in easy attitudes upon the grass, conversing for an instant in the +intervals of the music they make upon pipes and guitar. He was the +first artist, so far as I know, to paint these half real, half imaginary +scenes, of which our picture may be one. In all of them landscape bears +an important part, and in some the background has become the picture +and <a name="page97"></a>completely subordinated the figures. In this little 'Golden Age' +the landscape is quiet in tone, tinged with melancholy, romantic, to +suit the mood of the figures. Its colouring, though rich, is subdued, +more like the tints of autumn than the fresh hues of spring. The +Venetians excelled in their treatment of colour. They lived in an +uncommon world of it. Giorgione saw his picture in his mind's eye as +a blaze of rich colour; he did not see the figures sharply outlined +against a remote background, as are the three in Raphael's 'Knight's +Dream.' That does not mean that Raphael, like the artist of the Richard +II. diptych, failed to make his figures look solid, but that he saw +beauty most in the outlines of the body and the curves of the drapery, +irrespective of colour, whereas to Giorgione's eye outline was nothing +without colour and light and shade. The body of the King upon the throne +in our picture is massed against the background, but there is no +definite outline to divide it from the tree behind. In this respect +Giorgione was curiously modern for his date, as we shall see in pictures +of a still later time.</p> + +<p>Giorgione was only thirty-three years old when <a name="page98"></a>he died of the plague +in 1510, the same year as Botticelli. His master, Giovanni Bellini, +who was born in 1428, outlived him by six years, and the great Titian, +his fellow-pupil in the studio of Bellini, lived another half-century +or more.</p> + +<p>Titian in many ways summed up all that was greatest in Venetian art. +His pictures have less romance than those of Giorgione, except during +the short space of time when he painted under the spell of his brother +artist. It is extremely difficult to distinguish then between Titian's +early and Giorgione's late work. Titian perhaps had the greater +intellect. Giorgione's pictures vary according to his mood, while +Titian's express a less changeable personality. In spite of his youth, +Giorgione made a profound impression upon all the artists of his time. +They did not copy his designs, but the beauty of his pictures made +them look at the world with his romantic eyes and paint in his dreamy +mood. It was almost as though Giorgione had absorbed the romance of +Venice into his pictures, so that for a time no Venetian painter could +express Venetian romance except in Giorgione's way.</p> + +<p>But in 1518, eight years after Giorgione's <a name="page99"></a>death, another great +innovating master was born at Venice, Tintoret by name, who in his +turn opened new visions of the world to the artists of his day. While +painting in the rest of Italy was becoming mannered and sentimental, +lacking in power and originality, Tintoret in Venice was creating +masterpieces with a very fury of invention and a corresponding +swiftness of hand. He was his own chief teacher. Outside his studio +he wrote upon a sign to inform or attract pupils—'The design of +Michelangelo and the colouring of Titian.' Profound study of the works +of these two masters is manifest in his own. Like Michelangelo he worked +passionately rather than with the sober competence of Titian. His +thronging visions, his multitudinous and often vast canvases are a +surpassing record. Prolonged study of the human form had given to him, +as to Michelangelo, a wonderful power of drawing groups of figures. +His mere output was marvellous, and much of it on a grandiose scale. +He covered hundreds of square feet of ceilings and walls in Venice +with paintings of subjects that had been painted hundreds of times +before; but each as he treated it was a new thing. Centuries of +tradition <a name="page100"></a>governed the arrangement of such subjects as the Crucifixion +and the Last Judgment, so that even the free painters of the Renaissance +had deviated but little from it. In Tintoret the freedom of the +Renaissance reached its height. For him tradition had no fetters. When +he painted a picture of Paradise for the Doge's Palace it measured +84 by 34 feet, and contained literally hundreds of figures. His +imagination was so prolific that he seems never to have repeated a +figure. New forms, new postures, new groupings flowed from his brush +in exhaustless multitude.</p> + +<p>It is necessary to go to Venice to see Tintoret's most famous works, +still remaining upon the walls of the churches and buildings for which +they were painted, or in which they have been brought together. But +the National Gallery is fortunate in possessing one relatively small +canvas of his which shows some of his finest qualities. The subject +of St. George slaying the dragon was not a new one. It had been painted +by Raphael and by several of the earlier Venetian painters, but +Tintoret's treatment of it was all his own. In the earlier pictures, +the princess, for whose sake St. George fights the dragon, was a little +figure in the background fleeing <a name="page101"></a>in terror. St. George occupied the +chief place, as he does upon the back of our gold sovereigns, where +the princess has been left out altogether. Tintoret makes her flee, +but she is running towards the spectator, and so, in her flight, stands +out the most conspicuous figure. One of the victims that the dragon +has slain lies behind her. In the distance St. George fights with all +his might against the powers of evil, whilst 'the splendour of God' +blazes in the sky. There is a vividness and power about the picture +that proclaims the hand of Tintoret. In contrast to Giorgione he liked +to paint figures in motion, yet he was as typical an outcome of Venetian +romance as the earlier painter. Nothing could be more like a fairy-tale +than this picture. It was no listless dreamer that painted it, but +one with a gorgeous imagination and yet a full knowledge of the world, +enabling him to give substance to his visions. Tintoret's stormy +landscapes are as beautiful in their way as Giorgione's dreamy ones, +and each carries out the mood of the rest of the picture. This one +is full of power, mystery, and romance. Tintoret had modelled his +colouring upon Titian and was by nature a great colourist, but too +often he used bad materials that <a name="page102"></a>have turned black with the lapse of +years. In this picture you see his colour as it was meant to be, rich, +and boldly harmonious. The vivid red and blue of the princess's clothes +are a daring combination with the brilliant green of the landscape, +but Tintoret knew what he was doing, and the result is superb. With +his death in 1594 the best of Venetian painting came to an end.</p> + +<a name="illus8"></a> +<center><img width="80%" src="images/stgeorge.jpg" alt="St. George Destroying the Dragon"></center> +<br> +<center>S<small>T</small>. G<small>EORGE DESTROYING THE</small> D<small>RAGON</small><br> +<small>From the picture by Tintoretto, in the National Gallery, London</small></center> + +<p>There were as many excellent painters in the fairy city as there had +been in Florence; contemporaries of Giovanni Bellini (who, in his early +years, worked in close companionship with Mantegna, his +brother-in-law), as well as contemporaries of Titian and Tintoret. +The painter Veronese, for instance, died a few years before Tintoret. +For pomp and pageantry his great canvases are eminent. Standing in +some room of the Doge's Palace, decorated entirely by his hand, we +are carried back to the time when Venice was Queen of the Seas, +unrivalled for magnificence and wealth. He was the Master of Ceremonies, +before whom other painters of pomps and vanities pale. Gorgeous +colouring is what all these Venetian painters had in common. We see +it in the early days when Venetian art was struggling into existence. +In <a name="page103"></a>her art, as in her skies and waters, we are overwhelmed by a vision +of colour unsurpassed.</p> + +<p>We have now touched on a few prominent points in the history of painting +in Italy from its early rise in Florence with Giotto; through its period +of widespread excellence in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, +when Raphael, Giorgione, Michelangelo, and Leonardo were all painting +masterpieces in Florence, Venice, Rome, and Milan at the same moment; +to its final blaze of sunset grandeur in Venice. It is time to return +to the north of Europe. In the next chapter we will try to gain a few +glimpses of the progress of painting in Germany, Holland, Flanders, +and our own country.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br><a name="page104"></a> +<div><h3><a name="chap8">CHAPTER VIII</a></h3></div> +<h4>THE RENAISSANCE IN THE NORTH</h4> +<br> +<p>The Renaissance involved a change of outlook towards the whole world +which could not long remain confined to Italy. There were then, as +now, roads over the passes of the Alps by which merchants and scholars +were continually travelling from Italy through Germany and Flanders +to England, communicating to the northern countries whatever changes +of thought stirred in the south.</p> + +<p>In Germany, as in Italy, men speedily awoke to the new life, but the +awakening took a different form. We find a different quality in the +art of the north. Italian spontaneity and child-like joy is absent; +so, too, the sense of physical beauty, universal in Italy. You remember +how the successors of the Van Eycks in Flanders painted excellent +portraits and small carefully studied <a name="page105"></a>pictures of scriptural events +in wonderful detail. They were a strictly practical people whose +painting of stuffs, furs, jewellery, and architecture was marvellously +minute and veracious. But they were not a handsome race, and their +models for saints and virgins seem to have been the people that came +handiest and by no means the best looking. Thus the figures in their +pictures lack personal charm, though the painting is usually full of +vigour, truth, and skill.</p> + +<p>When Flemings began to make tours in Italy and saw the pictures of +Raphael, in whom grace was native, they fell in love with his work +and returned to Flanders to try and paint as he did. But to them grace +was not God-given, and in their attempt to achieve it, their pictures +became sentimental and postured, and the naïve simplicity and everyday +truth, so attractive in the works of the earlier school, perished. +The influence of the Van Eycks had not been confined to Flanders. +Artists in Germany had been profoundly affected. They learnt the new +technique of painting from the pupils of the Van Eycks in the fifteenth +century. Like them, too, they discarded gold backgrounds and tried +to paint men and women as they really <a name="page106"></a>looked, instead of in the old +conventional fashion of the Middle Ages. Schools of painting grew up +in several of the more important German towns, till towards the end +of the fifteenth century two German artists were born, Albert Dürer +at Nuremberg in 1471, and Hans Holbein the younger at Augsburg in 1497, +who deserve to rank with the greatest painters of the time in any +country.</p> + +<p>Dürer is commonly regarded as the most typically German of artists, +though his father was Hungarian, and as a matter of fact he stands +very much alone. His pictures and engravings are 'long, long thoughts.' +Every inch of the surface is weighted with meaning. His cast of mind, +indeed, was more that of a philosopher than that of an artist. In a +drawing which Dürer made of himself in the looking-glass at the age +of thirteen, we see a thoughtful little face gazing out upon the world +with questioning eyes. Already the delicacy of the lines is striking, +and the hair so beautifully finished that we can anticipate the later +artist whose pictures are remarkable for so surprising a wealth of +detail. The characteristics of the Flemish School, carefulness of +workmanship and indifference to the <a name="page107"></a>physical beauty of the model, to +which the Italians were so sensitive, continued in his work. For +thoroughness his portraits can be compared with those of John van Eyck. +In the National Gallery his father lives again for us in a picture +of wonderful power and insight.</p> + +<p>Dürer was akin to Leonardo in the desire for more and yet more knowledge. +Like him he wrote treatises on fortifications, human proportions, +geometry, and perspective, and filled his sketchbooks with studies +of plants, animals, and natural scenery. His eager mind employed itself +with the whys and wherefores of things, not satisfied with the simple +pleasure that sight bestows. In his engravings, even more than in his +pictures, we ponder the hidden meanings; we are not content to look +and rejoice in beauty, though there is much to charm the eye. His +problems were the problems of life as well as the problems of art.</p> + +<p>The other great artist of Germany, Hans Holbein the younger, was the +son of Hans Holbein the elder, a much esteemed painter in Augsburg. +This town was on the principal trade route between Northern Italy and +the North Sea, so that Venetians and Milanese were constantly passing +<a name="page108"></a>through and bringing to it much wealth and news of the luxury of their +own southern life. As a result the citizens of Augsburg dressed more +expensively and decorated their houses more lavishly than did the +citizens of any other town in Germany. After a boyhood and youth spent +at Augsburg, Holbein removed to Basle. He was a designer of +wood-engravings and goldsmiths work and of architectural decoration, +besides being a painter. In those days of change in South Germany, +artists had to be willing to turn their hands to any kind of work they +could get to do. North of the Alps, where the Reformation was upsetting +old habits, an artist's life was far from being easy. Reformers made +bonfires of sacred pictures and sculptured wooden altar-pieces. Indeed +the Reformation was a cruel blow to artists, for it took away Church +patronage and made them dependent for employment upon merchants and +princes. Except at courts or in great mercantile towns they fared +extremely ill. Altar-pieces were rarely wanted, and there were no more +legends of saints to be painted upon the walls of churches.</p> + +<p>The demand for portraiture, on the other hand, was increasing, whilst +the growth of <a name="page109"></a>printing created a new field for design in the preparation +of woodcuts for the illustration of books. Thus it came to pass that +the printer Froben, at Basle, was one of the young Holbein's chief +patrons. We find him designing a wonderful series of illustrations +of <i>The Dance of Death</i>, as well as drawing another set to illustrate +<i>The Praise of Folly</i>, written by Erasmus, who was then living in Basle +and frequenting the house of Froben. Erasmus was a typical scholar +of the sixteenth century, belonging rather to civilized society as +a whole than to any one country. He moved about Europe from one centre +of learning to another, alike at home in educated circles in England, +Flanders, and Germany. He had lived for some time in England and knew +that there were men there with wealth who would employ a good painter +to paint their portraits if they could find one. Erasmus himself sat +to Holbein, and sent the finished portrait as a present to his friend +Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England.</p> + +<p>In England, owing to the effects of the Wars of the Roses, good painters +no longer existed. A century of neglect had destroyed English painting. +Henry VIII., therefore, had to look to foreign lands <a name="page110"></a>for his court +painter, and where was he to come from? France was the nearest country, +but the French King was in the same predicament as Henry. He obtained +his painters from Italy, and at one time secured the services of +Leonardo da Vinci; but Italy was a long way off and it would suit Henry +better to get a painter from Flanders or Germany if it were possible. +So Erasmus advised Holbein to go to England, and gave him a letter +to Sir Thomas More. On this first visit in 1526, he painted the +portraits of More and his whole family, and of many other distinguished +men; but it was not till his second visit in 1532 that he became Henry +VIII.'s court painter. In this capacity he had to decorate the walls +of the King's palaces, design the pageantry of the Royal processions, +and paint the portraits of the King's family. Although Holbein could +do and did do anything that was demanded of him, what he liked best +was to paint portraits. Romantic subjects such as the fight of St. +George and the dragon, or an idyll of the Golden Age, little suited +the artistic leanings of a German. To a German or a Fleming the world +of facts meant more than the world of imagination; the painting of +men and women as they looked in <a name="page111"></a>everyday life was more congenial to +them than the painting of saints and imaginary princesses.</p> + +<p>But how unimportant seems all talk of contrasting imagination and +reality when we see them fused together in this charming portrait of +Edward, the child Prince of Wales. It belongs to the end of the year +1538, when he was just fifteen months old, and the imagination of +Holbein equipped him with the orb of sovereignty in the guise of a +baby's rattle. It is in the coupling of distant kingship and present +babyhood that the painter works his magic and reveals his charm.</p> + +<a name="illus9"></a> +<center><img width="80%" src="images/edward.jpg" alt="Edward, Prince of Wales, Afterward Edward VI"></center> +<br> +<center>E<small>DWARD</small>, P<small>RINCE OF</small> W<small>ALES, AFTERWARDS</small> E<small>DWARD</small> VI.<br> +<small>From the picture by Holbein, in the Collection of the Earl of Yarborough, London</small></center> + +<p>If you recall for a moment what you know of Henry VIII., his masterful +pride, his magnificence, his determination to do and have exactly what +he wanted, you will understand that his demands upon his court painter +for a portrait of his only son and heir must have been high. No one +could say enough about this wonderful child to please Henry, for all +that was said in praise of him redounded to the glory of his father.</p> + +<p>The following is a translation of the Latin poem beneath the picture:</p> + +<blockquote>Child, of thy Father's virtues be thou heir,<br> + Since none on earth with him may well compare;<br> + <a name="page112"></a>Hardly to him might Heaven yield a son<br> + By whom his father's fame should be out-done.<br> + So, if thou equal such a mighty sire,<br> + No higher can the hopes of man aspire;<br> + If thou surpass him, thou shalt honoured be<br> + O'er all that ruled before, or shall rule after thee.[3]</blockquote> + +<p><small>[Footnote 3: Translated by Miss K. K. Radford.]</small></p> + +<p>In justice be it said that the little Edward VI. was of an extraordinary +precocity. When he was eight years old he wrote to Archbishop Cranmer +in Latin. When he was nine he knew four books of Cato by heart as well +as much of the Bible. To show you the way in which royal infants were +treated in those days,—we read that at the time this picture was +painted, the little prince had a household of his own, consisting of +a lady-mistress, a nurse, rockers for his cradle, a chamberlain, +vice-chamberlain, steward, comptroller, almoner, and dean. It is hard +to believe that the child is only fifteen months old, so erect is the +attitude, so intelligent the face. The clothes are sumptuous. A piece +of stuff similar in material and design to the sleeve exists to-day +in a museum in Brussels.</p> + +<p>In the best sense Holbein was the most Italian of the Germans. For +in him, as in the gifted Italian, grace was innate. He may have paid +a <a name="page113"></a>brief visit to Italy, but he never lived there for any length of +time, nor did he try to paint like an Italian as some northern artists +unhappily tried to do. The German merits, solidity, boldness, detailed +finish, and grasp of character, he possessed in a high degree, but +he combined with them a beauty of line, delicacy of modelling, and +richness of colour almost southern. His pictures appeal more to the +eye and less to the mind than do those of Dürer. Where Dürer sought +to instruct, Holbein was content to please. But like a German he spared +no pains. He painted the stuff and the necklace, the globe and the +feather, with the finish of an artist who was before all things a good +workman. Observe how delicately the chubby little fingers are drawn. +Holbein's detailed treatment of the accessories of a portrait is only +less than the care expended in depicting the face. He studied faces, +and his portraits, one may almost say, are at once images of and +commentaries on the people they depict. Thus his gallery of pictures +of Henry and his contemporaries show us at once the reflexion of them +as in a mirror, and the vision of them as beheld by a singularly +discerning and experienced eye that not only saw but comprehended.</p> + +<a name="page114"></a><p>This is the more remarkable because Holbein was not always able to +paint and finish his portraits in the presence of the living model, +as painters insist on doing nowadays. His sitters were generally busy +men who granted him but one sitting, so that his method was to make +a drawing of the head in red chalk and to write upon the margin notes +of anything he particularly wanted to remember. Afterwards he painted +the head from the drawing, but had the actual clothes and jewels sent +him to work from.</p> + +<p>In the Royal Collection at Windsor there are a number of these portrait +drawings of great interest to us, since many of the portraits painted +from them have been lost. As a record of remarkable people of that +day they are invaluable, for in a few powerful strokes Holbein could +set down the likeness of any face. But when he came to paint the portrait +he was not satisfied with a mere likeness. He painted too 'his habit +as he lived.' Erasmus is shown reading in his study, the merchant in +his office surrounded by the tokens of his business, and Henry VIII. +standing firmly with his legs wide apart as if bestriding a hemisphere. +But I think that you will like this fine <a name="page115"></a>portrait of the infant prince +best of all, and that is why I have chosen it in preference to a likeness +of any of the statesmen, scholars, queens, and courtiers who played +a great part in their world, but are not half so charming to look upon +as little Prince Edward.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br><a name="page116"></a> +<div><h3><a name="chap9">CHAPTER IX</a></h3></div> +<h4>REMBRANDT</h4> +<br> +<p>After the death of Holbein, artists in the north of Europe passed +through troublous times till the end of the sixteenth century. France +and the Netherlands were devastated by wars. You may remember that +the Netherlands had belonged in the fifteenth century to the Dukes +of Burgundy? Through the marriage of the only daughter of the last +Duke, these territories passed into the possession of the King of Spain, +who remained a Catholic, whilst the northern portion of the Netherlands +became sturdily Protestant. Their struggle, under the leadership of +William the Silent, against the yoke of Spain, is one of the stirring +pages of history. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, seven +of the northern states of the Netherlands, of which Holland was the +chief, had emerged as practically <a name="page117"></a>independent. The southern portion +of the Netherlands, including the old province of Flanders, remained +Catholic and was governed by a Spanish Prince who held his court at +Brussels.</p> + +<p>When peace came at last, there was a remarkable outburst of painting +in each of the two countries. Rubens was the master painter in Flanders. +Of him and of his pupil Van Dyck we shall hear more in the next chapter. +In Holland there was a yet more wide-spread activity. Indomitable +perseverance had been needed for so small a country to throw off the +rule of a great power like Spain. The long struggle seems to have called +into being a kindred spirit manifesting itself in every branch of the +national life. Dutch merchants, Dutch fishermen, and Dutch colonizers +made themselves felt as a force throughout the world. The spirit by +which Dutchmen achieved political success was pre-eminent in the +qualities which brought them to the front rank in art. There were +literally hundreds of painters in Holland, few of them bad. That does +not mean that all Dutchmen had the magical power of vision belonging +to the greatest artists, the power that transforms the objects of daily +view into things of rare beauty, or the <a name="page118"></a>imagination of a Tintoret that +creates and depicts scenes undreamt of before by man. Many painted +the things around them as they looked to a commonplace mind, with no +glamour and no transforming touch. When we see their pictures, our +eyes are not opened to new effects. We continue to see and to feel +as we did before, but we admire the honest work, the pleasant colour, +and the efficiency of the painters. In default of Raphaels, Giorgiones, +and Titians, we should be pleased to hang upon our walls works such +as those. But towering above the other artists of Holland, great and +small, was one Dutchman, Rembrandt, who holds his own with the greatest +of the world.</p> + +<p>He was born in 1606, the son of a miller at Leyden, who gave him the +best teaching there to be had. Soon he became a good painter of +likenesses, and orders for portraits began to stream in upon him from +the citizens of his native town. These he executed well, but his heart +was not wrapped up in the portrayal of character as John Van Eyck's +had been. Neither was it in the drawing of delicate and beautiful lines +that he wished to excel, as did Holbein and Raphael. He <a name="page119"></a>was the +dramatist of painting, a man who would rather paint some one person +ten times over in the character of somebody else, high priest, king, +warrior, or buffoon, than once thoroughly in his own. But when people +ordered portraits of themselves they wanted good likenesses, and +Rembrandt was happy to supply them. At first it was only when he was +working at home to please himself that he indulged his picturesque +gift. He painted his father, his mother, and himself over and over +again, but in each picture he tried some experiment with expression, +or a new pose, or a strange effect of lighting, transforming the general +aspect of the original. His own face did as well as any other to +experiment with; none could be offended with the result, and it was +always to be had without paying a model's price for the sitting. Thus +all through his life, from twenty-two to sixty-three, we can follow +the growth of his art with the transformation of his body, in the long +series of pictures of his single self.</p> + +<p>More than any artist that had gone before him, Rembrandt was fascinated +by the problem of light. The brightest patch of white on a canvas will +look black if you hold it up against the sky. How, <a name="page120"></a>then, can the fire +of sunshine be depicted at all? Experience shows that it can only be +suggested by contrast with shadows almost black. But absolutely black +shadows would not be beautiful. Fancy a picture in which the shadows +were as black as well-polished boots! Rembrandt had to find out how +to make his dark shadows rich, and how to make a picture, in which +shadow predominated, a beautiful thing in itself, a thing that would +decorate a wall as well as depict the chosen subject. That was no easy +problem, and he had to solve it for himself. It was his life's work. +He applied his new idea in the painting of portraits and in subject +pictures, chiefly illustrative of dramatic incidents in Bible history, +for the same quality in him that made him love the flare of light, +made him also love the dramatic in life.</p> + +<p>Rembrandt's mother was a Protestant, who brought up her son with a +thorough knowledge of the Scripture stories, and it was the Bible that +remained to the end of his life one of the few books he had in his +house. The dramatic situations that he loved were there in plenty. +Over and over again he painted the Nativity of Christ. Sometimes the +Baby is in a tiny Dutch cradle <a name="page121"></a>with its face just peeping out, and +the shepherds adoring it by candle-light. Often he painted scenes from +the Old Testament; such as Isaac blessing Esau and Jacob, who are shown +as two little Dutch children. Simeon receiving the Infant Christ in +the Temple is a favourite subject, because of the varied effects that +could be produced by the gloom of the church and the light on the figure +of the High Priest. These, and many other beautiful pictures, were +studies painted for the increase of the artist's own knowledge, not +orders from citizens of Leyden, or of Amsterdam, to which capital he +moved in 1630. At the same time he was coming more and more into demand +as a portrait-painter. These were days in which he made money fast, +and spent it faster. He had a craving to surround himself with beautiful +works of art and beautiful objects of all kinds that should take him +away from the dunes and canals into a world of romance within his own +house. He disliked the stiff Dutch clothes and the great starched white +ruffs worn by the women of the day. He had to paint them in his +portraits; but when he painted his beautiful wife, Saskia, she is +decked in embroideries and soft shimmering stuffs. Wonderful clasps +and brooches <a name="page122"></a>fasten her clothes. Her hair is dressed with gold chains, +and great strings of pearls hang from her neck and arms. Rembrandt +makes the light sparkle on the diamonds and glimmer on the pearls. +Sometimes he adorns her with flowers and paints her as Flora. Again, +she is fastening a jewel in her hair, and Rembrandt himself stands +by with a rope of pearls for her to don. All these jewels and rich +materials belonged to him. He also bought antique marbles, pictures +by Giorgione and Titian, engravings by Dürer, and four volumes of +Raphael's drawings, besides many other beautiful works of art.</p> + +<p>These were splendid years, years in which he was valued by his +contemporaries for the work he did for them, and years in which every +picture he painted for himself gave him fresh experience. A picture +of the anatomy class of a famous physician had been among the first +with which Rembrandt made a great public success. Every face in it—and +there were eight living faces—was a masterpiece of portraiture, and +all were fitly grouped and united in the rapt attention with which +they followed the demonstration of their teacher.</p> + +<p>In 1642 he received an order to paint a large <a name="page123"></a>picture of one of the +companies of the City Guard of Amsterdam. According to the custom of +the day, each person portrayed in the picture contributed his equal +share towards the cost of the whole, and in return expected his place +in it to be as conspicuous as that of anybody else. Such groups were +common in Holland in the seventeenth century. The towns were proud +of their newly won liberties, and the town dignitaries liked to see +themselves painted in a group to perpetuate remembrance of their tenure +of office. But Rembrandt knew that it was inartistic to give each and +every person in a large group an equal or nearly equal prominence, +although such was the custom to which even Franz Hals' brush had yielded +full compliance. For his magnificent picture of the City Guard, +Rembrandt chose the moment when the drums had just been sounded as +an order for the men to form into line behind their chief officers' +march-forth. They are coming out from a dark building into the full +sunshine of the street. All in a bustle, some look at their fire-arms, +some lift their lances, and some cock their guns. The sunshine falls +full upon the captain and the lieutenant beside him, but the <a name="page124"></a>background +is so dark that several of the seventeen figures are almost lost to +view. A few of the heads are turned in such a way that only half the +face is seen, and no doubt as likenesses some of them were deficient. +Rembrandt was not thinking of the seventeen men individually. He +conceived the picture as a whole, with its strong light and shade, +the picturesque crossing lines of the lances, and the natural array +of the figures. By wiseacres, the picture was said to represent a scene +at night, lit by torch-light, and was actually called the 'Night +Watch,' though the shadow of the captain's hand is of the size of the +hand itself, and not greater, being cast by the sun. Later generations +have valued it as one of the unsurpassed pictures in the world; but +it is said that contemporary Dutch feeling waxed high against Rembrandt +for having dealt in this supremely artistic manner with an order for +seventeen portraits, and that he suffered severely in consequence. +Certainly he had fewer orders. The prosperous class abandoned him. +His pictures remained unsold, and his revenue dwindled.</p> + +<p>Rembrandt was thirty-six years of age and at the very height of his +powers, at the time of the <a name="page125"></a>failure of this his greatest picture. His +mature style of painting continued to displease his contemporaries, +who preferred the work of less innovating artists who painted good +likenesses smoothly. Every year his treatment became rougher and +bolder. He transformed portraits of stolid Dutch burgomasters into +pictures of fantastic beauty; but the likeness suffered, and the +burgomasters were dissatisfied. Their conservative taste preferred +the smooth surface and minute treatment of detail which had been +traditional in the Low Countries since the days of the Van Eycks. Year +after year more of their patronage was transferred to other painters, +who pandered to their preferences and had less of the genius that forced +Rembrandt to work out his own ideal, whether it brought him prosperity +or ruin. These painters flourished, while Rembrandt sank into ever +greater disrepute.</p> + +<p>It is certain, too, that he had been almost childishly reckless in +expenditure on artistic and beautiful things which were unnecessary +to his art and beyond his means, although those for a while had been +abundant. At the time of the failure of the 'Night Watch,' his wife +Saskia died, leaving him <a name="page126"></a>their little son, Titus, a beautiful child. +Through ever-darkening days, for the next fifteen years, he continued +to paint with increasing power. It is to this later period that our +picture of the 'Man in Armour' belongs.</p> + +<a name="illus10"></a> +<center><img width="80%" src="images/armour.jpg" alt="A Man in Armour"></center> +<br> +<center>A M<small>AN IN</small> A<small>RMOUR</small><br> +<small>From the picture by Rembrandt, in the Corporation Art Gallery, Glasgow</small></center> + +<p>The picture is not a portrait, but rather a study of light upon armour. +No man came to Rembrandt and asked to be painted like that; but +Rembrandt saw in his mind's eye a great effect—a fine knightly face +beneath a shadowing helmet and set off against a sombre background. +A picture such as this is a work of the imagination in the same sense +as the 'Saint George and the Dragon' of Tintoret. It was an effect +that only Rembrandt could see, painted as only he could paint it. The +strongest light falls upon the breastplate, the next strongest upon +the helmet, and the ear-ring is there to catch another gleam. When +you look at the picture closely, you can see that the lights are laid +on (we might almost say 'buttered on') with thick white paint. More +than once Rembrandt painted armour for the sake of the effects of light. +In one of the portraits of himself he wears a helmet, and he painted +his brother similarly adorned. A picture of a person wearing the same +armour as in the <a name="page127"></a>Glasgow picture is in St. Petersburg, but the figure +is turned in a slightly different direction and reflects the light +differently. It is called 'Pallas Athene,' and was no doubt painted +at the same time as ours; but the person, whether named Pallas Athene +or knight, was but a peg upon which to hang the armour for the sake +of the light shining on it.</p> + +<p>Rembrandt was a typical Dutch worker all his life. Besides the great +number of pictures that have come down to us, we have about three +thousand of his drawings, and his etchings are very numerous and fine.</p> + +<p>I wonder if you know how prints are made? There are, broadly speaking, +two different processes. You can take a block of wood and cut away +the substance around the lines of the design. Then when you cover with +ink the raised surface of wood that is left and press the paper upon +it, the design prints off in black where the ink is but the paper remains +white where the hollows are. This is the method called wood-cutting, +which is still in use for book illustrations.</p> + +<p>In the other process, the design is ploughed into a metal plate, the +lines being made deep enough to <a name="page128"></a>hold ink, and varying in width according +to the strength desired in the print. You then fill the grooves with +ink, wiping the flat surface clean, so that when the paper is pressed +against the plate and into the furrows, the lines print black, out +of the furrows, and the rest remains white.</p> + +<p>There are several ways of making these furrows in a metal plate, but +the chief are two. The first is to plough into the metal with a sharp +steel instrument called a burin. The second is to bite them out with +an acid. This is the process of etching with which Rembrandt did his +matchless work. He varnished a copper plate with black varnish. With +a needle he scratched upon it his design, which looked light where +the needle had revealed the copper. Then the whole plate was put into +a bath of acid, which ate away the metal, and so bit into the lines, +but had no effect upon the varnish. When he wanted the lines to be +blacker in certain places, he had to varnish the whole rest of the +plate again, and put it back into the bath of acid. The lines that +had been subjected to the second biting were deeper than those that +had been bitten only once.</p> + +<p>The number of plates etched by Rembrandt was <a name="page129"></a>great, at least two +hundred; some say four hundred. Their subjects are very +various—momentary impressions of picturesque figures, Scriptural +scenes, portraits, groups of common people, landscapes, and whatever +happened to engage the artist's fancy, for an etching can be very +quickly done, and is well suited to record a fleeting impression. +Thousands of the prints still exist, and even some of the original +plates in a very worn-down condition.</p> + +<p>In spite of the quantity and quality of Rembrandt's work, he was unable +to recover his prosperity. He had moved into a fine house when he +married Saskia, and was never able to pay off the debts contracted +at that time. Things went from bad to worse, until at last, in 1656, +when Rembrandt was fifty, he was declared bankrupt, and everything +he possessed in the world was sold. We have an inventory of the gorgeous +pictures, the armour, the sculptures, and the jewels and dresses that +had belonged to Saskia. His son Titus retained a little of his mother's +money, and set up as an art dealer in order to help his father.</p> + +<p>It is a truly dreary scene, yet Rembrandt still continued to paint, +because painting was to him <a name="page130"></a>the very breath of life. He painted Titus +over and over again looking like a young prince. In these later years +the portraits of himself increase in number, as if because of the lack +of other models. When we see him old, haggard, and poor in his worn +brown painting-clothes, it hardly seems possible that he can be the +same Rembrandt as the gay, frolicking man in a plumed hat, holding +out the pearls for Saskia.</p> + +<p>In his old age he received one more large order from a group of six +drapers of Amsterdam for their portraits. It has been said that the +lesson of the miscalled 'Night Watch' had been branded into his soul +by misfortune. What is certain is that, while in this picture he +purposely returned to the triumphs of portraiture of his youth, he +did not give up the artistic ideals of his middle life. He gave his +sitters an equal importance in position and lighting, and at the same +time painted a picture artistically satisfying. Not one of the six +men could have had any fault to find with the way in which he was +portrayed. Each looks equally prominent in vivid life. Yet they are +not a row of six individual men, but an organic group held together +you hardly know how. At last you <a name="page131"></a>realize that all but one are looking +at you. <i>You</i> are the unifying centre that brings the whole picture +together, the bond without which, metaphorically speaking, it would +fall to pieces.</p> + +<p>This picture of six men in plain black clothes and black hats, sitting +around a table, is by some considered the culmination of Rembrandt's +art. It shows that, in spite of misfortune and failure, his ardour +for new artistic achievement remained with him to the end.</p> + +<p>In 1662 Rembrandt seems to have paid a brief and unnoticed visit to +England. If Charles II. had heard of him and made him his court painter, +we might have had an unrivalled series of portraits of court beauties +by his hand instead of by that of Sir Peter Lely. As it was, a hasty +sketch of old St. Paul's Cathedral, four years before it was burnt +down, is the sole trace left of his visit.</p> + +<p>The story of his old age is dreary. Even Titus died a few months before +his father, leaving him alone in the world. In the autumn of 1669 he +himself passed away, leaving behind him his painting-clothes, his +paint-brushes, and nothing else, save a name destined to an immortality +which his contemporaries little foresaw. All else had gone: <a name="page132"></a>his wife, +his child, his treasures, and his early vogue among the Dutchmen of +his time.</p> + +<p>The last picture of all was a portrait of himself, in the same attitude +as his first, but disillusioned and tragic, with furrowed lines and +white hair. No one cared whether he died or not, and it is recorded +that after his death pictures by him could be bought for sixpence. +Thus ended the life of one of the world's supremely great painters.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br><a name="page133"></a> +<div><h3><a name="chap10">CHAPTER X</a></h3></div> +<h4>PETER DE HOOGH AND CUYP</h4> +<br> +<p>Let us now turn from the splendid gloom of Rembrandt's 'Knight in +Armour,' to delight in this beautiful little interior of a Dutch house +by Peter de Hoogh. Still you see the prepossession for light, but for +more tempered rays and softer shadows. The sunshine is diffused by +the yellow curtains throughout the room. The old lady need not fear +its revelations, to be sure, for it is Holland—she knows that the +whole house has been duly scrubbed with soap and water. Dust and dirt +are banished. It is a cloudless day and dry under foot, otherwise the +little boy would have worn clogs over his shoes, and you might see +them outside. Mud on the polished stones of the passage would have +ruffled the housewife's calm. As it is, we can see she has had no worries +this morning. She has <a name="page134"></a>donned her fresh red dress and clean white apron, +and will soon be seated to prepare the vegetables and fruit that are +being brought her. Perhaps they are a present from the old lady in +the house over the way, who from her front door watches the child +delivering the gift.</p> + +<a name="illus11"></a> +<center><img width="80%" src="images/interior.jpg" alt="An Interior"></center> +<br> +<center>A<small>N</small> I<small>NTERIOR</small><br> +<small>From the picture by Pieter de Hoogh, in the Wallace Collection, London</small></center> + +<p>It is a domestic scene that you might witness in any of the old towns +of Holland to this day. The insides and outsides of the houses are +still scrubbed with soap and water; rows of clogs stand outside the +front doors on muddy days; the women wear the same bright coloured +gowns fully gathered round the waist, with the cleanest of white +aprons; their faces are placid and unruffled as they pursue the even +tenour of their way.</p> + +<p>This atmosphere of Dutch life, peaceful, home-loving, and competent, +is rendered by Peter de Hoogh in most of his pictures. It is not the +atmosphere of Rembrandt's art, yet he never could have painted thus +except for Rembrandt. The same love of sunlight and shadows prevailed +with Peter de Hoogh, and it was no less the aim of his art to attain +mastery over the painting of light, but light diffused and reflected. +He loved to show the sunlight shining through some coloured <a name="page135"></a>substance, +such as this yellow curtain, which scatters its brightness and lets +it fall more evenly throughout the room. He never painted such extreme +contrasts as make manifest Rembrandt's power. Rembrandt's light had +been so vivid that it seemed to overwhelm colours in a dazzling +brilliancy. Peter de Hoogh's lights are just strong enough to reveal +the colours in a milder illumination. In our picture the sunshine +diffused by the yellow curtains mingles with the red of the woman's +dress and creates a rich orange. Little does she know how well her +dress looks. But it was only after incessant study of the way in which +Rembrandt had mastered the whole range from light to dark, that Peter +de Hoogh became able to paint as he did within his narrower scale, +abridged at both extremes.</p> + +<p>Begin with the room, then the passage, then the farther hall, then +the highway open to the unseen sky above, then the house-front beyond +it, and the hall beyond the lady in the neighbouring doorway; there +are at least four distinct distances in this picture each differently +lighted, and the several effects worked out with scrupulous +painstaking fidelity. It is worth your while, with your own eyes rather +than with many words of mine, to <a name="page136"></a>search out on the original all these +beautifully varied gradations. In many of his pictures one part is +lighted from the sunlit street, and another from a closed court. +Sometimes his figures stand in an open courtyard, whilst behind is +a paved passage leading into the house. All his subjects are of the +domestic Dutch life of the seventeenth century, but the arrangement +in rooms, passages, courtyards, and enclosed gardens admitted of much +variation. We never feel that the range of subjects is limited, for +the light transforms each into a scene of that poetic beauty which +it was Peter de Hoogh's great gift to discern, enjoy, and record.</p> + +<p>The painting is delicate and finished, meant to be seen from near at +hand. It is always the room that interests him, as much as the people +in it. The painting of the window with its little coats of arms, +transparent yet diffusing the light, is exquisitely done. A chair with +the cushion upon it, just like that, occurs again and again in his +pictures, the cushion being used as a welcome bit of colour in the +scheme. Most of all, the floors, whether paved with stone as in this +picture, or with brick as in the courtyards, are painted with the +delightful precise care that the Van Eycks gave to their <a name="page137"></a>accessories. +In Peter de Hoogh's vision of the world there is the same appreciation +of the objects of daily use as was displayed by the fifteenth-century +Flemish painters whenever their sacred subjects gave them opportunity. +In the seventeenth century it was more congenial to the Flemish and +Dutch temperament to paint their own country, and domestic scenes from +their own lives, than pictures of devotion.</p> + +<p>Other artists besides Peter de Hoogh painted people in their own houses. +In the pictures of Terborch ladies in satin dresses play the spinet +and the guitar. Jan Steen depicted peasants revelling on their holidays +or in taverns. Peter de Hoogh was the painter of middle-class life, +and discovered in its circumstances, likewise, abounding romance.</p> + +<p>The Dutchman of the seventeenth century loved his house and his garden, +and every inch of the country in which he lived, rescued as it had +been from invasions by armies and the sea. Many painters never left +Holland, and found beauty enough there to fill well-spent lives in +painting its flatness beneath over-arching clear or clouded skies. +Although the earlier Flemings had had a great <a name="page138"></a>love of landscape, they +had not conceived it as a subject suitable for a whole picture, but +only for a background. In the sixteenth century the figures gradually +get smaller and less important, and towards the end of the century +disappear. As the song says, 'a very different thing by far' is painting +a landscape background and painting a whole landscape picture. Before +the end of the century Rubens painted some wonderful landscapes, and +he was soon followed by a great number of very fine landscape painters +in Holland. Cuyp was one of many.</p> + +<p>In a Dutch landscape we cannot expect the rich colouring of Italy. +The colouring of Holland is low toned, and tender gradations lead away +to the low and level horizon. The canals are sluggish and grey, and +the clouds often heavy and dark. We saw how the brilliant skies and +pearly buildings of Venice made Venetian painters the gayest +colourists of the world. So the Dutch painters took their sober scale +of landscape colouring as it was dictated to them by the infinitely +varied yet sombre loveliness of their own land. In the great flat +expanses of field, intersected by canals and dotted with windmills, +the red brick roof of <a name="page139"></a>a water-mill may look 'loud,' like an aggressive +hat. But the shadows cast by the clouds change every moment, and in +flat country where there is less to arrest the eye the changes of tone +are more marked.</p> + +<p>In an etching, Rembrandt could leave a piece of white paper for the +spot of highest sunlight, and carry out all the gradations of tone +in black and white, until he reached the spot of darkest shadow. A +painted landscape he indicated in the same way by varying shades of +dull brown. In all of them you seem to feel the interposition of the +air between you and the distant horizon at which you are looking. What +else is there? At each point in the picture the air modifies the +distinctness with which you can see the objects. This consciousness +of air in a picture of low horizon is a very difficult thing to describe +and explain. We know when it is there and when it is not. It has to +be seen, to be enjoyed, and recorded. Holbein painted Edward VI. +standing, so to speak, in a vacuum. Every line of his face is sharply +defined. In real life air softens all lines, so that even the edge +of a nose in profile is not actually seen as a sharp outline. The figures +in Richard II.'s <a name="page140"></a>picture stand in the most exhausted vacuum, but Hubert +van Eyck had already begun to render the vision or illusion of air +in his 'Three Maries.' In this respect he had learnt more than the +early painters of the Italian Renaissance; but Raphael and the +Venetians, especially Giorgione and Titian, sometimes bathed their +figures in a luminous golden atmosphere with the sun shining through +it.</p> + +<p>The Dutch painters carried this still further, particularly in their +pictures of interiors and landscapes. It is the atmosphere in the rooms +that makes Peter de Hoogh's portrayal of interiors so wonderful. In +our little picture the light coming through the window makes the air +almost golden. When this painting of air and tone is set forth by the +exquisite colour of Peter de Hoogh, you see this kind of Dutch +achievement at its best. Cuyp's love of sunshine is rare among Dutch +landscape painters. He suffuses his skies with a golden haze that +bathes his kin and kine alike in evening light. In our picture you +can feel the great height of the sky and the depth of the air between +the foreground and the horizon. The rendering of space is excellent. +But Cuyp has not been content <a name="page141"></a>with the features of his native Holland. +He has put an imaginary mountain in the distance and a great hill in +the foreground. It is certainly not a view that Cuyp ever saw in Holland +with his own eyes. He thought that the mountain's upright lines were +good to break the flatness; and the finished composition, if beautiful, +is its own excuse for being.</p> + +<a name="illus12"></a> +<center><img width="100%" src="images/landscape.jpg" alt="Landscape with Cattle"></center> +<br> +<center>L<small>ANDSCAPE WITH</small> C<small>ATTLE</small><br> +<small>From the picture by Cuyp, in the Dulwich Gallery</small></center> + +<p>Rembrandt is an exception to all rules, but most of the Dutch painters +did not allow themselves these excursions within their studios to +foreign scenes. They faithfully depicted their own flat country as +they saw it, and added neither hills nor mountains. But they varied +the lighting to express their own moods. Ruysdael's sombre tone befits +the man who struggled with poverty all his life, and died in a hospital +penniless. Cuyp is always sunny. In his pictures, cattle browse at +their ease, and shepherds lounge contented on the grass. He was a +painter of portraits and of figure subjects as well as of landscapes, +and his little groups of men and cattle are always beautifully drawn. +Ruysdael, Hobbema, and many others were landscape painters only, and +some had their figures put in by other artists. Often they did without +<a name="page142"></a>them, but in the landscapes of Cuyp, cows generally occupy the +prominent position. The black and white cow in our picture is a fine +creature, and nothing could be more harmonious in colour than the brown +cow and the brown jacket of the herdsman.</p> + +<p>There were some painters in Holland in the seventeenth century who +made animals their chief study. Theretofore it had been rare to +introduce them into pictures, except as symbols, like the lion of St. +Jerome, or where the story implied them; or in allegorical pictures, +such as the 'Golden Age.' But at this later time animals had their +share in the increased interest that was taken in the things of daily +life, and they were painted for their handsome sakes, as Landseer +painted them in England fifty years ago.</p> + +<p>Thus the seventeenth century in Holland shows an enlargement in the +scope of subjects for painting. Devotional pictures were becoming rare, +but illustrations, sacred and secular, portraits, groups, interiors, +and landscapes, were produced in great numbers. Dutch painters +outnumbered those of Flanders, but among the latter were at least two +of the highest eminence, Rubens and Van Dyck, and to these we will +next direct our attention.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br><a name="page143"></a> +<div><h3><a name="chap11">CHAPTER XI</a></h3></div> +<h4>VAN DYCK</h4> +<br> +<p>The great painter Rubens lived at Antwerp, a town about as near to +Amsterdam as Dover is to London. Yet despite the proximity of Flanders +and Holland, their religion, politics, social life, and art were very +different in the seventeenth century, as we have already seen.</p> + +<p>Rubens was a painter of the prosperous and ruling classes. He was +employed by his own sovereign, by the King of Spain, by Marie de Médicis, +Queen of France, and by Charles I. of England. His remarkable social +and intellectual gifts caused him to be employed also as an ambassador, +and he was sent on a diplomatic errand to Spain; but even then his +leisure hours were occupied in copying the fine Titians in the King's +palace.</p> + +<a name="page144"></a><p>One day he was noticed by a Spanish noble, who said to him, 'Does my +Lord occupy his spare time in painting?' 'No,' said Rubens; 'the +painter sometimes amuses himself with diplomacy.'</p> + +<p>In his life as in his art he was exuberant. An absurd anecdote of the +time is good enough to show that. Some people, who went to visit him +in his studio at Antwerp, wrote afterwards that they found him hard +at work at a picture, whilst at the same time he was dictating a letter, +and some one else was reading aloud a Latin work. When the visitors +arrived he answered all their questions without leaving off any of +those three occupations! We must not all hope to match Rubens.</p> + +<p>Rubens's great ceremonial paintings, containing numerous figures and +commemorating historical scenes in honour of his Royal patrons, were +executed by his own hands, or by the hands he taught and guided, with +great skill and speed. He painted also beautiful portraits of his wife +and family, and pictures of his own medieval castle, which he restored +and inhabited during the last years of his life, with views of the +country stretching out in all directions. He liked a comfortable life +and comfortable-looking people. He <a name="page145"></a>painted his own wives as often as +Rembrandt painted Saskia; both were plump enough to make our memories +recur with pleasure to the slenderer figures preferred by Botticelli +and the painters of his school.</p> + +<p>To accomplish the great mass of historic, symbolic, and ceremonial +painting that still crowds the walls of the galleries of Europe, Rubens +needed many assistants and pupils, but only one of them, Van Dyck, +rose to the highest rank as a painter.</p> + +<p>He was a Fleming by birth, and worked in the studio at Antwerp for +several years as an assistant of Rubens; then he went to Italy to learn +from the great pictures of the Italian Renaissance, as so many Northern +artists wished to do. It has been said that the works of Titian +influenced his youthful mind the most. Van Dyck spent three years in +Genoa, where he was employed by those foremost in its life to paint +their portraits. Many of these superb canvases have been dispersed +to enrich the galleries of both hemispheres, public and private; but +the proud, handsome semblances of some of his sitters, dressed in rich +velvet, pearls, and lace, look down upon us still from the bare walls +of their once magnificent palaces, with that 'grand <a name="page146"></a>air' for which +the eye and the brush of Van Dyck have long remained unrivalled.</p> + +<p>When he returned to Flanders from Italy, he had attained a style of +painting entirely his own and very different from that of his great +master, Rubens. The William II of Orange picture is an excellent +example of Van Dyck's work. The child is a prince: we know it as plainly +as if Van Dyck had spoken the word before unveiling his canvas. His +erect attitude, his dignified bearing, his perfect self-possession +and ease, show that he has been trained in a high school of manners. +But there is also something in the delicate oval of the face, the +well-cut nose and mouth, and the graceful growth of the hair, that +speak of refined breeding. Distinction is the key-note of the picture.</p> + +<a name="illus13"></a> +<center><img width="80%" src="images/william.jpg" alt="Willaim II. of Orange"></center> +<br> +<center>W<small>ILLIAM</small> II. <small>OF</small> O<small>RANGE</small><br> +<small>From the picture by Van Dyck, in the Hermitage Gallery, Leningrad</small></center> + +<p>This little Prince had in his veins the blood of William the Silent, +and became the father of our William III. Poor human nature is too +easily envious, and some deny the reality, in fact, of the distinction, +the grace, of Van Dyck's portrayed men and women. Nevertheless, Van +Dyck's vision, guiding his brush, was as rare an endowment as envy +is a common one, and has higher authority to show us what to look for, +to see, and to enjoy.</p> + +<a name="page147"></a><p>Van Dyck was the first painter who taught people how they ought to +look, to befit an admirer's view of their aristocratic rank. His +portraits thus express the social position of the sitter as well as +the individual character. Although this has been an aim of +portrait-painters in modern times, when they have been painting people +of rank, it was less usual in the seventeenth century.</p> + +<p>There was hardly scope enough in Antwerp for two great painters such +as Rubens and Van Dyck, so in 1632 Van Dyck left Flanders and settled +permanently in England, as Court painter to Charles I. All his life +Charles had been an enthusiastic collector of works of art. Born with +a fine natural taste, he had improved it by study, until Rubens could +say of him: 'The Prince of Wales is the best amateur of painting of +all the princes in the world. He has demanded my portrait with such +insistence that he has overcome my modesty, although it does not seem +to me fitting to send it to a Prince of his importance.'</p> + +<p>Two of our pictures, the Richard II. diptych and the Edward VI. of +Holbein, were in his collection, besides many we have mentioned, such +as Holbein's 'Erasmus,' Raphael's cartoons, and <a name="page148"></a>Mantegna's 'Triumph +of Cæsar.' Before Charles came to the throne he had gone to Spain +to woo the daughter of Philip III. The magnificent Titians in the palace +at Madrid extorted such admiration from the Prince that Philip felt +it incumbent upon him as a host and a Spaniard to offer some of them +to Charles. Charles sent his own painter to copy the rest. He kept +agents all over Europe to buy for him, and spent thousands of pounds +in salaries and presents to the artists at his Court. As in the time +of Henry VIII., there were still no first-rate English painters. James +I. had employed a Fleming, and an inferior Dutchman, whom Charles +retained in his service for a time. Then he experimented with a +second-rate Italian artist, who painted some ceilings which still +exist at Hampton Court. Rubens was too much in demand at other Courts +for Charles to have his exclusive service, but the courtly Van Dyck +was a painter after his own heart. For the first time he had found +an artist who satisfied his taste, and Van Dyck a Court in which he +could paint distinction to his heart's content. Charles would have +squandered money on him if he had then had it to squander. As it was, +he paid him far less <a name="page149"></a>than he had paid his inferior predecessors, but +Van Dyck continued to paint for him to the end, and by Heaven's mercy +died himself before the crash came, which overthrew Charles and +scattered his collection.</p> + +<p>Between the years 1632 and 1642, Van Dyck painted a great number of +portraits of the King. It is from these that we obtain our vivid idea +of the first Charles's gentleness and refinement. He has a sad look, +as though the world were too much for him and he had fallen upon evil +days. We can see him year by year looking sadder, but Van Dyck makes +the sadness only emphasize the distinction.</p> + +<p>Queen Henrietta Maria was painted even more often than the King. She +is always dressed in some bright shimmering satin; sometimes in yellow, +like the sleeve of William II.'s dress, sometimes in the purest white. +She looks very lovely in the pictures, but lovelier still are the groups +of her children. Even James II. was once a bewitching little creature +in frocks with a skull-cap on his head. His sister Mary, aged six, +in a lace dress, with her hands folded in front of her, looks very +good and grown-up. When she became older, though not even then really +grown-up, she married <a name="page150"></a>the William of Orange of our picture. He came +from Holland and stayed at the English Court, as a boy of twelve, and +it was then that Van Dyck painted this portrait of him.</p> + +<p>Later on, when they were married, Van Dyck painted them together, but +William was older and looked a little less beautiful, and Mary had +lost the charm of her babyhood. With all her royal dignity and solemnity, +she is a perfect child in these pictures. Refined people, loving art, +have grown so fond of the Van Dyck children, that often when they wish +their own to look particularly bewitching at some festivity, they dress +them in the costumes of the little Mary and Elizabeth Stuart, and revive +the skull-caps and the lace dresses for a fresh enjoyment.</p> + +<p>Van Dyck's patrons in England, other than the King, were mostly +noblemen and courtiers. They lived in the great houses, which had been +built in many parts of the country during the reigns of Elizabeth and +her successors. The rooms were spacious, with high walls that could +well hold the large canvases of Van Dyck. Sometimes a special gallery +was built to contain the family portraits, and Van Dyck received a +commission to <a name="page151"></a>paint them all. Often, several copies of the same picture +were ordered at one time to be sent as presents to friends and relations. +Usually the artist painted but one himself; the rest were copies by +his assistants.</p> + +<p>Van Dyck's portraits were designed to suit great houses. In a small +room, which a portrait by Holbein would have decorated nobly, a canvas +by Van Dyck would have been overpowering. In spite of the fact that +the expressions on the faces are often intimate and appealing, +domesticity is not the mark of his art. In Van Dyck's picture of our +'heir of fame,' the white linen, the yellow satin, and the armour please +us as befitting the lovely face. There is a glimmer of light on the +armour, but you see how different is Van Dyck's treatment of it from +Rembrandt's. Van Dyck painted it as an article of dress in due +subordination to the face, not as an opportunity for reflecting light +and becoming the most important thing in the picture.</p> + +<p>We have seen how Rembrandt, Peter de Hoogh, Cuyp, Rubens, and Van Dyck +were all contemporaries, born within an area of ground smaller far +than England. Yet the range of their subjects was widely different, +and each painter gave <a name="page152"></a>his individuality full play. The desires of the +public were not stereotyped and fixed, as they had been when all alike +wanted their religious aspirations expressed in art. The patrons of +that epoch had various likings, as we have to-day, and the painter +developed along the lines most congenial to himself. Unless he could +make people like what he enjoyed painting, he could not make a living. +If they had no eyes to learn to see, he might remain unappreciated, +like Rembrandt, until long after his death. Yet Van Dyck's portraits +were popular. People could scarcely help enjoying an art that showed +them off to such advantage. Having found a style that suited him, he +adhered to it consistently, thenceforward making but few experiments. +This little picture before us is an admirable example of the gentle +poetic grace and refinement always recalled to the memory by the name +of Van Dyck. So long as men prize the aspect of distinction, which +he was the first Northern painter to express in paint, Van Dyck's +reputation will endure.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br><a name="page153"></a> +<div><h3><a name="chap12">CHAPTER XII</a></h3></div> +<h4>VELASQUEZ</h4> +<br> +<p>During the years in which Van Dyck was painting his beautiful portraits +of the Royal Family of England, another painter, Velasquez, was +immortalizing another Royal Family in the far-away country of Spain. +Cut off by the great mountains of the Pyrenees from the rest of Europe, +Spain did not rank among the foremost powers until after the discovery +of America had brought wealth to her from the gold mines of Mexico +and Peru. In the sixteenth century the King of Spain's dominions, +actual or virtual, covered a great part of Western Europe, excepting +England and France. Germany, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands, owned +the sovereignty of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. His son was Philip +II. of Spain, the husband of our Queen Mary of England, and his +<a name="page154"></a>great-grandson was King Philip IV., the patron of Velasquez, as Charles +I. was of Van Dyck.</p> + +<p>It is the little son of Philip IV., Don Balthazar Carlos, whose portrait +is before us—as manly and sturdy looking a little fellow as ever +bestrode a pony. He was but six years old when Velasquez painted the +picture here reproduced. Certainly he was not fettered and cramped +and prevented from taking exercise like his little sisters. The +princesses of Spain were dressed in wide skirts, spread out over hoops +and hiding their feet, from the time they could walk. The tops of the +dresses were as stiff as corselets, and one wonders how the little +girls were able to move at all. As they grew older the hoops became +wider and wider, until in one picture of a grown-up princess, the skirts +are broader than the whole height of her body. Stringent Court +etiquette forbade a princess to let her feet be seen, but so odd may +such conventions be, that it was nevertheless thought correct for the +Queen to ride on horseback astride.</p> + +<p>It is from the canvases of Velasquez that we know the Spanish Royal +Family and the aspect of the Court of Philip IV. as though we had lived +there ourselves. The painter was born in the <a name="page155"></a>south of Spain in the +same year as Van Dyck, and seven years earlier than Rembrandt. To paint +the portrait of his sovereign was the ambition of the young artist. +When his years were but twenty-four the opportunity arrived, and Philip +was so pleased with the picture that he took the young man into his +household, and said that no one else should ever be allowed to paint +his portrait. Velasquez welcomed with gratified joy the prospect of +that life-long proximity, although neither his earnings nor his +station at all matched the service he rendered to his sovereign. As +the years went on he was paid a little better, but his days and hours +were more and more taken up with duties at Court, and his salary was +always in arrears. He could not even reserve his own private time for +his art, but as he waxed higher in the estimation of the King, the +supervision of Court ceremonies, entrusted to him as an honour, +deprived him of leisure, and at last brought his life prematurely to +a close.</p> + +<p>From the time when Velasquez entered the service of the King, he painted +exclusively for the Court. We have eight portraits by him of Philip +IV., and five of the little Don Carlos, besides many others of the +queens and princesses. We <a name="page156"></a>can follow the growth of his art in the +portraits of Philip IV., as we can follow that of Rembrandt in portraits +of himself. But while Rembrandt might make of the same person, himself, +or another model, a dozen different people, so that it mattered little +who the model was, Velasquez was concerned with a different problem. +In the seventeenth century almost any good painter could draw his +models correctly, but Velasquez reproduced the living aspect of a man +as no one else had done. We have already spoken of the feeling of +atmosphere that Cuyp and Peter de Hoogh were able to bring into their +pictures. Velasquez, knowing little or nothing of the contemporary +Dutchmen, worked at the same art problems all his life, and at last +mastered the atmosphere problem completely, whether it was the air +of a closed room in the dark palace of Philip, or the air of the open +country, as in our picture. In this there is no bright light except +upon the face of the little prince. It is dark and gloomy weather, +but if on such a day you were to see the canvas in the open air it +would almost seem part of the country itself, as Velasquez's picture +of a room seems part of the gallery in which it hangs.</p> + +<a name="page157"></a><p>It was only by degrees that he attained this quality in his work. He +had had the ordinary teaching of a painter in Spain, but the level +of art there at the time was not so high as in Holland or Italy. Like +Rembrandt he was to a great extent his own master. In his early years +he painted pictures of middle-class life, in which each figure is +truthfully depicted, as were the early heads in Rembrandt's 'Anatomy.' +Like Rembrandt in his youth, he looked at each head separately and +painted it as faithfully as he could. The higher art of composing into +the unity of a group all its parts, and keeping their perfections within +such limits as best co-operate in the transcendent perfection of the +whole—this was the labour and the crown of both their lives. +Velasquez's best and greatest groups are such a realized vision of +life that they have remained the despair of artists to this day.</p> + +<p>Velasquez came to Court in the year in which Charles I., as Prince +of Wales, went to Madrid to woo the sister of Philip IV. He painted +her portrait twice, and made an unfinished sketch of Charles, which +has unfortunately been lost. Five years afterwards Rubens was a visitor +at the <a name="page158"></a>Spanish Court on a diplomatic errand. The painters took a fancy +to one another, and corresponded for the remainder of their lives. +They must have talked long about their art, and the elder painter, +Rubens, is thought to have promoted in Velasquez a desire to see the +great treasures of Italy. At all events we find that in the next year +he has obtained permission and money from Philip to undertake the +journey, which kept him away from Spain for two years.</p> + +<p>There is an amusing page, in doggerel verse, which I remember to have +read some years ago. I trust the translator will pardon the liberty +I am taking in quoting it. It reports a perhaps imaginary conversation +between Velasquez and an Italian painter in Rome. 'The Master' in this +rhyme is Velasquez.</p> + +<blockquote>The Master stiffly bowed his figure tall<br> + And said, 'For Raphael, to speak the truth,<br> + —I always was plain-spoken from my youth,—<br> + I cannot say I like his works at all.'<br> +<br> + 'Well,' said the other, 'if you can run down<br> + So great a man, I really cannot see<br> + What you can find to like in Italy;<br> + To him we all agree to give the crown.'<br> +<br> + <a name="page159"></a>Velasquez answered thus: 'I saw in Venice<br> + The true test of the good and beautiful;<br> + First, in my judgment, ever stands that school,<br> + And Titian first of all Italian men is.'</blockquote> + +<p>Velasquez in Rome was already a ripening artist, whose vision of the +world was quite uncoloured and unshaped by the medieval tradition. +Raphael's pictures with their superhumanly lovely saints, their +unworldly feeling, and their supernaturally clear light, doubtless +imparted pleasure, but not a sympathetic inspiration. Tintoret's +immense creative power and the colours of Titian's painting which +inspired Tintoret's ambition, as we remember—these were the effective +influences Velasquez experienced in Italy. His purchases and his own +later canvases afford that inference. On his return from Italy he +painted a ceremonial picture as wall decoration for one of the palaces +of Philip, and in it we can trace the influence of the great ceremonial +paintings of the Venetians. The picture commemorates the surrender +of Breda in North Brabant, when the famous General Spinola received +its keys for Philip IV. It is far more than a series of separate figures. +Two armies, officers and men, are grouped <a name="page160"></a>in one transaction, in one +near and far landscape. It is a picture in which the foreground and +the distances, with the lances of the soldiers and the smoke of battle, +are as indispensable to the whole as are the central figures of the +Dutchman in front handing the city keys to the courtly Spanish general.</p> + +<p>Don Balthazar Carlos was born while Velasquez was in Italy. On his +return he painted his first portrait of him at the age of two. The +little prince is dressed in a richly-brocaded frock with a sash tied +round his shoulder. His hair has only just begun to grow, but he has +the same look of determination upon his face that we see four years +later in the equestrian portrait. A dwarf about his own height stands +a step lower than he does, so as again to give him prominence. Another +picture of Don Balthazar a little older is in the Wallace Collection +in London.</p> + +<p>Velasquez's power with his brush lay in depicting vividly a scene that +he saw; thus in portraiture he was at his best. He knew how to pose +his figures to perfection, so as to make the expression of their +character a true pictorial subject. In our picture it is on high ground +<a name="page161"></a>that the hoofs of the pony of Don Balthazar Carlos tread. So to raise +the little Prince above the eye of the spectator was a good stroke, +suggesting an importance in the gallant young rider. The boy's erect +figure, too, firmly holding his baton as a king might hold a sceptre, +and the well-stirruped foot, are all perfect posing. Velasquez does +not give him distinction in the manner of Van Dyck, by delicate drawing +and gentle grace, but in a sturdier fashion, with speed and pose and +a fluttering sash in the wind. All the portraits of this lad are full +of charm. He was heir to the throne, but died in boyhood.</p> + +<a name="illus14"></a> +<center><img width="80%" src="images/carlos.jpg" alt="Don Balthazar Carlos"></center> +<br> +<center>D<small>ON</small> B<small>ALTHAZAR</small> C<small>ARLOS</small><br> +<small>From the picture by Velasquez, in the Prado Museum, Madrid</small></center> + +<p>Velasquez paid another visit to Italy, twenty years after his first, +for the purpose of buying more pictures to adorn Philip's palaces. +Again we find him in Venice, where he bought two Tintorets and a +Veronese, and again he made a long stay in Rome, this time to paint +the portrait of the Pope. When he returned to Spain in 1651 he had +still nine years of work before him. There were portraits of Philip's +new Queen to be painted—a young girl in a most uncomfortable +dress—and portraits of her child, the Infanta Marguerita. Bewitching +are the pictures of this little princess <a name="page162"></a>at the ages of three, of four, +and of seven, with her fair hair tied in a bow at the side of her head, +and voluminous skirts of pink and silver. But sweetest of all is the +picture called 'The Maids of Honour' ('Les Meninas'), in which the +princess, aged about six, is being posed for her portrait. She is +petulant and tired, and two of her handmaidens are cajoling her to +stand still. Her two dwarfs and a big dog have been brought to amuse +her, and the King and Queen, reflected in a mirror at the end of the +room, stand watching the scene. Velasquez himself, with his easel and +brushes, is at the side, painting. The picture perpetuates for +centuries a moment of palace life. In that transitory instant, +Velasquez took his vivid impression of the scene, and has translated +his impression into paint. Everything is simple and natural as can +be. The ordinary light of day falls upon the princess, but does not +penetrate to the ceiling of the lofty room, which is still in shadow. +All seem to have come together haphazard without being fitted into +the canvas. There is little detail, and the whole effect seems produced +by the simplest means; yet in reality the skill involved is so great +that artists to-day spend weeks copying the picture, in the <a name="page163"></a>endeavour +to learn something of the secret of Velasquez.</p> + +<p>The best judges are among those who rank him highest, so that he is +called pre-eminently 'the painter's painter.' It is impossible for +any one but a painter to understand how he used paint. From near at +hand it looks a smudge, but at the proper distance every stroke takes +its right place. Such freedom was the result of years of careful +painting of detail, and is not to be attained by any royal road. +Velasquez seldom seems to have made preliminary drawings, but of that +we cannot be sure. Certainly he had learned to conceive his vision +as a whole, and we may fancy at least that he drew it so upon the +canvas—altering the lines as he went—working at all the parts of +the picture at once, keeping the due relation of part to part; not +as if he finished one bit at a time, or thought of one part of a figure +as distinct from the rest. To have drawn separate studies for legs +and arms would have been foreign to his method of working.</p> + +<p>The pictures painted in this his latest style are few, for the court +duties heaped upon him left too little time. Maria Theresa, the sister +of Don Balthazar Carlos, was engaged to be married <a name="page164"></a>to Louis XIV., King +of France. The marriage took place on the border of France and Spain, +and Velasquez was in charge of all the ceremonies. The Princess +travelled with a cavalcade eighteen miles long, and we can imagine +what work all the arrangements involved. The marriage over, the ever +loyal Velasquez returned to Madrid, but he returned only to die.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br><a name="page165"></a> +<div><h3><a name="chap13">CHAPTER XIII</a></h3></div> +<h4>REYNOLDS AND THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY</h4> +<br> +<p>Hitherto we have travelled far and wide in our search for typical +examples of the beautiful in painting. We went from Flanders to Italy, +from Italy to Germany, back to Holland, and thence to Spain. It is +true that we began in England with our first picture, and that we have +returned twice, once with Holbein, and again with Van Dyck, both +foreign born and trained artists. We will finish with examples of truly +native English art.</p> + +<p>In the eighteenth century England for the first time gained a foremost +place in painting, though the people of the day scarcely realized that +it was so. Even the poet Gray, writing in 1763, could say:</p> + +<blockquote>Why this nation has made no advance hitherto in painting and sculpture, +it is hard to say.... You are generous <a name="page166"></a>enough to wish, and sanguine +enough to foresee, that art shall one day flourish in England. I, too, +much wish, but can hardly extend my hopes so far.</blockquote> + +<p>Yet in 1763 Reynolds was forty years of age and Gainsborough but four +years younger. Hogarth was even sixty-six, and at work upon his last +plate. Although, hitherto, the best painting in England had been done +by foreign artists such as Holbein and Van Dyck, yet there had always +been Englishmen of praiseworthy talent who had painted pleasing +portraits. Hogarth carried this native tradition to a high point of +excellence. He painted plain, good-natured-looking people in an +unaffected and straightforward way. But he was a humourist in paint, +and as great a student of human nature as he was of art. His insight +into character and his great skill with the brush, combined with his +sensitiveness to fun, make him in certain respects a unique painter. +In the National Gallery there is a picture of the heads of his six +servants in a double row. They might all be characters from Dickens, +so vividly and sympathetically humorous is each.</p> + +<p>In his engravings Hogarth satirised the lives of all classes of the +society of his day. When we <a name="page167"></a>look at them we live again in +eighteenth-century London, and walk in streets known to fame though +now destroyed, thronged with men and women, true to life.</p> + +<p>As an artist, Hogarth occupies a position between the +seventeenth-century Dutch painters of low life and the English +painters that succeeded him, who expressed the ideals of a refined +society. His portraits have something of the strength of Rembrandt's. +His street and tavern scenes rival Jan Steen's; but behind the mere +representation of brutality, vice, crime, and misery we perceive not +merely a skilled craftsman but a moral being, whom contact with misery +deeply stirs and the sight of wickedness moves to indignation.</p> + +<p>After 1720 a succession of distinguished painters were born in England. +Many of them first saw the light in obscure villages in the depths +of the country. Reynolds came from Devonshire, Gainsborough from +Suffolk, Romney from the Lake country.</p> + +<p>The eighteenth century was a time when politicians and men of letters +had the habit of gathering in the coffee-houses of London—forerunners +of the clubs of to-day. Conversation was valued as <a name="page168"></a>one of life's best +enjoyments, and the varied society of actors, authors, and politicians, +in which it flourished best, could only be obtained in the town. To +the most distinguished circle of that kind in London, our painter +Reynolds belonged.</p> + +<p>In the eighteenth century, society had also begun to divide its time +in modern fashion between town and country. Many of the large country +houses of to-day, and nearly all the landscape-gardened parks, belong +to that date. Nevertheless it was a time of great artificiality of +life. The ladies had no short country skirts, and none of the freedom +to which we are accustomed. In London they wore long powdered curls +and rouged, and in the country too they did not escape from the +artificiality of fashion. Indeed, their great desire seems to have +been to get away from everything natural and spontaneous. The +artificial poetry of that time deals with the patch-boxes and +powder-puffs of the fashionable dames of the town, and with nymphs +and Dresden china shepherdesses in the country.</p> + +<p>Even on Reynolds' canvases the desire to improve upon nature is +apparent. In his young days he painted the local personages of +Devonshire. <a name="page169"></a>Then he made a journey abroad and spent three years in +Rome and Venice. On his return he settled in London, and the most +distinguished men and women of the day and their children sat to him. +It seems that he would have liked his lords and ladies to look as heroic +or sublime as the heroes or gods of Michelangelo. Instead of painting +them in the surroundings that belonged to them, as Holbein or Velasquez +would have done, he dressed his ladies in what he called white +'drapery,' a voluminous material, neither silk, satin, woollen, nor +cotton, and painted them sailing through the woods. The ladies +themselves liked to look like nymphs, characterless and pretty, so +the fashion of painting portraits in this way became common.</p> + +<p>The pictures are pleasing to look at, although so artificial, and after +all it was only full-length portraits of ladies that Reynolds treated +in this way. They were a small part of his whole output. But he and +Velasquez worked in a totally different spirit. Velasquez made the +subject before him, however unpromising, striking because of its truth. +Reynolds liked to change it on occasion into something quite different, +for the <a name="page170"></a>sake of making a picture pretty. Nevertheless, his strength +lay in straightforward portraiture, and in the rendering of character. +His portraits of men, unlike those of women, are dignified, simple, +and restrained. His art was one long development till blindness +prevented him from working. Every year he attained more freedom and +naturalness in his pose and developed more power in his use of colour.</p> + +<a name="illus15"></a> +<center><img width="80%" src="images/duke.jpg" alt="The Duke of Gloucester"></center> +<br> +<center>T<small>HE</small> D<small>UKE OF</small> G<small>LOUCESTER</small><br> +<small>From the picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds, in Trinity College, Cambridge</small></center> + +<p>Many would say that his loveliest achievements were portraits of +children, yet he did not attain the same freedom in his child poses +till late in life. You have all seen photographs, at any rate, of the +'Age of Innocence' and the 'Heads of Angels,' but this little picture +of the Duke of Gloucester, nephew of George III., will not be so +familiar. I wonder whether it reminds you of anything you know? It +reminds me of Van Dyck. The little duke stands with an air of importance +upon the hillside, which is raised above the eye of the spectator as +Velasquez raised the ground beneath the pony of Don Balthazar Carlos. +There is no mistake about the child being a simple English boy, with +a nice chubby face and ordinary straight fair hair. But he is a prince +and knows it. For <a name="page171"></a>the sake of having his picture painted, he poses +with an air of conscious dignity beyond his years. He sweeps his cloak +around him like any grown-up cavalier, and holds out a plumed hat and +walking stick in a lordly fashion. The child is consciously acting +the part of a grown-up person, which only emphasizes his childhood. +But the air of refinement and distinction in the picture comes straight +from Van Dyck. As you look at the portraits of the Duke of Gloucester +and William II. of Orange side by side, it may puzzle you to say which +is the more attractive. Van Dyck has painted the clothes in more detail. +A century later Reynolds has learnt to paint with dash, though not +with the mastery of Velasquez. The effect of the cloak of the little +Duke, its shimmering shades of mauve and pink, is inimitable. It tones +beautifully with the background, varying from dull green to brightest +yellow. The background happens to be sky, but it might as well have +been a curtain, as long as its bit of colour so set off the clothes +of the little Duke.</p> + +<p>When Reynolds painted children he delighted in making them act parts. +Even in the 'Age of Innocence' the little girl is looking how very +very <a name="page172"></a>innocent. He painted one picture of a small boy, Master Crewe, +dressed to look like Henry VIII. in the style of Holbein. With broad +shoulders and a rich dress, he stands on his sturdy legs quite the +figure of Henry. But the face is one beam of boyish laughter, and on +the top of the little replica of the body of the corpulent monarch +the effect of the childish face is most entertaining.</p> + +<p>When Reynolds puts away his ideas of the grand style of Michelangelo +to paint pictures such as these, he is entirely delightful. He +sometimes painted Holy Families and classical subjects, but the more +the spirit of medieval sacred art has sunk into us, the less can we +admire modern versions of the old subjects. The sacred paintings of +the Middle Ages owe some of their charm to the fact that they do not +make upon us the impression of life. In Reynolds' Holy Families, the +Mother and Child are painted with all the skill of a modern artist +and look as human as his portraits of the Duchess of Devonshire and +her baby. It is no longer possible to think of them as anything but +portraits of the models whom Reynolds employed for his picture.</p> + +<p>Another method that modern artists have <a name="page173"></a>sometimes adopted in painting +sacred subjects, is to imitate the faulty drawing and incomplete +representation of life which are present in the art of the Old Masters. +But this conscious imitation of bygone ignorance beguiles no one who +has once felt the charm of the painters before Raphael.</p> + +<p>Reynolds' great contemporary, Gainsborough, has been called 'a child +of nature.' He would have liked to live in the country always and paint +landscapes. He did paint many of his native Suffolk, but in his day +landscapes were unsaleable, so he was driven to the town and to portrait +painting to make a living. Less than Reynolds a painter of character, +Gainsborough reproduced the superficial expression of his sitters. +But he had so natural an eye for grace and beauty, that his portraits +always please. He did not attempt Reynolds' wide range of subjects +or the same difficulties of pose. Of Reynolds he said: 'How various +he is,' but his admiration did not make him stray from his natural +path to attempt the variety of another. Reynolds, equally admiring, +said of him: 'I cannot make out how he produces his effects.' Perhaps +Gainsborough did not know either. He does seem to paint by instinct, +and successive pictures became <a name="page174"></a>more pleasing. Buoyant in his life as +in his art, his last words were: 'We are all going to Heaven, and Van +Dyck is of the company.'</p> + +<p>Another great contemporary painter was Romney, whose portraits of +ladies are delightful. Figured as nymphs too, they are so buoyant with +bright expressions and wayward locks, that one wishes he had depicted +in their faces a soul.</p> + +<p>All over England and Scotland portrait painters flourished at this +time. There were so many English artists that in 1768 the Royal Academy +was founded, with Sir Joshua Reynolds as its first president. It was +to the students of the Royal Academy that he delivered his Discourses +upon Art, setting forth the principles which he judged to be sound. +He was an indefatigably hard worker until within two years of his death +in 1792. All classes of men esteemed and regretted him, clouded though +his intercourse with them had been by the deafness from which he +suffered during the greater part of his life.</p> + +<p>Goldsmith, the author of the <i>Vicar of Wakefield</i>, wrote this character +'epitaph' for him:</p> + +<blockquote>Here Reynolds is laid, and to tell you my mind,<br> + He has not left a wiser or better behind.<br> + <a name="page175"></a>His pencil was striking, resistless and grand;<br> + His manners were gentle, complying and bland;<br> + Still born to improve us in every part,<br> + His pencil our faces, his manners our heart.<br> + To coxcombs averse, yet most civilly steering<br> + When they judged without skill, he was still hard of hearing.<br> + When they talked of their Raphaels, Correggios and stuff,<br> + He shifted his trumpet and only took snuff.<br> + By flattery unspoiled ...</blockquote> + +<p>The end is missing, for while Goldsmith was versifying so feelingly +about his friend, death overtook the writer, eighteen years before +the subject of the epitaph.</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br><a name="page176"></a> +<div><h3><a name="chap14">CHAPTER XIV</a></h3></div> +<h4>TURNER</h4> +<br> +<p>I wonder which of you, if seeing this picture for the first time, will +realize that you are looking at the old familiar Thames? It would seem +rather to be some place unknown except in dreams, some phantasy of +the human spirit that we ourselves could never hope to see. And yet, +in fact, this is what Turner actually did see one evening as he was +sailing down the Thames to Greenwich with a party of friends. Suddenly +there loomed up before his eyes the great hull of the <i>Temeraire</i>, +famous in the fight against the fleet of Napoleon at Trafalgar, and +so full of memories of glorious battle, that it was always spoken of +by sailors as the <i>Fighting Temeraire</i>. At last, its work over as a +battleship, or even as a training-ship for cadets, dragged by a doughty +<a name="page177"></a>little steam-tug, it was headed for its last resting-place in the +Thames, to be broken up for old timber. As the <i>Temeraire</i> hove in +sight through the mist, a fellow-painter said to Turner: 'Ah, what +a subject for a picture!' and so indeed it proved. The veteran ship, +for Turner, had a pathos like the passing of a veteran warrior to his +grave.</p> + +<a name="illus16"></a> +<center><img width="100%" src="images/fighting.jpg" alt="The Fighting Temeraire"></center> +<br> +<center>T<small>HE</small> F<small>IGHTING</small> T<small>ÉMÉRAIRE</small><br> +<small>From the picture by Turner, in the National Gallery, London</small></center> + +<p>Turner loved the sea, and was very sensitive to its associations with +the toils and triumphs of mankind. Born beside the Thames, he grew +up among boats and fraternized with sailors all his life. It was +impossible for him to be the beholder of such a scene as the +<i>Temeraire's</i> approach to her last moorings, save as a poet-painter; +and stirred to the putting forth of all his powers, this <i>Fighting +Temeraire</i> is his surpassing poem.</p> + +<p>It was in 1775, while Reynolds was at the height of his fame, that +Turner saw the light, born of obscure parents in an obscure house, +but with a gift of vision that compelled him to the palette and the +pencil his whole life long. Yet, when he was apprenticed to an architect +to learn architectural drawing, he had to be dismissed after two +periods of probation because of his absolute inability to learn the +theory of perspective or even the <a name="page178"></a>elements of geometry. But the time +was not far off when he was to become in his turn Professor of +Perspective at the Royal Academy.</p> + +<p>The popular distaste, or unborn taste, for landscape, which had +prevented Gainsborough from following his natural bent, was changing +at last. The end of the eighteenth century saw the beginning of a return +to nature in art as well as in poetry. Some artists in the eastern +counties, older than Turner, were already spending their lives in the +not too lucrative painting of landscape. These men took for their +masters the seventeenth-century painters of Holland. Old Crome, so +called to distinguish him from his son, founded his art upon that of +Hobbema, and came so close to him in his early years that it is difficult +to distinguish their pictures. In the works of this 'Norwich School' +the wide horizons of the Dutch artists often occur. But there is a +brighter colour, a fresher green, recalling England rather than +Holland. Turner never felt the influence of the Dutch painters so +strongly as these artists did. Like Gainsborough, and many another +artist before him and since, Turner was to be dominated by the necessity +of making a living. At the end of the <a name="page179"></a>century a demand arose for +'Topographical Collections,' of views of places, selected and arranged +according to their neighbourhood. These were not necessarily fine +works of art, but they were required to be faithful records of places. +Topographical paintings, drawings, and prints took the place now +filled by the photograph and the postcard. Turner found employment +enough making water-colour sketches to be engraved for such +topographical publications. But sketches that might be mere hack-work +became under his fingers magically lovely. We may follow him to many +a corner of England, Wales, and Scotland, sketching architecture, +mountain, moor, mists, and lakes. His earliest sketches are rather +stiff and precise. But he developed with rapidity, and soon painted +them in tones of blue and grey, so soft that the stars and the horizons +merge into one lovely indefiniteness. Not till much later is there +a touch of brighter colour in them such as fires the 'Temeraire,' but +in all there is the same spirit of poetry. Turner longed to be a poet, +although he could hardly write a correct sentence even in prose. But +he was a poet in his outlook upon life; he seldom painted a scene <a name="page180"></a>exactly +as he saw it, but transfused it by an imaginative touch into what on +rare occasions, with perfect conjuncture of mist and weather, it might +possibly become. He gave extra height to church spires, or made +precipices steeper than they were, thus to render the impression of +the place more explicit than by strict copying of the facts. Yet he +could be minutely accurate in his rendering of all effects of sky, +cloud, and atmosphere when he chose.</p> + +<p>Other landscape painters have generally succeeded best with some +particular aspect of nature, and have confined themselves to that. +Cuyp excelled in painting the golden haze of sunshine, and Constable +in effects of storm and rain. But Turner attempted all. Sunset, sunrise, +moonlight, morning, sea, storm, sunshine: the whole pageantry of the +sky. He never made a repetition of the golden hazes of Cuyp, who in +his particular field stands alone; but it was a small field compared +with that of Turner, who held the mirror up to Nature in her every +mood.</p> + +<p>Later in life, Turner travelled in France, Germany, and Italy. In +Venice his eyes were gladdened by the gorgeous colours above her +<a name="page181"></a>lagoons. Henceforth he makes his pictures blaze with hues scarcely +dared by painter before. But so great was his previous mastery of the +paler shades, that a few touches of brilliant colour could set his +whole canvas aflame. Even in the 'Temeraire,' the sunset occupies less +than half the picture. The cold colours of night have already fallen +on the ship, and there remains but a touch of red from the smoke of +the tug.</p> + +<p>As Venice enriched his vision of colour, Rome stimulated him to paint +new subjects suggested by ancient history and mythology. He knew little +of Roman history or classical literature, yet enough to kindle his +imagination; witness his 'Rise and Fall of the Carthaginian Empire' +in the National Gallery. In these the figures are of no importance. +The pictures still are landscapes, but freed from the necessity of +being like any particular place. In work such as this, Turner had but +one predecessor, the French Claude Lorraine. While the Dutchmen of +the seventeenth century were painting their own country beautifully, +Claude was living in Rome, creating imaginary landscapes. He called +his pictures by the names of Scriptural incidents, and placed figures +in <a name="page182"></a>the foreground as small and unessential as those of Turner. These +classical landscapes, with their palaces and great flights of steps +leading down to some river's edge, and the sea in the distance covered +with boats carrying fantastic sails, never for a moment make the +impression of reality. But they are beautiful compositions, designed +to please the eye and stimulate the fancy, and are even attractive +by virtue of their novel aloofness from the actual world.</p> + +<p>Turner set himself to rival Claude in his ideal landscapes, founded +upon the stories of the ancient world. In his picture of 'Dido building +Carthage,' he painted imaginary palaces, rivers, and stately ships, +in the same cool colouring as Claude, and bequeathed his picture to +the National Gallery, on condition that it should hang for ever between +two pictures by Claude to challenge their superiority. Opinions are +divided as to the rank of Turner's 'Carthage,' so when you go to the +National Gallery, you must look at them both and prepare to form a +preference.</p> + +<p>Turner was incited to this rivalry with Claude by the popularity that +painter enjoyed among English collectors of the day, who were less +eager <a name="page183"></a>to buy Turner's great oil-paintings than those of his predecessor. +Incidentally this rivalry was the origin of the great series of +etchings executed by or for him, known as <i>The Book of Studies (Liber +Studiorum)</i>. This book was suggested by Claude's <i>Libri di Verità</i>, +six volumes of his own drawings (of pictures he himself had painted +and sold) made in order to identify his own, and detect spurious, +productions. But Turner's book was designed to show his power in the +whole range of landscape art. The drawings were carefully finished +productions, work by which he was willing to be judged, and many of +them he etched with his own hands. His favourite haunts, the abbeys +of Scotland and Yorkshire, the harbours of Kent, the mountains of +Switzerland, the lochs of Scotland, and the River Wye, he chose as +illustrating his best power over architecture, sea, mountain, and +river. He repeated several of the same subjects later in oils, such +as the pearly hazy 'Norham Castle' in the Tate Gallery.</p> + +<p>Turner painted still another kind of imaginary landscape, not in +rivalry with any one, but to please himself. Of course you all know +the story of Ulysses and the one-eyed giant, <a name="page184"></a>Polyphemus, in the +<i>Odyssey</i> of Homer? Turner chose for his picture the moment when +Ulysses has escaped from the clutches of Polyphemus, and sailing away +in his boat, taunts the giant, who stands by the water's edge, cursing +Ulysses and bemoaning the loss of his sight. Turner has used this +mythical scene as an opportunity for creating stupendous rocks never +seen by a pair of mortal eyes, and a galley worthy of heroes or gods. +The picture is the purest phantasy, even more like a fairy-tale than +the story it illustrates. He has made the whole scene burn in the red +light of a flaming sunrise, redder by far than the sunset of the old +'Temeraire.'</p> + +<p>The story is told of a gentleman who, looking at a picture of Turner's, +said to him, 'I never saw a sunset like that.' 'No, but don't you wish +you could?' replied Turner. That is what we feel about the sunrise +in the picture of Ulysses and Polyphemus. Next to it in the National +Gallery hangs another picture called 'Rain, Steam, and Speed'—the +Great Western Railway. From the realm of the mythical, this takes us +back to the class of scenes of which the 'Fighting Temeraire' is one, +actually <a name="page185"></a>beheld by Turner, but magically transfigured by his brush. +A train is coming towards us over a bridge, prosaic subject enough, +especially in 1844, when railways were supposed to be ruining the +aspect of the country and were hated by beauty-loving people. But +Turner saw romance in the swift passage of a train, and painted a +picture in which smoke and rain, cloud and sunset, river and bridge, +boats and trees, are all fused in a mist, pearly and golden as well +as smutty and grey. When you look at it, you must stand away and look +long, till gradually the vision of Turner shapes itself before your +eyes and the scene as he beheld it lives again for you.</p> + +<p>We saw how Venice opened his eyes to flaming colour. In his pictures +of Venice, her magic beauty is revealed by a delicate sympathy, that +re-creates the fairy city in her day of glory. Never tired of painting +her in all her aspects, at morning, at even, in pomp, and at peace, +a sight of his pictures is still the best substitute for a visit to +the city itself.</p> + +<p>Other artists have interpreted scenery beautifully, and a few have +painted ideal landscapes, but who besides Turner has ever united such +diversities of power? He continued to paint <a name="page186"></a>water-colour sketches to +the end of his life, for these were appreciated by a public that did +not understand, and neglected to buy, his oil-paintings. He sketched +throughout France and Switzerland for various publications as he had +sketched in England. Time has not damaged these drawings, as it has +the pictures in oil, for to the end of his life Turner sometimes used +bad materials. Even the sky of the 'Fighting Temeraire' has faded +considerably since it was painted, and others of his oil-pictures are +mere shadows of their former selves. It is pathetic to look upon the +wreck of work not a century old and to wonder how much of it will be +preserved for future generations.</p> + +<p>Turner himself deemed the 'Temeraire' one of his best pictures, and +from the beginning intended to bequeath it to the National Gallery, +refusing to sell it for any price whatever.</p> + +<blockquote>There's a far bell ringing,<br> + At the setting of the sun,<br> + And a phantom voice is singing<br> + Of the great days done.<br> + There's a far bell ringing,<br> + And a phantom voice is singing<br> + Of renown for ever clinging<br> + To the great days done.<br> +<br> + <a name="page187"></a>Now the sunset breezes shiver,<br> + <i>Temeraire! Temeraire!</i><br> + And she's fading down the river,<br> + <i>Temeraire! Temeraire!</i><br> + Now the sunset breezes shiver,<br> + And she's fading down the river,<br> + But in England's song for ever<br> + She's the '<i>Fighting Temeraire</i>.'[4]</blockquote> + +<p>[Footnote 4: <i>The Fighting Temeraire</i>. Henry Newbolt.]</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br><a name="page188"></a> +<div><h3><a name="chap15">CHAPTER XV</a></h3></div> +<h4>THE NINETEENTH CENTURY</h4> +<br> +<p>Since we began our voyagings together among the visionary worlds of +the great painters, five hundred and thirty years ago, at the accession +of King Richard II., we have journeyed far and wide, trudging from +the rock where Cimabue found the boy Giotto drawing his sheep's +likeness. The battleship of Turner has now brought us to the +mid-nineteenth century, a time within the memories of living men, and +still our journey is not ended.</p> + +<p>Hitherto we have been guided in our general preference for certain +artists and certain pictures by the concurring opinion of the best +judges of many successive generations. But while we are looking at +modern paintings, we cannot say, as some one did, that in our opinion, +'which is the correct one,' such and such a picture is worthy to <a name="page189"></a>rank +with Titian. The taste of one age is not the taste of another. Who +can surely pronounce the consensus of opinion to-day? Who can guess +if it will concur with that of future decades—of future centuries? +We can but hope that learning to see and enjoy the recognized +masterpieces of the past will teach us what to like best among the +masterpieces of the present.</p> + +<p>A great love of the Old Masters inspired the work of a group of young +artists, who, about the year 1850, banded themselves together into +a society which they called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The title +indicates their aim, which was to draw the inspiration of their art +from the fifteenth-century painters of Italy. The sweetness of feeling +in a picture such as Botticelli's 'Nativity,' the delicacy of +workmanship and beautiful painting of detail in Antonello's 'St. +Jerome' and other pictures of that date, had an irresistible +fascination for them. They fancied and felt that these artists had +attained to the highest of which art was capable, so that the best +could only again be produced by a faithful study of their methods. +The aims of the Brotherhood were not imitation of the artists but of +the methods of the past. They <a name="page190"></a>held that every painted object, and every +painted figure should be as true as it could be made to the object +as it actually existed, rather than to the effect produced upon the +eye, seeing it in conjunction with other objects.</p> + +<p>These men heralded a widespread medieval revival, but all the study +in the world could not make them paint like born artists of the +fifteenth century. Yet there are those who think that much of the spirit +of beauty, which had dwelt in the soul of Botticelli and his +contemporaries, was born again in Rossetti and Burne-Jones. Their +feeling for beauty of form and purity of colour, and their aloofness +from the modern world, impart to their work an atmosphere that may +remind us of the fifteenth century, though the fifteenth century could +never have produced it.</p> + +<p>Rossetti and Burne-Jones, indeed, never formally joined the +Brotherhood, though they were influenced by its ideals and pursued +the same strict fidelity to nature in all the accessories of a picture. +Millais and Holman Hunt, original members of the Brotherhood, painted +men and women of the mid-Victorian epoch with every detail of their +peaked bonnets <a name="page191"></a>and plaid shawls, and were comparatively indifferent +to beauty of form and face. But Rossetti and Burne-Jones created a +type of ideal beauty which they employed on their canvases with +persistent repetition. Burne-Jones founded his type upon the angels +of Botticelli, and his drapery is like that of the ring of dancers +in the sky in our picture of the 'Nativity.' You are probably familiar +with some of his pictures and perhaps have felt the spell of his pure +gem-like colouring and pale, haunting faces. It was the people of their +minds' eye who sat beside their easels. Rossetti lived and worked in +the romantic mood of a Giorgione, but instead of expressing the +atmosphere of his fairy city of Venice, he created one as far as +possible removed from his own mid-Victorian surroundings. His +imaginary world was peopled by women with pale faces and luxuriant +auburn hair, pondering upon the mysteries of the universe. Like +Rossetti's 'Blessed Damozel,' they look out from the gold bar of heaven +with eyes from which the wonder is not yet gone.</p> + +<p>One of the best Pre-Raphaelite landscapes is the 'Strayed Sheep' of +Holman Hunt. The sheep are wandering over a grass hillside of the +vividest <a name="page192"></a>green, shot with spring flowers, and every sheep is painted +with the detail of the central sheep in Hubert van Eyck's 'Adoration +of the Lamb.' The colouring is almost as bright and jewel-like as that +of the fifteenth-century painters, for one of the theories of the +Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was that grass should be painted as green +as the single blade—not the colour of the whole field seen immersed +in light and atmosphere, which can make green grass seem gray or even +blue.</p> + +<p>In Brett's 'Val d'Aosta,' another Pre-Raphaelite landscape, we look +from a hill upon a great expanse of valley with mountains rising behind. +Every field of corn and every grassy meadow is outlined as clearly +as it would be upon a map. Every stick can be counted in the fences +between the fields and every tree in the hedge-rows. When we look at +the picture we involuntarily wander over the face of the country. There +is no taking in the view at a glance; we must walk through every field +and along every path.</p> + +<p>After seeing these Pre-Raphaelite landscapes, let us imagine ourselves +straightway turning to one of the numerous scenes by Whistler of the +Thames at twilight, with its glimmering lights and <a name="page193"></a>ghostly shapes of +bridges and hulks of steamers. Nothing is outlined, nothing is clearly +defined, but the mystery of London's river is caught and pictured for +ever. Let us look, too, at his 'Valparaiso,' bathed in a brilliant +South American sunshine, where all is pearly and radiant with southern +light. Even here the impression is not given by the power of the sun +revealing every detail. There are few touches, but like Velasquez, +he has made every touch tell.</p> + +<p>As the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood kindled their inspiration by the +vision of the fifteenth-century painters of Italy, so Whistler and +many other modern artists have turned to Velasquez for guidance. Till +the last half of the last century his name had been almost forgotten +outside Spain. Now, among the modern 'impressionists' so-called, he +is perhaps more studied than any other painter. When we were looking +at the pictures of this great man, we saw how he and Rembrandt were +among the earliest to learn the value of subordinating detail in the +parts to the better general effect of the whole, so as to present no +more than the eye could grasp in a comprehensive glance. Every tree +and stick in Brett's 'Val d'Aosta' is truthfully <a name="page194"></a>painted, but the +picture as a whole does not give the spectator the impression of truth, +for the simple reason that the eye can never see at once what Brett +has tried to make it see. All the wonderfully veracious detail in the +work of the Pre-Raphaelite does not give the impression of life. Men +like Holman Hunt, on the one hand, and on the other hand Whistler, +living and working at the same time, exhibiting their works in the +same galleries, differ even more in their ideals than Velasquez +differed from the fifteenth-century painters of Italy.</p> + +<p>Facts such as these make the study of modern art difficult. Before +the nineteenth century, pictures of the same date in the same country +were painted in approximately the same style. But during the last fifty +years many styles have reigned together. At one and the same time +painters have been inspired by the Greek and Roman sculptors, by +Botticelli, Mantegna, Titian, Tintoret, Velasquez, Rembrandt, +Reynolds, and Turner, and the work of each is, notwithstanding, +unmistakably nineteenth century, and could never have been produced +at any other date. Every artist finds a problem of his own to solve, +and <a name="page195"></a>attacks it in his own way. When Whistler painted a portrait he +endeavoured to express character in the general aspect of the figure, +rather than in the face. The picture of his mother is a wonderful +expression of the sweetness and peace of old age, given by the severe +lines of her black dress and the simplicity and nobility of her pose.</p> + +<p>The great painter Watts, who by the face chiefly sought to express +the man, never painted a full-length figure portrait. His long life, +covering nearly the whole of the century, enabled him to portray many +of the foremost men of the age—statesmen, poets, musicians, and men +of letters. In his portrait gallery their fine spirits still meet one +another face to face. But his portraits, in and through likenesses +of the men, are made to express the essence of that particular art +of which the man was a spokesman. In his portrait of Tennyson, the +bard with his laurel wreath is less Tennyson the man, if one may say +so, than Tennyson the poet. The picture might be called 'poetry,' as +that of Joachim could be called 'music,' for the violinist with his +dreamy beautiful face, playing his heart out, looks the soul of music's +self.</p> + +<p>Watts was never a Pre-Raphaelite, clothing anew <a name="page196"></a>his dreams of medieval +beauty; nor a seeker after the glories of Greece and Rome, like Leighton +and Alma Tadema; nor a student of the instant's impression, like +Whistler. To penetrate beneath the seen to the unseen was the aim of +his art. He wrestled to express thoughts in paint that seem +inexpressible. When we go to the Tate Gallery in London, to the room +filled with most precious works of Watts, we feel almost overawed by +the loftiness of his ideas, though they may seem to strain the last +resources of the painter's art. One of them is a picture of 'Chaos' +before the creation of the world. Half-formed men and women struggle +from the earth to force themselves into life, as the half-wrought +statues of Michelangelo from the marble that confines them. Near by +is a picture of the 'All-pervading,' the spirit of good that penetrates +the world, symbolized as a woman gazing long into a globe held upon +her knee. Opposite is the 'Dweller in the Innermost,' with deep, +unsearchable eyes. These are pictures that constrain thought rather +than charm the eye. When the thought is less obscure, it is better +suited to pictorial utterance, and Watts sometimes painted pictures +as simple as these are difficult.</p> + +<a name="page197"></a><p>There is nothing obscure in our frontispiece picture of 'Red +Ridinghood.' It sets before us a child's version and vision of a child's +fable that is imperishable, and as such makes an immediate appeal to +the eye. She is not acting a part or posing as a princess, but is simply +a cowering little girl, frightened at the wolf and eager to protect +her basket. In her freshness and simplicity, a cottage maiden with +anxious blue eyes, most innocent and childish of children, she need +not shun proximity to Richard II., Edward VI., William of Orange, Don +Balthazar Carlos, and the Duke of Gloucester.</p> + +<p>And thus we conclude our procession of royal children with a child +of the people. Beginning with Richard II., a portrait of a king rather +than a child, we end with a picture in which childhood merely, without +the gift of distinction or the glamour of royalty, suffices to charm +a great painter's eye and inspire his thought. With the sweetness and +grace of modern childhood filling our eyes, may we not well close this +children's book?</p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<div><h3><a name="index">INDEX</a></h3></div> +<br> +'Adoration of the Lamb,' +<a href="#page56">56-59</a><br> +<br> +Adoration of the Magi, treatment of, +<a href="#page33">33</a><br> +<br> +'Age of Innocence,' +<a href="#page171">171</a><br> +<br> +<i>Alice in Wonderland</i>, +<a href="#page2">2</a><br> +<br> +'All-pervading,' the, +<a href="#page196">196</a><br> +<br> +Animals, painting of, +<a href="#page142">142</a><br> +<br> +Antonello of Messina, +<a href="#page67">67-69</a><br> +<br> +Art, definition of, +<a href="#page4">4</a><br> +<br> +Atmosphere, +<a href="#page10">10</a><br> + treatment of by Dutch School, +<a href="#page139">139</a>, +<a href="#page140">140</a><br> + by Holbein, +<a href="#page139">139</a><br> + by Velasquez, +<a href="#page156">156</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Beauneveu, André, of Valenciennes, +<a href="#page43">43</a><br> +<br> +Bellini, Giovanni, +<a href="#page98">98</a>, +<a href="#page102">102</a><br> +<br> +Black Death, influence of, +<a href="#page41">41</a><br> +<br> +Botticelli, +<a href="#page70">70-77</a>, +<a href="#page145">145</a><br> + influence of, on Burne-Jones, +<a href="#page191">191</a><br> +<br> +Brett's 'Val d'Aosta,' +<a href="#page192">192 <i>et seq.</i></a><br> +<br> +Burne-Jones, +<a href="#page190">190 <i>et seq.</i></a><br> +<br> +Byzantium, influence of, +<a href="#page19">19</a><br> + Turkish conquest of, +<a href="#page20">20</a><br> +<br> +<br> +'Chaos,' +<a href="#page196">196</a><br> +<br> +Charles I. employs Rubens, +<a href="#page143">143</a><br> + employs Van Dyck, +<a href="#page147">147</a><br> + painted by Velasquez, +<a href="#page157">157</a><br> +<br> +Charles II., +<a href="#page131">131</a><br> +<br> +Charles V., King of France, +<a href="#page40">40</a><br> +<br> +Charles V., Emperor, +<a href="#page153">153</a><br> +<br> +Chillon, Castle of, +<a href="#page11">11</a><br> +<br> +Churches, medieval grandeur of, +<a href="#page14">14</a><br> +<br> +Cimabue, Vasari's account of, +<a href="#page24">24</a><br> + picture in National Gallery, +<a href="#page25">25</a><br> + picture in Santa Maria Novella, +<a href="#page25">25</a><br> + training of Giotto, +<a href="#page27">27</a><br> +<br> +Civilization, definition of, +<a href="#page9">9</a><br> +<br> +Claude Lorraine, +<a href="#page181">181-183</a><br> +<br> +Constable, +<a href="#page180">180</a><br> +<br> +Correggio, +<a href="#page91">91</a><br> +<br> +Crome, Old, +<a href="#page178">178</a><br> +<br> +Cuyp, +<a href="#page138">138-142</a>, +<a href="#page180">180</a><br> +<br> +<br> +'Dido building Carthage,' +<a href="#page182">182</a><br> +<br> +Don Balthazar Carlos, +<a href="#page154">154 <i>et seq.</i></a>, +<a href="#page160">160 <i>et seq.</i></a><br> +<br> +Douglas, Lady Alfred, +<a href="#page75">75</a><br> +<br> +Dragons, fear of, +<a href="#page12">12</a><br> +<br> +Duke of Gloucester, +<a href="#page170">170-171</a><br> +<br> +Dürer, +<a href="#page106">106-107</a><br> + compared with Holbein, +<a href="#page113">113</a><br> +<br> +Dutch expansion in the seventeenth century, +<a href="#page117">117</a><br> +<br> +'Dweller in the Innermost,' +<a href="#page196">196</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Edward the Confessor, story of, +<a href="#page32">32</a><br> +<br> +Edward Prince of Wales, +<a href="#page111">111-115</a><br> +<br> +Eighteenth century, artificiality of, +<a href="#page168">168</a><br> +<br> +Erasmus, +<a href="#page109">109-110</a><br> + portrait of, +<a href="#page114">114</a><br> +<br> +Etching, process of, +<a href="#page127">127</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Fighting <i>Temeraire</i>, +<a href="#page176">176 <i>et seq.</i></a><br> +<br> +Francis of Assisi, life of, +<a href="#page17">17</a>, +<a href="#page21">21</a><br> +<br> +Franciscans, foundation of the order of, +<a href="#page22">22</a><br> +<br> +'Fresco' painting, +<a href="#page39">39</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Gainsborough, +<a href="#page173">173 <i>et seq.</i></a><br> +<br> +Garden of Eden, +<a href="#page95">95</a><br> +<br> +Giorgione, +<a href="#page94">94-98</a>, +<a href="#page140">140</a><br> +<br> +Giotto, +<a href="#page27">27</a>, +<a href="#page28">28</a>, +<a href="#page35">35</a>, +<a href="#page50">50</a><br> +<br> +'Golden Age,' +<a href="#page95">95-98</a>, +<a href="#page142">142</a><br> +<br> +Goldsmith, +<a href="#page174">174</a><br> +<br> +Greeks, influence of, +<a href="#page10">10</a>, +<a href="#page65">65</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Henrietta Maria, +<a href="#page149">149</a><br> +<br> +Henry VIII., +<a href="#page109">109 <i>et seq.</i></a><br> + employs Holbein, +<a href="#page110">110</a><br> + portrait of, +<a href="#page114">114</a><br> +<br> +Hobbema, +<a href="#page141">141</a>, +<a href="#page178">178</a><br> +<br> +Hogarth, +<a href="#page166">166 <i>et seq.</i></a><br> +<br> +Holbein, +<a href="#page102">102-115</a>, +<a href="#page139">139</a>, +<a href="#page151">151</a><br> + 'Erasmus' in collection of Charles I., +<a href="#page147">147</a><br> +<br> +Holman Hunt, +<a href="#page190">190</a>, +<a href="#page191">191</a><br> +<br> +Horne, Herbert P., +<a href="#page74">74</a><br> +<br> +Hubert van Eyck, +<a href="#page46">46 <i>et seq.</i></a>, +<a href="#page140">140</a><br> +<br> +Hulin, Dr., +<a href="#page49">49</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Il Penseroso, +<a href="#page83">83</a><br> +<br> +Impressionism, beginning of, +<a href="#page162">162</a><br> +<br> +Infanta Marguerita, +<a href="#page161">161 <i>et seq.</i></a><br> +<br> +<br> +James II., +<a href="#page149">149</a><br> +<br> +Jerusalem Chamber, +<a href="#page18">18</a><br> + view of, taken in 1486, +<a href="#page49">49</a><br> +<br> +Joachim, portrait of, +<a href="#page195">195</a><br> +<br> +John, Duke of Berry, +<a href="#page40">40</a>, +<a href="#page42">42</a>, +<a href="#page53">53</a><br> +<br> +John, King of France, +<a href="#page40">40</a><br> +<br> +John van Eyck, +<a href="#page60">60</a><br> + compared with Dürer, +<a href="#page107">107</a><br> +<br> +Josse Vyt, +<a href="#page58">58</a><br> +<br> +Julius II., Pope, +<a href="#page88">88</a><br> +<br> +<br> +'Knight's Dream,' +<a href="#page78">78</a>, +<a href="#page82">82-86</a><br> +<br> +<br> +L'Allegro, +<a href="#page83">83</a><br> +<br> +Landscape painting, beginning of, +<a href="#page50">50</a><br> +<br> +Lely, Sir Peter, +<a href="#page131">131</a><br> +<br> +Leonardo da Vinci, +<a href="#page80">80-81</a>, +<a href="#page89">89-90</a>, +<a href="#page110">110</a><br> + compared with Dürer, +<a href="#page107">107</a><br> +<br> +'Les Meninas,' +<a href="#page162">162</a><br> +<br> +Liber Studiorum, +<a href="#page183">183</a><br> +<br> +Louis, Duke of Anjou, +<a href="#page40">40</a><br> +<br> +Luini, Bernardino, +<a href="#page90">90-91</a><br> +<br> +<br> +'Madonna of the Rocks,' +<a href="#page90">90</a><br> +<br> +'Man in Armour,' +<a href="#page126">126-127</a><br> +<br> +Mantegna, +<a href="#page69">69</a>, +<a href="#page70">70</a>, +<a href="#page102">102</a><br> + 'Triumphs of Cæsar,' +<a href="#page148">148</a><br> +<br> +Maria Theresa, +<a href="#page163">163</a><br> +<br> +Marie de Médicis, +<a href="#page143">143</a><br> +<br> +Mary Stuart, +<a href="#page149">149-150</a><br> +<br> +Medieval detail, +<a href="#page37">37</a><br> + coronation, solemnity of, +<a href="#page34">34</a><br> + guilds, +<a href="#page44">44</a><br> +<br> +Michelangelo, +<a href="#page80">80</a><br> + influence on Reynolds, +<a href="#page169">169</a>, +<a href="#page172">172</a><br> + influence on Tintoret, +<a href="#page99">99</a><br> +<br> +Millais, +<a href="#page190">190</a><br> +<br> +Milton, +<a href="#page83">83</a><br> +<br> +More, Sir Thomas, +<a href="#page109">109</a>, +<a href="#page110">110</a><br> +<br> +Mosque of Omar, +<a href="#page49">49</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Newbolt, Henry, +<a href="#page187">187</a><br> +<br> +'Night Watch,' Rembrandt's, +<a href="#page123">123-124</a><br> +<br> +'Norham Castle,' +<a href="#page183">183</a><br> +<br> +'Norwich School,' +<a href="#page178">178</a><br> +<br> +<br> +'Pallas Athene,' +<a href="#page127">127</a><br> +<br> +Perspective, +<a href="#page66">66</a><br> + absence of, +<a href="#page55">55</a><br> + Hubert's improvement in, +<a href="#page55">55</a><br> + mastery of, in Renaissance, +<a href="#page67">67</a><br> +<br> +Perugino, +<a href="#page79">79</a><br> +<br> +Peter de Hoogh, +<a href="#page133">133-136</a><br> +<br> +Philip IV., +<a href="#page154">154</a>, +<a href="#page155">155</a><br> +<br> +Philip the Bold, +<a href="#page40">40</a>, +<a href="#page41">41</a><br> +<br> +Philip the Good, +<a href="#page52">52</a><br> +<br> +Photographs and pictures, the difference between them, +<a href="#page4">4</a><br> +<br> +Portraiture, in the fifteenth century, growth of, +<a href="#page60">60</a><br> +<br> +Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, +<a href="#page189">189 <i>et seq.</i></a><br> +<br> +<br> +'Rain, Steam, and Speed,' +<a href="#page184">184</a><br> +<br> +Raphael, +<a href="#page78">78-89</a>, +<a href="#page140">140</a><br> + cartoons, in collection of Charles I., +<a href="#page147">147</a><br> + comparison with Giorgione, +<a href="#page94">94</a>, +<a href="#page97">97</a><br> + influence on Velasquez, +<a href="#page159">159</a><br> +<br> +'Red Ridinghood,' +<a href="#page197">197</a><br> +<br> +Reformation, effect of on art, +<a href="#page108">108</a><br> +<br> +Rembrandt, +<a href="#page118">118-132</a>, +<a href="#page135">135</a><br> + 'Anatomy,' +<a href="#page122">122</a>, +<a href="#page157">157</a><br> + compared with Peter de Hoogh, +<a href="#page134">134</a><br> + compared with Van Dyck, +<a href="#page151">151</a><br> + compared with Velasquez, +<a href="#page156">156</a><br> + landscapes of, +<a href="#page139">139</a><br> + Syndics, +<a href="#page130">130</a><br> +<br> +Revelations, +<a href="#page57">57</a>, +<a href="#page74">74</a><br> +<br> +Revival of learning, +<a href="#page65">65</a><br> +<br> +Reynolds, +<a href="#page169">169-175</a><br> +<br> +Richard II., portrait of, +<a href="#page29">29 <i>et seq.</i></a><br> + diptych, +<a href="#page47">47</a>, +<a href="#page50">50</a>, +<a href="#page139">139</a>, +<a href="#page197">197</a><br> + diptych in collection of Charles I., +<a href="#page147">147</a><br> +<br> +Roger van der Weyden, +<a href="#page61">61</a><br> +<br> +Rome, influence on Turner, +<a href="#page181">181</a><br> +<br> +Rossetti, +<a href="#page190">190 <i>et seq.</i></a><br> +<br> +Royal Academy, +<a href="#page174">174</a><br> +<br> +Rubens, +<a href="#page138">138</a>, +<a href="#page143">143-145</a><br> + friendship with Velasquez, +<a href="#page157">157</a><br> + on Charles I., +<a href="#page147">147</a><br> +<br> +Ruysdael, +<a href="#page141">141</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Santi, Giovanni, +<a href="#page79">79</a><br> +<br> +St. Catherine, Raphael's, +<a href="#page85">85</a><br> + burial of, +<a href="#page90">90</a><br> +<br> +St. Catherine of Siena, +<a href="#page17">17</a><br> +<br> +St. Edmund, +<a href="#page33">33</a><br> +<br> +St. Francis of Assisi, +<a href="#page17">17</a>, +<a href="#page21">21</a><br> + preaching to the birds, +<a href="#page4">4</a>, +<a href="#page23">23</a>, +<a href="#page50">50</a><br> +<br> +St. George slaying the dragon, +<a href="#page100">100-102</a><br> +<br> +St. Jerome's cell, +<a href="#page6">6</a>, +<a href="#page63">63-69</a><br> + lion of, +<a href="#page142">142</a><br> +<br> +St. Matthew, +<a href="#page46">46</a><br> +<br> +Saskia, +<a href="#page121">121</a>, +<a href="#page122">122 <i>et seq.</i></a><br> +<br> +Savonarola, +<a href="#page73">73-76</a><br> +<br> +Sistine Madonna, +<a href="#page85">85</a><br> +<br> +Spain, greatness of, in sixteenth century, +<a href="#page153">153</a><br> +<br> +Stained-glass windows, influence of in the fourteenth century, +<a href="#page36">36</a><br> +<br> +Steen, Jan, +<a href="#page137">137</a>, +<a href="#page167">167</a><br> +<br> +'Strayed Sheep,' +<a href="#page191">191</a><br> +<br> +'Surrender of Breda,' +<a href="#page159">159</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Tenniel, +<a href="#page2">2</a><br> +<br> +Tennyson, portrait of, +<a href="#page195">195</a><br> +<br> +Terborch, +<a href="#page137">137</a><br> +<br> +'Three Maries,' +<a href="#page46">46-59</a><br> + compared with Botticelli's 'Nativity,' +<a href="#page77">77</a><br> + compared with Raphael's 'Knight's Dream,' +<a href="#page85">85</a><br> + treatment of atmosphere in, +<a href="#page140">140</a><br> +<br> +Timoteo Viti, +<a href="#page82">82</a><br> +<br> +Tintoret, +<a href="#page99">99-102</a><br> + influence on Velasquez, +<a href="#page159">159</a><br> +<br> +Titian, +<a href="#page98">98</a>, +<a href="#page99">99</a>, +<a href="#page140">140</a>, +<a href="#page159">159</a><br> +<br> +Turner, +<a href="#page176">176-187</a><br> + sunsets of, +<a href="#page9">9</a><br> +<br> +<br> +'Ulysses deriding Polyphemus,' +<a href="#page184">184</a><br> +<br> +Umbrian landscape, beauty of, +<a href="#page79">79</a><br> +<br> +<br> +'Valparaiso,' +<a href="#page193">193</a><br> +<br> +Van Dyck, +<a href="#page145">145-152</a><br> + compared with Reynolds, +<a href="#page170">170 <i>et seq.</i></a><br> + comparison with Velasquez, +<a href="#page161">161</a><br> +<br> +Van Eyck's influence in Germany, +<a href="#page105">105</a><br> +<br> +Vasari, +<a href="#page23">23</a>, +<a href="#page25">25</a><br> +<br> +Velasquez, +<a href="#page153">153-164</a><br> + compared with Reynolds, +<a href="#page169">169</a><br> + influence of, +<a href="#page193">193</a><br> +<br> +Venice, influence on Turner, +<a href="#page180">180</a>, +<a href="#page185">185</a><br> + influence of on Venetian artists, +<a href="#page93">93 <i>et seq.</i></a><br> +<br> +Veronese, +<a href="#page102">102</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Watts, +<a href="#page195">195-197</a><br> +<br> +Whistler, +<a href="#page192">192 <i>et seq.</i></a>, +<a href="#page193">193</a><br> +<br> +William the Silent, +<a href="#page116">116</a>, +<a href="#page146">146</a><br> +<br> +William II. of Orange, +<a href="#page146">146-152</a><br> +<br> +William III., +<a href="#page146">146</a><br> +<br> +Wood-cutting, process of, +<a href="#page127">127</a><br> +<br> +Wool industry, importance of, +<a href="#page41">41</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>THE END</h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<center><small><i>Printed in Great Britain</i> by R & R. CLARK, LIMITED, <i>Edinburgh</i>.</small></center> +<br> +<br> +<hr> +<br> +<center><i>UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME</i></center> +<center><table width="60%" border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="20" summary="frame1"> +<tr> + <td> + <table summary="cell"> + <tr> + <td align="center"><i>EACH</i> <b>5s.</b> <i>NET</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="left">ÆSOP'S FABLES</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>ARABIAN NIGHTS</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>TALES FROM "THE EARTHLY PARADISE"</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>UNCLE TOM'S CABIN</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>BOOK OF CELTIC STORIES</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>BOOK OF EDINBURGH</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>MR. MIDSHIPMAN EASY</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>BOOK OF LONDON</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>BOOK OF THE RAILWAY</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="center"><i>EACH</i> <b>6s.</b> <i>NET</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="left">TALES OF ENGLISH CASTLES AND MANORS</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>TALES OF THE COVENANTERS</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>SCOTT'S TALES OF A GRANDFATHER <small>(ABRIDGED)</small></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>THE BOOK OF SCOTLAND</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>THE BOOK OF STARS</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>WITH COMMODORE ANSON</td> + </tr> + </table> + </td> +</tr> +</table></center> +<center><small>A. & C. BLACK, LTD., 4, 5, & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.1</small></center> +<br> +<center><small><i>New York</i><br> +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br> +<br> +<i>Melbourne</i> <br> +THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS<br> +<br> +<i>Cape Town</i><br> +THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS<br> +<br> +<i>Toronto</i><br> +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA<br> +<br> +<i>Bombay Calcutta Madras</i><br> +MACMILLAN AND COMPANY, LTD.</small></center> +<br> +<hr> +<br> +<h2>HOW TO ENJOY PICTURES</h2> + +<h4>By J. LITTLEJOHNS, <small>R.I., R.B.A., R.C.A., R.B.C., R.W.A.</small></h4> + +<center>With 8 full-page illustrations in colour, one in black and white, and +43 constructional drawings in the text.</center> +<br> +<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="frame2"> + <tr> + <td width="33%" align="left"><i>Small Crown 4to.</i></td> + <td width="33%" align="center"><b>6/- net</b></td> + <td align="right">(<i>By post, 6/6</i>)</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>Mr. Littlejohns explains very simply and pleasantly a method of +approach to pictures intended for those who have no knowledge of them +and no trained sensibility.[1] The book deals simply and briefly with +many of the considerations involved in composing a picture, and gives +an analysis, illustrated by diagrams, of nine well-known masterpieces. +The author does his work very well, and no one who reads carefully +what he says and carries out his instructions can fail to find added +interest if not also keener enjoyment in the contemplation of +pictures.[2]</p> + +<p>Mr. Littlejohns writes, not only with the artist's intuition, but with +the clearness and simplicity derived from his experiences as a teacher +of children.[3] The colour reproductions are excellent and could not +be bought separately for the price of the whole book.[4]</p> + +<p><small>1 <i>The Times Literary Supplement</i>.<br> + +2 <i>Scottish Educational Journal</i>.<br> + +3 <i>The Church Times</i>.<br> + +4 <i>Monthly Notes of the National Society of Art Masters</i>.</small></p> +<br> +<br> +<h2>BLACK'S DICTIONARY OF PICTURES</h2> +<h4>A GUIDE TO THE BEST WORK OF THE<br> +BEST PAINTERS</h4> + +<h4>E<small>DITED BY</small> RANDALL DAVIES</h4> + +<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="frame3"> + <tr> + <td width="33%" align="left"><i>Demy 8vo.</i></td> + <td width="33%" align="center"><b>3/6 net</b></td> + <td align="right">(<i>By post, 4/-</i>)</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>This book contains descriptive accounts, with full and accurate +particulars, of nearly 1000 of the most important pictures in public +galleries in this country and on the Continent. They have been selected +out of the immense number of exhibited works as being those which, +in view of the opinions of the best critics, or in some cases by popular +suffrage, are such as practically everybody who cares about pictures +ought, or would like, to know something about.</p> + +<center><small>A. & C. BLACK, LTD., 4, 5 AND 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.1</small></center> +<hr> +<br> +<br> +<h4>REPRODUCTIONS OF</h4> +<h2>GREAT MASTERS</h2> +<center>FACSIMILE REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR OF THE ORIGINALS</center> + +<p>Large Mounted Prints, Series 1-46. Average size of printed surface, +17-1/2 x 14-1/2 ins. Each <b>10/-</b> net, mounted; in black frame, unglazed, +but with picture varnished, price <b>17/6</b> net each; in narrow antique +gold frame, price <b>21/-</b> net each; or in ducat gold frame, price <b>25/-</b> +net each.</p> + +<center><table width="80%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="frame4"> + <tr> + <td width="5%" align="right">1.</td> + <td width="60%" align="left"> The Age of Innocence</td> + <td align="right"><i>Reynolds</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">2.</td> + <td> William II., Prince of Orange-Nassau</td> + <td align="right"><i>Van Dyck</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">3.</td> + <td> Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante</td> + <td align="right"><i>Romney</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">4.</td> + <td> The Laughing Cavalier</td> + <td align="right"><i>Franz Hals</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">5.</td> + <td> Study of Grief</td> + <td align="right"><i>Greuze</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">6.</td> + <td> Portrait of Mrs. Siddons</td> + <td align="right"><i>Gainsborough</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">7.</td> + <td> Nelly O'Brien</td> + <td align="right"><i>Reynolds</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">8.</td> + <td> Portrait of the Doge Leonardo Loredano</td> + <td align="right"><i>Bellini</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">9.</td> + <td> Portrait of an old Lady</td> + <td align="right"><i>Rembrandt</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">10.</td> + <td> The Virgin and Child</td> + <td align="right"><i>Botticelli</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">11.</td> + <td> The Hay Wain</td> + <td align="right"><i>Constable</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">12.</td> + <td> Madame Le Brun and Her Daughter</td> + <td align="right"><i>Le Brun</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">13.</td> + <td> The Broken Pitcher</td> + <td align="right"><i>Greuze</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">14.</td> + <td> The Parson's Daughter</td> + <td align="right"><i>Romney</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">15.</td> + <td> The Milkmaid</td> + <td align="right"><i>Greuze</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">16.</td> + <td> Portrait of Miss Bowles</td> + <td align="right"><i>Reynolds</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">17.</td> + <td> La Gioconda</td> + <td align="right"><i>Leonardo da Vinci</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">18.</td> + <td> Ulysses deriding Polyphemus</td> + <td align="right"><i>Turner</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">19.</td> + <td> Chapeau de Paille</td> + <td align="right"><i>Rubens</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">20.</td> + <td> Portrait of Mrs. Siddons</td> + <td align="right"><i>Sir T. Lawrence</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">21.</td> + <td> Head of a Girl</td> + <td align="right"><i>Greuze</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">22.</td> + <td> The San Sisto Madonna</td> + <td align="right"><i>Raphael</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">23.</td> + <td> The Dead Bird</td> + <td align="right"><i>Greuze</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">24.</td> + <td> Princess Margarita Marla</td> + <td align="right"><i>Velasquez</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">25.</td> + <td> The Tribute Money</td> + <td align="right"><i>Titian</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">26.</td> + <td> Sir Walter Scott</td> + <td align="right"><i>Raeburn</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">27.</td> + <td> Robert Burns</td> + <td align="right"><i>Nasmyth</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">28.</td> + <td> The Swing</td> + <td align="right"><i>Fragonard</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">29.</td> + <td> Inside of a Stable</td> + <td align="right"><i>George Morland</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">30.</td> + <td> Head of a Girl</td> + <td align="right"><i>Rembrandt</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">31.</td> + <td> Embarking for Cythera</td> + <td align="right"><i>Watteau</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">32.</td> + <td> Anne of Cleves</td> + <td align="right"><i>Holbein</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">33.</td> + <td> The Avenue, Middleharnis, Holland</td> + <td align="right"><i>Hobbema</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">34.</td> + <td> Interior of a Dutch House</td> + <td align="right"><i>Peter de Hoogh</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">35.</td> + <td> Charles I.</td> + <td align="right"><i>Van Dyck</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">36.</td> + <td> St. John the Baptist</td> + <td align="right"><i>Leonardo da Vinci</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">37.</td> + <td> A Young Man</td> + <td align="right"><i>Raphael</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">38.</td> + <td> A Party in a Park</td> + <td align="right"><i>Watteau</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">39.</td> + <td> His Majesty King George V.</td> + <td align="right"><i>H. de T. Glazebrook</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">40.</td> + <td> The Surrender of Breda</td> + <td align="right"><i>Velasquez</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">41.</td> + <td> Prince Balthasar Carlos</td> + <td align="right"><i>Velasquez</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">42.</td> + <td> The Maids of Honour</td> + <td align="right"><i>Velasquez</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">43.</td> + <td> The Tapestry Weavers</td> + <td align="right"><i>Velasquez</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">44.</td> + <td> The Topers</td> + <td align="right"><i>Velasquez</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">45.</td> + <td> The Immaculate Conception</td> + <td align="right"><i>Murillo</i></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td align="right">46.</td> + <td> The Blue Boy</td> + <td align="right"><i>Gainsborough</i></td> + </tr> +</table></center> + +<center><small><i>A complete list of the Large and Small Series will be sent post free<br> +on application to the Publishers.</i></small></center> +<br> +<br> +<h2>ELEMENTARY WATER-COLOUR PAINTING</h2> + +<h4>By J. HULLAH BROWN</h4> + +<p>Second edition, containing an outline drawing and six full-page +illustrations in colour, including guides for gradations of colour, +colour washes, mixing of colour, etc.</p> + +<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="frame5"> + <tr> + <td width="33%" align="left"><i>Demy 8vo.</i></td> + <td width="33%" align="center"><b>2/6 net</b></td> + <td align="right"><i>Quarter Canvas</i></td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> +<center>P<small>RESS</small> O<small>PINIONS</small></center> + +<p>"An attractive and well-illustrated little book, which will help to +initiate members of sketching classes into methods of getting +effects."—<i>Times Educational Supplement</i>.</p> + +<p>"An accurate little brochure ... well illustrated in colour, and +containing sound instructions as to the mixing and putting on of +water-colours. It would really be of service to anyone <i>not too +youthful</i> who was out of the way of obtaining personal instruction +In the matter."—<i>The Educational Times</i>.</p> + + + + +<center><small>A. & C. BLACK, LTD., 4, 5 AND 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.1</small></center> +<hr> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Book of Art for Young People, by +Agnes Conway +Sir Martin Conway + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF ART FOR YOUNG PEOPLE *** + +***** This file should be named 17395-h.htm or 17395-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/3/9/17395/ + +Produced by Ron Swanson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Book of Art for Young People + +Author: Agnes Conway +Sir Martin Conway + +Release Date: December 26, 2005 [EBook #17395] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF ART FOR YOUNG PEOPLE *** + + + + +Produced by Ron Swanson + + + + +[Frontispiece: RED RIDING HOOD +From the picture by G. F. Watts, in the Birmingham Art Gallery +Page 197] + + + + +THE BOOK OF ART +FOR YOUNG PEOPLE + + +BY +AGNES ETHEL CONWAY +AND +SIR MARTIN CONWAY + + +WITH SIXTEEN FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR + + + + +A. & C. BLACK, LTD. +4, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.1 + + +First published September 1909 as "The Children's Book of Art" +Reprinted in 1914, 1927, and 1935 + + +Made in Great Britain. +Printed by R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinburgh. + + + + +TO +MY LITTLE FRIENDS +AGNES AND ROSANNE + + + + +NOTE + +My thanks are due and are cordially rendered to the Earl of Yarborough, +Sir Frederick Cook, and the authorities of Trinity College, Cambridge, +for permission to reproduce their pictures; to Lady Alfred Douglas +and Mr. Henry Newbolt for leave to quote from their poems; to Mr. +Everard Green, Somerset Herald, for all that is new in the +interpretation of the Wilton diptych; to Miss K. K. Radford for the +translation in Chapter VIII., and to all the friends who have helped +me with criticism and suggestions. + +A. E. C. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAP. PAGE + + I INTRODUCTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 + + II THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY IN EUROPE . . . . 14 + + III RICHARD II. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 + + IV THE VAN EYCKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 + + V THE RENAISSANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 + + VI RAPHAEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 + + VII THE RENAISSANCE IN VENICE . . . . . . . . 93 + +VIII THE RENAISSANCE IN THE NORTH . . . . . . 104 + + IX REMBRANDT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 + + X PETER DE HOOGH AND CUYP . . . . . . . . . 133 + + XI VAN DYCK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 + + XII VELASQUEZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 + +XIII REYNOLDS AND THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY . . . 165 + + XIV TURNER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 + + XV THE NINETEENTH CENTURY . . . . . . . . . 188 + +INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +IN THE COLOURS OF THE ORIGINAL PAINTINGS + + +Red Ridinghood . . . . . . . . . . _G. F. Watts_ _Frontispiece_ + +Richard II. before the Virgin PAGE + and Child . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 + +The Three Maries . . . . . . . . . _H. Van Eyck_ . . . . . 48 + +St. Jerome in his study . . . . . _Antonello da Messina_ 65 + +The Nativity . . . . . . . . . . . _Sandro Botticelli_ . . 76 + +The Knight's Dream . . . . . . . . _Raphael_ . . . . . . . 85 + +The Golden Age . . . . . . . . . . _Giorgione_ . . . . . . 96 + +St. George destroying the Dragon . _Tintoret_ . . . . . . 102 + +Edward, Prince of Wales, + afterwards Edward VI. . . . . _Holbein_ . . . . . . . 111 + +A Man in Armour . . . . . . . . . _Rembrandt_ . . . . . . 126 + +An Interior . . . . . . . . . . . _P. de Hoogh_ . . . . . 134 + +Landscape with Cattle . . . . . . _Cuyp_ . . . . . . . . 141 + +William II. of Orange . . . . . . _Van Dyck_ . . . . . . 146 + +Don Balthazar Carlos . . . . . . . _Velasquez_ . . . . . . 161 + +The Duke of Gloucester . . . . . . _Sir J. Reynolds_ . . . 170 + +The Fighting Temeraire . . . . . . _Turner_ . . . . . . . 177 + + + + +THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF ART + + + + +CHAPTER I + +INTRODUCTORY + + +Almost the pleasantest thing in the world is to be told a splendid +story by a really nice person. There is not the least occasion for +the story to be true; indeed I think the untrue stories are the +best--those in which we meet delightful beasts and things that talk +twenty times better than most human beings ever do, and where +extraordinary events happen in the kind of places that are not at all +like our world of every day. It is so fine to be taken into a country +where it is always summer, and the birds are always singing and the +flowers always blowing, and where people get what they want by just +wishing for it, and are not told that this or that isn't good for them, +and that they'll know better than to want it when they're grown up, +and all that kind of thing which is so annoying and so often happening +in this obstinate criss-cross world, where the days come and go in +such an ordinary fashion. + +But if I might choose the person to tell me the kind of story I like +to listen to, and hear told to me over and over again, it would be +some one who could draw pictures for me while talking--pictures like +those of Tenniel in _Alice in Wonderland_ and _Through the +Looking-Glass_. How much better we know Alice herself and the White +Knight and the Mad Hatter and all the rest of them from the pictures +than even from the story itself. But my story-teller should not only +draw the pictures while he talked, but he should paint them too. I +want to see the sky blue and the grass green, and I want red cloaks +and blue bonnets and pink cheeks and all the bright colours, and some +gold and silver too, and not merely black and white--though black and +white drawings would be better than nothing, so long as they showed +me what the people and beasts and dragons and things were like. I could +put up with even rather bad drawings if only they were vivid. Don't +you know how good a bad drawing sometimes seems? I have a friend who +can make the loveliest folks and the funniest beasts and the quaintest +houses and trees, and he really can't draw a bit; and the curious thing +is, that if he could draw better I should not like his folks and beasts +half as much as I do the lop-sided, crook-legged, crazy-looking people +he produces. And then he has such quaint things to tell about them, +and while he talks he seems to make them live, so that I can hardly +believe they are not real people for all their unlikeness to any one +you ever saw. + +Now, the old pictures you see in the picture galleries are just like +that, only the people that painted them didn't invent the stories but +merely illustrated stories which, at the time those painters lived, +every one knew. Some of the stories were true and some were just a +kind of fairy tale, and it didn't matter to the painters, and it doesn't +matter to us, which was true and which wasn't. The only thing that +matters is whether the story is a good one and whether the picture +is a nice one. There is a delightful old picture painted on a wall +away off at Assisi, in Italy, which shows St. Francis preaching to +a lot of birds, and the birds are all listening to him and looking +pleased--the way birds do look pleased when they find a good fat worm +or fresh crumbs. Now, St. Francis was a real man and such a dear person +too, but I don't suppose half the stories told about him were really +true, yet we can pretend they were and that's just what the painter +helps us to do. Don't you know all the games that begin with 'Let's +pretend'?--well, that's art. Art is pretending, or most of it is. +Pictures take us into a world of make-believe, a world of imagination, +where everything is or should be in the right place and in the right +light and of the right colour, where all the people are nicely dressed +to match one another, and are not standing in one another's way, and +not interrupting one another or forgetting to help play the game. +That's the difference between pictures and photographs. A photograph +is almost always wrong somewhere. Something is out of place, or +something is there which ought to be away, or the light is wrong; or, +if it's coloured, the colours are just not in keeping with one another. +If it's a landscape the trees are where we don't want them; they hide +what we want to see, or they don't hide the very thing we want hidden. +Then the clouds are in the wrong place, and a wind ruffles the water +just where we want to see something reflected. That's the way things +actually happen in the real world. But in the world of 'Let's pretend,' +in the world of art, they don't happen so. There everything happens +right, and everybody does, not so much what they should (that might +sometimes be dull), but exactly what we want them to do--which is so +very much better. That is the world of your art and my art. +Unfortunately all the pictures in the galleries weren't painted just +for you and me; but you'll find, if you look for them, plenty that +were, and the rest don't matter. Those were painted, no doubt, for +some one else. But if you could find the some one else for whom they +were painted, the some one else whose world of 'Let's pretend' was +just these pictures that don't belong to your world, and if they could +tell you about their world of 'Let's pretend,' ten to one you'd find +it just as good a world as your own, and you'd soon learn to 'pretend' +that way too. + +Well, the purpose of this book is to take you into a number of worlds +of 'Let's pretend,' most of which I daresay will be new to you, and +perhaps you will find some of them quite delightful places. I'm sure +you can't help liking St. Jerome's Cell when you come to it. It's not +a bit like any room we can find anywhere in the world to-day, but +wouldn't it be joyful if we could? What a good time we could have there +with the tame lion (not a bit like any lion in the Zoo, but none the +worse for that) and the jolly bird, and all St. Jerome's little things. +I should like to climb on to his platform and sit in his chair and +turn over his books, though I don't believe they'd be interesting to +read, but they'd certainly be pretty to look at. If you and I were +there, though, we should soon be out away behind, looking round the +corner, and finding all sorts of odd places that unfortunately can't +all get into the picture, only we know they're there, down yonder +corridor, and from what the painter shows us we can invent the rest +for ourselves. + +One of the troubles of a painter is that he can't paint every detail +of things as they are in nature. A primrose, when you first see it, +is just a little yellow spot. When you hold it in your hand you find +it made up of petals round a tiny centre with little things in it. +If you take a magnifying glass you can see all its details multiplied. +If you put a tiny bit of it under a microscope, ten thousand more little +details come out, and so it might go on as long as you went on magnifying. +Now a picture can't be like that. It just has to show you the general +look of things as you see them from an ordinary distance. But there +comes in another kind of trouble. How do you see things? We don't all +see the same things in the same way. Your mother's face looks very +different to you from its look to a mere person passing in the street. +Your own room has a totally different aspect to you from what it bears +to a casual visitor. The things you specially love have a way of +standing out and seeming prominent to you, but not, of course, to any +one else. Then there are other differences in the look of the same +things to different people which you have perhaps noticed. Some people +are more sensitive to colours than others. Some are much more sensitive +to brightness and shadow. Some will notice one kind of object in a +view, or some detail in a face far more emphatically than others. Girls +are quicker to take note of the colour of eyes, hair, skin, clothes, +and so forth than boys. A woman who merely sees another woman for a +moment will be able to describe her and her dress far more accurately +than a man. A man will be noticing other things. His picture, if he +painted one, would make those other things prominent. + +So it is with everything that we see. None of us sees more than certain +features in what the eye rests upon, and if we are artists it is only +those features that we should paint. We can't possibly paint every +detail of everything that comes into the picture. We must make a choice, +and of course we choose the features and details that please us best. +Now, the purpose of painting anything at all is to paint the beauty +of the thing. If you see something that strikes you as ugly, you don't +instinctively want to paint it; but when you see an effect of beauty, +you feel that it would be very nice indeed to have a picture showing +that beauty. So a picture is not really the representation of a thing, +but the representation of the beauty of the thing. + +Some people can see beauty almost everywhere; they are conscious of +beauty all day long. They want to surround themselves with beauty, +to make all their acts beautiful, to shed beauty all about them. Those +are the really artistic souls. The gift of such perfect instinct for +beauty comes by nature to a few. It can be cultivated by almost all. +That cultivation of all sorts of beauty in life is what many people +call civilization--the real art of living. To see beauty everywhere +in nature is not so very difficult. It is all about us where the work +of uncivilized man has not come in to destroy it. Artists are people +who by nature and by education have acquired the power to see beauty +in what they look at, and then to set it down on paper or canvas, or +in some other material, so that other people can see it too. + +It seems strange that at one time the beauty of natural landscape was +hardly perceived by any one at all. People lived in the beautiful +country and scarcely knew that it was beautiful. Then came the time +when the beauty of landscape began to be felt by the nicest people. +They began to put it into their poetry, and to talk and write about +it, and to display it in landscape pictures. It was through poems and +pictures, which they read and saw, that the general run of folks first +learned to look for beauty in nature. I have no doubt that Turner's +wonderful sunsets made plenty of people look at sunsets and rejoice +in the intricacy and splendour of their glory for the first time in +their lives. Well, what Turner and other painters of his generation +did for landscape, had had to be done for men and women in earlier +days by earlier generations of artists. The Greeks were the first, +in their sculpture, to show the wonderful beauty of the human form; +till their day people had not recognised what to us now seems obvious. +No doubt they had thought one person pretty and another handsome, but +they had not known that the human figure was essentially a glorious +thing till the Greek sculptors showed them. Another thing painters +have taught the world is the beauty of atmosphere. Formerly no one +seems to have noticed how atmosphere affects every object that is seen +through it. The painters had to show us that it is so. After we had +seen the effect of atmosphere in pictures we began to be able to see +for ourselves in nature, and thus a whole group of new pleasures in +views of nature was opened up to us. + +Away back in the Middle Ages, six hundred and more years ago, folks +had far less educated eyes than we possess to-day. They looked at nature +more simply than we do and saw less in it. So they were satisfied with +pictures that omitted a great many features we cannot do without. + +But painting does not only concern itself with representing the world +we actually see and the people that our eyes actually behold. It +concerns itself quite as much with the world of fancy, of make-believe. +Indeed, most painters when they look at an actual scene let their fancy +play about it, so that presently what they see and what they fancy +get mixed up together, and their pictures are a mixture of fancy and +of fact, and no one can tell where the one ends and the other begins. +The fancies of people are very different at different times, and you +can't understand the pictures of old days unless you can share the +fancies of the old painters. To do that you must know something about +the way they lived and the things they believed, and what they hoped +for and what they were afraid of. + +Here, for instance, is a very funny fact solemnly recorded in an old +account book. A certain Count of Savoy owned the beautiful Castle of +Chillon, which you have perhaps seen, on the shores of the Lake of +Geneva. But he could not be happy, because he and the people about +him thought that in a hole in the rock under one of the cellars a +basilisk lived--a very terrible dragon--and they all went in fear of +it. So the Count paid a brave mason a large sum of money (and the payment +is solemnly set down in his account book) to break a way into this +hole and turn the basilisk out; and I have no doubt that he and his +people were greatly pleased when the hole was made and no basilisk +was found. Folks who believed in dragons as sincerely as that, must +have gone in terror in many places where we should go with no particular +emotion. A picture of a dragon to them would mean much more than it +would to us. So if we are really to understand old pictures, we must +begin by understanding the fancies of the artists who painted them, +and of the people they were painted for. You see how much study that +means for any one who wants to understand all the art of all the world. + +We shall not pretend to lead you on any such great quest as that, but +ask you to look at just a few old pictures that have been found charming +by a great many people of several generations, and to try and see +whether they do not charm you as well. You must never, of course, +pretend to like what you don't like--that is too silly. We can't all +like the same things. Still there are certain pictures that most nice +people like. A few of these we have selected to be reproduced in this +book for you to look at. And to help you realize who painted them and +the kind of people they were painted for, my daughter has written the +chapters that follow. I hope you will find them entertaining, and still +more that you will like the pictures, and so learn to enjoy the many +others that have come down to us from the past, and are among the world's +most precious possessions to-day. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY IN EUROPE + + +Before we give our whole attention to the first picture, of which the +original was painted in England in 1377, let us imagine ourselves in +the year 1200 making a rapid tour through the chief countries of Europe +to see for ourselves how the people lived. The first thing that will +strike us on our journey is the contrast between the grandeur of the +churches and public buildings and the insignificance of most of the +houses. Some of the finest churches in England, built in the style +of architecture called 'Norman,' one or more of which you may have +seen, date before the year 1200, as for example, Durham Cathedral, +and the naves of Norwich, Ely, and Peterborough Cathedrals. The great +churches abroad were also beautiful and more elaborately decorated, +in the North with sculpture and painting, in the South with marble +and mosaic. The towns competed one with another in erecting them finer +and larger, and in decorating them as magnificently as they could. +This was done because the church was a place which the people used +for many other purposes besides Sunday services. In the twelfth, +thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, the parish church, on week-days +as well as on Sundays, was a very useful and agreeable place to most +of the parishioners. The 'holy' days, or saints' days, 'holidays' +indeed, were times of rejoicing and festivity, and the Church +processions and services were pleasant events in the lives of many +who had few entertainments, and who for the most part could neither +read nor write. Printing was not yet invented, at least not in Europe, +and as every book had to be written out by hand, copies of books were +rare and only owned by the few who could read them, so that stories +were mostly handed down by word of mouth, the same being told by mother +to child for many generations. + +The favourites were stories of the saints and martyrs of the Catholic +Church, for of course we are speaking now of times long before the +Reformation. The Old Testament stories and all the stories of the life +of Christ and His Apostles were well known too, and just as we never +tire of reading our favourite books over and over again, our +forefathers of 1200 wanted to see on the walls of their churches +representations of the stories which they could not read. Their daily +thoughts were more occupied with the Infant Christ, the saints, and +the angels, than ours generally are. They thought of themselves as +under the protection of some saint, who would plead with God the Father +for them if they asked him, for God Himself seemed too high or remote +to be appealed to always directly. He was approached with awe; the +saints, the Virgin, and the Infant Christ, with love. + +We must realise this difference before we can well understand a picture +painted in the twelfth, thirteenth, or fourteenth centuries, nor can +we look at one without feeling that the artist and the people for whom +he painted, so loved the holy personages. They thought about them +always, not only at stated times and on Sundays, and never tired of +looking at pictures of them and their doings. It is sometimes said +that only Catholics can understand medieval art, because they feel +towards the saints as the old painters did. But it is possible for +any one to realize how in those far-off days the people felt, and it +is this that we must try to do. The religious fervour of the Middle +Ages was not a sign of great virtue among all the people. Some were +far more cruel, savage, and unrestrained than we are to-day. Very +wicked men even became powerful dignitaries in the Church. But it was +the Church that fostered the impulses of pity and charity in a fierce +age, and some of the saints of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, +such as St. Francis of Assisi and St. Catharine of Siena, are still +held to be among the most beautiful characters the world has ever known. + +The churches of the eleventh and twelfth centuries in Florence were +lined with marble, and a great picture frequently stood above the altar. +It is difficult to realize to-day that the processes which we call +oil and water-colour painting were not then invented, and that no shops +existed to sell canvases and paints ready for use. The artist painted +upon a wooden panel, which he had himself to make, plane flat, and +cut to the size he needed. In order to get a surface upon which he +could paint, he covered the panel with a thin coating of plaster which +it was difficult to lay on absolutely flat. Upon the plaster he drew +the outline of the figures he was going to paint, and filled in the +background with a thin layer of gold leaf, such as is to-day used for +gilding frames. After the background had been put in, it was impossible +to correct the outline of the figures, and the labour of preparing +the wooden panel and of laying the gold was so great that an artist +would naturally not make risky attempts towards something new, lest +he should spoil his work. In the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey +there is a thirteenth-century altar-piece of this kind, and you can +see the strips of vellum that were used to cover the joins of the +different pieces of wood forming the panel, beneath the layer of +plaster, which has now to a great extent peeled off. + +The people liked to see their Old Testament stories and the stories +from the Life of Christ painted over and over again. They had become +fond of the versions of the tales which they had known and seen painted +when they were young, and did not wish them changed, so that the range +of subjects was not large. The same were repeated, and because of the +painter's fear of making mistakes it was natural that the same figures +should be repeated too. Thus, whatever the subject pictured, a +tradition was formed in each locality for the grouping and general +arrangement of the figures, and the most authoritative tradition for +such typical groupings was preserved in Constantinople or Byzantium, +from which city the 'Byzantine' school of painting takes its name. + +Before 1200, Byzantium had been a centre of residence and the +civilizing influence of trade for eighteen centuries. It had been the +capital of the Roman Empire, and less civilized peoples from the north +had never conquered the town, destroying the Greek and Roman traditions, +as happened elsewhere in Europe. You have read how the Romans had to +withdraw their armies from England to defend Rome against the attacks +of the Goths from the north, and then how Britain was settled by Angles, +Saxons, Jutes, and Danes, who destroyed most of the Roman civilization. +A similar though much less complete destruction took place in Italy +a little later, when Goths and Lombards, who were remotely akin to +the Angles and Saxons, overwhelmed Roman culture. But next to +Constantinople, Rome had the best continuous tradition of art, for +the fine monuments of the great imperial days still existed in the +city. In Byzantium the original Greek population struggled on, and +continued to paint, and make mosaics, and erect fine buildings, till +the Turks conquered them in 1453. The Byzantines were wealthy and made +exquisite objects in gold, precious stones, and ivory. While they were +painting better than any other people in Europe, they too reproduced +the same subjects and the same figures over and over again, only the +figures were more graceful than those of the local Italian, English, +and French artists, who in varying degrees at different times tried +to paint like the Byzantine or Greek artists, but without quite the +same success. So long as there was no need for an artist to paint +anything but the old well-established subjects, and so long as people +desired them to be painted in the old conventional manner, there was +little reason why any painter should try to be original and paint what +was not wanted. But in the thirteenth century a great change took place. + +Let us here refresh our memories of what we may have read of that +delightful saint, Francis of Assisi. He was born in 1182, the son of +a well-to-do nobleman, in the little town of Assisi in Umbria, and +as a lad became inflamed with the ideal of the religious life. But +instead of entering one of the existing monastic orders, where he would +have been protected, he gave away every possession he had in the world +and adopted 'poverty' as his watchword. Clad in an old brown habit, +he walked from place to place preaching charity, obedience, and +renunciation of all worldly goods. He lived on what was given to him +to eat from day to day; he nursed the lepers and the sick. Ever described +as a most lovable person, he won by his preaching the hearts of people +of all classes, from the King of France to the humblest peasant. He +wrote beautiful hymns in praise of the sun, the moon, and the stars, +and had a great love for every living thing. The birds were said to +have flocked around him because they loved him, and we read that he +talked to them and called them his 'little sisters.' An old writer +tells this story in good faith: + +When St. Francis spake words to them, the birds began all of them to +open their beaks and spread their wings and reverently bend their heads +down to the ground, and by their acts and by their songs did show that +the holy Father gave them joy exceeding great. + +Wherever he preached he made converts who 'married Holy Poverty,' as +St. Francis expressed it, gave up everything they had, and lived his +preaching and roaming life. St. Francis himself had no idea of forming +a monastic order. He wished to live a holy life in the world and show +others how to do the same, and for years he and his companions worked +among the poor, earning their daily bread when they could, and when +they could not, begging for it. Gradually, however, ambition stirred +in the hearts of some of the followers of Francis, and against the +will of their leader they made themselves into the Order of Franciscan +Friars, collected gifts of money, and began to build churches and +monastic buildings. At first the buildings were said to belong to the +Pope, who allowed the Franciscans to use them, since they might not +own property; but after the death of St. Francis, the Order built +churches throughout the length and breadth of Italy, not of marble +and mosaic but of brick, since brick was cheaper; but the brick walls +were plastered, and upon the wet plaster there were painted scenes +from the life of St. Francis, side by side with the old Christian and +saintly legends. This sudden demand for painted churches with +paintings of new subjects, stirred the painters of the day to alter +their old style. When an artist was asked to paint a large picture +of St. Francis preaching to the birds, he had to look at real birds +and he had to study a real man in the attitude of preaching. There +was no scene that had ever been painted from the life of Christ or +of any saint in which a man preached to a bird, so that the artist +was driven to paint from nature instead of copying former pictures. + +Let us now read what a painter who lived in the sixteenth century, +Vasari by name, wrote about the rise of painting in his native city. +Some learned people nowadays say that Vasari was wrong in many of the +stories he told, but after all he lived much nearer than we do to the +times he wrote about, and it is safer to believe what he tells us than +what modern students surmise, except when they are able to cite other +old authorities to which Vasari did not have access. + +The endless flood of misfortunes which overwhelmed unhappy Italy not +only ruined everything worthy of the name of a building, but completely +extinguished the race of artists, a far more serious matter. Then, +as it pleased God, there was born in the year 1240, in the city of +Florence, Giovanni, surnamed Cimabue, to shed the first light on the +art of painting. Instead of paying attention to his lessons, Cimabue +spent the whole day drawing men, horses, houses, and various other +fancies on his books and odd sheets, like one who felt himself compelled +to do so by nature. Fortune proved favourable to his natural +inclination, for some Greek artists were summoned to Florence by the +government of the city for no other purpose than the revival of painting +in their midst, since the art was not so much debased as altogether +lost. In this way Cimabue made a beginning in the art which attracted +him, for he often played the truant and spent the whole day in watching +the masters work. Thus it came about that his father and the artists +considered him so fitted to be a painter that if he devoted himself +to the profession he might look for honourable success in it, and to +his great satisfaction his father procured him employment with the +painters. Thus by dint of continual practice and with the assistance +of his natural talent he far surpassed the manner of his teachers. +For they had never cared to make any progress and had executed their +works, not in the good manner of ancient Greece, but in the rude modern +style of that time. Cimabue drew from nature to the best of his powers, +although it was a novelty to do so in those days, and he made the +draperies, garments, and other things somewhat more life-like, natural, +and soft than the Greeks had done, who had taught one another a rough, +awkward, and commonplace style for a great number of years, not by +means of study but as a matter of custom, without ever dreaming of +improving their designs by beauty of colouring or by any invention +of worth. + +If you were to see a picture by Cimabue (there is one in the National +Gallery which resembles his work so closely that it is sometimes said +to be his), you would think less highly than Vasari of the life-like +quality of his art, though there is something dignified and stately +in the picture of the Virgin and Child with angels that he painted +for the Church of St. Francis at Assisi. Another story is told by Vasari +of a picture by Cimabue, which tradition asserts to be the great Madonna, +still in the Church of Santa Maria Novella at Florence. + +Cimabue painted a picture of Our Lady for the church of Santa Maria +Novella. The figure was of a larger size than any which had been +executed up to that time, and the people of that day who had never +seen anything better, considered the work so marvellous that they +carried it to the church from Cimabue's house in a stately procession +with great rejoicing and blowing of trumpets, while Cimabue himself +was highly rewarded and honoured. It is reported, and some records +of the old painters relate, that while Cimabue was painting this +picture in some gardens near the gate of S. Piero, the old King Charles +of Anjou passed through Florence. Among the many entertainments +prepared for him by the men of the city, they brought him to see the +picture of Cimabue. As it had not then been seen by any one, all the +men and women of Florence flocked thither in a crowd with the greatest +rejoicings, so that those who lived in the neighbourhood called the +place the 'Joyful Suburb' because of the rejoicing there. This name +it ever afterwards retained, being in the course of time enclosed +within the walls of the city. + +For this story we may thank Vasari, because it helps us to realize +the love the people of Florence felt for the pictures in their churches, +and the reverence in which they held an artist who could paint a more +beautiful picture of the Virgin and Child than any they had seen before. +It is difficult to think of the population of a town to-day walking +in procession to honour the painter of a fine picture; but a picture +of the Madonna was a very precious thing indeed to a Florentine of +the thirteenth century, and we may try to imagine ourselves walking +joyfully in that Florentine procession so as the better to understand +Florentine Art. + +I have repeated this legend about Cimabue, because he was the master +of Giotto, who is called the Father of Modern Painting. The story is +that Cimabue one day came upon the boy Giotto, who was a shepherd, +and found him drawing a sheep with a pointed piece of stone upon a +smooth surface of rock. He was so much struck with the drawing that +he took the boy home and taught him, and soon he in his turn far +surpassed his master. In order to appreciate Giotto we need to go to +Assisi, Florence, or Padua, for in each place he has painted a series +of wall-paintings. In the great double church of Assisi, built by the +Franciscans over the grave of St. Francis within a few years of his +death, Giotto has illustrated the whole story of his life. An isolated +reproduction of one scene would give you no idea of their power. In +many respects he was an innovator, and by the end of his life had broken +away completely from the Byzantine school of painting. He composed +each one of the scenes from the life of St. Francis in an original +and dramatic manner, and so vividly that a person unacquainted with +the story would know what was going on. Standing in the nave of the +Upper Church, you are able to contrast these speaking scenes of the +lives of people upon earth, with the faded glories of great-winged +angels and noble Madonnas with Greek faces, that were painted in the +Byzantine style when the church was at its newest, before Giotto was +born. These look down upon us still from the east end of the church. + +Giotto died in 1337, and for the next fifty years painters in Italy +did little but imitate him. Scenes from the life of St. Francis and +incidents from the legends of other saints remained in vogue, but they +were not treated in original fashion by succeeding artists. The new +men only tried to paint as Giotto might have painted, and so far from +surpassing him, he was never even equalled by his followers. + +We need not burden our memories with the names of these 'Giottesque' +artists; and now, after this glimpse of an almost vanished world, we +will turn our attention to England and to the first picture of our +choice. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +RICHARD II. + + +Our first picture is a portrait of Richard II. on his coronation day +in the year 1377, when he was ten years old. It is the earliest one +selected, and the eyes of those who see it for the first time will +surely look surprised. The jewel-like effect of the sapphire-winged +angels and coral-robed Richard against the golden background is not +at all what we are accustomed to see. Nowadays it may take some time +and a little patience before we can cast ourselves back to the year +1377 and look at the picture with the eyes of the person who painted +it. Let us begin with a search for his purpose and meaning at least. + +The picture is a diptych--that is to say, it is a painting done upon +two wings or shutters hinged, so as to allow of their being closed +together. You have no doubt been wondering why I called it a portrait, +for the picture is far from being what to-day would commonly be +described as such. Richard himself is not even the most conspicuous +figure; and he is kneeling and praying to the Virgin. What should we +think if any living sovereign, ordering a state portrait, had himself +portrayed surrounded on one side by his predecessors on the throne, +and on the other side by the Virgin and Child and angels? But, in the +fourteenth century, it was nothing strange that the Virgin and Child, +the angels, John the Baptist, Edward the Confessor, Edmund the Martyr, +and Richard II. should be thus depicted. When we have realized that +it was usual for a royal patron to command and an artist to paint such +an assemblage of personages, as though all of them were then living +and in one another's presence, we have learnt something significant +and impressive about a way of thinking in the Middle Ages. Richard +II. thought of himself as the successor of a long line of kings, +appointed by the Divine Power to rule a small portion of the Divine +Territories, so what more natural than that he, as the newly reigning +sovereign, should have his portrait painted, surrounded by his holiest +predecessors upon the throne, and in the act of dedicating his kingdom +to the Virgin Mary? + +In an account given of his coronation we read that, after the ceremony +in Westminster Abbey, Richard went to the shrine of Our Lady at Pewe, +near by, where he made a special offering to Our Lady of eleven angels, +each wearing the King's badge, one for each of the eleven years of +his young life. What form this offering of angels took, we know not; +they may have been little wooden figures, or coins with an angel stamped +upon them; but it is reasonable to connect the offering with this very +picture of Our Lady and the angels. The King's special badges were +the White Hart and the Collar of Broom-pods which you see embroidered +all over his magnificent red robe. The White Hart is pinned in the +form of a jewel beneath his collar, and each of the eleven angels bears +the badge upon her shoulder and the Collar of Broom-pods round her +neck. One of the King's angels gives the Royal Standard of England +with the Cross of St. George on it to the Infant Christ in token of +Richard's dedication of his kingdom to the Virgin and Child. + +Edward III. died at Midsummer 1377 and Richard succeeded him in his +eleventh year, having been born on January 6, 1367. It is necessary +to note the exact day of the year when these events took place, for +it can have importance in determining the saint whom a personage +chiefly honoured as patron and protector. In this instance St. John +the Baptist, whose feast occurs on June 23, near to the day of Richard's +accession, obviously stands as patron saint of the young King. Next +to him is King Edward the Confessor, the founder of Westminster Abbey, +who was canonized for his sanctity and who points to Richard II. as +his spiritual successor upon the throne. In medieval art the saints +are distinguished by their emblems, which often have an association +with the grim way in which they met their death, or with some other +prominent feature in their legend. Here Edward holds up a ring, whereof +a pretty story is told. Edward once took it off his finger to give +it to a beggar, because he had no money with him. But the beggar was +no other than John the Evangelist in disguise, and two years later +he sent the ring back to the King with the message that in six months +Edward would be in the joy of heaven with him. William Caxton, the +first English printer, relates in his life of King Edward that when +he heard the message he was full of joy and let fall tears from his +eyes, giving praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God. + +[Illustration: RICHARD II. BEFORE THE VIRGIN AND CHILD +From a picture by an unknown artist in the Wilton House Collection] + +St. Edmund, who stands next to Edward the Confessor, is the other +saintly King of England; after whom the town of Bury St. Edmunds takes +its name. He was shot to death with arrows by the Danes because he +would not give up Christianity. If I could show you several suitably +chosen pictures at once, you would recognize in the arrangement of +the three Kings here (two standing, one kneeling before the Virgin +and Child) a plain resemblance to the typical treatment of a well-known +subject--the Adoration of the Magi. You remember how when the three +Wise Men of the East--always thought of in the Middle Ages as Kings--had +followed the star which led them to the manger where Christ was born, +they brought Him gold and frankincense and myrrh as offerings. This +beautiful story was a favourite one in the Middle Ages, often +represented in sculpture and painting. One King always kneels before +the Virgin and Child, presenting his gift, whilst the other two stand +behind with theirs in their hands. The standing Kings and the kneeling +Richard in our picture, are grouped in just the same relation to the +divine Infant as the three Magi. The imitation of the type is clear. +There was a special reason for this, in that the birthday of Richard +fell upon January 6, the feast of the Epiphany, when the Wise Men did +homage to the Babe. The picture, by reminding us of the three Wise +Men, commemorated the birthday of the King as well as his coronation, +the two chief dates of his life. + +You have some idea now of the train of thought which this +fourteenth-century painter endeavoured to express in his picture +commemorative of the coronation of a King. A medieval coronation was +a very solemn ceremony indeed, and the picture had to be a serious +expression of the great traditions of the throne of England, suggested +by the figures of St. Edward and St. Edmund, and of hope for future +good to the realm, to ensue from the blessings of the Virgin and Child +upon the young King. Religious feeling is dominant in this picture, +and if from it you could turn to others of like date, you would find +the same to be true. The meaning was the main thing thought of. When +Giotto painted his scenes from the life of St. Francis, his first aim +was that the stories should be well told and easily grasped by all +who looked at them. Their beauty was of less importance. This +difference between the aim of art in the Middle Ages and in our own +day is fundamental. If you begin by picking to pieces the pictures +of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries because the drawing is bad, +the colouring crude, and the grouping unnatural, you might as well +never look at them at all. Putting faults and old fashions aside to +think of the meaning of the picture, we shall often be rewarded by +finding a soul within, and the work may affect us powerfully, +notwithstanding its simple forms and few strong colours. + +Nevertheless, after the painter had planned his picture so as to convey +its message and meaning, he did try to make it beautiful to look upon, +and he often succeeded. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries +it was beauty of outline and a pleasant patching together of bright +colours for which the painters strove, both in pictures and in +manuscripts. If you think of this picture for a moment as a coloured +pattern, you will see how pretty it is. The blue wings against the +gold background make a hedge for the angel faces and look extremely +well. If the figure of Richard II. seems flat, if you feel as though +he were cut out of cardboard and had no thickness, then turn your mind +to consider only the outline of the figure. It is very graceful. Artists +in the thirteenth century sometimes made their figures over-long if +they thought that a sweep of graceful line would look well in a certain +position in their picture; the drapery was bent into impossible curves +if so they fell into a pretty pattern. + +In the fourteenth century, beauty of outlines still prevailed, even +when they contained plain masses of brilliant colour so pure and +gem-like that the pictures almost came to look like stained-glass +windows. In fact probably the constant sight of stained-glass windows +in the churches greatly influenced the painters' way of work. The +contrast of divers colours placed next one another was more startling +than we find in later painting, whilst an effort was made to finish +every detail as though it were to be looked at through a magnifying +glass. + +In this picture which we are now learning how to see, the Virgin was +to be shown standing in a meadow of flowers. A modern artist knows +how to paint the general effect of many flowers growing out of grass, +but the medieval painter had not the skill to do that. He had not learnt +to look at the effect of a mass of flowers as a whole, nor could he +have rendered such an effect with the colours and processes he +possessed. He knew what one flower looked like, and thought that many +must be a continued repetition of one. But it was impossible to paint +a great number of flowers close together, each finished in detail, +so he chose instead to paint a few as completely as he could, and leave +the rest to the imagination of the spectator. That was his way of making +a selection from nature; thus he hoped to suggest the idea of a flowery +meadow, since he could not hope to render the look of it. + +Likewise, all the details of the dresses are minutely painted. The +robes of Richard and of Edmund the Martyr are beautiful examples of +the careful and painstaking work characteristic of the Middle Ages. +No medieval painter spared himself trouble. Although he had not +mastered the art of drawing the figure, he had learnt how to paint +jewellery and stuffs beautifully, and delighted in doing it. The +drawing of the figures you can see to be imperfect, yet nothing could +be sweeter in feeling than the bevy of girl angels with roses in their +hair surrounding the Virgin. Most of them are not unlike English girls +of the present day, and the critics who say that this picture must +have been painted by a Frenchman may be asked where he is likely to +have found these English models for his angels. + +Possibly the face of Richard himself may have been painted from life, +for the features correspond closely enough with the large full-face +portrait of him in Westminster Abbey, and with the sculptured figure +upon his tomb. He certainly does not look like a child of ten, for +his state robes and crown give him a grown-up appearance. But if you +regard the face carefully you can see that it is still that of a child. + +The gold background in the original shines out brilliantly, for after +the gold was laid on, it was polished with an agate, which gives it +a burnished effect, and then the little patterns were carefully punched +so as not to pierce the gold and thereby expose the white ground beneath. +There is a jewel-like quality in the colour such as you can see in +manuscripts of the time, and it is possible that the painter may have +learned his art as an illuminator of manuscripts. Artists in those +days seldom confined themselves to one kind of work. We do not know +this man's name, and are not even certain whether he was French or +English. + +Before, as in the time of Richard, painting had been mainly a decorative +art, and the object of making pictures was to adorn the pages of a +book, or the walls and vaults of a building. The most vital artistic +energies of Western Europe in the thirteenth century had gone into +the building of the great cathedrals and abbeys, which are to-day the +glory of that period. Most medieval paintings that still exist in +England are decorative wall-paintings of this kind, and only traces +of a few remain. In many country places you can see poor and faded +vestiges of painting which adorned church walls in the thirteenth +century, and occasionally you may come upon a bit by some chance better +preserved. These old wall-paintings were done upon the dry plaster. +The discovery, or rather the revival, of 'fresco' painting (that is, +of painting done upon the wet surface of freshly plastered walls, a +more durable process) was made in Italy and did not penetrate to +England. + +Richard II. was not the only art-loving King of his time. You have +read of John, King of France, who was taken prisoner at the Battle +of Poitiers by the Black Prince, father of Richard. During his +captivity he lived in considerable state in London at the Savoy Palace, +which occupied the site of the present Savoy Hotel in the Strand; he +brought his own painter from France with him, who painted his portrait +which still exists in Paris. This King John was the father of four +remarkable sons, Charles V., King of France, with whom Edward III. +and the Black Prince fought the latter part of the Hundred Years' War; +Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy; John, Duke of Berry; and Louis, +Duke of Anjou. In this list, all are names of remarkable men and great +art-patrons, about whom you may some day read interesting things. +Numerous lovely objects still in existence were made for them, and +would not have been made at all if they had not been the men they were. +It was only just becoming possible in the fourteenth century for a +prince to be an art-patron. That required money, and hitherto even +princes had rarely been rich. The increasing wealth of England, France, +and Flanders at this time was based upon the wool industry and the +manufacture and commerce to which it gave rise. The Lord Chancellor +in the House of Lords to this day sits on a woolsack, which is a reminder +of the time when the woolsacks of England were the chief source of +the wealth of English traders. + +After the Black Death, an awful plague that swept through Europe in +1349, a large part of the land of England was given up to sheep grazing, +because the population had diminished, and it took fewer people to +look after sheep than it did to till the soil. Although this had been +an evil in the beginning, it became afterwards a benefit, for English +wool was sold at an excellent price to the merchants of Flanders, who +worked it up into cloth, and in their turn sold that all over Europe +with big profits. The larger merchants who regulated the wool traffic +were prosperous, and so too the landowners and princes whose property +thus increased in value. The four sons of King John became very wealthy +men. Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, by marrying the heiress of +the Count of Flanders acquired the Flemish territory and the wealth +obtained from the wool trade and manufacture there. Berry and Anjou +were great provinces in France yielding a large revenue to their two +Dukes. Each of these princes employed several artists to illuminate +books for him in the most splendid way; they built magnificent chateaux, +and had tapestries and paintings made to decorate their walls. They +employed many sculptors and goldsmiths, and all gave each other as +presents works of art executed by their favourite artists. In the +British Museum there is a splendid gold and enamel cup that John, Duke +of Berry, caused to be made for his brother King Charles V.; to see +it would give you a good idea of the costliness and elaboration of +the finest work of that day. The courts of these four brothers were +centres of artistic production in all kinds--sculpture, metal-work, +tapestries, illuminated manuscripts and pictures, and there was a +strong spirit of rivalry among the artists to see who could make the +loveliest things, and among the patrons as to which could secure the +best artists in his service. + +These four princes gave an important impulse to the production of +beautiful things in France, Burgundy, and Flanders, but it is needless +to burden you with the artists' names. + +In the fourteenth century an artist was a workman who existed to do +well the work that was desired of him. He was not an independent man +with ideas of his own, who attempted to make a living by painting what +he thought beautiful, without reference to the ideas of a buyer. Of +course, if people prefer and buy good things when they see them, good +things will be likely to be made, but if those with money to spend +have no taste and buy bad things or order ugly things to be made, then +the men who had it in them to be great artists may die unnoticed, because +the beautiful things they could have made are not called for. To-day +many people spend something upon art and a few spend a great deal. +Let us hope we may not see too much of the money spent in creating +a demand for what is bad rather than for what is beautiful. + +It was not unusual in the fourteenth century for a man to be at one +and the same time painter, illuminator, sculptor, metal-worker, and +designer of any object that might be called for. One of these many +gifted men, Andre Beauneveu of Valenciennes, a good sculptor and a +painter of some exquisite miniatures, is sometimes supposed to have +been the painter of our picture of Richard II. In the absence of any +signature or any definite record it is impossible to say who painted +it, but it is unnecessary to assume that it must have been painted +by a French artist, since we know that at the end of the fourteenth +century there were very good painters in England. + +It was by no means an exception not to sign a picture in those days, +for the artists had not begun to think of themselves as individuals +entitled to public fame. Hand-workers of the fourteenth century mostly +belonged to a corporation or guild composed of all the other workers +at the same trade in the same town, and to this rule artists were no +exception. Each man received a recognized price for his work, and the +officers of the guild saw to it that he obtained that price and that +he worked with good and durable materials. There were certain +advantages in this, but it involved some loss of freedom in the artist, +since all had to conform to the rules of the guild. The system was +characteristic of the Middle Ages, and arose from the fact that in +those troublous times every isolated person needed protection and was +content to merge his individuality in some society in order to obtain +it. The guilds made for peace and diminished competition, so that a +guildsman may have been less tempted to hurry over or scamp his task. +The result was much honest, careful work such as you see in the original +of this picture. We are told by those who know best that there has +never been a time when the actual workmanship of the general run of +craftsmen was better than in the Middle Ages. + +This picture of Richard II. has not faded or cracked or fallen off +the panel, and it seems as though we may hope it never will, for it +was well made and, what is even more important, it seems always to +have been well cared for. If only the nice things that are produced +were all well cared for, how many more of them there would be in the +world! + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE VAN EYCKS + + +Before passing to Hubert van Eyck, the painter of the original of our +next picture, please compare carefully the picture of Richard II. and +this of the Three Maries, looking first at one and then at the other. +The subject of the visit of the Maries to the Sepulchre is, of course, +well known to you, but let us read the beautiful passage from St. +Matthew telling of it, that we may see how faithfully in every detail +it was followed by Hubert van Eyck. + +In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day +of the week, came Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, to see the +Sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the Angel +of the Lord descended from Heaven, and came and rolled back the stone +from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, +and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did +shake, and became as dead men. + +Surely this would be thought a beautiful picture had it been painted +at any time, but when you compare it with the Richard II. diptych does +it not seem to you as though a long era divided the two? Yet one was +painted less than fifty years after the other. It is the attitude of +mind of the painter that makes the difference. + +In the diptych, although the portrait of Richard himself was a likeness, +the setting was imaginary and symbolic. The artist wished to tell in +his picture how all the Kings who succeed one another upon the throne +of England alike depend upon the protection of Heaven, and how Richard +in his turn acknowledged that dependence, and pledged his loyalty to +the Blessed Virgin and her Holy Child. That picture was intended to +take the mind of the spectator away from the everyday world and suggest +grave thought, and such was likewise in the main the purpose of all +paintings in the Middle Ages. But we are now leaving the Middle Ages +behind and approaching a new world nearer to our own. + +Hubert van Eyck, in attempting to depict the event at the Sepulchre +as it might actually have occurred outside the walls of the City of +Jerusalem, was doing something quite novel in his day. His picture +might almost be called a Bible illustration. It is at least painted +in the same practical spirit as that of a man painting an illustration +for any other book. It is not a picture meant to help one to pray, +or meditate. It does not express any religious idea. It was intended +to be the veracious representation of an actual event, shown as, and +when, and how it happened, true to the facts so far as Hubert knew +them. + +[Illustration: THE THREE MARIES +From the picture by Hubert van Eyck, in Sir Frederick Cook's Collection, +Richmond] + +He has dressed the Maries in robes with wrought borders of Hebrew +characters, imitated from embroidered stuffs, such as at that time +were imported into Europe from the East. The dresses are not accurate +copies of eastern dresses; Hubert would scarcely have known what those +were like, but was doing his best to paint costumes that should look +oriental. Mary Magdalen wears a turban, and the keeper on the right +has a strange peaked cap with Hebrew letters on it. Hebrew scholars +have done their best to read the inscriptions on these clothes, but +we must infer that Hubert only copied the letters without knowing what +they meant, since it has not been possible to make any sense of them. +In the foreground are masses of flowers most carefully painted, and +so accurately drawn that botanists have been able to identify them +all; several do not grow in the north of Europe. The town at the back +is something like Jerusalem as it looked in Hubert van Eyck's own day. +A few of the buildings can be identified still, and a general view +of Jerusalem taken in 1486, sixty years after the death of Hubert, +bears some resemblance to the town in this picture. The city is painted +in miniature, much as it would look if you saw it from near at hand. +Every tower, house, and window is there. You can even count the +battlements. The great building with the dome in the middle of the +picture, is the Mosque of Omar, which occupies the supposed site of +Solomon's Temple. + +Some people have thought that perhaps Hubert van Eyck, and his brother +John, actually went to the East. Many men made pilgrimages in those +days, and almost every year parties of Christian pilgrims went to +Jerusalem. It was a rough and even a dangerous journey, but not at +all impossible for a patient traveller. Dr. Hulin, who has made +wonderful discoveries about the early Flemish painters, found a +mention, in an old sixteenth-century list, of a 'Portrait of a Moorish +King or Prince' by Van Eyck, painted in 1414 or perhaps 1418. If he +painted a portrait of an oriental prince, he may have visited one +oriental country at least, or at any rate the south of Spain. Probably +enough during that journey he made studies of the cypress, stone-pine, +date-palm, olive, orange, and palmetto, which occur in his pictures. +They grow in the south of Spain and other Mediterranean regions, but +not in the cold north where Hubert spent most of his days. + +It is difficult at first to realize what an innovation it was for Hubert +van Eyck to paint such a landscape. In the Richard II. diptych there +is just a suggestion of brown earth for the saints to stand upon, but +the rest of the background is of gold, as was the common practice at +the time. The great innovator, Giotto, in some of his pictures had +attempted to paint landscape backgrounds. In his fresco of St. Francis +preaching to the birds there is a tree for them to perch on, but it +seems more like a garden vegetable than a tree. Even his buildings +look as though they might fall together any moment like a pack of cards. +Hubert not only gives landscape a larger place than it ever had in +any great picture before, but he paints it with such skill and apparent +confidence that we should never dream he was doing it almost for the +first time. + +St. Matthew says: 'As it began to _dawn_ towards the first day of the +week, came Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, to see the Sepulchre.' +Even in this point Hubert wished to be accurate. The rising sun is +hidden behind the rocks on the left side of the picture, for it was +not until years later that any painter ventured to paint the sun in +the heavens. But the rays from the hidden orb strike the castles on +the hills with shafts of light. The town remains in shadow, while the +sky is lit up with floods of glory. An effect such as this must have +been very carefully studied from nature. Hubert was evidently one who +looked at the world with observant eyes and found it beautiful. When +he had flowers to paint, he painted the whole plant accurately, not +the blossoms individually, like the painter of Richard II. He liked +fine stuffs, embroideries, jewels, and glittering armour. He was no +visionary trying to free himself from the earth and live in +contemplation of the angels and saints in Paradise, like so many of +the thirteenth and fourteenth century artists. + +In this new delightful interest in the world as it is, he reflected +the tendency of his day. The fifty years that had elapsed between the +painting of Richard II.'s portrait and the work of the Van Eycks, had +seen a great development of trade and industry in Flanders. Hubert +was born, perhaps about 1365, at Maas Eyck, from which he takes his +name. Maas Eyck was a little town on the banks of the river Maas, near +the frontier of the present Holland and Belgium. He may have spent +most of his life in Ghent, the town officials of which city paid him +a visit in 1425 to see his work, and gave six groats to his apprentices +in memory of their visit. Where he learnt his art, where he worked +before he came to Ghent, we do not know for certain, but there is reason +to think that he was employed for a while in Holland by the Count. + +John, his brother, concerning whom more facts have been gathered, is +said to have been twenty years younger than Hubert. He was a painter +too, and worked in the employ of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy +and Count of Flanders, the grandson of Philip the Bold, who was one +of those four sons of King John of France mentioned in our last chapter. +Philip the Good continued the traditions of his family and was in his +time a great art-patron. His grandfather had fostered an important +school of sculpture in Flanders and Burgundy, which culminated in the +superb statues still existing at Dijon. Like his brother the Duke of +Berry, he had given work to a number of miniature painters. The Count +of Holland also employed some wonderful miniature painters to beautify +a manuscript for him. This manuscript and one made for the Duke of +Berry were among the finest ever painted so far as the pictures in +them are concerned. The Count of Holland's book used to be in the +library at Turin, where it was burnt a few years ago, so we can see +it no more. But the fortunate ones who did see it thought that the +pictures in it were actually painted by the Van Eycks when they were +young. The Duke of Berry's finest book is at Chantilly and is well +known. Both this and the Turin book contained the loveliest early +landscapes, a little earlier in date than this landscape in the 'Three +Maries' picture. So you see why it is said that the illuminators first +invented beautiful landscape painting, and that landscapes were +painted in books before they were painted as pictures to hang on walls. + +The practical spirit in which Hubert van Eyck worked exactly matched +the sensible, matter-of-fact Flemish character. The Flemings, even +in pictures of the Madonna, wanted the Virgin to wear a gown made of +the richest stuff that could be woven, truthfully painted, with jewels +of the finest Flemish workmanship, and they liked to see a landscape +behind her studied from their own native surroundings. + +No man could try to paint things as they looked, in the way Hubert +did, without making great progress in drawing. If you compare the +drawing of the angel appearing to the Maries with any of the angels +wearing the badge of Richard II., you will see how much more life-like +is the angel of Hubert. The painter of Richard II. was not happy with +his figures unless they were standing up or kneeling in profile, but +Hubert van Eyck can draw them with tolerable success lying down, or +sitting huddled. He can also combine a group in a natural manner. The +absence of formal arrangement in the picture of the Maries is quite +new in medieval art. + +The painter of Richard II. had known very little about perspective. +The science of drawing things as they look from one point of view has +no doubt been taught to all of you. You know certain rules about +vanishing points and can apply them in your drawing. But you would +have found it very hard to invent perspective without being taught. +I can remember drawing a matchbox by the light of nature, and very +queer it contrived to become. Medieval artists were in exactly that +same case. The artists of the ancient world had discovered some of +the laws of perspective, but the secret was lost, and artists in the +Middle Ages had to discover them all over again. Hubert van Eyck made +a great stride toward the attainment of this knowledge. When you look +at the picture the perspective does not strike you as glaringly wrong, +though there was still much that remained to be discovered by later +men, as we shall see in our next chapter. + +The brothers Van Eyck were, first and foremost, good workmen. Few other +painters in the whole of the world's history have aimed at anything +like the same finish of detail. In the original of this picture the +oriental pot which the green Mary holds in her hand is a perfect marvel +of workmanship. There is no detail so small but that when you look +into it you discover some fresh wonder. A story is told of how Hubert +van Eyck painted a picture upon which he had lavished his usual +painstaking care. But when he put it in the sun to dry, the panel cracked +down the middle. After this disappointment Hubert went to work and +invented a new substance with which colours are made liquid, a 'medium' +as it is called, which when mixed with colour dried hard and quickly. +It was possible to paint with the new medium in finer detail than before, +and the Flemish artists universally adopted it. While very little was +remembered about the facts of Hubert van Eyck's life, his name was +always associated with the discovery of a new method of painting, and +on that account held in great honour. + +The 'Three Maries' is in many respects the most attractive of the +pictures ascribed to Hubert, but his most famous work was a larger +picture, or assemblage of pictures framed together, the 'Adoration +of the Lamb,' in St. Bavon's Church at Ghent. It is an altar-piece--a +painting set up over an altar in a church or chapel to aid the devotions +of those worshipping there. Many of the panels of the Ghent altar-piece +are now in the Museums of Berlin and Brussels. They belonged to the +wings or shutters which were made to close over the central parts, +and which used also to be painted outside and inside with devotional +or related subjects. The four great central panels on which these +shutters used to close are still at Ghent. The subject of the 'Adoration +of the Lamb' was taken from Revelations, where before the Lamb has +opened the seals of the book, St. John says: + +And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under +the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard +I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that +sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. + +Hubert has figured this verse by assembling, as in one time and place, +representatives of Christendom. They who worship are the prophets, +apostles, popes, martyrs, and virgins. On each side of the central +panel the just judges, the soldiers of Christ, the hermits, and the +pilgrims, advance to join the throng around the Lamb. Most beautiful +of all is the crowd of virgin martyrs bearing palms, moving over the +green grass carpeted with flowers, to adore the Lamb of God, the +Redeemer of the World. Above, God the Father, the Virgin Mother, and +St. John the Baptist, with crowns of wonderful workmanship, are throned +amid choirs of singing and playing angels on either hand. + +The picture does not illustrate the description of the Adoration of +the Lamb in the fifth chapter of Revelations so faithfully as the +picture of the 'Three Maries' illustrated St. Matthew. The Lamb has +not seven horns and seven eyes, and the four beasts and twenty-four +elders are not falling down before it and adoring. The Lamb is an +ordinary sheep, and the picture is a symbolic expression of the +Catholic faith, founded upon a biblical text, but not what could be +described as 'a Bible illustration.' People in the Middle Ages liked +to embody their faith in a visible form, and we are told that +theologians frequently drew up schemes of doctrine which painters did +their best to translate into pictures, and sculptors into sculpture. +Such works of art were for instruction rather than beauty, though some +also served well the purpose of decoration. + +Josse Vyt, who ordered the picture, and whose portrait, with that of +his wife, is painted on the shutters, no doubt explained exactly what +he wanted, and Hubert sought to please him.[1] But although the design +of the central panel was old-fashioned and symbolic, Hubert was able +to do what he liked with the landscape, and with the individual figures. +They are real men and women with varieties of expression such as had +not been painted before, and the landscape is even more beautiful than +the one at the back of the 'Three Maries.' Snow mountains rise in the +distance, and beautiful cypresses and palms of all kinds clothe the +green slopes behind the Lamb. There are flowers in the grass and jewels +for pebbles in the brook. Behind, you can see the Cathedrals of Utrecht +and Cologne, St. John's of Maestricht, and more churches and houses +besides, and the walls of a town, and wide stretches of green country. + +[Footnote 1: There are reasons for thinking that the picture may have +been ordered by some prince who died before it was finished, and that +Vyt only acquired it later, in time to have his own and his wife's +portraits added on the shutters.] + +Hubert van Eyck died in 1426, and the picture was finished by his +younger brother John, of whose life, though more is known than of +Hubert's, we need not here repeat details. Many of his pictures still +exist, and the most delightful of them for us are his portraits. He +was not the first man to paint good portraits, but few artists have +ever painted better likenesses. It seems evident that the people in +his pictures are 'as like as they can stare,' with no wrinkle or scratch +left out. Portraits in earlier days than these were seldom painted +for their own sake alone. A pious man who wanted to present an +altar-piece or a stained-glass window to a church would modestly have +his own image introduced in a corner. By degrees such portraits grew +in size and scale, and the neighbouring saints diminished, till at +last the saints were left out and the portrait stood alone. Then it +came about that such a picture was hung in its owner's house rather +than in a church. One of the best portraits John van Eyck ever painted +is at Bruges--the likeness of his wife. The panel was discovered about +fifty years ago in the market-place of Bruges, where an old woman was +using the back of it to skin eels on; but so soundly had the picture +been painted that even this ill-usage did not ruin it. The lady was +a very plain Flemish woman with no beauty of feature or expression, +but John has revealed her character so vividly that to look at her +likeness is to know her. It is indeed a long leap from the Richard +II. of fifty years before, with its representation of the outline of +a youth, to this ample realization of a mature woman's character. + +John lived till 1441, and had some pupils and many imitators. One of +these, Roger van der Weyden by name, spread his influence far and wide +throughout the whole of the Netherlands, France, and Germany. How +important this influence was in the history of art we shall see later. +Many of the imitators of John learnt his accuracy and thoroughness +of workmanship, but none of them attained his deep insight into +character. + +During the next fifty years many and beautiful were the pictures +produced throughout Flanders. All of them have a jewel-like brilliance +of colour, approaching in brightness the hues of the Richard II. +diptych. The landscape backgrounds are charming miniatures of towns +by the side of rivers with spanning bridges. The painting of textures +is exquisite. But the Flemish face, placid, plump, and fair-haired, +prevails throughout. In the pictures of Paradise, where the saints +and angels play with the Infant Christ, we still feel chained to the +earth, because the figures and faces are the unidealized images of +those one might have met in the streets of Bruges and Ghent. This is +not a criticism on the artists. The merit of their work is unchallenged; +and how could they paint physical beauty by them scarce ever seen? +Yet when all has been said in praise of the Flemish School, the brothers +Van Eyck, the founders of it, remain its greatest representatives, +and their work is still regarded with that high and almost universal +veneration which is the tribute of the greatest achievement. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE RENAISSANCE + + +Who is this old gentleman in our next picture reading so quietly and +steadily? Does he not look absorbed in his book? Certainly the peacock, +the bird, and the cat do not worry him or each other, and there is +still another animal in the distance--a lion! Can you see him? He is +walking down the cloister pavement on the right, with his foot lifted +as though it were hurt. The story is that this particular lion limped +into the monastery in which this old man lived, and while all the other +monks fled in terror, this monk saw that the lion's fore-paw was hurt. +He raised it up, found what was the matter, and pulled out the thorn; +and ever afterwards the lion lived peacefully in the monastery with +him. Now, whenever you see a lion in a picture with an old monk, him +you will know to be St. Jerome. He was a learned Christian father who +lived some fifteen hundred years ago, yet his works are still read, +spoken, and heard every day throughout the world. He it was who made +the standard Latin version of the Scriptures. The services in Roman +Catholic churches in all countries are held in Latin to this day, and +St. Jerome's translation of the Bible, called the Vulgate, is the +version still in use. + +Here you see St. Jerome depicted sitting in his own study, reading +to prepare himself for his great undertaking; and what a study it is! +You must go to the National Gallery to enjoy all the details, for the +original painting is only 18 inches high by 14 inches broad, and the +books and writing materials are so tiny that some are inevitably lost +in this beautiful photograph. The study is really a part of a monastery +assigned to St. Jerome himself, his books, manuscripts, and other such +possessions. He has a pot of flowers and a dwarf tree, and a towel +to dry his hands on, and a beautiful chair at his desk. He has taken +off his dusty shoes and left them at the foot of the steps. + +The painter of this picture, must have had in his mind a very happy +idea of St. Jerome. Others have sometimes painted him as they thought +he looked when living in a horrible desert, as he did for four years. +But at the time this picture was painted, about the year 1470, St. +Jerome in his study was a more usual subject for painters than St. +Jerome in the desert. One reason of this was that in Italy, in the +latter half of the fifteenth century, St. Jerome was considered the +patron saint of scholars, and for the first time since the fall of +the Roman Empire, scholars were perhaps the most influential people +of the day. + +[Illustration: ST. JEROME IN HIS STUDY +From the picture by Antonello da Messina, in the National Gallery, +London] + +Of course you all know something about the remarkable revival of +learning in the fifteenth century, which started in Italy, spread +northward, and reached England in the reign of Henry VIII. Before the +fifteenth century, Italians seem to have been indifferent to the +monuments around them of ancient civilization. Suddenly they were +fired with a passion for antiquity. They learnt Greek and began to +take a keen interest in the doings of the Greeks and Romans, who in +many ways had lived a life so far superior to their own. Artists studied +the old statues, which taught them the beauty of the human figure. +The reacquired wisdom of the ancients by degrees broke down the +medieval barriers. There was born a spirit of enterprise into the world +of thought as well as into the world of fact, which revolutionized +life and art. The period which witnessed this great mental change is +well known as the Renaissance or 'rebirth.' + +When you first looked at this picture you must have thought it very +different from the two earlier ones. Such a subject could only have +been painted thus in an age when men admired the scholar's life. Though +the figure is called that of St. Jerome, there is really nothing +typically saintly about him; he is only serious. The subjects chosen +by painters of the Renaissance were no longer almost solely religious, +but began to be selected from the world of everyday life; even when +the subject was taken from Christian legend, it was now generally +treated as an event happening in the actual world of the painter's +own day. + +The manner in which this picture is painted is still more suggestive +of change than the subject itself. Our artist knew a great deal about +the new science of perspective, for instance. One might almost think +that, pleased with his new knowledge, he had multiplied the number +of objects on the shelves so as to show how well he could foreshorten +them. Medieval painters had not troubled about perspective, and were +more concerned, as we have seen, to make a pretty pattern of shapes +and colours for their pictures. The Van Eycks, as we noted, only +acquired the beginnings of an understanding of it, and were very proud +of their new knowledge. It was in Italy that all the rules were at +last brought to light. + +The Renaissance Period in Italy may be considered as lasting from 1400 +to 1550. The pioneer artists who mastered perspective and worked at +the human figure till they could draw it correctly in any attitude, +lived in the first seventy-five years of the fifteenth century. They +were the breakers of stone and hewers of wood who prepared the way +for the greater artists of the end of the century, but in the process +of learning, many of them painted very lovely things. + +The painter of our picture lived within those seventy-five years. He +was, probably, a certain Antonello of Messina--that same town in Sicily +recently wrecked by earthquakes. Of his life little is known. He seems +to have worked chiefly in Venice where there was a fine school of +painting during the Renaissance Period; his senior Giovanni Bellini, +one of the early great painters of Venice, some of whose pictures are +in the National Gallery, taught him much. It is also said that Antonello +went to the Netherlands and there learnt the method of laying paint +on panel invented by the Van Eycks. Modern students say he did not, +but that he picked up his way of painting in Italy. Certainly he and +other Venetians and Italians about this time improved their technical +methods as the Van Eycks had done, and this picture is an early example +of that more brilliant fashion of painting. There is here a Flemish +love of detail. The Italian painters had been more accustomed to +painting upon walls than the Flemings, for the latter had soon +discovered that a damp northern climate was not favourable to the +preservation of wall-paintings. Fresco does not admit of much detail, +as each day's work has to be finished in the day, before the plaster +dries. Thus, a long tradition of fresco painting had accustomed the +Italian painters to a broad method of treatment, which they maintained +to a certain extent even in their panel pictures. But in our St. Jerome +we see a wealth of detail unsurpassed even by John van Eyck. + +One needs a magnifying-glass to see everything there is to be seen +in the landscape through the window on the left. Besides the city with +its towers and walls and the mountains behind, there is a river in +the foreground where two little people are sitting in a boat. Observe +every tiny stone in the pavement, and every open page of the books +on the shelves. Here, too, is breadth in the handling. Hold the book +far away from you, so that the detail of the picture vanishes and only +the broad masses of the composition stand out. You still have what +is essential. The picture is one in which Italian feeling and sentiment +blend with Flemish technique and love of little things. There has +always been something of a mystery about the picture, and you must +not be surprised some day if you hear it asserted that Antonello did +not paint it at all. Such changes in the attributions of unsigned +paintings are not uncommon. + +One of the greatest pioneer artists of the fifteenth century was Andrea +Mantegna of Padua in the north of Italy. More than any other painter +of his day, he devoted himself to the study of ancient sculpture, even +to the extent of sometimes painting in monochrome to imitate the actual +marble. Paintings by him, which look like sculptured reliefs, are in +the National Gallery; and at Hampton Court is a series of cartoons +representing the Triumph of Julius Caesar, in which the conception +and the handling are throughout inspired by old Roman bas-reliefs. +In other pictures of his, the figures look as though cast of bronze, +for he was likewise influenced by the sculptors of his own day, +particularly by the Florentine Donatello, one of the geniuses of the +early Renaissance. Mantegna's studies of form in sculpture made him +an excellent draughtsman. Strangely enough, it was this very severe +artist who was, perhaps, the first to depict the charm of babyhood. +Often he draws his babes wrapped in swaddling clothes, with their +little fingers in their mouths, or else in the act of crying, with +their eyes screwed up tight, and their mouths wide open. Such a +combination of hard sculpturesque modelling with extreme tenderness +of feeling has a charm of its own. + +We have now just one more picture of a sacred subject to look at, one +of the last that still retains much of the old beautiful religious +spirit of the Middle Ages. The painter of it, Sandro Botticelli, a +Florentine, in whom were blended the piety of the Middle Ages and the +intellectual life of the Renaissance, was a very interesting man, whose +like we shall not find among the painters of his own or later days. +He was born in 1446, in Florence, the city in Italy most alive to the +new ideas and the new learning. Its governing family, the Medici, of +whom you have doubtless read, surrounded themselves with a brilliant +society of accomplished men, and adorned their palaces with the finest +works of art that could be produced in their time. The best artists +from the surrounding country were attracted to Florence in the hope +of working for the family, who were ever ready to employ a man of +artistic gifts. + +In such an atmosphere an original and alert person like Botticelli +could not fail to keep step with the foremost of his day. His fertile +fancy was charmed by the revived stories of Greek Mythology, and for +a time he gave himself up to the painting of pagan subjects such as +the Birth of Venus from the Sea, and the lovely allegory of Spring +with Venus, Cupid, and the Three Graces. He was one of the early artists +to break through the old wall of religious convention, painting frankly +mythological subjects, and he did them in an exquisite manner all his +own. + +The true spirit of beauty dwelt within him, and all that he painted +and designed was graceful in form and beautiful in colour. If, for +instance, you look closely into the designs of the necks of dresses +in his pictures, you will find them delightful to copy and far superior +to the ordinary designs for such things made to-day. In his love of +beauty and his keen appreciation of the new possibilities of painting +he was a true child of the Renaissance, though he had not the joyous +nature so characteristic of the time. Moreover, as I have said, he +retained the old sweet religious spirit, and clothed it with new forms +of beauty in his sacred paintings. There is something pathetic about +many of these--the Virgin, while she nurses the Infant Christ, seems +to foresee all the sorrow in store for her, and but little of the joy. +The girl angels who nestle around her in so many of his pictures, have +faces of exquisite beauty, but in most of them, notwithstanding the +fact that they are evidently painted from Florentine girls of the time, +Botticelli has infused his own personal note of sadness. + +At the end of the fifteenth century, when Botticelli was beginning +to grow old, great events took place in Florence. Despite the revival +of learning, we are told by historians that the Church was becoming +corrupt and the people more pleasure-loving and less interested in +the religious life. Then it was that Savonarola, a friar in one of +the convents of Florence, all on fire with enthusiasm for purity and +goodness, began to awaken the hearts of the people with his burning +eloquence, and his denunciations of their worldliness and the deadness +of the Church. He prophesied a great outpouring of the wrath of God, +and in particular that the Church would be purified and renewed after +a quick and terrible punishment. The passion, the conviction, the +eloquence of Savonarola for a time carried the people of Florence away, +and Botticelli with them, so that he became one of the 'mourners' as +the preacher's followers were called. + +At this time many persons burnt in great 'bonfires of vanities' all +the pretty trinkets that they possessed. But when the prophecies did +not literally come true, and the people began to be weary of +Savonarola's vehemence, we read that a reaction set in, which afforded +a chance for his enemies within the Church, whom he had lashed with +his tongue from the pulpit of the cathedral. They contrived to have +him tried for heresy and burnt in the market-place of Florence, in +the midst of the people who so shortly before had hung on every word +that fell from his lips. + +This tragedy entirely overwhelmed Botticelli, who thenceforward +almost abandoned painting, and gave up his last years to the practices +of the religious life. It was at this time, says Mr. Horne, and under +the influence of these emotions, in the year 1500, when he was sixty +years of age, that he painted the picture here reproduced, as an +illustration to the prophecies of Savonarola, and a tribute to his +memory. Savonarola had been wont to use the descriptions, in the Book +of Revelations, of the woes that were to fall upon the earth before +the building of the new Jerusalem, to illustrate his prophecy of the +scourge that was to come upon Italy, before the Church became purified +from the wickedness of the times. At the top of the picture is written +in Greek: + +I, Sandro, painted this picture at the end of the year 1500, during +the troubles of Italy, in the half year after the first year of the +loosing of the Devil for 3-1/2 years, in accordance with the fulfilment +of the 11th chapter of the Revelations of St. John. Then shall the +Devil be chained, according to the 12th chapter, and we shall see him +trodden down as in the picture. + +The Devil which was loosed for three and a half years stood for the +stage of wickedness through which Botticelli believed that Florence +was passing in 1500. In the bottom corners of the picture you can see +minute little devils running away discomfited; otherwise all is pure +joy and peace, symbolic of the gladness to come upon Italy when the +Church had been purified: + + When Life is difficult, I dream + Of how the angels dance in Heaven. + Of how the angels dance and sing + In gardens of eternal spring, + Because their sins have been forgiven.... + And never more for them shall be + The terrors of mortality. + When life is difficult, I dream + Of how the angels dance in Heaven....[2] + +[Footnote 2: By Lady Alfred Douglas.] + +That is what Botticelli dreamed. He saw the beautiful angels in green, +white, and red dancing with joy, because of the birth of their Saviour, +and into their hands he put scrolls, upon which were written:--'Glory +to God in the Highest.' The rest of the verse, 'Peace and goodwill +towards men' is on the scrolls of the shepherds, brought by the angel +to behold the Babe lying in the manger. The three men, embraced with +such eagerness and joy by the three angels in the foreground, are +Savonarola and his two chief companions, burnt with him, who, after +their long suffering upon earth, have found reward and happiness in +heaven. + +[Illustration: THE NATIVITY +From the picture by Sandro Botticelli, in the National Gallery, London] + +Such is the meaning of this beautiful little picture, as spiritual +in idea as any of the paintings of the thirteenth and fourteenth +centuries. But while the earlier painters had striven with inadequate +powers to express the religious feeling that was in them, Botticelli's +skill matched his thought. His drawing of the angels in their Greek +dresses is very lovely, and one scarce knows in any picture a group +surpassing that of the three little ones upon the roof of the manger, +nor will you soon see a lovelier Virgin's face than hers. Botticelli +had great power of showing the expression in a face, and the movement +in a figure. Here the movements may seem overstrained, a fault which +grew upon him in his old age; the angel, with the two shepherds on +the right, has come skimming over the ground and points emphatically +at the Babe, and the angel in front embraces Savonarola with vehemence. +The artists of the early Renaissance had learnt with so much trouble +to draw figures in motion that their pleasure in their newly acquired +skill sometimes made them err by exaggeration as their predecessors +by stiffness. + +The way in which Botticelli treated this subject of the Nativity of +Christ, is, as you see, very different from the way in which Hubert +van Eyck painted the Three Maries at the Sepulchre. We saw how the +latter pictured the event as actually taking place outside Jerusalem. +To Botticelli the Nativity of Christ was emblematic of a new and happier +life for people in Florence, with the Church regenerated and purified, +as Christ would have wished it to be. To him the Nativity was a symbol +of purity, so he painted the picture as a commentary on the event, +not as an illustration of the Biblical text. + +The angels rejoice in heaven as the shepherds upon earth, the devils +flee away discomfited, and Savonarola and his companions obtain peace +after the tribulations of life. Such was the message of Botticelli +in the picture here reproduced. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +RAPHAEL + + +The original of our next picture is very small, only seven inches square, +yet I hope it will instantly appeal to you. The name of the artist, +Raphael, is perhaps the most familiar of all the names of the Old +Masters, mainly, it may be, because he was the painter of the Sistine +Madonna, the best known and best loved of Madonnas. + +When Raphael drew and painted this picture of the 'Knight's Dream,' +about the year 1500, he was himself like a young knight, at the outset +of his short and brilliant career. As a boy he was handsome, gifted, +charming. His nature is said to have been as lovely as his gifts were +great, and he passed his short life in a triumphant progress from city +to city and court to court, always working hard and always painting +so beautifully that he won the admiration of artists, princes, and +popes. His father, Giovanni Santi, was a painter living in the town +of Urbino, in Central Italy, but Raphael when quite young went to +Perugia to study with the painter Perugino, a native of that town. + +Perugia stands upon a high hill, like the hill in the background of +the picture of the 'Knight's Dream,' only higher, for from it you can +overlook the wide Umbrian plain as far as Assisi--the home of St. +Francis--which lies on the slope of the next mountain. That beautiful +Umbrian landscape, in which all the towns look like castles perched +upon the top of steep hills, with wide undulating ground between, +occurs frequently in the pictures of Perugino, and often in those of +his pupil Raphael. If you have once seen the view from Perugia for +yourself, you will realize how strongly it took hold of the imagination +of the young painter. Raphael had a most impressionable mind. It was +part of his genius that, from every painter with whom he came in contact +he imbibed the best, almost without knowing it. The artists of his +day, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the other great men, were +each severally employed in working out once and for all some particular +problem in connection with their art. Michelangelo, a giant in +intellect, painter, sculptor, architect, and poet, studied the human +body as it had not been studied since the days of ancient Greece. His +sculptured figures on the tombs of the Medici in Florence rank second +only to those of the greatest Greek sculptors, and his ceiling in the +Sistine Chapel is composed of a series of masterpieces of +figure-painting. He devoted himself largely in his sculpture and his +painting to the representation of the naked human body, and made it +futile in his successors to plead ignorance as an excuse for bad drawing. +As a colourist he was not pre-eminent, and his few panel pictures are +for the most part unfinished. + +Leonardo da Vinci, the older contemporary of Raphael, first in Florence +and afterwards in the north of Italy, left a colossal reputation and +but few pictures, for in his search after perfection he became +dissatisfied with what he had done and is said to have destroyed one +masterpiece after another. For him the great interest in the aspect +of man and woman was not so much the form of the body as the expression +of the face. What was fantastic and weird fascinated him. At Windsor +are designs he made for the construction of an imaginary beast with +gigantic claws. He once owned a lizard, and made wings for it with +quicksilver inside them, so that they quivered when the lizard crawled. +He put a dragon's mask over its head, and the result was ghastly. The +tale gives us a side light on this extraordinary personage. When you +are led to read more about him you will feel the fascination of his +strong, yet perplexing personality. The faces in his pictures are +wonderful faces, with a fugitive mocking smile and a seeming burden +of strange thought. By mastery of the most subtle gradations of light, +his heads have an appearance of solidity new in painting, till Raphael +and some of his contemporaries learnt the secret from Leonardo. +Heretofore, Italian painters had been contented to bathe their +pictures in a flood of diffused light, but he experimented also with +effects of strong light and shade on the face. His landscape +backgrounds are an almost unearthly cold grey, and include the +strangest forms of rock and mountain. His investigations into several +of the scientific problems connected with art led to results which +affected in an important degree the work of many later artists. + +If Raphael had less originality than Michelangelo or Leonardo, if +Leonardo was the first artist to obtain complete mastery over the +expression of the face and Michelangelo over the drawing of the figure, +Raphael was able to profit at once by whatever they accomplished. Yet +never was he a mere imitator, for all that he absorbed became tinged +with a magical charm in his fertile brain, a charm so personal that +his work can hardly be mistaken for that of any other artist. + +Our picture of a 'Knight's Dream' was probably painted while Raphael +was under the influence of a master named Timoteo Viti, whose works +you are not likely to know, or much care about when you see them. It +was just after he had painted it that he came into Perugino's hands. + +Although the 'Knight's Dream' is so small, and Raphael was but a boy +when he painted it, the picture has the true romantic air, +characteristic of the joyful years of the early Renaissance. He does +not seem to have felt the conflict between the old religious ideal +and the new pursuit of worldly beauty as Botticelli felt it. Yet he +chose the competition of these two ideals as the subject of this picture. +The Knight, clothed in bright armour and gay raiment, bearing no +relation at all to the clothes worn in 1500, rests upon his shield +beneath the slight shade of a very slender tree. In his dream there +appear to him two figures, both of whom claim his knightly allegiance +for life: one, a young and lovely girl in a bright coloured dress with +flowers in her hair, tempts him to embrace a life of mirth, of + + Jest and youthful Jollity, + Quips and Cranks and wanton Wiles, + Nods and Becks and wreathed Smiles. + +The other resembles the same poet's + + Pensive Nun, devout and pure, + Sober, steadfast, and demure. + +She holds sword and book, symbols of stern action and wise +accomplishment. Which the knight will choose we are not told, perhaps +because Raphael himself never had to make the choice. He was too gifted +and too fond of work to be tempted from it by anything whatever. Always +joyous and always successful, he was able to paint any subject, sacred, +profane, ancient, or modern, so long as it was a happy one. He was +too busy and too gay to feel pain and sorrow, as Botticelli felt them, +and to paint sad subjects. To him the visible world was good and +beautiful, and the invisible world lovely and happy likewise. His +Madonnas are placid or smiling mothers. The fat and darling babies +they hold are indeed divine but not awesome. Yet the extraordinary +sweetness of expression, nobility of form, and beauty of colouring +in the Madonnas make you almost hold your breath when you look at them. + +In the 'Knight's Dream' there is a simple beauty in the pose and +grouping of the figures. You can hardly fancy three figures better +arranged for the purpose of the subject. There is something inevitable +about them, which is the highest praise due to a mastery of design +in the art of composition. Raphael's surpassing gift was in fitting +beautiful figures into any given space, so that it seems as though +the space had been made to fit the figures, instead of the figures +to fit the space. You could never put his round Madonnas into a square +frame. The figures would look as wrong as in a round frame they look +right. If you were to cut off a bit of the foreground in any of his +pictures and add the extra piece to the sky, you would make the whole +look wrong, whereas perhaps you might add on a piece of sky to Hubert +van Eyck's 'Three Maries' without spoiling the effect. + +[Illustration: THE KNIGHT'S DREAM +From the picture by Raphael, in the National Gallery, London] + +The colouring of the picture, too, is jewel-like and lovely, but the +uncoloured drawing is itself full of charm. The grace of line, which +was to distinguish all the works of his mature years, is already +manifest in this effort of his boyhood. It seems to foretell the sweep +of the Virgin's drapery in the Sistine Madonna, and the delightful +maze of curves flowing together and away again and returning upon +themselves which outline the face, the arms, hands, and draperies of +St. Catherine in the National Gallery. You will find it well worth +a little trouble to look long and closely at one of Raphael's well-known +Madonnas till you clearly see how the composition of all the parts +of it is formed by the play of long and graceful curves. + +You can see from the drawing of the 'Knight's Dream,' which is hung +quite near the painting in the National Gallery, how carefully Raphael +thought out the detail of the picture before he began to paint. He +seems even to have been afraid that he might not be able to draw it +again so perfectly; therefore he placed the drawing over the panel +and pricked it through. The marks of the pin are quite clear, and it +brings one nearer this great artist to follow closely the process of +his work. It makes the young boy genius of 1500 almost seem akin to +the struggling boy and girl artists of the present time. + +From Perugia Raphael went to Florence, where he painted a number of +his most beautiful Madonnas. Then, in 1508, he was called to Rome by +Pope Julius II. to decorate some rooms in the Vatican Palace. The +Renaissance popes were possessed of so great wealth, and spent it to +such purpose, that its spending influenced the art of their age. Many +of the rooms in the Vatican had been decorated by Botticelli and other +good artists of the previous half-century, but already the new pope +considered their work out of date and ordered it to be replaced by +Michelangelo and Raphael. For nine years Raphael worked at the +decoration of the palace, always being pressed, hurried, and even +worried by two successive popes who employed him. The wall spaces which +he had to fill were often awkwardly broken up with windows and doors, +but he easily overcame whatever difficulties were encountered. To +succeed apparently without struggle was a peculiar gift granted to +Raphael above any other artist of his day. The frescoes painted by +him in the Vatican illustrated subjects from Greek philosophy and +medieval Church history, as well as from the Old and New Testament. +As an illustrator of sacred writ he never attempted that verisimilitude +in Eastern surroundings to which Hubert van Eyck leaned, neither was +he satisfied with the dress of his own day in which other painters +were wont to clothe their sacred characters. The historical sense, +which has driven some modern artists to much antiquarian research to +discover exactly what Peter and Paul must have worn, did not exist +before the nineteenth century. Raphael felt, nevertheless, that the +clothes of the Renaissance were hardly suitable for Noah and Abraham, +so he invented a costume of his own, founded upon Roman dress, but +different from oriental or contemporary clothes. The Scripture +illustrations of Raphael most familiar to you may probably be his +cartoon designs for tapestry in the South Kensington Museum, which +were bought by Charles I. In these you can see what is meant about +the clothes, but you will not be surprised at them, because the same +have been adopted by the majority of Bible illustrators ever since +the days of Raphael. His pictures became so popular that it was thought +whatever he did must be right. The dress was a mere detail in his work, +but it was easy to copy and has been copied persistently from that +day to this. It is curious to think that the long white robes, which +Christ wears in the illustrations of our present-day Sunday School +books and other religious publications, are all due to imitation of +Raphael's designs. + +The first room he finished for Julius II. was so rich in effect and +beautiful in colour that the Pope could scarcely wait for more rooms +as fine. Raphael had to call in a large number of assistants to enable +him to cover the walls fast enough to please the Pope, and the quality +of the work began to deteriorate. The uneven merit of his frescoes +foretold the consequence of overwork despite his matchless facility +and power. But in his panel pictures, when he was not hurried, his +work continued to improve until he reached his crowning achievement +in the Sistine Madonna painted three years before his death. + +Raphael was thirty-seven when he died in 1520, and very far from coming +to the end of his powers of learning. Each picture that he painted +revealed to him new difficulties to conquer, and new experiments to +try, in his art. We seem compelled to think that had he lived and +laboured for another score of years, the history of painting in Italy +might have been different. In Rome and Florence no successor attempted +to improve upon his work. His pupils and assistants were more numerous +than those of any other painter, but when they had obtained some of +his facility of drawing and painting they were contented. None of them +had Raphael's genius, yet all wished to paint like him; so that for +the following fifty years Rome and Florence and Southern Italy were +flooded with inferior Raphaelesque paintings, which tended to become +more slip-shod in execution as time went on, and more devoid of any +personal note. It was just as though his imitators had learnt to write +beautifully and then had had little to say. + +Leonardo da Vinci died a few months before Raphael. Several of his +pupils were artists of ability, and lived to carry on his traditions +of painting in the north of Italy. Leonardo himself had been so erratic, +produced so little, and so few of his pictures survive, that many know +him best in his pupils' work, or through copies and engravings of his +great 'Last Supper'--a picture that became an almost total wreck upon +the walls of the Refectory in Milan, for which it was painted. His +influence upon his contemporaries at Milan was very great, so that +during some years hardly a picture was painted there which did not +show a likeness to the work of Leonardo. He had created a type of female +beauty all his own. The face will impress itself upon your memory the +first time you see it, whether in a picture by Leonardo or in one by +a pupil. You can see it in the National Gallery in the great 'Madonna +of the Rocks,' and in the magnificent drawing at Burlington House. +It is not a very beautiful face, but it haunts the memory, and the +Milanese artists of Leonardo's day never threw off their recollection +of it. + +With far less power than Leonardo, one of his imitators, Bernardino +Luini, painted pictures of such charm and simplicity that almost +everyone finds them delightful. If you could see his picture of the +angels bearing St. Catherine, robed in red, through the air to her +last resting-place upon the hill, you would feel the beauty and peace +of his gentle nature revealed in his art. But the spell of Leonardo +vanished with the death of those who had known him in life. The last +of his pupils died in 1550, and with him the Leonardo school of painting +came to an end. + +There is one more painter belonging to the full Renaissance too famous +to remain entirely unmentioned. This is Correggio, a painter affected +also by the pictures of Raphael and Leonardo, but individual in his +vision and his work. He passed his life in Parma, in the north of Italy, +inheriting a North Italian tradition, and hearing only echoes of the +world beyond. His canvases are thronged with fair shapes, pretty women +and dancing children, ethereally soft and lovely. But it is in his +native town that the angels soar aloft with the Virgin in the dome +of the cathedral, and the children frolic on the walls of the convent. +These are his masterpieces you would like best. + +In 1550 the impetus given to painting in Italy by the Renaissance was +drawing to an end. The great central epoch may be said to have +terminated in Tuscany a few years after the deaths of Leonardo and +Raphael in 1520. But we have said nothing yet of Venice, where, in +1520, artists whose visions and whose record of them were to be as +wonderful as those of Botticelli and Raphael, were as yet sleeping +in their cradles. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE RENAISSANCE IN VENICE + + +A visit to Venice is one of the joys which perhaps few of us have yet +experienced. But whether we have been there or not, we all know that +the very sound of her name is enchanting for those who are fresh from +her magic--her sunrises and sunsets unmatched for colour, and her +streets for silence. + +The Venetians were a proud and successful people, wealthier by virtue +of their great sea-trade than the citizens of Florence or of any other +town in Italy; their foremost men lived in great high-roomed palaces, +richly furnished, and decorated with pictures of a sumptuous pageantry. +But the Venetians were not merely a luxurious people. The poetry of +the lagoons, and the glory of the sunset skies, imparted to their lives +the wealth of a rare romance. Even in Venice to-day, now that the +steamers have spoilt the peace of the canals and the old orange-winged +sailing-boats no longer crowd against the quays, the dreamy atmosphere +of the city retains its spell. + +Few artists ever felt and expressed this atmosphere better than +Giorgione, the painter of the first of our Venetian pictures. He was +one of the great artists of the Renaissance who died young, ten years +before Raphael, but their greatness is scarcely comparable. Like +Raphael, Giorgione was precocious, but unlike him he painted in a style +of his own that from the very beginning owed little to any one else. +He saw beauty in his own way, and was not impelled to see it differently +by coming into contact with other artists, however great. Unlike +Raphael, he was not a great master of the art of composition. In the +little picture before us the grouping of the figures is not what may +be called inevitable, like that in the 'Knight's Dream.' It seems as +though one day when Giorgione was musing on the beauties of the world, +and the blemishes of life, even life in Venice, he thought of some +far-off time beyond the dawn of history when all men lived in peace. +The ancient Greeks called this perfect time the 'Golden Age' of the +world. In many ways their idea of it tallies with the description of +the Garden of Eden, and they were always contrasting with it the 'Iron +Age' in which they thought they lived, as the Hebrews contrasted the +life of Adam and Eve in the garden with their own. As the fancy flashed +across Giorgione's mind, perchance he saw some just king of whom his +subjects felt no fear seated upon a throne like this. A dreamy youth +plays soft music to him, and another hands him flowers and fruit. Books +lie strewn upon the steps, and a child stands in a reverent attitude +before him. Wild and domestic animals live together in harmony; the +ground is carpeted with flowers; all is peaceful. Such a subject suited +the temperament of Giorgione, and he painted it in the romantic mood +in which it was conceived. Nothing could be further from everyday life +than this little scene. It has the unlaboured look that suits such +an improvised subject. Of course no one knows for certain that this +is a picture of the Golden Age, and you may make up any story you like +about it for yourselves. That is one of the charms of the picture. +It has been said that the throned one is celebrating his birthday, +and that his little heir is reciting him a birthday ode accompanied +by music. You may believe this if you like, but how do you then account +for the leopard and the peacock living in such harmony together? + +[Illustration: "THE GOLDEN AGE" +From the picture by Giorgione, in the National Gallery, London] + +Giorgione painted a few sacred pictures and many mythological scenes, +besides several very beautiful portraits of dreamy-looking poets and +noblemen. But even when he illustrated some well-known tale, he did +not care to seize upon the dramatic moment that gives the crisis of +the story, as Giotto would have done, and as the painter of our next +picture does. Violent action did not attract him. Whatever the subject, +if it were possible to group the figures together at a moment when +they were beautifully doing nothing, he did so. But he liked still +more to paint ideal scenes from his own fancy, where young people sit +in easy attitudes upon the grass, conversing for an instant in the +intervals of the music they make upon pipes and guitar. He was the +first artist, so far as I know, to paint these half real, half imaginary +scenes, of which our picture may be one. In all of them landscape bears +an important part, and in some the background has become the picture +and completely subordinated the figures. In this little 'Golden Age' +the landscape is quiet in tone, tinged with melancholy, romantic, to +suit the mood of the figures. Its colouring, though rich, is subdued, +more like the tints of autumn than the fresh hues of spring. The +Venetians excelled in their treatment of colour. They lived in an +uncommon world of it. Giorgione saw his picture in his mind's eye as +a blaze of rich colour; he did not see the figures sharply outlined +against a remote background, as are the three in Raphael's 'Knight's +Dream.' That does not mean that Raphael, like the artist of the Richard +II. diptych, failed to make his figures look solid, but that he saw +beauty most in the outlines of the body and the curves of the drapery, +irrespective of colour, whereas to Giorgione's eye outline was nothing +without colour and light and shade. The body of the King upon the throne +in our picture is massed against the background, but there is no +definite outline to divide it from the tree behind. In this respect +Giorgione was curiously modern for his date, as we shall see in pictures +of a still later time. + +Giorgione was only thirty-three years old when he died of the plague +in 1510, the same year as Botticelli. His master, Giovanni Bellini, +who was born in 1428, outlived him by six years, and the great Titian, +his fellow-pupil in the studio of Bellini, lived another half-century +or more. + +Titian in many ways summed up all that was greatest in Venetian art. +His pictures have less romance than those of Giorgione, except during +the short space of time when he painted under the spell of his brother +artist. It is extremely difficult to distinguish then between Titian's +early and Giorgione's late work. Titian perhaps had the greater +intellect. Giorgione's pictures vary according to his mood, while +Titian's express a less changeable personality. In spite of his youth, +Giorgione made a profound impression upon all the artists of his time. +They did not copy his designs, but the beauty of his pictures made +them look at the world with his romantic eyes and paint in his dreamy +mood. It was almost as though Giorgione had absorbed the romance of +Venice into his pictures, so that for a time no Venetian painter could +express Venetian romance except in Giorgione's way. + +But in 1518, eight years after Giorgione's death, another great +innovating master was born at Venice, Tintoret by name, who in his +turn opened new visions of the world to the artists of his day. While +painting in the rest of Italy was becoming mannered and sentimental, +lacking in power and originality, Tintoret in Venice was creating +masterpieces with a very fury of invention and a corresponding +swiftness of hand. He was his own chief teacher. Outside his studio +he wrote upon a sign to inform or attract pupils--'The design of +Michelangelo and the colouring of Titian.' Profound study of the works +of these two masters is manifest in his own. Like Michelangelo he worked +passionately rather than with the sober competence of Titian. His +thronging visions, his multitudinous and often vast canvases are a +surpassing record. Prolonged study of the human form had given to him, +as to Michelangelo, a wonderful power of drawing groups of figures. +His mere output was marvellous, and much of it on a grandiose scale. +He covered hundreds of square feet of ceilings and walls in Venice +with paintings of subjects that had been painted hundreds of times +before; but each as he treated it was a new thing. Centuries of +tradition governed the arrangement of such subjects as the Crucifixion +and the Last Judgment, so that even the free painters of the Renaissance +had deviated but little from it. In Tintoret the freedom of the +Renaissance reached its height. For him tradition had no fetters. When +he painted a picture of Paradise for the Doge's Palace it measured +84 by 34 feet, and contained literally hundreds of figures. His +imagination was so prolific that he seems never to have repeated a +figure. New forms, new postures, new groupings flowed from his brush +in exhaustless multitude. + +It is necessary to go to Venice to see Tintoret's most famous works, +still remaining upon the walls of the churches and buildings for which +they were painted, or in which they have been brought together. But +the National Gallery is fortunate in possessing one relatively small +canvas of his which shows some of his finest qualities. The subject +of St. George slaying the dragon was not a new one. It had been painted +by Raphael and by several of the earlier Venetian painters, but +Tintoret's treatment of it was all his own. In the earlier pictures, +the princess, for whose sake St. George fights the dragon, was a little +figure in the background fleeing in terror. St. George occupied the +chief place, as he does upon the back of our gold sovereigns, where +the princess has been left out altogether. Tintoret makes her flee, +but she is running towards the spectator, and so, in her flight, stands +out the most conspicuous figure. One of the victims that the dragon +has slain lies behind her. In the distance St. George fights with all +his might against the powers of evil, whilst 'the splendour of God' +blazes in the sky. There is a vividness and power about the picture +that proclaims the hand of Tintoret. In contrast to Giorgione he liked +to paint figures in motion, yet he was as typical an outcome of Venetian +romance as the earlier painter. Nothing could be more like a fairy-tale +than this picture. It was no listless dreamer that painted it, but +one with a gorgeous imagination and yet a full knowledge of the world, +enabling him to give substance to his visions. Tintoret's stormy +landscapes are as beautiful in their way as Giorgione's dreamy ones, +and each carries out the mood of the rest of the picture. This one +is full of power, mystery, and romance. Tintoret had modelled his +colouring upon Titian and was by nature a great colourist, but too +often he used bad materials that have turned black with the lapse of +years. In this picture you see his colour as it was meant to be, rich, +and boldly harmonious. The vivid red and blue of the princess's clothes +are a daring combination with the brilliant green of the landscape, +but Tintoret knew what he was doing, and the result is superb. With +his death in 1594 the best of Venetian painting came to an end. + +[Illustration: ST. GEORGE DESTROYING THE DRAGON +From the picture by Tintoretto, in the National Gallery, London] + +There were as many excellent painters in the fairy city as there had +been in Florence; contemporaries of Giovanni Bellini (who, in his early +years, worked in close companionship with Mantegna, his +brother-in-law), as well as contemporaries of Titian and Tintoret. +The painter Veronese, for instance, died a few years before Tintoret. +For pomp and pageantry his great canvases are eminent. Standing in +some room of the Doge's Palace, decorated entirely by his hand, we +are carried back to the time when Venice was Queen of the Seas, +unrivalled for magnificence and wealth. He was the Master of Ceremonies, +before whom other painters of pomps and vanities pale. Gorgeous +colouring is what all these Venetian painters had in common. We see +it in the early days when Venetian art was struggling into existence. +In her art, as in her skies and waters, we are overwhelmed by a vision +of colour unsurpassed. + +We have now touched on a few prominent points in the history of painting +in Italy from its early rise in Florence with Giotto; through its period +of widespread excellence in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, +when Raphael, Giorgione, Michelangelo, and Leonardo were all painting +masterpieces in Florence, Venice, Rome, and Milan at the same moment; +to its final blaze of sunset grandeur in Venice. It is time to return +to the north of Europe. In the next chapter we will try to gain a few +glimpses of the progress of painting in Germany, Holland, Flanders, +and our own country. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE RENAISSANCE IN THE NORTH + + +The Renaissance involved a change of outlook towards the whole world +which could not long remain confined to Italy. There were then, as +now, roads over the passes of the Alps by which merchants and scholars +were continually travelling from Italy through Germany and Flanders +to England, communicating to the northern countries whatever changes +of thought stirred in the south. + +In Germany, as in Italy, men speedily awoke to the new life, but the +awakening took a different form. We find a different quality in the +art of the north. Italian spontaneity and child-like joy is absent; +so, too, the sense of physical beauty, universal in Italy. You remember +how the successors of the Van Eycks in Flanders painted excellent +portraits and small carefully studied pictures of scriptural events +in wonderful detail. They were a strictly practical people whose +painting of stuffs, furs, jewellery, and architecture was marvellously +minute and veracious. But they were not a handsome race, and their +models for saints and virgins seem to have been the people that came +handiest and by no means the best looking. Thus the figures in their +pictures lack personal charm, though the painting is usually full of +vigour, truth, and skill. + +When Flemings began to make tours in Italy and saw the pictures of +Raphael, in whom grace was native, they fell in love with his work +and returned to Flanders to try and paint as he did. But to them grace +was not God-given, and in their attempt to achieve it, their pictures +became sentimental and postured, and the naive simplicity and everyday +truth, so attractive in the works of the earlier school, perished. +The influence of the Van Eycks had not been confined to Flanders. +Artists in Germany had been profoundly affected. They learnt the new +technique of painting from the pupils of the Van Eycks in the fifteenth +century. Like them, too, they discarded gold backgrounds and tried +to paint men and women as they really looked, instead of in the old +conventional fashion of the Middle Ages. Schools of painting grew up +in several of the more important German towns, till towards the end +of the fifteenth century two German artists were born, Albert Durer +at Nuremberg in 1471, and Hans Holbein the younger at Augsburg in 1497, +who deserve to rank with the greatest painters of the time in any +country. + +Durer is commonly regarded as the most typically German of artists, +though his father was Hungarian, and as a matter of fact he stands +very much alone. His pictures and engravings are 'long, long thoughts.' +Every inch of the surface is weighted with meaning. His cast of mind, +indeed, was more that of a philosopher than that of an artist. In a +drawing which Durer made of himself in the looking-glass at the age +of thirteen, we see a thoughtful little face gazing out upon the world +with questioning eyes. Already the delicacy of the lines is striking, +and the hair so beautifully finished that we can anticipate the later +artist whose pictures are remarkable for so surprising a wealth of +detail. The characteristics of the Flemish School, carefulness of +workmanship and indifference to the physical beauty of the model, to +which the Italians were so sensitive, continued in his work. For +thoroughness his portraits can be compared with those of John van Eyck. +In the National Gallery his father lives again for us in a picture +of wonderful power and insight. + +Durer was akin to Leonardo in the desire for more and yet more knowledge. +Like him he wrote treatises on fortifications, human proportions, +geometry, and perspective, and filled his sketchbooks with studies +of plants, animals, and natural scenery. His eager mind employed itself +with the whys and wherefores of things, not satisfied with the simple +pleasure that sight bestows. In his engravings, even more than in his +pictures, we ponder the hidden meanings; we are not content to look +and rejoice in beauty, though there is much to charm the eye. His +problems were the problems of life as well as the problems of art. + +The other great artist of Germany, Hans Holbein the younger, was the +son of Hans Holbein the elder, a much esteemed painter in Augsburg. +This town was on the principal trade route between Northern Italy and +the North Sea, so that Venetians and Milanese were constantly passing +through and bringing to it much wealth and news of the luxury of their +own southern life. As a result the citizens of Augsburg dressed more +expensively and decorated their houses more lavishly than did the +citizens of any other town in Germany. After a boyhood and youth spent +at Augsburg, Holbein removed to Basle. He was a designer of +wood-engravings and goldsmiths work and of architectural decoration, +besides being a painter. In those days of change in South Germany, +artists had to be willing to turn their hands to any kind of work they +could get to do. North of the Alps, where the Reformation was upsetting +old habits, an artist's life was far from being easy. Reformers made +bonfires of sacred pictures and sculptured wooden altar-pieces. Indeed +the Reformation was a cruel blow to artists, for it took away Church +patronage and made them dependent for employment upon merchants and +princes. Except at courts or in great mercantile towns they fared +extremely ill. Altar-pieces were rarely wanted, and there were no more +legends of saints to be painted upon the walls of churches. + +The demand for portraiture, on the other hand, was increasing, whilst +the growth of printing created a new field for design in the preparation +of woodcuts for the illustration of books. Thus it came to pass that +the printer Froben, at Basle, was one of the young Holbein's chief +patrons. We find him designing a wonderful series of illustrations +of _The Dance of Death_, as well as drawing another set to illustrate +_The Praise of Folly_, written by Erasmus, who was then living in Basle +and frequenting the house of Froben. Erasmus was a typical scholar +of the sixteenth century, belonging rather to civilized society as +a whole than to any one country. He moved about Europe from one centre +of learning to another, alike at home in educated circles in England, +Flanders, and Germany. He had lived for some time in England and knew +that there were men there with wealth who would employ a good painter +to paint their portraits if they could find one. Erasmus himself sat +to Holbein, and sent the finished portrait as a present to his friend +Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England. + +In England, owing to the effects of the Wars of the Roses, good painters +no longer existed. A century of neglect had destroyed English painting. +Henry VIII., therefore, had to look to foreign lands for his court +painter, and where was he to come from? France was the nearest country, +but the French King was in the same predicament as Henry. He obtained +his painters from Italy, and at one time secured the services of +Leonardo da Vinci; but Italy was a long way off and it would suit Henry +better to get a painter from Flanders or Germany if it were possible. +So Erasmus advised Holbein to go to England, and gave him a letter +to Sir Thomas More. On this first visit in 1526, he painted the +portraits of More and his whole family, and of many other distinguished +men; but it was not till his second visit in 1532 that he became Henry +VIII.'s court painter. In this capacity he had to decorate the walls +of the King's palaces, design the pageantry of the Royal processions, +and paint the portraits of the King's family. Although Holbein could +do and did do anything that was demanded of him, what he liked best +was to paint portraits. Romantic subjects such as the fight of St. +George and the dragon, or an idyll of the Golden Age, little suited +the artistic leanings of a German. To a German or a Fleming the world +of facts meant more than the world of imagination; the painting of +men and women as they looked in everyday life was more congenial to +them than the painting of saints and imaginary princesses. + +But how unimportant seems all talk of contrasting imagination and +reality when we see them fused together in this charming portrait of +Edward, the child Prince of Wales. It belongs to the end of the year +1538, when he was just fifteen months old, and the imagination of +Holbein equipped him with the orb of sovereignty in the guise of a +baby's rattle. It is in the coupling of distant kingship and present +babyhood that the painter works his magic and reveals his charm. + +[Illustration: EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES, AFTERWARDS EDWARD VI. +From the picture by Holbein, in the Collection of the Earl of Yarborough, +London] + +If you recall for a moment what you know of Henry VIII., his masterful +pride, his magnificence, his determination to do and have exactly what +he wanted, you will understand that his demands upon his court painter +for a portrait of his only son and heir must have been high. No one +could say enough about this wonderful child to please Henry, for all +that was said in praise of him redounded to the glory of his father. + +The following is a translation of the Latin poem beneath the picture: + + Child, of thy Father's virtues be thou heir, + Since none on earth with him may well compare; + Hardly to him might Heaven yield a son + By whom his father's fame should be out-done. + So, if thou equal such a mighty sire, + No higher can the hopes of man aspire; + If thou surpass him, thou shalt honoured be + O'er all that ruled before, or shall rule after thee.[3] + +[Footnote 3: Translated by Miss K. K. Radford.] + +In justice be it said that the little Edward VI. was of an extraordinary +precocity. When he was eight years old he wrote to Archbishop Cranmer +in Latin. When he was nine he knew four books of Cato by heart as well +as much of the Bible. To show you the way in which royal infants were +treated in those days,--we read that at the time this picture was +painted, the little prince had a household of his own, consisting of +a lady-mistress, a nurse, rockers for his cradle, a chamberlain, +vice-chamberlain, steward, comptroller, almoner, and dean. It is hard +to believe that the child is only fifteen months old, so erect is the +attitude, so intelligent the face. The clothes are sumptuous. A piece +of stuff similar in material and design to the sleeve exists to-day +in a museum in Brussels. + +In the best sense Holbein was the most Italian of the Germans. For +in him, as in the gifted Italian, grace was innate. He may have paid +a brief visit to Italy, but he never lived there for any length of +time, nor did he try to paint like an Italian as some northern artists +unhappily tried to do. The German merits, solidity, boldness, detailed +finish, and grasp of character, he possessed in a high degree, but +he combined with them a beauty of line, delicacy of modelling, and +richness of colour almost southern. His pictures appeal more to the +eye and less to the mind than do those of Durer. Where Durer sought +to instruct, Holbein was content to please. But like a German he spared +no pains. He painted the stuff and the necklace, the globe and the +feather, with the finish of an artist who was before all things a good +workman. Observe how delicately the chubby little fingers are drawn. +Holbein's detailed treatment of the accessories of a portrait is only +less than the care expended in depicting the face. He studied faces, +and his portraits, one may almost say, are at once images of and +commentaries on the people they depict. Thus his gallery of pictures +of Henry and his contemporaries show us at once the reflexion of them +as in a mirror, and the vision of them as beheld by a singularly +discerning and experienced eye that not only saw but comprehended. + +This is the more remarkable because Holbein was not always able to +paint and finish his portraits in the presence of the living model, +as painters insist on doing nowadays. His sitters were generally busy +men who granted him but one sitting, so that his method was to make +a drawing of the head in red chalk and to write upon the margin notes +of anything he particularly wanted to remember. Afterwards he painted +the head from the drawing, but had the actual clothes and jewels sent +him to work from. + +In the Royal Collection at Windsor there are a number of these portrait +drawings of great interest to us, since many of the portraits painted +from them have been lost. As a record of remarkable people of that +day they are invaluable, for in a few powerful strokes Holbein could +set down the likeness of any face. But when he came to paint the portrait +he was not satisfied with a mere likeness. He painted too 'his habit +as he lived.' Erasmus is shown reading in his study, the merchant in +his office surrounded by the tokens of his business, and Henry VIII. +standing firmly with his legs wide apart as if bestriding a hemisphere. +But I think that you will like this fine portrait of the infant prince +best of all, and that is why I have chosen it in preference to a likeness +of any of the statesmen, scholars, queens, and courtiers who played +a great part in their world, but are not half so charming to look upon +as little Prince Edward. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +REMBRANDT + + +After the death of Holbein, artists in the north of Europe passed +through troublous times till the end of the sixteenth century. France +and the Netherlands were devastated by wars. You may remember that +the Netherlands had belonged in the fifteenth century to the Dukes +of Burgundy? Through the marriage of the only daughter of the last +Duke, these territories passed into the possession of the King of Spain, +who remained a Catholic, whilst the northern portion of the Netherlands +became sturdily Protestant. Their struggle, under the leadership of +William the Silent, against the yoke of Spain, is one of the stirring +pages of history. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, seven +of the northern states of the Netherlands, of which Holland was the +chief, had emerged as practically independent. The southern portion +of the Netherlands, including the old province of Flanders, remained +Catholic and was governed by a Spanish Prince who held his court at +Brussels. + +When peace came at last, there was a remarkable outburst of painting +in each of the two countries. Rubens was the master painter in Flanders. +Of him and of his pupil Van Dyck we shall hear more in the next chapter. +In Holland there was a yet more wide-spread activity. Indomitable +perseverance had been needed for so small a country to throw off the +rule of a great power like Spain. The long struggle seems to have called +into being a kindred spirit manifesting itself in every branch of the +national life. Dutch merchants, Dutch fishermen, and Dutch colonizers +made themselves felt as a force throughout the world. The spirit by +which Dutchmen achieved political success was pre-eminent in the +qualities which brought them to the front rank in art. There were +literally hundreds of painters in Holland, few of them bad. That does +not mean that all Dutchmen had the magical power of vision belonging +to the greatest artists, the power that transforms the objects of daily +view into things of rare beauty, or the imagination of a Tintoret that +creates and depicts scenes undreamt of before by man. Many painted +the things around them as they looked to a commonplace mind, with no +glamour and no transforming touch. When we see their pictures, our +eyes are not opened to new effects. We continue to see and to feel +as we did before, but we admire the honest work, the pleasant colour, +and the efficiency of the painters. In default of Raphaels, Giorgiones, +and Titians, we should be pleased to hang upon our walls works such +as those. But towering above the other artists of Holland, great and +small, was one Dutchman, Rembrandt, who holds his own with the greatest +of the world. + +He was born in 1606, the son of a miller at Leyden, who gave him the +best teaching there to be had. Soon he became a good painter of +likenesses, and orders for portraits began to stream in upon him from +the citizens of his native town. These he executed well, but his heart +was not wrapped up in the portrayal of character as John Van Eyck's +had been. Neither was it in the drawing of delicate and beautiful lines +that he wished to excel, as did Holbein and Raphael. He was the +dramatist of painting, a man who would rather paint some one person +ten times over in the character of somebody else, high priest, king, +warrior, or buffoon, than once thoroughly in his own. But when people +ordered portraits of themselves they wanted good likenesses, and +Rembrandt was happy to supply them. At first it was only when he was +working at home to please himself that he indulged his picturesque +gift. He painted his father, his mother, and himself over and over +again, but in each picture he tried some experiment with expression, +or a new pose, or a strange effect of lighting, transforming the general +aspect of the original. His own face did as well as any other to +experiment with; none could be offended with the result, and it was +always to be had without paying a model's price for the sitting. Thus +all through his life, from twenty-two to sixty-three, we can follow +the growth of his art with the transformation of his body, in the long +series of pictures of his single self. + +More than any artist that had gone before him, Rembrandt was fascinated +by the problem of light. The brightest patch of white on a canvas will +look black if you hold it up against the sky. How, then, can the fire +of sunshine be depicted at all? Experience shows that it can only be +suggested by contrast with shadows almost black. But absolutely black +shadows would not be beautiful. Fancy a picture in which the shadows +were as black as well-polished boots! Rembrandt had to find out how +to make his dark shadows rich, and how to make a picture, in which +shadow predominated, a beautiful thing in itself, a thing that would +decorate a wall as well as depict the chosen subject. That was no easy +problem, and he had to solve it for himself. It was his life's work. +He applied his new idea in the painting of portraits and in subject +pictures, chiefly illustrative of dramatic incidents in Bible history, +for the same quality in him that made him love the flare of light, +made him also love the dramatic in life. + +Rembrandt's mother was a Protestant, who brought up her son with a +thorough knowledge of the Scripture stories, and it was the Bible that +remained to the end of his life one of the few books he had in his +house. The dramatic situations that he loved were there in plenty. +Over and over again he painted the Nativity of Christ. Sometimes the +Baby is in a tiny Dutch cradle with its face just peeping out, and +the shepherds adoring it by candle-light. Often he painted scenes from +the Old Testament; such as Isaac blessing Esau and Jacob, who are shown +as two little Dutch children. Simeon receiving the Infant Christ in +the Temple is a favourite subject, because of the varied effects that +could be produced by the gloom of the church and the light on the figure +of the High Priest. These, and many other beautiful pictures, were +studies painted for the increase of the artist's own knowledge, not +orders from citizens of Leyden, or of Amsterdam, to which capital he +moved in 1630. At the same time he was coming more and more into demand +as a portrait-painter. These were days in which he made money fast, +and spent it faster. He had a craving to surround himself with beautiful +works of art and beautiful objects of all kinds that should take him +away from the dunes and canals into a world of romance within his own +house. He disliked the stiff Dutch clothes and the great starched white +ruffs worn by the women of the day. He had to paint them in his +portraits; but when he painted his beautiful wife, Saskia, she is +decked in embroideries and soft shimmering stuffs. Wonderful clasps +and brooches fasten her clothes. Her hair is dressed with gold chains, +and great strings of pearls hang from her neck and arms. Rembrandt +makes the light sparkle on the diamonds and glimmer on the pearls. +Sometimes he adorns her with flowers and paints her as Flora. Again, +she is fastening a jewel in her hair, and Rembrandt himself stands +by with a rope of pearls for her to don. All these jewels and rich +materials belonged to him. He also bought antique marbles, pictures +by Giorgione and Titian, engravings by Durer, and four volumes of +Raphael's drawings, besides many other beautiful works of art. + +These were splendid years, years in which he was valued by his +contemporaries for the work he did for them, and years in which every +picture he painted for himself gave him fresh experience. A picture +of the anatomy class of a famous physician had been among the first +with which Rembrandt made a great public success. Every face in it--and +there were eight living faces--was a masterpiece of portraiture, and +all were fitly grouped and united in the rapt attention with which +they followed the demonstration of their teacher. + +In 1642 he received an order to paint a large picture of one of the +companies of the City Guard of Amsterdam. According to the custom of +the day, each person portrayed in the picture contributed his equal +share towards the cost of the whole, and in return expected his place +in it to be as conspicuous as that of anybody else. Such groups were +common in Holland in the seventeenth century. The towns were proud +of their newly won liberties, and the town dignitaries liked to see +themselves painted in a group to perpetuate remembrance of their tenure +of office. But Rembrandt knew that it was inartistic to give each and +every person in a large group an equal or nearly equal prominence, +although such was the custom to which even Franz Hals' brush had yielded +full compliance. For his magnificent picture of the City Guard, +Rembrandt chose the moment when the drums had just been sounded as +an order for the men to form into line behind their chief officers' +march-forth. They are coming out from a dark building into the full +sunshine of the street. All in a bustle, some look at their fire-arms, +some lift their lances, and some cock their guns. The sunshine falls +full upon the captain and the lieutenant beside him, but the background +is so dark that several of the seventeen figures are almost lost to +view. A few of the heads are turned in such a way that only half the +face is seen, and no doubt as likenesses some of them were deficient. +Rembrandt was not thinking of the seventeen men individually. He +conceived the picture as a whole, with its strong light and shade, +the picturesque crossing lines of the lances, and the natural array +of the figures. By wiseacres, the picture was said to represent a scene +at night, lit by torch-light, and was actually called the 'Night +Watch,' though the shadow of the captain's hand is of the size of the +hand itself, and not greater, being cast by the sun. Later generations +have valued it as one of the unsurpassed pictures in the world; but +it is said that contemporary Dutch feeling waxed high against Rembrandt +for having dealt in this supremely artistic manner with an order for +seventeen portraits, and that he suffered severely in consequence. +Certainly he had fewer orders. The prosperous class abandoned him. +His pictures remained unsold, and his revenue dwindled. + +Rembrandt was thirty-six years of age and at the very height of his +powers, at the time of the failure of this his greatest picture. His +mature style of painting continued to displease his contemporaries, +who preferred the work of less innovating artists who painted good +likenesses smoothly. Every year his treatment became rougher and +bolder. He transformed portraits of stolid Dutch burgomasters into +pictures of fantastic beauty; but the likeness suffered, and the +burgomasters were dissatisfied. Their conservative taste preferred +the smooth surface and minute treatment of detail which had been +traditional in the Low Countries since the days of the Van Eycks. Year +after year more of their patronage was transferred to other painters, +who pandered to their preferences and had less of the genius that forced +Rembrandt to work out his own ideal, whether it brought him prosperity +or ruin. These painters flourished, while Rembrandt sank into ever +greater disrepute. + +It is certain, too, that he had been almost childishly reckless in +expenditure on artistic and beautiful things which were unnecessary +to his art and beyond his means, although those for a while had been +abundant. At the time of the failure of the 'Night Watch,' his wife +Saskia died, leaving him their little son, Titus, a beautiful child. +Through ever-darkening days, for the next fifteen years, he continued +to paint with increasing power. It is to this later period that our +picture of the 'Man in Armour' belongs. + +[Illustration: A MAN IN ARMOUR +From the picture by Rembrandt, in the Corporation Art Gallery, Glasgow] + +The picture is not a portrait, but rather a study of light upon armour. +No man came to Rembrandt and asked to be painted like that; but +Rembrandt saw in his mind's eye a great effect--a fine knightly face +beneath a shadowing helmet and set off against a sombre background. +A picture such as this is a work of the imagination in the same sense +as the 'Saint George and the Dragon' of Tintoret. It was an effect +that only Rembrandt could see, painted as only he could paint it. The +strongest light falls upon the breastplate, the next strongest upon +the helmet, and the ear-ring is there to catch another gleam. When +you look at the picture closely, you can see that the lights are laid +on (we might almost say 'buttered on') with thick white paint. More +than once Rembrandt painted armour for the sake of the effects of light. +In one of the portraits of himself he wears a helmet, and he painted +his brother similarly adorned. A picture of a person wearing the same +armour as in the Glasgow picture is in St. Petersburg, but the figure +is turned in a slightly different direction and reflects the light +differently. It is called 'Pallas Athene,' and was no doubt painted +at the same time as ours; but the person, whether named Pallas Athene +or knight, was but a peg upon which to hang the armour for the sake +of the light shining on it. + +Rembrandt was a typical Dutch worker all his life. Besides the great +number of pictures that have come down to us, we have about three +thousand of his drawings, and his etchings are very numerous and fine. + +I wonder if you know how prints are made? There are, broadly speaking, +two different processes. You can take a block of wood and cut away +the substance around the lines of the design. Then when you cover with +ink the raised surface of wood that is left and press the paper upon +it, the design prints off in black where the ink is but the paper remains +white where the hollows are. This is the method called wood-cutting, +which is still in use for book illustrations. + +In the other process, the design is ploughed into a metal plate, the +lines being made deep enough to hold ink, and varying in width according +to the strength desired in the print. You then fill the grooves with +ink, wiping the flat surface clean, so that when the paper is pressed +against the plate and into the furrows, the lines print black, out +of the furrows, and the rest remains white. + +There are several ways of making these furrows in a metal plate, but +the chief are two. The first is to plough into the metal with a sharp +steel instrument called a burin. The second is to bite them out with +an acid. This is the process of etching with which Rembrandt did his +matchless work. He varnished a copper plate with black varnish. With +a needle he scratched upon it his design, which looked light where +the needle had revealed the copper. Then the whole plate was put into +a bath of acid, which ate away the metal, and so bit into the lines, +but had no effect upon the varnish. When he wanted the lines to be +blacker in certain places, he had to varnish the whole rest of the +plate again, and put it back into the bath of acid. The lines that +had been subjected to the second biting were deeper than those that +had been bitten only once. + +The number of plates etched by Rembrandt was great, at least two +hundred; some say four hundred. Their subjects are very +various--momentary impressions of picturesque figures, Scriptural +scenes, portraits, groups of common people, landscapes, and whatever +happened to engage the artist's fancy, for an etching can be very +quickly done, and is well suited to record a fleeting impression. +Thousands of the prints still exist, and even some of the original +plates in a very worn-down condition. + +In spite of the quantity and quality of Rembrandt's work, he was unable +to recover his prosperity. He had moved into a fine house when he +married Saskia, and was never able to pay off the debts contracted +at that time. Things went from bad to worse, until at last, in 1656, +when Rembrandt was fifty, he was declared bankrupt, and everything +he possessed in the world was sold. We have an inventory of the gorgeous +pictures, the armour, the sculptures, and the jewels and dresses that +had belonged to Saskia. His son Titus retained a little of his mother's +money, and set up as an art dealer in order to help his father. + +It is a truly dreary scene, yet Rembrandt still continued to paint, +because painting was to him the very breath of life. He painted Titus +over and over again looking like a young prince. In these later years +the portraits of himself increase in number, as if because of the lack +of other models. When we see him old, haggard, and poor in his worn +brown painting-clothes, it hardly seems possible that he can be the +same Rembrandt as the gay, frolicking man in a plumed hat, holding +out the pearls for Saskia. + +In his old age he received one more large order from a group of six +drapers of Amsterdam for their portraits. It has been said that the +lesson of the miscalled 'Night Watch' had been branded into his soul +by misfortune. What is certain is that, while in this picture he +purposely returned to the triumphs of portraiture of his youth, he +did not give up the artistic ideals of his middle life. He gave his +sitters an equal importance in position and lighting, and at the same +time painted a picture artistically satisfying. Not one of the six +men could have had any fault to find with the way in which he was +portrayed. Each looks equally prominent in vivid life. Yet they are +not a row of six individual men, but an organic group held together +you hardly know how. At last you realize that all but one are looking +at you. _You_ are the unifying centre that brings the whole picture +together, the bond without which, metaphorically speaking, it would +fall to pieces. + +This picture of six men in plain black clothes and black hats, sitting +around a table, is by some considered the culmination of Rembrandt's +art. It shows that, in spite of misfortune and failure, his ardour +for new artistic achievement remained with him to the end. + +In 1662 Rembrandt seems to have paid a brief and unnoticed visit to +England. If Charles II. had heard of him and made him his court painter, +we might have had an unrivalled series of portraits of court beauties +by his hand instead of by that of Sir Peter Lely. As it was, a hasty +sketch of old St. Paul's Cathedral, four years before it was burnt +down, is the sole trace left of his visit. + +The story of his old age is dreary. Even Titus died a few months before +his father, leaving him alone in the world. In the autumn of 1669 he +himself passed away, leaving behind him his painting-clothes, his +paint-brushes, and nothing else, save a name destined to an immortality +which his contemporaries little foresaw. All else had gone: his wife, +his child, his treasures, and his early vogue among the Dutchmen of +his time. + +The last picture of all was a portrait of himself, in the same attitude +as his first, but disillusioned and tragic, with furrowed lines and +white hair. No one cared whether he died or not, and it is recorded +that after his death pictures by him could be bought for sixpence. +Thus ended the life of one of the world's supremely great painters. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +PETER DE HOOGH AND CUYP + + +Let us now turn from the splendid gloom of Rembrandt's 'Knight in +Armour,' to delight in this beautiful little interior of a Dutch house +by Peter de Hoogh. Still you see the prepossession for light, but for +more tempered rays and softer shadows. The sunshine is diffused by +the yellow curtains throughout the room. The old lady need not fear +its revelations, to be sure, for it is Holland--she knows that the +whole house has been duly scrubbed with soap and water. Dust and dirt +are banished. It is a cloudless day and dry under foot, otherwise the +little boy would have worn clogs over his shoes, and you might see +them outside. Mud on the polished stones of the passage would have +ruffled the housewife's calm. As it is, we can see she has had no worries +this morning. She has donned her fresh red dress and clean white apron, +and will soon be seated to prepare the vegetables and fruit that are +being brought her. Perhaps they are a present from the old lady in +the house over the way, who from her front door watches the child +delivering the gift. + +[Illustration: AN INTERIOR +From the picture by Pieter de Hoogh, in the Wallace Collection, London] + +It is a domestic scene that you might witness in any of the old towns +of Holland to this day. The insides and outsides of the houses are +still scrubbed with soap and water; rows of clogs stand outside the +front doors on muddy days; the women wear the same bright coloured +gowns fully gathered round the waist, with the cleanest of white +aprons; their faces are placid and unruffled as they pursue the even +tenour of their way. + +This atmosphere of Dutch life, peaceful, home-loving, and competent, +is rendered by Peter de Hoogh in most of his pictures. It is not the +atmosphere of Rembrandt's art, yet he never could have painted thus +except for Rembrandt. The same love of sunlight and shadows prevailed +with Peter de Hoogh, and it was no less the aim of his art to attain +mastery over the painting of light, but light diffused and reflected. +He loved to show the sunlight shining through some coloured substance, +such as this yellow curtain, which scatters its brightness and lets +it fall more evenly throughout the room. He never painted such extreme +contrasts as make manifest Rembrandt's power. Rembrandt's light had +been so vivid that it seemed to overwhelm colours in a dazzling +brilliancy. Peter de Hoogh's lights are just strong enough to reveal +the colours in a milder illumination. In our picture the sunshine +diffused by the yellow curtains mingles with the red of the woman's +dress and creates a rich orange. Little does she know how well her +dress looks. But it was only after incessant study of the way in which +Rembrandt had mastered the whole range from light to dark, that Peter +de Hoogh became able to paint as he did within his narrower scale, +abridged at both extremes. + +Begin with the room, then the passage, then the farther hall, then +the highway open to the unseen sky above, then the house-front beyond +it, and the hall beyond the lady in the neighbouring doorway; there +are at least four distinct distances in this picture each differently +lighted, and the several effects worked out with scrupulous +painstaking fidelity. It is worth your while, with your own eyes rather +than with many words of mine, to search out on the original all these +beautifully varied gradations. In many of his pictures one part is +lighted from the sunlit street, and another from a closed court. +Sometimes his figures stand in an open courtyard, whilst behind is +a paved passage leading into the house. All his subjects are of the +domestic Dutch life of the seventeenth century, but the arrangement +in rooms, passages, courtyards, and enclosed gardens admitted of much +variation. We never feel that the range of subjects is limited, for +the light transforms each into a scene of that poetic beauty which +it was Peter de Hoogh's great gift to discern, enjoy, and record. + +The painting is delicate and finished, meant to be seen from near at +hand. It is always the room that interests him, as much as the people +in it. The painting of the window with its little coats of arms, +transparent yet diffusing the light, is exquisitely done. A chair with +the cushion upon it, just like that, occurs again and again in his +pictures, the cushion being used as a welcome bit of colour in the +scheme. Most of all, the floors, whether paved with stone as in this +picture, or with brick as in the courtyards, are painted with the +delightful precise care that the Van Eycks gave to their accessories. +In Peter de Hoogh's vision of the world there is the same appreciation +of the objects of daily use as was displayed by the fifteenth-century +Flemish painters whenever their sacred subjects gave them opportunity. +In the seventeenth century it was more congenial to the Flemish and +Dutch temperament to paint their own country, and domestic scenes from +their own lives, than pictures of devotion. + +Other artists besides Peter de Hoogh painted people in their own houses. +In the pictures of Terborch ladies in satin dresses play the spinet +and the guitar. Jan Steen depicted peasants revelling on their holidays +or in taverns. Peter de Hoogh was the painter of middle-class life, +and discovered in its circumstances, likewise, abounding romance. + +The Dutchman of the seventeenth century loved his house and his garden, +and every inch of the country in which he lived, rescued as it had +been from invasions by armies and the sea. Many painters never left +Holland, and found beauty enough there to fill well-spent lives in +painting its flatness beneath over-arching clear or clouded skies. +Although the earlier Flemings had had a great love of landscape, they +had not conceived it as a subject suitable for a whole picture, but +only for a background. In the sixteenth century the figures gradually +get smaller and less important, and towards the end of the century +disappear. As the song says, 'a very different thing by far' is painting +a landscape background and painting a whole landscape picture. Before +the end of the century Rubens painted some wonderful landscapes, and +he was soon followed by a great number of very fine landscape painters +in Holland. Cuyp was one of many. + +In a Dutch landscape we cannot expect the rich colouring of Italy. +The colouring of Holland is low toned, and tender gradations lead away +to the low and level horizon. The canals are sluggish and grey, and +the clouds often heavy and dark. We saw how the brilliant skies and +pearly buildings of Venice made Venetian painters the gayest +colourists of the world. So the Dutch painters took their sober scale +of landscape colouring as it was dictated to them by the infinitely +varied yet sombre loveliness of their own land. In the great flat +expanses of field, intersected by canals and dotted with windmills, +the red brick roof of a water-mill may look 'loud,' like an aggressive +hat. But the shadows cast by the clouds change every moment, and in +flat country where there is less to arrest the eye the changes of tone +are more marked. + +In an etching, Rembrandt could leave a piece of white paper for the +spot of highest sunlight, and carry out all the gradations of tone +in black and white, until he reached the spot of darkest shadow. A +painted landscape he indicated in the same way by varying shades of +dull brown. In all of them you seem to feel the interposition of the +air between you and the distant horizon at which you are looking. What +else is there? At each point in the picture the air modifies the +distinctness with which you can see the objects. This consciousness +of air in a picture of low horizon is a very difficult thing to describe +and explain. We know when it is there and when it is not. It has to +be seen, to be enjoyed, and recorded. Holbein painted Edward VI. +standing, so to speak, in a vacuum. Every line of his face is sharply +defined. In real life air softens all lines, so that even the edge +of a nose in profile is not actually seen as a sharp outline. The figures +in Richard II.'s picture stand in the most exhausted vacuum, but Hubert +van Eyck had already begun to render the vision or illusion of air +in his 'Three Maries.' In this respect he had learnt more than the +early painters of the Italian Renaissance; but Raphael and the +Venetians, especially Giorgione and Titian, sometimes bathed their +figures in a luminous golden atmosphere with the sun shining through +it. + +The Dutch painters carried this still further, particularly in their +pictures of interiors and landscapes. It is the atmosphere in the rooms +that makes Peter de Hoogh's portrayal of interiors so wonderful. In +our little picture the light coming through the window makes the air +almost golden. When this painting of air and tone is set forth by the +exquisite colour of Peter de Hoogh, you see this kind of Dutch +achievement at its best. Cuyp's love of sunshine is rare among Dutch +landscape painters. He suffuses his skies with a golden haze that +bathes his kin and kine alike in evening light. In our picture you +can feel the great height of the sky and the depth of the air between +the foreground and the horizon. The rendering of space is excellent. +But Cuyp has not been content with the features of his native Holland. +He has put an imaginary mountain in the distance and a great hill in +the foreground. It is certainly not a view that Cuyp ever saw in Holland +with his own eyes. He thought that the mountain's upright lines were +good to break the flatness; and the finished composition, if beautiful, +is its own excuse for being. + +[Illustration: LANDSCAPE WITH CATTLE +From the picture by Cuyp, in the Dulwich Gallery] + +Rembrandt is an exception to all rules, but most of the Dutch painters +did not allow themselves these excursions within their studios to +foreign scenes. They faithfully depicted their own flat country as +they saw it, and added neither hills nor mountains. But they varied +the lighting to express their own moods. Ruysdael's sombre tone befits +the man who struggled with poverty all his life, and died in a hospital +penniless. Cuyp is always sunny. In his pictures, cattle browse at +their ease, and shepherds lounge contented on the grass. He was a +painter of portraits and of figure subjects as well as of landscapes, +and his little groups of men and cattle are always beautifully drawn. +Ruysdael, Hobbema, and many others were landscape painters only, and +some had their figures put in by other artists. Often they did without +them, but in the landscapes of Cuyp, cows generally occupy the +prominent position. The black and white cow in our picture is a fine +creature, and nothing could be more harmonious in colour than the brown +cow and the brown jacket of the herdsman. + +There were some painters in Holland in the seventeenth century who +made animals their chief study. Theretofore it had been rare to +introduce them into pictures, except as symbols, like the lion of St. +Jerome, or where the story implied them; or in allegorical pictures, +such as the 'Golden Age.' But at this later time animals had their +share in the increased interest that was taken in the things of daily +life, and they were painted for their handsome sakes, as Landseer +painted them in England fifty years ago. + +Thus the seventeenth century in Holland shows an enlargement in the +scope of subjects for painting. Devotional pictures were becoming rare, +but illustrations, sacred and secular, portraits, groups, interiors, +and landscapes, were produced in great numbers. Dutch painters +outnumbered those of Flanders, but among the latter were at least two +of the highest eminence, Rubens and Van Dyck, and to these we will +next direct our attention. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +VAN DYCK + + +The great painter Rubens lived at Antwerp, a town about as near to +Amsterdam as Dover is to London. Yet despite the proximity of Flanders +and Holland, their religion, politics, social life, and art were very +different in the seventeenth century, as we have already seen. + +Rubens was a painter of the prosperous and ruling classes. He was +employed by his own sovereign, by the King of Spain, by Marie de Medicis, +Queen of France, and by Charles I. of England. His remarkable social +and intellectual gifts caused him to be employed also as an ambassador, +and he was sent on a diplomatic errand to Spain; but even then his +leisure hours were occupied in copying the fine Titians in the King's +palace. + +One day he was noticed by a Spanish noble, who said to him, 'Does my +Lord occupy his spare time in painting?' 'No,' said Rubens; 'the +painter sometimes amuses himself with diplomacy.' + +In his life as in his art he was exuberant. An absurd anecdote of the +time is good enough to show that. Some people, who went to visit him +in his studio at Antwerp, wrote afterwards that they found him hard +at work at a picture, whilst at the same time he was dictating a letter, +and some one else was reading aloud a Latin work. When the visitors +arrived he answered all their questions without leaving off any of +those three occupations! We must not all hope to match Rubens. + +Rubens's great ceremonial paintings, containing numerous figures and +commemorating historical scenes in honour of his Royal patrons, were +executed by his own hands, or by the hands he taught and guided, with +great skill and speed. He painted also beautiful portraits of his wife +and family, and pictures of his own medieval castle, which he restored +and inhabited during the last years of his life, with views of the +country stretching out in all directions. He liked a comfortable life +and comfortable-looking people. He painted his own wives as often as +Rembrandt painted Saskia; both were plump enough to make our memories +recur with pleasure to the slenderer figures preferred by Botticelli +and the painters of his school. + +To accomplish the great mass of historic, symbolic, and ceremonial +painting that still crowds the walls of the galleries of Europe, Rubens +needed many assistants and pupils, but only one of them, Van Dyck, +rose to the highest rank as a painter. + +He was a Fleming by birth, and worked in the studio at Antwerp for +several years as an assistant of Rubens; then he went to Italy to learn +from the great pictures of the Italian Renaissance, as so many Northern +artists wished to do. It has been said that the works of Titian +influenced his youthful mind the most. Van Dyck spent three years in +Genoa, where he was employed by those foremost in its life to paint +their portraits. Many of these superb canvases have been dispersed +to enrich the galleries of both hemispheres, public and private; but +the proud, handsome semblances of some of his sitters, dressed in rich +velvet, pearls, and lace, look down upon us still from the bare walls +of their once magnificent palaces, with that 'grand air' for which +the eye and the brush of Van Dyck have long remained unrivalled. + +When he returned to Flanders from Italy, he had attained a style of +painting entirely his own and very different from that of his great +master, Rubens. The William II of Orange picture is an excellent +example of Van Dyck's work. The child is a prince: we know it as plainly +as if Van Dyck had spoken the word before unveiling his canvas. His +erect attitude, his dignified bearing, his perfect self-possession +and ease, show that he has been trained in a high school of manners. +But there is also something in the delicate oval of the face, the +well-cut nose and mouth, and the graceful growth of the hair, that +speak of refined breeding. Distinction is the key-note of the picture. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM II. OF ORANGE +From the picture by Van Dyck, in the Hermitage Gallery, Leningrad] + +This little Prince had in his veins the blood of William the Silent, +and became the father of our William III. Poor human nature is too +easily envious, and some deny the reality, in fact, of the distinction, +the grace, of Van Dyck's portrayed men and women. Nevertheless, Van +Dyck's vision, guiding his brush, was as rare an endowment as envy +is a common one, and has higher authority to show us what to look for, +to see, and to enjoy. + +Van Dyck was the first painter who taught people how they ought to +look, to befit an admirer's view of their aristocratic rank. His +portraits thus express the social position of the sitter as well as +the individual character. Although this has been an aim of +portrait-painters in modern times, when they have been painting people +of rank, it was less usual in the seventeenth century. + +There was hardly scope enough in Antwerp for two great painters such +as Rubens and Van Dyck, so in 1632 Van Dyck left Flanders and settled +permanently in England, as Court painter to Charles I. All his life +Charles had been an enthusiastic collector of works of art. Born with +a fine natural taste, he had improved it by study, until Rubens could +say of him: 'The Prince of Wales is the best amateur of painting of +all the princes in the world. He has demanded my portrait with such +insistence that he has overcome my modesty, although it does not seem +to me fitting to send it to a Prince of his importance.' + +Two of our pictures, the Richard II. diptych and the Edward VI. of +Holbein, were in his collection, besides many we have mentioned, such +as Holbein's 'Erasmus,' Raphael's cartoons, and Mantegna's 'Triumph +of Caesar.' Before Charles came to the throne he had gone to Spain +to woo the daughter of Philip III. The magnificent Titians in the palace +at Madrid extorted such admiration from the Prince that Philip felt +it incumbent upon him as a host and a Spaniard to offer some of them +to Charles. Charles sent his own painter to copy the rest. He kept +agents all over Europe to buy for him, and spent thousands of pounds +in salaries and presents to the artists at his Court. As in the time +of Henry VIII., there were still no first-rate English painters. James +I. had employed a Fleming, and an inferior Dutchman, whom Charles +retained in his service for a time. Then he experimented with a +second-rate Italian artist, who painted some ceilings which still +exist at Hampton Court. Rubens was too much in demand at other Courts +for Charles to have his exclusive service, but the courtly Van Dyck +was a painter after his own heart. For the first time he had found +an artist who satisfied his taste, and Van Dyck a Court in which he +could paint distinction to his heart's content. Charles would have +squandered money on him if he had then had it to squander. As it was, +he paid him far less than he had paid his inferior predecessors, but +Van Dyck continued to paint for him to the end, and by Heaven's mercy +died himself before the crash came, which overthrew Charles and +scattered his collection. + +Between the years 1632 and 1642, Van Dyck painted a great number of +portraits of the King. It is from these that we obtain our vivid idea +of the first Charles's gentleness and refinement. He has a sad look, +as though the world were too much for him and he had fallen upon evil +days. We can see him year by year looking sadder, but Van Dyck makes +the sadness only emphasize the distinction. + +Queen Henrietta Maria was painted even more often than the King. She +is always dressed in some bright shimmering satin; sometimes in yellow, +like the sleeve of William II.'s dress, sometimes in the purest white. +She looks very lovely in the pictures, but lovelier still are the groups +of her children. Even James II. was once a bewitching little creature +in frocks with a skull-cap on his head. His sister Mary, aged six, +in a lace dress, with her hands folded in front of her, looks very +good and grown-up. When she became older, though not even then really +grown-up, she married the William of Orange of our picture. He came +from Holland and stayed at the English Court, as a boy of twelve, and +it was then that Van Dyck painted this portrait of him. + +Later on, when they were married, Van Dyck painted them together, but +William was older and looked a little less beautiful, and Mary had +lost the charm of her babyhood. With all her royal dignity and solemnity, +she is a perfect child in these pictures. Refined people, loving art, +have grown so fond of the Van Dyck children, that often when they wish +their own to look particularly bewitching at some festivity, they dress +them in the costumes of the little Mary and Elizabeth Stuart, and revive +the skull-caps and the lace dresses for a fresh enjoyment. + +Van Dyck's patrons in England, other than the King, were mostly +noblemen and courtiers. They lived in the great houses, which had been +built in many parts of the country during the reigns of Elizabeth and +her successors. The rooms were spacious, with high walls that could +well hold the large canvases of Van Dyck. Sometimes a special gallery +was built to contain the family portraits, and Van Dyck received a +commission to paint them all. Often, several copies of the same picture +were ordered at one time to be sent as presents to friends and relations. +Usually the artist painted but one himself; the rest were copies by +his assistants. + +Van Dyck's portraits were designed to suit great houses. In a small +room, which a portrait by Holbein would have decorated nobly, a canvas +by Van Dyck would have been overpowering. In spite of the fact that +the expressions on the faces are often intimate and appealing, +domesticity is not the mark of his art. In Van Dyck's picture of our +'heir of fame,' the white linen, the yellow satin, and the armour please +us as befitting the lovely face. There is a glimmer of light on the +armour, but you see how different is Van Dyck's treatment of it from +Rembrandt's. Van Dyck painted it as an article of dress in due +subordination to the face, not as an opportunity for reflecting light +and becoming the most important thing in the picture. + +We have seen how Rembrandt, Peter de Hoogh, Cuyp, Rubens, and Van Dyck +were all contemporaries, born within an area of ground smaller far +than England. Yet the range of their subjects was widely different, +and each painter gave his individuality full play. The desires of the +public were not stereotyped and fixed, as they had been when all alike +wanted their religious aspirations expressed in art. The patrons of +that epoch had various likings, as we have to-day, and the painter +developed along the lines most congenial to himself. Unless he could +make people like what he enjoyed painting, he could not make a living. +If they had no eyes to learn to see, he might remain unappreciated, +like Rembrandt, until long after his death. Yet Van Dyck's portraits +were popular. People could scarcely help enjoying an art that showed +them off to such advantage. Having found a style that suited him, he +adhered to it consistently, thenceforward making but few experiments. +This little picture before us is an admirable example of the gentle +poetic grace and refinement always recalled to the memory by the name +of Van Dyck. So long as men prize the aspect of distinction, which +he was the first Northern painter to express in paint, Van Dyck's +reputation will endure. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +VELASQUEZ + + +During the years in which Van Dyck was painting his beautiful portraits +of the Royal Family of England, another painter, Velasquez, was +immortalizing another Royal Family in the far-away country of Spain. +Cut off by the great mountains of the Pyrenees from the rest of Europe, +Spain did not rank among the foremost powers until after the discovery +of America had brought wealth to her from the gold mines of Mexico +and Peru. In the sixteenth century the King of Spain's dominions, +actual or virtual, covered a great part of Western Europe, excepting +England and France. Germany, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands, owned +the sovereignty of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. His son was Philip +II. of Spain, the husband of our Queen Mary of England, and his +great-grandson was King Philip IV., the patron of Velasquez, as Charles +I. was of Van Dyck. + +It is the little son of Philip IV., Don Balthazar Carlos, whose portrait +is before us--as manly and sturdy looking a little fellow as ever +bestrode a pony. He was but six years old when Velasquez painted the +picture here reproduced. Certainly he was not fettered and cramped +and prevented from taking exercise like his little sisters. The +princesses of Spain were dressed in wide skirts, spread out over hoops +and hiding their feet, from the time they could walk. The tops of the +dresses were as stiff as corselets, and one wonders how the little +girls were able to move at all. As they grew older the hoops became +wider and wider, until in one picture of a grown-up princess, the skirts +are broader than the whole height of her body. Stringent Court +etiquette forbade a princess to let her feet be seen, but so odd may +such conventions be, that it was nevertheless thought correct for the +Queen to ride on horseback astride. + +It is from the canvases of Velasquez that we know the Spanish Royal +Family and the aspect of the Court of Philip IV. as though we had lived +there ourselves. The painter was born in the south of Spain in the +same year as Van Dyck, and seven years earlier than Rembrandt. To paint +the portrait of his sovereign was the ambition of the young artist. +When his years were but twenty-four the opportunity arrived, and Philip +was so pleased with the picture that he took the young man into his +household, and said that no one else should ever be allowed to paint +his portrait. Velasquez welcomed with gratified joy the prospect of +that life-long proximity, although neither his earnings nor his +station at all matched the service he rendered to his sovereign. As +the years went on he was paid a little better, but his days and hours +were more and more taken up with duties at Court, and his salary was +always in arrears. He could not even reserve his own private time for +his art, but as he waxed higher in the estimation of the King, the +supervision of Court ceremonies, entrusted to him as an honour, +deprived him of leisure, and at last brought his life prematurely to +a close. + +From the time when Velasquez entered the service of the King, he painted +exclusively for the Court. We have eight portraits by him of Philip +IV., and five of the little Don Carlos, besides many others of the +queens and princesses. We can follow the growth of his art in the +portraits of Philip IV., as we can follow that of Rembrandt in portraits +of himself. But while Rembrandt might make of the same person, himself, +or another model, a dozen different people, so that it mattered little +who the model was, Velasquez was concerned with a different problem. +In the seventeenth century almost any good painter could draw his +models correctly, but Velasquez reproduced the living aspect of a man +as no one else had done. We have already spoken of the feeling of +atmosphere that Cuyp and Peter de Hoogh were able to bring into their +pictures. Velasquez, knowing little or nothing of the contemporary +Dutchmen, worked at the same art problems all his life, and at last +mastered the atmosphere problem completely, whether it was the air +of a closed room in the dark palace of Philip, or the air of the open +country, as in our picture. In this there is no bright light except +upon the face of the little prince. It is dark and gloomy weather, +but if on such a day you were to see the canvas in the open air it +would almost seem part of the country itself, as Velasquez's picture +of a room seems part of the gallery in which it hangs. + +It was only by degrees that he attained this quality in his work. He +had had the ordinary teaching of a painter in Spain, but the level +of art there at the time was not so high as in Holland or Italy. Like +Rembrandt he was to a great extent his own master. In his early years +he painted pictures of middle-class life, in which each figure is +truthfully depicted, as were the early heads in Rembrandt's 'Anatomy.' +Like Rembrandt in his youth, he looked at each head separately and +painted it as faithfully as he could. The higher art of composing into +the unity of a group all its parts, and keeping their perfections within +such limits as best co-operate in the transcendent perfection of the +whole--this was the labour and the crown of both their lives. +Velasquez's best and greatest groups are such a realized vision of +life that they have remained the despair of artists to this day. + +Velasquez came to Court in the year in which Charles I., as Prince +of Wales, went to Madrid to woo the sister of Philip IV. He painted +her portrait twice, and made an unfinished sketch of Charles, which +has unfortunately been lost. Five years afterwards Rubens was a visitor +at the Spanish Court on a diplomatic errand. The painters took a fancy +to one another, and corresponded for the remainder of their lives. +They must have talked long about their art, and the elder painter, +Rubens, is thought to have promoted in Velasquez a desire to see the +great treasures of Italy. At all events we find that in the next year +he has obtained permission and money from Philip to undertake the +journey, which kept him away from Spain for two years. + +There is an amusing page, in doggerel verse, which I remember to have +read some years ago. I trust the translator will pardon the liberty +I am taking in quoting it. It reports a perhaps imaginary conversation +between Velasquez and an Italian painter in Rome. 'The Master' in this +rhyme is Velasquez. + + The Master stiffly bowed his figure tall + And said, 'For Raphael, to speak the truth, + --I always was plain-spoken from my youth,-- + I cannot say I like his works at all.' + + 'Well,' said the other, 'if you can run down + So great a man, I really cannot see + What you can find to like in Italy; + To him we all agree to give the crown.' + + Velasquez answered thus: 'I saw in Venice + The true test of the good and beautiful; + First, in my judgment, ever stands that school, + And Titian first of all Italian men is.' + +Velasquez in Rome was already a ripening artist, whose vision of the +world was quite uncoloured and unshaped by the medieval tradition. +Raphael's pictures with their superhumanly lovely saints, their +unworldly feeling, and their supernaturally clear light, doubtless +imparted pleasure, but not a sympathetic inspiration. Tintoret's +immense creative power and the colours of Titian's painting which +inspired Tintoret's ambition, as we remember--these were the effective +influences Velasquez experienced in Italy. His purchases and his own +later canvases afford that inference. On his return from Italy he +painted a ceremonial picture as wall decoration for one of the palaces +of Philip, and in it we can trace the influence of the great ceremonial +paintings of the Venetians. The picture commemorates the surrender +of Breda in North Brabant, when the famous General Spinola received +its keys for Philip IV. It is far more than a series of separate figures. +Two armies, officers and men, are grouped in one transaction, in one +near and far landscape. It is a picture in which the foreground and +the distances, with the lances of the soldiers and the smoke of battle, +are as indispensable to the whole as are the central figures of the +Dutchman in front handing the city keys to the courtly Spanish general. + +Don Balthazar Carlos was born while Velasquez was in Italy. On his +return he painted his first portrait of him at the age of two. The +little prince is dressed in a richly-brocaded frock with a sash tied +round his shoulder. His hair has only just begun to grow, but he has +the same look of determination upon his face that we see four years +later in the equestrian portrait. A dwarf about his own height stands +a step lower than he does, so as again to give him prominence. Another +picture of Don Balthazar a little older is in the Wallace Collection +in London. + +Velasquez's power with his brush lay in depicting vividly a scene that +he saw; thus in portraiture he was at his best. He knew how to pose +his figures to perfection, so as to make the expression of their +character a true pictorial subject. In our picture it is on high ground +that the hoofs of the pony of Don Balthazar Carlos tread. So to raise +the little Prince above the eye of the spectator was a good stroke, +suggesting an importance in the gallant young rider. The boy's erect +figure, too, firmly holding his baton as a king might hold a sceptre, +and the well-stirruped foot, are all perfect posing. Velasquez does +not give him distinction in the manner of Van Dyck, by delicate drawing +and gentle grace, but in a sturdier fashion, with speed and pose and +a fluttering sash in the wind. All the portraits of this lad are full +of charm. He was heir to the throne, but died in boyhood. + +[Illustration: DON BALTHAZAR CARLOS +From the picture by Velasquez, in the Prado Museum, Madrid] + +Velasquez paid another visit to Italy, twenty years after his first, +for the purpose of buying more pictures to adorn Philip's palaces. +Again we find him in Venice, where he bought two Tintorets and a +Veronese, and again he made a long stay in Rome, this time to paint +the portrait of the Pope. When he returned to Spain in 1651 he had +still nine years of work before him. There were portraits of Philip's +new Queen to be painted--a young girl in a most uncomfortable +dress--and portraits of her child, the Infanta Marguerita. Bewitching +are the pictures of this little princess at the ages of three, of four, +and of seven, with her fair hair tied in a bow at the side of her head, +and voluminous skirts of pink and silver. But sweetest of all is the +picture called 'The Maids of Honour' ('Les Meninas'), in which the +princess, aged about six, is being posed for her portrait. She is +petulant and tired, and two of her handmaidens are cajoling her to +stand still. Her two dwarfs and a big dog have been brought to amuse +her, and the King and Queen, reflected in a mirror at the end of the +room, stand watching the scene. Velasquez himself, with his easel and +brushes, is at the side, painting. The picture perpetuates for +centuries a moment of palace life. In that transitory instant, +Velasquez took his vivid impression of the scene, and has translated +his impression into paint. Everything is simple and natural as can +be. The ordinary light of day falls upon the princess, but does not +penetrate to the ceiling of the lofty room, which is still in shadow. +All seem to have come together haphazard without being fitted into +the canvas. There is little detail, and the whole effect seems produced +by the simplest means; yet in reality the skill involved is so great +that artists to-day spend weeks copying the picture, in the endeavour +to learn something of the secret of Velasquez. + +The best judges are among those who rank him highest, so that he is +called pre-eminently 'the painter's painter.' It is impossible for +any one but a painter to understand how he used paint. From near at +hand it looks a smudge, but at the proper distance every stroke takes +its right place. Such freedom was the result of years of careful +painting of detail, and is not to be attained by any royal road. +Velasquez seldom seems to have made preliminary drawings, but of that +we cannot be sure. Certainly he had learned to conceive his vision +as a whole, and we may fancy at least that he drew it so upon the +canvas--altering the lines as he went--working at all the parts of +the picture at once, keeping the due relation of part to part; not +as if he finished one bit at a time, or thought of one part of a figure +as distinct from the rest. To have drawn separate studies for legs +and arms would have been foreign to his method of working. + +The pictures painted in this his latest style are few, for the court +duties heaped upon him left too little time. Maria Theresa, the sister +of Don Balthazar Carlos, was engaged to be married to Louis XIV., King +of France. The marriage took place on the border of France and Spain, +and Velasquez was in charge of all the ceremonies. The Princess +travelled with a cavalcade eighteen miles long, and we can imagine +what work all the arrangements involved. The marriage over, the ever +loyal Velasquez returned to Madrid, but he returned only to die. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +REYNOLDS AND THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + + +Hitherto we have travelled far and wide in our search for typical +examples of the beautiful in painting. We went from Flanders to Italy, +from Italy to Germany, back to Holland, and thence to Spain. It is +true that we began in England with our first picture, and that we have +returned twice, once with Holbein, and again with Van Dyck, both +foreign born and trained artists. We will finish with examples of truly +native English art. + +In the eighteenth century England for the first time gained a foremost +place in painting, though the people of the day scarcely realized that +it was so. Even the poet Gray, writing in 1763, could say: + +Why this nation has made no advance hitherto in painting and sculpture, +it is hard to say.... You are generous enough to wish, and sanguine +enough to foresee, that art shall one day flourish in England. I, too, +much wish, but can hardly extend my hopes so far. + +Yet in 1763 Reynolds was forty years of age and Gainsborough but four +years younger. Hogarth was even sixty-six, and at work upon his last +plate. Although, hitherto, the best painting in England had been done +by foreign artists such as Holbein and Van Dyck, yet there had always +been Englishmen of praiseworthy talent who had painted pleasing +portraits. Hogarth carried this native tradition to a high point of +excellence. He painted plain, good-natured-looking people in an +unaffected and straightforward way. But he was a humourist in paint, +and as great a student of human nature as he was of art. His insight +into character and his great skill with the brush, combined with his +sensitiveness to fun, make him in certain respects a unique painter. +In the National Gallery there is a picture of the heads of his six +servants in a double row. They might all be characters from Dickens, +so vividly and sympathetically humorous is each. + +In his engravings Hogarth satirised the lives of all classes of the +society of his day. When we look at them we live again in +eighteenth-century London, and walk in streets known to fame though +now destroyed, thronged with men and women, true to life. + +As an artist, Hogarth occupies a position between the +seventeenth-century Dutch painters of low life and the English +painters that succeeded him, who expressed the ideals of a refined +society. His portraits have something of the strength of Rembrandt's. +His street and tavern scenes rival Jan Steen's; but behind the mere +representation of brutality, vice, crime, and misery we perceive not +merely a skilled craftsman but a moral being, whom contact with misery +deeply stirs and the sight of wickedness moves to indignation. + +After 1720 a succession of distinguished painters were born in England. +Many of them first saw the light in obscure villages in the depths +of the country. Reynolds came from Devonshire, Gainsborough from +Suffolk, Romney from the Lake country. + +The eighteenth century was a time when politicians and men of letters +had the habit of gathering in the coffee-houses of London--forerunners +of the clubs of to-day. Conversation was valued as one of life's best +enjoyments, and the varied society of actors, authors, and politicians, +in which it flourished best, could only be obtained in the town. To +the most distinguished circle of that kind in London, our painter +Reynolds belonged. + +In the eighteenth century, society had also begun to divide its time +in modern fashion between town and country. Many of the large country +houses of to-day, and nearly all the landscape-gardened parks, belong +to that date. Nevertheless it was a time of great artificiality of +life. The ladies had no short country skirts, and none of the freedom +to which we are accustomed. In London they wore long powdered curls +and rouged, and in the country too they did not escape from the +artificiality of fashion. Indeed, their great desire seems to have +been to get away from everything natural and spontaneous. The +artificial poetry of that time deals with the patch-boxes and +powder-puffs of the fashionable dames of the town, and with nymphs +and Dresden china shepherdesses in the country. + +Even on Reynolds' canvases the desire to improve upon nature is +apparent. In his young days he painted the local personages of +Devonshire. Then he made a journey abroad and spent three years in +Rome and Venice. On his return he settled in London, and the most +distinguished men and women of the day and their children sat to him. +It seems that he would have liked his lords and ladies to look as heroic +or sublime as the heroes or gods of Michelangelo. Instead of painting +them in the surroundings that belonged to them, as Holbein or Velasquez +would have done, he dressed his ladies in what he called white +'drapery,' a voluminous material, neither silk, satin, woollen, nor +cotton, and painted them sailing through the woods. The ladies +themselves liked to look like nymphs, characterless and pretty, so +the fashion of painting portraits in this way became common. + +The pictures are pleasing to look at, although so artificial, and after +all it was only full-length portraits of ladies that Reynolds treated +in this way. They were a small part of his whole output. But he and +Velasquez worked in a totally different spirit. Velasquez made the +subject before him, however unpromising, striking because of its truth. +Reynolds liked to change it on occasion into something quite different, +for the sake of making a picture pretty. Nevertheless, his strength +lay in straightforward portraiture, and in the rendering of character. +His portraits of men, unlike those of women, are dignified, simple, +and restrained. His art was one long development till blindness +prevented him from working. Every year he attained more freedom and +naturalness in his pose and developed more power in his use of colour. + +[Illustration: THE DUKE OF GLOUCESTER +From the picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds, in Trinity College, Cambridge] + +Many would say that his loveliest achievements were portraits of +children, yet he did not attain the same freedom in his child poses +till late in life. You have all seen photographs, at any rate, of the +'Age of Innocence' and the 'Heads of Angels,' but this little picture +of the Duke of Gloucester, nephew of George III., will not be so +familiar. I wonder whether it reminds you of anything you know? It +reminds me of Van Dyck. The little duke stands with an air of importance +upon the hillside, which is raised above the eye of the spectator as +Velasquez raised the ground beneath the pony of Don Balthazar Carlos. +There is no mistake about the child being a simple English boy, with +a nice chubby face and ordinary straight fair hair. But he is a prince +and knows it. For the sake of having his picture painted, he poses +with an air of conscious dignity beyond his years. He sweeps his cloak +around him like any grown-up cavalier, and holds out a plumed hat and +walking stick in a lordly fashion. The child is consciously acting +the part of a grown-up person, which only emphasizes his childhood. +But the air of refinement and distinction in the picture comes straight +from Van Dyck. As you look at the portraits of the Duke of Gloucester +and William II. of Orange side by side, it may puzzle you to say which +is the more attractive. Van Dyck has painted the clothes in more detail. +A century later Reynolds has learnt to paint with dash, though not +with the mastery of Velasquez. The effect of the cloak of the little +Duke, its shimmering shades of mauve and pink, is inimitable. It tones +beautifully with the background, varying from dull green to brightest +yellow. The background happens to be sky, but it might as well have +been a curtain, as long as its bit of colour so set off the clothes +of the little Duke. + +When Reynolds painted children he delighted in making them act parts. +Even in the 'Age of Innocence' the little girl is looking how very +very innocent. He painted one picture of a small boy, Master Crewe, +dressed to look like Henry VIII. in the style of Holbein. With broad +shoulders and a rich dress, he stands on his sturdy legs quite the +figure of Henry. But the face is one beam of boyish laughter, and on +the top of the little replica of the body of the corpulent monarch +the effect of the childish face is most entertaining. + +When Reynolds puts away his ideas of the grand style of Michelangelo +to paint pictures such as these, he is entirely delightful. He +sometimes painted Holy Families and classical subjects, but the more +the spirit of medieval sacred art has sunk into us, the less can we +admire modern versions of the old subjects. The sacred paintings of +the Middle Ages owe some of their charm to the fact that they do not +make upon us the impression of life. In Reynolds' Holy Families, the +Mother and Child are painted with all the skill of a modern artist +and look as human as his portraits of the Duchess of Devonshire and +her baby. It is no longer possible to think of them as anything but +portraits of the models whom Reynolds employed for his picture. + +Another method that modern artists have sometimes adopted in painting +sacred subjects, is to imitate the faulty drawing and incomplete +representation of life which are present in the art of the Old Masters. +But this conscious imitation of bygone ignorance beguiles no one who +has once felt the charm of the painters before Raphael. + +Reynolds' great contemporary, Gainsborough, has been called 'a child +of nature.' He would have liked to live in the country always and paint +landscapes. He did paint many of his native Suffolk, but in his day +landscapes were unsaleable, so he was driven to the town and to portrait +painting to make a living. Less than Reynolds a painter of character, +Gainsborough reproduced the superficial expression of his sitters. +But he had so natural an eye for grace and beauty, that his portraits +always please. He did not attempt Reynolds' wide range of subjects +or the same difficulties of pose. Of Reynolds he said: 'How various +he is,' but his admiration did not make him stray from his natural +path to attempt the variety of another. Reynolds, equally admiring, +said of him: 'I cannot make out how he produces his effects.' Perhaps +Gainsborough did not know either. He does seem to paint by instinct, +and successive pictures became more pleasing. Buoyant in his life as +in his art, his last words were: 'We are all going to Heaven, and Van +Dyck is of the company.' + +Another great contemporary painter was Romney, whose portraits of +ladies are delightful. Figured as nymphs too, they are so buoyant with +bright expressions and wayward locks, that one wishes he had depicted +in their faces a soul. + +All over England and Scotland portrait painters flourished at this +time. There were so many English artists that in 1768 the Royal Academy +was founded, with Sir Joshua Reynolds as its first president. It was +to the students of the Royal Academy that he delivered his Discourses +upon Art, setting forth the principles which he judged to be sound. +He was an indefatigably hard worker until within two years of his death +in 1792. All classes of men esteemed and regretted him, clouded though +his intercourse with them had been by the deafness from which he +suffered during the greater part of his life. + +Goldsmith, the author of the _Vicar of Wakefield_, wrote this character +'epitaph' for him: + + Here Reynolds is laid, and to tell you my mind, + He has not left a wiser or better behind. + His pencil was striking, resistless and grand; + His manners were gentle, complying and bland; + Still born to improve us in every part, + His pencil our faces, his manners our heart. + To coxcombs averse, yet most civilly steering + When they judged without skill, he was still hard of hearing. + When they talked of their Raphaels, Correggios and stuff, + He shifted his trumpet and only took snuff. + By flattery unspoiled ... + +The end is missing, for while Goldsmith was versifying so feelingly +about his friend, death overtook the writer, eighteen years before +the subject of the epitaph. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +TURNER + + +I wonder which of you, if seeing this picture for the first time, will +realize that you are looking at the old familiar Thames? It would seem +rather to be some place unknown except in dreams, some phantasy of +the human spirit that we ourselves could never hope to see. And yet, +in fact, this is what Turner actually did see one evening as he was +sailing down the Thames to Greenwich with a party of friends. Suddenly +there loomed up before his eyes the great hull of the _Temeraire_, +famous in the fight against the fleet of Napoleon at Trafalgar, and +so full of memories of glorious battle, that it was always spoken of +by sailors as the _Fighting Temeraire_. At last, its work over as a +battleship, or even as a training-ship for cadets, dragged by a doughty +little steam-tug, it was headed for its last resting-place in the +Thames, to be broken up for old timber. As the _Temeraire_ hove in +sight through the mist, a fellow-painter said to Turner: 'Ah, what +a subject for a picture!' and so indeed it proved. The veteran ship, +for Turner, had a pathos like the passing of a veteran warrior to his +grave. + +[Illustration: THE FIGHTING TEMERAIRE +From the picture by Turner, in the National Gallery, London] + +Turner loved the sea, and was very sensitive to its associations with +the toils and triumphs of mankind. Born beside the Thames, he grew +up among boats and fraternized with sailors all his life. It was +impossible for him to be the beholder of such a scene as the +_Temeraire's_ approach to her last moorings, save as a poet-painter; +and stirred to the putting forth of all his powers, this _Fighting +Temeraire_ is his surpassing poem. + +It was in 1775, while Reynolds was at the height of his fame, that +Turner saw the light, born of obscure parents in an obscure house, +but with a gift of vision that compelled him to the palette and the +pencil his whole life long. Yet, when he was apprenticed to an architect +to learn architectural drawing, he had to be dismissed after two +periods of probation because of his absolute inability to learn the +theory of perspective or even the elements of geometry. But the time +was not far off when he was to become in his turn Professor of +Perspective at the Royal Academy. + +The popular distaste, or unborn taste, for landscape, which had +prevented Gainsborough from following his natural bent, was changing +at last. The end of the eighteenth century saw the beginning of a return +to nature in art as well as in poetry. Some artists in the eastern +counties, older than Turner, were already spending their lives in the +not too lucrative painting of landscape. These men took for their +masters the seventeenth-century painters of Holland. Old Crome, so +called to distinguish him from his son, founded his art upon that of +Hobbema, and came so close to him in his early years that it is difficult +to distinguish their pictures. In the works of this 'Norwich School' +the wide horizons of the Dutch artists often occur. But there is a +brighter colour, a fresher green, recalling England rather than +Holland. Turner never felt the influence of the Dutch painters so +strongly as these artists did. Like Gainsborough, and many another +artist before him and since, Turner was to be dominated by the necessity +of making a living. At the end of the century a demand arose for +'Topographical Collections,' of views of places, selected and arranged +according to their neighbourhood. These were not necessarily fine +works of art, but they were required to be faithful records of places. +Topographical paintings, drawings, and prints took the place now +filled by the photograph and the postcard. Turner found employment +enough making water-colour sketches to be engraved for such +topographical publications. But sketches that might be mere hack-work +became under his fingers magically lovely. We may follow him to many +a corner of England, Wales, and Scotland, sketching architecture, +mountain, moor, mists, and lakes. His earliest sketches are rather +stiff and precise. But he developed with rapidity, and soon painted +them in tones of blue and grey, so soft that the stars and the horizons +merge into one lovely indefiniteness. Not till much later is there +a touch of brighter colour in them such as fires the 'Temeraire,' but +in all there is the same spirit of poetry. Turner longed to be a poet, +although he could hardly write a correct sentence even in prose. But +he was a poet in his outlook upon life; he seldom painted a scene exactly +as he saw it, but transfused it by an imaginative touch into what on +rare occasions, with perfect conjuncture of mist and weather, it might +possibly become. He gave extra height to church spires, or made +precipices steeper than they were, thus to render the impression of +the place more explicit than by strict copying of the facts. Yet he +could be minutely accurate in his rendering of all effects of sky, +cloud, and atmosphere when he chose. + +Other landscape painters have generally succeeded best with some +particular aspect of nature, and have confined themselves to that. +Cuyp excelled in painting the golden haze of sunshine, and Constable +in effects of storm and rain. But Turner attempted all. Sunset, sunrise, +moonlight, morning, sea, storm, sunshine: the whole pageantry of the +sky. He never made a repetition of the golden hazes of Cuyp, who in +his particular field stands alone; but it was a small field compared +with that of Turner, who held the mirror up to Nature in her every +mood. + +Later in life, Turner travelled in France, Germany, and Italy. In +Venice his eyes were gladdened by the gorgeous colours above her +lagoons. Henceforth he makes his pictures blaze with hues scarcely +dared by painter before. But so great was his previous mastery of the +paler shades, that a few touches of brilliant colour could set his +whole canvas aflame. Even in the 'Temeraire,' the sunset occupies less +than half the picture. The cold colours of night have already fallen +on the ship, and there remains but a touch of red from the smoke of +the tug. + +As Venice enriched his vision of colour, Rome stimulated him to paint +new subjects suggested by ancient history and mythology. He knew little +of Roman history or classical literature, yet enough to kindle his +imagination; witness his 'Rise and Fall of the Carthaginian Empire' +in the National Gallery. In these the figures are of no importance. +The pictures still are landscapes, but freed from the necessity of +being like any particular place. In work such as this, Turner had but +one predecessor, the French Claude Lorraine. While the Dutchmen of +the seventeenth century were painting their own country beautifully, +Claude was living in Rome, creating imaginary landscapes. He called +his pictures by the names of Scriptural incidents, and placed figures +in the foreground as small and unessential as those of Turner. These +classical landscapes, with their palaces and great flights of steps +leading down to some river's edge, and the sea in the distance covered +with boats carrying fantastic sails, never for a moment make the +impression of reality. But they are beautiful compositions, designed +to please the eye and stimulate the fancy, and are even attractive +by virtue of their novel aloofness from the actual world. + +Turner set himself to rival Claude in his ideal landscapes, founded +upon the stories of the ancient world. In his picture of 'Dido building +Carthage,' he painted imaginary palaces, rivers, and stately ships, +in the same cool colouring as Claude, and bequeathed his picture to +the National Gallery, on condition that it should hang for ever between +two pictures by Claude to challenge their superiority. Opinions are +divided as to the rank of Turner's 'Carthage,' so when you go to the +National Gallery, you must look at them both and prepare to form a +preference. + +Turner was incited to this rivalry with Claude by the popularity that +painter enjoyed among English collectors of the day, who were less +eager to buy Turner's great oil-paintings than those of his predecessor. +Incidentally this rivalry was the origin of the great series of +etchings executed by or for him, known as _The Book of Studies (Liber +Studiorum)_. This book was suggested by Claude's _Libri di Verita_, +six volumes of his own drawings (of pictures he himself had painted +and sold) made in order to identify his own, and detect spurious, +productions. But Turner's book was designed to show his power in the +whole range of landscape art. The drawings were carefully finished +productions, work by which he was willing to be judged, and many of +them he etched with his own hands. His favourite haunts, the abbeys +of Scotland and Yorkshire, the harbours of Kent, the mountains of +Switzerland, the lochs of Scotland, and the River Wye, he chose as +illustrating his best power over architecture, sea, mountain, and +river. He repeated several of the same subjects later in oils, such +as the pearly hazy 'Norham Castle' in the Tate Gallery. + +Turner painted still another kind of imaginary landscape, not in +rivalry with any one, but to please himself. Of course you all know +the story of Ulysses and the one-eyed giant, Polyphemus, in the +_Odyssey_ of Homer? Turner chose for his picture the moment when +Ulysses has escaped from the clutches of Polyphemus, and sailing away +in his boat, taunts the giant, who stands by the water's edge, cursing +Ulysses and bemoaning the loss of his sight. Turner has used this +mythical scene as an opportunity for creating stupendous rocks never +seen by a pair of mortal eyes, and a galley worthy of heroes or gods. +The picture is the purest phantasy, even more like a fairy-tale than +the story it illustrates. He has made the whole scene burn in the red +light of a flaming sunrise, redder by far than the sunset of the old +'Temeraire.' + +The story is told of a gentleman who, looking at a picture of Turner's, +said to him, 'I never saw a sunset like that.' 'No, but don't you wish +you could?' replied Turner. That is what we feel about the sunrise +in the picture of Ulysses and Polyphemus. Next to it in the National +Gallery hangs another picture called 'Rain, Steam, and Speed'--the +Great Western Railway. From the realm of the mythical, this takes us +back to the class of scenes of which the 'Fighting Temeraire' is one, +actually beheld by Turner, but magically transfigured by his brush. +A train is coming towards us over a bridge, prosaic subject enough, +especially in 1844, when railways were supposed to be ruining the +aspect of the country and were hated by beauty-loving people. But +Turner saw romance in the swift passage of a train, and painted a +picture in which smoke and rain, cloud and sunset, river and bridge, +boats and trees, are all fused in a mist, pearly and golden as well +as smutty and grey. When you look at it, you must stand away and look +long, till gradually the vision of Turner shapes itself before your +eyes and the scene as he beheld it lives again for you. + +We saw how Venice opened his eyes to flaming colour. In his pictures +of Venice, her magic beauty is revealed by a delicate sympathy, that +re-creates the fairy city in her day of glory. Never tired of painting +her in all her aspects, at morning, at even, in pomp, and at peace, +a sight of his pictures is still the best substitute for a visit to +the city itself. + +Other artists have interpreted scenery beautifully, and a few have +painted ideal landscapes, but who besides Turner has ever united such +diversities of power? He continued to paint water-colour sketches to +the end of his life, for these were appreciated by a public that did +not understand, and neglected to buy, his oil-paintings. He sketched +throughout France and Switzerland for various publications as he had +sketched in England. Time has not damaged these drawings, as it has +the pictures in oil, for to the end of his life Turner sometimes used +bad materials. Even the sky of the 'Fighting Temeraire' has faded +considerably since it was painted, and others of his oil-pictures are +mere shadows of their former selves. It is pathetic to look upon the +wreck of work not a century old and to wonder how much of it will be +preserved for future generations. + +Turner himself deemed the 'Temeraire' one of his best pictures, and +from the beginning intended to bequeath it to the National Gallery, +refusing to sell it for any price whatever. + + There's a far bell ringing, + At the setting of the sun, + And a phantom voice is singing + Of the great days done. + There's a far bell ringing, + And a phantom voice is singing + Of renown for ever clinging + To the great days done. + + Now the sunset breezes shiver, + _Temeraire! Temeraire!_ + And she's fading down the river, + _Temeraire! Temeraire!_ + Now the sunset breezes shiver, + And she's fading down the river, + But in England's song for ever + She's the '_Fighting Temeraire_.'[4] + +[Footnote 4: _The Fighting Temeraire_. Henry Newbolt.] + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + + +Since we began our voyagings together among the visionary worlds of +the great painters, five hundred and thirty years ago, at the accession +of King Richard II., we have journeyed far and wide, trudging from +the rock where Cimabue found the boy Giotto drawing his sheep's +likeness. The battleship of Turner has now brought us to the +mid-nineteenth century, a time within the memories of living men, and +still our journey is not ended. + +Hitherto we have been guided in our general preference for certain +artists and certain pictures by the concurring opinion of the best +judges of many successive generations. But while we are looking at +modern paintings, we cannot say, as some one did, that in our opinion, +'which is the correct one,' such and such a picture is worthy to rank +with Titian. The taste of one age is not the taste of another. Who +can surely pronounce the consensus of opinion to-day? Who can guess +if it will concur with that of future decades--of future centuries? +We can but hope that learning to see and enjoy the recognized +masterpieces of the past will teach us what to like best among the +masterpieces of the present. + +A great love of the Old Masters inspired the work of a group of young +artists, who, about the year 1850, banded themselves together into +a society which they called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The title +indicates their aim, which was to draw the inspiration of their art +from the fifteenth-century painters of Italy. The sweetness of feeling +in a picture such as Botticelli's 'Nativity,' the delicacy of +workmanship and beautiful painting of detail in Antonello's 'St. +Jerome' and other pictures of that date, had an irresistible +fascination for them. They fancied and felt that these artists had +attained to the highest of which art was capable, so that the best +could only again be produced by a faithful study of their methods. +The aims of the Brotherhood were not imitation of the artists but of +the methods of the past. They held that every painted object, and every +painted figure should be as true as it could be made to the object +as it actually existed, rather than to the effect produced upon the +eye, seeing it in conjunction with other objects. + +These men heralded a widespread medieval revival, but all the study +in the world could not make them paint like born artists of the +fifteenth century. Yet there are those who think that much of the spirit +of beauty, which had dwelt in the soul of Botticelli and his +contemporaries, was born again in Rossetti and Burne-Jones. Their +feeling for beauty of form and purity of colour, and their aloofness +from the modern world, impart to their work an atmosphere that may +remind us of the fifteenth century, though the fifteenth century could +never have produced it. + +Rossetti and Burne-Jones, indeed, never formally joined the +Brotherhood, though they were influenced by its ideals and pursued +the same strict fidelity to nature in all the accessories of a picture. +Millais and Holman Hunt, original members of the Brotherhood, painted +men and women of the mid-Victorian epoch with every detail of their +peaked bonnets and plaid shawls, and were comparatively indifferent +to beauty of form and face. But Rossetti and Burne-Jones created a +type of ideal beauty which they employed on their canvases with +persistent repetition. Burne-Jones founded his type upon the angels +of Botticelli, and his drapery is like that of the ring of dancers +in the sky in our picture of the 'Nativity.' You are probably familiar +with some of his pictures and perhaps have felt the spell of his pure +gem-like colouring and pale, haunting faces. It was the people of their +minds' eye who sat beside their easels. Rossetti lived and worked in +the romantic mood of a Giorgione, but instead of expressing the +atmosphere of his fairy city of Venice, he created one as far as +possible removed from his own mid-Victorian surroundings. His +imaginary world was peopled by women with pale faces and luxuriant +auburn hair, pondering upon the mysteries of the universe. Like +Rossetti's 'Blessed Damozel,' they look out from the gold bar of heaven +with eyes from which the wonder is not yet gone. + +One of the best Pre-Raphaelite landscapes is the 'Strayed Sheep' of +Holman Hunt. The sheep are wandering over a grass hillside of the +vividest green, shot with spring flowers, and every sheep is painted +with the detail of the central sheep in Hubert van Eyck's 'Adoration +of the Lamb.' The colouring is almost as bright and jewel-like as that +of the fifteenth-century painters, for one of the theories of the +Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was that grass should be painted as green +as the single blade--not the colour of the whole field seen immersed +in light and atmosphere, which can make green grass seem gray or even +blue. + +In Brett's 'Val d'Aosta,' another Pre-Raphaelite landscape, we look +from a hill upon a great expanse of valley with mountains rising behind. +Every field of corn and every grassy meadow is outlined as clearly +as it would be upon a map. Every stick can be counted in the fences +between the fields and every tree in the hedge-rows. When we look at +the picture we involuntarily wander over the face of the country. There +is no taking in the view at a glance; we must walk through every field +and along every path. + +After seeing these Pre-Raphaelite landscapes, let us imagine ourselves +straightway turning to one of the numerous scenes by Whistler of the +Thames at twilight, with its glimmering lights and ghostly shapes of +bridges and hulks of steamers. Nothing is outlined, nothing is clearly +defined, but the mystery of London's river is caught and pictured for +ever. Let us look, too, at his 'Valparaiso,' bathed in a brilliant +South American sunshine, where all is pearly and radiant with southern +light. Even here the impression is not given by the power of the sun +revealing every detail. There are few touches, but like Velasquez, +he has made every touch tell. + +As the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood kindled their inspiration by the +vision of the fifteenth-century painters of Italy, so Whistler and +many other modern artists have turned to Velasquez for guidance. Till +the last half of the last century his name had been almost forgotten +outside Spain. Now, among the modern 'impressionists' so-called, he +is perhaps more studied than any other painter. When we were looking +at the pictures of this great man, we saw how he and Rembrandt were +among the earliest to learn the value of subordinating detail in the +parts to the better general effect of the whole, so as to present no +more than the eye could grasp in a comprehensive glance. Every tree +and stick in Brett's 'Val d'Aosta' is truthfully painted, but the +picture as a whole does not give the spectator the impression of truth, +for the simple reason that the eye can never see at once what Brett +has tried to make it see. All the wonderfully veracious detail in the +work of the Pre-Raphaelite does not give the impression of life. Men +like Holman Hunt, on the one hand, and on the other hand Whistler, +living and working at the same time, exhibiting their works in the +same galleries, differ even more in their ideals than Velasquez +differed from the fifteenth-century painters of Italy. + +Facts such as these make the study of modern art difficult. Before +the nineteenth century, pictures of the same date in the same country +were painted in approximately the same style. But during the last fifty +years many styles have reigned together. At one and the same time +painters have been inspired by the Greek and Roman sculptors, by +Botticelli, Mantegna, Titian, Tintoret, Velasquez, Rembrandt, +Reynolds, and Turner, and the work of each is, notwithstanding, +unmistakably nineteenth century, and could never have been produced +at any other date. Every artist finds a problem of his own to solve, +and attacks it in his own way. When Whistler painted a portrait he +endeavoured to express character in the general aspect of the figure, +rather than in the face. The picture of his mother is a wonderful +expression of the sweetness and peace of old age, given by the severe +lines of her black dress and the simplicity and nobility of her pose. + +The great painter Watts, who by the face chiefly sought to express +the man, never painted a full-length figure portrait. His long life, +covering nearly the whole of the century, enabled him to portray many +of the foremost men of the age--statesmen, poets, musicians, and men +of letters. In his portrait gallery their fine spirits still meet one +another face to face. But his portraits, in and through likenesses +of the men, are made to express the essence of that particular art +of which the man was a spokesman. In his portrait of Tennyson, the +bard with his laurel wreath is less Tennyson the man, if one may say +so, than Tennyson the poet. The picture might be called 'poetry,' as +that of Joachim could be called 'music,' for the violinist with his +dreamy beautiful face, playing his heart out, looks the soul of music's +self. + +Watts was never a Pre-Raphaelite, clothing anew his dreams of medieval +beauty; nor a seeker after the glories of Greece and Rome, like Leighton +and Alma Tadema; nor a student of the instant's impression, like +Whistler. To penetrate beneath the seen to the unseen was the aim of +his art. He wrestled to express thoughts in paint that seem +inexpressible. When we go to the Tate Gallery in London, to the room +filled with most precious works of Watts, we feel almost overawed by +the loftiness of his ideas, though they may seem to strain the last +resources of the painter's art. One of them is a picture of 'Chaos' +before the creation of the world. Half-formed men and women struggle +from the earth to force themselves into life, as the half-wrought +statues of Michelangelo from the marble that confines them. Near by +is a picture of the 'All-pervading,' the spirit of good that penetrates +the world, symbolized as a woman gazing long into a globe held upon +her knee. Opposite is the 'Dweller in the Innermost,' with deep, +unsearchable eyes. These are pictures that constrain thought rather +than charm the eye. When the thought is less obscure, it is better +suited to pictorial utterance, and Watts sometimes painted pictures +as simple as these are difficult. + +There is nothing obscure in our frontispiece picture of 'Red +Ridinghood.' It sets before us a child's version and vision of a child's +fable that is imperishable, and as such makes an immediate appeal to +the eye. She is not acting a part or posing as a princess, but is simply +a cowering little girl, frightened at the wolf and eager to protect +her basket. In her freshness and simplicity, a cottage maiden with +anxious blue eyes, most innocent and childish of children, she need +not shun proximity to Richard II., Edward VI., William of Orange, Don +Balthazar Carlos, and the Duke of Gloucester. + +And thus we conclude our procession of royal children with a child +of the people. Beginning with Richard II., a portrait of a king rather +than a child, we end with a picture in which childhood merely, without +the gift of distinction or the glamour of royalty, suffices to charm +a great painter's eye and inspire his thought. With the sweetness and +grace of modern childhood filling our eyes, may we not well close this +children's book? + + + + +INDEX + + +'Adoration of the Lamb,' 56-59 + +Adoration of the Magi, treatment of, 33 + +'Age of Innocence,' 171 + +_Alice in Wonderland_, 2 + +'All-pervading,' the, 196 + +Animals, painting of, 142 + +Antonello of Messina, 67-69 + +Art, definition of, 4 + +Atmosphere, 10 + treatment of by Dutch School, 139, 140 + by Holbein, 139 + by Velasquez, 156 + + +Beauneveu, Andre, of Valenciennes, 43 + +Bellini, Giovanni, 98, 102 + +Black Death, influence of, 41 + +Botticelli, 70-77, 145 + influence of, on Burne-Jones, 191 + +Brett's 'Val d'Aosta,' 192 _et seq._ + +Burne-Jones, 190 _et seq._ + +Byzantium, influence of, 19 + Turkish conquest of, 20 + + +'Chaos,' 196 + +Charles I. employs Rubens, 143 + employs Van Dyck, 147 + painted by Velasquez, 157 + +Charles II., 131 + +Charles V., King of France, 40 + +Charles V., Emperor, 153 + +Chillon, Castle of, 11 + +Churches, medieval grandeur of, 14 + +Cimabue, Vasari's account of, 24 + picture in National Gallery, 25 + picture in Santa Maria Novella, 25 + training of Giotto, 27 + +Civilization, definition of, 9 + +Claude Lorraine, 181-183 + +Constable, 180 + +Correggio, 91 + +Crome, Old, 178 + +Cuyp, 138-142, 180 + + +'Dido building Carthage,' 182 + +Don Balthazar Carlos, 154 _et seq._, 160 _et seq._ + +Douglas, Lady Alfred, 75 + +Dragons, fear of, 12 + +Duke of Gloucester, 170-171 + +Durer, 106-107 + compared with Holbein, 113 + +Dutch expansion in the seventeenth century, 117 + +'Dweller in the Innermost,' 196 + + +Edward the Confessor, story of, 32 + +Edward Prince of Wales, 111-115 + +Eighteenth century, artificiality of, 168 + +Erasmus, 109-110 + portrait of, 114 + +Etching, process of, 127 + + +Fighting _Temeraire_, 176 _et seq._ + +Francis of Assisi, life of, 17, 21 + +Franciscans, foundation of the order of, 22 + +'Fresco' painting, 39 + + +Gainsborough, 173 _et seq._ + +Garden of Eden, 95 + +Giorgione, 94-98, 140 + +Giotto, 27, 28, 35, 50 + +'Golden Age,' 95-98, 142 + +Goldsmith, 174 + +Greeks, influence of, 10, 65 + + +Henrietta Maria, 149 + +Henry VIII., 109 _et seq._ + employs Holbein, 110 + portrait of, 114 + +Hobbema, 141, 178 + +Hogarth, 166 _et seq._ + +Holbein, 102-115, 139, 151 + 'Erasmus' in collection of Charles I., 147 + +Holman Hunt, 190, 191 + +Horne, Herbert P., 74 + +Hubert van Eyck, 46 _et seq._, 140 + +Hulin, Dr., 49 + + +Il Penseroso, 83 + +Impressionism, beginning of, 162 + +Infanta Marguerita, 161 _et seq._ + + +James II., 149 + +Jerusalem Chamber, 18 + view of, taken in 1486, 49 + +Joachim, portrait of, 195 + +John, Duke of Berry, 40, 42, 53 + +John, King of France, 40 + +John van Eyck, 60 + compared with Durer, 107 + +Josse Vyt, 58 + +Julius II., Pope, 88 + + +'Knight's Dream,' 78, 82-86 + + +L'Allegro, 83 + +Landscape painting, beginning of, 50 + +Lely, Sir Peter, 131 + +Leonardo da Vinci, 80-81, 89-90, 110 + compared with Durer, 107 + +'Les Meninas,' 162 + +Liber Studiorum, 183 + +Louis, Duke of Anjou, 40 + +Luini, Bernardino, 90-91 + + +'Madonna of the Rocks,' 90 + +'Man in Armour,' 126-127 + +Mantegna, 69, 70, 102 + 'Triumphs of Caesar,' 148 + +Maria Theresa, 163 + +Marie de Medicis, 143 + +Mary Stuart, 149-150 + +Medieval detail, 37 + coronation, solemnity of, 34 + guilds, 44 + +Michelangelo, 80 + influence on Reynolds, 169, 172 + influence on Tintoret, 99 + +Millais, 190 + +Milton, 83 + +More, Sir Thomas, 109, 110 + +Mosque of Omar, 49 + + +Newbolt, Henry, 187 + +'Night Watch,' Rembrandt's, 123-124 + +'Norham Castle,' 183 + +'Norwich School,' 178 + + +'Pallas Athene,' 127 + +Perspective, 66 + absence of, 55 + Hubert's improvement in, 55 + mastery of, in Renaissance, 67 + +Perugino, 79 + +Peter de Hoogh, 133-136 + +Philip IV., 154, 155 + +Philip the Bold, 40, 41 + +Philip the Good, 52 + +Photographs and pictures, the difference between them, 4 + +Portraiture, in the fifteenth century, growth of, 60 + +Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, 189 _et seq._ + + +'Rain, Steam, and Speed,' 184 + +Raphael, 78-89, 140 + cartoons, in collection of Charles I., 147 + comparison with Giorgione, 94, 97 + influence on Velasquez, 159 + +'Red Ridinghood,' 197 + +Reformation, effect of on art, 108 + +Rembrandt, 118-132, 135 + 'Anatomy,' 122, 157 + compared with Peter de Hoogh, 134 + compared with Van Dyck, 151 + compared with Velasquez, 156 + landscapes of, 139 + Syndics, 130 + +Revelations, 57, 74 + +Revival of learning, 65 + +Reynolds, 169-175 + +Richard II., portrait of, 29 _et seq._ + diptych, 47, 50, 139, 197 + diptych in collection of Charles I., 147 + +Roger van der Weyden, 61 + +Rome, influence on Turner, 181 + +Rossetti, 190 _et seq._ + +Royal Academy, 174 + +Rubens, 138, 143-145 + friendship with Velasquez, 157 + on Charles I., 147 + +Ruysdael, 141 + + +Santi, Giovanni, 79 + +St. Catherine, Raphael's, 85 + burial of, 90 + +St. Catherine of Siena, 17 + +St. Edmund, 33 + +St. Francis of Assisi, 17, 21 + preaching to the birds, 4, 23, 50 + +St. George slaying the dragon, 100-102 + +St. Jerome's cell, 6, 63-69 + lion of, 142 + +St. Matthew, 46 + +Saskia, 121, 122 _et seq._ + +Savonarola, 73-76 + +Sistine Madonna, 85 + +Spain, greatness of, in sixteenth century, 153 + +Stained-glass windows, influence of in the fourteenth century, 36 + +Steen, Jan, 137, 167 + +'Strayed Sheep,' 191 + +'Surrender of Breda,' 159 + + +Tenniel, 2 + +Tennyson, portrait of, 195 + +Terborch, 137 + +'Three Maries,' 46-59 + compared with Botticelli's 'Nativity,' 77 + compared with Raphael's 'Knight's Dream,' 85 + treatment of atmosphere in, 140 + +Timoteo Viti, 82 + +Tintoret, 99-102 + influence on Velasquez, 159 + +Titian, 98, 99, 140, 159 + +Turner, 176-187 + sunsets of, 9 + + +'Ulysses deriding Polyphemus,' 184 + +Umbrian landscape, beauty of, 79 + + +'Valparaiso,' 193 + +Van Dyck, 145-152 + compared with Reynolds, 170 _et seq._ + comparison with Velasquez, 161 + +Van Eyck's influence in Germany, 105 + +Vasari, 23, 25 + +Velasquez, 153-164 + compared with Reynolds, 169 + influence of, 193 + +Venice, influence on Turner, 180, 185 + influence of on Venetian artists, 93 _et seq._ + +Veronese, 102 + + +Watts, 195-197 + +Whistler, 192 _et seq._, 193 + +William the Silent, 116, 146 + +William II. of Orange, 146-152 + +William III., 146 + +Wood-cutting, process of, 127 + +Wool industry, importance of, 41 + + + + +THE END + + + + +_Printed in Great Britain_ by R & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_. + + + + +_UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME_ + + +_EACH_ 5s. _NET_ + +AESOP'S FABLES +ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES +ARABIAN NIGHTS +BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS +GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES +SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON +TALES FROM "THE EARTHLY PARADISE" +JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN +COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO +UNCLE TOM'S CABIN +BOOK OF CELTIC STORIES +BOOK OF EDINBURGH +MR. MIDSHIPMAN EASY +BOOK OF LONDON +BOOK OF THE RAILWAY + + +_EACH_ 6s. _NET_ + +TALES OF ENGLISH CASTLES AND MANORS +TALES OF THE COVENANTERS +SCOTT'S TALES OF A GRANDFATHER (ABRIDGED) +THE BOOK OF SCOTLAND +THE BOOK OF STARS +WITH COMMODORE ANSON + + +A. & C. BLACK, LTD., 4, 5, & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.1 + +_New York_ +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + +_Melbourne_ +THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS + +_Cape Town_ +THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS + +_Toronto_ +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA + +_Bombay Calcutta Madras_ +MACMILLAN AND COMPANY, LTD. + + + + +HOW TO ENJOY PICTURES + +By J. LITTLEJOHNS, R.I., R.B.A., R.C.A., R.B.C., R.W.A. + +With 8 full-page illustrations in colour, one in black and white, and +43 constructional drawings in the text. + +_Small Crown 4to._ 6/- net (_By post, 6/6_) + +Mr. Littlejohns explains very simply and pleasantly a method of +approach to pictures intended for those who have no knowledge of them +and no trained sensibility.[1] The book deals simply and briefly with +many of the considerations involved in composing a picture, and gives +an analysis, illustrated by diagrams, of nine well-known masterpieces. +The author does his work very well, and no one who reads carefully +what he says and carries out his instructions can fail to find added +interest if not also keener enjoyment in the contemplation of +pictures.[2] + +Mr. Littlejohns writes, not only with the artist's intuition, but with +the clearness and simplicity derived from his experiences as a teacher +of children.[3] The colour reproductions are excellent and could not +be bought separately for the price of the whole book.[4] + +[Footnote 1: _The Times Literary Supplement_.] + +[Footnote 2: _Scottish Educational Journal_.] + +[Footnote 3: _The Church Times_.] + +[Footnote 4: _Monthly Notes of the National Society of Art Masters_.] + + + + +BLACK'S DICTIONARY OF PICTURES +A GUIDE TO THE BEST WORK OF THE BEST PAINTERS + +EDITED BY RANDALL DAVIES + +_Demy 8vo._ 3/6 net (_By post, 4/-_) + +This book contains descriptive accounts, with full and accurate +particulars, of nearly 1000 of the most important pictures in public +galleries in this country and on the Continent. They have been selected +out of the immense number of exhibited works as being those which, +in view of the opinions of the best critics, or in some cases by popular +suffrage, are such as practically everybody who cares about pictures +ought, or would like, to know something about. + +A. & C. BLACK, LTD., 4, 5 AND 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.1 + + + + +REPRODUCTIONS OF GREAT MASTERS +FACSIMILE REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR OF THE ORIGINALS + +Large Mounted Prints, Series 1-46. Average size of printed surface, +17-1/2 x 14-1/2 ins. Each 10/- net, mounted; in black frame, unglazed, +but with picture varnished, price 17/6 net each; in narrow antique +gold frame, price 21/- net each; or in ducat gold frame, price 25/- +net each. + + 1. The Age of Innocence _Reynolds_ + 2. William II., Prince of Orange-Nassau _Van Dyck_ + 3. Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante _Romney_ + 4. The Laughing Cavalier _Franz Hals_ + 5. Study of Grief _Greuze_ + 6. Portrait of Mrs. Siddons _Gainsborough_ + 7. Nelly O'Brien _Reynolds_ + 8. Portrait of the Doge Leonardo Loredano _Bellini_ + 9. Portrait of an old Lady _Rembrandt_ +10. The Virgin and Child _Botticelli_ +11. The Hay Wain _Constable_ +12. Madame Le Brun and Her Daughter _Le Brun_ +13. The Broken Pitcher _Greuze_ +14. The Parson's Daughter _Romney_ +15. The Milkmaid _Greuze_ +16. Portrait of Miss Bowles _Reynolds_ +17. La Gioconda _Leonardo da Vinci_ +18. Ulysses deriding Polyphemus _Turner_ +19. Chapeau de Paille _Rubens_ +20. Portrait of Mrs. Siddons _Sir T. Lawrence_ +21. Head of a Girl _Greuze_ +22. The San Sisto Madonna _Raphael_ +23. The Dead Bird _Greuze_ +24. Princess Margarita Marla _Velasquez_ +25. The Tribute Money _Titian_ +26. Sir Walter Scott _Raeburn_ +27. Robert Burns _Nasmyth_ +28. The Swing _Fragonard_ +29. Inside of a Stable _George Morland_ +30. Head of a Girl _Rembrandt_ +31. Embarking for Cythera _Watteau_ +32. Anne of Cleves _Holbein_ +33. The Avenue, Middleharnis, Holland _Hobbema_ +34. Interior of a Dutch House _Peter de Hoogh_ +35. Charles I. _Van Dyck_ +36. St. John the Baptist _Leonardo da Vinci_ +37. A Young Man _Raphael_ +38. A Party in a Park _Watteau_ +39. His Majesty King George V. _H. de T. Glazebrook_ +40. The Surrender of Breda _Velasquez_ +41. Prince Balthasar Carlos _Velasquez_ +42. The Maids of Honour _Velasquez_ +43. The Tapestry Weavers _Velasquez_ +44. The Topers _Velasquez_ +45. The Immaculate Conception _Murillo_ +46. The Blue Boy _Gainsborough_ + +_A complete list of the Large and Small Series will be sent post free +on application to the Publishers._ + + + + +ELEMENTARY WATER-COLOUR PAINTING + +By J. HULLAH BROWN + +Second edition, containing an outline drawing and six full-page +illustrations in colour, including guides for gradations of colour, +colour washes, mixing of colour, etc. + +_Demy 8vo._ PRICE 2/6 NET _Quarter Canvas_ + +PRESS OPINIONS + +"An attractive and well-illustrated little book, which will help to +initiate members of sketching classes into methods of getting +effects."--_Times Educational Supplement_. + +"An accurate little brochure ... well illustrated in colour, and +containing sound instructions as to the mixing and putting on of +water-colours. It would really be of service to anyone _not too +youthful_ who was out of the way of obtaining personal instruction +In the matter."--_The Educational Times_. + + + + +A. & C. 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