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diff --git a/40474-8.txt b/40474-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index b464c4f..0000000 --- a/40474-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8366 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The life and writings of Henry Fuseli, -Volume III (of 3), by Henry Fuseli and John Knowles - -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 life and writings of Henry Fuseli, Volume III (of 3) - -Author: Henry Fuseli - John Knowles - -Release Date: August 10, 2012 [EBook #40474] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE, WRITINGS, HENRY FUSELI, VOL 3 *** - - - - -Produced by Margo von Romberg, Karl Eichwalder and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - - - - - - - - - THE LIFE - - AND - - WRITINGS - - OF - - HENRY FUSELI, ESQ. M.A. R.A. - - KEEPER, AND PROFESSOR OF PAINTING TO THE - ROYAL ACADEMY IN LONDON; MEMBER OF THE FIRST CLASS - OF THE ACADEMY OF ST. LUKE AT ROME. - - THE FORMER WRITTEN, AND THE LATTER EDITED BY - - JOHN KNOWLES, F.R.S. - - CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY AT ROTTERDAM, - - HIS EXECUTOR. - - "Animo vidit, ingenio complexus est, eloquentiâ illuminavit." - _Velleius Paterculus in Ciceronem._ - - IN THREE VOLUMES. - - VOL. III. - - LONDON: - HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY, - NEW BURLINGTON STREET. - MDCCCXXXI. - - - - - LONDON: - PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY, - Dorset Street, Fleet Street. - - - - - CONTENTS OF THE THIRD VOLUME. - - LECTURES. - - XI. On the prevailing Method of treating - the History of Painting, with Observations - on the Picture of Lionardo da - Vinci of "The Last Supper" Page 1 - - XII. On the Present State of the Art, and the - Causes which check its Progress 39 - - - APHORISMS, - Chiefly relative to the Fine Arts 61 - - - A HISTORY OF ART IN THE SCHOOLS OF ITALY. - - The Tuscan School 153 - - The School of Florence 193 - - The School of Siena 231 - - The Roman School 242 - - The School of Naples 279 - - The School of Venice 334 - - The School of Mantoua 361 - - The School of Bologna 399 - - - - - ELEVENTH LECTURE. - - ON THE PREVAILING METHOD OF TREATING THE HISTORY OF PAINTING, - WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE PICTURE OF LIONARDO DA VINCI OF - "THE LAST SUPPER." - - - - -ELEVENTH LECTURE. - - -In this Lecture I shall submit to your consideration some criticisms on -the prevailing method of treating the History of our Art; attended by a -series of observations on the magnificent picture of the Last Supper, by -Lionardo da Vinci, now before you. - -History, mindless of its real object, sinking to Biography, has been -swelled into a diffuse catalogue of individuals, who, tutored by -different schools, or picking something from the real establishers of -Art, have done little more than repeat, or imitate through the medium of -either, what those had found in Nature, discriminated, selected, and -applied to Art, according to her dictates. Without wishing to depreciate -the merit of that multitude who felt, proved themselves strong enough, -and strenuously employed life to follow, it must be pronounced below -the historian's dignity to allow them more than a transitory glance. -Neither originality, nor selection and combination of materials -scattered over the various classes of Art by others, have much right to -attention from him who only investigates the real progress of Art, if -the first proves to have added nothing essential to the system by -novelty, and the second to have only diluted energy, and by a popular -amalgama to have pleased the vulgar. Novelty, without enlarging the -circle of knowledge, may delight or strike, but is nearer allied to whim -than to invention; and an eclectic system, without equality of parts, as -it originated in want of comprehension, totters on the brink of -mediocrity. - -The first ideas of Expression, Character, Form, Chiaroscuro, and Colour, -originated in Tuscany: Masaccio, Lionardo da Vinci, M. Agnolo, -Bartolomeo della Porta. The first was carried off before he could give -more than hints of dramatic composition; the second appears to have -established character on physiognomy, and to have seen the first vision -of chiaroscuro, though he did not penetrate the full extent of its -charm; the third had power, knowledge, and life sufficiently great, -extensive, and long, to have fixed style on its basis, had not an -irresistible bias drawn off his attention from the modesty and variety -of Nature; Baccio gave amplitude to drapery, and colour to form. - -Of the Tuscan School that succeeded these, the main body not only added -nothing to their discoveries, but, if their blind attachment to the -singularities rather than the beauties of the third be excepted, equally -inattentive to expression, character, propriety of form, the charms of -chiaroscuro, and energies of colour, contented themselves to give to -tame or puerile ideas, obvious and common-place conceptions, a kind of -importance by mastery of execution and a bold but monotonous and always -mannered outline; and though Andrea del Sarto, with Francia Bigio, -Giacopo da Pontormo, and Rosso, may be allowed to have thought sometimes -for themselves and struck out paths of their own, will it be asserted -that they enlarged or even filled the circle traced out before? The most -characteristic work of Andrea's original powers, is, no doubt, the -historic series in S. Giovanni dei Scalzi; yet, when compared with the -patriarchal simplicity of the groups in the Lunette of the Sistine -Chapel, the _naïveté_ of his characters and imagery will be found too -much tainted with contemporary, local, and domestic features, for -Divine, Apostolic, and Oriental agents. His drapery, whenever he escapes -from the costume of the day, combines with singular felicity the breadth -of the _Frati_, and the acute angles of Albert Durer; but neither its -amplitude, nor the solemn repose and tranquillity of his scenery, can -supply the want of personal dignity, or consecrate vulgar forms and -trivial features. - -The Roman school like an Oriental sun rose, not announced by dawn, and, -setting, left no twilight. Raffaello established his school on the -Drama; its scenery, its expression, its forms; History, Lyrics, -Portrait, became under his hand the organs of passion and character. -With his demise the purity of this principle vanished. Julio Romano, too -original to adopt, formed a school of his own at Mantoua, which, as it -was founded on no characteristic principle, added nothing to Art, and -did not long survive its founder. Polydoro Caldara was more ambitious to -emulate the forms of the antique than to propagate the style of his -master, which was not comprehended by Penny, called Il Fattore, mangled -by Perrino del Vaga, became common-place in the hands of the Zuccari, -barbarous manner during the usurpation of Giuseppe Cesari, sunk to -tameness in the timid imitation of Sacchi and Maratta, and expired under -the frigid method of Mengs. - -A certain national, though original character, marks the brightest epoch -of the Venetian School. However deviating from each other, Tiziano, -Tintoretto, Jacopo da Ponte, and Paolo Veronese, acknowledge but one -element of imitation, Nature herself: this principle each bequeathed to -his school, and no attempt to adulterate its simplicity by uniting -different methods, distinguishes their immediate successors: hence they -preserved features of originality longer than the surrounding schools, -whom the vain wish to connect incompatible excellence, soon degraded to -mediocrity, and from that plunged to insignificance. - -If what is finite could grasp infinity, the variety of Nature might be -united by individual energy; till then the attempt to amalgamate her -scattered beauties by the imbecility of Art, will prove abortive. -Genius is the pupil of Nature; perceives, is dazzled, and imperfectly -transmits one of her features: thus saw M. Agnolo, Raffaello, Tiziano, -Correggio; and such were their technic legacies, as inseparable from -their attendant flaws, as in equal degrees irreconcilable. That Nature -is not subject to decrepitude, is proved by the superiority of modern -over ancient science; what hinders modern Art to equal that of classic -eras, is the effect of irremovable causes. - -But I hasten to the principal object of this Lecture, the consideration -of the technic character of Lionardo da Vinci, one, and in my opinion -the first of the great restorers of modern Art, as deduced from his most -important work, the Last Supper, surviving as a whole in the magnificent -copy of Marco Uggione, rescued from a random pilgrimage by the courage -and vigilance of our President, and by the Academy made our own. The -original of this work, the ultimate test of his most vigorous powers, -the proof of his theory, and what may be called with propriety the first -characteristic composition since the revival of the Art, was the -principal ornament of the Refectory in the Dominican Convent of S. -Maria delle Gratie, at Milan. - -Let us begin with the centre, the seat of the principal figure, from -which all the rest emanate like rays. Sublimely calm, the face of the -Saviour broods over the immense, whilst every face and every limb around -him, roused by his mysterious word, fluctuate in restless curiosity and -sympathetic pangs. - -The face of the Saviour is an abyss of thought, and broods over the -immense revolution in the economy of mankind, which throngs inwardly on -his absorbed eye--as the spirit creative in the beginning over the -water's darksome wave--undisturbed and quiet. It could not be lost in -the copy before us: how could its sublime conception escape those who -saw the original? It has survived the hand of Time in the study which -Lionardo made in crayons, exhibited with most of the attendant heads in -the British Gallery; and even in the feebler transcript of Del Testa. - -I am not afraid of being under the necessity of retracting what I am -going to advance, that neither during the splendid period immediately -subsequent to Lionardo, nor in those which succeeded to our own time, -has a face of the Redeemer been produced which, I will not say equalled, -but approached the sublimity of Lionardo's conception, and in quiet and -simple features of humanity embodied divine, or, what is the same, -incomprehensible and infinite powers. To him who could contrive and give -this combination, the unlimited praise lavished on the inferior -characters who surround the hero, whilst his success in that was -doubted--appears to me not only no praise, but a gross injustice. - -Yet such was the judgment of Vasari, and in our days of Lanzi, both -founded on the pretended impossibility of transcribing the beauty of -forms and the varied energies of expression distributed by the artist -among the disciples. "The moment," says Lanzi, and says well, "is that -in which the Saviour says to the Disciples, "One of you will betray me!" -On every one of the innocent men the word acts like lightning: he who is -at a greater distance, distrusting his own ears, applies to his -neighbour; others, according to their variety of character, betray -raised emotions. One of them faints, one is fixed in astonishment; this -wildly rises, the simple candour of another tells that he cannot be -suspected: Judas, meanwhile, assumes a look of intrepidity, but, though -he counterfeits innocence, leaves no doubt of being the traitor. Vinci -used to tell, that for a year he wandered about, perplexed with the -thought how to embody in one face the image of so black a mind; and -frequenting a village which a variety of villains haunted, he met at -last, by the help of some associated features, with his man. Nor was his -success less conspicuous in furnishing both the Jameses with congenial -and characteristic beauty; but being unable to find an ideal superior to -theirs for Christ, he left the head, as Vasari affirms, imperfect, -though Arminine ascribes a high finish even to that." - -Thus is the modesty and diffidence of the artist, who, in the midst of -the most glorious success, always sought and wished for more, brought as -evidence against him by all his pretended judges and critics, if we -except the single Bottari, who finds in it, with the highest finish, all -the fortitude of mind characteristic of the Saviour, united to lively -consideration of the suffering that awaited him--though even that is, -in my opinion, below the conception of Lionardo. - -Lest those who have read and recollect the character of Lionardo which I -have submitted to the public, should, from the predilection with which I -have dwelt on what I think the principal feature of his performance, the -face and attitude of the hero, suspect I shift my ground, or charge me -with inconsistency, I repeat what I said then, when I was nearly -unacquainted with this work, that the distinguishing feature of his -powers lay in the delineation of character, which he often raised to a -species, and not seldom degraded to caricature. The triumphant proof of -both is the great performance before us; the same mind that could unite -divine power with the purest humanity, by an unaccountable dereliction, -not only of the dignity due to his subject, but of sound sense, thought -it not beneath him to haunt the recesses of deformity to unkennel a -villain. Did he confine villainy to deformity? If he had, he would have -disdained to give him two associates in feature; for the face of him who -holds up his finger, and his who argues on the left extremity of the -table, seem to have proceeded, if not absolutely from the same, from a -very similar mould, yet they are in the number of the elect, and, though -on the brink of caricature, have the air of good men. Expression alone -separates them from the traitor, whom incapacity of remorse, hatred, -rage at being discovered, and habitual meanness, seem to have divided -into equal shares. - -The portrait of Cesar Borgia, by Giorgione, now hung up for your study -in the Academy for Painting, proves that the most atrocious mind may -lurk under good, sedate, and even handsome features. Though his hand -were not drawing a dagger, who would expect mercy or remorse from the -evil methodized villainy of that eye? But Judas was capable of remorse; -intolerant of the dreadful suffering with which the horrid act had -overwhelmed him, he rushed on confession of his crime, restitution, and -suicide. - -To the countenance and attitude of St. John, blooming with youth, -innocent, resigned, partaking perhaps somewhat too much of the feminine, -and those of the two James's invigorated by the strength of virility, -energetic and bold, none will refuse a competent praise of varied -beauty; but they neither are nor ought to be ideal, and had they been -so, they could neither compete nor interfere with the sublimity that -crowns the Saviour's brow, and stamps his countenance with the God. - -The felicity, novelty, and propriety of Lionardo's conception and -invention, are powerfully seconded by every part of execution:--the tone -which veils and wraps actors and scene into one harmonious whole, and -gives it breadth; the style of design, grand without affectation, and, -if not delicate or ideal, characteristic of the actors; the draperies -folded with equal simplicity, elegance, and costume, with all the -propriety of presenting the highest finish, without anxiety of touch, or -thronging the eye. - -So artless is the assemblage of the figures, that the very name of -composition seems to degrade what appears arranged by Nature's own hand. -That the nearest by relation, characters and age, should be placed -nearest the master of the feast, and of course attract the eye soonest, -was surely the most natural arrangement; but if they are conspicuous, -they are not so at the expense of the rest: distance is compensated by -action; the centre leads to all, as all lead to the centre. That the -great restorer of light and shade sacrificed the effects and charms of -_chiaroscuro_ at the shrine of character, raised him at once above all -his future competitors; changes admiration to sympathy, and makes us -partners of the feast. - -As expression sprang from the subject, so it gave rise to competition. -That Raffaello was acquainted with Lionardo's work, and felt its power, -is evident from his composition, engraved by M. Antonio: finding -invention anticipated, he took refuge in imitation, and filled it with -sentiments of his own; whether, beyond the dignity of attitude, he -attempts to approach the profundity of Lionardo's Christ, cannot, from a -print of very moderate dimensions, be decided. In the listening figure -of Judas, with equal atrocity of guilt he appears to have combined -somewhat more of apostolic consequence. - -The well-known Last Supper of the Loggia, painted, or what is more -probable, superintended by Raffaello, is, by being made a night scene, -by contrast and chiaroscuro, become an original conception; but as it -presents little more than groups busy to arrange themselves for sitting -down or breaking up, it cannot excite more interest than what is due to -contrast and effect, and active groups eager to move yet not tumultuary. - -But if Lionardo disdained to consult the recesses of composition and the -charms of artificial chiaroscuro, he did not debase his work to mere -apposition: uniting the whole by tone, he gave it substance by truth of -imitation, and effect by the disposition of the characters; the groups -flanking each side of the Saviour, emerge, recede, and support each -other with a roundness, depth, and evidence which leave all attempts at -emendation or improvement hopeless. But why should I attempt to -enumerate beauties which are before you, and which if you do not -perceive yourselves, no words of mine can ever make you feel? - -The universality of Lionardo da Vinci is become proverbial: but though -possessed of every element, he rather gave glimpses than a standard of -form; though full of energy, he had not powers effectually to court the -various graces he pursued. His line was free from meagreness, and his -forms presented volume, but he appears not to have ever been much -acquainted, or to have sedulously sought much acquaintance, with the -Antique. Character was his favourite study, and character he has often -raised from an individual to a species, and as often depressed to -caricature. The strength of his execution lay in the delineation of male -heads; those of his females owe nearly all their charms to chiaroscuro, -of which he is the supposed inventor: they are seldom more discriminated -than the children they fondle; they are sisters of one family. The -extremities of his hands are often inelegant, though timorously drawn, -like those of Christ among the Doctors in the picture we lately saw -exhibited. Lionardo da Vinci touched in every muscle of his forms the -master-key of the passion he wished to express, but he is ideal only in -chiaroscuro. - -Such was the state of the Art before the appearance of M. Agnolo and -Raffaello, and the establishment of style. - -Of M. Agnolo it is difficult to decide who have understood less, his -encomiasts or his critics, though both rightly agree in dating from him -an epoch--those of the establishment, these of the subversion of Art. - -It is the lot of Genius to be opposed, and to be invigorated by -opposition. All extremes touch each other: frigid praise and frigid -censure wait on easily attainable or common powers: but the successful -adventurer in the realms of Discovery, in spite of the shrugs, checks, -and sneers of the timid, the malign, and the envious, leaps on an -unknown or long lost shore, ennobles it with his name, and grasps -immortality. - -M. Agnolo appeared, and soon discovered that works worthy of perpetuity -could neither be built on defective and unsubstantial forms, nor on the -transient whim of fashion and local sentiment; that their stamina were -the real stamina of Nature, the genuine feelings of humanity; and -planned for painting what Homer had planned for poetry, the epic part, -which, with the utmost simplicity of a whole, should unite magnificence -of plan and endless variety of subordinate parts. His line became -generic, but perhaps too uniformly grand: character and beauty were -admitted only as far as they could be made subservient to grandeur. The -child, the female, meanness, deformity, were by him indiscriminately -stamped with grandeur. A beggar rose from his hand the patriarch of -poverty; the hump of his dwarf is impressed with dignity; his women are -moulds of generation; his infants teem with the man; his men are a race -of giants. This is the "terribil via," this is that "magic circle," in -which we are told that none durst move but he. No, none but he who makes -sublimity of conception his element of form. M. Agnolo himself offers -the proof: for the lines that bear in a mass on his mighty tide of -thought in the Gods and Patriarchs and Sibyls of the Sistine Chapel, -already too ostentatiously show themselves in the Last Judgement, and -rather expose than support his ebbing powers in the Chapel of Paul. -Considered as a whole, the Crucifixion of St. Peter and the Conversion -of Paul, in that place, are the dotage of M. Agnolo's style; but they -have parts which make that dotage more enviable than the equal vigour of -mediocrity. - -With what an eye M. Agnolo contemplated the Antique, we may judge from -his Bacchus, the early production of his youth: in style it is at least -equal, perhaps in pulp and fleshiness superior, to what is called the -Antique Roman Style. His idea seems to have been the personification of -youthful inebriety, but it is the inebriety of a superior being, not yet -forsaken by grace, not yet relinquished by mind. In more advanced years, -the Torso of Apollonius became his standard of form. But the Dæmons of -Dante had too early tinctured his fancy to admit in their full majesty -the Gods of Homer and of Phidias. - -Such was the opinion formed of the plan and style of M. Agnolo by the -judges, the critics, the poets, the artists, the public, of his own and -the following age, from Bembo to Ariosto, from Raffaello to Tiziano, -down to Agostino and Annibale Carracci. Let us now compare it with the -technical verdict given by the greatest professional critic, on the -Continent, of our times. "M. Agnolo," says Mengs, "seeking always to be -grand, was perhaps only bulky, and by the perpetual use of a convex -line, over-spanned the forms and irrecoverably lost the line of Nature. -This charged style attended him in his youth, and engrossed him when a -man. For this reason his works will always be much inferior to the -antique of the good style; for though they made robust and muscular -figures, they never made them heavy:--an instance is the Hercules of -Glycon, who, though so bulky, and of form so majestic, is easily seen to -be swift like a stag, and elastic like a ball. The style of M. Agnolo -could not give similar ideas, for the joints of his figures are too -contracted, and seem only made for the posture into which he puts them. -The forms of his flesh are too round, his muscles of a mass and shape -always similar, which hides their springs of motion; nor do you ever see -in his works a muscle in repose, than which a greater fault Design knows -not. He perfectly knew what place each muscle ought to occupy, but never -gave its form. Nor did he understand the nature of tendons, as he made -them equally fleshy from end to end, and his bones too round. Raffaello -partook of all these defects, without ever reaching the profundity of -his muscular theory. Raffaello's strength lay in characterizing aged and -nervous frames; he was too hard for delicacy, and in figures of grandeur -an exaggerated copy of M. Agnolo." So far Mengs. - -M. Agnolo appears to have had no infancy; if he had, we are not acquainted -with it. His earliest works are equal in principle and compass of -execution to the vigorous proofs of his virility. Like an oriental sun, he -burst upon us at once, without a dawn. Raffaello Sanzio we see in his -cradle, we hear him stammer, but _propriety_ rocked the cradle, and -_character_ formed his lips. Even in the trammels of Pietro Perugino, dry -and servile in his style of design, he traced what was essential, and -separated it from what was accidental in his model. The works of Lionardo -da Vinci and the Cartoon of Pisa are said to have invigorated his eye, but -it was the Antique that completed the system which he had begun to -establish on Nature; from them he learned discrimination and choice of -forms. He found that in the construction of the body the articulations of -the bones were the true cause of ease and grace in the action of the -limbs, and that the knowledge of this was the reason of the superiority of -antique design. He found that certain features were fittest for certain -expressions and peculiar to certain characters; that such a head, such -hands, such feet, are the stamen or the growth of such a body, and on -physiognomy established homogeneousness. Of all artists he was the -greatest, the most precise, the most acute observer. When he designed, he -first attended to the primary intention and motive of his figure, next to -its general measure, then to the bones and their articulations; from them -to the principal muscles, or the muscles eminently wanted, and their -attendant nerves, and at last to the more or less essential minutiæ. But -the characteristic part of the subject is infallibly the characteristic -part of his design, if it be formed even by a few rapid or a single stroke -of his pen or pencil. The strokes themselves are characteristic, they -follow or indicate the texture or fibre of the part; flesh in their -rounding, nerves in straight, bones in angular touches. - -Such was the felicity and such the propriety of Raffaello when employed -in the dramatic evolutions of character,--both suffered when he -attempted to abstract the forms of sublimity or beauty. The painter of -humanity not often wielded with success superhuman weapons. His Gods -never rose above prophetic or patriarchial forms: if the finger of M. -Agnolo impressed the divine countenance oftener with sternness than awe, -the Gods of Raffaello are sometimes too affable and mild, like him who -speaks to Jacob in the ceiling of the Vatican; sometimes too violent, -like him who separates light from darkness in the Loggia: but though -made chiefly to walk with dignity on earth, he soared above it in the -mild effulgence and majestic rapture of Christ on Tabor, not indeed as -we see his face now from the repairs of the manufacturers in the Louvre, -and still more in the frown of the angelic countenance that withers all -the strength of the warrior Heliodorus. Of ideal female beauty, though -he himself, in his letter to Count Castiglione, tells us that from its -scarcity in life he made attempts to reach it by an idea formed in his -own mind, he certainly wanted that standard which guided him in -character. His Goddesses and mythologic females are no more than -aggravations of the generic forms of M. Agnolo. Roundness, mildness, -sanctimony, and insipidity, compose the features and air of his -Madonnas: transcripts of the nursery, or some favourite face. The -Madonna del Impanato, the Madonna Bella, the Madonna della Sedia, and -even the longer proportions and greater delicacy and dignity of the -Madonna formerly in the collection of Versailles, share more or less of -this insipidity: it chiefly arises from the high, smooth, roundish -forehead, the shaven vacuity between the arched semicircular eye-brows, -their elevation above the eyes, and the ungraceful division, growth and -scantiness of hair. This indeed might be the result of his desire not to -stain the virgin character of sanctity with the most distant hint of -coquetry or meretricious charms; for in his Magdalens, he throws it with -luxuriant profusion, and surrounds the breast and shoulders with -undulating waves and plaits of gold. The character of Mary Magdalen met -his,--it was the character of a passion. - -It is evident from every picture or design at every period of his art in -which she had a part, that he supposed her enamoured when she follows -the body of the Saviour to the tomb, or throws herself dishevelled over -his feet, or addresses him when he bears his cross. The cast of her -features, her forms, her action, are the character of love in agony. -When character inspired Raffaello, his women became definitions of grace -and pathos at once. - -Such is the exquisite line and turn of the averted half-kneeling female -with the two children among the spectators of Heliodorus. Her attitude, -the turn of her neck, supplies all face, and intimates more than he ever -expressed by features; and that she would not have gained by showing -them, may be guessed from her companion on the foreground, who, though -highly elegant and equally pathetic in her action, has not features -worthy of either. The fact is, form and style were by Raffaello -employed chiefly, if not always, as vehicles of character and pathos; -the Drama is his element, and to that he has adapted them in a mode and -with a propriety which leave all attempts at emendation hopeless: if -his lines have been excelled or rivalled in energy, correctness, -elegance,--considered as instruments of the passions, they have never -been equalled, and as parts of invention, composition and expression -relative to his story, have never been approached. - -The result of these observations on M. Agnolo and Raffaello is this, -that M. Agnolo drew in generic forms the human race; that Raffaello -drew the forms and characters of society diversified by artificial -wants. - -We find therefore M. Agnolo more sublime, and we sympathise more with -Raffaello, because he resembles us more. When Reynolds said that M. -Agnolo had more _imagination_, and Raffaello more _fancy_, he meant to -say, that the one had more sublimity, more elementary fire; the other -was richer in social imagery, in genial conceits, and artificial -variety. Simplicity is the stamen of M. Agnolo; varied propriety, with -character, that of Raffaello. - -Of the great restorers of Art, the two we have considered, made Design -and Style the basis of their plan, content with negative and unambitious -colour; the two next inverted the principle, and employed Design and -Style as vehicles of _colour_ or of _harmony_. - -The style of Tiziano's design has two periods: he began with copying -what was before him without choice, and for some time continued in the -meagre, anxious, and accidental manner of Giovanni Bellino; but -discovering in the works of Giorgione that breadth of form produced -breadth of colour, he endeavoured, and succeeded, to see Nature by -comparison, and in a more ample light. That he possessed the theory of -the human body, needs not to be proved from the doubtful designs which -he is said to have made for the anatomical work of Vesalio; that he had -familiarized himself with the style of M. Agnolo, and burned with -ambition to emulate it, is less evident from adopting some of his -attitudes in the pictures of Pietro Martyre and the Battle of -Ghiaradadda, than from the elemental conceptions, the colossal style, -and daring foreshortenings which astonish in the Cain and Abel, the -Abraham and Isaac, the Goliath and David, on the ceiling of the fabric -of St. Spirito at Venice. Here, and here alone, is the result of that -union of tone and style which, in Tintoretto's opinion, was required to -make a perfect painter,--for in general the male forms of Tiziano are -those of sanguine health, often too fleshy for character, less elastic -than muscular, or vigorous without grandeur. His females are the fair -dimpled Venetian race, soft without delicacy, too full for elegance, for -action too plump; his infants are poised between both, and preferable to -either. In portrait he has united character and resemblance with -dignity, and still remains unrivalled. - -A certain national character marks the brightest æra of the Venetian -school: however deviating from each other, Tiziano, Tintoretto, Bassan, -and Paolo, acknowledged but one element of imitation, Nature herself. -This principle each bequeathed to his followers; and no attempt to -adulterate its simplicity, by uniting different methods, distinguished -their immediate successors. Hence they preserved features of originality -longer than the surrounding schools, whom the vain wish to connect -incompatible excellence soon degraded to mediocrity, and from that -plunged to insignificance. - -The soft transitions from the convex to the concave line, which connect -grandeur with lightness, form the style of Correggio; but using their -coalition without balance, merely to obtain a breadth of demi-tint and -uninterrupted tones of harmony, he became, from excess of roundness, -oftener heavy than light, and frequently incorrect. - -It is not easy, from the unaccountable obscurity in which his life is -involved, to ascertain whether he saw the Antique in sufficient degrees -of quantity or beauty; but he certainly must have been familiar with -modelling, and the helps of sculpture, to plan with such boldness, and -conquer with such ease, the unparalleled difficulties of his -foreshortenings. His grace is oftener beholden to convenience of place -than elegance of line. The most appropriate, the most elegant attitudes -were adopted, rejected, perhaps sacrificed to the most awkward ones, in -compliance with his imperious principle: parts vanished, were absorbed, -or emerged in obedience to it. - -The Danaë, of which we have seen duplicates, the head excepted, he seems -to have painted from an antique female torso. But ideal beauty of face, -if ever he conceived, he never has expressed; his beauty is equally -remote from the idea of the Venus, the Niobe, and the best forms of -Nature. The Magdalen, in the picture of St. Girolamo of Parma, is -beholden for the charms of her face to chiaroscuro, and that -incomparable hue and suavity of bloom which scarcely permit us to -discover the defects of forms not much above the vulgar. But that he -sometimes reached the sublime, by hiding the limits of his figures in -the bland medium which inwraps them, his Jupiter and Io prove. - -Such were the principles on which the Tuscan, the Roman, the Venetian, -and the Lombard schools established their systems of style, or rather -the _manner_ which, in various directions and modes of application, -perverted style. M. Agnolo lived to see the electric shock which his -design had given to Art, propagated by the Tuscan and Venetian schools -as the ostentatious vehicle of puny conceits and emblematic quibbles, or -the palliative of empty pomp and degraded luxuriance of colour. - -Of his imitators, the two most eminent are Pellegrino Tibaldi, called -"M. Agnolo riformato" by the Bolognese Eclectics, and Francesco -Mazzuoli, called Parmegiano. - -Pellegrino Tibaldi penetrated the technic without the moral principle of -his master's style; he had often grandeur of line without sublimity of -conception; hence the _manner_ of M. Agnolo is frequently the _style_ of -Pellegrino Tibaldi. Conglobation and eccentricity, an aggregate of -convexities suddenly broken by rectangular, or cut by perpendicular -lines, compose his system. His fame principally rests on the Frescoes -of the Academic Institute at Bologna, and the Ceiling of the Merchants' -Hall at Ancona. It is probably on the strength of those, that the -Carracci, his countrymen, are said to have called him their "M. Agnolo -riformato,"--M. Agnolo corrected. I will not do that injustice to the -Carracci to suppose, that for one moment they could allude by this -verdict to the Ceiling and the Prophets and Sibyls of the Capella -Sistina; they glanced perhaps at the technic exuberance of the Last -Judgement, and the senile caprices of the Capella Paolina. These, they -meant to inform us, had been pruned, regulated, and reformed by -Pellegrino Tibaldi. Do his works in the Institute warrant this verdict? -So far from it, that it exhibits little more than the dotage of M. -Agnolo. The single figures, groups, and compositions of the Institute, -present a singular mixture of extraordinary vigour and puerile -imbecility of conception, of character and caricature, of style and -manner. - -The figure of Polypheme groping at the mouth of his cave for Ulysses, -and the composition of Æolus granting to Ulysses favourable winds, are -striking instances of both. Than the Cyclops, M. Agnolo himself never -conceived a form of savage energy, provoked by sufferings and revenge, -with attitude and limbs more in unison; whilst the God of Winds is -degraded to the scanty and ludicrous semblance of Thersites, and Ulysses -with his companions travestied by the semi-barbarous look and costume of -the age of Constantine or Attila. - -From Pellegrino Tibaldi, the Germans, Dutch, and Flemings, Hemskerk, -Goltzius, and Spranger, borrowed the compendium of the great Tuscan's -peculiarities, dropsied the forms of vigour, or dressed the gewgaws of -children in colossal shapes. - -Parmegiano poised his line between the grace of Correggio and the energy -of M. Agnolo, and from contrast produced Elegance; but instead of making -propriety her measure, degraded her to affectation. That disengaged play -of delicate forms, the "sueltezza" of the Italians, is the prerogative -of Parmegiano, though nearly always obtained at the expense of -proportion. He conceived the variety, but not the simplicity of beauty, -and drove contrast to extravagance. The figure of St. John, in the -altar-piece of St. Salvador at Città di Castello, now at the Marquis of -Abercorn's, and known from the print of Giulio Bonasone, which less -imitates than exaggerates its original in the Cartoon of Pisa, is one -proof among many: his action is the accident of his attitude; he is -conscious of his grandeur, and loses the fervour of the apostle in the -orator. - -So his celebrated Moses, if I see right, has in his forms less of -grandeur than agility, in his action more passion than majesty, and -loses the legislator in the savage. This figure, together with Raphael's -figure of God in the Vision of Ezekiel, is said to have furnished Gray -with some of the master-traits of his Bard,--figures than which Painting -cannot produce two more dissimilar: calm, placid contemplation, and the -decided burst of passion in coalition. - -Whilst M. Agnolo was doomed to live and brood over the perversion of -_his_ style, death prevented Raffaello from witnessing the gradual decay -of his. - -Such was the state of style, when, toward the decline of the sixteenth -century, Lodovico Carracci, with his cousins Agostino and Annibale, -founded at Bologna, on the hints caught from Pellegrino Tibaldi, that -Eclectic School which, by selecting the beauties, correcting the faults, -supplying the defects, and avoiding the extremes of the different -styles, attempted to form a perfect system. The specious ingredients of -this technic panacea have been preserved in a complimentary sonnet of -Agostino Carracci, and are compounded of the design and symmetry of -Raffaello, the terrible manner of M. Agnolo, the sovereign purity of -Correggio's style, Tiziano's truth and nature, Tintoretto's and Paolo's -vivacity and chiaroscuro, Lombardy's tone of colour, the learned -invention of Primaticcio, the decorum and solidity of Pellegrino -Tibaldi, and a little of Parmegiano's grace, all amalgamated by Niccolo -dell' Abbate. - -I shall not attempt a parody of this prescription by transferring it to -Poetry, and prescribing to the candidate for dramatic fame the imitation -of Shakspeare, Otway, Jonson, Milton, Dryden, Congreve, Racine, Addison, -as amalgamated by Nicholas Rowe. Let me only ask whether such a mixture -of demands ever entered with equal evidence the mind of any one artist, -ancient or modern; whether, if it be granted possible that they did, -they were ever balanced with equal impartiality; and grant this, whether -they ever were or could be executed with equal felicity? A character of -equal universal power is not a human character; and the nearest approach -to perfection can only be in carrying to excellence one great quality -with the least alloy of collateral defects: to attempt more will -probably end in the extinction of character, and that, in -mediocrity--the cypher of Art. - -And were the Carracci such? Separate the precept from the practice, the -artist from the teacher, and the Carracci are in possession of my -submissive homage. Lodovico is the inventor of that solemn hue, that -sober twilight, which you have heard so often recommended as the proper -tone of historic colour. Agostino, with learning, taste, and form, -combined Corregiesque tints. Annibale, inferior to both in sensibility -and taste, in the wide range of talent, undaunted execution and academic -prowess, left either far behind. But if he preserved the breadth of the -style we speak of, he added nothing to its dignity; his pupils were -inferior to _him_, and to his pupils, their successors. _Style_ -continued to linger, with fatal symptoms of decay, in Italy; and if it -survives, has not yet found a place to re-establish its powers on this -side of the Alps. - - - - -TWELFTH LECTURE. - -ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE ART, AND THE CAUSES WHICH CHECK ITS PROGRESS. - - - - -TWELFTH LECTURE. - - -Such is the influence of the plastic Arts on society, on manners, -sentiments, the commodities and the ornaments of life, that we think -ourselves generally entitled to form our estimate of times and nations -by its standard. As our homage attends those whose patronage reared them -to a state of efflorescence or maturity, so we pass with neglect, or -pursue with contempt, the age or race which want of culture or of -opportunity averted from developing symptoms of a similar attachment. - -A genuine perception of Beauty is the highest degree of education, the -ultimate polish of man; the master-key of the mind, it makes us better -than we were before. Elevated or charmed by the contemplation of -superior works of Art, our mind passes from the images themselves to -their authors, and from them to the race which reared the powers that -furnish us with models of imitation or multiply our pleasures. - -This inward sense is supported by exterior motives in contact with a far -greater part of society, whom wants and commerce connect with the Arts; -for nations pay or receive tribute in proportion as their technic sense -exerts itself or slumbers. Whatever is commodious, amene, or useful, -depends in a great measure on the Arts: dress, furniture, and habitation -owe to their breath what they can boast of grace, propriety, or shape: -they teach Elegance to finish what Necessity invented, and make us -enamoured of our wants. - -This benign influence infallibly spreads or diminishes in proportion as -its original source, a sense of genuine Beauty, flows from an ample or a -scanty vein, in a clear or turbid stream. As Taste is adulterated or -sinks, Ornament takes a meagre, clumsy, barbarous, ludicrous, or -meretricious form; Affectation dictates; Simplicity and elegance are -loaded; interest vanishes: in a short time Necessity alone remains, and -Novelty with Error go hand in hand. - -These obvious observations on the importance of the Arts, lead to the -question so often discussed, and at no time more important than ours--on -the causes that raised them at various times, and among different -nations--on the means of assisting their progress, and how to check -their decay. Of much that has been said on it, much must be repeated, -and something added. - -The Greeks commonly lead the van of the arguments produced to answer -this question. Their religious and civil establishments; their manners, -games, contests of valour and of talents; the Cyclus of their Mythology, -peopled with celestial and heroic forms; the honours, the celebrity of -artists; the serene Grecian sky and mildness of the climate, are the -causes supposed to have carried that nation within the ken of -perfection. - -Without refusing to each of these various advantages its share of -effect, History informs us that if Religion and Liberty prepared a -public, and spread a technic taste over all Greece, Athens and Corinth -must be considered as the principal nurses of Art, without whose -fostering care the general causes mentioned could not have had so -decided an effect; for nothing surely contributed so much to the gradual -evolution of Art, as that perpetual opportunity which they presented to -the artist of public exhibition; the decoration of temples, halls, -porticoes, a succession of employments equally numerous, important, and -dignified: hence that emulation to gain the heights of Art; the fervour -of public encouragement, the zeal and gratitude of the artists were -reciprocal: Polygnotus prepared with Cimon what Phidias with Pericles -established, on public taste, Essential, Characteristic, and Ideal -Styles. - -Whether human nature admitted of no more, or other causes prevented a -farther evolution of powers, nothing greater did arise; Polish, Elegance, -and Novelty supplied Invention: here is the period of decay; the Art -gradually sunk to mediocrity, and its final reward--Indifference. - -The artist and the public are ever in the strictest reciprocity: if the -Arts flourished nowhere as in Greece, no other nation ever interested -itself with motives so pure in their establishment and progress, or -allowed them so ample a compass. As long as their march was marked with -such dignity, whilst their union excited admiration, commanded -attachment, and led the public, they grew, they rose; but when -individually to please, the artist attempted to monopolize the interest -due to Art, to abstract by novelty and to flatter the multitude, ruin -followed. To prosper, the Art not only must feel itself free, it ought -to reign: if it be domineered over, if it follow the dictate of Fashion -or a Patron's whims, then is its dissolution at hand. - -To attain the height of the Ancient was impossible for Modern Art, -circumscribed by narrower limits, forced to form itself rapidly and on -borrowed principles; still it owes its origin and support to nearly -similar causes. During the fourteenth, and still more in the course of -the fifteenth century, so much activity, so general a predilection for -Art spread themselves over the greater part of Italy, that we are -astonished at the farrago of various imagery produced at those periods. -The artist and the Art were indeed considered as little more than -craftsmen and a craft; but they were indemnified for the want of -honours, by the dignity of their employment, by commissions to decorate -churches, convents, and public buildings. - -Let no one to whom truth and its propagation are dear, believe or -maintain that Christianism was inimical to the progress of Arts, which -probably nothing else could have revived. Nothing less than Christian -enthusiasm could give that lasting and energetic impulse whose magic -result we admire in the works that illustrate the period of Genius and -their establishment. Nor is the objection that England, France, and -Germany professed Christianity, built churches and convents, and yet had -no Art, an objection of consequence; because it might with equal -propriety be asked, why it did not appear sooner in Italy itself. The -Art forms a part of social education and the ultimate polish of man, nor -can it appear during the rudeness of infant societies; and as, among the -Western nations, the Italians were the first who extricated themselves -from the bonds of barbarism and formed asylums for industry, Art and -Science kept pace with the social progress, and produced their first -legitimate essays among them. - -How favourably religious enthusiasm operated on Art, their sympathetic -revolutions still farther prove; they flourished, they languished, they -fell together. As zeal relented and public grandeur gave way to private -splendour, the Arts became the hirelings of Vanity and Wealth; servile -they roamed from place to place, ready to administer to the whims and -wants of the best bidder: in this point of sight we can easily solve all -the phænomena which occur in the history of Art,--its rise, its fall, -eclipse, and re-appearance in various places, with styles as different -as various tastes. - -The efficient cause, therefore, why higher Art at present is sunk to -such a state of inactivity and languor that it may be doubted whether it -will exist much longer, is not a particular one, which private -patronage, or the will of an individual, however great, can remove; but -a general cause, founded on the bent, the manners, habits, modes of a -nation,--and not of one nation alone, but of all who at present pretend -to culture. Our age, when compared with former ages, has but little -occasion for great works, and that is the reason why so few are -produced:[1]--the ambition, activity, and spirit of public life is -shrunk to the minute detail of domestic arrangements--every thing that -surrounds us tends to show us in private, is become snug, less, narrow, -pretty, insignificant. We are not, perhaps, the less happy on account of -all this; but from such selfish trifling to expect a system of Art built -on grandeur, without a total revolution, would only be less presumptuous -than insane. - -What right have we to expect such a revolution in our favour? - -Let us advert for a moment to the enormous difference of difficulty -between forming and amending the taste of a public--between legislation -and reform: either task is that of Genius; both have adherents, -disciples, champions; but persecution, derision, checks will generally -oppose the efforts of the latter, whilst submission, gratitude, -encouragement, attend the smooth march of the former. No madness is so -incurable as wilful perverseness; and when men can once, with Medea, -declare that they know what is best, and approve of it, but must, or -choose to follow the worst, perhaps a revolution worse to be dreaded -than the disease itself, must precede the possibility of a cure. Though, -as it has been observed, the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries granted -to the artists little more than the attention due to ingenious -craftsmen; they were, from the object of their occupations and the taste -of their employers, the legitimate precursors of M. Agnolo and -Raffaello, who did no more than raise their style to the sublimity and -pathos of the subject. These trod with loftier gait and bolder strides a -path, on which the former had sometimes stumbled, often crept, but -always advanced: the public and the artist went hand in hand--but on -what spot of Europe can the young artist of our day be placed to meet -with circumstances equally favourable? Arm him, if you please, with the -epic and dramatic powers of M. Agnolo and Raffaello, where are the -religious and civic establishments, where the temples and halls open to -receive, where the public prepared to call them forth, to stimulate, to -reward them? - -Idle complaints! I hear a thousand voices reply! You accuse the public -of apathy for the Arts, while public and private exhibitions tread on -each other's heels, panorama opens on panorama, and the splendour of -galleries dazzles the wearied eye, and the ear is stunned with the -incessant stroke of the sculptor's hammer, and our temples narrowed by -crowds of monuments shouldering each other to perpetuate the memory of -Statesmen who deluded, or of Heroes who bled at a Nation's call! Look -round all Europe--revolve the page of history from Osymandias to -Pericles, from Pericles to Constantine--and say what age, what race -stretched forth a stronger arm to raise the drooping genius of Art? Is -it the public's fault if encouragement is turned into a job, and -dispatch and quantity have supplanted excellence and quality, as objects -of the artist's emulation?--And do you think that accidental and -temporary encouragement can invalidate charges founded on permanent -causes? What blew up the Art, will in its own surcease terminate its -success. Art is not ephemeral; Religion and Liberty had for ages -prepared what Religion and Liberty were to establish among the ancients: -the germ of the Olympian Jupiter, and the Minerva of Phidias, lay in the -Gods of Aëgina, and that of Theseus, Hercules, and Alcibiades in the -blocks of Harmodios and Aristogiton. - -If the revolution of a neighbouring nation emancipated the people from -the yoke of superstition, it has perhaps precipitated them to -irreligion. He who has no visible object of worship is indifferent about -modes, and rites, and places; and unless some great civil provisional -establishment replaces the means furnished by the former system, the -Arts of France, should they disdain to become the minions and handmaids -of fashion, may soon find that the only public occupation left for them -will be a representation of themselves, deploring their new-acquired -advantages. By a great establishment, I mean one that will employ the -living artists, raise among them a spirit of emulation dignified by the -objects of their occupation, and inspire the public with that spirit; -not an ostentatious display of ancient and modern treasures of genius, -accumulated by the hand of conquest or of rapine. To plunder the earth -was a Roman principle, and it is not perhaps matter of lamentation that -Modern Rome, by a retaliation of her own principle, is made to pay the -debt contracted with mankind. But let none fondly believe that the -importation of Greek and Italian works of Art is an importation of Greek -and Italian genius, taste, establishments and means of encouragement; -without transplanting and disseminating these, the gorgeous accumulation -of technic monuments is no more than a dead capital, and, instead of a -benefit, a check on living Art. - -With regard to ourselves, the barbarous, though then perhaps useful rage -of image-breakers in the seventeenth century, seems much too -gratuitously propagated as a principle in an age much more likely to -suffer from irreligion than superstition. A public body inflamed by -superstition, suffers, but it suffers from the ebullitions of radical -heat, and may return to a state of health and life; whilst a public body -plunged into irreligion, is in a state of palsied apathy, the cadaverous -symptom of approaching dissolution. Perhaps neither of these two -extremes may be precisely our own state; we probably float between both. -But surely in an age of inquiry and individual liberty of _thought_, -when there are almost as many sects as heads, there was little danger -that the admission of Art to places of devotion could ever be attended -by the errors of idolatry; nor have the motives which resisted the offer -of ornamenting our churches perhaps any eminent degree of ecclesiastic -or political sagacity to recommend them. Who would not rejoice if the -charm of our Art, displaying the actions and example of the sacred -Founder of our religion and of his disciples in temples and conventicles, -contributed to enlighten the zeal, stimulate the feelings, sweeten the -acrimony, or dignify the enthusiasm of their respective audiences? The -source of the grand monumental style of Greece was Religion with Liberty. -At that period the artist, as Pliny expresses himself, was the property of -the public, or in other words, he considered himself as responsible for -the influence of his works on public principle: with the decline of -Religion and Liberty his importance and the Art declined; and though the -Egyptian custom of embalming the dead and suffering the living to linger -had not yet been adopted, from the organ of the public he became the tool -of private patronage; and private patronage, however commendable or -liberal, can no more supply the want of general encouragement, than the -conservatories and hotbeds of the rich, the want of a fertile soil or -genial climate. Luxury in times of taste keeps up execution in proportion -as it saps the dignity and moral principle of the Art; gold is the motive -of its exertions, and nothing that ennobles man was ever produced by gold. -When Nero transported the Pontic Apollo to the golden house, and furnished -the colossal shoulders of the god with his own head, Sculpture lent her -hand to legitimate the sacrilege: why should Painting be supposed to have -been more squeamish when applied to decorate the apartments of his -pleasures and the cabinet of Poppæa with Milesian pollutions, or the -attitudes of Elephantis? - -The effect of honours and rewards has been insisted on as a necessary -incentive to artists: they ought indeed to be, they sometimes are, the -result of superior powers; but accidental or partial honours cannot -create Genius, nor private profusion supply public neglect. No genuine -work of Art ever was or ever can be produced, but for its own sake; if -the artist do not conceive to please himself, he never will finish to -please the world. Can we persuade ourselves that all the treasures of -the globe could suddenly produce an Iliad or Paradise Lost, or the -Jupiter of Phidias, or the Capella Sistina? Circumstances may assist or -retard parts, but cannot make them: they are the winds that now blow out -a light, now animate a spark to conflagration. Nature herself has set -her barriers between age and age, between genius and genius, which no -mortal overleaps; all attempts to raise to perfection at once, what can -only be reared by a succession of epochs, must prove abhortive and -nugatory: the very proposals of premiums, honours, and rewards to excite -talent or rouse genius, prove of themselves that the age is unfavourable -to Art; for, had it the patronage of the public, how could it want them? - -We have now been in possession of an Academy more than half a century; -all the intrinsic means of forming a style alternate at our commands; -professional instruction has never ceased to direct the student; -premiums are distributed to rear talent and stimulate emulation, and -stipends are granted to relieve the wants of genius and finish -education. And what is the result? If we apply to our Exhibition, what -does it present, in the aggregate, but a gorgeous display of varied -powers, condemned, if not to the beasts, at least to the dictates of -fashion and vanity? What therefore can be urged against the conclusion, -that, as far as the public is concerned, the Art is sinking, and -threatens to sink still deeper, from the want of demand for great and -significant works? Florence, Bologna, Venice, each singly taken, -produced in the course of the sixteenth century alone, more great -historic pictures than all Britain taken together, from its earliest -attempts at painting to its present efforts. What are we to conclude -from this? that the soil from which Shakspeare and Milton sprang, is -unfit to rear the Genius of Poetic Art? or find the cause of this -seeming impotence in that general change of habits, customs, pursuits, -and amusements, which for near a century has stamped the national -character of Europe with apathy or discountenance of the genuine -principles of Art? - -But if the severity of these observations, this denudation of our -present state moderates our hopes, it ought to invigorate our efforts -for the ultimate preservation, and, if immediate restoration be -hopeless, the gradual recovery of Art. To raise the Arts to a -conspicuous height may not perhaps be in our power; we shall have -deserved well of posterity if we succeed in stemming their farther -downfall, if we fix them on the solid base of principle. If it be out of -our power to furnish the student's activity with adequate practice, we -may contribute to form his theory; and Criticism founded on experiment, -instructed by comparison, in possession of the labours of every epoch of -Art, may spread the genuine elements of taste, and check the present -torrent of affectation and insipidity. - -This is the real use of our Institution, if we may judge from analogy. -Soon after the middle of the sixteenth century, when the gradual -evanescence of the great luminaries in Art began to alarm the public, an -idea started at Florence of uniting the most eminent artists into a -society, under the immediate patronage of the Grand Duke, and the title -of Academy: it had something of a Conventual air, has even now its own -chapel, and celebrates an annual festival with appropriate ceremonies; -less designed to promote than to prevent the gradual debasement of Art. -Similar associations in other places were formed in imitation, and at -the time of the Carracci even the private schools of painters adopted -the same name. All, whether public or private, supported by patronage or -individual contribution, were and are symptoms of Art in distress, -monuments of public dereliction and decay of Taste. But they are at the -same time the asylum of the student, the theatre of his exercises, the -repositories of the materials, the archives of the documents of our art, -whose principles their officers are bound now to maintain, and for the -preservation of which they are responsible to posterity, undebauched by -the flattery, heedless of the sneers, undismayed by the frown of their -own time. - -Permit me to part with one final observation. Reynolds has told us, and -from _him_ whose genius was crowned with the most brilliant success -during his life, from him it came with unexampled magnanimity, "that -those who court the applause of their own time, must reckon on the -neglect of posterity." On this I shall not insist as a general maxim; -all depends on the character of the time in which an artist lives, and -on the motive of his exertions. M. Agnolo, Raffaello, Tiziano, and -Vasari, Giuseppe d'Arpino, and Luca Giordano, enjoyed equal celebrity -during their own times. The three first enjoy it now, the three last are -forgotten or censured. What are we to infer from this unequal verdict of -posterity? What, but what Cicero says, that time obliterates the -conceits of opinion or fashion, and establishes the verdicts of Nature? -The age of Julio and Leone demanded genius for its own sake, and found -it--the age of Cosmo, Ferdinand, and Urban, demanded talents and -dispatch to flatter their own vanity, and found them too; but Cosmo, -Ferdinand, and Urban, are sunk in the same oblivion, or involved in the -same censure with their tools--Julio and Leone continue to live with the -permanent powers which they had called forth. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Vel duo vel nemo--turpe et miserabile! - - - - -APHORISMS, CHIEFLY RELATIVE TO THE FINE ARTS. - - - - -APHORISMS. - - -1. Life is rapid, art is slow, occasion coy, practice fallacious, and -judgment partial. - -2. The price of excellence is labour, and time that of immortality. - -3. Art, like love, excludes all competition, and absorbs the man. - -4. Art is the attendant of nature, and genius and talent the ministers -of art. - -5. Genius either discovers new materials of nature, or combines the -known with novelty. - -6. Talent arranges, cultivates, polishes, the discoveries of genius. - -7. Intuition is the attendant of genius; gradual improvement that of -talent. - -8. Arrangement presupposes materials: fruits follow the bud and foliage, -and judgment the luxuriance of fancy. - -9. The fiery sets his subject in a blaze, and mounts its vapours; the -melancholy cleaves the rock, or gropes through thorns for his; the -sanguine deluges all, and seizes none; the phlegmatic sucks one, and -drops off with repletion. - -10. Some enter the gates of art with golden keys, and take their seats -with dignity among the demi-gods of fame; some burst the doors and leap -into a niche with savage power; thousands consume their time in chinking -useless keys, and aiming feeble pushes against the inexorable doors. - -11. Heaven and earth, advantages and obstacles, conspire to educate -genius. - -12. Organization is the mother of talent; practice its nurse; the -senses its dominion; but hearts alone can penetrate hearts. - -13. It is the lot of genius to be opposed, and to be invigorated by -opposition: all extremes touch each other; frigid praise and censure -wait upon attainable or common powers; but the successful adventurer in -the realms of discovery leaps on an unknown or long-lost shore, ennobles -it with his name, and grasps immortality. - -14. Genius without bias, is a stream without direction: it inundates -all, and ends in stagnation. - -15. He who pretends to have sacrificed genius to the pursuits of -interest or fashion; and he who wants to persuade you he has -indisputable titles to a crown, but chooses to wave them for the -emoluments of a partnership in trade, deserve equal belief. - -16. Taste is the legitimate offspring of nature, educated by propriety: -fashion is the bastard of vanity, dressed by art. - -17. The immediate operation of taste is to ascertain the kind; the next, -to appreciate the degrees of excellence. - -_Coroll._--Taste, founded on sense and elegance of mind, is reared by -culture, invigorated by practice and comparison: scantiness stops short -of it; fashion adulterates it: it is shackled by pedantry, and -overwhelmed by luxuriance. - -Taste sheds a ray over the homeliest or the most uncouth subject. -Fashion frequently flattens the elegant, the gentle, and the great, into -one lumpy mass of disgust. - -If "foul and fair" be all that your gross-spun sense discerns, if you -are blind to the intermediate degrees of excellence, you may perhaps be -a great man--a senator--a conqueror; but if you respect yourself, never -presume to utter a syllable on works of taste. - -18. If mind and organs conspire to qualify you for a judge in works of -taste, remember that you are to be possessed of three things--the -subject of the work which you are to examine; the character of the -artist as such; and, before all, of impartiality. - -_Coroll._--All first impressions are involuntary and inevitable; but -the knowledge of the subject will guide you to judge first of the whole; -not to creep on from part to part, and nibble at execution before you -know what it means to convey. The notion of a tree precedes that of -counting leaves or disentangling branches. - -Every artist has, or ought to have, a character or system of his own; -if, instead of referring that to the test of nature, you judge him by -your own packed notions, or arraign him at the tribunal of schools which -he does not recognize--you degrade the dignity of art, and add another -fool to the herd of Dilettanti. - -But if, for reasons best known to yourself, you come determined to -condemn what yet you have not seen, let me advise you to drop your -pursuits of art for one of far greater importance--the inquiry into -yourself; nor aim at taste till you are sure of justice. - -19. Misconception of its own powers is the injurious attendant of -genius, and the most severe remembrancer of its vanity. - -_Coroll._--Much of Leonardo da Vinci's life evaporated in useless -experiment and quaint research; Michael Angelo perplexed the limbs of -grandeur with the minute ramifications of anatomy; Rafaelle forsook -humanity to people a mythologic desert with clumsy gods and clumsier -goddesses; Shakspeare, trusting time and chance with Hamlet and Othello, -revised a frozen sonnet, or fondled his Adonis; whilst Milton dropt the -trumpet that had astonished hell, left Paradise, and introduced a -pedagogue to Heaven. When genius is surprised by such lethargic moments, -we can forget that Johnson wrote Irene, and Hogarth made a solemn fool -of Paul. - -20. Reality teems with disappointment for him whose sources of enjoyment -spring in the elysium of fancy. - -21. Where perfection cannot take place, a very high degree of general -excellence is impossible. Negligence is the shade of energy; where there -is neither, expect mediocrity, the common expletive of society; capacity -without elevation, industry without predilection, practice without -choice. - -_Coroll._--"About this time," says Tacitus, "died Poppæus Sabinus, who, -from a middling origin, rose to imperial friendships, the consulate, -and the honours of the triumph: he was selected for the space of -four-and-twenty years to govern the most important provinces,[2] not for -any distinguished merit of his own, but because he was equal to his -task, and not above it." - -Behold here the most comprehensive epitaph of mediocrity, and the most -unambiguous solution of every riddle with which its brilliant success -may have perplexed your mind. - -22. Determine the principle on which you commence your career of art: -some woo the art itself, some its appendages; some confine their view to -the present, some extend it to futurity: the butterfly flutters round a -meadow; the eagle crosses seas. - -23. In ranging the phenomena of art, remember carefully, though you -place it on the side of exceptions, that a decided bias is not always a -sign of latent power; nor indolence, indifference, or even apathy, a -sign of impotence. - -24. Circumstances may assist or retard parts, but cannot make them: they -are the winds that now blow out a light, now animate a spark to -conflagration. - -_Coroll._--Augustus and Mæcenas are said to have made Virgil: what was -it, then, that prevented Nerva, Trajan, Adrian, and the two Antonines, -from producing at least a Lucan? - -25. Deserve, but expect not, to be praised by your contemporaries, for -any excellence which they may be jealous of being allowed to possess -themselves; leave the dispensation of justice to posterity. - -26. If wishes are the spawn of imbecility, precipitation is the bantling -of fool-hardiness: legitimate will, investigates and acquires the means. -Mistake not an itching finger for authentic will. - -27. Some of the most genuine effusions of genius in art, some of the -most estimable qualities in society, may be beholden for our homage to -very disputable principles. - -_Coroll._--The admission of a master's humanity to his slave supposes -the validity of an execrable right; and the courage shown in a duel -cannot be applauded without submitting to the dictates of feudal -barbarity. Had the poet's conception prepared us for the rashness of -Lear, the ambition of Macbeth's wife, and the villany of Iago, by the -usual gradations of nature, he could not have rushed on our heart with -the irresistibility that now subdues it. Had the line of Correggio -floated in a less expanse, he would have lost that spell of light and -shade which has enthralled all eyes; and Rubens, had he not invigorated -bodies to hills of flesh, and tinged his pencil in the rainbow, would -not have been the painter of magnificence. - -28. Genius has no imitator. Some can be poets and painters only at -second-hand: deaf and blind to the tones and motions of Nature herself, -they hear or see her only through some reflected medium of art; they are -emboldened by prescription. - -29. Let him who has more genius than talent give up as impossible what -he finds difficult. Talent may mimic genius with success, and -frequently impose on all but the first judges; but genius is awkward in -the attempt to use the tools of talent. - -_Coroll._--Hyperides, Lysias, Isocrates, might imitate much of -Demosthenes; but he would have become ridiculous by stooping to collect -their beauties.[3] The spear of Roland might be couched to gain a lady's -favour; but its sole ornament was the heart, torn from the breast-plate -of her foe. - -30. Mediocrity is formed, and talent submits, to receive prescription; -that, the liveried attendant, this, the docile client of a patron's -views or whims: but genius, free and unbounded as its _origin_, scorns -to receive commands, or in submission, neglects those it received. - -_Coroll._--The gentle spirit of Rafaelle embellished the conceits of -Bembo and Divizio, to scatter incense round the triple mitre of his -prince; and the Vatican became the flattering annals of the court of -Julius and Leo: whilst Michael Angelo refused admittance to master and -to times, and doomed his purple critic to hell.[4] - -31. Distinguish between genius and singularity of character; an artist -of mediocrity may be an odd man: let the nature of works be your guide. - -32. The most impotent, the most vulgar, and the coldest artists -generally arrogate to themselves the most vigorous, the most dignified, -and the warmest subjects. - -33. He has powers, dignity, and fire, who can inspire a trifle with -importance. - -34. Know that nothing is trifling in the hand of genius, and that -importance itself becomes a bauble in that of mediocrity:--the -shepherd's staff of Paris would have been an engine of death in the -grasp of Achilles; the ash of Peleus could only have dropped from the -effeminate fingers of the curled archer. - -35. Art either imitates or copies, selects or transcribes; consults the -class, or follows the individual. - -36. Imitative art, is either epic or sublime, dramatic or impassioned, -historic or circumscribed by truth. The first astonishes, the second -moves, the third informs. - -37. Whatever hides its limits in its greatness--whatever shows a feature -of immensity, let the elements of Nature or the qualities of animated -being make up its substance, is sublime. - -38. Whatever by reflected self-love inspires us with hope, fear, pity, -terror, love, or mirth--whatever makes events, and time, and place, the -ministers of character and pathos, let fiction or reality compose its -tissue, is dramatic. - -39. That which tells us, not what might be, but what is; circumscribes -the grand and the pathetic with truth of time, place, custom; what -gives "a local habitation and a name," is historic. - -_Coroll._--No human performance is either purely epic, dramatic, or -historic. Novelty and feelings will make the historian sometimes launch -out into the marvellous; or will warm his bosom and extort a tear. - -The dramatist while gazing at some tremendous feature, or the pomp of -superior agency, will drop the chain he holds, and be absorbed in the -sublime; whilst the epic or lyric poet, forgetting his solitary -grandeur, will sometimes descend and mix with his agents. - -The tragic and the comic dramatists formed themselves on Hector and -Andromache, on Irus and Ulysses. The spirit from the prison-house -breathes like the shade of Patroclus; Octavia and the daughter of -Soranus[5] melt like Ophelia and Alcestis. - -40. Those who have assigned to the plastic arts beauty, strictly so -called, as the ultimate end of imitation, have circumscribed the whole -by a part. - -_Coroll._--The charms of Helen and of Niobe are instruments of -sublimity: Meleager and Cordelia fall victims to the passions; Agrippina -and Berenice give interest to truth. - -41. Beauty, whether individual or ideal, consists in the concurrence of -parts to one end, or the union of the simple and the various. - -_Coroll._--Whatever be your powers, assume not to legislate on beauty: -though always the same herself, her empire is despotic, and subject to -the anarchies of despotism, enthroned to-day, dethroned to-morrow: in -treating subjects of universal claim, most has been done by leaving most -to the reader's and spectator's taste or fancy. "It is difficult," says -Horace, "to pronounce exactly to every man's eye and mind, what every -man thinks himself entitled to estimate by a standard of his own."[6] -The Apollo and Medicean Venus are not by all received as the canons of -male and female beauty; and Homer's Helen is the finest woman we have -read of, merely because he has left her to be made up of the Dulcineas -of his readers. - -42. Beauty alone, fades to insipidity; and like possession cloys. - -43. Grace is beauty in motion, or rather grace regulates the air, the -attitudes and movements of beauty. - -44. Nature makes no parade of her means--hence all studied grace is -unnatural. - -_Coroll._--The attitudes of Parmegiano are exhibitions of studied grace. -The grace of Guido is become proverbial, but it is the grace of the art. - -45. All actions and attitudes of children are graceful, because they are -the luxuriant and immediate offspring of the moment--divested of -affectation, and free from all pretence. - -_Coroll._--The attitudes and motions of the figures of Rafaelle are -graceful because they are poised by Nature. - -46. Proportion, or symmetry, is the basis of beauty; propriety, of -grace. - -47. Creation gives, invention finds existence. - -48. Invention in general is the combination of the possible, the -probable, or the known, in a mode that strikes with novelty. - -_Coroll._--Invention has been said to mean no more than the moment of -any fact chosen by the artist. - -To say that the painter's invention is not to find or to combine its own -subject, is to confine it to the poet's or historian's alms--is to -annihilate its essence; it says in other words, that Macbeth or Ugolino -would be no subjects for the pencil, if they had not been prepared by -history and borrowed from Shakspeare and Dante. - -49. Ask not--Where is fancy bred? in the heart? in the head? how begot? -how nourished? - -_Coroll._--The critic who inquires whether in the madness of Lear, grief -for the loss of empire, or the resentment of filial ingratitude -preponderated--and he who doubts whether it be within the limits of art -to embody beings of fancy, agitate different questions, but of equal -futility. - -50. Genius may adopt, but never steals. - -_Coroll._--An adopted idea or figure in the works of genius will be a -foil or a companion; but an idea of genius borrowed by mediocrity scorns -the base alliance and crushes all its mean associates--it is the -Cyclop's thumb, by which the pigmy measured his own littleness,--"or -hangs like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief." - -51. Genius, inspired by invention, rends the veil that separates -existence from possibility; peeps into the dark, and catches a shape, a -feature, or a colour, in the reflected ray. - -52. Talent, though panting, pursues genius through the plains of -invention, but stops short at the brink that separates the real from the -possible. Virgil followed Homer in making Mezentius speak to Rhoebus, but -shrank from the reply of the prophetic courser.[7] - -53. Whenever the medium of any work, whether lines, colour, grouping, -diction, becomes so predominant as to absorb the subject in its -splendour, the work is degraded to an inferior order. - -54. The painter, who makes an historical figure address the spectator -from the canvass, and the actor who addresses a soliloquy to you from -the stage, have equal claims to your contempt or pity. - -55. Common-place figures are as inadmissible in the grand style of -painting as common-place characters or sentiments in poetry. - -_Coroll._--Common-place figures were first introduced by the gorgeous -machinists of Venice, and adopted by the Bolognese school of Eclectics; -the modern school of Rome from Carlo Maratta to Battoni knew nothing -else; and they have been since indiscriminately disseminated on this -side of the Alps, by those whom mediocrity obliged to hide themselves in -crowds, or a knack at grouping stimulated to aggregate a rabble. - -56. The copious is seldom grand. - -57. Glitter is the refuge of the mean. - -58. All apparatus destroys terror, as all ornament grandeur: the minute -catalogue of the cauldron's ingredients in Macbeth destroys the terror -attendant on mysterious darkness; and the seraglio-trappings of Rubens -annihilate his heroes. - -59. All conceits, not founded upon probable combinations of nature, are -absurd. The _capricci_ of Salvator Rosa, and of his imitators, are, to -the fiends of Michael Angelo, what the paroxysms of a fever are to the -sallies of vigorous fancy. - -60. Distinguish carefully between bold fancy and a daring hand; between -the powers of nature and the acquisitions of practice: most of -Salvator's banditti are a medley made up of starveling models and the -shreds of his lumber-room brushed into notice by a daring pencil. - -61. Distinguish between boldness and brutality of hand, between the face -of beauty and _the bark of a tree_. - -62. All mediocrity pretends. - -63. Invention, strictly speaking, being confined to _one_ moment, he -invents best who in that moment combines the traces of the past, the -energy of the present, and a glimpse of the future. - -64. Composition has been divided into natural and ornamental: that is -dictated by the subject, this by effect or situation. - -65. Distinguish between composition and grouping: though none can -compose without grouping, most group without composing. - -_Coroll._--The assertion that grouping may not be composing, has been -said to make a distinction without a difference: as if there had not -been, still are, and always will be squadrons of artists, whose skill in -grouping can no more be denied, than their claim to invention, and -consequently to composition, admitted, if invention means the true -conception of a subject and composition the best mode of representing -it. After the demise of Lionardo and Michael Angelo, their successors, -however discordant else, uniformly agreed to lose the subject in the -medium. Raffaello had no followers. Tiziano and something of Tintoretto -excepted, what instance can there be produced of composition in the -works of the Venetian school? Are the splendid masquerades of Paolo to -be dignified with that name? If composition has a part in the effusions -of the great founder of the Lombard school, it surely did not arrange -the celestial hubbub of his cupolas, content to inspire his Io, the -Zingaro, Christ in the Garden, perhaps (I speak with diffidence) his -Notte. So characteristically separate from real composition are the most -splendid assemblages, the most happy combinations of figures, if founded -on the mere power of grouping, that one of the first, and certainly the -most courteous critic in Art of the age, in compliment to the Venetian -and Flemish Schools, has thought proper to divide composition into -legitimate and ornamental. - -66. Ask not, what is the shape of composition? You may in vain climb the -pyramid, wind with the stream, or point the flame; for composition, -unbounded like Nature, and her subjects, though resident in all, may be -in none of these. - -67. The nature of picturesque composition is depth, or to come forward -and recede. - -_Coroll._--Pausias, in painting a sacrifice, foreshortened the victim, -and threw its shade on part of the surrounding crowd, to show its height -and length.[8] - -68. Sculpture composes in single groups or separate figures, but -apposition is the element of basso-relievo. - -_Coroll._--Poussin painted basso-relievo, Algardi chiselled pictures. - -69. He who treats you with all the figures of a subject save the -principal, is as civil or important as he who invites you to dine with -all a nobleman's family, the master only excepted: this sometimes may -be no loss, but surely you cannot be said to have dined with the chief -of the family. - -70. Examine whether an artist treats you with a subject, or only with -some of its limbs: many see only the lines, some the masses, others the -colours, and not a few the mere back-ground of their subject. - -71. Second thoughts are admissible in painting and poetry only as -dressers of the first conception; no great idea was ever formed in -fragments. - -72. He alone can conceive and compose, who sees the whole at once before -him. - -73. He who conceives the given point of a subject in many different -ways, conceives it not at all. Appeal to the artist's own feelings; you -will ever find him most reluctant to give up that part of it which he -conceived intuitively, and readier to dismiss that which harassed him by -alteration. - -74. Metaphysical composition, if it be numerous, will be oftener -mistaken for dilapidation of fragments than regular distribution of -materials. - -_Coroll._--The School of Athens as it is called, by Raffaelle, -communicates to few more than an arbitrary assemblage of speculative -groups: yet if the subject be the dramatic representation of philosophy, -as it prepares for active life, the parts of the building are not -connected with more regular gradation than those groups: fitted by -physical and intellectual harmony, man ascends from himself to society, -from society to God. - -75. No excellence of execution can atone for meanness of conception. - -76. Grandeur of conception will predominate over the most vulgar -materials--if in the subjects of Jesus before Pilate, by Rembrandt, and -the Resuscitation of Lazarus by Lievens,[9] the materials had all been -equal to the conception, they would have been works of superhuman -powers. - -77. Repetition of attitude and gesture invigorates the expression of the -grand: as a torrent gives its own direction to every object it sweeps -along, so the impression of a sublime or pathetic moment absorbs the -contrasts of inferior agents. - -78. Tameness lies on this side of expression, grimace overleaps it; -insipidity is the relative of folly, eccentricity of madness. - -79. The fear of not being understood, or felt, makes some invigorate -expression to grimace. - -80. The temple of expression, like that of religion, has a portico and a -sanctuary; that is trod by all, this only admits her votaries. - -81. Propriety, modesty and delicacy, guard expression from the -half-conceits of the weak, the intemperance of the extravagant, and the -brutality of the vulgar. - -82. Sensibility is the mother of sympathy. How can he paint Beauty who -has not throbbed at her charms? How shall he fill the eye with the dew -of humanity whose own never shed a tear for others? How can he form a -mouth to threaten or command, who licks the hereditary spittle of -princes? - -83. He fails with greater dignity, who expresses the principal feature -of his subject and misses or neglects all the secondary, than he who -consumes his powers on what is subordinate and comes exhausted to the -chief. - -_Coroll._--Those who have asserted that Lionardo, in finishing the Last -Supper, was so exhausted by his exertions to trace the characters and -emotions of the disciples, that, unable to fix the physiognomy of -Christ, he found himself reduced to the necessity of leaving that head -unfinished,--either never saw it, or if they did, were too low to reach -the height, and too shallow to fathom the depth of the conception. - -84. The coward, driven to despair, leaps back into the face of danger; -and the tame, stimulated to exertions and aiming at expression, puffs -spirit into flutter; or tears the garb of passion and flourishes the -rags. - -85. Affectation cannot excite sympathy. How can you feel for him who -cannot feel for himself? How can he feel for himself, who exhibits the -artificial graces of studied attitude? - -86. The loathsome is abominable, and no engine of expression. - -_Coroll._ When Spenser dragged into light the entrails of the serpent, -slain by the Red-cross Knight, he dreamt a butcher's dream and not a -poet's: and Fletcher,[10] or his partner, when rummaging the surgeon's -box of cataplasms and trusses to assuage hunger, solicited the grunt of -an applauding sty. - -87. Sympathy and disgust are the lines that separate terror from horror: -though we shudder at, we scarcely pity what we abominate. - -_Coroll._--Rowe, when he congratulates the ghost on bidding Hamlet spare -his mother, accuses _her_ of a crime with which the poet never charged -her: that Shakspeare might be hurried on to horror let the "vile jelly" -witness, which Cornwall treads from Gloster's bleeding sockets. - -88. Expression animates, convulses, or absorbs form. The Apollo is -animated; the warrior of Agasias is agitated; the Laocoon is convulsed; -the Niobe is absorbed. - -89. The being seized by an enormous passion, be it joy or grief, hope or -despair, loses the character of its own individual expression, and is -absorbed by the power of the feature that attracts it: Niobe and her -family are assimilated by extreme anguish; Ugolino is petrified by the -fate that sweeps his sons; and every metamorphosis from that of Clytie -to the transfusion of Gianni Fucci[11] tells a new allegory of -sympathetic power. - -90. Reject with indignant incredulity all self-congratulations of -conscious villainy, though they be uttered by Richard or by Iago. - -91. The axe, the wheel, saw-dust, and the blood-stained sheet are not -legitimate substitutes of terror. - -92. All division diminishes, all mixtures impair the simplicity and -clearness of expression. - -93. The epoch which discovered expression, or what the Greeks called -"manners,"[12] is marked by Pliny as that which gave importance and -effect to art. - -_Coroll._--Homer invested his heroes with ideal powers, but copied -nature in delineating their moral character. Achilles, the irresistible -in arms, clad in celestial armour, is a splendid being, created by -himself; Achilles the fool of passions, is the real man delivered to him -by tradition. - -That the plastic artist should have had an aim beyond the poet is -improbable, because the poet, in general, furnished him with materials; -he composed his man of beauty and ideal limbs, not to obscure, but to -invigorate his character and our attention. - -The limbs, the form of Ajax hurling defiance from the sea-swept rock -unto the murky sky, were, no doubt, exquisite; but if the artist -mitigated his expression, the indignation due to blasphemy from the -spectator gave way to sterner indignation at the injustice of his gods. - -The expression of the ancients, from the heights and depths of the -sublime, descended and emerged to search every nook of the human breast; -from the ambrosial locks of Zeus, and the maternal phantom fluttering -round Ulysses,[13] to the half-slain mother, shuddering lest the infant -should suck the blood from her palsied nipple, and the fond attention of -Penelope dwelling on the relation of her returned son.[14] - -The expression of the ancients explored nature even in the mute -recesses, in the sullen organs of the brute; from the Argus of Ulysses, -to the lamb, the symbol of expiatory resignation, on an altar, and to -the untameable feature of the toad. - -The expression of the ancients roamed all the fields of licit and -illicit pleasure; from the petulance with which Ctesilochus exhibited -the pangs of a Jupiter delivered by celestial midwives, to the -libidinous sports of Parrhasius, and from these to the indecent -caricature[15] which furnished Crassus with a repartee. - -The ancients extended expression even to the colour of their materials -in sculpture: to express the remorse of Athamas, Aristonidas the Theban -mixed metals; and Alcon formed a Hercules of iron, to express the -perseverance of the God.[16] - -94. Invention, before it attends to composition, group, or contrast, -classes its subject and ascertains what kind of impression it is to make -on the whole. - -95. Invention never suffers the action to expire, nor the spectator's -fancy to consume itself in preparation, or stagnate into repose: it -neither begins from the egg, nor coldly gathers the remains; for action -and interest terminate together. - -96. The middle moment, the moment of suspense, the crisis, is the moment -of importance, big with the past and pregnant with the future: we rush -from the flames with the Warrior of Agasias, and look forward to his -enemy; or we hang in suspense over the wound of the Expiring -Soldier,[17] and poise with every drop which yet remains of life. - -97. Distinguish between the hero and the actor; between exertions of -study and effects of impulse. - -98. Know that expression has its classes. The frown of the Hercynian -phantom may repress the ardour, but cannot subdue the dignity of -Drusus;[18] the terror of the Centurion at the Resurrection[19] is not -the panic of his soldiers; the palpitation of Hamlet cannot degenerate -into vulgar fright. - -_Coroll._--Of all the eclectics, Domenichino alone composed for -expression; but his expression compared with Raffaello's is the -expression of Theocritus compared with that of Homer. A detail of pretty -images is rather calculated to diminish than to enforce energy with the -whole: a lovely child taking refuge in the bosom of a lovely mother is -an idea of nature, and pleasing in a lowly or domestic subject; but -amidst the terrors of martyrdom, it is a shred tacked to a purple robe. -In touching the circle that surrounds the Ananias of Raffaelle, you -touch the electric chain; an irresistible spark darts from the last as -from the first, and penetrates and subdues. At the Martyrdom of St. -Agnes,[20] you saunter amidst the mob of a lane, where the silly chat of -neighbouring gossips announces a topic as silly, till you find, with -indignation, that instead of a broken pot, or a petty theft, you are to -witness a scene for which Heaven opens, the angels descend, and Jesus -rises from his throne. - -99. Expression alone can invest beauty with supreme and lasting command -over the eye. - -_Coroll._--On beauty, unsupported by vigour and expression, Homer dwells -less than on active deformity; he tells us, in three lines, that Nireus -led three ships, his parentage, his form, his effeminacy; but opens in -Thersites a source of comedy and entertainment. - -Raffaelle not only subjected beauty to expression, but, at the command -of invention, degraded it into a handmaid of deformity: thus the flowers -of infancy and youth, virility and age, are scattered round the -temple-gate, to impress us more by comparison with the distorted beings -that crawl before and defy the powers of every other hand but the one -delegated by Omnipotence.[21] - -100. Imitation seems to cease, where the ideal part begins. - -101. The imitator rises above the copyist by generalizing the individual -to a class; the idealist mounts above the imitator by uniting classes. - -102. The imitator, by comparison and taste, unites the scattered limbs -of kindred excellence; the idealist, by the "mind's eye," fixes, -personifies, embodies possibility: modes and degrees of single powers -are the province of the former; the latter unites whatever implies no -contradiction in an assemblage of varied excellence. - -_Coroll._--This is best explained by the Ilias. Each individual of Homer -forms a class, and is circumscribed by one quality of heroic power; -Achilles alone unites their different energies. - -The height, the strength, the giant-stride and supercilious air of Ajax; -the courage, the impetuosity, the never-failing aim, the never-bloodless -stroke of Diomedes; the presence of mind, the powerful agility of -Ulysses; the velocity of the lesser Ajax; Agamemnon's sense of -prerogative and domineering spirit,--assign to each his separate class -of heroism, yet lessen not their shades of imperfection. Ajax appears -the warrior rather than the leader; Ulysses is too prudent to be more -than brave; the hawk more than the eagle predominates in the son of -Oileus; Agamemnon has the prerogative of power, but not of heroism; -Diomede alone might appear to have been raised too high, had he been -endowed with an assuming spirit. So far the poet found, ennobled, -classified; but all these he sums up, and creates an ideal form from -their assemblage, in Achilles:--he is the grandson of Jupiter, the son -of a goddess, the favourite of Heaven--[22]"What arms can fit me but the -shield of Ajax? The lance maddens not in the grasp of Diomede to chase -the flames from the ships. Let him confer with thee, Ulysses, and the -rest." Such is his language. Before the pursuer of Hector vanishes the -velocity of Ajax; from destroying Agamemnon he is prevented by Minerva; -he gives his armour to the son of Menoetius, and disperses all but the -gods; his spear none can throw, and none tear from the ground when -thrown; a miracle alone can save those that oppose him singly; when else -he fights, 'tis not to gain a battle, but to subvert Troy. - -What Achilles is to his confederates, the Apollo, the Torso, the -statues[23] of the Quirinal, are to all other known figures of gods, of -demi-gods and heroes. - -103. Fancy not to compose an ideal form by mixing up a mass of -promiscuous beauties; for, unless you consulted what was homogeneous and -what was possible in Nature, you have hatched only a monster: this, we -suppose, was understood by Zeuxis when he collected the beauties of -Agrigentum to compose a perfect female.[24] - -104. If there be any thing serious in art, it certainly then ought to be -exerted when religion is the subject; but idolaters and iconoclasts seem -to have conspired, either to banish the author of their faith to the -cold sphere of mythology, or to debase him to the dregs of mankind. - -_Coroll._--Majesty is the feature of the Supreme Being; no eternal -Father of the moderns approaches the majesty of Jupiter. - -The gods of Michael Angelo are stern. The gods of Raffaelle are affable -and weak. The gods of Guido have the air of ancient courtiers. - -In the race of Jupiter, majesty is tempered by emanations of beauty and -of grace, but never softened into love. - -The Christ of Michael Angelo is severe. The Christ of Raffaelle is -poised between the heraldry of church tradition and the dignified -mildness of his own character. The Christ of Guido is a well suspended -corpse. - -"The character corresponding with that of Christ," says a critic and a -painter,[25] "is a mixture of the characters of Jupiter and Apollo, -allowing only for the accidental expression of the moment." What magic -shall amalgamate the superhuman airs of Rhea's and Latona's sons with -sufferings and resignation? The critic, in his exultation, forgot the -leading feature of his master--humility. - -Whatever be the ideal form of Christ, the Saviour of mankind, extending -his arm to relieve the afflicted, the hopeless, the dying, is a subject -that comes home to the breast of every one who calls himself after his -name:--the artist is in the sphere of adoration with the Christian. - -A great and beneficent character, eminently exerting unknown healing -powers over the family of disease and pain, claims the participation of -every feeling man, though he be no believer:--the artist is in the -sphere of sentiment with the Deist or Mahometan. - -But a mean man marked with the features of a mean sect, surrounded by a -beggarly ill-shaped rabble and stupid masks--is probably a juggler that -claims the attention of no one. - -The Resurrection of Christ derives its interest from its rapidity, the -Ascension from its slowness. - -In the Resurrection, the hero, like a ball of fire, shoots up resistless -from the bursting tomb, and scatters terror and astonishment,--what -apprehension could not dream of, what the eye had never beheld, and -tongue had never uttered, blazes before us,--tumultuous agitation rends -the whole. Such is the spirit of the Resurrection by Raffaelle. - -The Ascension is the last of many similar scenes: no longer with the -rapidity of a conqueror, but with the calm serenity of triumphant power, -the hero is borne up in splendour, and gradually vanishes from those -who, by repeated visions, had been taught to expect whatever was -amazing. Silent and composed, with eyes more absorbed in adoration than -wonder, they followed the glorious emanation, till addressed by the -white-robed messengers of their departed King. - -105. We are more impressed by Gothic than by Greek mythology, because -the bands are not yet rent which tie us to its magic: he has a powerful -hold of us, who holds us by our superstition or by a theory of honour. - -106. The east expands, the north concentrates images. - -107. Disproportion of parts is the element of hugeness,--proportion, of -grandeur; all Oriental, all Gothic styles of Architecture, are huge; the -Grecian alone, is grand. - -108. The female, able to invigorate her taste without degenerating into -a pedant, sloven or virago, may give her hand to the man of elegance, -who scorns to sacrifice his sense to the presiding phantoms of an -effeminate age. - -109. The collector who arrogates not to himself the praise bestowed on -his collections, and the reader who fancies himself not the author of -the beauties he recites to an admiring circle--are not the last of men. - -110. The epoch of rules, of theories, poetics, criticisms in a nation, -will add to their stock of authors in the same proportion as it -diminishes their stock of genius: their productions will bear the stamp -of study, not of nature; they will adopt, not generate; sentiment will -supplant images, and narrative invention; words will be no longer the -dress but the limbs of composition, and feeble elegance will supply the -want of nerves. - -111. He "lisped not in numbers, no numbers came to him," though he count -his verses by thousands, who has not learnt to distinguish the harmony -of two lines from that of a period--whom dull monotony of ear condemns -to the drowsy psalmody of one returning couplet. - -112. Some seek renown as the Parthians sought victory--by seeming to fly -from it. - -113. He has more than genius--he is a hero--who can check his powers in -their full career to glory, merely not to crush the feeble on his road. - -114. He who could have the choice, and should prefer to be the first -painter of insects, of flowers, or of drapery, to being the second in -the ranks of history, though degraded to the last class of art, would -undoubtedly be in the first of men by the decision of Cæsar. - -115. Such is the aspiring nature of man, that nothing wounds the copyist -more sorely than the suspicion of being thought what he is. - -116. He who depends for all upon his model, should treat no other -subject but his model. - -117. The praises lavished on the sketches of vigorous conception, only -sharpen the throes of labour in finishing. - -118. As far as the medium of an art can be taught, so far is the artist -confined to the class of mere mechanics; he only then elevates himself -to talent, when he imparts to his method, or his tool, some unattainable -or exclusive excellence of his own. - -119. None but the first can represent the first. Genius, absorbed by the -subject, hastens to the centre; and from that point disseminates, to -that leads back the rays: talent, full of its own dexterities, begins to -point the rays before they have a centre, and aggregates a mass of -secondary beauties. - -120. The ear absorbed in harmonies of its own creation, is deaf to all -external ones. - -121. Harmony disposes, melody determines. - -122. There is not a bauble thrown by the sportive hand of fashion, which -may not be caught with advantage by the hand of art. - -_Coroll._--Shakspeare has been excused for seeking in the Roman senate -what he knew all senates could furnish--a buffoon. Paulo of Verona, with -equal strength of argument, may be excused for cramming on the -foreground of an assembly or a feast, what he knew a feast or assembly -could furnish--a dog, an ape, a scullion, a parrot, or a dwarf. - -123. He has done much in art who raises your curiosity--he has done all -who has raised it and keeps it up restless and uniform; prostrate -yourself before the genius of Homer. - -124. Difficulties surmounted to obtain what in itself is of no real -value, deserve pity or contempt: the painted catalogue of wrinkles by -Denner are not offsprings of art, but fac-similes of natural history. - -125. Love for what is called deception in painting, marks either the -infancy or decrepitude of a nation's taste. - -126. Indiscriminate execution, like the monkey's rasor, cuts shear -asunder the parts it meant to polish. - -_Coroll._--Francesco Barbieri broke like a torrent over the academic -rules of his masters. As the desire of disseminating character over -every part of his composition made Raphael less attentive to its general -effect, so an ungovernable itch of copying all that lay in his way made -this man sacrifice order, costume, mind, to mere effects of colour: a -map of flesh, a pile of wood, a sleeve, a hilt, a feathered hat, a -table-cloth, or a gold-tissued robe, were for Guercino what a quibble -was for Shakspeare. The countenance of his Dido has that sublimity of -woe which affects us in the Æneis, but she is pierced with a toledo and -wrapped in brocade; Anna is an Italian Duenna; the scene, the Mole of -Ancona or of Naples, the spectators a brace of whiskered Spaniards, and -a deserting Amorino winds up the farce. In his St. Petronilla the rags -and brawny limbs of two gigantic porters crush the effect which the -saint ought to have, and all the rest is frittered into spots. Yet is -that picture a tremendous instance of mechanic powers and intrepidity of -hand. As a firm base supports, pervades, unites the tones of harmony, so -a certain stern virility inspires, invigorates and gives a zest to all -Guercino's colour. The gayer tints of Guido vanish before his as -insipid,[26] Domenichino appears laboured, and the Carracci dim. Nor was -Guercino a stranger to the genuine expressions of untaught nature, and -there is more of pathos in the dog which he introduced caressing the -returned prodigal, than in all the Farnese gallery; as the Argus of -Ulysses, looking up at his old master, then dropping his head and dying, -moves more than all the metamorphoses of Ovid. If his male figures be -brought to the test of style, it may be said, that he never made a man; -their virility is tumour or knotty labour; to youth he gave emaciated -lankness, and to old age little besides decrepitude and beards--meanness -to all: and though he was more cautious in female forms, they owe the -best part of their charms to chiaroscuro. - -127. Execution has its classes. - -_Coroll._--Satan summoning the Princes of Hell stretched over the fiery -flood; or the giant snake of the Norway seas hovering over a storm-vexed -vessel, by Gerard Douw, or Vanderverf--are incongruous ideas; would be -incongruous though Michael Angelo had planned their design and Rembrandt -massed their light and shade. - -128. It has been said, but let us repeat it: the proportion of will and -power is not always reciprocal. A copious measure of will is sometimes -assigned to ordinary and contracted minds; whilst the greatest faculties -as frequently evaporate in indolence and languor. - -129. Mighty execution of impotent conception, and vigour of conception -with trembling execution, are coalitions equally deplorable. - -130. He is a prince of artists and of men who knows the moment when his -work is done. On this Apelles founded his superiority over his -contemporaries; the knowledge when to stop, left Sylla nothing to fear, -though disarmed; the want of knowing this, exposed Cæsar to the dagger -of Brutus. - -131. Next to him who can finish, is he who has hid from you that he -cannot. - -132. If finishing be to terminate all the parts of a performance in an -equal degree, no artist ever finished his work. A great part of -conception or execution is always sacrificed to some individual -excellence which either he possesses or thinks he possesses. The -colourist makes lines only the vehicle of colour; the designer -subordinates hue to his line; the man of breadth or chiaroscuro -overwhelms sometimes both, and the subject itself to produce effect. - -133. The fewer the traces that appear of the means by which any work has -been produced, the more it resembles the operations of Nature, and the -nearer it is to sublimity. - -134. Indiscriminate pursuit of perfection infallibly leads to -mediocrity. - -_Coroll._--Take the design of Rome, Venetian motion and shade, -Lombardy's tone of colour, add the terrible manner of Angelo, Titian's -truth of nature, and the supreme purity of Corregio's style; mix them up -with the decorum and solidity of Tibaldi, with the learned invention of -Primaticcio, and a few grains of Parmegiano's grace: and what do you -think will be the result of this chaotic prescription, such elemental -strife? Excellence, perhaps, equal to one or all of the names that -compose these ingredients? You are deceived, if you fancy that a -multitude of dissimilar threads can compose a uniform texture--that -dissemination of spots will make masses, or a little of many things -produce a whole. If Nature stamped you with a character, you will either -annihilate it by indiscriminate imitation of heterogeneous excellence, -or debase it to mediocrity and add one to the ciphers of art. Yet such -is the prescription of Agostino Carracci,[27] and such in general must -be the dictates of academics. - -135. If you mean to reign dictator over the arts of your own times, -assail not your rivals with the blustering tone of condemnation and -rigid censure;--sap with conditional or lamenting praise--confine them -to unfashionable excellence--exclude them from the avenues of fame. - -136. If you wish to give consequence to your inferiors, answer their -attacks. - -_Coroll._--Michael Angelo, advised to resent the insolence of some -obscure upstart who was pushing forward to notice by declaring himself -his rival, answered: "Chi combatte con dappochi, non vince a nulla:" who -contests with the base, loses with all! - -137. Genius knows no partner. All partnership is deleterious to poetry -and art: one must rule.[28] - -138. The wish of perpetuating a name by enlisting under the banners of -another, is the ambition of inferior minds: biography, with all its -branches of "Ana," translation and engraving, however useful to man or -dear to art, is the unequivocal homage of inferiority offered by taste -and talent to the majesty of genius. - -139. Dive in the crowd, meet beauty: follow vigour, compare character, -snatch the feature that moves unobserved and the sudden burst of -passion--and you are at the school of nature with Lysippus.[29] - -140. The lessons of disappointment, humiliation and blunder, impress -more than those of a thousand masters. - -141. There are artists, who have wasted much of life in abstruse -theories on proportion, who have measured the Antique in all its forms -and characters, compared it with Nature, and mixed up amalgamas of both, -yet never made a figure stand or move. - -_Coroll._--"The Apollo is altogether composed of lines sweetly convex, -of very small obtuse angles, and of flats, but the soft convexities -predominate the character of the figure, being a compound of strength, -dignity and delicacy. The artist has expressed the first by convex -outlines, the second by their uniformity, and the third by undulation of -forms. The convex line predominates in the Laocoon, and the forms of the -muscles are angular at their insertions and ends to express agitation; -for by these means the nerves and tendons become more visible, straight -lines meeting with concave and convex ones, form those angles which -produce violence of action. The sculptor of the Farnesian Hercules -invented a style totally different; to obtain fleshiness, he composed -the figure of round and convex muscles, but made their insertions flat -to signify that they are nervous and unincumbered with fat, the -characteristic of strength." - -"In the Gladiator there is a mixture of the Herculean and the Laocoontic -forms, the muscles in action are angulated, whilst those at rest are -short and round, a variety conformable to nature," &c. - - Opere di A.R. MENGS, t. i. p. 203. - -142. Neither he who forms lines without the power of embodying them, nor -he who floats on masses, can be said to draw: the one is the slave of a -brush, the other of a point. - -143. Pulp without solidity absorbs, and relentless tension tears -character. - -144. In following too closely a model, there is danger in mistaking the -individual for Nature herself; in relying only on the schools, the -deviation into manner seems inevitable: what then remains, but to -transpose _yourself_ into your subject? - -145. Style is the selection of forms and groups and tones to suit a -subject. - -_Coroll._--The Italian _Style Grandioso_, the French _Il y a du style_, -the English _great style and breadth_, when applied to a performance, -only mean, that the artist followed those who have enlarged the -principles of imitation and execution. - -146. Style pervades the object; manner floats on the surface. - -147. Antient art was the tyrant of Egypt, the mistress of Greece, and -the servant of Rome. - -148. The superiority of the Greeks seems not so much the result of -climate and society, as of the simplicity of their end and the -uniformity of their means. If they had schools, the Ionian, that of -Athens and of Sicyon appear to have directed their instruction to one -grand principle, proportion: this was the stamen which they drew out -into one immense connected web; whilst modern art, with its schools of -designers, colourists, machinists, eclectics, is but a tissue of -adventitious threads. Apollonius and the sculptor of the small Hesperian -Hercules in bronze are distinguished only by the degree of execution; -whilst M. Angelo and Bernini had no one principle in common but that of -making groups and figures. - -149. Art among a religious race produces reliques; among a military one, -trophies; among a commercial one, articles of trade. - -150. Modern art, reared by superstition in Italy, taught to dance in -France, plumped up to unwieldiness in Flanders, reduced to "chronicle -small beer" in Holland, became a rich old woman by "suckling fools" in -England. - -151. The rules of art are either immediately supplied by Nature herself, -or selected from the compendiums of her students who are called masters -and founders of schools. The imitation of Nature herself leads to style, -that of the schools to manner. - -_Coroll._--The line of Michael Angelo is uniformly grand; character and -beauty were admitted only as far as they could be made subservient to -grandeur:--the child, the female, meanness, deformity were indiscriminately -stamped with grandeur; a beggar rose from his hand the patriarch of -poverty; the hump of his dwarf is impressed with dignity; his women are -moulds of generation; his infants teem with the man, his men are a race -of giants. - -The design of Raphael is either historic or poetic. The forms of his -historic style are characteristic, those of his poetic style he himself -calls ideal:[30] the former are regulated by nature, but these are only -exaggerations of another style. - -The forms of Julio Pipi are poised between character and caricature, but -verge to this; even his dresses and ornaments are caricatures; but no -poet or painter ever rocked the cradle of infant mythology with simpler -or more primitive grace; none ever imparted to allegory a more -insinuating power, or swayed the strife of elemental war with a bolder -hand. What ever equalled the exuberance of invention scattered over the -T of Mantoua? - -The line of Polydoro, is that of the antique basso-relievo, seen from -beneath (da sotto in su). - -The forms of Titian are those of sanguine health; robust, not grand; -soft without delicacy. - -Tintoretto attempted to fill the line of Michael Angelo with colour, -without tracing its principle. - -As Michael Angelo was impressed with an idea of grandeur, so Correggio -was charmed with a notion of harmony: his line was correct when harmony -permitted; it strayed as harmony commanded. - -Elegance (sueltezza) was the principle of Parmegiano's line, but he -forgot proportion. - -Annibale Carracci, one of the founders of the Eclectic school, attempted -to combine in his line the appearance of Nature with style, and became -the standard of academic drawing. - -The medium, not the thing, was the object of the _Tuscan_ and _Venetian_ -schools; the school of Urbino[31] aimed at subjecting the medium to the -character of things; the _Lombards_ strove to unite the separate -attainments of the three with the unattainable spell of Correggio; the -_Germans_, with their Flemish and Dutch branches, now humbly followed, -now boldly attempted to improve their Italian masters; the French passed -the Alps to study at Rome and Venice what they were to forget at Paris. - -Domenichino aimed at the characteristic line of Raffaelle, the -compactness of Annibale, and the beauty of the antique; and mixing -something of each fell short of all. - -Rosso carried anatomy, and the Bolognese Abbate the poetry of their art -to the court of Francis. To the haggard melancholy of the Tuscan and the -laboured richness of the Lombard, the French added their own cold -gaiety, and the French school arose. - -The forms of Guido's female heads are abstracts of the antique. The -forms of his male bodies are transcripts of models, such as are found in -a genial climate, though sometimes distorted by fatigue or emaciated by -want. - -Pietro Testa copied the Torsos of antiquity, and supplied them with -extremities drawn from the dregs of Nature. - -The forms[32] of Caravaggio are either substantial flesh or the -starveling produce of beggary rendered important by ideal light and -shade. - -The limbs of Joseph Ribera are excrescences of disease on hectic bodies. - -Andrea Mantegna was in Italy what Albert Durer was at Nuremberg; Nature -seems not to have existed in any shape of health in his time: though a -servile copyist of the antique, he never once adverted from the -monuments he copied to the originals that inspired them. - -The forms of Albert Durer are blasphemies on Nature, the thwarted growth -of starveling labour and dry sterility--formed to inherit his hell of -paradise. To extend the asperity of this verdict beyond the forms of -Albert Durer, would be equally unjust and ungrateful to the father of -German art, on whom invention often flashed, whom melancholy marked for -her own, whose influence even on Italian art was such that he produced a -temporary revolution in the style of the Tuscan school. Andrea del Sarto -and Giacopo da Puntormo became his imitators and his copyists; nor was -his influence unfelt by Raffaelle himself, but his Christ led to the -Cross (engraved by E. Sadler),[33] compared with that of the Madonna del -Spasimo, leaves the claim of superiority doubtful for sublimity and -pathos. It is a likewise probable that we owe the horrors of the St. -Felicitas to the abominations of his Martyr scenes. The felicity of his -organs, the delicacy of his finger, the freedom and sweep of his touch, -have found an encomiast in the author of the life prefixed to the Latin -edition of his works. What would have been the result of his intended -interview, when in Italy, with Andrea Mantegna, had the death of the -latter (1505) not prevented it, is difficult to guess: if some -amelioration, certainly not the entire change of style, which the -uninterrupted study of the antique, during a long life, had failed to -produce in Andrea himself. - -The forms of Luke of Leyden are the vegetation of a swamp. - -The forms of Martin Hemskerck are dislocated lankness.[34] - -The forms of Spranger and Goltzius are blasphemies on art; the monstrous -incubations of dropsied fancy on phlegm run mad. This verdict, though -uniformly true of every male figure of Goltzius that demanded energy of -exertion, cannot be equally applied to his females, the features of the -face excepted. On limbs and bodies resembling the antique in elegance if -not correctness, he placed heads with Dutch features, ideally, often -voluptuously dressed: such are his Venus between Ceres and Bacchus; and -still more his Diana and Calisto, a composition which in elegance and -dignity excels that of Tiziano. In the dreadful familiarity with which -the guardian snake of the Beotian well approaches the companions of -Cadmus, he has touched the true vein of terror and its limits, and -atoned in some degree for the loathsome horror that had polluted his -graver, when he condescended to copy the abominable process of that -scene from the design of Pistor. - -The male forms of Rubens are the brawny pulp of slaughtermen, his -females are hillocks of roses: overwhelmed muscles, dislocated bones, -and distorted joints are swept along in a gulph of colours, as herbage, -trees and shrubs are whirled, tossed, or absorbed by vernal inundation. - -The female forms of Rembrandt are prodigies of deformity; his males are -the crippled produce of shuffling industry and sedentary toil. - -The line of Vandycke is balanced between Flemish corpulence and English -slenderness. - -Sebastian Bourdon, sublime in his conceptions, filled classic ground and -eastern vests with local limbs and Gallic actors. - -Poussin renounced his national character to follow the antique; but -could not separate the spirit from the stone. - -152. The imitator seldom mounts to the investigation of the principles -that formed his model; the copier probably never. - -153. Many beauties in art come by accident, that are preserved by -choice. - -_Coroll._--Neither the froth formed on the mouth of Jalysus' hound by a -lucky dash from the sponge of Protogenes, nor the modern experiments of -extracting composition from an ink-splashed wall, are relatives of the -beauties alluded to in this aphorism. - -154. The praise due to a work, reflects not always on its master; and -superiority may beam athwart the blemishes that we despise or pity; -some, says Milton, praised the work and some the master: would you -prefer him who is able to finish the image which he was unable to -conceive, to its inventor? - -155. It is the privilege of Nature alone to be equal. Man is the slave -of a part; the most equal artist is only the first in the list of -mediocrity. - -156. He who seeks the grand, will find it in a trifle: but some seem -made to find it only there. Rösel saw man like an insect, and insects as -Michael Angelo men. - -157. Physiognomy teaches what is homogeneous and what is heterogeneous -in forms. - -158. The solid parts of the body are the base of physiognomy, the -muscular that of pathognomy; the former contemplates the animal at rest, -this its action. - -159. Pathognomy allots expression to character. - -160. Those who allow physiognomy to regulate the great outlines of -character, and reject its minute discriminations, admit a language and -reject its elements. - -161. The difficulty of physiognomy is to separate the essence from -accident, growth from excrescence. - -162. He who aims at the sublime, consults the classes assigned to -character by physiognomy, not its anatomy of individuals; the oak in its -full majesty, and not the thwarted pollard. - -163. None ever escaped from himself by crossing seas; none ever peopled -a barren fancy and a heart of ice with images or sympathies by -excursions into the deserts of mythology or allegory. - -164. The principles of allegory and votive composition are the same; -they unite with equal right the most distant periods of time and the -most opposite modes of society: both surround a real being, or allude to -a real act, with symbols by long general consent adopted, as expressive -of the qualities, motives, and circumstances that distinguished or gave -evidence to the person or the transaction. Such is the gallery of the -Luxembourg, such the Attila of the Vatican. - -165. Pure history rejects allegory. - -_Coroll._--The armed figure of Rome, with Fortune behind her frowning at -Coriolanus, surrounded by the Roman matrons in the Volscian camp (by -Poussin), is a vision seen by that warrior, and not an allegory; it is a -sublime image, which, without diminishing the credibility of the fact, -adds to its importance, and raises the hero, by making him submit, not -to the impulse of private ties, but to the destiny of his country. - -166. All ornament ought to be allegoric. - -167. Dignity is the salt of art. - -_Coroll._--In the Salutation of Michael Angelo,[35] the angelic -messenger emerges from solitary twilight, his countenance seems to -labour with the awful message, and his knees to bend as he approaches -the mysterious personage: with virgin majesty and humble grace Mary bows -to the extended arm of the lucid herald, as if waked from sacred -meditation, and appears entranced by celestial sounds. - -The Madonnas of Raffaelle, whether hailed parents of a God, or pressing -the divine offspring to their breast, whether receiving him from his -slumbers, or contemplating his infant motions, are uniformly transcripts -from the daily domestic images of common life and of some favourite face -matronized: the eyes of his Fornarina beamed with other fires than those -of sanctity; the sense and native dignity of her lover could veil their -fierceness, but not change their language. - -The Madonna of Titiano receives her celestial visitant under an open -portico of Palladian structure, and skirted by gay gardens; the usual -ray precedes the floating angel; gold-ringleted and in festive attire, -he waves a lily wand: in sable weeds the Virgin receives the gorgeous -homage, proudly devout, like a young abbess amidst her cloistered lambs. - -Tintoretto has turned salutation into irruption. The angel bursts -through the shattered casement and terrifies a vulgar female; but his -wings are tipped in heaven.[36] - -168. Dignity gives probability to the impossible: we listen to the -monstrous tale of Ulysses with all the devotion due to a creed. By -dignity, even deformity becomes an instrument of art: Vulcan limps like -a god at the hand of Homer: the hump and withered arm of Richard are -engines of terror or persuasion in Shakspeare; the crook-back of Michael -Angelo strikes with awe. - -169. Luxuriance of ornament destroys simplicity and repose, the -attendants of dignity. - -_Coroll._--"Simon Mosca, one of the most distinguished sculptors of -ornament and foliage in the sixteenth century, when proposed by Vasari -to embellish by his designs the monument of the Cardinal di Monte, was -discountenanced by Michael Angelo on this principle." Vasari, vita de -Simone Mosca. - -170. Judge not an artist from the exertions of accidental vigour or some -unpremeditated flights of fancy, but from the uniform tenor, the -never-varying principle of his works: the line and style of Titian -sometimes expand themselves like those of Michael Angelo; the heads and -groups of Raphael sometimes glow and palpitate with Titiano's tints; and -there are masses of both united in Correggio: but if you aim at -character, let Raphael be your guide; if at colour, Tiziano; if harmony -allure, Correggio: they indulged in alternate excursions, but never lost -sight of their own domain. - -_Coroll._--No one, of whatever period of art, of whatever eminence or -school, out-told Rembrandt in telling the story of a subject, in the -choice of its real crisis, in simplicity, in perspicuity: still, as the -vile crust that involves his ore, his local vulgarity of style, the -ludicrous barbarity of his costume, prepossess eyes less penetrating -than squeamish against him, it requires some confidence to place him -with the classics of invention. Yet with all these defects, with every -prejudice or superiority of taste and style against him, what school has -produced a work (M. Angelo's Creation of Adam, and the Death of Ananias -by Raffaelle excepted,) which looks not pale in the superhuman splendour -that irradiates his conception of Christ before Pilate, unless it be the -raising of Lazarus by Lievens, a name comparatively obscure, whose awful -sublimity reduces the same subject as treated by Rembrandt and -Sebastian of Venice, to artificial parade or common-place? - -171. Tone is the moral part of colour. - -172. If tone be the legitimate principle of colour, he who has not tone, -though he should excel in individual imitation, colours in fragments and -produces discord. - -173. Harmony of colour consists in the due balance of all, equally -remote from monotony and spots. - -174. The eye tinges all nature with its own hue. The eye of the Dutch -and Flemish schools, though shut to forms, tipped the cottage, the boor, -the ale-pot, the shambles, and even the haze of winter, with orient hues -and the glow of setting suns. - -175. Clearness, freshness, force of colour, are produced by simplicity; -one pure, is more than a mixture of many. - -176. Colour affects or delights like sound. Scarlet or deep crimson -rouses, determines, invigorates the eye, as the war-horn or the trumpet -the ear; the flute soothes the ear, as pale celestial blue or rosy red -the eye. - -177. The colours of sublimity are negative or generic--such is the -colouring of Michael Angelo. - -178. The passions that sway features and limbs equally reside, -fluctuate, flash and lower in colour. - -179. The colours of pleasure and love are hues. - -180. The colour of gravity, reverie, solemnity, approaches to twilight. - -181. Colour in Raffaelle was the assistant of expression; to Titian it -was the vehicle of truth; Correggio made it the minister of harmony. It -was sometimes seized, and though reluctant held, but oftener neglected -by the first; it was embraced, it domineered over, it coalesced with -the second; it attended the third like an enchanted spirit. - -182. Lodovico Carracci was the first who gave in oil the colours of -gravity, the dignified twilight of cloistered meditation. - -183. Annibale Carracci, from want of feelings, though impressed by a -grave principle, changed the mild evening-ray of his master to the bleak -light of a sullen day. - -184. Colour owes its effect sometimes more to position and gradation -than to its intrinsic value.[37] - -185. The colour of Titian is the most independent of surrounding -objects; their union may assist, but their discrepance cannot destroy -it. - -186. The harmony of Correggio is independent of colour. - -187. Historic colour imitates, but copies not. - -188. The portrait-painter copies the colour of his object, but chooses -the medium through which that object is seen. - -189. The mixtures that anticipate the beauties of time are big with the -seeds of premature decay. - -190. The colours of health are neither cadaverous nor flushed like -meteors. - -191. There are works whose effect is entirely founded on the contrast of -tints, of what is termed warm and cold colour, and on reflected hues: -strip them of this charm, reduce them to the principles of light and -shade and masses, and as far as the want of those can degrade a -picture, they will be fit to take their places on sign-posts. - -192. Him who has freshness without frigidity, who glows without being -adust, whose tints luxuriate though not fermented by putrefaction; who -is juicy yet not clammy, though broad not empty, sharp without dryness, -clear not pellucid, airy not volatile, without being clumsy plump--him -you may venture to call a colourist. - -193. Breadth is not vacuity--Breadth might easily be obtained if -emptiness could give it. - -194. The forms of virtue are erect, the forms of pleasure undulate: -Minerva's drapery descends in long uninterrupted lines; a thousand -amorous curves embrace the limbs of Flora. - -195. Subordination is the character of drapery. The heraldry of dress, -the rows of aggregated mitres and pontifical trappings, are noticed only -for the sake of their wearers in the compositions of the Vatican. - -_Coroll._--The superiority of style in drapery over that of the limbs -which it covers in the earliest essays of art after its restoration, is -not accounted for by the assertion that it is transcribed from the -antique: if it is, by what unaccountable perverseness did the forms of -the nudities uniformly escape observation? In painting, this dissonance -continues more or less offensively from the epoch of Cimabue to that of -Masaccio, and, him excepted, down to Pinturicchio; and ceases not to -shock us in sculpture from the Pisani, to the appearance of Lorenzo -Ghiberti. Nor did that style of drapery mark only the productions of -Italian art; on this side of the Alps it invested that of Germany, from -the Angels and Madonnas of Martin Schongaver and Albert Durer, to those -of Aldegraver and Sebald Behm: in nearly all their performances, Trans -and Cisalpine, the wearer is the appendix of his garment, chucked into -vestments not his own, a dwarfish thief hid in a giant's robe. - -196. Raffael's drapery is the assistant of character; in Michael Angelo -it envelopes grandeur; it is in Rubens the ponderous robe of pomp. - -197. If Nature has not taught you to sketch, you apply in vain to art to -finish your work.[38] - -198. Some must be idle lest others should want work.[39] - -199. He who submits to follow, is not made to precede.[40] - -200. Consider it as the unalterable law of Nature that all your power -upon others depends on your own emotions. Shakspeare wept, trembled, -laughed first at what now sways the public feature; and where he did -not, he is stale, outrageous or disgusting. - -201. None but indelible materials can support the epic. Whatever is -local, or the volatile creature of the time, beauties of fashion and -sentiments of sects, tears shed over roses, epigrammatic sparkling, -passions taught to rave, and graces trained to move, the antiquary's -mouldering stores, the bubbles of allegorists--are all with equal -contempt passed over or crushed by him who claims the lasting empire of -the human heart. - -202. The invention of machines to supersede manual labour will at length -destroy population and commerce;[41] and the methods contrived to -shorten the apprenticeship of artists annihilate art. - -203. Expect no religion in times when it is easier to meet with a saint -than a man; and no art in those that multiply their artists beyond their -labourers. - -204. Expect nothing but trifles in times when those who ought to -encourage the arts are content to debase them by their own -performances. - -205. Mediocrity despatches and exults; the man of talent congratulates -himself on the success of his exertions--Genius alone mourns over -defeated expectation. - -206. Pride.--Call not him proud who is influenced by the tide and ebb of -opinion. - -207. Modesty.--The touchstone of genuine modesty is the attention paid -to criticism, and the temper with which it is received, or its advice -adopted; the most arrogant pretence, the most fiery ambition, the most -towering conceit, may fence themselves with smoothness, silence and -submissive looks--Oil, the smoothest of substances, swims on all. - -208. Praise.--Despise all praise but what he gives who has been praised -for similar efforts; or his whose interest it is to blame. - -209. Emulation.--The vindication of the innate powers, of the individual -dignity of man, careless of appendages and accidental advantage, grasps -the substance of its object. - -210. Envy, the bantling of desperate self-love, grasps the appendages, -heedless of things. Emulation embalms the dead; Envy the vampire, blasts -the living. - -211. Flattery, the midwife of half-born conceits and struggling wishes, -sometimes persuades, a boy that he is a man, a dwarf that he is a giant, -but too often enervates the limbs of energy. - -212. Vanity.--The vain is the most humble of mortals: the victim of a -pimple. - -213. Those reduced to live on the alms of genius, are the first to deny -its existence. - -214. Shakspeare is to Sophocles what the incessant flashes of a -tempestuous night are to daylight. - -215. Things came to Raffaelle and Shakspeare; Michael Angelo and Milton -came to things. - -216. The women of Michael Angelo are the sex. - -_Coroll._--Eve emerging from the side of Adam; Eve reclining under the -tree of knowledge, in the Capella Sistina; the figures of Night and Dawn -on the tombs of the Medici, are pure generic forms, little discriminated -by character, and more expressive by action than emotion of features; -solidity without heaviness separates them from the females in the Last -Judgment, which, with the exception of the Madonna and St. Catharine, -are less beholden to grace than anatomy. The Cartoon of the Leda proves -that he was not inattentive to the detail of female charms, but beauty -did not often visit his slumbers, guide his hand, or interrupt the -gravity of his meditation. - -217. The women of Raffaelle are either his own mistress, or mothers. - -_Coroll._--This relates chiefly to his Madonnas--Of his saints the St. -Cecilia at Bologna has most of antique beauty, and, whether imitated or -conceived, resembles the Niobe; but pride is absorbed in devotion, she -is the enraptured victim of divine love, and glows with celestial fire: -the goddesses of the Farnesina, however gracefully imagined, are too -ponderous for aërial forms and amorous conceits. - -218. The women of Correggio are seraglio beauties. - -_Coroll._--The enchantment of the Magdalen, in the picture of the St. -Jerome in the Pilotta at Parma, is produced by chiaroscuro and attitude. -Sensuality personified is the general character of his females, and the -grace of his children, less naiveté than grimace, the caricature of -jollity. - -219. The women of Titiano are the plump, fair, marrowy Venetian race. - -_Coroll._--Venus taking a reluctant farewell of Adonis; Diana starting -at the intrusion of Acteon, with every allure of attitude, with heads -dressed by the Graces, are local beauties, sink under the weight of -Venetian limbs, and are only distinguished by contrast from the model -that plumped herself down for his Danae. The reposing figure commonly -called the Venus of the Tribuna, is an exquisite portrait of some -favourite female, but not a Venus. - -220. The women of Parmegiano are coquettes. - -221. The women of Annibale Carracci are made up by imitation and -vulgarity. - -_Coroll._--Venus with Anchises, Juno with Jupiter, Omphale with -Hercules, Diana and Calisto in the Farnese gallery, owe their charms and -dignity of action to imitation; the celebrated three Maries, Magdalen -penitent in her hempen shroud, are the conceptions of his own mind. - -222. The women of Guido are actresses. - -223. The forms of Domenichino's female faces are ideal; their expression -is poised between pure helpless virginity and sainted ecstasy. - -224. The veiled eyes of Guercino's females dart insidious fire. - -225. Such is the fugitive essence, such the intangible texture of female -genius, that few combinations of circumstances ever seemed to favour its -transmission to posterity. - -226. In an age of luxury women have taste, decide and dictate; for in an -age of luxury woman aspires to the functions of man, and man slides into -the offices of woman. The epoch of eunuchs was ever the epoch of -viragoes. - -227. Female affection is ever in proportion to the impression of -superiority in the object. Woman fondles, pities, despises and forgets -what is below her; she values, bears and wrangles with her equal; she -adores what is above her. - -228. Be not too squeamish in the choice of your materials; you will -disgrace the best, if you cannot give value to the worst: the gold and -azure wasted on Rosselli's[42] draperies cannot give value to their -folds or hide the wants beneath. - -229. There are moments when all are men, and only men, and ought to be -no more; but the artist, who when his daily task is over can lock his -meditation up with his tools--ranks with mechanics. - -230. Date the death of emulation and of excellence from the moment of -your employer's indifference; and mediocrity of success from the moment -of his meddling with the process of your work. - -231. One of the most unexplored regions of art are dreams, and what may -be called the personification of sentiment: the Prophets, Sibyls and -Patriarchs of Michael Angelo are so many branches of one great -sentiment. The dream of Raffaello is a characteristic representation of -a dream; the dream of Michael Angelo is moral inspiration, a sublime -sentiment. - -_Coroll._--Of three visionary subjects ascribed to Raffaello and known -from the prints of Marc Antonio, Georgio Mantuano, and Agostino -Veneziano, this alludes to the last, called by the Italians Stregozzo, -by the French "La Carcasse:" an association of ideas big with the very -elements of dreams, and almost a definition. That it be a conception of -Raffaello rests on no other proof than the tablet of Marc Antonio and -its own internal merit; which is so uniform that although one principal -figure is undoubtedly transcribed from another in the cartoon of Pisa, -the whole can never be considered as a pasticcio. - -232. A trite subject becomes interesting by the introduction of -appropriate ornaments; a small statue of Moses breaking the tables in -the back-ground of a Salutation; and a number of Baptists in that of a -Madonna with her son and Joseph, expressing the dissolution of the old -and the institution of the new doctrine, both by Michael Angelo,[43] -give unexpected sublimity to subjects for which Raffaelle and Titiano -had ransacked in vain the nursery and heaven. - -233. Compilation is the lowest degree in art, but let him who means to -borrow with impunity, follow the statesman's maxim: "strip the mean and -spare the great." - -_Coroll._--A composition of which every thing was borrowed from himself, -being shown to Michael Angelo, and his opinion asked, "I commend it," -said he, "but when on the day of judgement each body shall claim its -original limbs, what will remain in this picture?" - -234. He ought to possess some himself, who attempts to make use of -borrowed excellence: a golden goblet on a beggar's table, serves only to -expose its companions of lead. - -235. Resemblance, character, costume, are the three requisites of -portrait: the first distinguishes, the second classifies, the third -assigns place and time to an individual. - -236. Landscape is either the transcript of a spot, or a picturesque -combination of homogeneous objects, or the scene of a phenomenon. The -first pleases by precision and taste; the second adds variety and -grandeur; the third may be an instrument of sublimity, affect our -passions, or wake a sentiment. - -237. Selection is the invention of the landscape painter. - -238. He never can be great who honours what is little. - -_Coroll._--Grandeur of style and execution do not exclusively depend -upon dimensions: but in an age and amidst a race who have erected -littleness or rather diminutiveness of size to the only credentials of -admissibility into collections, to the passports without which Raffaelle -himself finds it difficult to penetrate the sanctuaries of pigmy art, -that which ennobled the age of Pericles, of Julio, and Leone, must be -content to look to posterity for its reward. If it were physiognomically -true, that the structure of every human face bears some analogy to that -of some brute, it might reasonably surprise, that an individual marked -by nature with no very remote resemblance to a Hippopotamus, should be -considered as the legislator of a taste equally noted for tameness of -conception and effeminate finish; but as it is improbable that one -individual, however favoured by circumstances or endowed with -all-persevering activity, or arrogance, could stamp the taste of a -nation exclusively with his own, it may be fairly surmised that he did -no more than find and rear the seeds of that Micromania which infects -the public taste. - -239. The medium of poetry is time and action; that of the plastic arts, -space and figure. Poetry then is at its summit, when its hand arrests -time and embodies action: and these, when they wing the marble or the -canvass, and from the present moment dart rays back to the past and -forward to the future. - -_Coroll._--Subjects are positive, negative, repulsive. The first are the -proper materials, the voluntary servants of invention; to the second she -gives interest and value; from the last she can escape only by the help -of execution, for execution alone can palliate her defeat by the last. -The Laocoon, the Hæmon and Antigone, the Niobe and her daughters, the -death of Ananias, the Sacrifice at Lystra, Elymas struck blind, are -positive subjects, speak their meaning with equal evidences to the -scholar and the unlettered man, and excite the sympathy due to the calls -of terror and pity with equal energy in every breast. St. Jerome -presenting the translation of his Bible to the Infant Jesus, St. Peter -at the feet of the Madonna receiving the thanksgivings of victorious -Venice, with every other votive altar-piece, little interesting to -humanity in general, owe the impression they make on us to the dexterous -arrangement, the amorous or sublime enthusiasm of the artist;--but we -lament to see invention waste its powers, and execution its skill, to -excite our feelings for an action or event that receives its real -interest from a motive which cannot be rendered intuitive; such as -Alceste expiring, the legacy of Eudamidas, the cause of Demetrius's -disorder. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[2] Tacit. Annal. lib. VI. "Nullam ob eximiam artem, sed quod par -negotiis, neque supra erat." - -[3] D. Longin. peri upsous, § 34. - -[4] "Les hommes qui ont changé l'univers, n'y sont jamais parvenus en -gagnant des chefs; mais toujours en remuant des masses. Le premier moyen -est du ressort de l'intrigue, et n'amène que des résultats secondaires; le -second est la marche du Génie, et change la face du monde."--_Napoleon._ - -[5] Tacit. Annal. lib. xiv. et xvi. - -[6] Difficile est proprie communia dicere. Hor. A.P. - -[7] Ton d' ar' hypo zugophin prosephe podas aiolos ippos. Iliad xix. 404. -----Rhoebe diu, etc.--_Virg._ x. - -[8] Plin. lib. xxxv. - -[9] This picture, during a period of nearly half a century, graced the -collection of Charles Lambert, Esq. of Paper-buildings, Temple; where it -remained without having been washed or varnished. At his death it was -purchased by my friend Mr. Knowles, has been cleaned by a skilful hand, -and restored to nearly its pristine state. - -[10] Sea Voyage, Act 3rd. sc. 1st. - -[11] Dante Inferno, Cant. xxiv. - -[12] ETHE. Mores. Plin. l. xxxv. - -[13] The Necromantia of Nicias--the sacking of a town, by Aristides. -Plin. l. xxxv. - -[14] A group of Stephanus in the Villa Ludovisi, known by the name of -Papyrius and his mother, called a Phædra and Hippolytus, or an Electra -with Orestes, by J. Winkelmann, bears more resemblance to an Æthra with -Theseus, or a Penelope with Telemachus. - -[15] Gallum inficetissime linguam exserentem.--Plin. l. xxxv. - -[16] Plin. l. xxx. W. c. xiv. - -[17] Commonly named the Dying Gladiator; by J. Winkelmann called a -Herald; with more probability the "Vulneratus deficiens, in quo possit -intelligi quantum restet animæ." A work of Ctesilas in bronze, was -probably the model of this. Plin. l. xxxiv. - -[18] Sueton. l. vi. - -[19] In one of the cartoons of Raffaello, now lost, but still in some -degree existing in tapestry and in print. - -[20] Engraved by G. Audran. - -[21] In the cartoon of Peter and John. - -[22] Iliad, L. xviii. l. 93; L. xvi. l. 74 and 75; L. ix. l. 346. - -[23] Commonly called the Castor and Pollux of Monte Cavallo,--the name -given from their horses to the Quirinal. - -[24] Plin. N.H. l. xxxv. c. ix. Tantus diligentia, ut Agrigentinis -facturus tabulam, quam in templo Junonis Lucinæ publice dicarent, -inspexerit virgines eorum nudas, et quinque elegerit, ut quod in quaque -laudatissimum esset, pictura redderet. - -[25] Mengs Lettera à don A. Ponz. Opere di A.R. Mengs, t. ii. p. 83. - -[26] Such was probably that austerity of tone in the works of Athenion, -which the ancients preferred to the sweetness or gayer tints of -Nicias--"austerior colore et in austeritate jucundior."--Plin. l. xxxv. -c. xi. - -[27] See the sonnet of Agostino Carracci, which begins "Chi farsi un bon -Pittor cerca e desia," &c. which the author himself seems to ridicule by -the manner in which he concludes. - -[28] Ouk agathon polukoiranie eis koiranos esto. Il. ii. 204. The -conception of every great work must originate in one, though it may be -above the power or strength of one to execute the whole. - -[29] Pliny, l. xxxiv. c. 8. - -[30] In the Letter to C.B. Castiglione. Ideal is properly the -representation of pure human essence. - -[31] Raffaelle and the best of his pupils; their successors, commonly -known by the name of the Roman school, followed principles diametrically -opposite. - -[32] "Macinava carne," said Annibale Carracci. - -[33] Ægidius Sadeler sculpsit ex Prototypo Alberti Dureri. - -[34] "Elumbis," as applied by the author of the Dialogue on Orators to -the style of Brutus, will nearly suit all imitators of Michael Angelo. - -[35] In the Sacristy of St. Giovanni in Laterano, painted from the -cartoon by Marcello Venusti. - -[36] This and the foregoing picture are in the Scuola di S. Rocco at -Venice. The skeleton of the former is known by an etching of _Le Fevre_. - -[37] "Whoever looks at a picture by Correggio of a glorified Madonna -with a St. Sebastian and other figures, at Dresden, is instantly -surprised by the light of the glory, which has all the splendour of a -sun, though painted with a low-toned yellow, and dim at the -extremities." - -Opere di R. Mengs, t. ii. p. 161. - -[38] John, called da Bologna, showed a model to Michael Angelo smoothly -polished; Michael Angelo took, and, heedless of its finish, twisted it -about; then giving it back to the student, "Learn," said he, "to sketch -before you attempt to finish." - -[39] Such was the proud answer of Frà Sebastian del Piombo, grown fat by -the signet of St. Peter, when asked why he had entirely resigned all -exercise of his art. - -[40] Said Michael Angelo, when asked whether the copy of the Laocoon by -Baccio Bandinelli was not equal or superior to the original. Titiano, -with more mordacity though surely with less discrimination, ridiculed -the copyist by a caricature in which the Trojan with his sons were -changed to baboons. - -[41] "Sineret se plebeculam pascere," said Vespasian to the artist who -had contrived a machine to convey some large columns with a trifling -expense to the Capitol, and rewarded him without accepting his offer. - -[42] Cosmo Rosselli, one of the Tuscan painters who preceded Michael -Angelo in decorating the Chapel of Sixtus IV. - -[43] This is the Madonna painted for Angelo Doni, now in the Tribuna of -Florence, and probably the only existing oil-picture of Michael Angelo, -though Lanzi rejects its title to that. Vasari mentions it with his -usual extravagance of praise, but appears ignorant of the real meaning -of the figures. - - - - -A HISTORY OF ART IN THE SCHOOLS OF ITALY. - - - - -THE TUSCAN SCHOOL. - - -The analogy of style observable in the figures impressed on Tuscan coins -of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth century, and those found in the -miniatures that decorate the manuscripts of the contemporary periods, -proves that Tuscany had its artists long before the epoch which Vasari -and his copyists fix for the importation of Greek art with Greek -artists: whether those paintings be all pure Tuscan, or here and there -interspersed with Greek ones, none will venture to decide, who knows the -impossibility of drawing a limitary line sufficiently severe to -distinguish the last spasms of an expiring art from the first -stammerings of an infant one. Of the still surviving monuments of -painting during those epochs, it may be sufficient to mention the famed -Christ, painted on canvass and glued to a wooden cross, of a date -anterior to 1003. - -In subsequent times, the earliest and least unsuccessful essays in art, -were made by the Pisano. Whilst a Greek sarcophagus at Pisa, storied -with the incidents of Hippolytus and Phædra, furnished some elements of -form to the sculptors Niccolo and Giovanni Pisano, painting made some -progress with Giunta Pisano: his composition of Christ on the Cross at -the Angeli of Assisi, though defective in design, possesses life and -expression.[44] - -A similar progress was made by his contemporary Guido or Guidone of -Sienna; a name not mentioned by Vasari, though in his frequent -excursions to Sienna, he could not remain unacquainted with the works of -Guido, at least one which still exists in the chapel of the Malevolti -in S. Dominico, with the following often repeated inscription and -date:-- - - Me Guido de senis diebus depinxit amenis - Quem Christus lenis nullis velit agere penis. - A.D. M.CCXXI. - -This Madonna, twenty years anterior to the birth of Cimabue, is superior -to his Madonna in expression, and nearly equal in taste and colour, -though inferior in style. - -Duccio di Boninsegna, probably of his school, was celebrated as the -restorer of that inlaid kind of Mosaic, called "Lavoro di Commesso." His -works are from 1275, the year in which he received a commission for -Sta. Maria Novella at Florence, to 1311, the period at which he was -employed in the Domo of Sienna. If these dates be genuine, he can -scarcely have lived till 1357, the year at which Fiorillo fixes his -death. It is not probable that he should have stretched his span beyond -a century, which must have been the case, if we suppose that he was -twenty at the time he painted in S. Maria Novella; it is not probable -that he should have chosen, or been suffered, to remain idle with the -celebrity he had acquired in the labours of the Domo; and it is still -less probable, that, if he was employed, what he produced in the -interval, between that period and his death, should have perished or -been destroyed, whilst we are still in possession of the paintings in -the Domo, which made nearly an epoch in art, at which he laboured three -years, for which he was paid upwards of 3000 scudi d'oro, the expense of -gilding and ultramarine included. That part of it which faced the -audience, represented in large figures the Madonna and various saints; -that which fronted the choir, divided into many compartments, exhibited -numerous compositions of Gospel subjects in figures of small proportion; -it cannot be denied, that with all its copiousness, the whole savours -strongly of the Greek manner. - -Andrea Taffi, born 1213, the scholar of Apollonius, a Greek painter, and -his assistant in some mosaics at S. Giovanni of Florence, is not -mentioned out of that line by Vasari and Baldinucci: but the discovery -of a picture with his name by Ignazio Stugford adds another legitimate -name to the predecessors of Cimabue. - -Buonamico di Cristofano, or Buffalmacco, of facetious memory, was the -pupil of Taffi. His best works are lost, but from the remains it may be -suspected that he owes at least as much to the tales of Boccaccio and -Sacchetti, for the preservation of his name, as to his own powers. There -still exists in Campo Santo at Pisa, a fresco of the Creation with a God -Father five ells high, supporting Heaven and the elements; and three -other stories of Adam, Noah and his Sons; a Crucifix, a Resurrection, -and an Ascension. We must not look here for much symmetry of design or -Giottesque elegance; his heads have little variety, and less beauty; -sameness of features, a vulgar cast, and a gaping deformity of mouth, -characterize his women; but now and then attention rests on the vivacity -or physiognomy of some male countenance, especially that of Cain. -Sometimes he snatches some movement from nature, such as that of the -terrified man who flies from Calvary: he overflows in particoloured -drapery, and delights in laboured ornaments of flowers and lace. A St. -John the Baptist of his, yet existing, deserves to be mentioned as an -instance of the utility of comparing works in painting and sculpture -with contemporary coins, in order to ascertain their dates; for the -same figure is exactly repeated on the Florentine scudo d'oro of that -age. A jocular host of artists, scholars of this school, we pass over, -as more important to the reader of the Decamerone and the Novelle, than -to the student of art. - -Lucca, about 1235, possessed Bonaventura Berlingieri, whose St. Francis -still exists in the castle of Guiglia, near Modena, and is described as -a work of considerable merit for its time: Margaritone of Arezzo, a -pupil and follower of the Greeks, appears to have been several years -anterior to Cimabue. He painted on canvass, and was the first, according -to Vasari, who found the method of giving a more solid texture to -pictures. Some crucifix of his is still seen at Arezzo, and another at -Santa Croce in Florence, facing one of Cimabue. The style of both is -antiquated, but not so different in merit to make us refuse a painter's -name to Margaritone if we grant it to Cimabue. - -Giovanni Cimabue,[45] of noble lineage, was an architect and painter. He -is considered as the father of Italian art, because with him legitimate -history and a less interrupted series of dates, begin; because he -succeeded better than his predecessors in disentangling himself from the -shackles of Greek barbarity, and chiefly because he discovered and -called forth the genius of Giotto. Vasari may be right in making him the -scholar of those Greeks whom the Florentine Government had employed to -paint the Church of Santa Maria Novella; but he errs in placing them in -the Chapel Gondi, which, with the body of the church, was not erected -till the subsequent century; he should have assigned them another chapel -under the church, where time has discovered some vestiges of ancient -painting. It seems, however, more probable, that Giunta Pisano gave -Cimabue instruction, if it be ascertained, as Fiorillo asserts, that he -worked in the great church of Assisi, 1253, when he was in his -thirteenth year, and Giunta superintended the decorations of that -fabric. - -The pompous visit which Charles of Anjou paid to Cimabue in passing -through Florence, sufficiently proves the celebrity he enjoyed, if it -has not been sanctioned by the authority of Dante, who calls him the -unrivalled champion of his day. Cimabue was then painting the Madonna -with the Infant adored by six angels; the picture when finished was -carried in procession from Borgo Allegro to Santa Maria Novella, and -placed in the Chapel Rucellai, where it still exists. The heraldic -arrangement of the figures, their physiognomic monotony, the exility of -the detail and barbarous execution, contrast strangely with the -elevation and novelty of the artist's conception. Cimabue lost the -female and the mother in the Queen of Heaven. Insensible to the -blandishments of beauty, fierce like the age in which he lived, he -excelled in male, especially aged characters; these he impressed with -something of a stern grandeur, not often surpassed since. Vast and -comprehensive in his ideas, he seized on subjects of numerous -composition, and expressed them in large proportions; those features of -prophetic grandeur which surprise in his frescoes at the Dominicans and -Santa Trinità of Florence, are still excelled by the features which he -displayed in the upper church of Assisi--meteors of the age in which he -lived. They still exist, nor is it easily conceived how works of so -different style, against the testimony of Vasari, and the uniform -tradition of five centuries, could, as they were of late, be ascribed -to the more regulated hand and gentler spirit of Giotto. - -Giotto's year of birth has been disputed; Vasari fixes it to 1276, -Baldinucci to 1265. He was the son of a cottager at Vespignano, and bred -to be a shepherd; but, a painter born, he amused himself from infancy -with attempts to draw whatever object struck his fancy. A sheep which he -had copied on a flat stone caught the eye of Cimabue, who was in the -neighbourhood, happened to pass by, demanded him of his father, and -carried him to Florence to instruct him; but he soon rivalled, and in a -short time eclipsed his master by a grace and an amenity of execution -which remained unequalled to the time of Masaccio. - -For the rapidity of this progress, unless we were to ascribe it to -inspiration, we must account from the happy coincidence of external -advantages with the genius of the man. A period so obscure, admits of -little more than conjecture, but there is no improbability in supposing -that Giotto outstripped his master and the times by the same means which -rendered Michael Agnolo so soon superior to Ghirlandaio,--modelling -and the study of the antique. We know that he was a sculptor, and that -his models still existed in the time of Lorenzo Ghiberti. Good originals -he could find among the fragments of antiquity discovered before his -time, and scattered over Florence and Rome: from what other source could -he derive the character of his male heads, and that squareness of form -so different from the exility and indecision of all contemporary styles? -The few majestic natural folds of his draperies, and the composure and -unaffected air of his figures, breathe the spirit of the antique. His -very defects are the consequences of such a study. His manner has been -charged with a kind of _statuine_ precision (del statuino), unknown to -other schools, and unknown to artists who do not form themselves on the -antique. - -If to these conjectures it be objected, that the want of uniformity, -dryness of design, extremities either faulty or hid under a preposterous -length of drapery, rather betray a nurseling of Pisa than a pupil of the -ancients; it ought to be considered that uniformity is the result of -settled principles; that he who had to remove the rubbish could not be -expected to give the polish; that he who had to teach eyes to look, -hands to move, and feet to stand, could not be supposed to make them do -it with all the correctness, propriety or elegance, they were capable -of; that a certain gymnophobia equally attends the infancy and the -decrepitude of taste, and that the approbation of a public and an -artist's flattery are always reciprocal. - -And no artist commanded more of public favour than Giotto. Legislator of -taste, not in Tuscany alone, but at Rome, Naples, Bologna, and the -Venetian State, he excelled his master as much in celebrity as he had -excelled him in grace and method. How soon he did this may be seen on -comparing his earliest works at Assisi with those of his master in the -same place. Genuine elements of composition, expressions inspired by -Nature, accuracy of design, progressively appear. It is no hyperbole to -affirm, that in certain characters no artist ever went nearer the source -of expression than Giotto, and that in the maiden airs of untainted -virginity none ever excelled, and perhaps, Raphael and Domenichino -excepted, few ever approached him. - -Though not the inventor, Giotto was the restorer of portrait-painting; -resemblance, with character of face and attitude, date from him. He gave -us Dante, Brunetto Latini, Corso Donato, &c. Mosaic was improved by him, -and his powers in it shown by the celebrated Navicella, or boat of Saint -Peter, in the portico of the Basilica at Rome; though restoration has -transformed it to a work of shreds and patches, and reduced his claim on -it to the mere name. Missal painting likewise owes him some gratitude; -and in architecture the grand steeple of the Domo at Florence is the -work of Giotto. - -Implicit imitation checks progress; the numerous school of Giotto were -for the greater part content to walk behind their master. Taddeo Gaddi, -the most familiar and most favoured of his pupils, is said by Vasari, -whom time still suffered to judge with some competence, to have excelled -him in colouring and mellowness. The works of Taddeo in Sta. Croce -are inferior in originality and execution to his compositions in the -Capitolo degli Spagnuoli, where, in the ceiling, he represented some -Gospel subjects, and in the Cenacolo the Descent of the Holy Spirit, one -of the beautiful relics of the fourteenth century. On the sides he -painted the Sciences, with their most eminent professors under each, no -unfair specimen of poetic conception; here is what remains of vivacity -and brightness in his tints. Taddeo outlived the period assigned him by -Vasari; we find him mentioned as late as 1352, which still might not be -the ultimate date of his life. - -Another conspicuous name among his pupils is Stefano of Florence, -(Fiorentino,) whom Vasari, without hesitation, in every part of the art -prefers to his master. He was the son of one Catharina, a daughter of -Giotto; an ardent and inquisitive spirit, quick to discover and eager to -overcome difficulties; the first who ventured on foreshortening, and if -success did not fully second his efforts in that, it favoured him in -perspective, which he much improved, and in the attitudes, variety and -vivacity of heads. Landino fancied to compliment his memory by repeating -the silly epithet of "Scimia della Natura," "Ape of Nature," which, from -the resemblance of his portraits, was given him by the vulgar and the -dilettanti of his day. His works in Ara Coeli at Rome, at S. Spirito of -Florence, and elsewhere, perished, and nothing can safely be stamped -with his name, if it be not a Madonna in Campo Santo at Pisa, grander in -style than those of his master, but retouched. - -Of Tommaso, his son and reputed scholar, a Pietà, which might be taken -for a work of Giotto, exists at S. Remigi of Florence; and still some -frescoes at Assisi. They entitle him to the surname of "Giottino," given -him by his fellow-citizens, who used to say that the spirit of Giotto -had passed into him and animated his hand. - -Without embarrassing ourselves with conjectures on Ugolino da Sienna, we -pass to the more celebrated name of Simone Memmi, or Simon di Martino, a -native of the same place, the painter of Laura, and the friend of -Petrarca, who in two affected sonnets has transmitted him to posterity. -Whether Simone were the pupil of Maestro Mino as the Siennese, or of -Giotto as the Florentine writers pretend, is a point beyond decision: he -restored a picture of the first, and his style has some analogy to that -of the second, though with more suavity of colour, and more poetry of -conception. He was the first who dared to fill a spacious façade with -one composition without dividing it into compartments. Such is that in -the Capitolo degli Spagnuoli of Santa Maria Novella at Florence, where -Vasari discovered every beauty of his own time, and where, in the crowd -of introduced portraits, many have fancied, in spite of chronology, to -discover the portraits of Laura and her friend; whom probably he did not -become personally acquainted with till four years after the completion -of that work, 1336, when he was sent to the Pope at Avignon, became -familiar with Petrarca, painted Laura, and, strange to tell, reached the -expectation of the lover, who saw - - "Il lampegiar dell' angelico riso." - -Miniature, though the last object of this work, was not the least of -Memmi's powers. Lanzi has noticed one which fronts a MS. Virgil with the -commentary of Servius, now in the Ambrosiana at Milan, but formerly -possessed by Petrarca, who probably dictated the subject, and added the -following lines:- - - Mantua Virgilium qui talia carmina finxit, - Sena tulit Simonem digito qui talia pinxit. - -The painting represents Virgil in a sitting attitude ready to write, -with his face turned upwards as invoking the Muse. Æneas, in martial -vest and attitude, stands before him, and pointing to his sword, alludes -to the subject of the Æneis, "Arma Virumque." A shepherd and a -husbandman, symbols of the Pastorals and Georgics, placed somewhat -lower, listen to the theme; whilst Servius draws a transparent curtain, -to denote his labours in unveiling the beauties and removing the -obscurities of the poet. In this miniature, the originality of -conception, the beauty and harmony of colour, the varied and appropriate -drapery, are, however, balanced by rudeness of design, vulgarity of -character, and deformed extremities. - -It was a barbarous singularity of Simone, promiscuously to admit -different proportions on the same plane: to flank or cross figures of -natural size with figures a third less than nature. - -Lippo, or Filippo Memmi, was the relative, scholar, and imitator, of -Simone: assisted by his designs, Lippo often executed works, which, had -he not marked them with his name, would be ascribed to the master: when -left to his own invention, he rose in nothing above mediocrity, but in -colour. Sometimes they were partners in the same picture, as in that at -S. Ansano di Castel Vecchio, at Sienna; sometimes the second finished -what the first began, as in some works at Ancona and Assisi; and at -Sienna there remains still something entirely executed by Lippo. - -Simone co-operated in the works of S. Maria Novella with Taddeo Gaddi, -who, with his son, Angelo Gaddi, left a number of pupils, imitators -through him of Giotto, inferior to both, not much distinguished by -tradition, and less favoured by time. Of Jacopo di Casentino, the most -conspicuous, what vestiges remain in the church of Orsanmichele at -Florence, are in conformity with the style of Taddeo; barriers soon -overleaped by the vivid fancy of his scholar, Spinello the Aretine, whom -his own conception of a demon is said to have terrified into insanity -and death. His son, Parri Spinelli, with barbarous incongruities of -line, possessed exquisite colour; and his pupil, Lorenzo di Bicci, has -been compared to Vasari, for the number, dispatch, and opinion of his -works. Antonio, surnamed Veneziano, whether he were a Venetian or a -Florentine, is, against evidence of dates and style, supposed to have -been a pupil of Angelo Gaddi, and to have educated Paolo Uccello, the -first master of perspective, and Gherardo Starnina, an artist of gay -style, whose relics live still a chapel of Sta. Croce. They are -numbered among the last productions of Giotto's expiring epoch, and the -verge of the fourteenth century, in which we have still to mark, though -pupils of some other school, the family of Orcagna; Bernardo, a painter; -Jacopo, a sculptor; but chiefly Andrea, conspicuous for writing, -painting, sculpture, and architecture, in a degree little inferior to -Giotto himself. Architects date from him the abolition of the acute -angle and restoration of semicircular arches, as in the Loggia of the -Lanzi, which he likewise decorated with sculpture. Some, without -attention to time, have supposed him the pupil of Angelo Gaddi, but he -was probably trained to the art by his brother Bernardo, jointly with -whom he painted in the Capella Strozzi of Sta. Maria Novella, in the -Campo Santo at Pisa, and alone and better in Sta. Croce, Death, -Judgement, Paradise, and Hell, placing with Dantesque licence his -friends among the elect, his enemies with the damned. - -The downfall of Pisa had raised Florence to the metropolis of Tuscany, -and the spirit of its citizens to render its appearance worthy of that -pre-eminence. Cosmo, styled the father of his country, who tuned the -public affairs, might with better right have been called the father of -distinguished talents: never was tyranny meditated on a less suspicious -plan, or approached by more popular means. The house of the Medici, in -the quaint Italian phrase, became the Lyceum of Philosophers, the -Arcadia of Poets, the Academy of Artists. Dello, Paolo, Masaccio, the -two Peselli, both the Lippi, Benozzo, Sandro, the Ghirlandai, were the -clients of the family, and emulated each other in their homage. Their -pictures, according to the usage of the age, full of portraits, -perpetually presented to the people likenesses of the Medici, and often -in the characters of the Magi royally robed, the sceptre firmly held in -the gripe of the Medici, to prepare the public eye gradually for what it -was soon to witness, the firm establishment of sovereignty in that -House. The competition of rival citizens, and still more the -wide-extended influence of religion, diffused Taste and beckoned Talent -to Florence as to its centre, from every part of Italy. At her call -Donatello, Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Filarete, the Rossellini, Verrocchio -arose, and with their works spread the Elements of Art. - -Poetry, that supplies the real features and materials of expression when -it inspires the thought, arrives at the full display of its powers long -before its sisters have disentangled themselves from the impediments of -infancy; and of these, Sculpture, whose aim is infinitely less complex, -raises the vigorous fabric of forms, whilst Painting is still impotently -struggling with the rudiments of line, perspective, keeping, -chiaroscuro, colour; which to unite in an equal degree has hitherto been -found above the lot of humanity. The imitators of Giotto were in this -state of struggle; they saw little in chiaroscuro, and less in -perspective and line; their figures still slip from their planes, their -fabrics have no true point of sight, their fore-shortenings depended -solely on the eye: Stefano dal Ponte rather saw than overcame; the rest -either avoided or palliated these difficulties. The Umbrian Pietro della -Francesca seems to have been the first who called geometry to the -assistance of painting, and taught by his works at Arezzo the -principles of perspective; Brunelleschi formed it into system for -architecture, and the mathematician Manetti roused the attention of -Paolo Uccello, who owes the perpetuity of his name nearly exclusively to -the study of that science. His immoderate attachment to perspective is -become proverbial;[46] and almost equalled his fondness for birds, from -which he got his surname. He applied it, from grounds and buildings, to -the human body, which he foreshortened with a skill unknown to his -predecessors: and some proofs of it still exist in the figures of God -and Noè among the chiaroscuroes in the chiostro of Sta. Maria -Novella, and in the equestrian colossus of Gio. Aguto (John Montacute), -which he painted in chiaroscuro of terra verde, and which is still in -the duomo. The art, since its revival, perhaps for the first time showed -that, if it had dared much, it had dared well: nor did he fall short of -it in the gigantic imagery of the House Vitali at Bologna; he was, -however, more employed in painting private furniture: the triumphs of -Petrarch on some small presses in the gallery of Florence are supposed -to come from his hand. That he was a master of expression, the instances -adduced by Vasari leave no doubt; and in describing the flying drapery -of some friar in the series of pictures relative to S. Benedetto, the -same writer tells us, that it served as a model to all succeeding -artists: to such powers, praise of variety is added by the truth and -diligence with which he copied trees, plants, birds and animals, and for -which some critic styles him the Bassano of the first epoch. In the -nearly general wreck of Paolo's works, it is difficult to form a -judgment of his technic character independent of tradition: but, -comparing what remains with what we are told, it is evident that he -reached from one extreme of the Art to the other; and that, if he was -blameable for frequently playing with a tool instead of using it, -mistaking an instrument of the Art for Art itself, and means for the end -of execution, he has been deprived by partiality of the praise due to -powers which he appears to have possessed in a degree unknown to the -times that preceded Masaccio. - -Masolino da Panicale cultivated chiaroscuro: he was enabled to treat it -with more truth than his predecessors, by a long practice of modelling -under the tuition of Lorenzo Ghiberti, the master of design and grouping -in those days, but whose animation he did not attain. Starnina -instructed him in colour; and thus by uniting the characteristics of two -schools, he produced that new style, which, though still infected by -dryness and clogged by inelegance, possesses grandeur, union and -breadth: the proofs still remain in the chapel of S. Pietro al Carmine, -where, besides the Evangelists, he painted several subjects from the -story of that Apostle. The remaining ones, which he did not live to -finish, were some years afterward added by his scholar Tomaso Gisioli, -celebrated by the name of Masaccio from his careless way of living. - -Historians, biographers, and poets, unite in dating a new period from -Masaccio. The compass of his mind led him to uniformity of pursuit, and -the introduction of style; he had formed his principles on the works of -Ghiberti and Donatello; perspective he had learnt of Brunelleschi, and -in an excursion to Rome, it is unreasonable to suppose that he did not -improve himself on the antique. Gentile da Fabriano and Vittore -Pisanello were then at Rome, and the high opinion which they are said to -have expressed of him[47] as the first painter of the age has been -recorded: it is, however, difficult to say on what that opinion could be -founded: they were too far advanced in life to see more of Masaccio than -his juvenile essays, perhaps such as the S. Anna in S. Ambrogio at -Florence, or what he painted in the chapel of St. Catherine, in the -church of St. Clemens of Rome, the figures of the ceiling excepted, all -retouched, and though fine works for the time, of doubtful authority, -and in no manner to be compared to the pictures del Carmine. Here appear -the virility of his powers and the legitimacy of his superior claim: -here the figures, however varied by attitude, pose or are foreshortened -with that truth and uniformity of success which the less established -principles of Paolo Uccello did not always reach. In expression, -sublimity distinguishes Donatello; he always aims at, and sometimes -succeeds in personifying a sentiment or a passion.[48] Masaccio, more -dramatic, poises expression by character and propriety; hence he has -been said, and truly said, to resemble Raffaello. - -To be praised immoderately for what, with regard to judgment, deserved -it least, has, as of others, been likewise the lot of Masaccio: the -introduction and masterly execution of the man who, in the baptism of -St. Peter, appears to shiver with cold, is extolled by Vasari, and -makes, by the verdict of Lanzi, an epoch in art. Had the apostle -immersed the race of a Northern clime, a man frost-bitten, (_assiderando -di freddo_,) or impatient of cold, might have been admitted without -impropriety, but under an Asiatic sun he is worse than superfluous. This -either Masaccio did not consider, or if he did, fondly sacrificed -propriety to the expression of an incident, which, had it even been -admissible, had in itself less dignity, and incomparably less pathos, -than that of the sick monk on whose eyes and lips the hope of recovery -seemed to tremble, introduced among the series of pictures from the life -of St. Benedict, by Paolo Uccello.[49] - -A higher and more legitimate praise of Masaccio's expression is, that -Raffaello not only imitated its general character, but in the same or -similar subjects sometimes individually adopted it, as in the gesture of -Paul in the Cartoon of the Areopagus, and that of Adam dismissed from -Paradise, in the Loggia; and that, if he improved the taste and added -elegance to the Tuscan's drapery, he closely adhered to its principles, -simplicity, propriety, and breath. - -Of Masaccio's colour, what remains possesses truth, variety, delicacy, -union, and great relief. He lived not to finish the whole of the Chapel, -some stories still remaining to be added in 1443, the reputed year of -his death,[50] which was not without suspicion of having been hastened -by poison. His other frescoes at Florence have been destroyed by time, -and perhaps no gallery can produce an authentic picture by his hand, if -we except the portrait of a youth in the Pitti palace, a work that -breathes life. - -Ghiberti and Donatello had taught Masaccio to find style by selection -from nature; his followers for half a century, content to look at him -without adhering to his method, gradually shrunk back to the exility and -meagreness of the preceding age: without embarrassing ourselves with the -angelic prettinesses of Frà Giovanni da Fiesole, a name dearer to -sanctity than to art, and whom both his age and missal-taste prove the -nursling of another school, we pass to Benozzo Gozzoli, his pupil, who -strove to forget his puny lessons in the bolder dictates of Masaccio. - -That he could not soon do it, is evident from the profusion of -ornamental glitter and tinsel colouring in the frescoes of the Chapel -Riccardi. He succeeded better at Pisa, where his Scripture stories cover -an entire wing of Campo Santo. This enormous enterprise, which, in the -phrase of Vasari might smite with fear a legion of painters,[51] he is -said to have completely achieved in two years. Everywhere inferior to -his model in composition, design, and expression, he often goes beyond -him in vastness and amenity of scenery, a certain play of ideas and -picturesque exuberance. After all, perhaps more than one hand shared in -the execution. Benozzo lived long, and lies buried near his work, where -public gratitude had placed his sepulchre, and inscribed it with an -eulogy.[52] - -Filippo Lippi, a Carmelitan friar, studied and imitated the works of -Masaccio, especially in compositions of small proportion, with great -success. Suavity of conception and colour animates his angels and -Madonnas: in the large historic frescoes at Pieve di Prato, he -introduced proportions exceeding the natural size, praised as his -masterpieces by Vasari, who has related Lippi's escape from the convent; -his captivity among the Moors; the pictures which he painted at Naples, -Padoua, and elsewhere; his premature death by poison from the relatives -of the female by whom he had a natural son, Filippino Lippi. Frà Filippo -died at Spoleti, 1469, on the point of finishing his great work in the -dome, where Lorenzo de' Medici, who had demanded but not obtained his -ashes from the citizens, entombed them under a stately monument -inscribed by Angelo Poliziano. His scholars and imitators were F. -Diamante of Prato, the partner of his last work; F. Pesello of Florence, -and Pesellino his son, whom, if we believe Vasari, shortness of life -alone intercepted from superior excellence. - -About this period the first attempts of painting in oil were made at -Florence, by Andrea dal Castagno, of detested memory, who had improved -himself by looking at Masaccio. Domenico, called Veneziano, to whom -Antonello of Messina had communicated the novel mystery of Johan Van -Eyk, after practising it with success at home, Loretto, and other parts -of the Papal State, came to exercise it at Florence: caressed and -encouraged, he excited the envy and cupidity of Castagno, who under the -mask of submissive attachment, wheedled himself into his confidence, -obtained the secret, and then assassinated the hapless donor. The -treacherous but complete acquisition added lustre to his practice during -life, but time has swept the sacrilegious produce of his hand, and left -nothing to the memory of "Andrea degli Impiccati," but the execration of -posterity.[53] - -The farther we leave Masaccio behind, the nearer we approach the golden -epoch, the more lurid becomes the atmosphere of art. Mediocrity, tinsel -ostentation, and tasteless diligence mark the greater number of that -society of craftsmen whom Sixtus IV. conscribed (1474, Manni,) to -decorate or rather to disfigure the panels of the grand Chapel which -took its name from him (La Sistina): one of its sides was to be occupied -by subjects from the Pentateuch, the other by Gospel stories. Pietro -Perugino excepted, the artists convoked were nearly all Florentines or -Tuscans; viz. Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Bigordi, Cosimo Rosselli, -Luca, Signorelli of Cortona, and Don Bartolomeo of Arezzo, with their -assistants. The superintendence of the whole the Pope, with the usual -vanity and ignorance of princes, gave to Sandro, the least qualified of -the group, whose barbarous taste and dry minuteness palsied, or -assimilated with his own, the powers of his associates, and rendered the -whole a monument of puerile ostentation, and conceits unworthy of its -place. Nor is it from what there remains of either, that the names of -Luca Signorelli and Domenico Bigordi claim that attention which history -owes to the first as the real precursor of Michael Angelo, and to the -second as the master of his rudiments. - -Luca Egidio Signorelli, of Cortona,[54] less to be considered as the -reviver of Masaccio's style than as the founder of that which -distinguished the succeeding epoch, might have led its banners, as his -life stretched beyond that of Raphael and Lionardo, had his principle -been more uniform. The greater part of his works exhibit the evident -struggle of his own perceptions with the prescriptive ones of his time, -and a kind of coalition between the barbarity of the expiring and the -emancipated taste of the rising æra. The best evidence of this is in the -Duomo of Orvieto, where in the mixed imagery of final dissolution and -infernal punishment, he has scattered ideas of original conception, -character and attitude, in copious variety, but not without numerous -remnants of Gothic alloy. The angels who announce the impending doom or -scatter plagues, exhibit with awful simplicity bold foreshortenings, -whilst the St. Michael presents only the tame heraldic figure and -attitude of a knight all cased in armour. In the expression of the -condemned groups and dæmons, he chiefly dwells on the supposed perpetual -renewal of the pangs attending on the last struggles of life with death, -contrasted with the inexorable scowl or malignant grin of fiends -methodizing torture: a horrid feature reserved by Dante for the last pit -of his Inferno, and far beyond the culinary abominations of Sandro -Botticelli.[55] - -Though Luca's style of design was no more that of Masaccio than Michael -Agnolo's that of Raphael, less characteristic than grand, and fit to be -the vehicle of those conceptions and attitudes which furnished hints of -imitation to the painter of the Last Judgement in the Sistina, yet he -was master of a grace in celestial scenery and angelic attitudes -unapproached by his contemporaries, seldom equalled and never surpassed -by his successors. - -Luca Signorelli was a painter of much popularity. Urbino, Volterra, -Florence, Rome, his native and many other towns, possess or possessed -works of his. He was related to the family of the Vasari of Arezzo, and -caressed and encouraged to the art his infant biographer.[56] - -Another of the artists employed in the Sistina, inferior to Luca, but -of no despicable (though, if we look at Masaccio, too highly rated) -powers, was Domenico Bigordi, commonly called Del Ghirlandajo;[57] this -is he under whose auspices not only his son Ridolfo, but even Bonaroti -and the best artists of the succeeding epoch, began their course. -Precision of outline, decorum of countenance, variety of ideas, facility -and diligence, distinguish his works. He is the first of Florentines, -who gave depth and keeping to composition: if gold and tinsel glitter -are not entirely banished from his colours, they appear at least less -often. He was fond of introducing portraits among his actors, but with -selection and of distinguished characters; though hands and feet had no -part in his attention to physiognomy. The churches Degli Innocenti, -Santa Trinità, and Sta. Maria Novella at Florence, possess his most -celebrated productions, and many are scattered over Tuscany and the -Ecclesiastic State. Of the two which he painted in the Sistina, the -Resurrection of Christ perished; the Vocation of Peter and Andrew to the -Apostolate Survives. - -Cosimo Rosselli and Pier di Cosimo likewise employed at the Sistina, -inferior in all essential parts to their competitors, owe the perpetuity -of their names less to their parti-coloured glare and immoderate display -of gold and azure, which attracted the vulgar eye of their employer the -Pope, than to the luck of having been the masters of Bartolomeo della -Porta, and Andrea del Sarto. - -Piero and Antonio Pollajuoli, though employed only as statuaries in the -same Chapel, possessed no inconsiderable powers as painters. Piero's -pictures at S. Miniato discover the scholar of Castagno, austere -countenances and deep and massy colour; but in novelty of composition -and design he yields to his brother and pupil Antonio, whose Martyrdom -of St. Sebastian in the Chapel Pucci of that church, though humble in -style, crude in colour, and oddly rather than originally conceived, has -been numbered with the first productions of the age, because with the -earliest traces of legitimate anatomy it exhibits its application, and -subordinates enumeration to function. Both the Pollajuoli died at Rome. - -Don Bartolomeo of Arezzo, having nothing to add of his own to the works -of the Sistina, is mentioned here only as the helper of Luca Signorelli -and Pietro Perugino; nor is Filippino Lippi, the natural son of Frà -Filippo, numbered among the companions of Sandro his master, though the -perpetual recurrence of antique customs and dresses in his works makes -it probable that he formed his juvenile studies at Rome. Inferior in -real capacity to his father, he may be praised rather for the accessory -than the substantial parts of his works: he filled with an unequal hand -the remaining panels left by Masaccio al Carmine; and in the Minerva at -Rome, yields the palm in expression and amenity of ideas to his own -scholar Raffaelino del Garbo, whose early works at Monte Oliveto of -Florence, and elsewhere, give sufficient evidence that he might have -raised himself to the first artists of his day, had not the cravings of -a numerous family crushed his powers, and poverty and dejection hastened -his death. His contemporary Andrea Verocchio, though a celebrated -statuary, and a designer of style, has deserved our notice as a -painter, only because he was the master of Lionardo da Vinci, the first -name in the annals of Tuscany's golden epoch. - -Vinci, a burgh of Lower Valdarno, had the honour of giving a surname to -Lionardo, the natural son[58] of one Ser Piero, a state notary at -Florence. Elevated by nature above the common standard of men, born to -discover, he joined to boundless inquiry intrepidity of pursuit, and -lofty conception to minute investigation, nor only in the arts connected -with his own, music and poesy, but in science, philosophy, mathematics, -mechanics, hydrostatics: this wide mental range, supported by equal -vigour and gracefulness of body, was commended by every accomplishment -of a gentleman. Such was the genius whom Nature had destined to -establish art on elements, to open the realms of light and shade, to -inspire the subject with its tone, and to poise expression between -insipidity and caricature. - -Notwithstanding the distractions of so many diverging inclinations, for -powers they could not yet be called, an innate attachment to the art -appears to have predominated at the earliest period to such a degree -that Ser Piero determined to place Lionardo under his friend Verocchio, -whom he soon excelled in painting,[59] and in modelling equalled. - -The obscurity which involves the life of Lionardo from his boyish years, -through the bloom of youth, to the vigour of manhood, can only be -accounted for by that independence of mind which made him prefer -indulgence of his own various inclinations to a decided, steady, and if -more confined, more lucrative pursuit of art. By what means he, whom -Vasari describes as possessing "nothing,"[60] was enabled to gratify -studies and fancies equally expensive, no where appears; it appears not -that he was patronized by the great and rich; he escaped the eye of the -Medici;[61] it was reserved for Lodovico Sforza to discover and to -conduct the first citizen of Florence to Milano, and for aught we are -told, rather from expectation of amusement than motives of homage. -Lodovico was a dilettante in music, and wished to increase the harmony -of his concerts with the silver tones of the lyre, invented and -constructed by Lionardo, who, we are told, soon distanced all rival -performers, and by the aid of his powers as an "Improvisatore," became -the object of general admiration: it was then, and perhaps not till -then, that the Duke cast a steadier eye on his superior accomplishments, -and allowed the musician to become a benefactor to the public in -adopting his plans for the establishment and direction of an academy; -and granting the means for carrying into effect the still more important -ones of conducting the Adda to Milano, and a navigable canal from -Martisana to Chiavenna, and the Valteline, &c. plans and effects only -interrupted by the fall of the Sforzas and the captivity of Lodovico. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[44] This picture has been confounded with another of the same subject -by the same master, and the addition of the Donor's portrait, Frate -Elia, which exists no more. The mutilated inscription on that mentioned -above, has been thus restored by Lanzi, - - JuNTA PISanus - JunTINI Me fecit. - - -[45] Born 1240, died 1300. - -[46] "Oh che dolce cosa è questa prospettiva!" Oh what a dulcet thing is -this perspective! This exclamation, usual with Paolo nodding over his -compasses when his wife called him to bed, though too late to furnish -the hint of a Novel to Boccaccio, has been fondly repeated by some grave -writers from Vasari to the author of Lorenzo de' Medici, and has -contributed to place Paolo, with the mystic help of his surname, in -rather a ludicrous light. - -[47] Maffei's Verona Illustrata, t. iii. p. 277. - -[48] He was the precursor of Michael Agnolo, and deserved the motto by -which Borghini marked some of their designs in the portfolio of Vasari, -(Vita di Donato.) viz. - - E Donatos Bonarrotizei, - E Bonarrotos Donatizei. - - -[49] "Vi è un monacho vecchio con due grucce sotto le braccia, nel qual -si vide un affetto mirabile, e forse speranza di riaver la -sanità."--Vasari, Vita di P. Uccello, t. ii. p. 56. - -[50] Born in 1401. - -[51] "Opera Terribilissima--impresa chi arebbe giustamente fatto paura a -una legione di pittori." On the whole, Vasari seems to lay more stress -on the quantity than the quality of Benozzo's works. - -[52] 1478. - -[53] 1478, when by the conspiracy of the Pazzi and their adherents, -Giuliano de' Medici was assassinated in S. Maria del Fiore, and his -brother Lorenzo wounded, it was resolved by the Signoria that paintings -of the conspirators, hung by their feet, should be exposed in front of -the Governor's palace; and the commission being given to Andrea, he -executed it with such felicity of resemblance, such variety of hanging -attitudes, and so much to the contentment of connoisseurs, that from -that instant he lost the name of Andrea dal Castagno in that of "Andrea -degli Impiccati," or of the hanged.--_Vasari._ Of this exhibition the -loss may be regretted, as it would have showed us Andrea in his element. - -[54] 1439-40--1521. - -[55] There is to the old edition in folio, of Dante, by Niccolo della -Magna, a print of the Inferno annexed, which bears the name of Sandro -Botticelli; Vasari in his Life says, that he commented a part of Dante -and figured his Inferno and published it. - -[56] He was the nephew of Lazzaro Vasari, a helper of Pietro della -Francesca, and great uncle of Giorgio the biographer; who in the Life of -Luca, with not less fondness than vanity, relates the admonition and -encouragement he gave to his father and himself, in a visit which he -paid in his old age to their family at Arezzo.--Vita di L. Signorelli, -t. iii. p. 9. - -[57] His father, who was a goldsmith, invented and first manufactured -the garlands which were at that time the fashionable head-dress of the -Florentine girls.--Vasari, Vita di D. Ghirlandajo, vol. ii. p. 410. - -[58] Among the uncertainties of dates, those relative to the birth of -illegitimate children, for obvious reasons the most frequent, are the -most perplexing. The birth of Lionardo has been fixed at various dates, -viz. 1443; Lett. Pittor. t. ii. p. 192; 1445, according to the -computation of Vasari; 1455, by Dargenville; 1467, by Padre Resta; with -more probability 1444, by D.V. Pagave of Milano, followed by Fiorillo; -but with most at 1452, by Durazzini, adopted by Lanzi. It seems -improbable that Verocchio, the friend of Ser Piero, should have been -only twelve years older than his pupil. Lionardo died in 1519. - -[59] In the figure of the Angel, conceived and executed by him, in the -Baptism of the Saviour, at St. Salvi, which excelled the work of -Verocchio so much, that indignant to be outdone by a boy, he dropped the -pencil, and for ever abandoned painting. The statues of St. Thomas, in -Orsanmichele at Florence, and of the Horse of Collevere at Venice, prove -that Verocchio's real talent was sculpture: but the models of the three -statues cast in bronze, by Rustici, for S. Giov. at Florence, and that -of the great horse at Milano, place the pupil at least upon a level with -the master in that branch of art. - -[60] "E non avendo egli, si può dir nulla, e poco lavorando, del -continuo tenne servitori, e cavalli, &c." For all this it is the more -difficult to account, as an attempt to possess himself of the -philosopher's stone has never been mentioned among Lionardo's -eccentricities, though he was familiar with alchymists. - -[61] Lorenzo de' Medici occurs not in the Life of Lionardo, and his -acquaintance with Leo X. and Giuliano de' Medici relates to the latter -periods of it. - - - - -THE SCHOOL OF FLORENCE. - - -We are now arrived at the epoch which forms the distinctive character of -the Tuscan school, the epoch of Michael Agnolo. In placing him here, -chronology has been less attended to than the spirit of works; for Frà -Bartolomeo, Andrea del Sarto, and others, his contemporaries or juniors, -belong more properly to the period of Lionardo than his; the elements of -which he gave in the Cartoon of Pisa, and the consummation in the -Capella Sistina, on which his school and the imitation of his style were -founded; and to which the politics of his time, the splendid oligarchy -of the Medici, and the fierce republican spirit of their opponents, gave -an energy and produced efforts, unknown to society in repose. - -Notwithstanding the insinuating arts by which the Medici had debauched -public affection, and that undermining power which at last changed -influence to tyranny, they were in less than a century[62] three times -exiled from their country. The first, the banishment of Cosmo, called -the Father of his Country, lasted not above one year, and drew no -consequences; for the interval between it and the next (1494) was marked -with uniform success, and its last twenty years[63] with the splendid -administration and the extended patronage of Lorenzo the Magnificent. -His Garden near the church of S. Marco, which he opened as a repository -and a school of art, has been little less celebrated than the Hesperian -ones of old: it contained, if not all that had been discovered, what -could be purchased of antique statues, basso-relievoes, and fragments of -every kind; and the apartments were hung with pictures, cartoons, and -designs of Donatello, Brunellesco, Paolo Uccello. Frà Giovanni da -Fiesole, Masaccio, &c.; here the student was not only instructed, but, -by the magnificence of the founder, supported; and it may without -exaggeration be asserted, that whatever rose to eminence in the art at -that period, was the offspring of Lorenzo's garden. - -His death was followed by the expulsion of his sons, Pietro, Giovanni, -afterwards Leo X., and Julian, in the sequel Duke of Nemours. An -immediate anarchy succeeded the expulsion; the populace broke into their -houses, destroyed or carried off their furniture, and demolished the -residence of Giovanni, the garden of Lorenzo, and the palace on the Via -Larga,[64] at once. The numerous partisans of the family, however, -contrived to save much.[65] - -Other circumstances conspired to render this interval of anarchy -pernicious to art, till the return of the Medici in 1512. Towards the -close of the fifteenth century, the Dominican Frà Girolamo Savonarola, -of enthusiastic memory, by prophecies and sermons, loaded with -democratic principles, gained gradually such an ascendancy over the -minds of the people, that the Signoria found themselves forced to adopt -a senate at large; in other words, to submit to a democracy. But -Savonarola, not content with political victory, aimed at a total -revolution in morals, and continued to lash the profligacy of public -manners, overflowing in voluptuous song and music, or gazing at the -lascivious nudities of statues and pictures, as irresistible incentives -to vice. It had been customary during carnival, to erect certain cabins -in the market-place, to set them on fire on the eve of Ash-Wednesday, -and bid them farewell amid the shouts of convivial mirth and the frolic -of amorous dalliance. Savonarola instituted in 1497 a public festival of -another kind: a large scaffold was erected in the market-place, a vast -number of the finest specimens in painting and sculpture, offensive from -their nudities, were collected; the pictures placed on the first step; -the sculptures, especially when portraits of first-rate Florentine -belles, disposed on the second; the whole inclosed by foreign precious -tapestry, and that, with great solemnity, set on fire. The scaffolding -of the next year excelled the first in magnificence; its gorgeous -apparel invested the busts of the most celebrated beauties of former -years; those of the Bencina, Lena Morella, Bina and Maria de'Lenzi, -works of the most eminent sculptors; on it was placed a copy of -Petrarca, decorated with gold, missal-painting, and miniatures, -estimated at fifty scudi d'oro; and to prevent theft, the whole was -constantly guarded. The procession approached, surrounded the scaffold, -and amid a concert of consecrating hymns, bells, trumpets, cymbals, and -the acclamations of the Signoria and the people, the victims, sprinkled -with holy water, were delivered to flame by the torches of the -guards.[66] Such was the epidemic influence of this enthusiasm, that -even artists, the gentle Frà Bartolomeo, Lorenzo di Credi, and many more -caught the infection, and contributed to the sacrifice, till the death -of Savonarola and the return of the Medici extinguished the furor.[67] - -The democracy, however, gave origin to two works, which not only atoned -for the ravages it had committed, but whose splendour no subsequent æra -of art has been able to eclipse, or perhaps to equal: the two Cartoons -of Lionardo da Vinci and M. Angelo Buonarroti, destined to decorate the -senatorial hall, by order of Pietro Soderini. They produced an immediate -revolution in art, but disappeared like meteors in the tumult that -attended the reinstatement of the Medici and the fall of the -Gonfaloniere, 1512. - -The third expulsion of the Medici--Hippolyto and Alessandro, the sons of -Giuliano the Magnificent, and all their relatives--was the consequence -of the sack of Rome, 1527, and the Pontificate of Clemente VII. The -Medici, pressed by the moment, consigned part of their technic treasure, -their bronzes, cameos, &c. to the care of their client Baccio -Bandinelli.[68] During the havoc, Michael Angelo's statue of David lost -an arm,[69] and the waxen figures of Leo X. and Clemente VII. in the -church of the "Annunciata," were mutilated and carried off; and perhaps -much more was lost in the demolition of the suburbs, which took place to -secure the town itself against the siege of 1529. But active resistance -and lampoons proved equally ineffectual; the destiny of the Medici -prevailed, and Florence paid ducal homage in 1530 to Alessandro; whose -assassination, indeed, by Lorenzo his relative, commonly called -Lorenzino, produced, six years afterwards, another sedition and farther -damage to their stores of art by the soldiers, who, at the instigation -of Alessandro Vitelli, broke into and plundered both their houses. Cosmo -the First succeeded Alessandro, and left uninterrupted dominion to his -heirs: but if the consolidation of monarchy prevented the momentary -devastations of insurrection, it failed to re-produce the splendid -period that flashed athwart the storms of democracy. - - -MICHAEL ANGELO BUONARROTI. - -1474--1564. - -M. Angelo was born at Castel Caprese, and showed such early proofs of a -decided attachment to art, that he was put into the school of Domenico -del Ghirlandaio. Here he soon advanced beyond the principles of the -master, who, jealous of a rival in his pupil, recommended him to Lorenzo -de Medici, for admission among the students of sculpture in his garden; -where, under the tuition of Bertoldo,[70] an ancient scholar of -Donatello, he soon mastered the elements, and, equally conspicuous for -his superiority and diligence, attracted the attention and gained the -patronage of Lorenzo, but excited the envy of his fellow-students, one -of whom, Torrigiano, on some slight provocation, with a blow of the fist -shattered his nose, which left him with a mark for life. - -That predilection for sculpture imbibed from his earliest days and now -invigorated by the incessant study of the antique with practice, the -successful specimens mentioned in copies and productions of his own,[71] -leave little authority to the tradition that he studied much after -Masaccio. - -His mind appears to have anticipated the expulsion of the Medici, and he -left Florence for Bologna, where he found a protector in Aldrovandi, for -whom he executed two small statues, of an Angel and of a St. Petronius -on the tomb of S. Dominico. After his return to Florence he continued to -work in sculpture, and a legend, less probable than amusing, of an Amor -sold for an antique to Cardinal Riario, has been fondly repeated by his -biographers. He now went to Rome and produced two of his most surprising -works--the Bacchus of the Museo Fiorentino, and the Madonna della Pietà -in one of the chapels of the Basilica of S. Pietro. On his return to -Florence, Pietro Soderini tried his powers on a huge block of marble, -mutilated by the ignorance of one Maestro Simone: he contrived to rear -from it the statue of David, which, in 1504, was placed, and still -remains in front of the old palace. These works, not less discriminated -by peculiarity of character, than connected by propriety of style and -energy of finish, were produced within the short period of six years, -and equally prove the wide range of his powers, and the perseverance of -his application to sculpture. - -What he did as painter, during, or soon after this period, is for us -reduced to the single specimen which he executed for Angelo Doni; for -the far-famed Cartoon of Pisa, of which we soon shall have occasion to -speak, begun in contest with Lionardo da Vinci, but not finished till -after his second return from Rome, perished, as a whole, long before the -middle of the sixteenth century. - -Soon after his election to the Pontificate, Giulio II. smitten with the -wish of a sepulchral monument, called M. Angelo to Rome for that -purpose. His first plan was to make it colossal, and on all sides -detached, but the obstacles which were thrown in its way for a number of -years, reduced it at length to the form in which it now appears at S. -Pietro in Vincoli, with probably one figure only by M. Angelo's own -hand, the celebrated statue of Moses in front. The attachment of Giulio -to M. Angelo was great, but the independent spirit of the artist -greater. Indignant at being refused access once to the Pontiff, whose -mind was worried by the disturbances at Bologna, he fled, and though -pursued by five messengers with letters pressing him to come back, -obstinately went on to Florence; nor could his three breves[72] -addressed to the Signoria, draw him from his asylum; till Pier Soderini -guaranteed his safety by investing him with the title of envoy from the -Republic. Thus equipped, and accompanied by Cardinal Soderini, brother -to the Gonfaloniere, he set out for Bologna, was reconciled to the Pope, -and made his statue in bronze. It was placed over the gate of S. -Petronio, but was thrown down in 1511 by the party of the Bentivogli, -and, with the exception of the head, said to have been preserved by Duke -Alfonso of Ferrara, converted into a piece of heavy artillery. - -Scarcely returned to Rome, M. Angelo, by command of Giulio, instigated -as it is supposed by Bramante and Giuliano da Sangallo, found himself -forced to try his powers on a novel theatre of art, the decoration of -the ceiling and lunette of the Capella Sistina. Whatever were the -motives of the two architects, whether private pique, or envy of M. -Angelo's influence over the Pontiff, or friendship for Raffaello, and -the desire of showing his superiority over one whom they deemed a novice -in fresco, they deserved the thanks of their own and every succeeding -epoch, for the most eminent service ever rendered to art. Vasari owns -that M. Angelo, conscious of his want of practice, endeavoured to escape -from the commission, and even proposed Raffaello as fitter for the task; -but his powers soon supplied what circumstances had refused, and single -conquered with every obstacle Time itself; for, nearly fabulous to -relate, the whole, though interrupted more than once by the Pontiff's -impatience, was sufficiently finished to be exhibited to the public in -one year and ten months. - -This task finished, M. Angelo, eager to resume his labours on the -monument, was disappointed by the sudden death of Giulio, (1513,) and -the election of Leo X. produced a total change in his situation; he was -ordered to Florence to construct the front of the Laurentian Library. - -Though the death of Leo, or rather the accession of Adrian VI. had -paralysed art, Michael Angelo employed the dull interim by adding some -statues to the monument of Giulio; till, in 1523, Clemente VII. -reappointed him to the superintendence of the new sacristy and library -of S. Lorenzo. It was about this time that he finished and sent to Rome -the statue of Christ, still placed in the Minerva. - -The arts received a new shock from the sack of Rome, 1527, and the -expulsion of the Medici from Florence, at which crisis the Signoria -conferred on Michael Angelo, who was a warm Republican,[73] the -superintendence of the fortifications and the defence of Monte Miniato, -on which the safety of the city depended. Meanwhile what time he could -save from his public trust, he secretly[74] employed to finish or -advance the symbolic and monumental statues of S. Lorenzo, and from the -cartoon to paint in distemper a Leda for the Duke of Ferrara. Finding, -however, that no defence could save the city, he saved himself by the -secret paths of S. Miniato, and escaped to Venice, 1529; from whence he -only returned to find the dominion of the Medici once more established, -himself pardoned, again employed by Clemente at S. Lorenzo, and soon -after sent for to Rome on a plan of painting two central frescoes, the -Last Judgement and the Fall of Lucifer, for the Sistine Chapel,--long -favourite ideas of the artist,[75] but with the works at Florence for -that time checked by the death of Clemente, 1534. He now with redoubled -ardour applied to the monument of Giulio, urged by his devotion to the -house of De Rovere, the considerable pecuniary advance he had received, -and the threats of the executors and the Duke of Urbino; but the -accession of Paul III. again frustrated his exertions: the Pontiff -resolved to have the exclusive boast of powers he had so long admired, -interposed his authority, and obliged the executors and agents of the -Duke to give up the original circumambient plan, and content themselves -with the storied front which exists now. - -This adjusted, Michael Angelo immediately proceeded to comply with the -wishes of the Pope: if Paolo was inferior to Giulio in impetuosity, he -was his equal in fervour of attachment to art, and excelled him, if not -every other name which patronage has distinguished, in personal respect -and public homage to the artist. No work ever received countenance and -honours equal to those conferred on the Last Judgement of Michael -Angelo, from its plan to its ultimate finish by Paolo Farnese. His first -visit to the artist was attended by a train of ten cardinals:[77] though -ambitious to have the work consecrated to his own name, in deference to -Michael Angelo's attachment to the memory of Giulio, he submitted to his -refusal of displacing the arms of De Rovere at the top of the picture, -in favour of the Farnesian.[78] Induced by the specious sophistry of -Sebastian del Piombo to prefer oil to fresco in the execution of the -work, he permitted the wall to be prepared for that purpose, but on -Michael Angelo's declaring oil painting an art for women only and -sedentary tameness, he yielded to the decision, and patiently saw the -whole apparatus dashed to the ground. When, before its final disclosure -to the public, he took a private view of the whole composition at the -Chapel, less convinced than irritated by the bigoted philippic of an -attendant prelate against the daring display of immodest nudity, he -acquiesced in the artist's well-known revenge, and refused to revoke or -mitigate the punishment inflicted on the unlucky critic.[79] - -The first conception of the Last Judgement, which completes the plan -originally laid down for the decoration of the Chapel, notwithstanding -the obstacles which protracted the execution, must find its date in the -Pontificate of Giulio, from the Cartoons probably begun under Clemente. -M. Angelo proceeded to the fresco itself at an early period, if not -immediately after the accession of Paolo, 1534, and finished it in 1541, -or perhaps 1542; for both these years are mentioned by Vasari; who, if -not present at the removal of the scaffolding, attended its immediate -display to the public. The completion of this 'multitudinous' work, M. -Angelo, at an age of 68, or somewhat beyond, might justly consider as -the consummation of his public career in painting: but the Pontiff, -still ambitious to possess exclusive specimens of his powers in a fabric -built by his own orders and consecrated to his own name, obliged him to -continue his labours in two huge frescoes of the Capella Paolina, -representing the Conversion of St. Paul and the Crucifixion of St. -Peter. The lassitude inseparable from the waste of so much energy on the -Last Judgement, the mental and bodily fatigue attendant on the -arrangement and execution of new plans, if less enormous less congenial, -protracted their ultimate completion to his 75th year, proved them -children of necessity rather than choice, and confirmed the truth of -his observation to Vasari, that painting in fresco, the union of powers -required for a great public work, is not an art of old age. - -And here indeed terminates the career of the Painter; the remainder of -his life was divided between architecture and sculpture. This, which had -always been his favourite pursuit, was now become the darling companion -of his private hours, the amusement of his solitude, and the -preservative of his health--for this purpose he furnished his study with -a colossal block, destined for the complicated group of a Pietà: but -though age had neither tamed his conception nor palsied his hand,[80] it -checked his perseverance; he no longer struggled to subdue the flaws of -his materials or to give them the air of beauties; he dismissed the -group unfinished, and continued to exercise himself on another of -inferior size. - -The death of Antonio da S. Gallo, 1546, put it in the power of Paolo to -create M. Angelo architect of S. Pietro, a trust of which he acquitted -himself with a superiority which baffled all the opposition of venality -and envy. He was probably, from Ictinus to our time, the first and the -last of architects who refused salary and emolument, and consecrated his -labours to divine love. Some of his successors, perhaps, might insinuate -that he indemnified himself with being at the same time architect of the -Campidoglio and the Farnese Palace. - -After the demise of Paolo, Cosmo I. Duke of Florence, by means of -Vasari, earnestly intreated him to pass the remainder of his life at -Florence; but the infirmities of age, and still more, inward grief for -the subversion of the republic, with indignation at the established -usurpation of the Medici, rendered these intreaties ineffectual. -Equally unshaken by them and the vile rumour of his dotage, spread by -the venal gang of Pirrho Ligorio, after crowning the Basilica with its -cupola, he steered through calm and tempest on to his ninetieth year, -the last of his life, 1564, and was buried in S. Apostoli; but, by the -orders of Cosmo, secretly conveyed to Florence, where the pomp of -academical exequies, the starched eloquence of Varchi, and a monument in -Santa Croce from a design of Vasari, awaited his remains. - -It is difficult to decide who understood Michael Angelo less, his -admirers or his censors; though both rightly agree in placing him at the -head of an epoch; those of the re-establishment, these of the -perversion, of style. - -All extremes touch each other: languid praise and frigid censure belong -to the paths of mediocrity, but he who enlarges the circle of knowledge, -passes from the realm of talents to that of genius, leaps on an -undiscovered or long-lost shore, and stamps it with his name, commands -indiscriminate homage, and provokes irreconcilable censure. He who -reflects on the "Più che Uman, Angelo divino" of Ariosto, the "via -terribile" of Agostino Carracci, and for centuries on the general -homage of a nation allowed to legislate in art, will not be easily -persuaded that these epithets, this prerogative, were granted to an -artist merely for correctness of design or anatomic discrimination, or -that he exclusively obtained them for uniting sculpture, painting, and -architecture in himself; three branches of one stem, and diverging only -in mechanism and application, they have been more than once eminently -united by others, and were seldom altogether separated before the time -of Carlo Maratta. And yet this is all on which the eminence of Michael -Angelo has been hitherto supposed to rest, all that can be gathered from -the astrologic nonsense and the Tuscan loquacity of his blind adorer, -Vasari--and what he found not, it would be time idly lost to search for -in his contemporaries and successors, down to Reynolds, who, though -chiefly smitten with the breadth of Michael Angelo, knew him better than -all the copyists of his school. - -The art preceded Michael Angelo as a craft; more or less practice alone -distinguishes Pietro Perugino from Cimabue: whilst copy and imitation -remain synonymes, there can be no choice in art; instead of the real -nature it will copy the accidents of objects, and substitute the model -for the man. - -Michael Angelo appeared and soon felt that the candidate of legitimate -fame is to build his works, not on the imbecile forms of a degenerate -race, disorganized by clime, country, education, laws, and society; not on -the transient refinements of fashion or local sentiment, unintelligible -beyond their circle and century to the rest of mankind; but to graft them -on Nature's everlasting forms and those general feelings of humanity, -which no time can efface, no mode of society obliterate;--and in -consequence of these reflections discovered the epic part of painting: -that basis, that indestructibility of forms and thoughts, that simplicity -of machinery on which Homer defied the ravages of time, which sooner or -later must sweep to oblivion every work propped by baser materials and -factitious refinements. - -The subject of the Sistine Chapel is Theocracy and Religion, the Origin -and the first Duty of Man. All minute discrimination of character is -alien to the primeval simplicity of the moment--God and Man alone -appear. The veil of Eternity is rent; Time, Space, and Matter teem; life -darts from God, and adoration from the creature; deviation from this -principle is the origin of Evil; the economy of Justice and Grace -commences; Prophets and Sibyls in awful synod are the heralds of the -Redeemer, and the host of patriarchs the pedigree of the Son of Man. The -brazen Serpent and the fall of Haman, the Giant subdued by the -Stripling, and the Conqueror destroyed by female weakness, are types of -His mysterious progress, till Jonah pronounces Him immortal, and the -magnificence of the Last Judgement sums up the whole and re-unites the -Founder and the race. - -Michael Angelo, in his Last Judgement, with a few exceptions, has wound -up the life of man, considered as the subject of religion, faithful or -rebellious; and in a generic manner has distributed happiness and -misery. - -The more finished a character, the more, discriminated by his actions and -turn of thought from his contemporaries, he pursues paths of his own, so -much the more he attracts, so much the more he repels; the ardour of the -one is equal to the violence of the other: he is not merely disliked, he -is detested by all who have no sense for him; whilst by those who enter -his train of thought, or sympathise with him, he is adored. Indifference -has no share in what relates to him, it is a softer word for antipathy--it -resembles the indifference of a female wooed; her indifference, her -apathy, is a refusal without a verbal repulse. Where yes or no must -decide, the mouth that can form neither, rejects. The principles, the -style of Michael Angelo, are of that so closely-connected magnitude, that -they are either all true or all false: pretended gold is either gold or -not--the purer, the simpler a substance, the less it can coalesce with -another; a pretended diamond of the size of a fist, is either of -inestimable value or of none. If Michael Angelo did not establish art on a -solid basis, he subverted it; he can claim only the heresies of paradox -and receive their reward--disgust. - -What Armenini relates as a proof of his nearly intuitive power of -conception and execution, may be repeated as a much stronger instance of -his deference and gratitude for the most humble claims. "Meeting one -day, behind S. Pietro, with a young Ferrarese, a potter who had baked -some model of his, M. Angelo thanked him for his care, and in return -offered him any service in his power: the young man, emboldened by his -condescension, fetched a sheet of paper, and requested him to draw the -figure of a standing Hercules: M. Angelo took the paper, and retiring to -a small shed near by, put his right foot on a bench, and with his elbow -on the raised knee and his face on his hand stood meditating a little -while, then began to draw the figure, and having finished it in a short -time, beckoned to the youth, who stood waiting at a small distance, to -approach, gave it him, and went away toward Belvedere. That design, as -far as I was then able to judge, in precision of outline, shadow, and -finish, no miniature could excel; it afforded matter of astonishment to -see accomplished in a few minutes what might have been reasonably -supposed to have taken up the labour of a month." - -After the demise of Raffaello, legislation in Art was no longer disputed -with M. Angelo; he not only became the oracle of youth, but appears to -have inherited all the popularity of his great rival. A signal, though -little known proof of this, is told by Bellori, in the Life of Federigo -Barrocci, who, he says, used to tell, that when, drawing one day in -company with Taddeo Zuccari a frieze of Polidoro, Michael Angelo, as -usual, passed by on his little mule on his way to the palace, all the -youths rose and ran to meet him with their drawings in their hands; -Federigo alone remained bashfully behind in his place, which when Taddeo -saw, he took his little portfolio to Michael Angelo, who attentively -examined the designs, among which was a careful copy of his Moses; he -praised it, and desiring to see the lad who had drawn that figure, -animated him to pursue the method of study which he had begun. - -The deference which he paid to the unassuming and the humble, he amply -redeemed by the full assumption of his rights, and conscious assertion -of superiority, when provoked to the contest by those who considered -themselves as his equals, entered into competition with him, or -attempted to share in his labours. Thus he repaid the sarcasms of Pietro -Perugino, by calling him publicly a dunce in art; and when Pietro -smarting, impatient of the ridicule, summoned him to the Tribunal of the -Eight, he made good his charge, and saw him dismissed with contempt. -Thus he rejected all partnership with Jacopo Sansovino, in the execution -of the Facciata of San Lorenzo at Florence, though Leone X. appears to -have intended it, by sending both together to Pietra Santa to provide -the marbles necessary for that purpose, and examining both their models. - -When Paolo III. had resolved on the fortifications of the Borgo, and, in -order to ascertain the best mode of doing it, had assembled many persons -of rank, with Antonio da Sangallo, Michael Angelo, as architect of the -fortifications of S. Miniato at Florence, was likewise invited to join -the assembly, and, after much contest, his opinion asked; he freely told -it, though contrary to that of Sangallo and others present; and when the -architect bade him to be content with the prerogatives of sculpture and -painting without pretending to skill in fortification, he replied, that -of the former two he knew little, but that of fortification, considering -the time his mind had dwelt on it, and the proofs he had given of the -solidity of his theory, he did not hesitate to claim more knowledge than -what came to the share of Sangallo and all his relatives; and then -proceeded, in the presence of all, to point out the many errors which -Antonio had committed. - -Another instance of a still greater independence of mind, Vasari[81] has -recorded in the peremptory answer which M. Angelo gave to the Committee -of Cardinals, &c. instigated by the partisans of Sangallo, (La Setta -Sangallesca, Vasari,) to inspect the process of the fabric of S. Pietro, -and to examine his plan. Ignorant of his design to derive the main light -of the edifice from the cupola, they found fault with the scanty -distribution of light, and told the Pontiff that M. Angelo had spoiled -S. Pietro, and instead of a luminous temple, was erecting a gloomy -vault. Giulio having communicated this to him at a general meeting of -the deputies and inspectors, M. Angelo replied, I wish to hear these -deputies talk myself: "Here we are," answered Cardinal Marcello--"Then -know, Monsignore," said he, "that over these windows, in the vault which -is to be raised, there are to be placed three more."--"You never told us -this before!" said Cervino.--"No," replied M. Angelo, "I am not, nor -ever will be bound to tell your Eminence, or any other person, what I -must or what I mean to do: your duty is to provide money and take care -that it be not stolen; what belongs to the plan and execution of the -building you are to leave to me." Then turning to the Pope, "Holy -Father," continued he, "you see what I gain; the fatigue I undergo is -time and labour lost, unless my soul gain by it." The Pope, who loved -him, and rejoiced at the defeat of the cabal, laying hands on his -shoulders, said, "Doubt not your soul and body shall be equal gainers by -it." - -Among the many expectations in which he was disappointed, that which he -appears to have formed on the early talent of Jacopo Carucci, as it was -the most sanguine, must have been the most distressing; for, on seeing -his figures of Faith and Charity with attendant Infants, in fresco, at -the Nunziata, and considering them as produced by a youth of nineteen, -he said, in the words of Vasari, "This young man, from what appears, -grant life and pursuit, will raise this art to heaven." - -But Jacopo did neither long pursue the same principles nor adopt -superior ones: infected, like Andrea del Sarto, by the temporary fever -which the style of Albert Durer had spread over Florence. He was, -however, the favourite copyist in oil of M. Angelo's Cartoons, and as -such, in preference, recommended by him to Alfonso D'Avalo, Marchese del -Guasto, and Bartolomeo Bettini, his friend, who had obtained cartoons, -the former of a Noli-me-tangere; this of a naked Venus caressed by -Cupid.[82] - -The name of Giuliano Bugiardini, supported only by its own feeble powers, -would probably long have sunk to oblivion, had it not been kept afloat by -the personal attachment of M. Angelo. In Vasari, Giuliano is the synonyme, -of helpless impotence; he had certainly neither the dexterity nor the -grasp of the Aretine biographer; but he also had neither the pretension -nor the craft. There is, and chiefly among artists, a singular class of -men, who, with great moral simplicity, but a capacity less than moderate, -court with ungovernable passion an art which they are doomed never to -possess, but to whom self-complacency compensates for every disappointment -of the most ungrateful perseverance, public neglect and private irrision: -they neither envy nor suspect, and though not intimidated by a superiority -which they do not fully comprehend, are ready to respect the part that -comes within their compass. Such a man was Bugiardini; and such a -character M. Angelo was likely to appreciate;[83] and though aware that he -was not equal to serious communication in art, to select him as a -companion of his leisure, and to assist or submit to him, as the -simplicity of his character required;--of either we shall select from -Vasari an instance. When he was occupied with the picture of Sta. -Catherina, for the Church of Sta. Maria Novella, he requested the advice -of M. Angelo on the arrangement of a file of soldiers which he meant to -place on the foreground, flying, fallen, wounded, killed; because the idea -of their having formed a file, could not be expressed within the scanty -space he had allotted them, without having recourse to fore-shortenings, -which he confessed to be beyond his power. M. Angelo, to please him, took -a coal, and with his own comprehension drew on the panel a file of naked -figures, variously fore-shortened, falling different ways, forwards, -backwards, with others dead or wounded: but the whole being merely in -outlines, left Giuliano still at a loss. Tribolo, therefore, to draw him -from this dilemma, undertook to form them in clay, leaving the surface of -each figure rough, to increase more forcibly the chiaroscuro: this method, -however, so little pleased the neatness of Giuliano, that the moment -Tribolo left him, he with a wet pencil licked them into a polish, which -took away grain and effect together, and when the picture was finished, -left no trace of M. Angelo's ever having seen it. - -Messer Ottaviano de' Medici had requested Giuliano to paint him a -portrait of M. Angelo. He obtained the consent of M. Angelo: having held -him between chat and work two hours at the first sitting--for M. Angelo -delighted to hear him talk--Giuliano got up, and said, "M. Angelo, if -you want to see yourself, rise: I have settled the character of the -face." M. Angelo rose, looked at the portrait, and said, smiling, "What -the devil (che diavolo) have you been doing? you have clapt one of the -eyes into one of the temples--look to it." Giuliano having for some time -looked silently at the portrait, and the sitter, resolutely replied, "I -do not see what you said; but take your place, and I'll give another -glance at nature." M. Angelo, who knew where the defect lay, sat down -again sneering; and Giuliano, having eyed repeatedly now the picture and -now M. Angelo, at last rose and said, "It appears to me that the thing -is as I have drawn it, and that nature shows it so." "Oh, then it is a -defect of nature!" replied Michael Angelo, "go on and prosper in your -work." - -Francesco Granacci, the companion of his early studies, and Jacopo, -called L'Indaco, the enlivener of his solitude, enjoyed the same degree -of his familiarity; but as the real basis of friendship is equality, and -mutual esteem founded on similarity of character and powers, attachments -merely formed by early habits or congenial humour between men too -dissimilar else to admit of comparison, never can aspire to its -privileges and name. Condescension is not always delicate, and the -indiscretions of simplicity sooner or later provoke the pride, contempt, -and arrogance of superior powers. Giuliano, Granacci, and L'Indaco, -experienced all three from Michael Angelo; they were among his -conscripts for assisting in the frescoes of the Capella; but finding -their pigmy capacities unequal to his colossal style, he not only, in -lofty silence, destroyed what they had begun, but barring all access to -the Chapel and himself, forced them to return, vainly grumbling, to -Florence. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[62] 1433--1527. They underwent three banishments in less than a -century. - -[63] 1472--1492. Most splendid period of Florence this. - -[64] Nardi Storia, lib. 1. Bernardo Rucellai de Bello Italico, Lond. -1733, 4to. p. 52. Pauli Jovii Histor. sui temporis, lib. 1. Memoires de -Philippe de Comines, l. vii. c. 9. - -[65] Vasari, Vita di B. Bandinelli, Ed. del Bottari, t. ii. p. 576; e -Vita del Torrigiano, t. ii. p. 75. - -[66] Nardi, Storia di Firenze, lib. ii. Vasari, Vita di Frà Bartolomeo; -but chiefly the Life of Savonarola, by Burlamachi, inserted in Balusii -Miscell. ed. Mansi, t. i. p. 558, &c. - -[67] Giovanni dalle Carniole, a celebrated engraver on stone, was an -adherent of Savonarola; there is a portrait of that reformer by him, on -a cornelian of uncommon size, in the Museo Flor. with this inscription, - - Hieronymus Ferrariensis Ord. Præd. - Propheta Vir et Martyr. - -It is known from impressions in paste and bronze. In politics, at least, -Michael Angelo was a votary of Frà Girolamo, although the nursling of -the Medici. - -[68] Vasari, Vita di B.B. t. ii. p. 557. - -[69] Varchi, Storia Fiorent. p. 36. - -[70] "The two masters of Michael Angelo," says Fiorillo, "descend in -equidistant degrees from the School of Cimabue and Giotto: the following -scale shows the technic pedigree of M. Angelo at one glance: - - _Cimabue._ - _Giotto._ - _Taddeo Gaddi._ - Angelo Gaddi. Jacopo Casentino. - Ant. Veneziano. Spinello. - Paolo Uccello. Lorenzo Bicci. - Aless. Baldovinetti. Donatello. - Dom. del Ghirlandaio. Bertoldo. - M.A. Buonarroti." - -What pity that this laboured scale, which has all the air of an -astrologic conceit of Vasari, and gives to chance the sanction of -predestination, could not be extended to Architecture! As the notion of -a writer who dates the subversion of Art from the epoch and style of M. -Angelo, it must appear ludicrous even to the most declared votary of -that great name on this side of idolatry. - -[71] The mask of an antique Satyr, and the basso-relievo of the -Centaurs, undertaken at the suggestion of Poliziano. - -[72] One has been preserved, and as a document of the relation in which -_power_ at that time stood with _art_, may interest the reader. - -"Julius P.P. II. Dilectis Filiis Prioribus Libertatis, et Vexillifero -Justitiae Populi Florentini." - -"Dilecti filii, salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. Michael Angelus -sculptor, qui a nobis leviter et inconsulte discessit, redire, ut -accepimus, ad nos timet, cui nos non succensemus: Novimus hujusmodi -hominum ingenia. Ut tamen omnem suspicionem deponat, devotionem vestram -hortamur, velit ei nomine nostro promittere, quod si ad nos redierit, -illæsus inviolatusque erit, et in ea gratia apostolica nos habiturus, -quâ habebatur ante discessum. Datum Romæ, 8 Julii, 1506, Pontificatûs -nostri Anno iii." - -[73] There went a tale that Michael Angelo proposed to demolish the -palace of the Medicis, like that of the Bentivogli at Bologna, and to -call the site "Piazza de' Muli," the place of Bastards, in allusion to -the illegitimacy of Clemente VII. Alessandro, and others of that family. -"A feature," says Fiorillo, "if true, as characteristic of his natural -ferocity as disgraceful to his heart, after the benefits heaped on him -from his infancy by that family. Varchi, however, defends him against -this charge."[76] Whether this tale confutes itself or not, may be left -to the reader; but on an estimate of his private and public conduct, as -man and artist during the long course of his life, it must be owned, -that this is the period which offers the most specious opportunity to a -sceptic in morals, of fixing some doubts on the integrity of his -principles. His earliest actions prove that he drew a severe line -between the duty which he owed to his country, and gratitude imposed by -private obligations. He left the family of Pier de' Medici on finding -his principles incompatible with the laws of a free state; and on the -expulsion of the petty tyrants, without lending a hand to the -devastation of their property, felt it his duty to act as a free man on -the re-establishment of liberty, and to obey the laws of a state whose -right to legislate for itself had been acknowledged by all Italy. It -will not be said, that it is palliating duplicity to assert, that as a -private individual he had a right to accept the behests of Leo X. and -Clemente VII. for decorating a sacred edifice; but when he became a -leader of the revolution, the trustee of his country's safety, the main -defender of the city, did he not more than degrade himself, by -forgetting the patriot in the artist, and "secretly" sacrificing time to -raise monuments to men whose titles he opposed and whose principles he -detested? Thus, whilst his conduct may prove the absurdity of the tale, -that he publicly, and with illiberal sarcasms, advised the demolition of -palaces belonging to a family whose memory he secretly laboured to -perpetuate in monuments inspired by the most amorous phantasy; it -certainly does not screen his character from the imputation of a -duplicity to which no other period of his life offers a parallel. - -[74] "Lavorava," says Vasari, "le statue per le sepolture di S. Lorenzo -segretamente,"--p. 224, ed. B. And again, "Lavorando egli con -sollecitudine e con amore grandissimo tali opere, crebbe (che pur troppo -gli impedi il fine) lo assedio."--p. 229. Impossible as the secrecy of -his labours for the Chapel of S. Lorenzo may appear, the publicity of -his situation considered, it must be admitted, to account for the -confidence placed in him by the City. - -[75] Of the Fall of Lucifer and his Host, which was to face the -altar-piece of the Last Judgement, no sketch that could give an idea of -the whole has yet been discovered; its place over the grand door of the -Chapel was reserved for the sacrilegious 'bravura' of the Neapolitan -Matteo da Lecca, under the pontificate of Gregorio XIII.: his -composition, if impudence of grouping deserve that name, must be -supposed to bear infinitely less analogy to the original conception of -Michael Angelo, than the tumultuary fresco of the Sicilian; who, says -Vasari, having lived many months with Michael Angelo as a servant and -colour-grinder, became possessed of some design of his for that subject, -and painted it in fresco in a chapel of the Trinità del Monte. -Notwithstanding the incompetence of the adventurer to manage such -materials, the naked groups showering from Heaven, and the hubbub of -transformed fiends grappling below in the abyss, struck the beholder -with terror and surprise;--a mass of Dantesque images, and in Dantesque -language described by the biographer.--V. di M.A. t. vi. 237. - -[76] Stor. Fior. lib. vi. p. 154. - -[77] This pompous visit appears to have been made for the purpose of -inspecting the Cartoon; to remove the obstacles to its completion which -the unfinished state of the Giulian monument still presented; and to -convince the artist of the value he set on the exclusive service of his -genius. But, besides the obligation of fulfilling his contract with the -House of De Rovere, Vasari seems to think that one principal reason of -Michael Angelo's tardiness to comply with the wishes of the Pope, was -the Pontiff's age, (vedendolo tanto vecchio,) _i. e._ apprehension, if -he lived long enough to prevent the termination of the monument, of his -dying too soon for the completion of the fresco, and thus leaving him -exposed to the revenge of the Duke of Urbino: a conjecture not -countenanced by the Pontiff's age, who, at his accession, was only -eight years older than the artist. - -[78] Bastiano, says Vasari, was a favourite of Michael Angelo, but a -disagreement took place between them about the best method of painting -the Last Judgement. Frà Bastiano had persuaded the Pontiff to give the -preference to oil, but Michael Angelo resolved to execute it only in -fresco. On seeing the Frate's preparation adopted, without agreeing to -it or opposing it, he remained inactive for several months; till, on -being pressed, he finally declared, that he would either do it in fresco -or not at all; that oil paint was a woman's art, and the refuge of -idlers at their ease like Frà Bastiano. In consequence of which, the -Frate's incrustation being dashed to the ground, and the wall duly -prepared for fresco, he set about the work, but never forgot the insult -he fancied to have received from the friar during life.--Vasari, Vita di -F.S. - -[79] Michael Angelo had finished more than three-fourths of the work, -when the Pontiff visited the Chapel, and on inspection, turning to -Messer Biagio, of Cesena, then master of ceremonies, in his train, asked -him what he thought of the work? The scrupulous prelate replied, that so -daring an aggregate of shameless nudities in a sacred place was obscene -profanation, and an exhibition fitter for a tavern or a brothel than a -papal chapel. Michael Angelo, indignant, and eager to revenge the -affront, only waited for his departure, and then, from memory, drew him -in the character of Dante's Minos, with a snake encircling his body and -gnawing his middle, in the midst of a hillock of fiends. In vain did -Messer Biagio supplicate the Pontiff and Michael Angelo to take him out; -he remained, and is there still. So far Vasari; but tradition adds, that -on Biagio's application, the Pope asked in what part of the picture he -was placed, and being answered, in Hell, replied, had you been lodged in -Purgatory, you might perhaps have been dismissed, "sed ex Inferno nulla -est redemptio." Condivi notices the story not at all. - -In the Diary of Paris de' Grassi, Messer Biagio is said to have been -appointed master of ceremonies by Leo X. 1518, in the room of Nicola da -Viterbo, and, if we believe Ducange, (Table des Auteurs dans le -Supplement du Glossaire,) he has written a diary himself.--See Fiorillo, -i. p. 389. - -[80] Blaise de Vigenere, the translator of Philostratus and Callistratus, -tells us, in his observations on the latter, page 855, that "he saw M. -Angelo, at the age of sixty, strike off more marble from a block in one -quarter of an hour, than four stonemasons usually did in three or four -hours." If this happened in 1550, as will appear from the following -passage, M. Angelo was then in his seventy-sixth year.--"L'entrepris aussi -de Michel l'Ange estoit hautaine et fort hardie, sentant bien sa main -assurée, le quel commança l'an 1550, que j'estois à Rome, un Crucifiement -où il y avoit de dix à douze personnages, non pas moindres que le naturel, -le tout d'une seule pièce de marbre, qui était un chapiteau de l'une de -ces huict grandes colomnes du temple de la Paix de Vespasian, dont il s'en -void encore une toute entière et debout, mais la mort----" - -[81] Vol. vi. p. 272. - -[82] Vasari's account of both pictures is sufficiently curious to be -communicated in his own words. "Alfonso D'Avalo, Marchese del Guasto, -having obtained from Michael Angelo, by means of Frà Nicolo della Magna, -a cartoon of Christ appearing to Magdalen in the Garden, made every -exertion to have it executed in painting by Puntormo, as he had been -told by Michael Angelo that no one could serve him better. Jacopo -undertook the work, and succeeded to a degree of excellence, which made -Alessandro Vitelli, captain of the Florentine guards, bespeak a second -copy of him, which he placed in his house at Cività di Castello." - -"Michael Angelo, to oblige his intimate friend Bartolomeo Bettini, made -him a Cartoon of Venus naked and Cupid kissing her, to be executed by -Puntormo in oil, for the centre piece of an apartment, on the sides of -which Bronzino had begun to paint Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio, to be -followed by the rest of Tuscan love-songsters. The picture of Puntormo -was miraculous, but instead of being given to Bettini for the price -stipulated, was, by some favour-hunters, his enemies, nearly extorted -from Jacopo, and carried off as a present to Duke Alessandro, returning -the cartoon to Bettini. A transaction which, when he heard it, irritated -Michael Angelo, who loved his friend, and made him dislike Jacopo for -it."--Vasari, Vita di Jacopo da, P.V. - -[83] They had been fellow-scholars in the garden of Lorenzo de' Medici. - - - - -SCHOOL OF SIENA. - - -In the enumeration of Tuscan art, some lovers of subdivision have -fancied, with more refinement than solidity, to discover in the style of -Sienese artists a characteristic sufficiently distinct from the -Florentine, to erect Siena into a school. This characteristic, we are -told, is a peculiar gaiety in the selection of colour, and an air of -physiognomic vivacity and serenity of face; both, it seems, the -inheritance of the Sienese race. They have, accordingly, divided this -school into three epochs: the first is that of the _ancients_ (gli -antichi); and its first palpable patriarch, Guido, or Guidone, commonly -called _Guido da Siena_, and noticed already in the beginning of our -chapter on the Florentine school. He flourished before the birth of -Cimabue, in the first half of the thirteenth century, and is followed -by the names of Ugolino da Siena and Duccio surnamed di Boninsegna, -the precursors of Simone Memmi, the contemporary of Giotto, who painted -Laura and survives in the sonnets of her lover. Lippo Memmi and Cecco da -Martino, his relatives, float in the obscurity which prevailed till the -appearance of Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti. Of the first there still -exists an extensive work in the public palace, or rather a didactic -poem, which in suitable allegories and in varied views, exhibits the -vices of a bad government, and personifies the qualities necessary to -form the rulers of a virtuous republic--a work which, with less monotony -of features, and more judgment in the division of the subjects, would, -in the opinion of Lanzi, find little to envy in the best-treated -histories of Pisa's Campo Santo. In partnership with his brother Pietro, -he painted, in the Hospital of Siena, the Presentation and the Espousal -of the Madonna--pictures destroyed in 1720. This is that Pietro who, in -the Campo Santo of Pisa, painted the Hermits of the Desert, and the -Terrors of Solitude invaded by an Infernal Apparition, with a novelty of -conception and a richness of fancy, that render his work the most -interesting of the whole series. That, notwithstanding the plague, which -had wasted the population of Siena at that period, the art continued to -flourish, is proved by the numbers who formed themselves into a civil -body under the immediate patronage of the Republic itself. In some -families it became an heirloom: such were the Vanni and the Bartoli. -Andrea di Vanni, or more properly, di Giovanni, not only figured as an -artist in his native city, but was delegated by the Republic to the Pope -at Avignon, and appears in the records as "Capitano del Popolo;" and -among the letters of Santa Caterina da Siena, there are three addressed -to him.[84] Vasari has mentioned Taddeo di Bartolo, (1351--1410.) whose -works still exist in the public palace and the adjoining hall. They -pretend to represent a number of celebrated republicans, and chiefly -Greeks and Romans, but their physiognomies are all ideal, and their -dresses the costume of Siena. Something was added to the monotony of -these family styles under the Pontificate of Pio II. or Enea Silvio, -(1503,) by Matteo di Giovanni, in disposition, variety, expression, -drapery; he has accordingly been complimented by some as the Masaccio of -Siena, but remained unknown to Vasari. The art gained still more under -the auspices of a second Piccolomini, Pio III. (1503.) He employed -Pinturicchio, Raffaello, and other strangers, to perpetuate the -achievements of his predecessor Enea; and they, Raffaello excepted, -continued with Signorelli and Genga to exercise their talents in -decorating the Palace of Pandolfo Petrucci, who had usurped supreme -power in the Republic. - -The second period of Sienese art opens with the sixteenth century, and -the works of Giacomo Pacchiarotto, or Pacchiarotti. They resemble the -produce of Perugino's school, though distinguished by more vigour of -composition. But what entitles this epoch to the claim of establishing -the peculiar style of this school, must be looked for in the works of -Giannantonio Razzi, Domenico Beccafumi, and Baldassare Peruzzi. - -Giannantonio Razzi,[85] commonly called "Il Soddoma," is said by some to -have been a native of Vergille, in the territory of Siena; by others, of -Vercelli, in Piedmont. Long residence, however, supplied the want of -birthright: Siena claims him for her own; and if a charming whole, -suavity of tint combined with force of chiaroscuro, be the principal -characteristic of that school, no native has expressed it with equal -evidence and felicity. This gaiety of tone and manner some have traced -to the jovial turn of the man himself; as careless as gay, ever in -pursuit of youth and beauty, though with an indiscretion that brands him -with the stain tacked to his name, from a character so volatile and -dissipated, that inequality of execution might be expected which marks -his happiest effusions. Thus, in the Church of S. Domenico, where he -represented Sta. Caterina of Siena, on receiving the stigmata, -fainting in the arms of two sister nuns, we forgive to the energy of -conception, the pathos of expression, and the sympathy of tone that -press the principal group on our hearts, that neglect which left the -figure of the Saviour below mediocrity, and own, with Baldassare -Peruzzi, that we never saw mental dereliction and fainting beauty -expressed with deeper sentiment and truth; a verdict which receives -full sanction from him who relates it, Vasari, less the biographer than -the merciless censor of the obnoxious Razzi, for whose moral turpitude -and technic slovenliness his sanctimonious asperity found no other -excuse than that of madness, which swayed him to neglect or misapply the -powers of genius. Thus, in speaking of the fresco at Monte Oliveto, in -which Soddoma had chosen to represent a bevy of harlots let loose with -song and dance on St. Benedetto and his flock, to try their sanctity, he -reprobates the licentiousness that had larded the subject with -additional obscenity, whilst he concludes by owning that it is one of -the best pictures in the Convent. How are we to reconcile the neglect -which, disdaining to consult Nature, or to regulate a picture by cartoon -or design, relied for the whole on practice and on chance, with the -praise bestowed on Razzi's composition, the faces that speak, the -breasts that palpitate, the torsos compared by some to the antique, by -others to Michael Angelo, but by that indifference which often -distinguishes the man of genius from the man of talent, him who -possesses by Nature from him who acquires by art? Capacity and -attachment unite not always; and to Soddoma, vain, whimsical, volatile, -art appears to have been no more than the readiest means of procuring -amusement or pleasure. "My art dances to the sound of your purse," said -he to the Abbot of Monte Oliveto. - -Agostino Chigi, pleased with the art, and still more the whimsies of -Soddoma, if we believe Vasari, carried him to Rome, and introduced him -to Giulio II. to co-operate with Pietro Perugino, &c. in the Vatican; -but his labours being superseded by the novel powers of Raffaelle, -Agostino, whose attachments were not regulated by the Pontiff's whims, -employed him in the decorations of his own palace, now the Farnesina; -where, in a principal apartment leading to the great saloon reserved for -Raffaelle, he painted the Nuptials of Alexander and Roxana in a style no -doubt inferior to the Loves of Amor and Psyche, but not of an -inferiority sufficient to account for the enormous disparity of fame -that separates both. - -Domenico Mecherino,[86] the son of a Sienese peasant, better known by -the adopted name of Beccafumi, inferior to Razzi in elegance of line -and suavity of colour, excelled him in energy of conception and style. -Vasari, who invests Beccafumi with every excellence and virtue, of which -the defect or opposite vice disgraced Razzi, still owns that he did not -reach the physiognomic suavity that marks the faces of Soddoma; and -after leading him from the scanty elements of Pietro Perugino to Rome, -the Antique, the Chapel of M. Angelo, and the works of Raffaelle, by a -kind of anticlimax brings him back to Siena to complete his studies by -adopting the principles of Giannantonio. A modern writer,[87] on the -contrary, has discovered that the talents of Domenico, overpowered by -the genius of M. Angelo, turned their current awry, and failed to -produce the legitimate efforts which might have been expected from a -steady adherence to the principles of Raffaelle--opinions less founded -on the character of the artist and the spirit of his works than on the -partiality and prejudice of the critics. Beccafumi was not of the first -class, less made to lead than to follow with an air of originality; to -amalgamate principles not absolutely discordant--thus, in single -figures, he sometimes more than imitates, he equals M. Angelo, as in -those noticed by Bottari;--and again, in larger compositions, such as -those on the pavement of the Cathedral, works by which he is chiefly -known, we see him on the traces of Raffaelle, and emulating the variety -and graces of Polydoro: these graces frequently vanished, and -correctness as often ceased with the increased size of his figures: the -foreshortenings, in which he delighted, savour more of the "sotto in -su," introduced by Correggio to Upper Italy, than of the principles of -M. Angelo; they are generally attended by a magic chiaroscuro, like that -of the figure of Justice, on which Vasari expatiates, on the ceiling of -the public hall at Siena, which, from profound darkness gradually rising -into light, seems to vanish in celestial splendour. He is said by Vasari -to have preferred fresco and distemper to oil paint, as a purer, -simpler, and of course more durable medium; and though the predominant -red of his flesh-tints has more freshness than glow, such is the -solidity of his impasto and the purity of his method, that his panels -present us to this day less with the injuries than the improvements of -time. - -The style of Mecherino did not survive him: for Giorgio da Siena, his -pupil, confined himself to grotesque work, in imitation of Giovanni da -Udine; Giannella, or Giovanni of Siena, turned to architecture: of Marco -Pino, commonly called Marco da Siena, his reputed pupil, the style, -decidedly built on the principles of M. Angelo, renders all notion of -his having received more than the first rudiments from Beccafumi or any -other master, nugatory: but the conjecture of Lanzi, that Domenico was -the master of Danielle Ricciarelli, known to have begun his studies at -Siena, though unsupported by tradition, acquires an air of probability -less from the supposed mutual attachments to M. Angelo, than the -versatility of their talents and similarity of pursuits. - -Baldassare Peruzzi,[88] born in the diocese of Volterra, but in the -Sienese State, and of a citizen of Siena, with considerable talents for -painting, possessed a decided genius in architecture. His style of -design is temperate and correct, but quantity is the element of his -composition, if _indeed_ an aggregate of fortuitous figures deserve that -name. The Adoration of the Magi, preserved in various coloured copies -from his original chiaroscuro, embraces every fault of ornamental -painting without its only charm: it is not exaggeration to say, that the -principal figures are the least conspicuous, that the leaders are -sacrificed to their equipage, that the architect every where crosses the -painter, and that the quadrupeds, however brutally placed or -impertinently introduced, for conception, chiaroscuro, spirit and style, -give to the work what merit it can claim. The same principle prevails in -his fresco of the Presentation at the Pace, and both are so evidently -opposite to Raffaello's system of composition, that it is not easily -understood how he could be supposed to have been a pupil or imitator of -that master in propriety. If he resembles him any where, it is in single -expressions, as in the Judgement of Paris at the Castello di Belcaro, -according to Lanzi; and still more in the prophetic countenance of the -celebrated Sibyl predicting the birth of the Virgin to Augustus, at -Fonte Giusta, in Siena, whose divine enthusiasm no prophetess of -Raffaello has excelled, and no Sibyl of Guido or Guercino approached. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[84] Lettere della Beata Vergine, S. Caterina da Siena. Venez. 1562., -4to. p. 286, 242. The last was written at the period of Vanni's dignity. - -[85] 1481-1554. - -[86] 1484-1549? - -[87] Fiorillo, i. 335. - -[88] 1481-1536. - - - - -THE ROMAN SCHOOL. - - -The Roman School comprises, besides the natives of the metropolis, those -of the whole Ecclesiastic State, Bologna, Ferrara, and some part of -Romagna excepted. - -The origin of this school recedes into the earlier periods of modern -art, if we consider Oderigi of Gubbio, a painter of miniature, -contemporary with Cimabue, as one of its founders. His death, which -preceded that of the Florentine at least one year, the branch of art he -exercised, missal-painting, and what we know of his situation, make it -extremely improbable that he owed the elements of design to that master, -with whom he seems to have had little in common but the honour of -rearing a pupil, who in the sequel eclipsed his name, and became the -founder of another school. - -Perhaps he made some scholars too at home: in 1321 we find Cecco and -Puccio of Gubbio, engaged as painters to the Dome of Orvieto; and about -1324, Guido Palmerucci Eugubino, employed in the Town-hall of Gubbio; a -few half figures yet remaining of this evanescent work are in a style -not inferior to that of Giotto, at whose period we are now arrived. - -Giotto, at Rome, gave instructions to Pietro Cavallini in painting and -mosaic, and with what success we may form some idea from the -wonder-working Christ in S. Paolo at Rome, the Salutation at S. Marco of -Florence, and a Crucifixion at Assisi; a crowded composition of -soldiers, mob, and horses, varied in dress and not ill discriminated by -expression, with groups of angels hovering over them in sable robes. In -vastness of conception and spirit it resembles Memmi, and in one of the -crucified men, foreshortening is not unsuccessfully attempted; the -colours have still a degree of freshness, especially the blue, which -here and in other places of the church forms, in the metaphor of Lanzi, -a ceiling of oriental sapphire. - -After the demise of Cavallini, who, notwithstanding a life of -eighty-five years, appears to have left taste nearly in the state he -found it; a band of obscure and insignificant artists led the art in a -style neither Giottesque nor Greek to the verge of the fifteenth -century--that important period when the Popes, re-established at Rome, -searched for the best hands to decorate its Vatican and temples. The -first name that occurs, is that of Ottaviano Martis, whose Madonna in -Sta. Maria Nuova at Gubbio, bears the date of 1403; she has a choir -of stripling angels round her in attitudes not ungraceful, but with -faces as like to each other as if they had all been cast in one mould. - -The name of Gentile da Fabriano is of more consequence; it is he whose -style Michael Angelo compared to his name (Gentile.) About 1417 we find -him at Orvieto among the painters of its Dome, registered with the title -of Magister Magistrorum. Under Martin V. he painted with Pisanello in -the Lateran at Rome: what he did there perished, and so did his works in -the public palace at Venice, where he resided, was pensioned, and raised -to the rank of Patrician. "In that city," says Vasari, "he was the -master and like a parent to Giacopo Bellini, the father of Giovanni and -Gentile Bellini, founders of the Venetian school and masters of -Giorgione and Tizian. Of his numerous works the remains are in the Marca -d'Ancona, the state of Urbino, at Gubbio and Perugia: Florence still -preserves two of his pictures, one in S. Nicolo with the image and -histories of that bishop, another in the sacristy of the Trinità, with -an Epiphany and the date of 1423. His style resembles that of Frà -Angelico da Fiesole, with the exception of forms less elegant, less -female grace, and more profusion of gold lace and brocade. _Antonio da -Fabriano_, with the date 1454, and _Bartholomæus Magistri Gentilis de -Urbino_, 1497 and 1508, are inscriptions on pictures at Matelica, -Pesaro, and Monte Cicardo, that have no other claim to attention than -the relation their names seem to indicate with Gentile. - -Piero della Francesca, or Piero Borghese, an Umbrian, of Borgo S. -Sepolcro, is a superior name. He must have been born about 1398, as, -according to Vasari, his works were about 1458; he grew blind at sixty, -and died eighty-five years old. He was instructed in painting at the age -of fifteen, after having laid a foundation in mathematics, and -distinguished himself in both. His beginnings were minute; his master -has escaped search. The first scene of his talent was the Court of -Guidobaldo Feltro the old, Duke of Urbino, where the perspective of a -vase drawn by him, provokes the astonishment of his biographer; but -besides perspective, Painting owes to him her first notions of the -effects of light, of muscular precision, and the method of preparing -clay models for the study of drapery.[89] - -He painted much at Rome, and in the Floreria of the Vatican there still -exists a large fresco reputed his, representing Niccolo V. with some -cardinals and prelates, whose faces interest by a character of truth. At -Arezzo, he seems to have improved even upon Giotto and his school, by -the novelty of his foreshortenings, vigour of tone, and powers which -attended by equal grace, would have set him on a level with Masaccio. - -Nicolo Alunno of Foligno, advanced the art still farther; this is -evident on comparing a picture of his painted 1480, with another at S. -Nicolo of Foligno, dated 1492. The tone of his colour, even in -distemper, has novelty and vigour; his heads have vivacity, though with -trivial and sometimes caricatured characters: and in gilding he is -moderate. Vasari, who places him in the time of Pinturicchio, praises -above all a Pietà in a chapel of the Domo, in which, he says, "there are -two angels who weep with such expression of grief, that, in my opinion, -no other painter, however excellent, could have done much more." - -Nor was Urbino without painters at this period: Fiorillo names Lorenzo -da San Severino. At Urbino some pictures still remain of Giovanni -Sanzio, the father of Raphael, who by the Duchess Giovanna della Rovere -is called a very ingenious artist: a foreshortened figure of St. -Sebastian, painted by him for the church of that saint, has been -imitated by Raphael in an early picture of Our Lady's Wedding, at Città -di Castello. He subscribed himself Io. Sanctis Urbi.; viz. Urbinas. Such -at least is the inscription on his Annunciation at Sinigaglia, a work of -high finish, but unequal in its parts, and in the best, though less -genial, approaching the style of Pietro Perugino, with whom he had for -some time co-operated. But the most distinguished Urbinese artist was -Bartolommeo Corradini, a Dominican, commonly called Frà Carnevale: at -the Osservanza there is a picture of his, defective in perspective, with -draperies frittered into the usual tatters of the time, but with faces -that breathe and speak, and airs of dignity and ease: he was one of the -first who introduced portrait into historic composition, a method -adopted and often practised by Raphael, who at Urbino had studied his -works. - -Perugia laid an early claim to Art, at least as a craft. Mariotti tells -of one Tullio a Perugine painter about 1219, and in a long file of -quattrocentists, allots the most conspicuous places to Lorenzo di -Lorenzo, Bartolommeo Caporali, whose works are dated about 1487, but -above all to Benedetto Bonfigli. Yet with this abundance of home-bred -artists, Perugia employed in its public works the hands of strangers, -and chiefly Tuscans; it was to Florence, States and Princes looked for -that master-style which could give splendour to a great commission. When -Sisto IV. planned the decorations of the Sistina, the greater number of -conscripts for the work were Tuscans, and Pietro Perugino the only -artist drawn from his subjects among them. - -Pietro Vannucci, of Città della Pieve, as he subscribed some pictures, -or of Perugia, as he did others, being a citizen of that place, studied, -if we believe Vasari, under a master of little eminence; but according -to the more authentic researches of Mariotti,[90] was a pupil, and -sufficiently advanced himself by the instructions of Bonfigli and Piero -della Francesca, to finish his style on the works of Giotto and Masaccio -at Florence, without entering the school of Verrocchio. - -Those who have contemplated the works of Pietro will without much -difficulty discover two styles of composition, form, colour, and -execution: the first was the result of the instructions he received in -the Roman, the second, that of the impression made on his mind and hand -by the Tuscan School: what he painted in oil and of small dimensions, -generally belongs to the first; what he executed in fresco to the second -period. There we find the hardness, the haggard forms, the miserly -scantiness of drapery, the Gothic apposition and anxious finish with -which he is charged, relieved by azure blues, emerald greens, violet and -crimson hues, the legacies of missal-painting, and a certain air of -juvenile and female grace, with suavity of countenance and colour: -beauties which not only followed him in his second style, but were -rendered more impressive by rudiments of that breadth which seems to be -the privilege of fresco, by keeping, mellowness, tone, and approaches to -composition, as in the altar-piece of the Kindred of the Saviour and the -fresco in the Hall of the Change, at Perugia. - -Whilst the physiognomic monotony which had hitherto dulled the human -feature, began to give way to expression and character in the works of -this period, it is not easy to explain why its companion, that Gothic -symmetry in the arrangement of the whole, should not only have been -retained but aggravated into a studied parallelism; not that pathetic -repetition of attitude and gesture which forces the moment of the -subject more irresistibly on the mind than the most varied contrasts, -but a nearly rectilinear apposition, whose principal law was to place, -by a central figure, on each side of the picture, an equal number of -subordinate ones; a law that extended itself to the most minute detail, -and bade buildings, flowers, clouds and pebbles, re-echo each other; and -all this in the face of Giotto, whose Navicella, Death of Maria, and -other works, gave evidence that his composition had, a century before, -disdained to move in the trammels which were now suffered to check that -of Pietro Perugino, and for no inconsiderable time the composition of -Raphael himself. - -Invention was not the element of Pietro. His crucifixions, depositions, -burials, ascensions, and assumptions, are the brothers and sisters of -one family. He was blamed for this sterility even in his own time, and -defended himself by saying that, if he possessed little, he owed -nothing, and that what had pleased in one place could not displease in -another. It does not indeed offend to find the scenery of his St. Peter -receiving the keys in the Sistina, repeated in the Wedding of our Lady -at Perugia, and to meet the beauties here concentrated which he had -singly scattered over various places. - -Pietro had vigour of constitution and length of life, and if he profited -by the works of Raphael, whom he outlived, might have done so by those -of Lionardo and Buonarroti. In few men so many contradictory qualities -seem to have united: ridiculed for a degree of avarice, which, it was -said, made him withhold the necessary drapery from his figures, he is -yet allowed by Vasari to have been greedier to accumulate than sordid in -the use of wealth, and to have pleased himself by marrying "a beautiful -damsel, whom he so much delighted in seeing elegantly dressed both -abroad and at home, that he was often suspected of having dressed her -himself." By her he had children, but no records enable us to judge of -him as a parent. That he was a good and kind master, is proved by the -numerous scholars he reared, and still more by the pride which the most -eminent and best of them took, by introducing him more than once in his -works, to perpetuate with his own gratitude the memory of his master. -With this kindness for his pupils, Pietro connected intolerance of -rivals and a mordacity of language, which provoked Michael Agnolo to -call him publicly a dunce (_goffo_) in art. His life was spent in -receiving commissions from the clergy, in meditating and composing -subjects of devotion; and yet, if we believe his biographer, he carried -infidelity to a degree which resisted all arguments for the immortality -of the soul, and with words dictated by an obstinacy worthy of his -marble brains,[91] rejected all invitations to better information. Of -the numerous scholars whom he had reared, the greater part followed his -manner with servile attachment; hence many of their works have been -ascribed to him, by those who did not form their judgment at Perugia, or -at Florence in Sta. Chiara and the Ducal palace: thus he pays forfeit -for many a holy family of Guerino da Pistoia, Rocco Zoppo, or some other -of his Tuscan scholars. The best and least enthralled of his pupils -belong to the Roman school: Bernardino Pinturicchio, less praised by -Vasari than he deserves, without the correctness of his master, and with -more Gothic profusion of gold-lace and brocade, possesses magnificence -of plan, expression of countenance, and propriety of composition. -Familiar with Raphael, who was his assistant at Siena, he made attempts -to imitate his grace, and sometimes not without success: at Rome, the -Vatican and Araceli Temple possess some of his works; at Siena he -painted, in ten pictures, the history of Pio II. and added one of Pio -III. his employer, and these, with what he left in the Dome of Spello, -are the best of his labours. - -Of at more independent and grander spirit was Andrea Luigi, of Assisi, -surnamed L'Ingegno, the Genius. He assisted Pietro in the Change-hall -at Perugia, and there and in his Prophets and Sibyls at Assisi, -aggrandized and mellowed the style of his master to a degree, which led -Sandrart, with others, to ascribe the latter work to Raphael; but -blindness checked his career in the bloom of life, and left the art to -Raphael without a rival. - -Domenico di Paris Alfani added, likewise, some improvements to the style -of Pietro. His name was nearly sunk in that of his son or brother -Orazio, and time and dates alone have re-asserted its right to some -excellent works long adjudged to the other; and which, were it not for -an insipid sweetness of tone bordering on that of Baroccio, seem to have -been inspired by the principles of Raphael. - -Of Pietro's many ultramontane pupils, Giovanni Spagnuolo, a Spaniard, -called Lo Spagna, who settled at Spoleto, is considered by Vasari as the -most eminent. But all these names united confer less celebrity on -Pietro, than the felicity of having reared the powers of Raffaello -Sanzio, if not the founder, the great establisher of the Roman School. - -Raffaello Sanzio, born at Urbino on Holy Friday, April 1483, was the son -of Giovanni Sanzio, named among the contemporaries and occasional -helpers of Pietro, in whose school, after having imparted the first -rudiments of Art to his son, conscious of his own inferiority, he had -the modesty to place him. Here his progress was so rapid that he soon -rendered himself completely master of Vannucci's style, soon became his -favourite pupil, soon his co-adjutor, and in a short period more than -his competitor: for though the pictures which he painted at Cività di -Castello and Perugia, and are so amorously dwelt on by Lanzi, still -betray in composition, design, and colour, the principles of the master, -they exhibit symptoms of that expression, that beauty, those simple -graces, that refinement and precision of finish, which not only had -remained unknown to Pietro, but in their purity were never attained by -any subsequent artist.--Some of these are perceivable already, if -scantily, in the Procession to Golgotha, preceded by horsemen and -attended by the Madonna and her female train; and still less perceptibly -in one of its predelle which exhibits the Saviour held extended by his -Mother, Magdalen and John: they cannot be mistaken in the predelle -which represents him among the sleeping disciples praying in the -garden,--performances of his puerility, and most probably before he left -the school of Pietro. - -After an enumeration of Raffaello's juvenile works at Cività di Castello -and at Perugia, we are told that he who ascribed Sanzio's art to length -of study and not to nature, was not acquainted with the powers of his -mind.[92] - -That such was the verdict of Michael Agnolo, is recorded by Condivi; and -from aught that appears, it does not seem either invidious or -incompetent. If Art be a complete system of invariable rules, he only is -a master of Art who substantiates its precepts by equal uniformity of -execution and taste; and till he arrives at that point, he can only be -said to have seized more or less of its parts in making approaches to -the whole, and to be indebted to "study" and not to "nature," if he put -himself at last in possession of it. - -Such was the progress of Raffaello; he arrived by degrees at style in -design, by degrees at style in composition, by degrees at invention, -expression, and at what appeared to him colour. His genius emancipated -him from the shackles of prescription and fashion, rapidly, if we -compare his progress with the shortness of his life or the progress of -the rest of his contemporaries, but slowly, if we compare him with -Michael Angelo, whose system of Art seems to have been born with him, -whose infancy, virility, age, exhibit one uniform principle. Every -element of the system displayed in the Capella Sistina and on the tombs -in S. Lorenzo, may be traced in his essays at the garden of the Medici -and in the Holy Family painted for Angelo Doni: but what eye will -discover the future painter of the Heliodorus, or the composer of the -Cartoons in the bridal arrangements of our Lady's Wedding at Cività di -Castello, or even in the Cartoons for the sacristy of the Duomo at -Sienna? - -Though the commission of painting in that place a series of the most -memorable events in the life of Pope Pio II. (a Siennese celebrated by -the name of Enea Silvio,) had been given to Pinturicchio, who had -sufficient modesty and taste to avail himself of the superior and -growing powers of his friend,--it has been asked what enterprise of -equal magnitude had in that infant state of Art ever been consigned to -a single hand, without considering that the co-operation of Raffaello -was adventitious, and less owing to the opinion which he had established -of himself in the public mind than to the modesty of Pinturicchio. And -had not Luca Signorelli singly been entrusted with a work at Orvieto, -whose tremendous and universally interesting subjects beyond comparison -excelled whatever the embassies, the poetic and papal honours, the -canonization of a nun, the ceremonies of a council, the death of the -hero himself, and the transportation of his corpse from Ancona to Rome, -however varied by character, impressed by the sensibility of the artist, -or raised above the heraldry of the times, could pretend to achieve -beyond the precincts of Sienna? - -Whether Raffaello furnished the whole of the Cartoons for that work, or -only part, cannot be ascertained from the contradictory account of -Vasari,[93] who in the life of Pinturicchio asserts the first, and in -that of Raffaello, the second. As he, however, did not leave Sienna for -Florence till 1504, it is probable that he continued to assist his -friend in completing the whole historic series: the work itself is in -perfect preservation, and though better informed eyes than those of -Bottari[94] might not be competent to discriminate the parts which -exclusively belong to Raffaello, it is certain that in the progress of -the pictures there is an evident progress toward style. - -Aggrandisement of style might reasonably be supposed to have been the -motive that drew Raffaello to Florence. The David of M. Angiolo was -placed; he had begun his cartoon, which from its very inaccessibility, -and the high character of the artist whom it opposed, must have been an -object of eager curiosity to the public, and of tremulous expectation to -the student. Florence was, no doubt, at that period divided into two -technic factions, Vinciists and Bonarotists; it does not, however, -appear that Raffaello adhered to either of the two leaders; neither the -learning and energy of Bonaroti, nor the magic chiaroscuro of Lionardo, -could divert the future painter of the passions from his course; he -therefore attached himself to the study of Masaccio, as a more direct -guide to the drama. The implicit application of that master's -conceptions in the same or similar subjects, when he was in the vigour -of his powers, if it be the most celebrated proof of this, is a less -convincing one than the similarity of taste and vein of thought which -pervades their works, and might, to men of bolder conjecture than I -pretend to, prove that Masaccio might have been what Raffaello was, had -time and means conspired. - -According to the account of Vasari,[95] Raffaello went three times to -Florence: the first time when, according to the biographer, roused by -the fame of Lionardo and M. Angiolo, he left the partnership of -Pinturicchio, 1504--the date of the recommendatory letter with the -affixed name of Joanna Feltria, Duchess of Urbino, addressed to the -Gonfaloniere Pietro Soderini, and said to be still preserved at Florence -among the papers of the Gaddi family. Supposing the date of the letter -(1st October, 1504) to be correct, and the writer of it to have been -acquainted with the person she recommends, its genuineness, as Fiorillo -observes, is liable to strong suspicion. Its expressions might fit a lad -of ten or twelve years, but certainly not a young man of one-and-twenty, -the age of Raffaello, who had painted many pictures, was at that very -time employed in a great public work, and only three years after was -called to Rome by Giulio the Second. - -Though Raffaello's talents had spread his name, and attracted the -attention and the wishes of Giulio the Second to employ him in the -decoration of the Vatican, it may be presumed that the persuasive -influence of his relative, Bramante Lazzari, decided the Pontiff to -distinguish him by that immediate and exclusive call to Rome, which -raised him above all rival competition, and opened the most splendid -period of his life, most probably 1507. Which was the picture he began -with, would not have been contested by his biographers, encomiasts, and -critics, from Vasari to Mengs, had they attended less to hearsay, for -tradition it cannot be called, than to the evidence of the works -themselves. To date the dispute on the Sacrament after the School of -Athens, equally inverts the progressive powers of the artist in -conception, taste, style, and execution. Everywhere that composition -betrays a young performer, enviably successful in each individual part, -but whom experience has not yet enabled to spread an harmonious whole. -The connection of its upper with the lower scene, less divided than rent -asunder, depends entirely on a mental effort in the spectator. The -parallelism of the celestial synod, impresses more with formal monotony -than awful energy, and the ostentatious abuse of gold impairs its -dignity. In the lower part of the picture, less sublime than dramatic, -the artist moves in his own element; its parallelism and its contrasts, -no longer the result of ceremonious symmetry, but of the inspiring -principle, warms contemplation to sympathy, and its characteristic -correctness exhibits in Raffaello's own unassisted, or rather unalloyed -hand, the style of the School of Athens, the Mass of Bolsena, the -female part of the Heliodorus, and with a felicity unattained in the -Parnassus and the Attila,--the more ample outlines and the increased -volume of forms in the Angels, and the Heliodorus and his accomplices on -the foreground. - - - _A description of two Drawings by Raffaello, from an account of - the Collection of Drawings and Prints in the Gallery of Duke - Albrecht, of Sachsen Teschen, at Vienna_.[96] - -I. - -Two naked male figures, apparently studies from Nature, on one leaf, -drawn in red chalk: one with nearly all his back turned to the eye, -rests the left hand on his hip, and with the right points to something -before him. Somewhat behind you see the other, sideways, in perfect -repose, leaning with both hands on a long spear-like staff; the -background has some rudiments of a sketched head. To the right of the -spectator, at the side of the first figure, you read, "1515, -Raffahell di Urbin der so hoch vom Pobst geacht ist gwest, hat diese -nakte Bild gemacht, und hat sy dem Albrecht Dürer gen Nornberg -geschikt, in sein hand zu weissen."[97] - -That Raffaello in his last years, and when at the height of his -celebrity, did exchange drawings with Albert Durer, is attested by the -biographers of both: and that the design here described is one of that -number, is incontestably proved, not only by the peculiarity of style, -the elegance and facility of outline, the characteristic contrast of -solid and muscular parts, but by the identity of the handwriting with -the manuscripts of Albert still existing at Nürnberg, his native city. - -I therefore think it no improbable conjecture to suppose that Raffaello, -by transmitting this specimen of his hand to Albert, intended to make -him sensible of the difference between imitating Nature and dryly -copying a model, and so impress him with the necessity of contrasting -his outline according to the different texture of the parts in the -bodies before him. - -This interesting leaf is one foot three inches three lines in height, -and ten inches eight lines in width, Vienna measure; and in perfect -preservation. - - -II. - -This design differs in nothing from the well-known picture of the -Transfiguration, but the absolute nudity of all the figures. - -That Raffaello was accustomed to sketch in naked outlines, may be known -from most collections that possess something of his hand; but perhaps -none but this may be able to produce a design, of a numerous and -complete composition, in which every figure is rendered with anatomical -correctness and finished chiaroscuro. - -Another singularity of this important leaf is, the characteristic -disparity of execution in the figures; for though all are drawn with the -pen, and on the first glance seem hatched in one uniform manner, it soon -appears on close inspection, that they cannot have been produced by the -same hand. - -The figures of the three Disciples on the Mount, especially the -foreshortened one, are treated with that spirited facility and -confident decision which always mark the pen of Raffaello. Those of the -Saviour and the collateral prophets, though drawn with less precision -and contours here and there, by repeated strokes, corrected, still -exhibit on the whole the same spirit, facility, and confidence of hand. -Of the actors below, the figure of John, with hands crossed on his -breast, and the three next to him have the same Raffaellesque -characteristics, and so the whole of the females kneeling on the -foreground; but of the adjoining apostle, with the book in his hand, the -projected leg and foot are absolutely out of drawing; whilst the -Demoniac and his father, with all the remaining figures, drawn by mere -practice, without a symptom of the master spirit, give palpable proofs -of a different hand. - -It appears no improbable conjecture that Raffaello, after settling the -plan and fully arranging the figures of his picture, drew the nudities -of this design as the bases of his draperies: for this reason only, the -principal parts of the forms, and those muscles that would act most -visibly on the draperies, are designed correctly, and finished with -decision; whilst the heads, and what was either to be naked in the -picture or did not act immediately on the drapery, remained in careless -and superficial lines. - -That Raffaello suffered parts of his Transfiguration, and in my opinion -some of the most important parts, to receive all but the last finish from -a pupil, if tradition had not told us, there is ocular demonstration in -the picture itself. The proportions of the Demoniac's father are neglected -as a whole, in relation of limb to limb, and the figure is sacrificed to -place. The face of Christ himself, as it was seen in the Louvre, is -unworthy of Raffaello's hand and conception.[98] - -The reason why some of the figures are drawn in the true spirit of the -artist, and others in a bald and insignificant manner, may be, that -after slightly sketching the whole, he gave his own finish in the design -to those parts only which he intended to execute with his own hand in -the picture; and less solicitous for the rest, left them to the hand of -some inferior pupil. - -The height of this extraordinary design is one foot eight inches four -lines; its breadth one foot two inches five lines; it is without injury. - - * * * * * - -Taddeo and Federigo Zuccari, the first declared mannerists of this -school, sons of Ottaviano Zuccari, a mediocre painter of S. Angiolo in -Vado, came to Rome successively, formed a school, and filled towns and -states with an immense farrago of good, tolerable, and bad pictures. -From the instructions of Pompeo da Fano and Giacomone da Faenza, but -chiefly from an obstinate study of Raffaello's works, Taddeo, at no -protracted period, gathered enough to diffuse over his own, an air, -though not reality, of style, and to anticipate by contrivance and -facility the rewards which time owes to invention and genius. Courting -the senses of the multitude, he became the hero of the day; they saw -their portraits in his faces, their limbs in his forms, their action in -his attitudes; his draperies, hair, beards, had a cut of fashion. The -simplicity of his disposition is often contrasted by half figures -emerging from his foregrounds; perhaps less from a principle of -imitating his more remote predecessors, than to invigorate the effect of -his chiaroscuro, a method not unknown to Parmegiano. - -Rome possesses vast works in fresco of Taddeo; among the best of these -are some Gospel stories at the Consolazione. He seldom painted in oil, -and less commendably in large than small: some of these are cabinet -pictures of exquisite finish,--such a one, (formerly in the collection -of the Duke of Urbino, but more recently at Osimo in the Palace -Leopardi,) is the Nativity of the Saviour, and in Taddeo's very best -style. But the work on which his fame chiefly rests, are the paintings -of the Palazzo Farnese, at Caprarola (engraved in a moderate volume, by -Prenner, 1748). They represent the Feats of the Farnese Family, in peace -and war; to which are joined other stories, both sacred and profane; -but what attracts attention most, is the celebrated "Stanza del Sonno," -an apartment dedicated to Sleep, replete with a great variety of -allegoric imagery, suggested to him by Annibale Caro, in a long, quaint -letter, printed among his familiar ones, and reproduced among the -"Lettere Pittoriche," t. iii. l. 99. - -Dissimilar in the pursuits of life, Taddeo resembled Raffaello in death; -he completed thirty-seven years, and obtained a monument close to -Sanzio, in the "Rotonda." - -His brother and pupil Federigo, inferior in design, resembles him in -taste, though more mannered, more capricious in conceit, more crowded in -composition. He completed what death had prevented Taddeo from finishing -in the Sala Regia, that of Farnese, the Trinità de' Monti, and -elsewhere, with the airs of heir-at-law to his brother's talents. Thus -he raised an opinion of capacity for greater enterprise, and was invited -by Francis I. to paint the great Cupola of the metropolitan church at -Florence, which death alone had saved from Vasari's hands. There -Federigo painted more than three hundred figures of fifty feet in -height each, besides that of Lucifer, "so enormous," to use his own -phrase, "that it makes the other figures appear infants;[99]--figures," -he adds, "larger than the world ever witnessed before in Art." So -little, however, hugeness excepted, is there to admire in this work, -that at the time of Pier da Cortona, a painting of that master would -have been substituted for it, had it not been feared that he would not -live long enough to terminate the whole. After the Cupola, every work of -consequence at Rome appeared his due, and he was recalled by Gregorio to -paint the ceiling of the Paolina, and give a successor to Michael -Angelo. It was at that period, that, on a charge preferred against him -by some courtiers or domestics of Gregorio, he painted and exhibited the -picture of Calumny, and his accusers with asses-ears, which raised a -clamour that obliged him to fly from Rome. During his exile, which -lasted some years, he visited Flanders, Holland, England; had a call -even from Venice to paint a subject in the Ducal Palace, was everywhere -caressed and remunerated, and, the Pope being mitigated, returned to -reassume his interrupted labours in the Capella; the best work perhaps -which, without the assistance of his brother, he has produced at Rome, -though the larger altar-piece of S. Lorenzo in Damaso, and that of the -Angioli at Gesù, with some others dispersed in other churches, may claim -their share of merit. He built a house on Monte Pincio, rapidly and with -the assistance of his scholars furnished with family portraits, -conversations, and other whims in fresco, and left to prove him a -trifler in Art, and the leader of decay. - -Invited by Philip II. he went to Madrid, but failed to please; his place -was supplied by Tibaldi, and he sent back with a good pension to Italy. -Towards the end of his life he made another journey, scouring the -principal towns of Italy, and leaving his works wherever he could place -them: of these the Assumption of the Madonna in an oratorio at Rimini on -which he wrote his name, and her Death at Sta. Maria in Acumine of the -same place, with figures more than usually studied, deserve notice. His -Presepio in the Duomo of Foligno, has simplicity and grace; nor less -have the two stories relative to the Madonna, painted for the Duke of -Urbino in a chapel at Loretto. The Miracle of the Snow, in the library -of the Cistercians at Milano, is a multitudinous composition filled with -portraits as usual, variously coloured and well preserved. The Borromean -College at Pavia, has a saloon painted in fresco from incidents in the -life of S. Carlo: the most approved of these is the Saint praying in his -recess: nor might the other two, that of the consistory in which he -received the Cardinal's hat, and the Pest of Milano, want commendation -had they overflowed less in figures. At Torino he painted for the -Jesuits a St. Paul; began to ornament a gallery for the Duke, Charles -Emanuel; published his _Idea de' Pittori Scultori ed Architetti_, and -dedicated it to the Duke. This was followed, at his return to Lombardy, -by two other treatises; "_La dimora di Parma del Sig. Cav. Federico -Zuccaro_; and _Il passaggio per Italia, colla dimora di Parma del Sig. -Cav. Federigo Zuccari_," both printed at Bologna 1608. Next year, on his -return to Rome, he fell sick at Ancona, and there died. His talents, -which extended to sculpture and architecture, were inferior to his -fortune, which preceded that of all his contemporaries, and was in a -great measure the effect of personal qualities; lordly aspect and -demeanour, some literary culture, persuasive manners, and a liberality -that absorbed the wealth which his hand had accumulated. - -Emulation seems to have been his chief motive of writing: he longed to -break a lance with Vasari, whom, from whatever cause, as appears from -the postils tacked to the _Vite_, he disliked. They have been sometimes, -especially in the Life of Taddeo, quoted and treated as effusions of -envy and malignity by the annotator of the Roman edition. To prove his -superiority over the Tuscan, he chose a style as obscure and inflated as -that of Giorgio is diffuse and plain; the whole of the treatise printed -at Torino reels in a round of internal and external design, and contains -less precept than peripatetic speculation, which rendered the schools of -that day more loquacious than learned. His language runs over in -intellective[100] and formative conceits, in substantial substances and -formal forms; even the titles of his chapters are larded with equal -fulsomeness of phrase, like that of the XIIth., that "philosophy and to -philosophize, is metaphoric and similitudinarious design." These are the -bait of fools--for none but fools can hope to gather meaning from the -bubbles of sophistry, or stoop to disentangle etymologies which derive -_disegno_ from "Dei signum," the sign of God! - -This treatise was probably the offspring of his presidency in the -Academy of St. Luke; for office gives insolence. The Academy dates its -origin from the Pontificate of Gregorio XIII., who granted the brief of -its foundation[101] to Muziano. It had not, however, its full effect -till after the return of Zuccari from Spain, who put it in force and was -unanimously declared "Principe," or President. That was his day of -triumph; he returned from the inauguration in the church of S. Martino -at the foot of the Campidoglio, accompanied by a great concourse of -artists and litterators to his own house, where shortly after he built a -saloon for the accommodation of the Academy, in whose praise he -overflowed in prose and poems, more than once quoted in his larger -treatise; and to seal his extreme affection, bequeathed like Muziano, in -case his own line should fail, the bulk of his fortune to the -establishment. - -Giuseppe Cesari, sometimes distinguished by the name of Il Cavaliere -d'Arpino,[102] his native place, was in art what Marino was in -poetry--brilliancy without substance is the characteristic of both, and -either proved the ancient observation, that Arts and Republics receive -the greatest damage from the greatest capacities. The talent of Cesari -bubbled up from his infancy, made him an object of admiration, procured -him through F. Danti, the protection of Gregorio XIII., and in a short -time the reputation of the first master at Rome. Less than the felicity -with which he is said to have executed some pictures from certain -designs of M. Agnolo, in the possession of Giacomo Rocca, his exuberance -alone was sufficient to establish supremacy of name among a race who -measured genius by quantity, and science by confidence of method. If his -numbers were rabble, he arranged them with the skill of a general; if -common-place furnished him with features, arrogance of touch brushed -them into notice; and the horses which he drew with equal truth and -fire, supplied the incorrectness or imbecility of the rider. The -excellence of his colour in fresco, the gaiety which he spread over a -vast surface, hid from the common eye monotony of manner, poverty of -character, and want of finish in the detail of parts. - -They were observed, reprobated and opposed by M.A. Caravaggio, A. -Caracci, and the few who saw and thought with them. Quarrels arose, and -challenges were given: that of Caravaggio, Cesari refused to accept, -because he had not yet been knighted, and Annibale rejected that of -Cesari, because, said he, "I know no other weapon than my pencil." They -both experienced the difference of the difficulties that attend -legislation and reform of taste, and were left ineffectually to struggle -with an empiric, who outlived either upwards of thirty years, and then -left a race worse than himself behind him. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[89] Bramante. - -[90] Lett. Perug. V. - -[91] "Cervello di porfido." - -[92] See Vasari on Michael Angelo's observations on Tizian. - -[93] "Fece li Schizzi e i Cartoni di tutte le Istorie." - - _Vita di Pinturicchio._ - -"Fece alcuni de' disegni e Cartoni di quell' opera." - - _Vita di Raffaello._ - - -[94] In the picture on the facciata, Bottari says, "Si vede non solo il -disegno, ma in molte teste anche il colore di Raffaello." - -[95] Essendo con Pinturicchio a Siena--messo da parte quell' opera, e -ogni utile e commodo suo, se ne venne a Fiorenza. Morta la Madre, partì -e andò a Urbino, e accomodate le cose sue, ritornò a Perugia. Prima che -partisse, &c.--Così venuto a Firenze, fece il cartone per il quadro di -Madonna Atalanta Baglioni; dipinse per A. Doni e Dom. Canigiani; studiò -le cose vecchie di Masaccio; acquistò miglioramento dai lavori di -Lionardo e di Michelagnolo; ebbe stretta domestichezza con Frà -Bartolomeo di S. Marco; ma in su la maggior frequenza di questa pratica -fu richiamato a Perugia, dove finì l'opera della gia detta Madonna -Atalanta Baglioni, &c.--Finito questo lavoro e tornato a Fiorenza, gli -fu dai Dei cittadini Fiorentini allegata una tavola, &c. ma chiamato da -Bramante si trasferì a Roma.--Vasari, Vita di Raffaello da Urbino, ed. -Firenze, 1771. p. 163, 167, 172. - -According to this account of Vasari, Raffaelle went three times to -Florence; the first time, when roused by the fame of Lionardo and -Michael Angelo, he left Pinturicchio 1504, and continued at Florence -till he was called away by the death of his mother to Urbino, from -whence, having settled his affairs, and painted certain things, he went -to Perugia, and after some public works there, returned again to -Florence with a commission from A. Baglioni. This is the period fixed by -Vasari of his acquaintance with Bartolomeo di S. Marco, the progressive -improvements of his style, and his pictures for A. Doni and D. -Canigiani, and must have been his longest stay in that capital, though -interrupted by a new call to Perugia, during which he finished the -picture of the Burial of Christ, now in the Borghese Palace, for the -Chapel Baglioni, and then returned for the third time to Florence. - -[96] From the "Annalen der bildenden Künste für die Osterreichischen -Staaten, Von Hans Rudolph Füessli." Erster theil. Wien. 1801. Annals of -the Plastic Arts in Austria. - -[97] 1515. Raffahell di Urbin, who was so highly esteemed by the Pope, -has made these naked figures, and has sent them to Albrecht Durer at -Nornberg, to show him his hand. - -[98] This observation is founded on close inspection of this picture, in -the room of the "Restoration," in 1802. The face of Christ not only -appeared no longer that which all thought it to be who had seen it at S. -Pietro in Montorio, but even inferior to that in the print of Dorigny, -had assumed an expression nearer allied to meanness than to dignity, -without sublimity austere, and forbidding. It is probable, however, that -these changes originated under the sacrilegious hands of the restorers, -who had before destroyed the better part of the Madonna di Foligno. - -[99] "Sì smisurata, che fa parere le altre, figure di Bambini," &c. Idea -de' Pittori, Scultori, e Architetti, inserted among the Lettere -Pittoriche, t. vi. p. 147. - -[100] Disegno interiore ed esteriore; concetti intellettivi e formativi; -sostanze sostanziali, forme formali.--Titolo del capitolo XII. che la -filosofia e il filosofare è disegno metaforico similitudinario.--Disegno, -Segno di Dio. - -[101] Baglioni, Vita di Muziano. - -[102] 1560-1640. - - - - -THE SCHOOL OF NAPLES. - - -Social refinements and elegance of taste in arts had shed their -splendour over the Hesperian colonies of Greece long before Rome had -learnt to value more than the ploughshare and the sword; Herculaneum, -Stabiæ, Pompeii, with their still remaining multitude and variety of -legitimate monuments, prove that a technic school of eminence flourished -in the Neapolitan states after they had been incorporated with the Roman -empire; and what time has spared or tradition recorded of the attempts -made by Goths, Greeks, Longobards, Saracens, and Normans, to repair -their waste of desolation, sufficiently shows, that though the art -itself at intervals vanished, the craft still subsisted during the gloom -of the middle ages. - -But not to soil these pages with too much legend, we date the revival of -Neapolitan art from the name of Tommaso de' Stefani, born 1230, the -contemporary of Cimabue and Charles of Anjou, who, though on his passage -through Florence he had been led to visit that object of Tuscan dotage, -on his establishment at Naples employed Tommaso in his new-founded -church; a questionable honour, of which a native writer[103] avails -himself to insinuate the superiority of his countryman over Cimabue, as -if the suffrage of a prince could defeat the evidence of works, or stand -against the verdict of Marco da Siena,[104] who from them, judged him -inferior to the Florentine in grandeur of style and breadth. - -The favours of Charles were continued to Tommaso by his successor, and -emulated by the principal families of the city; the chapel de' Minutoli, -named by Boccaccio, was storied by him with subjects drawn from the -Saviour's passion; and others from the life of S. Gennaro, and some -sainted bishops, by his hand, are said still to exist in a roomy chapel -of the ancient Episcopio. Some semblance of the same saint in S. Angelo -a Nido, formerly S. Michele, is considered as his work, and some -fragments have survived of others, with dates of 1270 and 1275. He was -the master of Filippo Tesauro, who painted in the church of S. Restituta -the life of S. Nicholas the Hermit, the only fresco of his which has -reached our time.[105] - -About 1325, Giotto was invited by King Robert to Naples, for the purpose -of painting the church of Sta. Chiara; he came and filled it with -Gospel history, and apocalyptic mysteries, from inventions, said in the -time of Vasari to have been formerly communicated to him by Dante. These -works, because they darkened the church, were whitewashed in the -beginning of the last century, with the exception of a Madonna called -della Grazia, and some other sainted image, preserved by female piety. -Giotto conducted other works in Sta. Maria Coronata, and still others, -which no longer exist in the Castle dell' Uovo. Maestro Simone, a -Cremonese, according to some, but more probably a native of Naples, was -the chosen partner of these works, and from so distinguished a choice, -acquired some celebrity himself: from the resemblance of his style to -Tesauro and to Giotto, he might have been the pupil of either, and was -perhaps of both. Certain it is, that after the departure of Giotto, he -received from Robert and Queen Sancia, many important commissions for -various churches, and especially that of S. Lorenzo; there he painted -Robert receiving the crown from his brother Lewis, Bishop of Toulouse, -but died before he could finish the compartment of the chapel dedicated -to that prelate after his demise and canonization. Though confessedly -inferior in invention, character, and suavity of tone, he has nearly -reached Giotto in some of his works: such as the dead Christ supported -by his mother, in the church dell' Incoronata, and the Madonna with the -Infant, on a gold-ground, now in the convent of the church della Croce, -supposed by some to have been painted in oil.[106] - -Simone had a son, Francesco di Simone, who died in 1360. His works are -not numerous, but what has reached our days in the Capitolo di S. -Lorenzo, is distinguished by an air of superior dignity and grace. Two -other pupils of Simone, Gennaro di Cola and Stefanone, a similarity of -manner associated in several public works, such as the chapel of S. -Lewis, begun by Simone, and what still exists in S. Giovanni da -Carbonara of subjects relative to our Lady. They are similar, however, -without monotony. Gennaro, impressed by the difficulties of his art, and -bent to overcome each obstacle by labour, appears precise, studied, and -hard. Stefanone, guided by a spirit which in better days might have been -called genius, boldly executed what he had conceived with warmth. - -The pretended improvements of Colantonio del Fiore, (born 1352, died -1444,) a pupil of Francesco, neither appear to have been considerable -enough in themselves, nor sufficiently authenticated, to place him at -the head of a new epoch in style. Those barbarous relics of the middle -ages, that meagerness of contour, dryness of colour, and want of -perspective, which he is said to have abolished, had in a great measure -vanished before, at the glance of Giotto. The gold grounds continued -after both;[107] and if in enumerating some of his works his encomiast -is in doubt whether they may not rather belong to M. Simone, what is it -but a tacit confession, that the art had made no considerable progress -during the course of a century? - -The life of Colantonio grasped nearly the half of two centuries, and the -refinements for which he has been extolled must be looked for in those -of his works, on whose authenticity there is no hesitation, produced on -the verge of life. Such is the Madonna, &c. in Sta. Maria Nuova, a -compound of harmonious hues, though painted on a gold ground; and still -more in S. Lorenzo, Saint Jerome drawing a thorn from the lion's foot, -the date 1436, a picture full of truth, in high esteem with foreigners, -and for its better preservation removed by the fathers of the convent -from the church itself to the sacristy. He had a scholar in Angiolo -Franco, who has obtained the praise of Marco di Siena, for having -invigorated the most successful imitation of Giotto by the tone and -chiaroscuro of his master. - -But a name of far greater importance to art is that of Antonio Solario, -commonly called Lo Zingaro, the reputed son-in-law of Colantonio. His -story, still more romantic than that which in Quintin Metsis transformed -a blacksmith to a painter, tells that Solario, bred to the forge, became -enamoured of a daughter of Colantonio, forsook the anvil, and by -successful submission to a ten years' trial of painting, and the -mediation of a queen, obtained the idol of his soul. Let those who told -the tale vouch for its truth: what is less disputable, and interests -this history more, are his travels from Naples to Bologna, where for -several years he studied under Lippo Dalmasio, and from thence over -Italy, to become acquainted with the principles of other masters; those -of Vivarini at Venice; of Bicci at Florence; of Galasso at Ferrara; of -Pisanello and Gentile da Fabriano at Rome. These two, it is believed -that he assisted, and Luca Giordano asserted that some heads in their -pictures at the Lateran bore the legitimate marks of Solario's pencil. -In heads he excelled; he inspired them, according to Marco da Siena, -with the air of life. In perspective, if the times be weighed, his skill -was considerable; in composition not contemptible. There is variety in -his scenery; and if his dresses be not drapery, they are at least -naturally folded. In the design of the extremities he was less happy; -his attitudes often border on caricature, as his colour on crudeness. On -his return to Naples, nine years after his departure, applauded by -Colantonio and the public, he enjoyed the patronage of King Alfonso. His -greatest work is the Life of S. Benedetto, in the compartments of the -cloister of S. Severino,--frescoes filled with an incredible variety of -objects. Other churches possess some altarpieces by him: he left many -portraits and some very attractive Madonnas; but in the Dead Christ of -S. Domenico Maggiore, and the S. Vincent of S. Pier Martire, including -some stories of that Saint's life, he is said to have excelled himself. -Zingaro reared a school, which with more or less felicity disseminated -his principles for nearly half a century, and retained his name. Of its -pupils, Niccola di Vito, long forgot in his works, is barely remembered -as a buffoon; Simone Papa and Angiotillo di Roccadirame, scarcely -emerged to mediocrity; Pietro and Ippolito (Polito) del Donzello deserve -less transient attention. Sons-in-law of Angiolo Franco, and pupils of -Giuliano da Majano in architecture, they were, according to Vasari,[108] -employed by him to decorate with paintings the fabric of Poggio Reale, -which he had constructed for King Alfonso, where, continuing to operate -under his son and successor Ferdinand, they represented the story of the -Conspiracy formed in against him, a work celebrated by Jacopo -Sannazaro.[109] Ippolito, alone or with his brother, filled the -refectory of Sta. Maria Nuova with a number of subjects for the same -prince, and then retired to Florence, where, not long after, he died. -Piero remained at Naples distinguished and followed. Their style is that -of their master, but with more suavity of colour. The first successful -imitation of friezes, trophies, and storied basso-relievoes in -chiaroscuro, may with probability be dated from them. That Pietro -excelled in portraits, is evident from some animated heads saved among -the ruins of certain frescoes of his on a wall of the Palace Matalona. -Both were, however, surpassed in tone, and force of light and shade, and -mellowness of outline, by Silvestro de Buoni, their pupil, whose -pictures, scattered over the temples of Naples, have been enumerated by -Dominici. Silvestro himself yields to Tesauro of questionable name,[110] -whose works approach much nearer to the succeeding epoch than the united -labours of his predecessors in vigour of invention, in judgment, -propriety of attitude, truth of expression, and general harmony of the -whole, with a relief beyond what seems credible in an artist -unacquainted with other schools and other works than those of his -native place. Such was his power of execution, that it challenged the -wonder of Luca Giordano in the vigour of his career, when he -contemplated the ceiling of San Giovanni de' Pappacodi, where Tesauro -had painted the Seven Sacraments. They have been minutely described, and -the portraits of Alfonso II. and of Ippolita Sforza, whom he is said to -have represented, for the work itself is no more, in the Sacrament of -Matrimony, afford some light as to the time in which it was painted. -Another of his works, equally praised, in the Chapel Tocco of the -Episcopal church, which represented a series of subjects from the life -of Saint Asprenas, perished under the hands of one of Solimena's pupils. -He was the father or uncle of Raimo Epifanio Tesauro, a considerable -Frescante, who, according to Stanzioni, rekindled the evanescent spark -of Zingaro's principles. Some few vestiges of his works remain in Sta. -Maria Nuova and Monte Vergine. His dates reach from 1480 to 1501, and he -may be considered as the last of this school, for Gio. Antonio d'Amato -acquired fame by abandoning its style for that of Pietro Perugino. - -Such were the masters that marked the first epoch of the Neapolitan -school; neither inconsiderable in number, nor contemptible in progress, -for a state nearly always perplexed by war: it derives, however, its -greatest lustre from having produced within the state the memorable -artist whose resolution and perseverance made Italy mistress of the -new-discovered method in oil-painting, and changed the face of art.[111] - -Antoniello, a Messinese, of the Antonj family, universally known by the -name of Antoniello da Messina, educated, according to Vasari, to the art -at Rome, returned from that place to Sicily, and after some successful -practice at Palermo and Messina, sailed to Naples, where he saw an -historical picture painted in oil by John ab Eyk, which had been -presented or disposed of to king Alfonso, by some Florentine traders. -Charmed by the method, Antoniello forgot every other concern, passed -into Flanders, and by close attendance, and some presents of Italian -designs, captivated the heart of the old painter, who made him -completely master of the secret, and soon after died. Antoniello then -left Flanders, and after some months spent at Messina, repaired to -Venice, where he practised with general admiration of his new method; -communicated it to Domenico there, and he at Florence to the felon -Castagna, till by gradual progress it embraced all Italy. What remains -to be related of Antoniello, is reserved for the history of the Venetian -school, to which by residence and practice he properly belongs, and -which alone carried his new discovered method to the height it was -capable of. - -The second epoch of Neapolitan art was auspicious. P. Perugino had -painted for the Cathedral an Assumption of the Virgin, now lost, a work -which led to a better taste. Already, Amato, as we observed, had -abandoned the manner of Zingaro to follow Pietro, though his style had -still too much of the former to form more than the connecting link -between the two epochs; when Raffaello and his school came into vogue, -Naples was the first of exterior towns to profit by them, and they, -about the middle of the century, were followed by some adherents of -Michael Angiolo; nor till near 1600, was any attention paid to other -masters, if we except Tiziano. - -The new series begins with Andrea Sabbatini[112] of Salerno. Smitten -with the style of P. Perugino, Andrea set out for Perugia, to enter his -school; but hearing some painters at an inn on the road talk of -Raffaello and the Vatican, he altered his mind and route, and went to -Rome. Though not long under the guidance of Sanzio, being by the death -of his father, 1513, obliged to return to Naples, he returned another -man. He is said to have painted with Raffaello at the Pace and in the -Vatican. A good copyist, and what is rare, a better imitator, if he did -not soar with Giulio, he kept pace with the best of that school, and -excelled some in correctness, and a style equally remote from -affectation and manner, with depth of chiaroscuro, breadth of drapery, -and a colour which has defied time. His works in oil and fresco, -scattered over the metropolis and the kingdom at large, have been -celebrated as miracles of art, though now either lost or greatly -impaired. - -Of his scholars all persevered not in his manner: thus Cesare Turco, as -commendable in oil as unsuccessful in fresco, drew nearer to P. -Perugino. More of Andrea was retained by Francesco Santafede, the father -and master of Fabrizio,--painters whom few of that school equal in -colour, and so uniform that their works can only be discriminated by the -superior tinge and chiaroscuro of the father. But the scholar who most -resembled Andrea was one Paolillo, whose works, nearly all ascribed to -his master, till restored to their real author by Dominici, leave little -doubt of his right to the first honours of that school, had his career -not been intercepted by a violent death, occasioned by intrigue. -Polidoro Caldara, of Caravaggio, escaped to Naples in 1527, from the -sack of Rome, but not, as Vasari with less information than credulity -relates, to starve. Received in the house of Andrea, formerly his fellow -scholar, he soon acquired acquaintance, commissions, and even formed -pupils before his departure for Sicily. He had been celebrated for his -chiaroscuros at Rome: at Naples and Messina he attempted colour. The -shadowy and pallid specimens he has left, leave a doubt whether he would -ever have arrived at a degree of strength or brilliancy worthy of -invention and style, though he has been praised with enthusiasm by -Vasari for the colour of the Christ led to Calvary, a numerous -composition, and the last before his assassination at Messina. - -Gian Bernardo Lama left the school of Amato to attach himself to -Polidoro, whom he more than once imitated with sufficient success to -incur the suspicion of having been assisted by the master: he had, -however, more sweetness than energy, and, in the sequel, was noted for -his opposition to the vigorous inroads of the Tuscan style and the -prevalence of Marco di Pino. - -Francesco Rubiales, a Spaniard, from his felicity of imitation called -Polidorino, is likewise named in Naples among the scholars of Caldara, -whom he assisted in painting for the Orsini, and singly conducted -several works at Monte Oliveto, and elsewhere, the greater part of which -are no more. - -There are who class with the scholars of Polidoro, Marco Cardisco, -called Marco Calabrese.[113] Him Vasari prefers to all the natives of -that epoch, and admires as a plant sprung from a soil not its own: he -knew not, perhaps, that, of Magna Grecia, modern Calabria was the spot -most favoured by the arts. Possessed of a dextrous hand and florid -colour, Cardisco spread his labours over Napoli and the State: of what -remains, the most praised is the Dispute of Saint Augustine at Aversa. -Gio. Batista Crescione and Lionardo Castellani are slightly mentioned by -Vasari as his scholars. - -Gio. Francesco Penni, called "Il Fattore," came to Naples some time -after Polidoro; and, during the short time which he lived, for he died -in 1528, contributed to the advancement of the art by leaving his great -copy of Raffaello's Transfiguration and his pupil Lionardo Grazia, of -Pistoia, behind him, a name more celebrated for colour, and far less for -design, than might have been expected from a nurseling of the Roman -School. He is said to have been one of the masters of Francesco Curia, -who went to Rome to study the style of Raffaello, but returned with the -manner of Zucchero. His composition is, however, praised for decorum and -suavity, his angels and female countenances for beauty, and his colour -for a tone of nature:--their full display distinguished that -Circumcision at the Church della Pietà, which Ribera, Giordano, and -Solimene placed among the masterpieces of Naples. Curia left a close -imitator in Ippolito Borghese, of whom little is seen at home, where he -seldom resided, but the Assumption of Maria at the Monte della -Pietà,--an extensive work, marked by equal vigour of execution. - -Perino del Vaga, at Rome, instructed, and was assisted by, two -Neapolitans, Giovanni Corso and Gianfilippo Criscuolo. The best that -remains of Corso at Naples, is a Christ bearing his Cross, in S. -Lorenzo. Long a pupil of Sabbatini, Criscuolo, during the little time of -his stay at Rome, studied the works of Raffaello with a perseverance -which acquired him the name of the Studious Neapolitan; but without -native vigour, timid, correct, and dry, he remained fitter to teach than -to lead. Such were the principal followers of the Roman School at -Naples; for neither Francesco Imparato, who abandoned the dry precepts -of Criscuolo for the genial example of Tiziano, nor his son Girolamo, -who long after followed the same principles with more pretence and less -success, can properly be classed among the pupils of Rome. About -1544[114] a Tuscan introduced at Naples, what is as commonly as -impertinently called, the style of Michael Angiolo: a cold enumeration -of sesquipedalian muscles, groups uninspired by thought, feeble in -effect, and crude or faint in colour, methodized by manner and -despatched by practice. Thus Giorgio Vasari filled the Refectory of -Monte Oliveto, during one year of residence, with an enormous work, -which he considered as the electric stroke that was to animate that -indolent taste, till then vainly solicited by Raffaello and his school. -Whether he disgusted the national pride by such insolent civility, or -provoked the indignation of those who, in Andrea Sabbatini, venerated a -superior name, it appears that, so far from creating a school, he was -discountenanced by the public, and incurred the perpetual censure of -every Neapolitan writer on art. He ought to have known, that he who -challenges a nation, courts an eternal feud. - -Another, less pompous, but more effectual follower of Michael Angiolo, -was Marco da Pino, or Marco da Siena: the date[115] of his arrival at -Naples ought probably to be placed after 1560. He was well received, -presented with the freedom of the city, and deserved the courtesy by the -amenity of his manners and sincerity of character. With the reputation -of the first artist, Marco was employed in the most conspicuous churches -of the city and the state. Though he sometimes repeated his inventions, -he approached Michael Angiolo nearer than any other Tuscan, because he -affected less to do it. His forms are appealed to by Lomazzo as -instances of just proportion, and, in keeping and aërial perspective, he -is ranked with Lionardo and Robusti. As his design is less charged, so -is his colour more vigorous and glowing than the usual tinge of the -Tuscan School: sometimes, however, he is unequal, trusts to practice, -and deviates into manner. He was an able architect, and of the good -writers on that art. - -Of many pupils reared in his school, none was comparable to Gio. Angiolo -Criscuolo, brother of G. Filippo. Though bred a notary, he had practised -miniature from his youth; emulation with his brother prompted him to -attempt larger proportions; and, under the tuition of Marco, he became a -good imitator of his style.[116] - -To dwell circumstantially on the crowd of artists that fill the -biographic pages of this period, humiliating as mere nomenclature may -appear, is below the dignity of an art, which, like poetry, admits not -of mediocrity. Reputation during life, the partiality of friends and -countrymen, some single work which escaped to excellence from the -insignificant productions of a long career, are but equivocal claims on -the homage of posterity: and more legitimate ones in oil or fresco, have -neither Silvestro Bruno, Simone del Papa, the younger Amato, Mazzolini, -Cola dell' Amatrice, Pompeo dell' Aquila, Giuseppe Valeriani, Marco -Mazzaroppi, Gio. Pietro Russo, Pietro Negrone of Calabria, nor the -Sicilian Gio. Borghese. Pirro Ligorio, the favourite architect of Pio -IV. in Rome, and the engineer of Alphonso II. at Ferrara, owes the -preservation of his name more to his Augean collections of antiquarian -lumber and the intrigues by which he perplexed the last years of M. -Angiolo, than to the flimsy exertions of his pencil. - -Matteo da Leccè, of obscure education, displayed in Rome a perverse -attachment to the manner of M. Angiolo by the usual conglobation of -muscles and extravagance of action. He worked chiefly in fresco, and -with a relief, which, in the phrase of Baglioni, makes some of his -figures burst from the wall. Though many Florentines were then at Rome, -he alone appeared capable of completing the plan of Buonarroti, in the -Sistina, by facing the Last Judgement with the Fall of the Rebel Angels. -Matteo girt himself boldly for the work, and left it a lamentable proof -of the ridicule that must attend the presumption of a mere craftsman to -ally himself with a man of genius. He worked likewise in Malta and in -Spain, and, passing from thence to the Indies, became a thriving trader, -till duped by the rage of digging for treasures, he dissipated his -wealth, and died of penury and grief. - - * * * * * - -After the middle of the sixteenth century, the flame-like rapidity of -Tintoretto's style at Venice, and soon after, the powerful contrast of -Caravaggio's method at Rome, and the eclectic system of the Carracci, at -Bologna, spread general emulation over Italy, and divided Naples into -three parties, of nearly equal strength, led by Corenzio, Ribera, and -Caracciolo, differing from each other, but ready to unite against all -foreign competition. During their flourish, Guido, Domenichino, -Lanfranco, Artemisia Gentileschi were at Naples, and formed some -pupils;--a period as enviable in the number of excellent artists and the -progressive powers of execution, as disgraceful for the dark manoeuvres -and the vile intrigues that fill it--intrigues and manoeuvres too closely -interwoven with the history of Neapolitan art, and, unfortunately, too -well attested, merely to be dismissed with silence and contempt. - -Belisario Corenzio,[117] an Achæan Greek, after passing five years in -the school of Tintoretto, fixed his abode at Naples about 1590. A native -stream of ideas and unparalleled celerity of hand placed him, perhaps, -on a level with his master in the dispatch of a prodigious number, even -of most extensive works; but his rage was too ungovernable often to -admit of more distinguished comparisons with Robusti; though few -excelled him in design, and his works abound in conceptions, attitudes, -and airs of heads confessedly inimitable to the Venetians themselves. -The work in which he has best succeeded as an imitator of Tintoretto, is -the Miraculous Feeding of the Crowd by the Saviour, in the Refectory of -the Benedictines, a huge performance, but, under his hands, a task of -forty days. Though generally too much of a mannerist to sacrifice the -readiest to the best, he still preserves a character of his own, an air -of originality, in glories especially, which he embosomed in darkness -and clouds pregnant with showers. With a decided turn for works of large -dimension in fresco, which seldom allowed him to submit to the finish of -oil colour, he contrived to please by various compositions of sacred -history, in small proportions, and is even said to have enlivened the -perspectives of the Frenchman Desiderio with diminutive figures -admirably toned and adapted to the scenery. - -The native country of Giuseppe Ribera[118] was a subject of dispute -between the Spaniards and Neapolitans, till the production of an -extract from the baptismal register of Xativa (Antologia di Roma, 1795) -decided the claim in favour of Spain, and proved him a native of that -place, now "San Felipe," in the district of Valencia. If the date of his -birth, January 12, 1588, be correct, he must have come to Italy and -entered the school of Caravaggio at a very early period. From him Ribera -went to Rome, Modena, Parma, saw Raffaello, Annibale, Correggio, and in -imitation of their works attempted to form a more luminous and gayer -style, in which he had little success, dismissed it soon after his -return to Naples, and once more embraced the method of Caravaggio, as -more eminently calculated by its force, truth, and effect to fix the eye -of the multitude, the object of his ambition; he soon became painter to -the court, and by degrees the arbiter of its taste. - -The studies he had pursued enabled him to go beyond Caravaggio in -invention, mellowness, and design: the grand Deposition from the Cross -at the Certosa proves the success of his emulation, a work, by the -verdict of Giordano, alone sufficient to form a painter: the Martyrdom -of S. Gennaro in the royal chapel, and the S. Jerome of the Trinità, -excel his usual style, and possess Titianesque beauties. S. Jerome was -among his darling subjects; S. Jerome he painted, he etched in numerous -repetition, in whole-length and in half figures. He delighted in the -representation of hermits, anchorets, apostles, prophets, perhaps less -to impress the mind with gravity of character and the venerable looks of -age, than to strike the eye with the imitation of incidental deformities -attendant on decrepitude, and the picturesque display of bone, veins, -and tendons athwart emaciated muscle. A shrivelled arm, a dropsied leg, -were to Ribera what a breast-plate and a gaberdine were to Rembrandt. As -in objects of imitation he courted meagreness or excrescence, so in the -choice of historic subjects he preferred to the terrors of ebullient -passions, features of horror or loathsomeness, the spasms of Ixion, St. -Bartholomew under the butcher's knife. Nor are the few ideas of gaiety -by which he endeavoured to soothe his exasperated fancy, less -disgusting: Bacchus and his attendants are grinning Lazaroni or bloated -wine-sacks; brutality under his hand distorts the feature of mirth. - -Giambatista Caracciolo,[119] first attached to Franc. Imparato, then to -Caravaggio, grew to manhood before he had produced any work of -consequence: roused afterward by the fame and the impression made on his -mind by some picture of Annibale, he went to Rome, and by a pertinacious -study of the Farnese Gallery became one of the best imitators of that -style. This was the basis of his fame on his return to Naples, and by -this, whenever provoked to competition, he maintained it: such are the -Madonna of S. Anna de' Lombardi; S. Carlo, in the church of S. Agnello; -and the Christ under the Cross, at the Incurabili. The rest of his -performances, by their strength of chiaroscuro, betray the school of -Caravaggio. From so considerate and finished an artist, haste and -flimsiness were not to be feared, and yet there exist productions of his -so feeble that his biographer[120] is reduced to account for them from -the artist's wish of retaliating by paltry work for paltrier prices; or -from suffering them to be finished by Mercurio d'Aversa, no very -estimable pupil. - -Such were the three leaders of that cabal which for some years -persecuted every stranger of eminence in the art who freely came, or was -invited to come, to Naples. Reputation, fiction, violence, had raised -Belisario to the tyranny of fresco; the most lucrative commissions he -considered as due to himself, the rest he distributed among his -dependants, the greater number of whom possessed little merit. Massimo -Santafede, though independent of him, remained neuter, afraid to -interfere with a man who, to obtain his purpose, would stop at neither -fraud nor crime; a proof of which he is said to have given, in -administering poison to the gentlest and best of his pupils, Luigi -Roderigo, whose growing powers he envied. - -To maintain his primacy in fresco, the exclusion of every stranger who -excelled in that branch became, of course, his principal object. -Annibale Caracci arrived at Naples in 1609, to paint the churches "dello -Spirito Santo" and "di Gesu Nuovo," and produced a small picture as a -specimen of his style. The Greek and his associates, called upon to give -their opinion of it, unanimously condemned it as cold, and its master -far too tame to manage an extensive work. Thus baffled, Annibale -returned to Rome during the most oppressive heats of summer, and soon -after died. But the work most contested with strangers was the royal -chapel of S. Gennaro, which the deputies had reserved for Giuseppe -d'Arpino, then painting the choir of the Certosa. Belisario, leaguing -himself with Spagnoletto, not less fierce and arrogant, and with -Caracciolo, who both aspired to that commission, attacked Cesari with a -fury which forced him, before he could terminate his choir, to fly for -safety, first to Monte Cassino, and then back to Rome. The commission -was now given to Guido; but not long after, two men unknown cudgelled -his servant and dismissed him with a message to his master immediately -to depart or to prepare for death. Guido fled; but Gessi his pupil, not -intimidated, having demanded and obtained the grand commission, repaired -to Naples with two assistants, G. Batista Ruggieri and Lorenzo Menini; -both were decoyed on board a galley, that immediately slipped its cable -and transported them to some place which no researches could discover, -and Gessi was obliged to return with his disappointment to Rome. - -Dispirited by the violence of these manoeuvres, the deputies began to -give way to the cabal of the monopolists, allotting the frescoes to -Correnzio and Caracciolo, and flattering Spagnoletto with the hope of -being intrusted with the altar-pieces; when all at once, repenting of -their agreement, they ordered the two fresco painters to throw up their -work, and transferred the whole of the chapel to Domenichino, at the -splendid price of a hundred ducats for every entire, fifty for each half -figure, and twenty-five for every head.[121] They likewise took measures -for his personal safety, by obtaining the Viceroy's protection, but in -vain. The faction, not content with crying him down as a cold insipid -painter and discrediting him with those who see with their ears and fill -every place, alarmed him with anonymous letters, threw down what he had -painted, mixed ashes with his materials to crack the ground he had -prepared, and, by a stroke of the most refined malice, persuaded the -Viceroy to give him a commission of some pictures for the Court of -Spain. These, when little more than dead-coloured, they carried from -his study to court, where Ribera superciliously ordered what alterations -he thought proper, and then, without allowing him leisure to terminate -the whole, dispatched them to Spain. The insolence of the rival, the -complaints of the deputies on the successive interruptions of their -work, and hence the suspicion of mischief, induced Domenichino at last -secretly to depart for Rome, in hopes of being able from thence to bring -his affairs into a better train,--and not without success; the rumours -of his flight subsided, new measures for his safety were taken, he -returned to Naples, and, without more interruption, completed the -greater part of the frescoes, and considerably advanced the -altar-pieces. - -Here death surprised him, accelerated, as some have suspected, by -poison, certainly by repeated causes of disgust from his relations, -competitors, and, above all, the arrival of his old adversary Lanfranco. -He succeeded to Domenichino in the remaining fresco, Spagnoletto in one -of the oil pictures, and Stanzioni in another. Caracciolo was dead; -Belisario, excluded by age from sharing in the spoil, soon after was -destroyed by a ruinous fall from a scaffold. Nor had Ribera, if the -prevailing fame be true,[122] a desirable end; dishonoured in his -daughter, gnawed by remorse for the vile persecutions in which he had -shared, odious to himself, and sick of light, he escaped to sea, and -none tells where he perished. - -Opposed at its onset by these three, the School of Bologna triumphed -after their demise, and Naples was divided into its imitators; for the -mannered style of Cesari, which approached that of Belisario, terminated -with Luigi Roderigo, and his relative Gian Bernardino. - -At the head of those who adopted Caracciesque principles with success, -may be placed Massimo Stanzioni[123] a scholar of Caracciolo, and, as he -himself asserts, of Lanfranco in fresco, in portrait of Santafede. At -Rome he strove to embody the forms of Annibale with the tints of Guido. -Thus equipped, he braved the foremost talents at Naples, and opposed at -the Certosa a Dead Christ among the Maries to Spagnoletto, who, to -escape comparisons, persuaded the friars to have the picture of his -rival washed to recover its somewhat darkened tone, and with a corrosive -liquor so defaced it, that Stanzioni, declaring so black a fraud ought -to remain an object of public indignation, refused to retouch it; he -left, however, other specimens of his powers at that repository of rival -talents, and above all the masterpiece of S. Bruno. The ceilings of Gesu -Nuovo and of S. Paolo give him a distinguished rank among fresco -painters. His gallery pictures, though not rare at Naples, are seldom -met with elsewhere. Whilst single, he sought and aimed at excellence, -and courted the art for its own sake; after his marriage, with a woman -of fashion, gain became necessary to maintain her in a state of -splendour, and he sunk by degrees to mediocrity. - -The School of Massimo is celebrated for the number and excellence of its -pupils, but the two who promised most, Muzio Rossi and Antonio de -Bellis, perished in the bloom of life. The first, who had entered the -School of Guido at Bologna, was at the age of eighteen thought worthy -to face at the Certosa men of the first ability, and shrinks from no -comparison, but scarcely survived his work. The second, whose style is -nearly balanced between Guido and Guercino, began at the church of S. -Carlo various pictures from the life of that Saint, which he lived not -to finish. - -Francesco di Rosa, called Pacicco, another pupil of that school, gave -himself up to the imitation of Guido, by Massimo's own advice. Pacicco -is one of the few artists mentioned by Paolo de Matteio in a MS. which -admits no name of mediocrity. His forms, his colour, the elegance of his -extremities, the grace and dignity of his characters, are equally -commended. He had models of beauty in three nieces, one of whom, Aniella -di Rosa, in charms, talents, and manner of death has been compared to -Elizabeth Sirani: poison, administered by the malignity of strangers, -swept the Bolognese--a dagger and a husband's jealousy, the Neapolitan: -he was Agostin Beltrano, her fellow pupil, and frequent partner of her -works. - -The remaining scholars of this school, Paul Domenico Finoglia, Giacinto -de' Popoli, and Giuseppe Marullo, all three of Orta,--Andrea -Malinconico, and Bernardo Cavallino, were, if we except the last, with -more or less felicity, imitators of their master. Cavallino, more -original, is said to have provoked the jealousy of Massimo, who advised -him to paint in small: this ought to be admitted with hesitation, for it -is difficult to believe, that he who feels himself made for the grand, -could be persuaded to waste his life on trifles. - -Another convert to the Caracci School, was Andrea Vaccaro,[124] the -friend and competitor of Massimo, a man made for imitation, says Lanzi, -and says too much; for, if he had no equal in that of Caravaggio, he -was, when imitating Guido, inferior to Massimo: nor did he, till after -the demise of Stanzioni, acquire that supremacy at Naples which remained -undisputed till the arrival of Giordano, young, vigorous, and fraught -with the novel style of Pietro Beretini. Both concurred for the great -altar-piece of Sta. Maria del Pianto, both presented their sketches, and -Vaccaro obtained preference by the verdict of Pietro da Cortona himself, -who declared him equally superior in experience and correctness of style -to his own scholar; but, when contending with Giordano in fresco, to -which he had not been trained by early practice, Vaccaro lost the -honours he had gained. The best of his school was Giacomo Farelli, whom -Luca found no contemptible antagonist: had he been content to follow the -style of his master, without aspiring at that of Domenichino, for which -he was unfit, he might have deserved the historian's notice for more -than one picture. - -On the School of Domenichino, the Sicilians, Pietro, Giacomo, and Teresa -del Po, cannot confer much honour. The father had more theory than -practice, the son less evidence than ostentation, the daughter shone in -miniature. Nearer to the master, both in style and temper, was Francesco -di Maria: correct, slow, irresolute, author of few but eminent works, -especially the subjects relative to S. Lawrence, at the Conventuals of -Naples. He excelled in portraits, one of which, exhibited at Rome with -one of Vandyk and another by Rubens, was, by Poussin, Cortona, and -Sacchi, preferred to both. He often has been mistaken for his master, -and commands high prices: the want of grace alone betrays him--of grace -Nature had not been liberal to Francesco. Hence he became the proverb -of Giordano, "that sickening over bone and muscle, he rendered beauty -tame." He, in retort, held up Giordano's style as heresy in art, a -flowery medley of incoherent charms. - -Though the reputed master, Lanfranco was not the model of Massimo; his -principal imitator was Giambatista Benaschi, or Bernaschi, numbered with -Roman artists by Orlandi, but who fixed his residence at Naples, and -opened a numerous school; a decided machinist, but with a grasp of fancy -which never suffered him to repeat a figure in the same attitude. His -points of sight from below upward, are correct, and his foreshortenings -dextrously contrived. None ever approached a master nearer, and forsook -him with less success. - -Guercino never saw Naples, but Mattia Preti,[125] commonly called -Calabrese, smit with his novel style, went to study it at Cento; not -indeed exclusively, for no Italian school escaped the attention of -Preti. Unpractised in colour to his twenty-sixth year, he attended -solely to design, less to form beauty or trace characters of delicacy, -than to express robust and energetic ones: in such he often succeeded, -but sometimes sunk to heaviness. His colour resembled his line, not soft -and airy, but dense, cut into masses of chiaroscuro, and with a general -tone of ashy hues, tints of sorrow, contrition, anguish, the favourite -topics of his pencil. The frescoes of Calabrese at Modena, Naples, -Malta, have a stamp of grandeur. At Rome, in S. Andrea della Valle, he -appears to less advantage, too enormous for the place, and too ponderous -at the side of Domenichino. Italy is filled with his oil pictures, for -his life was long, his hand rapid, and every place he visited, a scene -of exercise: what he painted for galleries consisted commonly of half -figures, like those of Guercino. He long, and nearly alone, contested -the field with Giordano, to whose captivating airiness his weight was at -last forced to yield. He retired and died in Malta, a Knight of its -order, without leaving a pupil who rose above mediocrity. - -After this survey of the Bolognese School at Naples, the native one of -Ribera claims attention. None ever swore more implicitly to a master's -dictates: the energy of his style absorbed their eye, the atrocity of -his character too often debauched their hearts. Inferiority alone -discriminates the works of Giovanni Do and Bartolommeo Passante from -those of Spagnoletto; though, in the advance of life, the first -attempted to tinge with less vulgarity, and the second now and then -affected a more select outline. Francesco Fracanzani had a certain -grandeur of execution and bloom of colour: his "Transito," or Death of -St. Joseph, at the Pellegrini, is among the first pictures of the city. -But, by the pressure of poverty, he first became a dauber, then a -criminal, and received sentence of death, which respect for his -profession, from the public ignominy of the halter, mitigated to secret -execution by poison. - -Aniello Falcone[126] and Salvator Rosa, who is to be mentioned more at -large elsewhere, are the greatest boast of this school, though Rosa -frequented it for a short time only, and chiefly profited by the -instruction of Falcone. The strength of Falcone lay in battles, which he -painted in all dimensions, from the Sacred books, history, or poems. -Countenance, arms, dresses were in unison with the national character -of the combatants. His expression was vivid, the figures and movements -of his horses select and natural, and his tactics correct, though he had -neither served in, nor seen a battle. He drew with precision, everywhere -consulted the life, and laid his colour on with equal strength and -finish. That he instructed Borgognone is not probable. Baldinucci, who -published the Memoirs of that Jesuit, is silent on that head; but they -knew and esteemed each other. He had a numerous set of scholars, and -with them, and the assistance of some other painters, contrived to -revenge the murder of some relative and of a pupil assassinated by the -presidial Spaniards: for, at the revolutionary hubbub of Maso Aniello, -he and his gang formed themselves into a troop, which they called "the -Company of Death," and, protected by Ribera, who palliated their -proceedings at court, spread horrid massacre, till, scared by the return -of order, this band of homicides dispersed, and sought their safety in -flight. Falcone himself retired for some years to France, which has many -of his works; the rest escaped to Rome, or sought the usual asylums of -revenge and murder. - -A numerous set of various but inferior artists, in power and pursuit, -fills the remaining period of this epoch and the Neapolitan catalogues -of art: the best of these issued from the desperate School of Falcone, -to whose method they adhered in all their diverging branches. Of these -Domenico Gargiuoli, nicknamed Micco Spadaro, a character as fierce as -pliant, leads the van--no contemptible figurist in large, but of endless -combination in groups of small proportion. The perspectives of Viviano -Codagora, his sworn brother, receive an exclusive lustre from his -figures. The battles of their fellow scholar, Carlo Coppola, might -sometimes be mistaken for those of Falcone, had he given less fulness to -his horses. Paolo Porpora left battles to paint quadrupeds, but chiefly -and best, fish and sea-shells: in fruit and flowers he was far surpassed -by Abraham Brueghel, who at that time had settled at Naples. Giuseppe -Recco and Andrea Belvedere, from the same school, excelled in game and -birds; and the last still more in flowers and fruit, so as to contest -superiority in that branch with Giordano, asserting that no figurist -could reach the polish, or give the finish required in minute objects. -Luca maintained, that the more implies the less, and, composing a -picture of game, fruit, and flowers, gave it such an air of illusion, -that Andrea, shrinking from his presence crestfallen, retired among the -literati of the day, of whom he was not the least. - -After the middle of the seventeenth century, the revolutionary style of -Luca Giordano[127] reversed every preceding principle, and, by the -suavity of its ornamental magic, enchanted the public taste. A vast, -resolute, creative, talent attended him from infancy: in his eighth year -he is said to have painted, and not for the first time in fresco, two -infant angels, for the church of Sta. Maria La Nuova.[128] Struck with -wonder, the Vice Rè Duke Medina de Las Torres placed him with Ribera, -whose principles he studied for some time, but, aspiring to a more ample -theatre of art, escaped to Rome, followed by his father, Antonio, a weak -artist, but an unceasing monitor, and the more relentless because he -placed all his hopes on the rapid success of his son. To insure it, he -did not, if we believe one writer, suffer Luca to intermit his labours -by regular meals, but fed him whilst at work, as birds their callow -young, perpetually chirping into his ear, Luca, dispatch![129]--Luca, -dispatch! repeated his fellow-students, till the joke became nickname, -by which he is oftener distinguished than by his own. - -So brutal a method would have excited in a mind less vigorous nothing -but weariness and despondency, but to the combining spirit of Luca gave -with portentous velocity of hand the rudiments of that varied power, -which, to a degree of deception, taught him to imitate the predominant -air of every master's style in line and colour, which he was set or -chose to copy,[130] and he had in nearly endless repetition, copied the -best of what Rome possessed of its own, the Lombard, Venetian, and -foreign schools, when he entered that of Pietro da Cortona, whose -wide-extended and ostentatious plans met most congenially his own. - -No single master's manner did he, however, exclusively adopt. His first -works exhibit the pupil of Ribera, with evident aims at the energy of -that style; his subsequent and best manner is marked by the beauties and -the faults of Pietro da Cortona, the same contrast of composition, the -same masses of light, with equal monotony of expression, which in female -features was often supplied by his wife; a predilection for the -ornamental splendour of Paolo Veronese distinguishes with less advantage -a third class of his works--in this, stuffs are mixed with draperies, -the tints are less vigorous, the chiaroscuro less decided, the execution -heavier. It has been observed, that his works, when compared with the -finished masterpieces of the classic schools, are little better than -embryos, that he carried nothing to perfection, and that the delusive -power alone, by which he united a number of jarring parts in one -pleasing whole, can save him from sinking to the mediocrity which -overwhelmed his imitators. But it ought likewise to be considered, what -was the object of his exertions, and the end which he pursued;--they -were, by conquering the eye, to become the favourite of the public, and -he was made for both. Others see by degrees, arrange, reject, -select;--into the fancy of Giordano, the subject with its parts showered -at once; the picture stood complete before him. In colour, little -solicitous about the dictates of art, or the real hues of Nature, he -created an ideal and arbitrary tone, which represented the air of things -without diving into their substance, and, content with absolute dominion -over the eye, left it to others to inform the mind. If his method was -compendiary; none ever knew better how to improve an accident to a -beauty, and give to the random strokes of haste the look of deliberate -practice. That he knew the laws of design, we know, but debauched by -facility and the rage of gain, neglected the toil of correctness: hence -likewise the superficial manner in which he often laid on his colours, -diluted, unembodied, and unable to retain the fugitive imagery of his -pencil. - -Naples is full of Giordano--few, if any in so vast a metropolis, are the -churches that want his hand. In that of the P.P. Girolamini, the -Expulsion of the Venders is one of his most admired works; but the best -of his frescoes, in which he seems to have concentrated his powers, are -those in the treasury of the Certosa. The cupola of S. Brigida, rapidly -painted in competition with Francesco di Maria, exhibits the first -specimens of that flattering tone which baffled the learning of his -rival, intoxicated the vulgar, and corrupted the growing taste. The -admired picture of St. Xavier, of copious composition and the most -seductive colour, was the work of one day and a half. Among the public -and private paintings at Florence, the chapel Corsini and the gallery -Riccardi are by the hand of Luca; nor was he unemployed by the -Sovereign; and Cosmo III., in whose presence he invented and coloured a -large composition with momentary velocity, declared him a painter -formed for princes. He obtained the same praise from Charles II. of -Spain, whom he served for thirteen years, but from the multitude of his -works might be supposed to have served during a long life. There he -continued the series of pictures begun by Cambiasi, in the church of the -Escurial, on the most extensive plan, but inferior in style and -execution to the frescoes of Buon-Ritiro. Of his oil pictures, that of -the Nativity, for the Queen Mother, has shared unlimited praise, as -combining with superior felicity of execution, a research and a depth of -study seldom found in his other works. - -Grown old, he returned to Naples, loaded with riches and honours, and -soon after died, regretted as the first painter of his time. - -Though Giordano did not propose his process as a model of imitation to -his scholars, it may easily be guessed that his success made a deeper -impression on them than his precepts, and that without previously -submitting to the labours of his education, they attempted to snatch -with the charms the profits of his manner. Hence a swarm of bold -craftsmen and mannerists was let loose upon the public, who with gay -mediocrity overwhelmed what yet was left of principles in art. Of these, -his favourites were Aniello Rossi, and Matteo Pacelli, who accompanied -him to Spain, returned well pensioned, and continued to live in obscure -ease. Niccolo Rossi, Giuseppe Simonelli, Andrea Miglionico and Ramondo -de Dominici, came nearer their master; and the Spaniard Franceschitto, -as he had raised the hopes, might have excited the jealousy of Luca, had -he not been intercepted by death. He left a specimen of his powers in -the picture of S. Pasquale, at Sta. Maria del Monte. - -But the best of his pupils, and heir of his dispatch, was Paolo de' -Matteis, a name that ranks with the foremost of that day, not unknown to -France or Rome; his chief abode was, however, Naples, where his frescoes -are spread over churches, galleries, halls and ceilings; if unequal to -those of his master in merit, nearly always produced with equal speed. -It was his unexampled vaunt to have painted the enormous Cupola del Gesù -Nuovo in sixty-six days, a boast which Solimene checked with the cool -reply, that the work told its own tale without assistance: and yet it -possesses beauties, especially in the parts that imitate Lanfranco, -which excite wonder, considering the fury of execution. Nor, if he chose -to work with previous study and with diligence, as in the church of the -'Pii Operai,' in the gallery Matatona, and in many private pictures, was -he destitute of composition, grace of outline, or beauty of countenance, -though little varied. His colour at the onset was Giordanesque; in the -sequel he increased the force of his chiaroscuro, though not without -delicate gradation of tints: particularly in Madonnas and Infants, which -give an idea of Albano's suavity, and the Roman style. A school more -numerous than distinguished by talent, contributes little to his -celebrity. - -Francesco Solimene,[131] called "L'Abate Ciccio," born at Nocera de' -Pagani, took the elements of art from his father Angelo, formerly a -pupil of Massimo, and went to Naples. He successively frequented the -schools of Francesco di Maria and of Giac. del Po, and left both to -follow his own inclination, which at first exclusively led him to -imitate the style of Pietro da Cortona, and even to adopt his figures. -He next formed a manner which, of all others, approached next to Preti; -the design, indeed, is less exact, the colour less true, but the faces -handsomer, now in imitation of Guido, then nearer to Maratta, and often -picked from life: hence the byname of "the Gentler Calabrese."[132] To -Preti he joined Lanfranco, whom he surnamed the "Master," and from him -borrowed and exaggerated that serpentine sweep of composition: his -chiaroscuro, balanced between both, lost some of its vigour and became -softer with the advance of life. He drew and revised his forms from -Nature with much accuracy before he painted, but often sacrificed his -outline to the fire of execution in the process. The facility and -elegance which distinguish him in poetry, mark his invention in -painting, to no branch of which he could be called a stranger, and might -have excelled singly in each. His works are scattered over Europe, for -he lived to the age of ninety, and yielded in velocity of hand to -Giordano only, his competitor and friend, at whose demise he succeeded -to the Primacy of taste. - -Of the public works that most distinguish Solimene, are the stories of -the sacristy in S. Paolo Maggiore de' P.P. Teatini, nor less the -pictures substituted for those of Giacomo del Po on the arches of the -Chapels in the Church de' S.S. Apostoli. Specimens of his high finish -may be seen in the Chapel of S. Filippo in the Church dell' Oratorio; he -painted the principal altar-piece of the Nuns di "S. Gaudioso," and the -four large histories in the choir of the church at Monte Cassino. Of -private works, the gallery of Sanfelice is the most conspicuous at -Naples; at Rome, some stories in the Albani and Colonna palaces; and at -Macerata, in the Buonacorsi collection, among several mythologic -subjects, the Death of Dido, a picture of large dimensions and striking -effect. In the refectory of the Conventuals of Assisi, the Last Supper -of our Lord, a polished performance, is by his hand. - -Of that most numerous band of pupils whom he let loose upon the public, -the most celebrated was, no doubt, Sebastiano Conca, a native of Gaeta, -generally classed with the Roman school, for Rome became his residence -and the theatre of his talent. After having served a pupilage of sixteen -years under Solimene, and persevered in the practice of that style for -several years at Rome, he ominously proved the futility of attempting at -an advanced period to escape from the tyranny of early habits. At forty -he dared to leave his brushes, became once more a student, and spent -five years in drawing after the antique and the masters of design: but -his hand and eye, debauched by manner, refused to obey his mind, till, -wearied by hopeless fatigue, he followed the advice of the sculptor Le -Gros, and returned to his former practice, though not without -considerable improvements, and nearer to Pietro da Cortona than to his -master. Conca had fertile brains, a rapid pencil, and a colour which at -first sight fascinated every eye by its splendour, contrast, and the -delicacy of its flesh-tints. His dispatch in fresco and in oil was equal -to his employment, and there is scarcely a collection of any consequence -without its Conca. He was courted by sovereigns and princes, and Pope -Clement XI. ennobled him at a full assembly of the academicians of St. -Luke. He was assisted in his labours by his brother Giovanni, a man of -similar taste, but less power, and an excellent copyist. The maxims of -Conca are considered[133] as having completed the ruin of art; but every -school had its own canker, and his influence did not extend to all. -Without deviating into a catalogue of mediocrity, it may be sufficient -to name three of his principal scholars, Gaetano Lapis of Cagli, -Salvator Monosilio, a Messinese, and Gaspero Serenari, a Palermitan. -Lapis had too much originality of conception and too much solidity of -taste to adopt the flowery style of his master. The public works he left -at home, and the Birth of Venus in a ceiling of the Borghese Palace, as -correct as graceful, deserved and would have attained more celebrity, -had not self-contempt and diffidence intercepted the fortune which his -talent might have commanded. The two Sicilians, complete machinists, -shared with the imitation the success of their master. - -Next to Conca, the most successful pupil of Solimene was Francesco de -Mura, surnamed Franceschiello, born at Naples and greatly employed in -its churches and private galleries: the works, however, to which he owes -most of his celebrity, were the frescoes painted in various apartments -of the royal palace at Torino, in competition with Claudio Beaumont, who -was then at the height of his vigour. Mura ornamented the ceiling of -some rooms, chiefly filled with Flemish pictures, with subjects widely -different, Olympic games, and actions of Achilles. - -Corrado Giaquinto of Molfetta, may conclude what yet deserves to be -recorded of this school. He too left Naples, came to Rome, and attached -himself to Conca, whose maxims he made nearly all his own; as resolute, -as easy, but less correct. Rome, Macerata, and other parts of the Roman -state, are acquainted with his works. He painted in Piemont, was -employed by Charles III. in Spain, appointed Director of the Academy of -S. Fernando, pleased and continued to please the greater part of the -public, even after the arrival of A.R. Mengs. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[103] Dominici. - -[104] "Le opere superstiti ne deon decidere; e secondo queste Marco da -Siena, ch'è il padre della Storia pittorica Napolitana, giudicò _che in -grandezza di fare_ Cimabue prevalepe."--Lanzi, ii. I. 580. - -[105] Tommaso had a brother Pietro de' Stefani, who professed painting, -but practised sculpture: of his works the monuments of Pope Innocenzio -IV., who died at Naples 1254, of Charles the First and Second, are the -most eminent. The two sitting statues of these two kings are still seen -over the small gates of the Episcopal palace. - -[106] Signorelli Vicende della Coltura delle due Sicilie,--t. iii. 116. - -[107] The Vatican alone is sufficient to prove that gold-grounds were -still recurred to in the best years of the sixteenth century. - -[108] In the life of Giuliano da Majano. They are the first painters of -the Neapolitan schools mentioned by him, though with an ambiguity which -might induce us to believe that he meant to give them for Tuscany. - -[109] In the forty-first sonnet, addressed to King Federigo: "Vedi -invitto Signor come risplende," &c. - -[110] Some call him Giacomo, some Andria, most, and with greater -probability, Bernardo. - -[111] See the remarks relative to Antoniello, in the history of Venetian -art; but it is in place here to observe on the assertions of the -Neapolitan writers, that, if the tradition of a Greek picture in oil at -the Duomo of Messina be not fabulous, Antoniello could not have remained -ignorant of it. If Colantonio was in possession of oil painting, how is -the astonishment to be accounted for, which the method of John ab Eyk -excited at Naples? How came the name of an obscure Fleming to fill in a -short period all Europe, every prince to solicit his pencil, every -painter to submit to his dictates or those of his scholars? Who, on the -contrary, who out of Naples or its state, knew then Colantonio? who -courted Solario? a man so apt, the son-in-law and scholar of the former, -and before of Lippo Dalmasio--how forgot he to learn, or why did he -neglect a method they are said to have practised so well, for the vulgar -one of distemper? Either they knew nothing of the mystery at all, or in -a degree too insignificant to affect the authority of Vasari, and the -claims of John ab Eyk and Antoniello. - -[112] A. Sabbatini from 1480 to 1545. - -[113] 1508 to 1542. - -[114] Vasari. - -[115] Said to be in 1587. - -[116] These two laid the foundation of a History of Neapolitan Art. The -transient manner in which Vasari had mentioned Marco in the new edition -of his Lives, his silence on many Sienese, and omission of most -Neapolitan painters, were probably the causes that provoked the literary -opposition of Marco. His pupil, the Notary, furnished him with -materials, from the archives and domestic tradition, for the Discourse -which he composed in 1569, the year after the edition of Vasari; though -it remained in MS. till 1742, when, jointly with the Memoirs of -Criscuolo, in the Neapolitan dialect, &c., the greater part of it was, -published by Dominici. - -[117] B. Corenzio, 1558 to 1643. - -[118] In an inscription on one of his pictures, mentioned by -Palomino, he styles himself "Jusepe de Ribera Español de la Ciutad de -Xativa, e reyno de Valencia, Academico Romano, año 1630;" but the -Neapolitans, who maintained that he was born of Spanish parents in the -neighbourhood of Lecce, ascribe this and similar subscriptions on his -works rather to his ambition of ingratiating himself with the -government, which was Spanish, than to a genuine desire of acquainting -posterity with his native country. - -Lo Spagnoletto 1588, vivo in 1649. - -[119] Caracciolo di Batistiello, died 1641. - -[120] Dominici. - -[121] As it is evident that the deputies broke a formal contract with -Correnzio and Batistiello, it is not easily discovered on what principle -Lanzi has praised their conduct. - -[122] It is contradicted only by the unsupported assertion of Bermudez, -who tells that Ribera died rich and honoured 1656 at Naples. - -[123] M. Stanzioni, 1585 to 1656. - -[124] Vaccaro, 1598 to 1671. - -[125] M. Preti, 1613 to 1699. - -[126] A. Falcone, 1600 to 1665. - -[127] Born 1632, died 1705. - -[128] The assent of Carlo Celano (Giornata IV.) seems to authenticate -this tradition. - -[129] Luca, fa Presto! - -[130] He used to tell, that then he had drawn twelve times the Stanze -and the Loggia of Rafaello, and nearly twenty the Battle of Constantine, -without mentioning his copies from the Sistina, Polidoro, A. Caracci, -&c.; hence, some one has called him by a bold but pertinent allusion -"The Thunderbolt of Art," as others its Proteus, from the singular -talent of mimicking the manner and touch of every master. Many are the -pictures painted by him, which passed for works of Albert Durer, -Bassano, Tiziano, and Rubens, not only with connoisseurs, a task less -difficult, but with his rivals, whose eyes malignity as well as -discernment might have sharpened: these deceptions fetched at sales -doubly and trebly the price of an ordinary Giordano. Specimens are still -to be found in the churches of Naples; for instance, the two -altar-pieces in that of S. Teresa, which have all the air of Guido, -especially that which represents the Nativity of the Saviour. - -[131] Born 1657; died 1748. - -[132] Il Calabrese ringentilito. - -[133] Mengs. - - - - -THE SCHOOL OF VENICE. - - -The conquests, commerce and possessions of Venice in the Levant, and -thence its uninterrupted intercourse with the Greeks, give probability -to the conjecture, that Venetian art drew its origin from the same -source, and that the first institution of a company, or, as it is there -called, a School (Schola) of Painters, may be dated up to the Greek -artists who took refuge at Venice from the fury of the Iconoclasts at -Constantinople. The choice of its Patron, which was not St. Luke, but -Sta. Sophia, the patroness of the first temple at that time, and -prototype of St. Mark's, distinguishes it from the rest of the Italian -Schools. _Anchona_, the vulgar name of a picture in the technic -language, the statutes,[134] and documents of those times, is evidently -a depravation of the Greek _Eikon_. The school itself is of considerable -antiquity; its archives contain regulations and laws made in 1290, which -refer to anterior ones; and though not yet separated from the mass of -artisans, its members began to enjoy privileges of their own. - -In various cities of the Venetian State we meet with vestiges of art -anterior in date[135] to the relics of painting and mosaic in the -metropolis, which prove that it survived the general wreck of society -here, as in other parts of Italy. Of the oldest Venetian monuments, -Zanetti has given a detailed account, with shrewd critical conjectures -on their chronology; though all attempts to discriminate the nearly -imperceptible progress of art in a mass of works equally marked by dull -servility, must prove little better than nugatory; for it does not -appear that Theophilus of Byzantium, who publicly taught the art at -Venice about 1200, or his Scholar Gelasio[136], had availed themselves -of the improvements made in form, twenty years before, by Joachim the -Abbot, in a picture of Christ. Nor can the notice of Vasari, who informs -us that Andrea Tafi repaired to Venice to profit by the instructions of -Apollonios in mosaic, prove more than that, from the rivalship of Greek -mechanics, that branch of art was handled with greater dexterity there -than at Florence, to which place he was, on his return, accompanied by -Apollonios. The same torpor of mind continued to characterise the -succeeding artists till the first years of the fourteenth century, and -the appearance of Giotto, who, on his return from Avignon 1316, by his -labours at Padua, Verona, and elsewhere in the state, threw the first -effectual seeds of art, and gave the first impulse to Venetian energy -and emulation[137] by superior example. - -He was succeeded by Giusto, surnamed of Padova, from residence and city -rights, but else a Florentine and of the Menabuoi. To Padovano, Vasari -ascribes the vast work of the church of St. John the Baptist; incidents -of whose life were expressed on the altar-piece. The walls Giusto spread -with gospel history and mysteries of the Apocalypse, and on the Cupola a -glory filled with a consistory of saints in various attire: simple -ideas, but executed with incredible felicity and diligence. The names -'Joannes & Antonius de Padova,' formerly placed over one of the doors, -as an ancient MS. pretends, related probably to some companions of -Giusto, fellow pupils of Giotto, and show the unmixed prevalence of his -style, to which Florence itself had not adhered with more scrupulous -submission, beyond the middle of the century, and the less bigoted -imitation of Guarsiento, a Padovan of great name at that period, and the -leader of Ridolfi's history. He received commissions of importance from -the Venetian senate, and the remains of his labours in fresco and on -panel at Bassano and at the Eremitani of Padova, confirm the judgment of -Zanetti, that he had invention, spirit, and taste, and without those -remnants of Greek barbarity which that critic pretends to discover in -his style. - -Of a style still less dependant on the principles of Giotto, are the -relicks of those artists whom Lanzi is willing to consider as the -precursors of the legitimate Venetian schools, and whose origin he dates -in the professors of miniature and missal-painting, many contemporary, -many anterior to Giotto. The most conspicuous is Niccolo Semitecolo, -undoubtedly a Venetian, if the inscription on a picture on panel in the -Capitular Library at Padova be genuine, viz., _Nicoleto Semitecolo da -Venezia_, 1367. It represents a Pietà, with some stories of S. -Sebastian, in no contemptible style: the nudities are well painted, the -proportions, though somewhat too long, are not inelegant, and what adds -most to its value as a monument of national style, it bears no -resemblance to that of Giotto, which, though it be inferior in design, -it equals in colour. Indeed the silence of Baldinucci, who annexes no -Venetian branch to his Tuscan pedigree of Art, gives probability to the -presumption, that a native school existed in the Adriatic long before -Cimabue. - -A fuller display of this native style, and its gradual approaches to the -epoch of Giorgione and Tizian, were reserved for the fifteenth century: -an island prepared what was to receive its finish at Venice. Andrea da -Murano, who flourished about 1400, though still dry, formal, and vulgar, -designs with considerable correctness, even the extremities, and what is -more, makes his figures stand and act. There is still of him at Murano -in S. Pier Martire, a picture, on the usual gold ground of the times, -representing, among others, a Saint Sebastian, with a Torso, whose -beauty made Zanetti suspect that it had been copied from some antique -statue. It was he who formed to art the family of the Vivarini, his -fellow-citizens, who in uninterrupted succession maintained the school -of Murano for nearly a century, and filled Venice with their -performances. - -Of Luigi, the reputed founder of the family, no authentic notices -remain. The only picture ascribed to him, in S. Giovanni and Paolo, has, -with the inscription of his name and the date 1414, been retouched.[138] -Nor does much more evidence attend the names of Giovanni and Antonio de' -Vivarini, the first of which belonged probably to a German, the partner -of Antonio,[139] who is not heard of after 1447, whilst Antonio, singly -or in society with his brother Bartolommeo Vivarini, left works -inscribed with his name as far as 1451. - -Bartolommeo, probably considerably younger than Antonio, was trained to -art in the principles before mentioned, till he made himself master of -the new-discovered method of oil-painting, and towards the time of the -two Bellini became an artist of considerable note. His first picture in -oil bears the date of 1473; his last, at S. Giovanni in Bragora, on the -authority of Boschini, that of 1498; it represents Christ risen from the -grave, and is a picture comparable to the best productions of its time. -He sometimes added A Linnel Vivarino to his name and date, allusive to -his surname. - -With him flourished Luigi, the last of the Vivarini, but the first in -art. His relics still exist at Venice, Belluno, Trevigi, with their -dates; the principal of these is in the school of St. Girolamo at -Venice, where, in competition with Giovanni Bellini, whom he equals, and -with Vittore Carpaccia, whom he surpasses, he represented the Saint -caressing a Lion, and some monks who fly in terror at the sight. -Composition, expression, colour, for felicity, energy, and mellowness, -if not above every work of the times, surpass all else produced by the -family of the Vivarini. - -At the beginning of the century, Gentile da Fabriano, styled Magister -Magistrorum, and mentioned in the Roman School, painted, in the public -palace at Venice, a naval battle, now vanished, but then so highly -valued that it procured him an annual provision, and the privilege of -the Patrician dress. He raised disciples in the state: Jacopo Nerito, of -Padova, subscribes himself a disciple of Gentile, in a picture at S. -Michele of that place, and from the style of another in S. Bernardino, -at Bassano, Lanzi surmises that Nasocchio di Bassano was his pupil or -imitator. But what gives him most importance, is the origin of the great -Venetian School under his auspices, and that Jacopo Bellini, the father -of Gentile and Giovanni, owned him for his master. Jacopo is indeed more -known by the dignity of his son's than his own works, at present either -destroyed, in ruins, or unknown. What he painted in the church of St. -Giovanni at Venice, and, about 1456, at the Santo of Padova, the chapel -of the family Gattamelata, are works that exist in history only. One -single picture, subscribed by his name, Lanzi mentions to have seen in a -private collection, resembling the style of Squarcione, whom he seems to -have followed in his maturer years. - -A name then still more conspicuous, though now nearly obliterated, is -that of Jacopo, or as he is styled Jacobello, or as he wrote himself, -Jacometto del Fiore, whose father Francesco del Fiore, a leader of art -in his day, was honoured with a monument and an epitaph in Latin verse -at S. Giovanni and Paolo: of him it is doubtful whether any traces -remain, but of the son, who greatly surpassed him, several performances -still exist, from 1401 to 1436. Vasari has wantonly taxed him with -having suspended all his figures, in the Greek manner, on the points of -their feet: the truth is, that he was equalled by few of his -contemporaries, for few like him dared to represent figures as large as -life, and fewer understood to give them beauty, dignity, and that air of -agility and ease, which his forms possess; nor would the lions in his -picture of Justice at the Magistrato del Proprio, have shared the first -praise, had not the principal figures, in subservience to the time, been -loaded with tinsel ornament and golden glitter. - -Two scholars of his are mentioned: Donato, superior to him in style, and -Carlo Crivelli, of obscure fame, but deserving attention for the colour, -union, grace, and expression, of the small histories in which he -delighted. - -The ardour of the capital for the art was emulated by every town of the -state; all had their painters, but all did not submit to the principles -of Venice and Murano. At Verona the obscure names of Aldighieri and -Stefano Dazevio, were succeeded[140] by the vaunted one of Vittore -Pisanello, of S. Vito: though accounts grossly vary on the date in which -he flourished, and the school from which he sprang, that his education -was Florentine is not improbable, but whoever his master, fame has -ranked him with Masaccio as an improver of style. His works at Rome and -Venice, in decay at the time of Vasari, are now no more; and fragments -only remain of what he did at Verona. S. Eustachio caressing a Dog, and -S. Giorgio sheathing his Sword and mounting his horse, figures extolled -to the skies by Vasari, are, with the places which they occupied, -destroyed: works which seem to have contained elements of truth and -dignity in expression with novelty of invention, and of contrast, style, -and foreshortening in design: a loss so much the more to be lamented, as -the remains of his less considerable works at S. Firmo and Perugia, far -from sanctioning the opinion which tradition has taught us to entertain -of Pisano, are finished indeed with the minuteness of miniature, but are -crude in colour, and drawn in lank and emaciated proportions. It appears -from his works, that he understood the formation, had studied the -expression, and attempted the most picturesque attitudes of animals. His -name is well known to antiquaries, and to the curious in coins, as a -medallist, and he has been celebrated as such by many eminent pens of -his own and the subsequent century.[141] - -From the crowd[142] of obscure contemporary artists, which the -neighbouring Vicenza produced, the name of Marcello, or as Ridolfi calls -him Gio. Battista Figolino, deserves to be distinguished: a man of -original manner, whose companion, in variety of character, intelligence -of keeping, landscape, perspective, ornament, and exquisite finish, will -not easily be discovered at Venice, or elsewhere in the State, at that -period; and were it certain that he was anterior to the two Bellini, -sufficiently eminent to claim the honours of an epoch in the history of -Art: in proof of which Vicenza may still produce his Epiphany in the -church of St. Bartolommeo. - -But the man who had the most extensive influence on Art, if not as the -first artist, as the first and most frequented teacher, was Francesco -Squarcione,[143] of Padova; in whose numerous school perhaps originated -that eclectic principle which characterised part of the Adriatic and all -the Lombard schools. Opulent and curious, he not only designed what -ancient art offered in Italy, but passed over to Greece, visited many an -isle of the Archipelago in quest of monuments, and on his return to -Padova formed, from what he had collected, by copy or by purchase, of -statues, basso-relievos, torsos, fragments, and cinerary urns, the most -ample museum of the time, and a school in which he counted upwards of -150 students, and among them Andrea Mantegna, Marco Zoppo, Girolamo -Schiavone, Jacopo Bellini. - -Of Squarcione, more useful by precept than by example, little remains, -and of that little, perhaps, not all his own. From the variety of -manner observable in what is attributed to him, it may be suspected that -he too often divided his commissions among his scholars; such as some -stories of St. Francis, in a cloister of his church, and the miniatures -of the Antifonario in the temple della Misericordia, attributed by the -vulgar to Mantegna. Only one indisputably genuine, though retouched work -of his, is mentioned by Lanzi; which, in various compartments, -represents different saints, subscribed 'Francesco Squarcione,' and -conspicuous for felicity of colour, expression, and perspective. - -These outlines of the infancy of Venetian art show it little different -from that of the other schools hitherto described; slowly emerging from -barbarity, and still too much busied with the elements to think of -elegance and ornament. Even then, indeed, canvass instead of panels was -used by the Venetian painters; but their general vehicle was, a tempera, -prepared water-colour: a method approaching the breadth of fresco, and -friendly to the preservation of tints, which even now retain their -virgin purity; but unfriendly to union and mellowness. It was reserved -for the real epoch of oil-painting to develope the Venetian character, -display its varieties, and to establish its peculiar prerogative. - -Tiziano, the son of Gregorio Vecelli, was born at Piave, the principal of -Cadore on the Alpine verge of Friuli, 1477.[144] His education is said -to have been learned, and Giov. Battista Egnazio is named as his master -in Latin and Greek;[145] but his proficiency may be doubted, for if it -be true that his irresistible bent to the art obliged the father to send -him in his tenth year to the school of Giov. Bellini at Venice, he could -be little more than an infant when he learnt the rudiments under -Sebastiano Zuccati.[146] - -At such an age, and under these masters, he acquired a power of copying -the visible detail of the objects before him with that correctness of -eye and fidelity of touch which distinguishes his imitation at every -period of his art. Thus when, more adult, in emulation of Albert Durer, -he painted at Ferrara[147] Christ to whom a Pharisee shows the tribute -money, he out-stript in subtlety of touch even that hero of minuteness: -the hair of the heads and hands may be counted, the pores of the skin -discriminated, and the surrounding objects seen reflected in the pupils -of the eyes; yet the effect of the whole is not impaired by this extreme -finish: it increases it at a distance, which effaces the fac-similisms -of Albert, and assists the beauties of imitation with which that work -abounds to a degree seldom attained, and never excelled by the master -himself, who has left it indeed as a single monument, for it has no -companion, to attest his power of combining the extremes of finish and -effect. - - -GIACOMO ROBUSTI, SURNAMED IL TINTORETTO. - -1512-1594. - -"It might almost be said that vice is the virtue of the Venetian school, -because it rests its prerogative on despatch in execution, and -therefore is proud of Tintoretto, who had no other merit."[148] Such, in -speaking of the great genius before us, is the equally rash, ignorant, -unphilosophic verdict of a man exclusively dubbed "The Philosophic -Painter." - -G. Robusti of Venice was the son of a dyer, who left him that byname as -an heir-loom.[149] He entered the school of Tiziano when yet a boy; but -he, soon discovering in the daring spirit of his nursling the symptoms -of a genius which threatened future rivalship to his own powers, with -that suspicious meanness which marks his character as an artist, after a -short interval, ordered his head pupil, Girolamo Dante, to dismiss the -boy; but as envy generally defeats its own designs, the uncourteous -dismissal, instead of dispiriting, roused the energies of the heroic -stripling, who, after some meditation on his future course, and -comparing his master's superiority in _colour_ with his defects in -_form_, resolved to surpass him by an union of both: the method best -suited to accomplish this he fancied to find in an intense study of -Michael Angelo's style, and boldly announced his plan by writing on the -door of his study, THE DESIGN OF M. ANGELO, AND THE COLOUR OF TIZIAN. - -But neither form nor colour alone could satisfy his eye; the -uninterrupted habit of nocturnal study discovered to him what Venice had -not yet seen, not even in Giorgione, if we may form an opinion from what -remains of him--the powers of that ideal chiaroscuro which gave motion -to action, raised the charms of light, and balanced or invigorated -effect by dark and lucid masses opposed to each other. - -The first essays of this complicated system, in single figures, are -probably the frescoes of the palace Gussoni;[150] and in numerous -composition, the Last Judgement, and its counterpart, the Adoration of -the Golden Calf, in the church of Sta. Maria dell' Orfo. - -It is evident that the spirit of Michael Angelo domineered over the -fancy of Tintoretto in the arrangement of the Last Judgement, though not -over its design; but grant some indulgence to that, and the storm in -which the whole fluctuates, the awful division of light and darkness -into enormous masses, the living motion of the agents, notwithstanding -their frequent aberrations from their centre of gravity,[151] and the -harmony that rules the whirlwind of that tremendous moment, must for -ever place it among the most astonishing productions of art. Its -sublimity as a whole triumphs even over the hypercriticisms of Vasari, -who thus describes it:--"Tintoretto has painted the Last Judgement with -an extravagant invention, which, indeed, has something awful and -terrible, inasmuch as he has united in groups a multitudinous assemblage -of figures of each sex and every age, interspersed with distant views of -the blessed and condemned souls. You see likewise the boat of Charon, -but in a manner as novel and uncommon as highly interesting. Had this -fantastic conception been executed with a correct and regular design, -had the painter estimated its individual parts with the attention which -he bestowed on the whole, so expressive of the confusion and the tumult -of that day, it would be the most admirable of pictures. Hence he who -casts his eye only on the whole, remains astonished, whilst to him who -examines the parts it appears to have been painted in jest." - -In the Adoration of the Golden Calf, the counterpart in size of the Last -Judgement, Tintoretto has given full reins to his invention; and here, -as in the former, though their scanty width does not very amicably -correspond with their height, which is fifty feet, he has filled the -whole so dexterously that the dimension appears to be the result of the -composition. Here too, as in the Transfiguration of Raffaelle, some -short-sighted sophist may pretend to discover two separate subjects and -a double action; for Moses receives the tables of the decalogue in the -upper part, whilst the idolatrous ceremony occupies the lower; but the -unity of the subject may be proved by the same argument which defended -and justified the choice of Sanzio. Both actions are not only the -offspring of the same moment, but so essentially relate to each other -that, by omitting either, neither could with sufficient evidence have -told the story. Who can pretend to assert, that the artist who has found -the secret of representing together two inseparable moments of an event -divided only by place, has impaired the unity of the subject? - -Nowhere, however, does the genius of Tintoretto flash more irresistibly -than in the Schools of S. Marco and S. Rocco, where the greater part of -the former and almost the whole of the latter are his work, and exhibit -in numerous specimens, and on the largest scale, every excellence and -every fault that exalts or debases his pencil: equal sublimity and -extravagance of conception; purity of style and ruthless manner; -bravura of hand with mental dereliction; celestial or palpitating hues -tacked to clayey, raw, or frigid masses; a despotism of chiaroscuro -which sometimes exalts, sometimes eclipses, often absorbs subject and -actors. Such is the catalogue of beauties and defects which characterize -the Slave delivered by St. Marc; the Body of the Saint landed; the -Visitation of the Virgin; the Massacre of the Innocents; Christ tempted -in the Desert; the Miraculous Feeding of the Crowd; the Resurrection of -the Saviour; and though last, first, that prodigy which in itself sums -up the whole of Tintoretto, and by its anomaly equals or surpasses the -most legitimate offsprings of art, the Crucifixion.[152] - -It is singular that the most finished and best preserved work of -Tintoretto should be one which he had least time allowed him to -terminate--the Apotheosis of S. Rocco in the principal ceiling-piece of -the Schola, conceived, executed, and presented, instead of the sketch -which he had been commissioned with the rest of the concurrent artists -to produce for the examination of the fraternity: a work which equally -strikes by loftiness of conception, a style of design as correct as -bold, and a suavity of colour which entrances the eye. Though -constructed on the principles of that _sotto in su_, then ruling the -platfonds and cupolas of upper Italy, unknown to or rejected by M. -Angelo, its figures recede more gradually, yet with more evidence, than -the groups of Correggio, whose ostentatious foreshortenings generally -sacrifice the actor to his posture. - -That Tintoretto acquired, during his stay with or after his dismissal -from the study of Tiziano's principles, the power of representing the -surface and the texture of bodily substance with a truth bordering on -illusion, is proved with more irresistible because more copious -evidence, in the picture of the Angelic Salutation; though it cannot be -denied that the admiration due to the magic touch of the paraphernalia -is extorted at the expense of the essential parts: Gabriel and Maria are -little more than foils of her husband's tools; for their display, the -artist's caprice has turned the solemn approach of the awful messenger -into boisterous irruption, the silent recess of the mysterious mother -into a public dismantled shed, and herself into a vulgar female. Nowhere -would the superiority of refined over vulgar art, of taste and judgment -over unbridled fancy, have appeared more irresistibly than in the -sopraporta by Tiziano on the same subject and in the same place, had -that exquisite master been inspired more by the sanctity of the subject -than the lures of courtly or the ostentatious bigotry of monastic -devotion. If Maria was to be rescued from the brutal hand that had -travestied her to the mate of a common labourer, it was not to be -transformed to a young abbess, elegantly devout, submitting to -canonization, amongst her delicate lambs; if the angel was not to rush -through a shattered casement on a timid female with a whirlwind's blast, -the waving grace and calm dignity of his gesture and attitude, ought to -have been above the assistance of theatrical ornament; nor should -Palladio have been consulted to construct classic avenues for the humble -abode of pious meditation. It must however be owned that we become -reconciled to this mass of factitious embellishments by a tone which -seems to have been inspired by Piety itself; the message whispers in a -celestial atmosphere, - - THeie amphechut' omphe---- - -and so forcibly appears its magic effect to have influenced Tintoretto -himself, ever ready to rush from one extreme to another, that he -imitated it in the Annunciata of the Arimani Palace:[153] not without -success, but far below the mannerless unambitious purity of tone that -pervades the effusion of his master, and of which he himself gave a -blazing proof in the Resurrection of the Saviour,--a work in which -sublimity of conception, beauty and dignity of form, velocity and -propriety of motion, irresistible flash, mellowness and freshness of -colour, tones inspired by the subject, and magic chiaroscuro, less for -"mastery strive," than relieve each other and entrance the absorbed eye. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[134] Thus in an order of the Justiziarii we read: "MCCCXXII. Indicion -Sexta die primo de Octub. Ordenado e fermado fo per Misier Piero Veniero -& per Miser Marco da Mugla Justixieri Vieri, lo terzo compagno vacante. -Ordenado fo che da mo in avanti alguna persona si venedega come -forestiera non osa vender in Venexia alcuna _Anchona_ impenta, salvo li -empentori, sotto pena, &c. Salvo da la sensa, che alora sia licito a -zaschun de vinder _anchone_ infin chel durerà la festa," &c. And a -picture in the church of S. Donato at Murano, has the following -inscription: "Corendo MCCCX. indicion viii. in tempo de lo nobele homo -Miser Donato Memo honorando Podestà facta fo questa _Anchona_ de Miser -S. Donato." - -[135] In the church at Cassello di Sesto, which has an abbey founded in -762, there are pictures of the ninth century. - -[136] Gelasio di Nicolo della Masuada di S. Giorgio, was of Ferrara, and -flourished about 1242. Vid. Historia almi Ferrariensis Gymnasii, -Ferraria, 1735. - -[137] At that time he painted in the palace of Cari della Scala at -Verona, and at Padoua a chapel in the church 'del Sarto;' he repeated -his visit in the latter years of his life to both places. Of what he did -at Verona no traces remain, but at Padoua the compartments of Gospel -histories round the Oratorio of the Nunziata all' Arena, by the -freshness of the fresco and that blended grace and grandeur peculiar to -Giotto, still surprise. - -[138] Fiorillo has confounded this questionable name with the real one -of Luigi, who painted about 1490.--See Fiorillo Geschichte, ii. p. 11. - -[139] In S. Giorgio Maggiore is a St. Stephen and Sebastian, with the -inscription: - - 1445. - Johannes de Alemania - et Antonius de Muriano. - P. - -from which, another picture at Padova, inscribed "Antonio de Muran e -Zohan Alamanus pinxit," and some traces of foreign style where his name -occurs, Lanzi suspects that the inscription in S. Pantaleone, "Zuane, e -Antonio da Muran, pense 1444," on which the existence of Giovanni is -founded, means no other than the German partner of Antonio. - -[140] In no instance seems Vasari to have given a more decisive proof of -his attachment to the Florentine school, than by building the fame of -Pisano on having been the pupil of Andrea del Castagno, and having been -allowed to terminate the works which he had left unfinished behind him -about 1480; an anachronism the more absurd as the Commendator del Pozzo -was possessed of a picture by Pisano, inscribed 'Opera di Vittor -Pisanello de San V. Veronese, MCCCCVI.' a period at which probably -Castagno was not born. The truth is, that Vasari, whose rage for -dispatch and credulity kept pace with each other, composed the first -part of Pisano's life nearly without materials, and the second from -hearsay. - -[141] What Vasari says of the dog of S. Eustachio and the horse of St. -Giorgio, though on the authority of Frà Marco de' Medici, warrants the -assertion; and still more the foreshortened horse on the reverse of a -medal struck in 1419, in honour and with the head of John Palæologus. -The horse, like that of M. Antoninus, has an attitude of parallel -motion. The medal has been published by Ducange in the appendix to his -Latin Glossary, by Padre Banduri, Gori and Maffei. - -[142] See their lists in _Descrizione delle Architetture, Pitture e -Sculture di Vicenza con alcune osservazioni, &c._ Vicenza, 1779, 8vo. p. -I. II. - -[143] Ridolfi, i. 68. Vasari, who treats his art with contempt, calls -him Jacopo; and Orlandi, afraid of choosing between them, used both, and -made two different artists. - -[144] Vasari dates his birth 1480. - -[145] Liruti, Notizie de' Letterati del Friuli, t. ii. p. 285. - -[146] Sebastiano Zuccati of Trevigo, flourished about 1490. He had two -sons, Valerio and Francesco, celebrated for mosaic about and beyond the -middle of the sixteenth century. Flaminio Zuccati, the son of Valerio, -who inherited his father's talent and fame, flourished about 1585. See -Zanetti. - -[147] See Ridolfi. The original went to Dresden; but Italy abounds in -copies of it. Lanzi mentions one which he saw at S. Saverio in Rimini, -with Tiziano's name written on the fillet of the Pharisee, a performance -of great beauty, and by many considered less a copy than a duplicate. -The most celebrated copy, that of Flaminio Torre, is preserved at -Dresden with the original. - -[148] "Si può quasi dire, che il vizio sia la virtù della Scuola -Veneziana, poichè fa pompa della sollecitudine nel dipingere; e perciò -fa stima di Tintoretto, che non avea altro merito." Mengs, Opere, t. i. -p. 175. ed. Parm. - -[149] It has supplanted, was probably perpetuated in allusion to his -rapidity of execution, and remains familiar to ears that never heard of -Robusti. - -[150] See Varie Pitture a fresco de' principali Maestri Veneziani, &c. -Venez. fol. 1760. Tab. 8, 9, p. viii. No one who has seen the original -figures of the Aurora and Creposcolo in S. Lorenzo, can mistake their -imitation, or rather transcripts, in these. - -[151] The frequent want of equilibration found in Tintoretto's figures, -even where no violence of action can palliate or account for it, has not -without probability been ascribed to his method of studying foreshortening -from models loosely suspended and playing in the air; to which he at last -became so used that he sometimes employed it even for figures resting on -firm ground, and fondly sacrificed solidity and firmness to the affected -graces of undulation. - -[152] It would be mere waste of time to recapitulate what has been said -on the efficient beauties of this astonishing work in the lectures on -colour and chiaroscuro, and in the article of Tintoretto, in the last -edition of Pilkington's Dictionary. It has been engraved on a large -scale by Agostino Carracci, if that can be called engraving which -contents itself with the mere enumeration of the parts, totally -neglecting the medium of that tremendous twilight which hovers over the -whole and transposes us to Golgotha. If what Ridolfi says be true, that -Tintoretto embraced the engraver when he presented the drawing to him, -he must have had still more deplorable moments of dereliction as a man -than as an Artist, or the drawing of Agostino, must have differed -totally from the print. - -[153] It is engraved by Pietro Monaco, as that of Tiziano, by Le Fevre, -but in a manner which makes us lament the lot of those who have no means -to see the original. - - - - -THE SCHOOL OF MANTOUA. - - -Mantoua,[154] the birth-place of Virgil, a name dear to poetry, by the -adoption of Andrea Mantegna and Giulio Pippi claims a distinguished -place in the history of Art, for restoring and disseminating style among -the schools of Lombardy. - -Mantoua, desolated by Attila, conquered by Alboin, wrested from the -Longobards by the Exarch of Ravenna, was taken and fortified by Charles -the Great: from Bonifazio of Canossa it descended to Mathilda; after her -demise, 1115, became a republic tyrannized by Bonacorsi, till the people -conferred the supremacy on Lodovico Gonzaga, under whose successors it -rose from a marquisate, 1433, to a dukedom, 1531, and finished as an -appendage to the spoils of Austria. - -Revolutions so uninterrupted, aggravated by accidental devastations of -floods and fire, may account for the want of earlier monuments of art in -Mantoua and its districts, than the remains from the epoch of -Mathilda.[155] A want perhaps more to be regretted by the antiquary -than the historian of art, whose real epoch begins with the patronage of -Lodovico Gonzaga and the appearance of Andrea Mantegna.[156] - -This native of Padova[157] was the adopted son and pupil of Squarcione, -in whose school he acquired that taste for the antique which marks his -works at every period of his practice; if sometimes mitigated, never -supplanted by the blandishments of colour and the precepts of Giovanni -Bellino, whose daughter he had married. - -Perhaps no question has been discussed with greater anxiety, and -dismissed from investigation with less success, than that of -Correggio's origin, circumstances, methods of study, and death. - -The date of his birth is uncertain, some place it in 1475, others in -1490; were we to follow a MS. gloss in the Library at Gottingen, -mentioned by Fiorillo, which says he died at the age of forty in 1512, -he must have been born in 1472; but the true date is, no doubt, that of -the inscription set him at Correggio, viz. that he died in 1534, aged -forty. The honour of his birth-place is allowed to Correggio, though not -without dispute.[158] His father's name was Pellegrino Allegri, -according to Orlandi, countenanced by Mengs. He was instructed in the -elements of literature, philosophy, and mathematics; however doubtful -this, there can be no doubt entertained on the very early period in -which he must have applied to Painting. The brevity of his life, and the -surprising number of his works, evince that he could not devote much -time to literature, and, of mathematics, probably contented himself with -what related to perspective and architecture. On the authority of -Vedriani and of Scannelli, Mengs and his follower Ratti make Correggio -in Modena the pupil of Franc. Bianchi Ferrari, and in Mantoua of Andr. -Mantegna, without vouchers of sufficient authenticity for either: the -passage quoted by Vedriani from the chronicle of Lancillotto, an -historian contemporary with Correggio, is an interpolation; and -Mantegna, who died in 1505, could not have been the master of a boy who -at that time was scarcely in his twelfth year. - -Some supposed pictures of Correggio at Mantoua, in the manner of -Mantegna, may have given rise to this opinion. An imitation of that -style is visible in some whose originality has never been disputed: such -as in the St. Cecilia of the Palace Borghese, and a piece in his first -manner of the Gallery at Dresden. - -Father Maurizio Zapata, a friar of Casino, in a MS. quoted by -Tiraboschi, affirms that the two uncles of Parmegianino, Michele and -Pier Stario Mazzuoli, were the masters of Correggio,--a supposition -without foundation; it is more probable, though not certain, that he -gained the first elements from Lorenzo Allegri his uncle, and not, as -the vulgar opinion states, his grandfather. - -Equal doubts prevail on his skill and power of execution in architecture -and plastic: the common opinion is, that for this he was beholden to -Antonio Begarelli. Scannelli, Resta, and Vedriani, pretend that -Correggio, terrified by the enormous mass and variety of figures to be -seen foreshortened from below in the cupola of the Domo at Parma, had -the whole modelled by Begarelli, and thus escaped from the difficulty, -correct, and with applause. They likewise tell in Parma, that by -occasion of some solemn funeral, many of those models were found on the -cornices of the cupola, and considered as the works of Begarelli: hence -they pretend that Correggio was his regular pupil, and as such finished -those three statues which a tradition as vague as silly has placed to -his account in Begarelli's celebrated composition of the Deposition from -the Cross in the church of St. Margareta. - -That either Correggio himself or Begarelli made models for the cupola -admits no doubt, the necessity of such a process is evident from the -nature and the perfection of the work; but there is surely none to -conclude from it to that of a formal apprenticeship in sculpture. He who -had arrived at the power of painting the cupola at Parma, may without -rashness be supposed to have possessed that of making for his own use -small models of clay, without the instructions of a master, especially -in an age when painting, sculpture, and architecture frequently met in -the same artist; and, as we have elsewhere[159] observed, when sketching -in clay was a practice familiar to those of Lombardy. - -Correggio's pretended journey to Rome is another point in dispute: two -writers of his century, Ortensio Landi and Vasari, reject it. The first -says[160] Correggio died young without having been able to visit Rome; -the second affirms that Antonio had a genius which wanted nothing but -acquaintance with Rome to perform miracles. Padre Resta, a great -collector of Correggio's works, was the first who opposed their -authority.[161] He pretends, in some writing of his own, to have adduced -twelve proofs of Correggio's having twice visited Rome, viz. in 1520 and -1530. But the allegations of a crafty monk, a dealer in drawings and -pictures, cannot weigh against authorities like those of Vasari and -Landi. His conjectures rest partly on some supposed drawings of -Correggio's in his possession, from the Loggie of the Vatican, and -partly on an imaginary journey, in which, he tells us, Correggio -traversed Italy incognito, and made everywhere copies, which all had the -good luck to fall into his own reverend hands. These lures, held out to -ensnare the ignorant and wealthy, he palliated by a pretended plan of -raising a monument to the memory of the immortal artist at Correggio, -the expenses of which were to be defrayed by the produce of his stock in -hand. He had even face enough to solicit from that town an attestation -that their citizen had travelled as a journeyman painter. - -Mengs, and of course Batti, embrace the same opinion. Mengs draws his -conclusion from the difference between Correggio's first and second -style, which he considers less as the imperceptible progress of art than -as the immediate effect of the works of Raphael and Michel Agnolo. Mengs -was probably seduced to believe in this visionary journey on the -authority of Winkelmann, who pretended to have discovered, in the museum -of Cardinal Albani, some designs after the antique by Mantegna, -Correggio's reputed master. Bracci, in opposition, assert that Allegri -was beholden to none but himself for his acquirements, and appeals to a -letter of Annibale Carracci, who says that Correggio found in himself -those materials for which the rest were obliged to extraneous help. The -words of Carracci, however, with all due homage to the genius of -Correggio and the originality of his style, appear to refer rather to -invention and the poetic, than to the executive part of his works. - -If there be any solidity in the observation of Mengs on Correggio's -first manner, as a mixture of Pietro Perugino's and Lionardo's style, -and of course not very different from Raphael's, how comes it that in -the works of his second and best manner all resemblance to either, and -consequently to Raphael, disappears? The simplicity of Raphael's forms -is little beholden to that contrast and those foreshortenings which are -the element of Correggio's style. Raphael sacrificed all to the subject -and expression; Correggio, in an artificial medium, sacrifices all to -the air of things and harmony. Raphael speaks to our heart; Correggio -insinuates himself into our affections by charming our senses. The -essence of Raphael's beauty is dignity of mind; petulant _naïveté_ that -of Correggio's. Raphael's grace is founded on propriety; Correggio's on -convenience and the harmony of the whole. The light of Raphael is simple -daylight; that of Correggio artificial splendour. In short, the history -of artists scarcely furnishes characteristics more opposite than what -discriminate these two. And though it may appear a paradox to -superficial observation, were it necessary to find an object of -imitation for Allegri's second and best style, the artificial medium, -the breadth of manner and mellowness of transition, with the enormous -forms and foreshortenings of Michel Angelo, though adopted by so -different a mind, from as different motives, for an end still more -different, will be found to be much more congenial with his principles -of seeing and executing, than the style of any preceding or coetaneous -period. - -The authenticity of Correggio's celebrated "Anch' io son Pittore," is -less affected by the improbability of his journey to Rome, than by its -own legendary weakness: though not at Modena or Parma, for there were no -pictures of Raphael in either place during Antonio's life, he might have -seen the St. Cecilia at Bologna; and if the story be true, perhaps no -large picture of that master that we are acquainted with could furnish -him with equal matter of exultation. He was less made to sympathize with -the celestial trance of the heroine, the intense meditation of the -Apostles, and the sainted grace of the Magdalen, than to be disgusted by -a parallelism of the whole which borders on primitive apposition, by the -total neglect of what is called picturesque, the absence of chiaroscuro, -the unharmonious colour, and dry severity of execution. - -The next point is to fix the dates of Correggio's works; the certain, -the probable, the conjectural. - -The theatre of Correggio's first essays in art is supposed to have been -his native place and the palace of its princes; but that palace perished -with whatever it might contain. From a document in the parochial archive -of Correggio, of 1514, it appears that in the same year he painted an -altar-piece for one hundred zechini, a considerable price for a young -man of twenty. This picture was in the church of the Minorites, where it -remained till 1638, when a copy was unawares put into the place of the -original. The citizens alarmed, in vain made representations to Annibale -Molza, their governor; it even appears from a letter of his to the Court -of Modena, in whose name he governed, that, many years before, two other -pieces of Antonio had been removed from the same chapel by order of Don -Siro, the last prince of the House of Correggio; those represented a St. -John and a St. Bartholomew; the subject of the altar-piece was the -Madonna with the child, Joseph and St. Francis. - -The fraternity of the Hospital della Misericordia possessed likewise an -altar-piece of Antonio. The centre piece represented the Deity of the -Father; the two wings, St. John and Bartholomew. According to a contract -which still remains in the archives, it was estimated by a painter of -Novellara, Jacopo Borboni, at three hundred ducats, bought for Don Siro -in 1613, and a copy put in its place. The originals of all these -pictures are lost. - -The picture with the Madonna and child on a throne, St. John the -Baptist, the Sts. Catharina, Francis, and Antony, inscribed "Antonius de -Allegris P." now in the gallery of Dresden, was, as Tiraboschi correctly -supposes, an altar-piece in the church of St. Nicolas of the Minorites, -at Carpi: a copy of it by Aretusi, is at Mantoua. To this period, and -perhaps even an earlier one, belongs the St. Cecilia of the Borghese -palace. The general style of this picture is dry and hard, and the -draperies in Mantegna's taste; but the light which proceeds from a glory -of angels, and imperceptibly expands itself over the whole, is a -characteristic too decisive to leave any doubt of its originality. - -In the gallery of Count Brühl was the Wedding (sposalizio) of St. -Catharine, with the following inscription on the back:--"Laus Deo: per -Donna Metilde d'Este Antonio Lieto da Correggio fece il presente quadro -per sua divozione, anno 1517." This inscription appears, however, -suspicious, as at that time there was no princess of that name at the -court of Ferrara. At the purchase of the principal pictures in the -Modenese gallery by Augustus III. this was presented by the Duke to -Count Brühl; from him it went to the Imperial Gallery at Petersburg. A -similar one was in the collection of Capo di Monte at Naples, and Mengs -considers both as originals. Copies of merit by Gabbiani and Volterrano -are in England and Toscana. It is singular that an artist, than whom -none had more scholars and copyists, and whose short life was occupied -by the most important works, should be supposed to have painted so many -duplicates, and that a set of men, as impudent as ignorant, should meet -with dupes as credulous as wealthy, eager to purchase their trash at -enormous prices, in the face of the few legitimate originals. - -In 1519, Antonio went to Parma, and soon after his arrival is said to have -painted a room in the Nunnery of St. Paul. The authenticity of this work, -placed within the clausure of the convent and consequently inaccessible, -has been recently disputed, and the author of a certain dialogue even -attempts to prove the whole a fable. To ascertain the fact, a special -licence to visit the place was obtained for some painters and architects -of note, and on their declaring the paintings one of Correggio's best -works, Don Ferdinando de Bourbon, with some of the courtiers and Padre -Iveneo Affo, followed to inspect it. What he tells us of monastic -constitution in those times accounts for the admission of so profane an -ornament in such a place; for in the beginning of the sixteenth century, -clausure was yet unknown to nunneries; abbesses were elected for life, -their power over the revenue of the convent was uncontrolled, their style -of life magnificent, and their political influence not inconsiderable. -Such was the situation of nunneries when Donna Giovanna da Piacenza, -descended from an eminent family at Parma, the new-elected abbess of St. -Paul's, ordered two saloons of her elegant apartments to be decorated with -paintings; one by Correggio, and another, as it is conjectured, either by -Alessandro Araldi of Parma, or Cristoforo Casella, called Temperello. -Padre Affo proves that Correggio must have painted his apartment before -1520, immediately after his arrival at Parma, and four or five years -before the introduction of the clausure. Of a work so singular and -questionable, it will not appear superfluous to repeat some of the most -striking outlines from his account:--"The chimney-piece represents Diana -returned from the chase, to whom an infant Amor offers the head of a -new-slain stag; the ceiling is vaulted, raised in arches over sixteen -lunettes; four on each side of the walls; the paintings are raised about -an ell from the floor, and form a series of mythologic and allegoric -figures, which breathe the simplicity, the suavity, and the decorum of -Art's golden age. Of these the three Graces naked, in three different -attitudes, offer a charming study of female beauty, and a striking -contrast with the Parcæ placed opposite; the most singular subject is a -naked female figure, suspended by a cord from the sky, with her hands tied -over her head--her body extended by two golden anvils fastened with chains -to her feet, floating in the attitude of which the Homeric Jupiter reminds -his Juno.[162] The high-arched roof embowers the whole with luxuriant -verdure and fruit, and is divided into sixteen large ovals, overhung with -festoons of tendrils, vine-leaves, and grapes, between which appear groups -of infant Amorini, above the size of children, gamboling in various -picturesque though not immodest attitudes." - -Neither the pretended inaccessibility of place, nor the veil thrown by -monastic austerity over the profaneness of the subject, can sufficiently -account for the silence of tradition, and the obscurity in which this -work was suffered to linger for nearly three centuries. Supposing it, on -the authorities adduced, to be the legitimate produce of Correggio, and -considering its affinity to the ornamental parts of the Loggie in the -Vatican, it affords a stronger argument of Allegri's having seen Rome, -studied the antique, and imitated Raphael, than any of those that have -been adduced by Mengs, who (with his commentator D'Azara,) appears to -have been totally uninformed of it, notwithstanding his familiarity at -Parma with every work of Correggio, his perseverance of inquiry and -eager pursuit of whatever related to his idol, the influence he enjoyed -at Court, and unlimited access to every place that might be supposed to -contain or hide some work of art. - -Soon after his arrival at Parma, Antonio probably received the -commission of the celebrated cupola of S. Giovanni, which he completed -in 1524, as appears from an acquittance for the last payment subscribed -'Antonio Lieto,' still existing at Parma. - -In the cupola he represented the Ascension of the Saviour, with the -Apostles, the Madonna, &c. and the Coronation of the Virgin on the -tribune of the principal altar, whose enlargement in 1584 occasioned, -with the destruction of the choir, that of the painting: a few fragments -escaped; an exact copy had, however, been provided before, by Annibale -Carracci, from which it was repainted on the same place by Aretusi. The -same church preserved two pictures in oil of Correggio, the martyrdom of -St. Placidus and Flavia, and Christ taken from the cross on the lap of -his mother; both are now (1802) in the collection of the Louvre. - -The success of the cupola of S. Giovanni encouraged the inspectors of -the Domo to commit the decoration of theirs to the same master. Of their -contract with him, the original still remains in the archive of their -chapter; it was concluded in 1522, and amounted to about one thousand -zecchini, no inconsiderable sum for those times, and alone sufficient to -do away the silly tradition of the artist's mendicity. The decorations -of the chapel, next to the cupola, were distributed among three of the -best Parmesan painters at that time, Parmegianino, Franc. Maria Rondani, -and Michael Angelo Anselmi. From all the papers hitherto found, it -appears, however, that Correggio did not actually begin to paint the -cupola before 1526: it represents the Ascension of the Virgin, and -without recurring to an individual verdict, has received the sanction of -ages, as the most sublime in its kind, of all that were produced before -and after it; a work without a rival, though now dimmed with smoke, and -in decay by time. These were the two first cupolas painted entire, all -former ones being painted in compartments. Nothing occurs to make us -surmise that Correggio had partners of his labour in these two works; -for Lattanzio Gambara of Brescia, mentioned by Rossi as his assistant in -the Domo, was born eight years after Correggio's death. - -During the progress of these two great works, Correggio produced others -of inferior size but equal excellence; the principal of which are the -two votive pictures of St. Jerome, and La Notte. That of St. Jerome -represents the Saint offering his Translation to the Infant Christ, who -is seated in his Mother's lap, with St. Magdalen reclining on and -kissing his feet, and flanked by Angels. The commission for this picture -is said to have been given in 1523, by Donna Briseide Colla, the widow -of Orazio or Ottaviano Bergonzi of Parma, who in 1528 gave it as a -votive offering to the church of S. Antonio del Fuoco. The price agreed -on, was 400 lire; 40,000 ducats were offered for it afterwards by the -King of Portugal; and the then Abbot of the convent was on the point of -concluding the bargain, when the citizens of Parma, to prevent the loss, -applied to the Infante Don Philippo. He ordered it in 1749 to be -transposed from S. Antonio to the Domo; there it remained till 1756, -when, on the application of a French painter, expelled by the Canons for -his attempt to trace it, the Prince had it transferred under an escort -of twenty-four grenadiers to Colorno; and from thence to the newly -instituted academy, where it remained till 1797, and now, (1802,) with -other transported works of Art, glitters among the spoils of the Louvre. - -The second picture known by the name of "La Notte," represents the -birthnight of the Saviour, and was the commission of Alberto Pratonieri, -as appears from a writing dated in 1522, though it was not finished till -1527 according to Mengs, or 1530 as Fiorillo surmised, when it was -dedicated in the Chapel Pratonieri of S. Prospero at Reggio: from -whence, 1640, it was carried to the gallery of Modena, by order, of Duke -Francesco I. and from thence at length to that of Dresden. - -A chapel in the church del S. Sepolcro at Parma, possessed formerly the -altar-piece known by the name of "La Madonna della Scodella," because -the Virgin, represented on her flight to Egypt, holds a wooden bowl in -her hand: a figure, whom Mengs fancies the Genius of the Fountain, pours -water into it; and in the back ground an angel, whose action and -expression he considers as too graceful for the business, ties up the -ass. This picture, he tells us, was, thirteen years before the date in -which he wrote, nearly swept out of the panel by the barbarous wash of a -Spanish journeyman painter who had obtained permission to copy it. It is -now in the Louvre, and how much of its present florid colour is -legitimate, must be left to the decision of the committee "de la -Restoration." - -If the most sublime degree of expression be entitled to the right of -originality, Mengs must be followed in his decision on the Ecce Homo, -formerly in the Palace Colonna, without much anxiety whether it be the -same that belonged to the family of Prati at Parma, or that which -Agostino Carracci engraved. - -The Madonna seated beneath a palm-tree, bending in somnolently pensive -contemplation over the Infant on her lap, watched by an Angel above her, -and attended by a Leveret, known by the name of "La Zingarella" or the -Egyptian, from the sash round her head, formerly in the gallery of -Parma, and now at Naples in that of Capo di Monte, has suffered so -much from a modern hand, that little of the master remains but the -conception. Nearly a duplicate of it was presented by Cardinal -Alessandro Albani to king Augustus of Poland; but Mengs hesitates to -pronounce it an original. - -In the period of these, about 1530, we may probably place the two -celebrated pictures of Leda and Danae, than which no modern works of art -have suffered more from accident and wanton or bigoted barbarity, or -been tossed about by more contradictory tradition. - -If the subject that takes its name from Leda be, as Mengs says, rather -an allegory than a fable, it alludes to what would aggravate even the -story of that mistress of Jupiter. The central figure represents a -female seated on the verge of a rivulet with a swan between her thighs, -who attempts to insinuate his bill into her lips; but at her side, and -deeper in the water, is a tender girl, who with an air of innocence -playfully struggles to defend herself from the attacks of another -swimming swan; farther on, a girl more grown up to woman, gazes, whilst -a female servant dresses her, with an air of satiate pleasure after a -swan on the wing, that seems just to have left her; at some distance -appears half a figure of an aged woman, draped, and with looks of -regret. On the other side of the principal group, the graceful form of a -full-grown Amor strikes the lyre, and two Amorini contrive to wind some -horn instruments. The scene of all this is a charming grove on the brink -of a pellucid lake. - -The second picture represents the daughter of Acrisius, but with poetic -spirit. The virgin gracefully reclines on her bed; a full-grown Cupid, -perhaps a Hymen, lifts with one hand the border of the sheet on her lap -that receives the celestial shower, whilst his other presents the mystic -drops to her enchanted glance: two Amorini at the foot of the bed try -on a touchstone, that, one of the golden drops, this, the point of an -arrow, and he, says Mengs, has a vigour of character much superior to -the other, plainly to express, that Love proceeds from the arrow, and -its ruin from gold; he likewise finds that the head and head-dress of -Danae are imitated from those of the Medicean Venus. - -Vasari, and after him Mengs with others, tell that in 1530, Federigo -Gonzaga, then created Duke of Mantoua, intended to present Charles the -Fifth at the ceremonial of his coronation with two pictures worthy of -him, and in the choice of artists gave the preference to Correggio. From -this, a correct inference is drawn against that pretended obscurity in -which Correggio is said to have lingered; for at that time Giulio Romano -lived at the Court of Mantoua, and Tizian was in the service of the -Emperor. Vasari is silent on the date of the pictures, but he affirms -that, at their sight, Giulio Romano declared he had never seen a style -of colour approaching theirs. So far all seems correct; but that they -were actually presented to Charles, sent to Prague, and after the -sacking of that city by Gustavus Adolphus, carried to Stockholm, is -unproved or erroneous. If it is not likely that the Emperor, instead of -sending them to Madrid, the darling depository of his other works of -art, should have sent them into a kind of exile to Prague, it is an -error to pretend they were removed from thence by Gustavus Adolphus, who -was slain at Lutzen sixteen years before the Swedes sacked that city, -1648. The truth is, that these pictures were not given to the Emperor, -but placed in his own gallery by the Duke, where they remained till -1630, when the Imperial General Colalto stormed Mantoua, sacked it, -deprived it of its cabinet of treasures, of the celebrated vase since -possessed by the House of Brunswick, and transmitted its beautiful -collection of pictures to Prague, from whence by the event of war we -have mentioned, they became the property of Queen Christina, at whose -abdication, when the whole was packing up for Rome, the two pictures in -question were discovered in the royal stables, where they had served as -window-blinds, mutilated and despised. Whether so unaccountable a -neglect be imputable to the Queen's want of taste, as Tessin asserts, or -to accident, or, what is most unlikely, to her modesty, cannot now be -decided. They were repaired, and at her demise left to Cardinal -Azzolini, of whose heirs they were purchased by Don Livio Odescalchi, -and by him left to the Duke of Bracciano, were sold to the Regent of -France, whose son, from a whim of bigotry, had the picture of the Leda -cut to pieces in his own presence, in which state Charles Coypel -requested and obtained it for his private study. At his death it was -vamped up, repieced, disposed of by auction, and, at a high price, sold -to the King of Prussia. What became of the Danae is matter of -dispute.[163] - -The picture of Io embraced by Jupiter, inbosomed in clouds, by a silent -water in which a stag quenches his thirst, was their companion: a work -to which the most lavish fame has done no justice, and beyond which no -fancy ever soared. The Io shared a still more barbarous fate. Not -content with mangling her like the Leda, the bigot prince burnt her -head; and, were it not for the beautiful duplicate which fortune -preserved in the Gallery of Vienna,[164] we should be reduced to guess -at Correggio in the fragments at Sans Souci, and the prints of Surregue -and Bartolozzi. The Imperial Gallery possesses, likewise, the Rape of -Ganymede, by Correggio, of the same size with the Io; a Mountain Scene; -a full-grown Cupid, seen from behind, with his head turned to the -spectator, shaping a bow, accompanied by a laughing and a weeping -infant, in struggling attitudes, which was likewise sold by the heirs of -Don Livio Odescalchi, has equally exercised opinion. Vasari, Tassoni, Du -Bois, de St. Gelais, &c. ascribe it to Parmegiano; Mengs and Fiorillo, -who judge from the duplicate at Vienna, with greater probability give it -to Correggio. The contrast of the attitudes is produced more by naïveté -than affectation, the lines have more simplicity than the style of -Mazzuola admitted of, and the colour more breadth. The conception of the -whole, whether the infants be the symbols of successful and unsuccessful -love, or denote the dangers of love, or be simply children, though not -beyond the fancy of Parmegiano, has more the air of a Correggiesque -conceit. Numberless copies were made after it, some by Parmegiano -himself, whose handling may be recognized in the picture at Paris. - -We are now arrived at those works of Correggio's which cannot be fixed -to a certain period. Such are probably, in the Gallery of Dresden, those -known under the names of S. Giorgio and S. Sebastiano, of both of which -Mengs gives a circumstantial account. He is, however, mistaken when he -imagines the last to have been voted by the City of Modena after a -plague: the commission of it was given by the fraternity of St. -Sebastian. - -The half-length portrait, formerly known at Modena as that of -Correggio's Physician, belongs to the same doubtful period. Mengs, -though he praises the colour and the impasto of it, is inclined to think -it painted about the time of his first Cupola, when he had not yet -sufficiently studied detail of forms and variety of tints. The style -resembles that of Giorgione, but is less vivid, though of equal pasto, -and somewhat more limpid. - -The last, though not least celebrated piece of Antonio in this Gallery, -is the small Meditating Magdalena: of the pictures mentioned, it is the -only one painted on copper, the rest are on panel. It is little more -than a palm in height, and not quite a palm and a half long. It was, -with other small pictures, stolen out of the Gallery in 1788, but soon -recovered. The purchase price, according to Mengs, when the Gallery was -disposed of, was 27,000 Roman crowns. It has been copied by Albani, and, -if we believe Richardson, by Tizian. - -Besides the spoils of Parma, there is now (1802) in the Gallery of the -Louvre, from the former collection of Versailles, a picture representing -in half-length figures of natural size the Wedding of St. Catherine, -with a St. Sebastian, and their Martyrdom in the distance. It does not -appear that Mengs ever saw more than some good copy of it, or the prints -engraved from it, else his praise would have probably been nearer to -astonishment than admiration; and though none would dare to repeat what -he ventures to say of the Magdalen's head in the St. Jerome, it might -safely be asserted, that perhaps no other picture can boast to have -united in the same degree the tints of Tizian, the glow and impasto of -Giorgione, and the breadth of Guido, with that bloom of hue and suavity -of manner peculiar to Correggio. - -This divine performance was presented by Cardinal Barberino to Cardinal -Mazarin, with two others painted in water colours on canvass, -representing in allegoric figures the heroism of Virtue and the -debasement of Vice. The first, in physiognomy and attitudes, abounds in -what is commonly called the grace of Correggio; the second in -picturesque energy and expression: they are likewise placed among the -collections of the Louvre. An unfinished repetition of the first in the -House Doria Panfili at Rome, is adduced by Mengs as a proof of -Correggio's intelligence in sketching, and the superiority of his -principle in the progress of a work. - -Of two pictures in the Cabinet at Madrid, the principal is that of -Christ praying in the Garden, with an Angel on high pointing to a Cross -and a Crown of Thorns on the ground, scarcely discernible. The open but -drooping arms of the Saviour express his entire resignation to the will -of his Father. The most poetic singularity of this picture is its -chiaroscuro: Christ receives his light from Heaven, the Angel from -Christ: at a distance on lower ground, and nearly evanescent, are the -three Disciples _in graceful and picturesque attitudes_, and farther -off, the approaching host of captors. At first sight, the whole seems to -be divided into two masses only of light and darkness, but on -inspection, the ambient medium and the more and less of distinctness in -the objects as they approach the light or recede from it, is divinely -expressed. There is a tale, which even Lomazzo and Scanelli repeat, that -Correggio parted with this picture to his apothecary for four scudi, -which he owed him; that afterwards it was sold for five hundred crowns -to Pirrho Count Visconti, who resold it for seven hundred and fifty gold -doubloons, to the Marchese Camarena, Governor of Milan, by whom it was -bought in commission for Philip the Fourth. Every day discovers some -copy, or, if you choose to believe those who wish to dispose of them, -some duplicate or triplicate of this picture. Padre Resta possessed not -one, but four, all of which he insisted on being believed in as -originals: one on copper, another on wood, which Lelio Orsi was said to -have copied on canvass; a third, likewise on panel but somewhat -worm-eaten, disposed of to Monsignor Marchetti, and a fourth again on -copper. Some of these are probably in England. - -The companion of this picture is the Madonna dressing the Infant, with -Joseph planing a board in the back-ground; a performance though inferior -in style to the former, not less original from the pentimenti still -discoverable in the two principal figures. - -The Duke of Alba possesses of Correggio, in figures somewhat less than -Nature, Mercury teaching Cupid to read in the presence of Venus. Venus -has the singular attribute of wings, and of a bow in her left hand; and -Mengs persuades himself to discover in her forms a reminiscence of an -imitation of the Apollino, formerly in the Villa Medici at Rome. The -characteristic excellence of the execution, and an evident pentimento in -the arm of the Mercury, leave no doubt of its having a better claim to -originality than the duplicates in France and Germany. It formerly made -part of the collection of Charles the First, and Sandrart saw it in the -Palace of Whitehall, from whence it was purchased by an ancestor of the -Duke of Alba. - -Not to waste time on conjectural works, we finish this list with a -picture formerly in the house Barberini, now supposed to be in England: -it is painted on panel, and represents from the narrative of S. Marc, -the young man who followed our Saviour at the moment of his captivity, -but fled on being laid hold of, and left his garment in the hands of the -captors. Mengs describes a duplicate of this picture, painted on -canvass, at his time in the hands of an Englishman at Rome, and though, -in his opinion, only the study for the other, in the principal parts, -especially the figure of the youth, highly finished: his expression, -form and attitude, remind the critic so strongly of the same in the -eldest son of the Laocoon, that he is persuaded they are an imitation, -though in a style more consonant with Correggio's manner. - -The cause and circumstances of his death we are not acquainted with, -since the idle tale has been discarded which Vasari tells, of his -perishing in consequence of having carried home a load of sixty scudi in -copper, which he had received in payment at Parma. He who considers what -strength would be required to carry sixty crowns in quattrini, will find -its confutation in the tale itself; let it be added that the extreme -heat which is said to have aggravated the fatigue, and accelerated his -death, is, even in Italy, not coincident with the season in which he -must have taken the journey,[165] as he died on the fifth of March. The -magnificence and number of his commissions; the deference paid to his -powers in the face of rival artists, by the very patrons of those men, -or societies, that might have saved expense by admitting concurrence; -the handsome, though not quite metropolitan prices, which he received, -and what Mengs has observed, the expensive goodness of his colours, of -his panels, and canvasses--make it not only extremely improbable that he -should have lived in the depressed circumstances, to which vulgar -tradition has sunk him; but add an air of truth to the opinion of those -who thought him, if not opulent, yet nearer allied to affluence than -want. - -Correggio was a monument without a tomb; but it appears strange that a -century and a half should have elapsed before the thought of erecting -him one occurred to the Senate and citizens of his native place, and -then was suffered to evaporate in ineffectual projects. The boastful -intentions of Padre Resta proved equally nugatory: the tombstone set and -inscribed by Girolamo Conti still remains a solitary offering to his -genius: - - D. O. M. - Antonio. Allegri. Civi. - Vulgo. Il Correggio. - Arte. Picturæ. Habitu. Probitatis. - Eximio. - Monum. Hoc. Posuit. - Hier. Conti. Concivis. - Siccine. Separas. Amara. Mors. - Obiit. Anno. Ætatis. XL. Sal. MDXXXIV. - -On such a face as Correggio's, physiognomy might have established -principles or drawn some inferences from it, had not a perverse destiny -left us as ignorant of it, as of his complexion, stature, character, and -habits. Vasari's exertions to obtain a portrait of him were not only -unsuccessful, but hopeless; and the profile which is shown in the dome -of Parma as his, becomes inadmissible from the very name of the artist -to whom it is ascribed.[166] The head which found its way into the third -and every following edition of Vasari, has certainly nothing repugnant -with the notions we may form of his character, but age. Meditation, -simplicity, serenity, compose it. It is said to have been copied from a -picture not quite finished, which appears to have the touch of -Correggio, and came from Sicily to Naples. He is represented -contemplating a design, the original of which, report has placed at -Vienna with Prince Esterhazy. The portrait which is at Turin, in the -"Vigna della Regina," engraved by Valperga, with the epigraph, in part -hid by the frame, but read by Lanzi "Antonius Corrigius f." (_i. e._ -fecit) though by some believed genuine, appears spurious from this very -circumstance, the large character of the letters and the space they -occupy; a manner of writing often used to indicate the person painted, -never the painter. Another portrait, which from Genoua is said to have -been carried to England, with the indorsed inscription "Dosso Dossi -dipinse questo ritratto di Antonio da Correggio," fronts the Memorie of -Ratti. Without examining the authenticity of this inscription, it is -sufficient to observe, that Antonio da Correggio is likewise the name of -Antonio Bernieri, a celebrated miniature painter, and fellow citizen of -Allegri, whose date coincides with that of Dosso, and whom there will be -occasion to mention again. - -Of Correggio's numerous pretending imitators, Lodovico Carracci appears -to be the only one who penetrated his principle. The axiom, that the -less the traces appear of the means by which a work has been produced, -the more it resembles the operations of Nature, is not an axiom likely -to spring from the infancy of art. The even colour, veiled splendour, -the solemn twilight; that tone of devotion and cloistered meditation, -which Lodovico Carracci spread over his works, could arise only from the -contemplation of some preceding style, analogous to his own feelings and -its comparison with Nature; and where could that be met with in a degree -equal to what he found in the infinite unity and variety of Correggio's -effusions? They inspired his frescoes in the cloisters of S. Michele in -Bosco: the foreshortenings of the muscular labourers at the hermitage, -and of the ponderous demon that mocks their toil; the warlike splendour -in the Homage of Totila; the Nocturnal Conflagration of Monte Casino; -the wild graces of deranged beauty, and the insidious charms of the -sister nymphs in the garden scene, equally proclaim the pupil of -Correggio. - -His triumph in oil is the altar-piece of St. John preaching in a chapel -of the Certosa at Bologna, whose lights seem embrowned by a golden veil, -and the shadowy gleam of Valombrosa; though he sometimes indulged in -tones austere, pronounced, and hardy: such is the Flagellation of Christ -in the same church, whose tremendous depth of flesh-tints contrasts the -open wide-expanded sky, and less conveys than dashes its terrors on the -astonished sense. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[154] Mantoua preserved a certain attachment to Virgil in the darkest -ages; for besides numerous coins stamped with his image, his statue, -honoured by annual festivals, remained in the forum, till the brutal -fanaticism of Carlo Malatesta condemned it to the river. Vide _Ant. -Possevini Junioris Gonzaga_, lib. v. p. 486. Paul of Florence and Peter -Paul Vergerius wrote against Malatesta: the latter under the following -title, 'De Diruta Statua Virgilii P.P.V. eloquentissimi Oratoris -epistola ex tugurio Blondi sub Apolline.' No date. - -[155] Some codices decorated with miniatures and the portrait of that -Countess: the most conspicuous of which is that by Donizone, a -Benedictine at Canossa, in the diocese of Reggio, but a German by -extraction, who lived at the court of Mathilda, and in two books of -barbarous verse composed her life and history. It is preserved in the -Vatican Library, No. 4922, and was first published by Sebastian -Tagnagolio, at Ingolstadt, 1612. 4to. - -The original portrait of Mathilda, by an unknown hand, drawn from her -monument at Polirone, has been published by _J. Bat. Visi in Notizie -Storiche della città di Mantoua e dello stato_, t. ii. p. 122. She is -represented on a horse with a pomegranate in her hand. - -[156] In the Convent "alle Grazie," tradition dates the remains of -several old pictures from the time of Mantegna. That miniature or rather -missal painting had attained a high degree of excellence at that period, -is proved by a large folio Bible, in the Estensian Library, decorated -with admirable copies of insects, plants, and animals. The contract made -between Duca Borso, 1455, and the two artists who painted it, Taddeo de -Crivelli and Zuanne de Russi da Mantova, has been preserved by -Bettshelli, Lett. Mant. Mantova, 1774. 4to. - -[157] Vasari, whom rage of dispatch and eager credulity seldom suffered -to wait for authentic information, not content, in spite of his epitaph, -to tell us that he was born of low parents in some district of Mantoua, -confounds the date of his death with that of the inscription itself. - -[158] See Nic. Vleughels, in his notes to Dolci. - -[159] Garofalo. - -[160] Cataloghi, p. 498. - -[161] Indice del Pam. de' Pittori, p. 21. - -[162] ----"peri chersi de desmon iela - CHryseon, arrekton."--Ilias, xv. 19. - -[163] Du Change. Copy of the Leda in the Colonna. - -[164] In the palace Godolphin. - -[165] In the obituary of the Franciscans at Correggio we read, "A di 5 -Marzo 1534 mori Maestro Antonio Allegri Dipintore e fu sepolto a 6 detto -in S. Francesco sotto il Portico." - -[166] Lattanzio Gambara. - - - - -THE SCHOOL OF BOLOGNA. - - -Three epochs divide the history of painting in Bologna and the -neighbouring districts. The first is from its restoration to the time of -Francesco Raibolini, or Francia; the second reaches from him to the -Carracci, when it attained its height, and gradually decayed in the -variety of deviations which mark the third. - -Bologna, at an early period of the fifth century, appears to have been -considered as a nursery of sciences and arts; the foundation of its -University is dated up to Petronius, its bishop at that period; -afterwards, under the successive invasions of barbarians, when the -alternate prey of clerical and secular rapacity, as a powerful republic, -or oppressed by civic usurpation, and at last reduced to a Papal -province, Bologna never lost its predilection for sciences and arts. - -Of the progress made in painting anterior to the time of Cimabue, some -monumental relics still remain, though by far the greater part were -ignorantly destroyed at the beginning of the last century. Some that -escaped the whitewasher's hand are ascribed to an artist who marked his -work with the letters _P.F._ Of these, one which represents a Maria, is -preserved in the Church della Baroncella, and was done about 1120. Two -others are in the Basilica of S. Stephano. - -Baldi, a collector of antique pictures, in a MS. quoted by Malvasia, -mentions some of _Guido da Bologna_, painted in 1178 and 1180, and -others executed by _Ventura da Bononia_ in 1197. Of this last something -still remains, especially one picture with the date 1217, and the -inscription _Ventura pinsit_: and the name of _Urso_, or _Ursone_, a -contemporary of _Guido da Siena_, is found on a picture inscribed _Urso -f. 1226_; and some others ascribed to him have dates of 1242 and 1244. -In those times painting, sculpture, architecture, chasing, were -frequently exercised by one man. A certain _Manno_, contemporary with -Cimabue, is mentioned as the painter of a Madonna by Baldi, and as the -sculptor of Pope Bonifazio VIII. by Ghirardacci who calls him likewise a -goldsmith. His dates are from 1260 to 1301. Some remains or rather ruins -of these masters are still visible in the palace Malvezzi. - -The age of Giotto and Dante gives Art an air of greater certainty. -Tradition and monument go hand in hand. Franco of Bologna, with his -supposed master Oderigi of Gubbio, are celebrated in the poet's poem of -the Purgatory. Franco was called to Rome by Bonifazio VIII. to decorate -the books and missals of the Vatican library with miniature; and on his -return to Bologna founded a school which numbered among its scholars -_Vitale_, _Lorenzo_, _Simone_, and _Jacopo d'Avanzi_, whose works, -especially what remains of the two last, make it probable that Vasari is -correct when he asserts that Franco excelled in large as well as in -miniature painting. Michael Agnolo and the Carracci are said to have -been struck with the fire of conception and the tone of colour in the -pictures still preserved of Simone and Jacopo d'Avanzi, at the Madonna -di Mezzaratta, and to have advised a careful restoration of the -decaying parts. Simone, who loved to paint the crucifix, from the number -which he executed obtained the surname of "de' Crocefissi;" and Jacopo, -smitten with the love of Maria, was marked by the title "dalle Madonne." -He excelled, however, in subjects of a martial kind, if the conflict in -the Chapel of S. Jacopo del Santo at Padova, and the Capture of -Jugurtha, with the Triumph of Marius, in a saloon at Verona, be his -performances: works which excited the wonder of Mantegna. As he -sometimes subscribed "Jacobus Pauli," it has been surmised that he was -of Venetian extraction, and perhaps the son and assistant of that Paolo -who painted the Ancona of S. Marc. - -Of the artists who at that period painted in Mezzaratta, Cristoforo, -whether of Ferrara, Modena, or Bologna, for he is claimed by all, seems -to have shared the highest repute. He had the commission of the -principal altar, where he painted on panel the Madonna with the Infant -between her knees, and some figures kneeling before her; it still -exists, marked with his name Christofano, 1380. A most copious work of -his, divided into ten compartments of saints, rudely designed, languid -in colour, but of original style, is preserved among the fragments of -the house Malvezzi. - -Lippo di Dalmatio,--who was supposed to have been a Carmelite, till -Bianconi, in Piacenza's edition of Baldinucci, produced proofs of his -wife and family,--came from the school of Vitale, and from his -predilection for the Mother of Christ acquired, like Jacopo d'Avanzi, -the byname of "Lippo dalle Madonne." There goes a tale that he gave -instruction to Saint Catherine Vigri, of whom certain miniatures and an -Infant Christ on panel still remain. A better union of tints, and some -easier arrangement in the folds of his draperies, though with a -profusion of gold lace, is all that discriminates him from the crudeness -and exility of the ancient style. Such, however, was his felicity in the -character of Madonnas, that they captivated Guido Reni,[167] who used to -repeat that Lippo, in expressing at once the majesty, the sanctity, and -the mildness of the divine mother, must have been assisted by a -celestial power. Some of these Madonnas are said to be in oil colours, -with dates of 1376, 1405, and 1407. Guido is likewise the guarantee of -certain frescoes representing facts of Elia, painted with great spirit -by the same master. - -After 1409, the last date of Lippo's pictures, the School of Bologna -somewhat declined, nor could it be otherwise: no vigorous school ever -sprang from the timid precepts of a portrait painter, and Dalmatio -possessed more of that than of historic power: this, rather than the -supposed imitation of certain images imported from Constantinople, was -the cause of that insignificance which consigned, with few exceptions, -his school and successors to oblivion. Of Pietro Lianori, Michele di -Matteo, Bombologno, Severo and Erçole Bologna, Catherina di Vigri, -Giacopo Ripanda, Marco Zoppo, time has left little but the names, and of -that little, enough not to regret the loss of what vanished. Let us not, -however, be too fastidious to repeat what tradition has persevered to -report of some; if Bombologno may be left to the votaries of the -crucifix, and Catherina to the rubric that saints her, Michele -Lambertini claims the attention of artists for a mellowness of tints -which Albano judged superior to the tints of Francia; Giacopo Ripanda -for the dangers which he braved in designing the groups of the Trajan -pillar;[168] and Marco Zoppo as no despicable competitor of Andrea -Mantegna, and the reputed master of Francesco Francia. - -Francesco Raibolini, surnamed Francia, born in 1450, may be considered -as the head of the Bolognese school, because his works appear to have -been framed on that collective principle which became its leading -feature in the sequel, and was probably the result of the long theory -that preceded his practice, assisted by that readiness in design which -distinguished him as a goldsmith, chaser,[169] and die-cutter, -professions to which he had been trained up from his infancy, and which -he raised to celebrity before he attained complete manhood. - -Francia was fortunate in contemporaries; the School of Squarcione had -furnished him with style and form; the genius of Lionardo da Vinci, with -effect and chiaroscuro; Pietro Vanucchi with arrangement if not -composition, and though not beauty, with amenity of aspect; and Bellino -with tone, breadth of drapery and colour. Ardour of mind, energy of -application and dexterity, supplied the want of early practice, and we -find him in the palace of Giov. Bentivoglio on a par with the most -expert Frescanti conscribed from Ferrara and Modena, and soon after -intrusted with the commission of painting the altar-piece of his chapel -at S. Jacopo, a work of great subtlety of execution; though modestly -inscribed "Opus Francia Aurificis," and a pledge of that superior -style at which he aimed and in the sequel attained. - -If from what has been premised of Bolognese artists anterior to Cimabue, -it is evident that the germs of art belong to their own soil, their -claim to originality in the progress of style has been and still is -matter of dispute between the champions of the Tuscan school and those -of their own. The Florentines insist on having taught the Bolognese, -what the Bolognese deny to have learnt from the Florentines.[170] As in -a dispute of this kind, candour is often sacrificed to the fervour of -patriotic vanity, and the obstinacy of local attachment, the real state -of the question is better learnt from those monuments of the fourteenth -century, which still remain scattered over Romagna or collected and more -classically arranged in Bologna itself. Among all these some specimens -will be found evidently Greek, others as evidently Giottesque; some in a -Venetian style, and not a few in a manner peculiar to Bologna only. -These have a body of colour, a taste in perspective, a mode of design -in figures, and a choice of forms and hues in draperies, which no other -school practised. From all which it appears, that if Giotto during his -stay at Bologna raised pupils, and formed imitators, his own school had -no influence on, nor dislodged, that aboriginal one which continued to -disseminate and to improve the principles imbibed from the antique -mosaics and the painters of miniature. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[167] Malvasia. - -[168] "Floret item nunc Romæ Jacobus Bononiensis, qui Trajani Columnæ -picturas omnes ordine delineavit, magna omnium admiratione, magnoque -periculo circum machinis scandendo."--V. Raphaelis Volaterrani -Anthropologia, p. 774. A. ed. 1603. fol. - -[169] "Unum apud modernos reperio, de quo apud antiquos nulla extat -memoria, de incisoribus seu sculptoribus in argento; quæ sculptura -Niellum appellatur. Virum cognosco in hoc celeberrimum et summum, nomine -Franciscum Bononiensem, aliter Franza, qui adeo in tam parvo orbiculo -seu argenti lamina, tot homines, tot animalia, tot montes, arbores, -castra ac tot diversa ratione situque posita figurat seu incidit, quod -dictu ac visu mirabile apparet."--Camillo Leonardi, Speculo Lapidum, -lib. iii. c. 2. - -The assertion that Niello was unknown to the ancients, it is unnecessary -to refute here. Francia was master of the mint during the usurpation of -the Bentivogli, after their expulsion by Giulio the Second, and -continued to superintend its issue to the Pontificate of Leo. His coins -and medals are said by Vasari to equal those of the Milanese Caradosso; -and it is probably for their excellence that he was looked up to as a -god (un Dio) at Bologna. - -[170] Dyo----eneikeon---- - ----o men eucheto, pant' apodounai, - Demo piphayskon{~GREEK ANO TELEIA~} o d' anaineto, meden elesthai. - -Ilias. Lib. xviii. l. 498. - - - THE END. - - LONDON: - PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY, - Dorset Street, Fleet Street. - - - * * * * * - - -TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES - -Obvious typos have been silently corrected. - -Italicised words and phrases are marked _like this_. - -Idiosyncratic spellings have been left unchanged. This includes -inconsistent spellings of proper names, hyphenated words, oe ligatures -and capitalisation. - -For example: Julio Pipi on p. 118 and Giulio Pippi on p. 361. - -Similarly, the spellings "domo" and "duomo" both appear, and have been -left unchanged. - - -There are numerous Greek quotations, in which accents and smooth -breathings are used only occasionally, and rough breathings are nearly -always marked. Missing accents and breathings have NOT been added. - - -The following items are worth special note: - -1) The phrase "terribil via" on p. 19 should possibly be "terribilis -via" or "terribile via", but has been left unchanged. - -2) On p. 28 "Goliah" has been amended to "Goliath", but the spelling -"Goliah" also appears in vol. 2 and may have been an accepted spelling. - -3) In footnote 96 on p. 264, "Osteireichischen" has been amended to -"Osterreichischen". - -4) On p. 265, "seini" has been amended to "sein". - -5) "Matatona" on p. 328 should possibly be "Matalona", as on p. 288, but -has been left unchanged. - -6) On p. 330, "Buoancorsi" has been amended to "Buonacorsi". - -7) The phrase "sotto in sù" (page 357) has been amended to match "sotto -in su", which appears twice elsewhere. - -8) The spelling "pinsit" instead of "pinxit" on p. 400 has been retained -as it may record an error in the original inscription. - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The life and writings of Henry Fuseli, -Volume III (of 3), by Henry Fuseli and John Knowles - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE, WRITINGS, HENRY FUSELI, VOL 3 *** - -***** This file should be named 40474-8.txt or 40474-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/4/7/40474/ - -Produced by Margo von Romberg, Karl Eichwalder and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - -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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