Chapter XIII: Preface: By John Ruskin (11)

It is a transcript from the religious life around him that Zurbaran here sets before us. Seville was the most orthodox city in the most Catholic country--at every corner of the streets there were Franciscan monks, with prayers or charms to sell in exchange for food or money. "For centuries in Spain country people bought up the monks' old garbs, to use them in dressing the dead, so that St. Peter might pass them into heaven thinking they were Franciscans." It was in the streets and convents of Seville therefore that Zurbaran found his models. This picture was bought for the National Gallery from the Louis Philippe sale in 1853. When the gallery of Spanish pictures to which it formerly belonged was inaugurated in the Louvre, "what remained most strongly in the Parisian mind, so impressionable and so _blasé_, was not the suavity of Murillo, nor the astonishing pencil of Velazquez, making the canvas speak and palpitate with life; it was a certain 'Monk in prayer' of Zurbaran, which it was impossible to forget, even if one had seen it only once" (C. Blanc, cited in W. B. Scott's _Murillo_, p. 55). "Of his gloomy monastic studies," says Stirling-Maxwell, "the kneeling Franciscan holding a skull is one of the ablest; the face, dimly seen beneath the brown hood, is turned to heaven; no trace of earthly expression is left on its pale features, but the wild eyes seem fixed on some dismal vision; and a single glance at the canvas imprints the figure on the memory for ever."

232. THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.

_Francisco Zurbaran_ (Spanish: 1598-1662). _See_ 230.

A characteristic and fine example of the naturalistic treatment of such subjects by the Spanish School; formerly supposed to be an early work of Velazquez, now attributed by the authorities of the Gallery, following M. de Beruete, to Zurbaran.[116] The affinity of the Spanish School in this respect to the Italian naturalists may be seen by a glance at No. 172 in the late Italian Room. In the distance is the guiding angel as the star of the Epiphany. It is a pretty piece of observation of child nature that makes the painter show the boy offering his animals to the infant Christ. One remembers George Eliot's "young Daniel" (in _Scenes of Clerical Life_), who says to Mr. Gilfil, by way of making friends, "We've got two pups, shall I show 'em yer? One's got white spots." Zurbaran was noted for his successful delineation of animals. Palomino mentions with approbation his picture of an enraged dog from which chance observers used to run away, and of a yearling lamb, deemed by the possessor of more value than a hecatomb of full-grown sheep.

234. A WARRIOR ADORING THE INFANT CHRIST.

_Catena_ (Venetian: died 1531).

Of Vincenzo di Biagio, commonly called Catena (possibly from a
partiality for jewellery), little is known, and until recently
little was heard. Modern critics have, however, decided that
he was one of the ablest of the School of Bellini, and have
attributed to him many beautiful works, which have hitherto
borne famous names.[117] He was born at Treviso; his first
master was probably the elder Girolamo da Treviso, but he
must have finished his artistic education in the School of
Bellini. Signed pictures from his hand are to be found in
several of the Venetian churches and elsewhere. He was fond of
introducing a partridge (as here and in 694) and a white poodle
dog (as here) into his pictures, by which they may often be
recognised. An altar-piece, representing S. Cristina in the
church of S. Maria Mater Domini, and another of S. Giustina in
S. Simpliciana are referred to as offering marked analogies
with the work now before us. A letter is extant, dated April
11, 1520, when Raphael was just deceased and Michelangelo
infirm, in which Catena is recommended to be on his guard,
"since danger seems to be impending over all very excellent
painters." He was famous for his portraits; the portrait of
Count Raimund Fugger, specially praised by Vasari, is now at
Berlin. He died in 1531, in which year he made a will leaving
legacies to a number of poor painters, and the greater part
of his substance to the Guild of his art. In his later works
the influence of Giorgione is strongly marked--as here in the
rich full colour of the Kneeling Knight, and in other respects.
"Giorgione," says Mr. Berenson, "created a demand which other
painters were forced to supply. One of them, turning toward the
new in a way that is full of singular charm, gave his later
works all the beauty and softness of the first spring days in
Italy. Upon hearing the title of one of Catena's works in the
National Gallery, _A Warrior Adoring the Infant Christ_, who
could imagine what a treat the picture itself had in store
for him? It is a fragrant summer landscape enjoyed by a few
quiet people, one of whom, in armour, with the glamour of the
Orient about him, kneels at the Virgin's feet, while a romantic
young page holds his horse's bridle. A good instance of the
Giorgionesque way of treating a subject; not for the story, nor
for the display of skill, nor for the obvious feeling, but for
the lovely landscape, for the effects of light and colour, and
for the sweetness of human relations" (_The Venetian Painters
of the Renaissance_, p. 31).

Observe, for the technical merits of this picture, the horse-bridle: "An example of true painter's work in minor detail; unsurpassable, but not, by patience and modesty, inimitable" (_Academy Notes_, 1875, p. 48). As for the subject, the warrior portrayed is nameless. This is suggestive; it is not a peculiar picture, it is a type of what was the common method of Venetian portraiture. "An English gentleman, desiring his portrait, gives probably to the painter a choice of several actions, in any of which he is willing to be represented. As for instance, riding his best horse, shooting with his favourite pointer, manifesting himself in his robes of state on some great public occasion, meditating in his study, playing with his children, or visiting his tenants; in any of these or other such circumstances, he will give the artist free leave to paint him. But in one important action he would shrink even from the suggestion of being drawn. He will assuredly not let himself be painted praying. Strangely, this is the action which, of all others, a Venetian desires to be painted in. If they want a noble and complete portrait, they nearly all choose to be painted on their knees" (_Modern Painters_, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. iii. § 15). Notice also the little dog in the corner--"one of the little curly, short-nosed, fringy-pawed things which all Venetian ladies petted." "The dog is thus constantly introduced by the Venetians (in Madonna pictures) in order to give the fullest contrast to the highest tones of human thought and feeling.... But they saw the noble qualities of the dog too--all his patience, love, and faithfulness ...," and introduced him into their sacred pictures partly therefore in order to show that "all the lower creatures, who can love, have passed, through their love, into the guardianship and guidance of angels" (_Modern Painters_, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. iii. § 21, ch. vi. § 14; _Fors Clavigera_, 1877, p. 31).[118]

235. THE DEAD CHRIST.

_Giuseppe Ribera, called Spagnoletto_ (Spanish: 1598-1648).

Ribera is a leading artist amongst what are called the
_Naturalisti_ or _Tenebrosi_ (an alternative title, curiously
significant of the warped and degraded principle of the
school, as if "nature" were indeed only another name for
"darkness").[119] His works show remarkable force and facility;
his subjects were painful. As Byron says--

Spagnoletto tainted
His brush with all the blood of all the sainted.

"It is a curious example of the perversity of the human mind,"
says Stirling-Maxwell, "that subjects like these should have
been the chosen recreations of an eye that opened in infancy on
the palms and the fair women of Valencia, and rested for half
a lifetime on the splendour of the Bay of Naples." His life
was like his art, being "one long contrast between splendour
and misery, black shadow and shining light" (Scott). He made
his way when quite a youth to Rome, where one day, as he was
sketching in the streets, dressed in rags and eating crusts,
he was picked up by a cardinal and taken into his household.
They called him in Italy, owing to his small stature, by the
name Lo Spagnoletto, the little Spaniard. But Ribera could
not brook the cardinal's livery, and stole away into poverty
and independence again. He especially studied the works of
Caravaggio, and went afterwards to Parma to study Correggio.
Then he moved to Naples, where a picture-dealer discovered his
talent and gave him his daughter in marriage. A large picture
of the martyrdom of St. Bartholomew, which he painted about
this time, was exhibited by the dealer on the balcony of his
house, and created such a _furore_ that the Spanish Viceroy,
delighted at finding the painter to be a Spaniard, loaded him
with appointments and commissions. This was the making of
Ribera's fortune. He soon became very wealthy--never going out
but in his carriage, and with an equerry to accompany him, and
so hard had he to work to keep pace with his orders that his
servants were instructed at last to interrupt him when working
hours were fairly over. He kept open house--entertaining
Velazquez, for instance, when the latter visited Naples in
1630; but though lavish he was yet mean. Ribera, Corenzio (a
Greek), and Caracciolo (a Neapolitan), formed a memorable
cabal, with the object of establishing a local monopoly in
the artistic profession for themselves. In this object, by
means of force and fraud, they succeeded for many years.
Domenichino, Annibale Carracci, and Guido Reni were all more
or less victims of the cabal. The story of the conspiracy of
Ribera and his allies to get the commission for painting the
chapel of St. Januarius, forms one of the most curious and
disgraceful chapters in the history of art, and may be read in
Lanzi's _History of Painting_ (vol. ii. in Bohn's translation).
Ribera's life ended like his pictures, in darkness. His
daughter was carried off by one of his great friends, Don Juan
of Austria, and Ribera was so overwhelmed with grief that he
left Naples and was never more heard of.[120]

The Virgin, accompanied here by St. John and Mary Magdalen, is weeping over the dead Christ--the subject termed by the Italians a _Pietà_. It is instructive to compare this Spanish treatment of it with an Italian Pietà, such as Francia's No. 180. How much more ghastly is the dead Christ here! How much less tender are the ministering mourners!

236. CASTLE OF SANT' ANGELO, ROME.

_Claude Joseph Vernet_ (French: 1714-1789).

Vernet, one of the most celebrated of French landscape and
marine painters, received his inspiration and lived a large
part of his life in Italy. He was born at Avignon, and in 1732
went to Italy with a view of improving himself in historical
painting, but the beautiful scenery of Genoa and Naples
induced him to devote himself to marine landscape. One of his
Mediterranean pictures is No. 1393 in this Gallery. It is
said that on his first voyage he was so impressed with the
effect of a stormy sea as to have himself tied to the mast
in order to be able more accurately to observe it. For some
time Vernet lived in poverty. He had to paint carriages, and
a picture, afterwards sold for 5000 francs, procured him only
a single suit of clothes. His subjects were now the rivers,
landscapes, and costumes of Rome (as in this picture). In 1752
he was invited to Paris by Louis XV. In the following year
he was elected a member of the French Academy of Arts, and
was commissioned by the Government to paint his celebrated
pictures, now in the Louvre, of the seaports of France. This
task occupied him the greater part of the year. He died in
the Louvre, where he had been given apartments by the king.
His last years were embittered by the madness of his wife, a
daughter of the Pope's naval commandant, whom he had married
in 1745. He was the grandfather of the celebrated historical
painter, Horace Vernet (see 1285).

Past and present in the eternal city, as it was in Vernet's day. Behind is the castle which the Emperor Hadrian had built for his family tomb, in which were buried several of the Emperors after him, and the history of which in the Middle Ages was almost the history of Rome itself. In front is a fête on the Tiber, with a fashionable crowd in crinolines watching the boats tilting on the river.

237. A WOMAN'S PORTRAIT.

_Rembrandt_ (Dutch: 1606-1669). _See 45._

Of interest as being one of his last works: dated 1666.

238. DEAD GAME.

_Jan Weenix_ (Dutch: 1640-1719).

Jan Weenix, the younger, was born at Amsterdam--the son of
Jan Baptista Weenix (see 1096)--and is usually considered
the best of all Dutch artists in this style. For some years
he was employed at the Court of John William, Elector of the
Palatinate.

A stag, a couple of hares (a speciality with this artist), a heron, and a fowling-piece.

239. A MOONLIGHT SCENE.

_Aart van der Neer_ (Dutch: 1603-1677). _See_ 152.

A good example of "the penetrating melancholy of moonlight"--an effect in which this painter excelled.

240. CROSSING THE FORD.

_Nicolas Berchem_ (Dutch: 1620-1683). _See_ 78.

242. THE GAME OF BACKGAMMON.

_Teniers_ (Flemish: 1610-1694). _See_ 154.

"An example," says Mr. J. T. Nettleship in a comparison between Morland and some of the Dutch masters, "not only of the works that Morland loved, but of the life (alas!) he best loved too. In one respect it at once takes rank above the English painter, for every man must be a portrait; the two playing might indeed be English as well as Dutch, the man looking on is a degraded boor. In the chimney-place are several men farther off--one with his back to you is seated on a bench with his head against the chimney-jamb, a 'poor drinker,' he seems. The standing man, standing with his back to the fire, smoking a long clay, looks half-pitying, half-scornful at the feebler sinner" (_George Morland_, p. 23).

243. AN OLD MAN.

_Rembrandt_ (Dutch: 1606-1669). _See_ 45.

A noble picture of the dignity of old age (dated 1659).

244. A SHEPHERD WITH A LAMB.

_Spagnoletto_ (Spanish: 1598-1648). _See_ 235.

245. PORTRAIT OF A SENATOR.

_Hans Baldung_ (German-Swabian: 1476-1545).

This portrait is dated 1514, and signed with the monogram
of Albert Dürer, to whom it was formerly ascribed. But the
monogram is now said to be a forgery, and the picture is
identified as the work of Dürer's friend Baldung. On the death
of Dürer (in 1528) Baldung received a lock of his hair (now
preserved in the Library of the Academy of Arts at Vienna), and
Dürer, in his Journal in the Low Countries, records having sold
several of Baldung's engravings. Baldung, painter, engraver,
and designer, was a native of Gmünd in Swabia, and his earliest
works show the influence of Martin Schongauer (see 658). He
lived at Freiburg-in-the-Breisgau (in the monastery at which
place is his greatest work, a "Coronation of the Virgin"),
and also at Strassburg, of which latter city he became a
senator shortly before his death. Baldung's portraits, says
the Official Catalogue, "are highly individual and full of
character. When unsigned they have sometimes passed for the
work of Dürer, but they want his searching modelling." Baldung
acquired and adopted the name of Green or Grün, either from his
habit of dressing in that colour or from his fondness for a
peculiarly brilliant tint of green often found in his pictures.

The influence of Dürer was strong on Hans Baldung, and a similar spirit is discernible in the works of both painters. This old man, strong and yet melancholy, is precisely true to Dürer's favourite type of human strength founded on labour and sorrow. And the choice of this type is characteristic of his mind. With the Reformation came, says Mr. Ruskin, "the Resurrection of Death. Never, since man first saw him face to face, had his terror been so great." Nothing shows the character of men of that time so clearly as the way in which they severally meet the King of Terror. "It haunted Dürer long; and the answer he gave to the question of the grave was that of patient hope; and twofold, consisting of one design in praise of Fortitude, and another in praise of Labour.... The plate of 'Melancholia' is the history of the sorrowful toil of the earth, as the 'Knight and Death' is of its sorrowful patience under temptation" (_Modern Painters_, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. iv.).

246. MADONNA AND CHILD.

_Girolamo del Pacchia_ (Sienese: 1477-1535).

Pacchia, who is often confused with his fellow-countryman
Pacchiarotto, was born at Siena, being the son of a
cannon-founder from Croatia who had settled in that city.
He first studied in his native town, but afterwards went to
Florence. His works recall the style of the Florentine masters
of the time. In 1500 he went to Rome, returning to Siena with
an established reputation in 1508. Many of his works are to be
seen in the churches and picture-gallery in that city, famous
alike for its religious revivals, its artistic activity, and
its civic turbulence. Pacchia, in company with Pacchiarotti,
joined the revolutionary club of the Bardotti, and on its
suppression in 1535 the two artists fled the city. After that
date no record of Pacchia has been found.

This graceful picture resembles the style of Andrea del Sarto.

247. "ECCO HOMO!"

_Matteo di Giovanni_ (Sienese: 1435-1495). _See_ 1155.

"Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!" (Ecco Homo) (St. John xix. 5). In the "glory" around the head are the Latin letters signifying "Jesus Christ of Nazareth"; on the outer edge of the background, "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth" (Philippians ii. 10).

248. THE VISION OF ST. BERNARD.

_Fra Filippo Lippi_ (Florentine: about 1406-1469). _See_ 666.

"St. Bernard was remarkable for his devotion to the blessed Virgin; one of his most celebrated works, the _Missus est_, was composed in her honour as mother of the Redeemer; and in eighty sermons from the Song of Solomon he set forth her divine perfection. His health was extremely feeble; and once, when he was employed in writing his homilies, and was so ill that he could scarcely hold the pen, she graciously appeared to him, and comforted and restored him by her divine presence" (Mrs. Jameson: _Legends of the Monastic Orders_, p. 152). Notice the peculiar shape of the picture, the upper corners of the square being cut away. The picture was painted in 1447 (the artist receiving 40 _lire_, equal now perhaps to £60, for it and another work) to fit a space over the door of the Palazzo della Signoria at Florence. "Have you ever considered, in the early history of painting, how important is the history of the frame-maker? It is a matter, I assure you, needing your very best consideration, for the frame was made before the picture. The painted window is much, but the aperture it fills was thought of before it. The fresco by Giotto is much, but the vault it adorns was planned first ... and in pointing out to you this fact, I may once for all prove to, you the essential unity of the arts" (_Ariadne Florentina_, §§ 59, 60).

249. THE MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA.

_Lorenzo di San Severino_ (Umbrian: painted 1483-1496).

This picture is signed by the artist "Laurentius _the second_
of Severino"--to distinguish himself from the earlier Lorenzo,
who was born in 1374, and who painted some frescoes at Urbino
in 1416. The date of this picture is approximately fixed by
the fact that Catherine is described on her nimbus as "saint,"
and she was not canonised till 1461; and perhaps also by the
influence on Lorenzo of Crivelli (painted 1468-1493), which has
been traced in the execution of the details: see for instance
the cucumber and apple on the step of the throne (_cf._ 724,
etc).

St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) is one of the most remarkable figures of the Middle Ages. She was the daughter of a dyer, brought up in the humblest of surroundings, and wholly uneducated. When only thirteen she entered the monastic life as a nun of the Dominican order (St. Dominic is here present on the right), and at once became famous in the city for her good works. She tended the sick and plague-stricken, and was a minister of mercy to the worst and meanest of her fellow-creatures. On one occasion a hardened murderer, whom priests had visited in vain, was so subdued by her tenderness that he confessed his sins, begged her to wait for him by the scaffold, and died with the names of Jesus and Catherine on his lips. In addition to her piety and zeal she succeeded as a mediator between Florence and her native city, and between Florence and the Pope; she travelled to Avignon, and there induced Gregory XI. to return to Rome; she narrowly escaped political martyrdom during one of her embassies from Gregory to the Florentine republic; she preached a crusade against the Turks, and she aided, by her dying words, to keep Pope Urban on the throne. But "when she died she left behind her a memory of love more than of power, the fragrance of an unselfish and gentle life. Her place is in the heart of the humble. Her prayer is still whispered by poor children on their mother's knee, and her relics are kissed daily by the simple and devout."

The mystical marriage which forms the subject of this picture, where the infant Christ is placing the ring on her finger, suggests the secret of her power. Once when she was fasting and praying, Christ himself appeared to her, she said, and gave her his heart. For love was the keynote of her religion, and the mainspring of her life. In no merely figurative sense did she regard herself as the spouse of Christ; she dwelt upon the bliss, beyond all mortal happiness, which she enjoyed in supersensual communion with her Lord. The world has not lost its ladies of the race of St. Catherine, beautiful and pure and holy, who live lives of saintly mercy in the power of human and heavenly love. (See further, for St. Catherine of Siena, J. A. Symonds, _Sketches in Italy_ (Siena), from which the above account is principally taken.)

250. FOUR SAINTS.

_The Meister von Werden_ (German: 15th Century).

The Meister von Werden, or the painter of this picture and of
Nos. 251 and 253, which were found in the old Abbey of Werden,
near Düsseldorf, is otherwise unknown. These three pictures
probably formed folding wings of an altar-piece. A fourth
panel, belonging to the same series, is in the National Gallery
of Scotland.

The saints in this picture are Jerome (with his lion), Benedict (in the habit of his order), Giles (with his doe), and Romuald (founder of the eremite order of the Camaldoli).

251. FOUR SAINTS.

_The Meister von Werden. See under_ 250.

The saints in this picture are Augustine (with the heart transfixed with an arrow), Ludger (Bishop of Münster, Apostle of Saxony), Hubert (patron saint of the chase, see No. 783) and Maurice.

252. THE CONVERSION OF ST. HUBERT.

_The Meister von Werden. See under_ 250.

253. THE MASS OF ST. HUBERT.

_The Meister von Werden. See under_ 250.

For St. Hubert, see under 783. Here the saint, in his canonicals, is represented bending before the altar; while an angel from heaven is, according to the legend, descending with the stole.

254-261. FRAGMENTS OF AN ALTAR-PIECE.

_The Meister von Liesborn_ (German: about 1465).

The principal work of this master, whose name has not come
down to us, was a high altar-piece for a convent church of the
Benedictines at Liesborn, near Münster in Westphalia. This
work was cut in pieces and sold in 1807, when the convent was
suspended, and Napoleon established the modern kingdom of
Westphalia. Some of the pieces were afterwards lost, some were
obtained by different collectors, while others, which were
acquired by Herr Krüger of Minden, were purchased in 1854 by
the British Government. The sweet but feeble faces, with the
gold background, recall the earliest Lower Rhine School, of
which the Westphalian was an offshoot.

In 259--a Head of Christ on the Cross--we have a fragment of the centre compartment of the altar-piece.

In 260 and 261 we have the saints who stood by the side of the Cross (hence their melancholy expression). In 260 the saints are St. John, St. Benedict, and St. Scholastica (the first Benedictine nun and the sister of St. Benedict himself). In 261 the saints are Sts. Cosmas and Damian (see under 594), and the Virgin.

In 254 and 255 we have other saints: in 254, St. Ambrose (see under 50), St. Exuperius (a Bishop of Toulouse), and St. Jerome (saying, as it were, "Down, down" to his lion); in 255, St. Gregory, St. Hilary, and St. Augustine.

On either side of the central groups in the altar-piece were represented various sacred subjects. No. 256, represents the Annunciation; No. 257, the Purification of the Virgin and the Presentation of Christ in the Temple; No. 258, The Adoration of the Magi.

262. THE CRUCIFIXION.

_School of the Meister von Liesborn. See under_ last pictures.

In the form of a predella or decoration of the base of the altar-piece. In the centre is Christ on the Cross; on either side are four Saints; on the left St. Scholastica, Mary Magdalen, St. Anne with the Virgin in her arms, who holds the Infant Christ; and the Virgin. On the right St. John the Evangelist, St. Andrew, St. Benedict, and St. Agnes with the Lamb. In the background is a representation of Jerusalem; here depicted as a little Westphalian town.

264. A COUNT OF HAINAULT AND HIS PATRON SAINT.

_Unknown_ (Early Flemish).

The count and the confessor. The count, attired as a monk, is praying. Behind him is his patron saint (St. Ambrose), holding a cross in one hand, a scourge in the other. More important, however, than the penitence of the count is the splendour of the robes. The picture is a good illustration of the love of jewellery characteristic of the time. "That this love of jewels was shared by the painters is sufficiently shown by the amount and beauty of the jewelled ornaments introduced by them into their pictures. Not only are brooches and clasps, sceptres and crowns, studded with precious stones, but the hems of garments are continually sewn with them, whilst gloves and shoes of state are likewise so adorned" (Conway, p. 121). This picture is by some ascribed to Gerard van der Meire (see under 1078).

265. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD.

_Unknown_ (Flemish School: Early 16th Century).

266. THE DEPOSITION FROM THE CROSS.

_Lambert Lombard_ (Flemish: 1505-1566).

Lambert Lombard of Liège was, says Vasari, "a distinguished
man of letters, a most judicious painter, and an admirable
architect." His pictures, which are scarce, are generally
remarkable for correctness of drawing, but his colouring was
thin and cold. Lombard, who was a pupil of Mabuse (see 656),
travelled as a young man in Germany and France, and visited
Italy in the suite of Cardinal Pole, when he became acquainted
with Vasari. On his return he opened a school at Liège.

268. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

_Paolo Veronese_ (Veronese: 1528-1588). _See under_ 26.

A striking example of the old symbolical conception, according to which the adoration of the Magi--the tribute of the wise men from the East to the dawning star of Christianity--was represented as taking place in the ruins of an antique temple, signifying that Christianity was founded upon the ruins of Paganism. This picture was painted in 1573 for the church of San Silvestro in Venice, where it remained until 1835. It is mentioned in most of the guidebooks and descriptions of Venice. One of these published in 1792 says, in describing the church of San Silvestro: "Many are the pictures by Tintoretto, by scholars of Titian, by Palma Vecchio, etc.; but among them all the famous Adoration of the Magi by Paolo Veronese deserves especial attention." The picture has recently been covered with glass, an operation which is noteworthy on account of the great size of the pane required, 11 ft. 7 in. by 10 ft. 7 in. The pane had to be obtained in France.

269. A KNIGHT IN ARMOUR.

_Giorgione_ (Venetian: 1477-1510).

Giorgio[121] of Castelfranco, called Giorgione, George the
Great,--a name given him, according to Vasari, "because of
the gifts of his person and the greatness of his mind,"--is
one of the most renowned of the old masters, and exercised a
deeper influence upon the artists of his time than any other
painter. He was the fellow-pupil with Titian of Bellini at
Venice, and after executing works at his native place was
employed in Venice. Here by way of exhibiting a specimen of his
ability, he decorated the front of his house with frescoes.
He was afterwards employed in conjunction with Titian there
to decorate the façade of the Fondaco de' Tedeschi. These
paintings have been destroyed by the sea-winds.[122] But what
was more original in Giorgione's work was his small subject
pictures. He was, says Pater, "the inventor of _genre_, of
those easily movable pictures which serve for uses neither of
devotion, nor of allegorical or historical teaching--little
groups of real men and women, amid congruous furniture or
landscape--morsels of actual life, conversation or music or
play, refined upon or idealised, till they come to seem like
glimpses of life from afar." Some of Bellini's late works
are already of this kind; but they were a little too austere
and sober in colour for the taste of the time. Carpaccio was
full of brilliancy, fancy, and gaiety, but he painted few
easel pictures. Giorgione brought to the new style all the
resources of a poetical imagination, of a happy temper, and
of supreme gifts as a colourist. He was, says Ruskin, one of
"the seven supreme colourists."[123] The chief colour on his
palette, it has been said, was sunlight. In the glowing colour
with which he invested the human form "the sense of nudity is
utterly lost, and there is no need nor desire of concealment
any more, but his naked figures move among the trees like
fiery pillars, and lie on the grass like flakes of sunshine"
(_Modern Painters_, vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. i. ch. xiv. § 20).
Giorgione, says Mr. Colvin, came to enrich Venetian painting
further, with "a stronger sense of life and of the glory of
the real world as distinguished from the solemn dreamland of
the religious imagination. He had a power hitherto unknown
of interpreting both the charm of merely human grace and
distinction, and the natural joy of life in the golden sunlight
among woods and meadows." Giorgione, by his originality and
his exact correspondence with the spirit of the time, created
a demand which other painters were forced to supply. His
influence, says Morelli, is not only to be traced in the
early work of Titian; it stands out broadly in the paintings
of nearly all his Venetian contemporaries--Lotto, Palma,
Pordenone, Bonifacio, Cariani, and many others, not to speak
of his scholar, Sebastiano del Piombo. The surviving pictures
which are undoubtedly by Giorgione's own hand are very few.
This category hardly includes more than four,--the altar-piece
at Castelfranco (see below), the so-called "Famiglia di
Giorgione" (now identified as "Adrastus and Hypsipyle," in the
Palazzo Giovanelli at Venice), the "Three Philosophers" (in
the Belvedere at Vienna), and the lovely "Sleeping Venus,"
identified by Morelli, in the Dresden Gallery. Among pictures
in a second and less certain category, may be mentioned the
"Concert" in the Louvre (the "Venetian Pastoral" of Rossetti's
sonnet), another "Concert" in the Pitti, the "Head of a
Shepherd" at Hampton Court, and (more doubtfully) No. 1160 in
this Gallery. The number of reputed Giorgiones is very large.
His fame has been constant from his own day to ours, and as
every gallery desired to have a Giorgione, the wish was freely
gratified by dealers and cataloguers. Modern criticism has
played havoc among most of these so-called Giorgiones;[124] but
the Giorgionesque spirit remains--unmistakable and distinct--in
many works. Such in this Gallery are Nos. 930, 1123, and 1173,
ascribed by the director to "the School of Giorgione." It is
a school, as we have seen, of _genre_. It "employs itself
mainly with painted idylls, but, in the production of this
pictorial poetry, exercises a wonderful tact in the selecting
of such matter as lends itself most readily and entirely to
pictorial form, to complete expression by drawing and colour.
For although its productions are painted poems, they belong
to a sort of poetry which tells itself without an articulated
story." Vasari remarked that it was difficult to give
Giorgione's representations an explanatory name. As Morelli has
well pointed out, the genius of Titian was wholly dramatic;
Giorgione was a lyric poet, who gives us at most dramatic
lyrics. A picture by Giorgione or in his style "presents us
with a kind of profoundly significant and animated instant, a
mere gesture, a look, a smile perhaps--some brief and wholly
concrete moment--into which, however, all the motives, all
the interests and effects of a long history, have condensed
themselves, and which seem to absorb past and future in an
intense consciousness of the present. Such ideal instants the
school of Giorgione selects, with its admirable tact, from
that feverish, tumultuously coloured life of the old citizens
of Venice--exquisite pauses in Time, in which, arrested thus,
we seem to be spectators of all the fulness of existence, and
which are like some consummate extract or quintessence of
life." Pictures in the Giorgionesque spirit are, as it were,
"musical intervals in human existence--filled with people with
intent faces listening to music, to the sound of water, to time
as it flies" (Pater: "The School of Giorgione," _Fortnightly
Review_, October 1877, reprinted in the third edition of _The
Renaissance_). The landscapes of Giorgione have the same
quality of quickened life. "Most painted landscapes leave
little power to call up the actual physical sensations of the
scenes themselves, but Giorgione's never fail to produce this
effect; they speak directly to the sensations, making the
beholder feel refreshed and soothed, as if actually reclining
on the grass in the shade of the trees, with his mind free
to muse on what delights it most. In so far as poetry may
be compared to painting, Giorgione's feeling for landscape
suggests Keats" (Mary Logan: _Guide to the Italian Pictures at
Hampton Court_, p. 13).

Giorgione's pictures may be described as showing us golden
moments of a golden age. His life, as told by Vasari and
Ridolfi, corresponds with this ideal, which also was in exact
accordance with the spirit of the times. Many readers will
remember that it is with a mention of Giorgione that Ruskin
prefaces his noble description of Venice in the days of the
early Renaissance: "Born half-way between the mountains and the
sea--that young George of Castelfranco--of the Brave Castle;
stout George they called him, George of Georges, so goodly a
boy he was--Giorgione. Have you ever thought what a world his
eyes opened on--fair, searching eyes of youth? What a world
of mighty life, from those mountain roots to the shore; of
loveliest life, when he went down, yet so young, to the marble
city, and became himself as a fiery heart to it?" (_Modern
Painters_, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. ix. § 1). He spent his childhood
at Castelfranco, "where the last crags of the Venetian Alps
break down romantically with something of a park-like grace to
the plain." "Giorgione's ideal of luxuriant pastoral scenery,
the country of pleasant copses, glades and brooks, amid which
his personages love to wander or recline with lute and pipe,
was derived, no doubt, from these natural surroundings of his
childhood." Close by his birthplace is Asolo, whence the word
_asolare_, "to disport in the open air; to amuse oneself at
random" (see Browning's _Asolando_). Giorgione "found his way
early into a circle of notable persons--people of courtesy,
and became initiated into those differences of personal type,
manner, and even of dress, which are best understood there.
Not far from his home lived Catherine of Cornaro, formerly
Queen of Cyprus, and up in the towers which still remain, Tuzio
Costanzo, the famous _condottiére_--a picturesque remnant
of mediæval manners, in a civilisation rapidly changing"
(Pater). In Venice Giorgione's gracious bearing and varied
accomplishments introduced him into congenial company. "He took
no small delight," says Vasari, "in love-passages and in the
sound of the lute, to which he was so cordially devoted, and
which he practised so constantly, that he played and sang with
the most exquisite perfection, insomuch that he was for this
cause frequently invited to musical assemblies and festivals
by the most distinguished personages." "It happened, about his
thirty-fourth year, that in one of those parties at which he
entertained his friends with music, he met a certain lady of
whom he became greatly enamoured, and 'they rejoiced greatly,'
says Vasari, 'the one and the other in their love.' And two
quite different legends concerning it agree in this, that it
was through this lady he came by his death; Ridolfi relating
that, being robbed of her by one of his pupils, he died of
grief at the double treason; Vasari, that she being secretly
stricken of the plague, and he making his visits to her as
usual, he took the sickness from her mortally, along with her
kisses, and so briefly departed" (Pater).[125]

This little panel is a study for the figure of San Liberale, the warrior-saint, in the altar-piece by Giorgione at Castelfranco--one of his acknowledged masterpieces, and according to Ruskin one of the two best pictures in the world.[126] Notice "the bronzed, burning flesh" of the knight--"the right Giorgione colour on his brow" characteristic of a race of seamen (_Modern Painters_, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. v. ch. i. § 19). This "original little study in oil, with the delicately gleaming silver-grey armour is," says Mr. Pater, "one of the greatest treasures of the National Gallery, and in it, as in some other knightly personages attributed to Giorgione, people have supposed the likeness of his own presumably gracious presence." From a MS. memorandum on the back of the Castelfranco picture, it appears, however, that the warrior was said to represent Gaston de Foix. The only difference between this study and the picture is that in the altar-piece the warrior wears his helmet, while in the picture he is bareheaded. On this ground, and owing to the high finish of our picture, some have argued that it is not an original study for the picture, but a later copy from it (see _e.g._ Richter's _Italian Art in the National Gallery_, p. 86). The argument does not seem conclusive. Do artists never make elaborate studies? and is not an artist as likely to vary his design as a copyist his model? Our picture, which was formerly in the collection of Benjamin West, P.R.A., was bequeathed to the National Gallery by Samuel Rogers.

270. "NOLI ME TANGERE!"

_Titian_ (Venetian: 1477-1576). _See 4._

A picture of the evensong of nature and of the evening of a life's tragedy. "The hues and harmonies of evening" are upon the distant hills and plain; and whilst the shadows fall upon the middle slopes, there falls too "the awful shadow of some unseen Power" upon the repentant woman who has been keeping her vigil in the peaceful solitude; at the sound of her name she has turned from her weeping and fallen forward on her knees towards him whom she now knows to be her master. "The impetuosity with which she has thrown herself on her knees in shown by the fluttering drapery of her sleeve,[127] which is still buoyed up by the air; thus with a true painter's art telling the action of the previous moment" (_Quarterly Review_, October 1888). She stretches out her hand to touch him, but is checked by his words; as Christ, who is represented with a hoe in his hand because she had first supposed him to be the gardener, bids her forbear: "Touch me not," "noli me tangere," "for I am not yet ascended to my Father:" it is not on this side of the hills that the troubled soul can enter into the peace of forgiveness.

This beautiful picture was bequeathed to the National Gallery by Samuel Rogers. It is usually ascribed to Titian's earlier or "Giorgionesque" period. "The Magdalen is, appropriately enough, of the same type as the exquisite golden-blond courtesans--or, if you will, models--who constantly appear and re-appear in this period of Venetian art" (C. Phillips: _The Earlier Work of Titian_, p. 52).

271. "ECCE HOMO!"

_Guido_ (Eclectic-Bologna: 1575-1642). _See 11._

For the subject, see under 15, by Correggio. It was from Correggio that the Eclectics borrowed the type of face for this subject--which was a favourite one with them; but notice how much more they dwell on the physical pain and horror, how much less on the spiritual beauty, than Correggio did.

272. AN APOSTLE.

_Unknown_ (Italian: 16th century).

From a church near Venice. Formerly ascribed to Pordenone.

274. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

_Andrea Mantegna_ (Paduan: 1431-1506).

Andrea Mantegna, the greatest master of the Paduan School, has
a commanding name in art history, so much so that many writers
describe the epoch of painting (from 1450 to 1500 and a little
onwards), of which he was one of the chief representatives,
as the _Mantegnesque_ period. "No painter more remarkable for
originality than Mantegna ever lived. Whoever has learned to
relish this great master will never overlook a scrap by him;
for while his works sometimes show a certain austerity and
harshness, they have always a force and will which belong
to no one else" (Layard). "Intensity may be said to be the
characteristic of Mantegna as an artist. Deeply in earnest,
he swerved from his purpose neither to the right nor to the
left. In expressing tragic emotion, he sometimes touched a
realism beyond the limits prescribed by poetic art. So, too,
he never arrived at an ideal of female beauty. But he could be
as tender as he was stern; and we forget the homely plainness
of his Madonnas in the devoted and boding mother or the benign
protectress. His children are always childlike and without
self-consciousness. His drawing was remarkably correct. An
occasional lengthiness in his figures adds to their dignity,
and never oversteps possible nature. Drapery he treated as a
means of displaying the figure. This peculiarity he derived
from an almost too exclusive study of ancient sculpture. Yet so
thoroughly does it accord with his whole style, that none would
willingly miss a single fold which the master thought worthy of
almost infinite care" (Burton). He was a _tempera_ painter, and
"excelled in harmoniously broken tones, but with little attempt
at those rich and deep effects which by the practice of art his
later Venetian contemporaries initiated." "He loved allegory
and symbolism; but with him they clothed a living spirit." The
beauty of classical bas-relief entered deep into his soul and
ruled his imagination. His classical pictures are "statuesque
and stately, but glow with the spirit of revived antiquity"
(Symonds). He was equally distinguished as an engraver and a
painter, and his plates spread his fame and influence widely
abroad.

Mantegna was born at Padua,[128] and according to Vasari, was
originally, like Giotto, a shepherd boy. Like Giotto, too,
he early displayed great aptitude for drawing, so much that
when only ten years old he was adopted by Squarcione as son
and pupil. Squarcione was an indifferent painter, but must
have been an able teacher, and it was from him that Mantegna
imbibed his love of the antique. It was Squarcione's intention
to make him his heir, but Mantegna married a daughter of
Jacopo Bellini, Squarcione's rival; "and when this was told
to Squarcione he was so much displeased with Andrea that they
were ever afterwards enemies." Of Mantegna's association with
his brother-in-law, Giovanni Bellini, the pictures numbered 726
and 1417 in this gallery are an interesting record. Mantegna
soon obtained recognition. Among the most important of his
early works are the frescoes of the chapel of St. James and St.
Christopher in the church of the Eremitani at Padua. Copies of
some of these may be seen in the Arundel Society's collection.
Of about the same date is "The Agony in the Garden," No.
1417. To his early period belong also the "St. George" in the
Venice Academy, and the triptych in the Uffizi. The picture
now before us, the beautiful "Madonna della Vittoria," and
the "Parnassus" of the Louvre belong to a maturer time. In
1466 Mantegna went, at the invitation of the Marquis Ludovico
Gonzaga, to the court of Mantua, and there he remained till his
death, as painter-in-ordinary at a salary of £30 a year--with
the exception of two years spent in painting for Pope Innocent
VIII. at Rome. Many of Mantegna's frescoes at Mantua are now
obliterated; but some are preserved in the Camera degli Sposi
in the Ducal Palace, and in spite of restorations, exhibit some
of the master's characteristics in perfection. For the palace
of St. Sebastiano at Mantua, he painted in _tempera_ on canvas
the "Triumph of Cæsar," now at Hampton Court. Although much
defaced, this large composition still proclaims the genius of
the master who "loved to resuscitate the ancient world, and
render it to the living eye in all its detail, and with all its
human interest." The sketch by Rubens in our Gallery, No. 278,
was made from a portion of Mantegna's cartoons. In a similar
style is the master's "Triumph of Scipio," No. 902, completed
shortly before his death. At Rome (1488-1490) he decorated the
chapel of the Belvedere, now demolished.

Though in the service of princes, Mantegna knew his worth, and
was wont to say that "Ludovico might be proud of having in him
something that no other prince in Italy could boast of." He
liked, too, to live in the grand style of his age. It appears
that he spent habitually more money than he could afford, and
after his death his sons had to sell the pictures in his studio
for the payment of his creditors. Still more was he a child of
his age--the age of the revival of classical learning--in his
love for the antique. He spent much of his money in forming
a collection of Greek and Roman antiquities, and the forced
sale of its chief ornament, a bust of Faustina, is said to
have broken his heart. "He was the friend of students, eagerly
absorbing the knowledge brought to light by antiquarian
research; and thus independently of his high value as a
painter, he embodies for us in art that sincere passion for the
ancient world which was the dominating intellectual impulse of
his age." With Mantegna, classical antiques were not merely
the foibles of a collector, but the models of his art. He was
"always of opinion," says Vasari, "that good antique statues
were more perfect, and displayed more beauty in the different
parts, than is exhibited by nature." Of some of his works what
Vasari adds is no doubt true--that they recall the idea of
stone rather than of living flesh. But Mantegna studied nature
closely too; for, as Goethe said of his pictures, "the study of
the antique gives form, and nature adds appropriate movement
and the health of life." Mantegna died at Mantua and was
buried in a chapel of the Church of Sant' Andrea. The expenses
incurred by him in founding and decorating this family chapel
had added seriously to his embarrassments. "Over his grave was
placed a bronze bust, most noble in modelling and perfect in
execution. The broad forehead, with its deeply cloven furrows,
the stern and piercing eyes, the large lips compressed with
nervous energy, the massive nose, the strength of jaw and
chin, and the superb clusters of the hair escaping from a
laurel-wreath upon the royal head, are such as realise for us
our notion of a Roman in the days of the republic. Mantegna's
own genius has inspired this masterpiece, which tradition
assigns to the medallist Sperando Maglioli. Whoever wrought it
must have felt the incubation of the mighty painter's spirit,
and have striven to express in bronze the character of his
uncompromising art" (Symonds: _The Renaissance in Italy_,
iii. 203). A plaster cast from this bust hangs on one of the
staircases in our Gallery. Mantegna's second son, Francesco,
who in his father's later years had assisted in his studio,
afterwards practised independently. See Nos. 639, 1106, 1381.

"One of the choicest pictures in the National Gallery," exquisite alike in sentiment, in drawing, and in purity of colour. "Being in an admirable state of preservation, it enables us to become acquainted with all the characteristics of Mantegna's style, and above all to enjoy the refinement in his rendering of the human forms, the accuracy in his drawing, the conscientiousness in the rendering of the smallest details" (_Richter_). For the latter point notice especially the herbage in the foreground. Mantegna, says Mr. Ruskin, is "the greatest leaf-painter of Lombardy," and the "exquisite outlines" here show "the symmetry and precision of his design" (_Catalogue of Educational Series_, p. 52). The draperies also are "of extraordinary beauty in design and colour. The rose-coloured dress of the Virgin is most delicately heightened with gold, and the draperies of the two saints are of materials shot with changing colours of exquisite harmonies" (_Poynter_). Very sweet is the expression of mingled humility and tenderness in the mother of the Divine Child. On her right stands St. John the Baptist, the great preacher of repentance; on her left Mary Magdalen, the woman who repented. The Baptist bears a cross and on the scroll attached to it are written the words (in Latin), "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." The Magdalen carries the vase of ointment--the symbol at once of her conversion and her love ("She brought an alabaster box of ointment, and began to wash his feet with tears.... And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven"). "Mantegna combines with the most inexhaustible imagination and invention and power, which include the whole range of art, from the most playful fantasy to the profoundest and most passionate tragedy, a skill of workmanship so minutely and marvellously delicate as to defy imitation. Look at the refinement with which the drapery is drawn, the wonderful delicacy of handling with which the gold-lights are laid on, the beautiful and loving spirit which has presided over the execution of the foliage in the background, and indeed of every detail in the picture, and you will begin to have an understanding of what I mean by workmanship as such, and how an artist proceeds whose hand has been thoroughly trained, and who is truly in love with his art" (Poynter's _Lectures on Art_, p. 127).

275. VIRGIN AND CHILD, ST. JOHN AND AN ANGEL.

_Sandro Botticelli_ (Florentine: 1447-1510). _See 1034._

A beautiful and characteristic work.[129] "At first glance you may think the picture a mere piece of affectation. Well--yes, Botticelli is affected in the way that all men of his century necessarily were. Much euphuism, much studied grace of manner, much formal assertion of scholarship, mingling with his force of imagination. And he likes twisting the fingers of hands about"--just as he likes also dancing motion and waved drapery (see 1034) (_Mornings in Florence_, iii. 59). The picture is characteristic also of two faculties which Botticelli acquired from his early training as a goldsmith: first, his use of gold as a means of enriching the light (as here in the Madonna's hair); and, secondly, the "incomparable invention and delicacy" with which he treated all accessory details and ornaments (as here in the scarves and dresses). But chiefly is the picture characteristic of his "sentiment of ineffable melancholy, of which it is hard to penetrate the sense, and impossible to escape the spell." It may help one in understanding the spirit of such pictures to remember that in Botticelli there met in perfect poise the tenderness of Christian feeling with the grace of the classical Renaissance. He was "a Greek reanimate. The first Greeks were distinguished from the barbarians by their simple humanity; the second Greeks--these Florentine Greeks reanimate--are human more strongly, more deeply, leaping from the Byzantine death at the call of Christ, 'Loose him, and let him go.' And there is upon them at once the joy of resurrection and the solemnity of the grave"[130] (_Ariadne Florentina_, § 161; and _Fors Clavigera_, 1872, xxii.).

276. TWO APOSTLES.

School of _Giotto_. _See under 568._
_See also_ (p. xix)

Here's Giotto with his Saints a-praising God,
That set us praising.

BROWNING.