Chapter XVI: Preface: By John Ruskin (14)

The Adoration of the Magi (574) was a favourite subject with the Italian painters, for the three kings and their attendants gave them an excuse for the most elaborate and picturesque detail. In the picture before us Orcagna was restricted by the size and shape of the panel; but even making the necessary allowances on this score, we see that we have here a relatively simple treatment of the theme. Orcagna finds room, however, for "a perfect menagerie. There are the sheep, with a howling dog above; and below, an evil, badger-like dog, evidently much ashamed of himself and his deeds, is sneaking along into a hole in the rock. As for the amiable ox sitting upon his haunches, with his tail turned round like a cat's, and the shy ass, showing the whites of his eye: are they not delightful beauties?" (_The Beasts of the National Gallery_, by Sophia Beale, in _Good Words_, July 1895). For the rest, Orcagna's "Adoration" is limited to the necessary characters. By way of contrast, look at Filippino Lippi's (1033), in which some seventy figures are introduced, and the whole picture is alive with gay colours and picturesque incident. Other representations of the same subject in our Gallery are by Fra Angelico (582), Foppa (729), Dossi (640), Peruzzi (167), and Veronese (268). A study of similarities and differences in these various examples will disclose an immense number of coincidences. The type survives, but each feature is the subject of elaborate variations.

576. THE THREE MARIES AT THE SEPULCHRE.

_Orcagna_ (part of the altar-piece, 569).

Mary Magdalen, Mary the mother of James, and Salome stand beside the vacant tomb (Mark xvi. 1); on the opposite side are two angels: "he is risen, he is not here, behold the place where they laid him." This subject, common with the earliest painters, is afterwards seldom met with.

577. THE ASCENSION.

_Orcagna_ (part of the altar-piece, 569).

This was a subject in which Giotto made a new departure. None of the Byzantine or earliest Italian painters ventured to introduce the entire figure of Christ in this scene. They showed the feet only, concealing the body; according to the text, "a cloud received Him out of their sight." This form of representation may be seen in some manuscripts in the British Museum. In the Arena at Padua, Giotto broke away from this tradition and introduced the entire figure of Christ; succeeding also in conveying the idea of ascending motion very skilfully. Orcagna's picture is modelled on the new type fixed by Giotto.

578. THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

_Orcagna_ (part of the altar-piece, 569).

The descent of the Holy Spirit is represented above; and below, the multitude confounded, every man hearing his own language.

579. THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST.

School of _Taddeo Gaddi_ (Florentine: 1300-1366). _See_ 215.
_See also_ (p. xix)

In the centre is John the Baptist, baptizing Christ; on the left St. Peter, on the right St. Paul. In the pictures for the _predella_ (the step on the top of the altar, thus forming the base of the altar-piece) is a saint at either end; and then, on the left, (1) the angel announcing the Baptist's birth, (2) his birth, (3) his death, (4) Herod's feast, and (5) Herodias with John the Baptist's head in a charger. The picture must have been the work of an inferior scholar; but it is interesting to notice that this attempt to tell a consecutive story in his picture, as in an epic poem, instead of a fastening on some one turning-point in it, as in a drama, is characteristic of early art (see under 1188). Notice further in the central picture "how designedly the fish in the water are arranged: not in groups, as chance might rule in the actual stream, but in ordered procession. All great artists ... have shown this especial delight in ordering the relations of self-set details" (A. H. Macmurdo in _Century Guild Hobby Horse_, i. 71).

579a. PARTS OF AN ALTAR-PIECE.

School of _Taddeo Gaddi_ (Florentine: 1300-1366). _See_ 215.
_See also_ (p. xix)

These three panels formed the _cuspidi_ of the Baptism of Christ (579). In the centre is the Almighty, on the left the Virgin, on the right Isaiah, holding a scroll with the words (in Latin), "Behold a virgin shall conceive."

580, 580a and b. THE ASCENSION OF ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST.

_Jacopo Landini_ (Florentine: about 1310-1390).

Jacopo Landini was born at Prato Vecchio, in the Casentino;
whence his common designation, Jacopo da Casentino. This
picture was formerly in the Church of St. John at the painter's
native place. He was a pupil of Taddeo Gaddi, and the master of
Spinello Aretino.

Another of the altar-pieces (_cf._ 579, above), which aimed at giving the whole story of some subject, and thus recall the time when sacred pictures were (as it has been put) a kind of "Scripture _Graphic_." In the _predella_ pictures (580_b_) are, on the left, (1) St. John distributing alms and baptizing, (2) his vision of Revelation in the island of Patmos, (3) his escape from the cauldron of boiling oil; and then, as the subject of the principal picture, his ascension to heaven, for, "according to the Greek legend, St. John died without pain or change, and immediately rose again in bodily form and ascended into heaven to rejoin Christ and the Virgin." In the central picture, Mr. Gilbert finds "a glimpse of true landscape feeling in the brown platform of rock, carefully gradated in aerial perspective, in the colouring, coarse though it be, and especially in the long dark sea-line beyond" (_Landscape in Art_, p. 184). In the other small pictures and in the pilasters are various saints, and immediately over the central picture are (1) the gates of hell cast down, (2) Christ risen from the dead, (3) the donor of the picture and his family, being presented by the two St. Johns. Of the _cuspidi_, or upper pictures (580a), the centre piece is a symbolic representation of the Trinity (seen best on a large scale in 727); at the sides are the Virgin and the Angel of the Annunciation, divided as explained under 1139.

581. A GROUP OF SAINTS.

_Spinello Aretino_ (Tuscan: about 1333-1410).
_See also_ (p. xix)

Spinello di Luca Spinelli is commonly called Spinello Aretino,
from Arezzo, his native town. As is the case with most of the
early Tuscan painters, he is seen to greater advantage in his
frescoes than in his panel pictures. Some fragments of frescoes
by him are in our Gallery (1216). Important frescoes may be
seen in the sacristy of S. Miniato above Florence (the life of
St. Benedict); in the Campo Santo at Pisa (the histories of SS.
Efeso and Potito); and in the Palazzo Pubblico at Siena (scenes
in the life of Pope Alexander III.). Spinello "represents the
spirit of Giotto at the close of the fourteenth century better
than any other painter of the time." He belonged to a family
of goldsmiths. It is interesting to note on an altar-piece
executed by him for Monte Oliveto (now in the Gallery of
Siena), that the names of the carver and gilder of the frame
are inscribed as conspicuously as that of Spinello the painter
of the picture. He was the pupil of Jacopo di Casentino.

Certainly not an adequate, and perhaps not an authentic, specimen of the master. The saints are St. John the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist, and St. James the Greater.

582. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

_Fra Angelico_ (Florentine: 1387-1455). _See_ 663.

For the subject see notes on No. 574. Angelico's picture is remarkable for the picturesque and sparkling costumes. "The art of Angelico," says Ruskin, "both as a colourist and a draughtsman, is consummate; so perfect and beautiful, that his work may be recognised at any distance by the rainbow play and brilliancy of it. However closely it may be surrounded by other works of the same school, glowing with enamel and gold, Angelico's may be told from them at a glance, like so many pieces of opal lying among common marbles" (_Stones of Venice_, vol. i. app. 15).

683. THE ROUT OF SAN ROMANO.

_Paolo Uccello_ (Florentine: 1397-1475).

This painter was originally brought up as a goldsmith, and
was one of the assistants of Lorenzo Ghiberti in preparing
the first pair of the celebrated gates of the Baptistery. It
is doubtful with whom he learnt to paint. He introduced new
enthusiasms and interests into the art, as explained below
in the notes on this picture. The majority of his works have
perished. He was employed principally in Florence, where
frescoes by him may be seen in one of the cloisters of S. Maria
Novella. At Padua he also executed some works which are said
by Vasari to have been greatly admired by Andrea Mantegna.
Other works by him are referred to below. The present picture
is, however, the most attractive of his extant productions. He
seems to have been a man of original character, and Vasari's
life of him is very good reading. The biographer's statement
about his poverty seems to be exaggerated, for documents exist
showing that he lived in a house which he had purchased.

A picture of great interest in itself, both from a technical and from a moral point of view, and also deserving of note in the history of painting. (1) It shows the beginning of scientific "perspective" (_i.e._ the science of representing the form and dimensions of things as they really _look_, instead of as we conceive them by touch or measurement to _be_); the painter is pleased with the new discovery, and sets himself, as it were, the hardest problem in perspective he can find. Note the "foreshortening" of the figure on the ground (objects are said to be "foreshortened" when viewed so that we see their breadth, and not their length--for example, the leg of Titian's Ganymede in No. 32). So devoted was Paolo to his science that he became (says Vasari) more needy than famous. His wife used to complain to her friends that he sat up all night studying, and that the only answer she ever got to her remonstrances was, "What a delightful thing is this perspective!" The sculptor Donatello is also said to have remonstrated with our painter: "Ah, Paolo, with this perspective of thine, thou art leaving the substance for the shadow." Paolo was fond, too, of geometry, which he read with Manetti. He had another and a softer passion: he was so fond of birds that he was called Paul of the Birds ("Uccelli"--his family name being Paolo di Dono), and he had numbers of painted birds, cats, and dogs in his house, being too poor to keep the living creatures. (2) This picture is remarkable, secondly, as the earliest Italian work in the Gallery containing portraits, and the first which endeavours to represent a contemporary event.

Our picture has hitherto been supposed to represent the battle of Sant' Egidio (1417) in which Carlo Malatesta and his nephew Galeazzo were taken prisoners by Braccio di Montone, lord of Perugia. Other battle-pieces belonging to the same series are in the Uffizi and the Louvre respectively; and it has been shown by Mr. Herbert P. Horne (_Monthly Review_, October, 1901) that these are the three pictures of the "Rout of San Romano," painted by Uccello for the palace of Cosimo de' Medici, as described in an inventory of 1492. The principal figure is Niccolo Maurucci da Tolentino, the leader of the Florentine forces, directing the attack against the Sienese at San Romano in 1432. "He is represented on horseback fully armed, except for his helmet, with the baton of command in his right hand. He wears on his head a rich _cappuccio_, or head-dress, of gold and purple damask; while his bascinet, covered with purple velvet, is carried by his helmet-bearer, who rides by his side [the 'young Malatesta' of previous descriptions]. Above the figure of Tolentino waves his standard powdered with his impress, the 'groppo di Salomone,' a knot of curious and intricate form, in a white field." The impress may be seen again, as Mr. Horne points out, in the memorial portrait of Tolentino by Andrea del Castagno in the Cathedral of Florence.

From the moral point of view, we may see in this picture, says Ruskin, what a gentleman's view of war is, as distinguished from a boor's, with mean passion and low fury on every face. "Look at the young Malatesta,[151] riding into the battle of Sant' Egidio. His uncle Carlo, the leader of the army, a grave man of about sixty, has just given orders for the knights to close: two have pushed forward with lowered lances, and the _mêlée_ has begun only a few yards in front; but the young knight, riding at his uncle's side, has not put his helmet on, nor intends doing so yet. Erect he sits, and quiet, waiting for his captain's order to charge; calm as if he were at a hawking party, only more grave; his golden hair wreathed about his proud white brow, as about a statue's" (_Modern Painters_, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. viii. § 9). Another point to notice is the type this picture affords of "the neglect of the perfectness of the earth's beauty, by reason of the passions of men. The armies meet on a country road beside a hedge of wild roses; the tender red flowers tossing above their helmets, and glowing between the lowered lances." In like manner, adds Ruskin, in the Middle Ages, when men lived for safety in walled cities, "the whole of Nature only shone for man between the tossing of helmet-crests; and sometimes I cannot but think of the trees of the earth as capable of a kind of sorrow, in that imperfect life of theirs, as they opened their innocent leaves in the warm spring-time, in vain for men; and all along the dells of England her beeches cast their dappled shade only where the outlaw drew his bow, and the king rode his careless chase" (_Modern Painters_, vol. v. pt. vi. ch. i. § 6).

585. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

_Umbrian School_ (15th century).
_See also_ (p. xix)

This picture has been dethroned by Sir Edward Poynter from the high estate which it occupied in the catalogues of former directors, wherein it figured as a portrait by Piero della Francesca (see 665) of Isotta di Rimini, the wife of Sigismondo Malatesta. Our portrait "bears little resemblance," says the official catalogue, "to the well-known medallion portraits of that lady by Matteo de' Pasti." It is, says Dr. Richter, "an indifferent production, inferior to the master in outline, as well as in the execution of the ornamental parts. It may have been done by any forgotten painter of the time" (_Italian Art in the National Gallery_, p. 17). "The curious stippled execution has little or nothing in common with the subtle technique of Piero" (Claude Phillips in the _Academy_, September 28, 1889). It is, however, interesting for its study of fashions of the time. Notice the high forehead and the sleeves and ornaments of the lady's gown.

586. MADONNA AND CHILD ENTHRONED.

_Zenobio Macchiavelli_ (Florentine: 1418-1479).

This picture was formerly ascribed to Fra Filippo Lippi. It is
now given to Macchiavelli, who was a pupil of Benozzo Gozzoli,
and perhaps also of Lippi. A signed altar-piece by this painter
is in the Museo Civico at Pisa; another is in the Louvre; and
a third is in the National Gallery of Ireland. The latter is
"a picture of singular interest," says the catalogue, "proving
this master to have been one of the first of his time; full of
delicacy and refinement of feeling, and the heads beautifully
drawn."

Madonna and her babe,
Ringed by a bowery, flowery angel-brood
Lilies and vestments and white faces.

BROWNING: _Fra Lippo Lippi_.

A characteristic production of a school which, "orderly and obedient itself, understood the law of order in all things, which is the chief distinction between art and rudeness. And the first aim of every great painter is to express clearly his obedience to the law of Kosmos, Order, or Symmetry" (_Fors Clavigera_, 1876, p. 292). The four angel-faces on one side of the Madonna are matched by four on the other; the bishop and black monk on one side-compartment, by the saint and black nun on the other. Similarly at the foot of the throne the two angels are arranged symmetrically, one facing one way, the other the other. "You will at first be pained by the decision of line, and, in the children at least, uncomeliness of feature, which are characteristic, the first, of purely descended Etruscan work; the second, of the Florentine School headed afterwards by Donatello. But it is absolutely necessary, for right progress in knowledge, that you begin by observing and tracing decisive lines; and that you consider dignity and simplicity of expression more than beauty of feature" (_Fors Clavigera_, 1875, p. 308).

589. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD.

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

Combined with Lippi's realism of representation, "there is also an unusually mystic spiritualism of conception. Nearly all the Madonnas, even of the most strictly devotional schools, themselves support the child, either on their knees or in their arms. But here the Christ is miraculously borne by an angel" (_Fors Clavigera_, 1875, p. 308).

590. A PIETÀ.

_Marco Zoppo_ (Bolognese; painted 1471-1498).

This unattractive painter was born in Bologna, and became a
pupil in the school of Squarcione at Padua. His work shows also
the influence of Cosimo Tura at Florence.

It is interesting to compare the various representations of the Dead Christ, or Pietà, which may be seen in the National Gallery. The subject, it may first be noted, was treated in very different ways. "Convention did not early harden down into fixity of composition or crystallise into rigid forms. A certain plasticity of imagination was permitted from the beginning; a certain indefiniteness of nomenclature and scope remained habitual to the end" (Grant Allen: see also Mrs. Jameson's _History of our Lord_, ii. 226). Sometimes the subject of the "Pietà" is the Mater Dolorosa, weeping over the body of the dead Saviour, and attended by saints (266, 1427) or angels (180). At other times the dead Saviour is supported by angels only (22, 219, 602), or, as in this picture, by saints. Sometimes the dead figure is represented lying at full length (22, 180); at other times it is a half-figure showing above a tomb or ledge (219, 266, 602, 590, 1427). Still more interesting is a comparison between these pictures for the illustration it gives of the different sentiment of different painters or schools. The picture before us is hard and dry; that of Crivelli (602) is full of tenderness. With some painters it is the physical horror, the bodily distortion that appeals to them in this subject. With others it is the pity and the sorrow (as, pre-eminently, in Francia's, 180).

591. THE RAPE OF HELEN.

_Benozzo Gozzoli_ (Florentine: 1420-1498). _See_ 283.
_See also_ (p. xix)

The earliest picture in the Gallery which was painted for domestic pleasure, not religious service. One of the earliest also in which a classical subject is attempted. It probably formed the end of a coffer or _cassone_,[152] such as were often given for wedding presents, and was no doubt a commission to the artist for that purpose. Hence the choice of subject (which has been variously given as the Rape of Helen and the Rape of the Venetian Brides), and the (surely intentional) comic extravagance of the drawing: the bridegroom takes giant's strides in lover's eagerness, and the ships scud along with love to speed them. The ludicrous unreality of the rocks and trees, contrasted with the beautifully painted flowers of the foreground, is very characteristic of the art of the time (_cf._ 283 and 582). Rocks, trees, and water are all purely "conventional" still; and "the most satisfactory work of the period is that which most resembles missal painting, that is to say, which is fullest of beautiful flowers and animals scattered among the landscape, in the old independent way, like the birds upon a screen. The landscape of Benozzo Gozzoli is exquisitely rich in incident of this kind" (Edinburgh _Lectures on Architecture and Painting_, ch. iii.).

592. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

_Filippino Lippi_[153] (Florentine: 1457-1504). _See_ 293.
_See also_ (p. xix)

This picture, with its immense retinue of followers, is "full of life and swarms with incident and expression, from the dignified gravity of St. Joseph to the fantastic humour of the dwarf. No two figures are alike, except perhaps the two shepherds who are approaching from the right, and they are different from all the rest" (Monkhouse).

593. VIRGIN AND CHILD.

_Lorenzo di Credi_ (Florentine: 1459-1537).

Lorenzo di Andrea Credi has been called by Morelli the Carlo
Dolci of the fifteenth century. His pictures are sweet and
gentle, but lack force or inspiration. His colouring tends
towards crudeness; his careful execution and finish are
remarkable. "He was a very careful and laborious workman,
distilling his own oils and grinding his own colours; and when
he was working he would suffer no movement to be made," says
Vasari, "that would cause dust to settle on his pictures."
What Vasari adds about him may be partly seen in this and the
companion picture (648), with their bright colouring and pretty
distances: "His works were finished with so much delicacy
that every other painting looks but just sketched and left
incomplete as compared with those from his hand." Lorenzo
was the son and grandson of goldsmiths, and was placed when
quite a child under the tuition of Verocchio (296), and was
still working under him at the age of twenty-one, content with
the modest salary of one florin (about £2) a month. Like his
master, he was a sculptor as well as a painter, and Verocchio
in his will requested that Lorenzo might finish his famous
statue (at Venice) of Bartolommeo Colleoni. (The Venetians,
however, gave it to Alessandro Leopardo to finish.) Lorenzo was
one of the few men who lived through the Renaissance without
swerving from the religious traditions of earlier art, and even
without being much influenced by his fellow-pupils--though in
his grave and sweet Madonnas there is yet a suspicion of the
sidelong look, half sweet, half sinister, and of the long,
oval face, which distinguish Leonardo. He was a disciple of
Savonarola, and burnt his share of pictures in the famous
bonfire. "His will bears witness to his contrition. After
having assured the future of his old woman-servant, to whom
he left his bedding and an annuity in kind; after having made
certain donations to his niece and to the daughter of a friend,
a goldsmith; he directed that the rest of his fortune should go
to the brotherhood of the indigent poor, and that his obsequies
should be as simple as possible" (Müntz: _Leonardo da Vinci_,
i. 29). Lorenzo is not represented so well in the National
Gallery as in the Louvre and at Florence. His "Nativity" in
the Florentine Academy is perhaps his best work. Lorenzo's
range was limited, and "Holy Conversations" or "Madonnas" were
his most frequent subjects. A peculiarity of them is the large
head and somewhat puffy and clumsy forms he gives to the Infant
Christ.

594. THE "HOLY MONEY-DESPISERS."

_Emmanuel_ (Byzantine: about 1660).

This picture is the earliest in the Gallery (with the exception of the Greek portraits, see 1260)--not in order of time, but in order of artistic development. It is a genuine Byzantine picture, an example, therefore, of the art which prevailed in Italy from the sixth century down to about 1250, and the influence of which survived even when the Italian painters had developed an art of their own. The Byzantine style of painting is distinguished by its conventionality and its constancy. It was the recognised thing that such and such a subject should be treated in such and such a way and no other. There is a Byzantine Manual of Painting in a manuscript of the eleventh century in which instructions are given not only as to the subjects to be represented, but as to the costume, age, and lineaments of the characters. An art of this kind was naturally unchanging. This picture is probably only 200 years old, but if it had been painted 800 years ago, or if it had been ordered only the other day from the monks of Mount Athos, little difference of style would be perceptible. It is signed in Greek "The hand of Emmanouel, the priest, son of John," a painter living in Venice about the year 1660.

The picture is conventional in its choice of subject--the saints Cosmas and Damian being one of the subjects recognised in Byzantine art. They were martyrs of the fourth century--patron saints of medicine, which they practised without fees--hence their title, the "holy money-despisers." They are here receiving the Divine blessing. The picture is conventional also in its treatment. Thus the attitude of the hand is the recognised symbol whereby to express that a figure is speaking. So, too, the background is formed by a golden plain, which is meant to represent the air or the sky. The dark blue semicircle surrounding the bust of our Saviour, above the two heads of the saints, has more or less the form of the horizon, and is meant to represent the heaven in which Christ dwells (Richter's _Italian Art_, etc., pp. 5-7).

595. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

_Unknown_ (Venetian School: 15th-16th century).

One of the many pictures in the Gallery from which the so-called "æsthetic" or "high art" gowns of the present day have been copied. Formerly ascribed to Battista Zelotti, a disciple of Paul Veronese.

596. THE ENTOMBMENT OF CHRIST.

_Marco Palmezzano_ (Umbrian: 1456-1537).

This painter was a fellow-countryman and pupil of Melozzo of
Forli, who studied under Piero della Francesca, and to that
extent Marco is a member of the Umbrian School. Like his
master, Marco studied geometry and perspective. He was skilful
in perspective, "but he scarcely ever ridded himself of a
certain dryness and hardness, and his draperies are in general
angular in the folds, cutting up instead of indicating the
forms beneath" (Burton). His pictures abound in Forli.

This picture, originally of a semicircular shape, was the lunette of an altar-piece, painted in 1506 for the Cathedral of Forli, and now in the Gallery of that town. To the spectator's right is San Mercuriale, first bishop of Forli, holding the Guelphic banner of the church; on the left, San Valeriano with the standard of Forli.

597. "ST. VINCENTIUS FERRER."

_Francesco del Cossa_ (Ferrarese: about 1435-1485).

Cossa was a contemporary of Cosimo Tura (772), with whom
he exhibits close affinities of style. "But while Tura was
fantastic, and inclined to the lavish use of decoration,
Cossa, with severer views of his art, sought to give dignity
and grandeur to his figures, and kept ornamentation within its
proper bounds" (Official Catalogue). "It may be added that
Cossa, though 'severer' in one sense, viz. that he saw more
clearly and kept more strictly within the true limits of fine
art, had more amenity than Tura; his decorative instinct was
more refined, his sense of grace less crude. He was also a
sweeter, finer, colourist" (Monkhouse). Cossa worked at Ferrara
with other artists for Duke Borso, and among other works he
executed some of the frescoes for the Schifanoia Palace. These
have been copied by the Arundel Society. In 1470 Cossa removed
to Bologna, where his best works are to be seen. The finest
of them is the "Virgin and Child with St. Petronius" in the
Pinacoteca--"a work of singular grandeur."

"Our beautiful panel is, for its size, as characteristic and fine a specimen of the master as exists. The painting throughout is of fine quality, the modelling and expression of the head admirable, the colour strong and fine, but soft withal, and the abundant detail executed with great skill and patience, but kept in due subordination. The strange background, with its fantastic erections, half architecture half rock, is of less beauty, but equally characteristic of the artist" (Monkhouse: _In the National Gallery_, p. 167). The picture, once ascribed to Marco Zoppo, has been now recognised as the central panel of an altar-piece by Cossa, of which the wings are in the Brera at Milan, and the predella is in the Picture Gallery of the Vatican. The Dominican represented has at various times been supposed to be St. Dominic himself, St. Vincentius Ferrer, and St. Hyacinth. The predella pictures are of scenes in the life of St. Hyacinth, who therefore is probably the subject of our panel also. He was a member of the Dominican Order (whose habit he wears), a Pole by birth, and a missionary in Russia. St. Vincentius Ferrer was a Spaniard of Valencia, who in 1374, at the age of 17, entered the Dominican Order, died in 1419, and was canonised in 1455.

598. ST. FRANCIS WITH THE "STIGMATA."

_Filippino Lippi_ (Florentine: 1457-1504). _See 293._

St. Francis, the founder of the Franciscan Order of monks (the
Black Friars), was the great apostle of Works, whilst St.
Dominic, the founder of the Dominican Order (White Friars),
was the great apostle of Faith. It was the teaching of these
two orders that gave the impetus to the church building, from
which grew the art revival at Florence in the thirteenth
century. "The gospel of works, according to St. Francis, lay
in three things. You must work without money, and be poor.
You must work without pleasure, and be chaste. You must work
according to orders, and be obedient." And so truly did he in
his own works exemplify the life of Christ, that, according to
the legend of the time, he received also in his own person the
wounds (or "stigmata") of the Crucified One--here visible on
his hands. ("Take my yoke upon you"; or "Take up the cross and
follow me.") "His reception of the 'stigmata' is, perhaps, a
marvellous instance of the power of imagination over physical
conditions; perhaps an equally marvellous instance of the
swift change of metaphor into tradition; but assuredly, and
beyond dispute, one of the most influential, significant, and
instructive traditions possessed by the Church of Christ."

The saint is here represented in glory; choirs of singing angels encompass him; for now "the wounds of his Master are his inheritance, the cross--sign not of triumph, but of trial, is his reward" (_Mornings in Florence_, i. 8, 13; iii. 64). Inscribed on the picture below are some lines from a Latin hymn to St. Francis, exhorting others to follow him, and to advance as he did the standards of their king ("Let those who depart out of Egypt follow him, and be united to him, in whom the standards of the King come forth for us in clear light").

The floating angels recall those by Botticelli, but the pupil's work is not here so good: these angels seem after all to be standing, Botticelli's to be indeed floating in thin air. Lippi, too, learnt no doubt from him the goldsmith's work, seen here in the indented background to the picture.

599. THE MADONNA OF THE MEADOW.

_Giovanni Bellini_ (Venetian: 1426-1516). _See 189._
_See also_ (p. xix)

A very charming little picture, marred only by a certain insipidity in the expression of the Madonna--which contrasts markedly alike with the pathetic type of Bellini's early Madonnas (_e.g._ No. 288), and with the more stately type which he afterwards adopted (as in the altar-piece in the Academy at Venice). "The landscape is altogether interesting, and will well repay a long examination. The incident of the bird and the serpent should not be missed, and the Eastern sheep with the long ears and its stately attendant in the white burnous should be noted as an attempt to give some Oriental character to the scene" (Monkhouse: _In the National Gallery_, p. 220). "The exquisite opaline purity of its daylight, the delicacy and finish of every detail, the walls and towers of the little town serene in the rays of morning, and the mountain ranges, pure and lovely in definition--all these graces make the picture one of the joys of art" (Gilbert's _Landscape in Art_, p. 330).

This picture has at different times been given several different attributions, of which the most cautious was "School of Bellini." In earlier editions of the Official Catalogue it was ascribed to Basaiti (see 281); but now (1898) to Bellini. Sir Edward Poynter refers in support of this alteration to the close resemblance of the present picture to a signed work by Bellini in the Giovanelli Palace at Venice, and, as regards the background, to No. 812 in our gallery. Sir Walter Armstrong (_Notes on the National Gallery_, p. 24) draws attention to the similarity in the baby's hands here and in 224, and would ascribe both pictures to Catena. The correct settlement of disputed points of attribution like this is highly important for the history of painting, but meanwhile the very fact of such disputes has a useful significance, as showing what is meant by the old "schools" of painting. Individual peculiarities are only discovered by minutest examinations; but beneath such differences there are in each school similarities of treatment and conception which come from common traditions and common teaching, and which cause critics of equal intelligence to attribute the same pictures to different masters of the school.

600. THE BLIND BEGGAR.

_J. L. Dyckmans_ (Flemish: 1811-1888).

Josef Laurens Dyckmans, a pupil of Wappers, was for some time
Professor of the Academy of Painting at Antwerp.

"A blind old man is standing in the sunshine by a church door: before him is a young girl, who is holding out her hand for alms to the passers-by; an old lady coming from the church is feeling in her pocket for a sou; some other figures are seen in the porch at their devotions before a crucifix. Painted at Antwerp, signed _J. Dyckmans_, 1853" (Official Catalogue). "The picture is painted in a tone of colour exceedingly low, but the whole is worked to an extreme finish; the heads in fact are elaborated with a care such as Denner's pictures show. In these days of light and glowing harmonies the eye is at once struck with the abstinence from colour which the artist has made a cardinal principle in the execution of his work" (_Art Journal_, July 1864). This picture was presented by Miss Jane Clark, who paid 900 guineas for it.

602. A "PIETÀ."

_Carlo Crivelli_ (Venetian: painted 1468-1493).

Crivelli is one of the most individual of painters, and no
collection is so rich in his works as the National Gallery. He
was a native of Venice, and his work shows marked affinities
with the school of Padua. Of his life, little is known except
that in, or shortly before, the year 1468 he settled at Ascoli
in the Marches of Ancona. In that neighbourhood he seems to
have spent the rest of his life, in the employment mainly
of various religious fraternities. He thus lived somewhat
outside the artistic world of his time, a fact which serves
to explain the rather conservative character of his art.
Thus he adhered to the _tempera_ medium. He adhered also to
the Byzantine traditions of the old Venetian School with its
fondness for the "ancona," or altar-piece consisting of many
single figures each in its separate compartment, and for gilt
and silvered ornaments in high relief. There is, too, a vein
of affectation in his pictures which contrasts strongly with
the naturalistic tendency in contemporary Venetian art. Owing
to a little touch of vanity in the painter we are able to date
many of his pictures. For it is known that he was knighted in
1490, and so proud was "Sir Charles" of his new honour that he
signed all subsequent pictures "Carlo Crivelli, Knight." No.
724 is probably the first he finished after the reception of
the coveted honour. His love of accessories, and especially
of fruit, will strike every visitor; and so also will the
brilliance of his colouring and the unerring, if somewhat
harsh, exactness of his outlines. For tender pathos the present
picture is remarkable. His range was, as we shall see, somewhat
limited. He seldom attempted compositions on any large scale,
and his subject pictures are few: No. 739 is one of the best
of them. He excelled rather in single figures, and in these
we find expressed, "in quaint combination, morose asceticism,
passionate and demonstrative grief, verging on caricature,
occasional grandeur of conception and presentment, knightly
dignity, feminine sweetness and tenderness mingled with demure
and far-fetched grace" (Sir F. Burton). Up to the end of the
eighteenth century Crivelli's works were still to be found in
their original places, in the churches and convents of Eastern
Italy, where they attracted little attention. The suppression
of the convents after the age of the Revolution brought them
into notice, and English collectors purchased them in large
numbers. In recent years this appreciation has steadily
increased. The large altar-piece, 788, was bought in 1868 for
£3360. At the Dudley sale in 1892, the altar-piece, now in the
Berlin Museum, fetched £7350.

This little picture is part of an altar-piece formerly in a church at Monte Fiore, near Fermo: other portions are at Brussels. The picture is signed, but not dated; the piece of red watered silk which hangs over the edge of the tomb is characteristic of Crivelli's earlier period. Its prettily pathetic sentiment and brilliant tone make it one of the painter's most attractive works. For some remarks on the subject, see under 590.

621. THE HORSE FAIR.

_Rosa Bonheur_ (French: 1822-1899).

Mdlle. Rosalie Bonheur, usually called Rosa Bonheur, the most
vigorous and spirited of French animal painters, was born at
Bordeaux. Her parents had a sharp struggle for existence. Her
mother taught music; her father--Raymond Bonheur--drawing. He
was a painter of some ability, and all the children inherited
an artistic bent. When the family removed to Paris, Rosa's
precocious talents rapidly developed. They lived next door
to a tavern which was a house of call for diligences and
market-waggons, and there she found inexhaustible material
for animal studies. Her brother, Auguste, became an animal
and landscape painter of repute; another brother, Isidore,
an animal sculptor; her sister, Juliette, who married M.
Peyrol, was also a well-known painter. In the Salon of 1848
the whole family exhibited. From the common purse, when they
were children, a goat was bought for a model, which they used
to carry up to their humble studio. Another place of study
with Rosa Bonheur was the Abattoir du Roule, "where, with
characteristic fortitude, she not only controlled her natural
repugnance to scenes of slaughter, but overcame all the disgust
which attended the 'brutalité grossière' of the people employed
there. Even at this early period she studied not only the
outward aspects and anatomical construction of the creatures
she painted, but their passions and tempers. Among the friends
to whom she always referred with grateful pleasure as helpful
in these days was Paul Delaroche, who called at the humble
family quarters on a sixth floor, and was not sparing in his
admiration." Rosa had first been apprenticed to a dressmaker,
but her love of art impelled her to give up this occupation,
and she succeeded in contributing to the family exchequer by
the sale of copies made in the Louvre. In 1841, when only 19,
she exhibited two pictures in the Salon. Her mother died in
1833, and in 1845 her father married again; from that time
forward she lived an independent life. Her famous "Labourage
Nivernais," now in the Luxembourg, was painted in 1848. This
greatly increased her reputation, and she was able to secure
for her father the post of director of the Women's Painting
School, established by the Government in Paris. His death
in the following year affected her greatly, and she did not
exhibit again until 1853, when "The Horse Fair," _Le Marché
aux Chevaux_, appeared. Through engravings and photographs
this work made the name of Rosa Bonheur famous throughout the
world. She visited Spain and Scotland, and painted pictures of
both those countries. Her permanent residence was an estate
at By in the forest of Fontainebleau, which she purchased in
1855. There ten years later she was personally invested by the
Emperor of the French with the Cross of the Legion of Honour,
an honour confirmed in later years by President Carnot. A
still higher compliment was paid her in 1870-1871, when her
studio and residence were spared from any intrusion, by the
special order of Prince Frederick Charles. For many years she
regularly attended horse fairs both in France--such as she has
here depicted--and abroad, adopting as a rule men's costume in
order to carry out her studies and purchases without attracting
attention. Mr. Frith relates how when he and Sir John Millais
went to lunch with her in 1858, they were met at the station by
a carriage, the coachman appearing to be a French Abbé. "The
driver wore a black broad-brimmed hat and black cloak, long
white hair with a cheery rosy face. It was Rosa Bonheur, who
lives at her château with a lady companion, and others in the
form of boars, lions, and deer, who serve as models." Gambart,
who was of the party, "repeated to her some words of praise
given by Landseer to a picture of hers, then exhibiting in
London. Her eyes filled with tears as she listened." "When one
sees this young artist," wrote a journalist in 1852, "small of
stature and of delicate appearance, standing by a huge canvas,
he would be tempted to think that her powers had not attained
the full height of their ambition; but when he comes to make
note of the straight, resolute lines of the artist's features,
her full square forehead, her thick hair, cut as short as that
of a man, and her dark, quick flashing eyes, he ceases to
fear. He then realises that it is not reckless audacity which
impels her forward in her work, but a greatness of soul and a
consciousness of her strength." "Few artistic careers," says
her brother-in-law, "have been more active, more brilliant, or
more characterised by simple and quiet dignity, or perhaps, on
the whole, more happy. Having known during her youngest days
the terrible inconvenience of poverty, Rosa Bonheur raised
herself, by her talent alone, to a position of independence
and fortune. She was privileged to enjoy at the same time
the charms of fame and the sweets of obscurity." She never
abandoned the retired habits of life she loved, and she was
able to continue her studies to the end.

"The magnificent stallions with their powerful forms pass before us at a trot, kicking up the dust under their feet. Full of life and movement, and thoroughly imbued with realism, but of a beautiful and noble realism. The composition is admirable, and brings out finely the energy and spirit of the horse. The scene represents the horses as having just reached the market, and as being in the act of falling back to re-form for their proper places. The fine trees in the background of the picture, under which, upon a rising ground, the dealers and buyers take up their position, are obscured on the left by the haze, and by the clouds of dust raised by the trotting horses; in the background, too, at the extreme left, is seen the small dome of the Salpêtrière. The _Marché aux Chevaux_ of Paris was at that time situate in the Boulevard l'Hôpital, not far from the Orleans railway; but in consequence of changes, the market has lost the picturesque aspect it wore in 1853. One looks in vain now for the large trees which then shadowed it, and the bold earth, covered in places by short dusty grass and broken up by the trampling of the horses.... A mingling of art and truth is very obvious in 'The Horse Fair.' The irregular order of the horses, their different movements bringing into play all their muscles; the different spots of their coats, so disposed as to set off one another, and furnishing at the same time a charming variety to the eye; the powerful dappled Perche horses, which pass in the foreground and constitute the centre of the picture, with the groups of black[154] and white horses which rear themselves up on their hind feet--all this shows a profoundly skilful arrangement, and results in a grand and harmonious _ensemble_. Yet the first impression which this picture gives is that of a scene taken from the life, and of intense realism. The freedom and breadth of the execution are equal to the beauty of the composition. The vigorous touch, and the powerful drawing also help to give this picture a spirited character and masculine vigour in perfect harmony with the subject it represents" (René Peyrol in the _Art Annual_ on Rosa Bonheur). Ruskin, while bearing his testimony to the artist's power, calls attention to "one stern fact concerning art" which here detracts from her full success. "No painter of animals ever yet was entirely great, who shrank from painting the human face; and Mdlle. Bonheur _does_ shrink from it.... In the 'Horse Fair,' the human faces are nearly all dexterously, but disagreeably, hidden, and the one clearly shown has not the slightest character. Mdlle. Bonheur may rely upon this, that if she cannot paint a man's face, she can neither paint a horse's, a dog's, nor a bull's. There is in every animal's eye a dim image and gleam of humanity, a flash of strange light through which their life looks out and up to our great mystery of command over them, and claims the fellowship of the creature, if not of the soul.[155] I assure Mdlle. Bonheur, strange as the words may sound to her, after what she has been told by huntsmen and racers, she has never painted a horse yet. She has only painted trotting bodies of horses" (_Academy Notes, etc._ 1858, p. 32).

The original of this famous composition--probably the best-known and most popular animal picture of our epoch--was exhibited in the Salon in 1853. The painter had been engaged on it for a long time, and had made innumerable studies for it. She used to call it "her Parthenon Frieze." It was sold to Mr. Gambart, the picture-dealer, who brought it to England. It made a great sensation in London, and afterwards went on a provincial tour. It then travelled to America where it was sold, and is now in the New York Museum. Rosa Bonheur painted for Gambart two repetitions of it on a smaller scale. One of these, the picture before us, was bought by Mr. Jacob Bell, who bequeathed it to the nation in 1859. It was the first work by a living foreign painter to be admitted to the Gallery.

623. MADONNA AND CHILD ENTHRONED.

_Girolamo da Treviso_ (Venetian: 1497-1544).

Girolamo, the son and pupil of Piermaria Pennachi, was born
at Treviso. He painted at Venice, Genoa, Trent, Faenza, and
Bologna, at which latter place several of his frescoes and
paintings remain. Between the years 1535 and 1538 he returned
to Venice and became intimate with Titian, Sansovino, and
Aretino. "In 1542," says Vasari, "he repaired to England, where
he was so favoured by certain of his friends, who recommended
him to the king (Henry VIII.), that he was at once appointed to
the service of that monarch. Presenting himself to the English
sovereign accordingly, Girolamo was employed, not as painter,
but as engineer, and having given proofs of his ability in
various edifices, copied from such as he had seen in Tuscany
and other parts of Italy, the king admired them greatly.
Nay, furthermore, his majesty rewarded the master with large
gifts, and ordained him a stipend of four hundred crowns a
year, giving him at the same time opportunity and permission
to erect an honourable abode for himself, the cost of which
was borne by the king." Girolamo had, however, to erect also
some bastions at Boulogne, and there "he was struck by a
cannon-ball, which came with such violence that it cut him in
two as he sat on his horse. And so were his life and all the
honours of this world extinguished together, all his greatness
departing in a moment." His works are now scarce. No. 218 in
this gallery may be the copy made by Girolamo from Peruzzi's
drawing, No. 167.

This picture, formerly the altar-piece of the Boccaferri chapel in S. Domenico at Bologna, is signed by the painter and is mentioned by Vasari (iii. 287) as "the best of his works: it represents the Madonna with numerous saints (Joseph, James, and Paul), and contains the portrait of the person by whom the painter was commissioned to execute the work." Girolamo, who, as we have seen, was a man of travel, "did not remain faithful to the tradition of art as professed at Venice and Treviso, and might be called rather a forerunner of the eclectic schools.... The head of St. Paul is apparently copied from Raphael's picture of St. Cecilia in Bologna. In the types of other figures, in the colouring and in the landscape, we perceive the influence of Dosso Dossi and of Garofalo" (Richter's _Italian Art, etc._ p. 87).

624. THE INFANCY OF JUPITER.

_Giulio Romano_ (Roman: 1492-1546).

Giulio Pippi, called "the Roman," was born at Rome, and was
Raphael's favourite pupil; to him Raphael bequeathed his
implements and works of art. But the master could not also
bequeath his spirit, and in Giulio's works (such as 643 and
644, which, however, are now attributed to a pupil), though
"the archæology is admirable, the movements of the actors are
affected and forced, and the whole result is a grievous example
of the mannerism already beginning to prevail" (Woltmann and
Woermann: _History of Painting_, ii. 562). "Raphael worked
out the mine of his own thought so thoroughly, so completely
exhausted the motives of his invention, and carried his
style to such perfection, that he left nothing unused for
his followers.... In the Roman manner the dramatic element
was conspicuous; and to carry dramatic painting beyond the
limits of good style in art is unfortunately easy.... For all
the higher purposes of genuine art, inspiration passed from
his pupils as colour fades from Eastern clouds at sunset,
suddenly" (Symonds's _Renaissance_, iii. 359).... "Giulio
Romano alone, by dint of robust energy and lurid fire of fancy
flickering amid the smoke of his coarser nature, achieved a
triumph. His Palazzo del Te at Mantua may be cited as the most
perfect production of the epoch, combining, as it does, all
forms of antique decoration and construction with the vivid
individuality of genius" (_Symonds_, ii. 319; iii. 360). It was
in 1523 that Giulio entered the service of Federigo Gonzaga,
Duke of Mantua, and besides executing a very large number of
works in oil and fresco, he was distinguished as an architect
and rebuilt nearly the whole town.[156] Vasari made his
acquaintance there, and admired his works so much that Giulio
deserved, he said, to see a statue of himself erected at every
corner of the city. During his earlier period at Rome, Giulio
was entrusted with the completion of the frescoes of the Sala
di Costantino in the Vatican. Among his best oil-pictures are
the "Martyrdom of St. Stephen" in the church of that saint at
Genoa, and a "Holy Family" in the Dresden Gallery.

An illustration of the classic myth of the infancy of Jupiter, who was born in Crete and hidden by his mother, Rhea, in order to save him from his father Saturn ("all-devouring Time"), who used to devour his sons as soon as they were born, from fear of the prophecy that one of them would dethrone him. In the background are the Curetes "who, as the story is, erst drowned in Crete that infant cry of Jove, when the young band about the babe in rapid dance, arms in hand to measured tread, beat brass on brass, that Saturn might not get him to consign to his devouring jaws" (_Lucretius_, Munro's translation, ii. 629). This picture has been much admired by artists. Samuel Palmer, the friend of William Blake, wrote of it: "By the bye, if you want to see a picture bound by a splendid imagination upon the fine, firm, old philosophy, do go and look at the Julio Romano (Nursing of Jupiter) in the National Gallery. That is precisely the picture Blake would have revelled in. I think I hear him say, 'As fine as possible, Sir! It is not permitted to man to do better!'" (_Memoir of Anne Gilchrist_, p. 59). Elsewhere Palmer proposed to a friend as a compact test of taste the question: "Do I love the Julio Romano in the National Gallery?" (_Life and Letters of Samuel Palmer_, p. 250). Another distinguished artist, John Linnell, was also a great admirer of the picture. He strongly urged its purchase for the National Gallery, declaring it to be "full of beauty and without any alloy" (Story's _Life of Linnell_, ii. 123).

625. AN ALTAR-PIECE.

_Il Moretto_ (Brescian: 1498-1555). _See 299._