Chapter XIX: Preface: By John Ruskin (17)

This is all that documentary evidence has disclosed about
Memlinc's life. If the evidence of his pictures may be taken,
his life must have been gentle and peaceful. For Memlinc's
place in the history of art is among the leaders of the
"Purist" School (see under 663). He was, we may say, the
Fra Angelico of Flanders. In technique he used the methods
perfected by the Van Eycks. "In drawing a comparison between
Memlinc and his predecessors and contemporaries,[165] he
is found inferior to John Van Eyck in power of colour and
chiaroscuro, as well as in searching portraiture; to Van der
Weyden in dramatic force; to Dierick Bouts and Gheeraert
David in beauty and finish of landscape" (Weale's monograph
on Memlinc, published by the Arundel Society). But Memlinc
had a sentiment and an ideal of his own to which none of his
Flemish contemporaries attained. "Van Eyck saw with his eye,
Memlinc begins to see with his spirit. The one copied and
imitated; the other copies, imitates,--and transfigures. Van
Eyck, without any thought of an ideal, reproduced the virile
types which passed before his eyes. Memlinc dreams as he looks,
chooses what is most lovable and delicate in human forms, and
creates above all as his feminine type a choice being who was
unknown before his time, and has disappeared since. They are
women, but women seen according to the tender predilections
of a spirit in love with grace, nobility, beauty." Memlinc's
men, on the other hand, do not compare advantageously with Van
Eyck's. There is more vigour in the latter, more framework,
more muscle, more blood. "Memlinc's art is very human, but
there is in it no trace of the villainies and atrocities of
his time. His ideal is his own. It foreshadowed perhaps the
Bellinis, the Botticellis, the Peruginos, but not Leonardo, nor
the Tuscans, nor the Romans of the Renaissance. Imagine in the
midst of the horror of the century a privileged spot, a sort of
angelic retreat where the passions are silenced and troubles
cease, where men pray and worship, where physical and moral
deformities are transfigured, where new sentiments come into
being and sweet usages grow up like the lilies: imagine this
and you will have an idea of the unique soul of Memlinc and of
the miracle which he works in his pictures" (Fromentin: _Les
Maitres d'Autrefois_).

In front is a portrait of the donor of the picture. On the Virgin's left is St. George with the dragon--not a very dreadful dragon, either--"they do not hurt or destroy" in the peaceful gardens that Memlinc fancied. Notice how the peaceful idea is continued in the man returning to his pleasant home in the background to the left. The Virgin herself is typical of the feminine idea in early Flemish art. "It must be borne in mind that the people of the fifteenth century still lived in an age when the language of symbols was rich and widely understood.... The high forehead of the Virgin and wide arching brows tell of her intellectual power, her rich long hair figures forth the fulness of her life, her slim figure and tiny mouth symbolise her purity, her mild eyes with their drooping eyelids discover her devoutness, her bent head speaks of humility. The supreme and evident virtue which reigns in all these Madonnas is an absolute purity of heart" (Conway's _Early Flemish Painters_, pp. 109, 110).

687. ST. VERONICA.

_Meister Wilhelm of Cologne_ (Early German: living in 1380).

A work of interest as being by the first artist who emerges
in the North as an individual painter--painting before his
time being a mere appendage of other arts and the work solely
of guilds. This "Master William," who is mentioned in an old
chronicle as having "painted a man as though he were alive,"
was a native of Herle, near Cologne, and attained a prominent
position in the latter town.

The subject of this picture is the compassionate woman whose door Christ passed when bearing his cross to Calvary. Seeing the drops of agony on his brow she wiped his face with her napkin, and the true image (_Vera Icon_: hence her name) of Christ remained miraculously impressed upon it--the Christ-like deed thus imprinting itself and abiding ever with her. The subject of the picture gives it a further historical interest as being suggestive of the mystics, the "Friends of God," as they called themselves, who were preaching in the Rhine Valley at this time, and under whose influence this early school of painting arose. "The mystic is one who claims to be able to see God with the inner vision of the soul. He studies to be quiet that his still soul may reflect the face of God"--even as did the cloth of St. Veronica (Beard's _Hibbert Lectures_).

690. "HIS OWN PORTRAIT."[166]

_Andrea del Sarto_ (Florentine: 1486-1531).

The cabinet pictures of Andrea del Sarto, "the faultless
painter," are well known to all visitors in the great galleries
of Europe. There is a certain mannerism in them which makes
them very easy of recognition. His type of Madonna is constant,
for it was taken from the beautiful wife whom he loved so
well, and who requited his love so ill. In his angels there
is a delicate, misty beauty; and over all his works there is
"that peculiar softness, harmony, and delicacy of colouring
which the Italians call _morbidezza_, and which is to be
seen in its perfection in the 'Madonna di San Francesco' in
the Uffizi." That Holy Family (painted in 1517) is generally
considered his masterpiece, and may be taken as the supreme
type of similar pictures in all the galleries. Another typical
work is the "Charity" of the Louvre (painted 1518). But it is
only in Florence among his frescoes--now unhappily fading,
but preserved in part by copies in the Arundel Society's
collection--the frescoes of the Santissima Annunziata, the
convent of S. Salvi, and, above all, the cloister of the
Scalzo, that a full conception of Andrea's power can be
obtained. "There only," says Mr. Swinburne, "can one trace and
tell how great a painter and how various he was. There only,
but surely there, can the influence and pressure of the things
of time on his immortal spirit be understood.... In the little
cloister of the Scalzo there is such exultation and exuberance
of young power, of fresh passion and imagination, that only by
the innate grace can one recognise the hand of the master whom
hitherto we knew by the works of his after life, when the gift
of grace had survived the gift of invention. This and all other
gifts it did survive; all pleasure of life and power of mind.
All these his charm of touch, his sweetness of execution, his
'Elysian beauty, melancholy grace' outlived and blossomed in
their dust" (Mr. Swinburne's eloquent piece on this painter's
works is in the first series of _Essays and Studies_, where
also are some notes on the master's drawings in the Uffizi
collection).

The painter's life is told in great detail and with much
vivacity by Vasari, to whose pages every reader should turn.
He was the pupil of Piero di Cosimo, and the friend and
fellow-worker of Franciabigio. All their spare, time, we are
told, was spent in drawing from the cartoons of Michelangelo
and Leonardo. "After the exhibition of Michelangelo's
celebrated 'Cartoon of Pisa,' in 1506, he became a decided
imitator of that painter in design: in colour and light and
shade Fra Bartolommeo appears to have been his model." His
celebrated frescoes in the convent of the Annunziata (not
completed till 1514) were among his earliest works. Those in
the Scalzo were done in 1514. In 1517 he married, and in 1518
he went to Paris, returning to Florence in the following year.
The story that he embezzled sums of money given him by the king
for the purchase of pictures is open to suspicion, since the
accounts of the king have been discovered. No trace of such
moneys occurs, nor did the king ever make any effort to obtain
restitution. Andrea died of the plague at the early age of
forty-five.

Browning's poem, in which he sets forth the pathos of the artist's life, is the best commentary on this beautiful portrait--so masterly in workmanship, so rich in suggestion of character. The real name of Andrea del Sarto--"Andrew of the Tailor," so called from his father's trade--was Andrea d'Agnolo: his monogram, formed of two inverted A's, may here be seen on the background to the left. The Italians called him "the faultless painter": faultless, they meant, in all the technical requirements of painting--

All is silver-grey,
Placid and perfect with my art.

But men may be "faultily faultless"; and what he lacked was just the one thing needful--the consecration and the poet's dream, which lift many works by less skilful hands than his into the higher region of imaginative art--

Their works drop groundward, but themselves, I know,
Reach many a time a heaven that's shut to me,...
My works are nearer heaven, but I sit here.

And the self-reproach was not less bitter for the knowledge of "what might have been." There is a story that Michael Angelo visited his studio, and said afterwards to Raphael--

"Friend, there's a certain little sorry scrub
"Goes up and down our Florence, none cares how,
"Who, were he set to plan and execute
"As you are, pricked on by your popes and kings,
"Would bring the sweat into that brow of yours!"

Yet Andrea himself too was once pricked on by kings. Two pictures of his had been sent to Francis I., who thereupon invited the painter to his court. And there for a time he worked and was honoured; but in the midst of it all he sat reading the letters which Lucrezia, his wife, sent him to Paris. "You called me and I came home to your heart." It is her face which we see everywhere in Andrea's Madonnas, and if at any time he took his model from any other face, there was always a resemblance to hers in the painting--

You smile? why, there's my picture ready made!

But Lucrezia served as his model, not his ideal. She had been married before to a hatter, but was remarkable, says Vasari, who worked in Andrea's studio and had a grudge against her, "as much for pride and haughtiness, as for beauty and fascination."[167] And

Had the mouth there urged
"God and the glory! never care for gain....
"Live for fame, side by side with Agnolo!
"Rafael is waiting: up to God, all three!"
I might have done it for you. So it seems.

It is in some such mood of communing with himself that we seem here to see the painter; yet there is a certain undercurrent of contentment below the look of melancholy. "The force of a beautiful face carries me to heaven": so sang Michael Angelo. Lucrezia dragged her husband down; his rivals overcame him--

Because there's still Lucrezia,--_as I choose_.

691. "ECCE HOMO!"

_Ascribed to Lo Spagna_ (Umbrian: painted 1503-1530).
_See 1032._

602. ST. HUGO OF GRENOBLE.

_Lodovico of Parma_ (Parmese: early 16th century).

Said to have been a scholar of Francia.

The crozier shows him to be a bishop, and it is inscribed S. VGO. This is St. Hugo (died 1132), who was Bishop of Grenoble when St. Bruno founded the Chartreuse, and who often resided amongst the Carthusians. Doubtless he was not an unwelcome visitor, for he had the power, it is said, of converting fowls into fish, which it was lawful to eat. For forty years, it is further told of him, he had haunting doubts on the old, old question of the origin of evil. The good bishop referred them at last to Pope Gregory VII., who greatly comforted St. Hugo by assuring him that such doubts were only sent to try his virtue and faith in the providence of God in permitting evil in the world.

693. ST. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA.

_Pinturicchio_ (Umbrian: 1454-1513).

Bernardino di Betto, or the son of Benedetto, was commonly
called Pinturicchio, "the little painter." He is not strongly
represented in our Gallery. His principal works are the
decorated ceiling and frescoes in the Library of Siena, which
represent the life of the Pope Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pius
II.). A drawing of this Library and copies of some of the
frescoes are in the Arundel Society's Collection. Pinturicchio,
says Symonds, is "a kind of Umbrian Gozzoli, who brings us
here and there in close relation to the men of his own time.
His wall-paintings in the library of the Cathedral of Siena
are so well preserved that we need not seek elsewhere for
better specimens of the decorative art most highly prized in
the first years of the 16th century. These frescoes have a
richness of effect and a vivacity of natural action which, in
spite of their superficiality, render them highly charming.
The life of Pius II. is treated like a legend. Both Pope and
Emperor are romantically conceived, and each portion of the
tale is told as though it were a part in some popular ballad.
So much remains of Perugian affectation as gives a kind of
childlike grace to the studied attitudes and many-coloured
groups of elegant young men" (_Renaissance_, iii. 220). In
the foreground of one of the frescoes is a charming figure,
supposed to be a portrait of the young Raphael. Vasari states
and subsequent writers have repeated that Pinturicchio was
assisted in these frescoes by Raphael. This supposition rests
on three drawings attributed to Raphael, but now proved to be
by Pinturicchio, who bound himself to execute the whole work
with his own hand. Morelli's attribution to Pinturicchio of
the so-called "Raphael's sketch-book" at Venice is one of the
most important of that critic's discoveries. "If (says Morelli)
in representing serious religious subjects, he does not come
up to Perugino as regards proportion, finish, and the filling
of space; if his forms are not so noble, and the expression
of religious sentiment not so deep as in Pietro; yet, on the
other hand, Pinturicchio is, to my mind, less conscious, more
fresh and racy than Perugino, and does not so often fatigue us
by monotony and that conventional sweetness which, especially
in the productions of his last twenty years, makes Pietro
positively wearisome. And, as an imaginative landscape-painter,
Pinturicchio surpasses almost all of his contemporaries"
(_German Galleries_, p. 285). Pinturicchio's frescoes at Siena
occupied him from 1502 to 1509. He probably studied first under
Fiorenzo di Lorenzo (No. 1103); afterwards he entered into
partnership with Pietro Perugino. He went to Rome in 1479 and
was honoured by commissions from cardinals and popes. Among
his works in Rome are frescoes representing the stories of
the Virgin and St. Jerome in S. Maria del Popolo; frescoes in
the Appartamenti Borgia in the Vatican, and frescoes of S.
Bernardino of Siena in the Bufalini Chapel, S. Maria Aracoeli.
Morelli attributes to him also two of the frescoes in the
Sixtine Chapel (the Baptism of Christ and the History of
Moses). In 1500 he commenced the beautiful series of frescoes,
now much disfigured, in the collegiate church at Spello (see
Arundel Society's copies). That he was held in high esteem by
his fellow-citizens is shown by his having been elected in
1501 Decemvir of Perugia in place of Pietro Perugino. Unlike
Perugino, he never mastered the use of oil, but painted in
tempera. Vasari, who did not like Pinturicchio, describes him
as somewhat of a hack, and still more of a lover of money.
"Among other qualities he possessed that of giving considerable
satisfaction to princes and nobles because he quickly brought
the works commanded by them to an end." As for his love of
money, he died of vexation, Vasari assures us, "because a
certain trunk which he had insisted on being removed from his
painting-room in Siena was afterwards found to be full of gold
pieces." According, however, to a contemporary writer, his wife
left him alone in his house when ill, and he was starved to
death.

St. Catherine of Alexandria was of all the female saints next to Mary Magdalene the most popular: she meets us in nearly every room in the National Gallery, and even in London, churches and districts once placed under her protection still retain her name. Her general attributes are a book, a sword, and a wheel. The meaning of these will be seen from the legend of her which crusaders brought from the East. She was the daughter of a queen, and of marvellous wisdom and understanding. And when the time came that she should govern her people, she, shunning responsibility and preferring wisdom before sovereignty, shut herself up in her palace and gave her mind to the study of philosophy. For this wilful seclusiveness her people wished her to marry a husband who should at once fulfil the duties of government and lead them forth to battle. But she, to prevent this repugnant union, made one more spiritual by her mystical marriage with Christ. And for this and other unworldly persistencies, the heathen tyrant Maximin would have broken her on a wheel, but that "fire came down from heaven, sent by the destroying angel of God, and broke the wheel in pieces." Yet for all this the tyrant repented not, and after scourging St. Catherine with rods beheaded her with the sword, and so having won the martyr's palm, she entered into the joy of her Lord.

694. ST. JEROME IN HIS STUDY.

_School of Giovanni Bellini._[168] _See under 189._

Besides translating the Bible, St. Jerome (see 227) is famous as one of the founders of the monastic system, "of the ordered cell and tended garden where before was but the desert and the wild wood," and he died in the monastery he had founded at Bethlehem. This picture shows us the inside of monastic life. St. Jerome, with the scholar's look of quiet satisfaction, is deep in study; his room has no luxury, but is beautiful in its grace and order; the lion, who seems here to be sharing his master's meditation, and the partridge peering into the saint's slippers, speak of the love of the old monks for the lower animals; and the beautiful landscape seen through the open window recalls the sweet nooks which they everywhere chose and tended for their dwelling. The effect of the whole picture is to suggest the peaceful simplicity of the old religious life in contrast to the "getting and spending" with which we now "lay waste our powers."

The picture belongs to what Ruskin has called the "Time of the Masters," who desire only to make everything dainty and delightful. "Everything in it is exquisite, complete, and pure; there is not a particle of dust in the cupboards, nor a cloud in the air; the wooden shutters are dainty, the candlestick is dainty, the saint's blue hat is dainty, and its violet tassel, and its ribbon, and his blue cloak, and his spare pair of shoes, and his little brown partridge--it is all a perfect quintessence of innocent luxury--absolute delight, without one drawback in it, nor taint of the Devil anywhere" (_Verona and other Lectures_, § 26). For another specimen of this "pictorial perfectness and deliciousness," see 288 (especially the compartment with Raphael and Tobit).

As for the partridge, this is frequently introduced into sacred pictures, especially those of the Venetian School. There is a pretty legend of St. John which perhaps accounts for it, and which makes its introduction very appropriate in the picture of a recluse. St. John had, it is said, a tame partridge, which he cherished much, and amused himself with feeding and tending. A certain huntsman, passing by with his bow and arrows, was astonished to see the great apostle, so venerable for his age and sanctity, engaged in such an amusement. The apostle asked him if he always kept his bow bent. He answered that would be the way to render it useless. "If," replied St. John, "you unbend your bow to prevent its being useless, so do I thus unbend my mind for the same reason" (Mrs. Jameson: _Sacred and Legendary Art_, p. 100).

695. MADONNA AND CHILD.

_Andrea Previtali_ (Bergamese: about 1480-1528).

This painter (whose personality is in some art-histories merged
in that of Cordelle Agii, see 1409) was one of Bellini's
numerous pupils--a provincial from Bergamo, "a dry, honest,
monotonous" painter (see Morelli's _German Galleries_, pp.
178-181, and under 1203). "As regards technique, Previtali
is certainly very eminent; in brilliance of colouring he is
not behind any of Bellini's pupils, and the landscapes in
the background of his pictures are for the most part neatly
and faultlessly executed. But he lacks the main attributes
of a great artist--invention and the power of original
representation." Whilst painting in Venice, he signed his
pictures _Andreas Bergomensis_; on his return to Bergamo,
_Andreas Previtalus_. His pictures at Bergamo are numerous; the
best is the altar-piece in S. Spirito.

A characteristic example of the painter. The figure of the monk in adoration is somewhat hard. The landscape background is pleasant.

696. MARCO BARBARIGO.

_Unknown_ (Flemish: 15th century).
_See also_ (p. xx)

He was Venetian Consul in London in 1449, and holds in his hand a letter addressed to him there. He was subsequently elected Doge, but died (in 1486), after holding the office for six months. It is recorded of him as Doge that he was a specially mild-tempered and good man--a character which is not belied in this portrait of him in his earlier days. This portrait was formerly ascribed to Gerard van der Meire (see under 1078). It is now by some attributed to Petrus Cristus.

697. PORTRAIT OF A TAILOR.

_Moroni_ (Bergamese: 1525-1578).

Giambattista Moroni is one of the greatest of the Italian
portrait-painters, and this picture is perhaps his best-known
and most popular production.[169] The works of Moroni appeal
alike to the general public and to the painter. He gave to
his figures a vitality and ease, and impressed upon them a
verisimilitude which appeal to every spectator. His works (adds
Sir F. Burton) "will always be highly estimated by the painter,
as they exhibit rare technical merits, perfect knowledge and
command of means, facility of execution without display of
dexterity, truth of colour, and the finest perception of the
value of tones." "No portrait-painter ever placed the epidermis
of the human face upon canvas with more fidelity, and with
greater truth than Moroni: his portraits have all a more or
less prosaic look, but they must all have had that startling
likeness to the original which so enchants the great public,
who exclaim 'The very man! just how he looks!' And it was
with the eyes of the great public that Moroni did look at his
subjects; he was not a poet in the true sense of the word,
but a consummate painter. Yet, now and then, he manages to
go beyond himself, and to pierce the surface till he reaches
the soul of the sitter. In such cases his portraits may rank
with those of Titian" (Morelli's _German Galleries_, p. 48).
His colouring varied at different periods of his life. For
examples of his manner before he came under Il Moretto's
influence see 1023 and 1316--the reddish hue of his flesh-tints
being characteristic. In his second period he adopted the
"silvery" manner of Il Moretto: seen here and in 1022; whilst
for his third, or naturalistic manner see 742. Moroni is a
distinguished ornament of the school of Bergamo--a provincial
school characterised, says Morelli, by "manly energy," but
also by "a certain prosaic want of refinement." See, for
other Bergamese painters, Previtali (695) and Cariani (1203).
Palma Vecchio, the greatest of them, is represented by the
"Portrait of Ariosto," 636. Giambattista Moroni was a painter
without honour in his own country, and when people from Bergamo
came to Titian to be painted, he used to refer them to their
own countryman--no better face painter, he would tell them,
existed. Moroni is believed to have entered the studio of
Moretto at Brescia when fifteen years of age. His religious
pictures are inferior reflections of his master's. Upon one
of them, still preserved in the church of Gorlago (between
Bergamo and Brescia) he was engaged at the time of his death.
No admirer of Moroni should omit to visit Bergamo: a splendid
series of his portraits is to be seen in the Carrara gallery
of that town. There too, as also in the gallery at Verona, is
a pretty portrait by him of a little girl.

A "speaking portrait." "The tailor's picture is so well done," says an old Italian critic, "that it speaks better than an advocate could." A portrait that enables one, moreover, to realise what was once meant by a "worshipful company of merchant tailors." Tagliapanni--for such is his name--is no Alton Locke--- no discontented "tailor and poet"; neither is he like some fashionable West-End tailor, with ambitions of rising above his work. He is well-to-do--notice his handsome ring; but he has the shears in his hands. He does the work himself, and he likes the work. He is something of an artist, it would seem, in clothes: his jacket and handsome breeches were a piece of his work, one may suppose; and the artist has caught and immortalised him, as he is standing back for a minute to calculate the effect of his next cut.

698. THE DEATH OF PROCRIS.

_Piero di Cosimo_ (Florentine: 1462-1521).

A very characteristic work, and the most interesting of those
extant, by Piero, called di Cosimo, after his godfather and
master, Cosimo Rosselli. Piero's peculiarities are well known
to all readers of George Eliot's _Romola_, where everything
told us about him by Vasari in one of his most amusing chapters
is carefully worked up. The first impression left by this
picture--its quaintness--is precisely typical of the man. He
shut himself off from the world and stopped his ears; lived in
the untidiest of rooms, and would not have his garden tended,
"preferring to see all things wild and savage about him." He
took his meals at times and in ways that no other man did, and
Romola used to coax him with sweets and hard-boiled eggs. His
fondness for quaint landscape ("he would sometimes stand beside
a wall," says Vasari, "and image forth the most extraordinary
landscapes that ever were") may be seen in this picture; so
also may his love of animals, in which, says Vasari, he took
"indescribable pleasure." Piero accompanied his master, Cosimo
Rosselli, to Rome in 1480, and painted the landscape to that
master's "Sermon on the Mount" in the Sixtine Chapel. He
painted several altar-pieces, but his true bent was towards
mythological subjects and quaintly decorative treatment.
Vasari describes in detail a Carnival triumph devised by Piero.
This and the adornment of dwelling-rooms and marriage-chests
were the forms in which his fantastic originality found the
most congenial expression. He was also a good portrait-painter:
No. 895 in this gallery has recently been recognised as his
work.

The subjects of Piero's pictures were generally mythological. In _Romola_ he paints Tito and Romola as Bacchus and Ariadne; here he shows the death of Procris, the story in which the ancients embodied the folly of jealousy. For Procris being told that Cephalus was unfaithful, straightway believed the report and secretly followed him to the woods, for he was a great hunter. And Cephalus called upon "aura," the Latin for breeze, for Cephalus was hot after the chase: "Sweet air, O come," and echo answered, "Come, sweet air." But Procris, thinking that he was calling after his mistress, turned to see, and as she moved she made a rustling in the leaves, which Cephalus mistook for the motion of some beast of the forest, and let fly his unerring dart, which Procris once had given him.

But Procris lay among the white wind-flowers,
Shot in the throat. From out the little wound
The slow blood drained, as drops in autumn showers
Drip from the leaves upon the sodden ground.
None saw her die but Lelaps, the swift hound,
That watched her dumbly with a wistful fear,
Till at the dawn, the hornèd wood-men found
And bore her gently on a sylvan bier,
To lie beside the sea,--with many an uncouth tear.

Piero's treatment of the theme is, it should be noted, romantic, rather than classical; in which respect his picture is characteristic of the earlier Renaissance. "In creating his Satyr the painter has not had recourse to any antique bas-relief, but has imagined for himself a being half human, half bestial, and yet wholly real; nor has he portrayed in Procris a nymph of Greek form, but a girl of Florence. The strange animals and gaudy flowers introduced into the landscape background further remove the subject from the sphere of classic treatment. Florentine realism and quaint fancy being thus curiously blended, the artistic result may be profitably studied for the light it throws upon the so-called Paganism of the earlier Renaissance. Fancy at that moment was more free than when superior knowledge of antiquity had created a demand for reproductive art, and when the painters thought less of the meaning of the fable for themselves than of its capability of being used as a machine for the display of erudition" (Symonds's _Renaissance_, iii. 187). Piero seems to have taken his background from Lake Thrasymene.

Piero's poetic fancy in this picture has aroused a responsive echo in the poets of our own day. The lines quoted above are from "The Death of Procris; a version suggested by the so-named picture of Piero di Cosimo in the National Gallery," in Mr. Austin Dobson's _Old World Idylls_. Another version of the picture may be found in Michael Field's _Sight and Song_:--

And there she lies half-veiled, half-bare,
Deep in the midst of nature that abides
Inapprehensive she is lying there,
So wan;
The flowers, the silver estuary afar--
These daisies, plantains, all the white and red
Field-blossoms through the leaves and grasses spread;
The water with its pelican,
Its flight of sails and its blue countrysides--
Unto themselves they are;
The dogs sport on the sand,
The herons curve about the reeds
Or one by one descend the air,
While lifelessly she bleeds
From throat and dabbled hand.

Mr. Ruskin also has written a piece around our picture, which he reads with a different eye from "Michael Field,"[170] seeing in it not so much the inapprehensiveness of nature as the pathetic fallacy whereby the moods of nature are made to sympathise with human joy or sorrow:--

"The next best landscape (to Bellini's 'Peter Martyr') in
the National Gallery is a Florentine one on the edge of
transition to the Greek feeling; and in that the distance
is still beautiful, but misty, not clear; the flowers are
still beautiful, but, intentionally, of the colour of blood;
and in the foreground lies the dead body of Procris, which
disturbs the poor painter greatly; and he has expressed his
disturbed mind about it in the figure of a poor little brown
(nearly black) Faun, or perhaps the god Faunus himself, who
is much puzzled by the death of Procris, and stoops over
her, thinking it a woful thing to find her pretty body lying
there breathless, and all spotted with blood on the breast"
(_Lectures on Landscape_, § 94).

699. AGOSTINO AND NICCOLO DELLA TORRE.

_Lorenzo Lotto_ (Venetian: 1480-1555).

To this great painter full justice has scarcely been done by
writers on art--an omission which in recent years Morelli and
still more Mr. Berenson, in his elaborate monograph, have
sought to repair. Lotto led a wandering life, which took him
much away from Venice; hence his pictures are comparatively
little known. Again, as Sir F. Burton points out, "great
versatility and remarkable impressibility are among the chief
characteristics of Lotto, who certainly was possessed of genius
but whose development was oscillating and affected by many
influences. Only by extremely careful study and comparison can
his hand be traced throughout in works, which at first sight
exhibit little or nothing in common. Were none of Lotto's works
signed or otherwise attested they would certainly bear very
various attributions, as indeed many of his unsigned pictures
have done, and as it is likely some do still." The portrait,
for instance, of Andrea Odoni at Hampton Court was for several
centuries attributed to Correggio, but recent cleaning has
uncovered Lotto's signature and the date 1527. Of his power as
a portrait-painter visitors to the National Gallery can form a
good idea. His works in this sort will bear comparison with the
best of his contemporaries. They have, says Morelli, "all that
refined, inward elegance of feeling which marks the culminating
point in the last stage of progressive art in Italy, and
which is principally represented by Leonardo da Vinci, Lotto,
Andrea del Sarto, and Correggio; whereas the elegance of
Bronzino in Tuscany, and of Parmigiano in North Italy, is an
outward affected one, which has nothing to do with the inner
life of the person represented, and therefore characterises
the first stage of declining art." His sympathetic nature
enabled him to seize the finer traits of his sitters, and
they in turn "look out from his canvasses as if begging for
the sympathy" of the spectator. No. 1047 in our Gallery is
especially characteristic. Lotto's altar-pieces, which were
numerous, must be studied at Treviso, Recanati, Jesi, Bergamo,
and Trescorre (frescoes), near the latter place. His pictures
at different periods (they are for the most part dated) show
strong resemblances to different painters--to Bellini and the
Vivarini, to Palma, to Titian, to Giorgione, and to Correggio.
He was born at Venice, and, according to Vasari, was a disciple
of John Bellini. Mr. Berenson, on the contrary, maintains
on internal evidence that Lotto must have belonged to the
rival school of Alvise Vivarini. Of Palma, he was, according
to Vasari, the friend and companion. With Titian he was on
friendly terms, though if we may judge from a letter by Pietro
Aretino, the attitude of the worldly Titian coterie to the
gentle Lotto, was not unmixed with some contempt. "O Lotto," he
writes, "as goodness good, and as talent talented, Titian from
Augsburg, in the midst of the high favour everybody is eager to
show him, greets and embraces you by the token of the letter
which I received from him two days ago. He says that it would
double the pleasure that he takes in the emperor's satisfaction
with the picture he is now painting, if he had your eye and
your judgment to approve him. And indeed, the painter is
not mistaken, for your judgment has been formed by age, by
nature, and by art, with the prompting of that straightforward
kindliness which pronounces upon the works of others exactly
as if they were your own. Envy is not in your breast. Rather
do you delight to see in other artists certain qualities which
you do not find in your own brush, although it performs those
miracles which do not come easy to many who yet feel very happy
over their technical skill. But holding the second place in
the art of painting is nothing compared to holding the first
place in the duties of religion, for Heaven will recompense you
with a glory that passes the praise of this world.--Venice,
April 1548." The resemblance between Lotto and Correggio was
founded on no personal intercourse or artistic "influence," but
on similarity of temperament. It is most conspicuous in the
works of Lotto's "Bergamask period" (1518-1526). But whereas
Correggio's sensitiveness is to impressions of outward joy
and beauty, Lotto's is attuned rather to states of the human
soul. Titian's sitters, it has been well said, are as if on
parade, and his religious pictures tell of the pomp or rapture
of public services. Lotto's sitters commune rather with their
own souls, and in his devotional pieces he aims at a personal
interpretation of religious motives. "As a colourist," says
Burton, "Lotto remained throughout a Venetian. His flesh tints
are true, and various as the age, sex, and temperament of the
persons depicted." All that we know of his life suggests a
reserved, sensitive, and unworldly nature. Unlike so many of
his contemporaries, he never sued the favour of the mighty.
In his account book recently discovered at Loreto he speaks
again and again of having done excellent work for people who
remunerated him with pence where if a contract had been made
they would have had to pay him in pounds. He lodged sometimes
with friends, sometimes with monks. His life was that of a
lonely wanderer, very industrious, but laying up no store. In
1554 he made over himself and all his belongings to the Holy
House at Loreto, "being tired of wandering and wishing to end
his days in that holy place." During the last years of his life
he had almost entirely lost his voice. In one of his wills is
a reference which shows us the temperament of the man. Among
his scanty possessions were a number of antique gems. These
he speaks of lovingly, because they were engraved with mystic
symbols for the spirit to brood upon (see _Lorenzo Lotto: an
Essay in Constructive Criticism_, by Bernhard Berenson, 1895;
and Morelli's _German Galleries_, pp. 31-40; _Roman Galleries_,
p. 301).

Agostino was Professor of Medicine in the University of Padua; he holds a copy of "Galen," the most celebrated of the ancient medical writers, in his hand. It was for Niccolo, however, according to the inscription, that the picture was painted in 1515; and Signor Morelli (its former owner) thinks that Agostino's portrait must have been inserted at a later time, for "it is placed very awkwardly in the background" (_German Galleries_, p. 37 _n._). "No one with a feeling for composition can doubt for an instant that Agostino was originally intended to be alone on the canvas, as he occupies all of it that a single bust ought to occupy. Morelli's inference seems thus to be well founded that Lotto, on his return from Venice to Bergamo, stopped at Padua and painted the portrait of Agostino, which he brought to Niccolo at Bergamo, who thereupon had his own portrait added.... Lotto's sitters were in no way remarkable. Nevertheless, he gives them a look of refinement and innate sweetness of nature which brings us very close to them" (Berenson, pp. 138, 321).

700. THE HOLY FAMILY.

_Bernardino Lanini_ (Lombard: about 1508-1578).

Lanini was a native of Vercelli, and a scholar of Gaudenzio
Ferrari. Subsequently he approached more to the manner of
Leonardo, as in this picture dated 1543. His works are frequent
at Turin and Vercelli. There is an altar-piece by him at Borgo
Sesia, near Varallo; his principal works are frescoes in the
Cathedral at Novara.

Mr. Pater bids us notice in this picture the "pensive, tarnished silver sidelights, like mere reflections of natural sunshine" ("Art Notes in North Italy," _New Review_, Nov. 1890).

701. THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN.

_Justus of Padua_ (died 1400).

A picture of interest as being the oldest by any North Italian
painter in the Gallery--the date inscribed on the plinth below
is 1367. Justus (Giusto di Giovanni) was a native of Florence,
who in 1375 settled in Padua and founded his style upon the
works of Giotto in that town. The frescoes at Padua formerly
ascribed to him are now said to be the works of his scholars,
Giovanni and Antonio da Padova.

None of the pictures in our Gallery by followers of Giotto is so satisfactory as this; "exquisite both in design and colour, though on a very small scale, it has," says Sir E. Poynter, "all the largeness of style which characterises the great Florentine fourteenth-century frescoes" (_The National Gallery_, i. 258). "The Virgin is of a fresh type, pretty and noble also. Amongst the saints in the centre picture that of St. Paul (on the extreme right) is distinguished by its natural bearing. There is, however, vigour and a sense of beauty and proportion throughout this charming little work." In the panel to the left, with the Nativity, "may be noticed the spirit of alertness in the attendant waiting to wash the child, and the statuesque design of St. Joseph"; in that to the right, with the crucifixion, "the figure of St. John, at the foot of the Cross, with its fine expression of grief, and beautifully-designed drapery" (Monkhouse, _Italian Pre-Raphaelites_, p. 23). Above is the Annunciation, with regard to which see notes on No. 1139. On the reverse side of the wings are other incidents from the life of the Virgin.

This and the pictures following (701-722) were presented by Queen Victoria to the National Gallery "in fulfilment of the wishes of H.R.H. the Prince Consort." They formerly belonged to the collection of H.I.H. Prince Louis of Oettingen-Wallerstein, and afterwards became the property of Prince Albert. It was his intention from the first to present them to the nation, but the gift was delayed owing to the uncertainty with regard to the site of the proposed new National Gallery. The Prince's purpose remained unaccomplished, but not forgotten, at his death, and in 1863 the best pictures from the collection were presented by Queen Victoria to the nation.

702. MADONNA AND CHILD.

_Unknown_ (Umbrian: 15th-16th century).

Formerly ascribed to _L'Ingegno_. _See 1220._

703. MADONNA AND CHILD.

_Pinturicchio_ (Umbrian: 1454-1513). _See 693._

704. COSIMO, DUKE OF TUSCANY.

_Angelo Bronzino_ (Florentine: 1502-1572). _See 649._
_See also_ (p. xx)

A contemporary portrait of the great Medici, the first "Grand Duke" of Tuscany (ruled 1537-1564), who was regarded in his day as the very incarnation of Machiavelli's _Prince_, "inasmuch as he joined daring to talent and prudence," and though "he could practise mercy in due season," was yet "capable of great cruelty." No one, who notices here that large protruding under lip of his, will doubt this last element in his character.

705. STS. MATTHEW, CATHERINE, AND JOHN.

_Ascribed to Stephan Lochner_ (Early German: died 1451).

"Meister Stephan" was a native of Constance, who settled in
Cologne, and whose work has the stamp of the early Cologne
School (see 687). His chief work is the so-called Dombild, now
in Cologne Cathedral: "Item. I gave two white pennies," says
Albert Dürer in his diary, "to see the picture that Master
Staffan of Cologne painted." This famous altar-piece has been
published by the Arundel Society. "Italian Art," says Sir F.
Burton, "has seldom produced a group so beautiful as that of
the crowned Madonna in its central panel." Another exquisite
little picture ascribed to Meister Stephan is in the Cologne
Museum.

Three figures full of innocent fervour and graceful sentimentality. St. Matthew as an evangelist holds a book and a pen, and is attended by the symbolic angel. St. John is attended by the eagle, which is the constant symbol of this evangelist, because he soared upwards to the contemplation of the divine nature of the Saviour.

706. PRESENTATION OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE.

_The Master of the Lyversberg Passion_ (German:
died about 1490).

A picture by the unknown painter of a series of Passion
pictures, formerly belonging to Herr Lyversberg of Cologne,
but now in the Museum of the city. He painted also a series
of eight subjects from the Life of Mary. Of these six are in
the Pinacothek at Munich, a seventh is in the German Museum at
Nuremberg, and our picture is the eighth.

Characteristic of the German School after the Flemish influence. The sky background is gilt as in the old German pictures, but the types of the figures are Flemish. Notice the quaint pointed shoes, and the touch of realism in making the foot of Simeon, as he advances to receive the child from its mother, come half out of his slipper.

707. ST. PETER AND ST. DOROTHY.

_Master of the Cologne Crucifixion_ (Early German School: early 16th
century).

Part of an altar-piece, the rest of which is in the Munich Gallery, by an artist whose name is unknown, and who is therefore called after his principal works (now in the Cologne Museum). It has been well said of him that "he succeeded in giving an intense expression of transient emotion to the faces; but by endeavouring to lend a sympathetic action to the whole figure, he has exaggerated the action into distortion" (_History of Painting_, from the German of Woltmann and Woermann, ii. 224). This is conspicuously the case here. Look, for instance, at the comic contrast between St. Peter's big foot and St. Dorothy's pointed little shoe--between what is almost a leer on his face and the "mincing" affectation on hers. St. Peter is distinguished of course by the keys; St. Dorothy by the basket of flowers--the flowers which she sent to Theophilus in token of the truth of the faith in which she died: "Carry these to Theophilus, say that Dorothea has sent them, and that I go before him to the garden whence they came and await him there" (see Mrs. Jameson; _Sacred and Legendary Art_, p. 336, ed. 1850).

708. MADONNA AND CHILD.

_Unknown_[171] (Early Flemish: 15th century).

The Madonna offers Christ an apple--symbol of the forbidden fruit, and thus of the sin in the world which he came to remove.

709. MADONNA AND CHILD.

_Unknown_ (Flemish School; 15th-16th century).
_See also_ (p. xx)

"In Flemish pictures the varnish was incorporated with the surface colours, and cannot be removed without destroying at the same time the very fabric of the work. For this reason all attempts to, what is called, _restore_, or clean pictures of the Flemish School, result only in the destruction of the work, and by this means many fine pictures have, for all practical purposes, perished.... (This picture) is a lamentable example" (Conway's _Early Flemish Artists_, p. 119).

710. PORTRAIT OF A MONK.

_Unknown_[172] (Early Flemish: 15th century).

711. "MATER DOLOROSA."

712. "ECCE HOMO!"

_Roger van der Weyden_ (Flemish: 1400-1464). _See 664._

"It was a common custom with Roger's followers to copy single heads out of their master's large groups. Such single heads always have gold backgrounds, usually dotted over with little black dashes" (Conway's _Early Flemish Artists_, p. 275). These companion panels are perhaps instances, and the heads selected for reproduction are typical of the overstrained pathos of this school. Notice how prominently the tears in the sorrowing mother, and the blood and tears in the "Ecco Homo" are made to stand out.

713. MADONNA AND CHILD.

_Jan Mostaert_ (Early Dutch: 1474-1555).
_See also_ (p. xx)

Mostaert, a native of Haarlem, was for eighteen years painter
to Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands. A picture
ascribed to him is preserved in the church of Notre Dame at
Bruges, but no known pictures bear his signature. A large
number of his works perished in the great fire at Haarlem in
1571.

One of the few specimens in the Gallery of the first period of Dutch art, when it was still following the traditions of the Early Flemish School.

714. MADONNA AND CHILD.

_Cornelis Engelbertsz_ (Dutch: 1468-1533).
_See also_ (p. xx)

Engelbertsz was one of the earliest oil painters at Leyden,
and is said to have been the master of Lucas of Leyden. Most
of his important religious works were destroyed by the Dutch
iconoclasts of the sixteenth century.

715. THE CRUCIFIXION.

_Joachim Patinir_ (Early Flemish: died 1524).
_See also_ (p. xx)

Patinir (born at Dinant, but settled in Antwerp) was styled
by Albert Dürer, who stayed with him when in Antwerp, drew
his portrait and attended his wedding, "Joachim the good
landscape painter." What distinguishes his landscape is its
greater expanse, as compared with earlier works. The Flemish
painters preceding him were mostly content with the narrow
domestic scenery of their own Maas country. But Patinir's
pictures "embrace miles of country, and open on every side....
Some far-away cottage by the river-side, some hamlet nestling
against a remote hill-slope, some castle on a craggy peak,
blue against the transparent sky--such objects were a joy to
him.... Moreover, with Patinir the fantastic element was of
much importance. He wished his landscapes to be romantic.... He
would have precipitous rocks.... His river must pass through
gorges or under natural archways; his skies must be full of
moving clouds; his wide districts of country must present
contrasts of rocky mountain, water, and fertile plains.... He
saw also the grandeur of wild scenery, and strove, though not
with perfect success, to bring that into his pictures, showing
thereby the possession of a foretaste of that delight in nature
for her own sake, the full enjoyment of which has been reserved
for the people of our own century" (Conway's _Early Flemish
Artists_, pp. 299, 300). "His figures," says Sir F. Burton,
"while retaining old Netherlandish characteristics, are
good, expressive, and even noble in conception." Most of the
Galleries contain pictures by Patinir. Madrid is particularly
rich in them.

"A high authority on early Flemish art, M. Henri Hymans, has stated that the figures in the 'Crucifixion' given to Joachim Patinir, and of which the landscape is undoubtedly his, are by the painter's friend, Quentin Matsys. Unquestionably these figures differ much in colour and execution from those contained in such other examples of Patinir in the National Gallery as the 'Nun' (945), or 'The Visit of the Virgin to St. Elizabeth' (1082)" (Claude Phillips in the _Academy_, September 28, 1889).

716. ST. CHRISTOPHER.

_Joachim Patinir_ (Early Flemish: died 1524). _See 715._

One of the earliest attempts in painting to tell the beautiful legend of Christopher (the Christ bearer), the hermit ferryman, who, "having sustained others in their chief earthly trials, afterwards had Christ for companion of his own." The best account of the legend of St. Christopher is to be found in Miss Alexander's _Roadside Songs of Tuscany_, edited by Ruskin, illustrated with "the most beautiful and true designs that have ever yet been made out of all the multitude by which alike the best spiritual and worldly power of Art have commended to Christendom its noblest monastic legend."

717. ST. JOHN ON THE ISLAND OF PATMOS.

_Joachim Patinir_ (Early Flemish: died 1524). _See 715._

The evangelist on the island of Patmos, writing the revelations out of an ink-horn held by an eagle, which an imp is attempting to steal. In the sky above are the revelations themselves: "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.... And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads" (Revelation xii. 1, 3).

718. CHRIST ON THE CROSS.

_Ascribed to Hendrik Bles_ (Flemish: about 1480-1550).

Bles, called by the Italians "Civetta" (the owl), on account of
the owl which he often adopted as his monogram, was an imitator
of Patinir (see 715). Van Mander says that his nickname was Met
de Bles (with the forelock), but as he signs himself Henricus
Blessius, it is probable that Bles was his real name.

719. THE READING MAGDALEN.

_Ascribed to Hendrik Bles_ (_See last picture_).

For the subject see No. 654.

720. A "REPOSE" (see No. 160).

721. PORTRAIT OF A LADY.

_Jan van Schorel_ (Dutch: 1495-1562).

Schorel, so called from his birthplace, belongs to the second
period of Dutch art, and was one of the most successful of the
"Italianisers"; but neither of these pictures is a good or
indeed a certain specimen. He was a poet and musician as well
as a painter, and studied under Albert Dürer at Nuremberg.
He afterwards visited Venice, whence he went to Jerusalem,
returning by Rhodes to Rome. In 1522 he was made by his
countryman, Pope Adrian VI., Keeper of the Art Collection of
the Vatican. He afterwards returned to Utrecht, where he died
a Canon of St. Mary's. He was the master of Anthony Mor.

722. A LADY'S PORTRAIT.

_Unknown_ (German: 15th-16th century).

Formerly ascribed to Sigmund Holbein (1465-1540). A German housewife--with a characteristic mixture about her of sentimentality (for she holds a forget-me-not in her hand) and of austerity (for there is something forbidding, surely, in these terribly angular fingers of hers).

724. "OUR LADY OF THE SWALLOW."

_Carlo Crivelli_ (Venetian: painted 1468-1493). _See 602._

Full of the dainty detail which characterises the Venetian pictures of this time. Notice the fruit placed everywhere about the Virgin's throne; and above, the vases of flowers and the swallow--hence the name of the picture, "Madonna della Rondine." Notice also the beautiful dress patterns and the rich hanging brocades. The Virgin's dress is a lovely silk brocade, of a design which might well be copied for muslins and curtains. In this picture, however, "Crivelli's gift of characterisation has been overpowered by his interest in the accessories. St. Jerome, indeed, is a noble and dignified figure, but who could believe in the St. Sebastian? As a study of costume the figure is interesting, reproducing every detail with minute fidelity, and bringing before us the model of a well-dressed young man of Crivelli's time. But the features are of an ignoble type, and the attitude is suggestive only of self-conscious vanity. Instead of a devout attendant at the throne, we seem to get a dandy posing for the admiration of the spectator." The scenes of the predella, on the other hand, are full of animation, of feeling, and of force (Rushforth's _Crivelli_, p. 72). The picture is signed by Carolus Crivellus _Miles_, so that it is one of his later works. In the centre of the step is the escutcheon of the Odoni family, for whose chapel in the church of the Franciscans at Matelica the picture was painted.