Chapter XXI: Preface: By John Ruskin (19)

Though Domenico describes himself as Venetian (as on the
signature to 1215), he worked at Perugia and Florence, and his
works belie any connection with Venetian art. Between 1439 and
1445 he was engaged in the church of S. Maria Nuova, in which
work he was assisted by his pupil Piero della Francesca.
These pictures have perished. The works by his hand we possess
give no evidence of his being an oil painter, but he is known
to have used oil, and indeed was celebrated as one of the
earliest Italian painters in that medium. Vasari's story about
Andrea del Castagno's jealousy, and his murder of Domenico
in consequence, is disproved by documentary evidence showing
that Domenico survived his alleged murderer by five years.
Domenico's only known works, now extant, are an altar-piece in
the Uffizi and the work described below.

These heads are from the niche or tabernacle which contained the Madonna and Child, No. 1215. The work was executed for the Canto (street corner) de' Carnesecchi in Florence. It is thus referred to by Vasari:--

Being invited to Florence, the first thing Domenico did was to
paint a tabernacle in fresco, at the corner of the Carnesecchi,
in the angle of the two roads, leading, the one to the new, the
other to the old Piazza of Santa Maria Novella. The subject of
this work is a Virgin surrounded by various saints, and as it
pleased the Florentines greatly and was much commended by the
artists of the time, as well as by the citizens, this picture
awakened bitter rage and envy against poor Domenico in the
ill-regulated mind of Andrea (ii. 99--here follows Vasari's
rattling and reckless story of Domenico's murder by the jealous
Andrea del Castagno).

For centuries Domenico's work was exposed to wind and weather. The heads, Nos. 766, 767, passed into the possession of Sir Charles Eastlake, from whose collection they were purchased for the National Gallery in 1867. The central fresco (No. 1215) was in 1851 detached from the wall and badly restored. It was subsequently acquired by Lord Lindsay, the author of _Sketches of the History of Christian Art_, whose son, James, Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, presented it to the nation in 1886.

768. ST. PETER AND ST. JEROME.

_Antonio Vivarini_ (Venetian: died 1470).

Antonio da Murano, called also Antonio Vivarini, was the eldest
of a family of painters, who played a part in the development
of the Venetian School corresponding to that of Giotto and his
circle in the Florentine School. The Venetian is, it will be
seen, a century later than the Florentine (_cf._ Introduction).
It was at the adjacent island of Murano (where most of the
Venetian glass is now made, and which was once the resort of
the wealthier Venetian citizens) that an independent school
first developed itself, Antonio and his brother Bartolommeo
(see 284) being natives of that place. The work of the
Vivarini was to impart a distinctively artistic impulse to the
conventional craftsmanship which previously prevailed in Venice
in accordance with Byzantine traditions. Recently published
documents (dated 1272) give a curious insight into the position
and work of the earliest Venetian painters (see Richter's
_Lectures on the National Gallery_, pp. 23-29). They were
treated merely as artisans. They were engaged for the most part
in work which would now be classed as industrial craftsmanship
in painting arms and furniture. Paintings, in our sense of the
word, were an unimportant and occasional branch of their work.
The division of labour which in our own day is a frequent cause
of industrial disputes (as, for instance, between builders and
plasterers) was then in dispute between painters and gilders.
A recorded case was settled as follows: "We judge it just
to permit the gilder to use colour, and the painter to use
gilding, when the one or the other plays a subordinate part in
the finished work. A decision in the opposite sense would seem
to us hard; for it would be inconvenient to decree that a work
which can be done by one, must be done by two. Thus, though
each litigant loses, each is compensated for his loss. The
profession of the gilder is gilding, but painting is permitted
as an accessory. In like manner painting is the profession of
the painter, but gilding is permitted as an accessory." In
this picture, St. Peter's key is, it will be seen, embossed
in goldsmiths' fashion, and Bartolommeo's picture has a gold
background. Antonio Vivarini first worked in partnership with
a certain Zuan (Giovanni), who appears to have been a German
by birth, and the visitor will notice between the work of the
early Venetian School a certain affinity with the contemporary
German work of the Cologne School. After 1450 the name of
Johannes the German disappears from the inscriptions on
Vivarini altar-pieces, and that of Bartolommeo takes its place.

769. ST. MICHAEL AND THE DRAGON.

(_Umbrian_: 1416-1492). _See 665._

Formerly ascribed to Fra Carnovale (Bartolommeo Corradini); but
between Piero della Francesca's angels in 908 and the figure of
St. Michael here there is a close resemblance, which seems to
identify the picture as his.

St. Michael, the angel of war against the dragon of sin, stands triumphant over his foe--emblem of the final triumph of the spiritual over the animal and earthly part of our nature. It is the most universal of all symbols. The victor is different in different ages, but the enemy is always the same crawling reptile. Christian art, from its earliest times, has thus interpreted the text, "The dragon shalt thou trample under feet" (Psalm xci. 13); and in illustrations of Hindoo mythology Vishnu suffering is folded in the coils of a serpent, whilst Vishnu triumphant stands like St. Michael, with his foot upon the defeated monster.

770. LEONELLO D'ESTE.

_Giovanni Oriolo_ (Ferrarese: painted about 1450).

Of Oriolo nothing is known. He was probably by birth a
Ferrarese, and was evidently a pupil of Pisano (see 776).

Leonello (of whom also there is a medallion portrait in the frame of the picture just referred to), of the house of Este, was Marquis of Ferrara, 1441-1450. His mild and kindly face agrees well with what is known of his life. The one important action of his reign was that of a peacemaker, when he mediated between Venice and the King of Anjou. "He had not his equal," says Muratori, "in piety towards God, in equity and kindness towards his subjects. He was the protector of men of letters and was himself a good Latin scholar."

771. ST. JEROME IN THE DESERT.

_Bono_ (Ferrarese: painted about 1450).

In the signature of this picture, "Bono of Ferrara" announces
himself "a pupil of Pisano's," and the figure of St. Jerome
here much resembles Pisano's "St. Anthony" (776). Bono's other
known work is a fresco of St. Christopher in the Eremitani
Chapel at Padua. "A clumsy and inferior master," says Morelli
(_German Galleries_, p. 11 _n._); "an excellent painter," says
Sir F. Burton. His style is, at any rate, precise and effective.

St. Jerome (for whom see 773 and 227) is in the desert, deep in thought; his lion couched at his feet keeps his master's thoughts company as faithfully as a scholar's dog. The desert is here shown as the saint's study; notice, especially, the little table that the rock makes behind him for his books. Ruskin says of a similar modification of accessories to express supernatural character, in Bellini's "St. Jerome" at Venice: "The Saint sits upon a rock, his grand form defined against clear green open sky; he is reading; a noble tree springs out of a cleft in the rock, bends itself suddenly back to form a rest for the volume, then shoots up into the sky. There is something very beautiful in this obedient ministry of the lower creature; but be it observed that the sweet feeling of the whole depends upon the service being such as is consistent with its nature. It is not animated, it does not _listen_ to the saint, not bend itself towards him as if in affection; this would have been mere fancy, illegitimate and effectless. But the simple bend of the trunk to receive the book is miraculous subjection of the true nature of the tree; it is therefore imaginative, and very touching" (_Modern Painters_, vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. ii. ch. v. § 8).

772. MADONNA AND CHILD ENTHRONED.

_Cosimo Tura_ (Ferrarese: 1420-1495).

Cosimo Tura (pronounced Cosmè in Ferrarese) is the first
Ferrarese painter of eminence and of native talent whose
works have come down to us. He was a well-to-do citizen, and,
like Titian after him, dealt in timber. As an artist he was
in the service of Duke Borso of Ferrara (whose portrait is
introduced in the background of No. 773), and other members
of the princely house of Este. The court of Ferrara was then
one of the most learned of Italy. A curious instance occurs in
this picture, where, on either side of the Virgin's throne,
are inscribed the Commandments, in Hebrew characters. Such
inscriptions are common in Ferrarese pictures, and point to
the presence of some Hebrew scholar or scholars. It was at
this court that Cosimo came under the influence of Flemish
art as described below, for the house of Este (which was of
Lombard origin, and thus had a natural affinity perhaps for
northern art) had invited Roger van der Weyden to Ferrara. Tura
was "first employed by the Duke of Ferrara in 1451. Between
1452 and 1456 his whereabouts are uncertain. Possibly he was
then in Padua among the followers of Squarcione, or else in
Venice, to the poor of which city he left by will part of the
fruits of his long and industrious life. In 1458 he rose to
a fixed appointment in the Ducal service. He made a fortune,
risked it in trade, and died a wealthy man" (Catalogue of the
Burlington Fine Arts Club's Exhibition, 1894, p. xv.). Some
of his works are to be seen at Ferrara, others are in the
Berlin Gallery, at Bergamo, and the Correr Museum at Venice.
He is one of the most unmistakable and least fascinating, yet
most interesting of painters. Of beauty or grace in the human
figure he had no perception. His colour schemes are peculiar,
and harmonious rather than beautiful. But he had sincerity
of purpose and vigour of manipulation. Where his subjects
lend themselves to strength, he is impressive, as in the "St.
Jerome" (773), but his Madonnas (772 and 905) are both affected
and ugly. His patience in the execution of detail, and quaint
if superabundant ornament, are always interesting. The picture
now before us is thoroughly characteristic of a master who
alternately repels and attracts.

The decorative detail here deserves close attention. Compare, for instance, the ornament of the pilasters here with that of the pilasters in Crivelli's "Annunciation" (739), which was painted about the same time. "Crivelli follows the traditional lines common to all such features from later Roman times downwards, while Tura's accessories are full of inventiveness and are evidently designed for this especial picture. Thus the cup, balls, and wing-like appendages in the pilaster are quite original. The general scheme of colour in the picture, also, with its contrasts of red and green, is quite apart from anything existing in contemporary Italian art, and recalls rather a Flemish stained-glass window of the fifteenth century" (G. T. Robinson in _Art Journal_, May 1886, pp. 149, 150). The musical instruments are also worth notice. "One of the angels, on the left, holds an ornamental viol, having five strings, with a carved man's head; another angel, on the right, holds a similar viol, with a carved woman's head. In the centre is placed a positive organ--that is, a small organ not intended for removal. The player is on the left, in front of the organ; the blower is on the right, behind it. Only natural keys are visible, but there are three stops to be drawn out from the side, in the primitive way, by means of cords attached to them, to control the pipes, of which thirty are visible and three are drones. These pipes are grouped in columnar disposition, like an hour-glass, and not in the order of ranks usual with small organs. It is noticeable that the player uses both hands, held nearly in the modern position" (A. J. Hipkins in _The Hobby Horse_, No. i. p. 19).

773. ST. JEROME IN THE DESERT.

_Cosimo Tura_ (Ferrarese: 1420-1495). _See 772._

Jerome knocking at his poor old breast
With his great round stone to subdue the flesh--

and schooling himself into renunciation of the world, the flesh, and the devil. In contrast to the wildness of the surroundings, the painter introduces quite a company of birds and beasts--an owl sits in sedate wisdom above the saint, his familiar lion is walking to the stream for water, and in the crannies and ledges are other animals to keep him company. For it was his union of gentleness and refinement with noble continence, his love and imagination winning even savage beasts into domestic friends, that distinguished St. Jerome and formed the true monastic ideal (see 227).

774. MADONNA AND CHILD.

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

On the Madonna's right is St. Peter; on her left St. Paul, an arrangement common in early art, St. Peter and St. Paul being the two chief apostles on whom the Church of Christ is built. St. Paul offers a pink to the infant Christ. Flowers were consecrated to the Virgin, and the early painters chose those they liked best to be emblems of love and beauty. Notice the design on the stuff fixed at the back of the Madonna's throne; it is a beautiful example of the ornamental work of the time in northern Europe. The picture was formerly ascribed to Van der Goes--an artist whose only certainly known picture is the altar-piece in the hospital of S. Maria Nuova in Florence,--and is by some ascribed to Bouts (see under 783).

775. AN OLD LADY.

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

An old lady, eighty-three years of age (as the inscription shows). This splendid portrait is dated 1634, and was made therefore when Rembrandt was twenty-eight. His mother was from the first a favourite sitter of his, and hence, perhaps, the affectionate fidelity with which he always painted the wrinkled faces of old age. In the British Museum there is an Indian-ink copy of this portrait, from which it appears that the lady's name was Françoise van Wasserhoven. Rembrandt, says M. Michel, "is most individual and moving in those portraits of old women, in which by the accidents of form and feature he so admirably suggests the moral life."

776. ST. ANTHONY AND ST. GEORGE.

_Vittore Pisano_ (Veronese: 1380-1452).

The earliest picture of the Veronese School in the Gallery. "No
school of painting in Italy except the Florentine shows," says
Morelli, "so regular and uninterrupted a development, from the
thirteenth to the seventeenth century, as the graceful school
of Verona. If we look, for example, at some of the oldest
frescoes at St. Zeno, at the frescoes of the great Pisanello
in S. Anastasia of the first half of the fifteenth century, at
the pictures of Liberale (1134 and 1336) and Domenico Morone
(1211), and of their pupils Francesco Morone (285), Girolamo
dai Libri (748), Michele da Verona (1214), Giolfino (749),
and Morando (735 and 769), and then to Paolo Veronese and his
followers, we find everywhere the same cheerful and graceful
character looking out of each of these works of the Veronese
School. The Veronese do not penetrate so deep into the essence
of art as the Venetians, but they are, with few exceptions,
more gracious and serene. And to this day the population of
this beautifully situated town is reckoned the cheeriest
and gayest in all Italy: _Veronesi, mezzo natti_" (_German
Galleries_, p. 395). In the National Gallery the development
of the Veronese School may, as will be seen from the
references inserted above, be well studied. The importance and
independence of the Veronese painters are shown by the career
of Vittore Pisano, commonly called by the endearing diminutive
Pisanello. He was born at St. Vigilio, near the Lake of Garda,
and was probably a pupil of Altichiero, an older master of the
Veronese School, and was famous as the inventor of a method of
casting medals; but though better known now as a medallist, in
his own day he was equally famous as a painter. In the frame of
this picture are inserted casts from two of his medals, and it
will be noticed that the lower one--a profile of himself--is
inscribed Pisanus Pictor; Pisano the Painter. The medal above
is that of Leonello d'Este, his patron, for whom this picture
was probably painted, and whose portrait by a pupil of Pisano
is in our Gallery (770). At Bergamo is a portrait of Leonello
by Pisano himself (reproduced in the Illustrated Catalogue of
the Morelli Gallery by Signor Frizzoni). Another evidence of
Pisano's practice as a medallist will be noticed in the gilt
embossed work of St. George's sword and spurs. Leonello wrote
of Pisano as "the most illustrious of all the painters of
this age," and contemporary writers similarly extol his fame.
In 1421 he was summoned to Venice. "When, in the beginning
of the fifteenth century, great monumental works in painting
were to be carried out at Venice, the local school was still
so insignificant that no native artist could be entrusted
with the commission. They were obliged to summon Vittore
Pisano, notwithstanding that he had once been on the list of
the politically obnoxious, and as such was liable to penal
consequences" (Richter). Pisano was accompanied by Gentile da
Fabriano. "The presence of those two eminent artists in the
city of the Lagoons gave," says Morelli, "a new impulse to
its school of painting. Jacopo Bellini became a scholar of
Gentile, and when his master had finished his work at Venice he
accompanied him to Florence. During the few years of their stay
at Venice, Gentile and Pisanello must not only have instructed
Bellini in their art, but their influence on Antonio Vivarini
of Murano also seems to me undeniable.... Taking him all in
all, I consider that Giovanni Bellini was the greatest painter
in North Italy in the fifteenth century, though undoubtedly
Pisano was in the first half of the century as great a painter
as was Bellini in the second half" (_German Galleries_, p.
357; _Roman Galleries_, p. 267). Of Pisano's wall-paintings
in the Doge's Palace, in that of the Pope, and in the castles
of the foremost princes of the century, no traces remain. His
fresco of "St. George mounting for the fight" may be seen
in the church of St. Anastasia at Verona. Among his very
rare easel-pictures the one now before us is signed and very
original in conception; No. 1436 is the most important, and
is especially interesting as illustrating Pisano's love of
representing animals, and the high reputation he enjoyed for
his skill in doing so. "Vittore lived," says Sir F. Burton,
"at a time when the traditions and forms of chivalry had not
yet died out; and all his works, including his delicate and
spirited pen-drawings in the Louvre, have a certain stamp of
knightly grace which is singularly attractive: in this respect
they resemble the creations of Gentile da Fabriano."

The subject of the picture--a meeting between St. George and St. Anthony, with a vision of the Virgin and Child above--is not to be found in the legends of the saints, and Pisano's conception is quite original. St. George appears to have been a favourite subject with the artist--probably because of the way in which his armour lent itself to medallion-like treatment. There is a good instance of frank anachronism in the large Tuscan hat of Pisano's own day which he quaintly makes St. George wear, "according to the everyday custom of the Italian noblemen at their country-seats in the summer."[181] Perhaps too the painter chose St. George partly because he involved a horse and a dragon, and Pisano, says Vasari, "took especial pleasure in the delineation of animals." This may have given him a weakness for the boar of good St. Anthony--the hermit saint whose temptations have passed into a proverb. The saint carries a bell, for "it is said that the wicked spirits that be in the region of the air fear much when they hear the bells ringen," and a staff, another means of exorcising the devil; whilst the boar, now tamed into service, is symbolical of the demon of sensuality which St. Anthony vanquished. And here perhaps we find the clue to the idea in the picture. For the dragon whom St. George slew represents the same sensual enemy. St. George conquered by fighting, St. Anthony by fasting. The two saints now meet when "each on his course alone" has "worked out each a way." The old man, whose life has been spent in struggle, greets the triumphant youth with curious surprise; and St. George too, with the thoughtful look on his face, will have much to say and learn. But over them both, as to all who overcome, the heavens open in beatific vision; for though there be diversity of gifts, it is the same spirit. The signature of the painter (Pisanus pinxit) is fantastically traced by herbage in the foreground.

777. MADONNA AND CHILD.

_Paolo Morando_ (Veronese: 1486-1522). _See 735._

A picture of great beauty, which goes far to justify the title of "the Raphael of the Veronese School" by which Morando has been distinguished. Every visitor will be struck by the unpretentious simplicity of conception, the rich colours and the sweet faces--with just a dash of Raphaelesque affectation. It is interesting to note that Morando was almost exactly contemporary with Raphael, while his art exhibits a maturity developed under totally different circumstances. For Morando never left Verona, and was thus, says Sir F. Burton, "a pure growth of the native Veronese School. His colouring, though often brilliant, is rather cold; the pale flesh-tints, glossy in surface, are shadowed with grey, and even the lake reds introduced in garments tend towards that purplish hue which the best colourists avoid."

778. MADONNA AND CHILD.

_Martino da Udine_ (Venetian: 1470-1547).

Martino of Udine was called also Pellegrino of San Daniele (a
village near the former place). According to Vasari, he was a
pupil of Giovanni Bellini, who, astonished at the marvellous
progress of his pupil, gave him the name of Pellegrino--that
is, rare, extraordinary. More probably, however, it should
be interpreted merely as a stranger or foreigner at Udine,
Martino being of Dalmatian origin (see for a full account and
discussion of this painter Morelli's _German Galleries_, pp.
18-23). He was, says Sir F. Burton, "one of those men who,
with little native genius, have yet the capacity of absorbing
material from others, and of working it into new forms with
success. Thus Pellegrino turned out some works which, while
they carry the foreign stamp of Giorgione, Titian, Pordenone,
or other great contemporaries, nevertheless show considerable
freshness of conception and treatment." His altar-piece, of
1494, in the church of Osopo, shows the influence of Cima da
Conegliano. From 1504 to 1512 he was frequently at Ferrara
working for the Duke Alfonso. In 1519-1521 he painted a part
of the choir of S. Antonio at S. Daniele (the earlier part
was painted in 1497); in this, his best work, he appears as
an imitator not only of Pordenone but of Romanino. In 1526 he
went, apparently for the first time, to Venice, there to buy
colours for a large picture which he had engaged to paint for
the church of Cividale: that picture shows his study of Palma.
Pellegrino combined with painting the business of a timber
merchant. "That so mediocre a painter as Pellegrino should have
attained high honour in Friuli need," says Morelli, "surprise
no one who knows the other painters of that little country.
The value of anything in the world is comparative. The Friulan
race never manifested the same talent for art as, for instance,
their neighbours of Treviso."

On the right of the throne is St. James, with his hand on the shoulder of the donor of the picture; on the left St. George, with the dead dragon at his horse's feet.

779, 780. FAMILY PORTRAITS.[182]

_Borgognone_ (Lombard: about 1455-1523). _See 298._
_See also_ (p. xx)

On the left (779) a group of nine men, above them a hand, probably of some patron saint; on the right (780) a group of thirteen women, kneeling (apparently) by the side of a tomb--studies of character drawing. These pictures are painted on silk (now attached to wood), and were originally part of a standard. Mr. Pater says of Borgognone that "a northern temper is a marked element of his genius--something of the _patience_, especially, of the masters of Dijon or Bruges, nowhere more clearly [seen] than in the two groups of male and female heads in the National Gallery, family groups, painted in the attitude of worship, with a lowly religious sincerity which may remind us of the contemporary work of M. Legros. Like those northern masters, he accepts piously, but can refine, what 'has no comeliness'" ("Art Notes in North Italy," in the _New Review_, November 1890).

781. RAPHAEL AND TOBIAS.

_Florentine School_ (15th century).
_See also_ (p. xx)

The Hebrew legend of Tobit and his son Tobias (told in the Book of Tobit in the Apocrypha) was a favourite one with the Mediæval Church, and became therefore a traditional subject for painting; see _e.g._ in the National Gallery, 288, 72, and 48. Tobit, a Jewish exile, having fallen also into poverty, and afterwards becoming blind, prays for death rather than life in noble despair. "To him the angel of all beautiful life (Raphael) is sent, hidden in simplicity of human duty, taking a servant's place for hire, to lead his son in all right and happy ways of life" (_Fors Clavigera_, 1877, p. 31). Here we see Raphael leading the young Tobias into Media, where he was to marry Sara, his rich kinswoman, the daughter of Raguel. But she was haunted by an evil spirit, who had slain her seven husbands, each on their wedding-day, and the angel bade Tobias take the gall of a certain fish, wherewith afterwards to heal his father's blindness, and its heart and liver wherewith to drive away the evil spirit from his bride. Tobias is carrying the fish, Raphael has a small box for the gall. The "rising step" and the "springy motion in his gait" are characteristic of him who was the messenger of heaven, the kindly companion of humanity--

Raphael, the sociable spirit, that deigned
To travel with Tobias, and secured
His marriage with the seven times wedded maid.

MILTON: _Paradise Lost_, v. 221.

For the authorship of this picture, see under 296. "This picture," says a critic who gives both to Verrocchio, "may possibly be not entirely from his hand, but there is no doubt that it is essentially his, and that to his fancy for painting boyhood and opening youth we owe that curious misreading of the story of Tobias, representing him as a young lad instead of a grown man, which is to be found through all the numerous Florentine picture of him by the school of Botticelli, by Piero di Cosimo and the rest" (_Times_, October 26, 1888).

782. MADONNA AND CHILD.

_Botticelli_ (Florentine: 1447-1510). _See under 1034._
_See also_ (p. xx)

Probably only a "school picture." Most of the old masters kept schools, or shops, in which several pupils served as apprentices and worked at pictures under the master's directions. The sale of such pictures under the master's name was (and is) a very common occurrence, and even in those days forged signatures were not unusual.

783. THE EXHUMATION OF BISHOP HUBERT.

_Unknown_ (Early Flemish: 15th century).

This beautiful work was formerly in the collection of Mr.
Beckford at Fonthill, where it was described as the Burial of a
Bishop by Jan Van Eyck. It has also been ascribed to Gerard Van
der Meire (see 1078) and to Thierri Bouts (about 1420-1475).
This latter painter--called by early authors Thierry, or Dierik
of Haarlem, from the name of his native town, and by modern
writers Thierri Stuerbout,--was town's painter of Louvain, and
a pupil probably of Roger van der Weyden. His principal works
are now in the Brussels Museum. Other pictures in the Gallery
attributed to him by some critics are 664, 774, and 943. Van
der Meire, Justus of Ghent, and Albert Van Ouwater have also
been suggested as the painters of this picture; it closely
resembles the "Raising of Lazarus" ascribed to the last-named
painter in the Berlin Gallery.

St. Hubert was originally a nobleman of Aquitaine, much addicted to all worldly pleasures, and especially to that of the chase. But one day in Holy Week, when all good Christians were at their devotions, as he was hunting in the forest of Ardennes, he encountered a milk-white stag bearing the crucifix between his horns. Filled with awe and astonishment, he renounced the pomps and vanities of the world, turned hermit in that very forest of Ardennes, was ordained, and became Bishop of Liège. So the legend runs, embalming, we may suppose, the conversion of some reckless lover of the chase, like the wild huntsman of the German legend. And at Liège he was buried, but thirteen years afterwards his body was disinterred, and lo! it was found entire; even the episcopal robes in which he had been interred were without spot or stain. A century later the body was removed from Liège and reinterred in the abbey church of the Benedictine monks of Ardennes. The Emperor Louis le Débonnaire assisted at the translation of the relics, and the day was long kept as a festival throughout this part of Flanders. This is the subject of the present picture, of which the scene is laid in the choir of a beautiful Gothic church. On the altar behind the principal group stands a shrine, on which is a little figure of St. Hubert with his hunting-horn. The royal personage assisting represents Louis le Débonnaire. The picture is of wonderful beauty, finished in every part (abridged from Mrs. Jameson: _Sacred and Legendary Art_, pp. 431, 432). Though it is thus an historical picture, the artist takes the figures from his own time, and the heads, like miniatures in character and delicacy of expression, are doubtless portraits--the whole scene being a picture of a Flemish Cathedral on some festival day. Notice, as a particularly interesting little piece of life, the man flattening his nose against the screen on the left, with a jeering expression, as if he "didn't half believe it all." It is a piece of living grotesque, exactly such as meets one in the sculptured stones of a mediæval cathedral itself--"peeping round the corner at you and lurking in secret places, like a monk's joke whispered in church" (Conway's _Early Flemish Artists_, p. 17).

788. AN ALTAR-PIECE.

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

This important picture is one of Crivelli's masterpieces and is very characteristic of his genius and its limitations. The work, it will be seen, is not so much a picture as a collection of panel pictures built up into a gorgeous piece of decoration. The panels in the two lower tiers were painted for the old church of San Domenico, at Ascoli; the central panel of the Madonna and Child is inscribed with the painter's name and the date 1476. The church was rebuilt in 1776, and some years afterwards the picture came into the possession of Cardinal Zelada at Rome, who added the four upper pictures by the same painter. In 1852 the picture passed to Prince Anatole de Demidoff, at Florence, where it was put into its present magnificent frame. Crivelli's artistic aim, it has been said, was the development and perfection of isolated figures for elaborate altar-pieces of this kind, and those before us are among the best he ever did: "in them calm dignity, strength of character, gentleness, and grace, can all be treated by him with perfect success apart from the disturbing elements of emotion and action." The type of the Virgin here is very characteristic, with her high-arched eyebrows, small mouth, and hair tightly drawn back from the forehead. So too are the hands, with very long fingers, in which affectation borders on dislocation. Very natural, on the contrary, is the figure of the infant Christ, "fast asleep with one hand under his head while with the other he grasps his mother's middle finger--a picture drawn from the life." The decorative details are characteristic. Note the dolphins on the base of the throne. The festoons are meant to represent real offerings of fruit, tied with string and fastened with nails. On one side of the Virgin is St. Peter, an impressive figure: his costume shows the use of raised ornaments and imitation gems, which is common in Crivelli's earlier works, but which he gradually dropped. Beyond St. Peter is St. John the Baptist in the wilderness: the hard and severe style of the figure is remarkable. "The landscape in which he stands should not be passed over, with the stream flowing at his feet and the tree-stems broken off so as not to interfere with the gold background which sets off the upper half of the figure." On the other side of the Virgin is St. Catherine of Alexandria, and beyond her St. Dominic--a figure "admirable in its expression of piety and humility and in the personality with which Crivelli has invested it." The half-length figures in the second tier are St. Francis, with the stigmata; St. Andrew, with cross and book--a very grand head; St. Stephen, with the stones of his martyrdom; and St. Thomas Aquinas, with book and the model of a church. In the top tier are St. Jerome, also carrying the model of a church; the Archangel Michael, trampling on the dragon and weighing in a pair of scales a man and a woman who are of light weight; St. Peter Martyr, with the sword of his martyrdom, and St. Lucy, carrying a plate with eyes upon it. The reference is to the legend which relates that in order to discourage the suit of a youth who loved her for the beauty of her eyes, she plucked them out with her own hands and sent them to him in a dish. The youth, struck with remorse, became a Christian, and Lucy's sight was miraculously restored to her.

790. THE ENTOMBMENT OF CHRIST.

_Michael Angelo_ (Florentine: 1475-1564).

Michelangelo (commonly anglicised as above) Buonarroti (which
surname, however, is commonly dropped) is the Titan of Italian
art. He was the rival of Raphael; and amongst the artists who
were present at the unveiling of his great statue of David were
Perugino, Botticelli, Lorenzo di Credi, Leonardo da Vinci,
and Filippino Lippi. He lived through the fall of Rome and
Florence, and survived into the decadence of Italian art. In
the many-sidedness of his genius he may be compared to Leonardo
da Vinci. He was at once painter, sculptor, architect, and man
of action. The greatness of his work was reflected in that of
his character. He passed most of his life at Rome, amidst the
petty intrigues of a debased Court; but he never placed his
self-respect in jeopardy. Filial duty, too, was one of the
mainsprings of his life. He lived most sparingly, and sent
all the money he could save to support his father's family at
Florence. "Whence they must pray God," he says in one of his
letters, "that all his works may have good success." He was
proud, and would brook no insult; and when Pope Julius left
him with unpaid marbles and workmen on his hands, he mounted
his horse and rode off to Florence. There are many stories,
too, of the quiet sarcasm with which he would "reproach men for
sin." "What does the raised hand denote?" Julius asked of a
statue of himself. "You are advising the people of Bologna to
be wise," was Michelangelo's reply. With all this, however, he
was for the most part above the jealousy of other artists. When
commissioned to paint the Sixtine Chapel, he urged that Raphael
would be a more fit person to execute so great a work; and when
he was appointed architect of St. Peter's he refused to permit
any material alteration of Bramante's design, though Bramante
had perpetually intrigued against him. Michelangelo was a poet
also (his sonnets have been translated by J. A. Symonds), his
poetry being partly inspired by Vittoria Colonna, widow of the
Marquis of Pescara, to whom late in life he became attached,
and whose friendship, until her death in 1547, was the solace
of his lonely labours.

It is only in Florence and in Rome that the work of
Michelangelo can be studied. Our Gallery is fortunate, however,
in having two easel pictures, which, whether entirely from
his own hand or not, are eminently characteristic of his
style. The South Kensington Museum and the Royal Academy each
possess one example of his sculpture. His drawings are to be
seen in several English collections, especially in that of the
University of Oxford. A concise chronological summary may here
be useful to recall to the reader's recollection the chief
works of the master. At the age of thirteen he was apprenticed
for three years to Domenico Ghirlandaio to whom our picture,
No. 809, was formerly ascribed. He made rapid advance in the
art of painting, and showed also aptitude for sculpture; so
that in 1489, before his apprenticeship was out, Domenico
recommended him to Lorenzo de' Medici, who had founded a school
of sculpture in the garden of his villa. Here, in the society
and service of Lorenzo, Michelangelo remained for four years.
Lorenzo's unworthy successor Piero employed the young artist
only on unworthy commissions, setting him on one occasion, it
is said, to make a statue of snow; a tradition which inspires a
noble passage in Ruskin's _Political Economy of Art_, as also
in Mrs. Browning's _Casa Guidi Windows_. In 1493 Michelangelo
removed to Bologna, returning in the next year to Florence,
where he produced a "Sleeping Cupid," which was sold in Rome
as a veritable antique. This induced him, in 1496, to try his
fortune in the Papal capital. To this period belong his statue
of "Cupid," now at South Kensington, the "Bacchus" in the
Bargello at Florence, and the noble "Pietà" in St. Peter's at
Rome. By these works he attained the position of the greatest
sculptor in Italy, and on his return to Florence in 1501 he
executed the colossal statue of "David," now in the Accademia.
Works of about the same time are the round marble relief in the
possession of the Royal Academy, and our picture No. 809. The
circular "Madonna and Child," now in the Uffizi, belongs to
1504. In the same year he received a commission to paint one
wall of the Palazzo Vecchio. The painting was never executed;
but Michelangelo's cartoon for it,--known as the "Cartoon
of Pisa"--excited great admiration for its treatment of the
human figure. In 1505 began Michelangelo's stormy relations
with the imperious Pope, Julius II. For two years he was
employed on a great bronze statue of the Pontiff, which was
afterwards cast as a cannon and used against the Pope by the
Bolognese. In 1508, being then thirty-three, Michelangelo was
commissioned by Julius to paint the ceiling of the Sixtine
Chapel. In this great work, which was finished on November 1,
1512, the artist set forth, in the vehicle of the human form,
his conception of the creation, and the early history of the
world, with reference to man's final redemption and salvation.
The frescoes have in our time been admirably photographed, and
the figures of the Prophets and Sibyls, who sit enthroned in
niches round the vault, are very widely known. The paintings
caused Michelangelo to suspend his labour on the mausoleum
of Julius--a work which gave him an infinity of labour and
vexation, and which was never finished. The great figure of
"Moses," now in S. Pietro in Vincoli, and the "Captives," in
the Louvre, were designed for this monument. During the nine
years' pontificate of Leo X. (1513-22), Michelangelo was mostly
employed in the unworthy occupation of procuring marble from
the quarries of Pietra Santa for the façade of the church
of San Lorenzo at Florence. The short reign of Adrian VI.
succeeded, and Michelangelo went on working for a time at the
monument to Julius. He was also employed on the works of the
Medici Chapel at Florence. In 1523 when Clement VII. succeeded,
the artist was put to various architectural works. Stormy years
followed, and Michelangelo quitted the Medici statues to defend
his native city. He was appointed director of fortifications,
and was entrusted also with diplomatic missions. When in 1530
Florence was treacherously yielded to the Medici, Michelangelo
lay for some time in concealment. Clement, however, gave him
his pardon, and ordered him to resume work on the Medici
chapel in San Lorenzo. He worked, as he says, with "morbid
haste" but saddened heart, and thus were completed his most
impressive productions in sculpture--the four great recumbent
figures for the tombs of Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici. In
1534 Clement died. Michelangelo flung down his mallet, and
set foot in Florence no more. But "a new Eurystheus arose for
our Hercules." The artist hoped to complete the mausoleum of
Julius. But the new Pope, Paul III., set him to work upon
the fresco of the Last Judgment, on the altar wall of the
Sixtine Chapel. In this mighty work, containing 314 figures,
which occupied him from 1534 to 1542, the painter "devoted
his terrible genius to a subject worthy of the times in which
he lived." Since he had first listened, while a youth, to the
prophecies of Savonarola, the woes announced in that apocalypse
had all come true. To Michelangelo, Christ came as an avenger,
vindictive and implacable, and the lost souls fall before his
wrath in every contortion of nudity. After the painting of
the "Last Judgment," one more great labour was reserved for
Michelangelo. He was called upon to succeed Antonio da San
Gallo as architect of St. Peter's, a post which he continued to
hold under succeeding Popes until his death. "The dome of St.
Peter's, as seen from Tivoli or the Alban hills, like a cloud
upon the Campagna, is his; but he has no share in the façade
which screens it from the Piazza." His last poem declared the
vanity of the art which was his glory, and his dying words to
his household were these; "In your passage through this life
remember the sufferings of Jesus Christ." His body was taken,
as he had desired, to Florence, and he lies in Santa Croce.

To the artistic genius of Michelangelo, a few out of
innumerable tributes may here be mentioned. Raphael "thanked
God that he was born in the days of Michelangelo," and Sir
Joshua Reynolds says, in his _Discourses_, that "to kiss the
hem of his garment, to catch the slightest of his perfections,
would be glory and distinction enough for an ambitious man."
His knowledge of the human body and his power of representing
it were supreme. "If a combination of the most exquisite
finish in drawing and modelling which allows the work to
bear the closest inspection in its details, with the utmost
simplicity, breadth, and clearness of effect in a distant
view, constitute, as I believe they do, the elements of perfect
work, I must assert positively," says Sir Edward Poynter,
"that Michelangelo is the most perfect of workmen." This
workmanship was employed with consummate dramatic effect.
"He considered figures the highest means of telling a story;
he concentrated his powers on the single important point of
expression, so that he had no need of accessories to help him
out with his story" (_Lectures on Art_). But above all the
work of Michelangelo was the expression of "a vast imaginative
gift, the stormy poetry of his mind." His works, says Ruskin,
"have borne and in themselves retain and exercise the same
inexplicable power--inexplicable because proceeding from an
imaginative perception almost superhuman, which goes whither
we cannot follow, and is where we cannot come; throwing naked
the final, deepest root of the being of man, whereby he grows
out of the invisible, and holds on his God home" (_Modern
Painters_, vol. ii. "Of Imagination Penetrative"). "About the
qualities of his genius," says Symonds, "opinions may and will,
and ought to differ. It is so pronounced, so peculiar, so
repulsive to one man, so attractive to another, that, like his
own dread statue of Lorenzo de' Medici, 'it fascinates and is
intolerable.' There are few, I take it, who can feel at home
with him in all the length and breadth and dark depths of the
regions that he traversed. The world of thought and forms in
which he lived habitually is too arid, like an extinct planet,
tenanted by mighty elemental beings with little human left to
them, but visionary Titan-shapes, too vast and void for common
minds to dwell in pleasurably. The sweetness that emerges
from his strength, the beauty which blooms rarely, strangely,
in unhomely wise, upon the awful crowd of his conceptions,
are only to be apprehended by some innate sympathy or by
long incubation of the brooding intellect. It is probable,
therefore, that the deathless artist through long centuries of
glory will abide as solitary as the simple old man did in his
poor house at Rome" (_Life of Michelangelo_, ii. 373). On his
successors the influence of Michelangelo was not happy. They
could imitate his mannerisms, but not his manner. They had not
his imagination, but they could copy the violent attitudes in
which he clothed his Titanic thoughts. The anatomical studies
which with him were the groundwork for his imagination to build
upon became in their hands the final object of their art.
(Among those who have been alternately fascinated and repelled
by Michelangelo was Ruskin. His case against Michelangelo
is contained in the pamphlet entitled _The Relation between
Michael Angelo and Tintoret_. But some of Ruskin's critics
forget that the pamphlet was meant to be read in conjunction
with his own earlier praise in _Modern Painters_, and with
Mr. Tyrwhitt's appreciation in _Christian Art and Symbolism_.
"These lectures," said Ruskin, in his preface to that book,
"show throughout the most beautiful and just reverence for
Michael Angelo, and are of especial value in their account
of him; while the last lecture on sculpture, which I gave at
Oxford, is entirely devoted to examining the modes in which
his genius itself failed, and perverted that of other men. But
Michael Angelo is great enough to make praise and blame alike
necessary, and alike inadequate").

One of the many unfinished works, which, as Vasari tells us, Michelangelo left behind him in painting as in sculpture. Its history is interesting. It was formerly in the gallery of Cardinal Fesch, which was sold and dispersed after his death. From its unfinished state and neglected condition it attracted little attention, and was bought literally "dirt cheap" by Mr. Macpherson, an English gentleman established as a photographer in Rome. After the dirt upon its face had been removed, it was submitted to competent judges, who unhesitatingly pronounced it to be the work of Michelangelo. The discovery caused a great sensation. A law-suit was instituted against Mr. Macpherson for the recovery of the picture, which was sequestrated pending the decision of the Roman courts. After some years he obtained a judgment in his favour, removed the picture to England, and sold it to the National Gallery for £2000. Peter von Cornelius, the eminent German painter, in evidence in the law-suit declared it to be "una cosa preziosa--un vero originale di Michelangelo."[183]

However this may be, the picture is entirely characteristic of the school of Michelangelo. What we notice in it most is not the features of the Maries, but the rendering of the corpse, in all its flaccid limbs and muscles:--

"Take the heads from a painting of Angelico,--very little but
drapery will be left;--drapery made redundant in quantity and
rigid in fold, that it may conceal the forms, and give a proud
or ascetic reserve to the actions of the bodily frame. Bellini
and his school, indeed, rejected at once the false theory
and the easy mannerism of such religious design, and painted
the body without fear or reserve, as, in its subordination,
honourable and lovely. But the inner heart and fire of it are
by them always first thought of, and no action is given to
it merely to show its beauty. Whereas the great culminating
masters, and chiefly of these, Tintoret, Correggio, and Michael
Angelo, delight in the body for its own sake, and cast it into
every conceivable attitude, often in violation of all natural
probability, that they may exhibit the action of its skeleton
and the contours of its flesh. Correggio and Tintoret learn the
body from the living body, and delight in its breath, colour,
and motion. Michael Angelo learned it essentially from the
corpse, and had great pride in showing that he knew all its
mechanism. The simplicity of the old religious art was rejected
not because it was false, but because it was easy; and the dead
Christ was thought of only as an available subject for the
display of anatomy" (_Modern Painters_, vol. iii. pt. iv. ch.
iv.; _Relation between Michael Angelo and Tintoret, passim_).

The ideal of the painter has in fact changed. The picture is in its essence not a devotional work: it is a study in the dead nude.

794. A DUTCH COURTYARD.

_Pieter de Hooch_ (Dutch: 1630-about 1677).

Hooch (or Hooghe)--"the indoor Cuyp," as he has been called,
and "one of the glories of the Dutch School--is also one of
the glories of England," for it was here that his great merits
were first discovered, and that three-fourths of his pictures
are now preserved. "There are," says Ruskin (_Modern Painters_,
vol. v. pt. ix. ch. viii. § 11), whilst tracing the general
insensitiveness of the Dutch School, "deeper elements in De
Hooghe, sometimes expressed with superb quiet painting." He
chose the simplest subjects and used apparently the simplest
means. But his figures are always placed with the utmost
skill, and the details, so carefully wrought, are all made
contributory to the general idea of the picture. In producing
an effect of serenity, Hooch is unsurpassed. Of his life
nothing is known except that he was at Delft 1653-56, and that
afterwards he resided at Amsterdam. In his own country, a fine
picture by him so late as 1765 brought only 450 florins. In
1817 it fetched 4000 florins, whilst in 1876 the Berlin Gallery
paid £6000 for one of his pictures. At the Secrétan Sale in
1889 an "interior" by De Hooch fetched £11,040. The present
picture was bought in Paris in 1869 for £1722. No. 834 fetched
in 1804, £220; No. 835, in 1810, £187.

The whole picture, in its cheerful colour and dainty neatness, seems to reflect the light of a peaceful and happy home, in which everything is done decently and in order. They are no rolling stones, these Dutch burghers, but stay-at-home folk, whose pride is in the trimness of their surroundings. Every day, one thinks, the good housewife will thus look to see that the dinner is duly prepared; every day the husband will thus walk along the garden, sure of her happy greeting. The picture is signed, and dated 1665.

796. A VASE OF FLOWERS.

_Jan van Huysum_ (Dutch: 1682-1749).