Chapter D: G. ROSSETTI: Early Italian Poets (1)

1157. THE NATIVITY.

_Bernardo Cavallino_ (Neapolitan: 1622-1654).

This painter was a pupil of Massimo Stanzioni (a rival of
Spagnoletto), and showed such ability that "at first he created
a jealous feeling in Massimo himself. Finding afterwards that
his talent lay more in small figures than in large, he pursued
that department and became very celebrated in his school. In
the galleries of the Neapolitan nobility are to be seen by him,
on canvas and copper, subjects both sacred and profane. Life
was alone wanting to him, which he unfortunately shortened by
his irregularities" (Lanzi, ii. 41).

A characteristic work in the "naturalistic" manner.

1159. THE CALLING OF ABRAHAM.

_Gaspard Poussin_ (French: 1613-1675). _See 31._

A very impressive picture in spite of the somewhat grotesque angel who accosts Abraham and points him to the Almighty seated in the clouds above (Genesis xii.). And indeed it is in his skies that Gaspard points us to the Infinite--in the open sky, stretching far away into that yellow horizon. To what does this strange distant space owe its attractive power?

"There is one thing that it has, or suggests, which no
other object of sight suggests in equal degree, and that
is--Infinity.... For the sky of night, though we may know it
boundless, is dark; it is a studded vault, a roof that seems to
shut us in and down; but the bright distance has no limit--we
feel its infinity, as we rejoice in its purity of light....
Of the value of this mode of treatment (_i.e._ the rendering
of open sky) there is a farther and more convincing proof
than its adoption either by the innocence of the Florentine
or the ardour of the Venetian, namely, that when retained or
imitated from them by the landscape painters of the seventeenth
century, when appearing in isolation from all other good, among
the weaknesses and paltrinesses of Claude, the mannerisms of
Gaspar, and the caricatures and brutalities of Salvator, it
yet redeems and upholds all three, conquers all foulness by
its purity, vindicates all folly by its dignity, and puts an
uncomprehended power of permanent address to the human heart
upon the lips of the senseless and the profane"[228] (_Modern
Painters_, vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. i. ch. v. §§ 5, 12).

1160. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

_School of Giorgione_ (Venetian: early 16th century). _See 269._
_See also_ (p. xx)

This picture--ascribed by Morelli and others to Catena (see 234)--is by some connected with the name of Giorgione. It displays, says Sir Edward Poynter, "the qualities which we should expect to find in a picture by Giorgione, and does not seem so far removed from the only absolutely authenticated work by him--the altar-piece at Castelfranco--as to make it impossible to attribute it to his hand. In qualities of drawing and composition it is superior to what we know of the work of Catena" (_The National Gallery_, i. 23). "The figures are Bellinesque, yet with that added touch of delicacy and refinement which Giorgione always knows how to impart. The richness of colouring, the depth of tone, the glamour of the whole, is far superior to anything we can point to with certainty as Catena's work; and no finer example of his 'Giorgionesque' phase is to be found than the sumptuous 'Warrior adoring the Infant Christ' (234) which hangs close by. Catena's work seems cold and studied beside the warmth and spontaneity of Giorgione's little panel" (Herbert Cook's _Giorgione_, p. 54). "Whoever painted it, it is worth many much larger canvases. The simple, flowing cast of the drapery, the general scheme of colour, and the quality of individual tints, such as the mellow yellow shaded with red, and the greenish-blue of the Virgin's mantle, are not like what I know of Catena. The lively, well-drawn child, with its supple limbs; the faces of the women, with full faces, short noses, and square jaws; the straight-necked horses, and many other things in this charming picture,--seem to me to proclaim a distinct, if unknown, master. Above all things distinct, perhaps, is the particular tone of reverence--naïve, quiet, but deep--that pervades the picture, a feeling which can scarcely have been imitated, but must have proceeded from the very character of the painter himself" (Monkhouse, _In the National Gallery_, p. 224).

1165. ST. HIPPOLYTUS AND ST. CATHERINE.

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

Two saints who were not divided in the manner of their martyrdom, and who are united therefore on the painter's canvas. Each holds the martyr's palm. St. Catherine places her left hand on the hilt of a sword--the instrument by which she was ultimately beheaded, whilst her foot rests upon the wheel on which she was to have been torn to death, had not an angel from heaven broken it. St. Hippolytus's death was not unlike that which had been devised for St. Catherine. He is clad in armour, for he was the soldier stationed as guard over St. Lawrence (see 747), but he is represented as bareheaded, and with his face upturned in reverence, for that "he was so moved by that illustrious martyr's invincible courage and affectionate exhortations that he became a Christian with all his family." Wherefore he was tied to the tails of wild horses and torn to death. On the fragment of stone in the foreground is an inscription in Latin, telling by what death the two saints glorified God--"Membris dissolvi voluerunt ne vinculis divellerentur aeternis:" they chose to be torn limb by limb rather than by renouncing their faith to be thus torn hereafter by eternal chains. The members of the body are the chains of the soul, and the martyrs freed themselves from temporary fetters rather than submit to the fetters of everlasting punishment.

1166. THE CRUCIFIXION.

_Antonello da Messina_ (Venetian: 1444-1493). _See 673._

Signed, and dated 1477, two years later than the very similar picture at Antwerp. Notice the harmonious colouring, and the expression of _abandon_ and lassitude, following more poignant grief, in the Virgin's attitude, with her arms falling down on each knee. "The subject was never more truly felt, and the little figure of the Virgin at the foot of the cross contains in it an expression of concentrated grief I never saw equalled. The _eyes are shut_, the hands simply rest on the knees, but this very simplicity gives it a truth which far surpasses the extravagant attitudes of the later painters" (from a letter by Louisa, Lady Waterford, from whom the picture was purchased in 1884; see Hare's _The Story of Two Noble Lives_, iii. 77). This picture shows, says Mr. Gilbert, "the dawning loveliness of Venetian colour, as distinguished from the vivid beauty of the early Flemish. Instead of the minute definition of every object characteristic of the Van Eyck School, we find, spread over a scene of the utmost simplicity, a delicious silvery haze, melting into the warm tones of a shadowless foreground. In this small picture we may see already what Venice owed to Flanders--how Venice would enrich the gift" (_Landscape in Art_, p. 311).

1168. PORTRAIT OF A JESUIT.

_Willem van der Vliet_ (Dutch: 1584-1642).

Works by this artist are rare and very little known. He
belonged to Delft--a town as active in painting as in pottery.
This picture is signed and dated 1631.

An admirable portrait. The Jesuit father, here depicted with so much quiet truth and skill, is a good representative of the great order which had at that time saved the Papacy. He is a student, but the crucifix is ever on his books. "The Jesuits appear," says Macaulay, "to have discovered the precise point to which intellectual culture can be carried without risk of intellectual emancipation." But he turns round from his book and looks with a smile of tender sadness on the spectator--he is ready to read your heart and to give you sympathy in return for confidences.

1169. MRS. ROBERT HOLLOND.

_Ary Scheffer_ (French-Dutch: 1795-1858).

An artist who once enjoyed a great vogue (a version of this
picture was bought in 1845 by the ex-Queen of the French for
£1000), and whose pictures are historically interesting for
their extraordinary absence of the colour-sense. Ary Scheffer's
pictures, says Ruskin (_Academy Notes_, 1858, p. 40), are
designed "on the assumption that the noblest ideal of colour is
to be found in dust," and what he said in 1846 of the German
School is equally true of Ary Scheffer:[229] "Brightness of
colour is altogether inadmissible without purity and harmony;
and the sacred painters must not be followed in their frankness
of unshadowed colour, unless we can also follow them in its
clearness. As far as I am acquainted with the modern schools
of Germany, they seem to be entirely ignorant of the value of
colour as an assistant of feeling, and to think that hardness,
dryness, and opacity are its virtues as employed in religious
art; whereas I hesitate not to affirm that in such art, more
than in any other, clearness, luminousness, and intensity of
hue are essential to right impression" (_Modern Painters_, vol.
ii. pt. iii. sec. ii. ch. v. § 15). Ary Scheffer, whose father
was court painter at Amsterdam, was born at Dordrecht. On the
death of his father in 1809 his mother removed to Paris, and
he became a pupil of Pierre Guérin. In 1826 he became drawing
master in the Orleans family, and for the rest of his life
he was attached to them. In 1830, in company with Thiers, he
brought Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, to Paris; in 1848 he
helped the king to fly, and went with him to Brussels. The
events of the next few years shocked him so much that for a
time he "could neither paint, eat, nor sleep," and he ceased
altogether to exhibit. His best known works are "Paolo and
Francesca" (1822), and "Dante and Beatrice" (1839). The former
of these sold in 1842 for over £2000; but at the posthumous
exhibition of his works, held shortly after his death, his
reputation suffered greatly, and at subsequent sales the
prices paid for his pictures went down with a rush. Their
sentimentality made them popular for a while, but it could not
save them from the condemnation due to their commonness of
thought and poverty of colour.

A portrait of the lady--an English resident in Paris, and a friend of Ary Scheffer--who sat to him for St. Monica. The two pictures were bequeathed to the Gallery by her husband.

1170. ST. AUGUSTINE AND ST. MONICA.

_Ary Scheffer_ (French-Dutch: 1795-1858).

To illustrate the popularity which Ary Scheffer enjoyed forty years ago, it may be interesting to cite what Mrs. Jameson said of this picture: "I saw in the atelier of the painter, Ary Scheffer, in 1845, an admirable picture of St. Augustine and his mother Monica. The two figures, not quite full-length, are seated; she holds his hand in both hers, looking up to heaven with an expression of enthusiastic undoubting faith;--'the son of so many tears cannot be cast away!' He also is looking up with an ardent, eager, but anxious, doubtful expression, which seems to say, 'Help thou my unbelief.' For profound and truthful feeling and significance, I know few things in the compass of modern art that can be compared to this picture" (_Sacred and Legendary Art_, 1850, p. 186).

1171. THE "ANSIDEI MADONNA."

_Raphael_ (Urbino: 1483-1520).

The genius of Raphael Santi (or Raffaello Sanzio, as the
modern Italians write his name) is an example of the force
alike of hereditary transmission of gifts and of surrounding
circumstances. He was the second son (born April 6) of
Giovanni Santi (see 751), a painter and poet of Urbino. The
son inherited the father's aptitude for painting; but as
Giovanni died when Raphael was only eleven, the boy's actual
teacher was Timoteo Viti, of whom there is a portrait in
chalks by Raphael in the British Museum. The young Raphael's
hereditary gifts were nurtured by the artistic atmosphere in
which he lived. Urbino, the Athens of Umbria, was at this
time one of the chief centres of artistic and intellectual
life in Italy; the ducal palace contained a fine collection
of pictures both by Italian and Flemish painters. Amongst
the latter were some by Van Eyck, and it is perhaps to this
influence that we may attribute the miniature-like care of
Raphael's earliest work, which is conspicuous in the "Vision of
a Knight," and may be seen again in the jewel painting here.
An intense power of assimilation--of learning all things from
all men--characterised Raphael throughout his life, and is one
of the main causes of the width of range and catholicity of
taste to which he owes his universal popularity. Thus when he
went (probably not before 1500) to study under Perugino, he
so quickly assimilated the style of that master that he has
been credited with some of the design and even of the work in
Perugino's masterpiece, just as some of his pictures were, says
Vasari, mistaken for Perugino's. In 1504 he went to Florence,
which was his headquarters for the next four years. He at
once took a leading part in the artistic fraternity there,
and put one great artist after another under contribution for
some special power of drawing, beauty of colour, or grace of
composition. Thus from Signorelli and Michelangelo he learnt
to study the human form; it was at Florence, says Vasari, that
Raphael began to study the nude and to make anatomical drawings
from dissected corpses. From Leonardo da Vinci (sketches from
whom by Raphael may be seen at Oxford) he learnt soft beauty
of expression, and it is to this master's influence perhaps
that the smile of his Madonnas may be traced. In 1508 Raphael
was invited by the Pope Julius II. to Rome, and there he spent
the greater part of his life--painting, besides innumerable
altar-pieces and cabinet pictures, his famous cartoons and
frescoes. And yet he was only thirty-seven when he died.
His time was partly occupied too with portraiture, in which
he excelled. In 1514 he accepted the responsible office of
architect of St. Peter's, left vacant by the death of his
friend Bramante. A year later he was installed as director of
the excavations then in progress among the ruins of ancient
Rome, and flung himself into the work with devoted ardour. In
the heavy and multifarious work thus crowded upon him, Raphael
employed many assistants, among whom were Giulio Romano,
Giovanni da Udine, and Perino del Vaga, and in some of the
pictures of his Roman period the master's own hand executed
little more than the finishing touches. All that we know of
Raphael's private life and character reflects that innate love
of beauty which fused all he borrowed into something of his
own. "All were surpassed by him," says Vasari, "in friendly
courtesy as well as in art; all confessed the influence of
his sweet and gracious disposition, which was so replete with
excellence and so perfect in all the charities, that not only
was he honoured by men but even by the very animals, who would
constantly follow his steps and always loved him." In morals he
was pure, and might indeed be called almost immaculate, judged
by the lax standard of his age. The Cardinal Bibiena designed
his niece for Raphael, but--

Rafael made a century of sonnets,
Made and wrote them in a certain volume
Dinted with the silver-pointed pencil
Else he only used to draw Madonnas:
These, the world might view--but one, the volume.
Who that one, you ask? Your heart instructs you.

He lived a painter among princes--"a model," says Vasari,
"of how we should comport ourselves towards great men," but
also a prince among painters--jealous of none, kindly to
all. "Whenever any other painter, whether known to him or
not, requested any assistance, he would invariably leave his
work to do him service; and his school--consisting of some
fifty painters, all men of ability and distinction--continued
in such unity and concord that all harsh feelings and evil
dispositions became subdued and disappeared at the sight of
him." And so when he died--having impaired his constitution by
a life of ceaseless toil--Rome went into a paroxysm of grief,
and flocked, as he lay in state, to catch a last sight of the
"divine painter." He died on his birthday, April 6, and was
buried in the Pantheon with great solemnities.

With regard to Raphael's position in the history of art, it
is important to distinguish between his different "periods,"
which correspond, as will be seen, with the divisions of his
life. The National Gallery is fortunate in having specimens of
all the periods, and the importance of the pictures from this
point of view is noted under the several numbers, but it may
be convenient to summarise the matter briefly here. (1) First,
or Perugian period, down to 1504--which again may perhaps be
subdivided as explained under 213. During this period his works
closely resemble Perugino's--the most typical of them are the
"Sposalizio," at Milan, copied from Perugino's painting of
the same subject, now at Caen; and the "Crucifixion," in Mr.
L. Mond's Collection, of which Vasari says: "If it were not
for the name of Raphael written upon it, it would be supposed
by every one to be a work of Pietro Perugino." (2) Second,
or Florentine period: 1504-1508. To this period belong the
"Madonna del Granduca" at Florence, "La Belle Jardinière" at
the Louvre, and in this country the Madonna at Lord Cowper's
(Panshanger), the Bridgewater Madonna (929), the St. Catherine
(168), and this "Ansidei Madonna." The importance of this
picture in the history of art is that it shows the transition
from the first to the second period, being dated (on the border
of the Virgin's robe below her left arm) MDVI, 1506. A glance
at the Perugino No. 288 will show how much of that master's
influence remains. "To his earlier Perugian manner we ascribe,"
says Waagen (_Treasures of Art in Great Britain_, iii. 128),
"the head of the Virgin, which, however, is the most beautiful
and noble development of this whole style, the rather too
round body of the otherwise very lovely child, the expression
of ardent yearning in St. John, as well as the position of
his feet, resembling that of St. Joseph in the 'Sposalizio,'
the cast of the draperies of the Virgin and St. Nicholas, the
use of several colours which have turned very dark, such as
the blue in the robe of the Virgin, the green in the canopy,
in the upper garment of St. Nicholas, and in the landscape,
and the use of gold in the hems, in the glories, in the two
Greek borders, and in the inscription SALVE MATER CHRISTI on
the wooden throne." Another point of special value in this
picture is that, like the Sistine Madonna, it is entirely by
Raphael's own hand, no pupil or assistant having touched it.
(3) Third, or Roman period, 1508-1520. The chief works of this
period are the frescoes in the Vatican. But in this country
there are the famous cartoons (at South Kensington), and in
the National Gallery the portrait of Julius II. (27), and the
Garvagh Madonna (744). The characteristics of this period are,
besides the perfection of executive power, the substitution
of classical for religious motive, and the straining after
dramatic effect.

From the technical point of view, this division into three (or
four) periods is instructive, but from the point of view of
motive a better division is that between his earlier and his
later work, the turning-point being his arrival in Rome. "In
his twenty-fifth year," says Ruskin (Edinburgh _Lectures on
Architecture and Painting_, p. 213), "one half-year only past
the precise centre of his available life, he was sent for to
Rome, to decorate the Vatican for Pope Julius II., and having
until that time worked exclusively in the ancient and stern
mediæval manner, he, in the first chamber which he decorated
in that palace, wrote upon its walls the _Mene_, _Tekel_,
_Upharsin_ of the arts of Christianity. And he wrote it thus:
On one wall of that chamber he placed a picture of the World
or Kingdom of _Theology_, presided over by _Christ_. And on
the side wall of that same chamber he placed the World or
Kingdom of _Poetry_, presided over by _Apollo_. And from that
spot, and from that hour, the intellect and the art of Italy
date their degradation.... And it was brought about in great
part by the very excellences of the man who had thus marked
the commencement of decline. The perfection of execution and
the beauty of feature which were attained in his works, and
in those of his greatest contemporaries, rendered finish of
execution and beauty of form the chief objects of all artists;
and thenceforward execution was looked for rather than thought,
and beauty rather than veracity.... The mediæval principles
led _up_ to Raphael, and the modern principles lead _down_
from him." The position of Raphael in the history of art
is thus closely parallel to that of his great contemporary
Michael Angelo (see 790). In Michael Angelo the art of Florence
reached its culmination and fell rapidly to Giulio Romano and
Venusti. In Raphael the art of Umbria was perfected and led
down to the conventional sentimentalities against which the
"Pre-Raphaelites" have in modern times revolted.

The "Ansidei Madonna," so called from having been painted for the Ansidei family at Perugia,[230] was bought from the Duke of Marlborough by the nation for £70,000--more than three times the highest price ever before paid for a picture, and equal to more than £14 per square inch. The importance of the picture to the student has been partly described above; but to this must be added its unusual size and excellent state of preservation, and the fact that whilst on the one hand the National Gallery had before no _chef d'oeuvre_ of Raphael, the number of such works not already placed in foreign galleries was very small.[231] On its own merits the "Ansidei Madonna" is by common consent one of the most perfect pictures in the world. It has all the essentials of the greatest art. First it is "wrought in entirely consistent and permanent materials. The gold is represented by painting, not laid on with real gold, and the painting is so secure that nearly four hundred years have produced in it no harmful change." "The exquisite purity of the colour and the silvery and luminous quality of its tones"[232] are as remarkable to-day as they must have been when the panel left the painter's easel. Secondly, "the figures are in perfect peace. Those are the two first attributes of the best art. Faultless workmanship and perfect serenity; a continuous, not momentary, action, or entire inaction; you are to be interested, in the living creatures, not in what is happening to them. Then the third attribute of the best art is that it compels you to think of the spirit of the creature, and therefore of its face, more than of its body. And the fourth is that in the face you shall be led to see only beauty or joy--never vileness, vice, or pain" (_Relation between Michael Angelo and Tintoret_, pp. 14, 15). In fulfilling these essentials of the highest art, the picture becomes also one of the noblest embodiments of Christianity. Raphael is above all the painter of motherhood and childhood--of the self-forgetting love of the one, and the fearless faith of the other--the human relationship which of all others is the most divine. On either side are two saints--types both of them of the peace of Christianity. In the figure of St. John the Baptist on the left--with his rough camel skin upon him, and an expression of ecstatic contemplation on his face--the joy that comes from a life of self-sacrifice is made manifest; in that of the good Bishop Nicholas of Bari, the peace that comes from knowledge. The three balls at his feet are a favourite emblem of the saint; typical partly of the mystery of the Trinity, but referring also to the three purses of gold which he is said to have thrown into a poor man's window that his daughters might not be portionless. Further we may notice how the same impression of infinite peace is conveyed by the landscape, and especially by the open sky visible on either side of the throne. This open sky "is of all visible things the least material, the least finite, the farthest withdrawn from the earth prison-house, the most typical of the nature of God, the most suggestive of the glory of His dwelling-place. For the sky of night, though we may know it boundless, is dark; it is a studded vault, a roof that seems to shut us in and down; but the bright distance has no limit: we feel its infinity, as we rejoice in its purity of light" (_Modern Painters_, vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. i. ch. v. § 5).[233]

It has been said above that the Ansidei Madonna is "by common consent one of the most perfect pictures in the world." Criticisms which have been published since its acquisition by the National Gallery require that statement to be modified. Thus, Mr. G. A. Storey, R.A., in the course of a public lecture, has remarked that "as compared with Raphael's other works, the Ansidei Madonna lacked the touch of nature, the play and harmony that were characteristic of the master. All the heads were looking in the same direction, and the figure of the Virgin was scarcely graceful. Nor was there the unity necessary to a complete composition, for each figure seemed unconnected with the rest, and, indeed, they seemed to be almost unconscious of each other's existence." Mr. Ford Madox Brown (_Magazine of Art_, Feb. 1890) is more severe still. "The Bishop saint of Bari," he says, "is certainly a fine figure, worthy of the master it is attributed to. The Virgin and Child, however, are for sentiment just like two wax doll lay figures, making it hard to conceive how the same mighty hand can have produced anything so tame; while the figure of the Baptist, with ill-drawn legs, is positively repulsive both for pose and for expression of countenance. Surely Raphael could have had no hand in it." Mr. Pater, on the other hand, commends the Ansidei Madonna to students of Raphael as more worthy of admiration than any other work of the master: "I find there, at first sight, with something of the pleasure one has in a proposition of Euclid, a sense of the power of the understanding, in the economy with which he has reduced his material to the simplest terms. He is painting in Florence, but for Perugia, and sends it a specimen of its own old art--Mary and the babe enthroned, with St. Nicholas and the Baptist in attendance on either side. The kind of thing people there had already seen so many times, but done better, in a sense not to be measured by degrees, with a wholly original freedom and life and grace, though he perhaps is unaware, done better as a whole, because better in every minute particular, than ever before. The scrupulous scholar, aged twenty-three, is now indeed a master, but still goes carefully. Note, therefore, how much mere exclusion counts for in the positive effect of his work. There is a saying that the true artist is known best by what he omits. Yes, because the whole question of good taste is involved precisely in such jealous omission. Note this, for instance, in the familiar Apennine background, with its blue hills and brown towns, faultless, for once--for once only--and observe, in the Umbrian pictures around, how often such background is marred by grotesque natural, or architectural detail, by incongruous or childish incident. In this cool, pearl-gray, quiet place, where colour tells for double,--the jewelled cope, the painted book in the hand of Mary, the chaplet of red coral,--one is reminded that among all classical writers Raphael's preference was for the faultless Virgil. How orderly, how divinely clean and sweet the flesh, the vesture, the floor, the earth and sky! Ah, say rather the hand, the method of the painter! There is an unmistakable pledge of strength, of movement and animation in the cast of the Baptist's countenance, but reserved, repressed. Strange, Raphael has given him a staff of transparent crystal. Keep, then, to that picture as the embodied formula of Raphael's genius. Amid all he has here already achieved, full, we may think, of the quiet assurance of what is to come, his attitude is still that of the scholar; he seems still to be saying, before all things, from first to last, 'I am utterly purposed that I will not offend'" (_Miscellaneous Studies_, p. 53).

1172. CHARLES THE FIRST.

_Van Dyck_ (Flemish: 1599-1641). _See 49._

This famous picture was one of many equestrian portraits of Charles I. which Van Dyck painted at his court. It is, however, unique among them. In all the others,--the Windsor picture, the replica at Hampton Court, and the pictures in the Earl of Warwick's and the Marquis of Lothian's Collections, the king faces the spectator, and rides, as it were, straight out of the picture, the horse being white. The size, proportions, and composition of this picture are different. The horse is dun-coloured, and the king is seen in profile. A small picture at Buckingham Palace was probably the original design or sketch of it. It was sold after Charles's death for £150 by the Parliament, and in 1885 was bought by another Parliament--from the Duke of Marlborough--for the great price of £17,500 (_see_ under 1171).

It is a courtier's portrait of the idol of the cavaliers--a portrait of the good side of a bad king. Notice first the prominence given to the noble horse (_cf._ under 156), almost to the point of clumsiness. Then in Charles himself, note the stately bearing, the personal dignity, the almost feminine refinement. It is a portrait of personal courage--with no suspicion of any fatal want of presence of mind; of dignity--with the obstinacy, which was its reverse side, left out. In such a portrait "of a Cavalier by a Cavalier" Van Dyck's work is invested with an enduring pathos for all Englishmen. One remembers only, in looking upon this picture of him, Charles's graces, not his faults. One thinks of him as the man who "nothing common did, nor mean, upon that memorable scene." And so considered, how eloquent becomes the isolation in which the painter has here left him. With him, indeed, is Sir Thomas Morton, his equerry, but the king does not see him. Bareheaded he sits, gazing into futurity.

1173. AN UNKNOWN SUBJECT.

_School of Giorgione_ (Venetian: 16th Century). _See 269._

Another picture of the golden age (_cf._ 1123) such as Giorgione, we are told, loved to paint,--"men and women enjoying the golden tranquillity; here is seen the haughty lion, there the humble lamb; in another part we behold the swift flying hart, with many other terrestrial animals." The picture before us precisely agrees with this general description, but the particular subject of it is unknown.[234] A child, it would seem, is being initiated into some order of the golden age--he is being dedicated, perhaps, to a life of song, for the stately personage on the throne wears the poet's crown of wild olive, whilst the young man on the steps below him lightly touches a lute, and has books by his side. The page bears a rich dish of fruits and herbs, for the golden age is vegetarian; whilst fawns and a leopard, with a peacock and other birds, attend the court of the king of song. When in the Bohn Collection, this picture was ascribed to Giorgione. For some interesting remarks on its possible authorship and subject, see the _Times_, December 22, 1885, where resemblances in this picture to pictures of Carpaccio and Pordenone, as well as of Giorgione, are pointed out. Sir Edward Poynter says that the picture "has considerable affinity with the two pictures attributed to Giorgione in the Uffizzi Gallery at Florence, but is weaker in execution and effect, especially in the landscape" (_The National Gallery_, i. 26). "True," says Mr. Herbert Cook, "the landscape has been renovated; true, the Giorgionesque depth and richness is gone, the mellow glow of the 'Epiphany' (1160) is sadly wanting; but who can deny the charm of the picturesque scenery, which vividly recalls the landscape background elsewhere in the master's own work? who can fail to admire the natural and unstudied grouping of the figures, the artlessness of the whole, the loving simplicity with which the painter has done his work? Sincerity and naïveté are too apparent for this to be the work of any but a quite young artist, and one whose style is so thoroughly 'Giorgionesque' as to be none other than the young Giorgione himself. In my opinion, this is one of his earliest essays into the region of romance, painted probably before his twenty-first year" (_Giorgione_, p. 92).

1188. THE BETRAYAL OF CHRIST.

1189. THE PROCESSION TO CALVARY.

_Ugolino_ (Sienese: died 1339).

Ugolino was one of the founders of the Sienese School. So
great was his reputation that he was unanimously chosen by
the Florentines, in preference to their own artists, to paint
the altar-pieces of their two great churches; whilst another
picture that he painted for them was credited with miraculous
powers. These little pictures are portions of the one painted
by him for the high altar of Sta. Croce. "He always adhered,"
says Vasari (i. 138), "in great part to the Greek manner, as
one who, having grown old in that method, was induced by a
sort of obstinacy to follow the manner of Cimabue, rather than
that of Giotto." The points which have been already noticed as
characteristic of his contemporary, Duccio (see 566), may be
traced equally in Ugolino.

Notice in 1188 that the disciples are not mere conventional types, but that an attempt is made to give them each an individuality, and to express their characters on their faces. The same expressions may be noticed again in 1189. It is interesting, too, to observe how the first attempts of painting (as of poetry) to express action were epic, rather than dramatic. The painter tries to tell the whole story at once; here is Judas giving the traitor's kiss, there is Peter cutting off the ear of the high priest's servant, and beside them are all the other characters of the story (_cf._ under 579). As art advances, it becomes on the other hand dramatic; the painter seizes on the essential point and makes his picture out of that. The difference may be seen by contrasting Ugolino's picture with one of the same subject at Florence by Giotto, which Ruskin thus describes: "See what choice Giotto made of his moments. Plenty of choice for him--in pain. The Flagellation--the Mocking--the Bearing the Cross; all habitually given by the Margheritones, and their school, as extremes of pain. 'No,' thinks Giotto. 'There was worse than all that. Many a good man has been mocked, spitefully entreated, spitted on, slain. But who was ever so betrayed?' ... He paints the laying hands on him in the garden, but with only two principal figures--Judas and Peter, of course: Judas and Peter were always principal in the old Byzantine composition,--Judas giving the kiss, Peter cutting off the servant's ear. But the two are here not merely principal, but almost alone in sight, all the other figures thrown back; and Peter is not at all concerned about the servant, or his struggle with him. He has got him down, but looks back suddenly at Judas giving the kiss. 'What!--_you_ are the traitor, then--you!' 'Yes,' says Giotto; 'and you, also, in an hour more'" (_Mornings in Florence_, ii. 41).

1190. A BOY'S PORTRAIT.

_Ascribed to Clouet_ (French: about 1510-1572). _See 660._

This picture was presented to the Gallery by Mr. G. F. Watts, R.A., and it is interesting to note the sage-green background which Mr. Watts has himself sometimes employed.

1192, 1193. SKETCHES FOR ALTAR-PIECES

_Giovanni Battista Tiepolo_ (Venetian: 1692-1769).

Tiepolo, one of the leaders in the revival of Venetian art (see
under 1100), was the Paul Veronese of the eighteenth century.
"Living," says Sir F. Burton, "in the era of periwig in art
as a dress, he was at a sore disadvantage as compared with
his great prototype of the sixteenth century; but he steered
a pretty clear course between vapid classicality and buckram
fashion. Gifted with a brilliant fancy, and master of all the
resources of his art, Tiepolo formed a style which, whatever
its shortcomings, is splendidly decorative. In his easel
pictures, he is at his very best. Here he was not tempted by
vast surfaces into that looseness of composition and hastiness
of execution that often lessen the value of his frescoes;
here, therefore, he could indulge his feeling for compact
architectonic arrangement, display force of harmonious colour,
and exercise a brilliant method of handling akin to that of
Paul Veronese." Tiepolo worked for most of his life at Venice;
but went also to execute commissions at Milan, Wurzburg (where
his paintings in the Archbishop's Palace may still be seen),
and Madrid, in which latter city he died. Of his frescoes at
Venice the finest are those of "Antony and Cleopatra" in the
Palazzo Labia. Copies of these are in the Arundel Society's
Collection.

"Touched in with all the brilliant, flashing, dexterous _bravura_ of the last of the rear-guard of the Venetians. The pictorial art of Venice finished with Tiepolo, and it seemed as if he was resolved that it should not die ignominiously, for in spirit and gaiety he was little inferior to Veronese himself. He had not the stronger qualities of his model; Veronese's grasp of character, his air of nobility, his profound and imaginative harmonies of colour, are wanting in the eighteenth century painter" (_Times_, December 22, 1885).

1194. CHRIST DRIVING OUT THE TRADERS.

_Marcello Venusti_ (Florentine: 1515-1579).

Venusti, a native of Como, was a pupil of Perino del Vaga,
but best known as assistant to Michelangelo, of whose works
he supplied copies with variations to suit different patrons.
In the oil copy of "The Last Judgment," now at Naples, he
introduced in the left-hand corner a portrait of the master
himself. He was also employed to put into colour designs made
by Michelangelo.

There are drawings by Michelangelo in the British Museum for the figures in this composition. Notice how everything is sacrificed to violent action and contorted position--the money-changers whom Christ is driving out of the Temple are composed as it were for a ballet of limbs. Notice also the "debased" architectural background--the absurdly distorted pillars with their puerile capitals.

1195. THE BIRTH OF VENUS.

_Rubens_ (Flemish: 1577-1640). _See 38._

A finished study for a salver which was executed in silver for Charles I.

"The central oval shows a goddess borne along and attended on
the surface of the waves by nymphs and tritons; sea gods and
goddesses, riding on aquatic monsters, disport themselves in
the broad flat border surrounding the central panel. Rubens may
be said to have here surpassed himself in those qualities of
movement and brilliant execution in which he was unrivalled.
His form, often florid in contour, although always supple, has
here a grace and beauty entirely in harmony with the classic
theme, and the personages are inspired with that immortal
gaiety which has so rarely found expression, save in the work
of the master's contemporary, our national poet, since it
vanished at the final decay of Greek art and literature. Of a
piece with the delightful imaginative qualities so prodigally
lavished on the present panel is the truly marvellous
execution. The hand has played over the surface with a
lightness and delicacy surprising even to those familiar with
the touch of the master in his first sketches for important
compositions. The method employed is simple and direct; the
figures have been outlined in pen and ink, then a general glaze
has been spread over the entire surface, on which the forms
were modelled in white and gray, the ultimate result being a
warm silvery tone" (_Times_, December 22, 1885).

This design, which was sold at the Hamilton sale (1882) for £1680, was bought for the nation three years later at the Beckett Denison sale for £672.

1196. A COMBAT BETWEEN LOVE AND CHASTITY.

_Unknown_ (Florentine School; 15th Century).

Probably by some unknown disciple of Botticelli. Formerly
ascribed to Botticelli himself--an ascription which, owing to
the absence of that master's predominating facial type, as well
as to the accuracy of landscape such as he never attempted,
has now been abandoned. But the exquisite workmanship--visible
only in a good light--of the shield and the quiver indicates
the hand of one of the goldsmith painters, whilst the
allegorical invention and the atmosphere of imaginative poetry
have "the true Botticellian ring" (see _Times_, December 22,
1885; see also Morelli's _Borghese Gallery_, p. 87 _n._). The
picture is one of a series which were probably painted for
furniture-panels. The one giving the sequel to our story, and
representing Chastity on a triumphal car, with Love sitting
bound in front, is in the Turin Gallery.

Chastity clothed only in white innocence is assailed by Love. She receives his arrows on a shield of polished steel; the points of the arrows break and burst forth into tiny golden flames--each temptation only causing the sacred fire of Chastity to burn more brightly. The scene is laid in a romantic landscape where everything is pure and beautiful. The field is enamelled with flowers--

Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine;
And all, save the spirit of man, is divine.

Beyond, in the bend of a river, two swans float on its tranquil surface: a tall oak sapling rises straight and firm, and over all rests a clear blue sky. The picture recalls the scene in Milton's _Comus_--

My sister is not so defenceless left
As you may imagine; she has a hidden strength,
Which you remember not.

_Second Brother._ What hidden strength,
Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that?

_First Brother._ I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength
Which, if Heaven gave it, may be term'd her own.
'Tis Chastity, my brother, Chastity;
She that has that, is clad in complete steel.

1199. MADONNA AND CHILD.

_Unknown_ (Florentine: 15th Century).
_See also_ (p. xxi)

On the right is St. John; on the left an angel crowned with a chaplet of roses and bearing the annunciation lily. Notice that the frame ornamented with modelled stucco forms part of the picture, and is indeed part of the same panel.

1200, 1201. GROUPS OF SAINTS.

_Macrino d'Alba_ (Lombard: about 1470-1528).

Macrino was born at Alba in Piedmont. "There is no foundation
for the belief that his name was Giangiacomo Fava. His early
Lombard training was considerably modified by a visit to
Rome, and a study of the Florentine masters and Ghirlandajo's
influence is to be seen in his work. His pictures are easily
recognisable from the frequent recurrence of similar types
and attitudes" (Catalogue of the Burlington Fine Arts Club's
Exhibition, 1898, p. lxxvii.). The dates on his works range
from 1496 to 1508. They are to be found in the Certosa of
Pavia, at Alba, and in the Turin Gallery. He belongs to the
pre-Leonardo school of Lombardy, and was perhaps a pupil of
Vincenzo Foppa (729).

In the first group (1200) are St. Peter Martyr (for whom see 812), with the knife and plenty of blood on his head, and a bishop in full robes. In the second (1201), St. Thomas Aquinas looking with an almost comic squint at a crucifix, and John the Baptist. On the pages of St. Thomas's book are the words in Latin, "I have kept the commandments of my father"; on those of St John the Baptist, "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world."

1202. MADONNA AND CHILD, WITH SAINTS.

_Bonifazio, the elder_ (Veronese: about 1490-1540).

Morelli disentangles from the confusions of art-historians and
critics three different painters of this name, whom he calls
respectively Bonifazio Veronese I., Bonifazio Veronese II., and
Bonifazio Veneziano (see _German Galleries_, pp. 184-194). The
elder Bonifazio Veronese, the painter of this picture, was a
pupil of Palma Vecchio, and one of the most brilliant of the
later Venetian painters. "His bright conception," says Morelli,
"and the light gracefulness of his figures seem to me never
to belie his native home, Verona; yet, as a technician, he is
an out-and-out Venetian. While the chords of his colouring
are neither so delicate and startling as in Giorgione, nor so
profound and powerful as in Palma and Titian, nor so ingenious
as in Lotto, yet they wield a peculiar charm over the eye
of the spectator by their bright, cheerful, and harmonious
lustre." Bonifazio's earlier works have been frequently
ascribed to Palma. Such was the case with the present picture,
a work of gorgeous colour and in admirable preservation. In
his later works the influence of Giorgione makes itself felt.
A much-damaged picture by Bonifazio at Hampton Court, "Diana
and Actæon," was long ascribed to Giorgione. Venice possesses
many works of this "God-made painter," as Ruskin calls him.
None is finer than the "Dives and Lazarus" in the Accademia, a
picture of sumptuous colour and exquisitely poetical sentiment.
In the Brera at Milan is another splendid work by Bonifazio,
long attributed to Giorgione--the "Finding of Moses," a subject
of which he was fond, and into which he introduced numerous
figures in the gorgeous Venetian costumes of his day.

A composition belonging to a class which Palma Vecchio brought into favour, and which the Italians call _Sante Conversazioni_--groups, in restful attitudes, framed in sunny landscapes, with blue mountain distances. Bonifazio's landscape backgrounds are very fine, and he was fond, like Titian, of introducing into them the scenery of the Dolomite mountains. On the right is St. Catherine holding a fragment of her wheel, while the youthful St. John the Baptist, standing on another fragment, stoops to kiss the infant Christ's foot--an action symbolical of the kingship of the Saviour ("Thou hast put all things under him"). On the left is St. James--with his staff, borne always by him as the first of the apostles who departed to fulfil the Gospel mission, and dressed as a pilgrim--Campostella, where his body was reputed to be, being in the middle ages a favourite place of pilgrimage. Behind St. James is St. Jerome. Notice the significance of the incident in the middle distance--a shepherd asleep, while a wolf is devouring a sheep ("But the Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep").

1203. MADONNA AND CHILD.

_Cariani_ (Bergamese: about 1480-1541).

Of Giovanni Busi, called Cariani, no personal details are
known. He was born near Bergamo, and many works by this fine
colourist are in the galleries of that town. Others may
be seen at the Brera in Milan. Cariani, who seems to have
resided at Venice, is supposed to have been a pupil of his
fellow-countryman, Palma Vecchio. Morelli thus distinguishes
Cariani's style from that of Bonifazio Veronese (see 1202),
who was also a pupil of Palma: "The type of the Madonna in
Cariani is rustic, but more energetic and serious, less worldly
than in Bonifazio, whose holy virgins and female martyrs,
with their soft, sweet expression and gentle grace, often
border on the sentimental. These masters also differ in the
harmony of their colours: the Bergamese is pithy and powerful,
but often heavy and dull; the Veronese, clear, lovely, and
brilliant; Bonifazio's landscapes are the lightest among those
of the Venetians, those in Cariani's pictures are brownish,
and the lines far from beautiful" (_Italian Masters in German
Galleries_, 1883, p. 193).

Notice the rustic type of the Madonna; she is a daughter of the mountains--the mountains above Bergamo, from which the painter came, and which figure in the background. The picture is a characteristic piece of provincial art; the expression of "a simple, sturdy, energetic mountain-folk who do not always know how to unite refinement and grace with their inbred strength and vigour" (Morelli, _ibid._ p. 4). The picture is "interesting mainly," says Mr. Monkhouse, "for its costumes, its light-heartedness and florid colour, and as another of those _Sante Conversazioni_ of which his master, Palma, was the inventor, and which took the place of the more holy 'Holy Families' of an earlier art,--pictures in which the Virgin became a simple woman of a wholly mundane beauty, and the saints but her friends in rich costumes, enjoying themselves somewhat sadly in the open air" (_In the National Gallery_, p. 248).

1206. LANDSCAPE AND FIGURES.

_Salvator Rosa_ (Neapolitan: 1615-1673). _See 84._

A good example of Salvator's scenic effects in landscape. The sense of power in the painting, the "vigorous imagination, the dexterous and clever composition" of Salvator are well shown; but "all are rendered valueless by coarseness of feeling, and habitual non-reference to nature." (See for further examination of Salvator's deficiencies in this respect _Modern Painters_, vol. i. pt. ii. sec. i. ch. vii. § 5, sec. iii. ch. iii. § 7, sec. vi. ch. i. § 11; vol. ii. pt. iii. sec. ii. ch. ii. § 19.)

1211, 1212. SCENES AT A TOURNAMENT.

_Domenico Morone_ (Veronese: 1442-1508?)

Domenico Morone was in 1493 called upon by the Veronese
authorities in conjunction with Liberale (1134) to adjudicate
upon an artistic dispute. It seems, therefore, that he was
recognised as a leading painter of the day. This also is
Vasari's estimate: Domenico, he says, was in higher repute than
any other painter of Verona, Liberale alone excepted. Little,
however, is known to us about Domenico. Only two pictures are
known to bear his signature; one of these, a "Madonna and
Child," is in the Berlin Gallery. He was the father of the
better known Francesco Morone (285).

Possibly scenes from the _fêtes_ at the marriage of Isabella d'Este and Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua.[235] Domenico Morone, called Pellacane, the dog-skinner, from his father's occupation, may have been present at the marriage ceremony, which took place in 1490; but at any rate these little pictures are of historical interest as contemporary illustrations. The scene in both is a tilt court, with its seat of honour in the middle. In the first the knights are tilting, the marquis being on his throne and the seats filled with ladies. In the second the tilting is over, courtiers and ladies are dancing in the side compartments; whilst in the centre a knight in full armour, but bareheaded, awaits his award of victory from Isabella and her husband, who are standing on the dais. There is much artistic merit in the sprightly way in which such momentary actions as that of the page going to spring over the partition in 1212 are rendered (see _Times_, July 24, 1886).

1213. PORTRAIT OF A PROFESSOR.

_Gentile Bellini_ (Venetian: 1427-1507).

Gentile was the elder brother of Giovanni (189), and was named
after Gentile da Fabriano under whom his father had studied.
In 1464, after severe training in his father's school, he
moved from Padua to Venice, and was employed by the State.
His high reputation is shown by the fact that, when in 1479
the Sultan Mahomet II. applied to the Venetians to send him a
good painter, he was deputed by them to go to Constantinople.
His visit there was marked by a well-known incident. He showed
the Sultan a picture of Herodias's daughter with the head of
John the Baptist. The Sultan objected to the bleeding head
as untrue to nature, and to prove his point ordered a slave
to be beheaded in Bellini's presence. The painter fled from
the scene of such experiments, but the influence of his visit
is to be seen in the oriental costumes which he was fond of
introducing into his pictures (as in the studies in the British
Museum and the library of Windsor Castle). The portrait of
the great Ottoman conqueror acquired by the late Sir Henry
Layard is an autograph replica of the work painted by Gentile
at Constantinople. On his return to Venice he was taken into
the permanent employment of the State, and executed many works
in the Ducal Palace and elsewhere; some were destroyed in
the fire of 1577, others remain. In 1486 Titian, then a boy
of nine, entered Gentile's studio. Easel pictures by him are
very scarce. His principal works are at Venice, and are the
most valuable record extant of the city as it was in his time.
They are described and highly praised by Ruskin in his _Guide
to the Academy at Venice_. In the same style is the "St. Mark
preaching at Alexandria," now in the Brera at Milan. This work,
left unfinished when Gentile died, was completed, as his will
enjoined, by Giovanni.

Supposed to be a portrait of Girolamo Malatini, Professor of Mathematics in Venice (notice his brass compasses), who is said to have taught Gentile and his brother Giovanni the rules of perspective. "The portrait fully justifies the fame that Gentile had acquired as a painter of portraits, and shows him the forerunner of Titian" (Layard's edition of "Kugler," i. 306). The prominence given in this picture to the sitter's hands should be noticed. The older tradition strictly limited portraiture to the representation of the head only, or at most to the bust. Afterwards the expressiveness of the human hand _per se_ came to be recognised (see Mr. Herbert Cook's _Giorgione_, p. 19, and compare the portraits Nos. 808 and 1440).

1214. CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, AND VETURIA.

_Michele da Verona_ (Veronese: 1470-1523?)