Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's note:

Bracketted lower case letters refer to notes at the end of
the text{a}

At the end of this text I have provided some links to Internet
sites which have more information about some of the artists,
some of which may have color images similar to the ones presented
in this book.

GREAT PICTURES

As Seen and Described by Famous Writers

Edited and Translated by

ESTHER SINGLETON

Author of "Turrets, Towers, and Temples" and Translator of "The Music Dramas of Richard Wagner"

With Numerous Illustrations

New York Dodd, Mead and Company Copyright, 1899 By Dodd, Mead and Company

Preface

The cordial reception of "Turrets, Towers, and Temples" has encouraged me to hope that a welcome may be given to a book treating the masterpieces of painting in a similar manner.

Great writers and literary tourists have occasionally been inspired to record the impressions of their saunterings among galleries and museums. The most interesting of these, not necessarily professional, I have tried to bring together in the following pages. My object has been not to make a selection of the greatest pictures in the world, although many that have that reputation will be found here, but rather to bring together those that have produced a powerful impression on great minds. Consequently, when the reader is disturbed at the omission of some world-famous painting, I beg him to remember my plan and blame the great writers instead of me for neglecting his favourite.

My task has not been a light one. A few words of rapturous admiration are constantly to be met with in the pages of art-lovers, but a sympathetic study of a single work is rarely found. General comment of a given artist's work is also plentiful, while discriminating praise of individual canvases is scanty. The literary selection has, therefore, involved a great deal of research.

From time to time the relative popularity of painters shifts strangely, but no matter what inconstant fashion may dictate, or what may be the cult of the hour, certain paintings never lose their prestige, but annually attract as many pilgrims as Lourdes or Fusi-San.

Of modern painters I have only included Turner and Rossetti.

It is interesting to compare the example I have chosen from Rossetti with Leonardo's "Monna Lisa." Pater has admirably brought out, without dwelling too much upon it, the charm that is eternal in her face as well as the fantastic imagination of the great artist who created her for all time. He says: "The fancy of a perpetual life, sweeping together ten thousand experiences, is an old one.... Certainly Lady Lisa might stand as the embodiment of the _old_ fancy, the symbol of the _modern_ idea." In a similar sense Lilith the siren, the Lorelei, the eternal enchantress, in her modern robe, is the embodiment of a _new_ fancy, the symbol of the _ancient_ idea; and just here across four centuries the thoughts of two great artists meet.

The types of beauty and women in this book offer no little suggestion to the fancy. From Botticelli's "La Bella Simonetta," and Raphael's "La Fornarina," through all the periods of painting the model has been a great influence upon the painter's work, and upon this point nearly every essayist and critic represented in these pages dwells. In many of the essays, such as Pater's on Botticelli, and Swinburne's on Andrea del Sarto, the author strays away from the painting to talk of the painter, but in doing this he gives us so thoroughly the spirit of that painter that a fuller light is thrown upon the picture before us.

I have included a few criticisms by modern French critics, MM. Valabrègue, Lafond, Giron, Guiffrey, and Reymond, recognized authorities upon the artists whose works they describe; and I have selected Fromentin's valuable essay on "The Night Watch," feeling sure that this thoughtful criticism would interest even the enthusiastic admirers of this enigmatical work.

I have been careful to take no unnecessary liberties with the text. In the translations from Gruyer, Goethe, Fromentin, and others, which were unfortunately too long to be included entire, I have not allowed myself to condense, but only to cut. This is true, also, of the English extracts.

E.S.

NEW YORK, _September_, 1899.

Contents

THE FISHERMAN PRESENTING THE RING
TO THE DOGE GRADENIGO _Bordone_ 1
THÉOPHILE GAUTIER.

THE BIRTH OF VENUS _Botticelli_ 5
WALTER PATER.

THE QUEEN OF SHEBA _Veronese_ 16
JOHN RUSKIN.

THE LAST JUDGMENT _Michael Angelo_ 18 ALEXANDRE DUMAS.

MAGDALEN IN THE DESERT _Correggio_ 27
AIMÉ GIRON.

BANQUET OF THE ARQUEBUSIERS _Van der Helst_ 33
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY.

L'EMBARQUEMENT POUR L'ÎLE DE
CYTHÈRE _Watteau_ 38
EDMOND AND JULES DE GONCOURT.

THE SISTINE MADONNA _Raphael_ 45
F.A. GRUYER.

THE DREAM OF ST. URSULA _Carpaccio_ 58
JOHN RUSKIN.

THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS _Rubens_ 62
EUGÈNE FROMENTIN.

BACCHUS AND ARIADNE _Titian_ 71
I. CHARLES LAMB.
II. EDWARD T. COOK.

THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN _Fra Angelico_ 77
THÉOPHILE GAUTIER.

JUDITH _Botticelli_ 80
MAURICE HEWLETT.

THE AVENUE OF MIDDELHARNAIS _Hobbema_ 88
PAUL LAFOND.

THE DANCE OF THE DAUGHTER OF
HERODIAS _Andrea del Sarto_ 93
ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE.

ADORATION OF THE MAGI _Fabriano_ 98
F.A. GRUYER.

PORTRAIT OF GEORG GISZE _Holbein_ 101
ANTONY VALABRÈGUE.

PARADISE _Tintoret_ 106
JOHN RUSKIN.

AURORA _Guido Reni_ 114
I. CHARLOTTE A. EATON.
II. JOHN CONSTABLE.

THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN _Titian_ 119
THÉOPHILE GAUTIER.

THE NIGHT WATCH _Rembrandt_ 124
EUGÈNE FROMENTIN.

THE RAPE OF HELEN _Gozzoli_ 138
COSMO MONKHOUSE

MONNA LISA _Leonardo da Vinci_ 142
WALTER PATER.

THE ADORATION OF THE LAMB _Van Eyck_ 154
KUGLER.

THE DEATH OF PROCRIS _Piero di Cosimo_ 168
I. EDWARD T. COOK.
II. JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS.

THE MARRIAGE IN CANA _Tintoret_ 172
JOHN RUSKIN.

MADAME DE POMPADOUR _De la Tour_ 177
CHARLES-AUGUSTIN SAINTE-BEUVE.

THE HAY WAIN _Constable_ 184
C.L. BURNS.

THE SURRENDER OF BREDA _Velasquez_ 191
THÉOPHILE GAUTIER.

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION _Murillo_ 196
AIMÉ GIRON.

ST. FRANCIS BEFORE THE SOLDAN _Giotto_ 202
JOHN RUSKIN.

LILITH _Rossetti_ 212
ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE.

ADORATION OF THE MAGI _Dürer_ 215
MORIZ THAUSING.

MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE _Hogarth_ 218
AUSTIN DOBSON.

THE MADONNA OF THE ROCKS _Leonardo da Vinci_ 234
THÉOPHILE GAUTIER

BEATRICE CENCI _Guido Reni_ 239
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

THE TRANSFIGURATION _Raphael_ 249
MRS. JAMESON

THE BULL _Paul Potter_ 256
EUGÈNE FROMENTIN

CORÉSUS AND CALLIRHOÉ _Fragonard_ 262
EDMOND AND JULES DE GONCOURT

THE MARKET-CART _Gainsborough_ 268
RICHARD AND SAMUEL REDGRAVE

BACCHUS AND ARIADNE _Tintoret_ 273
HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE

BACCHUS AND ARIADNE 278
ANONYMOUS

LA CRUCHE CASSÉE _Greuze_ 280
THÉOPHILE GAUTIER

PORTRAIT OF LADY COCKBURN AND HER CHILDREN _Reynolds_ 282 FREDERIC G. STEPHENS

ST. CECILIA _Raphael_ 287
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

THE LAST SUPPER _Leonardo da Vinci_ 289
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

THE CHILDREN OF CHARLES I. _Van dyck_ 300
JULES GUIFFREY

THE FIGHTING TÉMÉRAIRE TUGGED TO HER LAST BERTH TO BE BROKEN UP, 1838 _Turner_ 306 JOHN RUSKIN

SPRING _Botticelli_ 313
MARCEL REYMOND

Illustrations

BORDONE Fisherman presenting the Ring
to the Doge Gradenigo _Venice_ Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

BOTTICELLI The Birth of Venus _Florence_ 6

VERONESE The Queen of Sheba _Turin_ 16

MICHAEL ANGELO The Last Judgment _Rome_ 18

CORREGGIO Magdalen _Dresden_ 28

VAN DER HELST The Banquet of the Arquebusiers _Amsterdam_ 34

WATTEAU L'Embarquement pour l'Île
de Cythère _Paris_ 38

RAPHAEL The Sistine Madonna _Dresden_ 46

CARPACCIO The Dream of St. Ursula _Venice_ 58

RUBENS The Descent from the Cross _Antwerp_ 62

TITIAN Bacchus and Ariadne _London_ 72

FRA ANGELICO The Coronation of the Virgin _Paris_ 78

BOTTICELLI Judith _Florence_ 80

HOBBEMA The Avenue of Middelharnais _London_ 88

ANDREA DEL SARTO The Dance of the Daughter
of Herodias _Florence_ 94

FABRIANO The Adoration of the Magi _Florence_ 98

HOLBEIN Portrait of Georg Gisze _Berlin_ 102

TINTORET Paradise _Venice_ 106

GUIDO RENI Aurora _Rome_ 114

TITIAN The Assumption of the Virgin _Venice_ 120

REMBRANDT The Night Watch _Amsterdam_ 124

GOZZOLI The Rape of Helen _London_ 138

L. DA VINCI Monna Lisa _Paris_ 142

VAN EYCK The Adoration of the Lamb _Ghent_ 154

PIERO DI COSIMO The Death of Procris _London_ 168

TINTORET The Marriage in Cana _Venice_ 172

DE LA TOUR Portrait of Madame de Pompadour _Paris_ 178

CONSTABLE The Hay Wain _London_ 184

VELASQUEZ The Surrender of Breda _Madrid_ 192

MURILLO The Immaculate Conception _Paris_ 196

GIOTTO St. Frances before the Soldan _Florence_ 202

ROSSETTI Lilith _Rockford, Del._ 212

DÜRER The Adoration of the Magi _Florence_ 216

HOGARTH The Marriage A-la-Mode _London_ 218

L. DA VINCI The Madonna of the Rocks _Paris_ 234

GUIDO RENI Portrait of Beatrice Cenci _Rome_ 240

RAPHAEL The Transfiguration _Rome_ 250

PAUL POTTER The Bull _The Hague_ 256

FRAGONARD Corésus and Callirhoé _Paris_ 262

GAINSBOROUGH The Market-Cart _London_ 268

TINTORET Bacchus and Ariadne _Venice_ 274

GREUZE La Cruche Cassée _Paris_ 280

REYNOLDS Portrait of Lady Cockburn
and her Children _London_ 282

RAPHAEL St. Cecilia _Naples_ 288