From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

"We can trace the history of the French school of painting almost as far back as the history of France itself. Emeric David reminds us that even in the time of Charlemagne it was the custom to cover the walls of churches with paintings ( in circuitu dextra lavaque, intus et extra ) " in order to instruct the people, and to decorate the buildings .” It was in France, about the middle of the ninth century, that painters first endeavoured to represent the Almighty Father Himself in human form , an attempt which was not made in Italy before the thirteenth century, and is not to be found at all in Byzantine painting. Painting on glass for church windows was likewise invented or perfected in France. A great number of French prelates and abbots also decorated their churches and monasteries with paintings of all sorts ; amongst these were the bishops Hincmar of Rheims, Hoël of Mans, Geoffroy of Auxerre, and the abbots Angilbert of Saint- Riquier, Ancésige of Fontenelle, Richard of Saint- Venne, and Bernard of Saint - Sauveur."--A Brief History of the Painters of All Schools (1877) by Louis Viardot

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A Brief History of the Painters of All Schools (1877) is a book published by Sampson Low, primarily based on the writings of Louis Viardot.

AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS OF ALL SCHOOLS. BY LOUIS VIARDOT AND OTHER WRITERS. 三 些 LONDON : SAMPSON LOW , MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, PHILADELPHIA : J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO . 1877 a NEWS PREFACE.

Contents 1 Preface 2 CONTENTS . 3 CHAPTER I. CLASSIC GREEK SCHOOL. 4 CHAPTER II. PAINTING IN THE MIDDLE AGES, 5 CHAPTER IV. THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL. 6 CHAPTER V. SCHOOLS OF NORTHERN ITALY. 7 CHAPTER VI.UMBRIAN SCHOOL. -FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 8 CHAPTER VII.VENETIAN SCHOOL.- FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 9 CHAPTER VIII .LEONARDO DA VINCI AND HIS SCHOOL. 10 CHAPTER IX. THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL, SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 11 CHAPTER X.MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI. 12 CHAPTER XI .RAPHAEL SANZIO D'URBINO, AND HIS FOLLOWERS. 13 CHAPTER XII. TITIAN, AND THE VENETIAN SCHOOL OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 14 CHAPTER XIII.CORREGGIO AND THE SCHOOL OF PARMA. 15 CHAPTER XIV. THE MANNERISTS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 16 CHAPTER XV. THE ECLECTIC SCHOOL OF BOLOGNA. 17 CHAPTER XVI.THE NATURALISTI. 18 BOOK I I. 19 CHAPTER I. THE SPANISH SCHOOLS, 20 CHAPTER II. SCHOOL OF VALENCIA. , 21 CHAPTER III.SCHOOL OF ANDALUSIA, 22 CHAPTER IV.SCHOOL OF CASTILE. 23 BOOK III . 24 CHAPTER I. GERMAN SCHOOLS. 25 CHAPTER II. GERMAN PAINTERS OF THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 26 BOOK IV. 27 CHAPTER 1 . EARLY FLEMISH SCHOOL. 28 CHAPTER 11 . REVIVAL OF ART IN FLANDERS. 29 BOOK V. 30 THE DUTCH SCHOOL. 31 LATER DUTCH PAINTERS. 32 BOOK VI . 33 THE FRENCH SCHOOL. 34 BOOK VII. 35 THE ENGLISH SCHOOL. 36 BOOK VIII . 37 THE AMERICAN SCHOOL. 38 INDEX .

Preface

THE more important parts of this Work - such as the Introductions to the Foreign Schools, and the criticisms upon the pictures of the great masters — are from the pen of M. Louis Viardot, by whom they were originally written for Les Merveilles de la Peinture, published by Messrs. Hachette & Co., in their Bibliotheque des Merveilles. But this author included in his volumes only those painters whom he styles the ' Divinities of Art,' and of their personal history he gives but brief details. In order, therefore, to make a comprehensive book - which may lay claim to be of value to students of art, not only as a brief History of the Painters of all Schools, but a so as a work of reference -- it has been considered desirable to supplement M. Viardot's writings by short memoirs of many additional artists, whom he has not mentioned. Even then, a list of those whose names appear in the dictionaries, but who are here omitted as but of little importance in the history of art, would fill many pages.

M. Viardot has had the advantage of visiting all the great picture galleries of Europe, and writing his criticisms with the paintings before his eyes. That he may have sometimes erred in judgment is probable ; that he has taken great pains to examine the best pictures is certain, and that he has given us his honest convictions is quite evident. If his enthusiasm has now and then led him to speak of a painting in exaggerated terms of praise, it is hoped that his raptures may be forgiven . The rest of the volume, which consists chiefly of biographical details, has been gleaned with much care from well -known sources ; Le Monnier's annotated edition of Vasari ; ' Charles Blanc's Histoire des Peintres de toutes les écoles, ' whence many of the illustrations have been obtained ; Mr. Wornum's trustworthy catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery; Lady Eastlake's new edition of Kugler's 'Handbook of the Italian Schools,' by far the most valuable work on this subject that has ever appeared ; the iv PREFACE. German, Flemish, and Dutch schools ' of the same series, lately revised and in part re-written by Mr. J. A. Crowe ; the ‘ History of Painting in North Italy ' and the ' Early Flemish Painters, ' both by Messrs. Crowe and Caval caselle; the ' English Encyclopædia ; ' Bryan's Dictionary of Painters, ' and many other standard works.

For the English section the editor is largely indebted to Allan Cunningham's ' Lives of the most eminent British Painters ; ' and Mr. Redgrave's "Century of Painters ' — a charming series of art-biographies ; for notices of recently deceased artists, to writers in the Art Journal , ' the ' Athenæum ,' and the ‘ Academy ; ' and for the information concerning American painters, to Tuckerman's Book of the Artists .'

J. C.

SURBITON, No'ember, 1876.

CONTENTS .

PREFACE PAGE iii LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL ILLUSTRATIONS . vii BOOK I. СНАР. I IN ΤΙΙΕ OF . 14 34 48 61 1. INTRODUCTION - CLASSIC GREEK SCHOOL - GRECO - ROMAN SCHOOL II. PAINTING MIDDLE AGES-PAINTING IN MOSAIC - ILLUMINATION MANUSCRIPTS-PAINTING IN FRESCO AND IN DISTEMPER-PAINTING IN OIL III. ITALIAN RENAISSANCE - ROMANESQUE School--Early TUSCAN SCHOOL — EARLY SIENESE SCHOOL IV. EARLY FLORENTINE SCHOOL V. SCHOOLS OF NORTHERN ITALY -- BOLOGNESE - PADUAN - FERRARESE - VERONESE MILANESE - CREMONESE VI. UMBRIAN SCHOOL OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY VII. VENETIAN SCHOOL OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY . VIII. LEONARDO DA VINCI AND HIS SCHOOL IX. FLORENTINE AND SIENESE SCHOOL OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY X. MICHELANGELO AND HIS FOLLOWERS XI. RAPHAEL AND HIS FOLLOWERS XII. TITIAN AND THE VENETIAN SCHOOL OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY XIII. CORREGGIO AND THE SCHOOL OF PARMA XIV. THE MANNERISTS XV. ECLECTIC SCHOOLS OF BOLOGNA, CREMONA, MILAN, FLORENCE AND ROME XVI. THE NATURALISTI OF ROME, NAPLES AND VENICE 73 80 88 97 105 113 134 . 153 159 164 182 . BOOK II . I. SPANISH SCHOOLS- INTRODUCTION II . SCHOOL OF VALENCIA III . SCHOOL OF ANDALUSIA IV. SCHOOL OF CASTILE 192 195 199 214 vi CONTENTS. PAGI BOOK III . CHAP. I. GERMAN SCHOOLS - INTRODUCTION - SCHOOLS OF BOHEMIA - COLOGNE - WEST PHALIA - SWABIA - FRANCONIA AND SAXONY II . GERMAN PAINTERS OF THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES - THE REVIVAL OF ART IN GERMANY . 231 254 BOOK IV. 1. EARLY FLEMISH SCHOOL - INTRODUCTION - SCHOOLS OF BRUGES AND ANTWERP II . REVIVAL OF ART IN FLANDERS - RUBENS, HIS PUPILS AND HIS FOLLOWERS 269 294 BOOK V. I. EARLY DUTCH SCHOOL - REMBRANDT, HIS PUPILS AND HIS FOLLOWERS 321 II . LATER DUTCH SCHOOL - PAINTERS OF DOMESTIC LIFE-PAINTERS OF LAND SCAPE AND BATTLE- PIECES-PAINTERS OF MARINE SUBJECTS-STILL LIFE AND ARCHITECTURE . 339 BOOK VI . I. EARLY FRENCH PAINTERS II. LATER FRENCH SCHOOL 369 387 BOOK VII . 397 . 402 I. EARLY PAINTERS IN ENGLAND II. ENGLISH SCHOOL OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY III. MODERN ENGLISH SCHOOL IV . PAINTERS IN WATER - COLOURS . 417 444 BOOK VIII . AMERICAN SCHOOL · 453 PRINCIPAL ILLUSTRATIONS . coma PAGE . By Benozzo Gozzoli to face 55 Signorelli 59 » Sandro Botticelli . 60 » Francia 2 62 97 Perugino 76 THE ANGELIC CHOIR . MADONNA ENTHRONED CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN VIRGIN ENTHRONED MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN . ENTHRONEMENT OF THE VIRGIN DESCENT FROM THE Cross . THE SISTINE CHAPEL . MADONNA DELLA SEDIA ENTOMBMENT ST. JEROME ( Il Giorno) ST. PETRONILLA . » Fra Bartolommeo > 98 , Daniele da Volterra IIO » Michelangelo II2 » Raphael 116 Titian 140 Correggio 154 Guercino 175 DEPOSITION FROM THE CROSS ,, Ribera 196 » Murillo 2II Velasquez 220 Hans Holbein 238 Albrecht Dürer 246 THE BEGGAR BOY WATER -CARRIER OF SEVILLE ARCHBISHOP WARHAM NATIVITY OF CHRIST . ITINERANT MUSICIANS THE 66 PALA" MADONNA ST. LUKE PAINTING THE VIRGIN THE MONEY-CHANGERS DUCK - SHOOTING Dietrich 261 Jan van Eyck 272 Rogier van der Weyden Quintin Matsy's 274 280 Paul Bril 291 BEAR HUNT 303 KING CHARLES THE FIRST . » Snyders Vandyck Jordaens 306 MUSICAL PARTY - 308 TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTHONY , David Teniers 314 » Rembrandt . 334 REMBRANDT'S MOTHER PATERNAL INSTRUCTION THE HUNCHBACK FIDDLER Gerard Terburg . 340 Van Ostade . 340 viii PRINCIPAL ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE THE ENCAMPMENT By Cuyp . to face 351 THE YOUNG BULL Paul Potter . 357 LANDSCAPE . Hobbema . 363 FLOWER - PIECE Van Huysum 366 UNE FÊTE GALANTE . Watteau 382 SLEEPING GIRL . Greuze 384 MARRIAGE A LA MODE Hogarth 402 COTTAGE DOOR 9 ) Gainsborough 408 “ THE GOLDEN BOUGH ” 9 Turner 420

THE VALLEY FARM 422 VILLAGE POLITICIANS 2 424 able Wilkie BY MICHELANGELO . ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE PAINTERS OF ALL SCHOOLS.

CHAPTER I. CLASSIC GREEK SCHOOL.

ANY writers, " says Vasari, “ have asserted that Painting and Sculpture originated with the Egyptians ; others attribute to the Chaldeans the discovery of the bas-relief, and give to the Greeks the invention of painting : for my own part, I hold that a knowledge of Drawing, the creative principle of all art, has existed since the beginning of the world . ” There can be no doubt that, to a certain extent, Vasari was right. Among the remains of pre-historic times, the dates of which no man can tell , we find , on the blade -bones of animals, drawings of the reindeer and the elephant scratched with some pointed implement by men who must have been artists : sometimes we discover bronze vessels decorated with well-designed tracery ; or ornaments for personal adornment, betraying, though in fantastic shapes, a primitive knowledge of beauty of form . From remains that are left to the present day, we know that the people of Egypt, Phoenicia, and Assyria, of Persia, India, and China, were all acquainted with the art of painting, but it was always symbolical and as an accessory to Architecture. find fresco paintings as decorations of walls and pillars, manuscripts on papyrus ornamented with coloured figures, and mummy casescovered with hieroglyphics ; but no movable Pictures, in our present acceptation of that term, have come down to us, nor have any been mentioned by the early historians of those Eastern nations. It is not till the fifth century before Christ that we have any record of Painting as a fine-art by itself, and then it must have quickly reached to the highest eminence. It is to Athens that we must give the glory of its birthplace, though, by a fatality ever to no work of the famous Greek painters remains to the present day. In spite of the ravages made by time and many generations of barbarians, Archi tecture and Sculpture have left monuments numerous and magnificent enough to enable us to judge of the state of both these arts in Greece. The master-pieces of two thousand years ago continue to excite at once the delight and despair of the student. We can still see the ruins of the Parthenon and the temple of Theseus at Athens, and of the temple of Neptune at Pæstum. The museums of Italy are full of beautiful relics of Greek statuary. At Paris are the Venus of Melos, Diana the Huntress, the Gladiator, the Achilles. Munich possesses the marbles of Ægina, and London the fragments of Pheidias from the Parthenon. But Painting, using more fragile be deplored, B 2 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS (B.C. 490. . materials, has not been able to survive the tempests which entirely engulfed ancient civilization, and threw back the human mind, like another Sisyphus, from the heights it had attained, to the humble commencement of a new road, which it has had to re- mount by a long and painful way. The style of painting adopted by the ancients is , strictly speaking, almost unknown to us, but we can arrive at some estimate of its merits by evident analogies and indications. And firstly, Painting occupied , in the esteem of the people of antiquity, the same place that it now holds, relatively to other arts , in public opinion ; and the names of Apelles, Zeuxis, Parrhasius, Polygnotus, Aristides , Pamphilus, Timanthes, Nico machus, are no less great, no less illustrious as painters than those of Pheidias, Alcamenes, Polycletus, Praxiteles, Myron, Lysippus, as sculptors, or than those of Hippodamus, Ictinus, and Callicrates, as architects. This high esteem in which the ancient painters were held by their contemporaries is shown again clearly in the value which their works commanded . If it be true that a marble statue, made by an inferior artist, was worth currently 480l. of our money in that Rome where statues, as Pliny says, were more numerous than the inhabitants, where Nero brought five hundred, in bronze, from the temple of Delphi alone, and from the soil of which had been dug-in the time of the Abbé Barthélemy - more than seventy thousand ; if it be true that for the Diadumenos, Polycletus was paid a hundred talents (21,600l.), and that Attalus in vain offered the inhabitants of Cnidus to pay all their debts in exchange for the Venus of Praxiteles , —the other productions of high art, of which Athens acquired a monopoly, must have risen to a value which in our days can scarcely be believed. According to the uniform testimony of Plutarch and Pliny, who would have been contradicted if they had asserted falsehoods or exaggerations, Nicias refused for one of his pictures sixty talents ( 12,9601.), and made a present of it to the town of Athens ; Cæsar paid eighty talents ( 17,280l.) for the two pictures by Timomachus, which he placed at the entrance to the temple of Venus Genetrix ; a picture by Aristides, which was called the Beautiful Bacchus, was sold for one hundred talents (21,600l. ); and when the town of Sicyon was laden with debts which its revenues were not sufficient to pay, the pictures which belonged to the public were sold, and the produce of these works sufficed to discharge the amount. Enough has been said to show that the painting of the ancients was held by them in equal esteem with their sculpture and their architecture ; it follows that the excel lence of the remains of the two latter arts proves, at the same time, the excellence of the former. Certainly, if in future ages our civilization were to perish under fresh invasions of barbarians, and that, to make it known to a new generation born in after ages, there only remained parts of St. Peter's at Rome and of the Venetian palaces, with some of the statues which adorn them -would not the men of those future times -seeing in what esteem we hold Leonardo, Raphael and Titian, Rubens, Velazquez and Rembrandt — think that the lost works of these painters must have been equal to the works still preserved of Bramante and Michael Angelo, Palladio and Sansovino ? But there also remain to us some descriptions of pictures in default of the pictures themselves ; and, yet more than this, some fragments of ancient paintings have been found, which confirm this reasoning, and leave no doubt as to the excellence of the art which these precious remains represent. Passing over the detailed eulogies of Cicero and Quintilian , we have the descriptions which Pausanias gives of the paintings in the Pæcile at Athens, and of the Lesche of the Cnidians at Delphi ; those which Pliny gives of the pictures of Venus and of Calumny, by Apelles, and of Penelope, by Zeuxis, B.C. 450.] CLASSIC GREEK SCHOOL. 3 and that which Lucian gives of Helen the Courtesan, also by Zeuxis. The painted vases, both of Etruscan and of Greek manufacture, must be included among the actual remains of ancient pictorial art. Such again are the arabesques in the baths of Titus, discovered under the church of San Pietro in Vincula, at the time of the excavations ordered by Leo X.; the frescoes found in the sepulchre of the Nasos ; those in the pagan catacombs ; and more recently the frescoes of Herculaneum and Pompeii, which , although merely decorations of ordinary citizens' houses in little towns, fifty leagues from Rome, are of great importance. There are also monochrome designs on marble and stone, for example, Theseus killing the Centaur and the Ladies playing at the game of talus (huckle-bones) , wonderful compositions, traced on marble with a red pigment, which Pliny calls cinnabaris indica, both in the museum at Naples. Examples of Greek and Greco- Roman mosaics also remain ; amongst others the PADUIERE ETTLINJ- 26 . THE BATTLE OF ISSUS, A Mosaic discovered at Pompeii in the “ House of the Faun.” beautiful mosaic found at Pompeii in the “ House of the Faun, " so called because it had already yielded the charming little Dancing Faun, the pride of the cabinet of bronzes : both are in the same museum at Naples. This mosaic, the most important vestige of the painting of the ancients which has come down to us, cannot be otherwise than the copy of a picture ; probably of one of the Greek pictures brought to Rome after the conquest of Greece, not impossibly of one by Philoxenus of Eretria, a pupil of Nico machus, who is, indeed, known to have painted, for King Cassander, one of the battles of Alexander against the Persians. The mosaic formed the pavement of the triclinium ( dining- room ). Surrounded by a sort of frame, it contains twenty- five persons and twelve horses, of nearly the size of life, and thus forms a real historical picture. It certainly represents one of the battles of Alexander against the Persians , and probably the victory of Issus, for the recital of Quintus Curtius (lib. iii . ) agrees perfectly with the work of the painter. 4 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( B.C. 450. If the original picture, of which this mosaic was a copy, were of Greek origin, the painter and historian must have drawn from the same traditions ; if of Roman origin , the artist must have described on his panel the details given by the historian of Alexander. A study of the various remains to which reference has been made, shows first, that the painters of antiquity knew how to treat all subjects , mythology, history, landscape, sea-pieces, animals, fruit, flowers, costume, ornament, and even caricature ; and also that, while treating great subjects and embracing vast compositions, they knew how to attain a perfect order, a happy arrangement of groups, various planes, foreshortenings, chiaroscuro, movement, action, expression by gesture and by countenance, all the qualities in short of high painting, which the people of modern times have usually denied to the ancients. The works of the best known of the Greek painters have been described by Herodotus, Aristotle, Pausanias, Lucian, Plutarch and Pliny ; and mentioned by many other classic writers . Dionysius of Colophon, one of the earliest of the Greek painters whose names have been handed down to us, was probably born about B.C. 490 ; it is known that he lived in the time of Pericles. Aristotle and Plutarch both speak of his works as being forcible and full of spirit. He was probably a good portrait painter ( AvÖpwnoypagos), as Aristotle says “ Polygnotus painted men better than they are ; Dionysius, as they are.” Ælian (a Roman author of the third century) , says that Dionysius and Polygnotus painted similar subjects-- Polygnotus in large, and Dionysius in small. Whether the writer referred to the style of the painters or the size of their pictures, it is difficult to determine. Polygnotus, a native of the island of Thaos, was known as a painter in Athens in .B.C. 460. His principal pictures were : In the Lesche, an open hall at Delphi, The Taking of Troy ; The Return of the Greeks; and the Ulysses visiting the Shades ;-fully described in seven chapters by Pausanias. In the porch at Athens, called the Pæcile, in which he painted the Destruction of Troy. — For this work it is said he would not receive payment, and consequently the Public Council gave him a house in Athens, and made him a guest of the state at the public expense. —In the temple of the Dioscuri at Athens, The Marriage of the daughter of Leucippus ; and in the temple of Minerva at Platæa, Ulysses after the slaughter of the suitors of Penelope. It is said that Polygnotus first used the yellow earth found in the silver mines, and a purple colour prepared from the husks of grapes. Aristotle speaks of him as the painter of noble characters,” and Pliny says he was the first who gave expression to the features. It seems probable that the style of painting of the celebrated artists of these days was extremely simple — and very like the best class of decorative art upon the Greek vases in the Louvre and the British Museum . Panænus of Athens was the brother of the great sculptor Pheidias ; so Pliny tells us. Strabo seems to think he was the nephew. He was one of the earliest of the Greek painters, though younger than Polygnotus and Micon by some few years. Panænus's most celebrated picture was the Battle of Marathon, in the Paecile at Athens. This picture contains the Iconics, or portraits of celebrated generals ( both of the Athenians and the barbarians) ; these could not have been portraits from liſe, for the picture was not painted till at least thirty years after 66 B.C. 430.] CLASSIC GREEK SCHOOL. 5 the battle. Panænus painted several pictures on the throne and on the wall round the throne of the Olympian Jupiter. The subjects of some of these were : Atlas supporting Heaven and Earth ; Theseus and Pirithous ; allegorical figures of Greece and Salamis ; The Combat of Hercules with the Nemean Lion ; and several other historical subjects. The Pæcile was built by Cimon B.C. 470, therefore supposing Panænus to have painted his great picture ten years after its erection, we may take B.C. 460 to have been about the most important period of his life. Nothing certain is known either of his birth or death . Parrhasius, born about B.C. 470, was instructed in the art of painting by his father. He was a native of Ephesus, but removed early in life to Athens, where he became by far the greatest artist of his time. He compared the works of Polygnotus, Apollodorus, and Zeuxis, and adopted from each that quality which he most admired. Parrhasius was by no means ignorant of the excellence of his own works. He took for himself the title of the Elegant (ABpodlaitos) , and called himself the Prince of Painters. Pliny, says, and not without reason, that he was the most insolent and most arrogant of artists . ” Parrhasius excelled especially in outline, form , and expression. Among the principal works of this artist may be mentioned his Allegorical figure of the Athenian People; a Theseus (it was probably this picture that gained for him his citizenship at Athens) ; a Naval commander in his armour ; Meleager ; Hercules and Perseus ; Castor and Pollux ; Archigallus ( bought by the Emperor Tiberius for 60,000 sesterces , about 510l.), and many portraits of warriors. Pliny says that in a competition with Timanthes of Cythnos he painted The Contest of Ajax and Ulysses , and that when the award was given to his rival , he said to his friends, “ It is not I who should complain , but the son of Telamon, who has a second time become a victim to the folly of his judges." Parrhasius became so rich that at last he would not sell his pictures, saying that no price was sufficient for their value. Pliny also tells us that Zeuxis acknowledged his painting of Grapes to be beaten by the Curtain of Parrhasius. It is related by Seneca that he selected a very old man from among the captives that Philip of Macedon had brought home from Olynthus, and crucified him, in order to see the true expression of pain , as a model for his Prometheus Chained. This story, even if true, could not refer to this Parrhasius, as he would have been about 120 years of age, if living, when Philip took Olynthus. The last record we have of Parrhasius is about B.C. 400. Zeuxis, one of the most celebrated painters of ancient times, was probably born between B.C. 460 and B.C. 450, in one of the cities named Heraclea ; Pliny fixės the time at B.C. 400, but this is apparently too late a date, for he was at the height of his renown in the reign of Archelaus, which was from B.C. 413 until B.C. 399 ( Diodorus Siculus) . Lucian terms Zeuxis the greatest painter of his time, but he was unquestion ably surpassed by Parrhasius, who was his contemporary. The excellence of Zeuxis's painting is noticed by several ancient writers, among whom may be mentioned Aristotle, Quintilian, and Cicero . One of the most celebrated of Zeuxis's pictures is The Family of Centaurs, the original of which was lost at sea. Lucian graphically describes a copy of it which he saw at Athens ; but even this picture was surpassed by his celebrated Helen the Courtesan, which he painted for the city of Croton, and which, according to Ælian, he exhibited at a fixed charge. Other famous works by him are : The Infant Heriules strangling the serpent ; Jupiter in the assembly of the Gods, Penclope bezvailing the absence of her husband , Menclaus 6 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ B.C, 420 . mourning the fate of Agamemnon ; an Athlete ; under which he wrote, “ It is easier to find fault than to imitate ; ” and a Cupid crowned with roses. It is related of Zeuxis that he wore a mantle with his name woven in gold on the border. Ælian records that on one occasion he reproved Megabyzus, a high priest of Diana, who while on a visit to the artist's studio , showed such palpable ignorance of any knowledge of art, that the boys whom the artist employed to mix his colours, laughed at him : where upon Zeuxis quietly remarked, “ While you were silent , these boys admired you for the richness of your dress and the number of your servants ; but now that you disclose your ignorance they cannot refrain from laughter.” Plutarch relates this same story of Apelles and Megabyzus, and Pliny of Apelles and Alexander. The story told by Pliny of Zeuxis deceiving the birds with a picture of ripe grapes, at which they came to peck, and of being himself deceived by a painting of a curtain so ably imitated by Parrhasius that Zeuxis asked him to draw it aside , is often quoted. Zeuxis also painted a picture of a Boy with Grapes, which likewise deceived the birds, but the artist was not entirely satisfied with it , for he justly remarked, “ Had the boy been painted as well as the grapes the birds would have been afraid to come near them . ” It is said that Zeuxis amassed such a large fortune by the sale of his pictures that he would not sell any more. He gave his picture of Pan to Archelaus, and his Alcmena to the town of Agrigentum. The place and date of Zeuxis's death are unknown. Sillig remarks — with justice —that he must have died before the 106th Olympiad ( B.C. 355 ) , for in that year Isocrates, in his oration, praised Zeuxis, which he would not have done had the painter been then living. Micon, a contemporary and fellow -worker with Polygnotus, was born about B.C. 450. He excelled in painting horses, which are generally introduced into his pictures. In the celebrated Colonnades of the Poecile, Micon painted The Battle of the Amazons, and assisted Panænus in The Battle of Marathon, in which he painted the Persians larger than the Greeks ; for this, it is said, he was fined half-a - talent (about 1081. ). He also painted battle - pictures in the temple of Theseus ; and assisted Polygnotus with his work in the temple of the Dioscuri. Micon painted horses with such truth to nature, that the only fault an Athenian art critic named Simon could find with them was that he had given lashes to their under eyelids ! Apollodorus, a native of Athens, lived about B.C. 430. It is said that he was the first to introduce light and shade into his pictures ; for this reason he was called the “ shadow painter . " He must have been surpassed in this branch of painting by Zeuxis, for he complains that the latter had robbed him of his art. The line , easier to find fault than to imitate , ” which Zeuxis wrote under a picture of an athlete, is attributed by Plutarch to Apollodorus. Eupompus, a native of Sicyon , was more famous as the founder of the school of Sicyon, which Pamphilus, his pupil , afterwards more fully established, than as a painter. One of his principles was, that man should be represented as he ought to appear, not as he really is ( Pliny ). The period of Eupompus is sufficiently certain from the fact that he taught Pamphilus, who flourished from about B.C. 388 to B.C. 348. Timanthes of Cythnos lived about B.C. 400. His paintings were especially admired for their expression and reality of representation. Though Timanthes was undoubtedly one of the greatest painters of his time, only five of his works are mentioned by writers of antiquity. Pliny mentions him with great praise ; he says of his painting, " Though 6 It is B.C. 350. ) CLASSIC GREEK SCHOOL . 7 in execution he was always excellent, the execution is invariably surpassed by the conception. ” The pictures by this painter of which we read were : a Sleeping Cyclops ; The Stoning of Palameles; The Contest of Ajax and Ulysses (for which picture he Iphigenia declared victor against Parrhasius in a competition at Samos ) ; The Sacrifice of (with which he defeated in competition Colotes of Teos - an otherwise was unknown artist ). criticism There is no other painting of ancient times which has been the subject of so much Writers as this, on account of the concealment of the face of Agamemnon. Ancient have given it unlimited praise, but modern critics have questioned its excellence and called it a trick. The fifth and last work known to us was the picture of a Hero in the Temple of Peace at Rome. 写 DC I Nicias, a native of Athens, was probably born about B.C. 370, for we hear that Praxiteles employed him to colour his statues about B.C. 350. He refused sixty talents ( 12,9607.) offered him by Ptolemy I. of Egypt, for his famous picture Nervia, or The Region of the Shades, and gave it to his native town, Athens. Ptolemy assumed the title of king in B.C. 306 , when Nicias would be about sixty - four years of age, and consequently likely to be rich and have a reputation, and able to refuse the enormous sum offered by the king. Pliny doubts very much whether the painter of the Nervia and the assistant of Praxiteles can be the same. Pausanias tells us that Nicias was the most excellent animal painter of his time. It is true that he was very studious, even to absent-mindedness, for Ælian tells us that he frequently forgot to take his meals. His picture of Nemea sitting on a lion is one of the most famous of his works. Nicias wrote on this picture that he had painted it in encaustic. Nicias also painted the interiors of tombs, notably that of the high priest Megabyzus. Pamphilus, a native of Amphipolis, lived from about B.C. 388 to B.C. 348. He studied under Eupompus of Sicyon , and helped to establish the style of painting which Eupompus had begun, and which was eventually perfected by Euphranor, Apelles, and Protogenes. Pamphilus, Pliny tells us, was himself a man skilled in all sciences : omnibus literis eruditus. He occupied himself more with the theory of art and with teaching others, than with actual painting. He founded a school at Sicyon, the admis sion to which was one talent (2161.). Pliny says that Apelles and Melanthius both paid the fee, and studied at this school , and that Pausias received instruction in encaustic painting from Pamphilus. The sons of the Greek nobles attended the school, and Painting at this time occupied the first place among the liberal arts. Slaves were not allowed to use the cestrum or graphis. Four pictures only by this artist are recorded : The Heraclidæ ( mentioned by Aristophanes) ; The Battle of Phlius ; Ulysses on the raft; and a Family Portrait (Pliny ). Euphranor, born in the Isthmus of Corinth, is called by Pliny “ the Isthmian.” He was contemporary with Apelles, and flourished from about B.C. 360 to B.C. 320. He was celebrated as a sculptor as well as a painter, and the same author tells us that he was “ in all things excellent. ” He was chiefly famous as a portrayer of Gods and Heroes. Like Pausias and Aristides of Thebes, he painted in encaustic. Three of his most celebrated pictures were at Ephesus : A Group of Philosophers in consulta tion ; A Portrait of a General; and The feigned madness of Ulysses. But his most celebrated works were, The Twelve Gods, and a Battle of Mantinca, painted in the Keramicus at Athens. 8 ILLUSTRATED ( B.C. 340. HISTORY OF PAINTERS. Theon, a native of Samos, lived about B.C. 350. He was much admired for the gracefulness of his painting. Pliny mentions two of his works : Orestes in the act of killing his mother ; and Thamyris playing the cithara . Ælian describes A youthful Warrior hastening to meet the foc. Athenion, a pupil of Glaucion of Corinth , and a native of Maronea in Thrace, was probably a contemporary of Nicias, and painted about the year B.C. 330. Among other works, he executed a Portrait of Phylarchus, the historian, and Achilles discovered by Ulysses disguised as a girl. Pliny tells us that, had Athenion lived to maturity, no artist would have been worthy to be compared to him . Pausias, a native of Sicyon, was a fellow - student with Apelles and Melanthius in the school of Pamphilus, and consequently we may place his date at about B.C. 350. He was fond of small pictures, but occasionally painted large ones. He was the first to bring the use of encaustic to perfection. Pausias was celebrated for his fore shortening, especially to be remarked in a picture-- The Sacrifice of an Ox - which in the time of Pliny was in the Hall of Pompey. He introduced the decorative ceiling paintings, afterwards common , consisting of single figures , flowers, and arabesques (Müller). A portrait of this maiden , with a garland called the Stepan lokos or garland wreather, was reckoned one of his best paintings. He also painted a picture of a boy, called ' Hueplos, because it was executed in a single day, in order to silence the reproaches of his rivals who said he was a slow painter. Nicomachus, a native of Thebes, lived from about B.C. 360 to B.C. 300. He was the most celebrated of all Greek painters for quickness of execution. In illustration of this Pliny mentions the decorations of the monument erected to the honour of the poet Telestes by Aristratus, the tyrant of Sicyon , which were completed in a few days in order to fulfil the contract that they should be ready by a certain date. A few of the best pictures of Nicomachus were : a Victory in a quadriga ; Apollo and Diana, a Cybele and a Scylla. Stobæus relates that Nicomachus, hearing some one remark that he saw no beauty in the Helen of Zeuxis, observed , “ Take my eyes and you will see a goddess." He had several scholars, the principal of whom was his brother Aristides. The unfinished picture of the Tyndaridæ by this artist was valued more highly than any of his completed works. Melanthius was one of the most careful painters of the Sicyonic school. Pliny mentions that he paid the talent -- the price of admission - and studied in the school of Pamphilus. He shared with his instructor, according to Quintilian , the honour of being the most renowned among the Greeks for composition. We also learn from Plutarch that Aratus, wishing to make a present to Ptolemy, sent him pictures by Melanthius and Pamphilus worth 150 talents ( 32,400l. ). Melan thius lived in the fourth century B.C. Protogenes was born at Caunus in Caria (according to Suidas, the Greek historian, he was born at Xanthus in Lycia, but Pausanias and Pliny are both in favour of Caunus). He was a contemporary and friend of Apelles, and was at the height of his fame in B.C. 332. Protogenes was by no means a prolific painter, for, as Quintilian says, “ excessive carefulness was his predominating idea . " He is said by Ælian to have taken seven years to complete his most celebrated picture , The Rhodian hero Ialysus and his dog . Apelles greatly admired this picture. A tale is related that Protogenes, B.C. 330.] CLASSIC GREEK SCHOOL . 9 į his 0 2 after trying in vain for a long time to represent the foam at the dog's mouth, to his own satisfaction , in a fit of anger and disgust threw his sponge at the animal's head, and thus by accident obtained in a second that which many hours of labour had been unable Demetrius to acquire . Pliny tells us that the renown of this picture was so great, that Poliorcetes, when besieging Rhodes in B.C. 304, refrained from setting fire to that partof the town in which Protogenes lived, for fear of damaging the picture. needystudio, and thus made the fortune of this artist , who was, Pliny tells us, in very circumstances. All ancient writers agree in praising his works. Apelles was a native of the little island of Cos in the Ægean Sea . Neither the date of his birth nor death is known , but he was at the height of his fame in the year B.C. 332. He studied chiefly under the Macedonian painter Pamphilus, at Sicyon, and was a most indefatigable worker. He frequently painted figures of Venus ; he also painted many portraits of Alexander the Great, who, it is said, would not sit to any other artist. He received four talents (8641.), for a portrait of this monarch wielding a thunderbolt, which he painted on the walls of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. A picture of Venus Anadyomene was valued at 100 talents (21,600l.). This was one of the most famous of all the Greek paintings ; the goddess was represented as rising from the sea, wringing from her hair the water which fell in a silver shower around her. A story is related of him which is said to have given rise to the well- known saying, “ A shoemaker should not go beyond his last.” . Apelles exhibited a finished picture, and concealed himself near by in order to hear the criticisms which he rightly imagined would be made upon it. A shoemaker found fault with a defect in a sandal, which Apelles accordingly rectified ; on another occasion the shoemaker, encouraged by the success of his former remark, began to criticise the leg : upon this the artist, coming forth from his hiding- place, angrily told him to keep to his trade. Once, it is said, when Alexander visited Apelles, and remained unmoved before an equestrian portrait, his horse neighed at the sight of the charger represented in the painting : “ Your horse,” said the artist to the king, “ knows more about pictures than you do.” Apelles wrote a work on painting which has unfortunately been lost. He is said to have been the original author of the well -known saying, “ Nulla dies sine lineâ." Aristides, who was a native of Thebes, was born about B.C. 330. He was a brother and pupil of Nicomachus, and contemporary with Apelles. He excelled in painting battle pictures ; one of his most celebrated was The Capture of a City, in which the expression of a dying woman and her infant was much admired : Alexander the Great took this picture to Macedonia. Aristides also painted a Battle with the Persians, in which there were one hundred figures ; this was purchased for a large sum by Mnason of Elatea. Attalus, king of Pergamus, bought a picture by Aristides, A Sick Man on his bed , for 100 talents (about 21,600l.), and Pliny says that Lucius Mummius refused more than 200 talents for a Father Bacchus which he captured at the siege of Corinth. Many of the best paintings of Aristides were sent to Rome with the rest of the plunder from the cities of Greece. An unfinished picture of Iris was the most highly valued. Asclepiodorus was contemporary with Aristides and Apelles. He painted twelve figures, representing the twelve Gods, and sold them to Mnason the tyrant of Elatea for five talents ( 1,0801.) each . Philoxenus, a native of Eretria , and a pupil of Nicomachus, was renowned for the rapidity of his execution. Nothing is known concerning the dates of his birth or death. с IO ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ B.C. 300 . He probably painted his famous picture of the Battle of Alexander and Darius, by order of Cassander, king of Macedon, shortly after B.C. 315, in which year Cassander succeeded in driving Polysperchon out of Macedon, and certainly not later than B.C. 296, for in that year Cassander died . It is not improbable that the mosaic representing the Battle of Issus, found in the “ House of the Faun ” at Pompeii in 1831 , is a reproduction of this picture, for Darius and Alexander are the most conspicuous figures ( see p. 35 ). Only one other work by Philoxenus is mentioned by Pliny. It is a representation of Three Satyrs feasting: Pliny also tells us that Philoxenus discovered various methods of facilitating execution in painting. Timomachus, a native of Byzantium, was imagined by many to have been contem porary with Julius Cæsar, from a statement to that effect by Pliny (" Julii Cæsaris ætate " ). Durand thinks that ætate is an addition of the copyist. This seems quite within the bounds of possibility, for Pliny himself speaking of him elsewhere mentions hiin among the ancient and renowned painters of Greece. Timomachus was probably a contemporary of Nicias , and consequently lived about B.C. 300. His most celebrated pictures, Ajax brooding over his misfortunes, and Medca meditating the destruction of her children, were bought by Julius Cæsar for the enormous sum of eighty Attic talents ( 17,2801.), and placed in the temple of Venus Genetrix. Ovid alludes to them in his • Tristia ' : “ Utque sedet vultu fassus Telamonius iram , Inque oculis facinus barbara Mater habet. " Pliny says that the picture of Medea was not completed, yet it was more admired than any of the finished works of the same artist. The fact that the picture was left unfinished proves beyond a doubt that Timomachus did not sell it himself to Julius Cæsar, and therefore was not likely to have been his contemporary. Pliny mentions among other works by this artist an Orestes, Iphigenia in Tauris, and a celebrated picture of a Gorgon . Timanthes of Sicyon (?) is only known to us by his picture of the Battle of Pellene, in Arcadia, in which Aratus defeated the Ætolians in B.C. 240. He was contemporary with Aratus, who lived from B.C. 271 to B.C. 213. He was probably a native of Sicyon , though nothing certain is known either of the date or place of his birth . Neacles, probably a native of Sicyon , painted about the year B.C. 250. Pliny, who mentions him with praise, tells us of two pictures by him, a Venús, and a Battle between the Persians and the Egyptians on the Nile. In the latter, he introduced an ass drinking in the stream , and a crocodile, in order that the river might not be mistaken for the sea. It is also related of Neacles that by painting over the figure and intro ducing a palm-tree in its stead , he managed to save the Portrait of Aristratus by Melanthius and Apelles, from the fury of Aratus. GRECO- ROMAN SCHOOL. From Athens let us now pass to Rome. Ashamed of being in all matters of taste the disciples of the conquered Greeks, the Romans boasted of having a national school of painting, although the ancient religious law of the Latins was, like that of the Hebrews, hostile to images. Their writers pretended that about B.C. 300.] GRECO -ROMAN SCHOOL . II the year A.U.C. 450, a member of the illustrious family of Fabius, surnamed Pictor, who derived his name from his profession, had executed paintings in the Temple of Health. They cited also, in the following century, a certain dramatic poet, named a nephew of the old Ennius, who had himself painted the decorations ofbesides his theatre; as did also, a hundredyears later, Claudius Pulcher. It is related, , that Lucius Hostilius exhibited in the Forum , a picture where he had repre sented himself advancing to the assault of Carthage, which obtained him so much Pacuvius, 6 ater gut: TUD 1 . FLORA. Antique Painting, in the Museum at Naples. popularity that he was named consul the following year. All this appears as doubtful as the tales of Livy about the foundation of Rome. What is certain is that, when they penetrated as conquerors into Greece, the Romans showed neither taste for, nor know ledge of, the arts . They began, like true barbarians, by breaking the statues and tearing the pictures . At last, Metellus and Mummius stopped the stupid fury of the I 2 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( B.C. 300. soldiers, and sent pell-mell to Rome whatever they found in the temples of Greece, without, however, having any true idea of the value of these precious spoils. This Lucius Mummius, who placed in the temple of Ceres the celebrated Bacchus of Aristides, was so ignorant, that after the siege of Corinth, he threatened those who conveyed to Rome the pictures and statues taken in that town , that if they lost the pictures, they must replace them ! The Romans, imitating their neighbours the Etruscans, whose industry and arts they borrowed, became great architects, and especially great engineers ; they constructed roads, highways, bridges, aqueducts, which, surviving their empire, still excite our astonishment and admiration . But their only knowledge of the arts of painting and sculpture was through the works of the Greeks. Still more : at Rome itself there were scarcely any artists but the Greeks, who had gone , like grammarians and schoolmasters, to practise their profession in the capital of the world. It was Greek painter, Metrodorus of Athens, who came to Rome to execute for the triumph of Paulus Æmilius the paintings of the Procession of the victorious general. Trans planted out of their country , reduced to the condition of artisans, the Greek artists had no longer at Rome those original inspirations which independence and dignity alone can give. They formed there a school of imitation , which could not but alter and deteriorate. Architecture, being necessary to the great works commanded by the emperors, was everywhere held in honour : so also was Sculpture, which provided the new temples with statues of the deified Cæsars. But Painting, reduced to decorate the interior of houses, became a kind of domestic art, a simple trade. At the same time that the Romans prohibited their slaves from becoming painters, they disdained to recognize the art as worthy of being followed by themselves. It is true that amongst their painters is mentioned a certain Turpilius, belonging to the equestrian order ; but he lived at Verona. Quintus Pedius, the son of a consul , is also cited ; but he was dumb from his birth ; and to enable his family to allow him to learn painting as an amusement, the express permission of Augustus was required. The painter Amulius, who has left some reputation, worked without taking off the toga ( pingebat semper togatus— Pliny), in order not to be confounded with foreigners, and to preserve the dignity of a Roman citizen . The consequent decadence of the art of painting was inevitable. By degrees the Romans came to prefer richness to beauty, the precious metals to simple colours. Pompey exhibited his portrait made of pearls ; and Nero proposed to gild the bronze Alexander of Lysippus ; after having caused himself to be represented in a portrait one hundred and twenty feet high. In short, Painting, losing all nobility and all character, was reduced to the decoration of the interior of houses, in a style in accordance with such a degraded taste. Thus things went on to the reign of the Antonines, who attempted to restore some vigour and dignity to the arts. After Marcus Aurelius, the evil increased, the decay became more serious ; the end approached. Constantly-recurring civil wars, military disasters, internal troubles, risings in the provinces, the resistance to the barbarians who were attacking the provinces, the general confusion ; in short, all the scourges let loose upon the world in the years which immediately preceded the ruin and dismemberment of the Empire, were far from calculated to reanimate taste , to raise fallen art, or to restore it to its brilliancy and power. Here, then, we must no longer occupy ourselves with its transformations, its phases, its fashions of art , but with its very existence. In our next chapter we must inquire if this decay amounted to abandonment or total extinction ; and ask if it be true that there is in the History B.C. 200. ] GRECO -ROMAN SCHOOL. 13 of Painting an immense lacuna, bounded on one side by the death of ancient art, on the other by the birth of modern art. The most important of the Roman painters of this period that have been mentioned by the classic writers were : Fabius Pictor, one of the sons of Marcus Fabius Ambustus the consul , was called Pictor because he painted various objects in the Temple of the Goddess of Health , in B.C. 304. Pliny and Livy both mention these works, which existed until the destruction of the temple in the reign of Claudius. Marcus Pacuvius, a native of Brundusium , was born about B.C. 219. He was a nephew of Ennius the epic poet, and , though renowned as a painter, was more cele brated for his poems. Pliny mentions paintings by him in the Temple of Hercules at Rome; he also tells us that Pacuvius was the last to paint “ honestis manibus. " He died at Tarentum in the ninetieth year of his age, which, if the date of his birth be correct, would be about B.C. 130. He wrote an epitaph on himself which runs as follows : “ Adolescens, tamenetsi properas, te hoc saxum rogat, uti ad se adspicias, deinde quod scriptum est, legas. Hic sunt poætæ Pacuvii Marci sita ossa. Hoc volebam , nescius ne esses ; vale.” Metrodorus, a distinguished painter and philosopher, was born at Athens ( ?) about B.C. 200. When Paulus Æmilius had defeated the Greeks in B.C. 168, he ordered the Athenians to send him their best artist, to perpetuate his triumph, and their most renowned philosopher, to educate his sons. The Athenians paid Metrodorus the extraordinary honour of declaring that he was both their best artist and their most renowned philosopher; and it is said that Æmilius was quite satisfied . The painting of this Triumph must have been a most stupendous undertaking, for in the procession, which is partly described by Plutarch, there were no less than 250 waggons containing Greek works of art , called by Livy simulacra pugnarum picta . The spectacle lasted the entire day. Metrodorus, though a Greek, well deserves a mention among the Roman School, as he painted at Rome, and very likely helped to introduce a better style of painting among the Romans. Laia or Lala, of Cyzicus, a female artist, lived about B.c. 100, and was especially renowned for her portrait painting. Claudius Pulcher, lived about B.C. 100, and is said to have painted decorations for theatres. There is little else known of him . Ludius, the painter, lived in the time of Augustus. Pliny tells us he " invented the art of decorations for the walls of apartments, whereon he scattered country houses, porticoes , shrubs, thickets , forests, hills, ponds, rivers, banks-- in a word, all that fancy could desire." Paintings of this kind have been discovered at Pompeii and Hercula neum and elsewhere. They are very beautiful , though it must be admitted they are but imitations of the Greek works which had preceded them . Dionysius of Rome lived about the time of the first Roman Emperors. Pliny tells us that he was a very prolific painter, so much so, in fact, that his pictures filled whole galleries. Pliny also calls him Av@ putroypapos, because he painted figure subjects only. 14 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [ A.D. 300. .

CHAPTER II. PAINTING IN THE MIDDLE AGES,

InaN our last chapter we spoke of the gulf which apparently separates modern from ancient pictorial art. It may perhaps be possible, by taking up the links of the broken chain of tradition , to trace a connection , however slight, between the two periods. Constantine removed the seat of the empire from Rome to Byzantium , precisely at the period to which we have come. This great event obliges us to divide the history of art into two parts. We shall follow it first in the Eastern Empire, until the taking of Constantinople ; then we shall find it once more in Italy. After having enthroned Christianity, Constantine set himself to decorate his new capital—to make it another Rome. He built churches, palaces, baths ; he carried objects of art from Italy, and he was followed by the artists to whom proximity to the court was a necessity of existence. As it happened at Rome under Augustus, who boasted of having found a city of brick and left it of marble, so architecture quickly grew at Byzantium to be the first of the arts. Painting, although occupying an inferior position , was not abandoned. The Emperor Julian, to show at once his tastes, his talents, and his success, caused himself to be painted crowned by Mercury and Mars ; we know, too, that Valentinian, who prided himself on his caligraphy, was also a painter and sculptor . To avenge themselves for the Pagan reaction attempted by Julian the Apostate, the Christians began to destroy many of the vestiges of antiquity anterior to Christ temples, books, and works of art. " Eager to destroy all that might recall Paganism , the Christians," says Vasari, “ destroyed not only the wonderful statues, the sculptures, the paintings, the mosaics, and the ornaments of the false gods, but also the images of the great men which decorated the public edifices . ” Under the Emperor Theodosius the Great, in the fourth century, the fatal sect of Iconoclasts ( breakers of images) arose. This was the signal for a fresh destruction of statues and ancient pictures. However, if the column of Theodosius — the worthy rival of that of Trajan -- testifies to the cultivation of the arts of design, the writings of St. Cyril, who lived in the time of that emperor, furnish irrefragable proofs of it. In the sixth of the ten books which he wrote against the Emperor Julian , one chapter has for its motto : “ Our paintings teach piety ” (nostre picturæ pietatem docent) . In it he entreats painters to teach children temperance, and women chastity. In his book against the Anthropomorphites, the same St. Cyril supports the opinion of the artists of his time, A.D. 300.] EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. • 15 who believed they must make Jesus “ the least beautiful of the children of men . ” It is remarkable that on this question—whether our Blessed Lord should have in His images the beauty that charms and recalls His celestial origin, or the deformity which the extreme humility of His mission seems to require — the Church has never decided. The Fathers, as well as the Schoolmen, have always been divided on this point. The opinion that Jesus should not be beautiful, sustained by St. Justin, St. Clement, St. 66666666 sasa 2Ο ΣΤΟ 299170 Peroes PANNEAKERS THE GOOD SHEPHERD A Painting on the ceiling of the Catacombs at Rome. Basil, and St. Cyril , was then most generally received . Celsus, the Pagan physician, triumphed at it. “ Jesus was not beautiful, ” said he: “ then he was not God.” The most eminent of the Fathers, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and St. Chrysostom , vainly sustained the contrary opinion. Vainly again , in the twelfth century, did St. Bernard affirm that, as the new Adam, Jesus surpassed even the angels in beauty. The greater number of theologians, down to Saumaise and the Bene 16 [A.D. 400. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. dictines, Pouget and Delarue, in the last century, reproached painters with having taken too much licence in ascribing physical beauty to Him of whom the prophet Isaiah said , “ He hath no form nor beauty that we should desire Him . " In any case, the writings of the Fathers suffice to prove that Christian paintings were till the seventh or eighth century very common . They frequently assumed allegorical forms. Jesus was represented, as well as His mission and sacrifice, under the features of Daniel in the den of lions ; of Jonah swallowed by the whale ; of the Good Shepherd carrying back to the fold the lost sheep ; of Orpheuscharming the animals ; of the Submissive Lamb ; and of the Phoenix rising from its ashes. It was the Council of Constantinople, held in A.D. 692, which ordered artists to abandon emblems, and to return to the painting of Sacred History. Taste, however, continued to change more and more, to the detriment of painting. That only was considered beautiful which was rich. When marble seemed too poor a material for sculpture, when statues were made of porphyry, of silver, or gold, they could no longer be contented with pictures on panels. Painting existed , no doubt, for it is stated that the portraits of the emperors were sent into the provinces at their accession ; for example, with Eudoxia, the wife of Arcadius, when she took the title of Augusta, in 395 . And Theodosius II . , who erected , in 425 , a sort of university at Constantinople, cultivated painting, like Valentinian. But the more brilliant mosaic, often formed of precious materials, was preferred for the decoration of temples and palaces. Later - at the time of the sanguinary disturbances which accompanied and followed the reign of Zeno (A.D. 474 to A.D. 491 ) -painting was prostituted to the lowest employment to which it could descend, serving to trace those coarse and strange figures used as talismans, abraxas, and amulets of all sorts, which had become fashionable amongst a super stitious people. It is known that Justinian ordered great works in architecture. He caused a new temple (St. Sophia ) to be erected to The Divine Wisdom , by the architects Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus, and was called, like Adrian , Reparator orbis. It was at this period, and precisely on the occasion of these architectural constructions, that the complete triumph of mosaic over painting took place. Procopius says positively, that to ornament certain rooms of the emperor's palace, they employed instead of fresco or painting in encaustic, brilliant mosaics in coloured stones, which commemorated the victories and conquests of the imperial arms. From that time mosaic was held in honour, and dethroning true painting, it became especially the art of the Greeks of the Eastern empire. With them taste was becoming depraved, and their works, as well as their actions and character, showed great debasement of mind. Architectural art, corrupted by oriental taste , was seldom anything but a confused prodigality of capricious ornaments. Statuary, no less degenerated and strange, created only small images in metal, or even mixtures ofmetals ; and Painting itself became merely a working with enamels and precious stones , with chasings in gold and silver. After Justinian, the bitter ' theological quarrels led to civil wars ; and whilst Mahomedanism , itself iconoclastic, grew up almost in the vicinity of the holy places, the sect of the Iconoclasts, still increasing, finished by ascending the throne in the person of Leo the Isaurian ( A.D. 726) . The other Leo, the Armenian, and Michael the Stammerer, joined themselves to the same party, which carried their proceedings against their opponents to such a point, that Theophilus, the son of Michael, caused a monk named Lazarus to be burned, in A.D. 840, as punishment for having painted A.D. 450.] PAINTING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 17 sacred subjects. At last Basil the Macedonian, an enemy to the iconoclastic party and its excesses, re-established in A.D. 867 the worship of images, and restored to the arts their free exercise. It seems that either old artists must have been preserved from the pro scription, which, indeed, had only alighted on religious images, or new artists must have speedily arisen ; since historians tell us that Basil, the greatest constructor of edifices after Constantine and Justinian , had in his palaces so many pictures representing the battles he had gained and the towns he had taken, that the porticoes, the walls, the ceilings, and the pavements were covered by them . Delivered from the Iconoclasts, the Arts of design could take breath again, and continued to flourish unchecked to the time of the Crusades, at the end of the eleventh century. Everyone knows that these great armed migrations threw Europe as much on Constantinople as on Antioch or Jerusalem ; and that in 1204 the capital of the Eastern Empire was carried by assault by the Crusaders, under Baldwin of Flanders. In the sack of this town the Jupiter Olympius by Pheidias, the Juno of Samos by Lysippus, and other great works of antiquity, perished at the same time with a number of works of art which a fashion in bad taste had laden with precious ornaments. But after the brief division of the Grecian empire between the French and the Venetians, and after the establishment of the Genoese and Pisans in the Bosphorus, when a more regular state succeeded to the disorders of conquest, the communication of ancient Greek art to the western nations commenced. The monuments of that art were then much better preserved at Byzantium than at Rome, which had been so many times sacked by the barbarians. At the same time with the ancient, a new art was also communicated, that of the modern Greeks, who had their architecture, their statuary, their frescoes, and their mosaics. Then, after the expulsion of the Crusaders and the destruction of their ephemeral empire, Michael Palæologus, who raised for one moment the Greek empire, also restored some life to the fine arts , and amongst them painting was not forgotten. This prince had his principal victories depicted in his palace, and placed a portrait of himself in St. Sophia. After Michael, the empire was occupied almost exclusively with resistance to its enemies until the time of Mahomed II . , who carried Constanti nople by assault, on the 29th May, 1453. Arts and letters then alike took refuge in Italy, where we shall resume their history from the reign of Constantine the Great. Between the translation of the seat of empire to Byzantium and the taking of Rome by Odoacer and the discontented mercenaries in A.D. 476, there is little to relate beyond the attacks and the invasions of barbarians. We must then start from their conquest of Rome. It is known with what frightful disasters this was accompanied, and how many inestimable objects perished in the reiterated pillages that Rome had to undergo. During the short rule of the first hordes from the north, a deep slumber seemed to have fallen on all the works of intellect, and the only productions of this sad period which can be considered as in any way belonging to painting are some mosaics serving as pavements in the halls of the bath - rooms. At last the Goths appeared, drove out the nations which had preceded them , and founded an empire. Their appearance in Italy was a deliverance, as it was also in Spain , for in both peninsulas they showed the same mildness of manners, the same spirit of justice, order, and of conservatism . Unfortunately for Italy, their rule was of D 18 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [A.D. 600. . shorter duration there than in Spain. The great Theodoric - great at least until his old age - who had attached to himself Symmachus, Boethius, and Cassiodorus, stopped the ravages as much as he could, and took every care to preserve the monuments of antiquity. “ Having had the happiness, " to adopt his own expression, " to find at Rome a nation of statues and a troop of bronze horses,” he had several buildings erected to receive them . We are surprised to find this barbarian recommending the imitation of the ancients to his architect Aloisius, whom he had made a Count (comes ), and whom he called your sublimity, and especially urging him , by a rare instinct of good taste, to make the new buildings agree with the old ones. His worthy minister, Cassiodorus, himself cultivated painting, at all events that of the time. He relates in his ‘ Epistolæ, ' that he took pleasure in enriching the manuscripts of the monastery he had founded in Calabria , with ornaments painted in miniature. Bede, who had, it is asserted , seen these figures and ornaments of the manuscripts of Cassiodorus, says, that nothing could be more carefully executed or more perfect. Unfortunately all these works afterwards perished , and nothing of this period has been preserved to us but mosaics. The Goths, “ closely resembling the Greeks, ” says their historian Jornandes, did not stand long against the civil wars which broke out after the death of Theodoric ; the attacks of the Romans from Byzantium , conducted by Narses ; and those of the fresh tribes which precipitated themselves across the Alps from the North . In the middle of the sixth century, the Lombards, under Alboin , made themselves masters of Italy. The dominion of these new conquerors was continually disturbed by intestine quarrels, and contested by the exarchs of Ravenna, acting as lieutenants of the emperor at Constantinople. In such a situation , when feudal anarchy was beginning to people Italy with petty tyrants, the arts could be but feebly cultivated . However, the king, Antharis, who had become a Christian to please his wife Theodelinda ( as Clovis had at the prayers of Clotilda), caused churches to be built or repaired, which he decorated with sculptures and paintings. Then Theodelinda herself , when a widow and queen , founded the celebrated residence of Monza, near We find in the writings of the Lombard Warnefridus of Aquileia , known by the name of Paul the Deacon, a minute description of the paintings in the Palace of Monza, which recorded the exploits of the Lombard armies. From these pictures, which were before his eyes, he described all the accoutrements of his fellow -country men, or rather of his ancestors, for he lived two centuries later. Luitprand continued the work of Theodelinda. An enemy to the Iconoclasts, he began, by the advice of Gregory III. , to decorate the churches with frescoes and mosaics. The removal of the imperial court, in the first place, and then the rule of the barbarians-now become Christians and devotees — had given great importance to the bishops of Rome. Under cover of the long wars between the Lombard kings and the exarchs of Ravenna, the popes founded their temporal power, acquired territory, and became sovereigns. This circumstance was fortunate for the arts, which found in them natural protectors, and Rome, restored by the papacy, became the centre and the capital of art. In spite of the approach of Attila , whom St. Leo stopped at the gates of the holy city--in spite of the pillage to which Genseric, less awed than the fierce king of the Huns, delivered it —we see the successive labours of the for the restoration of Rome begun and continued. Before leaving that ancient capital of the world, Constantine had built the old St. Peter's , the old St. Paul's, St. Agnes, and St. Lawrence. The popes decorated these churches magnificently, and we may popes A.D. 700.) 19 PAINTING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. mention principally the great work of St. Leo, who caused the whole series of popes from St. Peter to himself to be painted on the wall of the basilica of St. Paul. This work, begun in the fifth century, has lasted to our own day, having been spared in the great fire which destroyed the greater part of that edifice in 1824 ; and Lanzi justly quotes it in proof of the assertion with which he begins his book : “ That Italy was not without painters, even during the dark ages, appears not only from history, but from various pictures that have resisted the attacks of time. Rome still retains some of very ancient date. ” In the ' Liber Pontificalis, Anastasius the librarian , or whoever else may be the author of that book, gives a very complete detail of the sculpture, the carving, and the works in gold and silver in the churches founded by Constantine. As for the paintings, of which he also speaks, they have all perished, except the mosaics and frescoes in the Christian catacombs. But Anastasius speaks of the new kind of painting, which was just becoming fashionable, in those times when metals alo considered valuable ; I mean painting in embroidery, that is to say, worked with gold and silver threads on silk stuffs. He speaks among other things of a chasuble of Pope Honorius I. , A.D. 625 , the embroidery on which represented the Deliverance of St. Peter and the Assumption of the Virgin. The art of embroidery had been brought from the East by the Greeks of Byzan tium . It was known to the ancient Greeks, even from the earliest times, as is evidenced by the tapestry of Penelope, wherein figures were represented in different colours. It was also known to the Romans, according to Cicero's allusion when reproaching Verres with his thefts in Sicily ( “ neque ullam picturam , neque in tabula, neque textili fuisse ” ). In the time of St. John Chrysostom (fourth century) , the toga of a Christian senator contained as many as six hundred figures, which made the eloquent orator say with grief, “ All our admiration is now reserved for goldsmiths and weavers. ” It was especially in Italy that the art of embroidery gained ground. It is enough to mention the famous tapestry of the Countess Matilda, that celebrated friend of Gregory VII. , who reigned over Tuscany, Modena, Mantua , and Ferrara, from 1076 to 1125 , and who by her donations so largely added to the “ Patrimony of St. Peter.” When Charlemagne, after having destroyed the Lombard kingdom , was crowned , at Rome, Emperor of the West, there was a moment of great hope for the arts. What might not have been expected from the powerful protection of a prince who understood --- though without possessing it --the advantages of science, who collected around his person the Lombard Paul the Deacon, Peter of Pisa , Paulinus of Aquileia, the English Alcuin, and his pupil Eginhard ? But continual military expeditions left him too little leisure to permit him to give an impulse to arts which would have required his whole care and time. Charlemagne only caused some bas-reliefs, mosaics, and illuminated manuscripts to be executed for his much- loved church of Aachen (Aix -la -Chapelle ). But the popes, tranquil in Italy under his protection , took the part he could not fulfil. Adrian I. , who praises in his letters the works of painting ordered by his predecessors, caused a picture of Feeding the poor to be painted on the walls of St. John Lateran ; and his successor, Leo III . , had the Preaching of the Apostles represented in fresco in the gallery of the triclinium at the palace of the Lateran, the vaulted roof of which was decorated in mosaic. The division and the weakening of empire of Charlemagne tended to the aggran disement of the popes, whose policy always was to foster disunion in Italy in order to profit by it. But as this division increased , their own power became more 20 ( A.D. 1000. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. us. frequently attacked and their reigns more turbulent. The great schism of the East , the numerous anti-popes, the long quarrels of Gregory VII. and the emperor , Henry IV. , from which arose the factions of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines ,-from these causes sprung up such sanguinary and prolonged troubles, that for the second time we find the cultivation of the arts interrupted. There is, between the ninth and eleventh centuries, that is to say, during the period of the grossest ignorance and thickest darkness of the middle ages, a complete blank, of which no memorial is left In this period we can only find , in the way of painting, the works of some cenobites who illuminated their missals in the peace and obscurity of the cloister. There was then , as the annotators of Vasari (MM . Jeanron and Leclanché) judiciously remark , “ less an ignorance of the works of antiquity, of which so many remains still existed , than a general weariness of the ancient science, an insurmountable- apathy for its requirements, a perpetual indifference to its formulas." It was in the eleventh century , -after that terrible year 1000, which it had been generally expected would bring the end of the world , during that period when, favoured by the ever- reviving quarrels between the emperors and the popes, the Italian republics, Venice, Florence, Genoa, Pisa, and Siena , were in process of forma tion , and when the Normans regaining Sicily from the Arabs, were establishing an empire in the south of Italy, —that we see clearly how to take up the links of the tradi tional chain , and find the first symptoms of the future revival. It is to this time that the different images of the Virgin, which have been attributed to St. Luke, the paintings also in the vaults of the Duomo of Aquileia, of Santa Maria Prisca at Orvieto, the Madonna delle Grazie, and the Madonna di Tressa, in the cathedral of Siena, all belong. At the same period, and even before the crusades, an intercourse was begun between the artists of the Eastern Empire and those of Italy. This had become very important to the latter, after such a long interruption in the practice of art. Many Greek paintings were then brought from Constantinople and Smyrna, amongst others a Madonna, which is at Rome in Sta. Maria in Cosmedin , and another Madonna in the Camerino of the Vatican , which is said by Lanzi to be the best work of the Byzantines in Italy , both in regard to its painting and its state of preservation . It was also in the eleventh century that the Venetians sent for Greek workers in mosaic, to whom we owe the large mosaics in the singular and quite oriental basilica of St. Mark's at Venice. Other Greek workers in mosaic were invited to Sicily, and many were found already there, in the twelfth century, by the Norman William the Good, when he built his celebrated cathedral of Monreale. Then at last national art awoke in Italy, and after the long period of obscurity which we call the dark ages, the first streaks of light were seen announcing the dawn of a new civilization soon to arise on the world. And yet this was not because the country was either peaceful or prosperous. The quarrels of the Emperor Otho IV. and the Pope Innocent III , had revived the hatred of the Guelph and the Ghibelline factions. Under Frederick II. the league of the Lombard towns, the claims of Gregory IX. and Innocent IV. , kept up the incessant war between the empire and the papacy. But in the midst of these conflicts, not only of words, but also of arms, and in which every one wished to prove that he had right as well as might on his side, intellect had thrown off its drowsiness, and the human mind once more moved forward. Notwithstanding his reverses, Frederick II . contributed much to this movement. He was a clear- sighted prince, learned for his period, and had gathered around him a polite and elegant court. King of the Two Sicilies, as well as emperor of Germany, he A.D. 1100. ] PAINTING IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 21 almost constantly resided in Italy. He composed verses in the vulgar idiom , and caused a number of Greek or Arabian books to be translated into Latin. He erected several palaces, which he delighted in decorating with columns and statues. The medals of his reign are of a style and finish till then forgotten since ancient times. Lastly, he had books of his own composition illuminated with miniature paintings, the execution of which he himself directed and superintended. The princes of the house of Anjou followed his example, and the popes would not yield to the emperor in art any more than in the rest of their pretensions. The sovereign pontiffs of this age, Honorius III . , Gregory IX. , Innocent IV. , Nicholas IV. , caused the porticoes and the immense galleries of their churches to be ornamented with frescoes and mosaics. By a result scarcely perhaps to be expected , even the agitation of the period fostered an increased growth of all the sciences, and also especially of art. The republics, the free cities, the small states , all the fragments of divided Italy, in every thing disputed pre-eminence with each other. Each wished to triumph over its rival by the importance of its establishments and the beauty of the works of its artists. Again, the rulers whom the greater number of these states had chosen , or those who had raised themselves to be masters, each considering himself a new Pericles, and forestalling the Medici, wished, whilst he flattered the vanity of his fellow - citizens, at the same time to occupy their attention and to satisfy their wishes. We can under stand what this double sentiment, this double want, must have produced. From it there resulted indeed vast cathedrals, sumptuous monasteries, grand palaces, and halls. From the same cause sprang up a universal taste , a spirit of emulation, a passionate ardour, all the stimulating qualities of a noble labour performed publicly , which, while it seeks, is at the same time rewarded by the public approval. When in A.D. 1294, Florence decreed the erection of her cathedral, the podestà of the seignory was enjoined “ to trace the plan of it with the most sumptuous magnificence, so that the industry and power of man shall never invent and undertake anything more vast or beautiful; inasmuch as no one ought to put his hand to the works of the community with any less design than to make them correspond with the lofty spirit which binds the souls of all the citizens into one single, united, identical will.” Who is it that holds such magnificent and haughty language ? Was it Pericles giving orders to Ictinus and Pheidias for the erection of the temple to the virgin daughter of Zeus ? No. It was simply the seignory of Florence ; —but Florence was then a modern Athens. Having succinctly given the history of art in general through the events and changes of political revolutions, it remains for us to trace the particular history of the various processes which form the links between ancient and modern art. There are three principal kinds of painting which have come down to us by tradition from the ancients, and the cultivation of which, although sometimes interrupted, has never been really abandoned : mosaic, illumination, and painting properly so called, whether in fresco , distemper, or in oil. 22 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. PAINTING IN MOSAIC. We have already said that mosaic was really the link connecting the two epochs of painting, ancient and modern, and that this branch of art suffered the least from alteration and interruption ; that, transported from Italy to Byzantium , it was carried on there with more success than any other kind of painting, and that the Greeks of the Eastern empire, in their turn , constantly furnished the Italians with models, not only at the period of their expulsion from the Bosphorus and their return to the West, but during the whole of the intermediate time. Working in mosaic is very ancient, as ancient as painting itself. It was cultivated : by the Greeks, who taught it to the Romans. The latter employed it so much that it became at once an object of art and of domestic use. It was at first a simple pavement, called , according to its material and design , opus tesselatum , opus sectile, opus vermiculatum . In the latter style , by the use of vitreous pastes, the Romans succeeded both in imitating paintings, and making pictures themselves. According to Pliny, they adorned the pavements, the vaults , and the ceilings of their dwellings with mosaics ; and Cæsar, according to Suetonius, carried mosaics with him in his military campaigns ( in expeditionibus tesselata et sectilia circumtulisse). These were the opus tesselatum and the opus sectile, which latter M. Quatremère calls marqueterie de marbre. Some mosaics of antiquity found in excavations, having been thus preserved in the bosom of the earth from the devastations of men and of time, suffice to teach us to what a degree of perfection the ancients carried this branch of art. Such is the mosaic of Hercules at the Villa Albani, that of Perseus and Andromeda in the museum of the Capitol, that of the Nine Muses, found at Santi Ponci, in Spain ( the ancient Italica , founded by the Scipios ), and also that previously mentioned, of the Battle of Issus, at Pompeii. The Greek artists of the Eastern empire made mosaic work their principal study . In their hands and in their time it became the most highly prized style of painting ; they carried into it the false taste of the period, which mistook the rich for the beauti ful, and mixed gold with everything. Mosaics were made at Constantinople by slipping under the pieces of glass gold and silver leaves, enamels and precious stones . As for the cultivation of mosaic in Italy after the destruction of the Roman empire, memorials left from all ages prove that it was never abandoned or interrupted. In the primitive churches of Rome and Ravenna there are still found mosaics of the fourth and fifth centuries, amongst others those in Santa Maria Maggiore at Rome, which represent the siege of Jericho and other scenes from the Old Testament. The mosaics in the church of St. Paul beyond the walls belong to the sixth century, as do also the mosaics in the churches of Torcello, near Venice, and of Grado in Illyria , where the patriarch of Aquileia had fixed his residence about the year 565. To the seventh and eighth centuries are to be attributed several Madonnas, also St. Agnes, St. Euphemia , a Nativity, and a Transfiguration. To the ninth belongs the famous mosaic of the Triclinium , which St. Leo caused to be added to the Lateran palace for the celebra tion of the ayam . This mosaic represents Charlemagne, in the midst of his court, receiving a standard from the hands of St. Peter. Until this period it is difficult to distinguish between the work of Italian artists and that of the Greeks. There is no PAINTING IN MOSAIC. 23 ies doubt that during the time between the invasion of the barbarians and the tenth century there were many mosaics executed in Italy by Italians, but there is no doubt, also, that a great number were done by Greeks. After the tenth century, the darkest period of the middle ages, the work of the Greek artists in Italy is no longer, conjectural but historical. In the eleventh century , under the Doge Selvo, the Venetians brought over some Greek mosaic-workers to decorate their Basilica of St. Mark, the construction of which had been commenced by the Doge Orseolo towards the close of the preceding century. Their principal works were the Baptism of Christ and the celebrated ' Pala d'oro. ' This wonderful work of art, which still remains, forms a kind of reredos over the high altar of the church . It was made at Constantinople, and subsequently enlarged at Venice. It is composed of gold and silver plates coated with translucent enamel. It represents various sacred events narrated in the gospel of St. Mark, surrounded by symmetrical ornaments, MOSAIC PICTURE : Forming the floor of a house at Pompeii. among which are introduced semi-barbarous Greek and Latin inscriptions. There are both on the inside and the outside of the same basilica a number of other mosaics of the same period and by the same artists. After the taking of Constantinople by the Crusaders ( A.D. 1204) , the Greek mosaic- workers in Venice founded in that city a corporation and a great school, which soon extended itself to Florence, where it flourished until after the time of Giotto, and furnished artists to the whole of Italy. It is also to the eleventh century that the two large mosaics in the old church of St. Ambrose at Milan belong, one of which represents The Saviour seated on a golden throne, having St. Gervasius and St. Protasius at his side ; the other, an event in the life of St. Ambrose. About the same time (A.D. 1066) , Didier , abbot of Monte Cassino, sent for Greek workers in mosaic to execute embellishments—of which portions still remain — for that celebrated monastery. When, a hundred years later, the Norman 24 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. William, surnamed the Good, built his famous church of Monreale, in Sicily , he employed , for the interior decorations, Greek mosaic-workers, whom he could easily find in Palermo without sending to the East for them . In fact, when the Normans took possession of Sicily under Tancred de Hauteville, at the end of the tenth century, they found a number of Greeks, who had been settled in that country ever since its conquest by Belisarius under Justinian . ' As for the mixture of arabesques with Byzantine paintings in the Siculo -Norman churches, they are evidently imitated from the works of the Arabians, who had remained masters of Sicily for two hundred and thirty years until the Norman conquest, and who have left many memorials in that country. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries all the mosaics executed at Rome were the work of Florentines, pupils of the Greek school at Venice. We may mention among the principal works of that time, and by those artists, those in Santa Maria Maggiore and in Santa Maria in Trastevere, both of which represent the Assumption of the Virgin. In the beginning of the fourteenth century, after Andrea Tafi and Fra Mino di Turrita, the Sienese painter Duccio began to bring mosaic pavements into vogue. On this account Vasari calls him the inventor of painting in marble. It was continued by his pupil Domenico Beccafumi, who was also a painter and worker in metals. At the same period the decorations of the ancient façade of Santa Maria Maggiore were executed by the Florentine Gaddo Gaddi, a pupil of Cimabue, himself a disciple of the Greeks, whom he had seen paint in Santa Maria Novella. Atlength Giotto constituted himself the restorer of this mode of painting by composing his famous mosaic of the Miraculous Draught of Fishes, usually called the Navicella, in which we admire, not only the well- arranged colours and the harmony of light and shade, but also a movement—a feeling of life and action which was unknown to the Greek workers in mosaic . After Giotto, and from the time of his pupil Pietro Cavalli, the conventional type of the Byzantines was more and more abandoned. They had confined themselves to putting in the figures evenly on a background devoid of per spective, and had made mosaics simply architectural decorations ; but now the art followed the progress of painting step by step. Several fine works were executed in the fifteenth century under the Popes Martin V., Nicholas V. , and Sixtus IV. , even in small towns like Siena and Orvieto, and , towards the close of the century, the brothers Francesco and Valerio Zuccato of Treviso began the magnificent modern decorations of St. Mark at Venice. These are no longer the stiff, motionless, conventional images of the Byzantines ; true painting is to be found in them , with all its qualities and effects. The Zuccati executed these mosaics in the same way that frescoes were then done, by means of coloured cartoons, furnished by the best artists, among whom were afterwards included Titian himself , Giorgione, Tintoretto, and Palma. At a somewhat later period we have Giuliano and Benedetto of Maiano, uncle and nephew, who, both architects , brought into fashion the art of marquetry, the continua tion of mosaic, and carried it to the highest degree of perfection ; Alesso Baldovinotti, a painter in mosaic, who taught his art to Domenico Ghirlandajo, Michelangelo's master ; Mariani, the architect of the Gregorian chapel ; the Cristofori, who boasted of being able to produce on glass cubes as many as fifteen thousand varieties of tints, each divided into fifty degrees, from the very lightest to the darkest ; and lastly, the Provenzale, who brought into the face of a portrait of Paul V. one million seven hundred thousand pieces, the largest of which was not the size of a millet-seed . ( * Annotations sur Vasari, par MM . Jeanron et Leclanché.) ILLUMINATION OF MANUSCRIPTS. N25 We must also mention the famous copies of the Transfiguration from Raphael ; of St. Jerome, from Domenichino : of St. Petronilla, from Guercino, etc. : works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which now occupy in St. Peter's the places of the original pictures transported to the museum of the Vatican. The authors of these well-known mosaics carried their art to such a state of perfection as to rival all that a painter can do with the colours on his palette , even to imitating the transparency of the sky and water, the difference between the beard and hair of men, the fur and feathers of animals, the materials and colours of clothes , and the expression of faces, in short, to copy all the refinements of drawing and all the charms of colouring. If in future ages, and among the calamities of a fresh invasion of barbarians, the original pictures were to perish , these admirable mosaics, as durable as the building which contains them, would be sufficient to teach the men of a later age what painting was at the greatest period of Italian art, and what those masterpieces were that are here copied with so much fidelity and completeness. ILLUMINATION OF MANUSCRIPTS. If it be true that the pictorial representation of beings and objects preceded written language, we might carry back the art of painting on manuscripts to a very distant age, as the first manuscripts must have been, like hieroglyphics, nothing but a series of objects represented by drawing. We will not, however, lose ourselves in such remote antiquity, we will merely take up the art when it was separated, by the brilliancy and arrangement of the colours, from the simple ornaments which had been at first traced either with a pointed pen on tablets covered with wax, or on papyrus and parchment with a reed dipped in ink. After the sacred and symbolical writing of the Egyptians, we must look to ancient Greece for the origin of this mixture of painting and manuscript. Pliny says expressly that Parrhasius painted on parchment ( in membranis). There is no doubt that the Natural History ' of Aristotle, written under the patronage of Alexander, combined pictorial representation with the text. There must have been books of this kind in the library of the Ptolemies at Alexandria, since under the seventh of these princes (him who is called Euergetes II. ) , a “ painter " was attached to the royal library. Again, the volumina, which Paulus Æmilius and Sulla caused to be borne before them in triumph among the spoils of Greece, could have been nothing but these rich manuscripts. At Rome, where the example of the Greeks was followed, there are positive memorials of the mixture of painting with writing. It is spoken of in the * Tristia ’ of Ovid ( Eleg. 1 ) , and in Pliny in Book xxviii. It is also known that Varro added portraits to the Lives of the Seven Hundred Illustrious Persons, which he Vitruvius had combined designs with the descriptions contained in his treatise · De Architectura, ' designs which, unhappily, have not come down to us. Seneca also says that people liked to see the portraits of authors with their writings ; and Martial seems to allude to this custom when he thanks Stertinius, “ who wished to place my portrait in his library ” ( qui imaginem meam ponere in bibliothecâ suâ voluit ). It is known that , by a special order, the rescripts of the emperors were traced in gold and silver letters on sheets of a purple colour. From this, the imperial scribes wrote. ! E 26 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. received the name of chrysographs. The same method was adopted for the sacred books, and also for certain secular writings, which the public veneration had surrounded with a kind of religious homage. Thus, the Empress Plautina gave her young son , Maximin, as soon as he could read Greek fluently, a Homer written in golden letters, similar to the decrees of the emperors. This custom was very ancient. At a later period, after simple embellishments had been employed, that is to say, illuminated capital letters, margins adorned with designs, and arabesques surrounding the text, painting at length was introduced into the manuscripts. There was then , as Montfaucon explains ( Palæog. Græca,' lib. I. cap. viii. ) , a class of copyists who became real artists. Usually two artists worked at the same manuscript, the scribe and the painter ; and to the latter we may accord this title, since he himself claims it , as is shown by one cited by Montfaucon, who signed himself Georgius Staphinus, pictor. After the establishment of the Christian religion, and especially after its final triumph under Constantine, this art of illumination seems to have been used exclusively for the Scriptures, the writings of the Fathers, and liturgical works. We can trace it, as we have already done the art of mosaic, first in the lower empire and then in Italy. Illuminating manuscripts soon became the common occupation of the anchorets, with whom the Christian countries of the East were quickly filled, and who gave to the West the example, together with the precepts of the monastic life. In the fifth century there was an emperor surnamed the Caligrapher, because of his taste for illumination. This was Theodosius the younger, grandson of Theodosius the Great. At later time we find Theodosius III. , who was dethroned in A.D. 717 , occupying his leisure time, when he had become a simple priest at Ephesus, by writing the Gospels in golden letters and embellishing them with paintings. During the triumph of the Iconoclasts there was a time when illumination was only carried on in secret, and the emperors caused a number of these illustrated books to be burned . But afterwards the taste returned more strongly than ever, and assumed all the ardour of a long-suppressed religious feeling. In the ninth century, Basil the Macedonian and Leo the Wise applied themselves to revive the art of illumination. It was in the same century that the Emperor Michael sent to the Pope Benedict III. a magnificent copy of the Gospels, enriched with gold and precious stones, as well as with admirable illuminations by the well-known pencil of the monk Lazarus. In the tenth century the East made a still more important gift to the West—the famous Menology of the Emperor Basil II. , which, a long time afterwards, came into the possession of the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, then into that of Paul Sfondrati, who made a present of it to the library of the Vatican, whence Benedict XIII, took it in order to publish a fac-simile. This Menology was a kind of missal, which contained prayers for every day in the first six months of the year, and also four hundred and thirty pictures , representing a number of figures of animals, temples, houses, furniture, arms, instruments, and architectural ornaments. The greater part of these pictures very curious for the illustration they afford of the history of painting, as well as for the light they throw on the habits and costumes of the period—are signed by their authors, Pantaleo, Simeon, Michael Blachernita, Georgios, Menas, Simeon Blachernita, Michael Micros, and Nestor. The custom of illuminating books lasted without interruption, in the East, to the time of the last emperors — the Palæologi ; and since the Menology, there are magni ficent illuminated manuscripts of all periods, even of that which immediately preceded the taking of Constantinople by the Turks. One, of the eleventh century, in the ILLUMINATION OF MANUSCRIPTS. 27 1 library of the Vatican , contains drawings of surgical operations . This reminds us of the Arabs, who, not being able to embellishtheir manuscripts with paintings properly So called, and being reduced, as in their mosques, to simple ornaments, added drawings to the text of their scientific treatises. There are, for example, at least thirty different instruments represented in the manuscripts of the book of Al-Faraby, entitled ' Ele ments of Music, from which the Maronite, Miguel Casiri, has translated several passages in his ‘ Bibliotheca Arabico- escurialensis. ' We have already seen in Italy the first kings of the Ostrogoths encouraging illumi nation, and Cassiodorus, the minister of Theodoric, becoming a caligrapher in Calabria. In the ninth century an abbot of Monte Cassino, the Frenchman Bertaire, spread the taste for illumination in the south of Italy ; whilst at Florence, many monks had made themselves celebrated in the art of illuminating manuscripts. Vasari mentions several of these in the course of his book. Many real painters, some of them celebrated, did not disdain to use their pencils in illumination. Both Cimabue and Giotto had been thus occupied in their youth. Dante, a little later, mentions Oderissi of Gubbio, and Franco of Bologna .... Onor di quell'arte Ch'alluminare è chiamata in Parisi — " 1 who must have enjoyed great renown, since he represents them as expiating in Purga tory the pride with which their skill inspired them. It was Simone Memmi, of Siena, who painted the illuminations in the “ Virgil' of Petrarch, preserved in the Ambrosian Library at Milan ; and in the fifteenth century, when this art of illuminating attained perfection, there flourished at Naples the famous Antonio Solario, surnamed the Zingaro (the Gipsy ), and at Florence, Bartolomeo della Gatta, who devoted himself to the same work. Under these two masters René of Anjou, count of Provence, studied the art of illuminating whilst disputing the crown of Naples with the princes of Arragon . Last came the illustrious Fra Angelico da Fiesole , who left in Santa Maria del Fiore ( the cathedral of Florence) two enormous volumes, filled with illuminations painted by his hand, and of whom it might be said , even before the execution of his admirable pictures and monumental frescoes, that he had attained a very high position in the art of illuminating. At the end of the fifteenth century valuable illuminated manuscripts were executed for the Sforza, the Gonzaga, the Sicilian princes of the house of Anjou , those among the kings of Arragon who were also kings of Naples, for the dukes of Urbino, Ferrara, Modena, for Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, Henry V. of England, René of Provence, and for the Medici and the popes. Amongst others we may distinguish the illuminations of a certain Attavante, otherwise unknown , those of Liberale of Verona, especially those of the celebrated Dalmatian, Giulio Clovio, who was buried with great pomp in San Pietro in Vincula. England also had its illuminators, who were no way behind their Continental neighbours in decoration . Among the Saxons at the close of the tenth century , says Sir F. Madden ( in the Introduction to Shaw's ' Illuminated Ornaments ; selected from MSS ., and early printed books, from the sixth to the seventeenth century ' ) a peculiar style of ornament prevailed, which for boldness, correctness of design and richness, is not surpassed by any works executed on the Continent at the same period. The Benedictional of St. Ethelwold, ' belonging to the Duke of Devonshire, written and illuminated between 963 and 970, is the most complete example of this art in England (see the accompanying engraving) . It was executed by a monk of Hyde Abbey (then the most celebrated place in England for such works) , named Godeman, for Ethelwold , 28 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . Bishop of Winchester. It is a folio of 119 leaves of vellum, measuring 11 } inches in height, by 84 in width , and contains thirty large and richly -coloured drawings. (See Mr. Gage's ' Dissertation on the St. Ethelwold Benedictional' in the ' Archæologia, vol. xxiv. p. 22 , where all the illustrations are engraved .) For further details on this subject we must consult the Histoire de l'Art par les TO CURED PROSSS TICLEAR ស iesnicas JWG SANGATME) 90 /VIRGI OOOD ! NVM2002 CUEVO bro CUS ALS O FROM ST. ETHELWOLD'S BENEDICTIONAL. ILLUMINATION V. Monuments, by Seroux d'Agincourt. He makes known, by descriptions and plates, the most celebrated manuscripts of different centuries to be found in the library of the Vatican, which now contains not only the library of the popes, but also those of the electors Palatine, of the dukes of Urbino, and of Queen Christina of Sweden. PAINTING IN FRESCO. 29 We shall rest in the conviction that, if these illuminations are not of equal excellence with frescoes and pictures, they have at least been better preserved , and hence, like mosaics, are memorials of periods of which every other painting has been lost , and are of great value in marking and in proving the traditional succession of art. PAINTING IN FRESCO AND IN DISTEMPER. 1 1 We have no means of learning what were the usual processes of painting among the ancients. Neither examples of their paintings, properly so called, nor the treatises of Parrhasius and Apelles on the theory of painting, remain to us ; and the written descriptions are too incomplete and uncertain to enlighten us much about pictures which have long since perished. Although Pliny relates that there were two schools, the Greek and the Asiatic, and that the Greek was divided into Ionic, Attic , and Sicyonic ; although he speaks of a very fine black varnish which Apelles put on his works when completed, and which, while giving lustre to the colours, preserved them from dust and damp ; although, further, he inquires, without however answering the question, who was the inventor of encaustic, or of painting by means of wax and fire : all this teaches us but little of the processes employed by the painters of antiquity. The mosaics, even if copies of paintings, teach us nothing more on this subject. We are then reduced to the paintings on walls found in excavations, which are improperly called frescoes, and which may have differed as much from the paintings on canvas or wood as, in modern times, frescoes differ from easel-pictures. The fragments of Egyptian painting preserved in the subterranean caverns of Thebes and Samoun, those of Assyrian painting which adorned the sculptured slabs of Nimroud and Khorsabad, and also the remains of Grecian or Roman painting found in the catacombs, in the baths and ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii, are paintings in distemper, a sort of body colour executed on a prepared plaster, with which the wall was covered. It is indeed easy to recognise the fact that this painting does not mix with the layer of lime, plaster , or alabaster, like real fresco , and that it may be effaced either by scraping or even by washing, without injuring the surface upon which the pencil of the artist has been employed. But whatever the painting of the ancients may have been, it is certain , that until the employment of oil-painting, and during the whole intermediate time, painters only used fresco and distemper, or sometimes encaustic. Fresco-painting, employed in the decoration of edifices with a view to its remaining as a part of the architecture , is that which is executed on a single layer of lime still fresh (fresca ) and damp, so that the colours with which this layer remains impregnated, dry at the same time as the material itself, and become a part of the plaster of the wall. Vasari calls this manner of painting “ the most masterly and the most beautiful, because ,” he says, “ it consists in completing in a single day that which in other manners may be retouched at one's pleasure. ” Is not this to take the vanquished difficulty as an advantage ? Painting in distemper ( a tempera ) is done on a movable frame of wood or canvas, which forms the picture , with colours mixed in an adhesive substance - gum or the white of an egg beaten up ; painting in encaustic ( a fuoco ), on a layer of wax covering the canvas or panel. These explanations being given , it must be understood that until the invention of painting in oil , by the term painting or picture will be indicated simply a work in distemper or encaustic. 1 30 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. The works of ancient painting having all been destroyed, it is not astonishing that a great part of the works of intermediate ages should have experienced the same fate, and that we should find it necessary to have recourse to mosaics as well as to illuminations in order both to prove and to mark clearly the gradual progress of art. We have already seen that immediately after the victory of the Christian religion over paganism , the new churches were filled with pictures. Between the time of Constantine and the eighth century the rage for painting was carried to an extreme. The walls of the temples and palaces were covered both inside and out, as were also even the fronts of simple houses. The church of St. Mark at Venice may still give us an idea of Byzantine profusion. It was an excess to be regretted, as affording the Iconoclasts some justification for their opposition to all sacred art. But after this Iconoclastic interval, painting was again restored to honour. All the emperors from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, continually employed painters to represent not only their victories but also their hunting exploits , and Constantine Porphyrogenitus, himself a painter, found in the exercise of this talent an alleviation of his misfortunes after his fall from the throne. The custom of representing history in pictures was followed by the courtiers, who decorated their dwellings with paintings of the warlike deeds of their prince. A relation of Manuel Comnenus is mentioned as having been disgraced for neglecting thus to flatter the emperor ; and the father of Manuel, John Comnenus, on his death-bed ( 1143) , said to him, " In the present critical position of the empire, an active, enterprising prince is required, and not one who will supinely remain in his palaces like the mosaics and paintings which cover the walls.". In the thirteenth century the emperor Michael caused the principal achievements of his reign to be painted, and especially the triumph which, in 1221 , after the custom of the Roman consuls, he decreed for himself . Unfortunately the Turks, great destroyers of images, in obedience to the precepts of the Koran, soon effaced all the decorations they found in Constantinople ; and we know the Greek works of the Eastern Empire only by fragments collected in western Europe. These fragments serve to show that the bad effects of the Iconoclastic heresy long survived the period of its ascendency (726-867), as by an exaggeration of severe simplicity, the drawing of the nude was for a time entirely proscribed, and the human figure invariably represented as clothed from head to foot. But the same cause which for a time depressed art in the East, had a contrary effect in Italy, inasmuch as many artists, forbidden to exercise their profession in their native country, sought refuge in the West, and settled in great numbers in various parts of Italy, especially in that part termed Magna Græcia . They were eagerly received by their compatriots, who, since the campaigns of Belisarius and Narses, had dwelt in Sicily and Naples ; by monasteries, such as that of Monte Cassino, where the ceiebrated abbot Didier offered them an asylum ; and by several cities, where they founded schools of mosaic and painting. Elsewhere, the maritime establishments of the Venetians, the Pisans, and the Genoese, in the isles of the Grecian archipelago and on the shores of the Bosphorus, kept up continual relations between Italy and Greece. Objects of art, especially pictures, became one branch of their commerce. At the period of the crusades, the nobles and the monks whom they had led to the Holy Land brought back these Greek pictures as memorials of their conquest and as objects of luxury or devotion. It was then that those pictures of Christ, strangely called αχειροποιηται , because it was believed that they had not been done by human hands, were spread over Europe, and also those Byzantine Madonnas, which are called Virgins PAINTING IN DISTEMPER. 31 of St. Luke, usually black or brown, because of the words of Solomon , nigra sum sed formosa ( I am black but comely) . These pictures the Greek generals had caused to be carried in front of the imperial armies against the Mussulmans, to indicate that the Virgin Mary was their conductress. From the foundation of these Greek schools in Italy arose a mixed school, which replaced the primitive Italian school , and which, in its turn , was replaced by the school of the Renaissance, again become purely Italian . There were, therefore, in the general history of art, three principal intermediary periods from the ancients to the moderns : one of them Greek in Greece and Italian in Italy ; the second , Greco- Italian, the time of mixed painting ; the third , entirely Italian. Curious specimens of purely Greek painting have been preserved in different countries. For example, in Italy, some Madonnas, by Andrea Rico of Candia, who flourished in the eleventh century, and a great composition which represents the Obsequies of St. Ephrem . This picture, in distemper and on wood, was painted at Constantinople about the same period by Emmanuel Transfurnari, and brought into Italy by Francesco Squarcione, that old master who founded at Padua the school which produced Andrea Mantegna. It is in the Museo Cristiano of the Vatican library, and is considered one of the best specimens of purely Grecian painting. Its colours, heightened doubtless by some glazing, are so bright that many have believed it painted in oil-a manifest error. The later Greek paintings, until the thirteenth century, show a sensible decadence even in form . We no longer find anything but triptychs, pictures in three parts , a principal one in the centre, with two wings which close over it. This shape remained in fashion a long time, not merely amongst the Russians, who embraced the Greek confession, but also in Catholic countries, and especially in Flanders. In Italy—as soon as we arrive at this thirteenth century , and authentic memorials allow the history of art to be written with exactness—we see the imitation of the Greeks, and the servile copying of their works practised by Italian artists. It is to be traced in everything, from the ornaments of manuscripts, and the embroidery of the sacred vestments, to mosaic and poetry. It is seen in the arrangement of com positions, in the attitudes of the figures, in the drawing of every object, in the colours used, and in the manner of using them . The Italians, who did not yet know how to blend colours into each other, or to produce shade, and who knew none of the secrets of chiaroscuro, were content to paint by hatching with their pencil, following the operation which they called trattegiare, the simple placing of lines side by side. The earliest well-known artists in each of the three most ancient schools – Giunta of Pisa, Guido of Siena, and Cimabue of Florence — were little more than imitators of the Greeks. PAINTING IN OIL. Until now we have only spoken of painting in fresco or in distemper ; we now come to the last term of tradition ; and to true modern art - oil-painting. We do not in the least know if this art was possessed by the ancients. Nothing authorises us to believe that they used it , and that the employment of oil in the preparation of colours had been merely abandoned during the mournful period of the dark ages, and thence forgotten, through the breaking of the chain of tradition, to 32 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. be found once more with the other discoveries of the Renaissance. According to the generally received opinion, it was the brothers Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, of Bruges, who, in the commencement of the fifteenth century, found out the secret of oil- painting. No one seriously contests the fact of their having done so, and even the Italians Vasari and Lanzi confess that the painters in their country learnt the process from the Fleming, John of Bruges (Jan Van Eyck) . It does not however follow that the invention was at first so perfect that no one was able to improve upon it , or that no one could have paved the way by preceding experiments. It has indeed been proved , by quotations and formal testimony, amongst others by the treatises of the painter monk Heraclius in the tenth century, of the German monk Roger, surnamed Theophilus, in the twelfth, and of the Italian , Cennino di Andrea Cennini, in the thirteenth - that the brothers Van Eyck had rather the merit of a practical application of the process than that of the invention itself. Lanzi seems to have explained perfectly well what was really the invention of the illustrious Flemish painter. There is no doubt that, much before his time, the use of oil was known in painting ; but the manner of employing it was imperfect, being very slow and difficult. According to the old method only one colour could be placed on the canvas or the panel at a time ; and to add a second, it was necessary to wait until the first had dried in the sun, which was, according to the same Theophilus, too long and tiresome for figures.” It is easy then to understand why distemper and encaustics were preferred. John of Bruges, who at first did as other painters, having, tradition says, placed one of his pictures in the sun, the wooden panel burst from the excessive heat. This accident induced him , with the help of his elder brother, to seek some means of drying his colours alone and without artificial help. " He tried numerous experiments with linseed oil, and succeeded at last in making a varnish , which, according to Vasari, “ once dry, no longer fears water, brightens the colours, renders them more transparent, and blends them admirably .” From the dates of the most ancient works of Jan Van Eyck, preserved at Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp, we may conjecture that he made or completed his discovery between 1410 and 1420. But at this period communication was difficult, especially between the countries of the North and those of the South. It was not till the year 1442, that the king of Naples, Alphonso V. , received a picture by John of Bruges ( Jan Van Eyck) , since lost, but believed to have been an Adoration of the Magi. It is known that another picture by Van Eyck came to the duke of Urbino, Frederick II. , and another — a St. Jerome— to Lorenzo de' Medici. The sight of them caused general admiration, and it was not long before the technical methods employed were discovered and practised throughout Italy. According to Vasari, a certain Antonello of Messina having seen the picture at Naples, set out for Flanders in the hope of penetrating the secret of these new processes. He obtained the knowledge he sought by giving a large number of Italian drawings in exchange. He could not have learnt it from Van Eyck himself, as has long been thought, for we know that he died in 1441 , but it was doubtless from one of his pupils, possibly from Rogier Van der Weyden, who is called Roger of Bruges. On his return to Italy, where he soon became celebrated, Antonello of Messina com municated his discovery to his intimate friend Domenico Veneziano, who after having executed several works at Loretto and Perugia, established himself at Florence about the year 1460. Without being a great artist, Domenico found in his secret a means of incontestable superiority. He excited the astonishment of the public and the PAINTING IN OIL. 33 jealousy of his rivals. The most formidable of the latter was Andrea del Castagno, a man of great talent, but, says Vasari, of ' a low and ferocious character. Through a pretended friendship he persuaded Domenico to teach him his secret ; then, in order to possess it alone, he assassinated the unfortunate Venetian . This atrocious crime, of which many innocent people were suspected, remained unpunished. Andrea del Castagno only revealed it on his death- bed. But, as if in expiation of the infamous way in which he had obtained the secret of Domenico, he made no mystery of it , and announced it openly at the same time that he proved its truth by his works. Recent research has thrown great doubt on the whole of this account by Vasari ; indeed , the crime alleged against Andrea del Castagno has been disproved by the discovery that Domenico Veneziano survived him by at least four years. 34 [A.D. 1200. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ==CHAPTER III . THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE.==c ITTwas in Tuscany, the ancient Etruria , the first teacher of Rome, that the regeneration of art began. Nicola Pisano, a sculptor of Pisa, by studying with care the bas-reliefs on an old sarcophagus — in which the body of Beatrice, mother of the Countess Matilda, had been laid , and which represented the chase of Meleager --recognised the grandeur of the style of the ancients, which he succeeded in imitating in his own works. He is called Nicola dall' Urna, on account of having made, in 1231 , the beautiful urn or sarcophagus of St. Dominic at Bologna. If we look back at the coarse sketches of bas- reliefs by which, half a century before, a certain Anselmo, called “ Dedalus alter, " had celebrated the retaking of Milan by Frederic Barbarossa, we perceive how far this first restorer of art had advanced. After Nicola Pisano came successively his son Giovanni, his pupil Arnolfo, his brothers Agostino and Agnolo of Siena, then Andrea Pisano, then Orcagna, and at last , at Florence, Donatello and Ghiberti. " Painting and Sculpture, " says Vasari, “ those two sisters born on the same day and governed by the same soul, have never made a step the one without the other.” Painting, then, must closely have followed the movement which Nicola of Pisa and his successors had given to art. Cimabue was born in 1240 ; and Vasari, who found it convenient to open his History with the name of the old Florentine master, says that in his time the whole race of artists was extinct ( spento affatto tutto il numero degl'artifici), and that God destined Cimabue to bring again to light the art of painting. There is, in these words of the Plutarch of painters, who endeavours to raise so high the first of his Illustrious Men, ' a manifest exaggeration, contradicted by all that remains to us of that time. When Cimabue came into the world , the Pisans had already a school, formed by the Greek artists whom they had brought from the East with the architect Buschetto, when they raised their cathedral in 1063. There are still to be seen in this duomo several old paintings of the twelfth century. Giunta of Pisa executed, about A.D. 1235 , some great works in the church of Assisi, where Padre Angeli, the historian of that basilica of the Franciscans, wrote the following inscription : “ Juncta Pisanus, ruditer Græcis instructus, primus ex Italis artem apprehendit.” The works of Giunta, although hard, dry, and destitute of grace, yet show , as Lanzi says, in the study of the nudes, in the expression of grief, in the adjustment of the drapery, a real superiority over the Greeks, his contemporaries. Ventura and Ursone of Bologna painted in the beginning of the thirteenth century ; Guido of Siena, about 1221 ; Bonaventura Berlinghieri , of Lucca , about 1235 ; the first A.D. 1300. ) THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE. 35 , Bartolommeo, of Florence, who is believed to have painted the highly venerated Annunciation , still in the church of the Servi , about 1236 ; and lastly, at the same period, Margheritone of Arezzo, who first painted on canvas, as Vasari himself allows. “ He extended ,” he says, canvas on a panel , fastening it down with a strong glue made of shreds of parchment, and covered it entirely with plaster before beginning to paint . ” Thus Margheritone united the three processes of painting, on panel, canvas, and fresco. Cardinal Bottari, whom Vasari often cites in support of his assertions , simply says of Cimabue, “ that he was the first who left the Greek style of painting, or who at all events went further from it than others . ” Hence we may conclude that, as might have been expected, there was a progress in the tradition of art, not a new creation , and Cimabue's merit, as a disciple of the Greeks and yet superior to his masters, as Bottari well calls him, is sufficiently great without being styled the inventor of painting. The fourteenth century was no less agitated than its predecessor. The popes, forced to leave Rome, and transporting the seat of the Church to Avignon ; Joanna I. of Naples and her four husbands overturning Southern Italy ; the Guelphs and the Ghibellines fighting even in the streets of Venice and Genoa,-republics which should have had no share in their strifes ; during that obstinate war between the empire and the papacy, the smaller states given up to civil discord and ephemeral tyrants, and moreover attacking and absorbing one another ; Pisa obliged to submit to Florence, and Padua to Venice ; the emperors under the necessity of selling franchises to cities, titles and honours to military leaders ; such is the abridged history of this strange century , full of noise, agitation , and passion. In the midst of this turmoil a steady progress was being made in the realms of intellect. Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio , by settling the Italian language and rejecting obsolete idioms, opened a way for the whole of modern literature. The learned Greeks, flying from Constantinople, were beginning to take refuge in Italy. Whilst Leontius Pilatus, the guest of Boccaccio, explained and diffused the knowledge of the tongue of Homer and Plato, Greek artists brought over the knowledge of new modes of working, and communicated them to those who, as d’Agincourt justly observes, “ had always existed in Italy.” Such was that Andrea Rico of Candia, the freshness and brilliancy of whose colouring has led to the supposition that, before the discovery of oil-painting, he had employed some mixture of wax to fix and brighten his colours in encaustic. Art in advancing assumed a position of greater dignity. Included hitherto as parts of the ordinary guilds, painters now-Italian and Greek - first attached themselves to the architects and sculptors ; and then succeeded in forming a separate corporation , governed by its own statutes , under the name and patronage of St. Luke, whom tradition calls the first Christian painter. The statutes of the painters of Florence are dated in the year 1349 ; those of the painters of Siena, 1355 ; and the other schools followed their example. Then, whilst lords, princes of the church, and even sovereigns, no longer disdained to have personal, and often intimate relations with artists, great poets, as Dante, himself an artist, and Petrarch , who had his manuscripts illustrated , spread everywhere their fame. Thus, before the end of the century, a crowd of painters are seen following in the steps of the eminent masters, Cimabue and Giotto, of whom Dante had sung in his ‘ Divina Commedia. ' Buffalmacco, the two Orcagnas, Taddeo Gaddi, Simone Memmi, Stefano of Verona , Gherardo Starnina, Andrea di Lippo, continued and brought the art forward from the point where Giotto had left it. 36 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [ A.D. 1400 . . At last the fifteenth century dawned, and Art advanced towards perfection. The popes, who had returned to Rome in 1378 , had resumed their works of embellishment. Martin V. , Sixtus IV. , Benedict XI. , Urban VIII. , and especially the learned Nicholas V. , who first conceived the idea of the new St. Peter's, freely ordered works of architecture, statuary, and all kinds of painting, then practised in fresco and mosaic, and finally, as soon as the invention became known, in oil. The emperors now retained but a nominal dominion in Italy, and the expedition of Charles VIII . to Naples, lasting only one year, was merely a passing flash of foreign rule in the midst of an age in which Italy remained more thoroughly Italian and more free than in any other. This period is characterised by a rising emulation among the different states of which Italy was then composed, each endeavouring to excel its rival in the empire of art, which recals those ancient times when the Peloponnesus, Attica, Greece proper, the Isles of the Archipelago, and the towns of Asia Minor, disputed the pre- eminence in high art. At Milan , the Visconti and the Sforza, particularly Ludovico il Moro, whose court was called Reggia delle Muse ; at Ferrara, the house of Este ; at Ravenna, the Polentani ; at Verona, the Scala ; at Bologna, the Asinelli ; at Venice, the doges ; and lastly , at Florence, the family of the Medici, from Giovanni and Cosmo I. to Lorenzo the Magnificent, father of Leo X.; all these secular princes carried on this noble strife of emulation with the popes . The sciences were also called in to the assistance of art, and fresh discoveries helped it forward. In the beginning of the century (from 1410 to 1420) , the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck, of Bruges, if they did not invent oil-painting, at least first showed its real value. Engraving on copper and wood followed the invention of printing, and thenceforth insured immortality and wide diffusion to the art of drawing, as printing had already given to letters and to science. The groteschi ( the fragments of ancient decorative painting found in the excavations or grotte), copied, imitated, and multiplied by Squarcione and Filippo Lippi, strengthened those lessons of correct taste and the knowledge of true beauty which the remains of the statuary of the ancients had given. Lastly, physics and mathematics, which had led to the discovery of a new world, and soon afterwards led to that of the great laws of the universe, lent a fraternal support to the arts. It was indeed by the help of geometry that the illustrious architect, Brunelleschi, and the painters Pietro della Francesca and Paolo Uccello, created in a manner the science of perspective. Art was now cultivated with so much passion, and admired with such sincere enthusiasm, that it was employed in everything, and became as common as bread and air. Painting was no longer confined to the decoration of temples, of palaces, and public buildings ; it penetrated also the houses of citizens and artisans, even for domestic objects. Men painted the walls of their apartments , their movable furniture, and their chests for clothes ; they painted shields for war and the tournament, and the saddles and harness of horses. In Tuscany and the Roman states no girl was married without having received her wedding presents in a cassone, or large chest, painted by some master (Giotto, Taddeo Gaddi, Simone Memmi, and Orcagna, did not disdain to paint these cassoni ), or without having a good picture, not merely among her treasures, but as part of her dowry, and mentioned in the marriage contract. What a long list of great painters unrolls itself before us in this the fifteenth century ! Masolino da Panicale, who sensibly improved chiaroscuro ; the two Peselli , the two Lippi, Fra Giovanni Angelico da Fiesole, Bartolommeo della A.D. 1400.] 37 THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE. 1 Gatta, Benozzo Gozzoli , who painted an entire wing of the Campo Santo in Pisa ; Masaccio, surpassing all who preceded him ; Antonello da Messina, who went to Flanders to discover the secret of Jan van Eyck, and taught it to the Italians ; Andrea del Castagno, Andrea del Verrocchio, the two Pollajuolos, Francesco Francia, the Bellini, Ghirlandajo , and Perugino. After them , and towards the close of the fifteenth century, we find at the same time Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Giorgione, Titian, Raphael, Correggio, Fra Bartolommeo, and Andrea del Sarto . At the opening of the sixteenth century, Art in all its branches had obtained in Italy the highest possible degree of perfection ; but we have long since passed the limits of our subject, which only embraces historically the traditions by which modern painting is connected with ancient art. It is not only in Italy that this chain of tradition is found. It is to be traced everywhere, as well in the north as in the south . The art of the middle ages was not, any more than the Italian art of the Renaissance, of spontaneous growth. It was not a tree without roots, a child without ancestors, another proles sine matre crcata. Like Italian art, it derived its origin from the Byzantines, who had preserved, though not without modifications, the ancient art of Rome and Athens. There is no doubt of the fact that, in the times of the iconoclastic emperors, in the eighth century, some Byzantine artists took refuge in Germany, as others did in Italy , and that the sovereigns in their palaces, the bishops in their cathedrals, the abbots in their monasteries, eagerly employed these foreigners. Others came in the train of the Greek Princess Theophania, who married Otho II . in the following century. beyond doubt that the successors of Charlemagne, who was crowned Emperor of the West at Rome, frequently brought from their states in Italy to those in Germany, artists educated in the Byzantine schools of Venice, Florence, or Palermo. Otho III. , for example, had for his painter and architect an Italian named Giovanni, who could only have been a pupil of the Byzantines established in Italy. From the eleventh century, when the Venetians and Normans of Sicily sent for Greek mosaic-workers to embellish their oriental basilicas of St. Mark and Monreale, all the arts in Germany architecture, sculpture, and painting –became Byzantine. At the time of the Crusades, the intercourse with the East became more active, and the models more common . The nobles, and the monks who followed their standards, brought back into every part of Europe, Byzantine paintings, valued by them as objects as well as devotion, and notably those Greek Madonnas, so long looked upon as the work of St. Luke. Germany kept up this intercourse both with the Greek empire - through its frontier provinces and the trade on the Danube — and with Italy , where the ever-recurring quarrels of the popes and the emperors lasted until the end of the thirteenth century. German art of the fourteenth century was then, like Italian art, founded on that of the Greeks of the Eastern empire, and , like Italian art, it soon asserted its indepen dence. It had already thrown off the traditional symbolism of Greek religious art, and had aimed at the free imitation of nature in the full independence of the artist. The German paintings of the fourteenth century are still called Byzantine ; but merely because, before the invention of oil-painting, artists employed the Byzantine processes of painting on a gold background, and in distemper, with encaustics to brighten and preserve the colours. However, they are free from the shackles of symbolism , and enjoy all the liberty which the great Giotto and his disciples had obtained in Italy. of luxury 38 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [A.D. 1200. . ROMANESQUE SCHOOL. And now, in order that students may the more easily refer to the works of each painter under his own particular school, we propose to give short biographical accounts of all the principal masters, enlarging more fully on those of the most distinguished. Giunta of Pisa was born in 1202 . We have already mentioned the frescoes painted in the church of Assisi , in 1235 . Let us take the most important of them, the Crucifixion. It is a very large composition, of fine and noble conception, but in it the personages are symmetrically arranged, grave and motionless, as in Greek compositions, always in strict submission to the rules then universally followed by painters. The colouring, much inferior to that of the earlier examples, is composed only of yellowish and reddish tints, which, standing out from a dark background, indi cate the flesh and the draperies. A thousand minor details besides disclose the Grecian origin of this picture ; thus, the figure of Christ is fastened to the cross by four nails, and his feet are placed on a large tablet, serving as a support, ac cording to the constant custom of the Greeks ; the angels also are clothed in long garments, and their bodies terminate in empty clothing, under which nothing indicates either legs or feet ; they end in aria, as Vasari says, another feature wholly Byzan tine. Among other existing works attributed to this artist, are a Crucifixion in San Ranieri at Pisa ; a picture of Saints in the chapel of the Campo Santo ; and a Martyrdom of St. Peter in San Francesco at Assisi . Giunta died, it is believed, in or about 1258. Guido of Siena improved the style of painting imitated from the Greeks, but still continued to copy it. It is enough to mention his great picture in the church of San Domenico, at Siena, which bears the date 1221 . In the painting of the Virgin , the Child, and the choir of angels grouped on a gold background, it is impossible not to recognise the style , the forms, and all the peculiarities of the painters of Byzantium. Andrea Tafi, who was born at Florence in 1213, is famous for having been the first to introduce the art of mosaic-painting to his fellow -citizens. He was instructed in this art by Apollonius of Venice, whom he induced to remove to Florence, where they conjointly executed several important works, which were much admired . Tafi died in his native city in 1294. Margheritone was born at Arezzo in 1216. He executed many works in that city tempera and in fresco. Most of the works by this artist have now perished , but that, which, according to Vasari, Margheritone considered one of his masterpieces, namely San Francesco, is still in existence. There is in Santa Croce, in Florence, an old wooden cross painted by Margheritone which is placed by the side of a similar work by Cimabue. Vasari says that Margheritone was even more successful as a sculptor than as a painter ; he was also celebrated as an architect. “ Weary of life," Margheritone died at Arezzo in 1293 , and was buried in the old cathedral of that town . There is a painting ( No. 564 ) by this artist , in the National Gallery, represent ing the Virgin and Child, with Scenes from the Lives of the Saints, which was formerly in the church of Santa Margherita at Arezzo. Giovanni Cimabue, who was of a noble family, was born at Florence in 1240. He A.D. 1200. ROMANESQUE SCHOOL. 39 was a more intelligent imitator of the Greeks than his predecessors, but still not emancipated from the school of his masters, and having neither independence nor originality. Let any one examine his famous Madonna, painted for the church of Santa Maria Novella, at Florence, and religiously preserved there to this day ; that picture which Charles I. of Anjou went to see in the studio of the painter — that picture in honour of which a public procession was held , with sound of trumpets, as though to welcome in it the full revival of art ; or his frescoes in the church of St. Francis at Assisi, or the Vierge aux anges which is in the Gallery of the Louvre, and he will be convinced that although superior to Guido of Siena, and still more to Giunta of Pisa, 17 MW THE MADONNA ENTHRONED . from the colossal picture by Cimabue, in Santa Maria Novella, at Florence. about 1302. yet Cimabue is not, as Vasari terms him, the first of Italian painters, but, according to the opinion of D’Agincourt and Lanzi, the last of the Greek painters. Cimabue died A Madonna and Child by this artist - formerly in Santa Croce at Florence — is now in the National Gallery ( No. 565 ) . Jacobus de Turrita. The name of this artist is found inscribed on the mosaics on the tribune of San Giovanni in Laterano, and Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome . These works were executed about 1290, and are in imitation of the style of Cimabue. a Franciscan monk, who assisted Turrita with the mosaics in the church of San Giovanni in Laterano, is known to have worked about A.D. 1290. His compositions are in a style similar to those of Cimabue. Jacobus di Camerino, 40 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1250. Gaddo Gaddi, who was born at Florence in 1249, was an artist in mosaic. He executed the Coronation of the Madonna in Santa Maria del Fiore, which still exists. This picture gained him great fame all over Italy, and in 1308 he was ordered by Clement V. to execute mosaics in the church and palace of San Giovanni in Laterano which had been lately rebuilt after the fire of 1307. There is a Madonna by this artist in the cathedral of Pisa. Gaddo Gaddi died in 1312 , and was buried in Santa Croce. EARLY TUSCAN SCHOOL. Giotto di Bondone ( Angiolo, Angiolotto, Giotto) , was born at the village of Vespignano, in 1276. It is to this little shepherd -boy, whom Cimabue found drawing his sheep upon a stone, and whom, out of charity, he took as a student-it is to Giotto we must ascribe the honour of having founded the modern Italian school, and the still greater honour of having been the true promoter of the Renaissance in all ko JESUS STRIPPED OF HIS VESTMENTS . By Giotto. the arts. A painter, sculptor, architect , engineer, worker in mosaic and illuminator, embracing, in short, all the arts known at that time, Giotto served as a model to the whole of Italy , through which he travelled from Avignon — where he had followed Pope Clement V. -to Naples, where he had worked a long time for Robert of Anjou, surnamed the Wise. At Lucca he made the plan of the impregnable fortress of the Giusta ; at Florence he designed the Campanile, afterwards carried out by his pupil Taddeo Gaddi ; at Rome he executed his celebrated mosaic called the Navicella di San Pietro. But it is the art of painting especially which is most deeply indebted to him. Called from Padua to Rome by Pope Boniface VIII., Giotto, by a happy inspiration (" per dono di Dio, " as Vasari says) , freed himself entirely from the imitation of the Greeks, and copied only from Nature. Without being less elevated, his treatment of the subjects was more varied, more animated , and more appropriate. A.D. 1300.] ROMANESQUE SCHOOL. 41 His drawing became simple and natural, without conventional forms, or types settled beforehand and rigidly adhered to ; his colouring also improved, and showed tints at once true and more deep and varied. He revived the forgotten art of portrait painting ; he first dared to employ foreshortening and perspective; he carried draperies to a perfection which remains unsurpassed ; he found expression , to the great astonishment of his contemporaries, who might have said of him as Pliny of the Greek Aristides, “ He painted the soul, and expressed human feelings.” This painting, which the men of that time called miraculous, was indeed real painting -art escaped from the trammels of servitude. Giotto also improved the materials and the technical processes of his art, as the preparation of colours, and of the wooden panels and canvas. On viewing the principal works of Giotto, dispersed over the whole of Italy - for example, the series of pictures called the Life and Death of San Francesco d'Assisi — we recog nise how much he surpassed his immediate predecessors; in his pictures we see Italian separating itself from Greek art ; we understand and repeat the magnificent praises heaped on him by Dante, Petrarch, Pius II. , and by Poliziano, who makes him say : “ Ille ego sum per quem pictura extincta revixit " ( I am he through whom extinct painting has again lived) . When Pope Boniface wished to decorate the interior of St. Peter's he despatched an envoy to Florence and Siena for examples of the ability of the famous artists of those cities. Giotto simply sent a circle drawn in red paint with a brush , without aid of compasses. This circle was so true that the Pope was more struck with it than with the elaborate specimens of the other competitors. According to Vasari this is the origin of the well-known saying, “ Rounder than the ( ) of Giotto . " Giotto died at Florence in 1336, and was buried with much pomp in the Cathedral. Taddeo Gaddi was born at Florence in 1300. He was a son of the before mentioned Gaddo Gaddi, after whose death he resided for twenty- four years with Giotto, who was his godfather. Taddeo is the most distinguished of Giotto's scholars. Vasari attributes to him the five subjects from the Life of the Magdalen on the altar piece of Santa Croce in Florence. Taddeo was equal, although not superior, to his instructor, Giotto , in expression, and was undoubtedly the best artist of his time. He was also distinguished as an architect ; he acquired great riches, by which means he established his family, which was for many centuries one of the most important in Florence. His most distinguished scholars were Giovanni da Milano and Jacopo da Casentino. Of his sons Giovanni and Agnolo, the former died young, after having given great promise as an artist; the latter will be mentioned immediately. Rumohr has shown that Taddeo Gaddi was still living in 1366, but it appears that year was also the date of his death. There are three of his paintings ( Nos. 215 , 216, 579) in the National Gallery. Agnolo Gaddi, who was born about 1326, excelled in colour and the technicalities of his art. He was a son of the above- mentioned Taddeo Gaddi, whom he imitated. He painted several large works, especially in Santa Croce, and realised a considerable fortune, chiefly through his painting and mercantile pursuits. Agnolo Gaddi died in 1396. Buonamico Cristofani, called Buffalmacco, was born 1262, and was a pupil of Andrea Tafi. Rumohr and Kugler and many other writers have doubted his existence, but his name has been discovered in the register of the Florentine Company of Painters, with the date 1351 (Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol . i . p . 387, note). G 42 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1350. nicknames him Buffalmacco, and some suppose that the name Buonamico, used by Ghiberti, is a nickname also. Vasari mentions many works by Buffalmacco, few of which still remain. Of these, some are in the Campo Santo and some at Arezzo. Others, which no longer exist , are mentioned by Vasari, as being superior to those at Pisa and Arezzo ; he adds that Buffalmacco, when he chose, could paint as well as any of his contemporaries. Most absurd stories have been related of this artist by Vasari, and by Boccaccio in his “ Decameron. ' He seems to have been a man of a keen sense of humour. Vasari states that he died in 1340, but Baldiucci says he was still living in 1351 , as indeed the date in the register of the Florentine painters proves. Giovanni Jacopi, who was called Giovanni da Milano from his birthplace, was a pupil of Taddeo Gaddi, and to him, together with his fellow-worker Jacopo da Casentino, Gaddi intrusted the care of his two sons, Giovanni and Agnolo, the former of whom died young. Giovanni painted several works in conjunction with his instructor, but nothing now remains of them . Very few works by his own hand alone still exist. The date of his death is unknown ; he is known to have painted about 1360. Stefano, called Fiorentino, was born at Florence, in 1301. He was called “ La Scimia della Natura " —the ape of nature—because he copied nature so closely. He is supposed to have been the father of Giottino. All his most celebrated pictures in Florence and Rome have perished, but he deserves to be mentioned, not only on account of his having been a pupil of Giotto, but because, according to Vasari, he surpassed his master in every branch of his art. There is no authentic picture by him in Tuscany. Stefano died in 1350. Giottino, who was so called from the resemblance of his works to those of Giotto, was born at Florence, 1324. His real name has never been discovered . Vasari speaks of him as “ Tommaso di Stefano, ” called Giottino. Ghiberti mentions some frescoes in Santo Spirito at Florence, and says they are by one Maso, and Vasari mentions the same frescoes, only remarking that they are by Giottino. The inference is that Maso and Giottino were the same. He is supposed to have been the son of the above-mentioned Stefano Fiorentino. Vasari says he finished his works with great care. Giottino died in 1356. Pietro Cavallini was born at Rome in the latter part of the thirteenth century. He was one of the earliest painters of the modern Roman School. He was both painter and architect, and also worked in mosaics. Cavallini assisted Giotto in the navicella of the porch of St. Peter's ; and some of his own mosaics, in Santa Maria in Trastevere, are still in existence. All his paintings have now perished ; the last were destroyed by the fire in 1824, which consumed almost the whole of the Basilica of San Paolo, though a few mosaics by the same artist were spared . Manni and Lanzi state that he died in 1344 ; but Vasari says he was still living in 1364, and that he was eighty-five years old when he died.. Don Sylvester, a Camaldolese monk, was celebrated for his illuminations. Very few of his works still exist. A few drawings by him are in the Liverpool Institution . He painted about 1350. Andrea da Florentia is celebrated for having painted several frescoes in the Campo Santo at Pisa. Several illustrations of the life of San Raniero, after having been for a long time attributed to Simone Memmi, have been finally ascertained to be by A.D. 1350. ) ROMANESQUE SCHOOL. 43 Andrea da Florentia and Antonio da Venezia ; Andrea doing the three upper ones, and Antonio the three lower, This artist painted about 1380. a Andrea di Cione, called Orcagna, was born at Florence, according to Vasari, in 1329, some say about 1315 to 1320. He was the son of one Cione, celebrated goldsmith of Florence. To Rumohr is due the credit of first discovering that the name given to this artist was l'Arcagnuolo ( the Archangel ), corrupted by Vasari into Orcagna, and by which he is usually known. The Triumph of Death and the Last Judgment in the Campo Santo were supposed to be by Orcagna and his brother Bernardo Cione, but Signor Cavalcaselle, by recent research, has proved that this is incorrect, for the style is not like that of the known works of this artist in Santa Maria Novella. Orcagna was painter, sculptor and architect. He was also a poet, and Vasari mentions some sonnets which he addressed to Burchiello . Orcagna painted, in conjunction with his brother, the Heaven and Hell from Dante in the Strozzi chapel. He also painted the Triumph of Death in Santa Croce. The Coronation of the Virgin by Orcagna, now in the National Gallery ( No. 569) , was formerly an altar-piece in the church of San Pietro Maggiore in Florence ; in 1677 it was removed to the Della Rena chapel; and in 1857 was purchased from the Lombardi- Baldi collection by the trustees of the National Gallery. This picture is painted in tempera on wood ; in the middle is Christ crowning the Virgin, with two angels standing on each side of the throne ; in each of the side pictures are twenty four saints kneeling in adoration. Nine other pictures ( Nos. 570 to 578 inclusive) were formerly portions of the Coronation of the Virgin. Orcagna was the greatest of all Giotto's followers, and appears to have been a man of great genius and of noble mind. He died at Florence in 1376. Antonio da Venezia, one of the best of the Italian painters of the fourteenth century, was born about 1309 , Vasari says, at Venice ; Baldinucci states that he was a native of Florence. Antonio studied with Agnolo Gaddi at Florence, and acquired a certain likeness in style to that artist. He was employed by the seignory of Venice to paint one of the walls of the council-hall in fresco, which he did in a masterly manner, but owing to some petty jealousy he did not receive a reward befitting the work, and consequently left Venice in disgust, and went to Florence, where he had previously resided for some time. There he painted in the convent of Santo Spirito, and elsewhere, but all these works have since perished. From Florence he went to Pisa, and executed several paintings in the Campo Santo illustrating the life of San Raniero, which was begun by Andrea da Florentia. Towards the close of his career he turned physician, in which capacity he obtained great fame. Antonio da Venezia was remarkable for the purity of his colouring, the truth and grace of his composition and beauty of expression. He died of the plague at Florence in 1384. Jacopo Landine, called Jacopo di Casentino, was born at Prato Vecchio in the Casentino, about 1310. He studied under Taddeo Gaddi, and, as has been before stated, shared with Giovanni da Milano in the education of Agnolo Gaddi. He exe cuted a large number of works in his native place, and in Arezzo and Florence. In 1350 he founded the academy of St. Luke in the latter city, in the chapel of which he painted one of his most famous pictures, St. Luke drawing a portrait of the Virgin . Jacopo's most celebrated scholar was Spinello d'Arezzo, who was the last painter of merit of the school of Giotto. His best work, which represents St. John the Evangelist 44 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1350. lifted up into Heaven, with various saints, and other scenes from the life of the Evangelist , in all twenty- two pictures, is in the National Gallery ( No. 580) . This picture was formerly in the church of San Giovanni Evangelista, at Prato Vecchio, and was purchased from the Lombardi- Baldi Collection. A Predella in the Uffizi ( No. 1292) is also by this artist. Jacopo was chiefly famous as a fresco painter . He died at the age of eighty, in his native place, about 1390. Spinello di Luca Spinelli, commonly called Spinello Aretino, was born at Arezzo, about 1330. He was a pupil of Jacopo Casentino, whom he surpassed. He worked chiefly at Casentino, Arezzo, Pisa, and Florence. He obtained a reputation by the frescoes he painted in a church dedicated to San Niccolò at Arezzo ; these procured him an invitation to decorate the choir of Santa Maria Maggiore in Florence . At Arezzo he painted, also in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, frescoes illustrating the History of Lucifer, and the Fall of the Angels, which have been recently destroyed. Spinello painted the frescoes in the Campo Santo, illustrating the lives of SS. Efiso and Potito, which he finished in 1392 , and which are considered by Vasari to be his masterpieces. A Coronation of the Virgin is in the Academy at Florence. A picture in the National Gallery ( No. 581 ) , St. John the Baptist, with SS. John the Evangelist and James the Greater, was formerly in the Hospital church of SS. Giovanni e Niccolò, near Florence. It was purchased, with many others from the Lombardi- Baldi Collection in 1857. Vasari says that Spinello's sketches were better than his pictures, and that he was a better painter than Giotto. He excelled in expression, and though his execution is slight his colouring is good, and he painted drapery with great skill. The absurd story that Vasari relates of Spinello's dying from fright at the apparition of Lucifer, who had come to reproach him for painting him too black in his frescoes of the History of Lucifer, is entirely refuted by the fact that Spinello was living long after the reputed vision . The date of his death is uncertain, but he died at a great age -Vasari says ninety -two - at Arezzo, about 1418. Cennino di Andrea Cennini, a distinguished scholar of Agnolo Gaddi, was the author of the earliest existing treatise on painting—' Trattato della Pittura ' — which was written in 1437. It has been translated into English by Mrs. Merrifield . EARLY SIENESE SCHOOL. Duccio di Buoninsegna was born at Siena about i260. He was the first of this school to throw aside the Byzantine style and to strive to imitate nature. In 1285 he entered into a contract to paint , for 150 florins, an altar- piece for the chapel of the Virgin in Santa Maria Novella at Florence. His masterpiece, which still exists, is the high altar - piece in the Cathedral of Siena. It occupied him from the 9th of October, 1308 , till the 9th of June, 1310, when it was carried with great pomp - like the Madonna of Cimabue-to the cathedral. For this great work Duccio received only sixteen soldi (or pence) a day, but the materials, which were very costly, owing to the amount of gold and ultramarine used, amounting to upwards of 3,000 gold florins, were supplied for him . As the high altar was open all round , Duccio painted pictures on both sides. The front represented the Virgin and Child, with numerous saints and angels , and four bishops A.D. 1350. ] ROMANESQUE SCHOOL. 45 kneeling in front. On the back were twenty- six scenes from the life of our Lord , from the Entry into Jerusalem to the Meeting at Emmaus. It was removed from the altar, in the early part of the sixteenth century, to make room for a tabernacle, and then after having been divided, the halves were placed in the choir, where they still remain. A Triptych (No. 566) by Duccio is in the National Gallery ; it represents the Madonna and Child with angels. Above, is David with six prophets, and on the doors are St. Dominic and St. Catherine. One of the finest works by this artist - indeed, it is usually said to be second to none but the altar-piece in Siena cathedral — was in the collection of the late Prince Consort. Della Valle supposes Duccio to have died about 1340, but Rumohr makes the date about 1320. Segna di Buonaventura was a pupil of Duccio. He painted at Siena, between the years 1305 and 1319. A picture on which his signature “ Hoc opus pinxit Segna Senensis ” has recently been discovered, is in the church of Castiglione Fiorentino, near Arezzo (' Handbook of Painting, ' Lady Eastlake) . A portion of an altar- piece by him is in the gallery of Siena, in which he signs “ Segna me fecit” on the sword of St. Paul. A painting by him in the National Gallery ( No. 567 ) represents Christ on the Cross, with the Virgin and St. John at the side. This was formerly in the Vanni Collection, and was bought from the Lombardi- Baldi Collection. Simone Martini, called Simone Memmi, was born at Siena in 1283. He was called Memmi by Vasari and Lanzi, probably from the fact that he married the daughter of Memmi di Filipuccio, who was the father of Lippo Memmi. Some writers suppose, on the authority of Vasari, that he was a pupil of Giotto, but there seem to be no sufficient grounds for such a supposition. He was, however, his rival, and Petrarch mentions them together in a letter : “ I have known two excellent painters—Giotto of Florence, whose fame with the moderns is great, and Simone of Siena.” An early work by Simone is a fresco in the Palazzo Pubblico at Siena, representing the Madonna and Child. This fresco has formerly been ascribed to an unknown painter, Mino, but is now generally believed to be the work of Memmi. There are only two frescoes hy Simone in his native city—the one mentioned above , and an equestrian figure in the Sala del Consiglio. There is a picture in San Lorenzo Maggiore at Naples, representing the Archbishop of Toulouse crowning his brother Robert of Naples. In the chapel of San Martino at Assisi , Simone painted several frescoes- portraits of eight saints -- and others illustrating the Life of St. Martin. These frescoes are considered very fine, especially in the portraiture, in which capacity he greatly excelled. He is believed to have been assisted by Lippo Memmi, his brother-in -law , in the altar-piece of Sant' Ansano at Siena : this work is now preserved in the Uffizi. In 1338 Simone moved, with his wife and brother Donato, to the papal court at Avignon , where he had the society of the poet Petrarch. Here he is recorded to have painted the portrait of Laura, which, unhappily, no longer exists. A small panel picture by him is now in the Liverpool Institution. It represents the subject of the text, “ Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. " Some say that Simone painted portraits for Petrarch's sonnets ; and a few illuminations in a MS. Virgil in the Ambrosian Library at Milan are ascribed to him. Petrarch wrote two sonnets ( Nos. 56 and 57 ) on this painter, which have given him an undying fame. Simone Memmi painted with much grace and care, but with a total lack of perspective . He died in 1344. Lippo Memmi was born at Siena, in what year is not known. He was chiefly famous for having helped Simone in some of his pictures. He also finished some that 46 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [A.D. 1350. . were uncompleted when Simone died . Though a better colourist, he was not equal to his brother- in -law . Lippo painted in Siena, San Gemignano, and Orvieto. One of the best specimens of his work is in the Berlin Museum . Lippo Memmi was still living in 1361. Pietro Lorenzetti, called by Vasari Pietro Laurati, was born at Siena, about the end of the thirteenth century. The first record of his painting was in 1305 , but this picture no longer exists. His earliest work extant is dated 1328. A Madonna and Chillt, signed “ Petrus Lorentii de Senis, 1340,” is in the Uffizi. Pietro painted much in conjunction with his younger brother, Ambrogio, who is better known than himself. A painting by him is in the Stanza del Pilone -- a room near the sacristy - of the Cathedral of Siena, and is signed “ Petrus de Senis me pinxit a. MCCCXLII” ; it represents passages from the life of John the Baptist. An altar- piece by him is in the Church of Arezzo. Vasari says that Pietro's fame was greater than either Cimabue’s or Giotto's ; and mentions many pictures by him in various cities of Tuscany, and among others the frescoes of the Early Fathers and Hermits -- for some time ascribed to Orcagna --in the Campo Santo at Pisa . In 1355 Pietro is said to have painted twelve stories , in fresco, from the life of the Virgin, in the Cathedral of Arezzo, but they have long since perished, though they existed in the time of Vasari, who restored them , and called them the best that had been done in Italy. In his painting Pietro was a close imitator of nature, and was famous for the spirited action of his figures ; he was especially fortunate in representing strong impressions on the faces of his portraits. It has been ascertained that Pietro Lorenzetti married, and lived chiefly at Siena, but the date of his death is not known ; some say he died of the plague in 1348. Ambrogio Lorenzetti, like his brother Pietro, was born at Siena, about the end of the thirteenth century, or the beginning of the fourteenth. We learn that they were brothers from the following inscription, which was formerly attached to the pictures of the Presentation and the Marriage of the Virgin — “ Hic opus fecit Petrus Laurentii, et Ambrosius ejus frater, 1330." Ambrogio painted much in conjunction with his elder brother, His principal picture, which is described by Ghiberti as a wonderful thing for a painted story— “ per una storia picta mi pare una maravigliosa cosa ” -exists no longer. It was painted in the Minorite Convent at Siena, and represented the Adventures and Death of some Missionary Monks. Of the other pictures by this artist mentioned by Ghiberti, one only remains, the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, dated 1342, in the Scuole Regie, but it is much injured. He painted three immense allegorical pictures in the Sala delle Balestre, in the Palazzo Pubblico of Siena, representing the Effects of Good and Bad Government. They occupied him from 1337 to 1399. There are several pictures in various galleries attributed both to Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti, without evidence of their author ship, but there is a genuine one by Ambrogio in the Academy of Siena, representing the Annunciation. In painting he came nearer to Giotto than any others of the Sienese School, and is placed by Ghiberti before Simone. His brother Pietro deserves the same fame. The date of Ambrogio Lorenzetti's death is unknown . Taddeo di Bartolo was born about 1362. The earliest specimen of his art is an altar-piece, painted for San Paolo of Pisa, dated 1390 : this picture is now in the Louvre. In 1400-1401 Taddeo painted in the Palazzo Pubblico ; but of the works he executed then only nine small panels exist . In 1403 he painted, at Perugia, an altar -piece representing the Virgin and Child , with St. Bernard and two Angels. A A.D. 1400. ) ROMANESQUE SCHOOL. 47 cessors. Descent of the Holy Ghost, also painted in 1403 in the church of Sant'Agostino at Perugia, is especially to be admired. In 1406 he was commissioned to paint pictures on the walls of the chapels of the Palazzo della Signoria at Siena, representing incidents in the Life of the Virgin. Taddeo di Bartolo upheld the Sienese School by the excellence of his painting, but he did not raise it above the style of his prede He died in 1422. Ansano di Pietro Mencio was born in 1406. He was a very prolific painter, which fact, perhaps, helped to keep him in a lower grade than he might otherwise have held . His paintings were less crude than those of his predecessors, and he is remarkable for the delicacy of his execution. He is sometimes called “ Angelico da Siena,” from the resemblance of his painting to that of the celebrated Fra Angelico. A Virgin and Saints, now in the Academy of Siena, in which gallery there are no less than forty seven pictures by Ansano, is signed and dated 1443. The most important work by him is a fresco of the Coronation of the Virgin, in the Palazzo Pubblico at Siena, He died in 1481 . Matteo di Giovanni di Bartolo, called Matteo da Siena, was born at Siena (?) about 1435. He was considered one of the best Sienese painters of his time, though he was decidedly inferior to his Florentine contemporaries. The Madonna della Neve at Siena is a fine example of his art ; it is signed and dated 1477. Matteo painted several pictures representing the Murder of the Innocents, two of which are still preserved in Siena. A Madonna in the Sienese Academy, engraved in Rosini, is a good specimen of this artist. Matteo da Siena died in 1495 . dated 1445. 48 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [ A.D. 1300.

CHAPTER IV. THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL.

A T the period of the Renaissance — notwithstanding the aspirations of Dante - Italy was divided into a number of states ; every state had its own school, and hence every school requires a separate history. We shall conform to this necessity by following the usual division, and, having already spoken of the Early schools of the fourteenth century, shall begin with Florence ; for in a history of Italian art it is to Florence that the first rank most incontestably belongs. We have seen that the celebrated Tuscan Giotto was the great promoter of the revival in all the arts . After him , the most illustrious name found in the annals of Tuscan painting is that of a monk to whom public admiration gave, even during his lifetime, the title of " Fra Beato Angelico." Guido di Pietro, born in the town of Vecchio in 1387 , took the name of Fra Giovanni da Fiesole when he entered the order of Dominicans in that town in 1407 . Modest, simple, pious, charitable, sober, and chaste, Fra Angelico set a good example in virtue as well as in talent. He refused the archbishopric of Florence, and caused a poor monk in his convent to be nominated by Nicholas V. instead of himself. A very labo rious and fertile painter of altar- screens, frescoes , pictures , and illuminations , he never painted without a special prayer, nor commenced any work without the permission of his prior ; and he never retouched any of his works, saying that God wished them to be as they were. After Fra Angelico, his pupil Benozzo Gozzoli alone remained faithful to strictly religious and mystic art , without any intermixture from pagan antiquity. The date of the birth and death of Fra Angelico show sufficiently that he painted in distemper, for he could only have known oil-painting at the close of his life, at an age when an artist no longer changes his processes. Among the best of the numerous works he has left is his Descent from the Cross, which is to be found in Florence, in the Academy of the Fine Arts. But there is in the Louvre one of the finest works of the Angelic Painter. The Coronation of the Virgin is a large composition which contains more than fifty figures, and is surrounded besides by seven medallions, in which the miracles of St. Dominic are represented - he being the patron saint of the convent for which the picture was painted. It is of this noble work that Vasari says, “ Fra Giovanni surpassed himself in a picture in which Jesus Christ crowns the Virgin in the midst of a choir of angels and saints so varied in attitude and expression, that one feels an infinite pleasure and delight in regarding thein . . A.D. 1400. ] FLORENTINE SCHOOL. 49 as if the happy souls can look no otherwise in heaven ; for all the saints , male and female, assembled here, have not only life and expression most delicately and truly rendered, but the colouring of the whole work seems done by the hand of a saint or angel like themselves. As for myself , I can affirm with truth that I never see this work without finding in it something new, nor can I ever satisfy myself with a sight of it, or have enough of beholding it . " This Coronation of the Virgin, about which August Schlegel has written a whole volume, and which M. Paul Mantz rightly calls “ an enormous miniature , ” was placed for a long time in the church of San Domenico at Fiesole, and in some degree worshipped as a holy relic of its saintly author. The Predella of an altar-piece formerly in the same church is now in the National Gallery ( No. 663) . This picture contains two hundred and sixty- six figures, “ so beautiful” says Vasari, “ that they appear to be truly beings of paradise.” Fra Giovanni died at Rome in 1455 , and was buried in Santa Maria sopra Minerva. CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN . — BY FRA ANGELICO. In the Museum ofthe Louvre, Paris. Tommaso di Cristoforo Fini, called Masolino da Panicale, was born at Florence in 1383. Masolino has hitherto been chiefly known by frescoes in the Carmine — which he probably commenced , but recent research has proved that many of them are the works of Masaccio and Filippino Lippi. Some frescoes, signed “ Masolino da Florentia pinxit, ” have lately been brought to light in the church of Castiglione d'Olona near Milan, which are believed to have been completed in 1428 for Cardinal Branda Castiglione ; and are undoubtedly by Masolino. He is supposed to have been the instructor of Masaccio. He died in 1430. H 50 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [A.D. 1400. . Don Lorenzo, called Il Monaco, was a Camaldolese monk who lived at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The most famous of his remaining works is a Coronation of the Virgin in the Abbey at Cerreto, painted in 1414. One of his best preserved paintings is in the Bartolini chapel at Florence, where he mostly resided. Two side wings of an altar -piece in the National Gallery ( Nos. 215 , 216) , of the school of Taddeo Gaddi are attributed by some writers to Il Monaco, and indeed Vasari says that he adhered to the style of that master, though he seems to have acquired a little from that of Fra Angelico. The dates of Il Monaco's birth and death are unknown. Andrea del Castagno, who was born in 1390 in Castagno in Mugello, near Florence, was the son of a peasant, and an orphan when very young. He was first induced to study painting by an itinerant artist. Attracting the attention of Benedetto de' Medici, he was sent to Florence, where he practised his art under very straitened circumstances. Castagno has long been accused of the murder of his friend and fellow - artist, Domenico Veneziano, from whom it is said he learned the secret of oil painting, that he might be the sole possessor of the knowledge of that art. This accusation is simply refuted by the fact that Domenico survived Castagno by about four years. Castagno's style of painting is anything but pleasing , it shows a coarse vigour in which form and colour are very unattractive, though his outlines are bold and full of life. He executed a portrait of Niccolò di Tolentino -in imitation of an equestrian statue—in the Cathedral of Florence. He also painte ) Pazzi , and other conspirators concerned in the murder of Giuliano de' Medici,hanging by their feet, on the facade of the palace of the Podestà, by which he earned the name of Andrea degli Impiccati (of the hanged ). This was his best work, but it has long since perished. Andrea del Castagno died in 1457 , and was buried in Santa Maria dei Servi. Domenico Veneziano was probably born in Venice or in one of the Venetian states. The first record we have of him is in 1438, when he was working at Perugia ; in 1439 he was painting in the Chipel of Sint Egidio in the Church of Santa Maria Nuova at Florence, with Pietro della Francesca and Bicci di Lorenzo as his assistants. After this Domenico mıy have gone to Venice for a time, and acquired the secret of varnish painting of Antonello di Messina who had lately imported the Van Eyck method into Italy. Vasari says that Domenico returned to Florence and painted the Chapel of Sint'Egidio in oil. As we have stated above (see Andrea del Castagno ), the story told by Vasari, of Castagno killing Domenico after having learned the secret of oil painting from him , is now entirely refuted . Though Domenico was probably a Venetian, yet his style of painting is far removed from that of the Venetian school. The only surviving specimens of Domenico's art are an altar- piece in tempera in Santa Lucia de' Bardi at Florence, and a fresco, originally a tabernacle on the wall of a house in the Canto de Carnesecchi ; the principal part, representing the Madonna enthroned, is in the possession of Prince Pio at Florence. Two heads - part of the same—are in the National Gallery ( Nos. 766, 767) ; theywere obtained by Sir Charles Eastlake, and bought from his collection . Thus of the two surviving works of Domenico, one is executed in tempera, and the other is a fresco, so we have little beyond Vasari's statement to prove that he ever painted in oil. Domenico Veneziano died at Florence in 1461 . Paolo Doni, called Paolo Uccello, from his love of painting birds, was born at Florence in 1396. He was apprenticed to Ghiberti the sculptor, and assisted him in the construction of the first pair of his celebrated gates for the Baptistery of Florence. A.D. 1400.] FLORENTINE SCHOOL 51 . Vasari says Uccello, as he is commonly called, was the first to reduce to rule the principles of perspective, and has been called the founder of linear perspective, though Pietro della Francesca seems to have more justly deserved that title. Uccello studied geometry with his friend Giovanni Manetti, with whom he used to read Euclid. that he wasted so much time over his favourite science of perspective, that he became “ more needy than famous " ; and his wife complained that he sat up the whole night to study it, and the only answer she got to her remonstrances was, Oh ! che dolce cosa è questa prospettiva — what a delightful thing this prospective is ! He painted frescoes in terra verde of the Creation of the World and History of Noah, in the cloisters of Santa Maria Novella, at Florence ; they are very much damaged by the weather and neglect, but still show his excellence in perspective. In the Cathedral of Florence there is a colossal figure of Sir John Hawkwood (called by the Italians, Giovanni Aguto ), an English adventurer, who died in the Florentine service in 1393 ; this, too, is in terra verde, and is signed Pauli Uccelli Opus. It cannot have been a portrait from life, for it THE CALLING OF ST. PETER AND ST. ANDREW , - BY MASACCIO . In the Church of the Carmelites, Florence. will be seen that Hawkwood died before the artist was born. Uccello also painted some Giants in the Casa de' Vitali in Padua, which, says Vasari, were greatly admired by Andrea Mantegna. Each giant was painted in a single day for one ducat — a large price, considering the value of money at that time. The same writer records four pictures by Uccello, of battles painted for the Bartolini family in Gualfonda. Of these, three are still extant, one in the Uffizi, one in the Campana Gallery in the Louvre, and the third and finest in the National Gallery ( No. 583) . It represents the Battle of Sant Egidio ( in 1416) , and is painted in tempera on wood. On a panel, now in the Louvre, Uccello painted the heads, life -size, of Giotto to represent Painting, Dona tello for Sculpture, Brunelleschi for Architecture, Manatti for Mathematics, and himself for Perspective. He died at Florence in 1479, and was buried in Santa Maria Novella. Tommaso. Guidi, better known as Masaccio (the sloven) , the son of a poor shoe maker, was born at Castel San Giovanni, according to recent researches, in 1402. Masaccio differs entirely from the monk of Fiesole ; he drew in the style of Michel 52 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1400. angelo, and with much of his force. Unfortunately, dying young, he left but few works. Munich possesses a Monk's Head in fresco ; a St. Antony of Padua, in dis temper and on wood ; and the portrait of the painter, wearing the red cap of the Florentines, like Dante and Petrarch. In the National Gallery is His own portrait ( No. 626) , ascribed to Masaccio , but now believed to be the work of Filippino Lippi. At Florence, in the museum of the Uffizi, is an astonishing Head of an Old Man, said to be painted by Masaccio, but this also is now considered doubtful. It is at the church of the Carmine in that town that we can study and admire him best. It is there that his great frescoes are to be seen ; the Expulsion from Paradise ; the Tribute Money; St. Peter baptising ; and the Infirm cured by the shadow of St. Peter. This series of frescoes was begun by Masolino, and finished by Filippino Lippi fifty years after the death of Masaccio. Masaccio died at Rome in 1429, in his twenty- seventh year. Sir Joshua Reynolds said that he was the first who discovered the path that leads to every excellence, and may therefore be justly considered one of the fathers of modern art. Fra Filippo Lippi was born in Florence, probably in 1412. This artist , according to Vasari, was one who disgraced his profession in his private life ; but many doubts have since been thrown on the story , which may be briefly thus related . Left an orphan at an early age, Lippi was placed by an aunt - Mona Lappaccia by name in the Carmelite Convent del Carmine when eight years old . He soon displayed great talent and liking for painting, and the prior wisely allowed him to follow his favourite amusement as a profession . In 1432 , at about the early age of twenty, on leaving the convent, Lippi gave up the frock , -- so says Vasari,-and during a pleasure excursion from Ancona, he and his companions were taken prisoners by Moorish pirates, and carried slaves to Barbary. After eighteen months' captivity Lippi drew a portrait of his owner with charcoal on a white wall, which excited so much wonder and admiration among the Moors, that his master, after getting him to execute several works in colour, sent him safely back to Italy. He landed at Naples, where he stayed only a few months, and then returned to Florence. In 1458, while employed in painting at the Convent of Santa Margherita, he carried off Lucrezia Buti - a young Florentine lady, who was being educated by the nuns and who was afterwards the mother of Filippino Lippi. No evidence has been found of his reputed stay at Ancona, his capture by pirates, or his residence in Naples, at which town he is supposed to have landed on his return from Barbary. When he left the Convent of the Carmelites in 1432 , he does not appear to have given up the frock, for later in life he signs himself “ Frater Filippus," and in the register of his death in the Carmine Convent, he is called “ Fr. Filippus. " As regards the tale of Lucrezia, it is not likely that a monk who had led a scandalous life would have been appointed chaplain of a nunnery in Florence, and rector of San Quirico at Legnaia , both of which facts are now certain ; therefore it is better to give Lippi the benefit of the doubt, especially as everything which has since been discovered tends to show the fallacy of Vasari's statements regarding him , and nothing has been found to corroborate them . It is supposed by some that Filippino Lippi was · adopted son of this artist. In the Convent del Carmine, Filippo Lippi is said to have studied under Masaccio , who was at that time employed in the chapel of the convent, but it is more probable that he studied more from the pictures of that master than from the artist himself. He painted frescoes both in the church and convent, and amongst others an A.D. 1450. ] FLORENTINE SCHOOL. 53 the Confirmation of the Rules of the Carmelites, in the cloisters ; these are no longer in existence ; those in the church were destroyed by fire in 1771. Lippi painted frescoes in Prato from 1456 to 1464, with numerous interruptions. He died at Spoleto — it is supposed of poison administered by Lucrezia's friends (Vasari) — October 8th , 1469. He was buried in the Cathedral of Spoleto, and a marble monument was erected over his grave by Filippino Lippi, at the desire and the cost of Lorenzo de' Medici. Lippi was an excellent draughtsman, but he understood neither perspective nor foreshortening. He was exceedingly fond of elaborate ornamentation, and excelled especially in colouring, in which branch of his art he must be allowed to stand pre eminent among the painters of his time. He painted various pictures in Florence, Fiesole, Arezzo, and Prato, in the choir in the Duomo, in which place are his most important works — frescoes representing the History of St. Stephen. Vasari calls the Martyrdom of St. Stephen his masterpiece. A Nativity, in the Louvre, in which Lucrezia is represented as the Virgin , generally attributed to Lippi, is now said to be by some other painter. He painted frescoes from the Life of the Virgin in the Cathedral of St. Catherine at Spoleto, but died before the completion of the work, which was afterwards finished by his scholar Fra Diamante. Pictures by Lippi are in most of the principal galleries of Europe — notably that of Berlin. In the National Gallery there are five ( Nos, 248, 586, 589, 666, 667 ) , representing respectively , the Vision of St. Bernard, painted about 1447 , for the Palazzo de' Signori ; the Madonna and Child enthroned, supposed to have been painted about 1438, for Gherardo di Bartolommeo Barbadori, for the church of Santo Spirito of Florence ; an Angel pre senting the Infant Christ to the Virgin ; the Annunciation ; and St. John the Baptist and six other Saints ; the two last were painted for Cosmo de' Medici, and bear his crest. Benozzo di Lese di Sandro, known as Benozzo Gozzoli, was born at Florence in 1420. He was the scholar of Fra Angelico, whom he assisted in the Cathedral of Orvieto . In 1450 he painted several pictures in the churches of San Fortunato and San Francesco at Montefalco, near Fuligno. In these pictures the style of his instructor may readily be traced . In 1469 Gozzoli went to Pisa and commenced his celebrated frescoes in the Campo Santo ; these are a continuation of those by Pietro di Puccio on the north wall , and represent the History of the Old Testament from the time of Noah to Solomon . They are twenty - four in number, and occupied him till 1485. He was, by agreement, to paint three every year, and to receive for each 66 lire or about ten ducats ( equivalent to about £100 at the present time) . In 1478 the authorities were so much pleased with the work already done, that they presented Gozzoli with a somewhat solid testimony of their approbation, in the shape of a sarcophagus bearing the following inscription : Hic tumulus est Benotii Florentini qui proxime has pinxit historias. Hunc sibi Pisanorum donavit humanitas MCCCCLXXVIII ., the date of which led Vasari into the pardonable error of supposing that that was the year of his death ; subsequent documents have proved that he died after 1496, probably in 1498. In 1479 Gozzoli was at Florence for a time, and decorated the walls of the Palazzo Medici (now Riccardi) with scenes from the Journey of the three Kings to Bethlchem . The walls next the altar are covered with choirs of angels ( see woodcut) , which are painted with great feeling and tenderness. In early life Gozzoli studied the works of Masaccio in the Brancacci chapel, 54 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1450. especially as models for his figures, but in later life he adopted a style of his own. He painted landscape backgrounds overflowing with towns, houses, rivers, and trees, OMINAL IN INEXC ORIA ? 7a9x INEX INTERN INEXC GHORIA GLORY C Gole pero THE ANGELIC CHOIR.- BY BENOZZO GOZZOLI. In the Riccardi Palace, Florence. and whenever he had room he put into his pictures all kinds of animals, both domestic and wild, and birds of all sizes. In painting interiors he displayed great richness of A.D. 1450. ] FLORENTINE SCHOOL. 55 form in his architecture, and his colours were bright and cheerful. The easel pictures of this artist are scarce. The Academy of Pisa possesses two ; the Louvre, one, St. Thomas Aquinas. In the National Gallery there are two ; the Virgin and Child enthroned ( No. 283) . This picture was painted by contract , no other hand but Gozzoli's was to touch it ; it was to be completed within a year after the signing of the contract, and was to be similar in mode and ornamentation to the Virgin enthroned, by Fra Angelico, over the high altar of San Marco, Florence (now in the Florentine Academy). The National Gallery picture was originally the altar-piece of the Compagnia di San Marco, Florence. It became the property of the Rinuccini family, and was purchased from their heirs in Florence. The Rape of Helen ( No. 591 ) , this little picture was formerly in the possession of the Marchese Albergotti of Arezzo ; it was purchased in 1857 from the Lombardi- Baldi Collection. Alessio Baldovinetti, who was born at Florence in 1422 , is supposed to have been the pupil of Paolo Uccello, and claims the honour of having been the teacher of Ghirlandajo. He was particularly renowned for the minuteness of his painting ; and was much interested in mosaic- work. In 1481 he repaired the mosaic over the portal of San Miniato al Monte. Very few works of this artist now remain. There is a fresco by him in the church of the SS. Annunziata, and a Virgin and Child in the Uffizi. Baldovinetti died in 1499, and was buried in San Lorenzo at Florence. Giuliano d' Arrigo Giuochi, called Pesello , was born in 1367. There is great confusion as regards this artist and his grandson Francesco Pesellino ; and very little has been ascertained of him , He is known to have been a great animal- painter ; and is said to have kept all kinds of creatures, wild as well as tame, in his house in order to be able to paint from nature. No certain work remains by him , but Sir Charles Eastlake considered that the Adoration of the Magi in the Uffizi — if by either—was by the elder Pesello. Giuliano died in 1446 (?) . Francesco di Stefano called Pesellino, the grandson of the above-mentioned Giuliano Pesello, was born at Florence in 1423. His father died before he was five years old , and he was consequently brought up by his grandfather. He is said to have been the scholar of Fra Filippo Lippi'whose style he greatly copied . No signed work by this artist has yet been discovered, and very few authenticated pictures by him now remain. Two paintings, illustrating the Triumph of David, in the Palazzo Torrigiano at Florence, are attributed to him ; and a Predella by him is in the Casa Buonarroti at Florence, but his masterpiece is a Trinità in the National Gallery ( No. 727 ) , represent ing the Eternal Father, seated , surrounded by Cherubim and Seraphim , and encircled by a Nimbus. It is painted in tempera on poplar wood, in the form of a cross, and was formerly in the church of Santissima Trinità in Pistoja ; it was afterwards in Mr. Ottley's collection , and was purchased for the trustees , at the Davenport- Bromley sale. Pesellino was one of the best painters of the fifteenth century ; he died in 1457, at the early age of thirty -five. Antonio Pollajuolo was born in Florence about 1430, the exact date is uncertain. He was apprenticed to the goldsmith Bartoluccio , the step- father of Ghiberti ; and subsequently assisted the latter in modelling his celebrated gates for the Baptistery of San Giovanni, which were completed in 1452. Soon after this , Antonio Pollajuolo started as a goldsmith on his own account, in which capacity he became very famous. He was also celebrated as a sculptor. In 1484 he was invited by Pope Innocent VIII. to Rome, where he executed the monument of Sixtus IV. , in 1493, and on the death of 56 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . [ A.D. 1450. Innocent VIII . he also erected one to that pope. Both tombs still exist in St. Peter's. We know that Pollajuolo made his will in 1496 , died in 1498, and was buried in San Pietro in Vinculis. It was not till late in life that Antonio took to painting, when he executed several important works in conjunction with his younger brother Pietro ; they excelled especially in knowledge of anatomy, and Vasari tells us that they were the first who had recourse to dissection for the purpose of art ; their works are mostly remarkable for muscular action, as may be seen in the Hercules overcoming the Hydra and the Death of Antuus both in the Uffizi. It is difficult to determine the work of one brother from that of the other ; a masterpiece, which is usually attributed to Antonio alone, is the Nartyrdom of St. Sebastian, in the National Gallery ( No. 292 ) . This was finished in 1475 for the altar of the Pucci chapel in the church of San Sebastiano de' Servi at Florence, and was purchased of the Marchese Pucci in 1857. This is supposed to be one of the first Italian pictures painted in oil , but though not tempera, the vehicle is not that which was used by the Van Eycks. Two other pictures by Antonio Pollajuolo are in the National Gallery. The Virgin adoring the Infant Christ ( No. 296) , formerly ascribed to Ghirlandajo, was originally in the possession of the Contugi family of Volterra, and was purchased by the trustees in 1857. The Angel Raphael accompanies Tobias on his journey into Media ( No. 781 ) , was formerly in the collection of Count Galli Tassi at Florence. Other pictures by this artist are in Florence and in various other public galleries on the continent. Pietro Pollajuolo, the younger brother of the above-mentioned Antonio Pollajuolo , was born at Florence in 1443. He was a pupil of Andrea del Castagno, and worked a great deal in conjunction with his brother Antonio . Pietro has only left one signed work of his own, a Coronation of the Virgin, in a church of San Gimignano. He shared with Antonio the fame of being the first to study dissection for art purposes, and of being the first Italian to abandon tempera and work in oil. The date of Pietro's death is uncertain , -it was before 1496. Andrea Verrocchio, who was born at Florence in 1432 , was a goldsmith , sculptor, architect, carver, painter, and musician . He first made himself famous as a goldsmith , both in Florence and Rome ; then he turned his attention to sculpture, and became, according to Baldinucci, a pupil of Donatello ; in this branch of art he became most famous, especially for his equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleone at Venice. There is only one certain painting by Verrocchio, the Baptism of Christ, in the Accademia of Florence. It is related that he asked his pupil, Leohardo da Vinci, to paint an angel in this picture, and that when it was completed he was so disgusted with his own work that he gave up painting and confined himself to sculpture. Vasari mentions many designs and cartoons by Verrocchio, but it is difficult to determine what is really his work or that of Leonardo da Vinci, and it may be that many now attributed to the latter are by the former. Paintings in various public galleries have been ascribed to Ghirlandajo, Pesello, the Pollajuoli , Lorenzo di Credi, and Leonardo, thus showing that there must have been great similarity in the styles of these artists. Andrea Verrocchio died at Venice in 1488, of a cold he caught in casting his celebrated statue of Colleone. His body was removed by Lorenzo di Credito Florence, and was placed in the vault of Michele di Cione in the church of Sant' Ambrogio ; over the vault is the following inscription : “ S. Michaelis de Cionis et Suorum et Andræ Verrocchi, filii Dominici Michaelis, qui obiit Venetiis MCCCCLXXXVIII , " Among Verrocchio's scholars may be A.D. 1500.] FLORENTINE SCHOOL. 57 mentioned, besides Leonardo da Vinci, Pietro Perugino, and Lorenzo di Credi, painters ; Nanni Grosso and Francesco di Simone, sculptors. Cosimo Rosselli, who was born at Florence in 1439, was instructed in art by Nero di Bici, to whom he was sent when fourteen years old . He remained with this master till 1456, in which year he painted his celebrated picture representing the Removal of a Miracle -working Chalice from the Church to the Episcopal Palace, in a chapel in the Church of Sant'Ambrogio at Florence. In 1480, he, with numerous other celebrated painters, was invited to decorate the chapel-now known as the Sistine -- in the Vatican ; the Pope offering a prize for the most successful designs. Conscious of his inability to cope with his more renowned and more skilful competitors, among whom may be mentioned Ghirlandajo, Signorelli , and Perugino, and equally conscious of the Pope's ignorance of art , Rosselli loaded his pictures with high colours and ornamentations, which would be likely to please the eye of one who merely desired decorations for his chapel, and thus gained the prize. Rumohr observes that Rosselli at first adhered to the style of Fra Angelico and Masaccio, but, after a few examples of his brilliant ability, he forsook the study of those masters and of nature for a lifeless and unpleasing mannerism . The frescoes in the Sistine chapel still exist ; of these the Sermon on the Mount is undoubtedly the best. Those from the Life of Moses and the Last Supper are very inferior. Rosselli made his will in 1506 ; after that year, nothing more has been recorded of him. There is a picture by Rosselli in the National Gallery (No. 227 ) , St. Jeromein the Desert, with various saints. It was formerly an altar piece in the Ruccellai chapel, in the church of the Eremiti di San Girolamo at Fiesole. It was purchased of Conte Ricasoli , of Florence. Luca d'Egidio di Ventura, called Luca Signorelli, and sometimes Luca da Cortona, was born at Cortona in 1441 (?) —some writers say in 1439. He was a pupil of the celebrated Pietro della Francesca, with whom he worked at Arezzo in 1472. Luca was one of the competitors for the prize offered by Pope Sixtus IV. for paintings in the Sistine Chapel in 1480, and his History of Moses is worthy of great praise. In 1484 he returned to Cortona, which he afterwards made his home. His native city still possesses several of his works ; a Deposition from the Cross, and a Last Supper are in the Cathedral . In 1484 Luca painted the altar- piece in the Cappella Sant' Onofrio in the Cathedral of Perugia ; it represents a Madonna enthroned with saints. The design, though hard, is full of power, and displays a beautiful conception of the subject ; this picture may justly be considered one of Signorelli's masterpieces. In Siena he painted frescoes in the Convent of Monte Uliveto and in the Petrucci Palace. In Volterra altar-pieces by his hand still exist. The most famous of all Signorelli's paintings are the frescoes of the Last Judgment in the chapel of San Brizio in the Cathedral of Orvieto. This great work was commenced in 1447 by Fra Angelico, who executed the figure of Christ and the attendant saints and angels. After waiting a considerable tine for Perugino, the authorities engaged Signorelli to finish it . By the contract, which is dated April 5th , 1499, Signorelli undertook to complete the ceiling for 200 ducats and the walls for 600 ducats, besides free lodgings and two measures of wine, and two quarters of corn per month . The ceiling was finished in 1500, but the date of the completion of the walls is not known, though , judging from the time Signorelli took to execute the ceiling, it was probably about 1503. The frescoes comprise the History of the Antichrist ; the Resurrection of the Dead ; Hell and Paradise. Great power and 1 vigour are displayed in these paintings, especially in the naked figures and the I 58 [ A.D. 1500. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . foreshortening. Vasari says that Michelangelo always admired Signorelli's works, and that he adopted some of his inventions in regard to forms of angels and demons. He also tells us that Signorelli was a man of high and noble character, and was THE MADONNA ENTHRONED . AN ALTAR - PIECE - BY LUCA SIGNORELLI. In the Academy of Fine Arts, Florence. respected and beloved by all . Signorelli was still living in 1524 ; the exact date of his death is not known. Sandro Filipepi, called Botticelli, from the name of a goldsmith to whom he was at first apprenticed, was born at Florence in 1447. He was afterwards a scholar of Fra A.D. 1500. ) FLORENTINE SCHOOL. 59 Filippo, whose style, to some extent, he copied. Between 1480 and 1484 Botticelli painted in the chapel of the Vatican - afterwards known as the Sistine Chapel- for Pope Sixtus IV. , frescoes illustrating the Life of Moses and the Temptation of Christ. Twenty - eight figures of the Popes, between the windows, are also by this artist. The Madonna and Child with angels in the Uffizi is attributed to the early part of his life ; the angels are supposed to represent members of the Medici family. Botticelli's pictures are especially noticeable for the natural expression given to the faces. Among his most important works may be mentioned, the Venus and the Calumny of Apelles in the Uffizi ; an allegory of Spring, and a Coronation of the Virgin in the Accademia ; and an Adoration of the Kings, painted for the church of Santa Maria Novella, in which the kings were portraits of Cosmo, Giuliano, and Giovanni de' Medici. Botticelli illustrated Dante's Inferno, ' and attempted to engrave his designs : how many he did is not exactly known, but those which are attributed to him are not worthy of so great a , painter. Three pictures, in tempera, representing the Madonna and Child - of which subject he painted a great number — are in the National Gallery ( Nos. 226, 275 , and 782 ) . Botticelli died in great poverty at Florence in 1515 ( Vasari says 1510) , and was buried in the church of the Ognissanti. Domenico Corradi, called Ghirlandajo, from the fact that his father, a goldsmith , was famous for his garlands — made either of hair or silver for the adornment of the Florentine women --- was born at Florence in 1449. It was at first intended that he should follow his father's business, but the ability he displayed in drawing the portraits of passers-by, induced his father to apprentice him to Alessio Baldovinetti . In 1480 Domenico executed some frescoes in the Vespucci Chapel of the Ognissanti, which were whitewashed over in 1616 ; a fresco of St. Jerome in the nave, and a Last Supper in the refectory, executed in the same year, are still in existence. In the Palazzo Vecchio at Florence is a picture of St. Zenobio enthroned , and two other saints. On the invitation of Pope Sixtus IV. , Ghirlandajo left Florence and went to Rome, to compete in the decoration of the Sistine Chapel. He painted there the Calling of Peter and Andrew , undoubtedly superior to the productions of his fellow -workers in point of composition ; and the Resurrection of Christ, which has been greatly injured and very badly restored . In 1485 he had finished the frescoes of the Life of St. Francis in the Sassetti Chapel in the Trinità, Florence. In 1490 Ghirlandajo was employed to replace the damaged frescoes of Orcagna in the choir of Santa Maria Novella, and he there illustrated the Life of the Virgin and of John the Baptist. In the picture representing the Birth of the Virgin , he has introduced the portrait of a celebrated Florentine beauty, Ginevra de' Benci, attired in a magnificent dress. As portraiture was the first branch of art which Ghirlandajo attempted, so was it the branch in which he excelled. He was especially fond of putting portraits of his contemporaries - not as actors but as spectators—into his pictures ; Kugler compares them to the chorus in the Greek tragedies. Ghirlandajo also excelled in mosaics , though little that he did remains to this day. He will always be famous as the master of the celebrated painter and sculptor Michelangelo. He died in 1498, or probably a little earlier. Frescoes executed by Ghirlandajo are in the chapel of San Fina at San Gimignano, between Florence and Rome ; and pictures by him are in various public galleries ; an Adoration of the Magi in the Uffizi, an Adoration of the Shepherds - in which a sarcophagus does duty for a crib — and one other, in the Florentine Academy ; a Visitation in the Louvre, and others in the Dresden and Munich galleries and in private collections. 60 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1500 . Filippino Lippi was born at Florence in 1460. Some writers think this is too late a date. He was the son, either by birth or by adoption, of Fra Filippo Lippi, from whom he takes his name. On the death of the Frate in 1469, Filippino became the scholar of Sandro Botticelli. In 1480, he painted the Vision of St. Bernard in the Badia at Florence. In 1485 he was employed to complete the frescoes — left unfinished by Masolino and Masaccio — in the Brancacci Chapel in the Church del Carmine in Florence, where he also painted St. Paul before Nero, the Crucifixion of St. Peter, and St. Peter liberated from Prison . In 1492 Filippino visited Rome and painted, for Cardinal Caraffa, frescoes illustrating the Glorification of the Madonna and of St. Thomas Aquinas, in the Cappella Caraffa , in Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Returning to Florence from Rome, he painted the Histories of the Apostles John and Philip in the Strozzi Chapel of Santa Maria Novella. There are three pictures by Filippino in the National Gallery. The Virgin and Child ( No. 293) painted for the Ruccellai Chapel in the church of San Pancrazio at Florence ; purchased of Cavaliere Giuseppe Ruccellai. The Adoration of the Magi ( No. 592) formerly in the possession of the Marchese Ippolito Orlandini, of Florence ; purchased from the Lombardi-Baldi Collection ; and a St. Francis in Glory ( No. 598) , formerly in the collection of the Marchese Giovanni Costabili at Ferrara, from which it was pur chased. In the National Gallery, a reputed Portrait of Masaccio ( No. 626 ), said to be by Masaccio himself , is considered by Mr. Wornum and other writers to be the work of Filippino; as also is another so- called Portrait of Masaccio in the Uffizi. Filippino, though not equal to Fra Filippo in the higher qualities of art, surpassed him in general details ; he followed more closely the style of Botticelli than that of the Frate. His pictures are especially to be noticed for the richness of their architecture and drapery. Filippino Lippi died at Florence, April 13th, 1505. Raffaellino Capponi, called del Garbo (the graceful), was born at Florence in 1466. He was at first a pupil of Filippino Lippi, but later in life studied the styles of Michel angelo and Raphael ; in these , however, he was not so fortunate, for his later works do not possess the charm and beauty of his earlier productions. Among his best paintings are , a Madonna and Child, attended by two angels, a very graceful and pleasing work, in the Berlin Museum, where there are four other pictures by him ; a Resurrection in the Florentine Academy ; and a Coronation of the Virgin in the Louvre. He also executed paintings on the ceiling of the chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas, in Santa Maria sopra Minerva at Rome, but these are in his latter style. Raffaellino died in 1524. Francesco Granacci was born at Florence in 1469. He was a fellow-pupil with Michelangelo in the studio of Ghirlandajo, and was much attached to the former, whose style he at first greatly imitated . Granacci was one of those artists who went to Rome to assist Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, but when the master, finding he could not manage to get on with his assistants, shut both the door of the chapel and of his own house against them , Granacci was justly incensed. Not many pictures by this artist remain ; there are some in the Pitti, the Uffizi, and the Accademia at Florence, Berlin, Munich, and elsewhere. Granacci died in 1543. XX CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN. By SANDRO BOTTICELLI . In the Uffizi Gallery, Florence . TI GRY قصه ها به PUBLIN ASTOR , LINOX AND TILDEN FOUNLATIONS R L A.D. 1350. ] BOLOGNESE SCHOOL. 61

CHAPTER V. SCHOOLS OF NORTHERN ITALY.

W ! CHILE the painters and princes of Florence were, as we have seen, working together for the advancement of art and the future glory of their country, it must not be supposed that the other cities of Italy were standing by in idle amazement. At Bologna, Modena, and Parma, close by, and at Mantua, Verona, and Venice, further north , there were at the same time schools of art all emulating the Florentine, and producing masters whose names will be remembered with never -dying fame. To treat of the rise and progress of each school separately would be an endless task : the truest and best information we can give is through the lives of the more eminent men, and we will begin with those of the BOLOGNESE SCHOOL. Vitale, one of the earliest painters of the school of Bologna, was called “ della Madonna,” from the frequency with which he painted pictures of the Virgin . He was probably born at Bologna. There is a picture by him in the Bologna Gallery, and another in the Museo Cristiano of the Vatican . Vitale was an artist of second- rate ability. He painted between 1320 and 1345 . Lippo di Dalmasio also earned the title of " della Madonna " from the number of pictures he painted of the Virgin and Child. He was a scholar of Vitale, and painted with great tenderness and care. One of Dalmasio's best works is a fresco in San Procolo of Bologna. A picture by him in the National Gallery (No. 752) , represents a Madonna and Child in a circular glory with angels above ; signed “ Lippus Dalmasii pinxit. ” It was formerly in the Ercolani Palace at Bologna and was purchased from Signor Michelangelo Gualandi, of Bologna. Malvasia tells us that Dalmasio's Madonnas were in such request and popularity, that no family was considered rich that did not possess one. Dalmasio painted, 1376-1410 ; in the year he made his will , and no further trace is to be found of him . Tommaso di Barisina da Modena has been claimed by some German writers for Bohemia, without any further grounds than the possession of some of his works. In 1357 he went to Prague, and was employed by Charles IV. to decorate his latter 62 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS ( A.D. 1400. . castle of Carlstein , where there are still two pictures on panel by his hand. An altar-piece -- which was formerly there, but which is now in the Belvedere Gallery of Vienna - representing the Virgin and Child between SS. Wenceslas and Palmatius, patrons of Bohemia, was said to be an oil-painting, and in Van Mechel's catalogue to have been painted in 1297 ; but, though signed, it bears no date, and a recent chemical analysis has shown that it is in tempera. The picture bears the following inscription : Quis opus hoc finxit ? Thomas de Mutina pinxit, Quade vides lector Barisini filius auctor. There is only one picture - in six parts — by this artist in Modena, of which city, from his signature, he is believed to have been a native ; this work has been how ever so much damaged and restored that no opinion can be formed of it . Nothing is known regarding his birth or death . Jacopo degli Avanzi is chiefly known by a Crucifixion in the Colonna Gallery at Rome. There are three pictures in the Bologna Gallery also by this master. He painted , in conjunction with artists of no great importance, frescoes in the church of the Madonna di Mezzarata near Bologna, which Malvasia says were praised by Michelangelo and the Caracci ; they have, however, been whitewashed and afterwards restored , and only fragments of them remain . Vasari says they were completed in 1404. . Marco Zoppo was born at Bologna in the earlier half of the fifteenth century. He studied with Andrea Mantegna in the school of Squarcione. He painted in the Eremitani Chapel in Padua, though what part of the frescoes attributed to Squarcione's pupils he did, is not known. A small Madonna and Child in the Manfrini Collection, Venice, is signed “ Opera del Zoppo di Squarcione. Another picture representing the Madonna enthroned, in the Berlin Museum , is signed and dated “ Marco Zoppo da Bologna pinsit MCCCCLxxi in Vinexia . ” A St. Dominic, in the National Gallery ( No. 597) , is a better specimen of Zoppo than either of the above-mentioned pictures . It was formerly in the collection of the Marchese Giovanni Costabili, at Ferrara, from whom it was purchased for the National Gallery. The dates of Zoppo's known works extend from 1471 to 1498. Francesco di Marco Raibolini, commonly called Francia — from the name of the goldsmith to whom he was at first apprenticed - was born at Bologna about 1450. At first a goldsmith, engraver of medals, and director of the mint, Francia, who studied secretly under old Marco Zoppo, suddenly produced before the astonished eyes of his contemporaries an excellent painting , which he had modestly signed “ Franciscus Francia aurifex. ” This was in 1490, when the new artist was about forty years of age. The well -merited praises he received for this picture induced him to add the profession of a painter to that of a goldsmith. There is not yet a single certain work by him in the Louvre, though a half length portrait of a young man clothed in black, which was till lately ascribed to Raphael, is thought by some to be by Francia ; and hence this painter has not received in France all the consideration to which he is entitled. In order to make him better known and appreciated, we do not think we could do better than quote the opinion of Raphael, who, in a letter written in 1508, compares Francia to Perugino and the Venetian Giovanni Bellini. He is indeed their equal, both from the merit of his works A : D . 1500. ] BOLOGNESE SCHOOL. 63 and also from having founded a great school. Raphael had the highest opinion of Francia ; he loved him, consulted him, and often wrote to him, and when he sent his St. Cecilia to Bologna, modestly begged Francia to correct any defects he might find in it. It is not known on what grounds Vasari founded his assertion that the old painter TA SAGNVS DE TE THE VIRGIN ENTHRONED , ATTENDED BY SAINTS. — BY FRANCIA. In the Pinacotheca, Bologna. died of grief and jealousy on seeing the superiority of the younger man's work. Vasari was mistaken. Francia lived for several years after the arrival of the St. Cecilia in his native town, as Malvasia, the author of the Felsina pittrice, has proved ; thus vindicating his illustrious fellow- citizen from the careless accusation of the Florentine. 64 (A.D. 1400. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . The Pinacotheca of Bologna contains six important works by Francia. We must mention in particular a Nativity in the manger at Bethlehem, where there are grouped around the Virgin -mother not only several angels, and some saints who lived long after the event, but also Antonio Galea Bentivoglio, the son of John II. , who ordered the picture, and the poet Pandolfi da Casio, crowned with laurels, who, perhaps, had sung of him in his poems. We must also mention a Glorified Madonna, whose throne is surrounded by St. Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi, St. John the Baptist, St. Proculus the warrior, St. Sebastian, St. Monica, and a certain Bartolomeo Felicini, who had ordered the picture. It is signed “ Opus Franciæ aurificis .” It speaks more in favour of its author than the others, for it is easy to make the comparison suggested by Raphael (see woodcut). Near this picture is one by Perugino, on the same subject, a Madonna worshipped by St. Catherine, the Archangel Michael, John the Baptist , and St. Apollonius. It is one of the finest works of the much -loved master of Raphael, and was as such selected to be brought to the Louvre, when Italy was a province of the French empire, and conquest gave the right or the power to take from it the masterpieces of all ages. Let any one take the pains to compare attentively these two analogous works, and it will be soon allowed that Francia deserves the high renown which he has attained. According to Raphael, he formed an intermediate school between those of Florence and Venice, between Perugino and Bellini, by uniting form and colour. The National Gallery has not only one of those Glorifed Madonnas ( No. 179) which were a favourite subject with the old master --and indeed with painters of every time it also possesses two other works. A Dea: t Christ ( No. 180) , whose body, extended the whole length of the frame, rests on the knees of His mother, who is in the centre. Two kneeling angels fill the corners. In this picture the style and expression are admirable. And what gives it the greatest merit is, the powerful colouring, rare even in this master, who was more of a colourist than his contemporaries. This, with the Madonna men tioned above, formed an altar- piece originally in the Buonvisi chapel of the church of San Frediano at Lucca. Also a Virgin and Child with saints ( No. 638) , purchased from M, Edmond Beaucousin. At Munich also there are several fine Madonnas by Francia, and at Dresden, among several other pictures, may be noticed a Baptism of Christ, dated 1508. Jesus only places His feet on the water, as He did later when calling St. Peter to Him in order to prove his faith . His figure is long and thin , as is also that of St. John, like the figures of Perugino, Bellini , Cima, and all the masters of that time. But this Baptism , a great and lofty composition, may be considered one of the best works of Raphael's old friend. Francia died at Bologna on January 6th , 1517. PADUAN SCHOOL. Giusto di Giovanni de' Menabuoi, called Padovano, or Justus of Padua, was born at Florence in the earlier half of the fourteenth century. He was a follower of Giotto, and studied the works which that master had executed in Padua, of which town Giusto was made a citizen in 1375. He is supposed to have executed several frescoes in Padua, but those in the baptistery of the Cathedral and in the chapel of St. Luke of the Church of Sant' Antonio , which were formerly ascribed to him , A.D. 1400.] PADUAN SCHOOL. 65 are now declared to be the work of Giovanni and Antonio da Padova, two unimportant 'painters who were probably his pupils . Giusto died on the 29th of September, 1400. The only authentic picture by him is a triptych in the National Gallery ( No. 701 ) ; it represents, in the centre, the Coronation of the Virgin, with various saints. On the interior sides of the wings, are the Birth and Crucifixion of our Lord and the Annunciation. On the exterior wings are various scenes in the Life of the Virgin until her marriage. The picture is signed at the back, “ Justus pinxit in archa ," and dated in the front MCCCLXVII. It was formerly in the Wallerstein Collection , and was presented to the National Gallery by Her Majesty the Queen. D'Avanzo da Verona has long been confused with Jacobo degli Avanzi of Bologna ; but the remains of an inscription in the Cappella San Giorgio point to Verona as the birthplace of d'Avanzo . He painted decorations, in conjunction with Aldighiero da Zevio, in the Cappella San Felice and the Cappella San Giorgio in the church of Sant Antonio at Padua, in 1377 . It appears that the principal frescoes in the Cappella San Felice were the work of Aldighiero ; and of those in the Cappella San Giorgio, which were recovered from oblivion in 1837 by Dr. E. Förster, the portion to be assigned to Aldighiero has given rise to much dispute ; but it is probable that d'Avanzo executed the principal portion . The frescoes represent the earlier part of the History of our Lord, the Coronation of the Virgin , the Crucifixion, and legends of various saints ; they prove the painter to have been an artist of no common genius, and Kugler, in his admirable description of them , speaks of his art as being above that of his contemporaries. D'Avanzo also painted two triumphal processions in a public hall of Verona, which have long since perished. He died about the end of the fourteenth century. Aldighiero da Zevio was born at Zevio, in the neighbourhood of Verona. As is stated above, Aldighiero assisted d'Avanzo in the decoration of the chapels of SS. Felice and Giorgio at Padua. While the principal part of the frescoes in the chapel of San Giorgio is attributed to the latter, for the former are claimed the first seven pictures in the chapel of San Felice - formerly San Jacopo— illustrating the Life of St. James the Greater ; and from documents it appears that the payment for the frescoes in San Felice was made to Aldighiero. Lübke says that he displayed in his works a lively conception and a richly furnished colouring, and, indeed, with the exception of Orcagna's, his paintings, together with those of d’Avanzo, are the best productions since the time of Giotto. It is not known when this artist died . He painted as late as 1370. Francesco Squarcione, who was born at Padua in 1394, was brought up to the trade of an embroiderer ; but, abandoning that calling, he travelled in Greece and Italy, collecting on his route many specimens of ancient art. On his return to Padua he established a school, which was so well stocked with models that he had many pupils —it is said that he had the large number of 137 - among whom were the famous Andrea Mantegna and Marco Zoppo. He appears to have been better adapted for imparting instruction to younger artists than for painting, and whenever he received a commission he was in the habit of giving it to his scholars to execute. It is very difficult to tell with any certainty what pictures are the work of Squarcione or of his pupils. An altar piece in the Paduan Gallery is attributed to him . His signature on a small picture of the Madonna and Child in the Manfrini Collection , Venice, is now pronounced to be a forgery (* Handbook of Painting, ' Lady Eastlake, p. 292). Squarcione died in 1474. K 66 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1450. Among other scholars of Squarcione we may mention Marco Pizzolo, the most important of those who painted frescoes in the Eremitani Chapel at Padua . The First Person of the Trinity, in the semi-dome of the chapel, and the Virgin supported by Cherubim , on the apsis, are attributed to him by Vasari : according to the same authority he perished while yet young in a street brawl : -Bono Ferrarese, who has signed his name to the St. Christopher bearing the Infant Christ in these frescoes. A St. Jeromein the Desert, in the National Gallery ( No. 771 ) , signed " Bonus Ferariensis Pisani Discipulus " -thus showing that he was a pupil of Vittore Pisano — was formerly in the Costabili Gallery, Ferrara, and was purchased from the collection of Sir Charles Eastlake in 1867. The only known date of Bono's painting is 1461 , when he was engaged on work in the Cathedral of Siena. His style partakes very much of that of his fellow -pupil Mantegna :-and Gregorio Schiavone , il native of Dalmatia ; a signed picture by him is in the Berlin Museum . Another is in the National Gallery ( No. 630) , it represents the Madonna and Child enthroned with various saints ; and is signed “ Opus Sclavoni, Disipuli Squarcioni, S.” It was formerly in the Dennistoun Collection, and was purchased at Paris from M. Beaucousin. Schiavone painted about 1470. Andrea Mantegna, whose work and fame render him almost equal to Giotto, allowing for the century and a half between them , was born near Padua in 1431. He was, like Giotto, a shepherd in his childhood ; afterwards, under the lessons of the old Squarcione, almost as precocious as Raphael under Perugino. After his marriage with the sister of the Bellini, he joined the primitive Venetian school, and by his works exercised a happy influence over the schools of Milan, Ferrara, and Parma. Ariosto was right in mentioning him among the three great names in painting, of the period immediately preceding Raphael. Mantegna has left numerous works in the principal towns of Italy. Three of the most important of these are in the Tribune of Florence, an Adoration of the Kings, a Circumcision, and a Resurreition. The museum of Naples possesses his St. Euphemia, which is considered his master piece. However, in order to dwell a little on the qualities and style of Mantegna, we prefer to select those of his works which are to be found in the Louvre. There are four of these : first, a Calary, painted in distemper, perhaps before he had adopted the processes of the Fleming Jan van Eyck, which were not generally employed in Italy until the middle of the fifteenth century. This conjecture seems probable, if we consider that Mantegna painted the high altar of Santa Sofia of Padua when eighteen years of age - the same age at which Raphael produced his Sposalicio and, as his biographers declare, was admitted into the corporation of painters of Padua age of ten , as Lucas Dammesz was at Leyden. This Calvary shows great firni ness in the drawing, and a deep expression of sadness. The soldier who is seen in the foreground is thought to be a portrait of Mantegna himself. Next comes the Vierge à la Victoire, a beautiful Christian allegory in honour of the Marquis of Mantua, Francesco Gonzaga, who could not, however, even with the help of the Venetians, stop the passage or the return of the French troops under Charles VIII. He was the zealous protector of the painter, and was repaid in flattering praises during his life, and eternal fame after his death. This picture, intended for the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, which was built on plans furnished by Mantegna, who practised all the arts , was painted in distemper, according to Vasari, by whom he is mentioned with praise. Now, as this Vierge à la Victoire cannot be anterior to the retreat of the French in 1495 , it is evident that Mantegna returned by taste and voluntary choice to the old at the A.D. 1500. ] FERRARESE SCHOOL 67 . Byzantine processes. This is curious, and shows us how it happened that in Flanders great artists, such as Memling of Bruges, adhered to the primitive processes a long time after the discovery of the brothers Van Eyck. Lastly, there are the Parnassus, and Wisdom victorious over the Vices, both allegories, this time pagan, and painted in oil . Mantegna does not merely show in these his great artistic powers, elevation of style, firmness of lines and contours, justice and solidity of colouring ; he also displays that uncommon knowledge, we may say divination of the antique, in which he pre ceded Poussin by two centuries . But there is another of his works in which he has shown a far greater degree of this divination. In the old palace of Hampton Court is a series of nine cartoons in distemper, which were doubtless prepared for the long circular fresco which Mantegna painted for the Marquis Lodovico Gonzaga, in the castle of San Sebastiano, at Mantua ; the first sketches for which are preserved in the Belvedere at Vienna. They are called the Triumph of Julius Cæsar on his return from Gaul. There must be an error, at least in the second part of the title. In the first place the figure of the conqueror is wanting, which fact leaves the field open to suppositions. Again , in the procession are carried statues, vases, and pictures, the tabula picta , the simulacra pugnarum picta , of which Livy and Pliny speak, all things rather resembling spoils taken from the Greeks than from the Gauls or Britons. It must be rather the triumph of Paulus Æmilius after his victory over Perseus, or of Sulla after the taking of Athens, or of Cæsar after Pharsalia. It would be better to name these cartoons, as at Vienna, a Roman Triumph . Whatever the title , the collection is no less interesting than curious, for these mural paintings, noble and vigorous in their drawing, learned and ingenious in their com position , in a style worthy of the ancients, are certainly without equals in the works of Mantegna for both material and moral grandeur. In the National Gallery there are two pictures by Mantegna ; a Virgin and Child enthroned ( No. 274) , formerly in the possession of Cardinal Monti, who was Archbishop of Milan from 1632 till 1650 ; after various changes it passed into the hands of Signor Roverselli, from whom it was purchased ; and the Triumph of Scipio ( No. 902) painted for Francesco Cornaro, a Venetian nobleman , afterwards Cardinal ; it was finished only a few months before the painter's death : after being long in the possession of the Cornaro family, it was purchased by the late Mr. George Vivian, whose son sold it to the National Gallery. Mantegna died at Mantua in 1506. He left two sons, Lodovico and Francesco, both of whom assisted him while living and completed his unfinished works after his death. Nothing remains to us of the elder, Lodovico ; but the Noli me tangere in the National Gallery ( No. 639) is attributed to Francesco ; it was formerly in the Duroveray Collection , and was purchased at Paris from M. Beaucousin. Francesco Mantegna was born at Mantua about 1470 ; the date of his death is not known, but he was still living in 1517 . FERRARESE SCHOOL. Cosimo Tura, called Il Cosmè, was born at Ferrara about 1430. He was a pupil of Galasso Galassi, a very second - rate artist. Cosimo was painter to the Duke of Ferrara, and painted , in the palace of Schifanoja, twelve scenes from the achievements of the duke's brother, Borso. They were neglected for a long time, but in 1840 Sig. Al. 68 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [A.D. 1500. . Campagnoni restored seven of them . Many pictures by Cosimo are still in Ferrara. In the Costabili Collection are various pictures and two organ-doors which were once in the cathedral ; the paintings on the doors represent St. George and the Dragon and the Annunciation ; in the Strozzi Palace there is a Portrait of Tito Strozzi, the poet ; and in the Berlin Museum , a Madonna and Child . In the National Gallery there are three pictures by this artist, Christ placed in the tomb by St. John the Baptist andJoseph of Arimathea ( No. 590) , formerly in the possession of Professor Rosini, of Pisa ; pur chased at Florence from the Lombardi- Baldi Collection. The Madonna and Child enthroned (No. 772 ) , formerly in the Frizzoni Collection , Bergamo; purchased from the collection of Sir Charles Eastlake. And a St. Jerome in the wilderness ( No. 773) , from the Costabili Gallery, Ferrara ; formerly in the Certosa at Ferrara ; purchased from the collection of Sir Charles Eastlake. From the dryness of his manner, Cosimo has been called the “ Mantegna of Ferrara " ; he is especially to be admired for the care with which he finished his painting. It is supposed that he died after 1494. He was buried in San Giorgio, in Ferrara, at the entrance of the Campanile. Francesco Cossa, of whom little has been discovered , was a painter of Ferrara. His best known work is an altar - piece in the Gallery of Bologna, representing the Madonna and Child, which was painted in 1474. There is also a wall painting by him in the Barracano in Bologna representing the Virgin enthroned . Cossa worked much after the style of Pietro della Francesca. It has been ascertained that he painted from 1456 to 1474, but the date of his death is not known. Lorenzo Costa was born at Ferrara in 1460. It is said, by Vasari, that he studied under Benozzo Gozzoli at Florence. He removed to Bologna , and became the friend and probably the assistant of Francia, for he painted much after the style of that artist. In Bologna he executed in 1488 a Virgin and Chill , attended by Giovanni Bentivoglio, his wife and family, which is still in the Bentivoglio Chapel in San Giacomo Maggiore in that town . He also painted at Bologna, frescoes representing the Triumphs of Life and Death in the same church in 1490, and frescoes from the Life of St. Valerian in Santa Cecilia. When the Bentivogli were obliged to leave Bologna, Costa removed to Mantua, where he was patronised by Francesco Gonzaga, who gave him an estate and an annual pension from 1510 until his death in that town in 1535. Other works by Costa are, a St. Sebastian in the Costabili Collection , Ferrara, and an Allegory in the Louvre ; a St. Sebastian in the Marescotti Chapel in San Petronio, Bologna, is attributed to him . There are two pictures by him in the National Gallery ( No. 629) , the Madonna and Child enthroned, with angels and saints, painted on fine linen ( renso) which was attached to wood (tavola ); it was transferred from wood to canvas at Antwerp in 1848 : it was formerly the principal altar-piece in the Oratorio delle Grazie, Faenza. In 1780 it was in the Ercolani Collection at Bologna, and, after passing through various hands, was eventually purchased by the National Gallery in 1859. And a portrait of the Florentine General, Francesco Ferrucci ( No. 895 ) , bequeathed by Sir Antony C. Sterling. Costa's painting is remarkable for the power of its colouring. His pictures are often overladen with architectural and ornamental detail, and he was especially fond of putting landscape backgrounds to his paintings. Costa left two sons, Ippolito and Girolamo, who were both painters ; the latter had a son , Lorenzo Costa the younger, who was also an artist. Vittore Pisano, called Pisanello, was born about the close of the fourteenth century, according to an inscription on a picture mentioned by Dal Posso, at San Vito, a small A.D. 1500.] VERONESE SCHOOL. 69 village in the territory of Verona. He was both a medallist and a painter, and was especially celebrated as the former. He painted in the Council Hall in Ferrara ; and in St. John Lateran at Rome he executed frescoes with Gentile da Fabriano, whose uncompleted works he finished ; but these specimens of his art have all perished. A few works by Pisano are still preserved in Verona, but his best work extant is in the National Gallery ( No. 776). It represents St. Antony and St. George, the former with his pig - here represented as a boar—and the latter with his horse and the vanquished dragon at his feet ; above is a vision of the Virgin and Child in a glory. This picture is believed to have been painted for Leonello d'Este, of Ferrara ; it was formerly in the Costabili Collection, and was presented to the National Gallery by Lady Eastlake in 1867. Pisano is said to have been a pupil of Domenico Veneziano, but little is known of his life with certainty. He was a good animal painter, and his works were highly prized in Ferrara even in his own time. He died about 1451 . Bartolommeo Montagna was a native of Brescia. He is first heard of as a painter in Vicenza about 1470. An altar-piece in the Brera, representing the Madonna and Child enthroned , with saints and angels, is one of his best works. There are many pictures by him still extant, chiefly in Italy. Among the galleries which possess his works we may mention the Venice Academy, the Vicenza Gallery, and the Louvre. Late in life he visited Padua, some of the churches of which town possess specimens of his art. Montagna died in 1523 . He left a son , Benedetto Montagna, who was, however, far inferior to him as an artist. A signed picture by him is in the Brera ; dated 1528. Benedetto Montagna was also renowned as an engraver. VERONESE SCHOOL. Liberale was born at Verona in 1451 . He was at first a miniaturist, but afterwards adopted oil-painting. He imitated Jacopo Bellini and Mantegna, and it is believed that he painted part, at least, of some pictures attributed to the latter. He attained to no great merit as an oil- painter, though some of his miniatures were fairly executed. Liberale died in 1536. Francesco Bonsignori - erroneously called by Vasari Monsignori — was born at Verona in 1455. He was a pupil of Mantegna at Mantua. Specimens of his painting are to be seen at Mantua, Verona, both in the Museum and in San Fermo, and in the Brera at Milan. Bonsignori was a good portrait painter, and was especially famous for the correctness of his architectural perspective. It is said he painted animals with such truth to nature, that they occasionally deceived other animals, whence he obtained the name of the “ Modern Zeuxis.” Bonsignori died at Caldiero, near Verona, in 1519. A portrait of a Venetian Senator (No. 736) by this artist in the National Gallery, is signed and dated, “ Franciscus Bonsignorius Veronensis P. 1487." It was formerly in the Cappello Museum in Venice ; and was purchased at Verona, from Dr. Cesare Bernasconi. Giovanni Francesco Carotto, who was born at Verona in 1470, was first apprenticed to Liberale , but afterwards painted with Mantegna in Mantua. His style did not partake much of that of his masters ; he is especially noted for the warmth of his 70 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1500. colouring. Works by him are in the Modena Gallery ; in the Berlin Museum ; in the churches and in the galleries of Verona ; and in Mantua. Carotto died in 1546. Francesco Morone was born at Verona in 1474. He was the son'of Domenico. Morone, a painter of little note, who instructed him in the art of painting. Francesco has left works of considerable importance in the Church of Santa Maria in Organis, Verona. A Virgin and Child by him in the Brera is dated 1504. Another Madonna and Child, signed “ Franciscus Moronus Pinxit ,” is in the Berlin Museum : Morone was chiefly famous for his portraits. He died at Verona in 1529 . In the National Gallery is a Madonna and Child ( No. 285 ) by this artist ; it was purchased from Baron Galvagna at Venice : it has been attributed to Pellegrino da San Daniele, and to Girolamo dai Libri, but it is undoubtedly the work of Francesco Morone. Girolamo dai Libri was born at Verona in 1472 . His father was an illuminator of manuscripts, whence he derives his only known surname dai Libri. He was brought up as a miniaturist, and was one of the best painters in Verona at that time. In San Giorgio Maggiore there is a Mallonna enthroned, signed, and dated 1526. Two altar-pieces by him are in the Verona Gallery. A Madonna and Child is in the Berlin Gallery ; and a Madonna, Infant Christ, and St. Anna, is in the National Gallery ( No. 748) , signed “ Hieronymus a Libris, F ," it was formerly in Santa Maria della Scala, in Verona ; it was purchased from the Counts Monga of that town. Girolamo died at Verona in 1555 . Paolo Moranda, called Cavazzuola, was born at Verona in 1486. His best picture is a series of five subjects from the Passion of our Lord in the Verona Gallery. His last work, painted in the year of his death , is also in the same gallery - it represents the Virgin and Saints. There are two pictures by him in the National Gallery , St. Roch with the Angel ( No. 735) , signed “ Paulus Morādus, V.P. ” It is recorded as having been dated MDXVIII, but the last five figures have been obliterated ; it was formerly over the Cagnoli altar in the church of Santa Maria della Scala, afterwards in the Caldana Gallery, Verona ; it was purchased from Dr. Cesare Bernasconi. And the Madonna and Child ( No. 777 ) , with St. John the Baptist and an Angel, signed “ Paulus, V. P." ( V. P. = Veronensis Pinxit) : purchased at Verona from Count Portalupi. Moranda died at Verona, in 1522 , at the early age of thirty- six, MILANESE SCHOOL ( INCLUDING THE SCHOOL OF CREMONA) . Altobello Melone was a native of Cremona, who painted in the style of Bocaccino. He executed frescoes in the Cathedral of Cremona representing the Massacre of the Innocents and the Flight into Egypt, which have been greatly praised by Vasari and other writers ; the latter is dated 1517. A Christ and the Disciples going to Emmaus ( No. 753) is in the National Gallery, it was formerly in the Carmelite church of San Bartolomeo at Cremona ; and was purchased, at Milan, from Count Carlo Castelbarco, in whose collection there is a picture under the name of Raphael attributed by some to Melone. Vicenza Foppa was a native of Foppa, in the province of Pavia. The first we hear A.D. 1500. ] MILANESE SCHOOL. 71 of him is , that , in 1456, he executed some frescoes at Milan, which have now perished. A St. Jerome and a Crucifixion in the Carrara Academy, Bergamo, are by him , as are also a St. Sebastian in the Brera—a portion of a much larger fresco— and a Virgin and Child, dated 1485 ; there is also an altar- piece by him in the cathedral of Savona. Foppu painted chiefly at Milan. He died at Brescia in 1492 , and was buried in the church of San Barnaba of that town. Foppa left a son , Vicenza, who was also an artist. Bernardo Zenale was born at Treviglio (?) in 1436. He worked conjointly with Bernardo Buttinone -an artist of no great merit—in the cloisters of Santa Maria delle Grazie at Milan, and also in the cathedral of Treviglio. A Madonna, by Zenale alone, is in the Brera. He died in 1526 , and was buried in that church at Milan, which he had helped to adorn. Andrea da Solario, or Andrea da Milano, was born at Solario, near Milan, about 1458. He is believed to have been a pupil of Leonardo. In 1509 he was summoned, to France by Cardinal d'Amboise, for whom he worked at Gaillon for twenty sous a day : the frescoes that he executed in the chapel of the Castle perished during the Revolution of 1793. A portrait of Charles d'Amboise, by Andrea, in the Louvre, long passed under the misnomer of “ Leonardo da Vinci, ” till the late Mr. Mündler corrected the error. A picture, called Le Coussin Vert, and a Crucifixion, by Andrea, are in the same gallery. He returned to Italy, and, in 1515 , or a little later, he was commissioned to paint an altar- piece representing the Assumption of the Virgin, for the Certosa at Pavia ; he, however, only lived to complete part of this work. In the Casa Poldi at Milan there are several works by his hand. A St. John the Baptist, dated 1499 ; and a Madonna and Child, signed " Andreas Solario Mediolanensis, 1515. ” In the National Gallery ( No. 734) there is a portrait of Giovanni Christophoro Longono, a Milanese nobleman, signed " Andreis D. Solario, F. 1505 " ; purchased from Signor Giuseppe Baslini , of Milan ; and a Portrait of a Venetian Painter, recently acquired. Bartolommeo Suardi, was called Bramantino : it is supposed, from the fact that he studied under Bramante, the architect, whom he accompanied to Rome about 1495 . There he painted for Pope Julius II . a series of portraits in the Vatican , which the Pope afterwards destroyed to make way for Raphael's Miracle of Bolsena. Bramantino received a promise of eighty ducats from the monks of Clairvaux for a Pietà to be executed, and for some figures of saints which he had painted in the sacristy. Among his chief works may be mentioned a Madonna enthronext in the Brera, a Dead Christ in the church of San Sepolcro, in Milan , and an Adoration of the Kings in the National Gallery ( No. 729) , formerly in the Fesch Collection ; purchased in London at the Davenport-Bromley sale . Bramantino was famous as an engineer and architect ; as a painter his chief characteristic is foreshortening, which is especially to be noticed in the Dead Christ mentioned above. Neither the date of Bramantino's birth nor death is known ; but he painted from 1495 to 1529. Ambrogio Borgognone, called Ambrogio da Fossano, from his birthplace, was born about 1455. In 1475 he was employed in the Certosa (Carthusian Convent) near Pavia , where a Crucifixion is signed and dated “ Ambrosius Fosanus, pinxit 1490," which is the earliest date on his pictures, though he appears to have worked at Pavia from 1475 till 1493. Borgognone painted frescoes in many churches in Milan ; specimens of these are still preserved in San Simpliciano, Sant' Ambrosio, and Santa Maria della Passione. He also painted at Lodi, in the chapel of the Incoronata, and at Bergamo, In 1513 72 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [ A.D. 1500. . In 1490 in the church of Santo Spirito. Among other works by this artist may be mentioned an Assumption of the Virgin in the Brera, signed and dated " Ambrosio Bğogoj 1522 " ; a Madonna and Child enthroned in the Berlin Gallery, which is signed but not dated ; and a Marriage of St. Catherine of Alexandria in the National Gallery ( No. 298 ) , originally in the chapel of Rebecchino, near Pavia. Borgognone was celebrated as an architect. Lanzi and other writers have assumed that Ambrogio da Fossano, the architect, and Ambrogio Borgognone, the painter, were different persons, but this has been proved to be incorrect. The paintings of Borgognone are chiefly to be admired for their delicacy and for the gentleness of the expression of the face. It is not known when he died : the latest date on his paintings is 1522 . Francesco Tacconi, of whose life little is known, was one of the most important artists of Cremona in the fifteenth century. He and his brother, Filippo Tacconi, executed several frescoes on a loggia in the Palazzo Pubblico of their native city of Cremona. In 1464 their fellow - citizens exempted them from all taxes on account of these frescoes, which have, however, been recently whitewashed over. Francesco was employed in St. Mark's at Venice, where he painted the organ doors which were then in use ; the outside picture represents the Adoration of the Kings and of the Shepherds, and the inside the Resurrection of Christ. These paintings, though much damaged, are still preserved, and are said to have been signed and dated , but these marks have perished . In the National Gallery there is a Virgin enthroned ( No. 286) by this artist, signed below “ Op Francisi Tachoni, 1489, Octu ” ; it was formerly in the Casa Savorgnan, and was purchased for the National Gallery of Baron Galvagna. The only dates we have for settling the period of Francesco Tacconi's life are those above given, from 1464 till 1490. Bocaccio Bocaccino was born at Cremona in 1460 ( ? ) Little is known of his life; in 1496 he painted a series of frescoes in Sant'Agostino at Cremona, in which town he had a school, where Garofalo is said to have studied. He painted various frescoes in the cathedral between the years 1506 and 1508, of which Christ disputing with the Doctors is the best. There is also an altar-piece, a Virgin and Child by him in San Giuliano, and a St. Catherine in the academy at Venice. Bocaccino is said to have visited Rome in 1500. The year 1518 is usually given as the date of his death, but his will was made in January 1524 ( Notizie pittoriche Cremonese, ' F. Sacchi) . In the National Gallery is a Procession to Calvary ( No. 806) by him ; it was formerly in San Domenico de' Frati Osservanti in Cremona, and was purchased at Milan from Signor Giuseppe Baslini. Bocaccino's chief characteristic is the grace of his figures. He left one son, Camillo Bocaccino, born at Cremona 1511 , who was a painter of some merit. He died in 1546. A.D. 1450.] UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 73

CHAPTER VI.UMBRIAN SCHOOL. -FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

INN the country of the Upper Tiber, which includes the towns of Assisi , Castiglione, and Perugia, there sprang up about the middle of the fifteenth century a school of artists, whose works, transmitted to us in great numbers, give evidence of a deeply religious, one may say, mystical spirit. Whether this may have been due to the influence of the celebrated St. Francis of Assisi and the other religious devotees of the previous centuries it is now difficult to determine ; certain it is that spiritual expression , rather than natural beauty, was the great aim of this celebrated school, which, without doubt, greatly assisted, by its power and earnestness, the onward Progress of Art, so soon after to reach its highest limits. Among the most remarkable of these painters were the following : Pietro di Benedetto dei Franceschi, called Pietro della Francesca after his mother, Cor Pietro Borghese from his birthplace ), was born at Borgo San Sepolcro about 1415. In early life he received a scientific education, which enabled him to make great improvements in perspective and the effects of light in painting. Pietro first studied art at the age of fifteen under Domenico Veneziano, and in 1439 assisted his master in the church of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence ; in 1450 he worked with him at Loreto; and in 1451 he decorated the church of San Francesco at Rimini by order of Sigismund Malatesta. A fresco by him, now partly destroyed, is still in the Cappella del le Reliquie of that place. In the year 1469 Pietro was the guest of Giovanni Santi at Urbino ( Passavant), when he probably executed the portraits of Federigo da Mon trefelto and Battista Sforza his wife -- now in the Uffizi — and an allegorical picture signed “ Opus Petri de Burgo Sci Sepulchri,” now in the sacristy of the Duomo at Urbino. Afterwards Pietro went to Ferrara and was employed by Duke Borso in the Palace of Schifanoia ; he also went to Rome—when is not exactly known—and painted two frescoes in the Vatican for Nicolas V. which were afterwards destroyed to make room for Raphael's Deliverance of St. Peter and the Mass of Bolsena. It is supposed that one of these destroyed frescoes, the Vision of St. Constantine, suggested to Raphael the remarkable effect of light in his Deliverance of St. Peter. Pietro made great improvements in the art of oil- painting, which were afterwards perfected by Leonardo da Vinci ; and numbered among his pupils Pietro Perugino and Luca Signorelli. He became blind in his old age, according to Vasari ; he was still living in 1509, but the date of his death is not known. The masterpiece of Pietro is the History L 74 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1450 of the Cross in San Francesco at Arezzo. Four pictures by this artist are in the National Gallery. A Portrait ( No. 585 ) , supposed to be of Isotta da Rimini, fourth wife of Sigismondo Malatesta, painted probably in 1451 , formerly in the possession of the Marchese Carlo Guicciardini, of Florence ; purchased from the Lombardi-Baldi Collection. The Baptism of Christ ( No. 665) --this picture is one of the best of this master and proves how thorough was his knowledge of perspective ; it was formerly an altar-piece of the Priory of St. John the Baptist at Borgo San Sepolcro. 1807 it was removed to the sacristy of the Cathedral, whence it was bought by Mr. J. C. Robinson for Mr. Uzielli, at whose sale it was purchased by the trustees. A Portrait of a lady ( No. 758) , said to be a Contessa Palma of Urbino - formerly in “the possession of the Counts Pancrazi in Ascoli, purchased from Signor Egidi in Florence. The most recent acquisition is the Nativity, with Angels adoring ( No. 908) , which is considered to be one of Francesca's masterpieces. Benedetto Bonfiglio was born at Perugia about 1420. His earliest known work is a fresco in the Palazzo del Consiglio at Perugia - representing the Lives of St. Louis of Toulouse and St. Ercolano ; it was commenced in 1454, and was not finished in 1496, in which year Bonfiglio's will is dated . An Adoration of the Kings, painted in 1460, in San Domenico, is one of his best works. Among other pictures by Bonfiglio may be mentioned : a Banner, painted in 1465 for the brotherhood of San Bernardino, which represents the acts of their patron saint, and a Madonna with a dead Christ of the year 1469 in San Pietro de' Cassinensi. Bonfiglio is especially noticeable for the correctness of his perspective , the beauty of his colouring, and his love of detail. According to Lanzi, Perugino was the pupil of this artist , but there is nothing to corroborate this statement. We have no record of Bonfiglio after 1496. Melozzo da Forli was born at Forli in Romagna in June 1438. Little is known of his career. He is supposed to have been a pupil of Pietro della Francesca, and one of his works, the Ascension of Christ, has been attributed to that master. In 1472 he was in Rome and painted for Cardinal Riario, nephew of Sixtus IV. , frescoes of the Ascension of Christ, in the church of the Santi Apostoli ; but on the rebuilding of the church in 1711 , the figure of Christ was cut away, and is now preserved in the Quirinal Palace. About 1475 he painted a fresco - now transferred to canvas-representing the Installation of Platina as prefect of the Vatican Library ; it also contains portraits of four Cardinals, nephews of Sixtus IV. Melozzo is supposed to have painted part of the series of portraits which were in the Palace of Urbino, some of which are now in the Louvre. He was distinguished for his foreshortening, which was especially remarkable in the cupola of the Santi Apostoli ; and was the first to attempt the foreshortening of figures on ceilings . Giovanni Santi, in speaking of him as a friend, praises his perspective : ... Melozzo a me si caro , Che in prospettiva ha stesso tanto il passo ;" and Luca Paccioli numbers him among the then living painters who were “ famosi e supremi ” in perspective. When Pope Sixtus IV. formed the Roman Academy of St. Luke, Melozzo was one of the first to join ; he signed his name “ Melotius Pi. Pa. " ( Melotius Pictor Papalis). His native Forli possesses but one specimen of his art ; it is called Pesta Pepe ( Pound the pepper), and was painted originally for the sign of a grocer's shop ; it is now in the Collegio of that town. He died November 8th, 1494. There are two pictures in the National Gallery by Melozzo—some critics have A.D. 1450. ] UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 75 son ascribed them to Justus Van Ghent, but this has been proved to be incorrect - Rhetoric (No. 755) , a female figure enthroned, with a man kneeling before her. On a frieze above is inscribed ( D) UX URBINI Montis FERITRI AC—Duke of Urbino and Monte feltro ; and Music ( No. 756) , also a female figure enthroned, with a kneeling supplicant before her ; on a frieze above is the inscription IECLESIE CONFALONERIUS (Gonfaloniere of the Church) . These pictures are supposed to be two of seven which were originally in the Palace of Urbino. They were afterwards in the possession of the Principe dei Conti, who sold them to Mr. Spence, from whom they were purchased by the trustees. A third picture of the same series bearing another part of the inscription — that part which was on the walls between Rhetoric and Music — is in the Berlin Gallery. A fourth picture of this series is in the possession of her Majesty the Queen. Giovanni Santi was born about 1435 at Castello di Colbordolo. He was the of a dealer in general wares, and was himself brought up to his father's business. Giovanni was probably induced to study art through his acquaintance with Pietro della Francesca and Melozzo da Forli : the former, as we have already stated, was his guest at Urbino in 1469. When Giovanni was quite a child his family removed to Urbino ; and in 1483 he was living in the Contrada del Monte in that town, in his own house purchased by his father in 1464 — and it was here on the 6th of April in 1483 that his son , the renowned Raphael, was born. Santi's wife, Magia Ciarla, died on the 7th of October, 1491 , leaving only one son, then but eight years old. In 1492 Santi married Bernardina, the daughter of Piero di Parte, a jeweller of Urbino, and on the ist of August, 1494, Santi himself died, and was buried in the church of San Francesco at Urbino. Giovanni Santi was one of the best Umbrian painters of his time, and the father of the greatest artist the world has ever seen. His style is simple and unaffected, and he finished his pictures with great care, but there is an unpleasing coldness about his colouring. His best work is considered to be the Madonna with saints in the church of San Francesco at Urbino, painted for the Buffi family in 1489. Among other of his works may be mentioned an altar- piece, representing the Madonna with saints, in the convent of Montefiorentino, near Urbania ; a Visitation of the Virgin in Santa Maria Nuova, and a Madonna with saints in the hospital church of Santa Croce, the two last being both at Fano, and an Annunciation in the Brera. An altar-piece in the Berlin Gallery, formerly, through a forged signature, ascribed to Santi, has been proved to be by Timoteo della Vite ; the same gallery possesses two more altar- pieces attributed to Santi. A Sebastian and Archers in the Oratory of San Sebastian at Urbino, is one of his best works. The fresco in Santi's own house, for a long time attributed to Raphael, has now been proved to be by the father. A picture ( No. 751 ) in the National Gallery, representing the Madonna and Child , is said to be by Santi ; it was formerly in the collection of Count Mazza at Ferrara, and was purchased from Signor Michelangelo Gualandi, of Bologna. Santi painted in a vehicle which, strictly speaking, was neither tempera nor oil , but a mixture of the two. He was a poet as well as a painter, and left a chronicle in rhyme, entitled Gesta gloriose del Duca Federigo d'Urbino, which is still preserved in the library of the Vatican. Niccolò di Liberatore da Foligno, called, in error, by Vasari, Niccolò Alunno, was a native of Foligno, where he was born about the year 1430. His earliest work still extant, dated 1458, is in the Franciscan church of Deruta, near Perugia. He signed his pictures " Nicolai Fulginatis Opus." A Madonna enthroned, painted in 1465, is in the Brera, Milan. There is an altar -piece representing the Annunciation , dated 1466 , 76 [A.D. 1500. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. in Santa Maria Nuova at Perugia. There are also altar- pieces by him in the Castle of San Severino and in San Francesco at Gualdo. A Pietà , of which fraginents only remain, in the Cathedral of Assisi, was one of his best works. Vasari says of two angels represented as weeping in this Pietà, that their emotion was so naturally expressed that no painter in Italy at that time could have painted them better. In 1499 he painted the altar-piece of Sant' Angelo, in La Bastia, near Perugia. Over a side- altar in the church of San Niccolò at Foligno is a picture of St. Nicholas and the Infant Christ, painted in 1492. It was one of the many paintings which were sent to Paris, and when it went back it was without its predella, which is still in the Louvre. An Exe Homo in the National Gallery ( No. 247) is by this artist ; it was purchased at the sale of M. Joly de Bammeville's Collection. Niccolò died , a rich man , in 1502 ; and was buried in Sant'Agostino, in his native town. Niccolò executed his pictures in tempera, and excelled especially in rendering the expression of the face ; he also painted standards, called Gonfaloni, which were used in religious ceremonies ; there is still a Gonfalone by him in Santa Maria Nuova at Perugia, which bears the following inscription : “ Societas Annunciata fecit fieri hoc opus 1466." He is supposed by Mariotti to have been the master of Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio, and Andrea di Luigi. A very interesting memoir concerning this painter has been written by Professor Adamo Rossi, of Perugia. (See Cornhill Magazine, No. 195. ) Pietro di Vanuccio, called Perugino, was born at Citta della Pieve, near Perugia , in 1446. He went to Florence when very young, and, Vasari says , was so poor, that he slept in a chest for lack of a bed . He studied under Verrocchio, and won such fame, that he was soon in a position to open a school, where the uncles of Raphael, Simone Ciarla and Bartolommeo Santi, brought him the child who was, soon afterwards, to become the glory of his age. Perugino counted also among his disciples Pinturicchio, Il Bacchiata , Lo Spagna, Gerino da Pistoia, and that Andrea Luigi of Assisi, surnamed l'Ingegno, who at eighteen was, according to Vasari, called the rival of Raphael, but who became blind before he had attained the age for great works, or rather, as documentary evidence seems to indicate, who left art for civic employment. Perugino was one of the first painters sent for to Rome by Sixtus IV. , who intrusted him with a part of the paintings to decorate the chapel which bears the name of that pontiff ( the Sistine) . He has left in it one of his largest and most beautiful frescoes, St. Peter receiving the keys. In Florence there is, in the Pitti Palace, a magnificent Entombment; at Rome, in the Museum of the Vatican , a Resurrection, in which he has, it is said , introduced his much loved pupil , while still a youth, under the form of the sleeping soldier, and himself under that of the soldier who is running off in fear ; and at Naples there is, in the Museum degli Studj , an Eternal Father between four cherubim. For a long time the Louvre possessed only a simple sketch by Perugino, the Combat of Chastity and Love, painted in distemper, although dated 1505, -because, ( as Perugino himself says in the letter sent with it, ) a picture by Andrea Mantegna, to which his was to be a pendant, was painted by the same process ; a remarkable proof of the persistent employment of distemper long after the generally spread knowledge of oil-painting. But the Louvre now boasts pictures more worthy of Perugino, a Nativity, a Virgin in Glory worshipped by St. Rosa, St. Catherine, and two Angels, and lastly, a Madonna and Child between St. Joseph and St. Catherine, remarkable for the reverential style, charming grace, and exquisite colour. At Caen , 8 THE MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN. By PERUGINO. In the Museum at Caen . THE NOY YORK TUBULARY A.D. 1500. ] UMBRIAN SCHOOL. 77 in Normandy, there is a Marriage of the Virgin, with a temple in the background, which , it is said, Raphael copied in his celebrated Sposalizio. If however we wish to know Perugino well , out of Italy, we must see his pictures in Germany and in England. And first, there are at Berlin two Madonnas with landscape backgrounds. Notwithstanding the care taken to assign them to Raphael when still in the school of Perugino, there seems no doubt that they are both the work of Perugino himself. At Vienna, at the Belvedere Gallery, Perugino holds the first place in the Roman hall ; his Madonna with Saints, dated 1493 , is one of his largest and most admirable compositions. · It is to be regretted that it should have been cleaned and touched up so often. Munich is still richer than either Vienna or Berlin. It possesses a half-length Madonna standing out from a clear sky ; a Virgin adoring the Infant Saviour, and the Appearance of the Virgin to St. Bernard ; two angels accompany the mother of the Saviour, and two saints are with St. Bernard. These three remarkable works, in perfect preservation, and of large size for easel - pictures by Perugino, attain the utmost excellence of his style, so sweet, so tender, so certain to soften and to charm the beholder. The Appearance of the Virgin to St. Bernard is a surpassingly beautiful picture, and Raphael himself has, in the simple religious style, achieved nothing finer. It is before the paintings of Perugino that we see clearly how much a pupil owes to his master, and that the truth of the saying is verified, that a great genius is only a complete summary of his forerunners and contemporaries. In London, the National Gallery can show with pride the Virgin and Infant Christ with St. John (No. 181 ) , purchased of the late Mr. Beckford ; and a fine picture which Vasari declares to be a chef-d'auvre of the old master of Perugia ; it is a triptych ( No. 288) , painted originally for the Carthusian Convent, near Pavia, purchased from Duke Melzi of Milan : in the centre is the Virgin adoring the Infant Christ ; to the left, the Archangel Michad in full armour ; to the right, the Archangel Raphael holding the young Tobias by the hand. (A study, supposed to be by Raphael, for this portion of the triptych, is now in the Randolph Gallery at Oxford .) Vasari is right ; it would be difficult to find in all the works of Perugino anything superior to this. It is in perfect preservation , and unites in itself every kind of beauty. Several parts of this triple picture - for example, the young Tobias, or the group of the Madonna and Child — resemble the earliest works of Raphael to such a degree that many have supposed that the master must have been helped by the pupil, who would be thus in part the painter of this masterpiece. It is however probable that this picture belongs to a more advanced period of his life, when Perugino, who survived his pupil four years, might have profited by example, and improved his primitive style under the influence of Raphael. Vanuccio would thus have ceased to be the master of Raphael, and have become his disciple. This mutual help, this mutual teaching, producing a reaction in style , is often seen in the history of art ; and at the same time the same phenomenon-if we may so call it—was taking place at Venice between Bellini and Giorgione. In the South Kensington Museum, on the south- east staircase , is a fresco by Perugino - which has been transferred to canvas -- representing the Adoration of the Shepherds. It was originally painted for the church at Fontignano. Perugino died , wealthy and much honoured, at Castello di Fontignano, in 1524. Andrea di Luigi or Aloisi, called L'Ingegno, was born at Assisi, but the date of his birth is not known. He is supposed to have been a pupil of Perugino, and to have studied under Niccolò Alunno, but nothing is known of his life with any certainty. 78 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1500. Vasari says that at eighteen he was a rival of Raphael, and that he afterwards became blind. A Madonna and Child ( No. 702) in the National Gallery, attributed to him , formerly in the Wallerstein Collection, was presented to the trustees by Her Majesty the Queen. Bernardino di Betto, the son of Benedetto Biagio-called Pinturicchio ( the little painter) from the smallness of his stature , also il Sordichio , from his deafness - was born at Perugia in 1454. He was an assistant , and probably also the pupil, of Pietro Perugino, under whom he worked in the Sistine Chapel. Amongst his earliest paintings may be mentioned some frescoes in Santa Maria del Popolo, executed for Cardinal della Rovere. He was employed by Innocent VIII. to paint frescoes in the Castle of Sant' Angelo, and the walls in the Belvedere (now known as the Museo Clementino), and by Alexander VI. to decorate the Appartamento Borgia in the Vatican. Pinturic chio also painted frescoes representing the Life of St. Bernard of Siena in the Cappella Bufalini in Santa Maria Ara-celi. While at Rome he was called to Orvieto, in 1491 , to decorate the Cathedral of that town , but of the works which he then executed only much- damaged fragments remain . In 1496 Bernardino went from Rome to Perugia. The first work he executed there was an altar- piece painted for Santa Anna, now in the Accademia : another specimen of his art is the Madonna and Child in the Sacristy of the Duomo Nuovo at San Severino. In 1500-1501 Pinturicchio painted frescoes, representing the Annunciation of the Virgin and Christ disputing with the Doctors, in the col legiate church at Spello. He next painted ten subjects from the Life of Enea Silvio Piccolomini ( afterwards Pius II .) — his best and most famous work—in the library of the Cathedral of Siena. In these frescoes he is supposed to have received assistance from Raphael in the general design and the outline ; this work occupied him, with various interruptions, from 1502 till 1507 . The last known work by this master is the Christ bearing the Cross, in the Casa Borromeo at Milan, painted in 1513 ; on December the 11th of which year Pinturicchio died of starvation and neglect, deserted in his illness, it is said, by his infamous wife Grania. Among his panel-pictures may be mentioned the Assumption of the Virgin, in the gallery of the Studj at Naples ; and two pictures in the National Gallery : St. Catherine of Alexander ( No. 693) , bequeathed by Lieut.-General Sir W. Moore ; and the Madonna and Child ( No. 703)—formerly in the Wallerstein Collection presented by her Majesty the Queen. Pinturicchio was a very prolific artist, and left many works, all executed in the old - fashioned tempera, for he never mastered the art of oil- painting. He was fond of landscape backgrounds, but they are overcrowded, and his paintings are loaded with too much gilding and architectural ornamentation to be in good taste ; with all these faults, he was one of the best masters of the Umbrian School. Marco Palmezzano was born at Forli in 1456 ( ?) . He was a pupil of Melozzo da Forli, and surpassed him , it is said , in perspective and foreshortening. He occasionally signed his pictures Marcus de Melotius, from which fact many of his works have been mistaken for those of his master. His paintings have a dry and architectural look, chiefly owing to his study of geometry and architecture. Frescoes by him are in the chapel of San Biagio in San Girolamo at Forli, and some in the Cappella del Tesoro in the cathedral of Loreto are also attributed to him . His masterpiece is an altar- piece finished in 1500, representing the Virgin and Child enthroned , in the chapel of the Orfanotrofio delle Femmine at Faenza. Forli possesses many of his works both in its A.D. 1525. ] UMBRIAN SCHOOL 79 . In churches and in the Pinacoteca, where his portrait by himself is still preserved . It is signed and dated 1536, and represents an old , though robust , man. It is supposed that he died in 1537. Paintings by Palmezzano are in many European galleries. Fiorenzo di Lorenzo is believed to have been a native of Perugia ; but little is known of his life, and his works are rare. It is supposed that he studied under Bonfiglio. He painted somewhat after the style of the Paduan school. Two pictures , St. Peter and St. Paul, signed and dated 1487 , are still in good preservation in the Sacristy of San Francesco de' Conventuali at Perugia. A Madonna with Angels is in the Palazzo del Consiglio. There is also a fresco in San Francesco at Deruta, dated 1475 , ascribed to this artist. No record of this painter has been found later than 1499. Giovanni di Pietro, called Lo Spagna, because he was of Spanish birth , was, next to Raphael, Perugino's greatest pupil. There is no record of his birth , but it is certain that he had settled as a painter at Todi in 1507 , in which year he painted a Coro nation of the Virgin for the church of the Riformati in that city ; he also painted a Nativity for the convent of Todi, which is now in the Vatican. In 1516 he removed to Spoleto , the citizenship of which town was conferred on him in the same year. 1516, too, he painted his masterpiece the Madonna enthroned, now in the chapel of Santo Stefano in the lower church of San Francesco at Assisi . He also painted at Spoleto a Madonna with saints in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. In 1517 he was elected head of the Society of Painters in that town - Capitano dell' Arte dei Pittori. He painted frescoes illustrating the Life of San Jacopo in the church to that Saint between Spoleto and Foligno. Lo Spagna died in 1533. In the National Gallery are two pictures by this artist : the Glorification of the Virgin ( No. 282 ) , formerly in the Ercolani Collection at Bologna ; and an Ecce Homo ( No. 691 ) , bequeathed by Lieut. - Gen. Sir W. Moore. In the earlier part of his life Lo Spagna adopted the style of his master Perugino, but afterwards imitated closely the works of his fellow -pupil Raphael, so closely that various works by his hand have been ascribed to the great artist : among these Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle include the altar-piece called the Ancajani Raphael in the Berlin Museum . Domenico di Paris Alfani, who was born at Perugia in 1483 , was a pupil of Perugino. His earliest known picture representing the Madonna and Child, with SS. Gregory and Nicholas, is in the Collegio Gregoriano at Perugia, it is dated 1518. In 1521 he painted an altar- piece in the Cathedral of Citta della Pieve. In 1553 Domenico painted, in conjunction with his son Orazio, a Crucifixion for San Francesco at Perugia. Father and son were so much in the habit of painting in conjunction, that it is difficult to ascertain, with any certainty, the authorship of works ascribed to both. One of the best of the disputed ones is a Holy Family in the tribune of the Uffizi. Domenico was a great admirer of Raphael. It is believed that he died in 1553. Orazio di Paris Alfani, son of the above-mentioned Domenico, was born at Perugia in 1510. His renown was greater than that of his father, in conjunction with whom, as we have before stated, he frequently worked. There are many paintings by this artist in Perugia, both in the gallery and in the churches. A Marriage of St. Catherine in the Louvre ( No. 26) , dated 1548, is attributed to him . Orazio is celebrated as having been the first president of the Academy of Perugia , which was founded in 1573. He died at Rome in 1583. 80 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS A.D. 1400. .

CHAPTER VII.VENETIAN SCHOOL.- FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

Α ' FTER the general glance that we have taken in the preceding chapters , at the origin of painting in Italy till the time of the Renaissance, and the formation of the different schools, we shall not have to go back very far in the history of the one of which we are now treating. We have already spoken of the old mosaicists of the eleventh and twelfth centuries who succeeded in turning Venice into an oriental and Byzantine town. It will be sufficient now to mention a few of the more important artists who helped to form the school of Venice in the fifteenth century. Niccold Semitecolo may be called the first painter of the early Venetian School, whose works are known to us. There is a large altar-piece in the Venetian Academy by him , signed and dated 1351. It represents scenes from the Life of the Virgin. Another altar-piece representing the Life of St. Sebastian, dated 1367 , is in the Chapter House of the Padua Cathedral. Semitecolo was living in 1400. His style of painting bore no trace of the after - glory of the Venetian School. Gentile di Niccolò di Giovanni Massi, known as Gentile da Fabriano, was born at Fabriano in the Marc of Ancona about 1370--probably a little earlier. His father instructed him in physical and mathematical sciences, and then placed him under Allegretto di Nuzio to study painting. Gentile executed many frescoes in Gubbio, Orvieto, Florence and Siena. In 1423 he painted a Madonna for the Cathedral of Orvieto, and in the register of that Cathedral he is called— “ Egregius Magister Magistrorum .” In the same year he painted at Florence an Adoration of the Kings, for the Sacristy of Santa Trinità , which is now in the Academy of that city. But his master- piece, according to Vasari, with the exception of two fragments — repre senting four saints—is now lost ; it was painted in 1425, and was an altar-piece of the Virgin in the church of San Niccolò at the gate of San Miniato ; the fragments are still in that church . Gentile was much renowned for his painting both at Venice and Rome. The Senate of the former city presented him with the patrician toga, and he received also a pension for life for his painting in the council-chamber, the Victory of the Venetians over the fleet of Barbarossa in 1177. This work perished in the sixteenth century through neglect. At Rome he painted frescoes from the Life of John the Baptist in San Giovanni in Laterano, and a fresco of the Madonna and Child in Santa Maria Nuova ; these works have also perished. It was the fresco in Santa A.D. 1450. ] VENETIAN SCHOOL. 81 66 Maria Nuova which caused Michelangelo to say aveva la mano simile al nome.” Gentile was one of the best artists of his time, and his painting was especially to be admired for its colouring and execution . He was exceedingly fond of the use of gold in his paintings. Gentile's most famous scholar was Jacopo Bellini, to whose son he stood godfather. He left writings on art matters, but it is believed that they have perished. Gentile died about the year 1450 at Rome, and was buried in Santa Francesca. Jacopo Bellini was born at Venice about 1405. He was a pupil of Gentile da Fabriano, whom he accompanied to Florence in 1422 ; and who, as we have already stated , stood godfather to his first child . Though an excellent painter, Jacopo is chiefly known as the father of the renowned Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, and as the father- in - law of the celebrated Mantegna. Only two- much -much injured — panel-pictures by Jacopo remain to us. They both represent the Madonna and Child ; one is in the collection of Count Tadini at Lovere, the other is in the Accademia at Venice ( No. 443) . There are frescoes by him still extant in Verona ; he also worked for some time at Padua. Jacopo excelled in portrait-painting, and among those who sat to him we may mention Lusignano, king of Cyprus, and the Doge Cornaro, Jacopo's fame as an artist rests chiefly on his sketch -book, which is now in the British Museum . It is signed and dated “ Venice 1480 ," and contains specimens of every thing that one could suggest as being useful to a painter, from the minutest object of still life to the grand and majestic study of the human frame. In this sketch- book are many subjects from the Old and New Testament, intermingled with studies of mytho logy and scenes from country-life : they are executed with the pencil and tinted with terra virde, but unfortunately are very imperfect. Jacopo Bellini died about 1470. Michael Giambono was born at Venice about the beginning of the fifteenth century. An altar -piece representing Christ and four Saints is now in the Venetian Academy. He also executed mosaics in the Cappella de' Mascoli in St. Mark’s, Venice, repre senting the Life of the Virgin . Giambono's painting was remarkable for its depth and softness of colouring. He died about 1450. Antonello degli Antonj, called Antonello da Messina, who was born at Messina about 1414, is chiefly famous as having been the first to introduce the method of oil-painting into Italy. His father Salvadore, who was also a painter, after instructing him for some time in his art, sent him to Rome to complete his studies : thence he went to Palermo, and then returned to Messina. After a short stay in his native town, Antonello went to Naples, where he saw the Adoration of the Magi by Jan Van Eyck (now lost) , which had been sent to Alphonso V. , King of Naples, about the year 1442. This picture produced such an impression on Antonello that, abandoning every other thought , he set out for Flanders. Vasari relates that he there cultivated the friendship of Giovanni da Bruggia, which has been usually taken as meaning Jan Van Eyck ; but this is not possible, for Van Eyck died in 1441 —a year before Antonello saw the Adoration of the Magi at Naples. Mr. Weale, of Bruges, has suggested that as Hans Memling — who did not die until 1499-—was also known as Giovanni da Bruggia, Vasari might have referred to him . Anyhow, it is certain that Antonello did learn the secret of oil-painting in Flanders. After a short stay in that country, where he acquired the habit of excessive finish and minute attention to detail, he returned to Messina. In the year 1473 he removed to Venice, where he eventually died about 1496. M 82 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1450

That Antonello imparted to Domenico Veneziano the secret of oil-painting has been doubted. Among the best- known pictures of Antonello we may mention : the Salvator Mundi ( No. 673) in the National Gallery, signed and dated 1465 - purchased at Genoa of Cavaliere Isola ; a Portrait in the possession of the Duke of Hamilton, dated 1474 ; ' a Portrait in the Louvre, dated 1475 ; a Crucifixion , in the Ertborn Gallery, Antwerp, also 1474 ; a Portrait in the Berlin Museum ; a Triptych, in San Gregorio at Messina, dated 1473, probably the last picture which the artist painted in that town ; and a Dead Christ, in the Belvedere, Vienna. Antonello's painting was a curious blending of the styles of Italy and Flanders ; generally speaking, his portraits were far superior to his religious subjects.

Gentile Bellini, born at Venice in 1421 , was a solitary painter, a traveller, who, strictly speaking, had no pupils, and who did not make art his profession. He even limited himself to anecdotal painting, a kind for which his travels afforded him ample material . It is known that he passed several years of his life at Constantinople, whither, in spite of the curse of the Prophet against every image of a living person, he had been called after the conquest by Mahomet II . , who employed him in numerous works. It was to him, it is said , that the alarming adventure occurred, to see a slave decapitated at the order of the sultan, who wished to show the painter, from nature, the movement of the muscles of the neck. There is, at the Louvre, a most curious work by Gentile Bellini , the Reception of a Venetian Ambassador at Constantinople, which represents, with scrupulous fidelity and remarkable talent, the scenes, costumes , and manners, in the new capital of the Ottomans. Two composi tions of the same kind have also been secured by the museum at Venice. These are of two miracles, in which, by means of the relics of the Holy Cross, he had been preserved during the course of his life ; the one on the Square of St. Mark, the other on the Great Canal. Gentile was very old when he painted them, yet they are as interesting for the manner in which they are executed as for their subject. They are still true pages ofhistory, and serve as records of his time. Gentile Bellini died in 1507 . Giovanni Bellini, the true founder of the Venetian School, was born at Venice in 1426. He had received his lessons from his father, Jacopo Bellini, a disciple of old Gentile da Fabriano, surnamed Magister magistrorum ; but, according to Borghini and Ridolfi, by obtaining admittance, under the disguise of a patrician, to the studio of Antonello of Messina, who had then returned from Flanders, and by seeing him prepare his colour, he discovered the secret of oil - painting. Giovanni Bellini was in his youth the master of Carpaccio and Cima, who both retained his earliest style ; afterwards in his maturity, the great Venetians, Giorgione, Titian, and Tintoretto were his pupils. His painting is correct and highly finished. His marvellous patience in the representation of the smallest objects strikes one as much as the purity of his taste and his appreciation of the beautiful. A great colourist also, though somewhat timid , Bellini is in this point the leader of the school which followed him ; and when in his old age he saw the beautiful effects of chiaroscuro produced by Giorgione, he learnt himself to give more warmth to his style and greater breadth to his pencil. He became the pupil of his pupil in the same way that Perugino was of Raphael. At first natural and simple like his predecessors, Bellini's style afterwards became more skilful and bold like that of his successors. There is nothing belonging to him at the Louvre, not even his portrait, because the two young men placed opposite each other in the same frame, which are assumed to be A.D. 1450 ) VENETIAN SCHOOL. 83 the Portraits of the Bellini, taken by the younger, are evidently wrongly named . The youthfulness of the portraits is in manifest contradiction to the style and touch which would belong to the old age of the painter. Venice, happily, has collected several of the most beautiful works of ellini. Besides a good many pictures which have remained in the churches and are for the greater part much defaced , the Academy of Fine Arts possesses five. All are Glorified Madonnas. One is called the Madonna with four Saints, another the Madonna with six Saints, like that of Cima da Conegliano. There, amidst five Christian saints, we see the old patriarch Job , —the painting having been originally executed for the now suppressed church of San Giobbe. It is a magnificent composition , worthy, from its noble style and beautiful execution , to be placed in the first rank of Bellini's works. " It is remarkable , ” M. Charles Blanc says, " that in spite of the rich , intense, and varied colouring of this picture , it yet appeals to our heart rather than to our eye. Its soft murmur soothes us in the midst of the uproar of the Venetian school.” Bellini has painted none but religious pictures ; indeed, almost exclusively Madonnas, -from the one who holds the Child to her bosom, to that in which she bears on her knee the body of her dead Son, and at last shares in heaven the glory of the three persons in the Holy Trinity. One of these Madonnas is possessed by the museum of Leipsic. The Studj of Naples, however, can boast of a Transfiguration, which is an exceilent as well as curious painting. This Transfiguration, in imitation of Giotto, only represents the principal episode, Jesus between Moses and Elias, rising above the group of apostles. But it gave to Raphael the idea of treating the same subject in vaster proportions, adding the people at the foot of the mountain, the child possessed with a devil, and all the details given in the gospel of Saint Matthew . In the National Gallery there are five authentic pictures by Giovanni Bellini : a Portrait of the Doge Leonardo Loredano ( No. 189) ; in it the physical decrepitude, the strong mental intelligence and inexorable obstinacy, of the founder of the State- inquisition are admirably depicted ; it was formerly in the Grimani Palace at Venice, eventually passed into the possession of Mr. Beckford, from whom it was purchased by the trustees ; a Madonna and Child ( No. 280) , purchased from Baron Galvagna ; Christ's Agony in the Garden ( No. 726) , purchased at the Davenport- Bromley sale ; St. Peter Martyr ( No. 808), purchased at Milan from Signor Giuseppe Baslini ; and the Death of St. Peter Martyr ( No. 812) , presented by Lady Eastlake. A St. Jerome in his study ( No. 694) , in the National Gallery, purchased from the Manfrini Gallery, Venice, is also attributed to Giovanni Bellini . The portrait of a young girl combing her hair before a mirror, by Bellini, bearing the signature “ Johannes Bellinus faciebat, moxv, " in the Belvedere at Vienna, is valuable for the rarity of its subject. Giovanni lived to an old age almost as astonishing as that of Titian ; he died in 1516. Giovanni da Murano (one of the Venetian Isles) , also called Alamannus, is supposed, from the latter name, to have been a German. He worked in conjunction with Antonio da Murano of the Vivarini family. They executed two pictures now in the Academy at Venice ; a Coronation of the Virgin, signed and dated “ Johannes et Antonius de Muriano, 1440 ;" and a Madonna and Child enthroned, signed and dated “ Gio de Alemagna e Antonio da Murano, 1446." Several pictures by them are still in the Chapel of San Zaccaria at Venice. Alamannus painted from 1440 till 1447 , after which year nothing is recorded of him . 84 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1450. Antonio, of the family of the Vivarini, called Antonio da Murano, a pupil of Gentile da Fabriano, worked afterwards in company with Giovannida Murano, called Alamannus. They executed jointly two works in the Venetian Academy and paintings in the Cap pella San Zaccaria, at Venice. Antonio executed alone a picture representing SS. Peter and Jerome, now in the National Gallery ( No. 768) , formerly in the Zambeccari Gallery, Bologna ; purchased from Sir Charles Eastlake's Collection. After the death of Alamannus, Antonio was joined by his younger brother Bartolommeo Vivarini in 1450. Antonio was known to have been living in 1470. Bartolommeo Vivarini, also called Bartolommeo da Murano, joined his elder brother Antonio, as we have already stated , in 1450, in which year they executed the celebrated altar-piece now in the Bologna Academy. Bartolommeo is said to have painted the first oil-painting executed in Venice ; it represents St. Augustine enthronel, and is now in the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo ; it is dated 1473 , in which year, it is said, Antonello came to Venice and imparted the secret which he had acquired in Flanders ( see life of Antonello ). A Virgin with the Child in her arms, by Bartolommeo, is in the National Gallery ( No. 284) . It is signed “ Opus Bartolomei Vivarini de Murano ;" it was originally in the Contarini Gallery, and was purchased at Venice from Conte Bernardino Carniani degl' Algarotti. The dates on Bartolommeo's pictures extend as late as 1499. There is an altar-piece by him in the Naples Gallery, and several works in various churches of Venice. Luigi Vivarini was a younger member of the same family as Bartolommeo and Antonio Vivarini. It was supposed formerly that there were two painters of the name of Luigi ; this supposition arose from the large space of time over which the dates appended to the signature extended. But the earliest date, 1414, has been, by many critics, declared to be a later addition and an error. Among the various pictures by Luigi, we may mention, a Madonna enthroned, in the Berlin Gallery, St. John the Baptist and Virgin and Child enthroned, and other paintings in the Venetian Academy. He is recorded to have painted in the Sala del Gran Consiglio, but the pictures which he executed there perished by fire in 1577. Luigi Vivarini commenced an altar -piece , representing the Enthronement of St. Ambrose, for the church of the Frati at Venice, but died before its completion. It was afterwards finished by his pupil Marco Basaiti. Carlo Crivelli was born at Venice in the beginning of the fifteenth century, and is said to have studied under Jacobello del Fiore, an early Venetian painter of whom little is known. The earliest date on any picture by Crivelli -- 1468 —-is on an altar piece in the church of San Silvestro at Massa, between Macerata and Fermo (Mr. Wornum ). In 1490, Crivelli received the honour of knighthood from Ferdinand II . of Naples, after which date he appends “ Miles ” to his signature. Among other of his pictures may be mentioned two altar-pieces, one in the Cathedral, and the other in San Domenico at Ascoli where he chiefly resided ; various works in the Brera, and also in Earl Dudley's collection , and a Pietà dated 1493, in the Oggione collection , Milan--- this is one of Crivelli's best works, and is also the best known painting by his hand . In the National Gallery there are six works by this artist. The Dead Christ ( No. 602), formerly in the Church of the Frati Conventuali Riformati at Monte Fiorę near Fermo, purchased at Rome, from Cavaliere Vallati ; the Beato Ferretti ( No. 668 ) , purchased from Mr. A. Barker ; the Marlonna and Child enthroned , with SS. Jerome and Sebastian (No. 724 ) , formerly in the church of the Franciscans at Matelica, purchased from Conte Luigi de Sanctis. The Annunciation ( No. 739) , originally A.D. 1500. ] VENETIAN SCHOOL. 85 in the convent of the Santissima Annunziata at Ascoli, presented to the National Gallery by Lord Taunton ; the Madonna and Child enthroned with saints ( No. 788) , an altar - piece in thirteen compartments, purchased at Paris from Mr. G. H. Phillips; and the Madonna and Child enthroned, with SS. Francis and Sebastian ( No. 807) ; presented by the widow of the second Marquis of Westminster. In the South Kensington Museum , on the south -east staircase , there is a Canonized Cardinal and St. Catherine, by Crivelli , bought from the Soulages Collection. Crivelli's painting, though somewhat hard , is especially remarkable for the beauty of its colouring He was very fond of introducing fruit and flowers, and even animals into his pictures , which were always painted in tempera. A relation of his, Vittore Crivelli, was a very second - rate artist. Carlo Crivelli died at Florence in 1537. Marco Basaiti was born in Friuli- according to some writers, of Greek parentagein the middle of the fifteenth century. He appears to have been an assistant of Luigi Vivarini, whose unfinished altar- piece in the church of the Frati at Venice he com pleted . Among Basaiti’s best works we may mention : a Dead Christ with two Saints, the Calling of SS. Peter and Andrew , and the Agony in the Garden, which is considered his masterpiece, all in the Venetian Academy; a Calling of SS. James and John, dated 1575 , in the Belvedere, Vienna, and two pictures in the National Gallery, St. Jerome reading ( No. 281 ) , purchased from M. Marcovich in Venice, and the Infant Christ asleep on the lap of the Virgin ( No. 599) , purchased in Florence of Signor Achille Farina. Marco Basaiti was a fine colourist, and succeeded better than his contemporaries in blending his figures with the landscape backgrounds of his pictures. The dates of his paintings range from 1470 till 1520. Vittore Carpaccio was born at Venice (? ) about 1450. He appears to have been the disciple of Luigi Vivarini, and reminds us, by his simple grace, his delicate touch , and his poetic feeling , both of Fra Angelico of the Italians, and of Memling of the Flemings. He is not well known except in his own country, to which he seems to have bequeathed all his works. Amongst these are nine great pictures which depict the legend of St. Ursula and her Companions, from the arrival of the ambassadors of the King of England to demand for his son the hand of the young and noble maiden of Cologne, to the apotheosis of the eleven thousand virgins. There is ' plenty of imagination in this painting, and also clearness and order. Another is on the legend of the Execution of ten thousand Martyrs crucified on Mount Ararat, Carpaccio we may see was not afraid to handle vast subjects or to introduce his personages by thousands. Lastly, there is a Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, in which the old Simeon is singing his canticle between two cardinals. This is a work full of both grace and vigour : and, but for some stiffness of outline, would deserve to be compared with the most beautiful works of the school. In the Belvedere at Vienna is a fine work, Christ adored by Angels, signed, and dated 1496. In the National Gallery there is a Madonna and Child with saints ( No. 750) , a votive picture, painted for the Doge Giovanni Mocenigo, on the occasion of the plague, in 1478 ; purchased from one of the Doge's successors. Carpaccio died about 1525. Giambattista Cima da Conegliano was born at Conegliano, near Treviso, in the latter half of the fifteenth century. Referring to the name of his native town, he used to put a rabbit ( coniglio) in some corner of his paintings. It was his signature, as Garofalo's was a gilliflower. A sense of youthful freshness in his compositions, an almost childish symmetry, a studied correctness of drawing, a natural nobility in his heads ( too small, 86 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1500. on however, generally for the length of the body), have given him the name of the Masaccio of Venetian art. A glorified Virgin called the Madonna with six Saints, a representation of the legend of St. Thomas touching the Sick , are still at Venice, to testify to his merits. But they may be recognized even at the Louvre in another picture of the Virgin, to whom Mary Magdalen is offering a vase of perfume. The rocky landscape which forms the background is a view of the country of Conegliano. There are three pictures by him in the National Gallery : a Virgin and Child (No.300) ; a Madonna ( No. 634) ; and the Incredulity of St. Thomas ( No. 816 ). Marco Marziale was a native of Florence ; the year of his birth is unknown. It is believed that he was a pupil of Giovanni Bellini, as he assisted that artist in the decora tion of the great Council Hall at Venice in 1492 , for which he received payment at the rate of twenty- four ducats per annum . This artist was one of the painters of Venice who Albrecht Dürer said copied his style. Among Marziale's pictures may be mentioned : the Supper at Emmaus, signed and dated 1506, in the Venetian Academy ; a painting representing the same subject, in the Berlin Gallery, signed and dated " Marcus, March. Venetus pinxit, MDVII. ; ” and two in the National Gallery : the Circumcision of the Lord ( No. 803) —this picture is signed and dated 1500, and bears the “ Nunc dimittis ” inscribed on the arches of the chapel — it was painted for Signor Tommaso Raimondi, and placed in San Silvestro, Cremona, and was purchased for the National Gallery from Signor Giuseppe Baslini, of Milan ; and the Madonna and Child enthroneit with Saints ( No. 804) , signed and dated “ Marcus Marcialis, Venetus P. MOVII. ; ” this was formerly in San Gallo, Cremona, and was also purchased of Signor Baslini. The dates Marziale's known pictures extend from 1499 to 1507 , but, as we have mentioned above, it is certain that he painted as early as 1492. The date of his death is not known. Giorgio Barbarelli, called , from his handsome stature, Giorgione, was born near Castelfranco in 1477 . He was a fellow -pupil of Titian with Giovanni Bellini, and quickly earned great reputation. By showing the secret of thick layers of colouring, by throwing out bright lights by means of deep shadows, bright, in short, by all the most skilful and wonderful effects of chiaroscuro, Giorgione led the whole Venetian school into the worship of colour. He became, as we have before said, the master of his master ; he was also the master of his fellow -students. Titian, among others, only surpassed him because he outlived him by more than sixty years. It was of Giorgione that the President de Brosses said with justice and truth , “ I should place him as a colourist in the same rank with Michelangelo as a designer.” As he died so young, and had employed himself principally in painting frescocs, either for the palace of the Doges or for the façades of edifices since destroyed (amongst others the Chamber of Commerce, called Fondaco de Tedeschi), Giorgione has left but few works of the easel that can be strictly termed pictures. The churches and convents of Venice, so numerous and so rich in works of art , do not possess a single painting, neither does the ducal palace. The Academy of Fine Arts has only succeeded in obtaining one composition, St. Mark stilling the Tempest, and only one portrait, that of an unknown nobleman . In his own city we can best become acquainted with Giorgione at the Manfrini palace, which possesses the picture called the three portraits, so justly celebrated by Lord Byron. Florence has fared better. The Uffizi has inherited a Moses, a Judgment of Solomon, and a Mystical Allegory, as well as the portraits of a K’night of Malta, and of Erasmo da Narni, better known as A.D. 1500 ] VENETIAN SCHOOL. 87 Gattamelata, both of marvellous beauty and vigour. The Pitti Palace also proudly displays a Moses saved from the water, a Nymph pursued by a Satyr, and a Musical Concert, a favourite subject of this master, who was an excellent musician, and sought after by the Venetian nobility both as a singer and lute -player. But, in truth , perhaps Giorgione is seen to greater advantage out of Italy than even at Venice or Florence itself. In Spain, for instance, he can be much better understood and admired. His picture of David killing Goliath, which is now in the Museo del Rey, exhibits that boldness and ease so entirely Venetian , of which he had given the first example. But all the qualities of this great master are still more brilliantly shown in a picture brought from the Escurial , to which we can give no other name than a Family Portrait. In front of a gentleman in complete armour, who seems, like Hector, to be setting out for the war, a lady, a second Andromache, tears herself from the caresses of a young Astyanax, to replace him in the arms of her This is the whole subject of the picture, and the half -length figures are of unknown persons. But, in its way, it delights and at the same time saddens us ; for in this magnificent work, the last expression of the artist's genius, we read what Giorgione might have become, and to what height his glory might have reached, if he had had the time to be as fertile as he was bold and powerful. There are only two specimens of his best style in the Louvre : one is of a subject in which he took interest, because he was not less celebrated for his musical talents and amiable disposition than for his great genius as a painter—it is called A Rural Concert; the other is a superb Holy Family, called a St. Sebastian, because the centre group is placed between this young martyr and a St. Catherine. These two pictures came, after passing through the galleries of the dukes of Mantua and of Charles I. , by Jabach and Mazarin, to the cabinet of Louis XIV. Although they cannot be placed in the first rank of Giorgione's works, they yet present fine examples of those skilful contrasts, that happy blending ofdetail in the general effect, that deli cacy of tint, and that powerful colouring, of which Giorgione had the honour of first exhibiting a perfect model. In German galleries are to be found a few of those rare works in which Giorgione has carried to its extreme limits the knowledge and power of chiaro scuro. One of the best is in the rich gallery at Dresden, the Meeting of Jacob and Rachel, in the midst of their servants and flocks. The Belvedere at Vienna, with the excellent portrait of a Knight in armour, the Young Man crowned with vine- leaves, who is accosted by a bandit, and the David carrying the sword of Goliath, also possesses the picture known by the name of the Three Surveyors, who are, rather, three astrologers ; this is a noble and spirited composition, possessing the additional merit of an excellent landscape, quite a rarity then, and, indeed , almost a novelty in Italy. Munich possesses the splendid Portrait of the Painter by himself. In the National Gallery are two pictures by Giorgione : the Death of St. Peter Martyr (No. 41), formerly in the possession of Christina , Queen of Sweden -- it subsequently passed into the possession of the Rev. W. H. Carr, who bequeathed it to the National Gallery ; and a Knight in Armour ( No. 269), formerly in the collection of Benjamin West, P.R.A. ; bequeathed to the Gallery in 1855. Giorgione has a large head, full of strength and energy ; an open , noble, and intelligent face, and looking at this excellent likeness of a man so richly gifted, one can hardly forgive the fickle beauty whose desertion , it is said , killed the great artist in the prime of life . Giorgione died at Venice in 1511 . 88 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS | A.D. 1450. .

CHAPTER VIII .LEONARDO DA VINCI AND HIS SCHOOL.

T TOWARDS the latter end of the fifteenth century , there rose up , in various parts of Europe, as if by magic, a succession of painters who have been well called the DIVINITIES OF ART. In truth , after two or three centuries of earnest rivalry, Art had nearly reached its perfection , and men of the highest genius were found among her ranks.. In a succeeding chapter we shall say more of this, the most important epoch in the History of Painting ; but the master of whom we must first speak came into the world and made his fame a little sooner than the rest. Leonardo da Vinci, the natural son of Piero, a notary of Florence, was born at Vinci in the Val d'Arno, below Florence, in 1452. He was placed in his youth with Andrea Verocchio, who, when he saw the immense superiority of his pupil's painting in comparison with his own, abandoned the art in disgust , and directed his attention to sculpture. The first original picture by Leonardo, mentioned by Vasari ( no longer in existence ), was the Rotella del Fico, so called because it was painted on a round board of fig -tree. The young artist collected every description of reptile that he could lay his hand upon , and mingling these together, produced a creature so hideous and fierce, as to defy description. The father, who had requested his son to paint this for one of his tenants, was so struck with its power, that he took it to Florence and sold it to a picture -dealer for a hundred ducats, purchasing in its place a cheap picture, which he sent to his tenant. The Roteiia del Fico was afterwards sold to the Duke of Milan for three hundred ducats. Besides being an excellent painter, Leonardo was equally well educated in sculpture, architecture, engineering, mechanics, and mathematics ; he was also a poet and a performer on the lyre. He was especially proud ofhis engineering and mechanical knowledge, as may be seen by reading the letter-still preserved in the Ambrosian Library, Milan—which he addressed to Lodovico il Moro, Duke of Milan, when seeking employment in his service. We give a few extracts : “ I can make bombs most convenient and portable, which shall cause great confusion and loss to the enemy .... indeed I can construct fit machines of offence for any emergency whatever .... I can make vessels that shall be bomb-proof. In time of peace I think I can as well as any other make designs of buildings for public or private purposes .... I will also undertake any work in sculpture, in marble, in bronze, or in terra-cotta : likewise in painting I can do what can be done as well as any man , be he who he may.” offers, if the Duke doubts the practicability of the execution of any of his proposi He then A.D. 1500. ] LEONARDO DA VINCI AND HIS SCHOOL. 89 tions, to make experiments in proof of his statements. Leonardo entered the Duke's service at Milan about 1483, where he founded , in 1485 , under his patron's superinten dence, an academy of arts, and executed various works, including portraits of Cecilia Gallerani and Lucrezia Crivelli, favourites of the Duke, and the model for the bronze equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza, which was afterwards destroyed. Leonardo accompanied Duke Lodovico when he went to meet Charles VIII. at Pavia, where he made the acquaintance of Marc Antonio della Torre ; returning with the In 1494, LA VIERGE AUX ROCHERS, -BY LEONARDO DA VINCI. In the Louvre. Duke to Milan he executed many important works, among others , the celebrated Last Supper. In 1499 he left Milan and returned to Florence, enraged at the barbarous conduct of the soldiers of Louis XII. of France, who destroyed many of his works, including the model of his statue of Sforza , which they converted into a target for their arrows. In Florence he was welcomed by the Gonfaloniere Soderini, who caused him to be enrolled in the list of artists employed by the Government, and to receive a yearly salary of 180 gold florins. The first important work which he executed in this city was the cartoon of St. Anna and the Virgin for the church of the Annunziata -- N 90 [ A.D. 1500 . ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. that picture which Francis I. in vain requested him to colour, after he had had it removed to France, and which is now in the Royal Academy, London. In 1502 , Cesare Borgia, the Captain-general of the Pope's army, made Leonardo his architect and chief engineer, which appointment caused him to visit in that year several places in the Roman State. He revisited Milan in 1507 , and again in 1512 , when he painted two portraits of Duke Maximilian, the son of his late patron. Quitting that town in 1514, he went in the train of Duke Giuliano de' Medici to Rome, where, after a little time, Pope Leo commissioned him to execute various paintings for him : on going to visit the artist one day, and seeing much apparatus and preparations for varnishing, but no signs of commencement, the Pontiff exclaimed, “ This man will never do anything ; he thinks of the end of his work before the beginning. ” This uncourteous behaviour, combined with the invitation to Rome which Leo X. sent to Michelangelo, offended Leonardo's dignity to such an extent that he left the city and sought employ ment at Pavia under Francis I. , who received him with joy, and gave him a yearly salary of 700 crowns . After visiting Bologna with him , Leonardo accompanied the King to France in 1516 ; but his health was then in such an enfeebled condition , that he could scarcely be induced to execute any more painting --- not even to colour the cartoon of St. Anna and the Virgin. He died on the end of May, 1519, at Cloux near Amboise, where fragments of his tombstone have lately been discovered . Let us now pass to the contemplation of his works. In the Louvre there are but five paintings by his hand. In the half- length portrait of St. John the Baptist, the saint is represented as resembling rather a young, delicate woman , than the rough preacher of the desert, the ascetic feeding on locusts. But, as this same fault of effeminacy is found in the St. John by Raphael, which is in the Tribune of the Uffizi Gallery at Florence, it is evident that the conventional ideas of the Baptist were not, at that period , in accordance with those we gather from the Gospel narrative. The Madonna called the Vierge aux Rochers, already much decayed, will soon be known only through engravings and copies. The authenticity of this Madonna, as a work of Leonardo, is denied by some connoisseurs, and it is generally supposed that a portion only is by his hand . St. Anna, with the Virgin and Chili, though an authentic work and really a fine one, is in some parts little more than a sketch, and has suffered much injury : it is more precious from the delicacy of the work than from the dignity and nobility of the style. We may even venture to find a little fault with the strange affectation of the attitudes and arrangement. There remain two portraits of women . One is called La Belle Ferronnière, because it is thought to represent the last mistress of Francis I. , the wife of that iron merchant ( ferronnier) who avenged himself so cruelly for the wrong done him by the king. It is from the title assigned to this portrait that ladies have given the name ferronnière to a jewel worn in the centre of the forehead and fastened by a ribbon behind the head. Others suppose this portrait to be that of a duchess of Mantua, or of the celebrated mistress of Ludovico Sforza , Lucrezia Crivelli. It seems certain that this cannot be the portrait of the Ferronnière, inasmuch as Leonardo Da Vinci , who came into France weak and ill , did not paint a single picture in that country, while Francis I. died in 1547 , that is to say, twenty -eight years after Da Vinci. The fifth picture by Leonardo in the Louvre, and the authenticity of which is beyond doubt, is known as La Belle Joconde ( Mona Lisa, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo ). This portrait, at which it is said the painter worked for four years without having finished it to his own satisfaction, is rightly considered one of the chefs- d'oeuvre of this master and of his style. We may A.D. 1500.] LEONARDO DA VINCI. 91 find in Vasari the loving description and the high praise he bestows on this picture ; " rather divine than human, as lifelike as nature itself . . . not painting, but the despair of other painters.” “ This picture attracts me,” adds M. Michelet (la Renaissance ) ; " it fascinates and absorbs me ; I go to it in spite of myself, as the bird is drawn to the serpent.” “ La Joconde" is worthy of representing to us this great man , who, taken merely as a painter, unites anatomical knowledge to that of chiaroscuro, and the study of reality to the genius of the ideal, who preceded Correggio in grace , Michelangelo in force , and Raphael in beauty. LA BELLE JOCONDE .-— BY LEONARDO DA VINCI . In the Louvre. There is nothing very remarkable by Leonardo da Vinci in the German galleries, if we except one of the two Madonnas in the gallery of Prince Esterhazy, now at Pesth . The Holy Mother is here placed between St. Barbara and St. Catherine, and is holding the infant Jesus, who is taking a book from the table. At the bottom of his dress are these words : Virginis Mater. Yet it is not St. Anna : the writer doubtless meant to say Virgo Mater. A more serious fault may be found with it ; namely, that the three female heads are singularly alike . And yet this half- length group, which reminds us by its excellent arrangement of the fine Holy Family we shall presently speak of in Madrid, is 92 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1500. almost equal to that painting in importance and beauty. This picture is much injured but has not been restored ; and certainly the marks of age and the havoc which time has produced are more respectable than unskilful restorations. Not more fortunate than the galleries of Germany, the Hermitage of St. Petersburg, until lately, possessed only weak and doubtful specimens of the works of Leonardo . It has, however, now acquired, from the Litta Gallery at Milan, a work the historical authenticity of which , joined to its own high qualities, gives it a great importance. This is a Madonna, quite equal to La Joconde of the Louvre, and which Dr. Waagen includes among the ten pictures which he analyses in his book on the Florentine master, while M. Rio, in his “ Christian Art,” lavishes on it the most enthusiastic encomiums. In the National Gallery, there is no authentic work by Leonardo da Vinci, though one has been attributed to him . It is Christ Disputing with the Doctors ( No. 18), which is said to have come from the Aldobrandini Palace, and to have been engraved for the collection entitled “ Schola Italica. ” It recalls in its details the style of the immortal author of the Last Supper. But if it be indeed by Leonardo, it is neither one of his best nor even one of his good works. As is usually the case in pictures where the figures are half- length , the subject is badly arranged. Dr. Waagen says it is by Luini. In the Museo del Rey at Madrid, there were until quite recently two replicas only of works by this great master, repetitions with some slight variations of the Joconde and of the St. Anna with the Virgin and Infant Saviour in the Louvre. But the Escurial has recently ceded to this gallery, and thus restored to public view, another Holy Family, which has not yet been engraved, but which is certainly one of the best paintings of this master. Mary and Joseph are here represented nearly of the size of life, standing behind a table on which the infant Saviour and his companion are seated , both naked, embracing one another. Beautiful and smiling, full of love, solicitude , and reverence , Mary has thrown her arms lovingly round the children, whilst Joseph, standing a little behind , and with one hand supporting his head, looks with tenderness at the scene before him . The Virgin's face is a little like that of La Belle Joconde, but of a less worldly beauty. Her delicate hands, the fine transparent materials which encircle her forehead and breast, with their soft tints artistically combined, the mild and noble head of Joseph , standing out in relief although in shadow , are so many com plete perfections, which mark the limits of human art. This picture, still scarcely known in spite of its being nearly four hundred years old , is a marvellous work, and has hitherto almost entirely escaped the ravages of time. At Naples they show with pride, in the Museum degli Studj, an admirable Madonna by Leonardo ; at Rome, in the small gallery of the Sciarra Palace, there is the cele brated allegory-two heads full of expression , which explain each other -- called Vanity and Modesty ; at Florence, less fortunate, the Pitti Gallery can only show a portrait of an unknown man , and that of a woman, who is called the Nun ( la Monaca ), because her head is enveloped in a hood. Even these portraits, before they were placed in the collection of the Grand Duke, were merely spoken of as belonging to the " school ” of Leonardo da Vinci. It was at Milan that Leonardo, attracted by the bounty and retained by the friend ship of Ludovico Sforza, passed the greater part of his life as an artist, and it is here that we should expect to find most of his works. However-and this proves how rare they are —the Ambrosian and Brera Galleries have only two sketches by him, both Holy Families, one of which was finished by his worthy pupil and rival , Bernardino Luini. His other remaining works are merely studies and sketches, including some A.D. 1519. ] LEONARDO DA VINCI AND HIS SCHOOL. 93 portraits, amongst which are those of his protector, Il Moro, and Beatrice d'Este, his wife ; also his own portrait in profile in red chalks , a fine and noble face. Let us now enter the refectory of the ancient convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, at Milan : there we may admire the remains, the relics, we might say, of the celebrated Last Supper ( il Cenacolo) which Leonardo painted towards the close of the fifteenth century, by order of the prince whose service he had chosen — that duke Ludovico Sforza, who, having been made prisoner by the French, died miserably at the castle of Loches in Touraine, after ten years' captivity. Francis I. wished to carry this picture back with him to France, that it might form the finest trophy of his victory at Marignan, which had given him possession of Lombardy. It could not, however, be detached from the wall. This enormous fresco, the masterpiece of its author, and perhaps even of all modern painting, has been for a long time in the most deplorable state of decay. In the sixteenth century, the cardinal Federigo Borromeo reproached the Dominicans with their culpable neglect of this precious work of art ; and yet it was these same Dominicans who, in 1652 , to enlarge the door of the refectory, cut off the legs of the figure of Christ and of the nearest disciples. When, at the end of the last century, during the wars of Italy, the convent of Santa Maria was converted into cavalry barracks, and the refectory into a store for fodder, we can well imagine that the hussars were not more scrupulous than the monks. General Bonaparte, in 1796, had indeed written , using his knee as a desk, an order that this place, consecrated by the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, should be spared from having soldiers quartered in it ; but the necessities of war were stronger than his respect for the arts. It was long afterwards that Prince Eugene, viceroy of Italy, had the refectory of the Dominicans cleaned, and raised a scaffolding before the picture, which allowed it to be examined nearer, but which also allowed it to be injured by curious and ignorant tourists, desirous of carrying away souvenirs. It is thought that Leonardo da Vinci did not paint this wonderful composition in fresco, that is to say, in distemper, on and in the damp wall, but in oil ; or that, at all events, he covered his fresco with an oil varnish . From this arose its rapid decay. Everything has assisted in the destruction of this great work. It is not merely time, the infiltration of water, the carelessness of the monks, and the insults of the soldiers , that have caused ruin . More than anything else it has been produced by unskilful restorations, which changed what they touched, and rendered what they respected more fragile. However, the outline of the composition, the attitudes of the figures, and even the general effect of colour, can still be vaguely seen. This is sufficient to make the coldest and most superficial spectator, and even one ignorant in the arts , bow with respect, as did Francis I. , before this sublime work, and, rendering the homage of ardent admiration to Leonardo da Vinci, repeat the just and beautiful eulogy which Vasari has given of this wonderful man : Heaven, in its goodness, sometimes grants to one mortal all its most precious gifts, and marks all the works of this privileged man with such a stamp that they seem less to show the power of human genius than the special favour of God." The Last Supper is too well known for it to be necessary that we should give a detailed account of it. One remarkable thing is , the enormous number of copies made of it by the brush , the pencil, and the burin or engraver's tool, without counting the innumerable studies of detached parts, which , since the time of Leonardo da Vinci, artists and amateurs have continually been making before his fresco. At Milan is the copy by Vespino (Andrea Bianchi), which the Ambrosian Gallery possesses, and that of 66 94 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1500. Bossi , at the Brera, both incorrect, and unworthy the original ; then, in the same museum , that of Marco da Oggione, in reduced proportions, the colour and effect altered, but the correct drawing of which renders it certainly the best of the three. A fine copy, by Marco da Oggione, is in the possession of the Royal Academy of Arts, London . There was also at Milan , in the convent of Santa Maria della Pace, now a manufactory, a copy, made at twenty - two years of age by Lomazzo, that interesting painter who, becoming blind while still young, and thus forced to give up working, dictated his “ Treatise on Painting.” Copies are also known by De Rossi, Perdrici, and that which Gagna made in 1827 for the palace at Turin. In France, there was a copy brought back from Milan by Francis I. , and which was at Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois ; that of the château d'Ecouen of the same period, and that which has long been exbibited in the Apollo Gallery at the Louvre, and which was thought to have been done in the studio of Leonardo and under his own eye. Two recent mosaics, one made in 1809, which is at Vienna, the other made more recently by the Roman Rafaelli, have reproduced the " Last Supper ” in unchangeable enamel. Engraving has been employed not less than painting or mosaic in perpetuating the remembrance of this celebrated work. It has been engraved successively by Mantegna, Soutman, Rainaldi, Bonate, Frey, Thouvenet, and many others, and lastly by Raphael Morghen, who , making use of a fine drawing by Teodoro Matteini, and devoting six years to his copy, as Leonardo to the original, has surpassed all his predecessors, and produced, in his own art, another masterpiece. FOLLOWERS OF LEONARDO. ( FLORENTINE SCHOOL. ) Piero di Cosimo, so called from his master, Cosimo Rosselli, was born at Florence about 1460. He was the son of a Florentine jeweller of the name of Lorenzo, and is said to have rivalled Leonardo da Vinci in his early Florentine time. In 1480 he accompanied his master to Rome, when the latter went there in order to decorate the Sistine Chapel. Piero is described as a man of a strange character, and preferred mythological to theological subjects, but with all that, he was an excellent painter and is greatly admired for his landscapes. It is said that he painted the landscape background to Rosselli's Sermon on the Mount in the Sistine Chapel. Piero di Cosimo died at Florence in 1521. There are pictures by this artist in Florence, in the Louvre, and in the Berlin Museum . In the National Gallery is the Death of Procris, with Procris ( No. 698) and her dog Lelaps and a Satyr. Lorenzo Sciarpelloni, called Lorenzo di Credi, was born at Florence in 1459. He was a fellow-pupil with Leonardo da Vinci and Perugino in the atelier of Verrocchio. He was much devoted to Leonardo, but was especially fond of his master, whose attachment for him was also great, for, when Verrocchio went to Venice to model the Colleoni Statue, he left Lorenzo in charge of his affairs in Florence ; and in his will, in 1488, he expressed a desire that Lorenzo should finish the statue, which Verrocchio left unfinished ; he also made him his principal heir . Lorenzo, however, did not complete the statue, and it is said he only retained Verrocchio's works of art, giving everything else to his master's relations. Lorenzo, when old, retired to Santa Maria Nuova at Florence, and died there in 1537. His painting is chietly remarkable for its careful execution and minute finish , which is seen better in his small than in his large pictures. He painted in oil, and was very careful A.D. 1525. ] 95 LEONARDO DA VINCI AND HIS SCHOOL. to keep his palette in order and his brushes clean. His favourite subject was the Holy Family, of which he painted a great number. There is a fine picture by this artist in the Duomo at Pistoia ; two Nativities are in the Uffizi. The Berlin Museum possesses numerous specimens of his art ; but for Paris is reserved the honour of having his masterpiece. In the Louvre ( No. 958) is the Madonna and Child enthroned with SS. Julian and Nicholas, painted for the chapel of the Convent of Cestello, also representing the Madonna and Child . In the National Gallery there are two pictures of the Virgin and Infant Christ ( Nos. 593 and 648) . FOLLOWERS OF LEONARDO. ( MILANESE SCHOOL. ) Bernardo Luini was born at Luini, on Lake Maggiore, in the middle of the fifteenth century — the precise date of his birth is not known. Very little is recorded of his life , though Vasari evidently refers to him when he speaks of the paintings of Bernardino da Lupino in the church of the Madonna at Saronno. He was the most famous pupil of Leonardo da Vinci, whose style he so closely imitated that many of his works have been mistaken for those of the great painter ; amongst these may be mentioned the sole representative of Leonardo in the National Gallery (No. 18) , Christ disputing with the Doetors, which, according to Dr. Waagen and other critics , is by Luini. Pictures by this artist are spread diffusely over Europe, for he was a most prolific painter ; among his best works may be mentioned, a St. John and the Lamb, in the Rothschild Hôtel ; the Marriage of St. Catherine and the Litta frescoes, in the Louvre ; a large altar piece, at Legnaio near Milan ; a Crucifixion, which is extremely fine, in the church of Lugano, Lake Maggiore ; and the frescoes in the Brera Gallery at Milan. Luini, like Lorenzo di Credi, is noticeable for the minuteness of his finish and the beauty of his colouring ; he greatly excelled in painting women. He died, soon after 1530. Cesare da Sesto, called also Cesare da Milano, was born at Milan (?) about 1460. He was pupil of the great Leonardo, though in later life he studied the style of Raphael, whose friendship be made at Rome. A Baptism of Christ by him , with a landscape background by Bernazzano, an unimportant landscape painter, is in the possession of Duke Scotti at Milan. There is a St. Roch with the Virgin and Child in the Casa Melzi at Milan. The Vierge aux Balances in the Louvre, formerly attributed to Raphael , is considered by many writers to be by Cesare da Sesto. Giovanni Antonio Beltraffio, born at Milan in 1467 , studied art under Leonardo da Vinci as an amateur, for he was a nobleman . There is a Madonna and Child with SS. John the Baptist and Sebastian, painted in 1500 for a church in Bologna, now in the Louvre ; another picture representing the same subject is in the Frizzoni Gallery, Bellaggio. A third Madonna and Child is in the National Gallery ( No. 728) . It was formerly in the Northwick Collection, and was purchased at the Davenport- Bromley sale. Beltraffio died at Milan on the 15th of June, 1516. Marco da Oggione, sometimes called Uggione, was born in the neighbourhood of Milan about 1470. He was placed with Leonardo da Vinci as early as 1490. He painted frescoes for the church of Santa Maria della Pace at Milan, which were removed afterwards to the Brera. There is also an altar-piece by Oggione in the Bonomi Collection, Milan ; and another in the Louvre. But Oggione is chiefly famous for his copies of the well- known fresco of the Last Supper by Leonardo. One, painted in oil in 1510, for the refectory of the Certosa di Pavia, from the original when in a 96 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . [A.D. 1550. perfect state , is now carefully preserved in the Royal Academy of London . Another, executed in fresco for the refectory of the convent of Castellazzo, is still preserved in that place ; and a third - a small one — from which it is said he copied his two larger works already mentioned , is in the Hermitage. Marco da Oggione died in 1530. Francesco Melzi, a Milanese noble , the date of whose birth is unknown, was a friend and follower of Leonardo. He painted also as an amateur, and assisted Leonardo. in a Madonna and Child, on the wall of the castle of Vaprio. In the Berlin gallery a Vertumnus and Pomona, which was formerly attributed to Leonardo, is now said to be by Melzi. He accompanied his instructor to France, and on his death in 1519 Leonardo left his manuscripts and all things pertaining to his art to Melzi, who was his executor, It is said that the latter supplied Vasari and Lomazzo with records of the principal events of Leonardo's life. It is not known when Melzi died. Gaudenzio Ferrari, born at Valdugga in Piedmont in 1484, was a celebrated painter of the Milanese school of Leonardo. It is believed that he studied under Luini, and it is known that he went to Rome and worked with Raphael in the Farne sina Palace. Of his oil paintings the most celebrated are the Madonna and Child with saints , in San Cristoforo at Vercelli ; a Martyrdom of St. Catherine, in the Brera ; and a Dead Christ, int he Turin Gallery. Of his frescoes, may be mentioned the History of SS. Joachim and Anna, transferred from Santa Maria della Pace to the Brera ; a Procession of Spectators of the Crucifixion, in the chapel of the Sacro Monte at Varallo ; the History of Christ, in the convent of the Minorites; an Adoration, in Santa Maria di Loreto, near Varallo ; a Glory of Angels, in the church of Saronno near Milan ; various scenes from the Life of the Virgin, painted from 1532 to 1535 , in San Cristoforo, Vercelli ; and his last work, the Flagellation, painted in 1542 in Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. Gaudenzio Ferrari died at Milan in 1549. He was mentioned with absurd praise by Lomazzo as one of the seven greatest painters of modern time, but though not deserving of so great honour, he was one of the best of the Milanese painters who were influenced by Leonardo. He is correct in design and finished in execution , but bis colouring, though brilliant, is devoid of harmony and taste. Giovanni Antonio Sogliani, born about 1491 , was the scholar of Lorenzo di Credi, whom he greatly imitated, as well as Andrea del Sarto and Perugino. His works are often mistaken for those of his master. Pictures by him are in the Torrigiani and Panciatici Galleries at Florence ; there is also a copy of Lorenzo's Adoration of the Shepherds in the Berlin Museum . He died in 1544. Bernardino Lanini, born at Vercelli about 1508 , was a scholar and imitator of Gaudenzio Ferrari ; he also studied the style of Leonardo. He painted chiefly in fresco . One of his best works is an altar-piece at Borgo Sesia ; it is signed “ Bernar dinus pausillum hoc quod cernis effigiabat, 1539." He executed various frescoes in the cathedral of Novara. A Holy Family, by him , is in the National Gallery ( No. 700) , signed and dated “ Bernardinus effigiabat, 1543.” Lanini died about 1578. Among the scholars of Leonardo, who are not of sufficient merit to warrant an individual notice , may be mentioned Andrea Salaino, or Salai-- a favourite pupil he painted a Madonna and Child with SS. Peter and Paul, now in the Brera ; Giovanni Pedrinia -- a Magdalen by him is in the Brera, and a St. Catherine in the Berlin Gallery ; Girolamo Aliprandi, who painted at Messina a Christ disputing with the Doctors, mentioned by Lanzi, but which no longer exists ; Gaudenzio Vinci, of Novara, who painted an altar- piece at Arona , near Milan ; and Bernardino Fassola, of Pavia. A.D. 1500. ] FLORENTINE SCHOOL. 97

CHAPTER IX. THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL, SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

THE influence of Leonardo da Vinci was felt far beyond the limits of his own time or that of his scholars. His paintings were the wonder of the age ; and the beginning of the sixteenth century saw a race of artists spring up in Florence who emulated his works and who have helped to glorify the renown of that famous city. Among the most celebrated of these masters were Fra Bartolommeo and Andrea del Sarto. Bartolommeo Baccio -usually known as Fra Bartolommeo - was called della Porta, because he resided near the Gate of St. Peter's, at Florence. To avoid such a long name, and to distinguish him from the old Fra Bartolommeo della Gatta, a painter, illuminator, and architect , of the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Italians usually call him Il Frate (the Monk ). He was born in the district of Savignano in 1469. A romantic event in his youth induced him to adopt the monastic life. Whilst still a pupil of Cosimo Rosselli, whose studio he had entered in 1484, he listened eagerly to the preaching of the fiery Dominican, Fra Geronimo Savonarola , and became one of his most ardent disciples. He even burnt his studies in the kind of auto-da- fé made by the people on the Shrove Tuesday of the year 1489, in the Square before the convent of St. Mark. When, after a reign of three years over Florence, the Italian Luther was obliged to shut himself up in the convent of which he was the prior, and to undergo a siege, Bartolommeo was at his side, and, in the heat of the combat, made a vow to adopt the monastic life if he escaped the danger. After the death of Savonarola in 1498, he took the vows in that same convent of the Dominicans of San Marco. Hence his name of “ Il Frate . " He remained four whole years without touching a pencil, and when he yielded at length to the solicitations of his friends, his fellow monks and his superiors, it was on condition that the convent should receive all the produce of his labours. In 1498 and 1499, Fra Bartolommeo painted the celebrated fresco of the Last Judgment in Santa Maria Novella, the lower part of which was finished by his friend Albertinelli ; and in 1509 he entered into a partnership with that painter. They executed several works in conjunction, among which were the Marriage of St. Cathe rine, dated 1512, now in the Pitti Palace ; and a picture representing the Patron Saints of Florence, in the Uffizi. This partnership was ended by the death of Albertinelli in 1515. About.1514 the Frate went to Rome, where he painted the figure of St. Paul 0 98 ( A.D. 1500 . ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . and part of that of St. Peter, which he was obliged to leave to his friend Raphael to finish , -it is supposed, on account of ill-health . These two figures are now in the Quirinal . We cannot judge of him by the specimens in the Louvre, which consist of an Annunciation, once in the cabinet of Francis I. at Fontainebleau, and a Marriage of St. Catherine, dated 1511 , given to Louis XII, by a French ambassador, who had received it from the seignory of Florence. We must seek his nobler works at Florence. There, in the Uffizi , is another painting of the Virgin seated on a throne, surrounded by her celestial court, one of the greatest compositions of this painter, and the last which he executed. In the Pitti Palace we find an Entombment; and with it the most celebrated of all Fra Bartolommeo's works, the St. Mark, which went to Paris during the conquests of the first empire. This colossal St. Mark, a gigantic figure, was painted by the Frate for the façade of his convent, to disprove an accusation which een brought against him of want of grandeur in his style ; and notwithstanding some faults of exaggeration, it is perhaps the most complete expression of strength and power that painting has producetl,-as the Moses of Michelangelo is in sculpture. If the Pitti Palace had been able also to obtain the St. Sebastian by the same master ( a picture which was sent to Francis I. by the monks of St. Mark , and which is now lost ) , it would have possessed both the masterpieces of the Frate, the one remarkable for its grandeur, the other for its exquisite beauty. The Belvedere Gallery at Vienna has a very fine work of this master, the Presentation in the Temple. At Panshanger, in the collection of Earl Cowper, there is a very fine Holy Family, painted in 1509. We find in all his works purity and nobility of style joined to a brilliancy of colouring, though with a tendency towards employing too much red ; his draperies are charac terised by elegance and truth . As expressive as Leonardo da Vinci, as graceful as Raphael, as imposing as Michelangelo, as a colourist almost equal to Titian, inspired by the knowledge and the feeling of all , yet without servility, without effort, the Frate was really, with Andrea del Sarto, the summary of Florentine art of his time. We must not forget that Fra Bartolommeo by several years preceded Raphael, with whom , when the latter visited Florence in 1504, he exchanged lessons that were useful to both ; we must not forget either that painters are said to owe to him the invention of lay-figures. Fra Bartolommeo died at Florence, in 1517. Giuliano Bugiardini, born near Florence in 1471 , was a pupil of Mariotto Albertinelli, and studied in the garden of Lorenzo de' Medici, where he made the acquaintance of Michelangelo, from whose designs he executed various paintings. His works have been classed in several galleries under names of much greater artists than himself . Among some of his best pictures we may mention a Madonna and Child in the Uffizi ; a Marriage of St. Catherine at Bologna, and above all a Martyrdom of St. Catherine, in the Cappella Ruccellai in Santa Maria Novella at Florence. There are many other works by him in Italy and elsewhere. Bugiardini died in 1554. Mariotto Albertinelli was born at Florence in 1474. He was apprenticed, when young, to Cosimo Rosselli , in whose studio he was a fellow -pupil with Fra Bartolommeo. In the year 1509 they had entered into partnership , and they painted conjointly many works ; some of which bear the monogram of a cross with two interlaced rings. When Fra Bartolommeo retired into monastic seclusion , his friend and partner finished some of his uncompleted works. It is related , by Vasari, that Albertinelli at one time, being enraged at some criticisms which were made on his painting, abandoned the brush ENTHRONEMENT OF THE VIRGIN . By FRA BAKIOLOMMEO . In the Galiery of the l'ffizi, Florence TET * PUBL. RY AST " NOND TILDEN FÜR ATIONS R L A.D. 1525.] 99 FLORENTINE SCHOOL. and opened a public-house ; it is certain , however, that he returned to his art again , but on his return from a journey to Rome he died at Florence in 1515 . In painting he resembled Fra Bartolommeo as closely as one artist ever resembled another. He is especially to be admired for the design and the chiaroscuro of his pictures. Among those works in which Albertinelli assisted the Frate, may be mentioned a Madonna and Child , in Santa Caterina at Pisa ; the Marriage of the two SS. Catherine, dated 1512, in the Pitti Palace ; and an Assumption in the Berlin Museum, the lower part being by Fra Bartolommeo, and the upper by Albertinelli ( Dr. Waagen) . Among the pictures executed by the latter alone, we may mention the Visitation of the Virgin his masterpiece — in the Uffizi ; a Madonna and Child, in the Louvre ; an Annuncia tion, in the Accademia, Florence ; and a Virgin and Child, in the National Gallery (No. 645 ) , purchased from M. Beauconsin. Marc Antonio Francia Bigio, sometimes called Franciabigio - a friend of Andrea del Sarto, and a pupil of Albertinelli—was born in 1482. He painted , in 1513, in the court of the SS. Annunziata the Marriage of the Virgin ; the monks happened to remove the screen before the picture was quite finished, and thereby so enraged the artist , that with a hammer he dealt several angry blows at the Virgin's head, causing much damage to the painting, which he could never be prevailed upon to restore. The signs of his violence remain to this day. In 1518-19 he executed two pictures from the Life of John the Baptist, in the Scalzo . Among other works by him we may mention an Annunciation in the Turin Gallery, and a Madonna and Child in the Uffizi. Francia Bigio was a good portrait- painter, and many pictures by him are classed under various other names : a Portrait of a young man , in the Pitti Palace ; two portraits in the Berlin Gallery ; another of a Factor of the Medici, in the state drawing-room at Windsor Castle, attributed to Andrea del Sarto ; and a fifth in the possession of Lord Yarborough , ascribed to Raphael . All these bear Francia Bigio's signature, “ F. B.” He died in 1525 . Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, who was born at Florence in 1483 , was the only son of Domenico Ghirlandajo who followed the profession of artist. It is said that he studied under Fra Bartolommeo, and it is known that he was a friend of Raphael, and that that artist tried to induce him to go to Rome in 1508, but Ghirlandajo, being very well contented with his success in Florence, preferred to remain where he was. He painted many works for processions of all kinds, more especially on the occasion of the marriage or the death of one of the Medici. He died , wealthy and at an old age, at his native town, in 1560. Among his easel pictures we may mention St. Zenobio raising a dead Child, and the Burial of the Saint, in the Uffizi; a Nativity, in the Esterhazy Gallery, Vienna ; and a Coronation of the Virgin, in the Louvre. Andrea Vannucchi, or d'Agnolo, surnamed del Sarto, because he was the son of a tailor, was born at Florence in 1487. At first he was apprenticed to a goldsmith , but became afterwards the pupil of Piero di Cosimo, that strange man, as great a cynic as Diogenes, whose works prove him to have been a tolerable colourist but an incorrect draughtsman. Andrea del Sarto never visited either Rome or Venice ; he studied the frescoes of Masaccio and Ghirlandajo, paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, and drawings by Michelangelo. He never left his native country except for one short visit to France, whither he was invited by Francis I. in 1518, and he died at Florence in 1531 , when only forty- three years old, struck down by a contagious malady, and IOO ILIUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [ A.D. 1530. . abandoned by his wife and friends. Thus sadly ended a life which we cannot but regard as obscure and miserable for one possessing such great talents and honoured with so much posthumous renown. His principal works are to be found in Florence, Berlin, and Madrid . The Pitti Palace contains sixteen pictures by Andrea del Sarto, the greater pumber of them very important. First, his Dispute on the Holy Trinity, an analogous subject to the Dispute on the Sacrament, painted by Raphael, in one of the Stanze of the Vatican. Without wishing to establish any comparison between these two works, which resemble each other in name only, we may say that this picture of Andrea's appears to constitute his highest title to fame; there , as elsewhere, we know nothing which can give a higher and more complete idea of his original and learned composition, of his են նրա THE ENTOMBMENT OF CHRIST. - BY ANDREA DEL SARTO . In the Museum of the Louri, Paris . elevated and grand style, of his vigorous expression, and, in short, of all the qualities of execution which make him the first colourist of the Florentine school. We may also mention, before leaving the Pitti Palace, an Entombment, taken to Paris with the other Italian masterpieces ; two Holy Families, of about equal merit ; two Assumptions, bearing much resemblance to each other ; and two Annunciations. Of the latter, the larger of the two is very different from the ordinary and traditional forms : the scene does not take place in the Oratory of the Virgin, but in the open air, and before a palace of fantastic architecture. Gabriel does not come alone to perform his mysterious mission ; two other angels accompany him . The Virgin, as represented , is too masculine for a young girl. This last fault is more or less common to all the figures of Madonnas or women painted by Andrea del Sarlo ; A.D. 1530. ] FLORENTINE SCHOOL. 101 and arises no doubt from his taking for his model his own wife, Lucrezia della Fede, a beautiful widow , whom he married while still young. She persuaded him to commit a great fault, that of wasting in foolish expenses the money entrusted to him by Francis I. for the purchase of pictures and statues. She became the torment of his life, and finally left him to die alone. We must also mention the Portrait of himself, a fine,mild face, rather sad and suffering ; and also the last of his works, the Virgin and four Saints, which his sudden death prevented him finishing. His pupils, among whom were Vasari, Pontormo, and Razzi, completed it. Of a timid, modest, simple nature, without ardour or pride, but possessing a " genius full at once of kindness and forethought, of pliancy and boldness, of reserve and enthusiasm , ” the very excellent Andrea del Sarto, as Vasari calls him , received the noble surname of “ Senza errori,” from the purity of his design , the correctness and power of his colouring, the grace of his attitudes, and the harmony and unity of his compositions, which can be understood at a glance, The admirers of Del Sarto should not leave Florence without visiting the old church of the SS. Annunziata, the cloister of which contains a precious series of frescoes by Poccetti , Rosselli , and others ; but these are all eclipsed by the admirable and celebrated Madonna del Sacco, which Andrea painted over the entrance-door, to accomplish the vow of a good woman at confession . In the Pinakothek of Munich there are two Holy Families, in the larger of which St. Elizabeth and two angels complete the composition. They are equal to the best works in the Pitti Palace. At Berlin there is another great composition, no less finished and complete in execution than in conception, and in which Del Sarto displays all his power. This is also a Virgin in Glory, that subject which has been treated by painters of every school and period , and which seems to have aroused the emulation of them all. On a throne , supported by the clouds and surrounded by cherubim , the Holy Mother is seated , holding the infant Saviour in her arms. Two groups of saints form her celestial court : to the right are St. Peter, St. Benedict, and St. Onophrius ; to the left, St. Mark, with the lion, St. Antony of Padua, and St. Catherine of Alexandria ; the two first of each group are standing, the third kneeling ; in the foreground are half-length portraits of St. Celsus and St. Julia. We know of what importance is a picture by Del Sarto containing twelve personages ; but this is still more striking for its merits than for its size. It is painted on panel, and though rubbed in some parts, this magnificent picture yet joins the most brilliant colour to the greatest elevation of style. We do not hesitate to declare that this is the most precious work of art from Italy in Berlin . The date it bears is 1528. Andrea, then , must have painted it on his return from France, and two years before the plague terminated his short life. Among the six pictures by Andrea which are in the Museum of Madrid, there is one — the Sacrifice of Isaac — which is thought to have been one of the two paintings which on his return to Italy he had intended to have sent to Francis I. , to implore his forgiveness for his fault. If the other were as admirable as this, the two might have equalled the value of the money which that prince had confided to him for the purchase of works of art, and which, notwithstanding an oath he had taken on the Gospels, Andrea allowed to be frittered away. But that which we consider the most astonishing work in Spain by this painter is a portrait of his wife, Lucrezia della Fede. This portrait has been placed as a pendant to the Mona Lisa of Leonardo da Vinci in the Madrid Gallery. It deserves and justifies such an honour. It is equal in painting, and, thanks no doubt to 102 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1550 the beauty of the original, is still more charming and lovely. It is one of the most delightful portraits of a woman ever painted. The beauty of the model - idealised perhaps by love - the grace of the position, the exquisite taste in the dress, and the wonderful execution of the whole, combine to render this picture interesting in the history of painting. It has a double title to be so, as it is the type of all the women painted by Andrea, even of his Madonnas, and also it is a masterpiece in his style, as the Madonna della Sedia is in that of Raphael. And really these two pictures, so different in subject, bear a singular resemblance to one another. There is the same modest beauty which attracts homage ; there is the same powerful and victorious charms in both pictures. In the National Gallery there are but two pictures by Del Sarto, a Holy Family ( No. 17 ) , and a Portrait of himself (No. 690) , signed A.A. (Andrea d'Agnolo) . Jacopo Carrucci, commonly known as Jacopo da Pontormo from his birthplace, was He was a scholar of Andrea del Sarto, and later in life the teacher of Angelo Bronzino. He painted somewhat after the style of Michelangelo. His chief works, which occupied him eleven years, were frescoes in San Lorenzo at Florence, representing the Deluge and the Last Judgment. They have been long since covered with whitewash . Among works attributed to him we may mention the predella of Andrea del Sarto's Annunciation in the Pitti, and two pictures from the Life of Joseph in the same gallery. Pontormo, as a portrait -painter, possessed no common merit. A portrait of one of the Medici by him is in the Uffizi ; there are two by him in the Berlin Museum ; and a Portrait of a Boy is in the National Gallery ( No. 649) - formerly in the collection of the Duke of Brunswick. Pontormo died at Florence in 1556. born in 1494. Rosso de' Rossi , called by his countrymen Il Rosso and by the French Maître Roux, probably because he had red hair, was born at Florence in 1496. He was an imitator of Andrea del Sarto and Michelangelo. He painted together with other assistants of Andrea in the court of the SS. Annunziata. About the year 1538 Rossi went to Paris and superintended, for Francis I. , the decoration of the Palace at Fontainebleau ; while he was engaged on this work he lost a considerable sum of money, and accused his friend and assistant Francesco Pelligrino of the theft ; he was accordingly put to torture, but was declared to be not guilty. That he should have accused an innocent man , it is said , caused Rossi such remorse that shortly afterwards, in 1541 , he put an end to his life . Among his works may be mentioned a Madonna and Saints in the Pitti Palace, and a Salutation of the Virgin in the Louvre. SIENESE SCHOOL, SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Jacopo Pacchiarotto was born at Siena in 1474, where he resided until 1535 , when , joining a conspiracy of the people against the government, he was obliged to leave the country ; he took refuge in France, where he became acquainted with Il Rosso ; and it is said that he executed paintings for Francis I. at Fontainebleau. He appears to have returned to Siena in 1536 : three years afterwards he was again in trouble with the government, when he was outlawed ; but by the intercession of his wife Girolama he was pardoned, and in 1540 restored to his family ; no record has been found of him after this date. Owing to the fact that Pacchiarotto is not mentioned by 1 103 A.D. 1550. ] SIENESE SCHOOL. Vasari, great confusion has arisen regarding him. Many of his works have been attributed to Perugino, but on the other hand, many paintings by Girolamo del Pacchia have been ascribed to Pacchiarotto. The fresco in Sta. Caterina at Siena, representing the Visit of St. Catherine to the body of St. Agnes at Montepulciano, long attributed to Pacchiarotto, has now been proved to be by Del Pacchia. Among other pictures by the latter which have been attributed to the former, may be mentioned a Madonna and Child (No. 246) in the National Gallery. Two pictures in the Pinakothek at Munich -a St. Francis of Assisi, and a Madonna and Child— both formerly in San Bernardino at Siena ; purchased by Ludwig I. of Bavaria, when Crown- prince , in 1818 are attributed to Pacchiarotto, as are also several works in the Academy of Siena. Speth, in speaking of this artist, terms him “ the second hero of the Sienese school ” - Razzi being the first—and says that to designate him as of the school of Perugino, is only to magnify the injustice he has already undergone in having many of his best works attributed to that master ; and adding, “ what Perugino supplied was only the spark which in Pacchiarotto grew into a flame.” But Speth himself evidently attributed to the latter, works by Del Pacchia, for he praises as Pacchiarotto's work the above mentioned Visit of St. Catherine. As we Girolamo del Pacchia was born at Siena in 1477. He painted in Rome from 1508 till 1511 , but the pictures which he executed there are only known to us by record . In 1518 he painted frescoes with Beccafumi and Razzi in San Bernardino at Siena ; he disap peared from that town in 1535 , and no further record has been found of him. have before mentioned, many of his works have been attributed to Pacchiarotto , among others the frescoes in Santa Caterina, representing the Visit of St. Catherine to the body of St. Agnes, which are greatly praised by Speth and Lanzi --and the Madonna and Child ( No. 246) , in the National Gallery. A Coronation of the Virgin, in Santo Spirito , and a Madonna and Child, in the Academy at Siena, are by this artist. Del Pacchia is only incidentally mentioned by Vasari in his life of Il Sodoma. Giovanni Antonio Razzi, or Bazzi, also called Il Sodoma, was born at Vercelli in 1479. The first works on which we find him engaged are the twenty- six frescoes -representing the History of St. Benedict - in the convent of Sant' Uliveto Maggiore, near Siena ; these were painted about 1502. Some time after this, Pope Julius II . employed him at Rome, but nearly all his paintings were destroyed to make way for the great Raphael. In the Farnesina are the Marriage of Alexander and Roxana, and Alexander in the tent of Darius, painted for Agostino Chigi. On his return to Siena , Bazzi executed in the chapel of Santa Caterina da Siena, in San Domenico, a work which is considered by some critics to be his masterpiece ; it represents scenes from the Life of St. Catherine. He also executed, in conjunction with Del Pacchia and Becca fumi, the History of the Virgin, in the oratory of San Bernardino. Other works by this artist are : in Siena, frescoes in the Sala Consiglio of the Palazzo Pubblico, and also in Santo Spirito, and an Adoration of the Kings, in Sant'Agostino ; a St. Sebastian, in the Uffizi, Florence ; an Ascension , in the Naples Gallery ; a Flagellation, in the Academy of Siena. A Sacrifice of Abraham , painted for the Cathedral of Pisa - exhibited in the Louvre in 1814, but returned to Pisa in 1815 -is now in the choir of the cathedral ; and lastly a portrait of Lucretia , in the Public Gallery of Hanover. Annibale Carracci says of Bazzi , that he “ appears to be a master of the very highest eminence and of the greatest taste " He died in 1549. 104 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1550. Baldassare Peruzzi was born at Accajano near Siena, in 1481 . He was both painter and architect. It is not known under whom he studied art, but his first works of any importance were executed at Volterra. Thence he removed to Rome, where he painted scenes from the Life of the Virgin, in Sant Onofrio , and various works in Santa Maria della Pace. About this time he built for Agostino Chigi the famous Villa Farnesina, on the western bank of the Tiber. In 1520 he was appointed successor to Raphael as architect to St. Peter's . In the following year he visited Bologna, where he made designs for the façade of San Petronio, but returning to Rome, on the sack of that city in 1527 , he was robbed of all his possessions and escaped with great difficulty to Siena. Before the Imperial soldiers would let him go, they made him paint a picture of their general, Constable Bourbon, who had been killed in an attack on the city. In Siena he was well received, and was made city architect, but he returned to Rome in 1535 , and commenced the Palazzo Massimi, the completion of which he was not destined to see. He died at the , end of 1536 and was buried near Raphael in the Pantheon. Other works by Peruzzi, who was more celebrated as an architect than as a painter, are a figure of Charity with three Children, in the Berlin Museum ; an Adoration of the Kings, in the Bridgewater Gallery ; and another Adoration of the Kings, in the National Gallery ( No. 167 ) —a drawing in chiaroscuro made for Count Bentivogli at Bologna in 1521 , This drawing, together with a print from the plate engraved by Agostino Carracci , was presented to the National Gallery by Lord Vernon. The Adoration of the Magi ( No. 218) , in the same gallery, is a copy of the above, probably by Girolamo da Trevigi, unless, as has been reported, Girolamo's picture perished at sea. Several other copies were made of Peruzzi's drawing. Domenico Meccherino, known as Beccafumi, from the name of his patron , was born of poor parents, at Siena, in 1484. He was first placed with an unimportant artist named Capanna, under whom he chiefly copied the works of other masters, especially those of Perugino, whose style he acquired. He visited Rome during the Pontificate of Julius II . , where he studied the paintings of Raphael and of Michelangelo. In later life he imitated the latter, but not to the improvement of his own style. He died in his native town in 1549. Besides working in conjunction with Bazzi in the Oratory of San Bernardino, Becca fumi executed many paintings in Siena, Florence, Pisa, and elsewhere, among which we may mention a St. Catherine receiving the Stigmata , in the Sienese Academy. In the cathedral of that town he executed on the pavement some mosaics of marble in the style of niello , which have been engraved by Andreani and Cosati . After Bazzi, Beccafumi was considered the best Sienese painter of his time. He was famous for his perspective, his foreshortening, and for the reflections which he used to put into his pictures. He executed also works in sculpture and in engraving. A.D. 1475.1 ROMAN SCHOOL. 105

CHAPTER X.MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI.

IKF any one were to ask who, at the commencement of the sixteenth century, were the two great rivals whose contest was watched with the greatest eagerness by the whole of Europe, politicians might reply, Francis I. and Charles V. ; but artists, Raphael and Michelangelo. These illustrious men, both of whom received their early education in Florence, went to Rome to execute their most famous works, and founded the first school of art in that city. “ They have been the only conquerors in art,” say the annotators of Vasari, " and nothing can be compared to the enthusiastic acclamations of the people who saw them produce the Cartoon of the Pisan War, the paintings in the Stanze of the Vatican, the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, and the Transfiguration . Not a single voice arose to contest their victory ; more than a century passed before emboldened criticism dared to stammer out its first objections. . . After Vain attempts to attack Raphael and Michelangelo, it at last had recourse to the expedient of the lapidary, who attacks the diamond with the diamond. It opposed Michelangelo to Raphael and Raphael to Michelangelo ; but though continually brought into opposition for more than three centuries, Raphael and Michelangelo only appear the more radiant." Michelangelo Buonarroti, the great sculptor, painter, and architect, was born at Castel Caprese, in the diocese of Arezzo in Tuscany, on the 6th of March, 1475 (owing to the Florentine year beginning on Annunciation day, the 25th of March , his birth is usually said to have taken place in 1474) . His father was Lodovico Buonarroti, governor of the Castle of Caprese, his mother, Maria Bonda, of the family of the Ruccellai. His foster -mother was the wife of a stonemason . When quite young he displayed great talent for drawing and expressed a desire to be a painter, to which his father most strenuously objected, but the youth was very decided and at last gained his point. On the ist of April, 1488, when but thirteen years of age, Michelangelo was apprenticed for three years to Domenico Ghirlandajo, who was, at that time, engaged on work in Santa Maria Novella at Florence ; and it was agreed that he should receive, for his assistance, eight florins yearly-a most unusual cir cums tance. It is said that Ghirlandajo, on seeing a sketch which his pupil had made in his leisure time, exclaimed, “ This boy knows more than I myself do . ” It was abou + this time that he studied in the Garden of the Medici, where Lorenzo took him into his favour, and, on seeing a mask of a Faun which he had executed in marble, P 106 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1510. employed him to make various works in sculpture. On the death of his patron in 1492 , he removed to his father's house for a short time, where he executed the Hercules now perished. Returning to Florence, he was employed by Pietro de' Medici — the son of Lorenzo-wno, caring little for real art, is said to have induced the young artist to mould a colossal figure in snow. In the next year, Michelangelo, dissatisfied with the state of things in Florence, left that city and repaired to Bologna, where he carved figures on the shrine of St. Dominic in the church of San Petronio. In 1494 he returned to Florence and worked for another Lorenzo de' Medici ; among other things he executed a Sleeping Cupid, which was sold in Rome, for 200 ducats, as an antique. This induced him to go to the Papal capital , and during the first visit he sculptured his famous Pietà, now in St. Peter's. He returned to Florence about 1501 , in which year he undertook to execute his David from that block of marble which Simone da Fiesole had abandoned in despair, on finding that he had commenced a work entirely beyond his power and knowledge, and which had been offered to Donatello, who had refused to undertake to make any thing of it. Three years after, Michelangelo had completed this wonderful monument, for which he received six gold florins per month, while engaged on it. About 1503, Michelangelo received a commission from Gonfaloniere Soderini to decorate one end of the Council Hall of the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence ; the opposite end being offered to Leonardo da Vinci, who commenced but never completed his Battle of the Standard. Michelangelo apparently never advanced further than his celebrated Cartoon of Pisa, representing Pisan soldiers surprised by Florentines, while bathing in the Arno. He completed this cartoon about 1506. This wonder in the art of drawing became the common topic of praise among all the artists of Italy. Taking advantage of the troubles with which Florence was agitated at the time of the fall of the republic under Gonfaloniere Soderini and the recall of the Medici, in 1512 , the sculptor Baccio Bandinelli, an arrogant, envious, and cowardly rival , obtained admittance to the hall where this masterpiece was kept, and cut it to shreds. The engraving, which has preserved a part of it , was made from a copy taken before this wanton crime was committed. In the beginning of 1505 , Michelangelo went to Rome, at the invitation of Pope Julius II . , for whom he commenced a design of the mausoleum which the Pope intended to erect to himself in the church of St. Peter's. On being refused admittance to Julius II . , on one occasion when he visited him , the sculptor felt himself so much slighted that he went home and wrote thus to the Pope : “ Most Holy Father ; I was this morning driven from the palace by the order of your Holiness. If you require me in future, you can seek me elsewhere than in Rome. ” He then sold all his possessions in the city and returned to Florence . The Pope sent for him as soon as possible demanding his return , but Michelangelo, conscious of his right of protection as a Florentine citizen , refused ; but on the Pope's writing to the Seignory, the Gonfaloniere sent for Michelangelo, reprimanded him strongly for his behaviour to his Holiness, and said that he could not risk the anger of the Vatican on his account. Michelangelo eventually made peace with the Pope, at the end of 1506, at Bologna ; where he designed the celebrated statue of Julius II. , three times the size of life - afterwards destroyed. In March 1508 he was called to Rome by the Pope to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which , after some hesitation , he undertook, saying that the work was not suitable to him , nor he to the work, and suggesting that it should be entrusted to Raphael. Vasari tells us that he completed these frescoes in twenty months; but these months A.D. 1512.] MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI. 107 were not consecutive, for the ceiling was commenced in 1508, and was not finished until All Saints' Day, 1512. The Sistine Chapel of the Vatican is for Michelangelo, as a painter, what the Stanze are for Raphael-his domain, his kingdom , his triumph. Twelve immense frescoes, the works of eminent artists, Luca Signorelli, Sandro Botticelli, Cosimo Rosselli, Ghirlandajo, and Perugino, entirely cover the two side walls , and show at once by their preservation and beauty what may be expected from frescoes. But all these are crushed by the superiority of the works by Michelangelo — the decorations of the ceiling and the Last Judgment; though the impatience of Julius II. , who felt that he was growing oid , did not allow the painter to finish his frescoes as he would have desired. The Pope wished that he should enliven his pictures with ornaments. “ Holy Father,” he replied, " the men whom I have painted were not wealthy, but pious THE CREATION OF MAN. - BY MICHELANGELO . In the Sistine Chapel. persons, who despised riches. ” As he made his own sculptor's tools, so he made for himself, in order to work during the night, a cardboard helmet, at the top of which he fastened a candle, thus leaving both hands free, yet carrying his own light. He shut himself up during whole days in the chapel, the keys of which had been given him, and allowed no one to enter—not even to prepare his colours. It is however believed that Bramante obtained leave of entrance for his nephew Raphael, who thus studied the style of Michelangelo before commencing the frescoes in the Stanze and the Loggie, and who certainly imitated him in the figure of the Prophet Isaiah in the church of Sant'Agostino The ceiling of the Sistine contains, in its numerous compartments of all shapes, several subjects taken from the Old Testament, and, in its twelve pendentives, different isolated personages, such as patriarchs, prophets, and sibyls. All these compositions are known from engravings, and it is seen with what wonderful skill Michelangelo adjusted them in the frames so ill - contrived for large painting. When he had to depict, for example, the Creation of the World ,there was so little room , that he was 108 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. (A.D. 1530. only able to show the head and hands of the Eternal Father. But that head and those hands which fill the whole frame give a clear idea of the Great CREATOR — all intelli gence and power. In the midst of these strong, terrible, and sometimes grotesque figures, with which the capricious compartments of the vault are filled , the Creation of Eve is a picture of such charming grace, that it arrests the spectator. As for the Creation of Man , “ it is , in my eyes,” says M. Constantine, “ the most sublime point to which modern art has risen . " ... Amongst the prophets we see Isaiah buried in such profound meditation that he seems to turn himself slowly even at the voice of the angel who calls him . The sibyls have a middle character, between the inspiration of a saint and the fury of a sorceress, which well accords with the strangely equivocal part assigned to them by the church. It is vexatious not to be able to admire at leisure the infinite details of this magnificent ceiling, in which Michelangelo seems to have understood the beautiful, like the ancients, by seeking it in greatness , and the true, which excludes neither simplicity nor grace. But besides that it is not easy to penetrate into certain parts of the chapel, the paintings are too far from the eye to be seen clearly, and it is painful to look up at them . This is the inconvenience of all ceilings. In 1513 Julius II . died , but Michelangelo, in compliance with the wishes of the Pope's heirs, continued to work for three years on the mausoleum , which however he was never able to finish . It was during this time that he executed his grand figure of Moses, now in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, and the two unfinished statues of Captured Slaves in the Louvre. He next accepted a commission from Leo X.—the successor of Julius II . -to erect a façade to the church of San Lorenzo in Florence, for which purpose he was obliged to be much at Carrara, in order to select the marble, but in the spring of 1519 the work was abandoned, and Michelangelo settled in Florence. In 1529 he was appointed superintendent of the Florentine fortifications, but he fled from that city in the September of the same year and went to Venice ; in November he returned to Florence and remained there during the siege. In 1530 he executed the celebrated tombs of Giuliano and Lorenzo de' Medici in the Medicean Chapel at Florence, including those four colossal figures representing Dawn and Twilight, Day and Night, which are so well known . In 1534 he left Florence and went to Rome, and commenced, in the Sistine Chapel, his Last Judgment. Always fond of solitude, and having passed a life without pleasures or amuse ments, and without any other passion but that of art,-his imagination still full of the horrors of which he had been the witness and almost the victim at the taking of Florence by the Medici, and the sack of Rome by the troops of Charles V. , -his mind filled with the poems of Dante , -a faithful disciple of the Reformer-Martyr, Savonarola, --- all the wild melancholy with which the soul of Michelangelo was filled burst forth in this composition. We need not go into all the details of this vast poem, in which appear three hundred personages . It is sufficient to mention that Michelangelo has depicted the scene described in this verse of St. Matthew : “ They shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory ;" that in the centre of the higher part or celestial seat of Christ is the inexorable and terrible judge, who weighs in just balances the actions of men , without being softened even by the tears of His mother ; that around Him , and the prophets or saints attendant on Him, a group of criminals await anxiously the sentence of His mouth ; that the angels who execute His decrees take up the saints to heaven or deliver the condemned to the hands of devils ; that in the lower or terrestrial part, where on one side the dead awake at the blast of the everlasting trumpets, on the other a group of the condemned, A.D. 1540. ] MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI. 109 personifying sins and vices, are piled on the fatal boat which is about to be engulfed in the mouth of hell . As for the qualities of the work, the majesty of the arrangement, the grandeur of the whole, the variety of the details, the beauty of the groups, the unrivalled perfection in the drawing, the boldness of the attitudes and foreshortening, the knowledge displayed of muscular anatomy, it would be childish to dwell on these different points, and to add our praises to the long acclamations of all artists, who for more than three centuries have proclaimed the wonderful merit of this gigantic masterpiece. “ We may esteem ourselves happy," exclainis Vasari, “ when we have seen such a prodigy of art and genius.” The Last Judgment, much injured by time, damp, the smoke of incense and [ I UI THE PROPHET JOEL. THE DELPHIC SIBYL. On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. tapers, and much neglected by the guardians of the Vatican , has been ignominiously spoiled by an alteration in the architecture which has cut off all the higher central part of the fresco , that in which the Eternal Father and the Holy Spirit were represented , and which thus completed the meaning of the composition. This part is now only known by old copies made before the end of the sixteenth century. About 1540 Michelangelo commenced the Crucifixion and the Conversion of St. Paul, in the Cappella Paolina in the Vatican ; these frescoes were his last paintings In 1547 Michelangelo, “ for the honour of God,” agreed to become director of the building of St. Peter's, as successor to Antonio da San Gallo, but he of importance. IIO ISILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1564 TEIt was would receive no salary ; and from his plans the great dome of St. Peter's was built. He did little work of importance after this, and on the 17th of February, 1564, in the eighty -ninth year of his age, this great man died at Rome. He was buried , according to his express desire , in the church of Santa Croce in Florence. It is known that Michelangelo professed to esteem fresco painting alone, and that he despised easel pictures. “ It is the occupation of a woman ," said he, meaning possibly Raphael. Hence the easel pictures he has left us are extremely rare. Besides his portrait in the Museum of the Capitol, which is perhaps by him , there are only two known in the whole of Italy. That in the gallery of the Uffizi is supposed to represent the Virgin kneeling, who presents the child Jesus to Joseph over her shoulder, and in the background are naked figures as if leaving the bath. It is called a Holy Family, but it is merely a human family and the personification of the three ages. painted for a Florentine gentleman named Agnolo Doni, who having at first thought the terms fixed by Michelangelo ( seventy crowns) too high, hastened afterwards to give double what the artist proudly demanded, for fear he should raise the price. Although Vasari quotes this picture in the gallery of the Uffizi as one of the most beautiful of those by Michelangelo , we must not seek in it either simplicity of composition or graceful or powerful expression. It is a confused mixture of heads and limbs, of the boldest drawing certainly, and even of great finish , but in which the hard outlines and dry colouring take away all charm . The second picture by Michelangelo is in the gallery of the Pitti Palace. It is of the Parce or Fates. All the good qualities and defects of the before -mentioned painting are to be found in it ; the same boldness of design and finish in execution ; but also the same hardness of outline and dryness of colouring. The ancients, who everywhere sought and required the beautiful, made the Fates three beautiful young girls like the Graces. Michelangelo has made them old , and belonging rather to the family of witches. Perhaps it is owing to him that this transformation has passed into a tradition. But it is possible that besides the Three Ages and the Three Fates, there may yet exist another easel-picture by Michelangelo . At the exhibition of art in Manchester in 1857 , connoisseurs agreed to restore to the great painter of the Sistine, an unfinished picture that had been ascribed until then to his master, Ghirlandajo . It is a Madonna with the infant Saviour and St. John, surrounded by a group of four angels, now in the National Gallery ( No. 809) . It is said to be superior to the other two works of the same nature, known to be authentic. A very remarkable, though unfinished, painting of the Entombment ( No. 790), attributed to Michelangelo , was acquired by the National Gallery in 1868 ; and there is also in the sanie gallery a Dream of Human Life ( No. 8) , supposed to have been painted, from a design of Michelangelo, by one of his pupils. Michelangelo terminated the cycle of Florentine art which had been begun by Giotto. He is himself the representative of the whole of the sixteenth century, with its melancholy regrets , its bold hopes, its long agony of trial, its gigantic result . Michelangelo is the true statue of that age, its most faithful and complete image. For a long period he reigned alone, acknowledged by all as the legitimate, all powerful monarch . When Michelangelo died Galileo was born, and Science advanced to take the place of Art.” “ This great man , ” says Sir Joshua Reynolds, “ possessed in the highest degree the mechanism and poetry of drawing. The noble character, the air, the attitude, which he has imparted to his figures, were all found in his sublime imagination, and A.D. 1564. ] MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI. III even antiquity had not furnished him with models. The Homer of painting, his sibyls and In prophets awake the same sensations as the reading of the Greek poets. " THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS. -BY DANIELE DA VOLTERRA , In the Church of Santa Trinità de Monti, Rome. conclusion : Michelangelo, who was a painter and architect like Bramante, a painter and sculptor like Alonzo Cano, a painter and poet like Orcagna , Bronzino, and Salvator , II2 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1565. a painter and statesman like Rubens, and greater than them all in every way, - Michelangelo, when already old , executed, almost at the same time, the three master pieces which have immortalized him . He carved the Moses, he painted the Last Judgment, and he raised the dome of St. Peter's. SCHOLARS OF MICHELANGELO . Daniele Ricciarelli, called Daniele da Volterra, from his birthplace, was born in 1509. He studied at first under Bazzi and afterwards under Peruzzi at Siena. He thence went to Rome, where he worked as assistant to Perino del Vaga. Subsequently he became a pupil of the great Michelangelo, who supplied him with designs for the works he executed in the Farnesina Palace. His best known -- and indeed world - famed -- work is the Descent from the Cross ( see engraving ), one of the series of the History of the Cross, which he executed in the Trinità de' Monti at Rome. It is said that Pope Paul IV. , thinking that some of the figures in Michelangelo's Last Judgment were too nude to be compatible with the sanctity of the Sistine Chapel, meditated destroying it , and that Daniele undertook to clothe the naked bodies, which he did-it is said with the sanction of the great painter -- and thereby acquired the nickname of “ il Bracchettone. ” Daniele da Volterra died at Rome in 1566. Among other works by him , may be mentioned a Baptism of Christ, in San Pietro in Montorio at Rome ; a double picture in the Louvre representing David and Goliath from two different points of view, for a long time attributed to Michelangelo ; and a Massacre of the Innocents, in the Uffizi. Marcello Venusti was born at Mantua in the early half of the sixteenth century. He was at first a pupil of Perino del Vaga at Rome; afterwards he worked under Michelangelo, whose Last Judgment he copied for Cardinal Farnese ; this picture is now in the Naples Gallery. A painting of Christ appearing to the Souls in Hades, by him , is in the Colonna Gallery, Rome. Venusti executed many pictures from designs by Michelangelo. He died at Florence about 1580. Pellegrino Tibaldi, born at Bologna in 1527 , was both architect and painter. He is supposed to have been a pupil of Bagnacavallo, but studied the works of Michelangelo, and adopted the style of that master to such an extent that the Carracci called him “ Il Michelagnolo riformato .” After executing many good works in Italy he was invited to Spain by Philip II . , for whom he decorated the Escurial. He was much honoured in Spain, where he remained nine years, but most of his works have perished. Italian pictures, we may mention a Marriage of St. Catherine, in the Bologna Gallery ; and a St. Cecilia, in the Belvedere Gallery, Vienna. It is supposed that Tibaldi died in 1600. Of his A.D. 1483.7 ROMAN SCHOOL. 113

CHAPTER XI .RAPHAEL SANZIO D'URBINO, AND HIS FOLLOWERS.

E must now go back to the end of the fifteenth century in order to commence our account of the life and works of that “ divine youth ," who was the author of the most wonderful pictures which the world has ever seen ; and who, for nearly four centuries, has been universally acknowledged to be the Prince of W PAINTERS. Raphael Sanzio . Raffaello, the son of Giovanni de' Santi, was born in the Contrada del Monte at Urbino, on the 6th of April , 1483. His mother, whose maiden name was Magia Ciarla, died on the 7th of October, 1491 , when her son was but eight years old. His father — who had latinized his name, which his son again italianized - gave him his first instruction in painting, and when he died, in 14 94, the young Raphael was taken to Perugia, by his uncles Bartolommeo de' Santi and Simone Ciarla, and placed there with the celebrated Umbrian painter, Perugino, un der whom he studied until he was about twenty years of age. In 1499 Raphael visited his native town, when he made copies, in a “ Sketch-book -now in the Belle A tti ,Venice-of ten of the portraits attributed to Melozzo da Forli, in the Palace of Urbino. In 1504, leaving Perugino, he executed several works in Città di Castello ; he then paid a short visit to Urbino, and in the October of the same year went to Florence, where he resided until 1508 ; with the exception of a visit to Perugia in 1505, and to Bologna and Urbino in 1506. At Bologna Raphael made the ac quaintance of Francia, to whom he afterwards sent his St. Cecilia , with the request that his friend would make any alteration which he might deem necessary. Raphael was invited to Rome by Julius II . , from which time until his death he lived in that city, and executed his most important works. More like a prince than a painter , Raphael walked abroad in Rome with a retinue of attendants-- his scholars and assistants, —and all men did him honour. He had commissions for more pictures than he could execute, and much of his time was taken up in giving directions to his followers. Raphael never married, but it is said that he was engaged to Maria Bibiena, the niece of Cardinal Bibiena, who however died before him. It is recorded that he was slight of form , about 5 feet 8 inches in height, of most engaging manners. a ndwas loved by all who knew him. At his funeral, which was attended by all Rome. no eye was tearless." He died of a fever - some say of an unnecessary bleeding after chill -on his birthday, April 6th, 1520, when exactly thirty -seven years of age, and Q. In 1508 114 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1500. was buried , after having lain in state with the Transfiguration over his head, in the church of Santa Maria ad Martyres, —the old Pantheon. ( In 1833 his coffin was opened , when the skeleton was found quite entire , even to the teeth , and a mould was taken from the skull. ) By his will Raphael left his painting-materials and works of art to his scholars, Gian Francesco Penni and Giulio Romano, on condition that they should finish his works in the Vatican. Let us now turn to his pictures. The first works which Raphael executed in Florence are only imitations of his illustrious master, Perugino ; amongst these are the St. Nicholas of Tolentino, and the Holy Family of Fermo, each of them signed “ Raphael Sanctius Urbinas ætatis XVIII. pinxit.” It is the Brera Gallery at Milan that can best boast of possessing his first important picture, the Sposalizio, which he painted when twenty- one years old , for the little town of Città di Castello, near Urbino. In this Marriage of the Virgin Raphael still betrays something of the pupil. The almost too symmetrical arrangement of the two equal groups which meet just in the middle of the façade of the temple, which itself occupies the exact middle in the background of the picture, the figures usually long and thin - in short, all the details recall the style of Perugino rather than that of Raphael. There is in it at least a remembrance of the great and fine fresco of Perugino in the Sistine Chapel, which represents the Mission of St. Peter, and it is certain that the design is adapted from the old master's painting of the Marriage of the Virgin , now to be seen in the museum at Caen. But what a style there is even in the imitation ! What grace, unknown until then , is given to the attitudes, the faces, and drapery ! What variety in the expression of modesty, joy, and jealousy ! What perfection in the outlines ! what exquisite finish ! In the museum of the Uffizi there are six pictures. It is a happy circumstance that these illustrate three distinct periods of progress, and thus show the beginning, the growth, and the completion of that incomparable genius, whom death alone prevented from attaining to a still greater degree of perfection. Belonging to his first style is the Portrait of a Florentine Lady, whose name is unknown, seen in half-length and seated ; she is painted in the style of Leonardo da Vinci, but with more timidity. There are two Holy Families in his second manner, both composed only of the Virgin and the two children , and both with landscape backgrounds. One, known by the name of the Virgin with the Goldfinch (Madonna del Cardellino), was painted for his friend Lorenzo Nasi, in 1504. This picture was nearly being destroyed by a landslip on Monte Giorgio, which overwhelmed the house of the Nasi. But the fragments were found and carefully put together. It is unnecessary to give a long description of this charming composition , as the engravings of it are well known. The three other pictures in the Tribune, St. John in the Desert, and the portraits of Julius II. and La Fornarina, are in Raphael's third manner. The portrait of Julius II. of which several replicas exist : in the Pitti Palace, in the Museum at Naples, and in the National Gallery of London - has a vivacity of colouring which appears incredible after three centuries and a half. The portrait known as La Fornarina is repre sented in a rather strange costume ; she wears on her shoulders a panther's skin , the same which Raphael painted in the St. John and in the Madonna dell' Im pannata. At the period when Vasari wrote his book, the portrait of La Fornarina belonged to Matteo Botti, guarda-roba of the grand duke Cosmo I. , to whom he left it by will . Notwithstanding this tradition , many connoisseurs doubt if this portrait be really that of the baker's daughter of Trastevere, and even whether it be the work of Raphael. A.D. 1510 . RAPHAEL D'URBINO 115 . At the Pitti Palace there are eleven pictures bearing the name of Raphael. In this number are five portraits, besides the repetition of that of Julius II . These are the portraits of Angelo and Maddalena Doni ; of the learned Latin scholar Tommaso Fedra Inghirami, who is called the Florentine Cicero ; of the Cardinal Bernardo Davizi de Bibiena, who wished Raphael to marry his niece ; lastly a full -length portrait of the Pope Leo X., with the two cardinals Julius de' Medici and de’ Bossi. We know what the portraits of Raphael are , especially when they belong, like this last , to his greatest style ; and all praise on our part would be superfluous. One of his most famous pictures is the Vision of Ezekiel . Taking as his subject the sacred narrative as given in the first chapter of the Prophet Ezekiel, a subject at once vast, grand and complicated, Raphael has found means to represent it , without diminishing its grandeur, within the compass of a frame of a foot square. In this little gem, so wonderfully finished , Raphael has proved that the greatness of a picture depends not on the dimensions of the frame, but on the style of the painting. The other compositions of Raphael at the Pitti Palace comprise the three different forms of Madonnas which he has so often and so variously repeated. The first is one of those glorified and triumphant Virgins, who from their throne receive the worship of the angels and saints. The second is a complete Holy Family, where no person is wanting from the traditional number. The others are simple Madonnas, that is to say, the Virgin Mother bearing her Child in her arms, and sometimes accompanied by his young precursor, St. John the Baptist. The name given to the first is the Madonna del Baldacchino, because the throne on which Mary sits is covered with a canopy. This picture has several points of resemblance to the Madonna di Foligno in the Museum at Rome, and the famous Madonna del Pesce, at Madrid . Another Holy Family has been called dell' Impannata , or of the paper window , because the house of the carpenter Joseph is represented with this humble substitute for glass used in dwellings of the poor. One of the two remaining Madonnas is called del Gran Duca, or del Viaggio. The Duke Ferdinand III. , it is said , liked it so much, that he carried it about every where with him , and said his devotions before it morning and evening. It is one of the simplest Madonnas that the pencil of Raphael has produced. The Virgin Mother is shown in half -length only, holding the Holy Child, still in early infancy, in her arms. With eyes cast down, and humble posture, she is so modest, so pure, so angelic, that Ferdinand might well carry the picture about with him , as the ancients did their penates, and place it on the domestic altar amongst the relics of his patron saints. More celebrated and valuable as a work of art, and often called by connoisseurs the chef- d'oeuvre of Raphael, is the Madonna della Sedia. St. John, thrown back a little in the shade, worships timidly and humbly Him whom it will be his glory to announce to the world. The child Jesus, in whom intelligence and goodness shine forth, but who appears rather pale and suffering, smiles sadly. He is represented as already the victim resigned to sacrifice and to the ingratitude of those for whom He is to suffer. As for the Virgin, leaning over the body of her son , whom she clasps in her arms, but turning her eyes on the spectator, she is very different from the usual type of Raphael's Virgins, and from all the school which preceded him. This is the only one of his simple Madonnas who has not her eyes cast down. Belonging more to the world than the Madonna del Gran Duca and the Madonna del Cardellino, but still more beautiful, and adorned with rich ornaments and brilliant garments, she is the model of ideal beauty, but in accordance with Grecian rather than Christian thought. The Madonna della Sedia has been popularised by every method which is available 116 ( 4.1 ) . 1510. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. to make the painter's work familiar to the world , by thousands of copies, of drawings, and engravings. Garavaglia, Raphael Morghen, and a hundred others in every country, have striven to best imitate it in engraving ; and photography now attempts one of its miracles in the effort to reproduce it. But those who have not seen it in the original can never know it. ( See woodcut.) Amongst the great works of Raphael we must not omit to mention what is , and always will be, the pearl of the museum at Bologna, the St. Cecilia, surrounded by the apostle St. Paul, the evangelist St. John, St. Augustine, and Mary Magdalene. He has represented her in an ecstasy, listening to celestial music, and letting fall from her hands a little portable organ, on which she had begun the concert, finished by the angels. The St. Cecilia was ordered of Raphael, in 1515 , by a lady of Bologna named Elena dall'Olio Duglioli , of the house of Bentivoglio , who was subsequently canonised . Thus the St. Cecilia came to Bologna, where it has since remained. It is too well known by all kinds of copies for a description to be necessary ; and it has no need of praise. It is however at Rome, rather even than at Florence or Bologna, that Raphael is to be seen to the greatest advantage. Let us enter the Vatican. Having become an architect when about thirty years of age, and at the same time superintendent of the excavations and antiquities, Raphael divided the seven last years of his life between the two arts , which he cultivated simultaneously. This is what Cardinal Bembo wished to express in the inscription on his tomb under the Chapel of the Virgin at the Pantheon : “ Julii II . et Leonis X. , picturæ et architecturæ operibus, gloriam auxit. " This double character appears in the court known by the name of St. Damasus in the Vatican, where, as an architect, he raised a kind of façade, having three stories or galleries , which he decorated as a painter with fresco ornaments. The then recent discovery of the baths of Titus and Livia had brought into fashion that species of arabesques, called grotteschi, because they were in imitation of the pictures found in the excavations ( grotte), and Giovanni da Udine, who before joining Raphael had been a pupil of Giorgione, had made this work easy by the discovery of an artificial stucco composed of pounded marble mixed with lime and white turpentine. Raphael himself adopted this sort of decoration. But, as mythological ornaments were scarcely possible in the palace of the Popes, he invented Christian arabesques. In painting the thick ness of the pillars, the space between the windows, and on the wall , he found means to place in each of the recesses of his galleries four pictures, about six feet long by four wide, and the figures in which , about two feet in height, look smaller from the distance at which they are placed. Thus a series of fifty -two pictures represent the principal events of Bible history from the beginning of the world to the Last Supper of our Lord with His apostles. This is what is called the Loggie, or sometimes Raphacl's Bible. Raphael did not do all this work with his own hand. Like a Roman patrician surrounded by his clients, he always left his studio at the head of a little army of painters, wlio called him master. He had sufficient tact to induce them to live in harmony together, and to work contentedly under his direction . In the Loggie there is no doubt that the choice of the subjects belonged to him , as well as the supervision and correction of the whole. Sometimes also he designed the pictures which his pupils painted. But there are only two or three which can be said to be entirely his in composition, drawing, and colouring: the Almighty dividing the Light from the Darkness ; the Creation of the Firmament, and , perhaps, also, the Creation of Man. These are the best and most celebrated of the series. Leaving the Lorgie, which are painted under the external galleries, and have received aped ten TM 11 22 MADONNA DELLA SEDIA . By RAPHAEL In the Pitti Paluce, Florence pood Y PUBLwin YORK 27 AST TILDEN E R PENS L A.D. 1510.] RAPHAEL RAPHAEL D'URBINO. 117 many injuries, both from time and the soldiers of Charles V. , and also from unskilful restorers, we enter the palace, and there find the galleries known as the Stanze of the Vatican. In these rooms the austere Michelangelo himself could find no fault, for they contain frescoes and no easel-pictures. These halls are the triumph of art, which never appears more varied, or more complete It is in the Stanze that we must judge of the painting of Raphael. Let us first say a few words on the history of this immense work. The Stanze had been already painted in part by Bramantino, Pietro del Borgo, Pietro della Francesca, Luca Signorelli and Perugino, when Julius II. , in 1508 , at the suggestion of Bramante, sent to Florence for the young Raphael, then twenty - five years old, and entrusted to him one of the great panels in the large hall. Raphael painted on it the Dispute on the Holy Sacrament, and the Pope, filled with admiration at the work of the painter, who was henceforth to be called the “ divine youth ,” ordered all the other frescoes --whether begun or finished - to be effaced, in order that he might complete the whole work. Raphael only succeeded in saving one from destruction, that in the entrance hall by his master Perugino. He painted in the Stanze during the remainder of his life ; but being constantly interrupted in his work, by orders from popes or kings, he had not quite finished it at the time of his death . The first of these rooms is called the “ Stanza dell'Incendio del Borgo Vecchio ," because the subject of the large fresco is the burning of the suburb called the Borgo, during the pontificate of St. Leo in 847. This suburb is that which contains St. Peter's and the Vatican, situated beyond the Tiber ( Trastevere). In this vast work Raphael seems to have described, not so much the scene itself - of which probably few traditions remain-as the burning of Troy as Virgil has described it . The fine group in which we can recognize Æneas carrying his father Anchises and followed by his wife, is by Giulio Romano. In this picture , the best figures in which are those of the women bringing water, there are more nude figures than in any other work of Raphael, who appears to have avoided them with as much care as Michelangelo took to introduce them everywhere. Opposite the “ Incendio del Borgo ” is the Coronation of Charle magne by Leo III., a noble composition, but it is said that Raphael only drew the cartoon for this , and that it was coloured by another hand after his death . The second hall is named the “ Stanza della Segnatura .” It is here that Raphael shows, by his most perfect works, the great height to which he had attained . On one side is the Dispute on the Holy Sacrament, also called Theology ; on the other, the School of Athens, which might be called Philosophy. These are the most sublime conceptions of the artist in historical painting. The subject of the former is not indicated by the title ; it is a poetical image of the Council of Placentia, which ter minated, by an authoritative decree, the controversies which had arisen about the Eucharist. This fresco of Raphael's, “ the largest Christian epic that painting has ever traced , ” is in two parts, heaven and earth , united by the eucharistic mystery : above, the Blessed Trinity is represented , encircled by angels, and having on either side a long range of glorified saints ; on the earth, around the Host in a monstrance surrounded by golden rays, there is a council assembled. In it we see doctors, old and young men , popes, bishops, priests, monks, and laymen . No one has ever suc ceeded in making a subject so clearly understood at the first glance, or in conveying so fully the sense of unity in a vast whole, of the picturesque in symmetry and in all the details, in giving grace, elegance, elevation of style , and incomparable beauty to every part. 118 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [A.D. 1510. . To find another work equal, if not superior to this, but which cannot be compared with it on account of the difference in style, the spectator must turn round, and contemplate leisurely and lovingly the other immense picture, the School of Athens. This is like a speaking history of Greek philosophy, between the time of Pythagoras and Epicurus. Here also the general effect is imposing, the groups excellent, the details really wonderful, and throughout the picture there is an inexpressible strength , elevation, and firmness, which prove the maturity of his genius. Fifty -two figures are assembled in this immense scene, the back -ground of which is an early design by Bramante for St. Peter's. One common thought unites this large assembly -- the worship of philosophy, of wisdom , and of science. These are represented by the two great philosophical writers of Greece—Plato and Aristotle - that is to say, idealistic intuition and experimental knowledge. Near them is the group of poetry, in which Homer is seen between Virgil and Dante, personifying the three great epics of Greece, Rome, and Christian Italy. On one side is the group of the Sciences, on the other, that of the Arts. The third fresco in this hall is the Parnassus, another large composition, made in imitation of the ancient style and taste, that is to say, with great wisdom , but also with coldness. Groups of poets of different periods are mixed with groups of the Muses, in the midst of whom “ stat divus Apollo.” Among these poets we find Homer - still between Virgil and Dante-Pindar, Sappho, Horace, Ovid , Boccaccio, Petrarch and his Laura, dressed as Corinna, and Sannazaro, the now almost forgotten author of the great Latin poem , " De Partu Virgineo .” Opposite the Parnassus, and above the high window, is the picture of Jurisprudence, which represents allegorically the three companion virtues of Justice, nobly grouped in a grand and beautiful composition ; and in order that nothing may be wanting to this hall, the scene of his first efforts at Rome, and of which he wished to be the sole decorator, he has even painted the compartments of the ceiling. The four figures Theology, Philosophy, Poetry, and Jurisprudence -- recalling all the nobility of the ancient style, remain inimitable models of serious allegory. The third room is named the “ Stanza di Eliodoro, " the principal picture in which is the History of Heliodorus. We learn from the book of Maccabees that this prefect or general of Seleucus Philopator, king of Syria, commissioned by his master to sack the temple of Jerusalem , was stopped at the threshold by angels who beat him with rods. Raphael, in the choice of this subject, made an allusion to his protector, the warlike Julius, who had said that he was obliged to throw the keys of St. Peter into the Tiber, and take the sword of St. Paul to drive out the barbarians; and in fact, adding the sword of the layman to the thunders of the Church, and himself fighting in armour, he had succeeded in driving by turn the Venetians and the French from the patrimony of St. Peter. The allusion here is evident, even in the temple of Jerusalem ; it is not the high priest of the Hebrews who presides at the punishment of the sacrilegious soldier, but the pope of the Christians, crowned with his tiara and carried on the sella gestatoria. The group, containing the pope and his cortege and that of the prostrate Heliodorus, whose armour could not protect him against a simple sign made by the divine messenger, are the finest parts of this magnificent composition , which, in movement and vivacity , is equalled by no other of Raphael's works. Raphael, however, who drew the whole of it , only painted the principal group. That which contains several women was done by Pietro di Cremona, and the remainder are by Giulio Romano. The fresco of the Deliverance of St. Peter is divided into three compartments. In A.D. 1515. ) RAPHAEL D'URBINO. 119 that on the right, are the soldiers who guard the entrance to the prison ; in the centre compartment, St. Peter awakened by the angel ; and in that on the left, the angel leading the apostle down a winding staircase. The principal effect of the picture arises from the contrast between the source of light in these divisions. The soldiers, in deep shadow , sleep under the dim light of a lamp, whilst the angel , luminous as a star, diffuses a brilliant light in the prison. In spite of the anachronism , Julius II . is represented as presiding in pontifical costume at the Miracle of Bolsena, one of the frescoes in the same room. This name of " Miracle," or " Mass of Bolsena , ” refers to the tradition recording the supernatural conversion of a priest, who having doubted the real presence of our Lord in the Eucharist, suddenly saw, at the moment of consecration, drops of blood flow from the wafer. In this very animated and effective fresco, which is arranged with much skill in a space above a window, the colouring is so strong and bright that it might be attributed to the Venetians. St. Leo stopping Attila at the Gates of Rome, is a subject which would certainly suit better the history of Julius II. than that of Leo X. , who was a learned but timid pope, and loved peace as much as his terrible predecessor had loved war, and who placed the now well - known papal umbrella in the hands of his peaceful halberdiers. However, it was certainly in honour of Leo that Raphael painted this fresco, which was some what later in date than the three others in the same hall. The Pope is represented as St. Leo, and behind him Raphael has placed himself bearing a cross, again accom panied by his old master Perugino. The fourth room , the " Stanza di Costantino , ” had been merely sketched by Raphael when death overtook him, in 1520. He had only finished the two allegorical figures of Justice and Mercy, both admirable for their beauty, their expression, and for the colouring, which is wonderfully bright. But he had attempted an important innovation , that of oil-painting on the wall. In fact, his sketch of the Victory of Constantine over Maxentius at the Ponte Molle had been covered by his order with a coating of oil , on which he intended to paint this large composition. Giulio Romano, commissioned by the Pope to finish it , did not dare to continue the experiment, and returned to fresco. This battle, in which the drawing of the master has been religiously respected by the disciple, is one of the largest historical paintings known. In the arrangement, the genius of Raphael appears powerful enough to grasp all the details of such a combat, and self -contained enough to reduce these confused details to order. The execution, which does great honour to Giulio Romano, may perhaps be reproached with being a little too crude and hard. Raphael had also sketched the Baptism of Constantine, in the composition of which his powerful hand may be easily recognised. The painting itself, feebly executed, is by his pupil Gian Francesco Penni. As for the Appearance of the Cross - In hoc signo vinces --which makes a pendant to the Baptism of Constantine, it is believed that the whole work, sketch, and painting, belongs to Giulio Romano. It is one of the works in which he has shown the greatest vigour. In the background of this picture he has introduced some of the buildings of the Rome of his time-an authorised anachronism. Besides his frescoes, immortal rather by their merit than by the durability of their materials, Raphael has left in the palace of the popes three pictures which have been less injured by time. They are now in the museum of the Vatican. The first of the three, in order, is the wonderful Madonna di Foligno (also called the Vierge au Donataire) . We have already mentioned it as among the most celebrated of the I 20 (A.D. 1520. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. enthroned Madonnas surrounded by saints. This picture was ordered of Raphael by Sigismondo Conti, an officer of the household of Julius II . The painter has introduced him into the picture kneeling in the group on the left, opposite St. John the Baptist. It is a fine portrait of an old man, the striking reality of whose figure forms a happy contrast with the celestial character given to the Virgin and her Son. This masterpiece, the only equal of which in its particular kind is the Madonna del Pesce at Madrid , was painted before the Coronation of the Virgin, a large picture which Raphael several times began and then left for other work , and which at his death was still little more than a sketch . It was finished partly by Giulio Romano and partly by Francesco Penni, and their work is too visible for it to be 'attributed to their master. To see Raphael in all his grandeur, his genius fully developed by labour and experience, we must contemplate his last work, the Transfiguration, which was placed over his head when he lay in state, and which was, as we have said , carried in the procession at his magnificent funeral obsequies like a sacred relic . This picture, ordered by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, was intended for a small town in the south of France, Narbonne, of which he was archbishop. Rome however retained this greatest work of her painter. Vasari says of it : “ In this work the master has of a truth produced figures and heads of such extraordinary beauty, so new, so varied, and at all points so admirable, that among the many works executed by his hand, this, by common consent of all artists, is declared to be the most worthily renowned , the most excellent, the most divine. But as if that sublime genius had gathered all the force of his powers into one effort, as one who had finished the great work which he had to accomplish , he touched the pencil no more. ” Raphael had at first imitated Perugino. Afterwards he studied Leonardo da Vinci, and formed his style on that of the painter of the Last Supper ; then from the Frate (Fra Bartolommeo) he learned perspective as well as some processes of drawing and colouring : then he studied Michelangelo and anatomy, in order to paint the nude, foreshortening, and the articulation of limbs ; he afterwards studied backgrounds, land scapes, animals, vestments, skies and effects of sunlight, shadow , night, and artificial light, and adding to all these acquirements his own genius, his feeling and passion for the beautiful, he attained the highest summit of perfection. Before leaving Rome we must also glance at the four magnificent Sibyls of Santa Maria della Pace, and the Isaiah in Sant'Agostino ; and, in the Borghese Palace, at the portrait of Cæsar Borgia, on whose calm handsome face we cannot yet read crime. We must also notice in the Sciarra Palace the portrait of a young man who is unknown, called the Suonatore di Violino, because he holds in his hand, together with some flowers, the bow of a violin . This is one of the most admirable portraits that can be imagined ; it is, indeed, beyond a portrait. In this noble and touching face, in the studied attitude, in the graceful arrangement of light and shade, we feel that the painter wished to unite his own thought to the work of nature ; we feel that he com posed this picture. Painted in 1518 , in the charming style of the Madonna della Sedia, the Suonatore di Violino is also one of those incomparable works which can only be understood by careful , respectful , and, loving contemplation, and which leave an indelible remembrance on the mind. ( See woodcut on title -page.) The works of Raphael are by no means confined to Italy. We will now seek them through the rest of Europe, and first in Spain, where we shall find the greatest number. It is not surprising that the monarchy of the powerful Charles V. , and of such an ardent collector as Philip IV ., should possess more than any other. The Museo del A.D. 1520. ] RAPHAEL D'URBINO.. I 21 ? Rey, at Madrid, contains three portraits and seven other pictures by this master, Rome alone possesses a larger number. At Madrid, the three portraits , all of them men's heads, are perfect, and worthy of Raphael. The name of one original only of these portraits is known ; this is the famous lawyer Bartoli di Sassoferrato. But Raphael in painting him had only to refresh an older portrait, for Bartoli died at Perugia in 1359. One of the two others, that of a gentleman with a black beard, and with a large flat cap, may be a portrait of Baldassare Castiglione, the poet, nobleman, and friend of Raphael, who in that case must have painted him when younger than the picture in the Louvre represents him . In the third — a cardinal with a red cap and robe — may be recognized, by the long aquiline nose and thin face, as Giulio de' Medici, archbishop of Narbonne. TOT NO SIBYLLAC QVATVOR NA RAPHAELE SANTIO VRBINATE ROMAE IN ECCLESIA S.MARIAE DE PACE DEPICTAC THE FOUR SIBYLS. —BY RAPHAEL . In the Church of Santa Maria della Pace, Rome. Of the seven pictures of which we have still to speak , the first taken to Spain was a Holy Family, which has received no particular designation , but which might be called the Madonna among Ruins, for Raphael placed the group in the midst of ruins, so many of which were to be seen in Rome. The Virgin who is in the centre of the picture, with ineffable grace rests her left arm on an ancient altar, which also serves as a support to St. Joseph, who is standing rather further back ; with her right hand she holds the Holy Child, who, whilst bending down to embrace his young companion, turns his head towards Mary, as if to call her attention and her caresses to his pre cursor. The infant Baptist himself, timid and reverent, is opening a scroll on which are inscribed the words he afterwards used in welcoming the Messiah : “ Ecce Agnus Dei, qui tollit peccata mundi. ” It is easy, by many indications, to recognize this picture as one of the last works of Raphael. It is acknowledged to have been painted R I 22 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1520 . at the same time as the Holy Family in the Louvre, which bears the date 1518. To prove this date is to prove the excellence of the work . Four other Holy Families — for the Museum of Madrid now possesses five - have been sent there from the Escurial, together with the Visitation of St. Elizabeth. This last subject was probably neither conceived nor chosen by Raphael ; it was painted by order. Whilst his signature may be read on the left, “ Raphael Urbinas ,” the following inscription is conspicuous in gold letters in the centre of the picture : “ Marinus Branconius F.F." ( fecit ). This picture adds to the value it possesses as a good work of Raphael's, by being in excellent preservation. Time has respected it , and no accident has required the assistance of cleaners or restorers of pictures. If the Madonna with the Rose were the only work of Raphael in a gallery or cabinet, it would certainly receive all the attention and honours which the very name of Raphael always commands. But at Madrid it is eclipsed by so many others of the master's works, that there it cannot pretend to take the first rank. We can , indeed, recognize in the arrangement of the groups, in the outlines, the expression, the drawing, and the forms, the inimitable hand of the master ; but a rosy tint like that of the flower in the Virgin's hand pervades the whole painting, and it gives it a certain insipidity usually unknown in the works of Perugino's pupil. Between this Madonna with the Rose, injured by a little affectation , and the Madonna del Pesce, the highest expression of nobility and majesty, is placed the Madonna of the Pearl. This picture is preferred to all the other Madonnas of Raphael by those who delight especially in grace and attractive charms, and who consider the works of Correggio the highest type of art. Some say that at the sight of this picture, - which he had just bought for the sum of 3000l., of the widow of Charles I. of England, who had it from the dukes of Mantua, - Philip IV. exclaimed , " That is my pearl ! " Others have discovered on the ground, and among the playthings of the Holy Child, a shell which might, by a stretch of imagination, be taken for a pearl oyster- shell. Although the shadows of the picture are dark, a soft violet tint pervades the whole, conveying an effect of sweetness without insipidity. The whole composition, even to the slightest details of vestments and ground, is finished with that minute care which we admire in the works of Leonardo da Vinci. In the midst of the usual group , to which Raphael, though he often painted the same subject, always succeeded in imparting novelty, the Virgin is distinguished for her exquisite, but somewhat worldly beauty. In the Madonna del Pesce, never has Raphael drawn so much grandeur from so much simplicity. Never did his pencil show more firmness, vigour, and brilliancy . Holding in her arms the Holy Child who stands on His mother's knees, the Virgin is seated on a throne on which she seems to hold an audience as a queen regent in the name of her Child. On one side St. Jerome, kneeling by his symbolical lion , seems to be reading a book which he holds in his hand. On the other, the Archangel Raphael is presenting, at the foot of the celestial throne, the young Tobias, who bears the miraculous fish whose heart and gall were at the same time to drive the demons from the couch of his bride, and to restore his father's sight. There remains the Spasimo. This is the name that has been given to a picture of Christ bearing the cross, which was painted for the convent of Santa Maria della Spasimo, in Palermo. The Spaniards call it " el extremo dolor. ” Vasari relates wonderful story about this picture, which was taken afterwards from Sicily to Spain . “ For the monks of Monte Oliveto, Raphael executed a picture, on panel, of Christ bearing His cross , to be placed in their monastery at Palermo, called Santa Maria della A.D. 1520]. RAPHAEL D'URBINO. 123 This picture Spasimo. The Saviour Himself, grievously oppressed by the torment of the death towards which He is approaching, and borne down by the weight of the cross , has fallen to the earth, faint with heat and covered with blood. He turns towards the Marys, who are weeping bitterly. Santa Veronica is also among those who surround him ; and, full of compassion, she extends her arms towards the Sufferer, to whom she presents a handkerchief, with an expression of the deepest sympathy. was entirely finished , when it was in great danger, and on the point of coming to an unhappy end. The matter was in this wise : the painting was shipped to be taken to Palermo, but a frightful tempest arose, which drove the vessel on a rock, where it was beaten to pieces, men and merchandise being lost together ; this picture alone escaped, secured in its packings, it was carried by the sea into the Gulf of Genoa. Here it was picked up and borne to land, when , being seen to be so beautiful a thing, it was placed in due keeping, being unhurt and without spot or blemish of any kind --for even the fury of the winds and waves of the sea had had respect for the beauty of so noble a work . The fame of this event was bruited abroad, and the monks to whom the picture belonged took measures to obtain its restoration . Being then embarked anew, the picture was ultimately landed in Sicily : the monks deposited the work in the city of Palermo, where it has more reputation than the Mount of Vulcan itself.” Notwith standing its first miraculous preservation, the wooden panel on which the Spasimo was painted became so worm - eaten and dried up, that the whole work appeared ready to fall into dust. But at Paris, when it was carried there among the trophies of the victories of the Republic, M. Bonnemaison transferred the picture to canvas, and gave to this chef-d'oeuvre a fresh life. This picture—which the biographers of Raphael declare to have been painted entirely by his hand, without any aid from his pupils, not even from Giulio Romano, who often put on the first layer of colour — is assuredly one of the greatest poems of painting. Among the works of Raphael, or rather among those of all painters , it can only be compared to the Transfiguration , which in size and shape it resembles. And if its destiny had placed it in St. Peter's at Rome, the great temple of Christendom , whilst its rival had travelled from Rome to Palermo, and from Palermo to Madrid, it would have been considered the masterpiece of Raphael. Let us pass from the Museo del Rey to the museum of the Louvre. And, to confine ourselves to the masterpieces, we must leave on one side two portraits of men in one frame, which are called Raphael et son Maître d'Armes, the authenticity of which is no longer sustained --the portrait of Jeanne d'Arragon clothed in red velvet, which is probably by Giulio Romano — a small St. Margaret, which is much injured, and which Raphael only sketched-and even a St. George and a St. Michael, figures in miniature, which Raphael must have done as an amusement, because, according to Lomazzo, when he drew them at Urbino, in 1504 (he was then twenty -one years old) , for the Duke Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, he painted one of them on the back of a draught-board, which he used as a panel. But we must stop one moment before two half-length portraits ; that of an unknown Young man, about sixteen years of age , and also before that of the learned poet Baldassare Castiglione. As for the portrait of the young man, some have thought they recognized in it Raphael himself, notwithstanding the fair hair. This opinion would only have been plausible if he could have painted himself at such a tender age with so ripe a talent. But the features in this portrait, still quite young, peremptorily contradict such a supposition ; the more so as this portrait is the production of the third phase of the I 24 [A.D. 1520. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. genius of Raphael, his third manner, in which he painted the admirable Suonatore di Violino of the Sciarra Palace. We now come to the favourite subject of the master, the Holy Family. Of this, his usual subject, the Louvre has collected three examples ; the first, of very small proportions, probably, like the St. Margaret, was only sketched by Raphael, and may have been merely copied from one of his drawings. But a second Holy Family, THE HOLY FAMILY ( “ DE FRANÇOIS PREMIER ” ).- BY RAPHAEL. In the Museum ofthe Louvre, Paris. half the size of life, known under the names of the Vierge au linge, or the Vierge au voile, or the Silence de la Vierge, and a third Holy Family, of a small life size, usually called La Belle Jardinière, are undoubtedly the work of Raphael, and seem to have been painted entirely by his hands. Both in style and date they belong to his second manner, when he was passing from thestill timid endeavoursof the pupil of Perugino to the bold masterpieces of independent genius, urging its flight beyond A.D. 1520. ] RAPHAEL D'URBINO. 125 all the known limits of art. La Belle Jardinière is extremely beautiful, and almost as wonderful as the Madonna del Cardellino, the pride of Florence. There now remains the Holy Family (called " de François Premier") and St. Michael overthrowing the Dragon . These two pictures are intimately connected by bearing the same date, both having been painted in 1518 ; and by the same history. It has often been related , that having received an enormous and unheard - of price for his St. Michael, from Francis I. , Raphael, not wishing to remain his debtor, imme diately sent him the Holy Family, begging him to accept it as a mark of homage ; to which Francis replied, that “ men celebrated in the arts, sharing the immortality of kings , might treat with them ," and it is said he added a price double that of the St. Michael to this royal compliment. All these anecdotes are contradicted by the writings of the time, amongst others by the letters of Goro Gheri da Pistoja , gonfa loniere of Florence, collected in the Carteggio of the Doctor Gaye. These letters prove that the St. Michael and the Holy Family were ordered of Raphael by the duke of Urbino, Lorenzo de' Medici, and that in the year 1518 they were sent through a commercial house at Lyons to this prince, who was then living in France. They must have passed from him either by gift or purchase to the palace of Fontainebleau, where they were received with great pomp and solemnity. Of the Holy Family, we would say that, painted by Raphael towards the close of his life, at his best time and in his best style, it is at least equal to his most celebrated compositions on the same subject, and that without any partiality we may put it in the first rank among all the Holy Families which are scattered through Europe. Turning from France to England, we may mention, first, those in the National Gallery, which possesses five of Raphael's paintings : a Portrait of Julius II. ( No. 27 ) —there are many repetitions of this work, the original of which is in the Pitti Palace ; the St. Catherine of Alexandria ( No. 168) , painted about 1507 , formerly in the Aldobrandini Collection in the Borghese Palace, Rome; the Vision of a Knight ( No. 213 ) in his very early style ; the Madonna, Infant Christ, and St. John ( No. 744) , now known as the “ Garvagh Raphael,” formerly in the possession of Lord Garvagh, who sold it to the National Gallery in 1865 ; this also is from the Aldobrandini Collection (of this picture there are several copies ) ; and lastly a replica of the mladonna of the Bridgewater Gallery, bequeathed by Mr. Wynn Ellis in 1875. Earl Dudley possesses a Crucifixion with four Saints, and the Three Graces, Raphael's earliest mythological painting. A Christ on the Mount of Olives, painted at Urbino in 1504, is in the possession of Mr. Fuller Maitland. At Blenheim , the seat of the Duke of Marlborough, is the beautiful Madonna and Chilit enthroned with St. John the Baptist and St. Nicholas of Bari. In the Bridgewater Gallery are : the Holy Family with the Palm -tree ; a Madonna and Child , painted in 1512, in an imperfect state ; and the Madonna del Passeggio. At Panshanger, in the possession of Earl Cowper, is a Madonna and Chill, dated 1508 ; another of a similar subject is in the same collection. In the South Kensington Museum, we now find the celebrated cartoons which so long adorned the galleries of Hampton Court. It will be well to explain how these cartoons, painted in Rome for a pope, are in an English museum and belong to a Pro testant sovereign. It is a simple story, which may be related in very few words : “ His Holiness Leo X.," says Vasari, “ desiring to have rich tapestry woven of gold and silk, Raphael himself made ready the cartoons, which he coloured with his own hand. They were sent into Flanders ( to Arras) to be woven, and when the cloths were finished they were sent to Rome. Nothing can be more wonderful. This work , which would 1 26 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1520. cases, be taken for the work of a skilful pencil, seems rather the effect of a miracle than of human art. The tapestries cost 70,000 crowns." These cartoons, which Raphael finished in 1520, the same year that he died , represent scenes from the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles ; the work of copying them in tapestry was over- looked by Bernard van Orley and Michael Coxcie, Flemish painters who had been pupils of Raphael in Italy. There were originally twelve cartoons ; but, either in the manufactories, where they were cut into strips, or in the journey, or through accidents of which tradition has preserved no remembrance, five of them have disappeared. The seven that have been preserved , which are happily the finest in composition and style (as is easily discovered from the twelve tapestries themselves) , were bought for Charles I. by Rubens, after his residence in England ( 1629) and the secret embassy with which Philip IV. of Spain had entrusted him . Charles I. left these venerable strips for a long time buried in their After his death they were taken care of by Oliver Cromwell ; Charles II . , it is said , would have sold them to Louis XIV. had he not been restrained by Lord Danby, who would not allow such treasures to leave the country, and finally they were collected and restored under William III . , who devoted to them a large gallery built for them by Sir Christopher Wren, in his favourite palace of Hampton Court, where they were framed in the wood- work and arranged in suitable order. “ They are well kept,” wrote the Comte de Caylus in 1722 ; “ I did not think they were so well preserved . ” The subjects represented by the seven cartoons are the Miraculous Draught of Fishes ; St. Peter and St. John curing the Lame Man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple ; Elymas the Sorcerer struck with Blindness; St. Paul and St. Barnabas at Lystra ; St. Paul preaching at Athens ; Jesus giving the keys to St. Peter ; and Ananias struck dead. These cartoons of Raphael are not, like most cartoons, simple chalk drawings on grey or white paper. To serve as copies for tapestry , they were obliged to be coloured. Thus they are really pictures in distemper, and when fitted into the walis, have the effect of fresco paintings. The name cartoon only gives a very imperfect idea of them. It would doubtless be superfluous to attempt even a succinct description of these wonderful compositions, which are well known through engravings, and by photo graphs. Among them , we should name, first, the Miraculous Draught of Fishes, and the Preaching of St. Paul. These pictures, designed in the last year of Raphael's life, when he had attained the summit of his genius, seem the highest expression of great monumental painting. Perhaps we must not except even the Sistine chapel, where the ceiling and fresco of Michelangelo are to be found . Northern Europe does not possess many of the works of Raphael : in the Hermitage, at St. Petersburg, is the Madonna of the Casa d'Alba; and in the Berlin Gallery is a sketch of an Adoration of the Shepherds. But let us pass on to Dresden, where we shall find the most precious of all the spoils carried out of Italy --the Madonna di San Sisto. This picture was ordered for the high altar of the convent of the Benedictines of St. Sixtus at Placentia, and was bought in 1753 by the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, Augustus III . , for the sum of 20,000 ducats ( rather more than 8,000l.). Every one knows the Madonna di San Sisto, at least by engravings, amongst others by that of poor Müller, who from having so long contemplated the picture lost both his reason and his life when he had completed his magnificent work. (A new engraving, by Steinla, of the Madonna di San Sisto, which was published in 1858, is perhaps the most faithful copy of Raphael's masterpiece. ) We shall only say a very few words of explanation about this picture. In order to understand it well , we must not forget what the artist meant to express and what the A.D. 1520. ] RAPHAEL D'URBINO. 127 exact subject is. We should be mistaken if we were to seek in it a simple Madonna, a representation of the mother of our Lord , such as the artist imagined her and offered to the piety and admiration of men. There is more here ; it is like a revelation of Heaven to Earth ; it is an Appearance of the Virgin . This word explains the whole rendering of the picture ; the green curtains drawn aside in the upper part, the balustrade at the bottom, on which the two little angels lean , who seem by their up turned glance to point to the celestial vision ; and St. Sixtus and St. Barbara, kneeling on either side of the Virgin , like Moses and Elias on Mount Tabor at the Transfigu ration. We must also notice that the two angels at the bottom , whose presence few people understand, give a third plane to the picture, or as the Italians say, three orrizonti ,-first these angels, then St. Sixtus and St. Barbara, and lastly the Madonna and Child, who are thus placed at a greater distance. When we understand this, we can appreciate all the merits of this composition. What symmetry and variety are to be found in it ! What noble attitudes ! In what wonderfully graceful positions are the Virgin and the Child in her arms ! And what ineffable beauty is there in everything that composes the group ! What could be more thoughtful, pious, and holy than the venerable head of Sixtus I. , crowned by the glory of the saints, the thin golden circle of which shines brightly on the blue background, composed of innumerable faces of cherubim ! What more noble, more tender, and more graceful than the holy martyr of Nicomedia, who unites every kind of beauty, even that creamy complexion so celebrated by the old fathers of the primitive church ! What could we find more super-human than that Child with the meditative forehead, the serious mouth, and fixed and penetrating eye, -that Child who will become the wrathful Christ of Michelangelo ! And is not Mary a radiant and celestial being ? What eye could gaze on her without falling ? And what moves the inmost depths of our hearts, is the irresistible power of moral beauty which beams in the face of the Virgin mother, whose veil is lightly thrown aside as if by the breeze ; it is her deep glance , her noble forehead, her face, at once grave, modest, and sweet ; it is that indefinable look of something primitive and wild, which marks the woman brought up far from the world, and having never known its pomps or deceitful gaieties. Let us say a few words to conclude our praises of Raphael. In all the schools of painting , and still more, in the whole history of modern art, there has been no one to equal him. After three centuries and a half of animated discussions, of frequent revolts, after interminable debates which have taken place in every party and every sect, Raphael, calm and tranquil, has ever occupied the throne of painting, and no other artist has ever disputed his legitimate empire. FOLLOWERS OF RAPHAEL. ( ROMAN SCHOOL.) Timoteo della Vite, a cousin of Raphael d'Urbino, was born at Urbino in 1470. When about twenty years of age he removed to Bologna to learn the business of a jeweller, but showing great talent for painting he, according to Malvasia, entered the school of Francia, with whom he remained for about five years ; Vasari tells us that he was his own instructor. When about twenty- six he returned to Urbino, and some time afterwards was invited by Raphael to assist him at Rome. After a comparatively short stay in this city he returned to Urbino, where he executed many works in the I 28 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1520. Cathedral, the churches and elsewhere. He died in 1523. Among his pictures may be mentioned, in Urbino, a St. Apollonia in the church of the Santa Trinità, and a Magdalen in the Cathedral; a Noli me tangere in Sant'Angelo at Cagli ; a Madonna and an Immaculate Conception in the Brera ; a Madonna and saints and a St. Jerome in the Berlin Gallery. In painting, Timoteo shows many traces of Francia's style as well as the grace and beauty of Raphael, which he acquired during his short stay in Rome, though with all this his manner is sometimes hard and dry. In the British Museum there is a fine Portrait of Timoteo by his friend Raphael one of the grandest chalk drawings in the world. Giulio Pippi, rightly de' Giannuzzi, commonly called Giulio Romano, was born at Rome in 1492 -a document discovered at Mantua says 1498. He was apprenticed to Raphael when quite young, and assisted him in the Vatican. Among the works designed by the great master, the execution of which is attributed to Giulio, may be mentioned the Battle of Constantine in the “ Stanza di Costantino ;" the Creation and the Histories of Adam and Eve, of Noah, of Joseph, of Moses, and of the Nan Testament, in the Loggie ; the Holy Family under the oak, in the Madrid Gallery ; the Madonna della Gatta, and the Madonna col divino amore, in the Museum at Naples. Giulio also assisted Raphael in many other works. While in Rome he painted frescoes in the “ Villa Lanti ” and the “ Villa Madama. ” He also painted frescoes in the church of Santa Trinità de' Monti. By his will Raphael made Giulio joint-heir with Gianfrancesco Penni, on condition that they should complete his unfinished frescoes in the Vatican. In 1524 Giulio went to Mantua and entered the service of Federigo Gonzaga, duke of that city. He was architect for the Palace del Tè, and, assisted by numerous pupils, decorated the interior with frescoes representing the Defeat of the Giants — his greatest work--and scenes from the History of Cupid and Psyche. He also painted at Mantua, in the “ Uffizio della Scaccheria ,” frescoes representing Diana at the Chase, and the History of the Trojan War, and frescoes in numerous churches, especially the Cathedral, which, however, he was not able to complete ; for, having accepted the post of architect to St. Peter's at Rome, as successor to Sansovino, he was about to set out for that city when he died at Mantua on the ist of November, 1546. Among his easel-pictures we may mention a Madonna in the sacristy of St. Peter's, Rome ; in the Louvre, a Madonna, a Circumcision oj Christ, and a Portrait of himself ; in the Dresden Gallery, La Sainte Famille au Bassin ; and four in the National Gallery ( Nos. 225 , 624, 643, 644) --the best of these is the Infancy of Jupiter ( No. 624) , repre senting the infant sleeping in a cradle, with three women on a verdant island ; in the background are the Curetes playing musical instruments in order to drown the cries of the young Jupiter. This picture was formerly in the Orleans Gallery; thence it passed into the possession of Lord Northwick , from whom it was purchased in 1859. Giulio was as celebrated for his architecture as for his painting. He erected many churches and other buildings in Mantua. His drawing is bold and powerful — he has indeed been compared with Michelangelo — but there is an absence of the knowledge of the true laws of colouring, for he combines the highest lights with the deepest shadows. While at Mantua he had numerous scholars, among whom were Rinaldo and Fermio -Guisoni. Giovanni Francesco Penni, called Il Fattore, because he was at first employed by Raphael as his steward, was born at Florence in 1488. Next to Giulio Romano, he A.D. 1540. ] SCHOLARS OF RAPHAEL. 129 was Raphael's favourite scholar, but he was not a first -rate artist. Of the easel-paintings of Raphael, the Visitation in the Madrid Gallery, and the Madonna del Passeggio in the Bridgewater Gallery, are attributed to Penni, from the design of his master. He also painted the lower-half of the Coronation of the Virgin for the convent of Santa Maria di Monte Luce at Perugia—now in the Vatican -but it is very inferior to the upper portion , the work of Giulio Romano. He also finished, from Raphael's design, the Histories of Abraham and Lot and Isaac, in the Loggie of the Vatican ; and in the " Stan za di Costantino " the Baptism of Constantine, which is inferior to the work of Giulio, in the same room. Penni is thought to have executed a greater part of the painting of the celebrated Raphael Cartoons, seven of which are now in the South Kensington Museum. He made copies of Raphael's Transfiguration and Entombment ; that of the former is in the Sciarra Colonna Gallery, Rome. This artist was Raphael's joint-heir and executor with Giulio Romano. After his master's death , he left Rome and went to Naples, where he died in 1528. Andrea Sabbatini, called Andrea da Salerno from his birthplace, was born in 1480. He was placed in the school of the Donzelli - early Neapolitan painters — to study the art ; seeing some of the works of Perugino he set out in order to join him , but his course was arrested in Rome by the fame of Raphael, whose pupil he became. The death of his father caused him to leave Rome in 1513 ; he then settled in Naples, out of which city very few of his pictures are to be met with . Sabbatini died in 1545 . Among his works we may mention an Adoration of the Kings, in the Naples Gallery. The churches of that city possess several of his works. Bartolommeo Ramenghi, called Bagnacavallo from his birthplace, was born in 1484. He is said to have been a follower of Francia at Bologna for some time ; he then went to Rome and entered the school of Raphael, whose works he studied devoutly ; after the death of the great master he returned to Bologna, and introduced the style of Raphael to the inhabitants of that city, where he painted in 1542 his Crucifixion for the church of San Pietro. He died at Bologna in 1542. It is said that Carracci studied Bagnacavallo's works with interest . There is in the Gallery of Bologna a Holy Family, and many churches of that city possess pictures by Bagnacavallo. In Rome there are a Prophet and a Saint in Santa Maria della Pace, and a Troop of Warriors in the Colonna Palace. We may also mention a Madonna in glory in the Dresden Gallery considered by some to be his masterpiece. Bagnacavallo had a son , Giovanni Battista , who assisted Vasari at Rome and Primaticcio at Fontainebleau. Girolamo Marchesi da Cotignola was born at Cotignola in 1486. He was a pupil of Francia, and painted for a long time in the style of his master, but ultimately abandoned it for that of the great Raphael. Amongst his works we may mention : in the Pinacoteca at Bologna, a Marriage of the Virgin and a Madonna and Child with saints ; in the Berlin Museum, a Coronation of the Virgin and a Madonna with saints ; in the Louvre, a Christ bearing the Cross ; and in Lord Ashburton's collection , a Nativity, signed and dated 1513. Girolamo is said to have died at Rome in 1549. Francesco Primaticcio was born at Bologna in 1490. He studied first under Innocenzio da Imola and Bagnacavallo ; he then went to Mantua, and worked with Giulio Romano in the Palace del Tè and elsewhere. In 1531 he was recommended by Frederick of Mantua to Francis I. of France, for whom he executed a great number of works at Fontainebleau ; though the greater part of the frescoes, with which Francis s 130 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1545. wished to decorate his Palace, were not finished until after that monarch's death . Owing to jealousy, an ill-feeling arose between Primaticcio and Il Rosso, who was then painting for Francis, and the King therefore sent Primaticcio to Rome to collect antique works of art. He was, however, recalled to finish some paintings which Il Rosso's death, in 1541 , had left uncompleted. The most renowned of his works in France were the scenes from the Odyssey in the Palace of Fontainebleau, which were entirely destroyed in 1738 when the great gallery was pulled down to make room for some new apartments. Primaticcio painted also under Henry II. , Francis II . , and Charles IX. Francis I. made him abbot of St. Martin de Troyes, and gave him a revenue of 8000 crowns. He died in 1570, eighty years of age. Works by this artist are rarely seen out of France ; we may mention, as an exception, a Return of Ulysses at Castle Howard, which is described by Dr. Waagen as the best of the pictures by Primaticcio which he had then seen. Giovanni Nanni, commonly known as Giovanni da Udine, from his birthplace, was born in 1494. Early in life he displayed an ability for painting - especially animals and fruit — and was placed under Giorgione at Venice. After some time he removed to Rome and painted under Raphael in the Vatican , where he superintended the execution of the stuccoes and decorations in the Loggie. He executed also a frieze in the Villa Madama at Rome ; and was employed with Perino del Vaga, by Clement VII. , in the Vatican. In 1527 , after the sacking of the city, he left Rome and went to Florence — where he painted for the Medici — and other cities in Italy , but returning to Rome he died there in 1564, and was buried in the old Pantheon near the body of Raphael. As a specimen of Giovanni's art we may mention a Christ among the Doctors, with the four Fathers of the Church in the foreground, now in the Venetian Academy Polidoro Caldara, called Polidoro da Caravaggio, from his birthplace, was born in 1495 . He was employed as a mason in the Vatican , where he acquired a taste for art, in which he induced a Florentine painter, Maturino by name, to instruct him. They then executed conjointly many works in chiaroscuro, which nearly all perished, though they are, to a certain extent, preserved to us by the engravings of Alberti, Galestruzzi, and others. The sack of Rome in 1527 caused a dissolution of partnership of these two artists , when Polidoro went to Naples and remained there some time in the house of Andrea da Salerno, but, being discontented with the lack of appreciation , as he thought, of the Neapolitans, he removed to Messina, where in 1536 he was entrusted with the superintendence of the triumphal decorations on the occasion of the return of the victor, Charles V. , from Tunis. In 1543 Polidoro, having acquired great wealth in Messina, resolved to return to Rome, but on the night previous to his departure he was treacherously murdered for the sake of his money, at the instigation of an old servant, who, confessing his crime, was hanged for the offence. Polidoro was buried in the cathedral of Messina. Among his pictures are a Christ bearing the Cross — his masterpiece — with various other works by him in the public gallery at Naples ; and a Psyche in the Louvre. Pierino Buonaccorsi, called Perino del Vaga, after one of his masters, was born at Florence in 1500. His first instructor in art was one Andrea de' Ceri ; he then studied under Ridolfo Ghirlandajo and Vaga ; the latter took him to Rome, and A.D. 1545. ] SCHOLARS OF RAPHAEL. 131 recommended him to Giulio Romano, who spoke well of him to Raphael, by whom he was employed with Giulio and Penni, on the frescoes in the Vatican. The frescoes in the Loggie, the execution of which is attributed to Perino, are the histories of Joshua and of David ; the histories of Moses and of the New Testament are , by some, attributed to Perino, by others, to Giulio . Perino also assisted Giovanni da Udine in the stuccoes and the arabesques in the Loggie. He painted, too, the Creation of Eve in San Marcello. After the sack of Rome in 1527 , Perino left that city, and went to . Genoa, where he was employed by Prince Doria to decorate his palace, which he did much in the same style that Giulio employed at Mantua. Among the pictures which he executed in this palace, were the Shipwreck of Æneas, on the ceiling of the great hall , now whitewashed over, and Jupiter destroying the Giants, on the ceiling of a neighbouring room . These fine paintings have now nearly all perished. After a stay of some years at Genoa, Perino returned to Rome, where he was employed by Pope Paul III. Towards the end of his life, his pictures were in such request that he merely made the designs, leaving the execution of them to his pupils, among whom we may mention, Pantaleo Calvi and Lazzaro, painters of no great merit. Perino died at Rome in 1547—it is said that he hastened his end by intemperance and was buried by the side of Raphael and other great painters in the old Pantheon. Among his pictures we may mention The Muses and the Pierides on Mount Pariassus in the Louvre, and a Portrait of Cardinal Pole in the possession of Lord Spencer at Althorp. There are works by him in Rome, Tivoli, Florence, Lucca, and Pisa. Innocenzio Francucci da Imola, was born at Imola in 1494, or perhaps a few years earlier, for in 1506 he is said to have entered the school of Francia at Bologna when he quitted Francia he studied under Albertinelli at Florence. He never resided at Rome, but he was one of Raphael's most devoted followers ; he even carried his admiration for the great master so far as to copy whole figures from his subjects in Among his pictures, we may mention an altar-piece, painted for San Michele in Bosco, representing above the Madonna and Child with Angels, and below the Archangel Michael vanquishing Satan, with SS. Peter and Benedict at the sides ; this picture , which has been called his masterpiece, is now in the Bologna Academy, which also possesses a Holy Family, formerly in the church of the Corpus Domini. Various public galleries in Europe contain works by Imola. He died in 1549. Niccolò Abati, who was born at Modena in 1512 , was instructed in art by his father Giovanni Abati, a second-rate painter of that town. He is said to have studied under the sculptor Begarelli , and also under Correggio. In the castle of Scandiano he painted frescoes, which have been engraved by Gajani, representing scenes from the Æneid of Virgil; these have been much admired. In Bologna, to which city he removed in 1546, he painted an Adoration of the Shepherds in the Portico de' Leoni, mentioned by Count Algarotti as combining “ the symmetry of Raphael and the nature of Titian with the grace of Parmigiano . " In 1552 Abati went to France with Prima ticcio, whom he assisted in the frescoes at Fontainebleau ; he painted the Adventures of Ulysses, and other works from the designs of Primaticcio, but they shared the same fate as his master's, and perished in 1738, when the building was removed to make room for some new apartments. Abati painted in France up to the time of his death , which took place in Paris in 1571 . Among his easel-pictures, may be mentioned a Martyrdom of St. Paul in the Dresden Gallery, and a Rape of Proscrpine in the Stafford Gallery. his own. 132 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. (A.D. 1550. There are also some frescoes by him in the Institute of Bologna, which have been compared to the works of Titian ; Malvasia praises them greatly. Vasari says that Abati never retouched his paintings when dry, and attributes to this the evenness and beauty of his colouring. Agostino Carracci praises him most highly in a sonnet, saying that he possessed every requirement for making a great painter, and comparing him to the celebrated artists of Italy. Abati's son Giulio and his grandson Ercole were painters of some merit. FOLLOWERS OF RAPHAEL, (SCHOOL OF FERRARA. ) Benvenuto Tisio, usually known as Garofalo, from his native town in the Ferrarese, whence he often puts a gilliflower ( garofalo) as a monogram in his pictures, was born in 1481. He studied first under an unimportant artist, Domenico Panetti at Ferrara, then under Boccaccino at Cremona for a short time ; but, leaving him in 1500, he set out for Rome, where he remained for fifteen months. Then , after a journey among other towns, he stayed two years with Lorenzo Costa at Mantua ; removing to Ferrara, he stayed there for four years, but ultimately apprenticed himself to Raphael in Rome in 1515 , to assist him in the Vatican. After a stay of a few years, domestic arrangements called Garofalo to Ferrara ; he set out intending to return as soon as possible to Rome, but this, much to Raphael's disappointment, he found himself unable to do. He remained at Ferrara, where, after suffering the affliction of total blindness for nine years, he died in 1559. Garofalo seldom endeavoured to attain a grand style. We find only four large pictures by him : the Sibyl before Augustus, in the Museum of the Vatican ; the Descent from the Cross, in the Borghese Palace ; the Martyrdom of St. Lawrence, in the Museum at Naples ; and the Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bruno, in the Dresden Gallery. This last , a very large picture, bearing the signature of the master and the date, 1530, may be considered as his best work. In this painting he displays his graceful and elegant, as well as firm style, which, even when confined within narrow limits, rises to grandeur. Among other works of Garofalo, we may mention a Salutation of the Virgin, in the Doria Gallery, Rome; a Betrayal of Christ, in San Francesco at Ferrara ; an allegory representing the Triumph of the New Testament over the Old , in the Public Gallery of the same town ; and four in the National Gallery — the Vision of St. Augustine ( No. 81 ) ; the Holy Family with Elizabeth and the young St. John ( No. 170) ; Christ's agony in the Garden ( No. 642) ; and the Madonna and Child enthroned ( No. 671 ) , a work of great merit, originally the altar-piece of San Guglielmo at Ferrara. Dosso Dossi was born in Dosso, near Ferrara, in 1474. He, with his younger brother Giambattista, was a pupil of Lorenzo Costa. On leaving him they studied at Rome, after Raphael's death, and at Venice. They then returned to Ferrara, and executed frescoes in the Ducal Palace, some of which still remain, Dosso doing the figures , in the painting of which he excelled , and Giambattista the background. Dosso Dossi made illustrations for “ Orlando Furioso, ” and painted the Portrait of Ariosto — now in the Academy of Ferrara - by whom , he and his brother are mentioned with praise ( " Orlando Furioso ,” xxxiii . 2 ) . Dosso Dossi died about 1560. Among his pictures may be mentioned a Madonna and Child with saints, now in the gallery of Ferrara ; the Four Doctors of the Church, SS. Gregory, Ambrose, Augustus and A.D. 1530. ] SCHOLARS OF RAPHAEL. 133 Jerome; and the Dream, in the Dresden Gallery ; the Bacchanal, in the Pitti Palace ; the Circe, in the Borghese Gallery ; and the Adoration of the Magi ( No. 640) in the National Gallery Giambattista Dossi was born at Dosso, near Ferrara , about 1480. He, as we have already stated (see Dosso Dossi) , studied under Lorenzo Costa, and also at Rome and Venice. Giambattista worked mostly in conjunction with his elder brother Dosso , but had to content himself , for the most part, with the minor portions of the pictures ; such as putting in the backgrounds to Dosso's figures, for which he was particularly adapted as he excelled in landscape painting. Giambattista also assisted his brother in the works in the Ducal Palace at Ferrara. He died about 1555. Two pictures by Giambattista Dossi are in the Borghese Palace, Rome ; one representing Demons in the wilderness, and the other an Encampment on the shore. Lodovico Mazzolini, called also Lodovico Ferrarese, was born at Ferrara about 1481. Owing to Vasari's silence regarding him, great confusion has arisen. He is only slightly mentioned by that author as “ Malini, ” whence he has been, so to speak, divided into two— “ Malini” and “ Mazzolini. ” He has also been confused with Mazzuoli ( Parmigiano ), owing to the diminutive “ Mazzolino " having been given to the latter by Lomazzo. Mazzolini, who next to Garofalo may be considered the most celebrated of the Ferrarese painters, was a fellow -pupil with that artist under Lorenzo Costa, but little is known of his life ; he died in 1530, at Ferrara. His pictures, which are very scarce , are noticeable for their architectural backgrounds and the excellence of their colour. Mazzolini is represented at Rome, in the Capitol and in the Doria Gallery ; in the Berlin Gallery, where amongst others is his celebrated picture of Christ disputing with the Doctors, painted in 1524 ; in the Gallery of Bologna ; and also in the National Gallery, where there are three pictures, two— (Nos. 82 and 169) representing the Holy Family — and one ( 641 ) the Woman taken in adultery. Works by this artist are sometimes assigned to other masters. Giambattista Benvenuti, called L'Ortolano, because his father was a gardener, was born at Ferrara about 1490. Little is known of him with certainty ; he studied the works of Raphael and Bagnacavallo at Bologna about 1512. It is said that he died in 1525 , when quite young. Pictures by him are in various churches of his native town , but his masterpiece is a St. Sebastian , St. Roch , and St. Demetrius ( No. 669) in the National Gallery, formerly the altar-piece of the parochial church of Bondeno, near Ferrara. 134 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS ( A.D. 1530. .

CHAPTER XII. TITIAN, AND THE VENETIAN SCHOOL OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

W E must now complete our brief history of the great school of Venice; which included, as we shall see, some of the most celebrated painters of Italy, all of them remarkable for the greatness of their powers as COLOURISTS. Tiziano Vecellio, usually known as Titian, was born at Capo del Cadore, in the Venetian territory , in 1477 . He was first placed with Sebastiano Zuccati to study art ; afterwards he went to Gentile Bellini , whom he also soon quitted for the studio of his more famous brother Giovanni Bellini, where he was a fellow -pupil with Giorgione. Owing perhaps to the great age of Giovanni Bellini , Titian was engaged to complete a work, which his master was unable to finish—the Homage of Federigo Barbarossa to Pope Alexander III. in the Sala del Gran Consiglio — which he executed so much to the satisfaction of the Senate that they conferred on him the office of “ La Sanseria ," with which he received a yearly income of about 120 crowns ; this office obliged him to paint, for eight crowns apiece, the portrait of every Doge who might happen to be appointed during his office. About 1514 Titian went to Ferrara and painted at the court of Duke Alfonso I. , among other works, his Bacchus and Ariadne - now in the National Gallery ; while at Ferrara, in 1516, he painted the Portrait of Ariosto, who in return mentions the artist with great praise in his “ Orlando Furioso ” ( Canto xxxiii. 2) . In the same year ( 1516) Titian returned to Venice, and executed there many important works. In 1530 he went to Bologna at the invitation of the Emperor Charles V., whose portrait he painted ; then, after a short visit to Mantua, he executed another portrait of the Emperor, whom , some say, he accompanied to Spain. Certain it is that the Emperor created him Count Palatinate of the Empire and Knight of the order of St. Iago. In 1545 Titian paid his only visit to Rome, where he painted the portrait of Pope Paul III, for a second time. At Rome, too, Vasari and Michelangelo visited the great Venetian, while he was engaged on the Jupiter and Danäe, and the historian tells us that his companion praised the picture most highly while in Titian's presence, and also commended the colouring and execution greatly afterwards, merely adding at the same time it was a pity that the Venetian artists were not early initiated in sound principles of drawing. The same historian tells us that Pope Paul III. offered Titian the office of keeper of the leaden seals - rendered vacant by the death of Sebastiano del l'iombo in 1547 — but this offer the painter refused. Leaving Rome in 1546, Titian returned to Venice, visiting Florence on his way. For the rest of his life he chiefly A.D. 1530.1 VENETIAN SCHOOL. 135 resided at Venice. He visited Charles V. twice at Augsburg -- once in 1548 and again in 1550. And after the Emperor's abdication, he executed many works for his son Philip II. At Venice he was visited a second time by Vasari , who found him , though nigh upon ninety years of age, still wielding his brush. Titian, the chosen friend of Emperors, the greatest painter of the Venetian school , and the best colourist of all the schools, died at Venice, of the plague, at the advanced age of ninety-nine, on the 27th of August, 1576 ; and was buried in the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa de' Frari. Little is recorded of his private life. He married about the year 1512 - but lost his wife in 1530. He had two sons, Pomponio and Orazio—the latter of whom was a good portrait-painter -- and a daughter Lavinia, whose features are immortalized in the celebrated picture in the Berlin Museum . Venice is very fortunate with regard to her favourite painter. Many of his best works are preserved in her museum and churches, and in the palaces of her doges and patricians ; and amongst these are several of his most important and most justly famous productions. In the Accademia delle Belle Arti, his whole history is written . are the first trials of a yet uncertain youth, the perfection of his middle age, and the last occupations of an old age, voluntarily laborious. A Visitation of St. Elizabeth is considered the earliest existing work of this great man . He painted this picture when scarcely more than a child, hesitating between the imitation of his master, Giovanni Bellini , and the new style of his fellow - student Giorgione. The forms are stiff and the colours tame, but one can already clearly see the direction in which his natural inclinations were leading him . His last work, on the other hand, is a Descent from the Cross, which death prevented his finishing. On examining this picture closely, we can see the confused and heavy work of a trembling hand and dim eye. Some parts of this venerable Deposition which had been left incomplete were finished by Palma Vecchio, according to the pious inscription traced at the bottom : “ Quod Titianus inchoatum reliquit, Palma reverenter absolvit, Deoque dicavit opus.” The two large compositions at the Accademia representing the commencement and the close of the History of the Virgin - her Presentation in the Temple, and her Assumption to Heaven - indicate the maturity of the genius of Titian. The first is a singular imagination , suggested doubtless by tradition . In it are seen the external flight of stairs leading to the vestibule of the temple, the neighbouring houses, the streets in perspective, mountains in the background, and a crowd of people. Mary, the young girl who ascends the steps alone, is the least part of the picture, which is none the less an admirable specimen of the Venetian style. The two kinds of merit in painting, the real and the ideal , which ought to be inseparable, are seen together in the Assumption, so widely celebrated , and now so well known from having been reproduced in every possible method. It is indeed useless to extol its various beauties, to attempt to describe the mysterious majesty of the Eternal Father, the dazzling radiancy of the group of the Virgin, borne by thirty little angels, or the vigorous reality of the witnesses of the miracle ; it is sufficient to say, that in this picture Titian fully merits the name given him by his biographers and admirers, —the greatest colourist of Italy. Another of the great masterpieces of Titian , the Murder of St. Peter Martyr, was till recently in the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo (usually called San Zanipolo ). 136 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. (A.D. 1530. This great work was destroyed by fire in 1867. The subject of this vast composition was the death of a Dominican monk named Pietro di Verona, who was assassinated in a wood, while returning with another monk from some ecclesiastical council. He was canonized, and his tragic death recorded amongst the best authenticated legends. No kind of honour that could have been paid to this picture was wanting : first, the senate of Venice having learnt that a rich man had offered to pay eighteen thousand crowns DEATH OF ST. PETER MARTYR . --BY TITIAN, Formerly in the Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice. for it to the Dominican possessors of the church of San Zanipolo, forbade the monks, under pain of death, to allow it to go out of the territory of the republic ; then Domenichino made a copy of it, which, in spite of its eminent beauties, did not attain to the grandeur of the original ; lastly , it was brought to Paris after the conquest Venice, and there, like the Spasimo of Raphael, it was restored to all its beauty by being taken off the worm-eaten wood and placed on new and durable canvas. All A.D. 1540. ] TITIAN. 137 these honours fully corroborate the saying of Vasari, that “ Titian never in all his life produced a more skilful and finished work .” Besides those in the museum and the churches, paintings by Titian may be found in the houses of the ancient nobility of Venice ; for instance, in the Barbarigo Palace, where he lived many years, and where he died in 1576. Although bands of robbers despoiled it with impunity during his last moments, and his unworthy son , the priest Pomponio Vecellio, dissipated his heritage, the Barbarigo Palace has yet preserved three of his pictures : the Magdalen, with which Titian would never part, but used as a model for all the others, and of which we know at least six copies ; a Venus, which has been wilfully spoilt in order to clothe it ; and a St. Sebastian, which he was sketch ing when death overtook him . The paintings of Titian are to be found in every museum and gallery of importance in the ancient states of Italy. Florence, especially, in spite of the richness of her own school, has collected many treasures of the great Venetian . At the gallery of the Uffizi, in the Venetian room , are two Holy Families, a St. Catherine of Alexandria, in which he has painted the features of the beautiful queen of Cyprus, Catarina Cornaro ; a half- clothed woman , called Flora, from flowers she holds in her hand ; and a sketch of the Battle of Cadore, between the troops of the Empire and those of the Republic — which is all the more precious, as the picture destined for the palace of the doges, for which this was prepared, has perished. In the Tribune are the two celebrated pictures of Venus, placed opposite to each other. One, which is a little larger than nature, and behind which a Cupid is standing, is called , perhaps incorrectly, the wife of Titian. The other, supposed to represent the mistress of a duke of Urbino, or of one of the Medici, is known in France as the Vénus au petit Chien . Both are perfectly nude, but neither bold nor immodest ; they preserve as much decency and dignity as the “ Aphrodite” of Greek statuary. Both are painted with a touch vigorous, delicate, and tender, the secret of which only Titian, the great painter of women , seems to have discovered. The latter, however --superior to the other in delicacy of drawing, in the charm of the attitude, and the beauty of the face, in which a sweet voluptuousness breathes - justly enjoys the greater fame. Below it is an excellent and magnificent portrait of the Cardinal Beccadella , which Titian painted at Venice in 1552 , when the prelate came there as papal legate. The artist was then in his seventy- fifth year ; but as he painted for twenty years longer, this may almost be considered a work of his youth , Among the thirteen paintings by Titian in the Pitti Palace, we prefer to mention the portraits, for certainly no other collection contains so great a number, nor such perfection . Several also are celebrated through the name of the person represented ; there is the portrait of Andreas Vesalius, the great physician and anatomist, who, like Galileo, was persecuted by superstition , and who was driven to the Holy Land to die of hunger ; there is Philip II. of Spain, taken during his youth ; Pietro Aretino, the dreaded satirical poet, for thirty years the friend and counsellor of the artist, who was perhaps the only one of his contemporaries whose love for the poet was unmixed with fear. Others, on the contrary, are valuable less for the name of the model than for the artist's merits. Thus, to show the greatest height to which art can reach in the simple representation of the human being, in the expression of life , it is sufficient to mention the portrait of the old man , Luigi Cornaro, or that of the young man opposite, whose name is not known. For personal grace and brilliant costume we must mention the portrait of a lady, called Titian's blistress. Again, the portrait in which the most } T 138 [ A.D. 1540. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . wonderful effects of light and shade are to be found , is the portrait of the Cardinal Ippolito di Medici, clothed as a Hungarian magnate. Nothing can be found superior to these four portraits in the whole of Titian's works, and in this style Titian has never been surpassed by any school or in any country. Amongst the works of Titian that have remained in Rome, is the Sacrifice of Isaa , in the Doria Palace, and a St. Sebastian in the Vatican. These are magnificent ST. SEBASTIAN - BY TITIAN . In the Vatican, Rome. works, and among the most perfect in every way that have been left by the great painter of Cadore. Several of his works are to be found in the Studj Gallery at Naples : in the first place, Pope Paul III.seated at a desk,and raising the young prince Ottaviano 11. of A.D. 1550.] TITIAN. 139 Parma, who is kneeling before him . The other portraits by Titian are of Erasmus of Rotterdam , in his extreme old age, and Philip II. of Spain, when young ; both are excellent. The latter is signed, “ Titianus Vecellius eques Cæsaris .” It was no doubt painted a short while after the time that Charles V. had conferred the order of knight hood, with a pension of two hundred crowns,on the great painter whose pencil he had condescended to pick up : on his accession Philip II . doubled this pension. It is in a sort of private cabinet (in which however any one may enter ) that the Danäe, seduced by the golden shower, and whom Love watches smiling, has long been hidden. This Danäe was painted for the duke Ottavio Farnese ať Rome, when Titian , although sixty- eight years of age, yielded to the pressing solicitations of Paul III . , and appeared at the pontifical court, to which Leo X. had not succeeded in attracting him . This picture was much admired, but the austere Michelangelo, to whom it was shown, added a reservation . “ It is a great pity ,” said he, " that at Venice they do not make it a rule to draw well ; this man would have no equal if he had strengthened his natural genius by the knowledge of drawing. ” At Madrid a whole museum might be formed of the works of Titian alone. Sent for three times to Augsburg, to paint Charles V., and then Philip II . , who all through his life kept up a familiar correspondence with the great Venetian artist , Titian appears to have bequeathed to Spain the greater part of the immense labours of his prolonged life. The biographers of the painter mentioned several compositions, and some of his most important ones, which could neither be discovered at Venice nor anywhere else, and which in consequence were considered lost. A great number of these having been found in the catacomb -like galleries of the Escurial , have been restored to the light of day in the museum of Madrid, and have increased the glory of that great gallery. Spain, however, has not preserved all she possessed by Titian . The terrible fire of the Prado, in March, 1608, probably consumed the great allegory called Religion, which has entirely disappeared . Other precious pictures have perished under the ravages of time and of men ; for instance, the large and magnificent painting of the Last Supper, the rival of that by Leonardo da Vinci, at which Titian laboured seven years, and which he considered the best of his works, even after he had painted the Assumption, revered at Venice as the most sacred relic of its painter. Too dilapidated to bear a removal, the remains of this great composition were obliged to be left fastened to the walls of the deserted Refectory in the Escurial, where it has been mutilated by impious hands. And yet, even after these cruel losses , Spain is the fnost richly endowed of the nations who have inherited the works of Titian. The Museo del Rey at Madrid contains as many as forty-two works by this illustrious painter. We will merely mention briefly the principal among them , beginning with the portraits, and following the order of the works from the simplest to the most important. The best among the portraits would have been a Charles V. on horseback , in full armour and with his lance in rest , like a knight-errant, if this splendid picture were not unfortunately much injured. We must then give the first place to another Charles V. , on foot, and clothed this time in civil costume, a black cap , doublet of cloth of gold , and white mantle and hose ; he rests his hand on the head of a large dog - an historical personage who was for several years the favourite of this emperor. This picture is as remarkable for its perfect preservation as for the wonderful execution of every part, and the expression of majesty which pervades the whole. A third Charles V., brought from the Escurial , was painted at the close of his reign , with a whitened beard , when the weariness and disgust of public affairs led the conqueror of Pavia, the 1 40 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1550. and power. sacker of Rome, to the monastery of San Yuste. Philip II., with his pale, fair, and effeminate face, is twice represented, on foot and in half - length portrait, and both times admirably, although even when young he could only have been painted in the old age of Titian. Several other portraits no less remarkable come afterwards; those of Isabella of Portugal,the wife of Charles V. , and of a Lady dressed in white, whose name is unknown ; those of different men , one playing with a fine spaniel, another closing a book of prayers, one wearing a large white cross on his breast, another, the Marquis del Vasto, holding in his hand a general's bâton : and lastly one of Titian himself, old and venerable, with a long white beard , in which he has rendered, with admirable simplicity, his calm , noble, and expressive face, still youthful even in extreme old age. Amongst the paintings of single figures, there is a bold Ecce Homo, painted on slate ; a Mater Dolorosa, which is nothing more than a lady in affliction, and like many other pictures , both ancient and modern, would be much improved by the name being changed ; two of St. Margaret, one ofthem a half - length figure, on the point of being devoured by the dragon, which, according to the legend, swallowed her alive, but from which she emerged making the sign of the cross ; the other is a full-length figure, having the dead dragon at her feet,—both are as remarkable for the beauty of the features and the serenity of the expression as for the vigour and transparency of the touch ; and lastly the Daughter of Herodias, who is taking the head of St. John the Baptist to her mother on a silver charger. We have reserved this picture, which was brought from the Escurial, as the last of the series, because it is the most wonderful. Never has Titian , always so strong, so true, so powerful, shown more strength, truth, It is before this beautiful and terrible daughter of Herodias, that we recal and accept the saying of Tintoretto, “ That man paints with pounded flesh . " It was indeed flesh , but animated, living flesh , which he found on his palette, and which he placed on his immortal canvas. The pictures containing several figures may be divided into sacred and profane. Among the former,which are the least numerous, we may notice' a Christ bearing his Cross, much smaller than the Spasimo of Raphael, and in the early style of Titian, when he imitated Giorgione ; an Abraham restrained by the Angel, greater in its proportions, but not in its style, than that by Andrea del Sarto on the same subject ; and Eve presenting the apple to Adam ; on this painting Titian lavished all his knowledge of chiaroscuro and all his depth of colouring. Afterwards come two Entombments, exactly alike except for a few differences in the colour of the vestments. We must also mention an Assumption of the Magdalen ,containing only the figure of the beautiful sinner, become a rigid anchoret, and the group of angels bearing her triumphantly towards the celestial dwellings. Lastly we come to the great Allegory, half religious , half political, in which is seen the imperial family, Charles V., Philip II . , and their wives, presented in heaven to the Trinity. This painting is called the Apotheosis of the Imperial Family. Heaven is there represented open ; the Divine Trinity occupy the throne of glory, on which Mary is also sitting, and like the white dove, which represents the Holy Spirit, seems to melt away into the brilliant waves of light from above ; the Trinity appears to be composed of the Father, the Son, and the Virgin, all alike clothed in long sky- blue mantles. Above them are choirs of archangels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, while angels are introducing into the celestial court the four sovereigns from the earth, who with clasped hands and bent heads are supplicants before the throne. Standing in front of the group, Charles V. has already put on the monk's white frock, Philip and ,THE ENTOMBMENTTITIAN By the In1.0nr . TIENTYORK PUBL مر ? ARY A PARTNOX AND II IONS L A.D. 1560. ] TITIAN. 141 the two queens preserve their royal garments. This circumstance gives a date to the picture ; it could only have been painted after the abdication of the emperor, in 1556, when Titian was eighty years of age. And yet in this strange composition, which was doubtless ordered by the filial love of the successor of Charles V. , we may recognize the hand of the great artist who had painted the Assumption half a century before. In the series of profane compositions we may mention rapidly two pictures of Venus almost alike, and strongly resembling those in the Tribune at Florence ; then the group of Venus and Adonis, of which there is a fac - simile in the National Gallery in London. It is certain that under the features of the hunter, tearing himself from the embraces of his celestial lover, Titian has painted Philip II . , who, when still very young, fresh , and delicate, was considered, like Francis I. , and every prince not actually deformed, the handsomest man in the kingdom . This picture is said to be one of the masterpieces of the painter. Under the title of Sacrifice to the Goddess of Fertility, he has painted one of the most wonderful scenes that the most adventurous colourist could imagine. In a beautiful landscape at the foot of the statue of the goddess, to whom two young girls are offering presents of fruit and flowers, an in numerable band of young children scattered in different groups over the whole picture, are struggling and playing with the innocence and vivacity of their age. There is another masterpiece, entitled the Arrival of Bacchus at the Isle of Naxos, which is , indeed, like its pendant, the Bacchus and Ariadne in the National Gallery, a true Bacchanalian scene. The scene is, of course, on the sea -shore and on the blue waves : in the distance is a white sail , which indicates either the departure of the ungrateful Theseus, or the approach of Bacchus the consoler. The abandoned Ariadne, still asleep , is lying naked in the foreground of the picture ; she is surrounded by different groups of Bacchantes, dancing, singing, and drinking, whilst old Silenus is also sleeping among the bushes on a hill . This Bacchus at Naxos, although only about half the size of nature, is one of the greatest works of Titian. The colour and effect in it are wonderful ; it attracts the spectator, and it is difficult for him to tear himself from the profound admiration its contemplation excites. There is also a large historical painting which required the greatest powers of the artist; this is the Allegory of the Battle of Lepanto. Through the open window, at the end of a long gallery, are seen some incidents of a naval combat. Nothing in this work speaks of the weakness of old age. The thought is still clear, the hand firm , and the execution brilliant. Who would not be surprised on hearing that Titian began this painting when he had completed his ninety-fourth year ? After this wonder ful effort the only other work of his we can find is the Deposition from the Cross, in the Museum of Venice, which he left unfinished , and which was completed by Palma Vecchio, of which we have previously spoken. Very few of Titian's works are found out of Italy or Spain. No museum or gallery in the north of Europe can boast of possessing any of his large compositions of the first rank : they have only portraits by him , although, if we may believe the names on the picture frames at Vienna, there are almost as many of Titian's portraits there as at Madrid , and the two capitals must have divided the inheritance of Charles V. At Berlin is the celebrated picture of the girl with fruit known as Titian's Daughter. Dresden possesses, besides a Holy Family with Saints, the famous Cristo della Moneta, which represents our Lord's discourse respecting the tribute money. There are but two figures in this painting, Christ and his interlocutor, merely seen in half- length, and 142 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1560. yet the subject is perfectly clear. The magnificent colour and wonderful finish of the execution make this picture a real masterpiece. Paris is not much richer than Munich or Vienna. Of the four Holy Families attributed to Titian in the Louvre, one alone, that called the Vierge au Lapin, is of any importance, the authenticity even of the others is doubtful. But the Christ crowned with thorns, the Entombment, and the Disciples at Emmaus, are three fine paintings , in a grand style of vigorous execution , and worthy the illustrious chief of the Venetian school. As for the Entombment, remarkable for high qualities which Titian did not always attain , or even aim at, depth of sentiment and power of expression, it is only one of the numerous repetitions of a subject which he treated several times, almost without variation, and of which the Manfrini Palace boasts of possessing the original. But we may see at the Louvre how Titian excelled in portrait painting, in which , indeed, no one has surpassed him , and in which he has given immortality to all his models. It may be said of his portraits that we do not look at them but inect them . The best is, perhaps, that of a young patrician called L'Homme au Gant, his name is unknown. We must also notice the portrait of the Marquis de Guast ( Alonzo de Avalos, Marquis del Vasto) , placed in a sort of allegory, in the same frame with that of his wife or mistress ; and especially the portrait of a young woman at her toilette, combing out her long dark hair before a mirror, called La Maitresse de Titian ; but there is nothing to justify this name. The National Gallery possesses, beside the Bacchus and Ariadne ( No. 35 ) and the Venus and Adonis ( No. 34) , already mentionedl ; the Portrait of Ariosto ( No. 636 ) , in a crimson and purple dress; a Concert ( No. 3 ) , once the property of Charles I. ; a Holy Family ( No. 4) , from the Borghese Palace ; the Rape of Ganymede ( No. 32), with a background by Carlo Maratti ; the Tribute Money ( No. 224) , three figures, half length ; a Noli me tangere ( No. 270) , bequeathed by Mr. Samuel Rogers ; and a Madonna and Child, with SS. John the Baptist and Catherine ( No. 635), signed “ Tician. " Among the pupils of Titian who are worthy of special mention, we may name his son , Orazio Vecellio, who was born at Venice in 1515. He was celebrated as a portrait painter, and is said to have spent much of his time in the study of alchemy. He died at the same time and of the same epidemic as his father in 1576. And his nephew ,, Marco Vecellio, who was born at Venice in 1545 ; he was a great favourite of his uncle, whom he used to accompany on his travels. He painted much after his style, but with only second - rate success. He died in 1611 . THE FOLLOWERS OF TITIAN . Andrea Previtali , who was born at Bergamo in the latter part of the fifteenth century, was a follower of Giovanni Bellini. Among the works by Previtali are an altar-piece in Borgo Sant Antonio, a Crucifixion in Sant' Alessandro at Bergamo, and many others in the churches of that town, where he died of the plague in 1528. The Madonna and Child ( No. 695) in the National Gallery is attributed to Previtali. Pi Francesco Bissolo was a native of Treviso ; the late of his birth is not known. He studied in the school of Giovanni Bellini. Among his pictures may be mentioned A.D. 1525. ] THE FOLLOWERS OF TITIAN. 143 a Christ exchanging the crown of thorns of St. Catherine of Siena for a crown of gold , in the Venetian Academy, signed “ Franciscus Bissolo ," formerly in San Pietro Martire at Murano : a Resurrection of Christ, in the Berlin Gallery ; and a Portrait of a Lady ( No. 631 ) in the National Gallery. Bissolo's pictures are chiefly remarkable for the beauty of their colouring (a characteristic of the Venetian School) and for their gentleness of execution. He painted from 1500 till 1528. Jacopo Palma - called Il Palma Vecchio, to distinguish him from his nephew Jacopo Palma, surnamed Palma Giovane, of whom but scanty record has been handed down to us--was born at Serinalta, near Bergamo, about the year 1480. Palma is supposed to have studied under Giovanni Bellini, but his painting was much influenced by the styles of Giorgione and Titian. He lived chiefly at Venice, where he died, when forty-eight years of age, about 1528. In Venice there are a St. Peter with saints in the Academy ; an altar -piece, in Santa Maria Formosa, representing St. Barbara ard other saints ( one of his best works), and various other paintings. In the Colonna Palace, at Rome, are a St. Peter, the Virgin, and donor, and SS. Lucia, Jerome, Joseph aid an Angel — ascribed , with various other works by this artist, to Titian . In the Belvedere, among other paintings of Palma, are two Sante Conversazioni, and a portrait of his daughter Violante, and one of Lucretia . The Dresden Gallery possesses the beautiful Three Gruces (supposed to be portraits of his three daughters ) and a l'onus. Palma especially excelled in female portrait painting, in which branch apart he may be said to have rivalled Titian himself. Lorenzo Lotto was born at Treviso about 1480. He removed when young to Venice, where he lived for some time, but he returned to his native town, and then in 1513 settled in Bergamo, whence he is sometimes called “ Bergamasco. ” He resided also at Trevigi, at Recanati, and at Loreto, where he died about 1558. Though changeable in his places of residence, he was still more so in his manner of painting. He copied the works of Bellini , of Giorgione, of Titian , and of Correggio ; and his works have passed under the names of all these painters. Among these misnomers we may mention a Portrait of Andrea Oiloni at Hampton Court, long attributed to Correggio ( the signature , “ Laurentius Lotus, 1527, " had been painted over) ; a portrait at Munich, under the name of Giorgione ; and one in the Belvedere, Vienna, ascribed to Titian. Bergamo possesses several good specimens of Lotto's painting ; we may mention, as examples, altar-pieces representing the Madonna in Santo Spirito and in San Bernardino. Various towns in the March of Ancona possess works by him. In the Berlin Gallery is a Portrait of himself ; and in the National Gallery, a picture representing Portraits of Agostino and Niccolò della Torre ( No. 699) , purchased in Bergamo from Signor Morelli. That works by Lotto should have been mistaken for the production of such great masters as Giorgione, Titian and others, proves him to have been a painter of no common merit, and Lanzi even goes so far as to say that he could scarcely be surpassed by Raphael or Correggio. Giovanni Antonio - called by Vasari and others Licinio , whence he has been confused with a supposed relative Bernardo Licinio , a painter of second -rate abilities ; sometimes “ de Corticellis ,” from his father's birthplace near Brescia ; sometimes Regillo ” (which title he assumed in 1535 on being knighted by John, king of Hungary ) -is commonly known as Pordenone, from his birthplace in the Friuli. He was born in 1483, and studied under Pellegrino da San Daniele, but imitated the styles of 66 144 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1540. Giorgione and Titian ; he was for some time the rival of the latter. He excelled especially in ' fresco work . A story is related by Ridolfi , that Pordenone received his first commission from a tradesman, and that while his employer was away at mass, such was the quickness of his execution, he painted an entire figure of the Madonna. About 1505 Pordenone quitted his native town and is supposed to have journeyed about in the Friuli and in Lombardy. In 1513 he returned to his native town , which he visited at intervals until 1535 when he took up his residence in Venice, where he executed important frescoes , which have unfortunately perished . The last work which Pordenone undertook was a series of designs, the subjects of which were taken from the Odyssey-for tapestry for Duke Ercole of Ferrara, in which town he died ( it is said, of poison ) in the commencement of 1539, after a stay of but a few days. He was buried in the church of San Paolo. Among the most noteworthy of Pordenone's works are the Madonna of Mercy in the Cathedral of Pordenone, painted in 1515 ; the Conversion of St. Paul and Assumption, in the Spilemberg Cathedral; a St. Lorenzo enthroned, signed “ Joannis Antonii Portunaensis,” in the Academy at Venice, a St. Roch with SS. Catherine and Sebastian in San Giovanni Elemosinario, Venice ; an Entomoment in the Monte di Pietà at Treviso ; the Daughter of Herodias with the head of the Baptist, in the Doria Palace, Rome; a St. George and the Dragon in the Quirinal ; scenes from the Passion of our Lord, in the Cremona Cathedral. Besides these, many other works by this great painter are in various towns in Italy ; in Udine, in Conegliano, and in several small towns near Pordenone. An Apostle ( No. 272 ) in the National Gallery is attributed to this artist. Sebastiano Luciani, who was surnamed del Piombo when the second Medicean pope, Clement VII. , nominated him keeper of the piombi, or seals of the Roman chancery, was born at Venice in 1485. He was at first a musician, but afterwards taking a fancy to study art, he worked under Giovanni Bellini and subsequently under Giorgione. About 1510 Sebastian was invited to Rome by Agostino Chigi, for whom he executed works in the Farnesina Palace. Having obtained in 1531 ) a good income through an office which was really a sinecure, by a favour which the popes usually granted rather to their own friends than to artists , Sebastian only thought of enjoying himself , and ceased working. He had however received lessons from Giorgione at Venice and from Michelangelo at Rome, that is to say, from the greatest ' masters of colouring and drawing. He had also succeeded in uniting the style of his two masters. But idleness, carelessness, and good living, gained the day over love of glory and even love of gain. For this reason , the works of Sebastian del Piombo are still rarer than those of Giorgione himself. Sebastian died at Rome in 1547. At his native Venice there is an altar-piece in San Giovanni Crisostomo, representing the Magdalen , SS. Chrysostom , John the Baptist with other saints ; painted in 1510. The Pitti Palace possesses a large and fine composition, the Martyrdom of St. Agatha, in which may be seen , in equal degrees, a style at once noble and severe, and the vigorous effects of chiaroscuro, those two qualities which so seldom are found together, and whose union forms the distinctive merit of an artist who was half Venetian and half Florentine in his style. The museum of Naples is more fortunate in possessing excellent portraits of Pope Alexander V1, and Anne Boleyn , wife of Henry VIII. , and also a Holy Family, in which the young St. John completes the group of the A.D. 1540. ] THE FOLLOWERS OF TITIAN . 145 Madonna and Child. It has, it is true, been placed in the hall of the “ Capi d ' opera ; ” but it should have been placed opposite the other Holy Family, signed by Raphael. It fully deserves the honour of this competition, for more vigorous colouring could not have been united to more correct drawing or a grander style. Mary is a type of severe beauty, which it would be difficult to equal. This picture must fill with admiration all those who are not led away by brilliant colours or a mannered grace. In the Doria Palace, Rome, is the celebrated portrait of Andrea Doria. In London, in the National Gallery, also may be seen portraits and a large composition by Sebastian del Piombo . One of the portraits ( No. 24) was formerly thought to be that of the beautiful and holy Giulia Gonzaga, but the forms are rather thick, and the proportions are probably larger than nature. In another frame(No. 20) are the portraits of the Cardinal Ippolito de Medici, the patron of the artist, and of Sebastian himself holding in his hand the piombo or seal of his office. The last picture, the Raising of Lazarus, enjoys a great celebrity ; it is signed , “ Sebastianus Venetus Faciebat.” Having come from the collection of the dukes of Orleans, it was sold in 1792 , by Philippe Egalité to Mr. Angerstein , from whom it was bought in 1824. In the catalogue it is marked No. 1 , as it was in some degree the foundation stone of the collection. Its history alone would be sufficient to give it a high importance. We know that the Transfiguration was ordered of Raphael by the cardinal Giulio de' Medici, afterwards Clement VII . , for the high altar in the cathedral at Narbonne, of which he was archbishop. But, not wishing to deprive Rome of the painter's masterpiece, Giulio de' Medici ordered of Sebastian del Piombo another picture of equal dimensions to take its place at Narbonne : this was the Raising of Lazarus. Vasari says that Michelangelo, charmed to see another rival to Raphael arise , not only encouraged Sebastian in the contest, but traced the whole composition and even painted the figure of Lazarus. “ I thank Michelangelo, ” wrote Raphael, “ for the honour he has done me in considering me worthy to strive with him, and not with Sebastian alone. ” These historical circumstances give much interest to the work of the Venetian ; but on the other hand they provoke a formidable comparison, which he could not sustain, and which perhaps lessens his real value. In the Raising of Lazarus we see a rather confused scene, and we may wish that it possessed rather more clearness and vivacity. The firm drawing of Michelangelo is abused in it , as well as the violent chiaroscuro of Giorgione, which really seems to transform all the personages into mulattoes ; we might almost believe that the scene took place in Ethiopia . The details are finer than the composition, and the attitudes are rather varied than combined with a view to the whole subject ; in short, it is a collection of admirable parts rather than an admirable whole. Some drawings for parts of this composition (ascribed to Michelangelo) which were formerly in the possession of Sir Thomas Lawrence, are now in the British Museum. It was the Escurial which gave the Descent into Hades to the Museo del Rey. This fine work contains fewer figures than the Raising of Lazarus ; but there are no faults of coldness in the composition, of exaggeration in the shadows, or of narrowness of perspective. The style is no less severe and imposing, but it has an advantage over the Lazarus in the scene being better grouped, more animated, and of powerful colouring, worthy in every respect of Giorgione, and perfectly in accordance with the subject. This magnificent Christ in Hades seems to present, in its highest expression, the severe and vigorous style of Sebastian del Piombo . There is a Visitation by him in the Louvre, and a Pietà ---painted on stone - in the Berlin Gallery. U 146 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1550. Girolamo Romanino was born about 1486 at Romano, on the Serio, whence he has derived his name. He lived chiefly at Brescia, and signed himself “ de Brixia . " He was established as a painter in that city as early as 1502 , which date is seen on an altar-piece of the Madonna and Child enthroned with saints, in San Francesco. This is one of his best works, and is especially to be admired for the beauty of its colour. When Brescia was convulsed with war in 1511-12 , and thus rendered uninhabitable to a man of peaceful habits, Romanino removed to Padua, where he painted in the church of Santa Giustina. About 1520 he is known to have been at Cremona, in the cathedral of which town he painted , among other things an Ecce Homo, signed “ Hier. Ruman. Brix . ” (Hieronymus Rumanus Brixianus), but he shortly after returned to Brescia , where he probably remained until his death in 1566. Romanino imitated the styles of Giorgione and Titian, with very good result. Brescia possesses many of his works, both in its galleries and its churches. Of these we may mention a Nativity, in San Giuseppe ; and a Communion of St. Apollonius, in Santa Maria Calchera. The Berlin Museum possesses a Pietà, painted for the church of Santa Faustina in Brescia . The National Gallery has one of his best works, a Nativity ( No. 297) ; painted in 1525 for the high altar of Sant' Alessandro at Brescia. Alessandro Bonvicino, commonly known as Il Moretto da Brescia , from his birth place, was born about the year 1490. He first studied under a painter of Brescia, Fioravante Ferramola by name, but subsequently at Venice under Titian, whose style he for some time imitated , but afterwards abandoned in favour of that of the great Raphael. Little is known of his life, and the date of his death also is unrecorded. It was probably about 1560. Moretto was the master of the portrait- painter Moroni. Among the works which he executed in Brescia, we may mention, the Coronation of the Virgin and the Transfiguration, in SS. Nazaro e Celso ; the Madonna and Child with saints and the Marriage of St. Catherine, in San Clemente ; the Enthronement of St. Antony of Padua, in Santa Maria delle Grazie ; St. Nicholas of Bari, in Santa Maria de' Miracoli; and St. Margaret with SS. Jerome and Francis, in San Francesco. In Santa Maria della Pietà at Venice is one of his best works, the Feast of the Pharisee, signed and dated “ Alex. Morettus Brix. F. M.D.XLIIII." The Belvedere Gallery at Vienna possesses a St. Justina, formerly ascribed to Pordenone, and the National Gallery owns two pictures by Moretto, a Portrait of an Italian Nobleman ( No. 299) , Count Sciarra Martinengo Cesaresco, of Brescia ; and a St. Bernard of Siena with other saints ( No. 625 ) . Bonifazio Veneziano, who was born at Verona about 1491, was a follower of Giorgione and Titian , under whose names several of his best works have passed. Among his pictures, most worthy of mention, are an Adoration of the Kings and the Dives and Lazarus in the Accademia , Venice; a Return of the Prodigal Son in the Borghese Palace ; and a Madonna and saints in the Colonna Palace. There were two other painters of the name of Bonifazio, relatives of the above mentioned artist, and consequently much confusion has arisen concerning them . Bonifazio Veneziano was a good colourist, but his drawing and the expression of his faces are not much to be admired. He died in 1540. Vincenzo di Biagio, called Catena, was born at Treviso about 1495. He was an imitator of Giovanni Bellini. There are pictures by him in the Venetian Academy in the Manfrini Gallery, and in many public galleries of Europe. A painting representing Warrior adoring the Infant Christ in the National Gallery ( No. 234) , was formerly in A.D. 1575. ] THE FOLLOWERS OF TITIAN. 147 66 the possession of Mr. Samuel Woodburn , by whom it was attributed to Giorgione. It is now pronounced to be of the school of Bellini, and by some critics to be by Catena. This artist made his will in 1531 , and is believed to have died in that year. Martino da Udine, commonly known as Pellegrino da San Daniele, the son of Battista da Udine, was probably born in Friuli, though the date of his birth is not known. He was called Pellegrino by Giovanni Bellini, whose pupil he was, and he derived the name of San Daniele from his residence in that little Friulian town , where in the church of Sant Antonio he executed frescoes representing the Life of Christ and the Legends of St. Antony; these frescoes were commenced in 1498 , in which year he signs his name Pelegrinus.” Owing to the wars which then convulsed the Friulian territory, Pellegrino left San Daniele and went to Venice. In 1512 he returned and painted in Sant'Antonio until 1522 , in which year the frescoes were completed. A large altar-piece, representing the Madonna and Child enthroned is in Santa Maria de' Battisti , at Cividale ; there is also a Madonna and Child enthroned with saints, by him in the National Gallery ( No. 778 )—formerly in the possession of Count Ugo Valentinis, of San Daniele. Pellegrino died in 1547. Paris Bordone, who was born at Treviso in 1500, studied under Titian at Venice. He copied the style of Giorgione, and several of his works have been ascribed to that master, noticeably a Female Portrait in the possession of Lord Enfield at Wrotham . About 1559, Bordone was invited to France by Francis II . , who conferred on him the honour of knighthood. He afterwards returned to Italy , where he executed many works, mostly portraits, and died at Venice in 1571 ; he was buried in the church of San Marziale. Among his best works may be mentioned, a Fisherman presenting the ring of St. Mark to the Doge - his masterpiece — and the Emperor Augustus and the Sibyl, in the Venetian Academy; an Annunciation, in the Siena Gallery ; and a Daphnis and Chloe ( No. 637 ) , and a Portrait of a Lady ( No. 674) , both in the National Gallery. Bordone was chiefly famous for his portraits of women. Giovanni Battista Moroni, one of the best of Italian portrait-painters, and the pupil of Moretto, was born at Albino, near Bergamo, about the year 1510. It is said that Titian was wont, whenever any of the Bergamaschi came to him to have their portraits executed , to recommend them to go to their countryman Moroni. Among the most celebrated pictures by this master we may mention the Portrait of himself, in the Berlin Gallery ; the portrait of the Jesuit, in the Duke of Sutherland's collection ; the Portrait of a Tailor ( No. 697 ) , and the Portrait of a Lawyer ( No. 742 ) , both in the National Gallery. Moroni, besides portraits , executed works of ecclesiastical subjects, but these were of second - rate merit . He died at Bergamo in 1578. Jacopo da Ponte, the founder of a small school, who obtained the honour of being the first genre -painter in Italy, and who is called Il Bassano from his birthplace — was born in 1510. His father - an unimportant painter of the school of the Bellini-was his first teacher in art. He studied afterwards under Bonifazio at Venice, where he consulted the works of Parmigiano and Titian. He had acquired considerable fame in Venice when the death of his father called him , about the year 1530, to Bassano, where he chiefly resided until he died in 1592 . His native town possesses two of his masterpieces; a Nativity, in San Giuseppe, and the Baptism of St. Lucilla, in the church of San Valentino. At Venice he painted a fresco representing Samson destroying the Philistines - a work of great power, 148 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1580. But Jacopo da Ponte can be appreciated better in Madrid than elsewhere — even in Italy. There are several pictures by him in the Museo del Rey, most of them of the large size he principally adopted, and on subjects which suit wonderfully the habit he had of introducing animals everywhere, so as to turn a drawing-room or a temple into a farmyard. With him animals constitute the principal part of the composition. One of these subjects chosen by him is the Entrance into the Ark, in which all kinds of living creatures on the earth , in the air, and in the water advance in couples towards the floating dwelling of Noah, like an army marching in double file , in a thousand Another is the Leaving the Ark, which is only a pendant of the other, though its subject is of smaller dimensions and of less importance. We might also mention a View of Eden, in which the Almighty reproaches our first parents with their disobedience, the subject being a mere pretext for assembling around them all the animal races ; an Orpheus attracting even wild beasts by the sounds of his lyre ; a Journey of Jacob, a picture of beasts of burden, horses, camels, mules and asses, etc. The style of Bassano is more elevated in his Moses and the Hebrews, which represents the people resuming their march after the miracle of the water gushing from the rock ; but he attained the highest grandeur in the painting of Christ driving the Money Changers out of the Temple. This picture, taken from the Escurial, and in which his much - loved animals come in quite naturally, is perhaps the finest of all the works of Bassano. Never has he shown himself more ingenious and animated in the com position, more natural and brilliant in the colouring ; and never has he displayed more fully the various qualities of the painter who first introduced into Italy the worship of simple nature and painted scenes of real life. He was the forerunner of the Dutch school. A replica of this Christ driving the Money Changers out of the Temple is in the National Gallery ( No. 228) , which possesses two other works by this artist ; a Portrait of a Gentleman ( No. 173) , and the Good Samaritan ( No. 277 ) , formerly in the Pisani Palace, Venice, and afterwards in the possession of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Jacopo da Ponte had four sons, Francesco , Giovanni Battista, Leandro and Girolamo, all of whom were artists. Of these, Francesco da Ponte (called the younger,” to distinguish him from his grandfather) is the only one worthy of mention. He was born at Bassano in 1548. (?) After studying with his father at Bassano, he painted chiefly at Venice. One of his best works is an Ascension in San Luigi de Francesi at Rome. His ceiling- paintings in the Palace of the Doge at Venice are also worthy of mention. He died at Venice in 1591 . 66 Jacopo Robusti, who is called Il Tintoretto because he was the son of a dyer ( tintore), was born at Venice in 1512. His artistic qualities were so early developed , that Titian , urged by a feeling of jealousy for which he afterwards nobly compensated, sent from his studio this scholar, whose rivalry he feared even when almost a child. This was of service to Tintoretto : instead of imitating his master servilely , as all his fellow- disciples had done, he formed a more original style for himself , by endeavouring to follow the rule he had adopted - to unite the drawing of Michelangelo with the colouring of Titian. He wrote on the wall of his atelier, “ Il disegno di Michelangelo e'l colorito di Tiziano." But after varied and laborious studies, the numerous orders he received, as soon as he began to be known, and the feverish eagerness of his work , which acquired for him the name of “ il Furioso, ” hindered Tintoretto from giving the same care to his painting ; there are even some evidently done in great haste, or rather with that desire to do much quickly, which may be called negligence in work . Hence A.D. 1580. ] THE FOLLOWERS OF TITIAN, 149 Annibale Carracci said justly, if playfully , that Tintoretto, if sometimes equal to Titian, was often inferior to Tintoretto. He has filled the temples and palaces of Venice with his works ; for, endowed with a wonderful facility of conception and execution , he laboured diligently during a life of eighty-two years. Tintoretto died at his native town in 1594. If space did not fail us, we should describe the large Crucifixion, in the church of San Zanipolo ; a Last Supper, in San Trovaso, a work wholly unworthy of the sub ject ; the St. Agnes restoring to life the son of the Prefect Sempronius, in Santa Maria dell'Orto, a magnificent painting, which was taken to Paris with the pictures by Titian ; and the ceiling in the hall of council (now the library in the ducal palace), called the Glory of Paradise. This is certainly one of the largest paintings an artist ever under took , for it is thirty feet in width and sixty- four in length. Although a production of his old age, confused in some parts and very unskilfully restored , this picture still produces a powerful effect. In the Louvre there is one of the sketches used in its preparation ; but unfortunately nothing else by Tintoretto, unless it be His own portrait, taken when he had white hair and beard, after the sad death of his much-loved daughter. In Madrid there is another sketch for the same ceiling, better and more valuable than the other, as it is the one he preferred and re -copied . This sketch , brought by Velasquez to Philip IV. , presents, in reduced proportions, an infinite number of cherubim, angels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, virgins, and saints of every sort, grouped around the Trinity, and in this sketch , as in the picture, we can trace his fiery and often unreflecting impetuosity, that feverishness which procured him his surname. As for the galleries in the north of Europe, those of London, St. Peters burg, Holland, and of the whole of Germany, they have scarcely anything of Tintoretto's but portraits, among which we may distinguish his own and that of his son, which he presented to the Doge. The National Gallery possesses but one picture - a St. George destroying the dragon ( No. 16) . We must now study his important works in the Accademia in Venice. There we shall find the fine portrait of the Doge Mocenigo, the Ascension of Christ in the presence of three senators ; a Madonna worshipped by three senators ; and an Enthroned Malonna between SS. Cosmo and Damian — a perfect and unsurpassable marvel in colouring. Opposite the Assumption of Titian , which occupies one of the principal panels in the large hall , has been placed the Miracle of St. Mark, which was painted for the Scuola di San Marco, with three others ; the Exhumation of the body of St. Mark at Alexandria ; the Transportation of thebody to the ship ; and the Miraculous preservation of a Saracen sailor by St. Mark ; these three are still in the Scuola di San Marco. Tintoretto painted the Miracle of St. Mark ( the first mentioned) at thirty -six years of age. It represents the deliverance of a slave, condemned to death, by the miraculous intervention of the patron of Venice. It is an immense scene in the open air and contains a number of figures , grouped without confusion, and all contributing to the completeness of the subject without interfering with its unity. In the midst of these people, assembled in order to witness the execution, and who become spectators of the miracle, the slave lying on the ground, whose bands are breaking of them selves , and the Evangelist (extended in the air, as if supported by wings) present foreshortenings of great boldness and success. Besides the commanding power of the touch, the disposition of the light, the harmony and delicacy of the colours, the vigour of the chiaroscuro , all the magic power of colouring carried to its greatest extent , form a dazzling and wonderful work , which might be called the Miracle of Tintoretto instead 150 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1588.

of the Miracle of St. Mark. The Scuola di San Rocco possesses no less than fifty-seven pictures by this artist . The most noteworthy of these is a large Crucifixion , painted in 1565 , and engraved by Agostino Carracci in 1589. We must here mention Tintoretto's son Domenico Robusti, who was born in 1562 , and died in 1637 , and who followed in the steps of his father, but as Lanzi says, " like the young Ascanius, ' non passibus æquis ’ ;" also Marietta Robusti, his daughter, who was born in 1560 and died at the early age of thirty, and who was so much celebrated as a portrait painter, that she was invited to Spain by Philip II . , Andrea Schiavone, who was born in 1522, settled in Venice, where he became a follower of Titian, from whom he acquired a fine taste for colour ; his drawing is of second-rate ability. Among his best pictures we may mention, a Christ before Pilate, in the Naples Gallery ; an Adoration of the Shepherds, in the Belvedere Gallery, Vienna ; and four landscapes at Hampton Court. To Schiavone, Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle ascribe a Christ with his disciples at Emmaus, in the Uffizi, which is there attributed to Palma Vecchio. Schiavone died at Venice in 1582. Paolo Cagliari ( or Caliari) , whom we call Paul Veronese, was born at Verona in 1528. He was instructed in design by his father Gabriele Cagliari, who was a sculptor, and in painting by his uncle Antonio Badile, an artist of second -rate abilities. After painting in Verona and Mantua, Veronese visited Venice, where he executed many works, especially in the church of San Sebastiano . Of these the best are three scenes from the History of St. Sebastian, painted between the years . 1560. and 1565 at intervals, for in 1563 he paid a visit to Rome in the suite of the Venetian ambassador Girolamo Grimani. A few years after his return , Veronese was invited to Spain by Philip II. , but being satisfied with the number of his commissions for paintings and with the honour done him in Venice, he refused the invitation . During his life, he visited many of the towns in his native country, executing works as he travelled ; he died eventually at Venice on the 20th of April, 1588, and was buried in San Sebastiano, where a tomb was erected to his memory by his sons Carlo and Gabriele. We shall find the collection of the works of Veronese at Paris is greater and more complete than at Venice. We may then pass by the magnificent ceiling in the hall of the Council of Ten , in the ducal palace, which is considered , after the Sistine, the most beautiful ceiling in Italy. This represents the Apotheosis of Venice. “ In it may be seen ,” says M. Charles Blanc, “ the Republic borne on the clouds, crowned by Glory ; celebrated by Fame; accompanied by Honour, Liberty, and Peace — the whole executed in a style, less impetuous certainly than that of Tintoretto, but full of mind, warmth, and movement.” . We may also pass by the celebrated Rape of Europa, which was considered the first of Paul Veronese's works in Venice. In it , as in the Last Supper, and other works intended to be religious, he clothed the figures in Venetian costume. Europa is magnificently dressed . The visit of this painting to Paris was not as profitable to it as to the St. Peter Martyr of Titian . The process of the painter not being understood ; it was first cleaned, then varnished ; and the operation unhappily took off the delicacy and transparency of the most delicate tints. In the course of his life, shorter, but not less laborious and fruitful than those of his illustrious predecessors, Paul Veronese painted four works, which, resembling one another, are yet distinguished from all others by the nature of the subject and the unusual size of the composition. These are the four Feasts, or Cinacoli, painted for the refectories of four monasteries: the Marriage at Cana, for the convent of San A.D. 1588. ] THE FOLLOWERS OF TITIAN. 151 Giorgio Maggiore ; the Feast in the house of Simon the Pharise , for the convent of the Servite brethren ; the Feast given by Levi, for the convent of Santi Giovanni e Paolo ; and the Supper in the house of Simon the Leper, for the convent of San Sebastiano ; all at Venice. The senate of the Republic presented one of these, the Feast in the house of Simon the Pharisee, to Louis XIV. Under the Empire, the three others were taken to Paris ; but two of them ( the Feast given by Levi, and the Supper in the house of Simon the Leper) were afterwards restored to Venice, where they were placed, not in the refectories of convents, but in the Academy, between the Assumption of Titian and the St. Mark of Tintoretto. As for the fourth and principal “ Feast, " the Marriage at Cana, it remains at Paris , -M. Denon having succeeded in persuading the Austrian THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. JUSTINA. -BY PAUL VERONESE. In the Church of Santa Giustina, Padua. commissioners to take, in exchange for it , a picture by Charles Lebrun , on a similar subject, the Repas chez le Pharisien . There are then at Paris two of the four great “ Feasts by Veronese, and these are the more valuable two ; for while the Marriage at Cana is considered superior to the others, the Feast in the house of Simon the Pharisee is the best preserved of the four. The celebrated Marriage at Cana is about thirty -two feet in length by twenty -two in height. If we except a few grand mural paintings, such as the Last Judgment by the elder Orcagna in the Campo Santo of Pisa , that of Michelangelo in the Sistine , or the great ceiling by Tintoretto in the palace of the doges; if we speak merely of easel pictures, which are movable, this Marriage at Cana, by Veronese, is we believe the largest picture ever painted. It is known that under pretence of these festive scenes Paul Veronese painted simply the feasts of his own times, giving the architecture and the costumes of Venice in the sixteenth century, with concerts, dances, pages, children, 152 [ A.D. 1588. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. fools, dogs and cats, fruits and flowers. It is also known that the persons collected in these vast compositions were usually portraits. Thus, among the guests in the Marriage at Cana, around Jesus and Mary and the servants, who with joyful surprise find the water in their jars turned into wine, some have recognized, or thought they recognized , many eminent personages. In the group of musicians placed in the centre of the long table, in the shape of a horse-shoe, may be recognized with more certainty Paul Veronese himself, dressed in white silk , seated, and playing the violoncello. Then his brother Benedetto Cagliari, standing with a goblet in his hand ; then Tintoretto playing the violin , the aged Titian the double bass, and Jacopo da Ponte the flute . All these circumstances certainly increase the historical interest of the picture. We must notice that the enormous size of the picture, and the unusual number of the figures in it , constitute-in the disposition of the groups and the variety in the attitudes, in the arrangement of the light, and avoidance of confusion or monotony - such difficulties as appal the imagination . Thus, while making a reserva tion for the style of conceiving and rendering subjects contrary to religious sentiment and historic truth , or even taking away the Gospel names, and calling them simply Venetian feasts, we cannot praise too highly, in these great works of Veronese, the sumptuous and magnificent elements of which they are composed, the beauty of the architectural framework, the truth and variety of the portraits, the elegance of the ornaments, the correctness of the drawing, the charm and vivacity of his silver colour ing contrasted with the gold of Titian and the purple of Tintoretto, and in short the deep and practical knowledge of all the qualities which form the art of painting. “ Paul Veronese ,” says M. Charles Blanc, “ is not either a philosopher, an historian, or a moralist ; he is merely a painter, but he is a great painter. " Among the recent acquisitions of the National Gallery, that which is most praised is the Family of Darius at the feet of Alexander ( No. 294) . This work, which contains portraits of members of the Pisani family, is certainly fine ; but it has lost much by being brought near pictures of higher style and deeper character. Certainly Veronese is a great painter, and especially a skilful and brilliant colourist. But knowing nothing of ideal creations, all his merits are superficial. The merits of his Family of Darius are all on the surface. If, after having contemplated and even admired this painting in the place of honour which has been given it in one of the principal rooms of the National Gallery, the visitor turn, and allow his eye to rest on the portraits by Rembrandt, Veronese is overwhelmed. The National Gallery also possesses the Consecration of St. Nicholas ( No. 26) , Bishop of Myra in the fourth century ; the Rape of Europa ( No. 97) , a finished study for the picture in the Imperial Gallery, Vienna ; and the Adoration of the Magi ( No. 268 ) , dated 1573 , formerly in San Silvestro, Venice, where it was much admired. The Dresden Gallery has, among others, the Adoration of the Kings, and a Supper at Emmaus; and the Hermitage Gallery at St. Petersburg has an Entombiment, a work of great merit. A.D. 1534. ] CORREGGIO. 153

CHAPTER XIII.CORREGGIO AND THE SCHOOL OF PARMA.

WEE must now speak of an artist of the early part of the sixteenth century, who belongs to none of the schools we have mentioned, and who may be said to stand alone among the painters of that time. “ If, ” says Hermann Grimm , “ we were to imagine streams issuing from the minds of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian meeting together to form a new mind, Correggio would be produced ." Antonio Allegri, usually known as Correggio from his birthplace, was born at a small town of that name in the duchy of Modena at the beginning of 1494. Little is known with any certainty of his early life. Some writers, especially Vasari, state that he was of humble origin , and very poor ; others, among whom is Mengs, say that he was of a noble family . It is now established that his father was a merchant in a very good position . He probably received instruction in art from his uncle Lorenzo Allegri, and from one Antonio Bartolotti, a Corregese painter of no great importance. In 1511 Correggio, driven away from his native town by the plague, went to Mantua, where he studied the works of Mantegna, which produced a lasting effect on his style of painting. In 1518, by the invitation of the abbess of the convent of San Paolo, he visited Parma, where he afterwards chiefly resided. He married, in 1520, Girolamo Merlini, a lady of Mantua, who is supposed to have been the original of the Madonna in La Zingarella , and with whom he is said to have received a fair dowry. Correggio died at his birthplace on the 5th of March, 1534, without having seen either Florence, Venice, or Rome, and without having known any of the great works of his time, except that picture of Raphael (probably the St. Cecilia of Bologna ), before which he uttered his well-known exclamation, Anch ' io son pittore (“ I too am a painter ” ). The story that he died from the effects of pleurisy, caused by over heating himself in carrying away on his back a large quantity of copper money, which he had received from some monks in payment for a picture , is now looked upon as quite fabulous. Correggio lived chiefly at Parma, and at Parma are the greater part of his works. At twenty - six years of age he painted the cupola of the church of San Giovanni. It has been thought, on seeing the gigantic figures and imposing effect of these frescoes, that they had been suggested by the Last Judgment of Michelangelo ; but, besides the fact that Correggio had never seen the Sistine Chapel, the dates forbid any accusation of plagiarism . The cupola of San Giovanni was painted between 1520 and 1524, whilst X 154 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. (A.D. 1534 the fresco in the Sistine was only terminated in 1541 . He could have known the colossal figures on the ceiling only through drawings. This Ascension was only a sort of essay or prelude, to enable him to undertake the magnificent Assumption which tills the whole cupola of the Gothic cathedral of Parma. This composition, which he finished in 1530, is stilll arger than the other. The apostles, a number of saints, and all the heavenly hosts, from the archangels with unfolded wings to the faces of the cherubim without bodies, who welcome the Virgin at her entrance into heaven, in the midst of songs of joy, are the actors in this immense scene. The churchwardens of the time, perplexed by such a number of figures and preponderance of legs, said to the painter, “ You have served us with a hash of frogs ! ” But it was in speaking of this Assumption that Ludovico Carracci said to his cousins, “ Study Correggio ; in him everything is grand and graceful. ” Annibale Carracci did not know how to express his admiration of it. “ In this painting," says Vasari, " the foreshortenings and the perspective from the bottom to the top are really wonderful.” At the close of the last century there was found, in a convent of the Benedictines, after having been forgotten two hundred years, another admirable fresco by Correggio, divided into several parts, and containing a number of small subjects, all of them pagan - Diana, Minerva, Adonis, Endymion, Fortuna, the Graces, and the Fates . This fresco had been ordered by his patroness, the abbess Giovanna di Piacenza. It was she also who procured him the order for the Ascension and the Assumption. These are the works which Correggio has left in the buildings of Parma. The little museum of the town also boasts the possession of some, amongst them two of his greatest masterpieces, the San Girolamo and the Madonna della Scodella . It is not well known why the first of these pictures, sometimes called Il Giorno (the day) , in opposition to La Notte (the night), of Dresden , has received the name of St. Jerome. It represents Mary holding on her knees the Holy Child, whilst Mary Magdalene humbly kisses his feet ; two angels and St. Jerome, with his lion , complete the scene. The great doctor of the Latin church is only a secondary personage, placed in profile in a corner of the picture, like St. Paul in the St. Cecilia of Raphael. Annibale Carracci said that he preferred this St. Jerome even to the St. Cecilia of Raphael. It is in this picture that is to be seen the greatest degree of that delicate charm which first appears in the works of Correggio ; elegance could not be carried further without affectation ; grace is here united to grandeur and the magic effect of colouring But it seems that the Madonna della Scodella, which Vasari called divine, yields to the St. Jerome neither in the general effect nor in the details, in expression nor in execution ; it has also the advantage of being better preserved. It is rare, indeed , for a picture to retain after three centuries its firmness and freshness. In the Tribune of the Uffizi at Florence is the Virgin adoring the Infant Jesus ; presented by a duke of Mantua to Cosmo II . de'Medici. This picture, in every respect worthy of Correggio, is remarkable for its arrangement ; the same drapery which envelopes the body of the Virgin is also drawn over her head, and on the end of the drapery the Holy Child is sleeping, so that he would be awakened by the slightest movement of his mother. This arrangement seems to explain the immobility of the personages, and gives the spectator a sort of anxiety which is not without a charm . The paintings of Correggio are everywhere as eagerly sought for as they are rare ; there are only four compositions by him in the gallery of the Studj at Naples. These are , a simple sketch of a Madonna, and three masterpieces of delicacy and fine execution ; the Madonna, called by some del Coniglio, by others, della Zingarella : to be the PANNEMALEA - DOMS ST . JEROME. " IL GIORNO. " ) By CORREGGIO In the Parma Gallery ਤ TL in PUB C ETC NKY TILENOVATIONS NYX AND ܝܐ R 1 A.D. 1534. ] CORREGGIO. 155 Hagar in the desert ; and the Marriage of St. Catherine. The Hagar is a perfect jewel, of the most exquisite feeling and wonderful execution. As for the Marriage of St. Catherine, which has been so often imitated, copied, and engraved, it is quite unnecessary to praise that. Although its purchase by the kings of Naples was made a long time ago, it is said to have cost 20,000 ducats. In the Museo del Rey is the picture so well known as the Noli me tangere, representing the appearance of Jesus after his resurrection to Mary Magdalene. On her knees , her hands joined, her head cast down, the Magdalene drags her rich garments in the dust. The attitude of the Saviour, in whose hands the painter has placed a spade, is truly admirable , as also is the expression of his countenance. Nothing can surpass the execution of that fine figure, the soft tints and harmonious colours which stand out against the deep blue of the sky and the dark green of a thick foliage. This is a true and complete Correggio, a charming picture, which without possessing through its proportions and subject the importance of his great compositions in Parma or Dresden , yet yields in charm and value to none of the rare works of its immortal author. The National Gallery possesses four pictures by Correggio and two Groups of Heads ( Nos. 7 and 37 ) , which are copies. First a Holy Family ( No. 23) --sometimes called La Vierge au Panier—which is not a foot square, but which is equal to the Hagar of Naples or the Magdalen of Dresden , that is to say, rises to the first rank in Correggio's miniatures ; for it is a charming work in which nature, grace and expression are rendered with the utmost delicacy of the pencil. Then Mercury instructing Cupid in the presence of Venus ( No. 10) , which, with the Ecce Homo ( No. 15 ) , cost eleven thousand guineas. They were both formerly in the Murat Collection , and were purchased of the Marquis of Londonderry. In the Mercury instructing Cupid we find all the most charming qualities of the master. In the Ece Homo, the head of the Virgin who falls back fainting, is of great beauty, in the expression of deep grief, in the boldness of the attitude, and in the delicacy of execution . Christ's Agony in the garden ( No. 76) is a repetition of the original, now in the possession of the Duke of Wellington, which is said to have been painted in order to cancel a debt of four scudi to an apothecary. It was presented to the late Duke by Ferdinand VII. of Spain. There are two pictures by Correggio at Paris. One of these is called the Marriage of St. Catherine, and as it is placed in the square room , near a painting by Fra Bartolommeo of an enthroned Madonna, who under the dais of her throne is also presiding at the union of the young ascetic of Siena with the Divine Child, we may make a useful and interesting comparison. To be Christian , the Frate is austere ; to be graceful, Correggio becomes almost pagan. In one painting all is grave and solemn ; it is, indeed, the mystical union. In the other, everything is smiling and charming ; it is really love. The other picture of Correggio in the Louvre, the Sommeil d’Antiope, is more im portant in its dimensions and more appropriate in its subject to the taste and incli nation of the master, who was the most pagan of all the painters of the Renaissance. This wonderful Sommeil d'Antiope can only be compared in its style to the Education of Cupid, and, indeed, if we were obliged to choose between them , we should give the preference to Antiope. There we see all the beauties of Correggio, that supreme elegance of which he was so fond , that it sometimes led him to the brink of affectation , in which, indeed, his imitators plunged ; that charming grace which so often accom panies power ; that deep knowledge of chiaroscuro , and that exquisite harmony which the charm of form and the magic of colour combine to produce. 156 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [A.D. 1534. . Dresden, as we have already said , possesses the finest of Raphael's works to be found in the north of Europe. In Dresden also we shall find no less than six original paintings by Correggio, and no other city can show a grander selection . These six paintings were placed in the Saxon museum, when the Elector-King Augustus III. , in 1746, bought the collection of the Dukes of Modena for the moderate sum of 120,000 thalers ( 18,000l.) . From Venice he had already acquired, for the sum of 28,000 Venetian lire, the Madonna of Holbein , from the Delfino family ; then in 1755 he paid 40,000 Roman scudi to the convent of San Sisto at Placentia for the Madonna of Raphael . With these pictures he formed the first museum in Europe, a museum which is and will ever be the pride of his beautiful capital. Among the paintings by Correggio there is the portrait of a man dressed in black, who is believed to have been the Physician of the artist, some village friend who did THE MYSTICAL MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE, By Correggio. -In the Louvre. not preserve his illustrious patient from an early death. A portrait by Correggio is very precious, and this one is excellently painted. We must next notice the Reading Magdalen. This is painted on copper and is not more than a foot square, and yet it is everywhere known by copies and engravings. The penitent, lying on the thick grass with her bosom half veiled by her hair, is supporting her head with her right hand , in order to read in a book she holds in her left. The charm of this graceful attitude, the profound attention of this converted sinner, her grace, her beauty, the boldness and happy effect of her blue drapery contrasted with the dark green of the landscape, the wonderful delicacy of the execution and of the colours, all place this Magdalen in the first rank of what are called the “ Small Cor reggios, " --- before the Holy Family of London, the Madonna with the veil at Florence, A.D. 1534.1 CORREGGIO 157 . 66 are and even before the Hagar of Naples. It was stolen in 1788, but the thief restored it in order to get the reward of a thousand ducats. The four other works Great Correggios,” and indeed the greatest that are to be found after the frescoes of San Giovanni and of the Duomo of Parma. Three of them are Madonnas, which only differ in the arrangement and surrounding figures ; the other is a Nativity. In order to distinguish between these Madonnas, each has been named after the most conspicuous saint in its little court. One is called St. Gcorge, another St. Sebastian, and another St. Francis. As for the Nativity, which was originally destined for the town of Reggio, it is usually called La Notte di Correggio. If we dared to place these four celebrated and magnificent compositions in order of merit, we should mention first the St. George, that is to say, the Madonna enthroned, worshipped by St. John the Baptist, St. Peter of Verona, St. Geminianus, near to whom an angel is holding a model of the church he had built at Modena and dedicated to the Virgin , and lastly the martyr -prince of Cappadocia, the slayer of the dragon, whose arms are borne by four angels. From his having destined this painting to be viewed at a considerable elevation , Correggio evidently intended to make it a mural picture. It would indeed be much better placed over the high altar of a cathedral than in the panel of a gallery . In the St. Sebastian, the Virgin is in the midst of what is termed a glory, surrounded by a choir of celestial spirits. Three saints worship her on the earth ; in the centre, the bishop St. Geminianus, once more with the model of his church ; to the right, St. Roch, dying of the plague, like the poor wretches he had tended at Placentia ; and to the left, the warrior saint of Narbonne, fastened to the trunk of a tree and pierced with arrows. Although we must regret a little confusion in certain parts, the whole picture is wonderfully grouped , and the colouring, which is very delicate, is no less distinguished for its vigorous effects of chiaroscuro. The largest of the four pictures is that which is named after St. Francis. At the foot of the throne on which Mary is seated , holding the Holy Child on her knees, the devotee of Assisi has prostrated himself in adoration, whilst the Virgin appears in the act of blessing him. Behind him is' his disciple St. Antony of Padua, holding a lily in his hand ; opposite is St. Catherine, bearing a sword and a palm branch ; while John the Baptist, still naked and wild as in the desert , points with his finger to Him whom he had announced to the world as the Saviour come to redeem mankind from the sin of our first parents , whose history and fall are traced on the pedestal of the throne. would be quite superfluous to say that this powerful composition , as well known through engravings as the Magdalen, is in the noblest style. It is the only picture under which he inscribed the name Antonius de Allegris ” ( Antonio Allegri), which fame has since replaced by the name of the town which boasts he honour of his birth . And yet La Notte of Correggio surpasses even the St. Francis in public opinion. Many place this composition above all those to be found in Europe, and proclaim it the artist's masterpiece. We may say, at all events, that it yields to no other in style. Yet perhaps Correggio might be reproached , in the conception of this picture, with a sort of over-carefulness. We see here the manger in which the Holy Infant was laid : it is night, and the scene is only rendered visible by a supernatural light, which spreads from the body of the Child lying on the straw. This light illumines the face of the Virgin Mother, as she bends over her first -born, and dazzles a shepherdess who has hastened in on hearing of the “ glad tidings.” It extends to Joseph, who is seen leading the ass to the back of the stable ; it also lights up the angels hovering in the air, who 66 158 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1534 seem rather,” as Vasari says, to have descended from heaven than to have been created by the hand of man . ” Francesco Mazzuoli, called Il Parmigiano, or sometimes Il Parmigianino, was the son of one Filippo Mazzuoli , an old Parmese painter. He was born at Parma in 1504. Losing his father when quite young, he was brought up by his uncles Michele and Pietro Flavio, who also instructed him in art. Parmigiano imitated the works of Correggio, who visited Parma in 1519, and in 1522 he painted the Madonna and Child with SS. Jerome and Bernard for the convent Della Nunziata. In the following year he removed to Rome, where he remained until the sacking of the city in 1527 , when he went to Bologna. He quitted the city , however, in 1531 , after executing several works of merit , among which were, the St. Roch, painted for the church of San Petronio ; the Madonna della Rosa, now in the Dresden Gallery ; and lastly the St. Margaret, painted in 1527 , now in the Academy of Bologna, which was preferred by Guido to the St. Cecilia of Raphael. When he left Bologna, Parmigiano returned to his native Parma, where he entered into a contract to paint, for four hundred gold scudi (half of which he received in advance ), frescoes in the church of Santa Maria della Steccata, which were to be completed by the roth of November, 1532. Owing to illness, and other causes, he had executed but little of his work by. about 1537 , when the authorities threw him into prison . They, however, released him on his promising to complete the frescoes. Instead of fulfilling his word, he fled to Casal Maggiore, in the territory of Cremona, where he died shortly afterwards, on August 24th, 1540. Ofthe paintings by this brilliant and precocious artist - who, according to Vasari, “ had rather the face of an angel than that of a man , ” and who, on his return to Parma after having studied at Rome, ended by gliding into mannerism , then abandoned painting for alchemy, and died half mad - London has obtained the Vision of St. Jerome ( No. 33 ) . This picture was painted in 1527 for the chapel of the Buffalina family, at Città di Castello, a chapel which was destroyed by an earthquake in 1790 ; it was rescued from under the ruins, and has since passed from hand to hand until it has come to the National Gallery. It is said ( for pictures have legends attached to them) that in the taking and pillage of Rome, the soldiers of Charles V. , struck with admiration at the sight of this painting, respected both the artist and his dwelling. This picture is badly hung ; it should be seen from below , and from a distance. By placing it on a level with the eye, and almost within reach of the hand, the whole effect is destroyed. There are seven or eight of his works in the Studj at Naples, amongst others, one of Lucretia stabbing herself, which no other of his pictures surpasses, or perhaps even equals. Amongst his portraits there is one of the Florentine, Amerigo Vespucci, who has given his name to the new world , and another is that of a man who is still young, of a fine and resolute countenance, who is said to be the Genoese sailor who discovered it , Christopher Columbus. This is at least the opinion of the Neapolitans, but it seems a manifest error. It is certain that Parmigiano, who was born in 1504, could not have known Christopher Columbus, who, about the year 1480, left his native country for ever, to offer his services first to Portugal and Spain. We must also mention a Cupid making his boaa' ( painted about 1536) , now in the Vienna Gallery, and the Madonna (known as “ The Madonna with the long neck " ) in the Pitti Palace. 1 A,D. 1550. ] MANNERISTS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 159 . .

CHAPTER XIV. THE MANNERISTS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

INN the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian , and the other renowned masters, Art in Italy nearly reached perfection . Putting aside the idea of surpassing the conceptions of these masters, to have maintained an equal merit would have been a great success ; but this was not to be, and we have now to record the names of those artists , who assisted in the decline of art in the land in which it had so long been pre -eminent. So great was the demand for paintings in the middle of the sixteenth century , that art was practised merely as a trade, and the man who executed works in the least possible time, with a surface- show of merit in them , was sure of attaining success. The school of the Carracci — known as the Eclectic - of whom we shall speak hereafter, made a stand against this shallow style, and revived art for a time, but it soon afterwards declined and, as far as Italy is concerned , nearly died out. It must not be supposed that all the Mannerists were without merit ; on the contrary, many were men of great attainments, and it was only by the pernicious example of the style of the time, that their paintings have so little depth of feeling, and please but for a moment. We have room only to mention the most prominent of the artists of this school. Angelo Bronzino, the poet and painter, was born at Monticelli near Florence in 1502. He studied first under an obscure painter, then under Raffaelino del Garbo , and subsequently under Jacopo da Pontormo, some of whose unfinished works he completed ; he died at Florence in 1572 . Like his friend Vasari, Bronzino was a great admirer of Michelangelo, and like him too he succeeded better in portraiture than in historical subjects. His largest work is a Descent of Christ into Hades, in the Gallery of the Uffizi at Florence, which town still possesses many of his portraits of members of the Medici family. The National Gallery possesses four works by Bronzino ; a Portrait of a Lady ( No. 650) ; Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time (an allegory, No. 651 , originally painted for Francis I. of France) ; a Knight of St. Stephen ( No. 670) , and a Portrait of Cosmo I. Duke of Tuscany ( No. 704) , presented by her Majesty the Queen in 1863. Bronzino painted both in fresco and in oil . Of his pupils we will mention but one, his nephew, Alessandro Allori, who was born at Florence in 1535 ; he was sometimes called by the name of his uncle Bronzino, and occasionally signed himself so in his pictures. He painted a Crucifixion at the 163 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1570 in 1574. He says early age of seventeen, but his works never rose above mediocrity. Allori died in 1607. He wrote a book on Anatomy for the use of artists. Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta, a pupil of Pierino del Vaga, was born in 1504. He painted chiefly at Rome, and died in 1580. Among his best works we may mention an Adoration of the Shepherds in Santa Maria della Pace at Rome, and a Pieta in the Gallery of Count Raczynski at Berlin . Sermoneta painted much in the style of the followers of Raphael. Giorgio Vasari, the great historian and painter, was born at Arezzo in 15.12. As an artist, he is not deserving of any great praise. He was instructed in design by his father Antonio Vasari, and worked under several painters, including Michelangelo, Andrea del Sarto , and Francesco Salviati. He subsequently had many scholars, but none of merit. In 1544, his pupils painted, from his design, an immense ceiling for Cardinal Farnese, in a hundred days, but the execution was so little to Vasari's taste, that he determined, from that time, never to intrust to them the completion of any of his works. Vasari was greatly patronised by the Medici at Florence , where he died He was buried at Arezzo. As a painter his execution was rapid. himself, “ We paint six pictures in one year, whereas the earlier master took six years for one picture," and his pictures lacked that depth of feeling which is only to be acquired by long study of the subject. His works are too numerous to be mentioned here ; many of them were painted from his designs, by his pupils . His historical pieces are much surpassed by his portraits, of which we may mention that of Lorenzo di Medici, in the Uffizi, and several of Cosmo 1. (a good specimen is in the Berlin Museum ). He was a great admirer and imitator of Michelangelo. It is for his great historical work that Vasari is so justly famed. His “ Vite de' più eccellenti Pittori, Scultori , ed Architetti,' was first published at Florence in 1550. A second edition , revised by himself, appeared in 1568. Many later editions of this work have been published at various cities in Italy ; of these the Le Monnier edition, published at Florence in 1846, contains many valuable corrections, and is in every way the most trustworthy. In Germany it has been translated by Schorn ; and in England by Mrs. J. Foster, and published in the Bohn Series. This “ Vite de' Pittori,'&c. , has been most severely (and no doubt justly) criticised, as being of doubtful authority, and nearly every writer on art has endeavoured to find fault with Vasari's statements ; but, when we consider that it waswritten , in a great measure , from verbal evidence only, we must allow that excuses are to be made for those inaccuracies—and they are by no means few — which have crept in . Vasari has not made his book instructive only , it is amusing. Intermingled with the drier details of biography, are many interesting anecdotes and jokes. And above all, though inclined a little towards the Florentines , he contemplates the merits and demerits of each artist most fairly. Vasari was also famous as an architect. Francesco Rossi, commonly called del Salviati from his patron Cardinal Sal viati, was born at Florence in 1510. He studied under Andrea del Sarto , with whom Vasari was also at the same time working. The latter and Salviati became firm friends, and executed several works in conjunction, but Salviati soon surpassed his partner, who paid him the honour of saying that he was the best artist in Rome at that time. Salviati painted in the church Della Pace at Florence, the Annunciation and Christ appearing to Peter, both of which were much praised. After executing other works of importance, he left Rome and went to Venice in 1540 ; among the A.D. 1575.) MANNERISTS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, 161 works which he painted there, we must mention the History of Psyche in the Palazzo · Grimaldi, and a Portrait of Aretino. After leaving Venice, Salviati journeyed through Lombardy and paid a visit to his native Florence, where he painted the Triumph of Camillus in the Palazzo Vecchio. He then , in 1554, at the invitation of Cardinal de Lorraine, went to Paris, where he was kindly received by Primaticcio, but his own quarrelsome disposition made the place disagreeable to him , so he left France and returned to Rome, where he made just as many enemies, and hastened his own death by his continual quarrelling. He died at Rome in 1563. Salviati was a better designer than colourist, though he never offended the eye with discordant shades. The National Gallery possesses one specimen of his art—a figure of Charity (No. 652 ) . Prospero Fontano, who was born at Bologna in 1512, studied under Da Imola, but copied the style of Giorgio Vasari. He painted chiefly at Bologna and at Rome, where he died in 1597 at the great age of eighty-five. Fontano deserves the same blame as the other Mannerists for his hasty and careless method of painting. Malvasia tells us that he painted a whole saloon in the Palazzo Vitelli at Città di Castello , in a few weeks. Besides historical subjects he executed many portraits, in which branch of his art he was more famous. Bologna possesses the principal part of his paintings. Federigo Barocci ( or Baroccio )-the son of a sculptor, Ambrogio Barocci, --was born at Urbino in 1528. He was first instructed in design by his father, and was then placed under Battista Franco. In 1548 Barocci went to Rome, where he remained four years, studying the works of Raphael and other great masters. On his return to Urbino, he painted a picture of St. Margaret for the Confraternity of the Holy Sacrament, and other works, which gained him so much credit that in 1560 he was invited to Rome by Pius IV ., where he painted in company with Federigo Zuccaro, in the Vatican. While engaged on this work, he was poisoned by some rival ; though the attempt did not succeed in causing death, yet it so injured Barocci that it compelled him to refrain from painting more than two hours daily. From this time he resided chiefly at his native Urbino, where he died, much honoured and beloved, on the 30th of September 1612. He was buried in the church of San Francesco. Among the best pictures of Barocci are a Descentfrom the Cross, painted for the Cathedral of Perugia ; a Madonna, in the Uffizi; a Presentation, and a Visitation of the Virgin to St. Elizabeth , in the Chiesa Nuova ; and a Holy Family ( No. 29) —known as La Madonna del Gatto, from the presence of a cat-in the National Gallery. Barocci studied the works of Correggio, and partly founded his style on that of the great painter. a better draughtsman than many of his contemporaries, but his colouring was not good. Mengs remarks that his pictures lacked yellow tints ; and Bellori says that he used too much vermilion and ultramarine. Barocci made a somewhat unsuccessful attempt to oppose the style of the day, but he himself in his old age relapsed into the same error and must be classed among the Mannerists. He was also an engraver, and etched several of his own works. Of these we may mention the Pardon of St. Francis of Assisi, and an Annunciation. Taddeo Zuccaro, or according to Vasari , Zucchero, was born at Sant'Angelo in Vado, in the Duchy of Urbino, in 1529. After suffering great poverty at Rome, he became suddenly a popular painter, for the reason , Lanzi tells us, that there is nothing in his works which the populace cannot understand or fancy it understands, and there is indeed an unpleasing tameness about his style. Taddeo Zuccaro died at Rome on the end of September 1566, and was buried beside Raphael in the Pantheon His best He was Y 162 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1600. works at Rome are some frescoes, representing scenes from the Passion of Christ in the church of the Consolazione ; but he is best known by the paintings which he executed for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese at the castle of Caprarola. They represent the Glories of the Farnese family ( forty- five plates, engraved by J. J. Prenner, were published at Rome in 1748) ; in them Taddeo was assisted by his younger brother Federigo Zuccaro. Lorenzo Sabbatini, called da Bologna from his birthplace, was born about 1530. When he had gained a little fame in his native city , he removed to Rome, where he painted in the Cappella Paolina scenes from the Life of St. Paul. These and other works, which he executed in Rome, pleased Pope Gregory XIII . so much, that he appointed him superintendent of the decorations, then being made in the Vatican. He died at Rome in 1577. Bologna possesses most of his paintings. The Berlin Museum can boast of a very pleasing Madonna by him . Sabbatini is said to have taken Raphael, Michelangelo, and Parmigiano as his models. Santo di Titi, who was born at Città San Sepolcro in the Florentine State in 1538, is one of the less mannered of the Mannerists. He was a pupil of Agnolo Bronzino, but subsequently studied the work of the great masters in Rome, much to the improvement of his own style. He lived chiefly at Florence, where he died in 1603. His drawing was good and his perspective perfect , but his colouring lacked force and brilliancy. Santo di Titi left a son , who was a portrait painter of no great merit. We may here mention a pupil of Santo di Titi ; Agostino Ciampelli, who was born at Florence in 1578. Besides being a painter he was an architect, and was employed on St. Peter's at Rome. He died in 1640. Among his best works were a Group of Angels, in Santa Maria in Trastevere ; and the Visitation of the Virgin to St. Elizabeth , in Santo Stefano di Pescia. For a Florentine, Ciampelli was a very good colourist. His compositions, though wanting in power, are full of grace and beauty. Federigo Zuccaro, who was born at Sant'Angelo in Vado in 1543 (?) was by some years the junior of his brother Taddeo, and worked in his atelier more as a pupil than a partner ; they subsequently executed several works in conjunction. Federigo was invited to Florence by the Grand Duke Francesco I. , to paint the cupola of the Cathedral. He executed there numerous colossal figures, with a Lucifer so large that -in the words of the artist himself — the other persons appeared to be but babies . This work gained him much renown, but at the same time the following satire : “ Poor Florence, alas ! will ne'er cease to complain Till she sees her fine cupola whitewashed again. ” But “ poor Florence ” has still to bear the sight of Zuccaro's painting, though it was only old age which prevented Pietro da Cortona from undertaking to replace it with a work by his hand. After the completion of the cupola, Zuccaro went to Rome and commenced several paintings in the Cappella Paolina for Pope Gregory XIII . , but he was obliged to leave Rome on account of a quarrel with some courtiers. He then visited France, Flanders, and England, where he executed the portraits of Queen Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots, and other important personages. [ In the National Portrait Exhibition of 1866 , there were no less than twenty -one portraits of the English nobility by Zuccaro.] He, however, soon made peace with the pope, returned to Rome, and completed his paintings. Zuccaro also painted in Spain for Philip II. , but the A.D. 1600. ] MANNERIST'S OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 163 pictures which he made in the Escurial were replaced by others of Pellegrino Tibaldi. Zuccaro died at Ancona in 1609. He left all'his property to the Academy of St. Luke in Rome, of which he had been the first president. He published at Turin in 1607 a treatise on the principles of painting, sculpture, and architecture, “ L'idea di Pittori, Scultori, e Architetti. ” He also wrote two other books, but they are of no importance, and there is the same unpleasing emptiness about his writing as there is in many of his pictures. Besides the works already mentioned , he painted for the Orsini family a picture of Calumny, from Lucian's description of the Calumny of Apelles, a Dead Christ in the Borghese Palace, and many others which we cannot here mention. Lavinia Fontano, the daughter and pupil of Prospero Fontano, was born at Bologna in 1552. She executed many pictures in her native town , of which we may mention , an Annunciation in the Cappuccini, and the Crucifixion in the church of La Madonna del Soccorso . Following in the footsteps of her father, Lavinia Fontano excelled in painting portraits, a large number of which she executed at Rome, where she died in 1614. Denys Calvart, who was born at Antwerp in 1555 , ( ? ) was called by the Italians, on account of his nationality, Fiammingo. Though Flemish by birth, he must be classed under the Mannerists of Bologna, for it was in that city that he spent the greater part of his life . He studied first under Prospero Fontano, and subsequently under Sabbatini. After a stay at Rome, where he studied the works of Raphael, Calvart established a school at Bologna, where he numbered among his pupils Albano, Domenichino , and Guido. Though somewhat mannered himself he was an excellent teacher, as may be seen from the works of the artists which his atelier produced. He died at Bologna in 1619. Among his best works are a Holy Family in San Giuseppe, and a St. Michael in San Petronio at Bologna. Fiammingo is likewise celebrated as a sculptor, and many charming statuettes and bas-reliefs are attributed to his hand. Cavaliere Giuseppe Cesari, called sometimes Giuseppino, also d'Arpino from the birthplace of his father, a painter of yotive tablets, was born at Rome in 1568 ( ?) He was at first employed in the Vatican to arrange the palettes, and perform other menial duties for the artists who were there engaged. Everybody, however, was struck with the talent displayed in sketches which he made on the wall, and Fra Ignazio Danti, the superintendent of the works, recommended the young artist to the notice of Pope Gregory XIII. , who immediately took him under his protection. On the death of that pontiff, his successor Clement VIII. continued to patronize Cesari, and conferred on him the honour of knighthood of St. John of Lateran , or as others say, of the order del Abito di Cristo . Cesari soon became one of the most famous painters in Rome, but was at bitter enmity with Caravaggio and also with Annibale Carracci, who were both opposed to his style of painting, though their own styles differed essentially. Cesari is reported to have received the order of St. Michel from Henri IV. of France. He died at Rome in 1640. Among his works, we may mention the frescoes in the choir of San Silvestro a Monte Cavallo at Rome ; the Assumption of the Virgin, in San Giovanni Grisognono ; and scenes from the History of Rome,in the Campidoglio. The great fault in all the works of Cesari is a want of depth of feeling ; some of his compositions are light and graceful, and display great power of imagination ; but there is an utter disregard for all rules of nature in many of his paintings, and any merits which muy exist in them are all on the surface. He left al numerous school of followers, but none of them are worthy of special mention. 164 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1600.

CHAPTER XV. THE ECLECTIC SCHOOL OF BOLOGNA.

T " THE second school of Bologna, which commenced with the Carracci, forms a very important incident in the History of Art. The theorists and art-critics of the latter half of the sixteenth century had asserted that, in order to make a perfect picture it was necessary to unite the COLOUR of Paul Veronese to the EXPRESSION of Raphael ; the ENERGY of Michelangelo to the GRACE of Correggio. The Carracci sought to realize this dream . Their system , founded upon reason alone, left but little room for inspiration . It was the reaction of common sense from the extravagances of the imitators of the style of Michelangelo. Art was falling into a state of utter degradation when the Carracci founded their celebrated academy, and by their intelligence and extraordinary vigour delayed for many years the final extinction of the great schools of Italy. Lodovico Carracci, the real founder of the Eclectic school, was born at Bologna on the 21st of April, 1555. It is a striking proof how , even in the arts, assiduous labour and a strong and persevering will may serve in place of natural gifts and instinctive facility. The two masters, whom Lodovico had chosen, Fontano of Bologna and Tintoretto of Venice, counselled him to abandon the career of an artist, considering him incapable of ever succeeding in it ; and his fellow- students called him “ the ox," not because he was the son of a butcher, but on account of the slowness and heaviness of his mind, and also because of his continual, determined , and indefatigable application. He painted afterwards under Passignano at Florence ; at Parma he studied the works of Correggio and Parmigiano, and at Venice those of Titian . On his return to Bologna,, Lodovico Carracci opened in 1589, in conjunction with his two cousins Agostino and Annibale, an Academy " degli Desiderosi” (“ * Those who regret the past, despise the present, and aspire to a better future " ), which was kept by the three together until 1600, from which time till 1619 -- the year of his death — it was maintained by Lodovico alone. Soon after its opening, this academy acquired such great fame that all establishments of a like nature in Bologna were closed . There are thirteen paintings by Lodovico Carracci in the Academy of his native town ; a Glorified Madonna surrounded by the Bargellini family, a Birth of John the Baptist, &c. In general they are of larger proportions than life, according to his constant custom for church pictures, and do not show to advantage when taken from the height for which they were destined. In the place of real genius we find in them great A.D. 1600.1 ECLECTIC SCHOOL OF BOLOGNA. 165 He says and solid qualities, and, if not a complete return to the simple and severe style of the great period, at least the happy abandonment of the excesses, the abuses, and the egregious faults in taste which , in the intermediate period, had marked a precocious decay. The most famous work by Lodovico has long since perished ; it represented scenes from the Life of St. Benedict and of St. Cecilia, and was executed in fresco in the convent of San Michele in Bosco. In the Doria Gallery at Rome there is a beautiful Ecce Homo. The Louvre possesses, among other pictures by Lodovico , a Madonna and an Adoration . In England, the National Gallery has only one picture by this artist , a Susannah and the two Eliers ( No. 28 ), formerly in the Orleans Collection. Lodovico Carracci practised, besides the art of painting, that of engraving. Agostino Carracci, the painter, engraver, poet, and musician, was born at Bologna in 1558. His father Antonio Carracci, who was a tailor, was induced by Lodovico Carracci to intrust him with the education of his cousin, who was his junior by but three years. Lodovico removed the youth from the goldsmith to whom he had been apprenticed, and placed him with Prospero Fontano, and afterwards with Domenico Tibaldi, and Cornelius Cort, with whom he studied engraving, a branch of art in which he greatly excelled, more so, in fact, than in painting. Agostino studied also at Parma and Venice. On his return to Bologna, he entered the school of Lodovico, where he became a most indefatigable teacher. He instructed the scholars in the theoretical branches of painting, and also wrote for their edification , a sonnet, wherein he tells them what characteristic quality to choose from each of the great masters. " Let him , who wishes to be a good painter, acquire drawing from Rome, Venetian action and Venetian management of shade, the dignified colour of Lombardy, the terrible manner of Michelangelo, Titian's truth and nature, the sovereign purity of Correggio's style, and the great symmetry of Raphael; the decorum and well-grounded study of Tibaldi, the invention of the learned · Primaticcio , and a little of the grace of Parmigiano ; but without so much trouble and toil, let him only apply himself to imitate the works which Niccolino ( Niccolò Abbati) has left here.” This sonnet propounds the principles of the Eclectic school. Agostino assisted his younger brother Annibale in the Carracci Gallery in the Farnese Palace at Rome, where he executed the Triumph of Galatea and Cephalus and Aurora (the cartoons for these are in the National Gallery, Nos. 148 and 147 ) . After the brothers had been engaged for some time on these works, a coldness arising between them — it is said , on account of jealousy on the part of Annibale, because some preferred his brother's paintings to his own - Agostino left Rome and engaged himself to Duke Ranuccio at Parma, where he died , after executing a few works of no great im portance, on the uth of March, 1601 . He was buried in the Parma Cathedral, where a tablet, erected to his memory, testifies to his age and to the date of his death. OB. V. ID. MART. M.DCI, ÆT. SUÆ AN. XLIII.” The finest work by this learned and con scientious artist is a Communion of St. Jerome, painted for the Certosa of Bologna, It was taken to Paris, but was restored to its native city, and now hangs in the Academy. It was from this Communion of St. Jerome, that Domenichino took the idea and even the details for his well-known work , the pendant to the Transfiguration in the Vatican , and in mosaic, in St. Peter's at Rome. The Infant Hercules strangling the Serpents in the Louvre, there attributed to Annibale Carracci, is said to be by Agostino. Annibale Carracci, the boldest of the three Carracci, and the most original in a 166 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1600. style which imitated every one, was born at Bologna in 1560. His father, at first, brought him up to his own trade, that of a tailor, but his natural abilities and the advice of Lodovico induced old Antonio Carracci to let his son Annibale study in the atelier of his cousin. Thus Lodovico was his first, and also his only instructor in art. In 1580 Annibale left Bologna and went to Parma, where he studied the works of Correggio and Parmigiano. After an absence of about seven years, a part of which was spent in Venice, he returned to Bologna, where, in 1589, the Carracci opened their Academy. About 160o Annibale was invited to Rome by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, to decorate the Farnese Palace. He was assisted by his brother Agostino, as we have TC THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS . - BY ANNIBALE CARRACCI. before had occasion to state, by Domenichino, and by Lanfranco. These works, which represent many subjects from mythology, were by Poussin preferred, after those of Raphael, to all the paintings in Rome. Annibale Carracci died at Rome on the 15th of July, 1609, and was buried near Raphael in the Pantheon. Among other great works by this painter in Italy, we may mention an Assumption, in the church of the Madonna del Popolo at Rome ; a Madonna with saints, in the Bologna Academy; a St. Roch distributing alms, a fine painting, is in the Dresden Gallery. There are no less than twenty- six of his works in the Louvre ; we cannot even name them all. Among the sacred subjects we recommend a large Appearance of thu A.D. 1600.1 ECLECTIC SCHOOL OF BOLOGNA. 167 Virgin to SS. Luke and Catherine, in the form , manner, and colossal proportions of the pictures by Lodovico Carracci, though perhaps in a grander style and more vigor ous execution ; then a charming Madonna, called the Madonna with cherries ; an other Madonna still more charming, called the Silence because Mary watches over her sleeping child ; then a Resurrection, half the size of life ; and a Martyrdom of St. Stephen in small figures, so that every possible proportion is represented, and each with the execution required. We may also mention two animated landscapes, and two pendants, called Hunting and Angling. They are valuable works although very dark, because in their style, their form , and their treatment, they recall the six cele brated Lunettes in the Doria Palace at Rome, and because they also prove that it was indeed Annibale Carracci, who imparted first to Domenichino and through him to Poussin , the idea and example of historical landscape. The National Gallery possesses eight pictures by Annibale Carracci, a “ Domine quo vadis ? ” ( No. 9 ) ; a St. John in the Wilderness ( No. 25 ) ; two Landscapes with figures ( Nos. 56 and 63) ; Erminia taking refuge with the Shepherds ( No. 88) , the subject is taken from Tasso's “ Jerusalem De livered ; Silenus gathering grapes ( No. 93 ) ; Pan teaching A pollo to play on the pipes ( No. 94) , much praised by Lanzi ; and lastly a Temptation of St. Antony (No. 198 ) , formerly in the Borghese Gallery, Rome. At Castle Howard, the seat of the Earl of Carlisle , are , among other works by Annibale, a Portrait of himself, and the famous Three Marys, well known from engravings. Guido Reni, commonly known as Guido, was born at Calvenzano, near Bologna, on the 4th of November 1575. His father, who was a musician, intended his son for that profession, but young Guido showed such a strong taste for art , that the father appren ticed him to Denys Calvart, with whom he remained until 1594, when he entered the school of the Carracci ; of whom he was, with the exception of Domenichino, the best pupil. About this time the paintings of Caravaggio were making a great stir in Italy, This was not at all agreeable to the Carracci, and Annibale delivered a lecture to his pupils, in which he inculcated principles diametrically opposed to those of Caravaggio, Guido, in obedience to this advice produced a work , wherein he had endeavoured 10 follow out Annibale's idea , but, instead of the praise which he expected, he received reproaches for attempting to form a style peculiar to himself ; and the Carracci dismissed him from their academy. About the beginning of the seventeenth century, Guido, ac companied by his friend and former fellow -pupil Albani, repaired to Rome, where, though he had to contend against the jealousy and dislike of Caravaggio and even of Annibale Carracci, he became honoured and renowned . It is said that Cardinal Borghese , on commissioning him to paint the Crucifixion of St. Peter - now in the Vatican-stipulated that it should be done after the manner of Caravaggio, such was the influence produced by that master's style. Guido then decorated a chapel in the Palace of Monte Cavallo for Pope Paul V.; this work gained him much praise, and also the jealousy of his enemies ; but his most important work in Rome is the fresco of Phæbus and Aurora in the pavilion of the Rospigliosi Palace ( see woodcut). After an absence of about twenty years, which (with the exception of a short visit to Naples) were spent at Rome, Guido returned to Bologna, when he painted his third or more ideal style. He founded a school which was celebrated and numerous, and he enjoyed great reputation, but his end was hastened by extravagance and gambling. In order to gain money to waste at play, he was wont to paint pictures by time and in a hurried manner ; Malvasia tells us that he occasionally finished a picture in the short space of 168 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1600. three hours. Though wealthy and popular, and even to the last receiving sums of money for works executed , Guido died in poverty and want at Bologna in 1642. He was buried in the church of San Domenico. Guido, like Raphael, painted in three styles : the first was influenced by Caravaggio; the second was more independent, and is distinguished for grace and beauty ; the third was an ideal style, in which he frequently repeated himself, especially in the heads of women, which he painted after the Niobe of antiquity. Guido, notwithstanding his pride and boastfulness, did not attain the same greatness as his fellow - disciple, the modest Domenichino. But in a longer, more peaceful and more honoured life, he was more fertile. Perhaps also his works were more uniform , at all events during the first part of his career as an artist, before he adopted the pale, chalky style he used after wards, believing doubtless that he thus approached nearer to Paul Veronese, whom he passionately admired. The most important of all his works is the Madonna della Pietà in the museum of Bologna. This singular and immense composition was ordered of PHEBUS AND AURORA.— BY GUIDO RENI. In the Rospigliosi Palace, Rome. him as an ex -voto, by the senate of his native town, who rewarded him by adding to the price agreed upon, a gold chain and medal. The picture is divided into two distinct parts, which might easily be separated. In the upper compartment the body of Christ is represented, lying over the sepulchre, between two weeping angels ; Mary is opposite, looking down on the scene : from this arises the name of the picture. In the lower compartment five saints are kneeling in a sort of ecstasy ; these are St. Petronius, patron of Bologna, St. Proculus, St. Dominic, and the saint then most recently canonised , St. Charles Borromeo. This great work contains in the highest degree the distinctive qualities of Guido -- nobility and elegance of composition, delicacy of colouring, harmonious distribution of lights ; in short, every merit of an eminently graceful style , which was the opposite to that adopted by the dark and passionate Caravaggio. Guido, besides, here shows a rare vigour, which, by bringing his style nearer to that of his rival , makes his superiority more apparent. This picture is dated 1616. Fourteen years later, when the plague was raging at Bologna, A.D. 1600. ] GUIDO RENI. 169 Guido repeated almost the same composition by painting a Glorified Madonna, below whom a Group of Saints, the protectors of his native town, are kneeling in prayer. This second picture, which was painted on silk and called “ Il Pallione,” was carried in procession during the plague. It is an excellent specimen of the pale colouring which Guido had adopted. But the most celebrated of his works, after the Madonna della Pietà, is the Massacre of the Innocents in the Bologna Gallery, well known through engravings. The only fault to be found in the latter is a grace in the figures so unsuited to the subject as to incur the charge of affectation. The children who are being murdered , the women trampled underfoot or dragged along by the hair, are theatrical and studied in their attitudes. But the details are admirable, and setting aside this defect , which arises from the style of the artist being ill adapted for such a subject, the work is of rare beauty. BEATRICE CENCI. —BY GUIDO RENI . In the Barberini Palace, Rome. | Bervic. In the Berlin Museum is a picture of SS. Paul and Antony - powerfully executed in Guido's early style ; as is also a Crucifixion in the Modena Gallery. In the Louvre there are many works by Guido, amongst others four immense compositions on the History of Hercules, the proportions larger than nature ; one of these, the Rape of Dejanira by the Centaur Nessus, has been made popular by the fine engraving of The National Gallery possesses seven pictures attributed to Guido ; a St. Jerome( No. 11 ) ; the Magdalen ( No. 177 ) ; the Young Christ and St. John (No. 191 ) ; an Ecce Homo ( No. 271 ) and three others. Guido left a large school of followers and admirers, but they merely copied his style and were of no great importance. z 170 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1630 . Francesco Albani, who was born at Bologna in 1578, studied at first under Denys Calvart, where he made the acquaintance of Guido, with whom he was ever after a great friend ; on leaving that master, he and Guido entered the celebrated academy of the Carracci. After he had attained some fame in Bologna, Albani removed to Rome, where Annibale Carracci, who had been rendered incapable of working by illness, recommended him to finish his uncompleted frescoes in the chapel of San Diego in the national church of the Spaniards. This work gained great praise for Albani. He afterwards visited Mantua, and painted mythological pictures for the Duke of that city. Albani died in 1660. In his Four Seasons, in the Borghese Gallery , he is said to have been assisted by his scholars. The Torlonia (then the Verospi) Palace possesses specimens of his work. It is well known how much this master, whose style was so soft and harmonious, and who was called the “ Anacreon of painting,” loved to design in small proportions mythological subjects, in which he might introduce as many groups as he pleased, of loves, genii, nymphs, and goddesses ; these he painted extremely well, always placing them in charming Arcadian landscapes, under a Grecian sky, in the shade of great trees, which stand out against a misty background ornamented with architectural structures. But what is not generally known is that Albani painted works on sacred history, with the figures of life size . There are four of them in the Pinacoteca of Bologna, one of which is a Baptism of Christ, and another a Glorified Madonna, dated 1599. Albani, who was then twenty- one years of age, had not long begun to paint. These four pictures at Bologna reveal a nobler and more truly religious style than he would be given credit for. They are also a positive refutation of the studio saying, that Albani, having a very beautiful wife, and twelve children equally beautiful, took his models entirely from his own family. Here, instead of nymphs and Cupids, are men , both young and old, saints, and even the Eternal Father. At the Louvre there are merely specimens of the usual works of Albani. In the Toilet, the Repose of Venus, the Cupids disarmed , and in the Adonis conducted to Venus by Cupids, Albani may be seen with all the graceful qualities which his name promises. But why should there be three Acticons metamorphosed into stags ? Of what use can they be except to prove the sterile fertility of an artist , who, labouring on to extreme old age, ever repeating himself, had the misfortune to survive his talent and fame? We may here mention a pupil of Albani, who is of no great importance Giovanni Battista Mola, a native of France , who was born about 1620. He painted first in Paris , then accompanied Albani to Bologna and subsequently to Rome. He died in 1661. (?) Domenico Zampieri, commonly known as Domenichino, was born at Bologna in 1581. His father, a boot-maker, apprenticed him first to Denys Calvart, but on his receiving ill-treatment at the hands of that master, removed him and placed him with the Carracci, with whom the painter Albani also studied. On leaving this academy, Domenichino and Albani visited Parma and Modena, in order to acquaint themselves with the styles of Correggio and Parmigiano ; soon after their return to Bologna, Albani removed to Rome, whither, however, he was soon followed by his friend, who resided with him for two years in that city. Here Domenichino succeeded in obtain ing the friendship and patronage of Cardinal Agucchi, for whom he executed many works of importance, among others the celebrated Madonna of the Rosary. Domeni chino's fame as an artist, though already great, was much increased by his picture of the Flagillation of St. Andrere , painted in the chapel of that saint on Monte Celio at A.D. 1650. ] DOMENICHINO. 171 Rome; but it was about the year 1614 that he painted his masterpiece the Com munion of St. Jerome for the church of San Girolamo della Carità, which is now in the Vatican. Domenichino, disgusted with the petty jealousy of the artists of Rome, and the bad usage he received from them , left the city and repaired to Naples. He was however induced to return to Rome by Gregory XV ., who made him chief painter G THE LAST COMMUNION OF ST. JEROME.--- BY DOMENICHINO . In the l'atican , Rome. and architect to the Pontifical palace . Soon afterwards he went again to Naples , where Spagnoletto he was most shamefully treated by those three notoriously dishonourable men, , Corenzio , and Carracciolo , who formed the “ Cabal of Naples ." His principal works herewere frescoes representing scenes from the Life of St. Januarius , in the Cappella Tesoro , which he did not live to finish . He died at Naples (it has been said , of poison) on the 15th of April 1641. 172 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1650. It would seem that Domenichino's humble origin left him an unconquerable timidity, which betrays itself in the general character of his works as well as in his own character and the actions of his life . It is loftiness of style as well as of character that is wanting in Domenichino. This loftiness of style is scarcely found in any of his works, except in those which do not entirely belong to him , but which he copied from his predecessors, such as the Murder of St. Peter of Verona, taken from Titian , and merely altered ; and the Communion of St. Jerome, after Agostino Carracci. We need not speak of the former painting which is at Bologna, and is placed near two other large works, the Martyrdom of St. Agnes and the Madonna of the Rosary, both taken to Paris under the Empire. It is well known to what comparative perfection this master, patient, laborious, thoughtful, yet often unequal and always dissatisfied with himself, carried the art of composition , correctness of drawing, strength of colouring, grace of attitude, and even nobility of expression. The Martyrdom of St. Agnes contains in the highest degree all the qualities for which Domenichino is noted . One of these is not common even among masters . It fre quently happens that the principal personage in a composition is not sufficiently superior to the others, but is almost effaced by accessory figures ; in short , the painter becomes weakest exactly where he should have been strongest. Here St. Agnes is in every way the principal figure in the picture. The Madonna of the Rosary is also superior in the finished beauty of the details ; for example, the old man in chains in the foreground is a masterpiece of true, pathetic and deep feeling. In Rome we shall find the beautiful fresco paintings by Domeni chino, on the Life of St. Cecilia , in a chapel belonging to the church of San Luigi de' Francesi. When Raphael's Transfiguration still hung in the nave of St. Peter's, it had as a pendant Domenichino's Last Communion of St. Jerome. The mosaics which replaced them are still on either side of the high altar, and the two pictures which were together at Paris, are now placed in the same room in the Vatican. They may be said to share the throne of art. This would appear too great an honour for the work of Domeni chino, produced in a time when the decay in art, already manifest, was on the eve of becoming complete ; and yet in some respect the honour is not unmerited, for Do menichino , who preserved a purer taste than his contemporaries, knew also how to avail himself skilfully of those material aids recently introduced by his school. We have already mentioned that the subject of the Last Communion of St. Jerome was taken from Agostino Carracci, perhaps by the advice of Annibale. Domenichino has done little more than reproduce the scene, giving it , however, more of amplitude, and above all a greater charm . The just reproach of plagiarism would alone be sufficient to place his work much below that of Raphael. We might also criticise the rather singular nudity of the old saint, crouching under a portico in the open air, whilst all those around him are fully clothed ; and also the resigned , angelic mildness, which the painter has given to the fiery doctor of the Latin Church, one of the most militant of all the fathers ; but these criticisms would be rather those of an historian than of an artist. But with these restrictions, we must allow that there are few pictures to be found in the world in which may be seen an equal amount of wisdom in the composition, grandeur in the arrangement, complete unity of action , and, but for a little heaviness always to be found in Domenichino's works, great perfection in the execution. It was some time before justice was rendered to this magnificent work . Raphael received for the Transfiguration a sum equivalent to about 3201. of our A.D. 1650. ] DOMENICHINO. 173 money, and it was not too much. More than a century later, when a king of Portugal offered forty thousand sequins for the St. Jerome of Correggio, the poor shoemaker's son of Bologna, always unfortunate and oppressed, only received fifty Roman scudi (about ten guineas) for his St. Jerome, and a little later he had the mortification of seeing double this sum paid for a very inferior copy of his painting. It was Poussin who first understood this picture , drew it from the convent of San Girolamo della Carità, and assigned it the eminent position it now occupies. Among other works by Domenichino in Italy , we may mention the four Evangelists, in Sant Andrea della Valle ; the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, in Santa Maria degli Angeli ; and a Diana and Nymphs in the Borghese Palace, all at Rome; and lastly , scenes from the Life of the Virgin, in the Duomo at Fano. The National Gallery possesses four pictures by Domenichino ; first, two Landscapes with figures ( Nos. 48 and 75) ; then the Stoning of St. Stephen ( No. 77 ) , and lastly a St. Jerome and the Angel ( No. 85) , formerly in the Aldobrandini Gallery at Rome. Giovanni Francesco Barbieri di Cento— surnamed Guercino or Guercio ( the Squinter) because, while still in the cradle, a great fright caused a nervous convulsion which deranged the ball of one eye-was born at Cento, near Bologna, in 1592. As an artist, he was, in a great measure, self- taught. He was a disciple of the Carracci, not exactly from having received lessons from them , but from having learnt art, and made for himself a style by imitating their works. After studying at Venice and Bologna, Guercino went during the pontificate of Paul V. to Rome, where he stayed until 1623 , when he returned to his native Cento, in which town he executed several works of importance. In 1642 he removed to Bologna, where he remained till his death in 1666. In the works of Guercino we can admire neither the sublimity of the thought, nor the nobility of the forms : these qualities are not to be looked for in the son of a poor ox-driver ; but we cannot but admire the exact and skilful imitation of nature which he attained at once by correctness in drawing, harmony in colour, and the wonderful use he made of chiaroscuro. It is to the latter quality that he owes his too ambitious surname of the “ magician of painting.” He has been charged with giving his shadows a degree of exaggerated force , as did Caravaggio and Ribera ; but in those dark shades no one could have put more transparency and lightness than Guercino. One of the greatest works of Guercino is in the gallery at Stafford House. This is the Apothcosis or canonisation of a beatified pope, either St. Leo or St. Sixtus. Another, which is no less vast in composition and grand in its style , is the St. Petronilla in the Capitol at Rome ; it does honour alike to the museum and to the artist. This work, which is of singular beauty, is divided, like so many other pictures, into two parts, heaven and earth. Quite at the bottom , grave -diggers are opening a sepulchre in order to take out the body of the daughter of the apostle Peter, who was thrown into it alive as a forsworn vestal. This exhumation takes place in the presence of several persons, amongst others, of the betrothed of Petronilla, a young man , dressed in the fashion of the sixteenth century, who does not seem very deeply affected at seeing the corpse of his beloved appear above the edge of the grave. As for the saint herself, free for ever from the passions of the lower world, radiant with glory , and with her head encircled by a crown, she ascends on the clouds towards heaven, where the Eternal Father awaits her with outstretched arms. The copy of this St. Petronilla is considered the finest of the mosaics in St. Peter's - a double honour for one work. Among other works by Guercino, we may mention a St. Philip of Neri, in the 174 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [A.D. 1650. . Chiesa Nuova ; an Aurora, in the Villa Ludovisi ; the Incredulity of St. Thomas, in the Gallery of the Vatican - all at Rome ; also, in the Bologna Gallery, the Appearance of the Virgin to St. Bruno ; also, in the palace at Turin, the Prodigal Son ; OHMS ST. PETRONILLA — BY GUERCINO. In the Capitol, Romu. and in the National Gallery, Angels weeping over the dead body of Christ (No. 22), powerfully executed in his best style. Most of the principal galleries in Europe contain specimens of Guercino's art. A.D. 1600. ] ECLECTIC SCHOOL OF CREMONA. 175 THE ECLECTIC SCHOOL OF CREMONA. We must now mention a school of artists which sprang up in Cremona, much in the same way as that of the Carracci at Bologna. They were not, however, such talented painters as their Bolognese contemporaries, neither did they attain to anything like the same fame. Giulio Campi, the true founder of this school -- the Lodovico Carracci of Cremona -was the son of one Galeazzo Campi, a painter of little note . Giulio was born at Cremona in 1500, and was sent while still young to Mantua to study under Giulio Romano, with whom he worked most assiduously. Having acquired, at Mantua, a bold style of execution and a true knowledge of architecture, Giulio Campi repaired to Rome, where he occupied his time in studying the works of Raphael and other great masters. He died in 1572. The churches of Cremona, Milan, and Mantua contain the greater part of his pictures. Antonio Campi, the younger brother and pupil of Giulio , was born at Cremona. He is known to have painted as early as 1532. He was more famous as an architect than as a painter, and in the latter capacity was far inferior to his brother. His masterpiece, St. Paul resuscitating Eutychus, was engraved by Agostino Carracci . The church of San Paolo at Milan possesses a Nativity by him . Antonio Campi was still living in 1591 ; the exact date of his death is not known. He imitated, to a certain extent, the style of Correggio. Vincenzio Campi, the youngest of the three brothers, was born at Cremona about 1532, and was educated in art by Giulio. He painted religious subjects, but with no great success, although he excelled in portraits and still life . He died in 1591 . Bernardino Campi, a cousin of the three brothers, was born at Cremona in 1522. He was originally apprenticed to a goldsmith, but was induced to turn his attention towards painting by the sight of the copies, made by his cousin Giulio, of two of the tapestries designed by Raphael. He worked first at Cremona under Giulio Campi, but removing to Mantua, he studied the works of Giulio Romano. One of his patrons then took him to Modena and Parma, where he was able to examine the productions of Correggio. On his return to Cremona, he executed , in the short space of seven months,his greatest work, on the cupola of San Sigis It represents the Blessed of the Old and the New Testament, and is admirably executed with much grace and harmony. The same church possesses other specimens of the art of Bernardino. In the Louvre there is a pleasing Pietà by this artist. Bernardino Campi died about the year 1592. His style was formed chiefly by the study of the works of Raphael and of Correggio. mondo. 176 [ A.D. 1600. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. THE ECLECTIC SCHOOL OF MILAN. The school of the Procaccini now claims our attention. Though more famous than that of the Campi, it is much inferior, both in merit and in fame, to the celebrated school of the Carracci. Ercole Procaccini, the founder of this school, was born in 1520 at Bologna, where he spent the early part of his life . The churches of Bologna possess the greater part of his works. Leaving his native town, he removed to Milan and founded a school, which has always been known by his name. Ercole was better adapted for imparting instruction than for painting, though some of his pictures , which are all executed very carefully, display fair merit. They are mostly in imitation of the style of Correggio. Ercole was still living in 1591. - Camillo Procaccini, the son of Ercole, was born at Bologna in 1546. He received his first instruction in art from his father, but afterwards went to Rome to study the works of Raphael and Michelangelo, though he formed his style chiefly on those of Correggio and Parmigiano. Whatever merit there was in his art was frequently spoiled by his great haste in execution , though some pictures, to which a fair time was allowed, are very pleasing specimens of the school of the Procaccini. Foremost among these we must mention the St. Roch administering to the sick, now at Dresden ; and an Adoration of the Kings, in the Brera. Camillo died in 1626 at Milan , where many of his works may still be found. As an artist , Camillo's colouring was good ; some of his pictures display much grace, and a calm quietude which is very pleasing. Giulio Cesare Procaccini, the second son of Ercole, was born at Bologna in 1548. After having made considerable advancement in sculpture, he was induced, by the success of his brother Camillo, to abandon that art for painting. By some critics, Giulio Cesare is considered the best painter of the family of the Procaccini, and indeed his care and attention to details, and to the general design of his pictures, place them in a much higher rank than they would otherwise enjoy. He copied the style of Correggio with such success, that several of his works have been mistaken for those of the great master . The churches and public buildings of Milan possess many of his pictures. We may mention of these a Transfiguration in the church of San Celso, and an Annunciation in Sant'Antonio . Giulio Cesare died at Milan in 1626. There was a third brother, Carlo Antonio Procaccini, who was, however, an artist of very second - rate abilities. He chiefly painted subjects in still life. He was at the height of his fame about the year 1605 at Milan. We may also mention his son, Ercole Procaccini ( the younger ), who was educated by his uncle Giulio Cesare. He was born in 1596 at Milan, in which city are most of his works. He painted historical subjects as well as still life, but excelled in the latter. He died in 1676. Giovanni Battista Crespi, the sculptor, architect, and painter - called Il Cerano, from his birthplace in the Milanese - was born in 1457. He was one of the best of the pupils of the Procaccini, and was a powerful though somewhat mannered painter . Milan possesses most of his works. He is said to have excelled in representing birds A.D. 1600. ] ECLECTIC SCHOOL OF FLORENCE. 177 and other animals. Il Cerano died in 1633. He hail a son Daniello , who, though not so famous as his father, was a painter of merit. Besides the above mentioned, there were many other artists , who studied in the school of the Procaccini ; several very praiseworthy, but none of sufficient importance to warrant special mention. THE ECLECTIC SCHOOL OF FLORENCE. We must now turn our attention to the later painters of Florence, who, though not equal to their renowned fellow - citizens of the previous century, are yet themselves worthy of praise, and their works of notice and consideration. Lodovico Cardi -- called , from his birthplace , da Cigoli-was born in 1559. He was a pupil of Alessandro Allori , and also of Santo di Titi , but he formed his style chiefly from the study of the works of Correggio and other great masters, and his manner was much allied to that of the school of the Carracci. After a journey through Lombardy for the purpose of study, Cigoli settled in Florence for a time, and executed many works of importance, especially for the Grand Duke, who sent him to Rome, where he was employed to paint a picture for St. Peter's. His subject was the Lame Man healed by Peter, and the work was considered by Andrea Sacchi to be, after Raphael's Transfiguration and Domenichino's Communion of St. Jerome, the best picture in Rome, an opinion which was shared by many. Cigoli's work has, however, unfortunately perished. Shortly after the completion of some frescoes in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, Cigoli died at Rome in 1613. His pictures are chiefly notice able for the beauty of their colour. His favourite subjects were monks and saints , more especially St. Francis. The Uffizi possesses, among other works by him , the Martyrdom of St. Stephen , but the Pitti Palace contains his masterpiece, the Ecce Homo. Cigoli left many scholars. Gregorio Pagani, the son of an unimportant artist , Francesco Pagani, was born at Florence in 1558. He first studied under Santo di Titi and then with Cigoli, whose style he so closely imitated that he was called the “ second Cigoli.” His finest work , the Finding of the Cross, painted for the church of the Carmelites, was unfortunately lost when the church was destroyed by fire. Pagani's works are very scarce. He died at Florence in 1605. Cristofano Allori — the son of Alessandro Allori, who was the nephew of Bronzino was born at Florence in 1577. He studied first under his father, a painter of no great merit, then under Santo di Titi , but finally abandoning his great-uncle's style, he followed that of the master of his choice, Correggio. He painted works for the churches and public buildings of Florence, but , owing chiefly to his irregular habits, they were few in number and are nowºvery scarce. He died in 1621 at his native town . one of the best artists in Florence at his time, and excelled in portrait -painting. Allori's most celebrated works are in the Pitti Palace - the Hospitality of St. Julian, and Judith with the head of Holofernes. The former is a magnificent composition, finished with that minute and zealous care which Allori gave to all his works. never contented with himself, and often spoiled fine works by putting too many finishing strokes. The Judith is still finer than the St. Julian. It enjoys a fame which He was He was 21 178 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1600 makes praise unnecessary. But we cannot pass over in silence the anecdote which, it is said , points to the hidden meaning of the picture . The magnificent Judith, so proud and imperious, is the portrait of a mistress of Allori , named Mazzafirra. The attendant holding the bag is the woman's mother ; in the severed head of Holofernes he painted his own features. He intended to indicate in this allegory the torture he constantly experienced, from the capricious pride of the daughter and the greedy rapacity of the mother. There are several repetitions of this picture. While in France, it was engraved by Gandolfi for the “ Musée Napoléon. " The National Gallery possesses a Portrait of a Lady ( No. 21 ) by this artist. Allori made several copies, with slight alterations in the background, of Correggio's Magdalen, which were such good imitations that they have passed as replicas by Correggio's own hand. Matteo Rosselli was born at Florence in 1578. He studied under Gregorio Pagani, but, leaving him, went to Rome and improved his style by contemplating the great works in that city. He then returned to Florence, where he remained until his death in 1650. Rosselli was much employed by the Grand Duke Cosimo II. , for whom he executed works of importance. His best picture is the Triumph of David in the Pitti Palace. Rosselli's pictures sometimes remind one of Cigoli. They are especially to be admired for their grace and quietness. He left many pupils and followers of no great importance. Domenico Feti, who was born at Rome in 1589, studied first under Cigoli at Florence, but leaving him , went to Rome and afterwards to Mantua, and studied the works of Giulio Romano. Here he was employed by Duke Ferdinando Gonzaga, who appointed him court- painter, hence he is often called " il Mantuano.” He died at Venice in 1624, aged only thirty - five. Feti painted chiefly Biblical subjects, of which there are several in the Dresden Gallery. Lanzi mentions with great praise a Feeding of the five thousand, in the Mantua Gallery. His works may be noticed for good colour and truthfulness of expression , Carlo Dolci, sometimes called Carlino, was born at Florence in 1616. He lost his father when but four years of age, and five years later was placed by his mother with one Jacopo Vignali, a pupil of Matteo Rosselli. He passed nearly all his life in his native town , where he was much patronized , and where he soon became famous. In 1670, he went to Innspruck to paint the portrait of Claudia , daughter of Ferdinand of Austria ; but returning to Florence he died there in 1686. Dolci left one son and seven daughters, one of whom , Agnese, painted in the same style as her father, though not with equal success. Though Dolci's pictures are not uncommon in the European galleries, neither the Louvre nor the National Gallery possesses one. There are several, however, in private collections in England. A Christ breaking bread is in the possession of the Marquis of Exeter at Burleigh. The Earl of Ashburnham has a fine St. Andrew'. Among Dolci's best pictures we may mention, a Madonna and Child and a St. Andrew praying before the Cross, both in the Pitti Palace ; and a St. Cecilia in the Dresden Gallery. Dolci was a most prolific and at the same time a careful painter, but his renown has surpassed his merit. One might almost suppose that Vasari was thinking of him when he said of an earlier painter ( Lorenzo da Credi) , “ His productions are so finished , that beside them those of other painters appear coarse sketches. ... This excessive care is no more worthy of praise than is excessive negligence ; in everything we should keep from extremes, which are equally vicious. ” This reflection serves to A.D. 1600.] FOLLOWERS OF THE CARRACCI. 179 judge the works of Carlo Dolci on the material side. If we examine thern from a moral point of view, we find their principal characteristic to be a feeble , insipid affecta tion of religious feeling. He does not attain to the mystic devotion of the art of Fra Angelico and Morales, but stops short at narrow devoteeism. The last of the Florentines in age, he was so also in style and taste. With him expired the great school which had been rendered celebrated by Giotto, Masaccio, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Fra Bartolommeo, and Andrea del Sarto. If the painters of the periods of decay should never, any more than the poets, be chosen as models for study, they are yet of real use when placed near the works of classic masters, because they serve as examples of the most dangerous of all faults, those which are agreeable or fashion able, in contrast with severe, solid, and eternal beauties. The taste becomes formed by discriminating between these, and talent learns to shun the defects of the one whilst imitating the beauties of the other. Hence the works of Carlo Dolci have a use , even by the side of those of Michelangelo and Raphael. FOLLOWERS OF THE CARRACCI. ( ROMAN SCHOOL. ) Bartolommeo Schedone, who was born at Modena about 1580, is said to have worked under the Carracci, but his works show a careful study of the productions of Correggio, whose style he successfully imitated. Having displayed a talent for art in works which he executed when quite young, he was patronized by Duke Ranuccio, of Modena, for whom he painted several important works, which are now in the Naples Gallery. Schedone was a good portrait-painter, but he is most famous for his Holy Families. His pictures are not often met with, for he was not a prolific artist and moreover he died when still young, in 1615. It is said that his time was wasted . and his end hastened by the habit of gambling in which he indulged. Giovanni Lanfranco was born at Parma in 1581 . He was at first apprenticed to Agostino Carracci, who was then working at Ferrara. Under this master, Lanfranco studied the works of Correggio, more especially the dome of San Giovanni at Parma. On the death of Agostino in 1601 , Lanfranco went to Rome and engaged himself to Annibale Carracci, from whose designs he painted several frescoes in the church of Sant' Iago. The first work of importance of his own composition was an Assump tion of the Virgin in the chapel of Buon Giovanni in the church of Sant' Agostino. Soon after this he executed for Paul V. , Moses striking the rock ; Abraham sacrific ing Isaac, and the Flight into Egypt, in the palace on Monte Cavallo. About this time, too, he painted his celebrated Virgin seated in the clouds with Saints in ado ration, on the Cupola of Sant'Andrea della Valle. In 1646, he removed by invitation to Naples and painted works, which have since been destroyed by an earthquake, in the church del Gesù. After the death of Domenichino, Lanfranco was employed to finish the Cupola of the Treasury, which that artist had left uncom pleted, but the disturbances which occurred at Naples forced Lanfranco to leave that city and return to Rome, where he painted St. Peter walking on the sea and scenes from the Passion of our Lord, which gained him great renown. He executed nothing of importance after this, and died in 1648 at Rome. Lanfranco , though much praised and honoured , was not a great artist . His 180 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1650. 11 . jcolouring is fair, but he had no taste for harmony ; his countenances are lacking in expression , his foreshortening is exaggerated, but with all that, some of his pictures are pleasing. They display a presence of genius, even though there be a want of care. Giovanni Battista Salvi , commonly known as Sassoferrato from his birthplace near Urbino, was born in 1605. His father, Tarquinio Salvi , an unimportant artist , gave him his first instruction in painting and design ; he is then supposed to have studied under Domenichino at Naples, which city he is known to have visited. Sassoferrato belongs to the followers of the Carracci, but he both studied and copied the works of several great masters - Raphael, Titian , Perugino, Guido, Albani, and Domenichino. His favourite subject for original pictures was the Madonna, of which nearly every gallery in Europe possesses a specimen : the National Gallery has two; a Madonna in prayer ( No. 200) ; and the Madonna with the Infant Christ (No. 740). His masterpiece is in the church of Santa Sabina at Rome ; it is called the Madonna del Rosario. Sassoferrato died at Rome in 1685. His works are highly finished , and display great grace and care in execution. Pietro Berrettini, commonly called Pietro da Cortona from his birthplace, was born on the ist of November 1596. He was sent to Rome, where he was apprenticed to Baccio Ciarpi, but improved his style by the study of the works of Raphael, Michelangelo and especially of Polidoro da Caravaggio. His talent was first noticed by the Marquis of Sacchetti, who took him under his protection and procured for him many commissions - notably, to paint the ceiling of the grand saloon of the Palazzo Barberini, a work which has been much admired . Soon after this , Cortona started from Rome, on a journey through the towns of Italy. At Florence he was employed by Ferdinand II . to paint in the Pitti Palace. He executed various historical subjects, but did not quite complete the series , for, annoyed at the remarks of some rival artists, he left Florence, never to return. He went again to Rome, where he was much honoured and fully employed, until his death in 1669 ; he was buried in the church of San Martino, of which he had been the architect. Cortona's principal works are, in Florence, those in the Pitti already mentioned ; in Rome, in the Barberini and Sacchetti Palaces. Cortona was a painter who had great natural talent, but it is spoiled by his superficial manner of execution. His pictures are powerful in conception and design, but are wanting in depth and harmony. Andrea Sacchi, the son of Benedetto Sacchi, a painter of little note, was born near Rome in 1599 (?) His father, after giving him instruction in the rudiments of art, apprenticed him to Albani, under whom he studied for some time. On the accession of Urban VIII. to the papal chair in 1623 , Sacchi was commissioned to paint a large altar-piece in St. Peter's. He was much patronized by Cardinal Antonio Barberini, the nephew of Urban VIII. For this patron, Sacchi painted a fresco, representing Divine Wisdom, in the Barberini Palace ; this picture gained him great praise, but his master piece was St. Romualido relating his vision to five monks, which, after a journey to Paris, now hangs in the Gallery of the Vatican. Sacchi died at Rome in 1661 . He was considered the greatest painter in Rome at that time, and he was decidedly the best colourist ; for his shades, though subdued , were harmonious, and his pictures, if lacking in power, are very pleasing. He studied most carefully the works of all the great masters in Italy , and the result was certainly satisfactory. Pietro Francesco Mola was born at Coldrà in the Milanese in 1612 ( other dates are given as the time of his birth , and also other towns as his birthplace) . His father, A.D. 1650.) FOLLOWERS OF THE CARRACCI. 181 Giovanni Battista Mola, an architect, took him when quite young to Rome, where he studied art under D'Arpino for a time. After visiting various towns he finally settled at Bologna, where he studied the works of the great Bolognese artists of that time-more especially of Albani. He returned, however, to Rome in the pontificate of Innocent X. , by whom he was much patronised. Pope Alexander VII. also employed him on several works. Mola died at Rome in 1668 ( Pascoli says , 1666) , when he was about to depart for Paris at the invitation of Louis XIV. Among the best works which this artist painted we may mention a St. Peter delivered from prison and the Conversion of St.Paul, in the church del Gesù at Rome; a Joseph making himself known to his brethren, in the palace of Monte Cavallo ; and two in the National Gallery - St. John preaching in the wilderness ( No. 69) , and the Repuse ( No. 160) , representing the Holy Family way into Egypt. Mola was celebrated both as an historical and as a landscape painter; he excelled in execution, and more especially in colouring. He painted somewhat after the style of Guercino. resting on their Carlo Maratti, who was born at Camurano in the March of Ancona, in ' 1625 , was the best as well as the favourite pupil of Andrea Sacchi, whom he joined when quite young. He studied the works of Raphael, the Carracci, and Guido, but his best works are painted after the style of his master, Sacchi. From the fact that he at first confined himself almost entirely to painting Holy Families, he obtained the name of “ Carluccio delle Madonne.” His first great work was painted on commission, procured for him by Sacchi, in the church of San Giovanni in Laterano. It represented Constantine destroying the idols, and was highly praised. From this time, Maratti continued to rise in public favour, and soon became one of the most popular and honoured painters in Rome. He was much patronised by Alexander VII. and his six immediate successors. innocent XI. made him inspector of the “ Stanze . ” Innocent XII. appointed him superintendent of all the paintings of the Vatican, and Clement XI. commissioned him to restore the frescoes of Raphael. To these appointments Maratti owes much of his fame. This artist, who has been called the “ Last of the Romans,” died at Rome in 1713 , at the advanced age of eighty -eight. Maratti has left us several engravings ; the celebrated James Frey was his scholar. The National Gallery can boast of but one picture by Maratti, a Portrait of Cardinal Cerri (No. 174) . In speaking of this painter Mr. Wornum says, “ His pictures are distinguished for their academic precision of design, but are more conspicuous for the general absence of defects, than for any particular excellence.” 182 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS A.D. 1600. . 2

CHAPTER XVI.THE NATURALISTI.

THHE principles of the well- known school of the Naturalisti, who were so directly opposed to the Eclectic painters , were based solely on the direct imitation of nature—but it was not nature in her most pleasing form . They chose subjects which were exaggerated in the extreme, and rejoiced in the representation of scenes of a debased and vulgar character, but notwithstanding these drawbacks, their pictures display good colouring and extraordinary force and power of execution. Many of the chiefs of the Naturalisti resided at Naples, and did not hesitate to avail themselves of any means — however treacherous — whereby they were enabled to rid the city of any opponents to their style and fame. The founder of this school was not a Neapolitan by birth , neither can he be classed among the artists of Naples, for he resided but a short time in that city, but as he was most important in his influence, we must mention him first. THE NATURALISTI. ( ROMAN SCHOOL. ) Michelangelo Amerighior Merighi - commonly known as Michelangelo da Caravaggio, from his birthplace in the Milanese - was born in 1569. The son of a mason, he was employed, when quite a boy, in grinding the colours of several painters of Milan, and thus acquired an early taste for art. With no other teacher but nature, he laboured attentively at his new work, confining himself at first to painting portraits and flower- pieces. After five years of steady application in Milan, Caravaggio removed to Venice, where he studied the works of Giorgione. Thence he went to Rome, in which city, finding himself , through poverty, unable to gain a livelihood as an independent painter, he engaged himself to Cesare d'Arpino, who employed him to execute the floral and ornamental parts of his pictures. Caravaggio, however, was soon enabled to paint for himself , but after executing many important works, he was obliged to leave the city on account of the death of a friend, whom he had killed in a fit of anger ; he repaired to Naples, whence he went to Malta , where he was patronised by the grand -master Vignacourt, whose portrait he twice painted. Once more , through his hot and fiery temper, Caravaggio was driven from the town of his choice. He quarrelled with a knight, who threw him into prison. Caravaggio, however, escaped A.D. 1600. ] CARAVAGGIO. 183 from captivity and fled to Syracuse, whence he went to Naples by way of Messina and Palermo. Having obtained , through the influence of his friends, the Pope's pardon for the manslaughter of his companion - Caravaggio set sail from Naples for Rome, but he · was taken prisoner on the way by some Spaniards, in mistake for another man. On being set at liberty, he had the misfortune to find that the boatmen had gone off with the felucca and his property. He continued his way as far as Porto Ercole, where partly from his loss and partly from the heat of the weather, he was taken ill shortly afterwards , and died in 1609. In the Vatican at Rome is the Descent from the Cross, by Caravaggio, which is usually considered his masterpiece, and in which there is seen , if not the absence of his 02336** Sme 2 THE LUTE - PLAYER . - BY CARAVAGGIO , usual defects, at least a union of his most eminent qualities. The heads are all ignoble never did he carry further the worship of the real and the repulsive. As to the men who are taking the body of our Lord down from the cross, their vulgar coarseness might have formed a contrast to the noble beauty of Jesus and Mary. But the Saviour himself and His Virgin Mother are no better treated ; it might almost be said that Caravaggio was of the school of those Christian painters of the fourth century who followed the tradition of St. Cyril and some others among the early fathers, that our blessed Lord was the least beautiful among the sons of men. 184 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1650. He appears The same may be said of one of his choicest works, now in the Louvre, the Death of the Virgin , which he painted for a church in Rome, that called Della Scala in Trastevere. We notice in it , at the first glance, the absence of all religious feeling , and even of worldly nobility ; and still more the absence of traditional characters common to all sacred subjects. Who is it lying on that couch , breathing her last sigh ? Is it the mother of Christ in the midst of His Apostles, or is it not rather an old gipsy among a number of the men of her tribe, dressed in ridiculous finery ? It is the same with the Judith at Naples, which may yet be considered one of his most vigorous and energetic works. How can we recognize the timid and virtuous widow , who to save her people resolves to commit a double crime, in that infuriated woman who is cutting the throat of Holofernes as a butcher slaughters a sheep ? Caravaggio, indeed , when he is on his own ground is an eminent artist . thus at the Louvre, in his Fortune- teller, and in the excellent Portrait of Vignacourt, Grand -master of Malta, in his armour ; he is also seen to be a great artist at Rome in the picture of the Gamesters, in which a young gentleman is seen robbed by two swindlers ; and at Vienna in the Lichtenstein Gallery, in the Portrait of a young girl playing on the lute. This is an extraordinary work , for, laying aside his habitual exaggeration, his inclination to the ugly and strange, the master here shines in truth , grace, nobility, and beauty. (See woodcut.) The National Gallery has but one work by Caravaggio, a Christ with the two disciples at Emmaus ( No. 172) , formerly in the Borghese Gallery at Rome ; it was painted for Cardinal Scipione Borghese. Caravaggio was a mason, who became a painter by seeing frescoes executed on the moist plaster he had laid on the walls ; he was a painter who remained a mason , rough , unlettered , professing to despise antiquity, and scoffing at Raphael and Correggio ; wishing for no other model than nature, he studied commonplace and low nature ; yet in his fiery execution he attained a degree of energy, power, and truth , the only defects of which are probably their own excesses. Of Caravaggio's followers in Rome, we may mention the following : — Carlo Saracino, a native of Venice, was born in 1585 . He painted at his native town and in Rome. One of his best pictures is a Judith with the head of Holofernes, in the Manfrini Gallery at Venice. Saracino painted, in conjunction with Lanfranco in the palace of Monte Cavallo, several frescoes, which have been much admired. He died in 1625. We must now notice two Frenchmen . Moses Valentin , though claimed by his country men for their school, must be classed among the painters of Rome. He was born at Colomiers en Brie in 1600. He worked for some time under Simon Vouet, but leaving that master he went to Rome and studied the works of Caravaggio, whose style he closely imitated. He died in 1632. Rome possesses many of Valentin's best works ; he is also represented in the Louvre. The other Franco - Roman painter , Simon Vouet,, will be found mentioned under the artists of France. Michelangelo Cerquozzi, called , from the subject of his compositions, delle Battaglie, was born at Rome in 1602. He painted in the style of the Flemish Peter van Laar, whose manner was much admired in Rome at that time, and excelled especially in battle -scenes and subjects chosen from low life. Cerquozzi died in 1660. Jacques Courtois , called by the Italians Jacopo Cortese and Il Borgognone, was born in Franche Comté in 1621. He was a follower of Cerquozzi and , like him, was famous for his battle - scenes, which, as he had been a soldier in early life , to produce with great accuracy. On the death of his wife, with whom he had not lived was A.D. 1600.] THE NATURALISTI OF NAPLES. 185 quite amicably, Cortese was accused of having poisoned her. This charge so disgusted him with society, that he entered a monastery of the Jesuits. He died at Rome in 1676. Cortese's fame has suffered much, because many pictures by his followers have been attributed to himself, THE NATURALISTI. ( NEAPOLITAN SCHOOL. ) Most of the great painters who settled or sojourned at Naples, from the Florentine Giotto to the Spaniard Ribera, were foreigners. It is however fair to recognize a Neapolitan school as ancient as that of Florence, whose first masters, going back as far as the first appearance of the Renaissance, approach the unknown painters of the primitive Greco - Italian school. They are called the Tracentisti. Such is , first of all , Tommaso de' Stefani, who, born in the kingdom of Naples in 1324, was surnamed Giottino, as one of the most happy imitators of the great Giotto. Such are again at the beginning of the following century the Neapolitans Colantonio del Fiore and his son- in- law, Antonio Solario. In the museum of the Studj there is a celebrated picture attributed to Colantonio, St. Jerome extracting a thorn from the lion's paw, quite in the style of the Flemings of this period, Lucas van Leyden, or the blacksmith of Antwerp. He died about 1444. Antonio Solario, surnamed Il Zingaro, was born in the kingdom of Naples in 1382. ( ?) His Glorified Virgin has justly been placed in the hall of the Capi d'Opera. This important work is of. particular interest , because it gives the whole life of the painter. Antonio Solario , who belonged probably to that nomad tribe called , accord ing to the country they inhabit, zingari, gitanos, zigeuner, tzigani , gipsies, was at first a tinker. At twenty- seven years of age he fell in love with the daughter of Colantonio del Fiore, who absolutely refused to give her to him , wishing her to marry none but an artist of his own profession. Love made Zingaro a painter ; he studied, travelled, and ten years after married the object of his affection . It is she, they say, whom he has represented as the Madonna ; he has placed himself behind the young bishop, St. Aspremus, and it is believed that an ugly little old man, cowering in a corner, is the portrait of his father- in - law . Zingaro died about 1455. We wiil pass rapidly over the two Donzelli ( Pietro and Ippolito ), pupils of Zingaro ; over Andrea da Salerno (already mentioned ) , although he took from Rome to Naples the lessons and the style of his master Raphael ; until we come to some of the more important names of the school of Naples. Belisario Corenzio, a native of Greece, was born in 1558. He studied at first in Greece , and afterwards at Venice for five years, under Tintoretto ; he then removed, in 1590, to Naples, where he entered into that shameful and dishonourable triumvirate with Spagnoletto and Caracciolo, known as the “ Cabal of Naples." As an artist, Corenzio was better in fresco -paintings than in oil , and the former was his favourite vehicle. He died in Naples, at an advanced age, in 1643. Giambattista Caracciolo was born at Naples about 1580. He worked at first under a painter named Francesco Imparato, then under Caravaggio, but subse quently went to Rome to study the works of Annibale Carracci. On his return to Naples, he is said to have painted much in the style of that great master, but his manner was also influenced by that of Caravaggio and other Naturalisti. Caracciolo 2 B 186 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. (A.D. 1650. was one of the members of the “ Cabal of Naples.” He died in that city in 1641 . The churches of Naples possess most of his works. Massimo Stanzioni was born at Naples in 1585. He worked under Caracciolo, but copied the style of Caravaggio . For the purpose of studying the works of Annibale Carracci, he made a journey to Rome ; he there met and became acquainted with Guido Reni, whose style he so successfully imitated that he was called " Il Guido Reni di Napoli. ” When he returned to Naples he was much persecuted by the Cabal, more especially by Spagnoletto, who, as Lanzi tells us, performed a most shameful piece of treacherous deceit. He and Stanzioni had painted in competition at the Certosa. The former executed the Deposition from the Cross, the latter a Dead Christ and the Marys. Spagnoletto, on the plea that Stanzioni's picture had become a little dark , obtained permission from the monks to wash it — which he did, but with a liquid so corrosive, that the beauty of the picture was entirely spoiled. The monks entreated Stanzioni to restore it ; this, however, he would not do, preferring to let it remain, a memorial of Spagnoletto's baseness. Naples possesses the greater part of Stanzionis pictures. He died in 1656. Giuseppe de Ribera - called by the Italians Lo Spagnoletto, from his native country , Spain—was born at Xativa near Valencia in 1589, and died at Naples “ full of wealth and honour ” in 1656. He was the chief of the celebrated Cabal of Naples." Further notice of him will be found under the Artists of Spain. Aniello Falcone, who was born at Naples in 1600, studied under Spagnoletto, and in later life had the honour of imparting instruction to Salvator Rosa. Falcone is chiefly famous for his battle- scenes, which he executed with great skill and power. Easel and larger pictures were alike to him ; he painted them all with great judgment. He was captain of La Compagnia della Morte, which fought for Masaniello against the Spaniards. Falcone died in 1665. Domenico Gargiuoli-called Micco Spadara - was born at Naples in 1612. He was a pupil of Salvator Rosa , and excelled in landscapes, into which he introduced many small figures. Three pictures by him are worthy of praise. One represents the Plague of Naples in 1656, another The Friars of the Carthusian Monastıry imploring their patron St. Martin to deliver them from the Scourge — rather a selfish prayer, for it would not have cost the pious monks anything to have extended their entreaty , and taken in the whole city ; the third, the Revolution of 1647 under Masaniello. This last work is very curious, because in one moderate - size frame, filled with a crowd of small figures, one sees all the particulars of this strange episode in the history of Naples, related , as it were, by an impartial eye-witness. Gargiuoli died in 1679. Salvator Rosa was born at Arenella near Naples in 1615. He chose the profession of an artist in opposition to the wishes of his father, who in vain tried to cure him of his desire. Rosa's first master was his brother -in - law , Francesco Francanzano. In 1633, he went for a journey through the neighbouring country in order to perfect himself in drawing from nature . He is there said to have associated with the banditti, which companionship may have given rise to those pictures of romantic scenery which he delighted to paint. On his return to Arenella, Rosa found the whole of his family rendered dependent on him by the death of his father; and was therefore obliged to work at painting incessantly in order to gain the necessaries of life. fortunate enough to gain the friendship of Lanfranco, and subsequently of Falcone, under whom he studied and by whom he was induced to go to Rome, where he was A.D. 1650.1 THE NATURALISTI OF NAPLES. 187 patronized by Cardinal Brancacci , for whom he painted several works at Viterbo, among which was the Incredulity of St. Thomas. Rosa after a short visit to Naples returned to Rome in 1639, where he remained - greatly honoured and employed until 1647 , when on the rising of Masaniello, he repaired to Naples and joined La Compagnia della Morte ; on the disbandment of this company, he went to Florence and thence to Rome, where he produced shortly afterwards his masterpiece, the Conspiracy of Catilinc. In 1668 he painted his Saul and the Witch of Endor ; executing little of importance from this time, Rosa died at Rome in 1673 , and was buried in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, which had been erected by Michelangelo. We are disappointed to find in his native country only incomplete specimens of the talents of this original and fertile artist, who was not merely a painter, but also a poet, musician , and actor. But Salvator never resided long at Naples ; he was three times driven from it ; the first time by want; then by the disdain and hatred of his fellow - artists, whom he did not conciliate ; and lastly by the fall of the popular and patriotic party of Masaniello, which he had embraced ardently under his master, Aniello Falcone, the chief of La Compagnia della Morte, in which the greater number of artists had enrolled themselves. We shall find most of his works at Florence, Madrid , Paris, Munich, and London . The most celebrated of Salvator Rosa's pictures is doubtless the Conspiracy of Catiline, in the Pitti Palace. This is the name given to a picture which contains several half- length figures of Romans. Salvator Rosa is not a great historical painter ; he excels in battles, and still more in landscapes and sea- pieces. This is proved by two fine marine views in the Pitti Palace, the largest and perhaps the finest that he ever painted, and one in the Berlin Museum , also by the large landscape in Madrid , in which St. Jerome is introduced at study and prayer. Such a subject as this -an uncultivated, desert country, where brambles grow by the side of sheets of water, and where the only ornaments are, a barren rock, and a trunk blasted by lightning, suits well with the wild, dark imaginings, and the bold and capricious pencil of Salvator Rosa. At Paris we must form the same opinion. Before the Apparition of the Spirit of Samuel to Saul, it must be confessed that Salvator has wholly failed , and once more through this fault of confusion in high historical subjects ; at the same time we must acknowledge that he fully makes up for it in a simple Landscape, animated by a few figures. Salvator feels himself at his ease, and displays his real qualities in depicting a den of robbers, wild nature, precipitous rocks, foamy torrents, and trees bent beneath the tempest. In England, his works are found in many private collections. The National Gallery has a fine specimen of this artist ; it represents Mercury and the dishonest Woodman ( No. 84) , and was formerly in the Colonna Palace at Rome. A picture — attributed to Salvator Rosa — was bequeathed to the National Gallery by the late Mr. Wynn - Ellis in 1875 . Luca Giordano was born at Naples in 1632 . He enjoyed both in Italy and Spain the fatal honour of marking the extreme limit between the art, of which he was the last representative, and the decadence which his example hastened . His father, one of the numerous painters who rendered the masters the same services as marble cutters render to sculptors , lived at Naples next door to Ribera. Showing from his earliest age a decided inclination for painting, the little Luca passed his days in the studio of Lo Spagnoletto. At seven years of age he painted small works, which excited the admira tion of the whole city. At sixteen he fled to Rome, where he was joined by his 188 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [ A.D. 1650. . father ; he afterwards travelled through Italy, visiting Florence, Bologna, Parma, and Venice, studying under nearly every master, and in every style, becoming a universal imitator ; thus, whilst fortifying his natural talent by such various studies, hé enriched his father, who sold for a good price the copies from the old masters, which the young man made with wonderful perfection. Excited by this advantage, the father con stantly urged his son to work, repeating from morning to evening, “ Luca, fa presto .” This saying, which became well- known among artists, has since been employed to designate Giordano, and with too much justice, -as, while it recalls the manner in which he studied, it also expresses his highest quality and his greatest defect. When, after having passed nine years in Spain, whither he had been sent for by the imbecile Charles II . , who had been persuaded that the greatest of painters should serve the greatest of kings, Giordano returned to Italy. He was received with much distinction by the Grand - duke of Tuscany, and by Pope Clement XI. , who allowed him to enter the Vatican “ with his sword, cloak , and spectacles. ” At Naples a similar reception awaited him , besides so many orders, that Giordano, rich and old, had no time to enjoy before his death that otium cum dignitate, the last happiness of an illustrious man during his life. It was at this period that, one of his friends persuading him to paint with reflection and leisure some great work for the glory of his name, he replied , “ I desire glory only in Paradise, " " where,” says Cean - Bermudez, “ we hope that he entered on the 4th of January, 1705 , the day on which he died, 73 years of age. ” Giordano has left two large compositions in Italy, which show clearly that, with more taste and conscientious work, he might have equalled the greatest masters. These are the Consecration of Monte Casino, at Naples, and the Descent from the Cross, at Venice. In all his other works there are found traces of wit, originality, and sometimes of genius, a fresh and transparent colouring, and much fertility ; but with all these merits, his style is commonplace, and wanting in nobility and simplicity . Luca Giordano, so to say, flooded both Italy and Spain with his works. We could scarcely count, much less describe, the enormous ornamental works which he painted in the Escurial, at Buen Retiro, in the Cathedral of Toledo, and in the chapel of the palace at Madrid. To give an idea of the prodigious rapidity of his execution , it suffices to say that the queen having come one day to visit Giordano in his studio, she asked after his family. The painter replied by immediately tracing with his pencil his wife and children on the canvas before him. The delighted queen threw round his neck her pearl necklace. Besides the great works ordered for the king, the book of Cean -Hermudez gives a list of one hundred and ninety- six of his pictures in the churches and palaces of Madrid, la Granja, the Pardo, Seville , Cordova, Granada, &c . To this must be added the pictures, impossible to enumerate , bought by amateurs . Luca Giordano was the last of that magnificent generation of painters who had succeeded each other in Italy since the days of Giotto. He had a number of pupils dazzled by his easy success ; none were able to follow him in the perilous path he had chosen ; they all lost their way. And the most celebrated among them , Matteis, Simonelli, Rossi, Pacelli , and even Solimena, were only imitators of an imitator. Luca Giordano destroyed, as if for his own pleasure, for the sake of a fatal agility of mind and hand, all the last remaining protecting rules of good taste, the last entrenchments of art. He left behind him merely a void , and his name will remain as the most soleinn demonstration of the truth that, besides natural gifts, an artist requires two qualities, the one of head and the other of the heart - reflection and dignity. A.D. 1650. ] THE NATURALISTI OF VENICE. 189 own. THE NATURALISTI. (VENETIAN SCHOOL. ) With the Venetian painters who lived during the latter part of the sixteenth and far into the seventeenth centuries, the great schools of Italy, which had been gradually declining, came to an end. In the eighteenth century, Canaletto and his nephew Bellotto and his pupil Guardi all reached high merit as landscape painters ; and their art was a foreshadowing of the more modern style which was to follow them, and was, in many respects, deserving of much praise. Jacopo Palma - called Il Giovane to distinguish him from his great uncle Palma Vecchio-was born at Venice in 1544. At the age of fifteen the Duke of Urbino took him under his protection , and sent him to Rome, where he studied the works of Raphael, Michelangelo and Polidoro. On his return to Venice, Palma was much praised by Vittoria, an architect and sculptor, who was at that time looked upon as a famous critic. For some years, Palma had to content himself with the third place as an artist , for the fame of Tintoretto and Veronese was greater than his When these artists died , Palma found himself unrivalled , and thenceforth his picture were mere sketches, but they still produced large sums of money. He died at Venice in 1628. The works of Palma Giovane, of which the churches of his native city possess the greater part, are noticeable for the beauty of their colouring, though Palma himself may be considered the first painter of the decadence of art in Venice. Alessandro Varotari, commonly known as Padovanino from his birthplace , Padua, was born in 1590. His father, Dario Varotari, who was a painter of little note, died when Alessandro was quite young. Young Varotari went to Venice, and applied himself steadily to the study of the works of Titian ; and soon became one of the most famous painters of that time. He resided chiefly at Padua and Venice, where most of his works may now be found. He died in 1650. He died in 1650. His masterpiece is the Marriage at Cana in the Academy at Venice. The National Gallery pos sesses a Cornelia and her children (No. 70) . This painter was much praised by Lanzi, who says of him , “ he was always equal to the task of handling any subject that had before been treated by Titian . ” Sebastiano Ricci or Rizzi was born at Cividale di Belluno in 1659. He was taught by an artist named Cervelli, but it is evident that he studied the works of Paul Veronese. He was celebrated as an artist in Venice at his time. Ricci came to England during the reign of Queen Anne, and has left several works in this country ; some of which are at Hampton Court. He painted the hall of Burlington House and an altar-piece for the chapel of Chelsea College. He returned to Venice, where he died in 1734 . The National Gallery has one specimen of his art - a Venus sleeping ( No. 851 ) . Sebastiano Ricci had a nephew, Marco Ricci , who was also celebrated as an artist. Antonio Canal, com :nonly known as Canaletto, was born at Venice in 1697. His father, Bernardo Canal, though of an illustrious family, was a scene painter, and young Antonio followed, for some time, the same profession . He abandoned it, however, when quite a young man, went to Rome and studied architecture and picturesque ruins. His nephew , Bellotto, accompanied him to the Papal capital , and painted very much in imitation of his style —so much so, indeed, that it is sometimes hard to 190 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1700. ascertain which of the two is the painter of a work . Canaletto afterwards returned to Venice, where he painted views of his native city till 1746 , in which year he went to England, where he executed several works which are still in this country ; eventually in 1748 he returned to Venice, where he died in 1768. Canaletto constituted himself portrait - painter -net of the Venetians, but of the city of Venice. He painted its squares, churches, palaces, bridges, and the canais which form its streets. He never leads the spectator into the interior of the buildings or into VIEW OF VENICE. -BY ANTONIO CANALETTO. the life of the inhabitants. But he has left different views of his native city under every aspect, with so much truth , talent, and love, that if ever the discrowned queen of the Adriatic were to be engulfed in the marshes, she might yet be known by his pictures. It is strange that the native country of Canaletto has not preserved any of his works, not even the two Views, which were seen there in 1739 by the president de Brosses, and whose author he calls Carnavaletto. There is no doubt that, having the city itself before them, the Venetians thought it useless to have views of it. We must A.D. 1750. ) THE NATURALISTI OF VENICE. 191 go as far as Naples to find a valuable series of twelve Views of Venice, all of the same size, and treated with that fulness and delicacy for which their author is known. His works are dispersed all over Europe, and are often to be found in the cabinets of amateurs, for which they are especially adapted by the smallness of the canvas, the beauty of the subjects, and the perfection of the execution. In 1818 the Louvre acquired one of Canaletto's masterpieces, a View of the Church of the Madonna della Salute, built from the designs of the architect Longheno, on the cessation of the plague in 1630. There are few pictures by this master as large as this , and still fewer as beautiful ; perhaps no other can equal this admirable view of La Salute. It is alone sufficient to secure a right estimation of this master. The National Gallery possesses eight pictures by this artist-a View of Venice ( No. 127 ) , a View on the Grand Canal, Venice ( No. 163 ) , and six others bequeathed to the nation by the late Mr. Wynn Ellis in 1875 , one of which is the View of the Scuola di San Rocco with the Maundy Thursday procession to St. Mark's. Bernardo Bellotto, who was born at Venice about the year 1724, was the nephew and pupil of Antonio Canaletto. He studied under his uncle in Venice and then in Rome. Afterwards he went to Dresden, where he was, in 1746, made a member of the Academy, and where he was known as Count Bellotto . Dresden still possesses twenty-five of his pictures, kept in a separate collection under the name of Canaletto . Bellotto died at Warsaw in 1780. Owing to the similarity of their styles and to the fact that Bellotto took the name of Canaletto, the works of the uncle and nephew have been much confounded . Francesco Guardi, who was another pupil of Canaletto, was born at Venice in 1712. He painted mostly in his native city, where he eventually died in 1793. The National Gallery contains one work by this artist, a View of the Church, Campanile, and Piassa, of San Marco, Venice ( No. 210) . Francesco Guardi, even while imitating his master, is yet original and celebrated. He surpassed Canaletto in variety and movement; he was, perhaps, the greater painter, if Canaletto was the better architect. With Guardi, in his limited but charm ing speciality, terminated the great Venetian school inaugurated by Bellini, and rendered celebrated by Giorgione, Titian, Paul Veronese, and Sebastiano del Piombo. Francesco Zuccherelli was born at Pitigliano, near Florence, in 1702. He studied first under Paolo Anesi in his native town , then with Morandi, and subsequently with Pietro Nelli at Rome. After the completion of his studies, Zuccherelli established himself as an artist in Venice, where he soon became a renowned landscape-painter. The engravings of his works made by Woollett gained Zuccherelli such fame in England that in 1752 he was induced to visit this country. He soon became one of the most popular artists of the day, and in 1768 was elected one of the original members of the Royal Academy. In 1773 Zuccherelli, abandoning his art , left England and returned to Florence, to spend the rest of his days in peace and seclusion ; but on the suppression of a monastery - on the security of which he had invested his money—by the Emperor Joseph II . of Austria, he lost all his hard -earned wealth, and was obliged through poverty to take up again the brush which he had thrown aside in his prosperity. Zuccherelli was much patronized by English visitors in Florence up till the time of his death , which occurred in 1788. 192 (A.D. 1450 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS.

BOOK I I.

CHAPTER I. THE SPANISH SCHOOLS,

INN following historically the progress of the different schools of painting, it is to the eternal glory of Italy that she appears as the instructress of all the others. It was in Italy that Art grew to maturity without borrowing from any other country, except, in its very early days, from the Byzantines. Other nations, inheriting through the lessons of the great Italian masters a knowledge already mature, attained , as it were at a bound, whatever perfection they were destined to reach. We can hardly ever find in them either discovery, experiment, or progress ; we see no distinction separating one age from another, but merely the difference between individual men. There has been neither in Spain nor in France, a Cimabue, a Giotto, a Fra Angelico, or an Antonello da Messina ; and the history of Spanish art, which was the work almost of a single generation , without ancestors and without descendants, may be entirely comprised within the short period of a century and a half. In Spain, as in Italy and ancient Greece, the art of architecture preceded the others. Before the close of the middle ages the cathedrals of Leon, St. Jago, Tarragona, Burgos, and Toledo had arisen ; besides the mosques of Cordova and Seville, converted into Christian churches after the conquest of Granada. Sculpture, which, as it furnishes the necessary ornaments to architecture , is nearly always its accompaniment, was signalized from the fourteenth century by interesting attempts of native artists. A century later, Diego de Siloe , Alonzo Berruguete, Gaspar Becerra, and several others, went to Italy and brought back to their own country a knowledge of that art which the Italians had learned from ancient statues. But the school of painting was formed later, and from its very commencement was initiated from others. It was about the year 1418, three years after the arrival of the Florentine, Gherardo Starnina, in Castile , that we find the first traces of what may be termed the art of painting. Juan Alfon, a native of Toledo, then painted the altar- screens of the old chapel “ del Sagrario , ” also those in the chapel of “ los Reyes nuevos " in the cathedral of Toledo. A few years later, during the reign of Juan II. , there came from Florence Dello Delli who was born about the year 1404, and from Flanders the maestro Rogel ( Roger, no doubt) , who continued in Spain that artistic intercourse with other countries which is especially useful , because art, unlike literature, is bound by no A.D. 1500.] SPANISH SCHOOLS. 193 shackles of difference of idiom, and therefore forms a more intimate and fraternal bond of union between nations than literature can ever do, and unites into a single family all those who cultivate it. Juan Sanchez de Castro, about the year 1450, founded the earliest school of Seville, from which were to emerge the greatest names of Spanish painting ; and five years later, admiration was excited in Castile by the purer forms and the higher style shown in the large altar-screen of the hospital of Buitrago by the maestro Jorge Ingles, who, from the fact that his christian name was then uncommon in Spain, and also from his surname, is supposed to have been an Englishman. At the close of the century, when Christopher Columbus was starting to discover another world , Antonio del Rincon, the painter of the Catholic kings -- who was born at Guadalaxara about the year 1446, " lived chiefly at Toledo, and died in 1500, and who is supposed to have studied at Florence under Andrea del Castagno and Ghirlandajo - Pedro Berruguete, a native of Paredes de Nava, who was father of the great sculptor, arch and painter, Alonso, and who died in Madrid in 1500, Iñigo de Comontes, a pupil of Rincon, and several others, stimulated by the example of the foreigner, John of Burgundy, began to adorn the walls of the cathedral of Toledo with their works, whilst Fernando Gallegos, who was born at Salamanca about 1475 , imitated Albrecht Dürer without having either studied or known him . Gallegos died in 1550. ( ?) But these attempts only became an art when commerce and war had opened constant communications between Italy and Spain. When Charles V. united the two peninsulas under the same government, and founded the vast empire which extended from Naples to Antwerp, Italy had just attained the zenith of her glory and splendour. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, and Correggio had produced their incomparable masterpieces. On the other hand, the capture of Granada, the discovery of America, and the enterprises of Charles V. had just aroused in Spain that intellectual movement which follows great commotions and impels a nation into a career of conquests of every kind. At the first news of the treasures to be found in Italy — in the churches, in the studios of the artists, and in the palaces of the nobles-- all the Spaniards interested in art, either as their profession or from love of it for its own sake, flocked to the country of so many marvels, richer in their eyes than Peru or Mexico where numbers of adventurers were then hastening, eager to acquire more material riches. Only choosing the most illustrious, and those merely who distinguished themselves in painting, we find among those who left Castile for Italy, Alonso Berruguete, Gaspar Becerra, Navarrete el Mudo ; from Valencia, Juan Joanes and Francisco Ribalta ; from Seville, Luis de Vargas ; from Cordova, the learned Pablo de Cespedes. All these eminent men brought back to their own country the taste for art and the knowledge which they had studied under Italian masters. At the same time, foreign artists, attracted to Spain by the bounty of its kings, prelates, and nobles, came to complete the work begun by the Spaniards who had studied abroad. Whilst at Burgos, Philip Vagarni, and at Granada, Torregiano - the illustrious and unfortunate rival of Michelangelo --as well as other sculptors, decorated the basilicas and royal sepulchres with their works, painters in great numbers settled in the principal cities. At Seville, the Fleming, Peter of Champagne, who was called Pedro Campaña ; at Toledo, Isaac de Helle and El Greco (Domenico Theotocopuli) ; at Madrid, Antonio More of Utrecht, Patricio Cajesi, Castello el Bergamasco. Antonio Rizi, Bartolommeo Carducci, and his young brother Vincenzo. 2 C 194 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1500. This intercourse with foreign countries had , if we may use such an expression , imported art into Spain. Schools were formed . At first timid and humble imitators of their Italian masters, by degrees they became bolder and freer ; they emancipated themselves from their servitude, asserted their nationality, and showing both the good and bad qualities of their country, attained at length to independence and originality of style, and then to boldness and fire, perhaps even beyond reasonable limits. This was almost the same course that Art had followed in Italy, passing from the Florentine Roman school , form , to the Venetian, colour, then to the Bolognese, effect, imitation of nature, and a mixture of the others. Four principal schools were formed in Spain, not successively, as those in Italy, but almost simultaneously. These were the schools of Valencia, Toledo, Seville, and Madrid. But the two first were soon merged into the others. The school of Valencia, which had been founded by Juan Joanes, and rendered famous by Ribera and the Ribaltas, was united like the smaller schools of Cordova, Granada, and Murcia, to the parent school of Seville ; whilst that of Toledo, as well as the local schools of Badajoz, Saragossa, and Valladolid were merged in the school of Madrid , when that country: town had become the capital of the monarchy through the will of Philip II. , and had carried off all supremacy from the ancient capital of the Goth. There remained, then, Seville and Madrid, Andalusia and Castile. With Luis de Vargas, Villegas de Marmolejo, and Pedro Campaña, all pupils of Italy, begins the brilliancy of the school of Seville , which was afterwards carried to greater perfection through the example of the Valencian, Juan Joanes. It increased , rose , and became Spanish with Juan de las Roélas, the Castillos, Herrera el Viejo, Pacheco and Pedro de Moya, who brought to it from London the lessons of Vandyck ; at last it attained its maturity and produced the masterpieces of Spanish art under Velasquez, who left Seville for Madrid, as Ribera had left Valencia for Naples, Alonso Cano, Zurbaran, and, lastly, Murillo, who carried it to its greatest beauty, but who left behind him only feeble copyists , without pupils or followers. At Madrid the school passed through the same phases. Berruguete and Becerra, rather sculptors than painters ; the Navarrete el Mudo, a true painter, all three disciples of Italy, and assisted by the Fleming, Antonio More ; then the families of Castello, Rizi, and Carducci, all of Italian parentage, who taught Sanchez Coello, Pantoja de la Cruz, Bereda, Collantes , all assisted to found and render illustrious the school of Castile to which the great Velasquez had just united the school of Andalusia. From the union of these schools were formed Pareja and Carreno, who, while living at Madrid, appear still to belong to Seville. Claudio Coello, the last of these generations of artists , died at the time when Luca Giordano arrived in Spain, and with him perished the whole race. Afterwards, at the latter end of the eighteenth century, we only find one other striking painter ; and he, though powerful, is singular and fantastic, without master and without pupils, Francisco Goya. A.D. 1550. ) SCHOOL OF VALENCIA 195 .

CHAPTER II. SCHOOL OF VALENCIA. ,

T is only right that this school should be mentioned before those of Andalusia and Castile, for it was especially through it that the lessons of Italy came to Spain. Vicente Juan Macip, called Juan Joanes, was born at Fuente de Higuera, in 1523. It is supposed that when studying at Rome he took a fancy, then rather common, to latinise one of his names, and to make it his painter's surname. Of this generation of Spanish artists , formed by contact with the Italians, the first is Joanes, and the last Murillo. We see from this, how important are the works of Joanes, which are everywhere rare, except in Madrid, In the Museo del Rey, we may distinguish a Christ bearing the Cross, which is an evident, though not servile, imitation of Raphael's Spasimo; a Martyrdom of St. Agnes, which not even that by Domenichino must make us forget ; an enormous Last Supper, which would have been called an admirable work but for Leonardo da Vinci having chosen the same subject ; and lastly, a series of six pictures relating, like the cantos of a poem , the Life of St. Stephen ; an excellent work. At the first glance, we may recognise in Joanes a direct pupil of the Roman school. Nevertheless, he did not study under Raphael, as he was born in 1523, and Raphael died in 1520 ; but he studied his works and under his immediate disciples, such as Giulio Romano, il Fattore, or Perino del Vaga. Notwithstanding his importance as the leader of this school , and his merit as an artist, Juan Joanes is still almost unknown out of Spain, and is not very popular even there. The reason of this is, that being of an almost ascetic piety, and preparing himself for the execution of every picture by taking the sacrament, Joanes lived as a hermit, far from the crowd and from the Court. He did not paint royal features , and poets did not make sonnets in his praise ; during his lifetime his works never crossed the seas addressed to foreign princes ; and, since his death, they have not loaded the waggons of conquering generals. He died at Bocairente in 1579. Joanes left a son who was an artist — but of no great merit. After Joanes, there appeared at Valencia two painters , father and son, so alike in style and manner that it was said indifferently of their works : “ It is by the Ribaltas ” ( es de los Ribaltas). Francisco de Ribalta has left the greater number of works, because he lived seventy seven years, and his son only thirty-one. Francisco was born at Castellon de la Plana in 1551 . He learned his art first at Valencia, but subsequently perfected 196 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1625. his style by studying the great masterpieces in Italy, especially Raphael and the Carracci. On his return to Spain, Ribalta was much honoured and patronized, and his works have since been highly praised. His pictures are chiefly to be seen in Valencia, and rarely to be met with out of Spain. Sir W. Stirling says, “ His best pictures are remarkable for grandeur and freedom of drawing, and for the good taste in composition, and the knowledge of anatomy which they display.” A picture of Christ bearing the Cross in Magdalene College, Oxford , formerly attributed to Morales, is said to be by one of the Ribaltas. This artist died at Valencia in 1628. Juan de Ribalta , the son of the preceding artist, was born at Valencia in 1597. He painted, at the early age of eighteen , a most praiseworthy composition representing the Crucifixion, which is now in the Museum of Valencia. There is no doubt but that if Juan de Ribalta had lived to maturity he would have been an excellent artist. He died soon after his father in 1628, only thirty -one years old . In the Museum at Madrid may be found the Four Evangelists, a Dead Christ, sustained by angels, and a St. Francis of Assisi, whom an angel is consoling and filling with holy ecstasy by playing on his celestial lute ; but it is not specified to which of the two Ribaltas these compositions belong. Josef de Ribera was born at Xativa in 1589. When quite young, he was the pupil of Francisco Ribalta and a fellow-student with Juan. It is said that in the beginning of the seventeenth century a cardinal , passing through the streets of Rome in his carriage, perceived a young man , scarcely beyond childhood, who though clothed in rags, and having by his side a few crusts of bread given him out of charity, was yet with profound attention drawing the frescoes on the façade of a palace. Struck with pity at the sight, the cardinal called the boy, took him to his own house, clothed him decently, and admitted him as a sort of dependent of the family. He learnt that his young protégé was named Giuseppe de Ribera ; that he was born at Xativa (now San Felipe) , near Valencia ; that his parents had early sent him to that provincial capital to study at the university, but that his irresistible inclination had led him to prefer the studio of Francisco Ribalta to his classes ; that he had made such rapid progress that he had soon been chosen to assist his master; but that then a passion had arisen in him to study art at its fountain head ; and, no longer thinking of anything but Rome and its marvels, he had abandoned family, friends, and country, and had at last arrived in that capital of the artistic as well as of the religious world. There, without any means of support, making the street his studio , and a milestone his easel , copying the statues , the frescoes, and the passers-by, he lived on the charity of his comrades, who called him, for want of another name, “ Lo Spagnoletto.” But Ribera could not be condemned to the idleness of the antechamber of a prince of the church. One day throwing off his livery and resuming his rags, he fled from the cardinal's house to recommence joyously his life of poverty and independence. Of all the great works that surrounded him, those that Ribera admired with the greatest enthusiasm, because they best answered the instincts of his own genius, were the paintings of the proud and fiery Caravaggio. There, in the violent effects of chiaro scuro, the young Spaniard beheld the greatest prodigies of art ; he obtained admission to the studio of this master, but he could not have received his lessons long, as Caravaggio died in 1609, when Ribera was only twenty. He then left Rome, and went to Parma, where he was attracted by the great renown of Correggio. Before his c TER THE DEPOSITION FROM THE CROSS. By RIBERA. (IL SPAGNOLETTO) . In the Carthusian Convent, Naples, T1.5 NT YORK TUBLIDARY N A.D. 1625. ] SCHOOL OF VALENCIA . 197 works a fresh enthusiasm seized Ribera. He began to study them with a sort of frenzy, and, laying aside his former touch, which was strong and violent, he threw himself into the opposite extreme, endeavouring to make his style as soft, tender, and delicate as that of his new master. Soon afterwards Ribera settled at Naples, and married the daughter of a rich picture -dealer: there he had only to work hard , finding in the profession of his father in -law an easy means of making his name and his paintings known. A singular circumstance helped to found his reputation suddenly. The house he occupied with his wife's family was situated in the same square as the palace of the Viceroy. One day, according to the Italian custom, his father -in -law had placed on the balcony, for public exhibition , a Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew , which Ribera had just completed. A crowd, attracted by the sight of this magnificent work, soon covered the square, making the air resound with cries of enthusiasm . The noise became such, that it was believed there was a popular outbreak , and that a Masaniello was haranguing the people. The Viceroy, Don Pedro Giron, Duke of Ossuna, came out armed, saw the cause of the disorder, admired the picture, and ordered the artist to appear before him . His joy was so great to find in him a fellow -countryman, that he made him painter to the Court, with a monthly salary of fifty doubloons, and gave him apartments in his own palace. The ragged student of the streets of Rome had thenceforth attained the summit of fortune; he possessed both riches and authority. He became soon the most opulent and luxurious of artists, the equal of nobles and princes, and at Naples he continued to live until he died “ full of wealth and honour ” in 1656. Although he painted all his pictures in Italy, Ribera is thoroughly Spanish ; he never forgot his birth, and, indeed, showed himself so proud of it , that in signing his best pictures he never failed to add to the words “ Giuseppe de Ribera ” Español. The paintings of Ribera, like those of the Italian artists, are scattered throughout the whole of Europe : but Naples has retained some of his principal works. It was for the Carthusian Convent, called San Martino, that Ribera painted his great work, the Communion of the Apostles ; twelve Prophets on the windows of the different chapels ; and, lastly, the Descent from the Cross, which is almost unanimously said to be his masterpiece. Here we may find , beside the qualities enumerated above, much pathos and expression, and a power of feeling which is not usually to be met with in his works ; so that this picture seems to unite to the fiery energy of Caravaggio not only the grace of Correggio, but the religious fervour of Fra Angelico. In the museum “ degli Studj” two of Ribera's works have been placed in the room of the “ Capi d'Opera : ” St. Jerome in the desert, listening to the trumpet of the angel , and the large picture of Silenus, in which the foster - father of Bacchu lying on the ground, receiving drink from the satyrs who surround him . At the bottom of this picture may be read the following inscription : “ Josephus a Ribera, Hispanus Valentinus et coacademicus Romanus, faciebat Parthenope, 1626. ” This long inscription is traced on a scroll, which a serpent seems to bite and tear. How could Ribera complain of envy, or represent himself as its victim, when he was rich , honoured and powerful, and when he himself carried his jealousy even to ferocity ? It was, indeed, in his own house that the “ fazzioni de' pittori,” those coteries of painters, were formed , which deserve the name of factions, because they made war on rival schools, even with the dagger. The faction of Naples, which had Ribera at its head, numbered among its members “ bravi,” such as Correnzio and 198 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A. D. 1650 Caracciolo, who maintained the superiority of their master at the sword's point, and permitted the entry of the city to no painter who did not belong to his school. Annibale Carracci and Guido were obliged to fly, in order to escape the blows of this brotherhood of a new order ; and when Domenichino died before he was able to reach Rome, rumours of poisoning prevailed. Such outrages cannot be too severely condemned . In the Louvre there is only one of Ribera's works -- an Adoration of the Shepherds and, although it is very beautiful, it is insufficient to make him known, because it is not in his usual style, and he shows himself in it less as the continuer of Caravaggio than as the imitator of Correggio. The Museo del Rey, at Madrid, is more fortunate in having a great number of his works, and in all his styles. If we wish to see him employing the calm , soft style of Correggio, we have only to look at Jacob's Ladier, an excellent specimen of the second phase of his life. Of his latter style, when he returned to the natural bent of his genius, we find the Twelve Apostles — a valuable series of expressive heads, in which may be seen every age, from the youthful St. John, the beloved disciple , to the old St. James the Great ; a striking Mary the Egyptian ; a St. James and St. Roch , magnificent pendants brought from the Escurial ; and lastly, a Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew , the most celebrated of his paintings of this terrible subject. Here he has shown as much talent in composition and power of expression, in the union of grief and beatitude, as incomparable force in the execution. The Academy of Fine Arts at Madrid has several other works by Ribera , among which are two very singular full- length portraits in one frame which deserve great attention. The National Gallery possesses two—a Pietà and a Shepherd with a lamb. Jacinto Jeronimo de Espinosa was born at Cocentayna near Valencia in 1600. He worked under Francisco Ribalta, whose style he successfully acquired. He is reported also to have gone to Italy to study the works of the great masters. In 1622 Espinosa painted a Christ of the Rescue for the convent of Santa Tecla, in Valencia, in which city he married and settled shortly afterwards ; and in 1680 he died there. The museum and galleries of Valencia contain the greater part of his pictures. We may mention a series in San Estevan, the chapel of San Luis Belthran, painted in gratitude for the preservation which that saint had vouchsafed to Espinosa and his family during the plague in 1647 . Pedro Orrente, who was born at Montealegre in Murcia, is said by some writers to have visited Italy and studied under Giacomo Bassano. It is doubtful whether he was the pupil of that artist, but he certainly imitated his style. Orrente was much patro nized by the Duke of Olivarez, for whom he executed some works in the Palace of the Buen Retiro. He painted landscape and mythical as well as biblical subjects. Works by him are in most of the large cities of Spain. Orrente died at Toledo in 1644. Esteban March, who was born at Valencia at the end of the sixteenth century, was a pupil of Orrente. As an artist March distinguished himself principally in painting battle- scenes, and it is said that he used to fence against the wall, with cut and thrust, like a second Don Quixote, in order to heat his imagination. He died in 1660. Madrid and Valencia possess most of his pictures. This artist left a son, Miguel March, who was a fair painter. He lived from 1633 to 1670. A.D. 1550. ] SCHOOL OF ANDALUSIA. 199

CHAPTER III.SCHOOL OF ANDALUSIA,

WO local schools, as we have already said, arose about the same time as that of Seville, one at Cordova, the other at Granada. Let us choose the most illustrious masters from each. Luis de Vargas was born at Seville in 1502. He was a pupil of Diego de la Barrera , and afterwards of Perino del Vaga, and had the distinguished honour of being the first to introduce and teach - in his own country the true method of oil and fresco painting. It was he who substituted the Renaissance art for the Gothic. Vargas passed twenty- eight years in Italy, but eventually died at his native city in 1568. When settled in Seville he completed several large works - chiefly in fresco, the greater part of which have, however, unfortunately perished. Amongst other celebrated pictures by Vargas, there was La Calle de la Amargura (Way of Bitterness ), which has since disappeared, owing to the injuries it received from time and unskilful restorations. Vargas painted it in 1563 on the steps of the church of San Pablo. It was there that people con demned by the Inquisition were permitted to stop on their way to punishment : on this account it was called the Christ of the Criminals ( El Cristo de los Azotados ). Another painting, the Temporal Generation of Christ, which is in the chapel of the Conception in the Cathedral of Seville, has been much praised , especially one of Adam's legs, on which account the picture goes by the name of La Gamba. Pablo de Cespedes was born at Cordova in 1538. He was not merely a painter ; his was one of those gifted minds which are capable of grasping everything-- science, literature, and the fine arts—and which only fail in attaining to the first rank by dividing their labour and intellect amongst several pursuits of equally difficult attain ment, instead of bringing their whole powers to bear on one class of subjects. On leaving the university, Cespedes set out for Rome, was charmed with the works of Michelangelo, felt a fresh impulse, and resolved to cultivate the arts, although without abandoning the culture of letters. Provided on his return from Italy, with a canonry in the chapter of Cordova, he did not again leave his native town, and gave up his time peacefully to the different studies to which his taste and knowledge led him. This eminent man possessed a thorough knowledge of Italian , Latin , and Greek, and was able to converse in Hebrew and Arabic. Such a knowledge of languages, then rare, gave him great assistance in his labours of pure erudition. Amongst his works of this kind may be mentioned a dissertation on the cathedral of Cordova, tending to 200 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1600. prove that this beautiful mosque was built in the latter half of the eighth century, by Abderrahman I. , the founder of the Ommeyade dynasty in Spain , and of the Caliphate of Cordova . This mosque, which is the most precious religious monument left us of the Arabs, occupied precisely the place of the temple of Janus, built by the Romans after the conquest and pacification of Iberia. The best literary work of Cespedes is the one he wrote in 1604, the title of which is, ' Parallel between Ancient and Modern Painting and Sculpture.' Without any acquaintance with Vasari's book, which was written about the same time, he gives interesting details about the Florentine painters from Cimabue to Michelangelo ; he also gives descriptions, taken from Pliny, of some works of the Greeks, and then ingeniously compares these with the works of Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, Correggio, and the masters of his own time. Cespedes, not content with being a learned painter, became also a poet. He celebrated in beautiful verses the praises of the art whose history he had written, and in which he had himself acquired great celebrity. We must all regret that he was unable to complete his ' Poem on Painting, ' some precious fragments of which have been preserved by Pacheco. It would probably have been the best poem that has been written on the fine arts, and superior in grandeur of conception, elevation of ideas, and beauty of language, both to the Latin poem of Dufresnoy, and to those in French by Lemierre and Watelet. Pacheco says of Cespedes : " He was a great imitator of the beautiful style of Correggio, and one of the finest colourists in Spain.” “ If Cespedes," adds Antonio Ponz, “ instead of being the friend of Federigo Zuccaro, could have been the friend of Raphael, he would have become one of the greatest painters in the world , as he was one of the most learned. ” Cean -Bermudez admired “ the elegance of his drawing, the force of his figures, his knowledge of anatomy, his skill in foreshortening, the brilliancy of his colouring, and especially that power of invention which he never needed to borrow from others. ” The most famous picture by Cespedes is an enormous Last Supper placed over the altar in one of the chapels with which the Christians have disfigured the old Arab mosques, where the great Mussulman dogma of the Unity of God had formerly prevailed. Almost all the other works of Cespedes, the names of which are preserved, have entirely disappeared, without our even knowing where to look for them . They were nearly all in the church attached to the Jesuit College at Cordova, and it would appear that at the time of the suppression of this order by Charles III. these pictures were carried away, never to return. They were, doubtless, not destroyed ; but as Cespedes was not known beyond his own country, it is probable that commerce would pass them under other names than his. This artist died in the year 1608 at his birthplace, and was buried in the cathedral of that town. Alonso Vazquez , who was born at Ronda in the middle of the sixteenth century, studied in the school of Arfian , at Seville, and was chiefly famous for his historical subjects. He was one of the artists who in 1598 painted the catafalque for the burial of Philip II . A part of the series of paintings from the Life of St. Raymond is in the Museum of Seville, which city contains many of his works. It is not known when Vazquez's death took place - probably about 1630. Juan de las Roelas was born at Seville about the year 1560. He lost his father --who Bermudez tells us was an admiral — when he was but six years old. Young Juan was brought up for the profession of a doctor, and graduated at the College of Seville, whence he is often called " el licenciado Juan." He is supposed to have studied art A.D. 1600. ] SCHOOL OF ANDALUSIA. 201 at Venice. He lived , latterly, chiefly at Madrid and Seville. In 1616 he competed —though unsuccessfully — for the appointment of cabinet-painter to Philip III . His more fortunate opponent was Bartolomé Gonzalez. In 1624 Roelas removed to Olivares, where he was made a canon of the College ; and where he died in the follow ing year. Roélas, one of the best painters of the Andalusian school, brought, to his fellow - countrymen from Italy, the gift of Venetian colouring, which he had studied under the pupils of Titian and Tintoretto. We might, indeed, almost believe that it was Bonifazio , or one of the Palmas, who painted, in the Cathedral, Santiago Mata -Moros assisting the Spaniards at the Battle of Clavijo ; at the church of the Cardinal's hospice, the Death of St. Hermenegild ; in the church Santa Lucia, the Martyrdom of the patron saint ; and, lastly , over the high altar of Sant' Isidor, the Death of the archbishop of Seville, now in a very imperfect state. This is the largest of all his works, for it covers the whole screen. It is divided into two parts, heaven and earth , and this was the first example of that style of composi tion so often imitated by all the school. Roélas was the instructor of the famous Zurbaran . Francisco Pacheco was born at Seville in 1571. His instructor in painting was Luis Fernandez, and his experience of art was confined entirely to Spain. In 1594 appeared his first great works ; they were two standards for the Spanish fleets of New Spain and Terrafirma, and were painted in oil on damask and represented the Arms of Castile, and St. Iago. In 1598, Pacheco was employed with other artists to paint decorations in the cathedral of Seville, in connection with the funeral of Philip II . In 1600, he painted in the Convent of Mercy, scenes from the Life of St. Raymond, in competition with Alonso Vazquez. In 1611, he visited Toledo and Madrid , and the Escurial, where he saw the works of the famous Spanish and Italian artists. On his return to Seville, Pacheco opened an academy for imparting instruction to young artists, and in which, if report be true, he improved his own style. In 1613-4, he painted for the nuns of the convent of St. Isabel an immense altar-piece, representing the Last Juilgment, which has since perished. Among his pupils in this school, were his son- in- law, Velasquez and Alonso Cano. In 1618 the Inquisition appointed Pacheco one of the guardians of the public morals, in which capacity he was respon sible for the sale of any picture in which the human figure was represented naked. On account of the absurdly extreme measures adopted by the Inquisition to preserve morality, all nude figures (either by Spanish or foreign artists ) were banished to the " Galeria Reservada," admission to which was obtained with great difficulty. In 1623 Pacheco paid a second visit to Madrid, where he remained but two years. He re turned to Seville in 1625 , at which place he chiefly resided until his death in 1654. As an artist, Pacheco excelled in portrait painting ; a Portrait of St. Inez is in the Gallery of the Queen of Spain. Pacheco, Cean - Bermudez tells us, was the first man in Seville who properly gilded and painted statues. He was also the first to paint the back grounds and figures of bassi relievi. Pacheco was rather a man of letters than a painter ; he wrote a treatise on the “ Arte de la Pintura ,” and his house soon became, as one of its visitors said, “ the usual academy of the most cultivated minds of Seville and the provinces.” Pacheco had a curious picture gallery ; he had collected more than three hundred portraits, of a small size, either in oil or drawn in red and black chalks, of all the men of any distinction who had ever visited at his house. Among this number were Cervantes, Quevedo, Herrera the poet, etc. But, notwithstanding 2 D 202 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1630. his continual study, notwithstanding the care with which he prepared his pictures by a number of cartoons, Pacheco could never rise above a cold correctness, without life or passion. Francisco de Herrera - commonly called “ El Viejo " ( the Elder) to distinguish him from his son , who bore the same christian name — was born at Seville in 1576. He studied painting under Luis Fernandez, and, disdaining to be a servile imitator of his master, he soon became one of the most original artists of his time in Spain. Herrera lived most of his life in Seville, but in 1650 he removed to Madrid, in which city he died in 1656. Francisco de Herrera was so gloomy and violent that he passed nearly his whole life in solitude, and was abandoned by all his pupils - amongst whom was the celebrated Velasquez, -and even by his own children. He painted his pictures, as he did everything else, in a sort of frenzy. He used reeds to draw with , and large brushes to paint with. Armed in this manner, he executed important works with incredible dexterity and promptitude. The tradition which Cean -Bermudez heard at Seville states that, when he had many works on hand, and no pupil to assist him , he charged an old servant, the only human being he could keep in his house, to put the first layer of colour on his pictures. This woman took the colours with a tow brush , and smeared them on the canvas almost at random ; then Herrera continued the work, and drew from this chaos draperies, limbs, and faces. This harshness of temper and native coarseness threw Herrera entirely out of the timid style which the imitation of the Roman school had given to his predecessors. He adopted the more fiery style of the Bolognese, or, rather, he formed a new style for himself, quite personal and better adapted to the undisciplined genius of his nation. The enormous Last Judgment which he painted for the church of San Bernardo, at Seville, where it still hangs, proves that Herrera was not merely a painter from habit, with his hand better endowed than his head ; we see that he also possessed the true science of the art, besides correctness of drawing, profound and varied expression , and grandeur in strength. His frescoes, too, on the cupola of San Buena Ventura at Seville are worthy of great praise : of these pictures Herrera made various etchings. Juan del Castillo — the younger brother of Augustin del Castillo, a painter of no great note — was born at Seville in 1584. He studied art under Luis Fernandez, and soon became famous as a historical painter. He is more renowned as a teacher of painters than as an artist. He can boast of having imparted instruction to Pedro de Moya, to Alonso Cano, and even to the great Murillo. He died at Cadiz in 1640. Francisco Zurbaran was born of parents who were simple labourers in the town of Fuente de Cantos in Estremadura in 1598. He belongs to the Andalusian school, because he studied under Roelas at Seville, and passed his whole life there. He only once, when very old, went to Madrid , and then returned to his native province to paint eight large pictures, representing the History of St. Jerome, for the church in the little town of Guadalupe, between Toledo and Cacerés. In 1625 he painted for the Marquis of Malazon some scenes from the Life of St. Peter, for the chapel dedi cated to that saint in the Seville Cathedral. About the same time, too , he painted his famous St. Thomas Aquinas. In 1630 Zurbaran was invited to Madrid , and was soon afterwards appointed painter to Philip IV.; he signs himself thus as early as 1633. In 1650, the monarch employed him to paint the Lalours of Hercules in the palace of Buen Retiro. It is said that the A.D. 1650. ] SCHOOL OF ANDALUSIA, 203 king one day, on visiting the artist at work, was so much pleased with the picture on which he was engaged, that he addressed him as “ painter of the king, and king of painters. " Zurbaran continued to paint for Philip IV. until his death in 1662. It is universally acknowledged that the best of Zurbaran's compositions, that in which all his good points are united and where there is greatest display of talent, is the St. Thomas Aquinas, which he painted for the church of the College of that saint at Seville, placed under the patronage of the celebrated author of the ‘ Summa Theologiæ. ' This picture is now in the Museum of Seville , which gallery possesses the best collection ofhis works. Christ and the Virgin are above in glory with St. Paul and St. Dominic ; in the centre is St. Thomas standing, surrounded by the four doctors of the Latin Church seated on the clouds ; lower down in an attitude of devotion and admiration , on one side Charles V. , clothed in the imperial mantle, with a cortige of knights ; on the other, the Archbishop Deza, the founder of the college, with a suite of monks and attendants. Several of his works have been recently scattered throughout Europe ; some were at Paris in the little Spanish museum formed by Louis Philippe, and were dispersed after his death. ( There were as many as ninety -two attributed to him in the catalogues.) In the collection of the Pardo at Madrid there are fourteen pictures attributed to Zurbaran. In England, the National Gallery, in which the artists of Spain are so poorly represented, has but one picture by this artist. It is a portrait of a Franciscan Monk ( No. 230) , and was formerly in the Spanish collection of Louis Philippe, where it was much admired by Kolloff and other writers. In the Duke of Sutherland's collection at Stafford House, there is a fine specimen of Zurbaran, a Madonna and Child with the Infant St. John. Zurbaran has been called the “ Spanish Caravaggio,” but if he deserved this name, it was not by the fire of his pencil, or by an exaggerated seeking after effect ; for he is colder and more reserved , though, at the same time, nobler and more correct, than Caravaggio. If Zurbaran resemble Caravaggio, it is through his frequent use of bluish tints, which sometimes predominate so much in his pictures as to make them appear as if seen through a veil slightly tinged with blue ; and also from his deep knowledge of his art, and happy use of light and shade. This is the real point of resemblance between the two masters. As for the nature of the subjects — except a small number of large compositions which were ordered of him --Zurbaran preferred simple ones, easy of comprehension, and requiring only a small number of personages, whom he always placed in perfectly natural attitudes. Yet he never painted comic or popular scenes, as Velasquez and Murillo sometimes did ; nor strange and grotesque ones, like Ribera. He painted some female saints, and has given them attractions and grace ; but severe religious feeling always predominates with him . No one, indeed, has expressed better than Zurbaran the rigours of an ascetic life, and the austerity of the cloister ; no one has shown better than he, under the girdle of rope and the thick hood, the attenuated forms and pale heads of the cenobites, devoted to mortification and prayer, who in the words of Buffon, when their last hour arrives, “ do not cease to live, but succeed in dying. " Among his scholars were Bernabe de Ayala and the two brothers Polanco. Alonso Cano, who was born at Granada in 1601 , has been termed the “ Spanish Michelangelo." This is merely because he practised the three arts which are especially called “ fine. ” He was a painter, sculptor, and architect. Like Michelangelo, he was a better sculptor than painter, but his only works in architecture were those heavy 204 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1650. church decorations called “ retablos ” (church screens) , which he not only designed, but for which he himself made all the ornaments, either statues or pictures. Alonso Cano lived for some time at Seville, afterwards at Madrid, and towards the close of his life at Granada, his birthplace, and, provided with a rich benefice, tranquilly passed the last years of a life which had been agitated by travels, passions, and adventures. He died in 1667 “ in a manner highly exemplary and edifying to those about him .” Cano left seven of his works to the Museum of Madrid. Amongst these are a St. John writing the Apocalypse ; the Dead Christ mourned by an Angel, and a fine Portrait. As a painter, he has been — not unjustly called the “ Spanish Albani, ” for, contrary to what might have been expected from his passionate temper, the principal characteristics of his works are softness and suavity. By a skilful arrangement of draperies he makes the outline of the form they cover sufficiently marked . He also took so much care in the execution of hands and feet always a great difficulty — that on this account alone his works might be distinguished from any other painter of his country. Less fiery and powerful than Ribera, less profound and less brilliant than Murillo, he takes a middle place between these two masters, being correct, elegant, and full of grace. The works of Cano are to be found in most Spanish towns. Antonio del Castillo , the son of Augustin del Castillo - and the nephew of Juan del Castillo — was born at Cordova in 1603. He studied first under his father, and, after his father's decease, with Francisco Zurbaran. Castillo painted chiefly at Cordova, which city possesses many of his works. He was an intensely proud and conceited man , and thought no one's work was as good as his own ; but in 1666 he went to Seville , where, on seeing the works of Murillo he is said to have exclaimed, Yá muritó Castillo ! ( " Castilio is dead ! ” ) and to have, from that time, given himself up to despair. This hastened his death, which took place at Cordova in 1667. As an artist, Castillo is good in design and composition, but his colouring is faulty. Francisco Varela, who was born at Seville about the beginning of the seventeenth century, was one of the best of Roélas' pupils. He is known to have painted as early as 1618. Varela executed chiefly historical subjects. Bermudez praises the correct ness of his drawing and his Venetian- like colouring. The churches and convents in and near Seville possess most of his works, of which we may mention a Last Supper in the church of San Bernardo, without the walls of the city. Varela died, according to Palomino, at his native Seville in 1656. Pedro de Moya was born at Granada in 1610. He was at first a pupil of Juan de Castillo, but he enlisted in the Flemish army, though he still continued to practise art. Having seen and admired the works of Vandyck in the Low Countries, Moya, in 1641 , went to London in order to study under the great artist, who unfortunately died a few months after his arrival. Moya then returned to Granada, where he executed several works of merit. He died at his birthplace in 1666. The Louvre possesses an Adoration of the Shepherds by this artist. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, the most renowned painter of the Spanish school, was born at Seville, and baptized on the ist of January, 1618. He passed a melancholy youth in ignorance and neglect. A certain Juan del Castillo, a distant relation, gave him , out of charity, his first lessons in an art , in which he was to find fortune and renown. But Murillo soon los this teacher, who went to live in Cadiz, and for a long time he had no master but himself. Deprived of an intelligent guide and of all regular A.D. 1650.] MURILLO. 205 study, obliged to live by his pencil before he had learned to use it , never having had an opportunity of learning his own powers, and only knowing art as a trade, Murillo was at first merely a sort of wholesale painter. He daubed on small squares of canvas or wood those Madonnas crushing the serpent's head, which were called the Madonnas of Guadalupe ; he sold them by the dozen for one or two piastres each , according to their size , to the captains of American ships, who carried this merchandise, along with indulgences, to the recently - converted populations of Mexico and Peru. This sort of work, however, by teaching him how to handle his brush, toned down his colouring, which became soft and artificial, instead of being hard. Murillo was already twenty-four years old when the painter Pedro de Moya passed through Seville on his return from London to Granada, bringing copies of Vandyck, of whom he had received a few lessons. At the sight of the works of Moya, Murillo was in ecstasies, and felt his true vocation. It was the spark required to light the fire of genius. But what was he to do ? Moya was leaving for Granada, and was but a pupil himself ; it was useless to go to London, Vandyck had just died ; it was impossible to go to Italy without money or a protector. Murillo, at last, made up his mind in despair ; he bought, perhaps on credit , a roll of canvas, cut it in pieces, which he prepared himself, then, taking neither rest nor sleep, he covered all these squares with Virgins, Infant Christs, and bouquets of flowers. His goods disposed of, and some reals in his pocket, without asking advice or taking leave of any one, he set out on foot for Madrid. On his arrival at the capital, he went at once to present himself to his fellow -countryman Velasquez, who was twenty years older than himself, and then in the height of his glory. The king's painter received the young traveller with kindness ; he encouraged him, brought him forward, procured him useful work, an entrance to the royal palaces and the Escurial , besides admitting him to his own studio, and giving him advice and lessons. Murillo spent two years in diligently studying the pictures of the great colourists , Titian, Rubens, Vandyck, Ribera, and Velasquez ; then, less tormented with dreams of ambition than with the necessity of attaining an independence, he left Madrid and returned to 'Seville. His absence had not been noticed, so the general surprise was great when, in the following year, there appeared in the little cloister of the convent of San Francisco three pictures which he had just painted ; a Monk in Ecstasy, the Alms of San Diego, and that Death of St. Clara which has been seen in Paris , in the Aguado and Salamanca collections. Every one asked where Murillo had learned this new style, so attractive and forcible, which united the manners of Ribera and of Vandyck, and in the union seemed almost to surpass both. Notwithstanding the envy always inspired by success, notwithstanding the bitter hatred of the painters whom he had dethroned from the first rank, Murillo soon emerged from indigence and obscurity. In 1660 he established the Academy of Seville, but he held the presidentship for one year only. He had returned to Seville in 1645 , and, until his death, which occurred at that city on the 3rd of April in 1682 , -in consequence of a fall from a scaffold while engaged on painting an altar-piece of St. Catherine for the church of the Capuchins at Cadiz—he scarcely left his native town, and it was during these thirty -seven years that his numerous paintings were executed . Chapters, convents, and great nobles over whelmed him , to his heart's content, with orders. There are few high altars of cathedrals, or sacristies, or endowed monasteries, which do not possess some picture of their patron saint by his hand ; few noble houses which have not some family portrait by him to be handed down as an heirloom . In fertility, Murillo can only 206 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [ A.D. 1650. . 66 a be compared to his fellow - countryman , Lope de Vega. As a painter he equalled in the number of his works the poet whom Cervantes called monster of nature . " This wonderful facility of production , joined to the independence which he preserved all his life, explains the reason why Murillo, different to Velasquez, whose works were all engaged for the king his master, was able to make his name and works known through the whole of Europe. Murillo, loving the real less than the ideal, and addressing himself principally to the imagination and the mind, varied his style with his subject. He had not, like most painters, a succession of styles or phases in his career as an artist ; but he had at the same time three manners, which he employed alternately and according to the subject. These three styles are termed by the Spaniards, frio, cálido y vaporoso (cold, warm , and aerial) . These words describe them , and it may be easily conceived how they are employed. Thus, the peasant boys and beggars would be painted in the cold style ; the ecstasies of saints in the warm ; the annunciations and assumptions in the aerial. Seville at first was filled to overflowing with Murillo's works ; and it has retained a large number of the best. In one of the chapels of its cathedral may be seen the largest painting by Murillo, the ecstasy of St. Antony of Palua. It is said that the Duke of Wellington, after the retreat of the French in 1813 , offered to buy this picture by covering it with gold pieces. This would have made an enormous sum, to judge from the size of the picture, but the chapter was too rich and too proud to accept such an exchange, and Seville retained the chef-d'æuvre of her painter. The fellow -citizens of Murillo, collecting all the pictures of his they could obtain from the churches and monasteries, have succeeded in forming a whole museum of his works which had remained in Andalusia. It is in an old convent in the A B C street at Seville. Here we may find collected the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, which picture received the popular name of Pan y peces ( bread and fishes ) ; Moses striking the Rock, recently engraved ; St. Felix Cantalicio, which the Italians say is painted with milk and blood ( con leche y sangre ) ; the Madonna de la Servilleta ; St. Thomas of Villanuez'a distributing alms to the poor — the painting which Murillo himself preferred of all his works—lastly, the one of his too numerous Conceptions which is called the Perla de las Concepciones. This is a symbolical representation of the favourite doctrine of the Spaniards, which has become the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. It is, in reality , an apotheosis of the Virgin. Forty -five pictures by Murillo are collected in the Museo del Rey at Madrid. From this number we must choose a few for special mention. Of the cold style we prefer a Holy Family, usually termed with the little dog. But this deserves a serious reproach ; the want of a suitable style for the subject. In it we see neither the Child God , nor the Virgin Mother, nor the foster-father; they are simply a carpenter laying down his plane, his wife, who has stopped her wheel to watch their son at play, a little boy making a spaniel bark at a bird which he conceals in his hands. But it is a well -conceived, familiar scene, adapted to excite interest, and full of grace in the attitudes, candour in the expression, and energy in the touch ; the name of the picture merely requires to be changed. Perhaps we ought to place higher the Adoration of the Shepherds, which is in the same style. In the representation of these rustics the skins in which they are clothed , and the dogs which accompany them, the artist displays unequalled vigour and truth , and it is by a real tour de force that he has thrown on the centre of the scene the brilliant reflection of the light from above, which gradu ally fades into the night, shadowing the extremities of the picture. A.D. 1650. ] MURILLO. 207 The Martyrdom of St. Andrew , painted in small proportions, is one of the best of the aerial style. A silver tint, which seems showered down from heaven by the angels, who hold out the palm of immortality to the old man who is being crucified , pervades every object, softens the outlines, harmonizes the tints, and gives the whole scene a cloudy and fantastic appearance which is full of charm. The same pheno menon is also to be found in the smallest of Murillo's Annunciations. It is in the midst of this celestial atmosphere that the beautiful archangel Gabriel appears to the youthful Mary. She is on her knees praying ; the messenger from above kneels in his turn before her who is to be the mother of the Saviour. A brilliant band of angels, from among which these two figures seem to stand out in relief, fill the whole space ; and above this bright background there appears as a still more luminous object, the Holy Spirit, who is descending in the form of a white dove. The warm style was that which Murillo himself seems to have preferred. All his Ecstasies of Saints, and the number of these is great, were treated in this manner. The museum at Madrid alone possesses four, St. Bernard, St. Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi, and St. Ildefonso. Although in these four paintings the subject is the same Murillo has succeeded very skilfully in varying them , either in the character of the vision, or by the details given in the legend. The Virgin appears to St. Ildefonso and presents him with a chasuble for his new dignity of archbishop ; before St. Augustine the heavens open and reveal to him Jesus crucified, and his immaculate mother ; St. Francis of Assisi, visited by the Madonna and Child, is offering them the miraculous roses, which in the spring had grown on the thorn rods with which he had flagellated himself all the winter ; lastly, St. Bernard, exalted by meditation and fasting, sees in his humble cell the child Jesus appear, borne by his mother on a throne of clouds in the midst of the heavenly hosts. It is in these scenes of supernatural poetry that the pencil of Murillo, like the wand of an enchanter, produces marvels. If in scenes taken from human life he equals the greatest colourists, he is alone in the imaginary scenes of eternal life . It might be said of the two great Spanish masters that Velasquez is the painter of the earth and Murillo of heaven. Although the Academy of San Fernando at Madrid can only show three pictures by Murillo, yet these are real masterpieces. We cannot place in this high rank a Resurrection which, notwithstanding the resplendent beauty of Our Lord, ascending as God from the tomb where He had been laid as man, is only an ordinary picture for Murillo ; but both the St. Elizabeth of Hungary — sometimes called El Tiñoso -- and the two vast pendents usually called los Medios puntos ( the half-circles) must be considered as masterpieces. The subject of the first of these works is this : in a vestibule of sumptuous architecture the good queen is engaged in labours of true charity. The kings of France cured scrofula ; it appears, however, that the sovereigns of Hungary had another speciality in medicine. St. Elizabeth is tending those suffering from diseased heads. Thus the two most opposite extremes of Murillo are united ; the sordid misery of his little beggars, and the noble grandeur of his demi-gods. From this arises the perpetual contrast and high moral tone of the picture. The palace turned into a hospital ; on one hand, the ladies of the court, beautiful, full of health, and richly adorned ! on the other, suffering and diseased children, a paralytic leaning on his crutches , an old man who is uncovering the sores on his legs, an old woman crouching on the floor, whose haggard profile stands out clearly against the black velvet behind ; 208 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. (A.D. 1675. on one side, all the graces of luxury and health ; on the other, the hideous train of misery and sickness ; then, in the centre, the divine charity which brings these extremes of humanity together. A young and beautiful woman, wearing over the nun's veil the crown of the queen , is delicately sponging the impure head which a child covered with leprosy is holding over a golden ewer. Her white hands seem to refuse the work which her heart commands; her mouth trembles with horror and her eyes fill with tears, but pity conquers even disgust, and Religion triumphs — that religion which ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. -BY MURILLO. In the Academy of San Fernando, at Madrid. commands us to love our neighbour. The unanimous voice of the admirers of Murillo proclaims St. Elizabeth to be the greatest and most perfect of his works. In the same Academy, by the side of St. Elizabeth, are two other pictures, already mentioned, where, as a colourist, Murillo has displayed all his powers. These, according to Cean-Bermudez, were ordered of him by acanon named Don Justino Neve, for the churchof Santa Maria la Blanca, at Seville ; this accounts for their semicircular form ; they were probably to be placed in an arch. Thesubject of the two celebrated pendents is the Foundation of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, at A.D. 1675. ] MURILLO 209 . Rome, or rather the miraculous event to which its foundation is ascribed . The first picture represents the dream of the Roman patrician and his wife, whom Murillo, notwithstanding the date of the inscription ( A.D. 852) , dresses in the costume of his own time. Overcome by slumber, they have gone to sleep seated and dressed in their apartment . A little lap-dog is also sleeping on the bottom of the lady's dress. White clouds become visible in the darkness, and the vision suddenly appears to the closed eyes of the patrician and his wife, who both behold the same dream — the Virgin standing with the Child in her arms, pointing with her finger to the place where the church dedicated to her was to be built. The second pendent contains a double subject. On the left the patrician and his wife, of the size of life, are relating their common dream to the pope Liberius, seated on the ancient sella gestatoria ; and on the right a long procession in the distance is on its way to recognize and mark the place designated by Mary for the erection of the new church. These two marvellous pictures, or, at all events, the whole of the first, and the distant procession in the second — that is to say, the parts treated in the warm and aerial style -are – in Murillo's finest style, and show to what a height he could rise as a colourist. They are usually called either los Medios puntos of Murillo, or the Miracle of the Roman Gentleman. As in the masterpieces of Tintoretto at Venice, we propose that these two appellations should be made into one by calling it the Miracle of Murillo. Murillo, having been far more fertile than Velasquez, is much better known out of Spain . The Hermitage of St. Petersburg has eighteen pictures by Murillo in its catalogue. Without accepting all of these, we may, at least, mention a Conception, beautiful even among so many others ; a Nativity which, in its arrangement, reminds us of Correggio's Notte ; and a Martyrdom of St. Peter of Verona, worthy, in point of beauty, to have been compared with the great work of Titian at Venice. At Berlin there is an Ecstasy of St. Antony of Padua, which, without equalling the brilliant masterpiece that Murillo left as a last gift to the cathedral of his native city, yet, at all events, recalls the highest qualities of the painter of Seville. It is in his tender passionate style. Munich is still richer in possessing excellent works in different styles. In the first place, St. Francis curing a Paralytic at the door of a church , Murillo, although the most poetical, the most idealistic, of the Spanish masters, has seldom risen to such a height of expression ; his magic pencil has rarely produced such wonders. Four other pictures , in two series of pendents, belong to beggar life, to the vida picaresca , also poetical in Spain , as is proved sufficiently by the Lazarille de Tormés, the Guzman d'Alfarache, the Marcos de Obregon, and all the romances of the same family, which are merged into one in Gil Blas. These picturesque paintings present a mixture of his warm and cold styles, and it might be said that they belong to the cold style treated warmly. But, under whatever class they may be ranged, they will always be masterpieces of simple, lively truth . Before these wonderful scenes of comedy in real life we might both laugh and weep. A large picture, formerly an heirloom of the marquises of Pedroso, at Cadiz, was in 1837 bought by the National Gallery in London for about four thousand guineas. It is a Holy Family ( No. 13) . In this picture, between his mother and Joseph , who are worshipping on their knees, the Child Jesus stands on the broken : shaft of a column, gazing towards heaven as if wishing to leave earth, and united in thought to the two other persons of the Trinity - the Holy Spirit, who in the form of a dove, is hovering over his head , and the Father, who is above, amidst a choir of seraphim . The National Gallery also possesses two other pictures by Murillo, a Spanish peasant 2 E 210 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1675. Boy ( No. 74 )—the authorship of this work is doubted by some critics — and a St. John and the lamb ( No. 176) purchased for two thousand guineas. In the Duke of Sutherland's gallery the places of honour are justly occupied by two large pictures by Murillo , brought from Seville to London through the collection of Marshal Soult 2018 THE BEGGAR - BOY. — BY MURILLO . In the Louvre. Abraham receiving the three Angels, and the Return of the Prodigal son . They have been provided with magnificent frames, in which are the verses of Scripture which explain the subject, and surmounted by gilded busts of the painter whose life was so simple and devoid of pomp. The Prodigal son is , however, far superior to the Abraham . ' The group of the wretched and repentant son kneeling at the feet of his A.D. 1675. ] MURILLO. 2II noble and affectionate father ; the group of the servants hastening to bring food and clothes ; even to the little dog of the family, who has come to recognize and caress the fugitive, and the fat calf which is to be killed for the rejoicings ; —all is great and wonderful in composition, expression , and incomparable colouring. This Prodigal son deserves, perhaps, to be called the greatest work of Murillo out of Spain. Without having anything equal to this in importance, the Museum of the Louvre would yet be pretty well off if the authorities had not in reality diminished the riches already acquired whilst they pretended to have increased them . The Petits Pouilleux and a Holy Family have long been in the Louvre. It was wished to add fresh works of Murillo's to these ; but if the intention was good , it is that alone which deserves praise. We will not speak of those enormous pictures filled with ignoble restorations which are called the Naissance de Marie and the Cuisine des Anges. They are no less unworthy of the master than of the Louvre. But what need was there of a second Conception ? There was already one picture of that subject ; and although the last comer is certainly superior to it in some points, it is yet far from deserving the title of the one at Seville , the Perla de las Concepciones. There is , however, one of the most perfect specimens of Murillo's cold style in the Louyre that can be found anywhere. This is the Beggar Boy, who is crouching on the stone floor of a prison or of a garret, with a pitcher by his side. ( See woodcut.) In Murillo's warm manner and higher style there is the large picture which should rather be called a Trinity than a Holy Family. Similar in subject, in general disposition, and even in the details and accessories to the great picture of the National Gallery, that of the Louvre also equals it in the breadth of imagination, which unites the scenes of mortal and eternal life in the majesty of the symbol announcing the redeeming mission of the Saviour, and also in the extreme beauty of all its parts. But what has become of this marvellous Trinity ? It has disappeared from the Louvre, and it is in vain to regret it. Murillo left some pupils, who followed him from afar off with servile imitation. Not long before his death, remembering the obscurity of his youth and the first occupations of his pencil , he wished to smooth for his successors the difficulties at the outset of their career which he had found so difficult to overcome. He established at Seville a free academy for drawing and painting, of which he was the first director and professor ; but this academy came to an end twenty years later for want of masters and pupils. Ignacio de Iriarte, who was born at Azcoitia in 1620, removed quite early in life to Seville, where he studied under Herrera (el Viejo ), and besides that, became a great friend of Murillo. Iriarte soon discovered that his talents lay in landscape-painting, which branch of the art ' he adopted, abandoning his master Herrera in favour of Nature. Murillo frequently painted figures in Iriarte's landscapes, but this partnership, which was beneficial to both -- was unfortunately dissolved by a quarrel as to who should paint first and who last on the Life of David which had been ordered by the Marquis of Villamanrique. Murillo finally changed the subject to the Life of Jacob, and executed the whole work himself. Iriarte died in 1685. Madrid possesses several of his best pictures. The Louvre has a Jacob's dream . Francisco de Herrera, called “ El Mozo " ( the younger) to distinguish him from his father “ El Viejo ," was born at Seville in 1622. After studying for some time with his father, he left him on account of his violence, and went to Rome and improved his 2 1 2 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1675. style by close attention to the works of the great Italian painters. On his return to Seville , he was made director of the academy of which Murillo was president, but this inferior position was not pleasing to Herrera , who left Seville and went in 1661 to Madrid , where he was made painter to Philip IV. and superintendent of the Royal works. He died in 1685. Herrera was a jealous and ill-tempered man ; he soon took offence, and was slow to forgive. Besides historical pictures, he excelled in painting flowers and still life, and especially fish, whence he was called by the Italians “ il Spagnuolo degli Pesci. " Among his works, we may mention the Assumption of the Virgin on the cupola of Nuestra Señora de Atocha, and a St. Anne teaching the Virgin in the convent of Corpus Christi, both at Madrid. Sebastian Gomez, commonly called the “ Mulatto of Murillo," —was born in the early half of the seventeenth century. He was in a great measure self -taught. As Pareja learned his art by secretly studying the works of Velasquez, so did Gomez, by attention to the productions of Murillo. After years of careful study, Gomez ventured to complete an unfinished sketch of the Virgin's head by his master. Murillo was pleased with the attempt, and encouraged Gomez to go on with his adopted profession. Soon after the death of Murillo in 1682 , Gomez followed his master to the grave. Gomez's paintings are defective in drawing and composition, but in colour they imitate successfully the great Murillo . Juan de Valdes Leal, the sculptor, architect , and painter, was born at Cordova in 1630. He studied in the school of Antonio del Castillo, and was subsequently one of the most famous painters in Seville - indeed after the death of Murillo in 1682 , he was second to none. He was one of the founders of the Academy of Seville, where he died in 1691. His works are to be seen in churches of Seville and Cordova. Valdes Leal left a son Lucas, who, though chiefly known as an engraver, also practised the art of painting Nuñez de Villavicencio was born of a noble family at Seville in 1635. As Beltraffio studied art under Leonardo da Vinci, more as an amusement than a profession, so did Villavicencio under Murillo. He subsequently painted at Malta under Matteo Preti, whose style he adopted for a short time. He abandoned it , however, in favour of that of his former master. Bermudez tells us that he painted children, especially of the poorer class, in a manner little inferior to that of Murillo . Villavicencio died at Seville in 1700. Don Acisclo Antonio Palomino de Castro y Velasco, the Vasari of Spain , was born at Bujalance in 1653. When he was quite young, his parents removed to Cordova in order that, as he was destined for the Church, he might have a good education. Palomino soon gave proofs of his love of art, and when Valdes Leal came to Cordova in 1672 , he not only praised the productions of the young artist, but also gave him instruction in the rudiments of painting. Palomino subsequently painted at Madrid, where he became quite a famous artist in the Alcazar, the Escurial, at Salamanca and at Granada. He eventually died at Madrid in 1726 ; he was buried with great honour in the church of San Francisco by the side of his wife, who had died in the previous year, and upon whose death he had entered into full orders. ' Palomino, though a very fair artist, is much more famous as the historian of the artists of Spain. Though scarcely resembling Vasari in his pleasing style of narrative, Palomino is un fortunately like him in being, as regards dates, open to criticism-not to say untrust worthy. He published the first volume of his work-which contains, beside biographies A.D. 1700.] FOLLOWERS OF MURILLO. 213 of painters, a dissertation on the art of painting— “ El Museo Pictorico " at Madrid in 1715 , and the second in 1725. An abridgement, which was called “ Las Vidas de los Pintores y Estatuarios Eminentes Españoles," and which has been translated into English , appeared in London in 1744. Alonso Miguel de Tobar was born at Higuera in 1678. Though scarcely worthy of much praise as an artist, he is noticeable for the exactitude with which he succeeded in imitating the works of the great Murillo . At first he laboured at Seville , but, in 1729, being appointed painter to Philip V. , he removed to Madrid, where he executed portraits of many persons of note. Of his original works, we may notice an Enthroned Madonna in the cathedral of Seville. Of his copies of Murillo's works, we may mention a Holy Family, painted for the church of Santa Maria la Blanca de Seville, which was at the time thought to be the original ; and a St. John and the lamb after the picture now in the National Gallery. It is probable that many pictures, commonly called replicas by Murillo, are copies by Tobar. This artist died at Madrid in 1758. Francisco Meneses Osorio was born at Seville in the latter half of the seventeenth century. He is chiefly famous for his exact copies of Murillo's works; he excelled especially in representing beggar boys and similar subjects. He is said to have partly finished the St. Catherine which Murillo's death caused him to leave uncompleted. Seville possesses the greater part of Osorio's works. Neither the date of his birth nor of his death is known with certainty. He flourished about 1725. 214 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS (A.D. 1525. .

CHAPTER IV.SCHOOL OF CASTILE.

T HIS cannot be called the School of Madrid, for, during the lifetime of the painters who founded it , Madrid did not as yet exist, at least , not as the capital of the Spanish monarchy. But after the caprice of Philip II. had raised Madrid to the rank of a metropolis, all the dispersed elements of the Castilian school soon assembled in that city. It was at Valladolid that Alonso Berruguete lived ; at Badajoz, Luis de Morales ; at Logroño , in the Rioja, Juan Fernandez Navarrete, “ el Mudo ; " at Toledo, Domenico Theotocopuli, “ il Greco." But we must not pass by these earlier masters without a short mention. Alonso Berruguete, the painter, sculptor and architect, was born at Paredes de Nava in Old Castile, in 1480. He took lessons at first from his father Pedro, and in the year 1503 went to Florence and studied under Michelangelo, whose famous cartoon of the Pisan war he copied. He then went to Rome, where he assisted his master in the great works at the Vatican, ordered by Julius II . On his return to Spain in 1520 though he found himself famous and was appointed sculptor and painter to Charles V. , as he had been to Philip I. , before he quitted his native country — he scarcely painted anything but altar- screens for churches, which required a union of the three arts which he cultivated , painting, sculpture, and architecture. Had he displayed in the first of these arts the eminent qualities which he manifested in the second, if he had been as great a painter as he was in general a great artist, he would have had the honour of being the first to spread through his country the high notions of art he had acquired in Italy. His painting, though determined and expressive, is cold and dry. His architecture has the defects and good qualities of that of Spain at this period smallness and confusion in the whole, grace and delicacy in the details. In sculpture alone does he show himself a worthy disciple of his illustrious master, whose lessons he transmitted to Gaspar Becerra, who, although painter to Philip II. and author of a great number of works, was only great in statuary, and whose Madonna of Solitude was probably the masterpiece of Spanish sculpture. Alonso Berruguete died at Toledo in 1561 , and was buried with much pomp and honour at the expense of the Emperor. Luis de Morales-called El Divino—was born at Badajoz in 1509. Of his life very little is known. About 1564 he was summoned to Madrid by Philip II . , who, it is said , was displeased with him for appearing in too rich a dress ; the poor artist explained A.D. 1525. ] SCHOOL OF CASTILE. 215. that he had spent all his spare money in order to buy a costume befitting — as he thought-the occasion, and on hearing this the king was pacified. Morales, however, soon returned to Badajoz. When Philip II . visited that city in 1581 , and found the artist in poverty, he gave him a yearly pension of three hundred ducats. Morales lived at his native Badajoz until his death , which took place in 1586. There is one painter whom universal admiration has saluted by the title “ divine.” This is Raphael. In Spain, one painter also has received this magnificent surname. But with him, it was not a universal cry of admiration which thus proclaimed his merit and superiority ; it was, simply, his too great fastidiousness in the choice of his subjects, which always bore the imprint of an ardent piety. This name has, in some respects, been a misfortune to him ; all the pictures of his time which have the slightest analogy with his style are attributed to him. When anyone meets with an Ecce Homo, dry, lean, and livid ; a Mater dolorosa with hollow cheeks, pale lips, red eyelids ; even though it be a horrible caricature, he exclaims at once, " There iş á divine Morales ! ” Those who have examined his fine works attentively are not so prodigal of their author's name. His pictures, frequently painted on copper or wood, are as a rule very small and simple ; the most complicated are those repre senting the Madonna supporting a Dead Christ. There are some works, however, of Morales in which there are whole- length figures, such as the six large paintings of the Passion, which decorate the church of a small town in Estremadura, Higuera de Fregenal . Madrid has only succeeded in collecting five works by his hand, which proves that they are rare, when authentic. The Circumcision is the largest, and seems to be the best of the five. If Morales has the defects common to his period ; if he is minute in the execution of the beard and hair ; if he may be accused of too much hardness in the outlines and too little relief in the model ; we must, at all events, acknowledge that he drew with care and correctness, that he understood the anatomy of the nude, and rendered faithfully the fine gradations of demi-tints. He excelled also in the expression of religious grief, and no one has succeeded better than he in painting the agonies of Our Lord when crowned with thorns , or of a Virgin pierced with the seven swords of grief. Genuine works by Morales are rarely to be seen out of Spain. Alonso Sanchez Coello, a Portuguese by birth , was born about the year 1515. He removed when young to Spain, where he afterwards chiefly resided. Alonso Sanchez Coello was not only the pintor de camera to the son of Charles V. , but also one of his intimate courtiers (el privado del rey ). Pacheco says, that “ the king gave him for his lodging an immense house near the palace, and as he had a key to it... he often entered at inopportune moments into the painter's apartments ; sometimes the monarch camein when he was at dinner with his family ... ; at others , he surprised him when painting, and approaching him from behind laid his hand upon his shoulder. . . . Sanchez Coello several times painted the Portrait ofthe King, armed , on foot, on horseback, in travelling garments, in a cloak and with a cap. He also painted seventeen royal persons, queens, princes, and infantas, who honoured him so much as to enter his house familiarly to hold intercourse with his wife and children. . . . His house was frequented by the greatest persons of the time, Cardinal Granvelle, the archbishop of Toledo, the archbishop of Seville, and , what was a still greater honour, Don John of Austria, Don Carlos, and such numbers of nobles and ambassadors that many times, horses, litters, coaches, and chairs, filled the two large courts of his house . " 216 ILLUSTRATED ILL HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1525. Sanchez Coello painted several pictures on sacred history for different altars in the Escurial ; and also the portrait of the celebrated founder of the order of the Jesuits , Ignatius Loyola . This portrait, which is said to have been much like him , was painted after his death from a cast of the face taken in wax. Coello died, honoured and regretted, in 1590. He excelled especially in portrait painting. Juan Fernandez Navarrete - called on account of his being deaf and dumb, El Mudo—was born at Logroño in 1526. He is one of the most striking proofs of the power of natural taste, and of its constant superiority to what can be produced by education. If the Roman rhetorician was right in asserting that a poet must be born a poet, El Mudo has shown that a painter must be one from his birth. Deprived of the usual means of communicating with other men , and kept back by the circumstances surrounding him , he yet succeeded in accomplishing his destiny, merely by following the natural bent of his nature. When about three years old, a severe illness deprived him of his hearing, and, like those who are deaf from their birth , he was unable to learn to speak. At this time, the Spanish monk, Fray Pedro de Ponce, who preceded by so long a time the Abbé de l'Epée, had not yet essayed the education of deaf-mutes. ( It was about the year 1570 that Fray Pedro de Ponce, a Benedictine monk of the convent of Ona, found means to instruct the two brothers and the sister of the Constable of Castile, all three born deaf . ) Nothing was taught to Juan during his infancy ; but he soon revealed his true vocation , for he was constantly occupied in drawing on the walls with charcoal every object that he saw around him. His natural talent was shown so clearly in these rough sketches, that his father took him to the convent of La Estrella, at a short distance from Logroño, where one of the monks Fray Vicente de Santo Domingo, understood painting. This monk became much attached to the young mute ; he taught him the first elements of art, and, soon finding his pupil make such progress that he could no longer instruct him , he persuaded his parents to send the youth to Italy. El Mudo, whose family was very well off, soon started for the land of the arts. He visited Rome, Naples, Florence, and Venice, and settled down near Titian , whose disciple he became. His residence in Italy was long --twenty years at the least. When in 1568 his reputation , already great, and doubtless increased by the fact of his infirmity, reached Spain, Philip II . , who was beginning the decorations of the Escurial, sent for him to return to Spain. It was at the Escurial that El Mudo completed his principal work , -a series of eight large pictures, some of which have since perished in a fire. Amongst those which were preserved may be mentioned, a Nativity, in which El Mudo undertook to vanquish a formidable difficulty : he introduced three different lights into his picture ; one which proceeds from the Holy Child , another which descends from the Glory and extends over the whole picture , and a third from a torch held by St. Joseph. The group of shepherds is the best part of the com position. It is said that the Florentine painter, Pelligrino Tibaldi, never wearied of admiring them , and was continually calling out in his enthusiasm : Oh ! gli belli pastori ! This exclamation has become the title of the picture, which is called the Beautiful Shepherds. El Mudo died at Toledo in 1579. The works of this artist are scarcely known at all , for those which still exist are buried in the royal solitude of the Escurial, and are now almost inaccessible. We must, then, be satisfied with hearing that he was unanimously called the “ Spanish Titian , ” not only because he was one A.D. 1575. ] SCHOOL OF CASTILE 217 . of the favourite pupils of that master, but also because his works were worthy of being compared with those of the greatest Venetian master. Domenico Theotocopuli, the painter, sculptor and architect, and the founder of the school of Toledo, was born either in Greece, or in the Venetian State, of Greek parents, about the year 1548. He studied under Titian at Venice, where he was surnamed " Il Greco " ( the Spaniards would have called him " El Griego " ), and, through singular circumstances, came to settle at Toledo, about 1577. He became known there by a large picture of the Parting of Christ's raiment, quite Venetian in its character. Soon after, changing his style, he adopted a pale greyish colouring, which makes all the figures appear like so many ghosts and shadows ; in short, he adopted an un wholesome singularity of style, which extended even to the shape of his pictures, which were made far too long. However, instead of good paintings, he left pupils better than himself. Theotocopuli died at Toledo in 1625. His own portrait and that of His daughter are in the Spanish collection of the Louvre. Pantoja de la Cruz, the pupil of Sanchez Coello, was born at Madrid in 1551 , and held the same position under Philip III. that his master had done under Philip II . He has left a gallery of portraits, even in his historical pictures. Thus the Birth of the Virgin and the Birth of Christ, which are in the Museo del Rey, contain the portraits of Philip III. , his wife Margaret of Austria, their nearest relations, and some gentlemen and ladies of the court. Pantoja died at Madrid in 1610. An amusing tale is related of this artist's power of reproduction. An eagle having been captured near the Pardo, the King expressed a desire to have its portrait painted. Pantoja complied with the demand, but with so much truth to nature that the “ monarch of the air,” mistaking its likeness for a living rival , attacked it, and notwithstanding the efforts made to protect the picture succeeded in tearing it to pieces. Pedro de las Cuevas was born at Madrid in 1558. He is scarcely worthy of mention as an artist, but we cannot pass him by without notice, because, like the old Italian Squarcione, he sent forth from his academy some of the best artists of that time. Among these were Juan Carreño and Antonio Fernandez de Arias. Cuevas died at his native city in 1635. His son, Eugenio , was also a painter, but of no great merit. Bartolomé Gonzales was born at Valladolid in 1564. He went to Madrid when quite young, and studied under Patricio Caxes. On the death of Castello in 1617 he was appointed painter to the king, for whom he executed many works, the chief of which are to be seen in the royal collection. Gonzales died at Madrid in 1627. Juan Bautista Mayno, a Dominican monk, was born at Toledo in 1569. He studied painting under the Greek Theotocopuli, and in his turn imparted instruction to Philip IV. when he was a prince. He was also a patron of Alonso Cano and other artists . He painted his masterpiece for Philip IV. in the Bueno Retiro. sented the Duke d'Olivarez encouraging his troops by showing them a portrait of King Philip. Mayno died in 1649, at Toledo, where most of his works may be found. Phelipe Liaño was born at Madrid in 1575 . He studied art under Alonso Sanchez Coello. Liaño is supposed to have gone to Italy, but there are various accounts of him which do not tally, and little is known of him with certainty. He died in 1625 (?). Lope de Vega wrote an epitaph on this artist , which mentions him with great-not to say absurd -praise. It commences, “ I am the new Apelles, in colour, art, and skill. " Liaño excelled in portraiture — especially in his small pictures, which are noticeable for the beauty of their colour, whence he has been called " El Titiano Pequino.” It repre 2 F 218 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS (A.D. 1575. . Luis Tristan was born near Toledo in 1586 (according to Bermudez — other writers give 1594) . He studied art under Theotocopuli, whom he surpassed in design if not in execution, but who nevertheless was always ready to recognize his pupil's merit. Tristan has been rendered doubly famous from the fact that the great Velasquez abandoned the instruction of Pacheco in order to study his works. Tristan's master work was a series of pictures in the church of Yepes, a small town near Toledo, which city with Madrid can boast of possessing the greater part of his works. This artist died at Toledo in 1640. It was at this period that three families of artists , all natives of Tuscany, came to settle at Madrid. These were the Carducci , the Cajesi , and the Ricci, which names were, by the Spaniards, turned into Carducho, Caxes, and Rizi. We must grant a separate mention to the most famous of each family. Bartolommeo Carducci, who was born at Florence in 1560, studied art under Federigo Zuccaro, whom he accompanied to Spain towards the end of the sixteenth century. Carducci painted, in conjunction with Pellegrino Tibaldi, the ceiling of the library in the Escurial, where he also executed various frescoes. The Descent from the Cross which he painted in the church of S. Felipe el Real at Madrid increased his fame - already considerable. After the death of Philip II . , Carducci was engaged by his successor to paint the Life of Charles V. in a gallery of the Pardo, but he did not live to complete—in fact he scarcely began --the work, which was finished by his brother Vincencio, who changed the subject to the History of Achilles. Bartolommeo Carducci died in 1608 ( ?) . Vincencio Carducci-called by the Spaniards Carducho — was born at Florence in 1568. Vincencio was a pupil of his elder brother Bartolommeo, and was by him taken to Spain, where he afterwards resided - in fact he was wont to consider himself a Spaniard rather than an Italian. He died at Alcalá de Henares in 1638, while painting a St. Jerome, which bears the inscription , “ Vincensius Carducho hic vitam non opus finiit 1638.” He has left ' Dialogues on Painting : ( * Diálogos de las Excelencias de la Pintura ' ) , published at Madrid in 1633 , which has been much esteemed by com petent judges, including Bermudez who says, that it is the best work on the subject in the Castilian language. Vincencio Carducho has also left numerous works of his pencil which prove that his imagination was as fertile as his hand was industrious. In the Museo Nacional , opened at Madrid in 1842 (to complete the Museo del Rey with the spoils of the suppressed convents ), are the greater number of the works which Carducho executed for one of the largest orders recorded in the history of art. The Carthusian convent of the Paular intrusted him with the entire decoration of its large cloister. He was to represent the Life of St. Bruno, the founder of the order, and the Martyrdoms and Miracles of the Carthusians. By a contract of August 26th , 1626, between the prior and the painter, it was agreed that the latter should deliver fifty five pictures in the space of four years, all of them to be painted entirely by himself, and the price to be fixed by competent judges. This singular contract was punctually executed. Four years later, the convent of the Paular possessed the fifty- five paintings ordered of Carducho. On one side, twenty-seven pictures describing the different events in the Life of St. Bruno, from his conversion to his funeral, and on the opposite side twenty- seven other pictures of the Martyrdoms and Miracles of the monks belong ing to the order ; in the centre is a sort of trophy uniting the arms of the king A.D. 1600. ] SCHOOL OF CASTILE. 219 and that of the Carthusians. Cean- Bermudez says that he passed a fortnight at Paular in order to examine at his leisure these works of Carducho, and he affirms that in this long series of paintings of uniform size, where monotony would appear to be inevitable , we have, on the contrary, to admire a great fertility of invention, and a skilful arrangement of the various groups and scenes. Patricio Cajesi, called by the Spaniards Caxes, was born at Arezzo in the early half of the sixteenth century. He was invited to Madrid by Philip II . , who employed him in the palaces of that city. He was also commissioned to decorate the Queen's Gallery in the Pardo. The paintings which he executed there perished in the great fire in that palace. After the death of Philip II. , Caxes was employed by his son, in whose service he died, “ at an advanced age, and in extreme poverty, " in 1612 . Eugenio Caxes, the son and scholar of Patricio Cajesi, was born at Madrid in 1577. He assisted his father in the works which he executed for Philip III. , who appointed him his painter, on the death of old Patricio in 1612 . Eugenio painted many works in the churches and convents of Madrid, but many of them have perished by fire, as have also the frescoes which he executed in conjunction with Vincenzio Carducci in the Pardo. Eugenio Caxes died in 1642. In the Royal Gallery at Madrid there is a Repulse of the English under Leicester at Cadiz in 1625 , by this artist. Fray Juan Rizi — the son of Antonio Rizi, a native of Bologna, who had accompanied Federigo Zuccaro to Spain—was born at Madrid in 1595. He studied art under Juan Bautista Mayno, and in 1626 he followed the example of his master and took the cowl, though of a different order , - that of St. Benedict, -at Montereale, where he was some time after made Abbot of Medina del Campo. He executed many works for religious houses, including a St. Scolastica reading for the monastery of Burgos. In later life he went to Rome and entered the convent of Monte Casino. Pope Clement made him a bishop, but he died before entering on his duties , in 1675 . Francisco Rizi, the brother of Fray Juan Rizi, was born at Madrid in 1608. He received instruction in art from Vincenzio Carducci. In the year 1653 he was appointed painter to the Cathedral of Toledo - a very lucrative post ; and in 1656 was made painter to Philip IV. , by whom he was much patronized ; after that monarch's death he was made painter to Charles II . Francisco Rizi died in 1685 , while engaged on a work of considerable importance ; it was a sketch of a picture for the altar, which had been previously executed from his designs, of the Retablo de la Santa Forma in the sacristy of the Escurial. The work was afterwards painted from his drawings by his scholar Claudio Coello. Many of Rizi's works are in the churches and convents of Madrid, but the Royal Gallery can boast of only one work, a Portrait of an unknown knight. Stanley says of this artist, “ He conceived and produced, but always incorrectly, ” and he adds, “ that the decline of painting in that country (Spain) may be attributed , in a great degree, to the attraction of his style, and its superficiality.” We now return to real Spanish artists : Felix Castello was born at Madrid in 1602. He studied art first under his father Fabricio, an unimportant artist, and then under Carducho. Castello painted historical subjects -- more especially battle -pieces. He died in 1656, at his native city. 220 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1600. Diego Velasquez de Silva should, according to the custom of his country, have been named Don Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velasquez, for his father's name was Juan Rodriguez de Silva, and his mother Gerónima Velasquez. It is his mother's name which he has retained. He was born at Seville , and was baptized there June 6 , 1599. We have already seen that, when his classical studies were completed, he had two masters so opposite in style as were Herrera el Viejo and Francisco Pacheco. We too know that he soon chose a third master, and also studied incessantly from nature. The course and character of his studies are no less curious to notice than good to follow . He set himself to copy with scrupulous fidelity all the objects that could be offered by nature for the imitation of art, from inanimate objects to man, taking in his course plants, fishes, birds, and animals. It was thus that he obtained that wonderful truthfulness which is the principal characteristic of his style . Having through these natural stages at last come to painting men , Velasquez also studied separately the different parts of the human body, and the passions which actuate it . Pacheco, in his Arte de la Pintura, says, “ He kept in his pay a peasant boy as an apprentice, who served him for a model in all sorts of action, and in various attitudes — sometimes laughing, sometimes crying. " From him he executed many heads in charcoal, heigh tened with white on blue paper, and many others completely coloured, by which means he acquired his certainty in portraits. Velasquez must have seen, even at Seville, several paintings from Italy and Flanders ; he also saw there the works of Luis Tristan, of Toledo, whose taste he admired. It was then that he felt the necessity of going to Madrid to study the works of the masters of his art. Pacheco had then just given him the hand of his daughter Doña Juana, “ moved ,” as Pacheco himself says, “ by his virtue , his purity, and his good parts, as well as by the hopes derived from his great genius.” Velasquez started for Madrid in the spring of 1622, when twenty-three years of age, and there studied hard in the rich collections of the palaces of Madrid and the Escurial. The next year he returned to that city, being summoned this time by the Count-duke of Olivarez. Pacheco accompanied his son-in- law in this second journey, feeling sure that glory and fortune awaited him at court. And, indeed, his first pictures showed what he could do. Philip IV. ordered a portrait of himself, with which he was so delighted, that he immediately collected and caused to be destroyed all the portraits that had yet been taken of him , and he named Velasquez his private painter ( pintor de cámara) . * To this title was added later those of usher of the chamber ( ugier de cámara ) and of aposentador mayor. His salary, fixed at first at twenty ducats a month, was raised by degrees to a thousand ducats a year, without counting the price of his works. Besides this , Velasquez was admitted to intimacy with the king, and was counted all the remainder of his life among those courtiers who were called privados del rey. It was amongst these friends, and in the cultivation of arts and letters, that Philip IV. consoled himself for his political disgrace after having lost Roussillon, Flanders, Portugal, and Catalonia . When he first ascended the throne he had allowed himself to be sur named “ the Great, ” but soon it was said that his emblem was a ditch with this motto, “ The more is taken from it the greater it becomes. " In the same year ( 1623) Velasquez painted the portrait of Charles I. of England, then Prince of Wales. The royal favour changed neither the benevolent character of Velasquez, his austere morality, nor his ardent love of work. When Rubens came to Madrid in 1628, he visited the young portrait- painter, and, recognizing the whole power of a genius which had not yet learned to know itself, he encouraged him to treat larger subjects, though E THE WATER -CARRIER OF SEVILLE, By VELASQUEZ In the possession of the Duke of Wellington f DE NEW YORK:27انديا A.D. 1650. ] VELASQUEZ. 221 he, at the same time, advised him to go to Italy first, in order to study the great masters. This advice of the learned foreigner quite decided Velasquez. The following year he set out for Venice, where he studied Titian, Tintoretto, and Paul Veronese ; then he went to Rome, where he copied a large part of the Last Judgment by Michel angelo , the School of Athens by Raphael, and other works of these two great rivals in fame. After more than a year occupied with these labours done in retirement, and after having visited Naples and his fellow -countryman Ribera, Velasquez returned to Madrid in 1631 , with his talent ripened and matured. Of this he brought with him a striking proof in the pictures named Jacob with the garment of Joseph, and Apollo at the forge of Vulcan. The artist's works received a splendid welcome at the court, and Velasquez from that time occupied without dispute the first rank among the painters of his country ; he remained seventeen years in his studio, where Philip IV. used to visit him familiarly nearly every day. A commission given him by this prince for the purchase of some works of art caused Velasquez to return to Italy in 1648. He could then visit Florence, Bologna, and Parma, whither he was attracted by the works of Correggio. On his return to Madrid, Velasquez continued his labours peacefully until 1660. But in the month of March of that year, he had to go to Irun in his office of aposentador mayor, when Philip IV. conducted his daughter Maria Theresa to Louis XIV. , who came to the frontier to receive his future royal bride. It was Velasquez who prepared the pavilion in the Isle of Pheasants, where the two kings were to meet. The fatigues of this journey injured his already declining health. He returned ill to Madrid, and died there on the 7th of August, 1660, when sixty -one years of age. He was buried with much pomp and honour in the church of St. Juan. His widow survived him only seven days. After this rapid sketch of his life, we pass to the works of Velasquez. Sixty-four paintings by him are now collected in the Museo del Rey, and in this number are included all his principal works ; that is to say , except a very few carried out of Spain either as royal gifts or as the spoils of war, the whole works of Velasquez are in this museum . This kind of condensation is easy to understand. We have only to remember the way in which Philip IV. , his friend, who had only just ascended the throne when Velasquez came to Madrid, and who survived him by several years, acquired successively all the pictures that came from a studio forming a part of the palace, and painted by an artist employed by the royal family. The whole of the works of Velasquez, then, have remained the property of the Spanish crown. This circum stance, by showing why so few of this master's works have left Spain, also explains how it was that he remained so long completely unknown beyond his own country. Velasquez tried every style , and succeeded in all. He painted with equal success history (profane, at least ) , portraits, both on foot and on horseback , men and women , children and old men , historical landscapes, animals, interiors, flowers and fruits. We will neither notice his small dining- room pictures (bodegones) nor his little domestic scenes in the Flemish style. Whatever may be the merit of these works, they can only be looked on either as the studies of a conscientious student, who does not wish to neglect any of the objects that art borrows from nature, or as the productions of various design of a universal genius who feels his strength and wishes to prove it . The most celebrated landscapes of Velasquez, at all events at Madrid, are a View of Aranjuez and a View of the Pardo. But inanimate nature is not sufficient for him. He animates it in such a manner that it is no longer merely a theatre for the scenes placed in it . In painting the wild woods of the Pardo, he introduces a boar-hunt, where dogs, 222 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1660. horses, and men are all in motion . When painting the gravelled gardens of Aranjuez he chooses the Qucen's Walk, which from that time down to our own has retained the distinction of being the fashionable promenade, and the picture thus becomes a kind of memoir, which records the habits of society at that time in the thousand occurrences of a court promenade. Amongst his historical landscapes we must especially mention the Visit of St. Antony to St. Paul the Hermit. In a dreary solitude of the Thebaide these scenes are represented : on the right the stranger is represented knocking at the door of the cell which the hermit has hollowed out of the rock ; in the centre, the two old men, engaged in holy conference, are receiving the double allowance of bread brought by the raven ; on the left St. Antony is seen praying over the corpse of Paul, whilst two lions are digging with their claws the grave of the deceased hermit. Excepting for the fact of there being several scenes in the same picture, which is no longer allowed, this painting might be considered a real masterpiece. Nothing could be finer than the beautiful horror of the desert, unless, indeed , it is the expression of those two venerable faces, and the actions of the miraculous servants. For the rest, this landscape, like all those of Velasquez, is painted on a system totally opposite to that of other great painters from nature, Claude or Ruysdael for example, whose works must be looked at closely. Velasquez, more like Rubens or Rembrandt in works of a similar character, threw on the colouring with bold strokes of his brush ; the canvas is scarcely covered ; the outlines of objects are undefined ; earth, trees , and sky, all are in generalities, and without details. If we approach too curiously, the eye only sees something like the decorations of a theatre—uncertainty, confusion, and chaos. But if we draw back a few steps, the darkness is dissipated, the beings take life, the world is created anew , and we behold nature in her true colours. In portrait -painting Velasquez shares the glory of Titian, Vandyck, and Rembrandt. He has surpassed all his fellow -countrymen, and is scarcely equalled by his great rivals in other schools. Nothing can surpass his skill in depicting the human form , or his boldness in seizing it under its most difficult aspects : for example, the equestrian portrait of his royal friend Philip IV. He has placed him in the midst of an open country, standing out against a boundless horizon, lighted by a Spanish sun , without a single shadow, half -light, or contrast of any description. Yet, notwithstanding this bold neglect of all the artificial assistance of art, he has attained the greatest possible degree of illusion . He has imprinted on his canvas all the characteristics of life. The position and harmony of the limbs, as well as the whole attitude of the body, is perfect. The hair seems almost to be moved by the wind, the blood to circulate under the trans parent skin, the eyes to look out from the picture, and the mouth to be about to speak. Indeed, the illusion , when we have studied the picture for some time, seems to be almost alarming. It is before such pictures that the imagination can call up the men of another time, and renew the miracle of Pygmalion. What we have said of the portrait of Philip IV. might be repeated of all those by Velasquez. The same admiration is excited by the other portraits of Philip IV. , either in full-length or merely heads ; and also by the portraits of the queens Elizabeth of France and Marianne of Austria , the young Infanta Margaret and the Infante Don Baltazar, sometimes proudly handling an arquebus of his own height, or else galloping on a spirited Andalusian pony. The Count- duke of Olivarez, another protector of the artist, is represented on horseback and clothed in armour ; but in this picture, besides an equal amount of resemblance and life, there is also an energy and commanding grandeur A.D. 1660.j VELASQUEZ. 223 which the painter could not give to the indolent monarch. Almost all the portraits by Velasquez that have been preserved in the museum at Madrid are of historical person ages. Amongst them are the Marquis of Pescara, the Alcalde Ronquillo, and the pirate Barbarossa. These are called portraits, but they are in reality simple studies. Pescara and Ronquillo died before the time of Velasquez, and certainly Barbarossa could never have sat to him. At last he reached caricature when he painted soine dwarfs — the male very thin and the female enormously stout—a sort of domestic animal, which gave great delight to the royal children. Unlike the Italians and all his fellow -countrymen, Velasquez did not like to treat sacred subjects. They require less an exact imitation of nature--in which he excelled --than a depth of thought, a warmth of sentiment, and an ideality of expression. Velasquez did not feel at his ease amongst angels or saints ; he required men . He has consequently left scarcely any picture on sacred history. There are two in the museum at Madrid, the Martyrdom of St. Stephen and a Crucifixion. The former of these pictures, inferior in its style to that by Joanes, is only redeemed by its details . In it we feel, however, the true vocation of Velasquez ; for, among the numerous personages in the terrible drama, it is not the hero who concentrates our attention, but a child — that age has no pity ” —who comes after the executioners to throw his stone at the prostrate martyr. The Crucifixion is far superior. Christ is the only figure in the whole picture. No other object distracts the attention ; the falling night conceals the rest of nature from sight. The pale form of the dead Christ stands out from the dark background. We should admire the form , which is extremely beautiful, if our mind could preserve a terrestrial thought before such a sight, but we are filled by higher emotions. The blood is flowing from the hands and feet of Jesus, who is fastened by nails to the cross of shame. His head is leaning forward, and from the crown of thorns which still encircles it the hair falls in bloody locks, which veil the closed eyes, and cover the whole countenance with a mournful shadow . No painter, perhaps, has ever imparted a more profound melancholy, or a more solemn majesty, to the death of the Saviour. As for the profane pictures , geure paintings in their subjects, but historical ones by their dimensions and style , they are sufficiently numerous to satisfy the eager curiosity of the admirers of Velasquez. There are five principal ones in the museum at Madrid. We shall endeavour to analyse these in a few words. That which is called Las Hilan deras ( the Spinners) shows the interior of a manufactory. In an immense room, only dimly lighted in the hottest time of the day, workwomen, half-naked, are occupied with the different employments of their trade, whilst some ladies are being shown some of the completed work. Velasquez, who usually placed his model in the open air and sunshine, has here braved the contrary difficulty. His whole picture is in a half-light, and, playing with such a difficulty, he has succeeded in producing the most wonderful effects of light and perspective. The exclusive lovers of colour place Las Hilanderas the first of his works. When we come to La Fraga de Vulcano ( the Forge of Vulcan) , we are surprised at the title it bears. Were it not for the glory which surrounds the head of Apollo, we should scarcely imagine that we were looking at a mythological subject or at super human beings. Apollo, who has come to inform the husband of Venus that Mars is occupying his place in the nuptial bed , is no less ignoble, we must confess, than the part he is acting—that of domestic spy. Besides, the scene is not in the burning caverns of Etna, nor is it the black troop of the Cyclops forging the thunders of Jupiter or the 224 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 166o. arms of Achilles. We here see merely a blacksmith's workshop, with the blacksmith and his apprentices. But if we take away the mythology, and, removing the unsuitable glory from the head of Apollo, make of him merely one of those good neighbours who: according to the Spanish proverb, see who goes in but not who goes out, then what a complete metamorphosis do we behold ! We may now admire the space, the truth , and effect in the conflict between the light from the forge where the iron is becoming red -hot, and the sunlight which streams in at the half -opened door ; the gestures of the outraged husband, who is thunderstruck with surprise and anger, and the workmen, who have suddenly ceased their labours and the harmonious cadence of their hammers. The Surrender of Breda, which is usually called in Spain El Cuadro de las Lanzas ( the Picture of the Lances), is a still better work. The subject of it is very simple. The Dutch governor is presenting Spinola, the general of the Spanish forces, with the keys of the surrendered town. But Velasquez has made of this a great composition. On the left there is a part of the escort of the governor ; his soldiers still retain their arms, arquebuses, and halberts. On the right, before a troop, whose raised lances have given the picture the name it bears, is the staff of the Spanish general. Spinola's horse, which is in the foreground and seen from behind, breaks the uniformity of this group, where all the heads are portraits. Velasquez has concealed his own noble and earnest face under the plumed hat of the officer who occupies the farthest corner of the picture. Between these two groups the space is empty ; the painter has been so bold as to separate them by a broad space of air and light, which shows a wide land scape. But the two parts of the general composition are united where Spinola and the Dutch general are meeting. Every point in this immense picture is worthy of praise. As a whole it is grand, and the details are thoroughly artistic and full of truth. The sky, although painted in Spain , is pale and misty, and the earth is moist and cold. The people of the Low Countries, with their broad shoulders, fair hair, and fresh complex ions, form a good contrast to the pale and serious countenances of the Spaniards, with their carefully-trimmed beards, spare forms, and rich clothing. There is an immense amount of nature and variety in the attitudes of all , and yet the hero of the day attracts one's whole interest to himself . Although clothed in comple armour, he has dismounted in order to receive his vanquished enemy, whom he greets with a smile, and compli ments on the courageous defence. The painter must have understood true greatness, or he could not have so well expressed the benevolence and nobility which make even a defeat endurable. To pass from the Surrender of Breda to the Drinkers (Los Bebedores, or Borrachos) is to pass from an epic poem to a drinking song, and yet, instead of being inferior to the other, it is perhaps even greater. The king of a Bacchanalian society, crowned with ivy leaves, but almost naked, is seated on a barrel which serves him for a throne. Five or six jolly companions dressed in rags form his court, and at his feet there kneels a soldier of some kind , who is receiving with respect and gravity the accolade of knight hood. The monarch wreathes a vine branch around the head of the new knight, whilst the rest prepare libations to complete the ceremony and proclaim his welcome. It is merely a comic scene, and yet it is one of those pictures of the beauty of which no description can give an idea. It is almost in vain to call attention to its special merits -the puffy face of the king, his fat body, which speaks so strongly of the careless gluttony of those called bons vivants in all countries ; the shaggy beards, red eyes, and ragged cloaks of the brotherhood ; the old man at the back who is uncovering his grey head to salute a cup of wine, and the other who is laughing in your face with that con A.D. 1660. ] VELASQUEZ. 225 tagious laughter which one cannot see without joining. All this cannot be described in words ; such a picture must be thoroughly known and studied , to be understood . It is said that Sir David Wilkie went to Madrid expressly to study Velasquez, and that, still further simplifying the object of his journey, he only studied this one picture. Every day, whatever the weather might be, he would go to the museum , sit down before his favourite picture, and after three hours of silent rapture, exhausted by fatigue and admiration, would utter a sigh of relief, take his hat and depart. We know only one other picture which, as an imitation of nature, equals, or perhaps even surpasses , that of the Drinkers , and this other is also by Velasquez, While engaged in painting the portrait of the Infanta Margaret, he conceived the idea of taking the whole scene as a picture with himself for an actor. The scene takes place in a long gallery in the palace. Velasquez is on the left, standing at his easel with a THE DRINKERS. -BY VELASQUEZ. palette in his hand ; opposite him is the little Infanta, whom attendants are endeavouring to amuse during her wearisome sitting. One of her ladies, on her knees, is present ing her with drink in an Indian vase ; and the two dwarfs, Nicholas Pertusano and Maria Barbola, are teasing a largé dog, who submits patiently to their impertinence. Two faces reflected in a mirror show that Philip IV. and his wife are present on a sofa at the side. At the extreme end of the gallery a gentleman has half opened a door leading into the gardens. This picture is one of the few which contain secrets for no one, which strike the most ignorant as well as the learned. If we could separate our selves from the other objects which surround us, and perceive nothing beyond the limits of the picture, it would be impossible not to believe in the reality of the things. All the objects are palpable, and the beings alive ; the air seems to move amongst them and to surround and penetrate them . The perspective, showing the space and depth 2 G 226 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1660 of the gallery, is admirable, as well as the light and its phenomena. We might almost count the paces in the gallery ; and we cannot help being dazzled at the resplendent light coming in at the half-opened door. We may almost see these personages and hear them speak. Charles II . having taken Luca Giordano, then recently arrived from Italy, to see the picture , the enthusiastic artist exclaimed , “ Your majesty, it is the theology of painting.” “ The moderns," adds M. Beulé, " might say more simply, it is the photography .of painting. ” To this picture, which is usually called Las Meninas ( the meninas were the maids of honour), belongs an interesting circumstance in the painter's life. When he had put the last touches to it , he presented it , like all his works, to Philip IV. , whom he asked whether he thought it still wanted anything. “ One thing only , " replied the prince. And taking the palette from the hand of Velasquez, he himself painted on the breast of the artist, represented in the picture, the cross of the order of Santiago. This cross is still there as it was traced by the royal hand. Certainly there is more grace fulness and nobility in this method of ennobling than in the sending of a piece of parchment. The Belvedere Gallery of Vienna is the only other museum in Europe which possesses a family picture by the hand of Velasquez. This, which is almost equal to Las Meninas, represents , not the family of the king, but that of the painter, his wife , his children , his servants, and himself, whom he has placed in the back ground before his easel, near the portrait of Philip IV. Some time ago this picture was placed near the ceiling of a room, and almost out of sight ; since then it has been brought down and rests on the edge of the woodwork. This is the contrary extreme ; the painting of Velasquez is not intended to be looked at like that ofGerard Dow ; and Rembrandt might say of the works of Velasquez as he did of his own, " Painting is not to be smelt." This picture should rather be placed in the centre of the panel ; then it might be seen to perfection and appreciated as it deserves. Another fine work of Velasquez is in the National Gallery of London ; this is à Bvar-hunt at Aranjues ( No. 197 ) . At the foot of wooded hills a circus is formed by net -work hung around. Instead of bulls, wild boars have been let loose, which are pursued by dogs and attacked with the lance by nobles mounted on Andalusian horses. Ladies are watching the warlike game from their large cumbersome coaches, which look like movable caravans, and are even painted the same light blue colour as the caravans at a fair. But the upper and lower parts of the picture are far superior, even in interest. The depth of the background, the sandy hills , the trees standing out against a burning sky, and varying with their dark shadows the bright ground illuminated by a Spanish sun , show the special merit of this master, his truth and correctness. The foreground, no less true and just, shows also an infinite variety of combinations and effects. This is simply a line of spectators watching over the fence how the king and courtiers are amusing themselves. There is great diversity in the groups and attitudes, in the expression of the different countenances ; a happy contrast of colours between the brilliant slashed coats of the gentlemen and the picturesque rags of the beggars ; a no less happy mixture of horses, mules, and dogs amongst men of all ages and conditions ; nothing, in short, is wanting in this portrait of a crowd, not even the sentiment of equality, so deeply-rooted in Spain, where everyone says proudly, “ We are all the children of God.” Besides this picture, the National Gallery possesses a Nativity ( No. 232 ) and a Portrait of Philip IV . of Spain ( No. 745 ) ; also a Dead Ilurrior - known as El Orlando Muerto— (No. 741 ) , A.D. 1660.] SCHOOL OF CASTILE. 227 formerly in the possession of the Count de Pourtalès, and a Landscape - signed D. D. V. -bequeathed by the late Mr. Wynn Ellis, said to be of Spanish production and by some attributed to Velasquez. Before leaving England we must not omit to mention the Water- carrier (Aguador) at Apsley House. This celebrated picture, so well known from engravings ( see woodcut), was presented to the first Duke of Wellington by Marshal Soult. Everywhere else , at St. Petersburg, Munich, and Dresden, we merely find simple portraits as specimens of Velasquez, and some of these are rather by his copyists than by himself. In all Italy there is only the portrait of Innocent X., which was taken in Rome in 1648, and which received, like the great works of Raphael and Titian, the honours of a procession and coronation. In the Louvre the only really authentic and beautiful work of Velasquez is the half-length portrait of the young Infanta Margaret, who was married to the Emperor Leopold six years after her elder sister Maria Theresa had been married to Louis XIV. To describe Velasquez in one word, we should borrow the expression Rousseau employed for himself, “ the man of nature and truth . ” In subjects which require neither grandeur of thought, elevation of style, nor sublimity of expression, where the true is sufficient, Velasquez is unrivalled. Although he painted without hesitation or re -touching, although he delighted in difficulties, such as those of light, his drawing is always irreproachably pure. His colouring is firm , sure, and perfectly natural ; there is nothing affected in it , nothing brilliant , nor any search for effect ; but there is also nothing sad, pale, or dark, and no dominant tint to injure the effect. He coloured as he drew ; he was everywhere and in everything true. In the distribution of light and shade, in the diffusion of ambient air—in other words, in linear and aërial perspective - Velasquez especially excels. It was in this that he discovered the secret of perfect illusion. “ He knew how to paint the air,” says Moratin . Certainly, if the art of painting were merely the art of imitating nature, Velasquez would be the first painter in the world . Antonio Fernandez de Arias was born at Madrid in the early years of the seven teenth century. He studied art under Pedro de las Cuevas. At the early age of twenty -four, Fernandez was considered one of the best painters in Spain. He died at Madrid in 1684. Of his works we may mention the Tribute Money in the Queen of Spain's Gallery, and eleven scenes from the Passion of our Lord (noticed by Palomino) , in the convent of San Felipe. Juan Pareja, who was a slave and valet of Velasquez, was born in 1610 in the West Indies, of a Spanish father by an Indian woman. His business was to pound the colours, clean the brushes, and put the colours on the palette. Pareja , who had been a long time in the studio , every day learning some secret of the art which was carried on before him, had, at last, felt his true vocation. But what could the poor mulatto hope to do ? His master, like the ancient Greeks, considered the fine arts too noble for the hands of a slave, and he had forbidden Pareja any work which would make him more than a servant of painting. But the laws of nature are stronger than those of society. Carried away by his passion , which was only strengthened by the obstacles it encountered, Pareja began to study with as much ardour as he was forced to use mystery. During the day he watched his master paint, and listened to the lessons he gave to his pupils ; then , during the night, he practised the lesson with pencil and brush . Studies such as these could not lead to rapid progress ; it 228 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 166o. required much time and the most obstinate perseverance on the part of Pareja before he could attain to a knowledge of his art. At last , when he was forty- five years old , he thought himself sufficiently skilful to reveal the secret so long kept. To do this and obtain his pardon at the same time, he employed the following artifice : Philip IV. , who visited familiarly his painter de cámera, used to amuse himself with looking over the sketches which were scattered about the room. Having completed a picture of small dimensions, Pareja slipped it amongst other paintings with their faces turned to the wall . At his first visit the king did not fail to ask for all the sketches in the studio. When Pareja presented him with his own picture, Philip, much surprised, asked who had painted that fine work which he had not seen commenced. The mulatto then, throwing himself at his feet, confessed that he was the author, and entreated the king to intercede for him with his master. Still more astonished at this strange revelation, Philip turned to Velasquez, saying, “ You have nothing to reply ; only remember that the man who possesses such talent cannot remain a slave." Velasquez hastened to raise Pareja, and promising him his liberty, which he afterwards gave him in an authentic deed, he admitted him from that day into his school and society. Certainly this is a singular and touching history of a slave earning his liberty by the power of labour and talent, and obtaining it through the intercession of a king. Pareja , however, showed himself worthy of it, less by his merit than by his humble and grateful conduct. He continued to wait on Velasquez freely, and even after the death of the great painter he served his daughter, who was married to Mazo Martinez, until his own death, which took place in 1670. He is usually called “ Pareja, the Slave of Velasquez," as Sebastian Gomez is called the “ Mulatto of Murillo ." Juan Carreño da Miranda- commonly known as Carreño - was born of noble parents at Avilés in 1614. He studied design in the school of Pedro de las Cuevas, a painter more celebrated for his scholars than his works, and colour under Bartolomé Roman, a pupil of Velasquez. At Madrid, Carreño painted for the convents and churches many pictures which gained him great fame. He executed in conjunction with Francisco Rizi the well-known cupola of Sant' Antonio de los Portugeses. Philip IV. made Carreño one of his court-painters, and after the death of that monarch Charles II. appointed him painter-in-ordinary and deputy-aposentador, and further honoured him by conferring on him the cross of Santiago. Honoured and regretted by all who knew him, Carreño died at Madrid in 1685. His pictures are noticeable for correctness of design, and especially for harmony of colouring. Besides his works at Madrid , this artist painted at Toledo, Alcalá de Henares, Segovia, and at Pampeluna. Juan Bautista del Mazo Martinez, who was born at Madrid in 1620 ( ?) , was not only the son- in- law of Velasquez, but also one of his most skilful pupils. He was especially celebrated for his power of imitation : Palomino relates that copies of Titian, Tintoretto, and Paul Veronese, which Martinez made in his youth, were sent into Italy, where they were, doubtless, admitted for originals. Mazo Martinez succeeded especially in copying the works of his master. The most expert were deceived by them , and even to this day mistakes of the same kind are no less common. Mazo Martinez died at Madrid in 1687 . Claudio Coello, who was born at Madrid of Portuguese parents about the year 1635 , was in the Castilian school what Carlo Maratti had been in the Roman , “ the last of A.D. 1670. ) SCHOOL OF CASTILE. 229 the old masters." His father, who was a sculptor in bronze, intended his son for the sume profession , and accordingly apprenticed him to Francisco Rizi to study drawing, for which branch of art he exhibited such a decided talent, that his father was induced by Rizi to let him become a painter. Claudio Coello soon won the friendship of Carreño, who obtained for him admission into the royal galleries , where he improved his style by studying the works of Titian, Rubens, and other great masters. In 1683, Coello went to Saragossa, by the invitation of the Archbishop , to paint in the church of the Augustinians, and in the following year he was appointed painter to Charles II . , who afterwards made him deputy -aposentador and pintor de cámara. On the death of Rizi in 1685 , Coello commenced his masterpiece, which occupied him more than two years. It is still in the Escurial and represents the Collocation of the Host ( El Cuadro de la Forma), and contains the portraits of Charles II, and many of his courtiers. In 1690 Luca Giordano was summoned from Italy to paint the walls of the Escurial ; he arrived in 1692. Coello — who was, besides pintor de cámara, painter to the Cathedral of Toledo and Keeper of the Royal Galleries - considered this an injustice and an insult, and grief and jealousy caused his death a year later. Juan de Alfaro y Zamon, who was born at Cordova in 1640, studied art first under Antonio del Castillo , but subsequently with Velasquez, in whose school he greatly improved his colouring, because that master employed him to copy the works of Titian, Rubens, and other great colourists . Alfaro is said to have been absurdly vain. It is related of him by Palomino, that being employed to paint scenes from the Life of St. Francis for the cloister of the convent to that saint, he copied his subjects from prints and then signed each picture, “ Alfaro pinxit ;" the historian further tells us that Alfaro's old master Castillo , in order to rebuke him, obtained leave to execute one, and then signed it “ Non pinxit Alfaro,” which henceforth became a proverb. The memory of Alfaro is not only stained by vanity, but by ingratitude. On the banishment of the Admiral of Castile, who had been his patron , Alfaro deserted his cause, and on his being recalled , did not hesitate to solicit a repetition of his former favours. It is said that the rebuff he received from the Admiral caused his death, which took place at Madrid in 1680. The masterpiece of Alfaro is his Guardian Angel, in the church of the Imperial College at Madrid . After the death of Coello the kings of Spain had, for many years, none but foreign painters. Charles II, sent for Fa presto ; Philip V. to France for Ranc and Houasse ; and Charles III. to Italy for the German, Raphael Mengs. To come down nearer to the present time, we have but to mention a few names. Francisco Goya y Lucientes was born at Fuente de Todos in 1746. He was his own master, and took lessons only of the old masters. From this singular educa tion his talent took a peculiar bent -- inaccurate, wild , and without method or style, but full of nerve , boldness, and originality. Goya is the last heir, in a very distant degree, of the great Velasquez. His is the same manner, but looser and more fiery. Being under no delusion as to the extent of his own talent, Goya did not lose himself in too high - flown ideas ; he confined himself to village processions, choristers , and scenes of bull- races in short, to all sorts of painted caricatures. In this genre he is full of wit, and his execution is always superior to the subjects. But, like Velasquez, Goya founds his best title to celebrity on his portraits. His equestrian portraits of Charles IV. and Maria Louisa have been placed in the vestibule of the Museo del Rey. These works 230 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [ A.D. 1850. . are, doubtless, very imperfect, being full of glaring faults, especially in the forms of the horses. But the heads and busts have singular beauty ; and on the whole, though very defective when analysed, there is so much effect, such truth in the colouring, and boldness in the touch, that one cannot fail to admire these high qualities, although regretting the essential defects which they cannot entirely redeem. Goya is best known for his etchings, which are very good. Eighty of these have been collected into a volume, which is called the “ Works of Goya.' These are witty allegories on the persons and things of his own time, and remind us of Rembrandt in their vigour and pointedness, of Callot in their invention, and of Hogarth in their humour. Goya died in 1825. After Goya there was a complete gap in Spanish art, and it was with surprise, and still more with pleasure, that at the time of the Universal Exhibition at Paris in 1867 we found it to be reviving. Spain maintained her position honourably amongst the assembled nations. Since that time further progress has been made, and now that peace has once more visited this unfortunate country, let us hope that the close of the present century will see a revival of the magnificent art for which Spain was once so famous. Within the last few years several painters have risen up, and become celebrated ; and of two of these we must give a brief record. Mariano Fortuny, who was born at Barcelona about the year 1839, received his first instruction in art from a pupil of the great German master, Owerbeck. He afterwards went to Madrid to study the works of Velasquez and Goya ; but although he carefully examined the paintings of these masters, Fortuny never servilely copied them . In fact, his chief claim to renown as a painter is based on his originality. While in Madrid, he was commissioned by the Spanish Government to paint a representation of the Battle of Tetuan ; the price, 6000 francs, was to be paid on condition that the picture should equal the Smala of Horace Vernet. Soon after the completion of this picture, Fortuny visited Rome, and then went to Paris, where he soon became cele brated. Returning to the Papal capital , he died there in 1874, and was buried with much honour . In his own country, at Rome, and at Paris, Fortuny was very popular, and his works were much sought for ; but in London, although several of his best pictures were exhibited, he scarcely met with the same success. Eduardo Zamacois, who was born at Bilbao, in the early half of the nineteenth century , studied painting under M. Meissonier. Many of his best pictures have been exhibited in the Paris Salon ; two are especially worthy of mention, Buffon au 16 Siecke, exhibited in 1867, in which year he gained the medal of the society, and L'éducation d'un Prince in 1870. Zamacois died at Madrid on the 14th of January, 1871. A.D. 1350.) SCHOOL OF BOHEMIA. 231

BOOK III .

CHAPTER I. GERMAN SCHOOLS.

GERMAN Art of the fourteenth century descended, like the Italian , from the Byzantines. In its first stages all the quaint peculiarities of the early Christian painters are seen in full vigour. Conventionality, without any thought of the beauty of Nature, sat like an incubus upon these makers of pictures, but happily it was not for many years : German Art quickly emancipated itself from all servile imitation, and in another century produced masterpieces, which to this day are full of interest to the scholar. Following the method of classification to which we have adhered in our notice of Italian and Spanish Art, we shall mention the principal German painters under their own particular Schools - maintaining, as far as possible, a chronological order; and carrying out this plan, the first group of artists to which our attention is directed will be the SCHOOL OF BOHEMIA, which owes its existence to the patronage of the Emperor Charles IV. , the author of the Golden Bull, who employed several artists in his castle of Karlstein near Prague. Of these artists, the names of four have been handed down to us. The first is Theodorich of Prague, to whom is attributed 125 half-length figures of Saints and Ecclesiastics in the church of the Holy Cross - otherwise known as the Royal Chapel, at the castle of Karlstein. The second is Nicholas Wurmser, to whose hand critics ascribe Scenes from the Apocalypse in the church of Our Lady, and in the church of the Holy Cross ; also a Crucifixion in the Imperial Gallery at Vienna. The third Bohemian master is Kunz, who probably executed the scenes from the Life of Charles IV. in the church of Our Lady. The fourth and last -mentioned artist, who laboured chiefly in the chapel of St. Catherine, is Tommaso da Modena, who virtually belongs to the Italian school, where will be found a further mention of him . It must be borne in mind that the above-mentioned pictures are greatly damaged, many of them being mere remnants, and that the names ascribed to each , though made by eminent critics, are very little more than surmises and cannot be entirely depended on . 232 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS (A.D. 1450. . There is nothing, beyond the fact that they laboured for Charles IV ., to fix the dates of these artists 'lives ; we must therefore content ourselves with saying that they flourished from 1348 until 1378-the years of that monarch's reign. Before quitting the early painters of Bohemia, we may mention a few other works ascribed to them : a mosaic -triptych on the exterior of the Prague Cathedral, represent ing Christ adored by the Saints, the Virgin enthroned, St. John the Baptist, and at the bottom on either side the Resurrection and the Condemned ; also some mural paintings in the chapel of St. Wenceslas within the cathedral. Besides these and many other pictures by these masters, there are numerous manuscripts illuminated with miniatures, which are better specimens of Bohemian art than half-effaced wall-paintings, SCHOOL OF COLOGNE. The primitive Bohemian school, of which we have just spoken , had only an ephemeral existence ; it was crushed almost in the bud. But on the banks of the Rhine, at Cologne, between Germany and Flanders, a school was afterwards formed, which, from one stem , sent forth the two great branches of Northern art -- the German schools to the east, and the Flemish -Dutch to the west. Foremost among these early painters of Cologne is Meister Wilhelm - also called from his birthplace, Wilhelm von Herle — who, the Limburg Chronicle tells us, was a famous painter in Cologne, whose equal was not to be found in Christendom ; and who painted a man as though he lived . " Meister Wilhelm was born at a little village named Herle, near Cologne, in which town he settled in 1358, and where he continued to paint until 1372 ; he appears to have died in 1378. ( Merlo, ‘ Die Meister der Altkölnischen Malerschule. ' ) Of the works which are attributed to Meister Wilhelm, the most important are scenes from the Life of Christ, formerly in the church of St. Clara, now in the Johannis Capelle in Cologne Cathedral; scenes from the Life of Christ and the Virgin and an altar- piece representing the Madonna and Child adored by Saints, both in the Berlin Museum. In and near Cologne, there are various works attributed to Meister Wilhelm. The National Gallery possesses a Sancta Veronica ( No. 687 ) , formerly in the Lorenz-Kirche at Cologne, by this artist , to whom is also ascribed a picture of the same subject in the gallery of Munich . Stephan Lochner, commonly known as Meister Stephan, was born at Constance, but the date of his birth is not known. He settled at Cologne, where he purchased a house in 1442. He represented the Guild of St. Luke in the Senate in 1448 and again in 1451 , in which year he died in poverty and obscurity. Meister Stephan is said to have been a pupil of Meister Wilhelm , but the assumption is founded on very slight grounds, and indeed, Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle say, " No styles were more divergent than those of Wilhelm and Stephan, and it is impossible to tell whether the latter followed the discipline of the former ; " but true it is that a picture, long attributed to Meister Wilhelm , has now been almost incontestably shown to be by Stephan. This picture is the celebrated “ Dom - bild ” of Cologne ( engraved in Early Flemish Painters ' ). Meister Stephan's name was first brought into notice by an entry A.D. 1500.1 SCHOOL OF COLOGNE. 233 in the journal of Albrecht Dürer, who says, " Item , I have paid two silver pennies to have opened the picture which Meister Stephan painted at Cologne ; " and in addi tion to this evidence Herr Merlo discovered the name “ Stephan Lochner," or “ Loethener, ” in some old city registers , whence was derived the scanty notice of Lochner's life above given. This Dom -bild, which is a triptych , and is supposed to have been dated 1410, represents on the outside, an Annunciation, and within, an Adora tion of the Magi; on one wing St. Gereon and his Knights, and on the other, St. Ursula and her Virgins. Among other works attributed to Meister Stephan are the Madonna in der Rosenlaube in the Cologne Museum, and a SS. Matthew , Catherine of Alexandria, and John the Evangelist in the National Gallery. Cologne, Munich, Berlin , and other German towns possess works executed by followers of the style of Meister Stephan. The Master of the Cologne Crucifixion , called also the Master of the Bartholomäus Altar and Meister Christophorus, flourished in Cologne from about 1500 until 1510. He has also been called, but erroneously, “ Lucas van Leyden . " His earliest known work was painted in 1501 , and represents the Iricredulity of St. Thomas. A more famous picture , formerly in the Rathhaus of Cologne, is the Crucifixion, with the Lisciples and St. Jerome , on the interior of the wings of the triptych is the Annunciation with Saints, and on the exterior St. Peter and St. Paul. Of an altar-piece composed of single saints , by this artist, the Munich Gallery possesses five specimens and the National Gallery two, St. Peter and St. Dorothy. The Master of the Death of the Virgin flourished at Cologne in the early part of the sixteenth century. He derives his name from his earliest known work , the Death of the Virgin, dated 1515 , in the Museum at Cologne. A repetition of this subject is in the Munich Gallery. Among other pictures by him, we may mention an Adoration of the Kings in the Dresden Gallery ; and a Crucifixion in the gallery at Naples. This artist, who spent a few years, in later life, in Italy, is a very fair colourist, though frequently unpleasing in his flesh tints. He excelled in representing the female head. Bartholomaus Bruyn was born at Cologne in the beginning of the sixteenth century. His early works resemble those of the “ Master of the Death of the Virgin ,” whose pupil he is said to have been ; but the paintings executed towards the close of his life show a tendency towards copying the Italians. His masterpiece is the Wings of a Shrine in the church of Xanten, which were completed in 1536. They represent on the inside, the Lives of SS. Victor, Sylvester, and Helena ; and on the outside, the Virgin and Child with Saints. Portraits and historical pictures by this artist are in the galleries of Berlin, Cologne, and Munich. Bruyn died in 1556. SCHOOL OF WESTPHALIA. From the parent stem of the Cologne School sprang up the two great branches which , extending to the east and west from the banks of the Rhine, formed the schools of Germany and of Flanders. The Flemish School , which was rendered famous by the brothers Van Eyck, was in the same century the teacher of the German, both in style and execution. Nothing has been discovered about the first painters of the Westphalian 2 H 234 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1450. School beyond their works, and they are known only by the name of the places in which their pictures were found. The Master of Liesborn painted in the abbey of that name, in the south of West phalia , about the year 1465. The principal work by this master was a Crucifixion, executed for the high -altar of the second convent church of Liesborn . When the convent was abolished in 1807 , the picture was cut into pieces. Several portions were lost, but collectors, among others Herr Krüger, of Minden , succeeded in obtaining various fragments. This altar- piece represented, in the middle, the Crucifixion, witnessed by various saints, and on either side the Annunciation and scenes from the Life of our Lord . The National Gallery possesses two portions of this altar-piece, St. John the Evangelist, St. Scholastica and St. Benedict, and St. Cosmas, St. Damianus and the Virgin Mary, all witnesses of the Crucifixion. These portions were formerly in the possession of Herr Krüger. The Master of the Lyversberg Passion--called also Der Meister von Werden lived in Westphalia from about the year 1463 till 1490. A Deposition from the Cross is in the Museum of Cologne, and the Lyversberg Passion - so called from the name of the former owner, Herr Lyversberg - is now in the Cologne Museum . It represents the Passion of our Lord in eight compartments. The National Gallery has a Presentation in the Temple; a companion -picture is in the Pinacothek at Munich , where there are several other works attributed to this artist , under the erroneous title of " Israel von Meckenem ." SCHOOL OF SWABIA , Martin Schongauer — who, on account of the excellence of his art , is called " Il bel Martino ” by the Italians, and “ Le beau Martin ” by the French-is usually known to us as Martin Schön. He was born at Colmar about the year 1420. Both Augsburg and Ulm claim , with Colmar, the honour of being the birthplace of this, the greatest German painter of the fifteenth century ; and Augsburg can, at least , boast of being the town of his ancestors. Schongauer, like the Florentine Maso Finiguerra, was an engraver as well as a goldsmith , and, like the Bolognese goldsmith Francia , became also a painter. He studied painting under Rogier van der Weyden, but though his execution is Flemish, yet he is , to a great extent, German in feeling. About the year 1465 Schongauer removed from Ulm, where he had resided for some and settled in Colmar, in which town he established a school and spent the rest of his life. He died there in 1488. In the paintings of Schongauer, which are unfortunately scarce, and for the most part unauthenticated, the brilliant colouring of the Van Eycks is united to the fine and hard delicacy of the engraver. The principal works attributed to him are, a Virgin and Child in a bower of roses, in the church of St. Martin at Colmar ; two wings of an altar- piece, representing the Madonna and Child , St. Anthony the Hermit and Donor, and the Annunciation , in the Civic Library at Colmar; and, lastly , the Death of the Virgin, from the King of Holland's Collection , now in the National Gallery. Though Schongauer was one of the best painters of his time, he was a better A.D. 1475. ) SCHOOL OF SIVABIA . 235 engraver than painter. His most celebrated works executed with the point are, a Flight into Egypt, considered by many critics to be his masterpiece ; a Death of the Virgin ; and St. Anthony tormented by Demons, of which, Vasari says, Michelangelo made a pen -and -ink copy. In the British Museum there is a fine collection of engravings by this artist. Friedrich Herlen, who, from the similarity of their works, is supposed to have been a pupil of Rogier van der Weyden, carried the style of the Van Eycks into Upper Germany. He was, however, but a servile imitator of their manner, and far inferior to Schongauer, both in originality and in execution. He lived at Ulm from 1449 until 1454 ( Hassler's • Ulm's Kunstgeschichte ' ) , about which time he was made a citizen of Nördlingen : in the church of this town there are still specimens of his work ; two wings of an altar -piece, representing the Annunciation and Visitation of the Virgin, and scenes from the Life of Christ ; an Ecce Homo and a Madonna and Child adored by the painter, his wife and his family. Herlen died in 1491 . Bartholomäus Zeitblom , who was born between the years 1440 and 1450, studied engraving under Schongauer, and painting under an artist of whom little is known, one Schühlein, whose daughter he married. Zeitblom lived chiefly at Ulm. His name was on the rolls of that city as a taxpayer in 1517. He is supposed to have died there, but in what year no one knows. The gallery of Stuttgardt possesses the best collection of his works. Most worthy of note are two wings of an altar- piece, painted for the parish church of Eschach, which represent on the inside, the Annunciation and the Salutation , and on the outside, St. John the Baptist and St. John the Divine. A predella representing a Sancta Veronica, of the same altar- piece, is in the Berlin Museum . Several churches of Swabia contain pictures by Zeitblom . Of this painter Mrs. Heaton says , “ He did not attain to the same free artistic development as Martin Schön, but his paintings have great spiritual beauty and tenderness of sentiment. His colour also is pure and soft, more like fresco than oil-painting.” Thomas Burgkmair, who was born about the middle of the fifteenth century , though inferior to the elder Holbein, was still one of the best artists of Augsburg at that time. Both the Gallery and the Cathedral of Augsburg possess specimens of Burgkmair's art. He died at Augsburg in 1523. Hans Holbein, known as “ the Elder ” to distinguish him from his more famous son , was born in the latter half of the fifteenth century. His name is first mentioned in 1494 in the rolls of the city of Augsburg , where he resided , at intervals, during the greater part of his life. Hans Holbein was made a citizen of Ulm in 1499 ; two years later he visited Frankfort ; but after 1516 his name does not occur on the city rolls ; and from that time he lived in poverty. He died at Isenheim in 1524. Many works by Hans Holbein the Elder have been attributed to his son ; amongst others a Martyrdom of St. Catherine in the Augsburg Gallery, which was ascribed to the great portrait-painter on the evidence of an inscription discovered on it in 1854, which said that he had painted it when only seventeen years of age. This inscription has since been proved to be a forgery. Another picture, which has passed under the same misnomer, is the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian at Munich (Woltmann's · Holbein und seine Zeit ' ) . A Virgin and Child , formerly in the Landauer Brüderhaus at Nuremberg, signed “ s . Holbaini,” attributed by some to Sigmund Holbein, is ascribed to the elder Hans by Mr. J. Crowe and other critics, who take the “ s ” as the final letter of Hans. 236 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1500 Works by the elder Holbein are in the galleries of Augsburg, Munich, Frank fort, Bâle, and Donaueschingen : the Cathedral of Augsburg possesses four pictures, representing Joachim's Sacrifiee ; the Birth and Presentation of Mary and the Pre sentation of Christ, which were painted in 1493 for the Abbey of Weingarten in Würtemberg The Holbein sketches at Berlin-long attributed to the son - are now generally said to be by the father. Sigmund Holbein, the brother of the elder and uncle of the younger Hans Holbein, was born at Augsburg about 1465. He left his native town and became a citizen of Berne, where he resided until his death, which took place in 1540. He bequeathed all his property in Berne to his renowned nephew . Sigmund Holbein was a very fair painter, but there is no work which can be ascribed to him with certainty . A Portrait of a Lady, formerly in the Wallerstein Collection , now in the National Gallery, is said to be by him, though many competent critics doubt its authenticity. Hans Burgkmair, the son of Thomas Burgkmair, was born at Augsburg in 1473. He first studied art with Martin Schongauer, and afterwards, it is supposed, with his father. Burgkmair painted in two styles. Of the first, in which he worked up tili about the year 1508 , good specimens are a Christ on the Mount of Olives, and a Crucifixion with the Martyrdom of St. Ursula at the sides, in the Augsburg Gallery. This first style , which is entirely German, is noticeable for a hardness in the folds of the draperies, which in the second style are much freer and more harmonious. Of his works in the second manner, which is more Italian than the former, we may mention an Adoration of the Kings, which Kugler considers his masterpiece , in the Augsburg Gallery. This museum has a large share of his works. The galleries of Dresden, Munich , and Vienna, and various other collections, also possess specimens of his art, Burgkmair died in 1581. He shared with Altdorfer the honour of being the first German artist who painted landscape -backgrounds in detail . The best example of this is his St. John in the Isle of Patmos, in the Munich Gallery. Besides being a painter of historical, portrait, and landscape subjects, Burgkmair is also celebrated as an engraver on wood. His Triumphal Entry of Maximilian is one of the finest productions of that age. Martin Schaffer, who is supposed to have been a pupil of an old master named Schühlein , was born at Ulm towards the close of the fifteenth century. His works executed in early life are entirely German , but those of liter years show a strong tendency towards an imitation of Italian art. The best works of Schaffer are four in the Munich Gallery ; they represent three scenes from the Life of the Virgin and the Descent of the Holy Ghost. As a specimen of his portrait- painting we may mention a likeness of Count Oettingen in the Munich Gallery. There are two wings of an altar-piece by him in Ulm Cathedral, where in the sacristy are a few portraits by the same painter. It is not known when Schaffer died ; the dates on his works extend from 1499 until 1535 . Hans Baldung-called Grien—was born at Gmund in 1470. Though he properly belongs to the Swabian School, he exhibits in his works a close imitation of the style of Albrecht Dürer, and it is supposed that he studied for some time under the great Nuremberg painter. His chef- d'autre is an altar-piece, dated 1514, in the Cathedral A.D. 1500.] HANS HOLBEIN . 237 of Freiburg ; it represents the Coronation of the Virgin, on the inside wings the Twelve Apostles, and on the outside the Visitation, the Flight into Egypt, the Nativity, and an Annunciation which Kugler attributes to another painter. A portrait of a Young Man by this artist, in the Gallery of Vienna, is beautifully executed. Baldung died at Strasburg in 1552. Besides being a painter, he was also an engraver. Two engravings on copper by him are known, and Bartsch mentions fifty -nine woodcuts. Hans Holbein --sometimes called " the Younger, " to distinguish him from his father was born in 1494 or '95 at Augsburg, “ into an art atmosphere in which the hereditary talent that he soon showed for painting was carefully developed.” ( Mrs. C. Heaton .) When about twenty years of age Holbein left the place of his birth, accompanied probably by his brother Ambrose, and removed to Bâle, where he is known to have settled in 1515. Soon after his arrival he painted his earliest known works, which are still in that city. They are the Last Supper ; a Flagellation ; the Portraits of Jacob Meyer and his Wife, and several other subjects. In 1517 Holbein was in Lucerne, where he decorated the house of Jacob van Hartenstein. Two years later he joined the guild of painters at Bâle, and in 1521 he received a commission to execute frescoes in the Rathhaus of that town ; in the following year he had completed two sides ( His' “ Basler Archive ” in Von Jahn’s Jahrbücher'). Of these frescoes there remain but fragments of one subject - Curius Dentatus with the Sabine Envoys ; they are in the Museum of Bâle, which also contains the eight scenes from the Passion, executed about the same time. In 1522 Holbein painted the Virgin and Child between SS. Martin and Ursus which Mr. Zetter of Soleure discovered in 1865 , and which Mr. Crowe says in size and importance is only to be compared with the celebrated Madonna which he painted a few yearslater for Jacob Meyer of Bâle : this was the last work of importance which Holbein executed at Bâle previous to his departure for England ; it is in the posses sion of Princess Hesse at Darmstadt, and is now generally considered to be the original from which the celebrated Meyer Madonna at Dresden was copied. The difference between the two is very slight; they are both engraved in Kugler's ' Hand book. ' An excellent chromo- lithograph of the Darmstadt picture was published a short time since, by the Arundel Society. At Dresden the Meyer Madonna is the rival of the Madonna di San Sisto. In a large picture containing eight personages, we see the family of Meyer, a burgomaster of Bâle, kneeling before a glorified Madonna. And yet it seems that it is not the Child -God whom Mary holds in her arms, but rather the youngest child of the muni cipal magistrate ; while the Infant Jesus, who is easily recognized, has taken amongst the Swiss family the place of the child whom Mary is holding. Doubtless from a doctrinal point of view there is something very bold in this exchange ; but certainly , looking at it entirely in an artistic light, it is a happy and touching idea, which depicts simply the frankness and cordiality of the Germans. But we must not expect to find in Holbein's Madonna the Catholic sentiment ; this is not to be found any more than the Italian type. In this young mother, with golden hair encircled with a crown instead of with a glory , there is nothing to remind us of Fra Angelico or of Raphael ; this is the Virgin of the North , the Protestant Virgin ; and the great merit of Holbein is precisely this, to have succeeded in creating a new type--that of his country and of his belief. Add to this high quality, the beauty of the portraits, the truth , strength , and great finish , even in the smallest details, and remembering all his other important 238 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1530 works, we do not hesitate to place the Darmstadt and the Dresden Madonnas as the masterpieces of the Augsburg painter . In 1526 Holbein left Bâle to visit England, either by the advice of an English nobleman who had noticed him on his travels - supposed to have been the Earl of Arundel or the Earl of Surrey—or because his works did not produce so much money as he wished. He stayed a short time at Antwerp ; he had a letter of introduction from Erasmus—whom he had known some time in Bâle, and who had recommended him to Sir Thomas More in England—to Egidius, who was asked in the letter to show Holbein the house of Quintin Matsys ; for the Augsburg painter had a great desire to see the renowned blacksmith of Antwerp. When he arrived in England, Holbein was received most cordially by Sir Thomas More, who gave him rooms in his own house at Chelsea, and employed him for some time in painting the portraits of himself, his family and his friends. One of the best of the portraits which Holbein executed at this time was that of Sir Bryan Tuke, treasurer of the king's chamber, now in the collection of the Duke of Westminster. In 1527 Holbein painted the Portrait of Archbishop Warham in Lambeth Palace ; a replica of which ( see woodcut) is in the Louvre. In 1528 Holbein left England and returned to Bâle. Two years later he was employed to finish his works in the Rathhaus, which he had left uncompleted . " He might,” says Mr. Crowe, “ have been induced to remain in this, the place of his habitual residence, had it not been that the Reformation and the troubles which accompanied it made earning precarious.” In 1532 , Holbein left Bâle and returned to England, soon after which time he was first brought to the notice of Henry VIII. It is said that “ bluff King Hal” being in More's house one day admired some pictures which he saw there, and asked who was the author of them ; the Chancellor requested the King to take any of the works which he particularly admired, and at the same time presented Holbein to his Majesty. Henry replied that, as he had the painter, he did not now require the pictures. Holbein was then made court-painter with a salary of £34 a year, with rooms in the palace. The first record of payment made to him occurs in 1538 in a book of the Chamberlain's office, wherein is written “ Payd to Hans Holbein , paynter, a quarter due at Lady-day last, £8 10s. 9d. " This book is — or was when Walpole wrote - in the Library of the Royal Society. On the celebration of the Marriage and Coronation of Anne Boleyn, Holbein was employed by a company of German merchants in London to paint two pictures in tempera in the Banqueting Hall of the Easterlings in the Steelyard. They represented the Triumph of Riches and the Triumph of Poverty. They were probably burned in the Great Fire ; and are now only known by engravings. In 1538 Holbein was sent to Brussels to paint the portrait of a candidate for Henry's hand, Christina, widow of the Duke Francesco Sforza of Milan. On the completion of his commission, which, Lord Herbert tells us, occupied him but three hours, Holbein paid a visit to Bâle, the governors of which town endeavoured, but in vain, to induce him to remain amongst them. Soon after his return to England, Holbein was despatched to paint the portrait of another — and this time a successful marriage lady. This was Anne of Cleves, of whom, says Walpole, “ he drew so favourable a likeness, that Henry was content to wed her ; but when he found her so inferior to the miniature, the storm which really should have been directed at the painter, burst on the minister, and Croniwell lost his head because Anne was “ a Flanders mare,' and not a Venus as Holbein had represented her. ” A.D. 1543. ] HANS HOLBEIN . 239 This portrait, which was in the National Portrait Exhibition ( No. 132 ) , is now in the possession of Mr. Charles Morrison. From this time Holbein dwelt in England, executing portraits of eminent personages at the Court of Henry VIII. -noblemen and noble ladies, statesmen , country gentle men, and even " jesters. Between the 7th of October—the date of his will—and the 29th of November, in the year 1543 , this great master, the best painter of Germany, KAAnno Uno MDXime ? MI 1903 INRI 177 ARCHBISHOP WARHAM . - BY HANS HOLBEIN. In the Louvre. died of the plague in London. The exact place of his death as well as the place of his burial remains unknown to this day. All the information we can obtain is that he resided in the City parish of St. Andrew Undershaft. Hans Holbein painted in oil , fresco, and in water- colour ; the last method, in which he excelled , he acquired in England. For good examples of his paintings we may go 240 A.D. 1543. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. to the Dresden Gallery, where, near the Meyer Madonna, there are eight excellent portraits ; amongst others , that of a Knight of the Golden Fleece, who is believed to be the Emperor Maximilian I. , but who, from a kind of thick mane, might be taken for one of the long -haired kings of the Franks. Another picture which had long been disputed has recently been restored to Holbein, and this is the most beautiful of his portraits at Dresden , and perhaps in the world . It was thought to have been the likeness , by Leonardo da Vinci, of the Duke of Milan, Lodovico Sforza, who died a prisoner at Loches. It appears to be that of a goldsmith or treasurer of Henry VIII. , named Thomas Morrett. Thomas Morrett was changed in the first place to Thomas Morus or More, the name of the celebrated Chancellor : then in Italy, Morus became Moro ; and as this name could only belong to the Duke Lodovico Sforza, the work was naturally attributed to Leonardo, who was both his painter and his friend. The great perfection of the work would also justify this confusion, and there is no need to dwell on the glory due to Holbein for having been mistaken for the author of FROM THE DANCE OF DEATH . - BY HANS HOLBEIN . La Joconde, at the same time that he was challenging comparison with, and rivalling, the author of the Madonna di San Sisto . We must not pass over Holbein without mentioning his designs for the Dance of Death, which were engraved on wood, it is said, by Hans Lützelburger, though Rumohr and several eminent critics maintain that Holbein cut the designs himself. Be this as it may, the Dance of Death, which was published at Lyons first in 1538, and subse quently with twelve additional plates in 1547 , is a most wonderful production, weirdly and fantastically conceived and executed. Holbein is also reported to have executed a Dance of Death in fresco either at Bâle or in the Palace of Whitehall. Of his drawings the best are the portraits in the Windsor Collection : there are eighty-nine in all ; they represent eminent personages of the Court of Henry VIII. , and are executed in black and red chalk on tinted paper. Especially noteworthy for power of drawing and life -like reproduction are those of John Poynes, Sir John Godsalve, and a Gentleman in a flat cap (name unknown). The set of eighty-nine was published by Chamberlaine A.D. 1550. ) FOLLOWERS OF HOLBEIN. 241 in two volumes ; this work is now scarce. These portraits lave been also photo graphed by the authorities at the South Kensington Museum. As a painter, Holbein is always exact and correct, always the willing slave of nature ; but in his early works he is cold, hard, and accurate, sacrificing everything to the line. When painting on wood or canvas, he would seem to be engraving on copper ; his style in this stage was like that of his father. By degrees his manner became softer and more elegant ; the colouring also, which had been dry and sad, assumed consistency, transparency, heat, and brilliancy. He showed himself at once a great colourist and a great drawer ; in fact he became himself . But we must not forget that, as Holbein's death has been proved to have taken place in 1543 and not in 1554, as was formerly stated, all pictures bearing dates between these two years, previously attributed to the Augsburg painter, cannot be by him ; and in fact there is scarcely another case in the whole annals of painting, where so many pictures have been attributed wrongly to one man, as to Holbein. FOLLOWERS OF HOLBEIN. Unlike Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, and other great masters, Holbein esta blished no famous school ; but there were several artists who copied his style, and who, if they may not be called his pupils, may yet be accounted his followers. Christopher Amberger, who was born at Nuremberg about the year 1490, studied under Hans Holbein the Elder, but formed his style from that of his master's son, whom he successfully imitated , especially in portraiture. Amberger is known to have been for some years in Italy, where he improved his manner by examination of the works of the great masters. When the Emperor Charles V. was at Augsburg in 1532, Amberger was employed to paint his portrait, which he did so much to the taste of the monarch that Charles presented him with twenty- four rix -dollars in addition to the price of the picture, twelve dollars. The Emperor also gave him a gold chain with a medal attached, and told him , Sandrart adds, that the portrait was as well executed as one by Titian for which he had paid one hundred rix -dollars. Amberger painted historical as well as portrait subjects, but he was less successful in that branch of art. He died in 1563, at Augsburg, where he had chiefly resided. Nicolas Manuel, the painter, poet, soldier, statesman , and reformer, commonly known as Deutsch, was born at Berne in 1484. When about twenty- five years of age, he went to Venice, where he remained a few years, studying with Titian and improving his style from that of the great colourist. One of Manuel's best works is unfortunately no longer in existence—we know it now only by copies ; this was the Todtentanz, or Dance of Death , executed in fresco on the churchyard -wall of the Dominican convent at Berne. A lithographic reproduction of it was published by R. Haag, at Berne. Unwittingly one wishes to examine this with the same subject by Holbein , but they are notto be compared : the former is humorous and almost jovial; the latter strangely weird and fantastic ; but each is remarkably clever in its own particular way. The Museum at Bâle possesses many of Manuel's best works -the Beheading of John the Baptist ; a picture in tempera, representing the Virgin and Child adored by Saints, with a Venetian- like background. A Portrait of Manuel by himself is in the Civic Library at Berne. He died in 1531 . Manuel executed several woodcut engravings. 2 T 242 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1450. SCHOOL OF FRANCONIA. Michael Wohlgemuth, who was born at Augsburg in 1434, was a capricious painter. Some of the works attributed to him betray but second- rate ability ; and, on the other hand, pictures known to have been executed by him exhibit great merit. The cause of this irregularity in style is , in a great measure, due to the fact that Wohlgemuth was more a director of a huge factory of artistic goods than a painter. From this factory altar-chests, painted crosses, altar-pieces, and other ecclesiastic ornaments were turned out by the score ; and it is believed that he also employed his apprentices in wood engraving. It is strange that this man , who sent forth from his Academy the greatest of all German painters, should not have produced any other pupil worthy the name of an artist. It is none the less true. Of this early Augsburg painter Albrecht Dürer is the only pupil whose fame has reached to our days. Of the works by Michael Wohlgemuth , we may mention : in the Pinacothek, at Munich, scenes from the Passion of Our Lord , and in the Frauenkirche, Christ's Mission to his Apostles ; the Life and Sufferings of Christ in the Marien Kirche at Zwickau ; and an altar- piece in the church of Heilsbronn near Nuremberg. Wohlgemuth died in 1519, “ on St. Andrew's day, before the sun had risen. ” Matthäus Grünewald, one of the best German painters of his time, was born about the year 1460, at Frankfort (?). Little is known of his life. He lived chiefly at Aschaffenburg, and was patronized by Archbishop Albrecht of Mayence. Grünewald died about the year 1530. His masterpiece - in fact, the only authentic work by him -is in the Gallery of Munich. It was originally executed for his ecclesiastic patron, who intended it for the church of SS. Maurice and Magdalen at the town of Halle on the Saale. Thence it was removed to the church of SS. Peter and Alexander at Aschaffenburg, where one portion, St. Valentinian, still remains ; it was then taken to the gallery of that town, whence it went to its present resting-place. It is an altar piece of six panels. The centre represents the Conversion of St. Maurice by St. Erasmus ; on the side pieces are St. Lasarus, the Magdalen, St. Martha, S. Chrysostom . The sixth portion, St. Valentinian, we have already seen, is in a church at Aschaffenburg. Other works attributed to Grünewald are : an altar-piece representing the Virgin ailored by Saints, in the church of Our Lady at Halle ; and another altar-piece repre senting the same subjects, formerly in the possession of the late Prince Consort, at Kensington Palace. In both the above pictures the supplementary portions, so to speak, are the work of a pupil. Of Grünewald , Kugler says, “ He takes a happy half-way position between the Franconian and the Swabian schools, and must have owed his artistic education to each .” His style is less conventional than that of many of his contemporaries, and his colouring is especially to be admired. Albrecht Dürer, the “ Artium lumen, sol artificum ” of Germany, was born at Nuremberg, on the 21st of May, 1471. His father, a Hungarian goldsmith, who had married and settled in that city, instructed him first in his own profession ; but as the young Albrecht showed a decided talent for art , he was sent, in 1486, to Schongauer A.D. 1475.) ALBRECHT DÜRER. 243 at Colmar. With this painter Dürer remained but a short time (some writers maintain that he never went to him at all) , and was then apprenticed to Michael Wohlgemuth , of Augsburg , for three years. In 1490 Dürer commenced his Wanderjahre or travels, which lasted until 1494, in which year he returned to Nuremberg and married Agnes Frey, the daughter of a singer of that city. He received with his wife a dower of two hundred forins ; and Arend, quoting an old writer, tells us that in compensation he had at least two thousand unhappy days ; for his wife is said to have been a very shrew . Many writers have endeavoured to vindicate her character, and indeed the assertion made by Arend that Dürer' went to the Netherlands to escape from his wife's tongue, has been proved to be false, from the conclusive evidence in the painter's own journal that his wife accom panied him. In 1506, Dürer went to Italy ; he stayed chiefly in Venice, where his works were much criticised. The Italians praised his colour, but censured the absence of study of the antique in his pictures. He says, in a letter to his friend Pirkheimer, " Noch schelten sy es und sagen es sey nit antigisch art , dozu sey.es nit gut " -Yet they blame it (his style) , and say it is not antique art, therefore it is not good. Nevertheless Dürer was well received by the Venetians, especially by old Giovanni Bellini , whom he deemed the best painter in Venice. Dürer remained but one year in Italy, though he was offered an annual allowance of two hundred ducats from the Seignory of Venice, if he would settle in their city, and though he had received next to nothing from his own countrymen . On his return to Nuremberg, Dürer settled in that city, and between the years 1507 and 1520 executed many of his most important works. In 1509 he purchased a house in the Zisselgasse. In 1515 , when each was at the height of his fame, the representatives of German and Italian art - Dürer and Raphael - exchanged specimens of their work ; a sketch in red chalk, sent by the latter to the former, is in the collection of the Archduke Charles at Vienna ; it bears an inscription written by the German painter : " 1515, Raphael of Urbino, who has been so highly esteemed by the pope, drew these naked figures, and sent them to Albrecht Dürer in Nuremberg, to show him his hand. ” In 1520 Dürer was appointed court - painter to Charles V. , as he had been previously to the Emperor Maximilian ; with this office, Dürer received no more than one hundred florins a year, a scanty salary to come from so grand a monarch. In Whitsun week of the same year ( 1520) , he and his wife, accompanied by her maid, started for a visit to the Netherlands, where they remained for upwards of a year. His time was chiefly occupied in selling prints from his engravings, and in taking portraits, for which he received as a rule a florin ( about twenty English pence ), a price which seems to us now ridiculously small, but we must remember that at that time a skilled labourer rarely earned more than three pence a day. Dürer's own journal of his travels is still carefully preserved, and is of a very interesting nature ( “ Reise journal Albrecht Dürer's, von seiner Niederländischen Reise, 1520 und 1521 ' ) . At Antwerp, where he was well received, he was offered a yearly salary of three hundred florins and free lodgings if he would stay there ; but love for his native land , in this case as when he was at Venice, prevailed, and he returned to his beloved Nuremberg. In 1525 , when writing to the town- council, he does not, however, refrain from reproaching them with the fact that, during thirty years of labour in his native city, he had not received five hundred florins of their money ; whereas in Venice and in Antwerp he had been offered liberal salaries to settle there. In spite of these draw backs, however, Dürer continued to live at Nuremberg until his death, on the 6th of 2.17 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1500 . April, 1528. Whether it be true or not that his wife, as Pirkheimer tells us, worried hiin to death, he left her a fortune of six thousand florins ; which proves that, if the good people of Nuremberg were not too liberal, some other patrons of art must have appreciated his talents. Pirkheimer, in pronouncing Dürer's funeral oration, said that “ he united every virtue in his soul ; genius, uprightness, purity, energy and prudence, gentleness and piety,” and Melancthon said that painting was the least of his accomplishments. The works of Albrecht Dürer, like those of his rival , Lucas Cranach, must not be sought out of Germany. Very few have left its boundaries -- so few , indeed, that in the Louvre there are only three or four drawings. It is once again the Museum of Madrid which forms an exception, and , thanks to the double crown of Charles V., owns several paintings by the great Nuremberg master : a Crucifixion, dated 1513 , in which he displays all the strength and maturity of his talent; two Allegories, philosophical and Christian , which, as Death is the principal figure, must have related to the famous Dance of Death, then such a favourite subject, and which furnished Holbein with a long series of wood engravings ; lastly, his Portrait of himself, with the date 1496. He was then twenty-five years old . In this portrait Dürer has a fresh- looking countenance, though thin and long, large blue eyes, a very fair beard, and long curls flowing down over his shoulders from a kind of pointed cap. His black and white striped costume is very peculiar, and in every sense of the word this may be called a valuable curiosity. At Munich Dürer's whole history may be read in seventeen pictures, which contain examples of his earliest attempts, his successive changes, and his latest style. The earliest of his works here must be the Portrait of his Father, dated 1497. The fol lowing inscription may be read on it : " Das malt ich nach meines Vatters gestalt, da er war sibenzich Jar alt ” —This I painted from my Father when he was seventy years old. This excellent picture, painted con amore, bears the monogram , now so well known - a little D in a great A. A replica of this picture, bearing the same date but without the inscription, is in the possession of the Duke of Northumberland at Sion House. His own portrait comes next, dated 1500, four years after the one at Madrid ; it is the same countenance , with the large blue eyes, light beard, and curled hair, but the face is fuller and the expression more manly. His robe, trimmed with fur, is more serious than the striped coat and pointed cap he wore in 1496. This portrait at Munich, on which he traced the following inscription, “ Albertus Durerus, Noricus, ipsum me propriis sic effingebam coloribus ætatis xxviii. ," is one of his most astonishing works. and of those which placed him , before thirty years of age, at the head of all the artists of his native land . Another historical portrait, no less precious, is that of his venerable master, which has a greenish background, and to which he added, a few years later , the following inscription : " This portrait Albrecht Dürer has painted after his master, Michael Wohlgemuth, in the year 1516, when he was eighty-two years old ; and he lived until the year 1519, when he died on St. Andrew's day early, before the sun had risen .” Two vast historical pictures show us of what Albrecht Dürer was capable. One is a Descent from the Cross, in which Joseph of Arimathea appears to be the finest figure in the group ; the Christ, much older than tradition represents him , has no other inerit than the exact and hideous reproduction of death. The other is a Nativity in the manger, where the Infant God is worshipped by a group of cherubim , whilst other angels flying away are going to announce the good news to the shepherds. This fine A.D. 1500.] ALBRECHT DÜRER. 245 Nativity formed the central panel of a large triptych , the wings of which have been taken off. These contain the portraits of the brothers Baumgärtner, knights who are in armour. In presenting these portraits to the Emperor Maximilian I. , the town of Nuremberg added a gift no less rare and more precious — two large pictures as pendents, in one of which are St. Peter and St. John, and in the other St. Paul and St. Mark. These four apostles, known under the name of the Four Temperaments ( see woodcut), are of life - size ; and, certainly, Albrecht Dürer has never imparted THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS . - BY ALBRECHT DÜRER. In the Pinacothek at Munich . either greater material or more moral grandeur to his figures. Although these two magni ficent pictures bear no date, it may easily be seen that they belong to the latter part of the artist's life, when , after his travels in Flanders and Italy, he had acquired the full degree of execution and vigorous colouring which he was to attain . Albrecht Dürer survived Raphael eight, and the Frate ( Bartolommeo della Porta) eleven years. His travels in Italy were not confined to Venice, and he did not neglect to visit the city of the Medici, then the centre of the fine arts. At all events, the four Apostles of Munich, in nobility and imposing grandeur, seem inspired by the 246 ILLUSTRATED ILLUSTRAT. HISTORY OF PAINTERS. (A.D. 1520. 2 St. Mark of Fra Bartolommeo, which is perhaps, in painting, the highest expression of strength and power, as the Moses of Michelangelo is in statuary. It is Vienna, however, and not Munich , which possesses the finest productions of the Nuremberg master. Passing by three portraits , amongst which are those of the Emperor Maximilian I., dated 1519, the year of his death , and that of a certain Johann Kleeberger, which Albrecht Dürer painted two years before his own death ( i.e. 1526) ; passing over also two Madonnas, one of 1503, quite German in type and execution, the other of 1512, which is purely Italian in sentiment, especially in the naked figure of the child , we will come at once to two pictures of the greatest importance among his works. If he has painted pictures of greater size, he has never painted any of greater merit. These are indeed real masterpieces, an honour at once to the master, who is seen to perfection in them , and also to the Belvedere Gallery, which fears no rivalry on this point. The first in date contains in the narrow space of one panel, about one square yard in size, the legend of the Ten Thousand Martyrs, Christians massacred by the Persian King Sapor, or rather Shahpour II. Without bringing in the whole number of martyrs, a number of incidents seem to have exhausted every mode of death related in the legends. In the midst of these melancholy sights , Albrecht Dürer has painted himself and his friend Willibald Pirkheimer. Both are in mourning, and the painter holds in his hand a small flag, on which is inscribed, “ Iste faciebat anno Domini 1508, Albertus Dürer Alemanus." The principal defect in such a composition is its want of unity. The incidents placed in juxtaposition , which touch each other but without seeming to have any connection, appear like the effect of a bad dream unfolding scenes of blood . But this defective arrangement is soon forgotten in the superior qualities of the execution, the exquisite finish , the brilliant though sombre colouring, suited to the subject of the picture, and the powerful expression, as well in the moral beauty of some of the martyred saints as in the physical repulsiveness of the executioners. It is before such a picture that we can say, with M. Charles Blanc : “ The real unity of a picture consists in the sentiment. The actions are diverse, but the emotion is one. ” The second picture, which is still more important, is known under the name of the Adoration of the Trinity ; but it would explain the subject better if it were called by a vaster name, the Christian Religion. In the upper part of the picture the Holy Spirit is seen hovering, like a luminous star, in the midst of a band of little cherubim ; then , rather lower, the Father, between two choirs of archangels with outspread wings, holding before His breast His crucified Son. But this is a small part of the composition. Below the Divine Trinity and the celestial train there extend two large groups of saints ; to the left the holy women, where some who sacrificed their lives to their faith may be recognized by their attributes ; to the right the saints, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs. Still lower are two other groups no less considerable : under the female saints, the Pope and the Church -- that is to say, a procession of bishops, priests, monks, and nuns ; under the male saints, the Emperor and the State — that is to say, a noble train of armed knights and ladies in court costume. We see thus how, only a few years before Martin Luther shook both the tiara and the crown by his doctrines, Albrecht Dürer, remembering the double nature of the God-Man, on which the institutions of the Middle Ages were modelled, made peace between the Guelphs and Ghibellines. All these symbolical circles, all these long groups, one over another, float in space, and stand out from the azure of the sky like an apocalyptic vision . But below them , to the horizon, extends a real earthly scene, -a peaceful bay, terminated 寄 TUL THE NATIVITY. BY Albrecht Dürer. From his Engraving, YORK 2.21 A.D. 1520.] ALBRECHT DÜRER. 247 in the distance by the open sea, on the right by rocks, on the left by a large town, and in the foreground by verdant plains. In one corner of the picture may be seen the St. John of this Patmos, Dürer himself, whose long curling hair falls from a red cap on to the collar of a fur robe. He is standing, and places his hand proudly on a tablet, on which the following inscription may be read : “ Albertus . Durer . noricvs . faciebat . anno . a . Virginis . part . 1511." This great work is, as may be seen, a complete poem. Albert Dürer displays in it all his high qualities. All that may be found in his other works of imagination Cooler o MOTHER AND CHILD, From an etching by Albrecht Dürer. force, truth , and intimate union between realism in form and idealism in thought -- are united here. The only regret we can possibly feel is, that he was not able to preserve himself by severity of taste from the usual defects of his time and school. The grotesque appears too often in a subject which should be wholly sublime ; for instance, he places amongst the ranks of the glorified popes and emperors an old peasant still holding his flail in his hand. This is a noble idea ; labour is glorified. But to this peasant, the equal of princes and saints, is given a low, ignoble countenance. This is undoubtedly a fault. The artist , it is true, endeavours to redeem it by the perfection 248 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1525 . of the work, and it is scarcely visible, besides, in the grandeur of the whole, which is heightened by the most brilliant colouring required by the miraculous vision . Albrecht Dürer usually places merely his well- known monogram to his ordinary works, which his copyists have never forgotten , and which was no more difficult to imitate than the letters of a name. But by signing these two works with his whole portrait he has given them a special stamp of authenticity, an infallible ne varictur, and, still more, a striking mark of his own preference. It is Albrecht Dürer himself, then, who calls them his masterpieces. After the last -mentioned picture he painted little more ; he made engravings on copper, wood, or with aquafortis , either because his taste led him naturally towards these other works, or because he was urged to it by the avarice of his scolding wife. There are few genuine works by Dürer in England. Besides the Portrait of his Father at Sion House, we may mention, in the National Gallery, a Portrait of a Senator ( No. 245) , signed and dated 1514 ; and a Portrait of a Man with a broad -brimmed hat, in the possession of the Duke of Rutland, at Belvoir Castle. Albrecht Dürer is better known in England from his engravings than from his paintings. The most celebrated are his Melancholia and the Knight of Death-- both . of them difficult to comprehend - St. Hubert, the Nativity ( sce woodcut), numerous small Madonnas, and many portraits and landscapes. He also wrote a treatise on Human Proportion, which has been translated into several languages. The greater part of the manuscript and the drawings for this work are now preserved in the British Museum. He also wrote works on Geometry, on Fortification , and other subjects. PUPILS OF ALBRECHT DÜRER. Of the pupils of Albrecht Dürer, we have already mentioned one — and a very important one---Hans Burgkmair. Two others we must now notice, reserving till the last the “ Little Masters ” ——those seven artists who are even better known as engravers than as painters. Hans Wagner- called from his birthplace Hans von Kulmbach — was born at the close of the fifteenth century. He first studied engraving under Jacob Walch, and then entered the studio of Albrecht Dürer, with whom he worked as late as 1518. Paintings by Wagner are in the Munich Gallery and in the Städel Institute at Frankfort. The churches of Nuremberg also contain specimens of his art. That of St. Sebaldus has a fine Madonna and Child adored by Saints. Wagner died in 1540. Though inferior to his master in depth of thought, he was equal if not superior to him in execution. Hans Schäuffelin was born at Nordlingen ( some writers say at Nuremberg) about the year 1490. He was Albrecht Dürer's favourite pupil, and succeeded so well in imitating his master's style that his works are sometimes attributed to the great Nuremberg painter. Like those of Wohlgemuth, his pictures are not of equal merit. He resided and worked chiefly at Nordlingen and Nuremberg, and died at the former town in 1539. Of his works we may mention, at Nuremberg, a St. Bridget in the Moritz Kapelle ; and the Siege of Bethulia ,painted in 1515 ; a repetition of the same subject is executed in frescoes on the wall of the town -hall of Nordlingen, which town also possesses, in A.D. 1525. ) THE LITTLE MASTERS. 249 the principal church, an altar-piece painted in 1521 , and four other works. Schäuffelin is celebrated for his designs -- some of which he himself engraved on wood --for the * Teuerdank, an allegorical poem, written by Melchior Pfinzing, in honour of Maximilian I. , which was published at Nuremberg in 1517. THE LITTLE MASTERS. The term LITTLE MASTERS " --from the smallness of their pictures—is frequently applied to all the followers of Dürer. It is more correctly given to the seven artists enumerated below, who, though they were likewise painters, are better known as engravers. Albrecht Altdorfer, the best of the little masters and the creator of German land scape painting, was born at Altdorf in Bavaria in 1488, or a few years earlier. From his style, he is supposed to have studied under Albrecht Dürer. Altdorfer settled at Regensburg, and purchased the citizenship of that town in 1505. He was made city architect, and in that capacity erected fortifications which did good service against the Turks. Altdorfer died at Regensburg in 1538. Foremost among his works we must mention his masterpiece, the Victory of Alexander over Darius, in the Murich Gallery. This wonder of paintings, which was executed in 1529 for Duke Wilhelm IV. of Bavaria, is said to contain more figures than any other picture. The principal person ages are naturally the two kings—the conqueror and the conquered. Alexander on Bucephalus, leading his men, gains rapidly on the now despairing Darius, who looks back with woe depicted on his face. This whole picture is finely conceived , and still more beautifully executed. There is no confusion, and it is, as Herr Schlegel says, a little world on a few square feet of canvas. ” Other works by Altdorfer are , a Crucifixion, his earliest known work, and a Land scape, one of the best produced by the German artists of this period, both formerly in the Landauer Brüderhaus ; an altar-piece, representing the Crucifixion and the Annunciation, in the Augsburg Gallery. Altdorfer is no less celebrated as an engraver, both on wood and copper, than as a painter. 66 Barthel Beham was born at Nuremberg in 1496. His early works are much in the style of Albrecht Dürer ; but when in later life he was sent, by Duke Wilhelm IV. of Bavaria,to Italy , he endeavoured to acquire the Italian method of painting. While in that country, he studied engraving under Marc' Antonio, whose manner he successfully acquired. Barthel Beham died in Italy in 1540. A Christ on the Mount of Olives in the Berlin Gallery is in his Dürer style. A Woman raised from the dead by the True Cross, with the following inscription , “ Crux Christi ab Helena reperitur a Macario mortua suscitata, adprobatur. Anno ccxliii. ," and a Marcus Curtius, both in the Munich Gallery, are specimens of his later or Italian method. Beham was a better portrait than historical painter -- as his works in the gallery at Schleissheim show -- and he was a still better engraver. Hans Sebald Beham — said by some to be the nephew, and by others the cousin , of Barthel — was born at Nuremberg in 1500. He studied first under his relative -- though his junior but by a few years--and then with the great Albrecht Dürer. In 1540, from 2 K 250 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1525. the irregularity of his life, he was forced to quit his native town. He removed to Frankfort, where he remained until his death in 1550. Only one oil-painting by Hans Beham remains to us ; it is in the Louvre, and represents the Life of David . It was painted in 1534 for Albrecht, Archbishop of Mayence. Of Hans Beham , Kugler says, “ He possessed singular powers of invention , generally exercised on secular, and often on coarsely humorous subjects. At the same time he was not deficient in feeling for beauty and grace, and was an excellent draughtsman.” Though but an unimportant painter, Hans Beham is celebrated as an engraver. Georg Pencz, who was born at Nuremberg in 1500, was one of Dürer's most excellent pupils in the art of painting, and the best in engraving. He spent a few years of his life in Italy, where he studied from the works of Raphael and other great masters, and learned engraving under Marc' Antonio. Pencz died at Breslau in 1550. His paintings are very scarce. Of those which are known, the most worthy are, a St. Jerome in the Moritz Kapelle at Nuremberg, and a Venus and Cupid, in his Italian style, in the Munich Gallery. Of his portraits, in which he excelled , we may mention a Young Man, in the Berlin Museum ; and an Erasmus, after Holbein, at Windsor Castle. Heinrich Aldegrever was born at Paderborn (some writers say at Soest) in West phalia, in 1502. Struck with the power of Dürer's pictures, he left his native place and repaired to Nuremberg in order to study under that master, whose style he so successfully acquired , that he has been called, though his Christian name is Heinrich, “ Albrecht von Westphalen .” It is not known when he died , probably about 1560. Of his paintings, we may mention a Last Judgment, in the Berlin Museum ; a Resurrection, painted in 1529, in the Museum at Prague ; and a fine Portrait of a Young Man, in the Lichtenstein Gallery Of Aldegrever's engravings many are of great merit ; he executed, besides his own portraits , those of Luther, Melancthon, John of Leyden , and the fanatic Bernhard Knipperdolling. Jacob Bink, more celebrated as an engraver than a painter, was born at Cologne about the year 1504. He is known to have studied painting and engraving in Italy, and Sandrart tells us that he was a pupil of Marc' Antonio. Previous to the year 1546, he was appointed painter to King Christian III. of Denmark, whose portrait and that of his wife Queen Dorothea, by him, are said to be at Copenhagen. He was also employed by Prince Albrecht of Hohenzollern, who sent him in 1549 to the Netherlands, to erect a monument to the late Princess. Bink died in that monarch's service at Königsberg, about the year 1560. Of his paintings none but portraits are known. In the Garderobe at Königsberg are those of Prince Albrecht and his first Wife. Bink's pictures are remarkable for correctness of drawing and general artistic taste. Hans Brosamer is said to have been born at Fulda about the year 1506. He studied under Albrecht Dürer ; if not from the great man personally, certainly from his works. He was a good engraver, both on wood and copper. Little is known of him as a painter ; his style is similar, but inferior, to that of Aldegrever. It is not known when Brosamer died ; works by him are dated as late as 1547. A few other artists are generally included under the title of the LITTLE MASTERS. — As they were engravers only and not painters, we merely give the names of the more important : -. A.D. 1525.) LUCAS CRANACH. 251 Virgilius Solis, who was born at Nuremberg in 1514 and died in the same town in 1562. His principal works are designs of ornament for goldsmiths. Jost Amman was born at Zurich in 1539, and died at Nuremberg in 1591 . He executed numerous engravings and woodcuts, and likewise painted on glass. Theodor de Bry was born at Liége in 1528 ; and established himself at an early a ge at Frankfort, where he died in 1598. He worked principally for the jewellers . 7: ecease SCHOOL OF SAXONY. Saxony can scarcely boast of a school of painting of her own. The best masters Of Dresden were foreigners, and flourished there only for a time, and of these we must now speak. Lucas Cranach — so called from his birthplace, Cranach in Franconia—was born in 1472. ( It has been stated that his surname was Sunder, but Schuchardt has proved this to be incorrect.) When but twenty -one years of age, Cranach accompanied Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. On his return in 1495, Frederick gave him apartments in his own palace at Wittenberg , of which town he was elected Burgomaster. He subsequently held the same office a gain , from 1540 until 1544, when he resigned it. After the death of Frederick the Wise, Cranach was still kept as court -painter by John the Constant, upon whose he entered into the service of John Frederick the Magnanimous. So great Ivas Cranach's attachment to John Frederick, that when that monarch was taken pri soner by the Emperor Charles V. at Mühlberg, in 1547 , he preferred to share his friend's Captivity at Innspruck, rather than accompany Charles to the Netherlands. At the end of this imprisonment, the prince and the painter returned to Weimar, where the latter lied on the 16th of October, 1553 , at the advanced age of eighty years. Cranach was a man who was honoured by all who knew him . Besides his fame as a painter, he is celebrated as an engraver ; Heller mentions more than eight hundred prints by him . Cranach was also a printer ; indeed it is said that he helped to set up the first printing press at Wittenberg. In addition to these employments, he was a chemist. His house and shop, “ Der Adler, " were unfortunately burned in a fire which occurred in 1871 . The rapidity of his painting gained him the title of “ celerrimus pictor.” Cranach, who almost equalled his rival and contemporary, Albrecht Dürer, in talent, fertility, and renown , created a style of his own, in which he sul stituted an exact imitation of nature for the traditional forms of dogma. Cranach , who was painter to the three electors of Saxony, Frederick the Wise, John the Constant, and John Frederick the Magnanimous, the most zealous champions of the Reformation , was also the friend of Luther, and one of the first converts to the reformed faith . Consequently, his paintings felt the influence of the doctrines which, by condemning the idolatries of the Catholic Church, cut off its chief nourishment and chief subjects from religious art. Cranach's painting was essentially Protestant, as was Rembrandt's afterwards. His pictures are nowhere to be found out of Germany, except indeed at Madrid, where he is honourably represented by two Hunting- pieces, well composed and painted. In the Louvre there are only a few insignificant specimens of his work . But in Germany he may be found everywhere, even in the little museum at Carlsruhe, 252 iliu ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1525 and at Leipzig. Dresden itself, however, les not possess the finest works of its painter ; inasmuch as, among twenty or thirty fine paintings—a Herodias, a Bathsheba, a Samson on Delilah's knees, a Hercules attacked by the Pigmies, and others—there is not one of such superior merit that it can be at once pointed out as being the highest expression of Cranach's talent. From this collection one would suppose that the painter of Saxony had never known any of those bursts of genius in which artists can sometimes even surpass themselves. At Munich he seems greater. If this word is to be applied to the size of the picture , we must mention one, the Woman taken in Adultery ; but this simply represents a pretty and lively German girl, who seems by no means overwhelmed with shame and terror, like the woman in Poussin's picture of the same subject ; and amongst the surrounding faces many are extremely grotesque. At Munich, as else where, Cranach is happiest in his small pictures : Adam and Eve in Paradise, Lot and his Daughters in a grotto, and the Madonna, who is offering some grapes to the Bambino, are fine and charming works. He rises again in a vast triptych, the central panel of which represents a Crucifixion, surrounded by scenes from the Passion. Here the highest expression of Cranach's talent may be found, unless, indeed, it be sought in the excellent portraits of the two great Reformers, the learned and gentle Philip Melancthon , the other, the terrible Martin Luther, admirably represented with his bull head, which attacked the Vatican in so formidable a manner. These twin portraits , which bear the monogram of the painter, a small winged dragon , are dated 1532 , two years after Melancthon had drawn up the famous “ Augsburg Confession, ” and when Luther was beholding the triumph of his cause, assured by the Peace of Nuremberg. Vienna also has in its Belvedere Gallery several good pictures by the Protestant painter, among others a Stag -hunt, similar to the hunting- pieces in the Madrid Collection, into which several historical persons are introduced, among others the Emperor Charles V. and John Frederick the Magnanimous. But the best collection of Cranach's works is to be found at Berlin. There is such a uniformity in point of merit in his works, he so seldom either rises above or falls below his usual style, that one has to choose out the most important and curious among them, rather than the best. Under this title we may mention first a Hercules before Omphale. The son of Jupiter not only holds the spindle, but wears a woman's cap, while the imperious Queen of Lydia is a pretty little German woman, of the almost invariable type of Cranach's women, -fair hair, very small blue eyes, retroussé nose, and a transparent veil falling over her eyebrows. For the same reason we ought also to notice the Fountain of Youth. It represents a large fountain or basin, into which, at one end, a procession of old women horrible old hags—is entering, while another procession of young beauties, thus meta morphosed by the wonderful water, is leaving it at the other end. All these nudities, ugly and beautiful, seem to have delighted the great Frederick, who has been lavish of them in his palaces. We must lastly mention three Venuses and an Eve, all four as thoroughly German as if there had been no other race but the Teutonic either in Greece or in Paradise. The sole clothing of one of the Venuses is a cardinal's red hat. Among the portraits may be noticed Luther and Melancthon, always inseparable, then Luther with his wife Catherine von Bora, then Albert of Brandenburg as cardinal and also as St. Jerome in the desert, surrounded by lions, stags and hares, a subject in which the artist shows his love for hunting scenes, and his singular talent for represent ing animals. A Portrait of a Young Lady by Cranach is in the National Gallery. It bears the A.V. 1550. ] LUCAS CRANACH. 253 usual mark of the painter, a crowned serpent, the crest granted to him by the Elector Frederick the Wise in 1508. Lucas Cranach - called “ the younger, ” to distinguish him from his more celebrated father - was born in 1515. He formed his style from that of his father and Albrecht Dürer, and carefully abstained from the “ Italian fever ” which affected so many of his contemporaries. Several works attributed to the elder Cranach are doubtless by the younger. A Virgin and Child in the Munich Gallery, there ascribed to the father, is in Kugler’s ‘ Handbook'attributed to the son. Of the works known to have been executed by the younger Cranach, the most important are a Crucifixion of Christ and the Thieves , and a Nativity in the church of Wittenberg. The younger Cranach , who, like his father before him, held the office of Burgomaster of Wittenberg, died in 1586. He had a brother, Johann Lucas, who was also a painter, and who died when still young, at Bologna. Cranach the elder had many followers, but they were, most of them , without merit, and with this family the school of Saxony was both commenced and brought to a close. 254 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1550.

CHAPTER II. GERMAN PAINTERS OF THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.

А LMOST immediately after the death of Albrecht Dürer, the school of Nurem berg became extinct ; and at the same time, at Augsburg, at Ulm, and at Cologne, art fell into a state of decay which lasted for many years. It would seem that all the German painters were seized with a desire not only to study, but to imitate — even servilely —the works of the great Italian masters. German art was no longer represented by any particular school ; and the various painters who lived at this time were none of them of the highest class. Michael Ostendorfer, who was born in Swabia at the end of the fifteenth century, studied the works of Albrecht Altdorfer, and to a great extent adopted the style of that master. In 1519, Ostendorfer removed to Regensburg, where he resided until his death in 1559. The Munich Gallery has a Virgin of the Apocalypse, by this artist. Hans Stephanus, called from his birthplace on the Lower Rhine, Hans von Calcar, was born in 1510. He is not known to have studied under any fellow -countryman. In 1536 he was in the school of Titian at Venice, where he remained until the follow ing year ; he then went to Naples, where he made the acquaintance of Vasari, and where, Van Mander tells us, he died in 1546. Hans von Calcar was a most successful imitator of Titian and Raphael. His works have deceived many people competent to judge. He excelled in portrait-painting ; specimens of this branch of his art are in the galleries of Vienna, Berlin, and the Louvre. Christoph Schwartz, who was born at Ingolstadt in 1550, is said to have learned the rudiments of his art in his native city. He then went to Venice, where he appears to have taken Tintoretto as his model. On his return from Italy, Schwartz was invited to Munich by Duke Albrecht V. of Bavaria , who appointed him his court-painter. Schwartz died at Munich in 1597. The best specimen of his style, which never rose above mediocrity, is a Virgin and Child, in the Munich Gallery. Hans van Achen was born at Cologne in 1552. He first studied for about six years under Jerrigh, a painter of little note ; and afterwards directed his attention to the works of Bartholomäus Spranger. About the year 1584, Van Achen determined to go to Italy. He stayed first at Venice, then at Rome, and lastly at Florence, where he is said to have painted the portrait of Laura. From Florence he went in 1588, at the A.D. 1575.] ADAM ELZHEIMER. 255 invitation of the Elector of Bavaria, to Munich, where he painted a Resurrection and the Finding of the True Cross. He also painted the portraits of the family of his patron. From Munich he was invited by the Emperor Rudolph I. to Prague, where he resided until his death, which occurred in 1615. Various dates are given both for the birth and the death of this painter ; those here ascribed are taken from the tomb erected to his memory by his wife — which was discovered at Prague in 1790. The Vienna Gallery possesses specimens of Van Achen's art ; of these the best is a Bathsheba bathing, which is much in the style of Tintoretto. Joseph Heinz was born about the year 1565 at Berne (?). He studied art, Van Mander tells us, under Van Achen. His works pleased the Emperor Rudolph II . , who invited him to Prague and then sent him to Italy to perfect his style. Heinz studied chiefly the pictures of Correggio at Parma, and on his return executed several reputable works in the style of that master. Of these we may mention a Venus and Adonis, and a Diana and Actæon , both in the Vienna Gallery. Joseph Heinz died at Prague in 1609. Johann Rothenhammer, who was born at Munich in 1564, was the pupil of a painter named Hans Donnauer. He went, when still young, to Rome, where his works were fully appreciated, but a desire to improve his colour caused him to leave the papal capital and repair to Venice, where he studied the works of Tintoretto. After an absence of many years, Rothenhammer returned to his native country, and established himself as a painter at Augsburg, where he resided until his death in 1623. Though he had been much patronized —especially by the Emperor Rudolph II. - Rothen hammer, owing to his extravagant habits, died in poverty. His small works are better executed than his large, and of the greatest merit are those of which Paul Bril or Jan Breughel painted the backgrounds. Rothenhammer frequently painted on copper. Of his works, which are numerous, we may mention a Death of Adonis, in the Louvre ; and a Pan and Syrinx, with a background by Jan Breughel, in the National Gallery. Adam Elzheimer, called by the Italians “ Il Tedesco, " the best German painter of this period, was born at Frankfort in 1574. He studied art under an obscure painter, named Uffenbach. On the completion of his studies, Elzheimer went to Rome, where his works were not sufficiently appreciated to enable him to gain a livelihood, for he spent such a long time on each picture, that the price he received for it scarcely repaid him for his labour. Like those of many another artist , his works were valued at their worth, when money was of no further use to him. Elzheimer's only patrons were Rubens and Count Goudt, but those were not sufficient to keep him from poverty, and he died at Rome in 1620, penniless and in obscurity. Elzheimer excelled in landscape painting, but he usually placed figures in his pictures to give them greater effect. The subjects frequently represented were, a Flight into Egypt, John the Baptist, and Tobit and the Angel. Several of his best pictures are in private collections in England. A Flight into Egypt, in the Louvre, is accounted by many as his masterpiece. It is related of Elzheimer that his memory was so excellent that to see a landscape once was sufficient. He could then reproduce it on canvas, with all the exactitude with which any other artist could paint it with the subject before him. This story is especially related in reference to a Vicw of the Villa Madama, which, it is said , Elzheimer executed most exactly - even going so far as to paint the shadows to repre sent the time of day he desired. 256 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1625. Paulus Juvenel, the son of Nicolas Juvenel, a Dutch painter of little note, was born at Nuremberg in 1579. He studied first under his father, and then under Adam Elzheimer, but his works are not worthy of his master's instruction. Juvenel painted chiefly decorations for the interiors of buildings, at Nuremberg, Vienna, and at Presburg, where he died in 1643. He often employed his time in copying the works of the great Flemish and German painters. A replica of Albrecht Dürer's Coro nation of the Virgin , by him , is in the Saalhof at Frankfort. Carl Screta was born of noble family at Prague, in 1604. He displayed , in his youth, great talent for painting, and was therefore sent to a master to study art. The wars in his own country at the time compelled him to go to Italy ; after staying at various cities in that country, Screta at length, accompanied by his friend Wilhelm Bauer, went in 1634 to Rome. Here he formed his style from the contemplation of the works of the great masters. On his return to Prague he was much honoured and patronized by Ferdinand III. and his Court. In 1644 Screta became a member of the Academy of Prague, and eight years later was appointed head of the society. He died in his native city, honoured and beloved, in 1674. Though a fair portrait-painter, Screta chiefly executed altar-pieces, of which Dlabacz mentions no less than one hundred and three. Of these we may notice a St. Luke painting the Virgin — in which he is said to have given his own portrait under the guise of the saint - in the Theins church at Prague. The greater part of Screta's pictures are in the Gallery of Prague. His works are remarkable for boldness of invention, and for beauty of chiaroscuro. They are in fact “ soft without weakness, without glaring gay.” Joachim von Sandrart, the painter and historian, was born at Frankfort in 1606. He first studied drawing under Theodor de Bry and Matthew Merian ; and then engraving at Prague under Egidius Sadeler, who advised him to abandon that art for painting. Sandrart accordingly entered the school of Gerard Honthorst at Utrecht. Decamps and other writers have affirmed , but probably erroneously, that Sandrart accompanied Honthorst to England. Be that as it may, Sandrart went in 1627 to Venice, thence to Rome, where he dwelt for many years, the companion of great artists and other celebrated men of the day. He numbered among his friends Cardinal Barberini and Prince Giustiniani. After his return to his native land, Sandrart executed many altar- pieces for the churches of Bavaria and the convents of Austria. Towards the close of his life he turned his attention more to writing on art, for which he is so justly famous. He also opened an academy at Nuremberg, where he eventually died in 1688. Among Sandrart's pictures, which are numerous, the most noteworthy are an Allegory, representing Pallas and Saturn defending the genii of the Fine Arts against the furies of Envy, in the Belvedere at Vienna ; a Celebration of the Peace of Westphalia, formerly in the Landauer Brüderhaus, at Nuremberg ; and, above all, the Company of the Amsterdam Archers at the entry ofMary of Medici, in the townhall of that town. Besides historic and mythologic subjects Sandrart executed many portraits. Of Sandrart's literary works the chief is the ' Teutsche Academie, ' published at Nuremberg, in 1675. Heinrich Schoenfeldt, who was born at Biberach in 1609, first studied art under Johann Sichelbein , a painter of no great note ; but eventually went to Italy to perfect his style . On his return to Germany he was much employed at Vienna, Munich, Salzburg, Augsburg, and at other cities. He painted subjects historical, both sacred and profane, A.D. 1650.] JOHANN ROOS. 257 mythological and allegorical. He also executed many portraits, and landscapes with figures. In fact, there was no limit to the versatility of his invention, but his works vary greatly in merit, and are frequently superficial and wantirg in depth. Schoen feldt's paintings are widely scattered in the churches and galleries of the cities of Germany. We may mention a Jacob and Esau in the Vienna gallery. Schoenfeldt died at Augsburg in 1675 (some writers say in 1680) . Johann Heinrich Roos, who was born at Ottendorf, in the Palatinate of the Rhine, in 1631 , was instructed in art by Julien Dujardin and Adrian de Bye at Amsterdam . He settled at Frankfort in 1671 , though he had apparently been there before, for his son was born there in 1655. He eventually perished by fire, in the attempt to rescue some of his goods, in that city in 1685. Roos confined himself almost entirely to animal painting — a branch of art in which he greatly excelled, especially in the repre sentation of sheep. His works have been compared, and naturally to their detriment, with those of Paul Potter and Adrian Van de Velde. Works by Roos are in the galleries of Vienna, Berlin, Munich, and Dresden, and in the Stadel Institute at Frankfort. There are several etchings by this master which , as colour was not his forte, are almost better than his paintings. They are very scarce , and highly prized. Johann Heinrich Roos had a younger brother Theodor, who was also an artist , but of little note. Matthias Simbrecht, sometimes called Zimbrecht, was born at Munich in the early half of the seventeenth century. It has not been recorded under what master he studied ; but from his works he apparently formed his style from that of the great Raphael. A good specimen of this master is a Visitation , in the gallery of the Estates at Prague. Simbrecht's works, which are not numerous, are chiefly at Prague, where he for some time resided , and where he died of the plague in 1680. Johann Georg Heintsch was born in Silesia about the middle of the seventeenth century. His style is very similar to that of Screta, and he is especially to be admired for the beauty and grace of his women's heads. In 1678, Heintsch removed to Prague, where he remained — executing works for churches and convents — until his death, in 1713. Prague possesses most of his works. A Christ disputing with the doctors, in the gallery of the Estates, is worthy of much praise. Philip Roos, the son of Johann Heinrich Roos, otherwise known as Rosa di Tivoli, was born at Frankfort in 1655. He painted , at first, much in the same manner as his father, though inferior to him. He afterwards lived for some time at Tivoli, where he adopted a style peculiar to himself. He painted more human figures in his pictures than was his father's habit. A good specimen of his style is Noah surrounded by animals, in the Dresden Gallery. Other works by him are in the Belvedere, and in the gallery at Cassel. Philip Roos died at Rome in 1705 . Franz Joachim Beich, who was born at Munich in 1663 , studied art under his father, Wilhelm Beich. When he went to Italy , however, he forgot the instruction of his youth and formed his style from that of Gaspar Poussin. Beich died at Munich in 1748. His works are remarkable for careful execution and depth of tone, though some of them display a fault of his time-darkness in colour. The Munich gallery has three good Landscapes by Beich . 2 L 258 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1700 George Philip Rugendas, the painter of battle -scenes, was born at Augsburg in 1666. He studied under a historical painter named Fischer, but directed his attention to wards battle - scenes. He spent three years in Italy - from 1692 to 1695 - studying the works of the old masters. Soon after his return to Augsburg, the breaking out of the War of Succession afforded him ample opportunity for studying his favourite subject. Rugendas died at Augsburg in 1742. His pictures, which are in most German galleries, are remarkable for powerful drawing, but the colouring is often dark and unpleasing. Heexecuted several etchings, which are of great merit. Johann Kupetzky, who was born at Pössing in Upper Hungary in 1666, studied for three years under a Swiss painter named Klaus, but subsequently visited Venice, Rome, and Lombardy, where he copied the works of Correggio and the Carracci. On his return to his native country after an absence of twenty -two years, Kupetzky settled at the court of Joseph I. at Vienna, where his works - more especially his portraits — were much admired. On the death of his patron , Kupetzky journeyed about from one German palace to another, and in order to do this he is said to have refused the offers made by two Emperors, that he should settle at their courts—Charles III . of Spain and Peter the Great. Kupetzky was also invited to England by George II. , but, owing chiefly to his ill-health , he refused to leave Germany. He died in 1740 at Nuremberg, whither he had fled from Vienna to escape the Inquisition. Of his pictures, his portraits are most worthy of mention --more especially those of a Lady and Child and one of Himself, both in the Vienna gallery. Füssli says of Kupetzky's pictures, that " they combine the vigour of Rubens, the truth and elegance of Vandyck, and the effect of Rembrandt,” but then Füssli was a friend and admirer of the artist, and was not capable of giving an unbiassed opinion. Nevertheless Kupetzky was a very fair portrait- painter. Christoph Ludwig Agricola, who was born at Regensburg in 1667 , studied , as so many other landscape painters have done, chiefly from nature, though while travelling in Italy he appears to have been influenced by Poussin. Agricola lived several years at Naples, and many of the views which he made there have been brought to England. He died at his birthplace in 1719. Agricola was very fond of placing in his landscapes figures, as well as antique buildings and ruins. He sometimes painted portraits. Balthasar Denner, the best German portrait painter of this period, was born at Hamburg in 1685. Little is known of this artist's life with any certainty. He learned the art of water -colour painting from an obscure artist in Altona ; he then studied oil painting at Dantzic under a master as little known to fame. Denner passed many years of his early life at the various courts of Germany. He went, in 1707 , to Berlin ; thirteen years later, to the court of the Duchess of Wolfenbüttel ; thence to Hanover, where he was so well received that he was induced to try his fortune in England. But unfortunately for Denner, his art does not appear to have been appreciated in this country, for he returned to Germany in 1728. He then travelled about from city to city in the north of Europe, and eventually died at Rostock, in Mecklenburg, in 1749. Balthasar Denner, of Hamburg, is assuredly the greatest finisher who ever laid colour on canvas. It may almost be thought that he worked with a magnifying glass like a gem engraver. At any rate, his works must be examined with a glass. Denner copies with scrupulous fidelity every undulation, every tint, even the slightest down on the skin ; he makes a hair seem round , and gives the perspective of the slightest wrinkle. He attains by this means a frightful accuracy ; but being obliged to reduce A.D. 1750.) BALTHASAR DENNER. 259 such wonderful labour to the smallest possible limits, he did not paint even busts, but confined himself to simple heads, cut off below the chin. If, then, he counted the hairs of his models, he took from them a far more important part of the likeness—their general bearing, attitude, and grace. Denner only painted faces wrinkled with age, with white hair, and with missing teeth ; the smoothness of a fresh and rosy complexion never tempted him, he did not seek after the beautiful, nor even the pretty ; what he wanted was merely feats of skill. The sight of these curious works of Denner is doubly useful, showing to what extreme perfection patience may attain, and also the abuse of this precious quality, and, to a degree, its vanity, when no other superior quality accompanies and directs it. Denner had the honour of painting, besides numerous princes, three kings-Peter III. of Russia, Augustus II. of Poland, and Frederick IV. of Denmark, who, Van Gool tells us, sat to him about twenty times. Of his pictures we may mention, a Head of an old woman, for which the Emperor Charles VI. gave him 4700 florins ; and a Portrait of Himself; both in the Vienna gallery. Johann Alexander Thiele, who was born at Erfurt in 1685 , is said to have studied under Christoph Ludwig Agricola, but Nature was his chief teacher. Thiele was a soldier in early life, and abandoned that profession, in favour of a more peaceful one — that of a landscape painter. In 1747 he was appointed court-painter to King Augustus of Poland. He died at Dresden in 1752 . The gallery of that town has no less than forty - six pictures by him. They chiefly represent views on the Elbe and the Saal. Thiele can boast of having given instruction to Dietrich . Wenzel Lorenz Reiner, who was born at Prague in 1686, studied under an artist named Schweiger in that city. He painted both in oil and fresco, and all subjects, battle-pieces, then architectural views, and landscapes with cattle , history—both sacred and profane. His works are noticeable for great vigour and power in design as well as in execution. Though numerous, they are not very well known, for they are mostly in out- of-the-way places in the vicinity of Prague. Reiner died at his birthplace in 1743. Dlabacz mentions no less than eighteen fresco- paintings by this artist. August Querfurt was born at Wolfenbüttel in 1696. He studied under his father Tobias Querfurt, a landscape painter, and with Rugendas, whose style he, to some extent, copied. His model, however, was Wouvermans. He painted almost exclu sively battle-pieces and hunting scenes. His pictures are remarkable for careful execution and cheerfulness of colour ; and are to be seen in the galleries of Vienna, Dresden, and Berlin. Querfurt died at Vienna in 1761 . Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich , who was born at Weimar in 1712 , studied first under his father and then under Alexander Thiele at Dresden , where he was much patronized by Count Brühl. Dietrich was, in 1730, made court- painter to Augustus II . , King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, and in 1741 he received the same appointment from Augustus III. , who afterwards sent him to Italy to study the old masters. Dietrich remained at Rome but one year. In 1746, he was made keeper of the Dresden gallery, with a salary of four hundred rix -dollars. In 1763 he was made a professor in the Academy of Arts in that town , with a salary of six hundred rix-dollars, and also Director of the school of painting in the porcelain manufactory at Meissen. continued to live honoured and patronized by all until his death in 1774. 260 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1750. Dietrich is the Luca fa presto of Germany . A universal imitator and fruitful ITINERANT MUSICIANS . - BY DIETRICH . In the National Gallery. copyist, he has performed in the north precisely what Luca Giordano did in the south. The best picture by Dietrich in England is in the National Gallery ( No. 205 ) . It A.D. 1750. ] DIETRICH. 261 represents Itinerant Musicians, and has been beautifully engraved by J. G. Wille. We will examine his works in the Dresden gallery. It contains fifty -one works by his hand, and not one of these can be called original : all are imitations, a Young Woman and her Children at a window appears to be copied from Gerard Dow, some Bathers from Poelemberg, and two pendants representing the Golden Age in the style of Van der Werff; Cuirassiers on a March strongly recall Salvator Rosa, and there is even a Holy Family, in an Italian landscape, which might be attributed to some pupil of Raphael himself. We may also find copies of Elzheimer, Adrian van Ostade, Karel Dujardin, Berghem, Jan Both , Van der Meulen , Jacques Courtois, and Watteau. yet it is Rembrandt whom Dietrich imitates most frequently and with the greatest success. There is for example, a Saint Simeon, a Christ curing the Sick, and portraits of old men in oriental costumes, which might be taken for works of Ferdinand Bol, Victors, Fabritius, or any other direct pupil of the great Dutch painter. So much diversity in the works of the same artist renders him curious as a study ; but what ever talent he may lavish on universal imitation, as he always remains a disciple he cannot pretend to the name of master. What Michelangelo said to Baccio Bandinelli might be said of him : “ He who walks behind another, will never pass by him ." Adam Friedrich Eser, who was born at Presburg in 1717, studied first in the Academy of Vienna. In 1739 he went to Dresden, where he made the acquaintance of many celebrated men, among them Winkelmann, who calls him “ the successor of the Theban Aristides . " From Dresden, (Eser went to Leipsic, where he was made Director of the Academy in 1764, and where he afterwards chiefly resided , and exe cuted his best works. Eser died at Dresden in 1799. His most praiseworthy pictures are in the church of St. Nicholas at Leipsic. He also executed several etchings—both from his own and from other artists' designs. Christian Bernhard Rode was born at Berlin in 1725. Having received an ele mentary education in art in his native city, he went to Paris and worked under Charles Vanloo. He then went to Italy, to perfect his style by study of the great masters. On his return to Berlin , Rode was well received and patronized by Frederick the Great and his court. He executed many portraits, but he chiefly employed his time in painting historical scenes for the decoration of saloons. The best specimens of this branch of his art are the paintings in the Palace of Sans Souci at Potsdam . Rode died at Berlin in 1797 . He left a number of etchings, of no great merit. Martin von Knoller, one of the best German painters of the time, was born at Steinach, in the Tyrol, in 1725. His father, who was a mediocre painter, intended his son to follow his profession, and accordingly gave him all necessary instructions. In 1745, the artist Paul Troger passing through Steinach on the way to Vienna, saw some productions by young Knoller, greatly admired them, and induced his father to let his son accompany him to Vienna. In 1755 Knoller went to Rome, where he studied under Raphael Mengs, and in 1758 he was invited to Naples by Count Firmian , the Austrian ambassador, by whom he was much patronized, and for whom he executed many important works. Knoller soon after went to Milan, in which city he henceforth chiefly resided. He died in 1804. His fresco -paintings are better than his productions in oil. Of the former we may mention works in the churches of Ettal in the Bavarian Alps, of Neresheim in Würtemberg, of Steinach, and of many small villages in Tyrol and elsewhere. An Ascension of the Virgin, in the town hall of 262 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1750 Munich, is worthy of praise. Of his easel-pictures a Portrait of Joseph Rosa, in the Vienna gallery, is a good example. Knoller's pictures are noticeable for vigour of design and execution, and for the representation of violent actions. Daniel Nicolaus Chodowiecki, the miniature painter and etcher, was born at Dantzic, in 1726. His father, a merchant, was an amateur painter, and gave his son instruction in the art. The young Chodowiecki also studied design under an aunt at Dantzic. In 1743 he was sent to Berlin, where he was apprenticed to an uncle, a general dealer. He here employed his leisure time in painting the tops of snuff-boxes, which he sold in order to gain a little money for his mother, who had become a widow. In 1754 Chodowiecki came under the notice of the enamel-painter Haid, who advised him to abandon trade and confine himself to art. He accordingly did so, turning his attention more especially towards miniature- painting. He soon, however, gave up this branch of art in favour of etching, in which he was most successful. His engravings, mostly small, amount to no less than two thousand. They represent scenes from everyday life, and some of them are of a sátirical nature. Hence he has obtained the name of the “ Hogarth of Berlin . ” Chodowiecki died at Berlin in 1801. At the time of his death he was Director of the Academy of Arts at Berlin. His oil paintings are good in design but wanting in taste, in regard to colour. They are rarely seen in public galleries. There are two in the Berlin Museum, representing scenes from Country Society. Anton Raphael Mengs, the greatest German, and one of the greatest European, painters of his time, was born at Aussig in Bohemia, in 1728. His father, Ishmael Mengs, who was a miniature painter of little note, having dedicated him to art, chris tened him after two of the greatest painters of all ages - Correggio and Sanzio. Old Ishmael, who had removed to Dresden while his son Raphael was still a child, sent him, when he was old enough, to study the works of the masters in the gallery of that town ; and in order that he might receive a still better education , took him — when but thirteen years of age—to Rome. Here he was shut up every day in the Vatican from morning to evening, like a prisoner, with no other refreshment than a crust of bread and a pitcher of water. His father was wont to come and fetch him at the close of the day, but even then he would insist on his completing the sketches he had drawn during his imprisonment. In this hard school was Raphael Mengs educated. In 1744, his father took him back to Saxony, where he was appointed court- painter to Augustus III. , Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, with a yearly salary of six hundred thalers. This monarch allowed him to return to Rome, where he resided for four years. In this period he produced his Holy Family, which gained him great praise. The original of the Virgin in his picture was a peasant girl, for whose sake he changed his religion in order that he might be able to marry her. He returned in 1749 to Dresden, where he remained, however, only three years. Soon after his return to Rome he was employed by Lord Percy, afterwards Duke of Northumberland, to make a copy of Raphael's School of Athens. In 1757 Mengs made his first attempt in fresco painting. This was a picture on the ceiling of Sant' Eusebio, which was not, however, quite a success ; but his Apollo and the Muses, which appeared a little later, in the Villa Albani, gained him well-merited praises. In 1761 , Mengs went to Madrid, at the invitation of Charles III. , whom he had met at Naples, in which city he had stayed a short time. At Madrid Mengs executed many of his most important works, several of them were done for the decoration of palaces ; of these we may mention the Apotheosis A.D. 1750. ) RAPHAEL MENGS. 263 of Trajan, on the ceiling of the dining-room of the Palace at Madrid. With the exception of three years, spent in Rome for the benefit of his health - in which period he executed the famous Allegory, on the ceiling of the Camera de' Papini-Mengs resided in Spain until 1775 , when he once more repaired to the Papal capital. Here his wife unfortunately died in 1778, and the grief occasioned by her loss, combined with unskilful medical treatment which he received , caused his death on the 29th of June in the following year. He was buried in the church of San Michele Grande.. Mengs discovered in a period of decay and abandonment some vestiges of the art of the greater periods ; he sought for severity of drawing, nobility of style , ideal beauty, and deserved from these Italian qualities to be called by Cean- Bermudez the greatest painter of his age. The somewhat too great delicacy of his pencil , however, recalls the first lessons he received for miniature painting. The works of Mengs are very rare in France ; he has left some in Saxony, some in Italy, and many more in Spain. The Museo del Rey possesses twelve ; amongst others , is an Adoration of the Shepherds, which is considered his masterpiece. The last figure in the left-hand group in this painting is a representation of the painter himself . Of his portraits we may mention two of Himself - one in the Munich Gallery, and another in the Collection of Painters' Portraits in the Uffizi ; also one of His Father, in the Berlin gallery Mengs, who was also a learned man, has left ' Thoughts on Painting and Reflections on Painters, ' which would form , in the opinion of his biographer, Cean-Bermudez, the best elementary treatise on the subject. Anton Graff, who was born at Winterthur in Switzerland in 1736, studied art under one Schellenberg. Graff painted at Augsburg, Leipsic, Berlin, and at Dresden, where he died in 1803. His pictures are noticeable for good colour and drawing, combined with depth of feeling, but he is , nevertheless, only a second -rate artist. He painted almost exclusively portraits. Good examples of this master are in the Dresden gallery. Several eminent personages, for instance King Frederick Augustus, sat to him. Maria Angelica Kauffmann, the celebrated portrait-painter, was born at Chur, in the Grisons, in 1742. Her father Joseph Kauffmann, an unimportant artist, took her, when she was but fifteen years of age, to Milan, in order that she might have opportuni ties of perfecting the talents she had already displayed for music and painting. Angelica at first paid more attention to the former accomplishment, but soon abandoned it in favour of art. In 1763, Kauffmann took his daughter to Naples, and in the following year to Rome, where she employed her time chiefly in portrait -painting. Among those who sat to her was the Abbé Winkelmann, who mentions her with great praise. In 1764 Angelica Kauffmann went to Venice, and in the next year accompanied Lady Wentworth , the wife of the British ambassador, to England, where, on account of her wit, grace and amiability, added to her talent for art, she became one of the most popular painters of the day. In 1768, she was elected one of the original members of the Royal Academy-a high honour for a woman and a foreigner. Very unfortunately she was inveigled into a marriage with an adventurer calling himself Count Horn, who ill- treated and robbed her. Seven years after, Angelica married Antonio Zucchi, her first love, but this marriage was not a happy one. In the following year she left England and returned to Rome. She now gave herself up more to historical than portrait-painting, and received so many commissions that she frequently had more than she could execute. She died at Rome in 1808. 264 (A.D. 1775. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. Angelica Kauffmann owed more to her grace and general accomplishments than to her real talent in art. Her pictures are pleasing, but at the same time superficial, and frequently suggest a feeble mannerism. A Religion attended by the Virtues was formerly exhibited in the National Gallery. There are fifteen pictures by her in the pos session of Lord Exeter at Burleigh House. Angelica Kauffmann left several etchings. Of these we may mention one of the Portrait of Winkelmann by herself . Nagler says that no less than six hundred engravings from her works, by Bartolozzi and others, were published. Asmus Jacob Carstens, one of the best modern German painters previous to Owerbeck, was born at St. Gürgen near Schleswig, on the roth of May 1754. His father, who was a miller, died when young Jacob was about nine years old. His widowed mother, however, gave every possible encouragement and assistance to his early displayed talent for art. But Carstens lost this kind parent soon after his father's death, and his guardians, deaf to all remonstrances, apprenticed him for seven years to a wine merchant. Henceforth his was a struggling artist's life. He served five years of his apprenticeship, during which time he read much on art, and at the same time contrived to save sufficient money to purchase his exemption from his last two years. He then went to Copenhagen. At first he had to execute portraits in red chalk, in order to gain a livelihood, but, having attracted much attention by his Death of Balder and Ulysses and Æolus, he was on the high road to fame, when he unfortunately gave offence to his superiors in art, and thus lost all chance of success at Copenhagen . Carstens then , accompanied by his youngest brother, who was also an artist, attempted to go to Rome, but they were unable to get farther than Mantua, where he spent one month in studying the works of Giulio Romano. Returning to Germany, Carstens established himself at Lübeck and at first had to revert to his early occupation -- portrait-painting. He soon afterwards painted several pictures, chiefly taken from the old Greek historians. After a residence of five years at Lübeck, Carstens was supplied by one Rodde, an amateur painter, with means wherewith to go to Berlin. Here his Fall of the Angels gained him admission to the Academy, and in 1792 he received a travelling pension from the king. He set out for Rome, and this time succeeded in reaching the object of his desire. He passed through Dresden and Nuremberg, where he studied the works of Albrecht Dürer. On his arrival at Rome, Carstens turned his attention to the study of Raphael and Michelangelo. His first great work, after the contemplation of these masters, was the Visit of the Argonauts to the Centaur Chiron , which gained him much praise. In 1795 he exhibited eleven mythological subjects, and in the same year sent three to Berlin. Carstens was now requested to return to the Academy in the Prussian capital , but he refused and continued to reside in Rome until his death on the 25th of May, 1798. His last great works, which he had intended to etch himself, are taken from Pindar, Orpheus, and other writers, and all represent scenes from the Expedition of the Argonauts. Carstens' works display a profound study of the works of Raphael and Michelangelo, and are remarkable more for the depth of thought and careful execution , which they exhibit, than for any particular artistic merit. A.D. 1810. OWERBECK . 265 REVIVAL OF ART IN GERMANY. The Germans-- who joined in the European work of a fresh Revival of Art twenty years later than the French under Louis David - undertook their mission in an entirely different spirit. Instead of carrying Art forward, they turned back, and rather than go on resolutely to the discovery of an unknown future, thought it more prudent to return to the past, and to take refuge in archaism . At the death of Albrecht Dürer, artistic Germany fell asleep as if in the cavern of Epimenides. Aroused at last by the rumour of the revival of the arts in France, she resumed her task where it had been left at the close of the fifteenth century. It was to Rome that she once more turned in order to rekindle the extinguished flame. The history of the little German colony is well known which , in 1810, crossed the mountains under the direction of Friedrich Ower beck, and established at Rome a convent of artists, where all the subsequent heads of schools were formed, Peter von Cornelius, Wilhelm Schadow , Philipp Veit, Julius Schnorr, Karl Vogel, Heinrich Hess, and others less worthy of mention. They followed to the letter the paradoxical advice of Lanzi, that " modern artists should study the painters of the time preceding Raphael ; for Raphael, springing from these painters , is superior to them , whilst those who followed him have not equalled him .” Their enthusiasm for what they called the “ Christian ideal,” for Art anterior to the religious reformation , led them even to renounce the religion of their fathers. The Protestants became Catholics, and Owerbeck, who set the example of abjuration as well as exile, was not satisfied with returning to the age of Leo X. , but endeavoured to adapt, to the mystic style of Fra Angelico, the types of Raphael, in which Grecian beauty is visible. This influence imprinted on German painting an irremediable defect ; to avoid the fault with which they reproached the Dutch—that of not knowing how to idealise the real --the Gernians fell into the opposite extreme, of being unable to realise the ideal. Happily, they have not persisted in this blind alley, where progress was impossible. The schools of Düsseldorf and Munich have produced noble painters who, by turning to picturesque truth , have returned to their own times and their own country. Friedrich Owerbeck, the chief of the Revivalists of German art , was born at Lübeck in 1789. When about eighteen years of age he went to Vienna, to study painting in the Academy of that city. The ideas on art which he had carried with him were so entirely new and so little agreeable to the professors of the Academy, that they met with but small approval. On the other hand , there were several among his fellow -pupils who gladly followed his lead ; and in 1810, Owerbeck, accompanied by a small band of youthful artists , went to Rome, where he established the school afterwards to become so famous. Owerbeck, who was professor of painting in the Academy of St. Luke, a foreign member of the French Institute, and a member of all the German Academies, died at Rome in 1869, at the advanced age of eighty years. He painted both in fresco and Of his productions in fresco, the most noteworthy are, a Vision of St. Francis in Santa Maria degli Angioli at Assisi , and five scenes from Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered in the Villa of the Marchese Massini. Of his oil-paintings the best are the Triumph of Religion in the Arts in the Städel Institute at Frankfort ; Christ on the Mount of which was in oil. 2 M 266 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1825. Olives at Hamburg ; the Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem, painted in 1816 for the Marien Kirche at Lübeck ; and a Descent from the Cross, at Lübeck. Owerbeck also executed a number of small drawings. Of these we may mention forty designs of the Life of Christ ; and many other Biblical subjects. “ His works bear the stamp of the most sincere piety and integrity of heart , and are endowed with a charm and grace rarely seen but in the conception of Raffaelle himself." ( Art Journal.) Peter von Cornelius, one of the greatest of modern German painters, was born at Düsseldorf in 1784. At an early age, he displayed great talent for drawing, and was accordingly sent to study in the Art Gallery of his native town , of which his father was Inspector. Cornelius, however, when but fifteen years of age, unfortunately lost his father, and his mother and her young children were thus left dependent on himself and an elder brother. In 1811 he went to Rome and joined the school which Owerbeck had established there in the previous year. After several years of study in the Papal capital , Cornelius was summoned to Düsseidorf to form anew the Academy, of which he had been made Director. About the same time too, the then Crown Prince of Bavaria commissioned him to paint various frescoes for the Glyptothek of Munich . Finding it impossible to do justice to both the appointments, he resigned the Directorship , and , accompanied by a few pupils, repaired to Munich where, in 1824 or 1825 , he was måde Director of the Academy. Cornelius died on the 7th of March 1867. His pictures mostly represent scenes from the Old and New Testament, the Nibelungenlied, and the works of great writers — Homer, Dante, Göthe and others. We may especially notice some frescoes, representing the History of Man from the Creation to the Last Judgment, in the Ludwig Kirche at Munich. Cornelius is not a great colourist, but he excels in grandeur of design. His figures, though they sometimes have a statue- like appearance , are perfect, and his drawing is worthy of the utmost praise. Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow, the son of Godefroid Schadow the sculptor, was born at Berlin in 1788. He first studied under a painter named Weitsch, but abandoned that master in favour of Cornelius, whose pupil he must be considered . Schadow a member of the Academy of Berlin , and also for some time Director of the Düsseldorf Academy. He died on the 19th of March, 1862. Speaking of this artist, Ottley says, “ His works evince great taste in the treatment, great facility of design, and purity of style ; but are considered deficient in those higher attributes of art, grandeur of con ception, and living reality in the motive and expression ." Among his best pictures we may notice, the Four Evangelists ; a Deposition ; and also a Holy Family at Munich . Schadow was also a portrait painter. Peter von Hess, the “ Horacé Vernet of Central Germany,” was born at Düssel dorf in 1792-3. He was the son of Karl von Hess , the professor of engraving in the Düsseldorf Academy, and the brother of two other artists - Heinrich von Hess, an historical painter, and Karl von Hess, a painter of battle -pieces, of less note . Peter von Hess was, at various times, much patronized by the Bavarian Government. He died at Munich , on the 4th of April 1871 . Of his pictures we may mention, the Entrance of King Otho into Nauplin ; the Battle of Arcis-sur- Aube ; and the Crossing of the Beresina - painted for the late Emperor of Russia. Hess executed genre subjects with almost as much success as he did battle-pieces, but not to nearly the same extent . About the year 1850, he published . An Album of Greek Heroism , or the Deliverance of Greece,' which contains forty illustrations, executed in chromolithography. A.D. 1850. ] JULIUS SCHNORR. 267 Philipp Veit was born at Berlin , on the 13th of February 1793. His mother, the daughter of Mendelssohn, after the death of her first husband, married the painter Friedrich Schlegel, who thus became Veit's instructor. The young artist studied for some time in Dresden, and then went to Rome, where he joined the company of German painters under Owerbeck , and became one of the most severe in style of those artists of the revival. Of the works which Veit executed in Rome, the most important is the Seven years of Plenty, painted in fresco in the Villa Bartholdy, as companion picture to Owerbeck's Seven years of Dearth. The works which Veit executed in Rome procured him so much fame in Germany, that he was summoned to Frankfort on the Main to take the Directorship of the Art Institute. Owing to differences in religious opinions, he was obliged to resign this office in 1843. He then removed to Sachsenhausen in Hesse-Cassel, where he afterwards chiefly resided . Of his later works we may mention an Ascension of the Virgin, painted for the Frankfort Cathedral, and a Good Samaritan , painted for the King of Prussia. Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld was born at Leipsic in 1794. He was the third son of Johann Veit Schnorr, the Director of the Academy in that city, who had intended the young Julius to follow scientific pursuits : but as he displayed so much natural talent for art, he was sent in 1810 to the Academy of Vienna, where his two elder brothers were already studying. Schnorr did not, however, find the professors of the Academy at all sympathetic with his desire for the improvement of art. He accordingly left Vienna and went to Rome in 1815 , where he found the Roman -German school already established under Owerbeck. Schnorr's chief works in Rome were the Marriage at Cana and scenes from Orlando Furioso in the Villa Massima. Just as he had completed this last work he was called by King Ludwig, of Bavaria, to Munich, where he executed his most celebrated works -Scenes from the Nibelungenli: d painted in fresco ; and the histories of Charlemagne, Frederic Barbarossa and Rudolf of Hapsburg, in encaustic. His well-known Bible Illustrations have made his name very popular in England. Schnorr died honoured and beloved in 1872. Heinrich von Hess was born at Düsseldorf, on the 19th of April 1798. He first studied under his father, Karl von Hess, who was professor of engraving in the Düssel dorf Academy. In 1806, young Hess went to Munich , and entered as a student in the academy of that city. Seven years later appeared his first great works, the Sepulchre of Christ and a Holy Family, which attracted the notice of Queen Caroline, who henceforth became his liberal patroness. In 1821 , he received a royal travelling grant. He went to Italy , where he stayed until 1826, in which year he returned to Munich and was soon afterwards made Professor of the Academy. In the following year he commenced a series of cartoons for the Allerheiligenkirche, which he com pleted in 1837. In 1849, Hess was made Director of the Royal Collection , which post he held until his death, which occurred on the 29th of March 1863. Among the best known of his works we may mention a Christmas, painted for Queen Caroline ; and Faith, Hope, and Charity, painted for the Leuchtenberg Gallery, at St. Petersburg. Wilhelm von Kaulbach, the great historical painter, was born at Arolsen , a small town in Waldeck, in 1805. He studied art at Düsseldorf under Cornelius, and acquired from that master a thorough knowledge of design and drawing, more espe cially of the human figure. He was Cornelius's best and most favourite pupil, and when that master removed to Munich , Kaulbach was among those who followed him . Kaulbach painted chiefly large pictures of an historical character. Thanks to photo 268 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1850 graphy, these are well known to the world . Among his most popular works are , the Battle of the Huns in the Berlin Museum ; Apollo and the Muses in the Odeon at Munich ; and the wall painting at Berlin , representing Homer in Griechenland ; his drawings for the illustration of Göthe's “ Faust ” and “ Werner, ” and the designs for " Reynard the Fox. ” Kaulbach died at Munich, on the 7th of April 1874. Kaulbach is the greatest German , one may say the greatest European painter that the world has lately seen, and in his own branch of art stands without a rival. A writer in “ The Times ' says of him , “ He was primarily and fundamentally a painter of religious , classic , and historic allegory of the very grandest and noblest order, and through the taste and culture of the German people he found scope for his genius and verge enough for the profitable employment of his capacity. . . . . He was a powerful though not a brilliant colourist ; and hence he was not fitted to be a painter of genre. But he happened to have become, under the tuition of Cornelius, one of the most powerful draughtsmen, both as regards power , symmetry, and accuracy, that Art has seen since Raphael showed only the promise of what he might have done had his life been spared. . ... He drew the human shape with the academic exactitude of David and of Ingres ; and the adjustment of his lights and shadows was as realistic and as skilful as that of Delaroche. There is scarcely a figure, draped or undraped, in all the innumerable compositions of Kaulbach that, photographed or lithographed , might not be set up before an advanced art student as a model for copying . ” Here seems the most fitting place to mention a modern Scandinavian painter, who, though his art is widely removed from that of Düsseldorf, yet received his early instruction in that city. Adolf Tidemand was born on the 14th of August 1816, at Mandal, in Norway. He first studied at the Copenhagen Academy, but subsequently removed to Düsseldorf, and entered the studio of Herr Hildebrandt, from whom he received valuable instruc lion in art. On leaving that master, Tidemand became famous as a painter of genre subjects. The works, which he exhibited in the Paris Exhibition of 1855 , gained him a first - class medal, and caused him to be made a Knight of the Legion of Honour. In 1862 , he exhibited no less than ten works in the London Exhibition . Of these the most noteworthy are the “ Haugians" -a sect of religious dissenters in Norway, the Administration of the Sacrament, the Sunday Afternoon, and more especially the Catechising, representing an old Norwegian schoolmaster questioning his pupils in a country church . Works by Tidemand are in many of the private galleries in England. This artist died at the age of sixty , on the 25th of August 1876. “ Tidemand's technical qualities are good, sober, solid colour - not remarkable, indeed , for brilliancy or transparency , but very well understood -excellent draughts manship, and skilful composition. These are employed on subjects from humble life in Norway, chiefly those which admit strongly -marked character - both pathetic and humorous, but oftener the former — which are treated with profound feeling, a true sense of beauty as well as character. His art is of a class that commends itself to English tastes, and his serious , loving and devout spirit, with his deep sense of family affections and duties, give precisely what English people most value in the spirit of a picture.” ( Mr. Tom Taylor. ) A.D. 1400. ] FLEMISH SCHOOL. 269

BOOK IV.

CHAPTER 1 . EARLY FLEMISH SCHOOL.

THE Flemish and Dutch schools, on account of the similarity of their styles, are by writers on art frequently treated together . But, in accordance with the plan we have hitherto adopted , we have thought it advisable to keep the artists of each country distinct. There are no trustworthy records of any very early painters in Flanders. know that, in the thirteenth century, Art was in a degraded state ; the masters of those times represented unpleasing crucifixions and martyrdoms; but at the end of the following century there were a few artists who displayed a talent - both in painting pictures and in the illumination of prayer -books, some of which are still in the museums of Berlin , London, and elsewhere — which foreshadowed the glories of the Van Eycks and their celebrated school. Of these we must mention one Melchior Broederlam , of Ypres, who was “ painter and valet ” to Philip the Hardy, and who flourished about the year 1400. The work which brings this early master into notice is the painting on the wings of an altar- chest carved by Jacques de Baerse , the principal parts of which are in the Museum of Dijon : the subjects repre sented are the Annunciation ; the Visitation ; the Presentation ; and the Flight into Egypt ( finely engraved in Kugler's · Handbook '). Broederlam's painting is noticeable for simplicity and purity of character, and beauty of colour. SCHOOL OF BRUGES. The town of Bruges may claim, in painting, priority even over Antwerp, which at an after period usurped from her the supremacy in commerce, politics and art. It was at Bruges that the two brothers Hubrecht and Jan van Eyck chiefly lived . Hubrecht van Eyck, the founder of the school of Bruges, was born at Maaseyck on the Maas in 1366, according to Van Mander, and there is no evidence to contradict 270 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1420. that historian. We unfortunately know little of Hubrecht's life with any certainty. He lived partly at Bruges and partly at Ghent, in which city he was made a member of the Corporation of Painters in 1421 ; and there he died on the 18th of September 1426. He was buried with much pomp and honour by his patron, Judocus Vydt, in the vault of his chapel in St. Bavon at Ghent. ( One of his arms was severed from his body, and was preserved for many years as a relic in the church of St. Bavon, but it disappeared in the sixteenth century. ) The honour of having brought to perfection the art of oil- painting was formerly given to Jan Van Eyck alone; but it is probable that Hubrecht, who , Van Mander tells us, instructed his brother in chemistry as well as drawing and painting, laid the foundation of that glorious success which Jan afterwards achieverd. Several collections of pictures in Europe boast of possessing specimens of Hubrecht van Eyck, but there is only one universally acknowledged work by his hand; this is part of the polyptych , which he commenced for Judocus Vydt and his wife, for their mortuary chapel in the church of St. Bavon at Ghent. Instead of a single picture, the Van Eycks, taking as their subject the“ Ecce Agnus Dei qui tollit peccata mundi,” made a polyptych formed of twelve panels with their shutters, forming altogether twenty -four pictures divided into two rows, having five panels in the one, and seven in the other. There was a picture underneath which represented Hell, but it was lost soon after its completion. On the old frames of the shutters, which are still preserved , may be read the follow ing inscription ; although some parts , having been effaced by time, have been supplied from later copies : “ Pictor Hubertus e Eyck, major quo nemo repertus Incepit : pondusque Johannes arte secundus Frater perfecit, Judoci Vijd prece fretus. VersV seXta Mal Vos COLLoCat aСta tVerl. " This inscription signifies that the work of the painters of Bruges was terminated May 6th , 1432. It also signifies that Hubert van Eyck commenced the work, and that his brother Jan finished it. The last line is called a chronogram ; the capitals make, if taken in their value as numerals, the date 1432. The parts, which are now admitted to be by Hubrecht are the whole of the top portion of the interior of the altar-piece — with the exception, perhaps, of the Choir of Singing Angels -- that is to say the Almighty', the Virgin and John the Baptist, the figures of Adam and Eve ; and St. Cecilia and the Angels. This great work is unfortunately dispersed ; the Adoration of the Lamb is still in St. Bavon ; the figures of Adam and Eve are in the Brussels Museum , and the rest are in the museum of Berlin, where the polyptych is rendered complete by copies of the absent pieces made by Michael Coxcyen in the sixteenth century. To return to Hubrecht. The author of the Life of Fuseli' says, “ The draperies of the three on a gold ground, especially that of the middle figure , could not be improved in simplicity or elegance by the taste of Raphael him . self. The three heads of God the Father, the Virgin, and St. John the Baptist are not inferior in roundness, force, or sweetness to the heads of da Vinci, and possess a more positive principle of colour. ” This is not too high praise, for, while the almost architectural symmetry of the whole work would cause it to be classed in an earlier style of art, its exquisite perfection--more especially visible in the two centre-pieces opened a fresh career in the art of painting. This celebrated altar-piece has been excellently reproduced as a chromolithograph by the Arundel Society. A.D. 1425.) JAN VAN EYCK. 271 Jan van Eyck - the second in age, though perhaps the first in art, of the brothers was born at Maaseyck, about the year 1390 --probably a little earlier. He first entered the service of John of Bavaria, who, when dying, recommended him to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, who in 1425 made him his “ varlet de chambre, " with a yearly salary of one hundred livres. In 1428 his patron sent him to paint the portrait of Isabel of Portugal, whom that monarch wished to marry. On his way the ship was forced , through bad weather, to put in at Sandwich, Plymouth, and Falmouth. England thus had the honour of a visit — though a flying one—from Van Eyck. After he had made a successful journey to Portugal, painted the portrait, which was approved, and spent a few months in seeing Spain and Portugal, Van Eyck returned to Bruges, where he received fifty livres for the portrait and his “ confidential services . " He then bought a house in Bruges, where he lived until his death on the 9th of July, 1440. The only proof we have of his marriage is that his patron Duke Philip stood godfather to his daughter, to whom he presented six silver cups. We have already stated that the altar- piece, commenced by the two brothers, was completed by jan after Hubrecht's death . Let us examine Jan's share of the work. The side-wings, with the exception of Adam and Eve, are in the Berlin gallery. It may be interesting to see how they got there. The whole altar-piece was taken to Paris in the Napoleonic wars, but was returned at the Peace. It was then replaced in St. Bavon, but the side- wings were unaccountably left in a cellar, where they were discovered by a monk, who sold them to M. Nieuwenhuys, the art - connoisseur. He sold them to Mr. Solly, who parted with them to the late King of Prussia for 40001. Hence they are in the Berlin Museum . Beginning at the bottom on the left hand, we notice the Righteous Judges (Justi Judices ) -- ten figures on horseback in a Flemish landscape ; the judge mounted on a grey horse in the foreground is Hubrecht van Eyck, who looks at least twenty years older than the portrait of his brother, the third figure on his left, thus giving a somewhat conclusive evidence to the difference which historians make in the ages of the two men . We next come to the Holy Warriors ( Christi Milites) -nine figures also on horseback, with a landscape background, and all in warlike costumes. In the foreground may be recognized St. George, Charlemagne, Godfrey de Bouillon , Baldwin of Constantinople, and St. Louis. Still going from left to right, comes the Adoration of the Lamb, towards which the people in the side-wings are directed , and which forms one grand centre- piece. We next come to the Hermits ( Hyrenetisti)-ten figures assembled in a wild place, in a sort of ravine. to recognize, in the foreground, the hermits St. Paul and St. Anthony, and at the end of the procession St. Mary Magdalen and St. Mary the Egyptian. At the extreme right we see the Pilgrims ( Peregrinisti). The giant Christopher is leading seventeen pilgrims of different ages and countries. In the landscapes of the two latter panels, Van Eyck has introduced the orange- tree, the stone- pine, the cypress, and the palm- southern trees which he had seen in Portugal in 1428. Besides these Jan van Eyck also probably executed the Choirs of Angels on the top part of the interior, and undoubtedly the Annunciation ; the figures of John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, and the portraits of Judocus Vydt and his wife, and the prophets Micah and Zachariah -all on the exterior wings of the altar-piece. The parts by Jan are very unequal in style and in proportions. In the groups of the celestial musicians, where the painter seems to have desired to distinguish two sexes, making men and women angels, the figures are almost of life size, whilst in the other more complicated subjects the numerous figures are only about a foot high. There is It is easy 272 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1440. as great a difference in merit as in form between these two styles of composition. We admire, however, the small figures more than the larger ones. In life -sized figures Van Eyck seems to be singularly cramped. He is embarrassed in the drawing, which becomes stiff, and in the colouring, which becomes dry and too minute, and, in order to give expression to the faces, the eyes and mouth are almost made to grimace. But in the smaller figures he shows his usual simplicity and skill . In these we find truth , brilliancy, power and solidity. Amongst the numerous works of the younger Van Eyck after the death of his brother, there are none more curious than the two Heads of Christ which are at Bruges and Berlin. They both represent the traditional Head brought from Byzantium , and which is still seen on the banners of the Greek communion . They are surrounded by a golden glory in the form of a cross, and on the green background there may be seen in the upper part, the A and N of the Greeks, and in the lower part, the I and F ( initium et finis) of the Latins. But that of Bruges bears this inscription : " Jo de Eyck, inventor, anno 1420, 30 january , " and that of Berlin : " Johes de Eyck, me fecit et appleviit, anno 1438, 31 january.” This means, if we are not mistaken , that the Head of Christ at Bruges is one of the first trials , perhaps the first, of the processes with which the Van Eycks endowed the art of painting. This circumstance by putting back a few years the invention of oil painting, which is by general consent placed about 1410, would also explain the singular slowness of the spreading of this invention , since no Italian made use of it before the year 1445 , whilst the Head at Berlin, dated eighteen years later, is a work done when its author had attained to the maturity of his talent and the full use of his processes. The former, indeed , has hard outlines, and a reddish and monotonous colouring, while the latter, on the contrary, shows the manner of Van Eyck when it had reached the highest stage of perfection. For history the Head at Bruges is the more valuable ; for art , that of Berlin . At Bruges, also, we shall find one of the chefs-( l'autre of the painter who has rendered the name of this town so famous. This is a Glorified Madonna, dated 1436, and treated in the style of Francia, Perugino, and the masters of that period. At the left of the Madonna, who is seated on a throne, is St. Donatian , in the dress of an archbishop ; on the right St. George, clothed in rich and complete armour. A little behind him is the kneeling donor of the picture, the Canon George de Pala, from whom the popular name for the picture is taken . This work, in which the personages are half the size of life, is wonderful for its extreme vigour, and for the minute finish of all its details, as well as by its singular preservation. Before seeing it, we had admired in Van Eyck rather the inventor than the painter ; but before this wonderful work we were obliged to confess that, even if Van Eyck had, like his successors, merely pro fited by the discoveries of others, he would still , by his works as an artist, deserve an eminent place amongst the masters. The Museum at Antwerp possesses a repetition of this Canon de Pala, as well as three portraits by the hand of Van Eyck - a Magistrate, a Monk at prayer, and another a Dignitary of the church ; besides these, there is also a small drawing in chiaroscuro, which is very precious, and carefully preserved under glass. It represents the Building of a Gothic church by a number of labourers, who are so small that they look almost like the busy workers in an ant-hill. In the foreground is seated a female saint, the patroness, doubtless, of the building in course of construction, who appears to be presid ing over the works as the architect of the monument. It would be impossible to carry patient labour, fineness and precision of touch, and powerful effects to a greater AJUTORUL இரவாக UDAL La YU THE “PALA ” MADONNA ByJAN V Eyck , Inthe Atwerp Museum 07 + T ! 、 :: STELLAND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS ܚܐ R A.D. 1440.] JAN VAN EYCK. 273 degree. This picture is usually supposed to represent St. Barbara—the Gothic tower being her attribute. This legend may be read on the old frame in red marble : “ Johes de Eyck me fecit, 1435. " The National Gallery possesses three specimens of Jan van Eyck. The first, entitled, Portraits of Jean Arnolfini and Jeanne de Chenany, his Wife . ” A lady, dressed with the heavy elegance of the fashion of that day, is holding out her open hand to a gentleman dressed in black. In the centre of the picture, and as if written on the walls of the room , is the signature, Joannes de Eyck fuit hic, 1434. Then comes an admirable half-length Portrait of a middle-aged man, with a red handkerchief round his head, which is believed to be the likeness of Van Eyck himself. On seeing the date, 1433, it may well be said that in the last four centuries no one can boast of having represented human nature with more truth , strength , and nature. Last comes a Portrait of a man in a dark red dress and a green hood ; it bears the date 1432. Munich , in its rich Pinakothek, has no less than six pictures by the great Van Eyck. Of this number, three are of the Adoration of the Magi, a subject he seems to have been particularly fond of, since it was an Adoration of the Magi that he sent to Alfonso, King of Naples, the sight of which picture made Antonello da Messina wish to discover the secret of oil painting. The largest of the three is an important work, in which there are eleven personages besides the traditional ox and ass. The second, although of smaller proportions is more valuable from the perfection of the work, and from its historical interest. One of the Eastern kings, who is on his knees, kissing the hand of the Child -God, is the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, and the negro king, with his swarthy complexion , presents a faithful portrait of Charles the Bold ; both wear the rich costumes of the Burgundian Court. At Paris it is useless to seek Van Eyck any more than Holbein, Cranach or Dürer. It is true that attributed to him is a Vierge au Donataire, thus named because Jesus, carried by his mother, who is being crowned by an angel, is blessing an old man on his knees before him , who had doubtless ordered his portrait to be taken in this posture of ex voto . Rather pale in its general tint, without much relief or depth , this picture does not show anything of the brilliant colour which is called the “ purple of Van Eyck ,” just as we speak of the “ gold of Titian ,” or the “ silver of Veronese . ” In any case it is not one of those which deserve his short and modest motto, ALS IXH XAN ( als ich kan-as well as I can -the beginning of an old Flemish proverb “ As I can , but not as I will" ). It is a misfortune to France that there is no great work in the Louvre by Van Eyck ; and, indeed, there is no place where a sight of this great master would be of more use. Lambert van Eyck was a third brother, but a very inferior master, indeed scarcely any known work by him exists. An unfinished polyptych, formerly ascribed to Jan , painted for Nicolas of Maelbecke, dean of the monastery of St. Martin at Ypres, is thought by some writers to be by him. It is now in the possession of the families of Van der Schriek and Schollaert at Louvain ( Kugler's “ Handbook ' ) . Lambert van Eyck survived his brother Jan by several years. Margaret van Eyck, who, says Van Mander “ devoted herself to art , preserving her maidenhood through life ,” — was born at Maeseyck. She was probably the second child-that is to say, younger than Hubrecht, but older than Jan. Little is known of her life. She died at Ghent, ( the date is not recorded ,) and was buried by the side of her brother Hubrecht, in the Vydt Chapel in St. Bavon , where the following epitaph 2 N 274 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1450. by De Heere was hung up: -- HY RUST BEGRAVEN HIERE, DE SUSTER HEM OMTRENT DIE MET HAER SCHILDERYE OOCK MENICH HEEFT VERWONDERT " He rests buried here, by his side the sister who, by her painting, has also astonished many." A Madonna and Child in the National Gallery is attributed to Margaret van Eyck, but there is no really authentic work known by her. Rogier van der Weyden — sometimes called Roger of Bruges, also called " The Elder," to distinguish him from his son—was born in Tournai towards the close of the fourteenth century . Though it was formerly stated, it is now by some writers deniel, that Rogier studied under Jan van Eyck. It is known that in 1432 he took the freedom of the Guild of St. Luke at Tournai ; and in 1436 we find him appointed Stadscilier ( town -painter) in Brussels. About the same time he painted for the town-hall,four large works, which , like many others executed by him in early life, have entirely perished. They represented instances of remarkable acts of justice. In 1443, Rogier painted his master-piece, an altar-piece for the Hospital which Chancellor Rollin had just founded at Beaune. It represents the Last Judgment: in the centre is Christ ; and below, the Archangel Michael weighing the souls ofmen in a balance ; on the inside wings are, nearer the centre, the Apostles and others in adoration, and at the ends, on either side, the Blessed ascending to Heaven and the Condemned being precipitated to Hell . On the exterior are, in monochrome, St. Sebastian and St. Anthony and the portraits of Rollin and his wife Guignonne de Salin ; above is an Annunciation . In 1449 Rogier went to Italy, where he remained but a short time. He was at Rome for the celebration of the jubilee in 1450, but returned in the same year to Germany, without having acquired anything of an Italian style. He executed many important works between this time and his death , which occurred at Brussels on the 16th of June, 1464. He was buried “ under a blue stone, before St. Catherine’s altar" in the church of St. Gudule . Of other works by Rogier, we may mention : in the Munich gallery, an Adoration of the Kings, which contains a portrait of Charles the Bold of Burgundy, and a St. Luke painting the Virgin, long attributed to Jan van Eyck ; an altar- piece representing three scenes from the Life of John the Baptist, in the Berlin Museum : and lastly an Entombment of Christ in the National Gallery ( No. 664) a not very good specimen of this master. “ Van der Weyden,” says Van Mander, “ greatly reformed the Flemish style of design ; he was a great master of expression, and though his outline is generally harder than Van Eyck's, his heads are often much softer in their character.” Rogier van der Weyden had the honour of numbering among his pupils, the Fleming Hans Memling and the Germans, Martin Schongauer and Friedrich Herlen. Dieric Bouts — until lately called erroneously “ Stuerbouts ” —was born at Haarlem in 1391 ( ? ) . Of Dieric's life next to nothing was known, until the researches of Herren van Even and Wauters brought much to light concerning this painter. In 1450 he had married and settled at Louvain , the birthplace of his father, who was a landscape painter. Bouts resided there, where he was “ town -painter ," until his death , which occurred in 1475. After he lost his first wife he married again , but his four children , two sons and two daughters, were the result of the first marriage. Both sons, Dieric and Albert, followed their father's profession, but, like many other SONS, " hud passibus æquis." A.D. 1450.] DIERIC BOUTS. 275 Bouts’s masterpieces are two pictures executed in 1468 for the council-chamber of the town- hall of Louvain , and now in the Berlin gallery. They represent two scenes from the so- called Golden Legend, which relates how the Emperor Otho III . , on the testimony of his perjured wife, put a guiltless courtier to death, and how the widow of the dead man , proving satisfactorily, by the ordeal of fire, her husband's innocence, the Emperor ރަހަ، އި ST . LUKE PAINTING THE VIRGIN . —BY ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN. ( Formerly ascribed to Jan van Eyck .) In the Pinakothek at Munich. condemned his consort to death . For these two pictures Dieric received no less than two hundred and thirty crowns ; and moreover the town-councilmen were so pleased with the work , that they commissioned the painter to execute two more for five hundred crowns. Bouts unfortunately died before the completion of the second . picture, which was to have been in four compartments. Among other works by Dieric we may notice : a Last Supper and the Martyrdom of St. Erasmus — both in the 276 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1450 church of St. Pierre at Louvain. Two of the wings of the first-mentioned altar-piece, Abraham and Melchisedei, and the Gathering of the Manna, are in the Munich gallery, and the other two, Elijah in the Wilderness and the First Passo er in the Berlin gallery. They were formerly ascribed to Memling. There is one picture in the National Gallery attributed to Bouts — the Exhumation of St. Hubert of Liége ( No. 783) but various opinions exist regarding it. It was formerly ascribed to Jan van Eyck, and now critics consider it to be by the hand of Van der Weyden. Dieric's pictures are remarkable for richness of colour and minuteness of execution , but though his faces are well done, his figures as a whole are badly drawn . Dieric Bouts must not be confused with Hubert Stuerbouts, a painter of Louvain of this time, who is of little note. Petrus Cristus, who was born at Baerle, near Deyne, in Belgium , in the latter part of the fourteenth century, is known to have studied under Jan van Eyck. He purchased the freedom of the city of Bruges in 1444, and was still living there in 1471 . Of his works we may mention a: Virgin and Saints in the Städel Institute at Frankfort, painted in 1447 , a Last Judgement, and a Crucifixion in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg. A portrait of Marco Barbarigo in the National Gallery, there attributed to Van der Meire, is by Mr. J. A. Crowe ascribed to Cristus. This artist painted more after the style of Hubrecht than of Jan van Eyck. His drawing of the human figure is not good ; the bodies and legs are too short and the heads too round. Hugo van der Goes-called by Vasari “ Hugo d'Anversa " —is a painter of whom little is known. It is not ascertained with certainty when or where he was born . One account says at Ghent, and Van Vaernewijk says he was a native of Leyden. Van Mander tells us that he was a pupil of Jan van Eyck , but this statement is corroborated neither by historians, nor by his works—or rather work , for, though several are attributed to him , but one authentic picture, according to Mr. J. A. Crowe and other writers, remains by this master. In 1465 Van der Goes was free of the guild of Ghent, and from 1472 till 1474 he presided as elder in that corporation. He resided chiefly at Ghent though he paid a short visit to Bruges in 1468 to paint divers subjects for the marriage of Charles the Bold and Margaret of York - until 1476 , in which year he entered , as a novice, the convent of Rooden Cloestere, near Brussels. He painted for many years, until the irregularity of his habits, which were by no means suited to a monasterial life , caused him to be expelled from the convent. He died shortly afterwards, in 1482, but little better than a maniac. The sole specimen of this master's art is in Italy ; in the church of Santa Maria Nuova at Florence, for which place it was ordered by Tommaso Portinari, agent for the house of Medici, in Bruges. It represents, in the centre, the Adoration of the Shepherds, and, on the wings, the donor and donatrix and their family , and Saints. It was originally placed in the high altar, but has been since removed. The National Gallery has two pictures ascribed to Van der Goes a Portrait of an Eülesiastic, and a Madonna and Child enthroned . Gerard van der Meire was born at Ghent (?) about the year 1410. He is said , but on very slight grounds, to have been a pupil of Jan van Eyck; according to some of his works, he appears to belong more to the school of Van der Weyden. He was free of the Painters' Guild at Ghent in 1452 , and we hear of him in conjunction with that body as late as 1474, but we have no record of his death . The best and most authentic work by Van der Meire is an altar -piece in the church of St. Bavon ofGhent. It represents in the centre, the Crucifixion , and on either side the Erection of the Brasen A.D. 1470. ] MEMLING . 277 27 . Serpent, and Moses striking the Rock. There are many pictures in various public galleries, attributed to Van der Meire, but several of them are of doubtful origin. Two in the National Gallery, a Count of Hainalt with his Patron Saint Ambrose and a Portrait of Marco Barbarigo are ascribed to him. Justus van Ghent is a painter of whom very little is known. He flourished in Italy chiefly, in the latter half of the fifteenth century. He is a follower of the Van Eycks. An Annunciation in Santa Maria di Castello - signed “ Justus d'Allamagna pinxit 1451 ' -was usually ascribed to him , but modern writers seem to doubt whether the two painters are the same. In 1468–70, Justus van Ghent painted an altar-piece for Sant' Agata at Urbino. The subject is the Last Judgment, and the picture contains portraits of Duke Federigo di Montefeltro of Urbino, and Caterino Zeno, an envoy to the Duke from the Venetian republic. The work, which is now in the town gallery of Urbino, displays a good knowledge of composition, but a total want of linear perspective. There are several pictures in continental collections, ascribed, with more or less justice , to Justus van Ghent. He probably executed the series of Poets, Philosophers and Doctors in the library of Duke Federigo of Urbino. Hans Memling was formerly called Memlinc, also Memmlinghe ; his name too was usually commenced with an H, a mistake for the gothic M. Of this master but scanty record has been handed down to us. One account says that he was born at Constance in 1439. He was a pupil of Rogier van der Weyden. In 1477-78, he is known to nave been living at Bruges ; in 1480 he contributed to a loan raised for the Emperor Maximilian , and about the same time purchased a house in the Rue St. Georges, at Bruges, where he died in 1495. On entering the Hospital of St. John at Bruges, the visitor will be told that in 1477 a wounded soldier (probably from the battle of Nancy) was brought into the Hospital of St. John. He was a middle- aged man , thrown into a warlike career after a fretful youth ; before becoming a soldier, however, he had been a painter ; the love of art returned to him during the leisure hours of a long convalescence, and being grateful for the care bestowed on him , and satisfied with the peaceful quiet of the house — where he was also retained by his love for a young sister - he passed several years, paying for his board by his work. This is how the fact of his finest works belonging to the Hospital of St. John is accounted for. There they were painted, and there they have always remained in spite of wars, conquests, and pillage, which explains their wonderful state of preservation after nearly four centuries ; and they will doubtless remain there yet for ages, if the poor hospital continue still to defend its treasure proudly from wealthy amateurs and royal museums, whose brilliant offers would, however, have enabled its custodians to convert its brick walls into ' a marble palace. The legend of Memling has now disappeared with so many other traditions. Authentic documents have proved , as we have already stated , that he was simply a citizen of Bruges, where he died in 1495 . So we shall have to leave the romance and come to his works. The most celebrated in the Hospital of St. John is the Reliquary of St. Ursula , a piece of gilt carving ornamented with engravings and paintings, and intended to contain relics. The reader must imagine a small oblong Gothic chapel, only two feet in height from its base to the top of its pointed roof ; the two façades, if we may venture to use architectural words, the side walls , and the roofing, form , by their golden borders, frames for Memling's paintings, which are the frescoes for this miniature temple. On one of the gable ends is painted the Madonna, 278 1ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1480. 1scarcely a foot in height ; on the other, St. Ursula, holding in her hand the arrow , which was to be the instrument of her death , and covering under her ample robes a number of young girls , which makes her resemble somewhat the pictures of the “ Old Woman who lived in a Shoe, ” so famous in nursery rhymes. Ten young girls may be counted under her mantle, and as the saint herself makes the eleventh , the painter has doubtless intended them to represent symbolically the eleven thousand virgins. ( It is as well to remark that the legend of the eleven thousand virgins rests on the error of a chronicler of the Middle Ages. The tomb of St. Ursula and her companions at Cologne bore this inscription : “ Sancta Ursula , xi. M.V.” Instead of reading “ Sancta Ursula, xi Martyres Virgines,” Siegbert read and reported “ xi millia virginum ." ) The two sloping parts of the roof each contain three medallions ; on the two centres St. Ursula is painted, in one of them , among her companions, whom she seems to be leading on to the glory of martyrdom ; in the other, kneeling between the Father and the Son, who are crowning her, whilst the Holy Spirit hovers over her head. The medallions on each side contain angels, who form a celestial concert. On the two sides of the reliquary, which are divided into six compartments in the form of Gothic arcades, the whole legend of the Virgins of Cologne is represented. On one side, their departure from that city, their arrival at Bâle in large round boats, then their entrance into Rome, and reception by the Pope at the gates of a temple ; on the other, their departure from Rome, taking the Pope with them , their return to Cologne, and, lastly, their martyrdom by arrows, lances, and swords, at the hands of the Hun soldiers. In the six painted chapters of this legend there are certainly—without counting the microscopic personages in the background --- two hundred figures introduced , of which the largest, in the foreground, are not more than four inches in length. It is needless to say that the painter has transported the history of St. Ursula from the fourth to the fifteenth century ; the buildings, landscapes, costumes, and armour all belong to his own time. We may easily recognise a number of portraits. Ursula and her band are beautiful Flemish girls , fair, graceful, and elegantly dressed ; and Memling certainly could not have had much difficulty in finding so many charming models in a town at that time richly populated, and which counted the beauty of its women amongst its chief titles to glory— “ formosis Bruga puellis." In reading this short description, one might well believe that the painting of Memling on this reliquary of St. Ursula is nothing but a chef-d'auvre of patience and minute perfection in the details ; but this is far from being the case. As a whole, it is a great and noble work, full of grandeur, vigour, and religious sentiment. To form an idea of this wonderful work , the reader should imagine pictures of sacred history conceived in the highest style of Fra Angelico, and painted in the finest execution of Gerard Dow . But Memling has not merely left miniature paintings, and this reliquary ( dated 1480) is not the only treasure of the Hospital of St. John. In the preceding year, Memling comple: ed a work which is no less celebrated , and is in the largest proportions then used, half- life size. This is a triptych closed by shutters. On the central panel is represented the Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine. As in the glorified Virgins of Francia or Perugino, the Madonna is seated under a magnificent daïs, with her feet resting on a rich Flemish carpet, which produces a wonderful effect through its colouring and perspective. Two angels are at her side, to wait on her ; one holds a book, of which she is turning over the leaves, whilst the other is playing on a small organ. The Virgin of Sienna, richly dressed , is receiving on her knees the nuptial ring from the Bambino. The history of the two St. Johns A.D. 1480. ] MEMLING 279 forms the subject of the paintings on the wings ; that on the left is the Beheading of John the Baptist before Herodias ; and that on the right is St. John the Evangelist at Patmos, beholding the visions of the Apocalypse. Lastly, on the outside of the wings, there are excellent portraits of two Brothers of the Hospital, with the symbolical portraits of their patron saints , James and Andrew , and of two Sisters of the order, with their patron saints, Agnes and Clara. This large composition is unanimously pronounced to be the masterpiece of its author. Here, indeed , may be found all his greatest qualities, from a calm majesty in the arrangement to a wonderful delicacy of touch. However, we must give it one rival, if not in importance, at all events in perfection. In the same year, 1479, Memling painted the different compartments of a triptych, much smaller than the last, as the figures are only from eight to nine inches in height: on the left is the Nativity ; on the right , the Presentation in the Temple , in the centre, the Adoration of the Magi ; below is the following inscription written in Flemish : “ This work was done for brother Jan Floreins, alias Van der Rüst, brother of St. John's Hospital, at Bruges . Anno 1479.” “ Opus Johannis Memling. " In the left part of the central panel, at a window , is seen the kneeling figure of Jan Floreins, dressed in black . It is a charming head of a man in the prime of life : the figures 36, written above him on the wall, apparently indicate his age. Opposite, the face of a peasant, looking in at a window , is supposed to be a portrait of Memling ; he has a short beard , thick hair, and his face, though rather weary- looking, is full of gentleness and intellect. This is not all that the grateful patient left to the Hospital of St. John. We may also find in it a Descent from the Cross, where the figures are quite small, a Sibyl Zambeth, that is to say, the portrait of a Flemish lady in that costume, and also the portrait of a young man worshipping a Madonna. Memling is represented in the small museum of Bruges by a Baptism of Christ ; in the museum of Antwerp, by an Annunciation , a Nativity, a Glorified Virgin, etc. ; in London, by several pictures in private galleries ; and by four in the National Gallery, the Virgin and Child Enthroned in a Garden ; the Madonna and Infant Christ ; St. John the Baptist and St. Lawrence Deacon, and a Portrait of himself in the Wynn Ellis collection, The diptych in the Louvre, representing John the Baptist, the Virgin and Saints, is probably by Van der Goes, decidedly not by Memling. The latest picture by Memling, dated 1491 , is in the Greveraden Chapel in the Cathedral of Lübeck . a double triptych consisting of nine panels : on the centre- piece is the Crucifixion ; on the interior sides, divers scenes from the History of Christ ; on the wings when half folded are SS. Blaise, Egidius, John the Baptist and Jerome; and on the extreme exterior, the Annunciation . This picture was described by Dr. Waagen as Memling's miasterpiece. It has been published as a chromolithograph by the Arundel Society. If we pass into Germany, we shall find at Berlin two pictures ascribed to Memling : the Jewish Passover and the Prophet Elijah, fed by an angel in the desert, now ascribed to Dieric Bouts. In the church of Our Lady at Dantzic there is a finely executed Last Judgment by Memling ; and at Munich there are nine pictures attributed to him , but many of them are not genuine. Exception must be made, however, in favour of the beautifully conceived and executed Serun Joy's and Seven Sorrows of the Virgin . Rogier van der Weyden-called “ the younger ” to distinguish him from his more famous father --was born at Brussels ( ?) about the year 1450. As is the case with so 280 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1500. many early Flemish painters, history is somewhat silent as regards the younger Van der Weyden. He is known to have gained money by his art ; he was noted for his benevolence, and he died in 1529 of the suctte at Antwerp, of the guild of which city he had been made a master in 1528. Pictures , attributed to Rogier van der Weyden the younger, are in the galleries of Madrid, Berlin, Naples, London, and elsewhere ; but of all these, not one can with any solid foundation be said to be by that artist. The National Gallery has four of these doubtful pictures ; the so- called Portraits of Himself and Wife, a Magilalen, a Mater Dolorosa , and an Exce Homo — all of such a pleasing nature, that they make one desire to know their real author, SCHOOL OF ANTWERP, After the great masters of the school of Bruges, and at the beginning of the sixteenth century, Antwerp becomes the first of the Flemish towns in the history of art ; and the series of illustrious painters which raised the school of Antwerp to such a degree of superiority that all the other Flemish schools were merged into it, was founded by a simple blacksmith , Quintin Matsys was born at Louvain in 1466, He is usually called the “ Black smith of Antwerp , " because, from love as it is said , after having been a blacksmith, he became an artist ; just as at Naples the same power converted Il Zingaro from a wandering tinker to a painter. Matsys turned his attention towards art because the father of his lady-love said that she should marry no one who was not of his own profession. Some iron summer-houses, made to represent vine branches , which have been preserved at Antwerp and Louvain, are said to be examples of his earlier works, though they are probably the work of his elder brother, who was a smith by trade ; some iron carving on the tomb of Edward IV. in St. George's Chapel at Windsor is also attributed to him . One line of the Latin inscription engraved on a slab, erected to his memory in the cathedral of Antwerp, sums up in the following manner the romantic history of his late vocation : “ Connubialis amor de Mulcibre fait Apellem , ” and he wrote on his own portrait, “ Pictorem me fecit Amor. ” Matsys first studied under a painter in Louvain, probably Dieric Bouts. He went to Antwerp in 1490, and in the following year was admitted as a franc-maitre in the painters' guild. From this time Matsys' fame steadily increased. In 1508 he painted for the chapel of the Joiners' Company his masterpiece, the Deposition from the Cross ; it now hangs in the Antwerp Museum . Matsys died at Antwerp in 1529, it is said of the suette, in the convent of the Carthusians, where he was buried ; but, a century later, his remains were removed by Cornelius van der Geest and buried in front of the Cathedral. The spot is marked by the simple inscription " M. Q. M. obiit 1529." In the Cathedral is a slab on which is a memorial setting forth his wonders as an artist, to which we have already referred. It was natural that the native town of the Antwerp smith should have preserved his finest work. There is, indeed , nothing greater or more complete amongst his whole works tha the famous triptych , which represents in the centre the Entombment ; on the right wing, the Head of John the Baptist presented to Herodias , on the left wing, A.D. 1520. ] QUINTIN MATSYS 281 .. St. John the Evangelist in boiling oil. These three vast compositions, united only by the ordinary shape of the pictures of that time, and in which the figures are of life- size, were ordered of the painter in 1508 by the guild of joiners in Antwerp, who paid for them 300 florins ( about 257. ). In 1557 , at the suggestion of Martin de Vos, and in order to keep them from Queen Elizabeth of England, who offered more than 5000 rose nobles (about 40,000 florins) for them , they were bought by the town magistrate for the sum of 1500 forins. This triptych is certainly the chef-d'auvre of the master, and, THE MONEY - CHANGER AND HIS WIFE. --BY QUINTIN MATSYS. In the Louvre. we may add, one of the chefs -d'auvre of painting. In it may be seen, in all its brilliancy , patient labour united to great intelligence. Every hair, every thread in the clothing, every blade of grass is rendered with scrupulous fidelity , and yet, notwithstanding this minute finish in the details, the whole is of the most powerful effect. This picture may be examined either near or at a distance. Nature herself may be seen in every point of view. But the work of the pencil is no less admirable ; the thought is no less high and profound. To the vigorous colouring of Van Eyck, Quintin Matsys united in this picture the noble simplicity of Memling, and the 2 0 282 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1520. laborious finish of Denner to the grand effects of Rubens. All the great qualities required in painting -movement in the scene, power of expression, variety in the attitudes and countenances-s -are to be found in this work, where the groups of saints and executioners show both the sublime and the grotesque, and heighten the effect of the contrast. At the Louvre there is a Descent from the Cross, attributed for a long time to Lucas van Leyden, and now restored , probably rightly, to Quintin Matsys. If Matsys followed the order of events in these two vast triptychs, this Descent from the Cross must have preceded the Entombment. Thus the picture in the Louvre would have been to the artist a kind of preparation for that of Antwerp , the highest point to which the plenitude and maturity of his genius could attain. We must also notice, in the same collection , the Money-changer and his Wife. It is signed “ Quintin Matsyss schildt, 1518," and is one of the best, if not the best of the pictures which he painted of this class of subject. Quintin Matsys may be seen to advantage, too, in the National Gallery, where there is one of the many pictures of The Misers ; and a Salvator Mundi and the Virgin Mary, one in a red mantle and the other in blue. These heads are painted with such exquisite finish , and that of Mary especially is of such high moral beauty, that we should have to go to the works of Raphael to find a suitable comparison. At Windsor Castle, in the possession of Her Majesty the Queen, is the far- famel Misers, which Dr. Waagen considers a repetition by another hand ; and at Longford Castle is his Portrait of Egidius. Quintin Matsys was the contemporary of Albrecht Dürer ; and as after the death of the great painter of Nuremberg the Germans went to Italy for masters, so did the Flemings after the death of the blacksmith of Antwerp go to Florence and Venice for lessons and models. There was, however, a great difference in the result : the Germans remained in Italy and became Italian ; the Flemings returned to their own land , and , by endeavouring to unite the idealistic school of Italy to the realistic school of Flanders, prepared the way for the great Flemish school which produced Rubens and his disciples. Quintin Matsys did not sign his pictures as a rule, but when he did append his name, it was in various forms of spelling : 6.8 ., Metsys, Masys, Mattsyss, Maseys. He had six children by his first wife, and seven by his second. Of these, three were painters, but one only is of sufficient importance to warrant mention. Gheerardt David, who was born at Oudewater, went when young to Bruges, where he was made free of the guild in 1484. We find him mentioned at intervals. In 1501-2 he was president of the company. David continued to live at Bruges until his death in 1523 ; he was buried in the church of Notre Dame of that city. Of his works, the most worthy of mention are : in the Academy of Bruges, a Baptism of Christ, painted in 1507 for Jean des Trompes ; in the Museum of Berlin, a Crucifixion ; and lastly, a Marriage of Cana in the Louvre. Gheerardt David painted in a somewhat successful imitation of Van Eyck, but his pictures, though always executed with great minuteness, are of different merit. It is probable that he was the instructor of Joachim Patinir. Jan Gossaert, or Gossart, is commonly called Jan de Mabuse, from his birthplace , now known as Maubeuge ( in Latin , Malbodium ). He was born about the year 1470 ; when about thirty- three years of age he obtained the freedom of the guild of Antwerp, and resided in that city until 1507. A few years later he accompanied Philip of A.D. 1520. ] JAN DE MABUSE. 283 Burgundy, son of Philip the Good, to Italy. He obtained, from the title of his patron, who, besides being a bishop, was an admiral, the name of “ peintre de l'amiral.” Mabuse stayed in Italy, at Florence and Rome, about twelve years, during which time he studied the works of the great masters—if not with improvement to his own style , at least without that servile imitation which afterwards characterised so many of his country men. Mabuse had the honour of serving several crowned heads : he painted for Christian II . of Denmark, for Margaret of Austria, and for Henry VII. of England-during a residence of a short time in this country. We have, however, very scanty proof of Mabuse's stay in England. He died at Antwerp on the ist of October, 1532. While in Italy, Mabuse, by correcting the stiffness of the school of Leyden, where he is said to have studied, by the Italian ease and taste, commenced the sort of compromise between the styles of the South and North which characterises this second epoch of Flemish art ; and on his return to his country, he devoted all the rest . of his works to making this new intermediate style well known. We must therefore accord to him, notwithstanding his very lax morals, a grave and very important position in the traditional history of art. Jan de Mabuse has left numerous works ; they may be found in Antwerp, Brussels, Munich, Berlin, Hampton Court, St. Petersburg, and a few imperfect specimens at Paris. Let us take those of Berlin to mark the changes in his style. The large Calvary, in which the cross of the Saviour is not erected on the barren Golgotha but in the midst of a green and smiling landscape, terminated in the distance by the view of a Flemish city, is a work of his youth, although it is admirable from its power of expression, its colouring, perspective, and good preservation . The Drunkenness of Noah is the copy of a fresco in the ceiling of the Sistine, aud the figures in a Madonna in the midst of an ornamental landscape are imitated from Leonardo da Vinci. But after these thoroughly Italian works, the compromise between the two arts is seen clearly in two diptychs, one of which contains Adam and Eve, and the other Neptune and Amphitrite. These figures are tall, strong, and full, both in form and painting, already very different from the primitive meagreness and dryness, and are far advanced in the Italian style. The mythological group is the finer, especially Neptune, who is crowned, and almost dressed in shells. The Italian qualities in this picture are so striking that it might very innocently be doubted whether a Fleming was the author, if he had not himself affixed his signature : “ Joannes Malbodius pingebat, 1516.” It was after his return from Italy, when he was about forty -five years old. England possesses one of the best works of Mabuse, executed before his journey to Italy. It is the Adoration of the Kings, at Castle Howard, the seat of the . Earl of Carlisle. The National Gallery has a Portrait of a man dressed in black ; and we must not forget to mention the Children of Christian II. of Denmark, at Hampton Court Bernhard van Orley, who was born at Brussels in 1471 , went, when still young, to Rome, to study under Raphael. On his return to Italy he shared with Michael Coxcie the superintendence of the manufacture at Arras of the tapestries from Raphael's cartoons. He was also painter to Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Low Countries, and on her death, in 1530, to her successor, Mary of Hungary. He was also painter to the Emperor Charles V. , and is said to have visited England. Van Orley lived at Antwerp, in good circumstances, one may suppose, for Dürer says that " Maister Bernhart ” gave him “ so costly a meal that it could not be paid for with ten florins." 284 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1520. He died at Brussels on the 6th of January, 1541. Of his works we may mention ,a polyptych in the church of Our Lady at Lübeck, which represents, in the centre, the Trinity adored by Saints, and on the wings the Annunciation , the Sibyl and Augustus ; the four Latin Fathers and St. John the Evangelist; this is considered one of his best pictures. The National Gallery has a Magdalen reading, and other speciniens of his art are in the galleries of Vienna , Brussels, and elsewhere. Van Orley was the next Flemish painter after Mabuse, to set the example of copying the works of the great Italian masters. But there was this difference between the two men . Mabuse, though his followers imitated servilely the works of the Italians, himself only took a portion of his art from the southern masters, and blending it with his native manner, produced a style peculiar to himself . Van Orley, on the other hand, when he arrived in Italy, forgot entirely the style of his forefathers, and imitated, or tried to imitate, exactly the style of Raphael ; and though his drawing was good and his forms correct and graceful, not only was his colouring unpleasing, but the inspira tion of the Prince of Painters was wanting, and he never produced a great picture. Joachim de Patinir, who was born at Dinant towards the close of the fifteenth century, studied at Bruges under Gheerardt David. In 1515 he was admitted as a master in the Guild of St. Luke, at Antwerp. His first wife died in 1516, and in 1521 he married again. Albrecht Dürer was present at the wedding, and drew the portrait of the bridegroom . Patinir died at Antwerp in 1524. He was one of the first painters to consider landscapes worthy of more than a secondary place in a picture. But this was in his later life ; at the commencement of his career he was a very fair historical painter ; a good specimen of this style is his Mater Dolorosa, in the Brussels Museum . Of his landscape pictures, Madrid has six , and the National Gallery four : a Crucifixion ; a St. Christopher carrying the Infant Christ; St. John on the Island of Patmos, and one bequeathed by Mr. Wynn- Ellis. A good picture is in the Antwerp gallery, a Flight into Egypt- signed “ Opus Joachim D. Patinir." Henrik met de Bles ( with the forelock )—usually called Henri de Bles — is known among the Italians as “ Civetta ,” from his monogram — an owl. He was born at Bouvignes, about 1480 (?) , and is supposed to have studied under Patinir at Antwerp ; in 1521 he was living at Mechlin, and he died at Liége about 1550 ( ? ) . In the matter of landscape-painting he is a conscientious follower of Patinir. An Adoration of the Kings is in the Munich gallery ; and a Christ and the Cross and a Magialen are in the National Gallery. Henri de Bles is probably the same as Henri de Patenier. Jan Matsys, the son of Quintin, was born at Antwerp about the close of the fifteenth century. He imitated the style of his father, but with little success. Repetitions of genre pictures by Quintin are ascribed to Jan Matsys, and among these, is the Misers at Windsor Castle, but many good authorities still maintain that this is the work of the father. Jan Matsys died about the year 1570. Lancelot Blondeel, who was born at Bruges in 1495 , was originally a mason, on which account he took a trowel as his monogram . He did not turn his attention towards art until he was twenty - five years of age. His pictures display a study of the Italian style , and are noticeable for architectural backgrounds. Specimens are in the churches of Bruges, in the Berlin Museum , and elsewhere. He designed the chimney -piece in the Council-hall at Bruges, which contains statues of Charles V. and other monarchs. A fine plaster - cast of this chimney -piece may be seen in the South Kensington Museum . Blondeel died at Bruges, in 1561 . A.D. 1520.] MICHAEL COXCIE . 285 Martin van Veen-cailed, from his birthplace, near Haarlem , Martin Hemskerk was born in 1498. He studied art under Schoreel and followed that master in his imitation of the Italian style. He afterwards still further copied the Italians in Rome --more especially the works of Michelangelo. Pictures by Hemskerk are in Delft and Haarlem, and in the galleries of Berlin and Vienna, but none of them are of especial merit. He died in 1574. Michael van Coxcyen - sometimes written Coxcien or Coxcie and frequently Coxis -was born at Mechlin in 1499. He studied first under his father, an unimportant artist, and subsequently under Van Orley, whom he exceeded in the servility with which he copied the works of Raphael. While studying at Rome under that great master he executed several works for churches, but none of them of any great merit. On his return to Flanders, he painted chiefly at Brussels and Antwerp. He died at Mechlin in 1592. A Martyrdom of St. Sebastian by him is in the Antwerp Museum ; he has repeated the same subject in a picture in the Cathedral at Mechlin.. The masterpiece of the “ Raphael of Flanders " is his copy of the Van Eycks' Adoration of the Lamb. This was executed for Philip II . of Spain ; it took him two years to complete, and he is said to have received for it about 300l. of our money, in addition to his board and lodging while engaged on it. Part of this picture now hangs in the Berlin Museum, and part is in the Munich Gallery. Van Coxcyen was joint superintendent, with Van Orley, of the manufacture of the tapestries from Raphael's Cartoons. Van Coxcyen had a son, Raphael, who was a painter, but of no great merit. Joas van Cleve, the portrait-painter, was born at Antwerp at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Vasari tells us that he went to Spain , but of this visit there is no further evidence. He came to England with the expectation of obtaining money for his works from Philip of Spain, who was then making a collection. Unfortunately for Van Cleve, some pictures by Titian arrived at the same time, and the Flemish painter's works found no favour in the monarch's eyes. Of this painter Walpole says “ his colouring was warm, and his figures feshy and round.” Two good specimens of his art are portraits of Himself and His Wife in Windsor Castle. Van Cleve's portraits have frequently been attributed to Hans Holbein. He died about the middle of the sixteenth century. Jan Cornelis Vermeyen, who was born at Malines in 1500, is a master less celebrated now than formerly ; for his works, which are not destroyed or damaged beyond repair, are in inaccessible places. History does not record the name of his instructor. In 1529 , he was made painter to Margaret of Austria , and in 1534, he went in the suite of Charles V. to Tunis, where he made sketches of many incidents in the campaign. Ten cartoons, for tapestries, which he made from these sketches, are carefully preserved in the garde-robe of the Vienna Gallery. In later life Vermeyen lived at Berlin, where he died in 1559. He was called by the Spaniards “ El Mayo , " from his great height, and " Juan de Barbalonga, " from his beard, which is said to have been so long that it trailed on the ground as he walked ! He painted all subjects - historical, portrait, and landscape. Lamprecht Sustermann - called , from his style of painting, Lambert Lombardus was born at Liege in 1506. He studied in Flanders under Mabuse, and under Andrea del Sarto in Italy , whither he had accompanied Cardinal Pole. On the death of 286 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1525 his patron, Cardinal Erhard de la Marck, Bishop of Liége, in 1538, Lombardus returned to his native city, where he established a school which was attended by numerous scholars, among others by Frans Floris and Goltzius. Lombardus died in poverty at Liége—it is said in the Hospital of Mont Cornillon — after 1566, (some writers name the year 1560 as the date of his death) . According to Van Mander, Lombardus' style greatly advanced the school of his native place. His pictures are remarkable for carefulness of execution, and his colouring is quiet and subdued ; but this is the highest praise that can be bestowed upon them. Lombardus' best works are the Pestilence and Shipwreck in the King of Holland's gallery, which contains several other specimens of his art. A Deposition by him is in the National Gallery. A life of Lombardus was published in 1565, by Dominicus Lampsonius, one of his numerous pupils. Pieter Pourbus, who was born at Gouda about the year 1510, may perhaps be regarded as a painter of Bruges, for he established himself in that town in 1540, and executed there all his important works. He became a member of the guild in 1543, and he was subsequently Dean of the company. Pourbus died in 1584 at Bruges, the Academy of which city contains good specimens of his work . . He was both a portrait and a historical painter. He excelled in the former subject. Frans van Vriendt-usually called Frans Floris, was born at Antwerp in 1520. The son of a stonemason, he first turned his attention towards sculpture, but abandon ing it in favour of painting, he was apprenticed to Lambert Lombardus. He followed that master's example of going to Italy. He also, on his return to Antwerp, opened a school, which is said to have been attended by no less than one hundred and twenty scholars. Floris died at his birthplace in 1570. His death was hastened by his taste for drink, in which he unfortunately too much indulged. The Antwerp Gallery contains three of his best works- an Adoration of the Shepherds; the Fall of the Rebel Angels ; and a St. Luke painting the Virgin . Frans Floris , whom Vasari terms “ The Flemish Raphael,” was a man of great ability, and we have only to regret that his powers were so misapplied. He is one of the best of those Flemish painters who copied the Italian style ; had he kept to the manner of his ancestors, he would have been a greater artist, Antonio Moro, commonly known as Sir Antony More, was born at Utrecht in 1525 ( various other dates are given as the year of his birth ). Though a Dutchman by birth , Moro must be considered a Flemish painter, for he studied under a master of that school, and, when not employed at foreign courts, resided at Brussels and Antwerp—his name is found in the register of the guild of that town , at intervals from 1547 until 1572. He was a pupil of Jan Schoreel, but subsequently went to Rome, where he studied the great Italian masters, but he apparently did not find their works to his taste , for on his return to the Netherlands he applied himself to the study of Hans Holbein. In 1549, Moro was recommended by Cardinal Granvelle to Charles V., and about 1550, that monarch sent him to Lisbon to execute portraits of King John 111., his wife Catherine of Austria, and the Infanta Mary ; for these pictures the painter received six hundred ducats, a gold chain of one thousand florins, and other presents ( Walpole's · Anecdotes of Painting ' ) . In 1553, Moro was sent to England to paint the portrait of Queen Mary, and that monarch was so much pleased with his art that she kept him in her service with a salary of 100l. per annum. In England, as elsewhere, Moro became very famous, and received large amounts for his works, which A.D. 1550. ] ANTONIO MORO. 287 were much prized. On the death of Mary in 1558, he went to Madrid, where he executed for Philip II . many considerable works ; he painted besides portraits several historic pieces ; of these we may mention a copy of Titian's Danäe, which is now in the Madrid gallery. In 1560 Moro was obliged to leave Madrid, either, as some writers say, because he offended the Inquisition by soliciting Philip's favour for his countrymen, or because he took an unwarrantable liberty with that monarch himself, by returning with his maulstick a playful blow which Philip had given him. Whatever was the cause of his disgrace, the king evidently forgave him, for he twice endeavoured, but in vain, to induce Moro to return to Spain . Soon after his return to the Netherlands, he was summoned from Utrecht to Brussels by the Duke of Alva, who, besides patronizing his art, made him his receiver.general of the revenues for West Flanders. Moro lived in noble style for some years at Brussels ; he died at Antwerp in 1581 . The esteem in which this painter's pictures were held may easily be imagined from the fact that he usually received for each portrait about one hundred ducats in Portugal, and 100l. in England. Moro was the friend of monarchs and nobles, and lived in a most magnificent manner ; it is not known when or where he received the honour of knighthood. The Dresden gallery possesses several good portraits by him. In England a Portrait of Queen Mary is in the possession of Lord Yarborough, and another of Jeanne d'Archel is in the National Gallery. The Madrid museum contains portraits of various royal personages - Queen Mary of England, Philip II., Anna the wife of Maximilian of Bohemia, Eleanor of France, and Mary and Catherine of Portugal. As a portrait painter Moro excelled chiefly through the correctness of his drawing and the beauty of his colouring. In regard to carefulness of finish , he was far inferior to Holbein, whom he took as his model. Moro executed several historic pieces, but with much less success than his portraits. Van Mander mentions with great praise, an unfinished Crucifixion by him, in Antwerp Cathedral. Pieter Breughel, “ the elder, ” called from the nature of his subjects “ Peasant Breughel," was born at Breughel near Breda, about the year 1530. He studied under Pieter Koeck ; leaving that master he went to Italy , but returned to his native land and lived for some time at Antwerp ; he died at Brussels in 1569. (?) His pictures, which are for the most part scenes from rustic life, are painted from personal knowledge of the subject; for it is said , that he used to dress himself up as a peasant, and mingle in the country festivities. His works display great sense of humour, but are unfortu nately of a coarse nature ; and yet it is said that he caused to be destroyed, by his death-bed, all the pictures, then in his possession , which he considered too vulgar. The Vienna gallery possesses characteristic pictures by Peasant Breughel. He executed, besides genre pictures, a few historical pieces. Martin de Vos was born at Antwerp in 1531. He learned the rudiments of art from his father, a painter of little note. Young Martin, on leaving his father, entered the school of Frans Floris. He then went to Italy, where he studied under Tintoretto , from whom he acquired his chief characteristic — Venetian colouring. After an absence. of eight years, De Vos returned to Antwerp, where he was made member of the Academy, in 1559, and about the same time he set up a school ; and as he had brought home from Italy numerous copies of antique art, they were serviceable as models for young painters. De Vos died at Antwerp in 1603. His best works were formerly in the Cathedral of Antwerp, and are now in the museum of that town. They represent 288 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. TA.D. 1550 the Temptation of St. Anthony and the Incredulity of St. Thomas. Martin de Vos did not adhere so firmly to the Italian method as many of his contemporaries, and on the whole his works are more pleasing. He was celebrated as a portrait- painter. There were numerous artists in Flanders of the name of De Vos. Hans Bol was born at Mechlin in 1535. After he had learned the rudiments of his art, he went on a tour through Germany, staying some time at Heidelberg, but ultimately settled at Amsterdam , where he became famous as a landscape painter. He had previously executed historical works ; a Dedalus and Icarus, and a Crucifixion by him , were greatly praised by Van Mander. Hans Bol died at Amsterdam in 1593. Pictures by him are in the galleries of Berlin and Munich . He was also a miniature painter, and an engraver. Frans Pourbus-called " the Elder,” to distinguish him from his son-was born at Bruges in 1540. He acquired the rudiments of art from his father, and completed his education in painting under Frans Floris. In 1564 Pourbus went to Antwerp, where he resided until his death, which occurred in 1580. His name appears on the records of the Painters' Guild at Antwerp, from 1564 10 1575. He was a good portrait painter, and his works are noticeable for purity of colour. He also painted historical subjects, but not with equal success. Jooris Hoefnagel, who was born at Antwerp in 1545 , was a pupil of Hans Bol. On the completion of his study, he travelled in France, Spain, Italy and Germany. On his return to his native country he settled at Antwerp ; but, being obliged to quit that city when it was sacked by the Spaniards, he removed to Munich, where he was patronized by the Duke of Bavaria. He subsequently went to Vienna, and painted for the Emperor Rudolph II . at Prague. Hoefnagel died at Vienna in 1600. He executed numerous drawings of various subjects on his journeys, but his chief fame rests on his miniature painting. A Roman missal, which he executed for the Archduke Ferdinand, of the Tyrol, and which occupied him eight years, is in the Imperial Library at Vienna. He designed a work on Natural History - containing specimens of every animal on the face of the earth, in the water, and in the air which was engraved by his son. Hoefnagel is also said to have executed a map of Bristol , from which it has been surmised that he came to England. Bartholomäus Spranger, who was born at Antwerp in 1546, after having acquired the rudiments of art in his native country, went through France to Italy. In Parma he studied under a pupil of Correggio, but he formed his style chiefly from the works of Parmigiano. In Rome, Spranger was much patronized by Cardinal Farnese and Pope Pius V. , for whom he executed several considerable works - among others a Last Judgment. In 1575 , Spranger was appointed court painter to the Emperor Maximilian II . , on whose decease he entered into the service of Rudolph II. , who employed him in Vienna and at Prague, in which city, according to Van Mechel he died in 1625 , ( the year 1628 is also given as the date of his death) . The gallery of Vienna contains many of his works ; of these one of the best is His own Portrait. Spranger enjoyed, in his lifetime, much greater fame than now falls to his lot. His pictures are mannered in their style, and display great want of taste as regards colour. Carel van Mander, the poet, painter and historian, was born of a noble family at Meulebeke, near Courtray, in 1548. After having acquired the rudiments of his A.D. 1575. ) PIETER DE WITTE. 289 art in Ghent and Courtray, he went to Italy and studied for three years ( from 1574 till 1577 ) . On his way home, Van Mander executed various works at Bâle and Vienna. Some time after his return to Flanders he was driven from the town of his adoption, first by wars and then by the plague. In 1583 , he went to Haarlem , where during a residence of twenty years he established a school, wrote many poems, translated several of the classics , and compiled the greater part of the work which has made his name famous. He completed it in 1604 at the Castle of Levenbergen , between Alkmaar and Haarlem. This work (" Het Schilder Boek ') was published at Haarlem in 1604 ; and a second edition—with some additions and the omission of the notices of the Italian painters - appeared at Amsterdam in 1764. Carel van Mander was, like his contemporaries, a copyist of the Italian masters ; he was prob ably urged on in this feeble imitation by Spranger, whom he met at Rome. Mander died, honoured and beloved , at Amsterdam in 1606. It is said that no less than three hundred friends and scholars followed his body to its last resting -place. This artist had a son, Carel, who was a good portrait -painter. Pieter de Witte - called by the Italians “ Pietro Candido ” —was born at Bruges, in 1548. He went, when still young, to Florence, and was employed by Vasari both there and at Rome ; he subsequently painted for the Grand Duke of Tuscany, in Florence . When building his palace at Munich, Maximilian, Elector of Bavaria, sent for De Witte to come and decorate the building. The artist remained at Munich during the rest of his life, and died there in 1628 (?). Two good works, an Annunciation and a Last Supper, by De Witte, have been engraved , among others, by Sadeler. The frescoes, representing the Life of Otto of Wittesbach and the Departure of Ludwig IV . for Rome, which De Witte painted in the Hofgarten at Munich, have unfortunately been whitewashed over. But tapestries made from the frescoes, and engravings of these tapestries are still preserved. Pieter Breughel, “ the younger ” -called “ Hell ” Breughel-was born about the middle of the sixteenth century. As a painter he is much inferior to his father, and there is nothing in the subjects of his pictures to recommend him to one's notice. A Christ bearing the Cross, in the Antwerp Museum, is a good specimen of this artist. He died at Antwerp in 1638. Matthew Bril, who was born at Antwerp in 1550 ( ?) , went to Rome during the pontificate of Gregory XIII. , who became a liberal patron to him . He painted in fresco in the Loggie of the Vatican, for that pope, several landscapes, which were the more admired on account of the rarity of the subject in the papal capital. He received a pension from Gregory XIII. Unfortunately Bril died at Rome, while still young, in 1584 (?). Owing to his early death , he has left but few works, but an evidence of his proficiency, as a teacher at least, is left us in the person of his younger brother, Paul Bril. Hendrik van Steenwyck, “ the elder, " was born at Steenwyck, in 1550. He studied architectural drawing under Jan Fredemann de Vries. Steenwyck's pictures usually represent the interiors of Gothic churches and cathedrals, and are remarkable for the accuracy of the perspective, and the effects of torchlight on the domes and columns of the buildings. Steenwyck died in 1604. He left a son , Hendrik van Steenwyck, the younger, who was born at Antwerp in 1589 , and who was, in the atelier of his father, a fellow - student with the elder Neefs. Recommended to Charles I. by Vandyck, 2 P 290 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1600 Steenwyck came to England and executed various works for that monarch . He died in London, about the middle of the seventeenth century. He painted the same subjects as his father, treating them in a similar manner. Paul Bril, the best of the Flemish landscape- painters, was born at Antwerp in 1556. He studied first under one Wortelman ; but, hearing of his brother's success in Rome, he set out at once for the papal capital, where he studied under his brother, and improved his style by close attention to the works of Titian. During the lifetime of his brother, Paul assisted him in his works, and on his death received the same DUCK - SHOOTING . – BY PAUL BRIL . patronage from the Pope that his brother had enjoyed, and the same pension. For Sixtus V. , Paul Bril executed several considerable works in the Sistine Chapel, in Santa Maria Maggiore, and in the Scala Santa in San Giovanni in Laterano. For Clement VIII. he painted works of great merit - more especially the Martyrdom of St. Clement, in the Sala Clementina. Paul Bril died at Rome in 1626. His landscapes, as a rule, represent the quiet beauties of nature . “ He was the first to introduce a certain unity of light in his pictures, attaining thereby a far finer general effect than those who had preceded him. His deficiencies lie in the over-force, and A.D. 1600. ] OTTO VÆNIUS. 201 also in the monotonous green, of his foregrounds, and in the exaggerated blueness of his distances. ” (Kugler's · Handbook of Painting. ) Good specimens of Paul Bril are in the Louvre and in the Berlin Museum . A few of his pictures contain figures by Annibale Carracci . Heinrich Goltzius, who was born at Mulbrecht, in the Duchy of Juliers, in 1558, is better known as an engraver than a painter ; indeed, he did not take up the brush until he was forty-one years of age. His earliest known work is a Crucifi rion , which was admired by Van Mander. Goltzius's only title to fame is gained by his engravings. Upwards of five hundred are attributed to him . He imitated Lucas van Leyden and Albrecht Dürer with some success, but whenever he attempted to copy the style of Michelangelo he fell into egregious faults. Goltzius died in 1625 . Othon van Veen - called Otto Vænius-was born at Leyden in 1560 ( various other dates are given as the year of his birth ). After having learned the rudiments of art in his native town and in Liége, he was sent to Italy by Cardinal Grosbeck , Prince Bishop of Liége, who gave him a letter of introduction to Cardinal Maduccio. At Rome, Van Veen was well received by Maduccio, and soon afterwards commenced to work under Federigo Zuccaro. After eight years of study of the Italian masters and of the antique, Van Veen returned through Vienna, Munich, and Cologne to the Netherlands and settled ať Brussels , where he was appointed painter to Alexander Farnese, Prince of Parma and Governor of the Netherlands. On the death of his patron , Van Veen established himself at Antwerp, where he joined the Guild in 1594 ; soon afterwards the Archduke Albrecht, becoming governor as successor to the Prince of Parma, made him , in 1620, his painter and master of the mint at Brussels, in which city Van Veen died in 1629 (some writers say in 1634) . This illustrious man, who, besides studying painting, science, and literature, was also a distinguished mathematician, historian , and poet, may be studied at Paris in a collection of portraits, dated 1584, which is called Otto Vænius and his Family. It is a fine picture, of much interest and importance. Other paintings by him are in the galleries of Antwerp, Munich, and elsewhere. But like Perugino and Wohlgemuth, the chief title of Othon van Veen to glory is through his pupil ; he was the master of Rubens. Josse de Momper — who was born at Antwerp ( ?) about 1560-— was admitted to the Guild of St. Luke in 1581 ( the Liggeren ). He lived chiefly at his native Antwerp, where he died in 1622. (Other dates, as late as 1635 , are given as the year of his death. ) His pictures represent roinantic scenery ; they are treated in a bold manner , but lack the usual characteristic finish of his countrymen . Many of his landscapes contain figures by other artists ; among whom are, Pieter Breughel, David Teniers the elder, and Henrik van Balen. Momper was also an engraver. Mark Gerard -- sometimes called Garrard --was born at Bruges in 1561. Having learned the rudiments of his art in his native city, he came, about 1580, to England ; and as he received much patronage from Queen Elizabeth and her court, he remained in this country until his death in 1635. Gerard painted historical and landscape sub jects, as well as portraits. His pictures are chiefly of interest from the persons whom they represent. The Court, from “ good Queen Bess ” downwards, sat to him . · A portrait of Queen Elizabeth is in the possession of the Marquis of Exeter at Burleigh House. His Procession of Queen Elizabeth to Hunsdon House has been engraved and 292 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1600 described by Vertue. Gerard, Walpole tells us, also “ drew a procession of the Queen and knights of the Garter, in 1584, from whence Ashmore took his plate for the history of that order." Cornelis Cornelissen - commonly known as Cornelis van Haarlem , from his birth place—was born at 1562. Having acquired an elementary education in art in his native town, Cornelissen set out with the intention of going through France to Italy. Owing to the plague, he was unable to land at Rouen, whither he had gone by ship. He accordingly returned and settled at Antwerp, where he studied under Francis Pourbus and one Giles Coignet. On his return to Haarlem in 1583 , he painted for the Guild of Marksmen in that town a picture, containing many portraits , which gained him much praise. Cornelissen died at Haarlem in 1638. His masterpiece is in the Berlin gallery. It represents Bathsheba bathing, and is dated 1617. Pictures by him are in the Dresden gallery, but they are of no great merit. Jan Breughel-called “ Velvet Breughel,” it is said, from his partiality for dressing in that material—was born at Brussels in 1568 (?) . In 1601 he bought the freedom of the city of Antwerp, where he chiefly resided until his death in 1625 (?) . (Various dates are given for the births and deaths of all three Breughels.) Jan Breughel painted in early life miniatures and flower-pieces ; but after his journey to Italy he turned his attention towards landscapes. He frequently painted landscape backgrounds to other artists' pictures. Among the painters with whom Velvet Breughel worked in conjunction , were Adrian van der Venne, Van Balen, and even Rubens. In art, Jan Breughel was as superior to his father as the latter was to his son Pieter He painted scenes from peasant-life and demoniacal subjects, with much success. His works display a sound knowledge of chiaroscuro. Good specimens of his painting are in the galleries of Dresden, Berlin , the Louvre, and Madrid . One of his best landscapes is in the Hague gallery ; it contains figures of Adam and Eve by Rubens. Frans Pourbus, called “ the younger ," was born at Antwerp in 1570. He received his first instruction in art from his father. On the completion of his studies, Frans the younger went to Paris, intending to continue his journey as far as Rome, but as he received so much encouragement at the French capital he entered the service of Henri IV. , for whom he executed numerous portraits. He died at Paris in 1622 . He was an excellent portrait- painter, but inferior to his father. Good specimens of his art are a Last Supper and a likeness of Queen Marie de Médicis in a blue velvet robe covered with fleurs-de-lis , in the Louvre. Another portrait of the same queen is in the Madrid Museum . Paul van Somer, who was born at Antwerp in 1570, came to England soon after the beginning of the seventeenth century, and continued to reside in this country until his death in 1624 (?). Walpole gives a list of portraits , " that are indubitably his." Of these it will be sufficient to notice, two of James I., and one of his Queen. Pictures by him , of the Earl and Countess of Arundel, are in the possession of the Duke of Norfolk at Arundel Castle. Van Somer painted little else than portraits, which he executed in a masterly style. Roelandt Savery, the son of one Jacques Savery, an unimportant painter — was born at Courtray in 1576, and was first instructed in art by his father. He went during the reign of Henri IV. to France, and executed for that monarch's palaces various pictures representing landscapes with animals. He returned from France to the Netherlands, A.D. 1625. ) PIETER NEEFS. 293 where he remained a very short time before he was summoned to Prague by Rudolph II. Savery served this monarch until his death , when he removed to Utrecht, where he thenceforth resided. His landscapes are often of a wild and romantic character, and the beasts represented are by no means domestic pets. He died in 1639. Adam Willaerts, who was born at Antwerp in 1577 , removed in 1600 to Utrecht, where he remained until his death in 1640. He generally painted coast- scenes, and occasionally country fairs and other genre subjects. The Town of Briel, a large work by him, is in the Museum of Rotterdam ; and a Féte given at Tervueren by the Arch duke Albert and Isabella of Austria, by some considered to be his masterpiece, is in the Antwerp Museum. David Vinckeboons, who was born at Mechlin in 1578 , was a painter of peasant scenes, and occasionally of historical pieces with landscape backgrounds. His genre pictures display all the vulgarity and coarseness of Peasant Breughel, but lack his talent. Four sketches, illustrating the History of the Prodigal Son, by Vinckeboons, are in the British Museum. This artist died at Amsterdam in 1629. Frans Francken - called “ the younger," to distinguish him from his father, an unimportant painter - was born at Antwerp in 1581. He was, through his father, a disciple of Frans Floris , but his pictures display much study of the works of Rubens. After a visit of a few years in Italy - chiefly spent in Venice - Francken entered the Academy of Antwerp in 1605 ; and resided in that city until his death in 1642. Francken is essentially a genre-painter, and he is one of the best of that class of artists at his time ; he was a good draughtsman , and his works are well conceived , but the colour is not always perfect. He executed several historical works, of which the Antwerp Museum has good specimens, but they are not equal to his genre pictures. Francken frequently painted figures for the landscape-pictures of other artists. Several relatives of this artist were painters, but none were of any importance. Pieter Neefs, “ the elder, ” who was born at Antwerp in 1570, studied his branch of art, architectural painting, under Hendrik van Steenwyck the elder. Neefs painted interior's of churches with much success. He excelled in the representation of those torchlight scenes which his master had , to a certain extent, originated. The painters of architectural scenes, like those of landscapes, were wont to have their pictures supplied with figures by other artists. Neefs' works contain figures by Jan Breughel, Frans Francken the younger, David Teniers the elder, and other painters. Pictures by Neefs are in the Louvre, the Vienna gallery, and elsewhere. He died in 1561. We may here mention his son, Pieter Neefs “ the younger," who was born at Antwerp in 1600. He painted the same subjects as his father, but in an inferior manner. An Interior of Antwerp Cathedral by him is in the Amsterdam Gallery ; and other spe cimens are in the Vienna gallery. It is not known when Pieter Neefs the younger died, probably about 1660. Bonaventura Peters, a successful painter of marine subjects, was born at Antwerp in 1614. He represented the sea in all its phases : lashed to fury by the winds, with the ship rushing to destruction amid the roar of the thunder and the lightning's glare ; also boats riding quietly at anchor on a calm and placid sea ; but the former subject was his favourite, and the one in which he specially excelled . Pictures by Peters are rarely seen in public galleries. He died at Antwerp in 1652 (?) . He had a younger brother, who painted the same subjects , but in an inferior manner. 294 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1600.

CHAPTER 11 . REVIVAL OF ART IN FLANDERS.

DURING the latter half of the sixteenth century, the Flemish school gradually sank into so low a state that there remained only a few indifferent artists, whose names are scarcely worthy of record . Early in the next century, however, a new master arose, whose fame has rivalled that of Leonardo, Raphael, and Titian, and who must always be called the Prince of Flemish Painters. Peter Paul Rubens raised Art in Flanders to its highest excellence, and his numerous pupils helped to maintain the celebrity of the school of Antwerp for many years. Peter Paul Rubens, the exponent of the highest triumph of Flemish art, renewed and invigorated by its intercourse with Italy, was born at Siegen , in Westphalia, on the 29th of June—the day of St. Peter and St. Paul - in 1577. His father, a physician, and his mother (nata Pypeling) lived some time previous to young Rubens' birth at Antwerp ; but, in 1568, owing to religious disturbances, they had been forced to quit that city. When Rubens was but one year old , his parents removed to Cologne ; and in 1587, on the death of his father, the family returned to Antwerp, where, though his mother wished him to follow the profession of his father, Rubens received his earliest instruc tion in art. He first studied under one Tobias Verhaart and Adam van Noort; he then, in 1596, entered the atelier of Othon van Veen (Otto Vænius), with whom he remained four years. Luckily Rubens was not much struck with admiration of his master's style , for, had it left any lasting impression on his mind, he might never have attained that fame which he afterwards enjoyed. In 1597 he entered the Guild of Painters of Antwerp ; and on leaving Van Veen,in 1600, he paid a visit to Italy. He resided a short time at Venice, and studied the works of the great colourists ; and then went to Mantua, where a letter of introduction from the Archduke Albert of the Netherlands to the Duke Vincenzio Gonzaga, obtained him employment in that nobleman's service. Shortly after his arrival at Mantua, where he had studied the frescoes of Giulio Romano, Rubens was permitted to go to Rome, and after a short stay at Mantua to revisit Venice, where he paid careful attention to the works of the old masters, more especially those of Titian and Paul Veronese. Soon afterwards Rubens went again to Rome, where, besides studying the frescoes of Michelangelo , he executed works for both his patrons -- the Archduke Albert and Gonzaga. In 1605 , he was sent by the latter on a diplomatic visit to Philip IV. of Spain. There he executed portraits of eminent personages of the Court. On his A.D. 1600.1 RUBENS. 295 return to Italy, Rubens went again to Rome, then through Milan to Genoa, where he painted many pictures of the palaces of the Genoese nobles. In 1608, on hearing that his mother was dangerously ill , Rubens quitted Genoa in haste, but unfortunately arrived at Antwerp too late to see his parent alive. He had intended to return to Mantua, but the Archduke Albert persuaded him , much against his inclination , to remain in the Netherlands, and in 1609 appointed him court -painter to himself and his Duchess Isabella . Rubens consented, with the agreement that he might reside in Antwerp, where he married his first wife, Isabella Brant. In the following year he erected a magnificent mansion for himself, and became the head of an illustrious school of painters. In 1620 Rubens was invited to France by Marie de Médicis, to execute impor tant works for her. After her interview with Louis XIII. at Brissac, in 1620, and their momentary reconciliation , the widow of Henri IV. lived in the Luxembourg at Paris. Endowed with the taste for the fine arts hereditary in her family, this daughter of the Medici wished the long gallery of the palace, and another gallery which she intended to have constructed, to be decorated by eminent artists. In the one her own history was to be depicted ; in the other, that of the great and good Henri IV. The Baron de Vicq, then ambassador from the Archduke Albert, proposed Rubens to the Queen. Marie accepted the artist, and the artist accepted the work. He came to Paris in 1621 ; painted in chiaroscuro, under the eyes of the queen -mother, sketches for the pictures of the first series ; and on his return to his studio at Antwerp, with the assistance of his principal pupils, he proceeded rapidly with the work, which he returned to Paris to terminate in 1623 to 1625. Rubens had already commenced the sketches for the History of Henri IV ., when the fresh and definitive exile of the queen- mother, pro nounced by Richelieu, put an end to the work. Soon after his return to Antwerp, Rubens started in 1626 on a tour through Holland, and during his journey visited many Dutch painters of importance. In this year his wife Isabella died, leaving him two sons, whose well-known portraits are in the Lichtenstein Gallery in Vienna. In 1627 he was employed in diplomatic service at the Hague, and in the following year he was sent by the widow of the Archduke Albert, the Infanta Isabella , as ambassador to Philip IV. of Spain. In the following year the Infanta sent him, in the same capacity, to Charles I. of England. The object of his journey was to induce that monarch to consent to a treaty of peace with Spain. Rubens was kindly and graciously received by Charles I. , who conferred on him the honour of knighthood, at the same time presenting him with his own sword, and throwing round his neck a costly chain , which the painter ever afterwards wore in remembrance of the monarch . Rubens was in the same year knighted by Philip IV . of Spain. Among the works he executed for Charles I. is the allegory of Peace and War, now in the National Gallery. In Geneva it was known as the “ Family of Rubens. ” It was during his residence in England, when he was copying a Venus by Titian, that a nobleman, finding him at his easel, asked him in surprise : “ Does the ambassador of His Catholic Majesty sometimes amuse himself with painting ? ” “ I amuse myself sometimes with being an ambassador, " replied the artist. A good reply ; but one which does not suffice to remove from him the reproach of having assisted to unite the Courts of Spain and England , and of having served a foreign government which kept his country under the yoke of a tyrannical oppression. Rubens, while in England, made the designs for the great ceiling -piece for Whitehall ; the work was completed afterwards on his return to Antwerp. He is 296 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1640. said to have received as much as £3000 for it. Rubens returned to Antwerp in 1630, and in the following year married his second wife, Helena Fourment, when she was but sixteen years of age. By this marriage he had five children , all of whom survived him. On the 30th of May, 1640, this great painter, the protector of artists, and friend of kings and nobles, died, possessed of great wealth, celebrated, and much honoured , at Antwerp, where he was buried with great pomp in the church of St. Jacques. The tomb, designed by the painter himself, fills a small chapel behind the choir of the church. His body rests in the centre of this chapel under a stone, which has been covered with a long Latin inscription , enumerating all the names, titles, and virtues of the deceased. The only inscription necessary would have been RUBENS. Rubens' love of work was so constant, and his fertility so wonderful, that there are nearly fifteen hundred of his pictures which have been engraved , and this enormous number is scarcely half his works. At the same time it must be remembered that many works attributed to him were executed from his designs by his pupils. In the Louvre there are forty - two pictures ascribed to him ; Antwerp is almost as rich as Paris ; Madrid is equally so. In the Hermitage at St. Petersburg no less than fifty four pictures or sketches are ascribed to him , and the largest of the rooms and the deepest of the cabinets of the Pinakothek at Munich - forming a separate museum in the midst of the general one - are entirely filled by ninety - five paintings by Rubens, all authentic, and, what is still more important, all well chosen. And then come Dresden, Vienna, Brussels, London - it would be impossible to enumerate all. Speaking of this artist , Sir Joshua Reynolds says, “ He was perhaps the greatest master in the mechanical part of the art , the best workman with his tools, that ever exercised a pencil : ” and Walpole wrote, “ The just boldness of his drawing, the wonderful chiaroscuro diffused throughout his pictures, and not loaded like Rembrandt's to force out one peculiar spot of light, the variety of his carnations, the fidelity to the customs and manners of the times he was representing, and attention to every part of his compositions, without enforcing trifles too much or too much neglecting them ; all this union of happy excellences endear the works of Rubens to the best judges : he is perhaps the single artist who attracts the suffrages of every rank. " Let us now examine some of the works of Rubens scattered throughout the world, beginning with those in his adopted country. The celebrated Descent from the Cross, which is unanimously considered the finest of all the numerous works of Rubens, is in the Cathedral of Antwerp. In looking at this masterpiece we must beware of expecting too much, for imagination is apt to play us such tricks that we are seldom satisfied with a first view, even of the Alps or the ocean. It cannot be seen very well ; it is hung rather too high, and the way in which the light falls on it prevents us from seizing the whole at a glance — a defective arrangement, which necessitates a long contempla tion of the work. It is needless to describe the subject. It is a large scene of high character, in which we find a nobler conception and more finished execution than usual , besides calmness in the midst of energetic movement, and also, in this instance , no less grandeur than fire and energy . The merits of the work are much increased by its perfect unity. All is in motion around the body of Jesus, which is, indeed , wonderfully delineated, full of morbidesza , very heavy and dead - too dead , perhaps, for there is nothing to announce the approaching resurrection-yet preserving, never theless, a dignity which may well be termed “ divine majesty. ” St. John, who wears a red garment, and is supporting the inanimate remains of the Saviour ; the Virgin, A.D. 1625. ) RUBENS 297 absorbed in profound grief ; and Mary Magdalene, whose tears only increase her beauty — form an admirable group at the foot of the Cross. We speak merely of the general arrangement and style. What need is there to praise the colouring of Rubens' masterpiece ? It may be interesting to inquire the origin of this great picture. When Rubens erected his magnificent house---palace, one might say - at Antwerp, he encroached upon a small portion of land belonging to the Company of Archers. It was agreed that, as a compensation , he should paint a picture of St. Christopher, the patron DESCENT FROM THE CROSS . — BY RUBENS, In the Cathedral of Antwerp. saint of the society. The artist , with his usual liberality, determined to give the worthy archers more than they had demanded,and painted all the Christophers ; that is to say, all disciples those who had borne the Saviour in their arms , from the aged Simeon to the who received his body from the cross. The Descent from the Cross is the central Presentation panelofof a vast triptych, on the wings of which are the Visitation and the Jesus in the Temple. As the archers , it is said , did not quite understand Rubens' rendering of the legend ,the artist painted for them a picture of St. Christopher on one of thewings which met with their entire approval. 2 Q 298 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS ( A.D. 1625 . . Of the other pictures by Rubens at Antwerp we must mention a Crucifixion, the pendent of the Descent ; a vast Assumption of the Virgin, placed over the high altar in the same cathedral, the colouring of which is magnificent ; besides the eighteen pictures in the Museum , amongst which may be found a Last Communion of St. Francis, unsurpassed, perhaps, by any other work of Rubens. In the modest -looking church of St. Jacques, the picture over the altar contains, under pretence of a Holy Family, the whole family of the painter. The warrior St. George is Rubens himself ; St. Jerome is bis father ; Time, his grandfather ; an angel, his youngest son ; Martha and Mary Magdalene, his first wiſe Isabella and Helena then living. The Virgin is supposed to have been a Fräulein Lunden, who served him as a model several times, and whom he immortalized under the name of Chapeau de Paill . This pretended Holy Family, which contains far more than the orthodox number of personages for this subject, is a magnificent picture in which there is everything to admire.-- composition, colour, effect, and preservation. Of all the great works by Rubens we know none superior to this simple collection of portraits. It is said that it took him only seventeen days to paint. It was executed in 1625 , fifteen years before his death . We must now leave Flanders and pass on to Munich, where we shall find ninety: five paintings by Rubens, including specimens of all his styles, in subjects taken from sacred, profane, and mythological history, in allegory, portrait and landscape painting. The largest and most valuable of all those in the Pinakothek is certainly the Last Judgment, which is the same size as the Descent Descent from from the t Cross C.. Rubens had seen the Last Juugment in the Sistine, and appears to have taken great care to avoid any resemblance to the work of his illustrious predecessor. He has treated the same suliject, but in a different and very opposite manner. Michelangelo, always gloomy in his disposition, shows in this work all the wild melancholy of his character. To him the merciful Redeemer of mankind is a thundering Jupiter, who, as a terrible and inexorable judge, pours his wrath on all the vices of humanity. Rubens, on the contrary, more thoroughly a man, makes the Christ an equitable and merciful judge. Although he condemns the wicked, he also recompenses the good ; and although he reveals hell, he also opens the gates of heaven . Below the eternal throne and the celestial court are two vast groups : on the right, the condemned , who are being precipitated by a hideous group of demons into the abyss ; on the left the redeemed, who are carried to the celestial mansions by glorious angels. In this group one recognizes with emotion , and almost with gratitude, a poor negro, who seems as much surprised as delighted to find justice at last, and go to eternal happiness with his white brothers. Certainly such a thought of philanthropy and humanity was very rare two centuries and a half ago. We ought properly to notice each one of the pictures in the Munich gallery, but we have not room even for their names. We must, then, merely make a few remarks on some of them in passing. The Battle of the Amazons, and Castor and Pollux carrying off the Daughters of Leucippus, are among his best works. The painting of the Fall of the Damned, usually called the Small Last Judgment, is far more like the frescoes of Michelangelo than the other. Here, in the vortex of living beings, angels, men, women , and devils, all mingled together, the work of the imagination equals the manual labour. Another picture, of Susannah, which is lighted up by the rays of the cvening sun through the trees, evidently painted off at once without any last touches and corrections, is a perfect miracle of colouring, Rubens, although he excelled in the painting of children, has never surpassed the Screen Chililren carrying a festoon of A.D. 1625. ) RUBENS 299 . fruit and flowers. This little procession forms a charming picture : the children are bending under the weight of their trophy, and one, more mischievous or more of a gourmand than the rest, is eating the grapes from a cluster hanging over his head. The two Portraits of the painter himself, in one with his first and in the other with his second wife, and also that of this much - loved second wife alone, magnificently attired , rank among the best of his works. Several lan.Iscapes -- one of a Herd of Cows, another of a Storm and Rainbowo -- show the universality of the great painter, who was able to treat every subject as a master. We must now go on to Vienna. In the immense Lichtenstein Gallery we cannot but admire the portraits of his Two Sons,and the long series of pictures illustrating the History of Deius. But we must pass on rapidly to the Belvedere, where there are forty- three of Rubens' pictures - a sufficient number, one would imagine, to enable us to judge of his various qualities, including that of fertility. We must give a rapid glance at the magnificent portrait of the beautiful Helena Fourment, who is draped merely in a magnificent fur mantle, and also at a Festival of Venus in the Isle of Cythera, which is wonderful in its colour, motion, and life. Here we find not merely groups of loves, nymphs, and fauns dancing and sporting about, but also ladies of the time and country of the artist , bringing their gifts to the most pagan of the divinities. We must then visit the central hall, where three pictures entirely cover one of the sides. To the right and left of an Assumption , intended for a high altar, there are two vast peridents, devoted to the two greatest the Jesuits. In one Ignatius Loyola is curing a demoniac ; in the other Francisco Xavier is preaching the Gospel to the Indians. Whatever may be the merit of these large paintings, and also of others — such as the Four Quarters of the Globe, personified by the Danube, the Nile, the Ganges, and the Amazon, and the St. Ambrosius shutting the Temple Gates to Theodosius — we should not give to any of these the first place amongst the works of Rubens in the Belvedere. There is another, which we think to be not only his chef-d'æuvre here, but also to be one of the greatest of all his works. This is a vast triptych , uniting to the religious subject in the centre the portraits of the donors painted on the wings, with their patron saints. The subject of the centre picture is the Appearance of the Virgin to St. Ildefonso, and represents the Madonna presenting sacerdotal garments to the new Archbishop of Toledo. The donors are the Archduke Albert of Austria, Governor of the Low Countries for Spain , his wife Isabella , and Clara Eugenia , the daughter of Philip II. , who, when a widow , became an abbess. Both are kneeling, the former, near St. Albert, in a cardinals costume, and the latter, near St. Clara, in the costume of an abbess, turning towards the vision of St. Ildefonso ; and we may well say of the picture, as well as of the portraits, that Rubens has nowhere shown a union of greater nobleness, truth, and brilliancy. We might search in vain amongst his innumerable works for anything superior to this triptych. We must now pass on to Paris. There are forty - two of Rubens' paintings in the Louvre : the highest number by any single master to be found in the whole catalogue. The greater part of this number, and certainly the most important, form a series , and may be considered as a single work . This is called the History of Marie de Médicis. It was intended merely as the decoration of a palace ; it is now in the Louvre, and will be henceforth the chief ornament of that museum , as it is one of the finest works of the master. Certainly, if we consider its subject, this long poem in twenty-one cantos is not a history, but rather a series of allegories , or even of allegorical flatteries, in 300 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1625 . which it is difficult to recognize the haughty, obstinate, and false Marie de Médicis, who as a wife made herself hated by her husband, as a mother by her son, and as a regent by her subjects. Under the magic pencil of Rubens, this elegant flattery deserves the definition given of it by some deep thinker : “ It shows us the shadows at sunset." Doubtless, also, when looked on as simple works of art, these twenty -one pictures are not equal to the Descent from the Cross, at Antwerp, or the St. Ildefonso, at Vienna. Yet, from the unwonted greatness of the whole, from the inexhaustible invention and variety of the subjects, as well as from the wonderful execution of some parts — such as the Education of Marie, her Marriage, her Coronation , the Birth of Louis XIII., and the Apotheosis of Hinri IV.--this long series, taken as a whole, is inferior to none of Rubens' works. To these must be added the portruit of that sime Marie di Médicis another allegory and deceptive flattery --- for Rubens represents her as Bellona on horseback. like the great Minerva of Phidias, holding in her hand the statue of Victory, whilst she is being crowned with laurels, But in such a magnificent work, a perfect masterpiece of the art of representing human nature, whilst at the same time ennobling it, every thing may be forgiven, even its hyperbole and want of truth . Rubens is well represented in the Louvre. Besides his favourite allegories and several portraits, there are two Landscapes, one of which is lighted up by a rainbow ; whilst in the other, near the drawbridge of a castle, several knights are breaking lances, as if in a tournament. There is also a large Kermesse or Fair, which is no less gay and animated than if it were by Jan Steen . There are also some pictures with small figures. The Flight of Lot led out of Sodom by an angel with outstretched wings, and followed by his family, is an excellent and carefully -painted picture, which France may well be proud of possessing, since Rubens himself seems to have been proud of having painted it , as it is one of the small number which he signed. His name, “ Pe. Pl. Rubens,” traced by himself at the bottom of this little picture, is in some degree the seal of preference and superiority. And, indeed, to find an equal to it in the same style we should have to go to the Museo del Rey, at Nadrid. There, amongst such a number of other works that, as at Munich, a gallery might be formed of the works of Rubens alone, we shall find a Glorified Virgin adored by a group of fifteen saints Peter and Paul ( the patrons of the painter), Sebastian, Magdalen, and Theresa, the most poetical of the saints. Although the figures are only about a foot in height, this Madonna is a wonderſul work . The arrangement of the groups, the strength and delicacy of the touch , colour, and effect, are almost magical. The more fervent admirers of Rubens- those who have admired him at Antwerp, Munich, Vienna, and Paris -- if they have not seen this picture, do not yet know him entirely. We might cross the whole of Europe at a bound, and examine another rich collection of pictures in the Hermitage of St. Petersburg , where we should find, amongst many other works of the great painter of Antwerp, the Feast in the House of Simon the Pharisce. But it will l'e better to pass at once to England. If we had to name the one of Rubens' works which apperred to us superior in its execution to any of the others, we should choose one of those in the gallery of the Marquis of West minster — the History , Ixion anil the Cloud. This is a real capo d'opera in all the extent of that much - abused term . But the picture which is most interesting, at once from its beauty and its history, is the Diana and her Vymphs on their return from the chase, surprised while asleep by Satyrs. This picture was taken to Hampton Court, and presented to Charles I. by Rubens, cluring his visit to the king in 1629. A.D. 1625. ) FRANS SNYDERS. 301 At Blenheim , the seat of the Duke of Marlborough , are, among other of his works, the Rape of Proserpine ; a portrait of his second wife, Helena Fourment , and portraits of Himself, his Wife, and a Child , in one picture. In the National Gallery there are thirteen works by Rubens. Of these, besides the already-mentioned Peace and War, we must notice the Abiluition of the Sabine Women ; the Horrors of War ; the famous Chapeau de Paille ; the Triumph of Julius Cæsar, after that of Mantegna in the gallery at Hampton Court ; and two fine Landscapes. Good examples of Rubens are also to be found at Buckingham Palace, Leigh Court, Longford, and Warwick Castle. Abraham Jansens van Nuyssen, who was born at Antwerp in 1567 , studied under an unimportant master named Snellinck. He visited Italy, but his pictures are more after the style of Rubens than of the transalpine masters. Though sometimes a better draughtsman than Rubens, Jansens is far inferior to him in colour . His favourite subject was the effect of torchlights, and he excelled in representing deepest shadows in contrast with highest lights. The galleries of Antwerp and Vienna and the churches of Flanders contain many specimens of his art. Jansens died in 1632 . Martin Pepyn, who was born at Antwerp in 1575 , is a painter who maintains a half -way position between the first decline of Flemish art and its revival under Rubens. He was admitted into the Guild of Painters at Antwerp in 1600, but went when young to Italy, where he resided for some time and executed several important works. In the Antwerp Gallery there are a few of his pictures. A Portrait of a Laily in the Aremberg Gallery at Brussels, is favourably mentioned in Kugler's ' Handbook .' . Pepyn died in 1643 . Nicholas de Liemakere-called Roose — who was born at Ghent in 1575 , was President of the Guild of Painters of that city from 1623 till 1636. (Sunaert, Catalogue du Musée de Gand. ' ) He died at Ghent in 1646. Liemakere's pictures abound in his native city and throughout Flanders. It is related by Descamps that Rubens --- on being requested, by the confraternity of St. Michael at Ghent, to paint them an altar-piece in their chapel — refused to do so, saying that, “ possessing so fine a Rose, they might well dispense with flowers of foreign growth .” Frans Snyders-who , among the Flemish animal painters of the time, was second only to Rubens — was born at Antwerp in 1579. He studied art under “ Hell ” Breughel, and also, it is said , under Hendrik van Balen , from whom he acquired the art of flower and fruit painting. Snyders subsequently changed his subject to wild animals, in the representation of which , in their untamed and savage natures, be especially excels. He is said to have studied for some time in Italy - chiefly at Rome. Snyders was invited to Brussels by the Archduke Albert, Governor of the Netherlands, for whom he executed numerous works. A Stag -hunt, which was sent by the Archduke to Philip III . of Spain, so much delighted that monarch, that he commissioned the artist to paint various works, which were, until recently, in the Bueno Retiro . Snyders died at Antwerp in 1657. He often worked in conjunction with Rubens and Jordaens. He painted animals and sometimes fruit, flowers, and vegetables, to suit Rubens' pictures, and that artist in return painted figures to suit those of Snyders. Pictures painted by all three artists - Rubens, Snyders, and Jordaens — are still in existence . Snyders was also the friend of Vandyck, who painted his portrait, which was engraved with those of the other celebrated artists ( sce woodcut in notice of Vanlyck ). Works by Snyders are common on the Continent, but are only seen in 302 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1625 . private collections in England. The National Gallery does not possess a specimen of this master. A Bear- hunt by him is in the possession of the Duke of West minster. The galleries of the Louvre, Dresden, Munich, Vienna, and Berlin, contain the best of his pictures. A Kitchen with dead Game and Vegetables, by Rubens and Snyders, is in the gallery at the Hague. .SNYDERS FRASS .-- BYHIONI ABEAR - Gaspard de Craeyer - frequently spelt Crayer - one of the best Flemish painters of his time, was born at Antwerp in 1582. He studied at Brussels under Raphael, the son of Michael van Coxcyen. In 1607 , Craeyer was elected a master of the Brussels Guild. Having been employed to paint the portrait of Cardinal Ferdinand, Governor A.D. 1625.) GERARD SEGHERS. 303 of the Netherlands, to be sent to the King of Spain , Craeyer executed the work with such skill that he was appointed court-painter. He soon became rich and honoured , but in later life, wishing for peace and quiet, which the profession of court-painter did not allow, he resigned his appointment and went to Ghent, where he executed many important works, including the Centurion before Christ, which he painted for the Abbey of Affleghem . It was on seeing this picture that Rubens exclaimed , Craeyer, Craeyer, nobody will ever surpass you ! " He died at Ghent in 1669. Paintings by Craeyer are in the galleries of the Louvre, Ghent, Brussels, Munich , and Vienna. We may especially mention the Coronation of St. Rosalia , and the Martyrdom of St. Blaise— his last work, painted in 1668 — both in the Ghent Museum ; a Madonna and Child adored by Saints, in the Vienni Gallery ; and the same subject in the Pinakothek at Munich . Several works by Craeyer are in Spain ; it has been supposed that he paid a visit to that country in the reign of Philip IV. Jan Wildens was born at Antwerp in 1584. He was a pupil of Peter Verhult, but was indebted to nature for a greater part of the instruction which he received in art. Wildens was admitted to the guild of his native city when he was but twenty years of age. He frequently painted landscapes for Rubens and other artists ; and on the other hand, several painters executed figures for his woodland scenes. Works by Jan Wildens alone are rare . A Landscape, with a stag -hunt, formerly in the Landauer Brüderhaus, is said to be an excellent picture. He died at Antwerp in 1653. Gerard Zegers - sometimes called Seghers — was born in Antwerp in 1591. He studied under Van Balen and Abraham Jansens. He then went to Italy, where he admired the works of Caravaggio. Zegers afterwards went to Spain, and executed numerous works for Philip III. On his return to Antwerp, he became honoured and wealthy. He died in 1651 at his native city, which possesses many of his works. The Marriage of the Virgin , once in the Church of the Carmelites and now in the Museum , is his masterpiece. He painted historical subjects, both sacred and profane. His drawing is good , and his colour is vigorous and powerful. Lucas van Uden — the son of an unimportant painter, from whom he received his education in art-was born at Antwerp in 1595. He painted for Rubens' pictures landscape-backgrounds which have been much admired . Both David Teniers and Rubens painted figures in Van Uden's landscapes. There are seven of this artist's works in the Dresden Gallery, where he can be studied in all his different subjects. Occasionally he painted waterfalls, but his favourite subject was a landscape with hills and mountains in the distance, which he rendered with great truth to nature. A fine Landscape by him is in the Dubus Gallery at Brussels. Lucas van Uden was also an engraver : the British Museum contains specimens of his style in this branch of art . He died at Antwerp in 1672 or 1673. Justus Sustermans, who was born at Antwerp in 1597, studied under Willem de Vos, a painter of little note. It is only by reason of his birth that Sustermans has any right to be accounted a Flemish painter, for in early life he went to Italy and settled in Florence, where he resided, honoured and patronized, until his death in 1681 . He was chiefly employed by the Grand Duke Cosmo II . of Tuscany, and by his successors, Ferdinando II , and Cosmo III . Sustermans painted both historic pictures and portraits ; in the latter subject he was little inferior to his friend the great Vandyck, who painted his likeness. Sustermans' best works are in Florence, and in 304 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1625. the galleries of Berlin and Vienna. We may especially mention The Florentine Nobility swearing allegiance to Duke Ferdinando II., in the Uffizi at Florence ; and an Entombment in the Berlin Gallery. A portrait of Alexander Farnese by this artist is in the Royal Institution at Edinburgh. “ He was of decided realistic tendency, an able draughtsman , a powerful and clear colourist, and possessed much freedom of brush. In his historical pictures the intluences both of the schools of the Carracci and of Caravaggio are strongly seen. From the former he imitated the style of composition, drapery, and elevated forms; from the latter his powerful effects. " (Kugler's Handbook.) Theodor Rombouts, who was born at Antwerp in 1597 , studied under an obscure painter named Lanckveldt. It is said that he also received instruction from Abraham Jansens. In 1617 he went to Italy, and painted in Rome and Florence several im portant works. On his return in 1625 , he was admitted as a master to the Guild of Painters at Antwerp, where he continued to reside until his death in 1637. His masterpiece, a Deposition from the Cross, is in Ghent Cathedral. Rombouts is a good draughtsinan, but his colouring has but ordinary merit. PUPILS OF RUBENS. We have hitherto been noticing painters contemporary with Rubens, who were all more or less affected by his style, but who cannot be called his pupils, for several of them , as Snyders and Jordaens, were his collaboratcurs. We have now to notice his personal pupils. Of these there is but one who is in any way worthy of comparison with the great master, We shall therefore place him first, though he is by some years the junior of several of his fellow -pupils. Antony Vandyck, the eminent portrait-painter, was born of good family at Antwerp. on the 22nd of March, 1599. He was the seventh child of a family of twelve ; his mother was famous as an amateur flower -painter and embroiderer. Vandyck was apprenticed to Van Balen when he was but ten years old , and in 1615 entered the academy of the great painter Rubens, with whom he remained as a pupil till 1620 . when he was engaged as his assistant. In 1618, Vandyck was admitted to the Guild of St. Luke at Antwerp. In 1621 , he paid a short and unimportant visit to England, and worked in the service of James I. ; and in 1623, by the advice of Rubens, set out for Italy. After a short visit to Brussels, occasioned by his love for a peasant girl of Savelthem - for the church of which town he painted a Holy Family and a St. Martin Vandyck arrived in Italy, where he executed many important works. He stayed chiefly at Genoa, but also visited Rome, Venice, an: Palermo. On his return to Antwerp in 1628, Vandyck became justly famous as a painter both of historical subjects and of portraits. His chief historical works which he then executed were the Crucifiaien for the church of St. Michael at Ghent, and a St. Augustin for the church of the Augustines at Antwerp. He also executed in chiaroscuro a series of portraits of the eminent painters of his time. Engravings of them have been published three times. Vandyck etched several of the plates himself. ( S « woodcut.) In 1630 Vandyck went from the Hague - whither he had been invited by the Prince of Orange -- to London, but as he did not meet with the encouragement which he had been A.D. 1625. ) VANDYCK 305 led to believe he should receive from the English monarch, he returned to Antwerp. Charles, on seeing a portrait of his chapel-master, Nicolas Laniere, which Vandyck had executed on his visit to England , discovered what a treasure he had lost, and early in 1632 dispatched Sir Kenelm Digby to request the painter to return. Vandyck was most graciously received by Charles, who gave him apartments at Blackfriars, where he was often honoured with a visit from the king, who frequently sat to him. On the 5th of July, 1632 , Vandyck was knighted at St. James's, and on the 15th of the same month he received 280l. for “ diverse pictures by him made for his majestye. ” In the PORTRAIT OF FRANS SNYDERS. —FROM AN ETCHING BY VANDYCK, following year he was appointed painterto the king, with an annual salary of 2001. From this time, Vandyck became the favourite painter in England. Not only the monarch, and his wife and children, but all the Court sat to him . There were no less than seventy-two portraits of the English nobility by Vandyck exhibited in the National Portrait Collection of 1866. He was wont to receive, Walpole tells us, 6ol, for a full- length , and 40l. for a half length portrait. “ He was indefatigable," adds that author, “ and, keeping a great table, often detained the persons who sat to him, for an opportunity of studying their countenances, and of retouching their pictures again in the afternoon . " He lived in a 2 R 306 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . ( A.D. 1630. grand, and almost regal, manner, in the summer at Eltham, and in the winter at Blackfriars. The civil war cut short Vandyck's career as a painter, and it was soon after terminated by his death, which occurred in Blackfriars, on the 9th of December, 1641 . He was buried two days afterwards in the old church of St. Paul, near the tomb of John of Gaunt. Vandyck bequeathed to his wife Mary, a grand- daughter of Lord Gowrie, and his daughter, " all his goods, effects and moneys, due to him in England from King Charles, the nobility, and all other persons whatever, to be equally divided between them . ” He also left other legacies to his executors, his trustees, to his sisters, his natural daughter Maria Teresa, to his servants, and to the poor of St. Paul's and St. Anne's, Blackfriars. In the Museum of Antwerp the precious tables are still preserved in which the names of the Deans of the Corporation of Painters were successively inscribed from its foundation in 1454 until its extinction in 1778. Two names only in this long list are inscribed in capital letters — that of Rubens, under the date 1631 , and that of Vandyck under 1634. Vandyck deserves more than to be called “ the moon of Rubens' sun." In the first place he equalled his master in fertility. His life indeed was shorter by one half— we mean his artist life, which scarcely begins under twenty. He died when forty two, and so could only work half as long as Rubens, who lived to be sixty-three. If we endeavour to count his works, we shall find forty at St. Petersburg, forty -one at Munich, twenty -four in the Belvedere, and twenty -four in the Lichtenstein Galleries at Vienna, nineteen at Dresden, twenty -two at Windsor, and seven in the National Gallery, and many in the Museo del Rey, and in the Louvre. If we continue the parallel, we must make a distinction ; Vandyck remained below his master in composition. In the first place he is far from having his inexhaustible invention ; in sacred subjects he usually confined himself to a Dead Christ, frequently repeated, and a Mater dolorosa, with her eyes raised to heaven and reddened with tears. Nor does he possess the wonderful execution of Rubens. However, some very fine works suffice to prove what he might have done in a longer and freer life. Such, for example, is the Taking of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, which is in the Museum of Madrid. At first sight, when the eye encounters the red glare of the torches borne by the soldiers, the picture might be taken for the work of Jordaens ; but in the rather studied elegance of the attitudes, the beauty of the features , the delicacy of the touch, and the moderation in the effects, we recognise the more elevated and softer style of Vandyck. Others of his finer composition may be found in various galleries. At Munich there is a Christ on the Cross, of wonderful expression and effect ; at Vienna, the Vision of the Blessed Hermann Joseph, a favoured monk, who is receiving the ring given him by the Virgin in sign of mystic marriage ; at Dresden, a Danäe receiving the rain of golden pieces which a Love--unworthy of the name— is trying on a touch stone ; at Antwerp, another Christ on the Cross, between St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Sienna, a simple work, though one of great nobility, which Vandyck painted in 1629 , to accomplish a vow of his dying father ; at Brussels , there is a Martyrdom of St. Peter, which unites great energy to the dignity requisite for a sacred subject; at St. Peters burg, the celebrated Madonna withthe Partridges, which before it was acquired by the Empress Catherine formed the glory of Sir Robert Walpole's gallery ; lastly, at the Louvre, we find a third Dead Christ,wept over by his mother andadored by angels and cherubim -- all small figures. But in portrait painting Vandyck fully makes up for any deficiency in composition ; there he surpasses all the painters of his time, including even Rubens ; there he rises KING CHARLES THE FIRST By VANDYCK. In the Louvre . 11E JUBLX NAN ) A FOUNDAT.CUS A.D. 1640. ] VANDYCK. 307 to the greatest height, and fears no rival but Titian , Holbein, Velasquez and Rem brandt. We have merely time to take a' rapid survey of the most celebrated of his portraits, which have been dispersed over Europe. Antwerp has retained that of its fifth bishop, John Malderus, and the more astonishing one of the Italian Scaglia, one of the negotiators for Spain at the Congress of Münster. Italy-where Vandyck remained for five years in order to complete before the works of Titian the lessons of Rubens — has retained several of his portraits. At Florence , Charles V. on horseback , with an eagle bringing him the laurel wreath ; at Turin, the Prince Thomas de Savoie- Carignan, in an heroic posture, rather too heroic for this general of medium ability. In England, the National Gallery shows with pride one of the greatest works of Vandyck. This is the bust of an old man of a grave and noble countenance, who is said to be the learned Gevartius ( Gevaerts, historiographer of Antwerp) , but who is rather, according to the engraving by P. Pontius, Cornelius van der Geest, artis pictoria amator. The National Gallery also contains a Portrait of Rubens; a Study of Horses; His own Portrait ; and copies of two of Rubens' pictures , The Emperor Theodosius refused admission into the church by St. Ambrose, and the Miraculous Draught of Fishes. At Windsor, among many other of his works, there is the portrait of a Mrs. Margaret Lemon, which is beautiful, both from nature and art. It would be useless to attempt to mention the works by Vandyck in private collections in England. They abound in all the great houses of the nobility. In Germany, especially in Munich, the finest portraits are pendents, representing a Burgomaster of Antwerp and His Wife, both clothed in rich black robes. Vandyck has never surpassed these two admirable works ; they reach the highest point art can attain in the imitation of nature. These are equalled, however, by two other portraits , the pride of the Lichtenstein Gallery at Vienna, which have been placed as pendents, and have an advantage over the others in the interest attaching to beauty and fame. The former, a model of grace and beauty, is a young Princess of Thurn - and - Taxis ; the second, still more astonishing as a work of art, is an admirable Head of a Warrior, full of energy and power ; his bearing is haughty, his glance imperious, and his red moustache, turned up at the ends, covers a mouth in which may be read disdainful pride and the habit of command. This is said to be the famous Wallenstein , Duke of Friedland, the adversary of Gustavus Adolphus, and one of the most prominent chieftains in the Thirty Years' War. The Hermitage also possesses a collection of portraits by Vandyck. In the first place, one of Charles I. of England, at twenty - five years of age, and Henrietta Maria of France, at twenty-six ; the former in armour and the latter in court dress. Then two other ladies, who have been supposed to be the Wife and Daughter of Cromwell, and a warrior, holding a bâton of command, who is usually called Cromwell himself ; but there must be some error in these designations, for Vandyck died in 1641. But these pseudo-historic portraits and many others, even that of the young Prince of Orange, are all surpassed by that of a certain Van der Wouver, who was minister for Spain in the Netherlands. This portrait , painted in 1632 , may dispute the foremost rank with the Wallenstein and Gevartius. The Louvre is not less rich. It possesses, in the first place, a portrait of the royal patron of the painter, Charles I., life -size, in the elegant costume of the cavaliers ( see woodcut) ; an excellent work , for which Madame Dubarry disputed with the Empress of Prussia, and purchased very dearly, wishing, as she said , “ to preserve a family portrait." 308 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS AD . A.D. 1650 V1 FILIt is to be regretted that this picture has not its usual pendent, the heroic Henrietta Maria of France, whose funeral oration was pronounced by Bossuet. Afterwards come the three children of Charles and Henrietta Maria, all celebrated, all crowned after their exile - Charles II., James II ., and Mary, wife of William of Orange, whose son became William III. of England. There are , besides, the portraits of two other brothers ; these are Ludwig I. , Duke of Bavaria, and his younger brother, known as Prince Rupert, who was one of the unfortunate generals . of Charles I. , and who is said to have invented engraving in mezzotint. Another portrait is of Don Francisco de Monçada, on horseback and in armour. This is perhaps the finest of the rare equestrian portraits by Vandyck, and the honour of having been engraved by Raphael Morghen adds still more to its value and celebrity. Lastly, there are a Man standing, dressed in black, and a Lady seated in a crimson chair, each holding a young girl by the hand ; forming the usual pendents of husband and wife. These, although of unknown persons, seem to have the highest expression of the marvellous talent of Vandyck—at all events, of those in the Louvre, In all these portraits , amongst other qualities, we find invariably that grace and distinguished look which cannot fail to be a little conventional , and even sometimes introduced at the expense of truth , since Vandyck has given it to all his portraits. The explanation of this special trait may perhaps be found in the Portrait of Vandyck himself, in his brilliant youth. The handsome face of the pittore cavalieresco,as the Italians called him , where it may be seen that the artist took from himself the nobility with which he so liberally endowed his models, accounts for much of his success. Vandyck had numerous pupils and followers, both in England and in his native country. Few of them had any great merit ; but the influence of Vandyck's art in portraiture has been very important. Jacob Jordaens, “ a vulgar Rubens," was born at Antwerp in 1594. He entered the studio of Van Noort in 1607 and remained with that master until 1615 , in which year he was elected a member of the guild of painters in that city. In the following year, he married his former master's daughter. Owing to his marriage, he was unable to follow the example of the majority of his countrymen and go to Italy ; but the renown which he obtained in his native city , fully compensated for the loss. Jordaens was Rubens' most intimate friend and collaborateur, but, though he is not inferior to the great master in colour, yet he frequently degenerates into coarseness and vulgarity. His pictures abound in the churches and public buildings in Flanders and the Netherlands. His Triumphal Entry of the Prince of Nassau, executed in fresco, in the House in the Wood, near the Hague, is usually considered his masterpiece, though Sir Joshua Reynolds describes it as " a confused business, ” and adds that the only part which deserves any commendation is the four horses of the chariot.” Another fine work by Jordaens is a Young Satyr in the Trippenhuis at Amsterdam. An Adoration of the Shepherds, and a Last Supper in the Antwerp Gallery, also a Crucifixion in the church of St. Paul in the same city , only show how ill-adapted Jordaens' style is for sacred subjects. A Holy Family by Jordaens was formerly exhibited in the National Gallery. He painted in water-colour, fresco, and oil ; and besides being celebrated as a historical painter, he also excelled in portraiture. A good specimen is a Lady's Portrait in the Antwerp Gallery. A favourite subject with Jordaens was the proverb, “ Wie die Alten sungen, so feifen die Jungen ” (“ As the old ones sing, so the young ones pipe ” ). This artist died at Antwerp in 1678. A.D. 1650.] JACOB JORDAENS. 309 In the Louvre Jordaens cannot be studied to advantage. His Christ driving the Money Changers out of the Temple is only sacred in name and subject ; it is painted with all the energy, and excessive fire which are usual with him, and which he carried to a far greater extent than even Rubens in the commencement of his career. In his Four Evangelists we are unable to see anything but caricatures, the product of a misdirected talent. To find any Jordaens worthy to be taken as a model, we must go to the Museum at Brussels. Here we shall find two compositions equal, if not superior, to any by this master. The more important, since it contains ten or twelve figures the size of life, is DUVAL AUNavாசாக THE MUSICAL PARTY . - BY JACOB JORDAENS. a Miracle of St. Martin, who is healing a demoniac before the pro - consul. It is painted with that fiery colour which characterises Jordaens ; but with almost as much true nobleness as force. The other subject, an allegory of the occupations and gifts of the autumn, is of much more sober colouring, though it loses nothing of its brilliancy. This picture of the Autumn may be called Jordaens' masterpiece ; at least we have never heard any other works of this master mentioned with the praise that this one deserves. The landscape, the fruits, the actors of the scene, especially a satyr carrying a little faun on his shoulders, and a naked nymph, are of great vigour and wonderful effect. It is Caravaggio or Ribera, with the colouring of Rubens. 310 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [ A.D. 1650. Abraham van Diepenbeck was born at Hertogenbosch (Bois- le -Duc) in 1607 . He first studied art as a painter on glass, but afterwards gave himself up to acquiring, as far as possible, the style of his great master, Rubens. Diepenbeck went to Italy , where he remained some considerable time ; on his return he again entered Rubens' studio, but this time more as an assistant than a pupil. Some time after, Diepenbeck re- visited Italy, and soon after his return to Antwerp, went to England, where he remained for several years during the reign of Charles I. , and where he was much patronized by the Duke of Newcastle. “ Diepenbeck drew views of the duke's seats in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and portraits of the duke, duchess, and his children, and gave designs for several plates prefixed to the works of both their graces." ( Walpole's

• Anecdotes of Painting ' ) In 1641 , he was elected Director of the Academy at Antwerp, which post he held until his death, which occurred in that city, in 1675.

Diepenbeck's pictures are found in the churches of Antwerp and other cities of Flanders. His so - called chef-d'euvre, an Altar-piece in the church of Deurne, near Antwerp, was long ascribed to Rubens. A Neptune and Amphitrite by Diepenbeck is in the Dresden Gallery. Sandrart and Houbraken consider him the best painter on glass of his time. He is also famous for his designs for book illustrations. Theodor van Tulden or van Thulden, the painter and engraver, was born at Bois -le -Duc in 1607. In 1621 he was apprenticed at Antwerp to an unimportant unknown painter, named Blyenberch . Four years later Van Tulden was free of the guild of painters in that city ( the " Liggeren " ), and in a short time afterwards, about 1635, went to Paris, where he painted numerous important works, particularly a series of twenty- four pictures in the church of the Mathurins, illustrating the Life of John of Matha, their patron. Van Tulden also etched a set of fifty -eight plates from the pictures, which have since perished, painted at Fontainebleau, by Nicolo Abati from the designs of Primaticcio . In 1535 , Van Tulden returned to Antwerp, where he married the daughter of Hendrik van Balen. Five years later he returned to his native town , Bois -le - Duc, where he died in 1676. Van Tulden was one of Rubens' favourite pupils ; he helped him in his design for the triumphal arches erected on the occasion of the entry of Don Ferdinand into Antwerp. He also assisted Rubens in his Apotheosis of Marie de Médicis. An Appearance of Christ to the Virgin by Van Tulden in the Louvre, and a Triumph of Galatea, in the Museum of Berlin , are specimens of his later style when his colour was less brilliant than in his early pictures. Many of his works are in the churches of Flanders and the Netherlands. A Martyrdom of St. Andrew by him in St. Andrew's, at Ghent, was long considered to be by Rubens. Besides allegorical and historical subjects, Van Tulden painted genre pictures and portraits with much success. Erasmus Quellinus, who was born at Antwerp in 1607 , owed his success in art to his polished manners and his educated mind. It is said that he was at first a professor of philosophy ; under Rubens' able tuition , however, he became a tolerably good painter. He aimed higher than his master's style, but did reach his mark. He painted numerous historical pictures, and several in commemoration of great events. The museum and churches of Antwerp possess good specimens of this master. A Marriage of the Virgin , and a Marlonna and Child by him in the Dresden Gallery, are of no great merit. He died at Tongerloo in 1678 ( some writers say at Antwerp) . Erasmus Quellinus was an intimate friend of the renowned scholar, Caspar Gevartius. Jan Erasmus Quellinus, the son of Erasmus Quellinus, was born at Antwerp in A.D. 1650.] PUPILS OF RUBENS. 311 1629. He visited Italy in 1640, and there studied the works of Paul Veronese. His works are usually large and by no means good, and in them , more especially as regards colour, one sees signs of the decline of Flemish art. His chief claim to fanie is his composition, which is generally very fair. The museum and churches of Antwerp contain several of his works. He died in that city in 1715 . We must now speak of a few of the minor pupils of Rubens. Foremost of these in point of time is, Deodat van der Mont, commonly called Delmont, who was born at St. Tron, near Antwerp, in 1581 , and died in 1644 ; his pictures are now scarce . Cornelius Schut, who was born at Antwerp in 1597 , and died there in 1655 , painted allegoric subjects in commemoration of great events ; he was also an engraver. Jan van der Hoecke, who was born at Antwerp in 1598, and died there in 1651 , is a better artist than most of these with whom we have placed him ; he painted historical and portrait subjects, but succeeded better in the latter. Good specimens of his style in this branch of art are two portraits, in the Belvedere at Vienna, of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm , Stadholder of the Spanish Netherlands, his liberal patron. Pieter van Mol, who was born at Antwerp in 1599, and died in Paris in 1650, was a somewhat unsuccessful imitator of Rubens. Justus van Egmont, who was born at Leyden in 1602 , assisted his master in his pictures ; he also painted a few , mostly portraits, without assistance. He worked in Paris for Louis XIII. and Louis XIV. , but died at Antwerp in 1674. Gerard, or, according to the Liggeren (records) of the Antwerp Guild , Wilhelm van Herp, was born at Antwerp in 1604 ; he painted chiefly genre subjects, and sometimes biblicalpictures. A work by him representing Monks distributing bread, was formerly exhibited in the National Gallery. Frans Wouters, who was born at Liere in Brabant in 1614, and died at Antwerp at the age of forty - five , imitated Vandyck in colour and Rubens in design ; he painted mostly iandscapes with figures. Rubens left several other pupils , but none of them are of sufficient importance to warrant a mention here. We must now return to the painters of Flanders, who were not pupils of Rubens, though a few of them were imitators . We have placed them under the school of Antwerp, although some were not born in that city. Liége claims to be the birthplace of several good painters. It would be hopeless, however, to attempt to class each set of artists under a different heading ; therefore we must content ourselves with keeping them under the school of Antwerp, the parent school of Flanders of this period. David Teniers, called “ the elder ” to distinguish him from his more illustrious son, was born at Antwerp in 1582. He learned first from his father Julian Teniers, and is also said to have studied under Rubens, but Dr. Waagen and other critics can see no trace of the great master's style in his works. When still young, Teniers went to Rome, where he made the acquaintance of his fellow -countryman, Elzheimer, from whom he obtained his most important instruction in art. After a lengthened residence in Rome, Teniers returned to Antwerp, where he painted until his death in 1649. The Dresden Gallery contains seven works by him , all landscapes or genre pictures, his favourite subjects. The National Gallery possesses three of these Landscapes with figures, bequeathed by the late Mr. Wynn Ellis. A picture of the Seven Works of Mercy by him is in the church of St. Paul, Antwerp. He executed numerous mythologic and historic works, but scarcely with equal success. He was also an engraver. 312 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS ( A.D. 1650. . Daniel Zegers, or Segers -- called “ Pater Segers, " or " The Jesuit of Antwerp " —was born at Antwerp, in 1590. He studied under Jan Breughel at the time when that artist was a flower-painter. In 1614 Zegers entered the convent of the Jesuits, and, during his novitiate, laid aside his brush. On the completion of his probation he was permitted to visit Rome, where he made a study of every flower which fell in his way. When he returned to Antwerp Zegers became very famous as a flower -painter. He died there in the convent of the Jesuits in 1661. Of his pictures, the Dresden Gallery con tains six , and numerous specimens are in most of the public galleries of the Continent. Zegers was, without exception, the best flower -painter of his time. His works fre quently represent a Virgin and Child surrounded with flowers. The figures are some times executed by other artists — Rubens, Diepenbeck, and Erasmus Quellinus. Zegers was much patronized even by monarchs. “ In painting red roses he employed colours which have remained unchanged, while the roses of every other flower-painter have either turned violet or have faded altogether " ( Kugler's ' Handbook '). Peter Snayers was born at Antwerp in 1593. He studied painting under Hendrik van Balen and Sebastian Vrancx. In 1512 Snayers entered the guild at Antwerp ; but in 1526, on being appointed court- painter to the Archduke Albert, he removed to Brussels. His patron not only employed him to paint for himself, but also sent several of his pictures to the Spanish Court, and thus gained him many commissions. Snayers is chiefly famous for his battle - scenes and also for his landscapes. The Dresden Gallery contains five of his works ; and he is well represented in the Belvedere Gallery at Vienna, He died in 1670 ( ?) . Adriaan van Utrecht, who was born at Antwerp in 1599, is a master whose works are seen in nearly every gallery on the Continent. He was a pupil of one Hermann de Ryt ; he painted chiefly game and fowls, alive and dead , flowers, and kitchen ' scenes. He worked for some time for Philip IV. in Spain. He died at Antwerp in 1652 or 1653. Jacob van Oost “ the elder ” was born at Bruges in 1600. He first directed his attention towards the works of Rubens, but when twenty -one years of age went to Rome, where he studied the great Italian painters, more especially Annibale Carracci, a trace of whose style was henceforth always visible in Van Oost's works. About 1628 he returned to Bruges, where he became justly famous as a historical and portrait painter. He executed numerous pictures for the churches of his native place, and other cities and towns of Flanders. In 1633 he was elected Dean of the Corporation of Painters in Bruges ; he had been made a master of the company in 1621. He died in his native city in 1671. His pictures sometimes remind us of the works of Vandyck and Lely, and nearly always of those of Annibale Carracci. The churches of Flanders possess his best works. Jan Fyt, the celebrated animal painter, was born at Antwerp in 1609. He studied art under an unimportant artist , Jan van der Berch. In 1629 he entered the guild at Antwerp. He died in that city in 1661. Fyt is, without exception, next to Snyders, the finest of the Flemish animal painters. He especially excelled in painting the fur of animals and the plumage of. birds. His knowledge of anatomy was perhaps not so good as Snyders', but in taste for colour and in execution he is quite that master's equal. Fyt's still- life subjects are perhaps his best works. Of the continental galleries those of Munich and Vienna possess excellent specimens. The Dresden Gallery has five of these Dead -game pictures. We may also notice Two Dogs sleeping, in the Antwerp Gallery, which has several good works by this artist. Though there is no A.D. 1650.] DAVID TENIERS. 313 picture by him in the National Gallery, Fyt is not badly represented in England. His works are frequently seen in private collections. Jan Fyt sometimes painted in animals and flowers in conjunction with other artists. He was also an engraver. David Teniers, the younger, “ the Proteus of Painting," was born at Antwerp in 1610. History is somewhat silent in regard to this artist. He received his first and probably his only personal instruction from his father. Some writers say that he studied under Adriaan Brouwer, and also under Rubens. In 1632-33, he was admitted into the guild of Antwerp. In 1637 , Teniers married a daughter of Velvet Breughel, whose style he to some extent imitated . In 1656 , he married his second wife, Isabella de Fren, daughter of the Secretary of State for Brabant. Teniers was first noticed by the Archduke Leopold.William , Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, who made him his court painter, groom of the chamber ( ajuda de la cámara ), and appointed him super intendent of his picture gallery. Teniers, on becoming rich and famous, was enabled to entertain noble company in the ch'teau of " Dry Toren ” (three towers) , which he purchased at Perck, a small village between Vilvorde and Mechlin. Here Don Juan, the natural son of Philip IV. of Spain , spent some time with the great painter as a friend and pupil. A portion of this fine old château, which Teniers loved to represent in his pictures, still remains, but has degenerated into a farmhouse. Teniers had other patrons besides the Governor of the Netherlands and Don Juan. In the North , Christina of Sweden valued his works very highly, and paid for them magnificently. In the South , Philip IV. of Spain , the most fervent lover of art , admired them so much , and required so many that he was able to form a whole gallery of them. Teniers enjoyed, though not to the extent of Rubens and Vandyck, the friendship of kings and nobles. From “ Dry Toren ” he frequently paid visits to Mechlin and Antwerp. He died in the latter city in 1694, and was buried in the church of Perck, where no stone marks bis resting- place, and no epitaph records his virtues or his talents. It is said that Louis XIV. , at the sight of some pictures by David Teniers, which were presented to him at Versailles , cried out impatiently, in apparent disgust : “ Emportez vite ces magots !” General taste has not ratified this condemnation absurdly pronounced by the great king. Princes now seek no less eagerly than plebeians for these same pictures. Where is Teniers not to be found ? At Madrid , there are sixty pictures by his hand ; at St. Petersburg, forty - seven ; at Dresden, twenty -three ; at Vienna, twenty - three also ; at Munich, fourteen ; in the National Gallery, fifteen ; and it would be almost impossible to count those he has left else where, after fruitful labour as an artist during more than fifty years. “ To contain all my pictures ," said he, “ two leagues of galleries would be required ." His best works, however, come neither at the beginning nor end of his long career ; they belong rather to what is called his silver period. Thoré says correctly of Teniers, " the pictures belonging to his middle life are the best. In his youth he followed his father too implicitly ; in his old age his imagination became somewhat stereotyped, and his hand somewhat heavier. Teniers is like some of the fishes he painted so well, excellent between the head and tail .” In the Louvre he cannot be thoroughly appreciated . Several of the fifteen pictures which represent him are merely what are termed his after-dinner works, because Teniers began and completed them between his evening repast and sleep. Cer tainly his Temptation of St. Anthony is full of ingenious drolleries delicately finished. Doubtless, also, the Feasts, Village Danies, and Tavern Scenes which he so much loved 2 S 314 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1650. to represent, his Peter denying Christ ( the scene of which is , strangely enough , repre sented as taking place amidst a corps of Walloon Infantry), and especially his Prodigal Son — all these show in their exquisite perfection his profound acquaintance with the principles of art which effectually conceals the art employed, and his touch, always so recognisable, that Greuse said : “ Show me a pipe, and I will tell you if the smoker is by Teniers.” At Munich is the great Italian Fair, measuring three yards by four. At Vienna, in the Belvedere, the Sacrifice of Isaac. In the gallery of the Archduke Leopold the mag nificent Fête de Sablons , and in the Esterhazy Gallery the Seven Works of Mercy. At the two extremities of artistic Europe, Madrid and St. Petersburg, the only difficulty is to choose among the numerous masterpieces. In the Museo del Rey we may mention, besides the three Temptations, the King drinking, a charming table scene ; or several Festivals, amongst which there is one dated 1637 , of extraordinary size and wonderful colouring ; or the twelve pictures of the same size illustrating the story of Rinaldo and Armida. There is also a still more perfect work . This is called a Picture Gallery visited by Gentlemen . In signing this painting Teniers wrote after his name Pintor de la Camera ( for cámara ) de S. A. S. The explanation of this subject and of this Spanish inscrip tion is as follows :—The Archduke Leopold William , Governor of the Netherlands for Spain, with whom Teniers was very intimate, had commissioned our painter to compose for him , not merely an amateur's cabinet, but the gallery of a prince. When he had fulfilled this delicate commission , Teniers conceived the idea of perpetuating the memory of it by a picture. In it we see the archduke, in company with several other gentlemen, entering the gallery , where Teniers is presenting him with some drawings spread out on the table. From top to bottom the walls are covered with the pictures of his choice, faithfully copied, in microscopic proportions, but in which may be yet recognised , not merely the subject, but even the touch of each master. As for the figures, which are portraits, they have as much truth as, and far more nobleness of style than, the usual personages of Teniers. There is no need to dwell any more on the value and importance of this singular work . At the Hermitage of St. Petersburg there is the same difficulty in choosing, and the same necessity for brevity. We must, then, merely mention a Kitchen, full of game, fish , vegetables, and fruit, in which Teniers has painted his father' as an old blind fisherman, and himself as a falconer ; a beautiful and curious View of the Château of Trois - Tours ( Dry Toren ), where he studied at his ease his usual models, the Brabançon peasants , where he could, as Fontenelle said , "take nature at home; " and, lastly, the great picture, four feet high by seven or eight wide, which was painted in 1643 for the Guild of Archers, and which was called the Archers of Antwerp. In the large square of the town , where, among a crowd of on- lookers, the various guilds of trade are defiling in parade dress, this guild of archers is assembled. Forty -five personages, from eight to ten inches in height, are collected in the foreground. All are finished with the most minute care. The arrangement of the crowd in the distance is wonderful, as well as the rendering of the details. The air appears really to circulate among the animated groups, which seem to possess life and movement. Descamps was right to call this work “ the finest painting of Teniers,” for the fruitful pencil of this master never pro duced anything more perfect. During the First Empire, Cassel, under compulsion, yielded it up to Malmaison , and Malmaison sold it to the Hermitage. The National Gallery has no less than fifteen pictures by Teniers, of his usual THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTHONY . By DAVID TENIERS. Ir the Louvre S.

1 171 A.D. 1650. ] DAVID TENIERS. 315 subjects. We may mention his own château of Dry Toren ; the Four Seasons ; and the Fête aux Chaudrons, bequeathed to the gallery by the late Mr. Wynn Ellis. Teniers has left everywhere Village Feasts, Smoking Scenes, Country Inns, Labora tories, Shops, and Kitchens. But whatever amount of drollery and gaiety he imparted to these everyday scenes, he gave as much heart-rending sadness to another class of subjects, which was also brought before him only too frequently, the Horrors of War, where he depicts in the most lively way all the insolence and cruelty of the soldiery. Lastly, among the infinite variety of his compositions we must not forget certain comic scenes in which monkeys and cats are the actors , and in which more than one sly satire is conveyed. In Teniers everything deserves attention and praise. Teniers had numerous pupils, who, though they succeeded in imitating his work to some extent, are far inferior to him in real art. Of these imitators we may mention the following : Abraham Teniers, his brother, who was born at Antwerp in 1629, received instruc tion from his father and his elder brother, whose manner he closely imitated ; he died in 1671. Joas van Craesbecke, who was born at Brussels in 1608, and who died in 1688 (?) , studied under Adriaan Brouwer, whose style he combined with that of Teniers. His pictures are very scarce. David Ryckaert, who was born at Antwerp in 1612, received instruction in art from his father, but directed his attention towards the style of Teniers, which he imitated with very fair success. His pictures are usually of genre subjects. The galleries of Dresden, Vienna and Berlin, contain specimens of his art. He died at Antwerp in 1661-62. Frans Duchatel, who was born at Brussels in 1625 , studied under Teniers in Flanders, and under Van der Meulen in France ; he closely imitated the former master. The Map of Valenciennes in the Antwerp Gallery, there ascribed to Teniers, is attributed by some critics to Duchatel. He died in 1679. Gonzales Coques -- sometimes called Cocx—was born at Antwerp in 1614. In 1626 he was apprenticed to Pieter Breughel, and in the following year entered the guild of St. Luke in his native city. On leaving Breughel he studied under Ryckaert. In 1640, he was made a master of the guild ; in 1648, he married Ryckaert's daughter. He served as Dean of the Corporation twice--once in 1655 and again in 1680. He died wealthy and honoured at Antwerp in 1684. Coques has been called “ the little Vandyck ,” because ofhis partiality for the style of that artist, and the smallness of his works. Coques’ pictures are not commonly seen in the continental galleries. His best works are in England. The National Gallery has a fine Family Portrait ; a subject in which Coques excelled rather than in single portraits. In the Bridgewater Gallery there are two full -length portraits of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria . The Dresden Gallery, the Gallery at the Hague, and the Dubus Collection at Brussels contain specimens of Coques' painting. Like Vandyck, he is famous for the representation of the human hand ; and the dogs which he intro duced into his portrait pictures are executed with skill. Wallerant Vaillant was born at Lille in 1623 ; studied at Antwerp with Erasmus Quellinus ; and became one of the best portrait-painters of the time. In 1658, on the coronation of the Emperor Leopold, Vaillant painted the monarch's portrait ; this work was highly praised, and opened to the artist a brilliant course of success. A collection of portraits - executed in chalk --- of eminent personages who were present at the coronation, is now divided between the galleries of Berlin and Dresden. Vaillant painted also the portraits of several eminent persons at the French Court - 316 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1650. whither he had gone at the invitation of Marshal Grammont — among others, those of the Queen and the Queen Mother. On leaving Paris , Vaillant took up his residence at Amsterdam , where he resided till his death in 1677. He executed besides portraits numerous genre and historic pictures; he was also an engraver in the newly discovered process of mezzotint, the secret of which he was shown by Prince Rupert himself. Vaillant's paintings are rarely seen in public galleries. Pieter van der Faes-known to us as Sir Peter Lely - was born at Soest in Westphalia in 1618. His father obtained the name of Lely, because he lived in a perfumer's shop the sign of which was a lily. Young Lely studied for two years under Pieter de Grebber at Haarlem, and, after the death of Vandyck in 1641 , came to England, where he became the best portrait- painter of the time. But we miss the truth to nature which is such a charm in Vandyck's pictures. Neither is his colouring so pure as that of the great master. He flatters his sitters as a rule, and not content with their natural beauty, loads them with magnificent head -dresses and garments. Like Vandyck, he is famous for the success with which he represented the human hand. Lely managed always to keep in favour with the ruling power ; he painted first for Charles I. , then for Cromwell, and then again for the monarchy under Charles II. , by whom he was knighted. Of his best portraits we may notice his celebrated Beauties of the Court of Charles II ., at Hampton Court Palace. In the summer months, Lely resided at Kew, and in the winter in Drury Lane. In 1680, while painting a portrait of the Duchess of Somerset, he was seized with a fit of apoplexy, which caused his death. He was buried in the old church of St. Paul's, Covent Garden , where there was a monument with his bust by Gibbons and an epitaph by Flatman ; but they were unfortunately burned with the church in 1795. Pieter Boel was born at Antwerp in 1625. He studied first under Frans Snyders, and then completed his education with his uncle Cornelius de Wael, in Genoa. He must, however, be considered a disciple of the former, for it is to that painter's works that Boel's pictures are most closely allied . His works are unfortunately scarce ; they are rarely seen in public collections. The galleries of Munich and Antwerp contain a few specimens. Boel was also an engraver. He died in 1680 ( ?) . Jacob van Oost, “ the younger," who was born at Bruges in 1637 , after studying with his father, for some time at Bruges, and a residence of two years in Paris, went to Rome to perfect his style. On his return to Bruges, Van Oost assisted his father for a short period, but soon made up his mind to try his fortune in Paris. On his way thither in 1673, happening to stay a short time at Lille , the portraits which he executed gained him such praise, that he determined to take up his residence in that city, where he remained till 1713 , when he returned to his his native native place place ;; but but only to die a short time after his arrival. Van Oost, the younger, painted much in the style of his father ; he was especially successful in portraiture ; so much so, in fact, that his works in that branch of art have been compared with those of Vandyck. Jacob Huysman was born , in 1656 , at Antwerp, where he studied under Backerell. During the reign of Charles 11. , he came to England, and became renowned both in portraiture and historical pieces . A Portrait of Isaak Walton , by him, was formerly exhibited in the National Gallery. Huysman frequently painted the Queen's portrait both as a portrait, and also to represent a Venus or a Madonna. He died in 1696. Pieter van Bloemen -- called Standaart — was born at Antwerp in 1649 (? ). He A.D. 1650.] SIR PETER LELY. 317 went, when still young, to Rome ; where he remained some considerable time sufficient to become imbued with an entirely Italian style of painting. His pictures frequently represent skirmishes of cavalry , whence his name of Standaart, and land scapes ornamented with figures and architecture. Some time after his return to Antwerp, he was made Director of the Academy. He died in his native city in 1719. FRANCO- FLEMISH PAINTERS. We may here mention a few artists who all copied the French style of painting of the period — more especially in regard to landscape. It will be seen that several of them became disciples of Gaspar Poussin, at Rome. They stand in a half-way position between the painters of the Flemish revival under Rubens and the new school which has lately arisen in Belgium. Philippe de Champagne, who was born at Bruges in 1602, went, when but nineteen years of age, to Paris, where he studied under Duchesne. In 1627 he returned to Bruges, but shortly afterwards, on hearing of the death of his former master, returned to Paris, where he married that painter's daughter, and completed his unfinished works in the gallery of the Luxembourg Palace. Philippe de Champagne henceforth resided in Paris. In 1648, when Louis XIV. founded the French Academy, he was made one of the original members. After having spent the chief part of his artist's life in Paris, he died there in 1674 ; and his greatest works have remained in France. In the Louvre there are the Legend of St. Gervasius and St. Protasius, a Last Supper, a cold imitation of the celebrated one by Leonardo da Vinci, a Dead Christ, lying on a winding -sheet, and also the Education of Achilles, shooting with a bow and in chariot races. In the regular and symmetric arrangement, in the chastened drawing, in the calm and pale colouring, we feel the systematic avoidance of Rubens, we foresee the Battles of Alexander. Philippe de Champagne, as a portrait painter, is assuredly greater than as a histori cal painter. His faults are less sensible, his good qualities more prominent. His portrait of Louis XIII., who, notwithstanding the armour, and the laurels of victory with which he is crowned , still looks timid and ill-tempered ; and that of Richelieu , l'Eminence rouge, who, on the contrary, is strong, imperious, and powerful under a simple gown of silk — are happy and complete historical figures. We may also praise unreservedly the Portrait of a very pale Lady, who is supposed to have been the wife of the barrister Antoine Arnauld ; that of the amiable Arnauld d'Andilly, their eldest son , who was called l’Ami universel ; those of the architects Claude Perrault and Jules Hardoin Mansart, in one frame; and His own at the age of sixty-six, painted after the Jesuits had driven him, as well as his friends, from the monastery of the Jansenists, where he had retired. Lastly, in the Two Nuns of Port- Royal, one ill , the other at prayer—in which Philippe de Champagne has celebrated the cure, supposed to be miraculous, of his daughter, the sister Sainte - Suzanne, by the mother Catherine Agnès Arnauld - he certainly shows the perfection to which his talent could attain . " Never, perhaps,” says M. Ch. Blanc, “ has the expression of what is inexpressible been carried to a greater height. Philippe de Champagne rose in this picture , on the wings of faith and love, to the highest flights of art . ” In the National Gallery are Thrce 318 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1675. Portraits of Cardinal de Richelieu — a full face and two profiles, in one frame - painted for the Roman sculptor, Mocchi, to make a bust from . Jacques d’Arthois, the landscape-painter, was born at Brussels in 1613. It is probable that he studied under Jean Mertens, Lodewyck de Vadder, and Wildens. Arthois' pictures are seen in most of the public galleries on the Continent : the Brussels Gallery has four, the Dresden three, and Vienna two. His landscapes frequently have incidents in them - generally of a biblical nature. Human figures are occasionally painted in Arthois' pictures by Teniers, Zegers, Craeyers, and other painters, and animals by Snayers. Pictures by Arthois are in several private collections in England. He died after 1684 (A. Pinchart in Meyer's ' Lexikon ' ) . Bartholet Flemael was born of poor parents at Liége in 1614. He first turned his attention towards music, which he soon abandoned in favour of painting ; he was accordingly apprenticed to Gerard Douffet, an artist of second - rate ability. In 1638, Flemael had , by his own exertions, gained sufficient money to enable him to visit Italy. He first went to Rome, where he assiduously studied the works of the old masters. He then visited Florence, where he was much patronized by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. From Florence, Flemael went to Paris, where he was equally successful. In 1647 he returned to Liége, and thenceforth chiefly resided in that city. He was induced to pay a second visit to the French capital, where he executed works for the king, and was made a member, and afterwards a professor, of the Royal Academy ; but he returned to his native Liége, where he died in 1675. Flemąel's pictures present a mixture of the Roman and the French classic school ; his historical pieces are especially in the style of the latter. His native city possesses several of his best works. An Æncas preparing to leave Troy, by him , is in the Dresden Gallery. Anton Frans van der Meulen was born at Brussels in 1634. He was apprenticed to Pieter Snayers, under whom he learned his art. Some works of Van der Meulen happening to come under the notice of Lebrun, the artist was, at his suggestion, invited by Colbert to Paris. Van der Meulen was presented to Louis XIV. , who appointed him his painter, with a salary and apartments at the Gobelins. Van der Meulen became one of the greatest historiographers of Louis XIV. Whilst Lebrun celebrated in ancient allegories the great deeds of the great king, Van der Meulen traced the plan, the details, the incidents, and, in his way, took the portrait of these achievements. And he does not merely depict the warlike exploits at which the king only assisted in state, attended by the whole court, including the three queens in the same coach ; he relates exactly, even the familiar incidents of the court, the hunting at Versailles and the promenades at Marly. His pictures are veritable annals, as interesting as those of St. Simon. It will suffice to mention among the twenty- three pictures in the Louvre, the Taking of Dinan, on the Meuse, and the magnificent Entrance of Louis XIV. and Marie Thérèse into Arras, in August, 1667. Other works by him are in the galleries of Dresden and Munich ; there are also several in England. It is probable that Van der Meulen, having married the niece of Lebrun, -a coquette who troubled and shortened his life-painted the horses in the large pictures of the all-powerful painter of the king. Van der Meulen died at Paris in 1690. Gérard de Lairesse, the " Poussin of Belgium ,” who was born at Liége in 1640, studied with his father, Regnier de Lairesse, an unimportant painter. He is also supposed to have worked under Flemael, and studied Poussin through him. Lairesse painted for some time at Utrecht, and then removed to Amsterdam , where he became A.D. 1700. ) HUYSMANS. 319 very famous. In 1690 he unfortunately lost his sight, which he never recovered . He died at Amsterdam in 1711. Lairesse's works are executed in a classic style, with much ability. An Apollo and the Muses on Mount Parnassus, by him, is in the Dresden Gallery. He is said to have painted a picture of this subject in a single day. Other pictures by Lairesse are in the Louvre and the Berlin Gallery. The Death of Germanicus, in the Cassel Gallery, is by some considered to be his masterpiece. Besides being an artist, Lairesse was an etcher and a writer on art. The most important of his works, the “ Groot Schilder Boek, " was published, after his death, at Amsterdam . Jean François Millet, or Milé-called Francisque — was born at Antwerp in 1614. His father was a Frenchman . He studied under one Laurent Franck, whose daughter he married when he was but eighteen years of age. Millet soon afterwards visited Paris, where the Poussins became the object of his admiration and study. Millet is said to have travelled to England. He died at Paris in 1680. He was also an engraver. Cornelis Huysmans was born at Antwerp in 1648. His father, who was an architect, died while he was still young, and he was placed under the care of Gaspar de Wit. He soon left that master, and went to Brussels to enter the studio of Arthois, from whom, and from nature, he learned the art of landscape-painting. The forest of Soignes, near Brussels, was his favourite resort for study. Some time after his early life, Huysmans removed to Mechlin, where he resided until his death in 1727. There are pictures by him in the galleries of Munich, Brussels, Dresden and the Louvre. He occasionally introduced cattle in his works, which are noticeable for their powerful drawing and good colour. Peter Rysbraek was born at Antwerp in 1657. He studied under Millet, whom he accompanied to Paris, where he was well received. He admired the works of Gaspar Poussin , whose style he imitated with tolerable success. In 1692 Rysbraek returned to Antwerp, where he became justly famous as a landscape-painter. He was made Director of the Academy in 1713. He is known to have been living at Antwerp as late as 1720, and is supposed to have removed to Brussels and have died there in 1729. Rysbraek's pictures are not commonly seen in public galleries. A Landscape, in the Dresden Gallery — there attributed to Gaspar Poussin - is, in Kugler's Handbook ,' ascribed to Rysbraek. Besides paintings, he also executed numerous engravings. Jan Frans van Bloemen-brother of Pieter van Bloemen, and called, from the beauty of the distances in his landscapes, Orizonte - was born at Antwerp in 1658. After he had received an elementary education in art in his native city, Van Bloemen went to Rome, where, next to nature, he studied the works of Gaspar Poussin. Many of his works are still in the papal capital : Vienna, Dresden and Paris contain specimens of his art. Van Bloemen died at Rome about the middle of the eighteenth century . His foregrounds are in no respect equal to his distances, for which, as we have mentioned , he is justly famed. 320 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1850. MODERN FLEMISH ART. After the close of the seventeenth century, Flemish art was for a time forgotten , nor did it revive until the time of the French painter David , and his school ; who, to some extent, reanimated it. For many years there were no artists of great original power, until , in the present century, a new master arose, who returned to the traditions of the early Flemish masters, and created a new school which seems destined to be lasting and of much importance. Jean Auguste Henri Leys, who was born at Antwerp on the 18th of February 1815 , was intended for the church, and received an education befitting that profession. But his early -pronounced love of art prevailed, and in 1830 he entered the studio of his brother- in -law , M. de Braakeleer. Three years later, Leys produced a picture of a Combat between a Grenadier and a Cossack , which was exhibited at Antwerp ; and at Brussels , La Furie Espagnole, a work which excited much criticism . Henceforth a brilliant career was opened to him. Commission followed commission , and honour followed upon honour. In 1840 he was made knight of the order of Leopold. Four years later he became a member of the Belgium Academy. In 1867 he was created commander of the order of Leopold, and soon after was made a member of the Legion of Honour, and a baron. To the Paris Exhibition of 1855 , he sent Les trentaines de Bertel de Haze, La Promenade hors des murs, and Le nouvel An en Flandre - for which works he received a medal of honour. In the London Exhibition of 1862 , appeared, among others of his works, parts of the series of pictures executed for the town hall of Antwerp, illustrating the History of the Freedom of Belgium -- a work which is well known in England, as the greater part has been exhibited in the French Gallery, Pall Mall. To this work - his masterpiece- the best years of Leys' unhappily too short life were devoted. He died on the 25th of August 1869, in the Rue de la Station , since called in his honour “ Rue de Leys” at Antwerp ; and there his body lay in state like that of Raphael — with his favourite work, Margaret and the Magistrates of Antwerp, above his head. His body was followed to its last resting- place, the churchyard of. the village of Berchem , near Antwerp , by an immense concourse of his friends and admirers. Speaking of Leys, a writer in the . Athenæum ' says, “ He was a man who sought beauty in the human figure and face for its own sake. He was ever regardful of time, place, and circumstances. He was rather an historical and donestic illustrator, a humorous and pathetic designer, than a student in the high and narrow realm of heroical physical beauty. . . . A fine, powerful, and variously- endowed colourist - really a colourist in the true sense of the term. Baron Leys, despite the too often crude and exaggerated flesh tints of his pictures, possessed the rare faculty in modern art of harmonizing flesh with the tints of costumes, buildings, skies, and other accessories. " The noole work -- that of reforming art in Belgium -- which Leys began, is still successfully carried on by his pupils, in Belgium and elsewhere. A.D. 1400.] 321 DUTCH SCHOOL.

BOOK V.

THE DUTCH SCHOOL.

THEHE great Chancellor Bacon has said that art is man added to nature, “ Ars est homo additus natura. " This good definition applies especially to the painters of Holland. All the artists of this country appear to have confined themselves to loving, understanding and representing nature, each one adding his own feelings and tastes —in fact, adding himself. To be convinced of this we have only to visit several parts of Holland, at different hours, and in different weather. When, on a dark cloudy day, we come upon a barren landscape where nature displays all the harshness and gloom of the north-where no flocks, no living creature is to be seen , but only a ravine, a waterfall, a fallen tree , with, perhaps, an isolated cabin in the background—we re cognise at once the lover of melancholy, Jacob Ruysdael. If, again, soon after sunrise, we find ourselves on the banks of a river, with a white sail gliding on its surface, a church and the houses of a village rising beyond, and fat cows grazing in the rich meadows, whilst, through the broken clouds, the morning sun floods every object below with its glorious light, we exclaim at once, “ Here is the lover of light, Albert Cuyp." Later in the day, during the noontide calm, we perceive a peaceful verdant orchard, where every tree throws its shadow over the turf, and an animal — either an ox, a horse, an ass, a goat, or a sheep - rests in its most natural attitude in the shade under every tree . Here there is no difficulty in at once recognising Paul Potter. In the evening, perhaps, we come to a smiling landscape in which fat cattle are grazing, whilst the shepherds sing to their rustic Amaryllis, accompanied by the sound of their pipes. In short, we come upon an idyll such as might be written by a Dutch Virgil , and we behold at once Adriaan van der Velde. Still later in the evening, when the moon has risen on a throne of black clouds, with her disk reflected in the motionless surface of a pond, surrounded by a few cottages concealed in the shadow of the alder and poplar trees, we cannot mistake the favourite scene of the painter and poet of the night, Van der Neer. We now come to the seashore, where a sheet of water, calmn and transparent, extends as far as eye can reach ; on it are vessels, possibly the dark fleet of the North Sea, tormenting some ship in distress—this is Willem van der Velde. A river flowing on towards the horizon, reflecting the monotonous colour of a dull , grey, misty sky, recalls Van Goyen. A frozen canal becomes for the time the highroad, and covered with passers-by on their skates, reminds us of Isaac van Ostade. 2 T 322 [ A.D. 1450 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. We have only spoken of what a traveller must see at every step - sky, earth and water - and have only gone through landscape and marine painters. But truth is no less striking or true , when the subject is the inhabitants of the country , and man is as well rendered by the Dutch artist as animals and plants. Doubtless, owing to the caprices of fashion -- which renews almost every year our visible exteriors, leaving only complete identity to animals and things—we shall not be able to find in the streets of Antwerp the Night Watch of Rembrandt ; the Banquet of Van der Helst in the town hall ; the long satin robes of Terburg ; the plumed gentlemen of Wouvermans ; or the drunken peasants of Adriaan van Ostade. Yet, if in passing through a city we see a young girl leaning with an air of curiosity over the old balustrades of a window surrounded with ivy and geraniums, we may still recognise Gerard Dou. In the peaceful interior of a Gothic house, where an old woman is spinning, and which is lighted up by the warm rays of the sun , we see Pieter de Hoogh. The canal bordered with trees, in a clean town, ever wearing a holiday appearance, where every stone in the streets may be counted, every tile on the roofs, and every brick in the walls, reminds us of Van der Heyden ; and the vegetable market at Amsterdam still testifies to the fidelity of Metzu. It is very evident, then, that we have come into the kingdom of naturalism , after having quitted the domains of spiritualism in Italy. We have come to Protestant art, the art of the people, after having left that of the temples and palaces. “ An artist ," wrote Paul Delaroche, “ must compel nature to pass through his intellect and his heart . ” This is what the Dutch have done. Besides this, the perfection alone of the work would be sufficient to move the soul , even if it were only by admiration. A dead tree by Ruysdael may touch the heart ; a cow by Paul Potter may speak eloquently ; a kitchen by Kalf may contain a poem. When Pascal said : “ How vain is painting, which excites our admiration for the likeness of things the original of which we do not admire ! ” he was, perhaps, a philosopher, and especially a Christian ; but he was not an artist. In short, the Dutch painters have thrown themselves as entirely into their small paintings as the Italian painters into their enormous sheets of canvas, and they deserve no less the saying of Bacon - Ars est homo additus natura . It was during the War of Independence, after the confederation of the “ Beggars," after the Union of Utrecht, when the seven United Provinces had escaped from the Spanish yoke and from Catholicism , that Dutch art sprang up, at the same time as Holland itself. The author of the Lettre sur la Curiosité says : “ It was the period of success in everything. After having at once rescued its soil from the sea, and its faith from the Inquisition , it had, with no other force but perseverance, triumphed over all its despots, given a liberator to England , and humiliated the most insensate pride that ever swelled the breast of a king. Holland then opened an asylum to the boldest thinkers, a study for all the investigations of science, and founded a national school of painting ; a rare honour which belongs only to this little kingdom and to Italy of glorious memory." An astonishing sight was then seen, even more astonishing than Italy in its golden age. This little country, stolen from the ocean , this country of herdsmen, gave to the world an incredible number of great artists. Between the birth of Frans Hals in 1584 and that of Jan van Huysum in 1682 , there is not even the interval of a century . And yet it was during this time that all the celebrated painters of the Dutch school were born and flourished. In less than fifty years, there appear-- around and immediately following the immortal son of the Leyden miller, Rembrandt van Rijn 3 A.D. 1500.) EARLY DUTCH PAINTERS. 323 Gerard Honthorst, Jan David de Heem , Keyser, Albert Cuyp, Adriaan Brouwer, Gerard Terburg, Wynants, Philip Koningh , the two Ostades, the two Boths, Van der Helst, Gerard Dou, Metzu, the two Ruysdaels, the two Van der Neers, the two Wouvermans, the two Weenix , Fyt, Pynacker, Berghem , Paul Potter, Backhuysen , Bol, Maas, Moucheron, the two Van der Veldes, the two Mieris, Pieter de Hoogh, Hobbema, Karel Dujardin, Hondekoeter, Jan Steen, Netscher, Schalken , Van der Heyden, and many others. Before touching on these celebrated men , we must, however, give some slight record of the earlier masters, some of whom lived in the fifteenth century, and whose works we frequently meet with in the public galleries of Holland . Albrecht van Ouwater must be mentioned, though no work by him is now remaining, for he was the founder of a Dutch school of painting at Haarlem. Van Mander notices several of his works—then existing and mentions him as an artist who excelled in representing hands and feet, drapery and landscapes. Ouwater flourished probably in the early part of the fifteenth century. Geertgen van St. Jans-called also Gerard of Haarlem-received his name from the monastery of the knights of St. John at Haarlem, where he chiefly resided . He studied art under Albrecht van Quwater, and is mentioned with great praise by Van Mander, who says that his works were greatly admired by Albrecht Dürer when he visited Haarlem. Two pictures in the Vienna Gallery are attributed to Geertgen ; one represents the Legend of the bones of St. John the Baptist, and the other is a Pietà . Geertgen died when but twenty- eight years of age ( according to Van Mander) . He flourished towards the end of the fifteenth century. Hieronymus van Aeken or Agnen - commonly called Jerom Bosch, from his birth place, Hertogenbosch, was born in 1460. His works, often weird and fantastic, some times reach the demoniacal. A Last Judgment by him is in the Berlin Gallery. The Madrid Museum contains several of his works. It is said that Philip II . of Spain so much admired Van Aeken's painting that he had an altar-piece by him perpetually in his oratory. This artist died in 1516. Cornelis Engelbrechtsen or Engelbertsz, who was born at Leyden in 1468, has only left us one authentic work. It is in the town- hall of his native city, and represents, in the centre, the Crucifixion, and at the sides the Sacrifice of Abraham and the Erection of the Brazen Serpent. He, however, deserves notice as the instructor of Lucas van Leyden . Engelbrechtsen died at Leyden in 1533. He was probably the first artist of Leyden who painted in oil . A Mother and Child, in the National Gallery, is said to be by him. Many of his pictures were destroyed by the iconoclasts in the sixteenth century . Jan Mostaert was born at Haarlem in 1474. He studied art under one Jacob van Haarlem , a painter of little note, in that city. Mostaert was for eighteen years painter-in -ordinary to Margaret of Austria. He died at his birth-place in 1555 or 1556. A Mater Dolorosa, in the church of Notre Dame at Bruges, is a good specimen of his He was also a successful portrait- painter. Two authentic portraits by him are in the Antwerp Museum. A Virgin and Child , in the National Gallery, is attributed to him. In style Mostaert is similar to the early painters of Bruges. Luc Jacobsz - commonly known as Lucas van Leyden-was born at Leyden in 1494. He studied art under Engelbrechtsen, and later in life had the advantage of art. 324 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1525. the friendship of several great artists. At Middelburg he was a companion of Mabuse, whose style he sometimes copied, and at Antwerp he knew Quintin Matsys and Albrecht Dürer. He was wont to travel about the country in grand style, and at whatever city he stopped he gave a dinner to his fellow painters. On one occasion at Middelburg he came to table in “ a gorgeous robe of yellow silk that shone like gold;" but Mabuse, not to be outdone in magnificence by a foreigner, appeared in a coat of real cloth of gold. It is said that the excesses in which Lucas indulged hastened his death. He died at the early age of thirty -nine, in 1533. As he spent more of his time as an engraver than a painter, Lucas van Leyden's oil pictures are very rare. A Last Judgment, in the town -hall of Leyden , a Crucifixion of Christ, in the Munich Gallery, and a Card Party at Wilton House, in the possession 170 1 DER EULENSPIEGEL. ” — FROM AN ENGRAVING BY LUCAS VAN LEYDEN . of the Earl of Pembroke, are specimens of his style as a painter. Of his engravings Bartsch mentions no less than one hundred and seventy-four. Some of them are of great merit, and others are rare on account of the youth of the artist at the time of their execution . A Temptation of St. Anthony, in the British Museum , when he was no more than fifteen years old. His “ Eulenspiegel" is prized more from its scarcity than for any particular merit. There are not more than four or five impressions in existence. was engraved He studied first Jan Schoreel was born at Schoreel, near Alkmaar, in 1495. unde an unknown master in his birth -place, and then at Amsterdam. Attracted by the fame of Mabuse, whose pupil he is usually considered, he went to Utrecht. A.D. 1550.] EARLY DUTCH PAINTERS. 325 Schoreel afterwards stayed a short time at Nuremberg, and on leaving that town travelled through Italy to the Holy Land. On his return to Italy in 1522 , he found that his fellow -countryman Adrian VI. had just obtained possession of the papal chair. The pope sat to him for his portrait , and appointed him superintendent of the works of art in the Vatican. On the death of his patron in the following year, Schoreel returned to his native land, and established himself at Utrecht, where he was made prebend of the church of St. Mary, and where he was much patronized — especially by the family of Lochorst—until his death in 1562. His best works are a Virgin and Child, in the town- hall of Utrecht ; a series of Biblical subjects executed in tempera , in the church of Warmenhuizen, near Alkmaar; and a Repose in Egypt, and a Portrait of a Lady, both in the National Gallery. As a painter Schoreel cannot be said to be the pupil of any particular master. He copied successively, Mabuse, Dürer, Raphael and Michelangelo ; yet his style is to a certain extent original. He was the first to introduce the Italian style into Holland, and can boast of having instructed Antonio Moro. Besides being a painter, Schoreel was a poet and a musician , and he is said to have spoken five different languages - doubtless acquired in his travels. Pieter Aertszen - called Lange - Peer — was born at Amsterdam in 1507 , according to Zani and other writers ; some say in 1517 . He learned the rudiments of his art from one Allaert Claessen. He first painted genre pictures with much success, but subsequently turned his attention to historical subjects, which he treated in a somewhat realistic manner. In 1573 he joined the Guild of Painters at Antwerp ; where he executed many works ; he died at his birth - place in 1573. When Michael Coxie was asked to paint an altiir -piece for a church at Amsterdam , he gave the citizens of that city the same answer that Titian made to the Bergamaschi—that while they had such a good painter in their own town they had no reason to seek foreigners. Titian spoke of Moroni- Coxie of Aertszen. Several works which this artist executed were destroyed during his life by the iconoclasts. Of the remaining specimens of his art , we may mention a Crucifixion, in the Antwerp Museum , and a Christ bearing ihe Cross, in the Berlin Museum . Aertszen left three sons, all of whom were painters. Pieter Lastmann was born at Haarlem , according to several good authorities, in 1562 ; but Vosmaer, with apparent reason , places the date of his birth in 1582. Last mann is said to have studied under Cornelis Cornelissen. In 1604 he went to Rome, where he improved his knowledge of chiaroscuro — his chief characteristic. Soon after his return to his native country , he was summoned to Copenhagen to execute paintings for a church. He died in 1649. He had the honour of imparting instruction to Rembrandt, but though we occasionally find traces of Lastmann's style in the works of that master, it is probable that he did not remain with him for any lengthened period. A. Holy Family in the Berlin Gallery, and a Massacre of the Innocents in the Brunswick Museum arc fair specimens of Lastmann's art. Hendrik Cornelius Vroom, the earliest Dutch painter of marine subjects, was born at Haarlem in 1566. Having learned the rudiments of his art from his father- in- law, who was a painter, he went to Rotterdam , and thence to Seville, where he resided a short time with a fellow- countryman. From Spain Vroom went to Italy, and travelling through Florence, visited Rome, where he stayed for two years, and was patronized by Cardinal de' Medici. From Rome he went to Venice, and thence through Milan and Paris back to Haarlem . Soon afterwards he again started on his travels, making Spain , as before, the object of his first visit , but was prevented from reaching that 326 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . [A.D. 1600. country by a great storm. A picture of the tempest, which he painted in Portugal, established his reputation as a marine artist. In 1601 Vroom was employed by Francis Spiering to make designs for the tapestry, which that master had engaged to execute for the Earl of Nottingham , Lord High Admiral, in commemoration of the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Vroom soon afterwards returned to Haarlem, where he died, according to Van der Willigen, in 1640. His works, which are carefully executed, are now rare ; they may be seen in Haarlem, Antwerp , and elsewhere. Abraham Bloemart, who was born at Gorcum in 1567, acquired his style chiefly from study of the works of Frans Floris. His best pictures are noteworthy for boldness of design and purity of colour ; his drawing is often defective. A Raising of Lazarus, in the Munich Gallery, is a favourable specimen of this artist. Other works by him are in the galleries of Berlin and the Hague, and in several churches in Flanders . Abraham Bloemart lived chiefly at Utrecht, where he died in 1647. Besides historical pictures, he painted landscapes ; he also handled the burin with some success . Bloemart had four sons two, of whom were painters and two engravers. Michiel Janzen Mierevelt was born at Delft in 1567 . His father, who was a goldsmith, intended to make his son an engraver, but when about twelve years old , the young Mierevelt was induced by Bloklandt to become a painter. He received an art education from that master at Utrecht. He first painted altar-pieces for the churches of Delft ; but, some portraits which he had executed being much admired , he turned his attention towards that branch of art, and subsequently became most successful. It is said that Charles I. in 1625 invited Mierevelt to London, but that the artist refused on account of the plague which then raged in the English capital. He died at his native Delft in 1641. Houbraken tells us that he painted no less than five thousand portraits, and Descamps raises them to twice that number. That Mierevelt was a prolific painter there is no doubt, but his works are much too carefully executed to allow of the possibility of his having painted such a quantity. Good specimens of Mierevelt are in the town- hall of Delft. He had two sons, Pieter and Jan, who were both good portrait painters, but neither arrived at a mature age, and their works are not numerous. One of Mierevelt's pupils was Paul Moreelse, the portrait-painter, who was born at Utrecht in 1571 , and who died there in 1638. Works by him are in the museums of Rotterdam , the Hague, and Berlin . Jacob Gerritz Cuyp, the father of Albert Cuyp, was born at Dordrecht in 1575. He studied under Abraham Bloemart, and was in 1642 one of the original founders of the academy of his native town. The date of " old " Cuyp's death is not recorded. He painted both landscapes and portraits. Of the former subject a good specimen is a View of town, with a river in the foreground, in the Munich Gallery. The museums of Rotterdam , Amsterdam , and Berlin, contain several good portraits by him. At Amsterdam is a Dutch Family, which, Immerzeel says, is that of the painter, Cornelis Troost. Frans Hals, the celebrated portrait-painter, was born, probably at Antwerp, in 1584. Some writers give Mechlin as his birth - place. He is supposed to have studied under Carel van Mander, the painter and historian. In 1611 , Hals was in Haarlem , for in that year his son was christened there ; we next hear of him in 1616, when his character was not of the best. That he was a drunkard is undoubted, and that he ill - treated his wife is more than probable, for in that year his wife applied for judicial protection from his violence . She died in 1616 , and in the following year he married again. A.D. 1600.] FRANS HALS 327 . Lysbeth Reyniers was the name of his second wife, and this match seems to have been a happier one than the former. From 1644 until 1662 no record is given of Hals' private life, yet it was during this time that many of his best works were executed. The first notice we have of him after these years is that he applied to the city for pecuniary assistance. Henceforth he seems to have lived in great poverty. He died in 1666 at Haarlem in the “ Oude Mannen Huis ” (an almshouse for aged men) and was buried on the 2nd of September in the chancel of the “ Grote Kerck . ” A tale, characteristic of this painter, is related by Houbraken. Vandyck , when in Haarlem , went to him to have his portrait painted. Hals had to be fetched from a neighbouring ale-house, but immediately on his arrival commenced to paint the portrait, which was completed in an incredibly short space of time. Vandyck, not wishing to be outdone, asked Hals to change places, remarking that he could do as well as that . When the portrait was completed Hals on seeing it recognised the touch of the master, and exclaimed, “ You are either Vandyck or the devil. ” Whatever Hals' private life may have been, few painters have equalled him in his branch of art , though he must yield the palm to Vandyck. He stands pre-eminent among the Dutch portrait -painters. Among the best , of Hals' paintings we may mertion the Portrait of himself and his wife Lysbeth, in the Amsterdam Museum ; a Young man with a flat cap, and Two singing boys, both in the Cassel Gallery ; the Assemblée des officiers, and the Regents and Regentes of the hospital, in which he died, painted when he was eighty years of age, all in the Haarlem Museum ; a Portrait of Hille Bobbe, of Haarlem, recently in the Suermondt Collection at Aix-la - Chapelle - a similar picture is in the Metropolitan Museum of New York ; and lastly, three Portraits in the Dresden Gallery. Numerous good pictures by Hals are in private galleries in England. Sir Richard Wallace has, among others, a fine Portrait of a Cavalier. The Earl of Lonsdale, the Earl of Ellesmere, and Mr. Wilson, also possess good specimens of Frans Hals. Until lately this artist's merits were scarcely recognised ; his pictures sold for absurdly small sums. In 1745 a Portrait of himself fetched but 55 florins (about 41. 55. ) , and as late as 1823, a picture of a Girl with a kitten , sold for only 35 guineas. Hals' fame is now fully established , and his pictures fetch prices pro portionate to their intrinsic value. Frans Hals had five sons, all of whom were painters, but none of them rank above mediocrity. We must, however, mention his brother Dirk Hals, who was born at Haarlem in 1589 ( ? ). He studied under Bloemart, and painted in early life animals and hunting scenes ; subsequently he changed his style for genre subjects. He died at Haarlem in 1656. Cornelis Poelemberg, who was born at Utrecht in 1586, received his first instruction in art from Abraham Bloemart. He subsequently went to Rome, and studied in the effeminate school of Carlo Dolci, and introduced the taste and style of the Italians into the simplicity of the Flemings. From Rome Poelemberg went to Florence, where he met with much patronage - even from the Grand Duke. At every city through which he passed on his way homewards, he was well received. Soon after his return to Utrecht, Poelemberg was invited to England by Charles I. here in 1637 and remained some time; but it was in vain that Charles endeavoured to persuade him to remain . The love of his native country prevailed, and he returned to Utrecht, where he lived honoured and esteemed and greatly patronized until his death in 1660. He was, in fact, one of those artists who received during their lives 328 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1боо. too high a patronage. For his works, however pleasing they may be, are wanting in depth of feeling ; the best part of his pictures is always the colouring, the drawing is frequently defective. His works are chiefly landscapes -- ornamented, as a rule, with nude figures. He also painted figures in the pictures of other artists - notably of Steenwyck. Works by Poelemberg are in most continental galleries. Dresden has eleven Landscapes with figures. The National Gallery has but one -entitled Ilomen bathing ; bequeathed by the late Mr. Wynn Ellis. Poelemberg had numerous followers, but none of sufficient importance to be here mentioned. Adriaan van der Venne, who was born at Delft in 1589 , did not turn his attention towards art until later in life than is usual with most painters. He studied under Jerome van Diest. He executed chiefly allegorical and historical pictures , into which he frequently introduced portraits. He also painted genre and landscape subjects, and in addition to that made many fine drawings for the illustration of books. Van der Venne died at the Hague in 1662. He was a strict upholder of the Protestant religion and a stout partisan of the House of Orange. His Pêche aux Ames, in the Amsterdam Museum , displays his reverence for the Protestant religion , and his dislike of the Catholic. It represents divines of both creeds--several of them portraits fishing for persons swimming in the water. On the one bank of the stream are Roman Catholics , on the other Protestants. Jan Breughel frequently painted land scape backgrounds to Van der Venne's pictures. Esaias van der Velde, the uncle of Adriaan van der Velde and the master of Van Goyen, was born at Amsterdam about 1590. His master was one Pieter Denyn. In 1612 Van der Velde entered the Painters' Guild at Haarlem , and in 1630 he had established himself at Leyden . He died in 1648. Esaias van der Velde's favourite subjects were battle -scenes and cavalry skirmishes ; his horses are correctly and powerfully drawn. Pictures by him are in the galleries of Amsterdam , Rotterdam , Dresden and Vienna, and in several private collections. We may especially notice the Reduction of Bois - le - Duc in 1629 , in the Gallery of Amsterdam . Cornelis Jansen, the portrait -painter, was born about the close of the sixteenth century, according to Sandrart, in London , of Flemish parents - Vertue and others state that he was born at Amsterdam . Jansen's earliest works in England are dated about 1618, at which time he was living in Blackfriars. From 1630 till 1640 he resided at a small village called Bridge in Kent. Like many of his countrymen in England, Jansen was cast entirely into the shade by the arrival of the great Vandyck, and his declining popularity, combined with the civil war which had just commenced, induced Jansen to quit England in 1648. On his return to Holland , he first settled at Middel burg, but he removed to Amsterdam, where he continued to exercise his profession with much success until his death in 1665. A Portrait of Charles I., by this artist, was, when Walpole wrote, in the possession of Lord Pomfret at Easton. Another of Charles I. attended by his Court in the Green Park, is in Buckingham Palace. His own portrait is at Longford Castle. Speaking of Jansen , Walpole says, “ His pictures are easily distinguished by their clearness , neatness and smoothness. They are generally painted on board , and except being a little stiff, are often strongly marked with a fair character of nature, and remarkable for a lively tranquillity in the coun tenances. His draperies are seldom but black . ” Jansen had a son , who followed in Holland the profession of his father , but with scarcely equal success. Daniel Mytens, who was born at the Hague about the year 1590 , came to England A.1 ) . 1625. ) GERARD HONTHORST. 329 during the reign of James I. but he did not achieve any great notoriety until 1625 , in which year he was appointed " picture -drawer " to Charles I. with a salary of 201. per annum . Mytens, from that time until about 1630, executed many portraits of Charles I. , his wife Henrietta Maria, and the personages of his court — including the dwarf Geoffrey Hudson. Soon after the arrival of Vandyck, Mytens, though treated with consideration and kindness by Charles I. , not liking perhaps to be second to that master, retired to the Hague, where he continued to paint until his death , which occurred some time after 1656. Several fine Portraits by Mytens are at Hampton Court, Buckingham Palace, and in private collections in England. Gerard Honthorst was born at Utrecht in 1592 . He received his first instruction in art from Bloemart, and about 1624 went to Rome, where he studied the works of Caravaggio. He was much patronized, especially by the Marchese Giustiniani. It was while in Rome that he obtained, from his pictures of candle- and fire- light effects, the name of “ Gherardo della Notte. ” On his return to Utrecht, Honthorst set up an academy, which was well attended. The historian Sandrart, who was one of his pupils, tells us that he had twenty- eight fellow-scholars , each paying a hundred florins a year. At this time too , Honthorst was much patronized by the Queen of Bohemia, and it is said that he instructed that sovereign and her children in the art of painting. In 1628 Honthorst was invited to England by Charles I. , by whom he was well received , and for whom he executed numerous paintings of that monarch himself , his queen , and his courtiers. Even after Honthorst's return to Utrecht, six months later, he con tinued to paint for Charles I. , though his chief patron in Holland was the Prince of Orange, for whom he painted in the “ House in the Wood ” near the Hague, and at Ryswick. Other patrons of Honthorst were the King of Denmark, Marie de Médicis, and the Elector of ' Brandenburg. This artist died at Utrecht in 1660. Honthorst, considering doubtless the brightness of the sun commonplace, scarcely ever lighted his pictures by anything but lamps and candles, and thus made for himself a speciality in Rubens is said to have greatly admired these night- pieces. In the Dresden Gallery are a Dentist drawing a tooth by candle-light - signed " G. V. Hont. Horst, fe. 1622 " -—and two other pictures of the same style by this artist. Several of his best pictures are, however, in the galleries of his native country. A fine Christ before Caiaphas is in the gallery at Stafford House. The collections of the Louvre, Munich and Berlin , also contain specimens of his art. We may here mention a younger brother, Wilhelm Honthorst, who was born at Utrecht in 1604 ( ?) . He received his early instruction from Bloemart. From 1650 to 1664 he painted at the court of Princess Louisa Henrietta of Orange at Berlin. Wilhelm Honthorst died in 1666. Like his brother, he painted both portraits and historical pieces, but he was in every respect inferior to him . He is celebrated chiefly for his portraits. Theodor de Keyser, the son of a sculptor and architect, was born at Amsterdam ( ?) about the year 1595. The name of his instructor is not known, but he probably learned the art of design from his father. The galleries of Amsterdam and the Hague possess specimens of De Keyser's art. At the Hague is a picture representing the Burgomasters of Amsterdam . The National Gallery has a Merchant with his Clerk , signed “ T. D. K.” in a monogram , with the date 1627. De Keyser's works are generally small full-length portraits. He died at Amsterdam about 1660. Leonhard Bramer was born at Delft in 1596. The name of his instructor in art is art. 2 U 330 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1625. not recorded. He travelled much in France and Italy, where, in Rome, he studied under Elzheimer. On his return to Holland, Bramer settled at Delft, where he was much patronized. Like Honthorst, he was fond of candle- and fire- light effects. His pictures, which are usually of a sacred historical nature, are frequently ornamented with gold and silver vases. This may be noticed in the Solomon praying in the Temple, in the Dresden Gallery, which was purchased in 1738 as a Rembrandt. It is, however, signed " L. Bramer. ” In later life this artist greatly imitated Rembrandt, with so much success that he was formerly thought to have studied under him . It is not known when Bramer died. The latest record of him is in 1667 . Pieter Frans de Grebber, who was born at Haarlem in 1600, is said to have studied under his father - an unimportant artist and under Goltzius. In later life his works are somewhat in the style of Rembrandt. De Grebber painted portraits and historical pieces. Of the former subject the Dresden Gallery has three - two of Young Men, and one of a Young Woman, and of the latter one only — the Finding of Moses. De Grebber's native town of Haarlem has several of his best works. He died in 1656 ( ?) . REMBRANDT, HIS PUPILS AND HIS FOLLOWERS. The great master, Rembrandt van Rijn , is entitled to open a fresh chapter in the history of Dutch Art. He was the founder of a new school, which , during the course of a century, produced some of the best - known painters of the Continent, whose works are to be seen in every public gallery , and in most of the private collections of paintings throughout Europe. Rembrandt Hermanszoon van Rijn , the chief painter of the Dutch school, was born in the house of his father, Hermann Gerritszoon van Rijn , on the Weddesteeg at Leyden, on the 15th of July, 1607. He was the sixth of seven children , and was educated at a school in Leyden , with a view to his studying the law . Young Rembrandt, however, showed such decided taste and talent for art, that his father allowed him to follow the bent of his inclination . He was accordingly sent to an unimportant artist , Jacob van Swanenberg, with whom he remained three years, and made, it is said , much progress. Rembrandt subsequently removed from Leyden , and studied under Lastmann at Amsterdam , and under Jacob Pinas at Haarlem. Yet, like Claude Lorraine, Rem brandt may be said to have taught himself painting, almost without a master, for he was dissatisfied with all those of whom he learned . In 1630, the year in which he painted his earliest-known oil picture - the Portrait of an Old Man, now in the Cassel Gallery, he was so far advanced in art that he left Leyden , where he had been living since the completion of his education, and established himself as a painter at Amster dam, in which city he henceforth resided. Like Teniers, he gave himself up more to the instruction of his pupils, rather than become a friend of princes and nobles , like Rubens or Vandyck. Some of his biographers maintain that Rembrandt spent much of his time at ale-houses in the companionship of boors and common folk ; but he was certainly on intimate terms with his liberal patron the burgomaster Six, with Tulp, the poet Jeremias de Decker, and with many others of the better classes. In 1632 , he produced the celebrated Lesson in Anatomy. Two years later we find him established in the Sint Antonie Breerstraat ; and on the 22nd of June in the same year A.D. 1625 ] REMBRANDT. 331 he married Saskia, the daughter of Rombert Uilenberg, burgomaster of Leeuwarden , who was descended of a good Friesland family. Saskia was the wife whose portrait he loved to paint, though not to the same extent as he did his old mother. The Dresden Gallery has the beautiful and justly- famous picture of Rembrandt with his Wife on his knee ; and in the Cassel Gallery is one of Saskia alone. In 1639, Rembrandt, for a short time, resided on the banks of the Binnen Amstel , the largest canal in the city ; but he soon afterwards returned to his old part of the city — the Jews' quarter - for he took a house in the Sint Antonie Breerstraat ( now the Joden Breerstraat), where he afterwards chietly resided. In 1640, Rembrandt painted, in payment for his picture frames, the likeness of his Frame-maker (known in France as Le Doreur), a perfect marvel of portraiture. This work was long preserved as an heirloom in the family of the frame maker ; but a few years since it was sold to a dealer, who disposed of it to the late Duc de Morny, whose successor still possesses it. In 1642 , Rembrandt painted his masterpiece, the Night Watch. In the June of the same year he had the misfortune to lose his much - loved wife Saskia, who was buried in the old church ( Duide Kerk ), Amsterdam . Two sons and two daughters were the result of this marriage. The elder son died when quite a child, and the younger, Titus Rembrandtzoon , did not survive his father, from whom he received instruction in art , and whom he imitated without success. The two daughters, both named Cornelia , died in childhood. Saskia left, by will , her property to her husband in trust for her son Titus, who was to inherit it on his father's death, or in the event of his marrying again. He was also to receive a marriage portion, if he ( Titus) married. Rembrandt's second wife was Hendricktie Stoffelt, who had but one child , a daughter named Cornelia, who was christened in 1654. Rembrandt was married a third time, to Catherine van Wyck, who survived and who bore him two children , who also survived him . In spite of the large prices which he received for his works, and in spite of the amounts received from his pupils, by the instruction of whom he is said to have made a yearly income of 2,500 florins, Rembrandt grew less and less prosperous, and ultimately, in 1656 , became insolvent. He was impoverished either by the amounts paid for the curiosities and works of art which he was wont to collect , or else by the general diearth of trade in Amsterdam , where, it is said , no less than three thousand houses were at that time standing empty. We must also remember that Rembrandt, on his second marriage, had to give up his wife's money to his son Titus. Whatever was the cause, Rem brandt's goods were disposed of by public auction . The sale, which included, in addition to his curiosities, seventy of the artist's own pictures, realised less than five thousand guilders. The smallness of the amount may probably be accounted for by the general poverty of Amsterdam at that time. Rembrandt, though deprived of all his goods, did not give way to despondency, but continued to work with his usual vigour. His last known picture, the Jewish Bride, supposed to have been dated 1669, is in the Van der Hoop Gallery at Amsterdam . Rembrandt died in his house on the Rozengracht on the 8th of October, 1669, and was buried in the Wester Kerk. him ; To see Rembrandt at his greatest height, we must seek him in his own country. It might almost be said that his works are divided equally between the Hague and Amsterdam . Amsterdam seems to have inherited solely his pictures in his second style, the widest, the most daring, the most scientific , that which may be termed his parti pris. It is at the Hague, on the contrary , that we find the best works of his first style - the more timid but also the more studied and delicate . 332 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [A.D. 1650. . We will commence at the Hague. Passing by the portrait of a man called the Officer, on account of his high military collar , and which might well be a portrait of Rembrandt himself at the time when his moustache was growing ; it would be, in this case, the first of the long series of portraits which Rembrandt painted of himself every year of his life, from youth to old age. Passing over also a Susannah, dated 1633, the drawing of which is wanting in grandeur, but of which the colouring is already wonderful, and also a Presentation in the Temple, dated 1631 , we come at once to the incomparable masterpiece of this portion of his life, the Lesson in Anatomy. This is the dissection of a corpse by a celebrated surgeon of the time, the professor Tulp , before seven other doctors. This subject is too well known by copies, engravings, and number less descriptions, including that of Reynolds, to require another explanation. We THE NIGHT WATCH . - BY REMBRANDT. In the Museum of Amsterdam . will merely say, then , that this subject, requiring no invention but that of arrangement, and there being nothing ideal in it , suited wonderfully the realistic genius of the painter. Rembrandt rises in it to all the distinction of which he is capable, for around this inanimate body all the living personages have the certain elevation of demeanour and expression always imparted by careful and investigating science. As for the execution, it is needless to praise it , or to say that the gift of life seems bestowed on this marvellous picture. The Lesson in Anatomy is universally considered the most excellent work of the master before the period when, to excuse the hasty fire of some of his later works, he said that “ painting should not be smelled. ” “ This , " says M. Maxime du Camp, “ is a European picture of world -wide renown , which will remain in traditions even after it is destroyed, for it is one of those few things done by men which is perfectly beautiful.” A.D. 1650.) REMBRANDT 333 . We now turn to the Museum of Amsterdam , the city in which Rembrandt died. It is right that Amsterdam should possess the greatest work of the greatest of Dutch painters , who was a poet also, merely through his use of expression, movement and light. This famous picture, which contains twenty -three persons of life- size, represents a platoon of the civic guard - officers, soldiers, standard -bearer and drummer - patrol ling the streets of Amsterdam . It is called the Night Watch, though this name is not correct, as the scene is in daylight. But the name and popular error arise from the luminous and transparent tints, the great effects of light and shade, which seem produced by an artificial light rather than by the sun . “ To tell the truth , this is only. a dream, and no one can decide what the light is that falls on the group of figures. It is neither the light of the sun nor of the moon ; nor does it come from torches ; it is rather the light from the genius of Rembrandt.” (Ch. Blanc. ) This civic guard, such as Rembrandt likes to show it to us, resembles no troop of to-day, no order, no uniform , the most complete liberty of action and equipment ; a strange mixture of people, attitudes, costumes, arms, arquebuses and halberds, helmets and hats, cuirasses and doublets. Nothing can be more picturesque, and “ a beautiful disorder is often an effect of art. ” Several defects, however, are visible to the least clear-sighted. The lady who carries a fowl hung at her waist is certainly too small. In height she is only a girl of twelve. The handsome officer in black velvet with the red scarf, his companion in yellow satin balancing a halberd , the standard bearer, and , in short, all these frank, martial countenances, present the true type of the popular heroes who saved Holland from Catholic Spain . This Night Watch expresses the effervescence of patriotism , the happiness of independence that had long been fought for. “ It is , ” says M. Montégut, “ liberty in her golden age. It will preserve the remembrance of Dutch liberty, perhaps even beyond the existence of Holland. ” Another picture of Rembrandt, the Staalmeisters, or the trustees of the Staalhof (the Clothweavers' Hall) , although only a simple collection of portraits, shares the renown of the Night Watch . This picture has not received , at any rate in foreign countries, any short and consecrated name, and on this account it is less quoted than the preceding one. But many artists and connoisseurs prefer it , and place it higher than the others. They say that the same qualities may be seen in it with fewer defects ; there is a riper perfection - more sure of itself and more complete. All these good cloth merchants are looking in the same direction , as if some one had just interrupted the reading, they had commenced, of a register of the corporation . This uniform and natural movement animates the composition, and seems to make it more completely one. It is not six portraits that we see, but six living men whom the magician, by his powerful wand, has fixed to the canvas. They give us an opportunity of fully appreciating Rembrandt as a portrait painter. His usual combinations of light and shade do not merely serve for picturesque effect, but still more do they so light up the personages that we seem to see into their minds - moral resemblance is added to the physical, and under his pencil they seem to live again. It may be said of Rembrandt's portraits what the Romans said of a fine Ionic statue : Tacet sed loquitur. In Italy there are only a few portraits dispersed in Florence, Naples, and Turin . In the rich museum of Spain there is only one Portrait of a Lady, the date of which shows it to be one of his earliest works, and is in the fine and delicate treatment most suited to represent the fresh beauty of early life. Neither can Rembrandt be seen to advantage in France. Of the eight paintings by his hand there are only three (amongst 334 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [ A.D. 1650. . others, one of the four where he has painted himself) which deserve a high place among his works. The Angel Raphael leaving the family of Tobit is wonderful for the way in which he is moving in the air in the midst of a luminous atmosphere which descends from the half-opened sky ; the Disciples going to Emmaus, another miracle of colouring, is remarkable for its grandeur and relative beauty ; the Good Samaritan , although less finished and more defective in treatment, shows the happy employment of light and shade ; but can any one pretend that these second - rate compositions equal any of his masterpieces to be found elsewhere ! In one respect, however, the richest collections may envy the Louvre. There are some very small pictures, almost miniatures in oil , in which Rembrandt rises to the greatest height. The small figures , of three or four inches high, called the Philosophers in Malitation, and still more the House of an Old Carpenter ( which Rembrandt probably termed a Holy Family) are , in their humble proportions, the triumph of the school he founded , which is not merely art, but the poetry of naturalism . Two analogous pictures are in the National Gallery. Although also very small, the Woman taken in Adultery, and the Adoration of the Shipherds, must take the name and rank of historical pictures. Superb, both in arrangement and execution, they may defy any comparison . The National Gallery has, amongst others, two Portraits of the painter himself, one at the age of about thirty-two - signed “ Rembrandt, f. 1640," and the other when quite an old man . Well worthy of notice is a Christ blessing little children, mentioned by M. Bürger, among the four best pictures of Rembrandt. The finest of Rembrandt's portraits in England are in private collections, especially at Buckingham Palace and Grosvenor House. Germany and Russia are almost as rich as Holland. Various other historical pictures, also of small dimensions, but as great in arrangement and touch, are collected at the Pinakothek at Munich ; a Crucifixion, in dark, stormy weather ; an Entombment, in the obscurity of a deep vault ; a Nativity, illumined by the pale rays of a lamp; a Resurrection , illuminated by a single ray of light in the darkness of the night; an Ascension, where Christ lights up the whole scene with the brilliancy emanating from himself ; lastly, a Descent from the Cross, which is known everywhere by the celebrated etching Rembrandt himself made of it . This picture, which does not occupy one square yard, reminds us in its general arrangements of the works on the same subject by Raphael, Titian, Volterra, Carracci, Ribera, Lucas van Leyden, and Rubens. Here , also, we see the body of Christ taken down from the Cross by the servants of Joseph of Arimathea, the Virgin fainting in the arms of Mary Magdalen and St. John. But this is only in name. Without the Cross to explain the subject, how could we have recognised the Christ, his mother, his loved disciple, or any of the actors in the Gospel drama, in these coarse and heavy personages dressed in the Walloon costume, with grotesque countenances, flat noses, small round eyes, and large mouths, where the painter seems to have taken his own portrait as the type of human beauty ? At the first glance at this picture we should be inclined to ascribe it to irony, if we were not too deeply moved by the truth of the attitudes, gestures and expression, and so much enchanted with the magnificence of the colouring and dazzled by the brilliancy of the light that no sentiment can long remain but that of admiration. Looked at from the artist's own point of view , this Descent from the Cross is a real prodigy. There is another picture of precisely similar character in the gallery of Prince Esterhazy, now removed from Vienna to Pesth . This is the Ecce Homo. The figures are of life - size. Jesus is in the centre, almost naked, with a girdle round his loins, as REMBRANDT'S MOTHER By REMBRANDT, In the Hermitage, St. Petersburg R AV NICI A.D. 1650. ] 335 REMBRANDT. he would be on the Cross, a reed in his hand, and the crown of thorns on his head. On the right Pilate is washing his hands of the death of the innocent one ; a woman is pouring water for him from a golden jug, whilst another is holding the ewer. Pilate is dressed in a striped turban and fur cloak, like the rabbis of Amsterdam painted by Rembrandt. As for the Christ, it is evident that the painter simply chose a model on whom he placed the signs of the Passion. It might almost be thought that the artist was one of those whom St. Cyril recommended to represent our Lord.as “ the most repulsive in appearance of the children of men ;" or rather that Rembrandt, the reformer, the enemy of tradition and catholic pomp, and who understood the Gospel not in the Greek and pagan manner of the Renaissance, but in the simplicity of the Middle Ages, wished to paint the Christ of the Beggars. And yet, with all these commonplace, almost ignoble beings, Rembrandt has succeeded by force of expression, gesture and sentiment, and the great power of light and shadow , in making a work so wonderfully beautiful that words are wanting to convey any idea of the brilliancy with which it is radiant, or to express the emotion and admiration it excites in the soul. Vienna has preserved in its Belvedere eight or ten portraits by Rembrandt, amongst which are one of his Mother, very old and very much adorned, and two of himself at different ages, first young and elegant, then old and careworn . At Cassel, when the rich gallery was thrown open by the Prussians when they took possession of the Electorate, a buried treasure was found — twenty -eight pictures by Rembrandt. We might choose for notice the most important, called the Blessing of Jacob, which contains five or six figures ; we prefer, however, to mention the most interesting— that of his first wife, Saskia Uilenberg, whose portrait he painted with as much love as did Rubens that of his beautiful Helena Fourment. In this portrait Saskia is still very young and very pretty, and it may be seen , by the ornaments with which she is laden , that Rembrandt wished to show every one how much he adored this “ spoiled child .” Near her are different friends of the painter, the poet Croll, the burgomaster Six, the writing master Koppenol, and Rembrandt himself, now in a very simple costume black cap and brown cloak . Dresden could not fail to have a large share in the works of Rembrandt. But here, also , the most interesting are not historical compositions. Doubtless the large picture representing the Sacrifice of Manoah and his Wife, to whom the angel announces the birth of Samson, is of strong colouring and grand effect ; but this angel has too little of the angelic , and the whole work is too little in accordance with the sacred text. We prefer the Rape of Ganymede, although this picture has no more of the sentiment of mythology than the other has of the Bible ; but the grotesque is here more allowable. Instead of the handsome youth loved by Jupiter, we see a fat boy of six or seven carried off in his shirt by the eagle, struggling and screaming. The portraits at Dresden are both more numerous and more perfect. Near his old Mother weighing golden pieces ( all Rembrandt's old women are his mother) we may especially admire Rembrandt himself, his glass in his hand , a laugh on his mouth, embracing his young wife, who is seated on his knees ; and still more a Young Girl (perhaps Saskia herself) holding a pink in her hand ; and two old Grey-bearded Men, with black caps on, clothed in rich dark stuffs. We shall find nothing higher than these portraits, which are painted in his latest and most powerful manner. But over them is hung another work of Rembrandt's. This is a landscape of medium size, without any object that can particularly distinguish it . It would scarcely be sought out, even as a curiosity, but that landscapes are rare in numerous works of Rembrandt, and that 3.36 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1650. . the catalogue hazards the conjecture—wrongly, as it happens — that Rembrandt was born in a little mill introduced in one part. Neither Amsterdam , the Hague, Munich, Dresden nor Cassel can boast of possessing such a numerous collection of the works of Rembrandt as St. Petersburg. The Hermitage contains forty -three, and in all the manners cultivated by an artist no less universal than Rubens. In landscape we find a View of Judea, a barren country, where Jesus is walking between the disciples going to Emmaus. In marine pictures—still more rare — we find a Coast of Holland, of a warm, golden tint, in which the sky and water seem to melt into each other in the distant horizon. In portraits we find two of His Mother, once as a good old woman smiling ( see frontispiece), the other as a pious Lutheran in meditation over her Bible ; also two of his Saskia, as usual adorned with embroidery, velvet and furs ; two or three of the rich Dutch Jews, dressed in the Eastern costumes which are so favourable to painting. One of these bears the great name of John Sobieski, doubtless because he had on a sort of Polish cap, for how could the painter of Amsterdam, who never quitted his own country, have Rembrandt LANDSCAPE.- FROM AN ETCHING BY REMBRANDT. ever met the hero of Vienna, who, during his whole life , was occupied in the east of Europe ? Another excellent portrait is believed to be that of the theologian Arminius (Jacob Hermann) . But this famous opponent to the doctrines of Calvin died in 1609, when Rembrandt was only just born. This could have only been, then, a study or a repetition of a former portrait. The same may be said of the old man Thomas Parr, who died in London in 1634 at the age of 152. Rembrandt was barely twenty five at that time, and how could he have met with the English centenarian ? Of the biblical pictures we may notice, a powerfully -executed Sacrifice of Isaac; a Return of the Prodigal Son, in which the figures are still more fantastically accoutred ; an Education of the Virgin by St. Anne - an old woman, with her spectacles in her band, teaching a young girl to read ; and lastly, a Holy Family — that is to say, a carpenter's family in his workroom, where angels are floating in the air - absurd as a composition, but a magnificent picture in the truth and splendour of the colouring. A.D. 1650. ] PUPILS OF REMBRANDT. 337 M. Paul Delaroche was quite right in saying, “ Notwithstanding his immense defects, Rembrandt is perhaps the best painter in the world ." Rembrandt's etchings are as celebrated as his paintings - nearly four hundred of them ; scriptural subjects, portraits and landscapes, dated from 1628 to . 1661 , are to be found in various collections. The Print-room in the British Museum has a magnificent series. An early proof- impression of Christ healing the sick - known as the Hundred Guilder Print - was sold by auction in 1867 for u8ol. PUPILS OF REMBRANDT. The pupils of Rembrandt — those, at least, who remained faithful to him - only attained an excellence which makes them approach in some degree to their master in portrait painting. Their inferiority is partly concealed, because their manner changes, and the comparison is no longer direct. But when we pass to historical composition, they all become simple satellites lost in the rays of the central luminary. Their imitation , in many cases, is flagrant, and, whatever merit may attach to a good imitation , the painters who do it must remain pupils all their lives , and can never aspire to the title of masters. Foremost among these imitators is Jacob Backer or Bakker, who was born at Harlingen in 1608, and was one of Rembrandt's less important pupils. He is noteworthy for his portraits , in which he excelled- especially in painting the hands. The Syndics, in the Van der Hoop Collection at Amsterdam , is a good example of this master. He died in 1651 . Ferdinand Bol was born at Dordrecht in 1611. When quite a youth, he entered Rembrandt's studio at Amsterdam , and in 1652 he was made a burgess of that city . He died there, rich and greatly esteemed, in 1681. Bol painted several historical works without much success, but excelled in portraiture ; he was also an engraver. Of his works we may mention : his masterpiece, the Four Regents of the Hospital signed “ F. Bol, 1649 " —in the town-hall at Amsterdam ; the Portrait of a Boy, in the Rotterdam Museum ; and the Portrait of De Ruyter, in the Amsterdam Gallery. Another likeness of the admiral is in the National Gallery of the Hague. In England we find, in the National Gallery, a Portrait of an Astronomer --signed and dated 1652 . Several good pictures by Bol are in private collections. A Portrait of a Boy is at Castle Howard . Govaert Flinck, one of Rembrandt's best pupils, was born at Cleves in 1615. He was intended for a mercantile life, but his talent for art prevailed, and, after a short period of instruction under an unimportant master, he was apprenticed to Rembrandt at Amsterdam . All Flinck's early works were executed in his master's style , but later in life he took the Italians as his models. He died at Amsterdam in 1660. Flinck painted historic and genre subjects, and portraits. His best works are an Isaac blessing Jacob, in the Six Gallery at Amsterdam ; one of the same subject in the Amsterdam Gallery ; a Doelenstuk (a collection of portraits) , also in the Amsterdam Gallery ; and lastly, a fine Portrait in the Rotterdam Museum . The galleries of Dresden , Berlin and Brunswick also contain examples of this master. 2 X 338 ( A.D. 1650 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . Gerbrandt van der Eeckhout or Eckhout was born at Amsterdam in 1621. He studied under Rembrandt, and so far succeeded in imitating his style, that his works have often been mistaken for those of his master. He painted portraits, and sacred and genre subjects, and succeeded in biblical scenes better than any other of Rembrandt's pupils. Van der Eeckhout died in 1674. His works are found in most of the public galleries. The Rotterdam Museum has a Ruth and Boaz ; and the Berlin Museum a Raising of Jairus' Daughter, of some importance. Jan Victors, one of Rembrandt's pupils, is a painter of whom little is known. He painted sacred history and genre subjects. Most of the Dutch galleries contain examples of his art. The Dresden Gallery has two - both of a biblical nature, and signed “ Jan Victors, fc .” Of this painter, Mr. Crowe says, “ In his sacred subjects Victors imitated Rembrandt more completely than in portraits and genre subjects. His colours are somewhat uniform in tone, and his flesh , in yellow-red shades, is not broken with the subtlety peculiar to Rembrandt. ” Carel Fabritius, who was born at Delft in 1624, studied under Rembrandt, and would doubtless have become more famous had he lived longer. He left very few pictures, and his name is consequently but little known. He was killed by the explosion of a powder magazine at Delft in 1654. A fine Head of a Man, in the Rotterdam Museum - long ascribed to Rembrandt — is by Fabritius, who is further entitled to fame on account of the instruction he gave to Jan van der Meer. Samuel van Hoogstraten, who was born at Dordrecht in 1627 , received an elementary education in art from his father, Dirk van Hoogstraten . The youth next entered the studio of Rembrandt, under whose tuition he became a very fair artist. Van Hoogstraten painted portraits , landscapes, and still life . From a picture containing among other things, an English almanac of the year 1663 - noticed by Vertue in a sale at Covent Garden in 1730, it has been conjectured that Van Hoog straten visited England, and the historian Houbraken , who studied under him, has confirmed this statement, and has furthermore told us that Van Hoogstraten went to Italy. This painter died at Dordrecht in 1678. Works by him are in the galleries of Amsterdam , the Hague, Vienna, and elsewhere. Nicholas Maes or Maas was born at Dordrecht in 1632. He was a pupil of Rembrandt, whose style is usually to be traced in his early works. After leaving that master, Maes went to Antwerp, where he studied the works of Rubens and Jordaens. He first painted genre subjects, but on settling at Amsterdam in 1678 gave himself up to portraiture, in which branch of art he was very successful . Maes continued to paint at Amsterdam , where he died wealthy and honoured in 1693. The Amsterdam Gallery has an Old Woman Spinning, and a Girl at a Window, noteworthy for the beauty of their colouring. Of the private collections , the Six Gallery has two fine pictures - a Portrait of a Child of the Burgomaster Six ; and the Eavesdropper. The Van der Hoop Collection has an Ou Woman Spinning ; and the Steengracht Gallery, at the Hague, has a fine Interior of a Peasant's Cottage. In England, the National Gallery has three good examples — The Cradle ; the Dutch Housewife, and the Idle Servant , both signed and dated “ N. Maes, 1655.” The last named is one of Maes' masterpieces. Many private galleries in England possess examples of this master. A.D. 1650. ] LATER DUTCH PAINTERS. 339

LATER DUTCH PAINTERS.

From the immediate pupils of Rembrandt we may now turn to those artists who were only his followers or imitators. We have thought it advisable to divide these masters into four classes — those who painted ( i ) conversation -pieces, domestic life , interiors, and portraits : ( ii ) landscapes and battle - scenes ; (iii ) marine subjects ; and (iv ) still -life, game, and architecture. 1. - PAINTERS OF DOMESTIC LIFE. manner. Jan Lievens, who was born at Leyden in 1607 , studied at the same time as Rembrandt, under Lustmann ; he also received instruction from Van Schooten, a painter of little note. Lievens came to England in 1630, and painted the portraits of Charles I. , his family, and his court. On quitting England he settled at Antwerp, and gave himself up to painting biblical subjects, which he executed in a very realistic He died at Antwerp in 1663. His drawing is good and his colouring fair , but his pictures are wanting in depth of feeling. Works by Lievens are rather scarce in public galleries. A Study of a Head ( called St. Peter) by him in the Rotterdam Museum , and an Isaac blessing Jacob in the Berlin Museum , are two of his best works. There is no work by Lievens in the National Gallery, but a Raising of Lazarus - lent by the Baroness North --was in the “ Old Masters' Exhibition ” in 1871. Lievens executed numerous engravings in a Rembrandtesque manner. Adriaan Brouwer, the painter of common -life subjects, was born at Haarlem in 1608. He was apprenticed to Frans Hals, who, it is said, ill- treated him and sold his works as those by his own hand. Brouwer afterwards spent a dissolute and eccentric life amidst low companions, whom he usually selected as the subjects of his paintings. He died at Antwerp in 1641 ( ?) . Adriaan Brouwer, as an artist , was much admired by Rubens, who, it is said , rescued him from a prison , into which his own imprudence had caused him to be thrown. Of his works the most noteworthy are, Players disputing over their cards and a Surgeon removing a plaster, both in the Munich Gallery. The latter, if unpleasing in subject, is a masterpiece of colouring. Brouwer's works are rarely seen in England, and in fact, they are scarce everywhere--even in his own country. Gerard Terburg — the painter of white satin, and the worthy rival of Gerard Dou, in the same school and manner - was born at Zwolle near Overyssel in 1608. He learned the rudiments of his art from his father, an otherwise unknown painter. Some time after the completion of his studies, Terburg paid a visit to Italy, which had not however the slightest effect on his style. From Italy he went to France, and thence returned to Holland , where he became much honoured and patronized. In 1648, he went to Münster, while the plenipotentiaries of Philip IV. of Spain and the delegates of the Dutch United Provinces were assembled in the Rathhaus for the purpose of ratifying the treaty between the two countries. The artist then painted his celebrated Peace of Münster, which contains portraits of the personages present 340 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS (A.D. 1650. . at that occasion . Leaving that city, Terburg went with the Spanish ambassador, Count Pigoranda, to the court of Philip IV. , where he was weil received. He painted the portraits of the King, of his family, and of the notable personages of his court. Terburg then returned to Holland ; he married and was made burgomaster of Deventer, in which town he lived until his death in 1681 . The remarkable historical picture, the Peace of Münster, already mentioned, might have been preserved at Paris , but having been sold with the collection of the Duchesse de Berri, it passed into the hands of Prince A. Demidoff, from whose collection it was sold to the late Marquis of Hertford for 7,2801. At the death of that nobleman it was purchased by Sir Richard Wallace, who, in 1871 , presented it to the National Gallery, where it hangs -- the chef- d'æuvre of one of the chief representatives of the Dutch school. The National Gallery also possesses one other work by this master, the Guitar Lesson . Terburg, however, may be well studied and appreciated at the Louvre ; his Concert, his Music Lesson, and, especially, his Officier Galant, are very fine works, showing the ingenious arrangement, and soft, but firm touch , which distinguish him amongst the crowd of lesser Dutch painters. But none of them rise much above the average of the works to be met with in all the galleries and cabinets of Europe. None of them even equal the Conversations of St. Petersburg and the Hague, the Young Lady with the Ewer of Dresden, Paternal Advice (Conseil Paternel) of Amsterdam (changed to the Satin Dress in the engraving of George Wille ), the vast Interior of a Cottage, which is at Munich. Besides the Lady with the Ewer, the Dresden Gallery possesses, a Lady in a satin gown, and two others. In the Amsterdam Gallery there is, among other works by this artist , a copy of the Pidie of Münster in the National Gallery. Terburg too is represented in the galleries of the Hague, Antwerp, and Berlin, and in the private collections in Flanders and Holland. Of the Paternal Advice at Amsterdam , already mentioned, there is a replica in the Berlin Museum , which M. Bürger thinks would realize 3,000l. if sold in England, and another in the Bridgewater Gallery. Gerard Terburg had abandoned the ale -house scenes for concerts , meals, and small domestic scenes, which cannot well be classified by any particular title . They are usually called by a general name,, scenes of Interiors, and they might perhaps be more correctly termed Exteriors, for they are confined to simple outside truth , without any inner feeling or moral depth. But, from a constant distinction, as well as from the extreme perfection of details, Terburg relieves the perfect simplicity of such compositions. 1 1 Adriaan van Ostade was born at Haarlem in 1610. He studied under Frans Hals, and formed a friendship with Adriaan Brouwer. Like the latter, he chose his subjects from low life, but he was more laborious and less dissipated , and has accordingly left us more works. After a life of industry and success, Van Ostade died in 1685 at Haarlem , where he was buried. Some accounts say that he died at Amsterdam , and that his body was removed to Haarlem for interment. Although Van Ostade's usual subjects are similar to those treated by Teniers, he yet differs from Teniers as Rembrandt differs from Rubens. Teniers treats light in the same manner as Rubens, lavishing it everywhere ; Ostade concentrates it, in the style of Rembrandt. Except in Italy, Ostade may be found in every country where art is held in honour. At Madrid there is a Rural Concert, formed by some choristers, accompanied by the bagpipe, the handle of a broom , and the mewing of a cat, whose cars are being pulled to make him join. At St. Petersburg there are HIR PATERNAL INSTRUCTION. By GERARD TERBURG In the Amsterdam Gallery . AD. 1050dlout theat LiresdeIn a gaT* Com SEN FOUN NK ' AT IS A.D. 1650.] ADRIAAN VAN OSTADE. 341 about twenty of his pictures, amongst which is the valuable series of the Five Senses ; at Dresden among others, two excellent works, a Smoking Scene and a Painter's Studio in a garret ( his own, perhaps ) ; at Munich, another superior work, a Dutch Ale house, with peasants fighting, and their wives endeavouring to separate and pacify THE HUNCHBACK FIDDLER.- BY OSTADE, them ; at Rotterdam , an Old Man in his Study ; at Amsterdam, a Village Assembly , and lastly , at the Hague, two wonderful pendents, which may well be called the ne plus ultra of this master and his branch of art, the Interior and Exterior of a rustic house. The Louvre has also a good share of the works of Adriaan van Ostade. 342 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1650 . He has left there, in the ten small portraits composing His Family ( which might do for any Dutch family), and especially in his Schoolmaster, the most complete and finished models of those small familiar scenes, comedies in private life, which the wonderful skill of the artist compels us to place amongst the finest paintings. The National Gallery in England has but one picture by him--an Alchymist - signed “ A. v. Ostade, 1661. " The Dulwich Gallery possesses four of his works. Bartholomew van der Helst was born at Amsterdam in 1613. It is not known under whom he studied, and but few details of his life are given. He lived chiefly at Amsterdam , where he died in 1670. His chef- d'auvre is in the museum of Amsterdam . It is the Banquet of the Civic Guard ( Schultersmaaltijd ), and has been placed opposite Rembrandt's Night Watch. Unknown in Italy, Spain, France, or even in Belgium ; scarcely more known in Germany by a few scattered portraits in the galleries, he is only to be found in the Museum of Amsterdam , which has his Chiefs of the Archery Guild (Het Doelenstuk ), of which there is a redůced copy at the Louvre , which cannot give a sufficient idea of the marvellous original. Here also is the Banquit of the Civic Guards of Amsterdam ( dated 1648) , held in celebration of the Peace of Münster. In this Banquet Van der Helst shows himself the master of genre painting. which consists in perpetuating the memory of an action and its actors. He is eren a Letter model than Rembrandt and Veronese ; he is more like Velasquez ; he has painted the men , the things, and the life of his times. “ This painting,” says M. Edmond Texier, “ is marvellously appropriate to the people it represents, being calm , dignified and strong." And Sir Joshua Reynolds had said before, “ This is , perhaps, the first picture of portraits in the world, comprehending more of those qualities which make a perfect portrait than any other I have ever seen .” The Amsterdam Gallery has other fine works by Van der Helst ; we may especially notice one of Princess Mary, daughter of Charles I. of England, remarkable for the beauty of the white satin dress. In the “ Stadhuis ” of Amsterdam is a fine group of portraits of Members of the Archery Guild, dated 1639. The Rotterdam Museum has among others a Cavalier and Lady'. The National Gallery at the Hague has a Portrait of Paul Potter by Van der Helst, said to have been painted only three days before the death of that famous painter ; and the National Gallery in London possesses one of a Lady standing, half length . A Gerard Dou, or as he is commonly called Dow, and occasionally Douw , was born at Leyden in 1613. Though this painter ought really to be placed among the immediate scholars of Rembrandt, it seems more natural to place him with other great genre - painters of this time in Holland. His father, who was a glazier, educated his son with the intention of making him a painter on glass. But his merits were found to be too great to be allowed to be used on that branch of art. He was accordingly in 1628 apprenticed at Amsterdam to Rembrandt, with whom he remained three years. Dou was at first a portrait-painter, but afterwards, adopting the anecdotal style , began by treating small subjects with great breadth before he ascended , or descended, according to the taste of the critic, to extreme and minute delicacy. This patient and laborious artist, who made his own brushes, pounded his own colours, and prepared his own varnish , panels, or canvas, worked, in order to avoid dust, in a studio opening on to a wet ditch. Such was the popularity which Dou enjoyed at Leyden , that he received from an amateur, Spiering by name, no less than a thousand A.D. 1650.7 GERARD DOU. 343 florins yearly for the refusal of his works. Though he twice went away from Leyden -both times for several years - Dou died in that city in 1680, and was buried in the church of St. Peter. The best work of Gerard Dou is at Paris. It is the woman sick of the Dropsy. This picture, which had been bought by the Elector Palatine for the Prince Eugene of Savoy, for the sum of 30,000 forins, was presented to the museum by a soldier, the General Clauzel, who had received it as a present from the King of Sardinia , Charles Emmanuel IV. To find any equal for this Woman sick of the Dropsy, in wonderful finish and general harmony of the whole, we should have to seek another work by Gerard Dou himself — the Empiric, at St. Petersburg, for instance, or the Charlatan on his Stag', at Munich, or an almost identical subject in the gallery at Buckingham Palace ; only in this, the doctor is young and handsome, the lady young and beautiful ; and , by her languishing looks, we might imagine that the lady is only sick like the lover of Stratonice, and that the physician alone can heal the wound he has inflicted. Next to the Woman sick of the Dropsy the Evening School, in the Museum of Amsterdam , is one of Dou's best works. In this School the figures are more numerous, without the work being any the less perfect. It presents besides, the singularity of the scene being lighted up by four lights, three candles and a lantern . The effect, doubtless, is rather puerile and elaborate, and cannot be recommended to artists ; but the difficulty vanquished is immense. Gerard Dou, like Re:nbrandt, frequently painted his own portrait. At Paris there is a Portrait with his palette and pencils ; at Dresden another, playing on the violin ( for he cultivated the art of sounds as well as that of colours ) and one writing in a book ; at Brussels, he is very young, drawing a statue of Love by the light of a lamp - possibly intended as a lover's gift ; in the National Gallery he holds a pipe in his hand. In the Amsterdam Gallery there is yet another, but he has paid as much attention to the painting of the blue curtain behind him as to his face. Many works by Dou are in the private galleries of Holland and England, and when sold fetch enormous prices. The Poulterer's Shop, in the National Gallery, is well worthy of mention, both for composition and execution. The National Gallery also has a Portrait of Dou's Wife, bequeathed by the late Mr. Wynn Ellis. Gabriel Metsu, the son of an artist - father and an artist -mother, was born at Leyden in 1615. Of his life little is known. The name of his instructor in art is not recorded, but he early attained celebrity in Amsterdam , where he had settled when still young, and where he painted until his death , which took place after 1667 , the latest date on any work by him . Gabriel Metsu, although imitating both Gerard Dou and Terburg, yet succeeded in marking out a new route for himself, and made himself original by the frankness of his touch , as well as the power, richness, and harmony of his colours. His prevailing tints are either purple, like the Van Eycks, or sometimes silvery, like Paul Veronese, which causes him to be easily recognised among the artists ofthat period cultivating the same style and treating the same subjects. The Chemist, the Officer and the Young Lady, and still more the Vegetable Alarket at Amsterdam , represent him worthily in the Louvre. And yet the Intruder of the Baring Collection in London, the two Poulterers which, with the celebrated Lace -Maker, the Museum of Dresden possesses, and the other Poulterer, which the Museum of Cassel unites to the young Musician, rise still higher in the scale of perfection. The National Gallery has three works by Metsu, a Duet and a Music Lesson, and one bequeathed by the late Mr. Wynn Ellis. At London , 344 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS ( A.D. 1650. . Dresden, and Cassel, Metsu is superior to his rivals, even to Gerard Dou, Terburg, and Van Ostade. Cornelis Bega, the son of a sculptor, was born at Haarlem in 1620. He studied under Adriaan van Ostade, and like Dusart, acquired his style in a most successful The Dresden Gallery has a picture of Peasants dancing in an ale -house. Works by Bega are in most continental galleries. He died at Haarlem , of the plague, in 1664. manner. Isaac van Ostade , the younger brother of the more celebrated Adriaan , was born at Haarlem in 1621. Little is known of his life. He died at Amsterdam in 1657 , where he had been residing several years previously. Writers disagree both as to the date and the place of this painter's death. Isaac van Ostade is equal to his brother in a different line ; and it is only in his genre that he remains his inferior. Adriaan doubtless is superior in the painting of little domestic or popular dramas, where the human being holds the first place ; but Isaac makes up for this by the representation of the natural scenes of these dramas ; he is more of a landscape painter. This may be seen in the Louvre, in his two Halts of travelling parties before a hostelry , and in an open Dutch landscape. There may also be found another subject which he frequently treated, and which may be seen every where, a Frozen Canal covered by travellers on skates. The winter is the beautiful season of Holland and of all the north as far as Russia. Isaac van Ostade made for himself a speciality of these winter landscapes, as Van der Meer did of moonlight. He was, and still is , the first master in this peculiar walk of art. Two good Frost scenes by Isaac van Ostade are in the National Gallery, the one was bought with the Peel Collection , and the other was acquired with the Wynn - Ellis bequest. The National Gallery also has a Village scene by Isaac van Ostade, whose works are seen in various private galleries in this country, though they are rare on the Continent. Hendrik Martenz Rokes, called Zorg or Sorg, was born at Rotterdam in 1621 . It is said that his father obtained the name of “ Zorg ” from the care with which he conveyed the passengers on the passage- bcat between Rotterdam and Dordrecht. Young Zorg is said to have studied under Teniers the younger at Antwerp, but his style is more akin to that of Adriaan Brouwer. His pictures represent the usual Dutch interiors and exteriors of this period. They are seen in most continental galleries, the Louvre, Munich , Dresden , Amsterdam , and others. Zorg died in 1682. Jan Steen, the son of a brewer, was born at Leyden about the year 1626. He first studied under an unimportant painter at Utrecht, and subsequently under Van Goyen, whose daughter he married. Though Steen obtained a reputation as a painter, his works did not realise sufficiently high prices to enable him to live comfortably. He accordingly, by the advice of his father, set up a brewery at Delft. Through this however, Steen was ruined, and therefore compelled again to take to the palette. He remained none the less a friend to the bottle. He afterwards, though continuing to paint, opened an ale -house, from the frequenters of which, be doubtless obtained numerous subjects for his pictures. He died in great poverty at Leyden in 1679. Jan Steen, who might be surnamed like the elder Breughel, the jovial, has nothing in the Louvre but a Flemish Festival in an ale -house, which is not finely finished , if we compare it with the other pictures of the school, or even of the painter. But , besides the fact that its great dimensions permit a bolder and freer execution , it is recom A.D. 1650.] 345 VAN DER MEER. mended by other merits , which well make up for the want of a more minute finish ; it is full of gaiety, wit, and sly humour, besides being endowed with the superior quality so rare in the works of most painters --- life. However, to know Jan Steen well, we must go elsewhere than to the Louvre. At the Belvedere, at Vienna, we shall find a Village Wedding, and at Berlin a Garden of an Ale-house, which are excellent scenes of burlesque comedy; at the Hermitage, the Game of Backgammon, where Steen has painted himself in conversation with his wife, and an Ahasuerus touching Esther with lis golden sceptre ; a subject which he has endeavoured to treat seriously, but which is only the more comic from the attempt. In England, in the National Gallery, the Music Master, and at Buckingham Palace, Ale- houses quite worthy of being admitted to a king's palace, and a large number in private collections ; at Rotterdam the Malade Imaginaire, who fancies he has stones in his head, and Tobit curing his Father; at the Hague, the celebrated Picture of Human Life, a large collection of about twenty persons executed in the finest manner of this irregular master, and the Family of Jan Steen, another collection of a dozen life - like figures, lighted up as Pieter de Hooch would have done ; in it we notice particularly the charming group of a very aged grandfather and a little urchin ---the two childhoods of life ; lastly, at Amsterdam , a very celebrated scene of an Interior, called the Feast of St. Nicholas : the good children receiving playthings, whilst the idle one finds a rod in his shoe, and every one laughs at him. There is also the excellent portrait that Jan Steen has left of Himself. This gentle, serious , almost melancholy, countenance — which has nothing of the drunkard in it - shows well, like that of Molière, the true character of wits by profession ; they make others laugh, but do not laugh themselves. Jan van der Meer who was born at Delft in 1632 , is usually called “ Van der Meer of Delft," to distinguish him from Van der Meer of Haarlem , and Van der Meer of Utrecht, both unimportant artists of whom little is known with certainty. Young Jan first studied under Fabritius, and on the death of that master in 1654, is said to have left Delft and to have entered the studio of Rembrandt at Amsterdam , but as his sojourn with the great master is merely a matter of surmise, we have not mentioned him among his actual pupils. Van der Meer died at Delft towards the close of the seventeenth century. It is said that his house fell in and crushed him and one Simon Decker whose portrait he was painting. Thoré has restored a place in the history of art for this distinguished painter, whose principal works have probably received the name of De Hooch since that painter has been restored to honour. Although the View of Delft - purchased for 5,000 florins — in the Museum of the Hague, is a landscape treated in the manner of Philip de Koningh, Van der Meer adhered rather to Pieter de Hooch in the usual choice of his subjects and his use of effects. Two good works by Van der Meer are in the Six Collection at Amsterdam ; the one is a View of a Street, probably in Delft, and the other a Milk -woman. Pictures by this artist are now highly prized. Her Majesty the Queen possesses a fine work, by him , entitled the Music Lesson . Frans van Mieris, the son of a goldsmith and diamond cutter, was born at Delft, on the 6th of April 1635. His first instructor in art was one A. Torenvliet, but he subsequently entered the studio of Gerard Dou at Leyden, who was so pleased with his painting that he named him “ the prince of his pupils .” Van Mieris practised his art with much success in Leyden until his death in 1681. He left two sons, both painters, one of whom we shall mention hereafter. 2 Y 346 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . [ A.1 ) , 1670. In the two Painter's Studios at Dresden - which has thirteen other works by that master - he has introduced himself, and in one, the violoncello leaning against a wall shows that he shared his master's taste for music, and could join him in a concert, As one of his masterpieces we should mention the Shopwoman at her counter cajoled by a purchaser, which is in the Belvedere at Vienna. For Mieris, this is a very large picture, as it is almost two feet in height ; but each figure and object is finished with as much care as in his miniatures. Another of his best known pictures is the celebrated one at Munich of a Ladyfainting in presence of her doctor. The only comparison we can suggest for this work of Frans Mieris is with the master piece of Gerard Dou himself, the Woman sick of the Dropsy, in the Louvre. The National Gallery, where Dutch artists as a rule are poorly represented, has but one work by Mieris - a Lady in a crimson jacket ; repetitions of it are in the Munich Gallery and in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen. The Amsterdam Gallery has a Lady playing on a flute by Van Mieris, of great merit ; and we must not forget to mention his works in the Uffizi at Florence, among others, the portraits of Mieris and his family. We may here notice his son. Willem van Mieris, who was born at Leyden in 1662, imitated his father, wło was his instructor in art, with great success. He resided chiefly at Leyden until his death, which took place in 1747 in his eighty -fifth year. A Fish and Poultry Shop - signed “ W. van Mieris. ft. Anno 1713 ” -in the National Gallery, is a sufficient example of this master. Of his son Frans van Mieris - called the younger to distinguish him from his grandfather - we need say nothing, for he never rose above mediocrity. Gaspar Netscher, who was born at Heidelberg in 1639, though a German by birth, belongs to the Dutch school of art. When he was still a child his widowed mother removed to Arnheim, where he received his first instruction in art ; he subsequently studied under Terburg at Deventer. Leaving that master in 1659, he started with the intention of going to Italy, but falling in love on his way with a young lady at Bordeaux, he married her, and in 1661 returned to Holland. He established himself as a painter at the Hague, where he joined the Painters' Guild in 1663, and there he remained until his death in 1684. Though invited to London by Charles II . , he apparently never visited England. Gaspar Netscher, whom Gerard de Lairesse called “ the prince of artists ,” is completely Dutch in his studies and works. In the Louvre, the Singing Lesson and the Violoncello Lesson ; at Munich , Bathsheba — a picture which should not have had a Biblical title ; at Carlsruhe, the Suicide of Cleopatra, a fair, plump Frisian woman, in a white satin dress, and bearing very little resemblance to the dark mistress of Cæsar and Antony ; at Dresden , a series of Ladies at their toilette, in bed, at the harpsichord, all show is the rival of Terburg and Metzu displaying his rare merit in the rendering of fabrics and inanimate objects, especially of goldsmith's work, as well as in the grace, elegance, and distinction he always gives to his human models. Dresden still possesses the artist's Portrait of Himself, a very intellectual head, which we are charmed to find twice repeated. Netscher has painted himself at first in meditation , near a table ; then accompanying his wife's singing with a guitar : he was a musician like Dou and Mieris. The National Gallery has three pictures by this artist ; Blowing Bubbles, Maternal Insiruition, and a Lady siated at a spinning which, all purchased with the Peel Collection. Pieter van Slingelandt, who was born at Leyden in 16.40, became a pupil of A.D. 1675. ] PIETER DE HOOCH. 347 Gerard Dou, but was far inferior to Van Mieris. Slingelandt painted chiefly at Leyden where he died in 1691. His works are not commonly seen in England, as those of other Dutch artists ; the National Gallery has not a single picture by him . He is the least of the lesser Dutch artists , the most patient and minutely finished of even that school. He took, it is said, three years to cover a piece of canvas one foot square, and a whole month to paint a lace band. It may easily be understood with such a method of painting how it happened that he did not paint more than thirty pictures in his whole life. One of the most important is in the Louvre, the Dutch Family ( the Meerman family) . An ornamental Drawing -room contains as many as five personages—the father, mother, two children , a negro—as well as a dog and a parrot. For the microscopic painting of Slingelandt this is a whole world, and during the time he took to engrave this little panel, with the help of a magnifying glass , Rubens painted on his ladder the twenty- one large pictures which compose the History of Maria de Medici. Godfried Schalken was born at Dordrecht in 1643 . He first studied under Van Hoogstraten, but abandoned that master in favour of Dou . On leaving the studio of that painter, Schalken adopted candle- light effects, which became immensely popular. During the reign of William ill . he came to England, but did not meet with the success he anticipated, and no wonder, for according to accounts given of him, he was little better than a boor. He returned to Holland, where, as his ill manners were not so noticeable, he enjoyed at the Hague the popularity, which had formerly been given him at Dordrecht. Schalken died at the Hague in 1706. The National Gallery in London has one picture by this painter — Lesbia weighing jewels against her sparrow . Of his portraits, we may notice one of King William III. by candle- light, in the Amsterdam Gallery. ( It is said that Schalken allowed the King to hold a candle until the wax covered his fingers. ) In the Van Loon Collection at Amsterdam, is a Boy playing a guitar by Schalken . The Galleries of Vienna, Dresden , and Munich, contain examples of his art. Eglon Hendrik van der Neer, the son of Aart van der Neer, was born at Amsterdam , in 1643. He received his first instruction from his father, but subse quently studied under Jacob van Loo. From 1653 to 1657 he stayed in Paris , where his pictures were much appreciated. On his return to Holland he established himself as a painter of conversation pieces, taking Terburg and Mieris as his models. Van der Neer was in later life employed by the Elector Palatine in Düsseldorf, where he died His works are very scarce, both in England and on the Continent. Dr. Waagen names as his most important works, two conversation pieces - one in the possession of Mr. A. T. Hope, and the other in the collection of Mr. F. Heusch. Pieter de Hooch, Hoogh, or Hooge, is a painter of whom next to nothing is known. He was born about 1643 , and is supposed to have studied under Nicholas Berchem . The date of De Hooch's death is not recorded. This great colourist was so long and so completely unknown, that his name has been frequently effaced from pictures in order to substitute that of some other painter better known to commerce. Reducing the proportions of his buildings, and satisfied with merely a room in a house , provided that it had a window and door open, he sought less for the effects of perspective than for those of light. In this science of light and shadow, Rembrandt himself has not sur passed him, and no one else has produced equally well the effect of a ray of sunlight crossing shadow in a room. He has succeeded, besides, and without borrowing the in 1703. 348 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS ( A.D. 1700. . pencil of another, in animating his little rooms by personages as full of life as their dwellings are of air and day. He has succeeded in depicting household poetry, the poetry of the hearth , as well as Terburg and Metzu. At the Louvre there are two fine pictures by Pieter de Hooch, but they are both surpassed by the Return from the Market, at the Hermitage, the Dutch Cabin, at Munich, and the Interior ( without any other name), in the Amsterdam Gallery. The last-mentioned especially is lighted by one of those wonderful sunbeams, at once the seal and the honour of the master. The Amsterdam Gallery has one other work by De Hooch — a Portrait of Himself, inscribed with his monogram and " Ætatis 19 , " but the artist has omitted to put the date. De Hoogh is better represented in the Dutch private collections than in public galleries. The Steengracht Collection has a Musical party ; the Van der Hoop Col lection, besides a Musical couple, has three Interiors. A Garden Scone is in the Van Loon Collection. In England, De Hooch is well represented in private collec tions. The National Gallery has two Courtyards of Dutch houses, and one Interior, all good examples of the master. A Card party, in Buckingham Palace, has great merit. Michael van Muscher, who was born at Rotterdam, in 1645 , studied under Abraham van Tempel, and also with Metsu and Adriaan van Ostade. He painted small conver sation pictures after the manner of those masters. His best pictures are portraits. One of Himself, his Wife, and his Son , is in the National Gallery of the Hague. Van Muscher died in 1705 , at Amsterdam , the scene of his principal labours. Adriaan van der Werff, the son of a miller, of good family, was born at Kralinger Ambacht, near Rotterdam , in 1659. His first instructor in art was an unimportant portrait-painter, but he subsequently studied under Eglon van der Neer. In 1676, Van der Werff established himself as a portrait -painter, but he soon abandoned that branch in favour of historic and mythologic pictures. Henceforth a most brilliant career was open to him . His pictures commanded bis own prices, and he was patronized by all , from the Elector Palatine downwards. Van der Werff died at Rotterdam , in 1722. In his very numerous works it would be difficult to find any differences, any pictures better or worse than the others. When we remember the high estimation in which this miller's son held himself ( even to painting his own portrait with the attributes of immortality) ; the favour of the elector palatine, John William, who enriched and ennobled him - considering him far superior to Rembrandt, the other miller's son ; taking into consideration , too, the celebrity he enjoyed during his life, the high price attached to the works of his pencil, and also the pretentious titles of his compositions --the greater part historical or even sacred - Moses saved from the IVaters, the Angels announcing the Glad Tidings, the Magdalen in the Desert, etc.; —we should be inclined to give him the rank of an historical painter. But afterwards, when we come to notice, besides the smail size of the personages crowded into his little panels, his careful , and miniature manner of painting, mistaking minuteness for grace , and prettiness for beauty, he scarcely deserves the name of genre painter. Van der Werff, by wishing to rise above his masters, has sunk in his ambitious works to a very inferior rank , because with him there is such a flagrant contradiction between the subject and the execution - the execution being always below the subject. The Munich Gallery contains all the best pictures which Van der Werff painted for the Elector ; they were formerly in the Düsseldorf Collection. The artist is seen in almost every continental gallery, but his works are not popular in England. A.D. 1650.] LATER DUTCH PAINTERS. 349 Cornelis Dusart, who was born at Haarlem, in 1660, studied under Adriaan van Ostade, whose style he imitated with much success. His works are in the best galleries on the Continent. Though the National Gallery has no work by him , his pictures are seen in many private collections in England. The Amsterdam Gallery has the best of Dusart's works; a Kermesse, a Fish market, which as early as 1808 , was purchased for 1,665 florins, and especially the Village Inn, are all works of great merit. Dusart died at Haarlem , in 1704. Theodor Netscher, who was born at Bordeaux in 1661 , was the elder son of Gaspar Netscher. After the completion of his studies under his father at the Hague, young Theodor went to Paris, where, during a residence of twenty years, he enjoyed much popularity as a portrait painter. In 1715 , he is said to have left Holland , whither he had returned , and to have come to England, as paymaster of the Dutch forces. Netscher remained in this country, it is said, for six years, but eventually died at Hulst, in 1732. Besides his success as a portrait painter, he also excelled in representing fruit and flowers. It may be as well to mention here a younger brother of Theodor Constantine Netscher, who was born at the Hague in 1670. He lived all his life in that city, where he was much esteemed as a painter of portraits and of interiors. He died there, in 1722. II. - PAINTERS OF LANDSCAPE AND BATTLE SCENES. Jan van Goyen was born of good family at Leyden in 1596. After a course of study under two unimportant painters, he went to Esais van der Velde, under whose instruc tion he became a good landscape- painter. Van Goyen died at the Hague, in 1656. Among other works by him, the Amsterdam Gallery contains a View on the Muse, and the old Castle of Volkenhof, at Nimeguen . Unfortunately the National Gallery has no work by Van Goyen, who, but for a sameness in colouring, is one of the best Dutch landscape painters of his period. Anton Stevens or Stevers-generally called Palamedes — who was born at London in 1604, removed with his family, when young, to Delft, where he became famous as a painter of cavalry skirmishes and guard -room scenes. In 1636 he became a member of the Painters' Guild , and his name is found in connection with that corporation as late as 1673. Palamedes died, according to Houbraken , in 1680. He frequently painted figures to the pictures of other artists - more especially to those of Dirk van Deelen. Anton Stevens had a younger brother, Paul Palamedes Stevens -also called Palamedes - who was born in London in 1607 , and who painted in similar style, but in an inferior manner. A Cavalry Charge, supposed to be his work, is in the Dresden Gallery. He died at Delft in 1638. Jan Wynants was born at Haarlem quite at the beginning of the seventeenth century, probably in 1601. But little is known of his life. His name occurs as late as 1677 in the records of the Guild at Haarlem . Jan Wynants commences the cycle of real Dutch landscape painters, of those who were born , and lived, and died in Holland. For them Nature is no longer the theatre for a subject, but is herself the subject. They studied and copied her under all her aspects ; they made of her, as of a loved mother, alma parens, a thousand different portraits, all striking in their truthfulness. It is the glory of Wynants to have been one of the first to have accepted and consecrated this new branch , which might have remained only secondary, and to have raised it by his great talent. Whilst Both, Berchem , and Pynacker copied the 2 350 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1650. warm and mountainous scenes of Italy, Wynants fell in love with his own Holland. The first country view he came upon-provided he could introduce a few figures and animals, which were painted by complaisant and unambitious assistants, and could also bring in the winding road coming from and going no one knows where - was sufficient for this excellent master, who is rendered no less celebrated by his pupus than by his own works. The Dresden Gallery has two Landscapes with figures by Wynants. The galleries of the Louvre, Munich, Amsterdam and the Hague, all contain good examples of this artist. The last- mentioned has a Landscape, dated 1675 , one of the last pictures he painted. Wynants is well represented in England, 04 THE ENCAMPMENT. - BY CUYP. both in the National Gallery — which has five by him , two bought with the Peel Collection, and three acquired with the Wynn - Ellis bequest — and in private collections. Figures and animals were frequently painted in Wynants' landscapes by other artists. Albert Cuyp was born at Dordrecht in 1605. He studied under his father, one Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp, but was indebted to nature for the greater part of his instruction in art. Little is known of his life , and the date of his death is uncertain. He is supposed to have been living in 1683. Albert Cuyp, one of those masters who cultivated various genres with an almost equal success, has painted a considerable A.D. 1650. ) ALBERT CUYP. 351 number of portraits, and of tolerably good ones, too, but at the same time we may well believe that, if he had devoted himself entirely to this branch of art, he would never have attained to more than secondary renown. He has painted fruit, flowers, dead game, and inanimate objects, without equalling, however, the highest painters in this line. He has painted scenes of interiors in the manner of Van Ostade and Teniers, such as the Mussel Eater, in the Museum of Rotterdam . He has painted interiors of buildings, in which he is surpassed by no one, not even by Emanuel de Witte. He has painted animals of all kinds, and in such a manner as to point him out, not merely as the predecessor, but as the model of Paul Potter. Lastly, he has painted animated landscapes and marine pieces, or rather the banks of rivers, amongst which his real masterpieces are to be found. Albert Cuyp has, then , contended with all the masters of his own time and country, without any other secret than the finding variety in simplicity, the unforeseen in the natural, grandeur in ingeniousness. But, except Rembrandt, he surpassed them all in one point. He is the greatest lover of light of all the Dutch masters. It is very strange that Cuyp's pictures are not merely luminous under the ardent rays of the sun at noon ; they are so also , and no less, in the pale grey mist of the Dutch rivers; and even during the night, as is proved by a picture at Grosvenor House, of the Banks of a Lake, where several cows are grazing. We do not remember to have seen anywhere, even among the works of Van der Neer, light carried to such perfection. Cuyp cannot be seen to advantage in his own country, where his talent was not recognised until a later time. Before the Dutch had learned to appreciate him , all his finest works had been taken out of Holland. He is not well represented either in the Louvre, by the Departure and Return, although they show something of his warmth of colouring and love of light. It is in England, where Cuyp has been reinstated under the title of the “ Dutch Claude,” that his best works are to be found. One of a Landscape, with Cattle and Figures ( No. 53) , in the National Gallery, may be placed in this class. Everything in it is admirable. A rider, dressed in red, whose dappled grey horse is foreshortened ; a pretty little shepherdess replying timidly to the questions of the traveller, her dog and sheep, the water, the earth, the sky, the light , form a charming landscape, evidently copied from nature, but rendered as this artist alone knows how to see and to show it to others . The National Gallery has seven other works by Cuyp. One is a view of his native Dordrecht, and was acquired with two others by the same artist in the Wynn -Ellis bequest. Others of the master pieces of Cuyp are to be found in the cabinets of amateurs, especially in that of Lord Ellesmere. In the Baring Collection, in particular, there is a splendid View of the Meuse, which is inferior to nothing in this branch of art. Cornelis Decker, or Decher, was born in the earlier half of the seventeenth century. He is supposed to have studied under Solomon Ruysdael. He died in poverty in 1678 at Haarlem. A good example of his pictures is a Wooded Landscape in the Rotterdam Museum. Cornelis Decker is another landscape painter of the same period and of the same school as Ruysdael, to which artist his works were also for a long time attributed . It is a proof that he was held in high estimation, that Adriaan van Ostade rendered him the same service that Adriaan van de Velde rendered to Wynants, that of painting the figures of men and animals in his pictures. But since his works were long accepted as those of Ruysdael, what necessity is there for any other eulogy on Decker ? 352 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1650. Solomon Koning, who was born at Amsterdam in 1609, studied under David Colyns and Nicolas Moyaert - both unimportant masters. Koning in later life imitated the style of Rembrandt. He died in 1668. A fine picture of a Diamond Merchant is in the Rotterdam Museum ; and the Six Collection has an Old Man in his Study. Koning also engraved several plates, like his later pictures, after Rembrandt's style. There are various ways of spelling this artist's name, but the one given above is that now usually adopted . Dirk Stoop, the engraver and painter, was born in 1610. He painted for some time in Holland, and then went to Portugal, where he remained until 1662. In that year he accompanied Catherine of Braganza to England, when that princess came for the purpose of marrying Charles II . Soon after his arrival in England, Stoop published seven plates of the Journey of Catherine of Bragansa to London . He subsequently published other engravings in England. He returned to Holland in 1678, where he died ten years later. Dirk Stoop painted chiefly battle - scenes and hunting pictures. Jan Both was born at Utrecht about 1610. After he had received instruction in art from his father and then from Abraham Bloemart, he went to France and Italy, accon panied by his younger brother. After the death of the latter, Jan returned to Utrecht, where he died in 1656. The figures in this artist's pictures are frequently painted by his younger brother Andreas. Their works being thus joint procluctions should in strict justice be said to be by the “ Brothers Both ,” but custom has decided that they should bear the name of the elder. In these pictures we may admire the warm golden tints of southern countries, which, united to the natural style of Jan Both, make him a sort of Claude, though wilder and more rural . In looking at the large trees in the fore grounds, for instance, we recall the excellent description of Bernardin de St. Pierre, contrasting, in his Harmonies, the firm and immoveable oak- tree of the north to the flexible and pliant palm -tree of southern climes : " With his knotted branches the oak resembles an athlete fighting with the tempest. " The National Gallery at the Hague has two good Italian Landscapes by Both . Two others ( Nos. 8 and 42 ) in the Amsterdam Gallery are worthy of note ; but a masterpiece of the Boths is the Artist Studying from Nature in the Van der Hoop Collection at Amsterdam . In England the National Gallery has six works by Jan Both . In a Landscape ( No. 209) the figures are said to be by Poelemberg. Andreas Both was born at Utrecht ; the date is not recorded. He followed almost the same career as his brother - studied under his father, then under Bloemart, and sub sequently accompanied his brother to France and Italy. He was drowned in a canal at Venice in 1650. His loss is said to have caused his brother great affliction. Andreas Both, who might have become an eminent artist both in painting and engraving, resigned himself with touching self-denial to do nothing but place figures in his brother's landscapes. Pieter van Laer, called from his deformity Bamboccio (the big child ), was born at Laaren in 1613. This artist , who under his deformed body concealed a joyous disposition and much humour, was sent to Italy for instruction in art. In that country he became famous for his pictures representing what the Italians call Bambocciate, whence Lanzi and other writers suppose he obtained his name of “ Bamboccio .” In 1639 Van Laer left Rome and returned to Holland . He settled at A.D. 1650. ] DUTCH SCHOOL. 353 Haarlem, where he enjoyed much fame and patronage until his death in 1673. Pictures by this artist are in the galleries of Florence, Cassel, Dresden, Vienna and elsewhere. He was also an engraver. Solomon Ruysdael, who was born at Haarlem in 1616 (?) or a little earlier, was a pupil of Van Goyen, and the instructor of his famous brother Jacob. He painted views on the banks of the rivers and canals of his native country, and delighted in verdure, sunshine, and elegance ; rather in contrast to the grey and reddish tints -showing the ordinary gloom of the climate-in which Van Goyen indulged. Solomon Ruysdael died at Haarlem in 1670. Philip de Koningh was born at Amsterdam in 1619. Little is known of his life ; he is said to have worked under Rembrandt, but he probably only studied the great master from his works. De Koningh died at Amsterdam in 1689. This artist made for himself a distinct line in landscape painting, of which Rembrandt had indicated the secret, but which none of that master's disciples inherited. The endless depths of a smooth plain , intersected by alternate shadow and light, was his usual and favourite subject. He appears to have endeavoured to give an idea of infinite distance. Although De Koningh is chiefly known by his landscapes, yet he occasionally painted portraits and historical subjects. Very little known in France, De Koningh is much valued in Holland and England. In the Amsterdam Gallery, we may notice a Landscape ( No. 45) , and the Entrance to a Forest ( No. 182 ). In England, the National Gallery has a Landscape, and among the private collections, that of Grosvenor House has fine examples of this master. Aart van der Neer, who was born at Amsterdam in 1619, or, as some writers say, in 1613, is a painter of whose life unfortunately but little is known. The name of his instructor in art is not recorded. He lived chiefly at Amsterdam, where he died in 1683 (?) . Some writers say that he was living at Rotterdam as late as 1691 . Aart van der Neer, more even than the Gherardo delle Notti of the Italians, was the poet of the night. He has merely painted simple and true nature, and only the scenes to be found in his own country ; but he has made a domain for himself between the twilight of the evening and of the morning. It might be supposed that his eyes, like those of owls, could not support the brilliancy of the sun, and preferred the pale rays of the moon. When he does ever venture into the daylight it is in the depth of winter, during days of ice and snow, or when the sky is misty, and the light almost as pale as in the twilight. Melancholy is the characteristic of Ruysdael's painting, and mystery that of Van der Neer's. Yet he never chose anything for his subject but flat Dutch landscapes, with their motionless waters, and meadows bordered with willows ; he dispenses with the usual accessories of high towers, picturesque ruins, fantastic rocks, or anything that may be called the architecture of landscapes. Of Van der Neer's work we may especially notice, in the National Gallery, a Landscape, with figures and cattle by Cuyp who has signed his name on a pail ; also a River Scene and a Canal Scene ; and in the Berlin Museum one of his many pictures representing a Moonlight Scene. Aart van der Neer is well represented in the private galleries of England and on the Continent. Hermann van Swanevelt was born at Woerden in 1620 (?) . The name of his first instructor in art is unrecorded ; the assertion that he studied under Gerard Dou is probably without foundation. Swanevelt went when still young to Rome, where, in 2 Z 354 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. (A.D. 1650 1640, he entered the studio of Claude Lorraine, from whose instruction he derived much benefit. From his love of solitude, Swanevelt was called by his com panions " the Hermit." He lived all the rest of his life in Rome. There is a remarkable difference in the dates given as the year of his death—1655 , 1680, and 1690. Swanevelt's pictures are not so frequently seen in public galleries as those of his contemporary landscape -painters. He is noteworthy for excellent composition and drawing, but his colouring is not always good. Philip Wouvermans, Wouvverman or Wouwerman, who was born at Haarlem in 1620, studied art under his father, Paul Wouvermans — a painter of little note - and under Jan Wynants. He lived all his life in Haarlem - according to Houbraken, in wealth and ease ; but the majority of evidence is against him , and it is probable that, though Wouvermans' works, even in his day, fetched good sums, the painter himself lived in poverty. He died at Haarlem in 1668. Houbraken's assertion that he gave his daughter 20,000 florins as a marriage portion is denied by D'Argentville. Philip Wouvermans, a prodigy of fertility, it is said , produced, in a life one-half shorter than that of Teniers, the “ two leagues of gallery " on which he prided himself. It is probable however, that he did not execute all the pictures attributed to him . Wouvermans has left sixty - four in the Dresden Museum, forty -nine in the Hermitage, twenty two at Cassel, seventeen at Munich , thirteen at the Louvre, ten in Buckingham Palace, seven in the National Gallery, six in the Dulwich Gallery ; and there are, besides, innumerable works dispersed through the galleries and cabinets of the whole world . On seeing his pictures very often complicated with numerous details, and the execution, always so carefully finished, we ask with astonishment how the short life of a single man could have sufficed for such an achievement. Wouvermans is the elegant painter of the life of gentlemen , of war, of hunting, of all the sports in which man has his dog and horse for his companions. At Paris there are some good specimens of his usual subjects, ennobled by the style of his delicate touch ; such are the celebrated Bæuf- gras, the Hunting Party on horseback, the two Cavalry scenes, and, especially , the Riding School. But his best works must be sought elsewhere : at Dresden, amongst the enormous number there, Staç, Boar, and Heron Hunting; at St. Petersburg, the Burning Mill, where masses of verdure, mingled with whirling flames , form the most harmonious contrast, and the Flemish Carousal in a spacious plain, in the midst of a crowd of spectators - a scene full of movement and gaiety ; at Munich, the great Stag Hunt, a good picture in every part, and a Battle, doubtless borrowed from the Thirty Years' War, for the two armies in presence are German and Swedish ; lastly , at the Hague, the superb and animated landscape known by the name of the Chariot de Foin, and the other great Battle-piece, which is the largest known of the innumerable pictures by Wouvermans. It is also, perhaps, the most complete and valuable. It is conceived with exquisite taste and great happiness, so covered with figures that it is impossible to count them , and of very energetic and powerful action, and yet the touch is as fine and elegant as the most delicate miniature. We may here notice two brothers, who both studied under him . Pieter Wouvermans, who was born at Haarlem in 1623, painted in imitation of the style of his brother, but in a far inferior manner. He died in 1683. Jan Wouvermans, who was born at Haarlem in 1629, adopted a branch of art for himself that of painting landscapes, which he embellished with figures and animals. Works by him are rarely seen in public galleries. He died in 1666. A.D. 1650. ] DUTCH SCHOOL. 355 Adam Pynacker was born in 1621 at the village of Pynacker, between Schiedam and Delft. The name of his instructor in art is not recorded. He paid a visit to Rome, for three years. On his return to his native country he enjoyed much fame as a landscape painter. Pynacker died in 1673. His pictures always represent pleasing landscapes, the opposite of Ruysdael's melancholy scenes ---with a brilliant morning light . He is celebrated for the power which he had of representing distances. His landscapes, which are scarce, are usually ornamented with figures and animals painted by himself; they have occasionally a pervading green tone which is unpleasant. Pynacker sometimes painted sea-pieces. Of his works on the Continent, the galleries of the Louvre, Munich, Amsterdam , and elsewhere contain examples. Smith in his catalogue numbers only sixty - nine pictures by this artist . Of these, Dr. Waagen tells us, there are twenty- five in England. A Sea -piece at Althorp is worthy of mention. Jan Baptist Weenix, called “ the elder," was born at Amsterdam in 1621 . When twenty - two years of age, he went to Italy, where he remained for four years. On his return to Holland he was much patronized, as his fame as a painter had preceded him . He died at Utrecht about 1665. He painted all subjects — historical, pastoral, landscapes, and sea -pieces. The elder Weenix is well represented in most of the Dutch and Flemish galleries at Munich and in the Louvre. A fine Lanitscape with ruins and figures by him is in the gallery at Stafford House. Aldert van Everdingen , who was born at Alkmaar in 1621 , studied, it is said, under Roelandt Savery and Pieter Molyn. On one occasion he made a voyage to the Baltic , and was shipwrecked on the Norwegian shore, where the rugged beauty of the coast made an everlasting impression on his mind. As if in contrast to the artist-travellers who brought Italy back with them to Holland, Albert van Everdingen -bringing back from his travels the mountainous scenes of Norway, shadowed with firs and intersected with ravines and waterfalls - introduced into Dutch painting the nature of the extreme north. He died at Amsterdam in 1675. A Norwegian Landscape ( No. 16) , by him in the Amsterdam Gallery, is worthy of notice. The Dresden Gallery has five Landscapes by him . But Van Everdingen deserves greater praise as an engraver than as a painter. The British Museum contains good examples of him in this branch of art . A version of “ Reineke Fuchs, ” with fifty -seven engravings from the original plates by Van Everdingen , was published in England in 1843. Nicholas Claas, called Berchem or Berghem, was born at Haarlem in 1624. The meaning of his nickname has been variously accounted for, but no rendering is of undisputed authority . He studied under numerous masters, his father, Pieter Claas, a painter of no note, Jan van Goyen, Jan Wils, and Weenix, but none of these left any lasting impression on Berchem. He completed in Italy the studies he had commenced in Holland, and introduced the new element of southern scenery into the subjects treated by his fellow -countrymen. Berchem died at Haarlem in 1683. Although a landscape and animal painter, he occasionally executed historical pictures - without A Boaz and Ruth is in the Museum of Amsterdam , which has other works by him, including a good Ferry ; a Cavalry Combat is in the gallery of the Hague. The Louvre possesses a View of Nice and the Port of Genoa ; and of his usual subjects, a Ford and Cattle drinking. The works of Berchem are common in England , in the National Gallery, the Dulwich Gallery, and in most private collections . Paul Potter, the " Raphael of animals, " was born at Enkhuizen in 1625. The son success. 356 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . [A.D. 1650. of a country gentleman, he was one whom the sight of nature, and the universal passion for painting which had then overspread the country, rather than the counsels of his father, led to devote himself to art. He had no sooner made his name known, though he was still very young, than he went to live first at Delft, then at the Hague, where he married, and afterwards, in 1652 , at Amsterdam , where he died from over-work at the early age of twenty -eight. The Hague has retained the one of Paul Potter's works which may be said to be unique in its kind ; this is the landscape in which are assembled a young brown bull, a cow , three sheep, and their shepherd, all of life -size. This picture is known by the THE YOUNG BULL, BY PAUL POTTER . In the Gallery at the Hague. name of the Young Bull of Paul Potter. He painted it at the age of twenty -two. It was an incredible act of audacity. From its unusual size this bull required a thoroughly different system of execution from that of the masters who had preceded him , and from the earlier works of Paul Potter himself. He had to create a fresh system, and succeeded in accomplishing it. He first painted this picture in the manner of the great hunting- scenes of Snyders, with a strong and deep impasto in the masses ; then over this, almost in relief, he traced the details—as finely finished as a house by Van der Heyden, or a face by Denner. This method of attaining perfection by the union of two systems, is very interesting to artists, who are never weary of admiring the com A.D. 1650.] PAUL POTTER. .357 bination and effect ; many even declare that this Young Bull, looked at as an exercise of the pencil, is the most astonishing work ever produced in the art of painting. But in this we do not entirely agree. It is well that a portrait, or the figures in a historical picture, should be of the size of life ; we are accustomed to see men near us ; but usually we only see animals, flocks especially, in the distance. It is better adapted, then, to the subject to paint them smaller, for it shows them to us as we usually see them . In looking at the admirable background of this picture — the large meadow bordered with trees, where other cattle are grazing, the light, air, and life - like nature around — we can scarcely help regretting that these huge beasts in the foreground conceal so large a part of the landscape ; we should prefer them to be farther back, in order to see better. As a proof of this, let us look at the admirable landscape that Paul Potter painted in the following year, 1648, and which is called, on account of the sheet of water where the cattle drink, La Vache qui se mire. But we will pass on to the Museum of Amsterdam : there we shall be fully justified . What is this frightful picture, called a Bear Hunt ? A kind of Hungarian hussar approaches bare- headed, and armed with a most innocent-looking sword, to attack these terrible animals ; it is perfectly ridiculous. The bears are out of drawing, the dogs extravagant. There are, indeed, torn and bleeding limbs, and plenty to excite horror and disgust, but no movement, no effect. The only reason for placing this hideous scene in the place of honour is , that it bears the revered name ofPaulus Potter, and the date 1649. He was surely right, in the five remaining years of his short life, never again to employ these proportions. We may see this from a picture dated in the following year, and entitled Orpheus subduing Animals. At the foot of a wooded hill, in a verdant glade, Orpheus is seated with a harp in his hand like King David, but dressed as a Walloon . Around him are ranged a number of animals, not merely those familiar to Paul Potter, such as the cow, the goat, the sheep, the ass, and the dog, but also the wild animals of other countries, such as the lion , the elephant, the camel, the buffalo, the bear, and even the unicorn. When this small picture is compared with the larger one, it will not be difficult to decide on their merits. Let us now examine some of his works in other parts of Europe. At Paris there are only very feeble specimens of his style. In London there are at least two master pieces. One is in the gallery of the Duke of Westminster, the other at Buckingham Palace. The former represents Cows and Sheep under some willow- trees, in a meadow. This wonderful little landscape, lighted up by the warm rays of the sun at noon, is equal to any work of this master. It is dated 1647. Paul Potter was therefore only twenty - two when he painted it. Such a precocity of talent explains the reason why a man who died in his twenty-ninth year should yet have left so many masterpieces. The second, in Buckingham Palace, is a complete little country scene. A child has stolen two puppies from their mother, who is pursuing furiously and biting him ; the child is flying in terror ; a cock is running off at the noise, flying as much as he can ; some horses are looking out curiously from the stable door, whilst a cow that is being milked , and the sheep mixing in the scene, give it all the unity and variety of composition that can be wished for in an historical picture. The National Gallery has one Landscape with Cattle, which was purchased with the Peel Collection. But Paul Potter is greater at St. Petersburg than either in England or in his own country . Of his very rare works, the imperial cabinet of Russia has collected nine. (A tenth , bought in Holland for the Empress Catherine, was destroyed in a shipwreck, with several other choice pictures. ) We must stop a few moments over the three 358 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . [ A.D. 1650. principal works. One appears to have realised the wish of La Fontaine's lion : “ Si nos confrères savaientpeindre !” It is the trial of man by the animals. This singular com position forms fourteen compartments, the two largest of which are surrounded by the twelve smaller. Paul Potter did not paint all these chapters himself. The history of Actæon is by Poelemberg, that of St. Hubert, perhaps, by Teniers. The central panel belongs to Paul Potter ; it represents the Condemnation of Man by the Tribunal of Animals. A large Landscape, dated 1650, is a more important picture, and is entirely by Paul Potter. Through a thick wood, near a piece of water concealed in the shadow , a road passes, lighted by a most brilliant moon. A traveller on horseback, two fishermen , a herdsmen and his cows, supply the living portion of the landscape. This picture can only be surpassed by another Landscape which Paul Potter painted in 1649, when twenty - four years of age. It represents a flat pasture land, in full sunshine, without any CATTLE. -- BY PAUL POTTER . masses of shadow, any chiaroscuro, or relief of any kind. Only large trees, dispersed here and there, overshadow a farm and some cattle in repose. But in this simple landscape, Paul Potter has united to his favourite cows nearly everything that can animate a landscape - horses, asses, goats, sheep, hens, a dog and a cat, besides people. It is the finest of his works, and the masterpiece of this genre. It is said that this picture was estimated at 250,000 francs ( £ 10,000 ) in the valuation of the cabinet at Malmaison . This was in 1814 ; what would it be worth now ? Karel du Jardin was born at Amsterdam about the year 1625. He is supposed to have received instruction in art from Berchem. Like Berchem, he went to Italy for the completion of his studies, and like him, he was imbued with something of the Italian spirit. He lived in Holland from 1656 till 1669, but eventually died at Venice in 1678. The Amsterdam Museum has, among other works by this artist, a good Mounted Trumpeter and a Farmyard. In the Louvre is a Calvary — too high a subject for the A.D. 1650. ] 359 RUYSDAEL. painter, as the only religious expression to be found in it consists in the sombre hue of the stormy sky — and the Italian Charlatans, a well- filled work of fresh and lively fancy, which Descamps calls, not unjustly, the greatest work of this master. But to our mind, he is preferable in those subjects in which he is most at home, such as the Pâturage and the Bocage, both full of charming detail and exquisite poetry. From the warm and brilliant tints of these works we may see at a glance that Du Jardin must have been at this time residing in Italy. The National Gallery has three excellent works by this artist, Figures and Animals reposing, a Fording the Stream , and a Landscape with Cattle -- all purchased with the Peel Collection. Jacob Ruysdael, the prince of Dutch landscape painters, was born at Haarlem about 1625. He was originally intended for the study of medicine, and received an education fitting the profession, which he is supposed to have practised for a short But his love of art prevailed , and he abandoned the pharmacopæia in favour of the brush. His first instructor in art was his elder brother, Solomon Ruysdael. Jacob is known to have lived in Amsterdam , and is supposed to have studied under Berchem , with whom he was on intimate terms of friendship . Little further is known of Ruysdael's life. He died in poverty at Haarlem in 1681 . Jacob Ruysdael is a striking proof of the saying of Bacon : Ars est homo additus natura . To the talents of his predecessors or contemporaries he added the dreamy and melancholy poetry of his own mind, which can only be well understood by characters resembling his own. If we seek in Ruysdael merely the imitation, the portrait of nature, he is equalled, and, perhaps, even surpassed, in some technical points, by Hobbema, Decker, and a few others ; but it is the inner sentiment, the poetry of solitude, of silence, of mystery, which place him in the front rank alone. Albrecht Dürer made a beautiful figure of Melancholy ; without being personified, it is visible in all the works of Ruysdael. We will seek throughout Europe for the choicest of his works. In the Louvre there are but a very small number - scarcely one- half of those which may be found at Munich, Dresden , or St. Petersburg -- and these are not by any means the best of his works. There is , however, a charming landscape, of very fine execution, which is called the Coup de Soleil; then another landscape, still more simple, whose name of The Bush describes the whole subject. There is also a Storm on the coast and near the dykes of Holland, dark and strong, admirable in the rendering of the tumultuous waves and sinister aspect of the sky ; Michelet calls it the “ prodigy of the Louvre. ” In Holland itself we find little more than the Waterfall, at the entrance to a wooded ravine, on the two steep banks of which stand old castles. This magnificent work is in the Museum of Amsterdam , with a View of Bentheim Castle, a small finely painted landscape, lighted by brilliant sunshine. It was painted on one of his happiest days. Rotterdam also possesses another View of Bentheim Castle, which he painted so many times and under such different aspects ; yet always with the greatest care and finish . But alas , in the foreground of this picture , soine miserable painter has introcluced, on the banks of the Moselle, the Gospel incident of the disciples going to Emmaus ! So that the three figures are intended for our Lord and the disciples ! In England, Ruysdael is especially to be found in private collections , for instance, at Mr. Baring's , the Troubled River, which equals the Storm in the Louvre. The National Gallery has no less than twelve Landscapes by him - six of which were acquired with the Wynn- Ellis bequest - all worthy examples of the great master. 360 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . [A.D. 1650. In Russia, fifteen pictures represent him in the Hermitage. In the figures we often recognise the hand of Adriaan van Ostade and Adriaan van de Velde, which increase their value. Some of these Landscapes are especially noteworthy. One is very small and very simple : a sandy plain , a winding road , a peasant followed by his dog ; nothing more : but over this is a veil of sadness which touches the heart as much as the most pathetic scene. Another is equally simple, though of much larger size : a pathway through a wood, and, on the banks of a sheet of stagnant water, a large beech- tree, half despoiled of its branches by time. A third seems to include the two preceding. This is also, in a deep forest, a fallen beech - tree, with a sheet of stagnant water almost hidden by the water-lilies ; two or three water birds, standing on their webbed feet, and one passing in the distance, are all that animates this solitude ; but the Ruysdaelis LANDSCAPE.—BY RUYSDAEL. scene is full of silence , mystery, and soft melancholy, and Ruysdael has never spoken more eloquently to thoughtful and dreamy souls. It is in Germany however, that his greatest works are to be found. At Munich there are nine Landscapes, all as beautiful as can be desired . In the largest there is a Cascade foaming down over masses of rocks. This picture is valuable as well for its great perfection as from its unusual size. At Dresden there are thirteen of his paintings. Among these, several are justly celebrated. One of them is known by the name of Ruysdael's Chase. It is a forest of beech - trees, broken only by some sheets of water reflecting the clouds in the sky. Under these great trees, Adriaan van de Velde has painted a stag hunt, from which the name of the picture has been taken . This is one of the largest as well as most magnificent to be found in his entire works. But the largest, the most important, and, perhaps, the most perfect of Ruysdael's works is to be found in Vienna. It is about 6 feet wide by 5 feet high, and the A.D. 1675. ] HOBBEMA. 361 unusual size of the picture shows that Ruysdael intended it for an extraordinary work . Nothing could be more simple than the subject ; it is called the Forest. Under a calm sky crossed by floating clouds, a clump of high trees on a flat barren country, through which a pathway winds, cut off in the foreground by a stream , and losing itself in the distant horizon ; this is all. And yet it is the truest, most excellent portrait of simple nature that can be imagined. Frederick Moucheron, who was born at Emden in 1633, studied under Jan Asselyn, a good landscape -painter of that period. When over twenty years of age he went to Paris , with the intention of afterwards proceeding to Italy ; but the reception with which he met in the French capital caused him to remain there several years. On his return to Holland , he eventually settled at Amsterdam , where, in conjunction with Adriaan van de Velde and Lingelbach, most of his best landscapes were produced. Moucheron is commonly said to have died at Amsterdam in 1686, but there is a picture in the Dresden gallery -- A Garden scene --- signed “ F. Moucheron Fecit, 1713. " His best pictures are pleasing landscapes executed in the style of the painters of those subjects in Holland at that time. The figures in them are usually by Adriaan van de Velde or Lingelbach. In the Gallery at the Hague there are two Landscapes ( Nos. 99 and 100) , with figures by the latter. In the Van Loon Collection at Amsterdam the figures in the Landscape are ascribed to Adriaan van de Velde, as are also those in the Garden Scene in the National Gallery. Frederick Moucheron had a son Isaac, who imitated his style with little success. Jan van der Hagen, who was born at the Hague in 1635 , is a successful imitator of the style of Ruysdael and Hobbema. Amsterdam , in its museum and its town- hall , contains two of his best pictures. The canals and rivers of his native country are frequently seen in Van der Hagen's works ; the beauty of which is frequently spoiled by the use, it is said , of a bad pigment-called “ Haarlem blue,” from which the colour is faded and gone. Van der Hagen died in 1679. Jan Hackaert, the painter of sylvan scenes, was born at Amsterdam in 1636 (? ). After he had learned the rudiments of his art in his native town—under whom it is not stated—he paid a visit to Switzerland, the scenery of which country only produced an impression which was effaced by his love of the woods around the Hague. Adriaan van de Velde, Nicholas Berchem , and other artists, painted figures in Hackaert's landscapes. A Landscape with dogs and Hunters — a joint work of Van de Velde and Hackaert-in the Steengracht Collection at the Hague, is of great merit. In the Amsterdam Gallery there is the Ash - tree Avenue — a sylvan view by Hackaert — with figures by Van de Velde - a subject oft repeated by these two artists. There is one at Stafford House, formerly in the Orleans Collection, and Lord Overstone possesses another. A Stag Hunt, with figures attributed to Nicolas Berchem , is in the National Gallery. The date of Hackaert's death is not known. The year 1708 has been given. Meindert Hobbema was born at Amsterdam (?) in 1638. He is supposed to have studied under Ruysdael, who was a witness of his marriage to Eeltie Vinck in 1668 at Amsterdam. The dates on Hobbema's pictures extend from 1650 to 1669. But The Avenue, Middelharuis (No. 830) , in the National Gallery, is said by some to be dated 1689—the third figure is not legible. He died in poverty in the Roosegraft at Amsterdam in 1709, and was buried in the Westerkerkhof. 3 A 362 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1675 . Contrary to his master, Hobbema only painted smiling and serene nature. His name was long forgotten ; his signature was effaced from his works in order to substitute the name or monogram of Ruysdael, whose renown never suffered an eclipse. At the present time, by one of those returns to favour produced even in art by the caprices of fashion, the decried Hobbema has been so much extolled , that he may, perhaps, be unable to retain his exalted position. His works, which are, indeed, rare, obtain prices higher than those of Ruysdael. This is another injustice in the opposite direction. A proof that this sudden and astonishing celebrity is not of ancient date is, that of the Sugg LANDSCAPE, — BY HOBBEMA . three museums of Holland that of Rotterdam alone possesses any specimen of Hobbema. He has more important works elsewhere, such as the Dutch Cabin at Munich and the Oak Forest at Berlin. But as his masterpieces we do not hesitate to point to the two large pendents in Grosvenor House. They have no consecrated name that we know of ; they are simply Landscapes - views of a wooded country, lighted and rejoiced by the bright rays of the sun—but very bright, very profound, of complete and commanding beauty. Besides the picture already mentioned, the A.D. 1675. ] VAN DE VELDE. 363 National Gallery has six Landscapes by Hobbeina -- two of which, a Water -mill “ of singular clearness" and a Landscape " of the most luminous chiaroscuro ,” were formerly in the possession of the late Mr. Wynn Ellis. Adriaan van de Velde was born at Amsterdam in 1639. He was apprenticed to Wynants at Haarlem. Though instructed in art by a landscape painter, Van de Velde painted several historic works. His life was cut short at the early age of thirty-two, at Amsterdam, early in the year 1672. This illustrious disciple of Wynants may claim one important title to superiority. In his calm, smiling, peaceful views of nature, he was able himself to paint the human figures almost as well as Wouvermans, and his animals almost as well as the great Paul Potter. Only his animals and men are usually peaceful and devoid of action. Adriaan van de Velde is, in painting, the poet of the eclogue and the idyll. The Louvre contained good examples of his art, the Coast of Scheveningen , where the Prince of Orange is driving in a carriage and six ; a Frozen Canal ; the Herdsman's Family, a charming miniature, etc. One of his animated landscapes, called the Rising Sun, gilded with warm and brilliant tints in the style of Claude, seems to show the highest point of his wonderful talent. The galleries of Dresden, Munich , Berlin , Rotterdam , the Hague, Amsterdam , and of Antwerp, all contain good examples by Van de Velde, either by himself or in conjunction with other masters. The private galleries in Holland and Belgium are rich in his works ; we must specially mention one in the Van der Hoop Collection at Amsterdam . It is a landscape with portraits of Himself, his Wife, and his two Children . This beautiful picture is signed and dated 1667. The National Gallery has six of his works. This artist frequently painted figures in the pictures of his brother painters. Among those with whom he worked in conjunction are, Wynants, Van der Heyden, Hobbema, and Ruysdael. Jan van Huchtenburg, or Hugtenburg, was born at Haarlem in 1646. After he haił learned the rudiments of his art from one Jan Wyck, he went to Rome in 1667 , at the suggestion of his brother Jacob, who was already established as a landscape painter in that city. Two years after his arrival, Jan had the misfortune to lose his brother ; he accordingly left Rome and went to Paris , where he studied under Van der Meulen. In 1670 Van Huchtenburg returned to Holland and settled at the Hague, where he chiefly lived. The Prince Eugene was a generous patron to him ; he employed him to paint pictures of the victories, which he, aided by the Prince of Orange and the Duke of Marlborough, had gained over the French Van Huchtenburg died at Amsterdam in 1733. He painted battle-scenes much in the same style as Wouvermans. Works by him are in many of the Continental Collections. The National Gallery has one, a Battle -scene. Van Huchtenburg was also an engraver. Jan van der Meer de Jonge - called “ the younger," to distinguish him from an old painter of the same name — was born at Haarlem in 1656. He studied under Nicholas. Berchem, in whose style he painted pastoral pictures with much success. Sheep were his favourite subjects. Works by this artist are somewhat scarce in public galleries. He died at Haarlem in 1705 . III.--MARINE PAINTERS. Simon de Vlieger, who was born at Rotterdam about the year 1604 (Kugler's

• Handbook ' ) , sought to introduce the manner of Cuyp into the subjects of Van

364 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1675 . de Velde. He painted landscapes and sea -pieces, and sometimes blended the two . his drawing is masterly, but his colouring is often unpleasing. Pictures by him are in the galleries of Dresden, Munich , Amsterdam , and St. Petersburg. A few are in England. Besides his paintings, he was famous for his etchings. The date of De Vlieger's death is not known ; he was living in 1656. Ludolf Backhuysen, who was born at Emden in 1631 , was originally intended for a commercial career, for which purpose he was apprenticed to a merchant at Amsterdam. He is said to have given lessons in marine drawing to Peter the Great, when he was studying naval art at Saardam . His instructor in art was Van Everdingen. From the time he commenced to paint on his own account, a most successful career was opened to him . He was patronized by monarchs and nobles. So earnest was this painter in his study of the sea that he used to prevail on boatmen to put out in the roughest weather, when scarcely any one else would venture, in order that he might study the foam and the billows. It is said that immediately on landing he would hasten to his studio to commit to canvas what he had seen. Backhuysen died, wealthy and honoured , at Amsterdam in 1709. His most celebrated works are -at the Hague, the Return of William of Orange as William III. of England ; at Amsterdam, the Embarkation of Jan de Witt on the Dutch fleet ; at Vienna, a large and magnificent View of the Port of Amsterdam ; at Paris, the Dutch Squadron, a present made to Louis XIV. by the burgomasters of Amsterdam after the peace of Nimeguen, in 1678 ; in the National Gallery, a Dutch Shipping ( No. 204) , signed " 1683, L. Bakhuizen , " and Off the Mouth of the Thames, from the Peel Collection. The National Gallery contains, besides these, three other works of the master, who is well represented in the private collections of England. Backhuysen's style is rather hard and usually dark , and he was surpassed by.the transparency and serenity of his rival . M. Charles Blanc says correctly, “ Backhuysen makes us fear the sea, Van de Velde makes us love it." Willem van de Velde “ the younger, " was born at Amsterdam in 1633. He received instruction from his father, a marine painter, Willem van de Velde “ the elder, and also under Simon de Vlieger. On the completion of his studies young Willem came to England, where his father was already engaged in the service of Charles II. In 1676 they each received a salary of £, 100 per annum from the king—the elder “ for taking and making draughts of sea-fights, " and the younger " for putting the said draughts into colours.” After the death of Charles II. in 1685 , the pension was continued by James II. The Van de Veldes while in England lived at Greenwich; the younger died in London in 1707 . Willem van de Velde, the worthy brother of Adriaan, is , indeed, the uncontested master in this genre. The Louvre possesses only one of those charming miniatures, called a Calm , of Van de Velde. It can give no idea of the greatest works of this master, who, being all his life a lover of the sea, painted its every aspect, as a mistress whose changing beauty takes, like the guardian of Neptune's flocks, a thousand different forms, and whose caprices and fury are as much loved as her serenity. These fine works have remained in Germany, in England (the country of his adoption, and where he is still adored) , and especially in his own country, where, amongst others, may be found the great view of Amsterdam, taken at the Y, and the two celebrated pendents in commemoration of the naval Battle of Four Days, the success of which was at first doubtful, but in which the English finally gained an advantage over De A.D. 1675.] DUTCH SCHOOL. 365 Ruyter in 1666. To enable him to render the combat with greater fidelity, the painter was present on one of the vessels of the Dutch squadron , making his plans and sketches in the midst of the firing. It is in these masterpieces of Willem van de Velde that we may find the greatest perfection, not only of that artist , but of all that branch of art of which the sea is the theatre and the object. The National Gallery contains no less than fourteen pictures by this artist-all good examples of his style. Seven were purchased from the Peel Collection , and five were bequeathed by the late Mr. Wynn Ellis. Of the private collections in England, which are rich in Van de Velde's works, Bridgewater House contains the best - two Naval Battles, a View on the Texel, a Calm , the Entrance to the Bril, and, lastly , the well known Rising of the Gale. Jan van de Capelle is a painter of whom next to nothing is known. He was born , probably at Amsterdam , about the year 1635. In 1653 he is recorded to have married there and at the same time to have received the freedom of the city. The date of his death is unrecorded. In style Van de Capelle much resembles De Vlieger, and like him he blended the manner of Cuyp with the subjects of Van de Velde. Van de Capelle is well represented in England both in private galleries and in the National Gallery, which contains five works by him , a Coast Scene — from the Peel Collection and four more, from the Wynn - Ellis Collection. IV. -PAINTERS OF STILL -LIFE, FLOWERS, ARCHITECTURE, ETC. Jan van de Heem, who was born at Utrecht in 1603, studied under his father, a painter of fruit and flowers. He lived chiefly at Antwerp, where his works were highly prized , and even in his own time fetched very high sums, so true to nature was his representation of fruit and flowers. He also excelled in imitating the transparency of glass. He frequently painted festoon decorations to encircle the pictures of other artists. Good works by De Heem are in the galleries of Vienna, Berlin , Amsterdam and the Hague. He died at Amsterdam in 1674. Jan van de Heem had a son, who imitated his style with little success. Dirk van Deelen, who was born at Alkmaar early in the seventeenth century, was a pupil of Frans Hals. Seized with the desire for painting architecture, then so prevalent in Holland , he turned his attention to that branch of art, in which he afterwards became very successful. Van Deelen frequently painted in conjunction with other artists , as in the Meeting of the United Provinces at the Hague- in the gallery of that city-in which the figures are by Palamedes. The National Gallery did not, until recently, possess an example of Dirk van Deelen. It now contains a Renaissance Palace in the Wynn- Ellis Room, noteworthy for correct perspective and clearness of colour. This artist died at Armuyden — the date is not recorded. Emanuel de Witte, one of the best Dutch painters of architecture , was born at Alkmaar in 1607. He studied under Evert van Aelst, a painter of still- life. On leaving that master he attempted portraiture, but as he did not succeed in that branch of art, he finally adopted architectural painting. His favourite subjects are the interiors of churches, the windows of which admit floods of sunlight, which he finely contrasts with the dark shadows. De Witte died in 1692 at Amsterdam, which city , in its Trippenhuis, and its private collections -especially those of Van Loon and Van der Hoop-contains the best of his pictures. 366 [A.D. 1675. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. Johann Lingelbach was born at Frankfort-on -the -Main in 1625. Though a German by birth , he must be considered a Dutch painter, for after a visit to Paris and a lengthened stay in Italy, he settled at Amsterdam , and there executed most of his important works. He is supposed to have died there in 1687. His subjects are called Sea Ports ; and yet he neither painted the sea nor the ports, but the scenes which usually take place there, and the people of all kinds and nations brought there by commerce ; and occasionally scenes in the hay- field, as in the Hay Harvest in the National Gallery. He frequently also painted figures for the pictures of other artists. His works are seen in most public galleries on the Continent. Willem Kalf, who was born at Amsterdam in 1630, studied under one Hendrik Pot, a painter of historical subjects, which Kalf adopted for a short time, but finally abandoned in favour of kitchen utensils , fruit and vegetables, in the representation of which he is inimitable. He died at Amsterdam in 1693. The Kitchens of Kalf are not pictures of dead nature, for this supposes a nature which has been alive, such as the animals killed in the chase painted by Fyt and Weenix. Kalf's are pictures of inanimate nature , vegetables, pots and pans, which the painter places, arranges, and lights up at his pleasure. And yet these small pictures of a little known and perhaps despised master are real works of art -- we were almost going to add, and of poetry. A sense of the picturesque, a light and sure touch, warm colouring, firm drawing, and even intelligent composition, are all to be found in them . Where can the art and the poetry have sprung from ? Pictures by Kalf are not commonly seen in public galleries ; those of Dresden , the Louvre, Amsterdım , and Rotterdam are exceptions . Job Berkheyde, who was born at Haarlem in 1630, was a painter of architectural subjects in which he executed the figures, of landscapes, and even of portraits. Works by him are in most continental galleries. A view of the Town- hall of Amsterdam , signed " J. Berk Heyde, " is in the Dresden gallery. He was accidentally drowned in a canal at Amsterdam in 1698. His younger brother, Gerrit Berkheyde, who was born at Haarlem in 1638 , was, after Emanuel de Witte and Van der Heyden, one of the best architectural painters of Holland. He sometimes painted the figures in his own pictures, but he was frequently indebted for them to his brother Job , who excelled him in figure painting. A good specimen of Gerrit Berkheyde is a View of Haarlem in the Amsterdam Gallery. He died at Amsterdam in 1693 . Melchior de Hondecoeter, one of the best of the painters of poultry- yards, was born at Utrecht in 1636. He received his first instruction in art from his father, and afterwards studied under Jan Baptist Weenix. Hondecoeter died at Utrecht in 1695. At the Louvre there are Swans and Peacocks by him ; but these birds are too grand for him ; common hens and ducks are the personages usually to be found in most of the pictures which have justly rendered his name famous. To know Hondecoeter well , we should see the Fight between a Cock and a Turkey, at the Hermitage, the Menagerie of Birds, at the Hague, and the Floating Feather, at Amsterdam. This feather has drifted on to a pool where ducks are swimming. A good picture of Domestic Poultry by him is in the National Gallery. Jan van der Heyden, “ the Gerard Dou of architectural painters," who was born at Gorkum in 1637 , received his only instruction in art from a painter on glass. He is supposed to have come to England at some period of his life. He died in 1712 at 4 FLOWER - PIECE - BY JAN VAN HUYSUM , 368 [A.D. 1700. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. Amsterdam , where he had resided some time previously. The figures in his works were painted by Lingelbach , Eglon van der Neer, and Adriaan van de Velde. It is well known what wonderful patience Van der Heyden must have possessed in painting to enable him to depict every stone in a wall, every tile of a roof, every paving- stone in a street , every leaf on a tree, just as Denner, in the human countenance, drew every hair of the beard, and the slightest wrinkle in the skin. What we must especially admire in his works, however, are the fine general effects that he produced from such minute details, by the harmonious contrast of light and shadow , and also the manner in which he made picturesque scenes of the straight monotonous lines of streets and houses. A Street in Cologne, signed “ J. V. D. H. , " is in the National Gallery. The View of a Public Square, surrounded by trees , at Munich ; the Convent Garden, at Grosvenor House ; the View of Antwerp, at the Hague ; the View of a Dutch Town, at Amsterdam ; and the View of the Town Hall of Amsterdam , at Paris, in which the figures are painted by Adriaan van de Velde, are some of the highest works of this special genre, in which Van der Heyden, who had scarcely a predecessor, has remained without a rival and even without an imitator. Jan Weenix -- called " the younger, " to distinguish him from his father - was born at Amsterdam in 1644. He received his instruction in art from his father, whose style he greatly acquired. He painted several years at the court of the Elector John William , but returned to Amsterdam , where he died in 1719. For his subjects Weenix chose small game-- hares, pheasants, snipe, ducks, birds of all sorts-of the finest forms and colours, which he grouped with hunting weapons, or under the charge of a dog. Many of Weenix's best pictures are in England ; the National Gallery has but one, Dead Game and a Dog, signed " J. Weenix , f. 1708 ;" his masterpiece, The Pheasant, is in the gallery at the Hague. Rachel Ruysch, who was born at Amsterdam in 1664, is still considered the rival of Van Huysum . She was not merely the only female artist produced by the Low Countries since the sister of the great painter of Bruges, Margaret van Eyck ; she has remained even down to our own times the first of female painters. Of her works the Rotterdam Museum possesses a Flower -piece ; the gallery at the Hague, two more; and the Six Collection, another pair of Flower -pieces. Rachel Ruysch ended a laborious life at Amsterdam in 1750. Jan van Huysum was born at Amsterdam in 1682. His father, a scene painter, employed him together with his three brothers to assist him in his work. Young Jan shewed much aptitude for painting flowers, and accordingly selected that subject for He worked chiefly at Amsterdam , where he died in 1749. Among the painters of flowers Van Huysum stands pre - eminent. He arranged flowers with so much taste and skill that flower - sellers might take lessons in their trade before his pictures, as well as painters in their art. The smiling Vases of Flowers, far preferable to the dark Bouquets of Baptiste Monnoyer — who was brought forward as a rival to Van Huysum in the time of Madame de Pompadour — are varied and improved by agreeable accessories, such as the vases themselves elaborately carved, the marble stands, and brilliant insects, the flowers of animal life. Two flower- pieces by Van Huysum are in the National Gallery. He is also well represented in the Dulwich Gallery, and in many private collections. His works abound on the Continent. Van Huysum occasionally painted landscapes, but with little success. his getre. A.D. 1500. ] FRENCH SCHOOL. 369

BOOK VI .

THE FRENCH SCHOOL.

W . We can trace the history of the French school of painting almost as far back as the history of France itself. Emeric David reminds us that even in the time of Charlemagne it was the custom to cover the walls of churches with paintings ( in circuitu dextra lavaque, intus et extra ) " in order to instruct the people, and to decorate the buildings .” It was in France, about the middle of the ninth century, that painters first endeavoured to represent the Almighty Father Himself in human form , an attempt which was not made in Italy before the thirteenth century, and is not to be found at all in Byzantine painting. Painting on glass for church windows was likewise invented or perfected in France. A great number of French prelates and abbots also decorated their churches and monasteries with paintings of all sorts ; amongst these were the bishops Hincmar of Rheims, Hoël of Mans, Geoffroy of Auxerre, and the abbots Angilbert of Saint- Riquier, Ancésige of Fontenelle, Richard of Saint- Venne, and Bernard of Saint - Sauveur. After the conquest of England by William of Normandy, the French carried the art ofchurch decoration, and a taste for it , into England with Lanfranc and Anselm of Canterbury. Tradition has even preserved the names of several celebrated French painters of the Middle Ages, the greater part of whom were monks, belonging especially to the order of St. Basil. Of this number were Madalulphe of Cambray, Adélard of Louvain, Ernulfe of Rouen, Herbert and Roger of Rheims, and Thiémon , who was also a sculptor and professor of the fine arts . But these crude essays, which did not culminate in a national art, are not worthy of a lengthened account. French as well as Spanish art, both the pupils of Italy , can only be said to have really commenced after the slow and laborious development of the Middle Ages; when all the knowledge possessed by antiquity reappeared at one time, and produced the revival known by the name of the RENAISSANCE. The influence which Italy exerted on French painting made itself felt as early as the middle of the fifteenth century, although it was nearly a hundred years later before the French school may be said to have commenced. René of Anjou, Count of Provence, the prince successively despoiled of Naples, Lorraine, and Anjou, and who consoled himself for his political disgraces by cultivating poetry, music , and painting - this good King René, who was born about 1408 , learnt 3 B 370 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS.. [A. D. 1500. painting in Italy, either under Il Zingaro at Naples, when disputing the crown of the Two Sicilies with the kings of Aragon, or under Bartolommeo della Gatta at Florence when forming an alliance with the Duke of Milan against the Venetians. “ He com posed ,” says the chronicler Nostradamus, " several beautiful and elegant romances, such as La Conqueste de la Doule Merci, and the Mortifiement de Vaine Plaisanie, but he loved painting in particular with a passionate love, and was gifted by nature with such an uncommon aptitude for this noble profession that he was famous among the most excellent painters and illuminators of his time, which may be perceived by several masterpieces accomplished by his divine and royal hand.” In the Cluny Museum there is a picture by René which , although not worthy of being called a " divine master piece ” of the period that had produced Fra Angelico da Fiesole and Masaccio , is yet valuable and remarkable. The subject is the Preaching of the Magdalen at Marseilles, where tradition asserts that she was the first to proclaim the Gospel. In the background and in Chinese perspective, is the port of the old Phocian colony ; in the foreground is the audience of the converted sinner, in which René has introduced himself with his wife Jeanne de Laval. The scene is well conceived , clear and animated. René died in 1480. Jacquemin Gringonneur painted packs of cards, to afford Charles VI. an easy amusement in the lucid intervals which his madness allowed him . Gringonneur has been called the inventor of cards ; but this invention — which is also attributed to another ymaigier, Nicolas Pépyn -belongs to a much earlier period ; it dates back as far as the thirteenth century. Jehan Fouquet, born at Tours between 1415-1420, painted the portrait of Popi Eugenius IV . at Rome, and studied the Italian artists of the time of Masaccio. His works, or at least those of them which remain , are to be found at Munich, Frankfort , and in the large library at Paris ; they are composed only ofmanuscript ornamentation, so that Fouquet is merely a superior ymaigicr. Jehan Cloet - known in France as Jean Clouet, generally called Janet, was a Fleming who settled in France and was made painter and varlet-de- chambre to Francis I. in 1518. He died in 1541 . François Clouet—often called Janet, a contemporary of those who studied art in Italy, but himself a distant disciple of Van Eyck , through the lessons of his father Jehan Cloet - was born at Tours in 1510. There are in the Louvre by François Clouet, the portraits of Charles IX. and of his wife Elizabeth of Austria, which are truthful and of wonderful delicacy. Besides the portraits of Henri II., of Henri IV . as a child, of the Duke of Guise, le Balafré, of the wise chancellor Michel de l'Hôpital, all of a small size , there are also two small compositions formed by several portraits in a group ; one is of the Marriage of Margaret of Lorraine, sister of the Guises, with Duke Anne of Joyeuse ; the other is a Court Ball, at which Henri III . , then king, his mother, Catherine de Médicis, young Henry of Navarre, and other personages of the time, are present. These pictures, which are as valuable to the history of France as the chronicles of Monstrelet or the journals of L'Estoile , are no less precious to the history of painting as the memorials of an art of which they were the earliest expression. At Castle Howard, there is a fine painting by Clouet, of the Family of Henri II., giving life -size portraits of Catherine de Médicis and their children-and a collection of nearly three hundred portraits drawings in black and white, with flesh tints , of kings A.D. 1550. ) FRENCH SCHOOL. 371 and queens and important personages of the French Court. Many of these have been lithographed by Lord Ronald Gower. François Clouet, who was the fourth portrait painter of the family, died in 1574. The real imitation of the Italian school, and through that the formation of a French school of painting, may be traced back to the beginning of the sixteenth century. Italian art hàd already attained to the dazzling splendour of its noon when the first beams of its light fell upon France. It was not until after the military expeditions of Charles VIII . , of Louis XII . , and of Francis I. , when the French had traversed the whole of the Italian peninsula, from Milan to Naples, and were filled with surprise and admiration before the buildings and their decorations, when Francis I. brought to Paris some fine works of art , and collected great artists around him , that from the contact. with them , and through their influence, France at length awoke. Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea del Sarto, by their brilliant reputation and by means of their works ; Rossi (maître Roux) Primaticcio, Niccolò Abati, and others, by the practical lessons woich they gave, and by the great works which they com pleted in their adopted country , founded the first French school, which is called the school of Fontainebleau . The first French painter who rose to a level with them by means of their lessons , and who carried Painting to the same rank to which Jean Goujon and Germain Pilot had raised Sculpture, and Pierre Lescot, Jean Bullant, and Philibert Delorme, Architecture, was Jean Cousin, who was born at Soucy, near Sens, about 1500. Unfortunately, he was more occupied with painting church windows than with his easel ; and, as he devoted a part of his time to engraving, to sculpture, and even to literature , he has left but a small number of pictures. The principal of these is a Last Judgment, and it is doubtless the similarity of subject rather than of style or manner, which has given its author the name of the “ French Michelangelo. " Although it was the first picture by a French artist which had the honour of being engraved, this masterpiece of Jean Cousin was for a long time forgotten in the Sacristy of Minimes at Vincennes. It has now found a worthy place in the Louvre. As far as a number of small figures assembled in an easel picture can be compared to the gigantic figures covering the wall of the Sistine, so much may Jean Cousin be said to resemble Michelangelo. The whole is har monious, although powerful and terrible ; the groups are skilfully formed and varied ; the nude figures, a new thing in France, are well studied and well rendered, and these merits of composition and drawing are enhanced by a warm Venetian colouring, and still more so, by a unity and symmetry of thought which is wanting in the model. As Michelangelo finished his celelrated fresco in 1541 , it is probable that Jean Cousin treated this vast subject at a later period, for he would have been able before leaving France to become acquainted with the Last Judgment of the Vatican by copies or engrar ings, amongst others , that by Martin Rota. But his version of the same subject was at least a very free one, composed of different details, and with a totally different spirit running through it. Jean Cousin lived to be nearly ninety years of age. Martin Fréminet, the son of a painter, was born at Paris in 1567. After a long sojourn in Italy , he brought back with him the taste which prevailed there at the close of the great age, a little before the foundation of the Carracci school. Leaving the calm and simple beauty which Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Correggio had taught, he 372 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1600. adopted , like the mistaken imitators of Michelangelo, an ostentatious display of the science of anatomy, and a mania for foreshortening. At the same time his great pictures in the Louvre - both the Venus waiting for Mars, who is disarmed by Cupids, or Eneas aban-loning Dido by order of Mercury are remarkable for several reasons. In the first place, because, after the small figures of François Clouet and Jean Cousin, he painted his figures the size of life, and also, that, after a long and continuous series of sacred subjects, he produced a mythological scene. Henri IV. appointed Fréminet painter to the court, and commissioned him to decorate the ceiling of the chapel at Fontainebleau. Fréminet died at Paris in 1619. Simon Vouet, the son of a painter, was born in Paris in 1592 (? ) .. He had been, from his earliest youth , remarkable for his precocious talents ; and after fourteen years' residence at Rome he carried with him the lessons of the Carracci school to Paris. In his great composition, the Presentation in the Temple - in the Entombment, the Madonna, the Roman Charity ( a young woman feeding an old man ), we trace clearly the influence of the Bolognese school, although he possesses neither the profound expression of Domenichino, the elegance of Guido, nor the powerful chiaroscuro of Guercino. The style of his masters is impaired by poorness of design and insufficiency of colouring - in short, by too ruch haste ; for Vouet, who soon became the first painter of Louis XIII . , to whom he gave lessons, overwhelmed with honours and laden with orders , accepted labours beyond his power to perform . Pictures for churches or palaces, portraits, ceilings, wainscotings, tapestry, all were undertaken in order to keep the work from others ; and in this universal monopoly, his early talent, instead of increasing with riper age, continually decreased . We must do him the justice to add that it was his lessons and example which taught Eustache Lesueur, Charles Lebrun, and Pierre Mignard ; and that thus, like the Carracci, he was greater through his pupils than through his own works. Vouet died in Paris in 1641 . Jacques Callot, the son of a noble family, was born at Nancy in Lorraine in 1592. He was an enemy to all discipline, and, in order to give free course to his fancy, fled from his father's house in the train of a troop of mountebanks. Entirely occupied with etching according to processes of his own invention -- his Beggars, Gipsies, Nobles, Devils and scenes descriptive of the Miseries of War, Callot finished but a very smatl number of paintings. Thus, while he has left fifteen or sixteen hundred engravings, both large and small, we have not met with more than two pictures bearing his name, the Military Execution , at Dresden , and the Village Fair, at Vienna ; both are on copper, with very small figures, and such pale colouring that at the first glance one is not favourably impressed. Callot's talent has remained so thoroughly sui generis that he has had no descendants. He was a great artist , who has no place in the history of the fine arts, even of his own country. He died at Nancy in 1635. Nicolas Poussin, the prince of the French school, was born at Andelys in Normandy He was descended from a noble family of Soissons, who lost their property in the civil wars. His father served under Henri IV . An admirable example of the power of natural taste, Poussin, who was almost without a master, remained a long time without a patron. Braving poverty, although twice interrupted by it on his way to Italy, he at length reached Rome on foot and almost destitute. Here his talent was first developed before the masterpieces of past ages ; and although at a subsequent period the king recalled him to Paris, in order to add the lustre of a great painter to his own fame, Poussin soon tired of the annoyances caused by the Court painters and in 1594. A.D. 1625. ) NICOLAS POUSSIN . 373 scenes. the Court fools, and went back to his dear hermitage at Rome, which he did not again leave - not even bequeathing his ashes to his native country. There, in solitary study, and always avoiding, with a force of judgment in which he is scarcely equalled, the bad taste of his country and of his time, he progressed step by step towards perfection. Poussin has been called the painter of intellect ; this name is just , especially if it be meant to convey the idea that Poussin can only be understood and admired by high and cultivated intellects. The only reproach which the traducers of Poussin in the French school have been able to bring against him is , that he is wanting in grace. Certainly in the execution of his most usual subjects, he showed rather the gravity and austerity natural to his genius, but he has shown grace, and even playful grace, when it was suitable. To be convinced of this, it is only necessary to examine some of his numerous bacchanalian Two of his best are in the National Gallery in London. One is a forcible painting, simply called a Bacchanalian Dance, but varied and full of pleasant incident; all the figures are in harmony, from the nymph tripped up by the satyr, to the little tipsy children quarrelling for the cup into which a bacchante is squeezing grapes. The other, a Bacchanalian Festival, although less finished in execution, is one of the most important works of Poussin, who shared the love of the ancients for this subject. The details are graceful and spirited, and , being perfectly harmonious, form a most charming comedy. Here we see the fat, tipsy Silenus, supported with difficulty by two fauns ; there, a gay and animated dance ; further off, an insolent ass attacks the haunches of a centaur, who punishes him with a stick for his impudence ; then a laughing female satyr endeavouring to ride on a refractory goat. In fact, all the ancient comedy is revived, so that we could almost fancy it a representation of one of those gay and riotous Atellane brought into Rome from the Campania. With regard to the other subjects treated by Poussin , Paris has no reason to envy England or any other country, as she possesses his masterpieces. We will first speak of Poussin's portrait,by himself,taken, when fifty -six years of age, for his friend Chantelou ; the only one which he would have painted if his patron at Rome, Cardinal Rospigliosi ( afterwards Clement IX. ) had not some time later ordered another. The inscription placed on the tomb of Poussin, In tabulis vivit et eloquitur, might also be written over this portrait, for we can clearly trace in it the artist's soul, the nature of his genius, and the character of his works. We find in the modest dignity of his noble countenance a powerful intellect, a strong will , and that great power of application which justifies the saying of Buffon , “ Genius consists of a great power of attention . ” At the Louvre there are some immense pictures by Poussin , with full- length figures : the Last Supper, Francis Xavier in India , and the Virgin appearing to St. John. His only painting of this size out of France is the Martyrdom of St. Erasmus, the pendent in St. Peter's at Rome to the Martyrdom of San Processo, by his friend Valentin. But these large pictures are by no means the greatest works of Poussin. Loving to restrict a vast subject to a small space, Poussin seems to wax greater as his difficulties increase , and his best works are certainly simply easel-pictures, now come to the real domain of Poussin, we may classify his works by their subjects, or, as he himself said , by modes. He designated by this name, in the manner of the Greeks, the style , colour, measure - in fact, the general arrangement of a picture according to its subject. The religious compositions are taken from the Old and New Testaments. Among those from the former, we must notice the charming group of Rebecca at the Well, when Eliezer, Abraham's messenger, recognises her Having 374 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS ( A.D. 1650. . among her companions, and offers her the ring ; Moses exposed on the Nile by his mother and sister ; Moses saved from the Water by Thermutis, the daughter of Pharaoh ; the Manna in the Desert, a scene admirable in the grandeur of the whole, and the interest of the details ; and lastly, the Judgment of Solomon . We must also class amongst the Old Testament subjects the four celebrated pendents named Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, but which are far better known by the names of the subjects chosen to represent the seasons allegorically. Spring is typified by Adam and' Eve in Paradise, before their fall ; summer, by Ruth gleaning in the field of Boaz ; autumn, by the Return of the Spies from the Promised Land, bringing back the wonderful bunch of grapes, which two men can scarcely carry ; winter, by the Deluge. There is no need of any word of explanation or praise for this THE SHEPHERDS OF ARCADIA.- BY NICOLAS POUSSIN . In the Louvre. picture ; it was Poussin's last work ; he was seventy -one years of age when he painted it , and he died soon afterwards. Amongst the subjects taken from the Gospels and from the Acts of the Apostles , we must call attention to the Adoration of the Nlagi, the Repose in Egypt, the Blind Men of Jericho, the Woman taken in Adultery, the Death of Sapphira , the St. Paul caught up into the Seventh Heaven . But Poussin did not confine himself to biblical subjects, which he treated with philosophical freedom and in a purely human character ; he also, like all the great masters, treated subjects from profane history, as the Will of Eudamidas, in England , and the Rape of the Sabines, at Paris ; he entered the regions of pure mythology, as may be seen by the Death ofEurydice and the Triumph of Flora ,at Paris. He also treated sometimes of allegory, for instance the Triumph of Truth, which he left, as a proud homage to his own genius, when he quitted France, a victim to envy A.D. 1650. ] NICOLAS POUSSIN . 375 without hope of return . Lastly, he penetrated , as we have already seen , into the licence of bacchanalian scenes. But whatever he undertook, or from whatever source his subjects were taken, Poussin was always an historical painter. He was so even in his landscapes, as if he had no idea that nature could be represented alone and without man . When , by the power of his genius, he has revived one of the primitive landscapes trodden by the gods and heroes, he brings into it the giant Polyphemus, “ Sur son roc assis , Chantant aux vents ses amoureux soucis ; ” and when he is painting a landscape in the vicinity of Athens he introduces the figure of the cynic philosopher Diogenes throwing away his bowl as superfluous on seeing a bov drink out of his hand. When he wishes to show , in the smiling and pastoral Arcadia , the image of earthly happiness, a tomb amongst the flowers reminds us that life must have a termination. Certainly, in this career of historical landscape painting, Poussin was prece:led by Annibale Carracci and Domenichino, but he carried it much further than they did. There is not , perhaps, in any school of painting, a master the mere sight of whose works is more capable of explaining the three words so difficult to define, though so often repeated --- style , composition, and expression. For style we may examine the Ravissement de St. Paul, when , in his ecstasy , " he heard words unlawful for a man to utter.” This magnificent group, crowning a delicious landscape, reminds us, by the grandeur of the figures, of one of the masterpieces of Raphael , the Vision of Ezekiel. The almost inexplicable science of composition may be studied in the Rebecca, and Moses sared from the Waters: it is carried to the greatest height in the Shepherds of Arcadia , a charming pastoral, full of deep poetry and touching morality. To surprise the secrets of movement and expression , we have only to look at the Judgment of Solomon, the Woman takon in Adultery, the Blind Men of Jericho. For the union of these different and superior qualities of painting we must come to the Deluge, where art may be seen to perfection . Poussin died at Rome in 1665, and was buried in the church of San Lorenzo . Gaspar Dughet, called Gaspar Poussin, was born of French parents in Rome in 1613. The great Nicolas Poussin married Gaspar's sister, and Dughet became, under the instruction of his brother-in - law , an excellent landscape painter. His subjects are usually taken from the picturesque country in the neighbourhood of Rome. He died in that city in 1675. There are six of his best works in the National Gallery. Claude Gelée of Lorraine, usually called Claude Lorraine, was born of very poor parents at Château de Chamagne, a village in the Vosges, in 1ooo. When quite a lad he was apprenticed to a baker and pastrycook, and before he was twenty years ofage accompanied some fellow -workmen to Rome and became the servant of Agostino Tassi, a landscape painter of eminence. It is said that young Claude prepared his master's dinner and ground his colours ; at all events, from Tassi he first acquired that love of art which has rendered his name so famous. He received lessons also from Sandrart, who was at Rome at the same time. His earliest pictures and etchings bear dates varying from 1630 to 1670. Claude died at Rome in 1682 , and was buried in the church of La Trinità de' Monti. Although he did not resemble Poussin in learning, as he scarcely knew how to read or to sign his name, Claude at all events resembled him in his pertinacity at work, his 376 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . ( A.D. 1650. power of application , and, in his own fashion, by his depth of thought, as well as by his correctness of observation. He also received a surname, the Raphael of Landscape painting. And this surname is , for once, appropriate. Less fortunate than with the works of Poussin , France has not retained the best of Claude's pictures. There was formerly in the Louvre one of his principal works universally admired and celebrated . It was called the Ford. This beautiful picture has perished under the hands of restorers. Let us see what remains. In the first place, there are two small pictures, in the form of the lunettes of Annibale Carracci, a calm Landscape and a Marine pieie, glittering with the rays of the noonday sun, which Claude alone, like the eagle, dared to face ; then an interesting view of the Campo Vaccino at Rome (that is to say, the ancient forum where the affairs of the world were formerly transacted, now used as CROSSING THE FORD. -BY CLAUDE LORRAINE. a cattle market) ;—then two pendents, also a Marine piece and a Landscape of rather larger dimensions, lighted by the rays of the rising sun ; then two other still larger pendents — Marine pieces -- warm and golden in the setting sun. The figures they contain , by the pencil of some of the usual assistants of Claude --Guillaume Courtois, Jean Miel, Filippo Lauri, or Francesco Allegrini--- are intended to show in one the Landing of Cleopatra at Tarsus, where she had been summoned by Mark Antony ; in the other, Ulysses restoring Chryseis to her Father. These two marine pieces are in the style that Claude was especially fond of, in spite, or perhaps on account of,its extreme difficulty, and which belongs especially to him , as no one since his time has dared to practise it ; the sea in the distance , shut- in in the foreground by two rows of palaces and gardens, which form a port in perspective, and the sun beyond , low on the horizon, illuminating the surface of the waves which are agitated by the breeze. A.D. 1650. ] CLAUDE LORRAINE. 377 These works are worthy of Claude, and suffice to show his claim to be considered the first landscape- painter of the world , or perhaps, more correctly, as the most skilful composer of landscapes, the greatest poet of nature, who adorned it with the language which speaks to the eye. Yet these fine works have not the importance of some of those of which France has been deprived. Besides the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba ( known as the “ Bouillon Claude ” ), the National Gallery possesses the Embarka tion of St. Ursula , and another marine piece, a Seaport at Sunset, with palaces in the foreground, a wonderful masterpiece ; and eight landscapes with figures, representing Hagar in the Desert ; David in the Cave of Adullam ; the Death of Procris; Narcissus falling in love with his own image - an exquisite work, a sort of summary of all the familiar marvels of Claude — and four others. The Museo del Rey, among nine works by his hand , has two of importance. One shows us an Anchoret at Prayer in one of those barren and rocky desert landscapes always given as the retreat of the first Christian hermits, such as St. Paul the Hermit, St. Antony and St. Jerome. In the other picture is seen another victim of voluntary penance, the Magdalen , kneeling before a cross supported by the trunk of a tree. This is also a desert, but one more suited for a woman, more gracious and inviting. Between the rocks, where sheets of water fall in natural cascades, and the clumps of trees, which overshadow the valley to which the repentant sinner has retired , a vast horizon is seen, where in the extreme distance there may be seen the edifices of a great town, the sight of which would doubtless make her sigh with repentance and Passing on to St. Petersburg, we find a magnificent series of four pendents, which the Hermitage obtained from Malmaison, with the Arquebusiers of Teniers and the core of Paul Potter. They are called Morning, Noon, Evening, and Night.. We will not attempt any insufficient description or superfluous praise ; it is enough to say that this precious series of paintings equals the most famous masterpieces at Madrid , Paris, or London. But Claude is not merely to be found in public museums ; many of his pictures are in private cabinets, especially in England, where the great landscape -painter is much admired. We did not see more than six pictures by Claude in Italy — where he passed the whole of his long artistic life, and where he died at the age of 82 —while in London alone, we counted more than fifty. By means of her gold , England has obtained nearly all his works, leaving only a few specimens for the rest of the world . The cabinet of the Marquis of Westminster contains as many as the museums of France or Madrid . Two pendents in this collection are the largest pictures known by Claude. This size adds to their intrinsic value. The subject of one is the Worship of the Golden Calf, that of the other, the Sermon on the Mount. Neither scene is in a desert ; both, on the contrary, have all the luxury and splendour of Italian scenery. In the former, the landscape is flat, of immense depth, broken by clumps of trees and sheets of water. One of the assistants of Claude put in the golden calf, adored , not by Jews, but by a small group of people clothed in Grecian costume. In the second, a rock crowned by several trees rises in front of a large plain which extends as far as the eye can reach. Under these trees stands Christ in the midst of his disciples , and from there addresses to the crowd assembled at the foot of this natural pulpit His wonderful discourse on human brotherhood. The figures in these two pictures are , in this case, very beautiful, and do honour to the assistant painter, whether it were Filippo Lauri, Francesco Allegrini, Guillaume Courtois, or any other. As for the landscapes themselves, no language could describe the brilliancy of the sky, the beauty of the 3 C 378 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1650. earth, the scientific aerial perspective, the happy contrast of light and shadow, the majesty of the whole, in short , everything that can delight the eye. " Claude Lorraine,” wrote Goethe, “ knew the material world thoroughly , even to the slightest detail, and he used it as a means of expressing the world in his own soul.” A series of sketches which he made for his pictures are preserved in a book which he called Libro di Verità , these are now in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire. They were engraved by Earlom in 1777 . Moïse Valentin was born at Colomiers en Brie in 1600. He attended the school of Simon Vouet for some years, and then went to Italy, where he was a friend of Poussin and of Claude. He died of a fever in 1632. A rival of Ribera in the imitation of the turbulent Caravaggio, Valentin deserted entirely the traditions of French art , and only belongs to the French school from the circumstance of his birth . ( See Index.) At the Louvre, in the Tribute Money - which is not treated like that by Titian - in the Judgment of Solomon - very unlike that by Poussin - in the Four Evangelists — far inferior to the St. Mark of Fra Bartolommeo - Valentin displays the same incapability as his model Caravaggio of making his works equal to their titles ; and, like Caravaggio also, when he treats simple and commonplace subjects, as in his two Family Concerts, which appear to be held in very suspicious places, amongst courtesans and bravi, he shows wonderful energy and execution. But to judge Valentin justly, and to appreciate the loss art sus tained in his early death, occasioned by the excesses of a fiery temperament, we must be acquainted with his better and nobler works, which show thought and reflection ; the Mar tyrdom of St. Lawrence in the Museum of Madrid , and the Martyrdom of San Processo, in the Vatican. We then see what progress his talent might have made with the example and advice of Poussin, and what certain excellence he would have attained at a riper age. Sébastien Bourdon, another of the French disciples of Italy, was born at Montpellier in 1616 ( ? ) . He received his first education from his father, who was a painter on glass, and when still a boy was taken by his uncle to Paris, where he studied art for some years. At eighteen years of age he went to Italy, and painted both at Rome and Venice. He afterwards returned to Paris, and painted there his celebrated picture of the Crucifixion of St. Peter. In 1652 he was prevailed upon to visit Sweden, and executed several important works for Queen Christina. He again returned to Paris and died there in 1671 (? ) . Without having taken any direct lessons from Poussin during his residence at Rome, Bourdon succeeded, after several attempts in an easier style, in adopting the style and manner of the master, and becoming, like Gaspar Dughet, the happy imitator of the painter of Andelys. Although with less depth and grandeur than Poussin , he possesses his scientific correctness and sentiment. Eustache Lesueur, the son of a simple artisan , never quitted Paris, where he was born in 1617 , and where he died in 1655. Driven from the court by Lebrun, as Poussin had been by Vouet, he lived in voluntary solitude ; and it was when shut up in the convent of the Carthusians, where he died so young, that he produced his principal works. He was thus able to obtain the independence necessary for an artist, and could give free scope to his genius. Though he lived but few years, he displayed all the brilliant qualities to which Poussin only attained at a riper age - wisdom , grandeur, power of expression, depth of thought, and a touching sensibility and tenderness, which sometimes raises him to the sublime. Lesueur has left all his works at Paris. The Louvre has obtained fifty of these, including all of any importance. There he may be seen from his austere and studious A.D. 1650. ] LESUEUR. 379 youth to his early death ; from the dark and fantastic History of St. Bruno, which he commenced in 1647 , when thirty years old, to the gay and laughing History of Love, which was his last work . Although he modestly gave the title of sketches to the pictures which compose the legend of the founder of the Carthusians, the History of St. Bruno forms, as a whole, the chef -d'ouvre of this master. Without going into a detailed explanation of these twenty- two pictures, all alike in shape and size , we shall merely direct special attention to the first, the Preaching of Raymomd Diocris ; to the third, the Resurrection of the Canon , who half opens the cover of his coffin, during the service for the dead to announce to those present that he is lost ; to the four following, representing the Vocation of St. Bruno, who is calling to his friends to retire from the world , and is directed by a vision of three angels; to the tenth , the Journey to La Chartreuse, where St. Bruno is pointing out the place to be occupied by the Convent in the midst of the wildest desert of the Alps (painted perhaps by Patel) ; and lastly, the twenty -first, the Death of St. Bruno, a masterpiece of pathetic expression . When Lesueur was intrusted with a part of the decorations of the mansion of the president Lambert de Thorigny, the Salon des Muses and the Salon de l'Amour fell to his share. He had to pass from the Christian to the mythological poem, from austere asceticism to worldly grace ; and this complete change of mode, as Poussin would have called it , was not too great for his genius. In the six paintings representing the History of Love ; and in the five pictures in which the nine Muses are grouped, Lesueur merely gave a different direction to his mind, to his scientific combinations, passionate expression , and natural grace. He varied his style without ceasing to be himself. But between the two extreme modes required by the subjects of a series of pictures for a Carthusian convent, and for the sumptuous mansion of a millionaire, Lesueur painted many separate compositions of an intermediate and varied style, although they were all on religious subjects, in which he shows all the fulness and pliancy of his genius. Of these are—the Descent from the Cross, the Mass of St. Martin , the brother martyrs St. Gervasius and St. Protasius refusing to worship false gods. The latter picture, which was painted as a pendent to the two works of Philippe de Champagne on the same legend, is as large as the largest works of Lebrun or Jouvenet. To this number also belong two small pictures, Christ à la colonne and Christ bearing the Cross, which seems to us, as in the works of Poussin, preferable in style and perfection to larger works. The Preaching of St. Paul at Ephesus, painted in 1649 , and offered to Notre Dame of Paris by the guild of goldsmiths, may likewise be placed here. It represents the apostle of the Gentiles causing the books of magic, the books of curious arts, to be burnt at his feet. This has been very rightly placed in the salle des chefs -d'æuvre, for it is the masterpiece of Lesueur. Charles Lebrun, the son of a sculptor, was born at Paris in 1619. As he showed a decided talent for drawing, he was placed under Simon Vouet, with whom he remained for some years. He then went to Italy, and under the tuition of Poussin studied the works of the great masters. Shortly after his return to Paris, Lebrun received the patronage of Louis XIV ., who made him painter to the court, and director of the Gobelins manufactory. The King also decorated him with the order of St. Michael. Lebrun died in Paris in 1690. As Velasquez is to be seen in the Museum of Madrid , so Lebrun is to be found entirely in the Louvre. Twenty-two pictures represent him there, at the head of which stands the History of Alexander. This famous series , which was ordered by Louis 380 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. (A.D. 1675. XIV. in 1660, and which was completed in 1668, is no less important among his works than the Ilistory of St. Bruno among those of Lesueur. To make known and to popularise this great poem in five cantos — the Passage of the Granicus, the Battle of Arbela , the Family of Darius made captive, the Defeat of Porus, and the Triumph ej Alexander at Babylon -- an evident allegorical flattery of the early triumphs of the great Louis. Lebrun had the good fortune to have it engraved by Edelinck and Audran. The other great paintings of Lebrun, the Day of Pentecost (where he has introduced himself in the figure of the disciple standing on the left ) ; the Christ with Angels, painted to immortalise a dream of the queen mother ; and the Repentant Magialen , which everyone calls Mademoiselle de la Vallière ; show us once more the official painter suiting himself to his master's tastes like a skilful courtier. He is more natural and true in the Stoning of St. Stephen, as well as in the small pictures on profane history, Cato and Mutius Scævola, works of his youth, which were attributed to the great Poussin. At last when, delivered from the master's eye, he descended from royal pomp and reduced his subjects to small figures, Lebrun seems to ascend in art in proportion as he becomes humble and modest. If any one look at three small pictures representing the Entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem ; Jesus on his way to Calvary ; and a Crucifixion, especially the second, which reminds us in its subject of the Spasimo, he will find finer and more varied painting, a simpler though not less noble style, and a deeper and more touching expression. Bon Boullongne, the son of an historical painter, Louis Boullongne, was born at Paris in 1649. He was much patronized by Louis XIV. , who sent him to Rome to study the old masters. He painted many of the decorations of Versailles. He died at Paris in 1717. His younger brother, Louis Boullongne the younger, was also a good painter. He died in 1734. Jean Jouvenet, the son of a painter, was born at Rouen in 1644. At seventeen years of age he went to Paris, where he quickly rose to fame. He was a pupil and assistant of Lebrun, and followed his style. In old age he lost the use of his right hand by palsy, and, to the astonishment of his brother artists, painted with his left hand the Magnificat, now in Notre Dame. Nearly all his pictures were of sacred subjects. He died at Paris, in 1717. Jouvenet's art is theatrical , carried almost to the style of scene painting. By what other name could we call the enormous sheets of canvas on which the Miraculous Draught of Fishes, the Christ driving the Money - Changers out of the Temple, and even the famous Raising of Lazarus, are described ? The dramatic arrangement, the exaggerated expression , the angular drawing, the pale and almost monochromatic colouring, all make his works resemble the decorations of a theatre, only intended to be looked at from a distance and to be taken in at a glance, but which will not sustain a closer examination. It is only fair to add, however, that Jouvenet's less ambitious compositions, such as the Descent from the Cross, which he painted for the Convent of the Capucines, and an Ascension for the Church of St. Paul, are simpler and calmer in their style , besides being better in every other respect. Jean Baptiste Santerre was born at Magny, near Pontoise, in 1651. He went early in life to Paris , where he studied under Boullongne. His pictures are carefully composed and harmoniously coloured . He died in Paris in 1717. At the same time that, in order to flatter the pompous taste of Louis XIV. , Jouvenet was exaggerating the exaggeration of Lebrun , there was one artist who religiously observed A.D. 1675.) MIGNARD. 381 the worship of the beautiful. This was Jean Baptiste Santerre. Like Lesueur before him , and Prud'hon after him , he escaped from academic tyranny, as well as from the slavery of the court. He sought for real greatness more than for fame or foriune, and found it , far from theatrical effect, in delicacy and grace. Always set aside, almost unknown, and doing scarcely anything but studies , which he destroyed before his death , Santerre, in a tolerably long life, completed but few works, and the Louvre has only succeeded in obtaining one, the modest Susannah at the Bath, which seems to make the link in the chain uniting Correggio to Prud'hon. A St. Theresa by him is in the chapel at Versailles. Peter Patel, who was born about the middle of the seventeenth century, is a painter of whom next to nothing is known. His Christian name is , by some, said to be Peter, and by others, Paul. Neither the date of his birth nor that of his death is undisputed. He is supposed to have visited Rome, because he painted scenes near that city. Patel's Landscapes are executed in a good imitation of Claude Lorraine, and make one wish that one knew more of the author. Patel had a son, who was also a painter. To bring into one group the best portrait- painters of the age to which Louis XIV. has given his name, we must go back a few years, and commence with Pierre Mignard, although born in 1612 at Troyes in Champagne, was called the " Roman, " because after having studied under Simon Vouet, he passed twenty -two years at Rome. Pierre Mignard was not merely a portrait painter ; he also painted historical pictures and even in the dome of Val-de-Grâce painted frescoes larger in size if not really greater, than that of Correggio in the duomo of Parma. He succeeded the disgraced Lebrun in the office of king's painter ; he was ennobled, made a Chevalier de Saint - Michel , a professor, rector, director, and chancellor of the Academy. He even entered into direct rivalry with Lebrun in a Family of Darius at the feet of Alexander, now in the Hermitage of St. Petersburg ; and in the Louvre we may see the charming Vierge à la Grappe, brought from Italy, in which he imitated the style of Annibale Carracci, whilst exaggerating the studied grace of Albani. But the composi tions of Mignard, with the exception of this Madonna with the Grapes, have not retained their passing celebrity ; he is now only remembered by his portraits, to be found in the galleries of many noble families. In the Louvre, where we are surprised to see no portrait of Louis XIV. , whom Mignard painted very frequently and at nearly every period of his life except old age, there are a great number of historical portraits, the Grand Dauphin, the Duke of Burgundy, the Duke of Anjou, Madame de Maintenon, and Mignard himself . In all these works --historical paintings as well as portraits - he displays the same cold correctness, the same skilfulness in the art of flattery, the same care in minute details, carried to the extreme which has made his name a proverb in France, at first in praise, and now in blame ; but they also show a lightness of touch and vivacity of colouring which , in that period of systematic abandonment of colouring, easily rendered him the first colourist amongst the court painters of France. He died at Paris in 1695. Claude Lefèvre was born at Fontainebleau in 1633. He was a pupil of Lesueur and Lebrun, and painted portraits which remind us of Philippe of Champagne. He visited England in the reign of Charles II . , and it is believed that he died in London in 1675. Nicolas de Largillière, though born at Paris in 1656, received his early education in art at Antwerp, where his father settled as a merchant. He visited England, and 382 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1675. painted portraits of Charles II. , James II. , and many of the nobility. Louis Quatorze also sat to him . He died at Paris in 1746. Hyacinthe Rigaud, the son of an artist , was born at Perpignan, in 1659. Rigaud has deserved his name, the French Vandyck, at all events through his fertility. Amongst his pictures in the Louvre, Louis XIV. figures in the front rank ; and Bossuet, who seems to be holding a court in his bishop's robes as the chief of the church and the king ofeloquence. They are known everywhere, thanks to engraving ; for Rigaud , no less fortunate than Lebrun, who had been engraved by Edelinck and Audran, found the illustrious Pierre Drevet as his interpreter. By the advice of the jealous Lebrun, Rigaud became and remained a portrait painter, studying from nature, and seeking truth not merely in living figures , but also in the inanimate objects of the accessories. He has been reproached, and not without reason , with having given such amplitude to the dresses that the persons always seem taking part in some ceremony. He also, like Vandyck, imparted such an expression of nobility and dignity to all his models that it may be thought he usually gave it gratuitously. Under his pencil even the Cardinal Dubois assumes the moral grandeur of an upright man . Rigaud died in 1743. Antoine Coypel, the son of Noel Coypel, an artist of some celebrity, was born at Paris in 1661. He accompanied his father to Rome, and studied the style of Bernini. On his return to Paris, he became a very popular artist , and was much employed in painting royal palaces. He treated history in a theatrical manner, and clothed the ancient Greeks in silk breeches. Coypel died at Paris in 1722. Antoine Watteau, the son of a poor thatcher of Valenciennes, was born in the year 1684. He was placed with an obscure artist , in his native city, and for a long time painted pictures of St. Nicholas for three francs a week and his soup. In 1702, he went to Paris --where the scene-painter, Claude Gillot, introduced him to the green- room of the opera—and founded a school of painting ; or rather, he was so superior to the other imitators of this genre that he has been called its founder ; yet his name, whatever amount of blame he may have incurred, must occupy an honourable place amongst those of French artists. It was in the hands of his plagiarists — the Van Loos, the Paters, Lancrets, Natoires, and the long train of their followers-that the decay was most manifest ; that art was more and more degraded and dishonoured in ridiculous and licentious paintings of sheepfolds decorated with satin ribbons ; and pictures were merely used as ornaments for boudoirs. Watteau only attempted very small genre subjects ; but he has imparted such eleva tion and grandeur to them that he will always be considered far above a mere decorator of ladies' boudoirs. In the works of this painter of Fêtes Galantes, besides the exquisite colouring taken from Rubens, we shall always have to admire his invention, fun, wit, and even propriety ; for we feel that he was, as his biographer Gersaint says, a “ libertine in mind, though of good morality.” Nicholas Lancret, a painter of Fites Galantes, who was born at Paris in 1690, studied under one Pierre d'Alin, but took Watteau as his model, and became an ignoble disciple of that master, though in his own time his works were very popular. He died in Paris in 1743. In the National Gallery is a series of four paintings --mentioned by D'Argenville among the principal works of Lancret. They are the four ages of man -- Infancy, Youth, Manhood , and Old Age. A.D. 1700.] WATTEAU. 383 Jean Baptiste Joseph Pater, who was born at Valenciennes in 1696, went, when still young, to Paris, and entered the studio of Watteau, whom he copied both in subject and, as far as possible, in style. His works are somewhat scarce. Pater died in 1736. François Boucher, who was born at Paris in 1704, was one of the most popular artists of his time, was appointed painter to the king, and acquired a great reputation , which did not long survive him. He died at Paris in 1768. Boucher was called the 1 UNE FÊTE GALANTE , -BY WATTEAU . " Painter of the Graces,” because, in the midst of landscapes as weak and false as the scenes at the opera, he introduced, as the shepherdesses of his be- ribboned sheep, veritable dolls, without modesty, fat, and only fresh-looking from the vermilion of their toilette, or because they are reposing in the style of goddesses on clouds of cotton. How surprised the Greeks would have been to see these Graces ! François Desportes, who was the first in France to make a special domain for himself by imitating Snyders, and who became the historiographer of the hunts of 384 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1750 Louis XIV. , was born at Champigneul in 1661. It is said that he visited and painted sporting scenes in England. He died in 1743. Jean Baptiste van Loo, the grandson of an artist, was born at Aix in Provence, in 1684. He painted in public buildings at Toulon, Turin, and Rome, and was made a member of the Academy at Paris. In 1737 he paid a visit to England, and was patronized by Sir Robert Walpole. He painted many portraits of the nobility . In 1742, he returned to his native land, and there he died in 1746. Jean Baptiste Oudry, whose genre was the same as that of Desportes, was born at Paris in 1686. He became in his turn the historian of the hunts of Louis XV. His works, which are very numerous in the Louvre - Hunts of stags, wolves, boars, pheasants, and partridges - and also simple portraits of dogs and groups of game, show that he had neither the invention nor the movement of Snyders, nor the exquisite skill and touch of Fyt and Weenix . But the habits of the animals have been well studied, the forms are well given , and they compose very good hunting -pictures, much sought after by the possessors of country houses. Qudry died at Beauvais in 1755. Simeon Chardin, the worthy rival of Willem Kalf, the painter of Dutch kitchens, was born in 1699. Chardin, who was a powerful colourist, rivals the Dutch school in the vigour of his tints, until then unknown in the French school. “ Oh, Chardin ! " cries the enthusiastic Diderot, “ it is not colours alone that you mix on your palette ; it is the very substance of the objects, it is air and light with which you paint." Chardin died in 1779. Carle van Loo, the younger brother of Jean Baptiste, was born at Nice in 1705 . He was the best of the four painters in his family, and showed to what a depth of decay an artist, endowed by nature with great and solid qualities, may be led by the bad taste of his age. Had Carle van Loo been born two centuries earlier, he would probably have been one of the masters of his art. In his early years he was noted for his correct drawing, his severe style, and his antique elegance. “ He had all the signs of genius," affirms Diderot, who yet calls his works “ masterpieces of dyeing ;" and no painter of the time acquired greater renown, fortune, or honours, than he. Van Loo should have restricted himself to the anecdotal style , or to genre painting ; but he attempted history and sacred subjects, and failed utterly. He died at Paris in 1765. Claude Joseph Vernet, the celebrated marine painter, was born at Avignon in 1714. A whole room in the Louvre is devoted to his works ; there are nearly fifty of them ranged on the walls round his bust in marble. These are, in the first place, Vicws of the principal French Seaports, painted in 1754 to 1765, by order of Louis XV.; an ungrateful task, which would have required a mind inexhaustible in its resources. There is a large number of Marine Pieces properly so called, in which he has represented the sea in all its forms, in all its aspects, in the south and the north, by day and by night, in the morning and in the evening, with the sun and the moon , the fog and fire, in rain and in fine weather, in calm and tempest. These marine pieces certainly do not possess the intoxicating poetry of Claude, or the dreamy poetry of Ruysdael , or the powerful reality of Willem van de Velde, or Back huysen. Claude Joseph Vernet died in 1789. He had a son, Carle Vernet, who painted battle -pieces, and who died in 1836 at the age of 78. He was the father of the celebrated Horace Vernet, of whom we shall speak hereafter. A.D. 1750. ] GREUZE. 385 Jean Baptiste Greuze was born at Tournai in 1725 . The contemporary literary school of the day inculcated a return to nature. Greuze listened to this advice, and approached nature, not in the manner of Boucher, by ridiculous pastoral caricatures, but by taking his figures from rural life, and representing simple and touching village scenes. Diderot says, " He was the first who thought of bringing morality into art." . THE SLEEPING GIRL - BY GREUZE, Some of these village scenes contain merely a comic incident, such as the Broken Pitcher ; others rise to pathetic drama, like the Father's Curse. The Village Bride is of intermediate style , more simple and graceful, and may be considered as the masterpiece of his transition style. These choice works are in the Louvre, and France may consider herself fortunate to have secured them beforehand from the amateurs, who now dispute with eagerness for the slightest sketches of a painter, 3 D 386 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . A.D. 1750. whose old age was passed in extreme poverty. He died at Paris in 1805. The gallery of Sir Richard Wallace contains twenty -two paintings by Greuze ; several of which have been engraved. There are three in the National Gallery, two of which were bequeathed by Mr. Wynn Ellis. Joseph Marie Vien was born at Montpellier in 1710. He studied first in Paris, and it was he who in historical painting, gave the signal for reform when, in 1771 to 1781 , he directed the French school at Rome. In studying the works of the earlier ages, he learned to understand the greatness of the art which had almost perished. He endeavoured to return to the style of the great masters. To vien, then, belongs the honour of having clearly seen the evil and its remedy, and of HUU LUNCUT THE SABINE WOMEN. —BY DAVID, having been the first to attempt the part of a reformer, which was accomplished by his pupil Louis David. This honourable attempt may be seen, in his fine composition, St. Germain of Auxerre and St. Vincent of Saragossa receiving martyrs' crowns from an angel ; and for chastened and powerful execution , in the Hermit asleep. It is said of this last picture that one day, in his studio at Rome, the hermit who served him for a model went asleep whilst playing on the violin. The artist took his portrait in this attitude , and with much success. Vien said , “ I have only half opened the door; it is M. David who will throw it wide open .” Vien, the regenerator of painting in France, died at Paris in 1809. Jacques Louis David, the nephew of François Boucher, the “ Painter of the Graces, " was born at Paris in 1748. He accompanied Vien to Rome, and with him studied A.D. 1775. ) LOUIS DAVID . 387 the works of the great masters. Following the rapid incline which urges every reaction to an extreme, Louis David resolved to bring back art not merely to the finest epoch of the French school in the times of Poussin and Lesueur, or the finest period of Italian art in the times of Raphael and Titian , but to antiquity. In order to delineate Roman subjects and Roman manners, he sought his models in the ruins of ancient Rome ; he studied the statues and the bas -reliefs ,—Tacitus and Plutarch. As long as David painted merely in his studio and before his pupils , his works and lessons were, in some degree, a public good ; by the severity of his taste and forms, by the admiration of noble thoughts and fine actions, he brought back art to dignity and true grandeur. But when the Empire had overthrown the Republic, when David , painter to the emperor, had become, less from character than from position, the regulator of taste, the dispenser of favours — in short, the prefect of the department of the Fine Arts — there reappeared the usual tyranny. All works of art, from the historical picture down to ornamental furniture, all works of literature, from the epic poem to the couplet of romance, received the order of the day, a watchword , which was called the style of the Empire. “ Art,” says Plato, “ is a forest bird which hates the cage, and can only live at liberty.” We will rapidly mention the best works of David to be found in the Louvre, placing them in chronological order, so that we may be able to appreciate the modifications made on the talent of the painter. The Oath of the Horatii was painted at Rome in 1784. It is said that Louis XVI. ordered this first republican picture. When it was first produced, it was as if David had passed at a single bound to the very antipodes of the licentious paintings with which, until then , both the court and the town had been satisfied . Its appearance caused, indeed, such sensation, even in the frivolous world of the Parisian salons, that from this time we may date the commencement of the fashion for Roman forms in garments, hangings, and furniture. The second republican picture is of Marcus Brutus, to whom the lictors are bringing the corpses of his two sons, whom he had condemned to death. In this work, dated 1789, David also foretells the future, for this horribly grand action of Brutus seems to announce, alas ! the frightful hecatomb which the France of 1793 would make of her children . It is as well that the artist placed the face of Brutus in the shade near the statue of Romulus with the Wolf , for the struggle in him between the heroism of the citizen and the grief of a father is almost too great to conceive, and the human mind hesitates to decide what should be the predominating feeling of the unhappy father. He next painted the Sabine Women throwing themselves into the midst of the conflict between the Romans and the Sabines : it was after having passed five months in prison after the 9th Thermidor, as the friend of Robespierre and St. Just, that David commenced this picture, wishing to commemorate, it is said , the perilous efforts made by his own wife to save him . Between the Brutus and the Sabine Women, whilst sitting among the Convention, David had sketched out the Oath of the Jeu -de- Paume, a vast composition, as full of fire and energy as that first scene of the great drama of the Revolution , and he had also painted the Death of Marat, struck by Charlotte Corday. This latter work is by some considered his masterpiece in point of execution. We next come to the Leonidas at Thermopyle. Although between this picture and the Sabines the whole interval of the Empire intervenes, we may yet call them twin pictures. What has been said of the one will do for the other, weakened , however, in execution. All the details of Leonidas are borrowed from the narrative of the fight at 388 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . ( A.D. 1800. Thermopylæ , placed by the Abbé Barthélemy in the introduction to his Travels of Anacharsis in Greece .' David has simply placed his narration in painting. The works of David which we have just been considering show all his good qualities and defects in the clearest light. On one hand the fine subjects, noble sentiments, austere forms, correct drawing, and chastened painting ; on the other, in the composi tion may be seen an academic , or, rather, sculptural stiffness, making the living beings look as if cut out in marble , and of a painted picture a sort of bas-relief ; and in the execution a sad and monotonous colouring, increased still more by the bad distribution of light. In addition to the historical pictures, there are a number of portraits. One of the most celebrated of these is that of Pope Pius VII. It is, like all David's portraits, well copied from nature, and full of physical life ; but the breath of poetry and of the ideal has not passed over the brow of the prisoner of Fontainebleau. After the fall of Napoleon, David took refuge in Brussels, where he continued to paint for many years. He died in 1825 , in his seventy -eighth year. His chief pupils form a brilliant assemblage around him in the Louvre. Guillaume Guillon Lethière, one of David's pupils, was born in Guadeloupe in 1760. He is represented in the Louvre by those enormous pictures, nine yards in length, called the Death of Virginia and Death of the Sons of Brutus. These pictures were exhibited in London in 1816 and received with much applause. Lethière died in 1832. Anne Louis Girodet Trioson was born in 1767 . His most important works may be found in the Louvre. The Revolt in Cairo, a theatrical combat ; the Interment of Atala, describing, with greater simplicity, a scene from Chateaubriand ; a Scene from the Deluge, which took the prize in 1810 ; a fine group of nudes, reminding us a little of the convulsive enlacements of the Laocoon, but which , unfortunately, provokes comparison with the calm masterpiece of Poussin ; the Sleep of Endymion, an agreeable mythological scene, offering a new and charming idea. Trioson died in 1824 . François Gérard was born at Rome in 1770. His celebrated group of Cupid and Psyche may dispute the prize of prettiness with the Dido ; but he has painted a larger and far better work in the Entrance of Henri IV. into Paris, and his Blind Belisarius. Gérard, to whom many of the most illustrious characters of Europe sat for their likeness, was rather a portrait than an historical painter, and was still more an intellectual man than an artist of genius. With Gérard , who died in 1837, ends the direct school of David, for we cannot count the sad and frozen imitations of those who are called in politics the queue d'un parti. Antoine Jean Gros, who was born in 1771 , suddenly quitted the usual track, to open a fresh career for himself. Gros marks the second phase, the passage between the imprisoned art of the Empire and the emancipated art of the Restoration. Without returning to sacred history, he abandoned mythology and ancient history, and formed himself on his own country and time, and painted the men and the things before his eyes. To this radical change of subject he had to join a similar change in style and taste, and even to give the contemporary costumes picturesque aspects ; and, what completes his originality is , that he introduced two fresh elements in the execution , too much neglected by the old school - colour and movement. The style of Gros was an undoubted progress. The proof of this is to be found in some fine works taken to the Louvre from the galleries of Versailles , such as the Jaffa plagui A.D. 1800.] PRUD'HON. 389 stricken, the Battle of Aboukir, and especially the Battle- field of Eylau, a great work as well as an instructive lesson , the most heartrending image of the desolation caused by war ever traced by pencil. Gros died in 1835. Pierre Narcisse Guérin, born at Paris in 1774, was the pupil of Jean Regnault, who followed the track thrown open by David . His Marcus Sextus returning from exile and finding his hearth devastated by misery and death, a fine painting, which made the artist known in 1798, has remained his principal work . His later pictures are scenes rather theatrical than truly dramatic, and the last in date, Dido listening to the narrative of Æneas, falls completely into the style of the “ pretty," the worst enemy of the beautiful. Guérin died in 1833. Many of his works have been engraved. DIVINE JUSTICE AND VENGEANCE PURSUING CRIME. - BY PRUD'HON. Pierre Paul Prud'hon, the thirteenth child of a mason of Burgundy, was born in 1758. Brought up by charity, and inventing for himself the processes of painting, waging a continual war with poverty, obliged, in order to gain a livelihood for his family , to devote his days and nights to unworthy labours, such as drawing vignettes for books and designs for sugar-plum boxes, Prud'hon was long neglected. In early life he went to Rome, and formed acquaintance with Canova. In 1799 he returned to France, and he was already forty -nine when, in 1807 , his fellow -countryman Frochot, the prefect of the Seine, ordered a picture of him, his first composition in high’art, the celebrated allegory of Divine Justice and Vengeance pursuing Crime. Notwithstanding the prevailing taste of the time, this painting attracted great notice. The admirers of ancient sculpture placed on canvas condescended to acknowledge that there 390 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 180 ). were great qualities of execution ; a happy arrangement, correct expression, skilful touch, harmonious and powerful effect. The Louvre has acquired this work, and it has also taken a Christ on Calvary from the cathedral of Strasburg. Notwithstanding the usual figures around, the Virgin , Mary Magdalene, and John, a group of wonderful beauty, this dying Christ, whose countenance is to a certain degree lost in the darkness, reminds us of the wonderful Christ on the Cross which Velasquez has painted like a pale spectre in the gloom of night. In both these works there is the same melancholy and solemn majesty. But both these pictures are pathetic, and we have said that the special merit of · Prud'hon was grace. His favourite model was Leonardo da Vinci, from whom he derived his moving and smiling grace, and whom he called " my master and my hero . " THE RAFT OF THE MEDUSA.—BY GÉRICAULT, Prud'hon is , therefore, incomplete in the Louvre ; we must seek in private collec tions for other works—such as Zephyr rocked on the Waters, the Rape of Psyche by the Zephyrs, or the Desolate Family, to show how he treated the antique, and that he could impart as much poetry to contemporary sufferings as to the fictions of mythology. Prud'hon died at Paris in 1823. in 1775 . François Marius Granet, another mason's son, was born at Aix - en - Provence, He is celebrated for his Interiors, two of which may be seen in the Louvre, the Cloister of the Church of Assisi, and the Fathers of Mercy redeeming captives. Granet, differing in this from Peter Neefs and Emmanuel de Witt, animated his portraits of buildings by scenes from human life, and like Pieter de Hooch raised his less familiar subjects to the rank of historical pictures. Granet died in 1849. A.D. 1825. ] INGRES. 391 Theodore Géricault, who was born at Rouen in 1791 , was a pupil first of Carle Vernet, and next of Pierre Guérin . At first he was a simple amateur, cultivating art only as a pastime, and as he died very young, leaving scarcely anything but sketches, it is difficult to understand how it happened that he played so important a part in French art, and exerted such influence on the whole school. But he came forward at the time when literary liberty was reviving with political liberty, and the whole of society was advancing. The example of Géricault coming in at this moment was sufficient to urge French art forward in this general movement of the human mind . His works in the Louvre mark the commencement and close of his short life. The Chasseur de la Garde and the Cuirassier blessé belong to the period when, still follow ing on the traces of Carle Vernet, he was simply a painter of horses. It was towards the close of his life that Géricault painted the only great work of his life, the Raft of the Medusa. After the destruction of a frigate of that name on the coasts of Senegal, the crew endeavoured to save themselves on a raft made from the wreck of the ship , and scarcely fifteen men , kept alive with the flesh of the dead, survived the horrors of revolts, combats, stormy seas, hunger, and thirst. It is the moment preceding their deliverance that the artist, after some hesitation , chose for his subject. This picture was at first received with a storm of reproaches, but when it was exhibited in London it won much praise, and is now one of the celebrities of the Louvre. Géricault died , when but thirty -three years of age, in 1824. Jean Dominique Augustine Ingres was born at Montauban , about 1780, and in his early boyhood showed an equal taste for music and painting. At the age of sixteen, he chose art as his profession , and entered the studio of the stern classic master David, where he remained four years, and gained many proselytes to his own peculiar ideas amongst his fellow pupils. In 1800 he won the second, and in 1801 the first Academic prize, and received a pension of one thousand francs. In 1802, Ingres painted his first important work, Bonaparte passing the Bridge of Kehl, and in 1806 realized a long cherished dream of visiting Rome, where he remained until 1820, studying the works of Raphael, and the other great masters of the golden age of painting with eager and unceasing enthusiasm . In 1820 he removed to Florence, where he resided four years, painting the Entry of Charles V. into Paris, and the Vow of Louis XIII, now in a church at Montauban. In 1824 he returned to Paris, to find the school of David supplanted by that of Delacroix, and to begin that struggle with public opinion, which lasted until his death. His works were ridiculed in the journals ; and the honours, such as the decoration of the Legion of Honour, seem to have but slightly atoned for the pain inflicted by the pens of the reviewers. In 1827 he completed his Apotheosis of Homer, on a ceiling in the Louvre ; in 1829 was elected Professor of Painting in the Ecole des Beaux -Arts ; in 1833 became an officer of the Legion of Honour, and in 1835 Director of the French Academy in Rome ; the last-named appointment enabling him to return to the city of his affections. But his spirit seems to have been broken by the heartlessness of his countrymen ; he painted but few pictures ; declined a commission for which £16,000 was offered him , and devoted the remainder of his life, rather to implanting his principles in the breasts of his pupils than to carrying them out himself. He returned to France in 1840 ; in 1845 was nominated Commander, and in 1855 Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour. Ingres died in January 1687 , leaving behind him , in addition to the masterpieces we have mentioned , several great works, including the Odalesque, which appeared in 392 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. (A.D. 1825. 1819 ; the Martyrdom of St. Symphorien ; Christ delivering the keys to St. Peter ; Roger rescuing Angélique ; Stratonice ; Edipus explaining the riddle of the Sphinx ; and La Source, the picture which attracted such universal admiration in the London Exhi bition of 1862, Emile Jean Horace Vernet, the son of Carle Vernet, was born in the Louvre, where his father had apartments, in 1789. His father early taught him to become his own master, rather than depend upon others for instruction in art. He first exhibited in 1805 , and in the following years appeared such works as his famous Barrière de Clichy, Capture of the Redoubt, the Entrance of the French army into Breslau, the Defence of Paris, and the Massacre of the Mamelukes. In 1826, Vernet was made a member of the Institute, and two years later he was elected Director of the French Academy in Rome, where, like Rubens, he combined politics with painting, and with equal Ilmen STRATONICE, — BY INGRES . success. At Versailles, one whole gallery — the Constantine—was devoted to his works illustrative of the victories achieved by the French armies in Algeria. These pictures display a thorough knowledge of the Algerians, whose customs he was enabled to study personally on more than one occasion . Of this series the most noteworthy for its merit, as well as for its size , is the Capture of the Smala of Abd - el - Kader. In 1642, Vernet, having been previously made knight, was created commander of the Legion of Honour ; he is said to have been the only artist who has enjoyed that title. He continued to work on his favourite subjects - battle scenes — and occasionally on Biblical pictures , up to the time of his death , which occurred in 1863, at Paris. Claude Marie Dubufe was born in Paris in 1793 , and took his first lessons in art in the studio of the great classic master, David . His earliest independent works were historical, and included the well-known Roman family dying of famine, and Achilles A.D. 1825. ] FRENCH SCHOOL. 393 taking Iphigenia under his protection. They were succeeded by Christ stilling the Tempest ; Apollo and Cyparissus; the Birth of the Duke of Bordeaux , Christ walking on the Sea of Galilee ; the Deliverance of St. Peter, which attracted so much attention as to induce the French Government to confide to their gifted author, the decoration of the first saloon of the state council chamber. The pictures painted for this purpose were symbolical rather than historical, and represented Egypt, Greece, Italy and France. In 1827 Dubufe changed his style and class of subjects ; his Remembrances, Regrets, the Nest, the Slave Merchant, taking high rank as genre pictures. His portraits, especially those of the Queen of the Belgians, the Duchess of Istria , and Malle. Vernon as Fenella, are also greatly admired. Dubufe died in April , 1864. Léopold Robert was born in Switzerland , in 1794. At first an engraver, then a pupil of David and Gérard at Paris, whilst Géricault was studying under Pierre Guérin, he went very late to Italy to become an original painter, and almost immediately after gave up art by a voluntary and premature death . In Italy he returned to the tradition of historical landscape --scenes of history mixed with the scenes of nature. His subjects varied, are chosen intelligently, and carefully studied even in their slightest detail, and are full of poetry. We always feel in them his love of the beautiful as well as of the true ; and the country round Rome, as he represents it , becomes as noble as ancient Arcadia . Three of his most important works were presented to the Louvre by King Louis- Philippe--the Italian Improvisatore, the Feast of the Madonna di Pie di-grotta , and the Harvest Feast in the Roman Campagna. This Agro Romano, where the handsome mountaineers have come down for the harvest, with their pifferari, as they had come down for the sowing, flying off again to escape the attacks of malaria this Agro Romano, which has been popularised by the fine engraving of Mercuri, contains a complete summary of the merits of its author. It is a pity that to these three magnificent pictures , full of sunshine and joy, the Louvre has not been able to add one which the painter has, on the contrary , covered with a veil of melancholy, the Departure of Fishing Boats in the Adriatic, in which Léopold Robert seems to foretell a departure without a return , and which he completed at Venice just before he ended his own life in the year 1835 . Ary Scheffer, who was born at Dordrecht of French parents in 1795 , had the misfortune when quite young to lose his father, who had, however, given him an elementary education in art. His widowed mother took him in 1811 to Paris , and apprenticed him to Pierre Guérin, from whom he learned his art , though he acquired but little of that master's style. He died at Argenteuil, near Paris, in 1858. Ary Scheffer might complain with justice of having nothing in the Louvre but works painted during his youth, the Femmes souliotes, and the Larmoycur; however distinguished these works may be, they cannot compare with the works of a riper age. They are far from equalling the Francesca di Rimini in the possession of the Duc d'Aumale — his Gaston de Foix found dead - now in the Gallery at Versailles - or the four subjects taken from Goethe's Faust; and certainly they give no indications of what might be expected in the Christ the Comforter, the St. Monica, and the Temptation of Christ, in all of which , leaving dogma for morality, and reconcciling sacred history with the ideas of his own century, Ary Scheffer endeavoured to found a fresh school of religious plilosophy. Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, one of the best of modern French landscape painters, was born at Paris in 1796. He was apprenticed to a draper, but young Corot was determined to be a painter, and, in spite of all that his parents did to dissuade him , 3 E 394 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1825. entered in 1822, the studio of Michallon . When that artist died, Corot studied for a time under Victor Bertin, but quitting that master, he went to Italy , where, during a stay of several years, he applied himself diligently to study landscape painting from nature. In 1827 appeared Corot's first works, a View of Narni, and the Campagna of Rome; in the Paris Exhibition of 1855 , he exhibited Morning Effect and Evening, and in the same year received a first -class medal; in the London Exhibition of 1862 , he was one of the artists who represented the French school, and again in 1871 , in which year he exhibited no less than twenty -one pictures. He was also a frequent exhibitor in the French Gallery, Pall Mall. He died in 1875. “ Corot was a poet, and his canvases are the expression of ideas, refined almost to sentimentality, full of fancy and imagination, yet, still somewhat late in life , wanting in that delicacy of execution which seems almost essential to the appropriateness of his subjects , moonlight scenes, peaceful sunsets, and cool, grey mornings. ” ( * Art Journal. ' ) Paul Delaroche, the celebrated painter of historic scenes, was born in Paris in 1797. ( His real Christian name was Hippolytus, but he was always called Paul.) He studied art under Gros, and made rapid progress. He exhibited his first picture in 1819–but it was not till 1824 that he produced three paintings which earned him his celebrity these were Vincent de Paul preaching : Joan of Arc examined in Prison ; and a St. Sibastian. In succeeding years he painted his well-known Death of Queen Elizabeth ; the Children of Edward IV.; the Death of the Duke of Guise, and many other equally celebrated works. His chief work, however, was the decoration of the Amphitheatre of the Ecole des Beaux -Arts — to which he devoted four years. In this stupendous undertaking, Delaroche introduced seventy -five full-length portraits of the most eminent painters. This Hemicycle - as it is called - has been engraved in a grand manner by Henriquel-Dupont. After an active life, in which he produced many of the most celebrated paintings of his time, Delaroche died on the 4th of November, 1856. Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was born at Charenton Saint-Maurice, near Paris, in 1799. When eighteen years of age he was apprenticed to Guérin ; but , being dissatisfied with that master's art, he struck out a new path for himself and became the leader of the so -called “ Romantic School.” In 1830 Delacroix visited Spain, Algiers and Morocco, and on his return was much patronized by M. Thiers, who procured for him the commission to paint numerous works in the Palais Bourbon ; the Hôtel de Ville ; the Luxembourg ; the Louvre ; and other public buildings, as well as churches in Paris. He died in 1863 . Eugène Delacroix is well represented by the four works in the Louvre, which beur his name: Dante and l'irgil painted in 1822 , the Massacre of Sito in 1823, the Algerian Women in 1834, and the Jewish marriage in Morocco, in which we are able to follow the several phases of his talent. These works were succeeded by the Bridge of Taillebourg, a Medea, the Shipwrecked Mariner's, the Entrance of Baldwin into Corr stantinople, and many others. Joseph Louis Hippolyte Bellangé was born in Paris in 1800, and took his earliest lessons in art from Gros, acquiring some reputation for his lithographic drawings of military figures when scarcely more than a boy. In 1824 Bellangé won a second -class medal for an historical picture ; in 1834, he was made a member of the Legion of Honour ; in 1855 , he obtained one of the prizes of the French International Exhibition ; and in 1861 was created an officer of the Legion of Honour. He is chiefly known in England by two pictures sent to the International Exhibition of 1862 : the Two Friends, belonging to the Duke of Hamilton , a small but highly A.D. 1825. ] FRENCH SCHOOL 395 . . finished work, and A Square of Republican Infantry repulsing Austrian Dragoons, 1795 . His most important pictures, however, are to be seen in the Collections at Versailles and the Luxembourg, and include his Battle of the Alma, Painful Alicux, the Departure from the Cantonment, the Cuirassiers at Waterloo, the Battle of Flurus, the Return from Elba, the Morning after the Battle of Gemappes, the Difile after the Victory. This popular painter of battle - scenes died in May, 1865 . Alexandre Gabriel Decamps, who was born at Paris in 1803, is chiefly celebrated for the pictures of Eastern subjects which he introduced to the Parisian public, The gallery of Sir Richard Wallace contains more than thirty paintings by this artist many of which are Scriptural subjects. His Turkish School, the History of Samson, and the Defeat of the Cimbri, are among his most celebrated works. Decamps died at Fontainebleau in 1860. Jean Hippolyte Flandrin was born at Lyons in 1809, and accompanied by his brother Jean Paul, went to Paris to enter the school of Les Beaux-Arts in 1829, carry ing off during his studentship there the first grand prize for his picture of Theseus recognising his Father at a Banquet , besides several minor honours. In 1832 he went to Rome and became a student in the French school of art in that city, then presided over by Horace Vernet. In 1835 Vernet was replaced by Ingres , who conceived a warm affection for young Flandrin , and did much to forward his career. The chief works produced by the young artist at this time were a scene from the Interno ; Euripides writing his Tragedies in a Cavern near Sılamis ; and St. Clair first Bishop of Nantes healing the Blind, which last (now in the cathedral of Nantes) took the Roman gold medal of the first class. About 1839 Flandrin retured to Paris and the next few years of his life were devoted to the decoration of the chapel of St. John in the church of St. Séverin . That task satisfactorily accomplished, and rewarded with the order of the Legion of Honour, Flandrin painted , first, a picture of St. Louis dictating the Laws of the Constitution, for the present senate-house, and then a series of twenty subjects from the Old and New Testament in the church of St. Germain des Prés. He also contributed a frieze, containing over two hundred figures, to the decorations of the church of St. Paul at Nantes. In 1853 Flandrin became an officer of the Legion of Honour, and a member of the French Academy. In 1857 lie was elected professor of painting at that institution, and held the appointment until bis. death , which took place in March 1864. Constantine Troyon was born at Sèvres in 1810, and began life as a painter on porcelain in his native town. He soon however sought a wider field for his energies, took lessons of Riocreux, and in 1833 began exhibiting at the Salon des Beaux- Arts, Paris. His Fite at Sivres, and A Corner of the Park at St. Cloud, revealed his peculiar excellencies as a landscape painter, and betrayed his loving study of our own Old Crome and Constable, but they were surpassed in 1841 , by his View in Brittany, and somewhat later by his Going to Market (exhibited at the French Gallery, London, in 1869) , a small work of the very highest quality, representing an old woman on a donkey going to market with vegetables and other farm produce, now in the collection of Mr. H. Jenkins. As typical works, illustrating Troyon's careful study of nature, subdued colouring and truthful drawing, we may also name a Selgy River with cattle grazing, exhibited in London in 1869 ; Evening in the Meadows, remarkable for its delicate aerial perspective and fine chiaroscuro ; and a Ferry Boat; this painting was being exhibited in Brussels at the time of its artist's death, when it wis draped in black, 396 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1850. and the pictures surrounding it were removed. The latter years of Troyon's life were clouded, first by impaired sight, the result of too close an application to work , and secondly by loss of reason ; but shortly before his death, he recovered his intellect and was restored to his friends. He died in March, 1865 . Jean François Millet was born at Greville, near Cherbourg, in 1815. As his parents were but peasants, and unable to afford to give their son an art education

• which his early -displayed talent showed would not be thrown away upon him --the uthorities of Greville furnished him with the means of going to Paris, and entering

the studio of Paul Delaroche. But young Millet showed neither taste nor aptitude for historic painting, and accordingly, after a short sojourn with Delaroche, he left that master and sought instruction from nature alone. He married, and settled at Barbizon near the Forest of Fontainebleau, and there from the fields and woods, and from the peasants he took the subjects of his works. His first exhibited picture, the Milkwoman, appeared at the Paris Salon in 1844 ; to the Paris Exhibition of 1855 he sent his Peasant grafting a Tree ; in the London Exhibition of 1862 appeared a Rustic Scene ; and in the Paris Exhibition of 1867 , no less than nine pictures of rustic life. The Flax crushers, one of his best pictures, was exhibited in the French Gallery, Pall Mall, in 1874. Millet died at Barbizon on the 20th of January, 1875. Jean Louis Hamon was born at Plouha, Côtes-du- Nord, in 1821 , and was educated for the priesthood. His love of art, however, led him to renounce the sacred profes sion ; and having obtained a grant of five hundred francs from his native place, he made his way to Paris, and began the study of painting under Paul Delaroche and M. Gleyre. In 1848 appeared his first pictures, one a genre subject called Lc Dessus de Parle, and the other a sacred work, Christ's Tomb, succeeded a little later by a Roman placard, the Scraglio, and other similar productions which scarcely met with the recognition they deserved. Compelled to earn his daily bread , Hamon now for a time gave up easel painting, and accepted employment in the Sèvres manufactory, where he succeeded so well , that in 1852 he was able to resume oil-painting producing, in the same year his Comédie Humaine which made his reputation. The most noteworthy of his later works are Ma seur n'y est pas ; Ce n'est pas moi; Les Orphelins ; L'amour de son Troupeau. In 1856 Hamon went to the East, and most of the pictures subsequently painted are on Oriental subjects. He resided some years at Capri, but returned to France shortly before his death , which took place at St. Raphael, in the department of the Var, in 1874. Alexandre Georges Henri Regnault was born at Paris in 1847 , and was the pupil of MM , Lamothe and Cabanel. In 1866 Regnault won the prize of Rome, and in 1869 a gold medal. In the succeeding years he attracted much notice by his Still Lifi, his portrait of General Prim , and An Exccution at the Alhambra, all exhibited at the Gallery of the Society of French Artists in New Bond Street, and Salomé la danseuse, exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1870, in which the first art critics of the day recognised an originaliiy of design, and force of execution , likely to entitle their possessor to the highest rank amongst contemporary painters ; but the terrible war of 1870-1 , which frustrated so many hopes, and cut short so many careers, broke out just as Regnault was attaining to celebrity. The news of the declaration of hostilities reached him when he was studying at Tangier, and leaving his unfinished work upon his easel , he returned to France, took service as a national guard, and was killed in the sortie from Paris. He was only twenty -four years old . A.D. 1500. ] ENGLISH SCHOOL. 397

BOOK VII.

THE ENGLISH SCHOOL.

INTRODUCTION. * N England, as in the other countries of Europe, the middle ages naturally pro duced artists of every kind, from architects to goldsmiths --- and painters ; painters of the walls of churches, or of altar- panels, painters for glass and tapestry, painters of portraits and cabinets for public buildings and castles, painters who illustrated missals and manuscripts. Few remains of these curiosities have been preserved ; wars and conflagrations, the Reformation and Puritanism having in their turn destroyed the relics of former times. There scarcely exist more than a few traces of wall- painting in the churches and other public buildings ; and a few books ornamented with miniatures. Up to the end of the fifteenth century, the history of art in England is shrouded in obscurity. It is only from about the time of Henry VIII. , that an historic sketch of painting in England can be commenced. But even then it is not of a native school — the English School did not have its origin until the eighteenth century with Hogarth and Reynolds—but of a succession of foreign painters, who worked during more than two centuries for the court and the aristocracy. The most ancient painting of which the author is known, and the date ascertained, is the portrait of Henry VIII. as a child , with his young brother and sister, Arthur and Margaret, by Jan Gossaert, called Mabuse. There are several replicas of it ; that at Hampton Court bears the date 1495 . A magnificent picture, the Adoration of the Kings by the same artist, and of about the same date, is at Castle Howard. Early in the sixteenth century Hans Holbein , of Augsburg, came over to England on a visit to Sir Thomas More. The chancellor introduced him to the king — who made him painter to the court, and gave him a handsome salary. Holbein , who stayed twenty -eight years in England — with the exception of a few short journeys on the Continent-has left a large number of portraits in the palaces of English royalty and in the mansions of the aristocracy. The Manchester exhibition included about twenty of these masterpieces, and quite as many were shown in the National Portrait Exhibition of 1866. During the reign of Henry VIII. , there also came to England a Fleming, Gerard Luca Horrebout, who was born at Ghent in 1498, and died at London in 1558, and a native

• From Histoire des Peintres de toutes les Ecoles. By W. Burger.

398 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . A.D. 1575. of Holland , Luca Cornelis Engelbrechtsen, son of Cornelis Engelbrechtsen , who was the master, or at least one of the early instructors of Lucas van Leyden. About the time of Holbein's death , another great artist came to London , who had been painter to Charles V. , and who came to place himself in the service of the Princess Mary, the wife of Philip the Second : Sir Anthony More, called in his own country Antonio Moro, was, like his master Jan van Schoorel, a citizen of the world ; born at Utrecht, in Holland, he worked in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and England, and subse quently died at Antwerp. He had a rival at the court of Queen Mary, a Fleming, Joas van Cleve of Antwerp ( Van Cleve li fou) , a portrait painter of considerable talent. Another Fleming, Luca de Heere, born at Ghent in 1534, also painted for Queen Mary, and continued to be employed during the next reign. Queen Elizabeth was not in want of painters — foreigners for the most part ; a native of Holland, Cornelis Ketel, who was born at Gouda in 1548, arrived in 1573 , and lived in London for eight years ; an Italian , Federigo Zuccaro, who was born in 1543, arrived in 1574 ; and a Fleming, Mark Gerard , who was born at Bruges in 1561 , stayed many years in England, where he died in 1635 . Nevertheless the influence of Holbein produced a few posthumous followers, especially in miniature painting. Nicholas Hilliard , born at London in 1547 , has left some good miniatures, as well as life - sized portraits, without taking into account that he was a goldsmith and jeweller ; he was still working in the reign of James I. , and died in 1619. Isaac Oliver, born at London in 1555 , the pupil of Hilliard and Zuccaro, painted miniatures equally well ; his son Peter Oliver, and himself often signed “ Olivier. ” Perhaps Hilliard and these Olivers were of French descent. Isaac died in 1617 , and Peter about 1654. Of this period is the celebrated Portrait of Shakespeare, formerly in the collections of the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Ellesmere, who presented it to the nation. It was painted from life by the actor Richard Burbadge, the friend of the poet and the interpreter of his works at the theatre, notably in the character of Richard III . To these should be added, during the reign of Elizabeth, some Dutch marine painters, such as Cornelis Vroom, the elder , born in 1566 at Haarlem , where he died in 1640. Walpole also mentions a Pieter van de Velde, who was perhaps the ancestor of the Willems, who were patronized later by Charles I. and Charles II . In the reign of James I. , there was a new generation of foreign painters : Paul van Somer, born at Antwerp in 1576, was in London after 1606, he died in 1621 ; Cornelis Jansen van Ceulen (of Cologne) arrived there in 1618 ; Daniel Mytens a little after, without doubt, for the first date which we find on the portraits painted by him in England is 1623. Both Mytens and Van Ceulen became court painters to Charles I. , of whom they have left excellent portraits, as well as of the royal family and the English aristocracy. Daniel Mytens was born at the Hague in 1590. Van Ceulen was born at Amsterdam in the same year. Both these painters became intimate with Vandyck, who himself painted a portrait of Mytens ; who left England in 1633 , a year after the arrival of the illustrious Fleming, and returned to his birth -place, where he was still working in 1656. Van Ceulen remained in London till 1648, and returned to die at Amsterdam . The reign of Charles I. is a bright period in the history of art in England — thanks to foreigners. In 1629, Rubens came and sojourned a year ; and in 1632 Vandyck took up his abode in London. The designs painted by Rubens for the ceiling at Whitehall, illustrating the History of Achilles, intended for reproduction in tapestry A.D. 1620. ENGLISH SCHOOL. 399 at the manufactory at Mortlake, are preserved in English galleries, as well as the portraits, many times repeated , of the Earl of Arundel and of the Duke of Buikingham . It does not appear that Rubens produced any other great works in England than the St. George now at Buckingham Palace, the Assumption of the Virgin, painted for the Earl of Arundel, and perhaps the allegory, Peace and War, now in the National Gallery. This painter has always been a favourite in England ; there were more than forty of his works at the Exhibitions at Manchester and at South Kensington. The English have good grounds for considering Vandyck as a painter of their school. In his last style, from 1632 to his death , Vandyck, the native of Antwerp, is as truly English as Claude Lorraine is Italian. Naturally endowed with elegance, of that type at once haughty and frank which characterises the English aristocracy, Vandyck excelled as a portrayer of this exceptional society. His genius well suited the times of Charles I. All the foreigners before him had passed away without leaving a mark in the art of the country. The great Holbein himself was not able to found a school. Vandyck succeeded almost during his lifetime, and it can be said , at all events, that he had a posthumous school. The true English school, born more than a century after him , has continued his work. In truth , Vandyck is the progenitor of Reynolds and of Gainsborough, of Lawrence and of all the English portrait painters up to the present day. Around Vandyck were grouped a band of Flemings and natives of Holland, his assistants , his pupils, or his imitators, but we have not room to mention them . A very good painter was George Jameson, born at Aberdeen in 1586 ; we have seen portraits of his in the style of both Vandyck and of Rubens; for Jameson had worked in the studio of Rubens at Antwerp , and he there met the young Vandyck. It must have been about 1615 that he was on the Continent. In 1620 he returned to his native town , and painted history , landscape, and allegorical subjects from mythology and the Bible. One of his first paintings, which is dated 1623, is a Portrait group, where he has represented himself, holding his palette and his brushes, and looking over the shoulder of his wife, from whose hands their young child is taking roses. His growing reputation soon caused him to take up his abode at Edinburgh, where some of his paintings were noticed by Charles I. , when this monarch visited Scotland in 1633. Jameson had the good fortune to be invited to paint the portrait of the king. Many of his works may still be seen at Aberdeen and in various residences of the nobility. Jameson died at Edinburgh in 1644. He left several pupils, and amongst others Michael Wright, who attained some celebrity as a portrait painter. He died in 1700. A clever miniature painter, John Hoskins, has left excellent portraits of Charles I. and his Queen and many of the nobility. He died in 1664. His nephew and pupil, Samuel Cooper, who was born in London in 1609, was likewise a good miniaturist. He painted excellent portraits of Oliver Cromwell and Charles II . and his Court; he was on intimate terms with Pepys, by whom he is mentioned with praise. He died in 1672. A good painter, James Gandy, who was born in 1619, and died in 1689, lived nearly always in Ireland, in the service of the Duke of Ormond. His son William Gandy, who settled at Exeter, is also considered as an artist of repute. one of the three sons of Nicholas Stone—the celebrated sculptor, who had married in Holland the daughter of Pieter de Keyser, architect and sculptor of the city of Amsterdam , Henry Stone, called “ Old Stone ” to distinguish him from his brothers, also painted in the style of Vandyck. In the collection of the Duke of At London, 400 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1650. Sutherland at Stafford House, there is a portrait by him of Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans, copied from Vandyck. Old Stone died at London in 1653. But the greatest English artist whom Vandyck formed was William Dobson, a true artist, whose portraits are worth little less than those of his master. Born at London in Holborn, in 1610, he had first studied under Francis Cleyn the elder, especially known by his designs for tapestry for the celebrated manufactory at Mortlake ; then under Robert Peake, a painter and picture dealer. It is related that Vandyck , having seen in a shop window a picture by Dobson, took him into his studio and introduced him to Charles I. After the death of Vandyck, Dobson held the posts of serjeant painter, and of groom of the privy chamber, and in this office he accompanied the court to Oxford , where he painted the Portrait of the K’ing, and those of Prince Ruport, and several other persons of high rank. Notwithstanding this exalted patronage, Dobson, who lived in great style, was imprisoned for debt, and scarcely out of prison , died in London, on the 28th of October, 1646. Dobson's works are found in the best galleries, in the collections of the Duke of Marlborough, the Duke of Manchester, Lord Lyttelton, Earl Craven, and at the Bridge water Gallery. He is mentioned by Walpole, with the praise which he merits. We may also consider Robert Walker as a good portrait painter. The dates of his birth and death are not known, nor whether he studied immediately under Van dyck, whose style he imitated. He painted several portraits of Cromwell, those of Sir Thomas Fairfax, Ireton, Fleetwood, and the greater part of the men connected with the Commonwealth . His own portrait, where he has represented himself holding a drawing, was engraved by Peter Lombart. To name all the foreign painters who worked in England during the first half of the seventeenth century is nearly impossible. The most celebrated wereGerard Honthorst, the two Netschers, Dirk Stoop, the two Van de Veldes, and Van Huysum . Many of the works of these Dutchmen are preserved in the mansions of the English aristocracy. Vandyck had scarcely died, when Peter Lely appeared. He had the same success as Vandyck ; he painted Charles I. and his court ; then Cromwelland his soldiers ; then Charles II . and all the beauties of his court. This lasted for nearly forty years, until his death in 1680. Lely was only twenty -five years old when he came to London , and he found himself the best painter in England , or at all events the most popular, when Charles Stuart in 1660 restored the monarchy. His genius suited admirably the witty and elegant ladies, and the thoughtless cavaliers, who drowned in luxury and pleasure the still recent recollection of Cromwell and the Commonwealth. Lely painted them by hundreds. Many of his portraits were at the Exhibitions at Manchester and South Kensington. At Hampton Court there is a gallery full of them . As soon as Lely was dead, another famous painter succeeded him at the Court, and soon monopolised the public taste. Godfrey Kneller, who was born at Lübeck in 1646, arrived at London in 1674 , painted during the reigns of Charles II. , James II . , William III . , Queen Anne, and after the accession of the house of Hanover he was still living. He did not die till 1723 , during the reign of George I .. Kneller has portrayed the greater part of the sovereigns and princes of his tine, including Louis XIV. and the Czar Peter of Russia. He painted the great Duke of Marlborough and the “ Patriot” William Russell ; Newton and Locke ; Sir Christopher Wren ; Pope, Addison , Steele, Congreve, and the other poets, and literary members of the celebrated Kit Cat Club . About thirty of bis portraits were included in the Exhibitions at Manchester, and at South Kensington. A.D. 1675. ) ENGLISH SCHOOL. 401 By the side of the German Kneller, who was esteemed unrivalled in portraiture, was another foreigner, Antonio Verrio, born in the Neapolitan States about 1639, who charmed England by his architectural paintings. From 1676, he was in the pay of Charles II . , and in a few years cost him nearly 10,000 guineas for the decoration of Windsor Castle. In 1683 , he was joined by a Frenchman, Louis Laguerre, who was born at Paris in 1663 . His father was a Catalan, and held the post of keeper of the mengerie at Versailles. Laguerre took his christian name from Louis XIV. , who was his godfather.' At first brought up amongst the Jesuits , then studying at the Academy of Painting and in the studio of Charles Le Brun, he obtained all that would enable him to succeed . Verrio dying at Hampton Court in 1707 , Laguerre continued the work until he himself died in 1721 . The number of decorative works these two men painted in England is truly wonderful, not only in public buildings, at Windsor Castle , at Hampton Court, at the Hospitals of Christ Church and St. Bartholomew , but also in the town and country residences of the nobility. Towards the close of his career, Laguerre had as an assistant an Englishman , James Thornhill, born in 1676 at Melcombe Regis. Thornhill in his youth had visited France, and he appears to have formed his style especially on that of Le Brun. His principal works are in the cupola of St. Paul's, London, the great hall of Greenwich Hospital, an apartment at Hampton Court, a saloon of Blenheim Palace, ceilings and altar pieces in the churches at Oxford, a chapel at Weymouth, and that of Lord Oxford in Cambridgeshire. George I. knighted him , and his birthplace sent him to parliament. Nevertheless, Sir James Thornhill, the first English painter who received the honour of knighthood, would now perhaps have been forgotten, if he had not been-in spite of himself--the father -in -law of Hogarth . Thornhill Besides his daughter, Mrs. Hogarth , he left a son named James, for whom he had obtained the office of chief marine painter. He had several pupils who assisted him in the pictures of the cupola at St. Paul's, and who also carried out the decorations in various other public buildings. Wehave touched on the birth of the English school, and we have only to mention) the painters who had a certain reputation when Hogarth first laid the foundations of a truly national art. At this time throughout Europe, art was in a state of entire decadence. The brilliant schools which had flourished in the seventeenth century in Flanders, Holland, and Spain , had no successors in their own countries.. Italian art had sunk into the grave with the last of the Bolognese school. Only France at that time possessed a few original artists, who nevertheless held but an inferior position. The painters, who appeared at the end of the seventeenth century, and at the beginning of the eighteenth , and who were destined to be eclipsed before the true English school, are, amongst others : Jonathan Richardson, born in 1665 , died in 1745 , pupil and nephew of John Riley, and author, in conjunction with his son , of several works on art ; Charles Jervas, 1675-1739, an Irishman whose style was formed under Kneller, and whom his friend Pope did not hesitate to compare with Zeuxis ; George Knapton, 1698-1778, the pupil of Richardson ; Thomas Hudson, 1701-1779, also the pupil of Richardson , whose daughter he married : he was the master of Reynolds ; Francis Hayman, 1708-1766, the master of Gainsborough , and some others. The exhibition at Manchester included portraits by the greater part of these painters, together with specimens of the birds of Luke Craddock, who died in 1717 ; of the horses of John Wootton , who died in 1765 ; of the sea-pieces of Samuel Scott, who died in 1772, and whom Walpole compares with the Van de Veldes. died in 1734. 3 1 402 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1730 With Hogarth, the satiric and homely painter ; with Wilson , the landscape painter who moreover still affected the foreign style ; with Reynolds, the great and thoroughly English portrait painter ; and Gainsborough, who was both a portrait and landscape painter, commences the succession of those masters who laid the foundation of the English school of painting. We have sketched the condition of Art in England before their time, but it is also necessary to give a history of this new school, which henceforth takes its place by the side of the other schools of Europe. THE ENGLISH PAINTERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. William Hogarth, the founder of the English school of painting, was born in the parish of St. Bartholomew the Great, London , on the roth of December, 1697. In early life he was, by his own wish, apprenticed as a silver - plate engraver to Ellis Gamble, at that time an eminent silversmith in Cranbourne Street. He had naturally a good eye and a fondness for drawing, and soon found engraving shields and crests to be too limited an employment. His dislike of academic instruction , and his natural and proper notion of seeing art through stirring life are very visible in all he says or writes. Copying other men's works he considered to resemble pouring wine out of one vessel into another ; there was no increase of quality, and the flavour of the vintage was liable to evaporate. His first attempt at satire, of any merit, was the Taste of the Town, engraved in 1724, which sharply lashed the reigning follies of the day. At that time it appears that he did not depend wholly upon original composition for his living, but continued to engrave arms and crests . But he soon felt that his powers lay in another direction : publishers employed him to illustrate their books with cuts and frontispieces. Amongst the earliest works infused with his satiric spirit was the Hudibras, published in the year 1726, the illustrations of which were the first that marked him as a man above the common rank. On the 23rd of March, 1729, Hogarth married Jane, the only daughter of Sir James Thornhill, the sergeant- painter and history -painter to the king. The marriage took place without the consent of her father, who being a member of parliament and a person of public importance was deeply offended, for he considered that his daughter ought to have become the wife of a man of a higher station in life. Eventually Thornbill and Hogarth became reconciled, and the latter, who was even at that time recognized as a painter only by a few , resolved to lay aside bis satiric designs and commenced portrait painting ; “ the most ill - suited employment,” says Walpole, " to a man whose turn was certainly not flattery, nor his talent adapted to look on vanity without a sneer. Yet his facility in catching a likeness, and the method he chose of painting familiar and conversation pieces in small, then a novelty, drew him a prodigious business for some time. It did not last, either from his applying to the real bent of his disposition, or from his customers apprehending that a satirist was too formidable a confessor for the devotees of self-love." Amongst his best portraits are Captain Coram, the projector of the Foundling Hospital, David Garrick as Richard III. starting from a couch in terror, and the demagogue John Wilkes. Hogarth painted several portraits of Himself, all of which are very like ; in one he is seated in his study sketching a figure on a canvas ; in another he is accompanied by his favourite bull-dog, Trump ; this is in the National Gallery. A.D. 1730. ] HOGARTH 403 He next turned his thoughts to painting and engraving subjects of a modern kind and moral nature ; a field , he says, not broken up in any country or any age. The first of these compositions of which he speaks, and which have rendered his name immortal, was the Harlot's Progress. It appeared in a series of six plates in 1734, and was received with general approbation. The next to follow was the Rake's Progress, oo sana GH natinge Sofea NR hanke Curves HOGARTH .MODE.- BYMARRIAGE ALA Vational Irthe Gallery . in a series of eight scenes, each complete in itself, and all uniting in relating a domestic history in a way at once natural, comic, satiric, and serious. The folly of man, however, was not so warmly welcomed by the public as that of the woman had been. The gloss of novelty was dimmed, and criticism was no longer to be surprised into approbation ; it had leisure to seek for faults, nor was it slow in finding them . 404 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1750. The boldness, originality, and happy handling of these productions made them general favourites, and by the aid of the graver they were circulated over England with the celerity of a telegraphic despatch. For the Harlot's Progress no less than 1200 subscribers' names were entered on the artist's books. Theophilus Cibber converted it into a pantomime ; it also appeared on the stage in the shape of a ballad opera, under the name of “ The Jew Decoyed ; or a Harlot's Progress.” Of the Rake's Progress the success is less distinctly stated, but it must have been great ; for it was satisfactory to the artist himself - who was now confirmed in his own notions of what was fittest for art. In these fourteen plates are contained the stories of two erring creatures who run their own separate careers ; and never did dramatist or painter read two such sharp , satiric, and biting lessons to mankind. The fame of Hogarth was now so well established , that the daily and weekly collectors of news began to find it worth while to describe on what works he was engaged, and the characters which were satirized in his compositions. The popularity of his works excited printsellers to pirate his works, so much so that Hogarth applied to Parliament, and in 1735 obtained an Act for recognizing a legal copyright in engravings In . 1736 several more satires on the follies of London appeared. The Sleeping Congregation , in which a heavy parson is promoting, with all the alacrity of dulness, the slumber of his flock, was followed by the Distressed Porct, and Modern Midnight Conter sation ; this last named , in which most of the figures are portraits, carried the name of Hogarth into foreign lands, and is considered in France and Germany to be the best of his single works. The next print published was the Enraged Musician. It seems impossible to increase the annoyance of this sensitive mortal--who by the frogs on his coat appears to be a Frenchman - by the addition of any other din. “ This strange scene,” said a wit of the day, “ deafens one to look at. ” The next production, the Strolling Actresses, was, says Allan Cunningham , “ one of the most imaginative and amusing of all the works of Hogarth . ” This wondrous picture was sold for the ridiculously small sum of twenty - six guineas, to Mr. Wood, of Littleton House, near Staines, where it was unfortunately destroyed by fire in December, 1874. It is only possible to mention the next composition pieces, the six scenes of Marriage-a -la - Mode-- representing profligacy in high life — which are in the National Gallery ; and the four different stages of the Election of a Member of Parliament; as the dramatic story in the one, and the varied scenes of an electioneering contest in the other, would each require a volume to describe. In 1750 appeared the celebrated March of the Guards to Finchley, which is steeped in humour, and strewn over with absurdities. The original painting, on publication of the print, was disposed of by a lottery. Seven shillings and sixpence was fixed as the price of the print, and every purchaser of a print was entitled to a chance in the lottery for the picture. Hogarth presented some tickets to the Foundling Hospital, and the winning card was drawn by that fortunate institution . The last work of Hogarth, worthy of his genius, and known by the title of Creditlity, Superstition , and Fanaticism , was issued early in 1764. Shortly afterwards, his health began to decline. He was aware of this, and purchased a small house at Chiswick, to which he retired during the summer, amusing himself by making slight sketches, and retouching his plates. He left Chiswick on the 25th of October of the same year, and returned to his residence in Leicester Square. On the very next day he was seized with a sudden illness, and, after two hours of suffering , expired. Hogarth was 1 A.D. 1750.) WILSON 405 buried without any ostentation in the churchyard of Chiswick ; where a monument was erected to his memory. Richard Wilson, the third son of a clergymain, was born at Pinegas in Montgomery shire, in 1713. Owing to the influence of his uncle, Sir George Wynn , who took him to London when quite young, he received a certain amount of tuition in art from a painter of little note, named Wright. In 1748 the young artist was considered worthy to paint portraits of the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York , to be presented to their tutor, who was afterwards Bishop of Norwich. At the age of thirty - six, Wilson had managed to save sufficient money to enable him to go to Italy, and it was there that, by a happy accident, his attention was drawn to a style of art which was infinitely better suited to his talent. It is related that he was waiting to see the Italian artist Zuccharelli : finding the time long, he amused himself by drawing the view which lay before him , through the open window ; this he did with so much skill that when Zuccharelli saw the sketch, he advised Wilson to study landscape painting. In this he was very successful, as far as art was concerned , but as the taste for nature was at that time but slowly growing, he did not find it a lucrative employment for a man of his limited means. His chief works are full of classic feeling ; among them may be named the Death of Niobe ; Morning ; Vicw of Rome; Phacton ; Celadon and Amelia ; the Tiber, near Rome : Adrian's Villa ; the Temple of Venus at Baia ; and Numphs Bathing ; from which it is easy to see that he did not care to paint a scene simply for its own loveliness, but only when it was invested with historic or mythologic interest. Wilson was never a favourite with his brother artists ; even Sir Joshua Reynolds was his enemy, and it is a blot on the chiracter of that great man, that he allowed himself to speak and act ungenerously towards his rival. At the latter part of his long life, when it was almost too late to recompense him for the privations he had borne so long, Wilson became the possessor of a small estate in Wales, on which there was a lead mine. On this property, which had been left him by his brother, he lived in great retirement, working little, but wandering much around his pretty dwelling. He never recovered his long-tried health and spirits, and died in May, 1782. Allan Ramsay, one of the best portrait-painters of the period , was born at Edinburgh in 1713. After receiving education in art in London, he went, in 1736 to Italy . On his return to London, he established himself as a painter, though his native Edinburgh was occasionally the scene of his labours. Ramsay subsequently paid three more visits to Italy, and in 1767 was appointed painter to George III., whose portrait he frequently took . Ramsay died in 1784 at Dɔver, where he had landed on his return from his last journey to Italy. His portraits are noteworthy for truth to nature. Besides being a painter, he was a man of great attainments. He has been mentioned with praise for his literary and other accomplishments by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Johnson, and others of his contemporaries. George Smith, who was born at Chichester in 1714, is called “ Smith of Chichester,” to distinguish him from the painter of the same name, of Derby. George Smith together with his two brothers opened a private academy, wherein they worked without instruction except from nature and the old masters. George Smith became famous as a landscape painter, and was so far successful as to gain a premium from the Society of Arts. He died in 1766. We may here mention his two brothers. 406 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. (A.D. 176 William Smith, who was born at Chichester in 1707 , first directed his attention to portrait-painting, but subsequently chose landscapes, fruit and flowers as his subjects he died in 1764. John Smith was born at Chichester in 1717 . He painted landscapes in the manner of his more famous brother George, and died in 1764. Engravings were made of many of the Smiths' works, both by themselves and by other artists ; among them were Woollett, Elliott, and Peake. Joshua Reynolds, the son of a clergyman , was born at Plympton, in Devonshire, on the 16th of July, 1723 , three months before the death of Sir Godfrey Kneller, thus perpetuating, say some of his biographers, the hereditary descent of art. The boy's inclination to drawing began to appear at an early date . “ His first essays," says Malone, who had the information from himself, “ were copying some slight drawings made by two of his sisters, who had a taste for art. He afterwards eagerly copied such prints as he found amongst his father's books. ” A provincial place like Plympton, however, was soon too contracted for his expandi ing powers ; consequently he was sent to London in October, 1741 , and was placed under the care of Hudson, the most distinguished portrait- painter at that time. After continuing for two years in his employment, a disagreement took place between them , and Reynolds returned to Devonshire, where he remained for three years. When twenty -two years of age he took a house at Plymouth Dock, where he resided about twelve months, and afterwards returned to London. Rome, which is in reality to painters what Parnassus is in imagination to poets, was frequently present to the fancy of Reynolds ; and he longed to see with his own eyes the glories in art, of which he heard so much . In May, 1749, his desire was realised . Captain Keppel, with whom he had formed a friendship, was appointed Commodore in the Mediterranean station, for the purpose of protecting the British merchants from the insults of the Algerines, and he invited Reynolds to accompany him. After paying short visits to Gibraltar and Algiers, and a rather prolonged stay at Minorca , Reynolds at length reached Rome. There he seems to have employed his time chiefly in studying all the varieties of excellence, and in acquiring that knowledge of effect which he was so soon to display. The severe dignity of Michelangelo or Raphael he had no chance of attaining, for he wanted loftiness of imagination, without which no grand work can ever be achieved ; but he had a deep sense of character, great skill in light and shade, a graceful softness and an alluring sweetness, such as none have surpassed. From the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Bartolommeo, Titian, and Velasquez, he acquired knowledge, which placed fortune and fame within his reach ; yet of these artists he says little , though he acknowledges the Portrait of Innocent X. by the last -named to be the finest in the world . From Rome, Reynolds travelled through Bologna, Genoa, and Parma to Florence, where he remained two months ; and thence to Venice. He returned to London in October, 1752 ; and, after visiting Devonshire for a few weeks, established himself as a professional man in St. Martin's Lane, London, where he rapidly rose to fame ; he soon changed his residence for a handsome house in Great Newport Street. Shortly afterwards, Reynolds commenced with Samuel Johnson a friendship, which was continued to old age without interruption. In the year 1761 , accumulating wealth began to have a visible effect on Reynolds's establishment. He quitted Newport Street, purchased a fine house on the west side of A.D , 1760. ] REYNOLDS. 407 Leicester Square, furnished it with much taste, added a splendid gallery for the exhibition of his works, and an elegant dining-room ; and finally taxed his invention and his purse in the production of a carriage , with wheels carved and gilt , and bearing on its panels the four seasons of the year. In 1764, Reynolds was attacked with a serious illness , which was equally sudden and alarming. He was cheered by the anxiety of many friends, and by the solicitude of Johnson, and at length recovered his health . The Royal Academy was planned and proposed in 1768 by Chambers, West, Cotes, and Moser; the caution or timidity of Reynolds kept him for some time from assisting. A list of thirty members was made out; and West, a prudent and amiable man , called on Reynolds, and , in a conference of two hours' continuance, succeeded in persuading him to join them . He ordered his coach, and, accompanied by West, entered the room where his brother artists were assembled. They rose up. to a man , and saluted him “ President.” He was affected by the compliment, but declined the honour till he had talked with Johnson and Burke ; he went, consulted his friends, and having considered the consequences carefully , then consented. The King, to give dignity to the Royal Academy of Great Britain , bestowed the honour of knighthood on the first President; and seldom has any such distinction been bestowed amidst more universal approbation. Johnson was so elated with the honour conferred on his friend , that he drank wine in its celebration, though he had abstained from it for several years. About the close of the summer of 1773 Sir Joshua visited his native place, and was elected Mayor of Plympton, a distinction so much to his liking that he assured the King — whom on his return he accidentally encountered, in one of the walks at Hampton Court—that it gave him more pleasure than any other he had ever received, " excepting (he added, recollecting himself,) excepting that which your Majesty so graciously conferred on me — the honour of knighthood ." In this year he exhibited the Strawberry Girl at the Academy. This work Sir Joshua always maintained was one of " the half-dozen original things" which he declared no man ever exceeded in his life's work. He repeated the picture several times ; the original is now in the possession of Sir Richard Wallace. In 1784 Sir Joshua distinguished himself above all his brother artists by his Fortune - Teller, his portraits of Miss Kemble, and of Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse all very noble compositions. Amidst the applause which these works obtained for him, the president met with a loss which the world could not repair. Samuel Johnson died on the 13th of De cember, 1784, full of years and honours. A long, a warm, and a beneficial friendship had subsisted between them. The house and the purse of Reynolds were ever open to Johnson, and the word and the pen of Johnson were equally ready for Reynolds. Sir Joshua had now reached his sixty- sixth year ; the boldness and happy freedom of his productions were undiminished ; and the celerity of his execution, and the glowing richness of his colouring, were rather on the increase than the wane. His life had been uniformly virtuous and temperate ; and his looks, notwithstanding the paralytic stroke he had lately received , promised health and long life. He was happy in his fame and fortune, and in the society of numerous and eminent friends; and he saw himself in his old age without a rival . His great prudence and fortunate control of temper had prevented him from giving serious offence to any individual; and the money he had amassed, and the style in which he lived, unencumbered with a family, created a respect for him amongst those who were incapable of understanding his 408 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS (A.D. 1775. . merits. But the hour of sorrow was at hand. One day, in the month of July, 1789, while finishing the portrait of the Marchioness of Hertford, he felt a sudden decay of sight in his left eye. He laid down the pencil ; sat a little while in mute consideration, and never lifted it more. His sight gradually darkened , and within ten weeks of the first attack his left eye was wholly blind. The last time that Reynolds made his appearance in the Academy was in the year 1790 ; he addressed a speech to the students on the delivery of the medals, and concluded by expatiating upon the genius of his favourite master, adding— “ I should desire that the last words which I should pronounce in this Academy, and from this place, might be the name of Michelangelo ." On the 23rd of February, 1792 , Sir Joshua expired , without any visible symptoms of pain, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. He was buried in one of the crypts of St. Paul's cathedral, accompanied to the grave by many of the most illustrious men of the land - forty -two coaches conveyed the mourners, and forty -nine carriages of the nobility added to the procession. He lies by the side of Sir Christopher Wren . A statue to his memory by Flaxman was afterwards placed in the cathedral. Of historic and poetic subjects Reynolds painted upwards of one hundred and thirty, of which the principal are the Holy Family, the Snake in the Grass, the Age of Innocence, and Robinetta , all in the National Gallery ; Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy, Mrs. Siddons as th : Tragic Muse, Macbeth and the Witches, and Hercules strangling the Serpents , the last named was painted for the Empress Catherine of Russia, for which she paid Sir Joshua fifteen hundred guineas and added a gift of a gold box, bearing her portrait set in diamonds. It is impossible to state the exact number of portraits by Sir Joshua, as he executed them in such vast numbers that he was obliged to employ artists to paint the draperies and backgrounds. No less than fourteen are in the National Gallery. Of the Portraits of the men who still occupy their station in history may be mentioned Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith , Horace Walpole, Laurence Sterne, Edmund Burke, Lord Heathfield, Admiral Keppel, and Warren Hastings. Of the ladies it is sufficient to say that there was scarcely one at that time celebrated either for her rank, accomplishments, or beauty, who did not sit to Reynolds. George Stubbs was born at Liverpool in 1724. He went when about thirty years of age, to Italy, where he remained some time. On his return to England , he became famous as a portrait painter of horses. In 1776, Stubbs published The Anatomy of the Horse, ' with eighteen plates drawn and etched by himself. In 1780, he was clected an Associate of the Royal Academy, and he would have been a full member in the following year but for his refusal to present the required diploma-picture. Stubbs died in London in 1806 , at the advanced age of eighty -two. Giovanni Battista Cipriani was born at Florence in 1727. Though an Italian by birth, he must be considered among the painters of England, for after twenty -three years spent in his native city, and five in Rome, he came in 1755 to London, where he became one of the most famous of historical painters, and where he thenceforth resided. On the foundation of the Academy in 1769, Cipriani was one of the original members ; he also designed the diploma -- presented to Academicians and Associates -- which was engraved by his friend Bartolozzi. For this work Cipriani received a silver cup from his brother academicians. His works obtained great reputation from the fact that they were engraved by Bartolozzi. Cipriani died at London in 1785 . 1 THE COTTAGE DOOR. By GAINSBOROUGH , In the Grosvenor Gallery. ! TE 030 A.D. 1775.) GAINSBOROUGH. 409 Thomas Gainsborough was born in the spring of the year 1727 , at Sudbury, a small town in West Suffolk , where his father was a clothier. Thomas, the youngest of three sons, showed signs of talent at a very early age : he made a number of sketches of the scenery around his native place, and local tradition still loves to point out his favourite views . It is believed, on very authentic grounds, that he went to London, for the education necessary to cultivate his genius, when only fourteen years of age. He there studied under Hayman, a painter of some repute, and one of the founders of the Royal Academy. Gainsborough remained in London four years, during which time he very rapidly mastered the secrets of his art ; and then returned to Sudbury, where he married, and then removed to Ipswich. Soon afterwards Gainsborough made the acquaintance of Philip Thicknesse, the governor of Landguard Fort, near Harwich , who for many years was his chief patron. In 1760 Gainsborough left Ipswich and settled at Bath, where he made a great reputation as a portrait painter. Sir Joshua Reynolds, when delivering one of his lectures to the students of the Royal Academy on the “ Character of Gainsborough ,” said of that artist “ whether he most excelled in portraits, landscapes, or fancy pictures, it is difficult to determine." When the Royal Academy was founded in 1768, Gainsborough was elected one of the original members. In 1774 he went to London and rented part of Schomberg House, Pall Mall. He died of cancer on and of August, 1788, in his sixty- second year, and was buried in Kew Churchyard. Gainsborough was passionately fond of music ; and was extremely kind and thoughtful in all his dealings with his friends, and wonderfully generous to his relations. His pictures are so numerous that we cannot pretend to give a complete list of even the principal, but among them we may draw attention to the following as his best : the Blue Boy, the Cottage Door, a Cottage Girl with a dog and pitcher, the Young Lavinia, the Duchess of Devonshire, the Portrait of Mrs. Siddons in the National Gallery — which possesses several other good specimens of this master — and the Boy at the Stile, presented to Colonel Hamilton in exchange for a violin. His portrait of the celebrated Duchess of Devonshire was recently sold for upwards of £10,000. Sawrey Gilpin, who was born at Carlisle in 1733 , was sent to London to receive a mercantile education ; but as he showed a decided taste for art, he entered the studio of Samuel Scott, the marine painter, with whom he remained nine years. On leaving Scott, Gilpin adopted animal painting as his profession. He was much patronized by the Duke of Cumberland. In 1770 appeared one of his most famous pictures, Darius obtaining the Persian Empire by the neighing of his horse. In 1795 , Gilpin was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, on the walls of which society he had exhibited for nine years previously. In 1797 he was elected a full member. He died at Brompton in 1807. Gilpin was very successful as a painter of animals—more especially horses. He frequently worked in conjunction with Barret and other artists. in 1734. Joseph Wright, commonly called from his birthplace “ Wright of Derby, " was born In 1751 he went to London, and entered the studio of Hudson , the portrait painter, with whom he remained two years, and again some time later, fifteen months. On finally quitting Hudson , Wright established himself as a portrait painter at Derby, where he enjoyed much fame. Among his best works of this time are the Iron Forge, in the possession of Lord Palmerston, and the Experiment with the Air Pump, for which he received five hundred guineas, and which is now in the National Gallery. 3 G 410 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. (A.D. 1775 . His works are especially noticeable for candle and fire- light effects, in which he excelled. In 1773 he went to Italy, where he remained two years. On his return to England, he painted for some time at Bath, with little success, but finally settled at Derby, where he again met with the popularity which he had enjoyed previous to his Italian journey. In 1782 , he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, but two years later he removed his name from the society's books. Wright died, of a lingering maladly which had attacked him many years previous to his death, at his native city, in 1797 . Besides portrait and conversation pieces, he painted landscapes with success ; he also attempted historic pictures, but in them he failed . In 1785 , Wright exhibited twenty four of his best pictures in Robinson's auction room in Covent Garden . George Romney was born at Dalton - le -Furness in Lancashire in 1734. After he had received instruction in art from one Steel at Kendal, he married in 1756 , and established himself in that town as a painter. In 1762 he came to London, where he became one of the popular artists of the day. In 1773-75 he visited Italy. After twenty- four years of success in London, he returned to Kendal, where he died in 1802. Romney painted portraits and historical pictures ; of the latter subjects he began many works which were never finished. As a portrait painter he was in his time considered little inferior to Reynolds, and indeed many thought him equal, if not superior to that famous master. Northcote says, “ Reynolds was not much employed as a portrait painter after Romney grew into fashion . " It is said that at one time the latter made nearly four thousand a year by his portraits alone. Of Romney's pictures the most noteworthy are, Ophelia, the Infant Shakespeare, the Shipwreck from the “ Tempest," painted for the Boydell Shakespeare, a Portrait of Wortley Montague in a Turkish dress ; and Milton dictating to his Daughters. The National Gallery possesses but one example of this artist - a Study of Lady Hamilton , as a Bacchante, a lady of whom Romney made innumerable studies. Johann Zoffany was born at Frankfort in 1735 (?) . Like Cipriani, he must be considered as a painter of the English school. He came to this country when about thirty years of age, and first attracted attention by his Portrait of Lord Barrymer.. He subsequently became famous as a portrait painter, and was elected one of the original Royal Academicians. From London he paid a visit to Florence, and on his return went, in 1781 , to the East Indies, where, for about fifteen years, he enjoyed great reputation. Zoffany died in England in 1810. Among his principal works are his Portraits of George III, and his Family, and also of various actors, Garrick, Foote, Weston and others, and the Tribune of Florence. John Singleton Copley, the son of Irish parents who had not long previously settled in America, was born in Boston — then a British colony - on July 3rd, 1737 . At that time the neighbourhood of his native place was entirely destitute of any means of art education , but by dint of perseverance young Copley derived from nature that instruction which the schools of the neighbourhood were unable to afford . By the year 1760 the young artist had made such great progress that the pictures which he sent to London for exhibition attracted much notice, and excited the most favourable expectations of his future career. He continued to send specimens of his works yearly until 1767 , wheu he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Arts. A few years later he set out on the usual painters' tour, going, by way of England, to Rome, and subsequently visited the chief cities of Italy, and those places in Germany and the Low Countries where there were most pictures. He returned to England in A.D. 1800.] BENJAMIN WEST. 411 1775 , and soon decided to establish himself in London. In the following year he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy. In 1776 Copley exhibited a picture, called in the phraseology of the day a Conversation , consisting of a group of portraits ; and in 1779 he was elected full member of the Royal Academy. About this time he painted his famous picture, the Death of Lord Chatham , which was extremely popular ; it is still much admired, and is now in the National Gallery. He then commenced a series of historical and political pictures, among the most admired of which are the fine works called Charles the First ordering the Arrest of the Five Members, the Death of Major Pierson, and the Defeat of the Spanish Floating Batteries at Gibraltar. Copley died on September 9th ,• 1815, possessed of great wealth, at his house in George Street, Hanover Square, where for many years his son , the celebrated Lord Lyndhurst, afterwards lived . Benjamin West was born on the roth of October, 1738 , at Springfield , in Pennsyl vania , of parents, the descendants of an old family of English Quakers, who had long previously emigrated to America. Benjamin was born to be a painter, for he displayed unmistakable signs of artistic talent when quite a child. It is said , that when only seven years old he drew a striking and graceful likeness of his infant sister as she lay sleeping in her cot. A friend who had recognized his skill took him to Philadelphia, where he studied the rudiments of art under an artist named Williams. In his eighteenth year young West set up as a portrait painter ; and, after having made sufficient money to defray the expenses, he determined to visit Europe. In 1760 he arrived in Rome— the Paradise of all young artists ; thence he travelled to Florence, Bologna, and other cities of Italy, to feast his eyes on the treasures of art which they so proudly possess. In the summer of 1763 he arrived in London provided with introductions, and not unheralded by a somewhat exaggerated reputation . In 1766 West exhibited in his own house his picture of Orestes and Pylades, now in the National Gallery. He was soon afterwards recommended by the Archbishop of York to the notice of George III . , for whom he painted a picture called Agrippina with the ashes of Germanicus, and from that time he became the object of the King's almost unceasing patronage. He was one of the original members of the Royal Academy, and usually contributed at least three or four works annually to the exhibitions. On his election as President in 1792 he was offered the honour of knighthood, but this he stedfastly declined on account of his religious opinions. During the latter part of his life West painted a series of paintings of scriptural subjects on a large scale ; chief among these are, Christ Healing the Sick , now in the National Gallery, Christ Rejected, and Death on the Pale Horse . Benjamin West died at his house in Newman Street, March ut , 1820, in his eighty - second year, and was buried with much pomp in St. Paul's Cathedral. Philippe Jacques Loutherbourg, or as he liked to call himself, De Loutherbourg, who was born at Strasbourg in 1740, went to Paris when fifteen years of age and entered the studios of Van Loo and Casanova, under whom he acquired the art of painting battle scenes, marine pieces, and landscapes. In 1762 , Loutherbourg was elected a member of the French Academy, but his success in Paris instead of inducing him to remain there, only determined him to seek his fortune in foreign lands. His travels extended through Germany, Switzerland, and Italy ; and in 1771 he settled in England, where for a time he painted scenes at Drury Lane for Garrick, who gave him £500 a year. In 1780 Loutherbourg was elected an Associate of the Academy, and in the following 412 ( A.D. 1800. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. 1771 , the year became a full member. He enjoyed considerable popularity as a landscape painter, till his death at Chiswick in 1812. Of the works of De Loutherbourg perhaps the best known are Lord Howe's Victory on the ist of June; the Fire of London ; and the Siege of Valenciennes. In the National Gallery is a Lake scene in Cumberland ; and the Dulwich Gallery has two Landscapes with cattle and figures. Before leaving this artist , we must not fail to notice his diorama, called the Eidophusicon , " which all the world went to see.” James Barry was born at Cork in 1741 . He received an elementary education in art at Dublin , where appeared the first work which brought him into notice — the Baptism of one of the Kings of Leinster by St. Patrick. Barry was soon after enabled, through the patronage of Edmund Burke and his brother, to go to Italy, where he remained five years, the chief part of which time was spent in Rome. In year urn , he exhibited his Adam and Eve, which he had painted while abroad. In 1772 appeared his Venus rising from the Sea , and in the same year Barry was elected an Associate, and in 1773 a full member of the Royal Academy. Four years later, he commenced the work which has made his name famous — a series of six pictures on Human Culture, painted on the walls of the large room of the Society of Arts at the Adelphi. The titles which he himself gave to the pictures are : the Story of Orpheus, a Harvest Home, or Thanksgiving to Ceres and Bacchus , the Victors of Olympia ; Navigation, or the Triumph of the Thames , the Distribution of I'remiums in the Society of Arts , and lastly, Elysium, or the State of final Retribution. For this work, on which Barry laboured unassisted for about six years, he received the gold medal of the Society, a premium of two hundred pounds, and the receipts from the exhibition of the work - about £500. In 1782 , Barry was appointed professor of painting to the Royal Academy, but in 1799 owing to non -conformity with some bye laws of the Society, he was expelled from the professorship and also from the list of the forty. While engaged on another great work - illustrations to Milton's Paradise Lost ' --Barry was, on the 6th of February 1806, seized with pleuritic fever, to which ne succumbed in the same month. He was buried in the crypt of St. Paul's. Henry Fuseli, who was born at Zurich in 1741 , was educated for the Church, which he entered when twenty years of age. Forced through some quarrel with a superior to quit Zurich , Fuseli- after a journey through Germany - arrived in England in 1765 . He first attempted to maintain himself by teaching, but soon abandoned it for literary labours, which — at the advice of Sir Joshua Reynolds, to whom he had shown some sketches -- he threw aside in favour of art . Fuseli accordingly in 1779 set out for Rome, where for eight years he painted, and studied the works of Michelangelo. While in Italy , Fuseli sent numerous pictures to the Royal Academy and other exhibitions in London. Three years later appeared one of his most popular pictures, the Nightmari. When in 1786 Alderman Boydell proposed the Shakespeare Gallery, Fuseli entered heartily into the scheme, and himself executed nine of the works. Some years later appeared his own “ Milton Gallery,” which was unsuccessful. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1788 , and a full member two years later. Fuseli died at the house of the Countess of Guildford , at Putney Heath , in 1825. Next to his Milton Gallery, Fuseli's Illustrations to Shakespeare are his best works ; we may notice Lear and Cordelia , Hamlet and his Father's Ghost and Bottom with the Ass's Head. Fuseli is not only entitled to fame on account of his paintings; he was a brilliant scholar. He delivered to the students of the Royal Academy fifteen lectures on the A.D. 1775.] NORTHCOTE. 413 history of art, and the technicalities of painting. In fact there are few men who have so much influenced the destiny of English art as did the Swiss Fuseli. John Hamilton Mortimer, who was born at Eastbourne in 1741 , was early in life sent to London, where he studied under Hudson. He was also fortunate enough to be introduced by Cipriani to the Duke of Richmond, who allowed him to examine the works of art in his gallery. In 1764, Mortimer gained by his St. Paul converting the Britons, the premium of one hundred guineas offered by the Society of Arts for the best historic picture. In 1778 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy ; he died on the 4th of February in the following year. Of his more important works we may notice the Battle of Agincourt, and Vortig'rn and Rowena, exhibited in 1779 in the Royal Academy after his death. David Allan, “ the Scotch Hogarth ,” was born at Alloa near Edinburgh in 1744. After he had received an art education at Glasgow , he set out, when twenty years of age , for Italy, where he remained until 1777. While in Rome, he gained the prize medal of the society of St. Luke for the best historic picture. The subject of his work was the Corinthian Girl tracing her lover's shadow on the wall. On his return to England, Allan settled in London, where he employed himself in portrait painting. In 1780 he removed to Edinburgh , where he thenceforth resided, enjoying much patronage. In 1786, he was appointed director of the Academy of Arts in that city. He died near Edinburgh in 1796. Allan executed numerous engravings of great merit. James Northcote was born at Plymouth in 1746. By his father, who was a watch maker, he was made to serve seven years' apprenticeship to that trade. On quitting his home in 1771 , young Northcote obtained an introduction to Sir Joshua Reynolds, who received him into his studio as a pupil, and into his house as a friend. At the sime time Northcote studied in the Academy schools, but as he began to learn art so late in life, he never fully acquired its technicalities and, like Fuseli, his method of exe cution always remained slovenly. In all his works, too, the want of a sound educa tion in history is apparent, for they are full of the grossest anachronisms. On leaving Reynolds in 1775, Northcote spent two years in Devonshire, maintaining himself by portrait painting. In 1777 , he went to Italy, where he studied the works of the old masters, more especially those of Titian . On his return to England in 1780, Northcote, after a short time spent in his native county, settled in London, where, as before, he maintained himself by portrait painting. About this time too, he executed several con versation pieces, which, by means of the engravings made from them , obtained a certain popularity. But his first great work did not appear until 1786. It was one of the nine pictures which he painted for Boydell's ' Shakespeare Gallery,' and the subject was the Murder of the young Princes in the Tower. In 1787 he was made a Royal Academician : afterwards followed in quick succession, the Meeting of the young Princes ; Romeo and Juliet ; the Death of Mortimer ; King Edward IV. and his Queen ; Prince Arthur and Hubert, and lastly, King Richard 11, and Bolingbroke, Of one of his best works is the Death of Wat Tyler, painted for the Corporation of London. It now hangs in the Guildhall. Of other works by him we may notice the series of the Diligent Servant and the Dissipated , intended as a companion to Hogarth's Idle and Industrious Apprentice. But Northcote's work is in every way far inferior. He died in London in 1831 . Francis Wheatley, who was born in London in 1747 , studied in Shipley's school, and in the Royal Academy; he also assisted Mortimer, the historical painter. After 414 [A.D. 1775. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. having obtained a certain popularity in London, Wheatley went to Dublin and esta blished himself as a portrait painter, but shortly afterwards he was obliged , through the looseness of his life, to quit that city. He returned to London and became popular as a painter of portraits, genre and conversation pictures. One of his most famous works was illustrative of the Riots in London in 1780 ; it has unfortunately perished by fire. In 1790, Wheatley was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, and in the following year a full member. He died in London in 1801 . Besides his paintings in oil , he executed water- colour drawings of great merit. He was one of the illus trators of the ' Shakespeare Gallery ,' and Macklin's Poets .' Robert Smirke, who was born at Carlisle in 1752 , was apprenticed in London to a herald -painter ; he was also a member of the Incorporated Society of Painters. The first works which he exhibited in the Royal Academy were Narcissus and Sabrinı; they appeared in 1786. In 1791 he was made an Associate, and two years later he became a full member. In 1804 Smirke was elected to the office of Keeper of the Royal Academy, but owing to his revolutionary politics, the royal sanction was denied. Smirke died in London in 1845 , at the advanced age of ninety-three. He was one of the painters who illustrated Boydell's . Shakespeare Gallery.' Smirke also executed numerous works in illustration of authors both English and foreign. John Hoppner, who was born in London in 1753 , is a painter who owed his success more to royal favour and patronage, than to his own merits. At first a chorister in the Royal Chapel, he entered in 1775 the schools of the Royal Academy, of which society he became an Associate in 1793 , and two years later a full member. With the exception of Lawrence, Hoppner was without a rival in portraiture , but, as is the case with many of his contemporaries, his works are not valued so highly now as formerly. Hoppner died in London in 1810. Three works by him are in the National Gallery — a portrait of William Pitt, one of Gentleman Smith, the actor, and one of the Countess of Oxford. At Hampton Court, among other of his works, is Mrs. Jordan as the Comic Muse, painted in his early life. Several of his best works are in St. James's Palace. William Beechey, the portrait painter, was born at Burford in Oxfordshire, in 1753 . He was originally intended for the law , but his love of art prevailed, and in 1772 he entered the Royal Academy schools. After a stay of a few years at Norwich , he established himself as a portrait painter in London , where, through the patronage of royalty he became one of the most popular artists of the day. In 1793 he was elected Associate of the Royal Academy, and received the appointment of portrait painter to the queen . In 1798, he painted his most successful picture, for it gained him knight od , and his election as a Royal Academician ; it represents George III., the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, attended by a staff of officers, reviewing the Third and Tenth Dragoons. This work, which has been engraved by James Ward, now hangs in Hampton Court. Beechey was a most prolific painter, for in sixty -four years he exhibited no less than three hundred and sixty-two portraits. He died at Hampstead in 1839. The National Gallery possesses one example of this master - a Portrait of Joseph Nollckens, the Sculptor. George Howland Beaumont, the landscape painter, who was born at Dunmow in Essex, in 1753, is better known as a patron of the fine arts than as a painter. He was a zealous promoter of the National Gallery, and in 1826, two years after its foundation , presented sixteen works to the nation . Of these five are English, one by A.D. 1800.1 STOTHARD. 415 Reynolds, one by Wilkie, the Blind Fiddler, one by West, Pylades and Orestes, and two by Wilson. The National Gallery has also two works by the artist himself -a Landscape, and Jaques and the Wounded Stag, from Shakespeare's “ As you like it, ” both presented by his widow . Sir George Beaumont, who was a baronet, was but an amateur artist ; he received instruction from Wilson, and occasionally exhibited landscapes in the Royal Academy. He died at Coleorton, the family seat in Leicestershire, in 1827 . Thomas Stothard, who was born at London in 1755 , is better known as a book illustrator than a painter. He was some years with a designer of brocaded silks ; on leaving that master, he was at first engaged by the publisher Harrison, to illustrate the ‘ Town and Country Magazine ;' this led from one commission to another, and Stothard became famous for his elegant designs. Of the works illustrated by him , we may notice Bell's British Poets ; ' Rogers' Poems,' and Italy ' ; the Pilgrim's Progress and Robinson Crusoe. ' The British Museum has a fine collection of engravings from his works. In 1778, Stothard entered the Royal Academy schools, and henceforth frequently exhibited on the walls of the society. In 1791 , he became an Associate, and three years later a full member. His most important painting is the Intemperance, executed in fresco on the staircase of Burleigh House. The original sketch for this work is in the National Gallery, where there are five other pictures by this master. We may also notice among his oil paintings his Canterbury Pilgrims, and his works for Boydell's Shakspeare. He died in London in 1834. Francis Bourgeois, who was born in London in 1756, is a painter who in his life time enjoyed greater fame than now falls to his lot. He studied art under Loutherbourg, and after a journey through the Netherlands, France and Italy , established himself as a landscape painter in London. His first work at the Royal Academy appeared in 1779. In 1787 he was elected an Associate, and five years later he became a full member. In 1791 , he was appointed painter to Stanislaus , king of Poland, and received at the same time from that monarch, the honour of knighthood, which three years later was sanctioned by George III . , when he appointed Sir Francis his landscape painter. This artist died in London in 1811. Though Bourgeois's works, which, besides land scapes, contained animals and figures, are not now considered of great merit, yet his name will always be remembered in connection with the handsome gift which he bequeathed to the Dulwich College, three hundred and fifty pictures--part of which had been left to him by his friend Desenfans —together with sufficient money to build and maintain a gallery for their reception. Henry Raeburn, one of the best of Scottish portrait painters, was born at Stockbridge, near Edinburgh , in 1756. He was at first apprenticed to a goldsmith, but directed his attention to miniature painting, which he subsequently abandoned in favour of oil colour. His first instructor in art was one David Martin , a portrait painter of some repute in Edinburgh. After a short time spent in London under Sir Joshua Reynolds, and two years in Italy, Raeburn settled in Edinburgh , where he became the popular artist of the day. In 1812 he was president of the Society of Artists in Scotland ; in the following year he was made an Associate, and in 1814 he became a full member of the Royal Academy in London ; for though living in Edinburgh, Raeburn was a constant exhibitor in the rooms of that Society. In 1822 , when George IV. went to Scotland, this artist was knighted and appointed " His Majesty's limner in that part of his dominions, " but Sir Henry Raeburn unfortunately died in the following year, near Edinburgh . William Blake, the painter, poet, and engraver, who was born in London in 1757 , 416 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [A.D. 1800 6 was, when fourteen years of age, apprenticed to the younger Basire the engraver. On leaving that master, he made and engraved designs for the illustration of books. In 1788 appeared his first original publication, The Songs of Innocence,' - accompanied by etchings , of which he was not only the author but the printer, for the work was printed by a process which Blake averred had been revealed to him by the ghost of his dead brother . This is the first sign of that fine madness “ which always should possess the poet's brain ," which is too apparent in everything which Blake afterwards executed. * The Songs of Innocence ' were followed by their sequel, “ The Songs of Experience ;' then came ' America, a Prophecy ,' and Europe, a Prophecy. In 1797 Blake designed and engraved illustrations to Young's ' Night Thoughts.' Of his remaining works we may notice his illustrations to Blair's Grave ;' his Canterbury Pilgrims '-- which Charles Lamb notices as possessing “ wonderful power and spirit, but hard and dry, yet with grace ” —and his illustrations of Milton. Blake died in London in 1827. Besides his engravings and designs he executed several paintings mostly of a biblical nature -some of which he exhibited at the Royal Academy. Julius Cæsar Ibbetson, who was born at Masham in Yorkshire in 1759, was a painter of great merit. His works, which are chiefly landscapes, are frequently in imitation of Wilson. He ended, in 1817 , a life which , like that of Morland, was a disgrace to his profession. John Opie was born at St. Agnes near Truro, in 1761. His father, a carpenter, had determined to bring his son up to his own trade, but Dr. Walcot saw and appreciated the talent which young Opie had for art , and took him under his protection . In 1781 his patron brought him to London and introduced him to Sir Joshua Reynolds. For a time young Opie enjoyed great fame in London as the “ Cornish wonder ,” but the taste of the public changed, and he was left to pursue his art quietly. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1782. Four years later appeared, with six others, the Assassination of James 1. of Scotland ; in the following year he sent his Death of Riccio, which gained him his Associateship, and in the following year his full membership. His diploma picture was His own Portrait. Opie was one of the artists engaged on the Boydell Shakespeare, for which work he painted Juliet and the Capulets ; Antigonus sworn to destroy Perdita ; Talbot and the Countess of Auvergne; the Iniantation Scene from Henry VI., Part II . , and Timon with Phryne and Timandra. Although Opie adopted historic painting, he by no means threw aside portraiture. He was elected professor of painting to the Royal Academy in 1805. He died in London in 1807 , and was buried in St. Paul's. His works display great power, but they are wanting in harmony of colour, and are frequently too realistic for historic subjects. They have suffered from the inferiority of his pigments. Only one example of Opie is in the National Gallery - a portrait of II illiam Siddons, the husband of the actress. Edward Bird was born at Wolverhampton in 1762. He was brought up to the trade of a japanner, but became a drawing-master at Bristol , and subsequently a painter. In 1809 appeared his first work, Good News, at the Royal Academy. Bird at first confined himself to genre subjects in which he excelled — the National Gallery has a good example, the Raffic for a llatih — but later in life he adopted historic subjects, to which his art was not so well suited . In 1812 , he became an Associate, and three years later a full member of the Royal Academy. He exhibited but eighteen pictures. He died at Bath in 1819, and was buried in the Cathedral. His masterpiece is the Day after Chery Chase, which procured him the appointment of historical painter to the A.D. 1800. ) LAWRENCE. 41 Princess Charlotte. It was purchased for 300 guineas by the Duke of Sutherland, and now — together with his Death of Eli -hangs in the Stafford House Gallery. The latter picture was purchased by the same nobleman for 500 guineas ; it also gained a premium of 300 guineas from the British Institution. George Morland, the son of Henry Morland, a painter of some note, was born in 1763. When young, he left his home and went to lodge at the house of William Ward , a mezzotint engraver, and for a time — actuated, probably, by a really sincere attachment to the sister of his landlord - worked steadily, painting pictures of rural domestic scenes. In July , 1786, he married Miss Ward, but this did nothing towards reforming Morland's character. He lived in the most recklessly extravagant fashion as long as he could paint fast enough to obtain money ; eventually he was arrested for debt, and reduced to the extremity of beggary. With all this, his works were very popular and often remarkably clever. The Gipsies, dated 1792, the time when his short spell of prosperity was at its height, was exhibited in the International Exhibition of 1862 , and received much admiration . After 1802 , when he was released from his debts under the terms of a new Act, Morland's career was a rapid decline of misery, aggravated by useless self-reproach, until he died in a sponging- house in Coldbath Fields, in October, 1804. His wife, who was always devoted to her worthless husband, died scarcely a week afterwards from a broken heart, and was interred in the same grave. A good example of Morland's paintings, the Reckoning, is in the South Kensington Museum . ENGLISH PAINTERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Richard Westall was born at Hertford in 1765. He was apprenticed to an engraver on silver in London , and was allowed by his master in 1785 to enter the Royal Academy schools, where he obtained his instruction in art. On the completion of his apprenticeship, he first directed his attention to book- illustration , which ever after occupied an important part of his time, and water- colour painting. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1792, and two years later he became a full member, His small oil-paintings are much better than those of larger dimensions, but all his works display a feeble prettiness and a lack of power. Of his book illustrations the best are those he executed for the Bible, the Prayer-book, and the Arabian Nights' Entertainment.' He was instructor in drawing to the Princess Victoria. Westall died in London in 1836. We may here notice his younger brother, William Westall, who was born at Hertford in 1781 , received instruction from his brother Richard and from the Royal Academy schools, and became a good landscape painter. His principal works are views in Madeira, China, India, Australia, and in England - many of them executed for the illustration of books. His oil-paintings are not of so much merit as his water - colour drawings. In 1812 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, but died in London in 1850 without having attained full membership Thomas Lawrence, the most popular painter of his day, was born at Bristol in 1769. His father was at that time an innkeeper, and a few years after the birth of his famous son—the youngest of sixteen children --removed from Bristol to Devizes, where he became landlord of the “ Black Bear, " a well-known posting -house. Young Thomas 3 H 418 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . [ A.D. 1800. was from the very first an unusually precocious child ; when he was no more than seven years old he not only drew very graceful and accurate likenesses, but recited poetry, for which he had always a strong love, with really appreciative feeling. In 1779 the family again removed — this time to Oxford , where the talents of the boy attracted many patrons, and where he first painted for money. Not long afterwards the elder Lawrence, being in poor circumstances, decided on turning the genius of his son to account, and took a house in Bath ; there the young man painted portraits at the rate of a guinea and a guinea -and- a -half apiece, and his fame spread rapidly. Mrs. Siddons sat to him as Zara, and Sir Henry Harpur, a local dignitary, was anxious to adopt him as his son. In 1787 Lawrence went to London and entered the Royal Academy as a student. His rise in life was from this time very rapid. In 1791 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, and upon the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds he was made " Painter to the King” in his place. In 1794 Lawrence became a full member, and on the death of West, in 1820, received the honour of being unanimously chosen President of the Royal Academy. He had been knighted by the Prince Regent in 1815 , and in 1825 he was elected a chevalier of the “ Légion d'Honneur . ” His popularity as a portrait painter was such that probably no artist excelled him in the number of sitters. People of all ranks and classes flocked to his studio ; for he not only rendered their likenesses with truth and skill , but by his extremely graceful drawing enhanced the charms of beauty, and endowed even ordinary features with at least a pleasant air and expression. Sir Thomas Lawrence died, after a short illness , on the 7th January, 1830, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, with much honour. Of Lawrence's works, we must notice, of his portraits, those of Lady Gower and child, Lady Peel, Master Lambton, and in the National Gallery two of Mrs. Sididons, one of Benjamin West, with six others ; and of his historic pictures, Hamlet with Yorick's skull ; Coriolanus, and lastly his favourite Satan — all too well-known to need a de scription. Several of Lawrence's finest portraits, painted for the Prince Regent in 1814, are in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle. William Owen was born at Ludlow in 1769. When seventeen years of age he came to London , and entered the studio of a Mr. Catton, and at the same time studied in the Royal Academy school. In 1792 he first exhibited at the Royal Academy; his works were the Portrait of a Gentleman and a View of Ludford Bridge ; and though he is chiefly known as a portrait painter, Owen continued to paint landscapes and conversation pieces at intervals during his life. In 1804 he was made an Associate, and in 1806 he became a full member. Four yea later he was made painter to the Prince of Wales, and when the Prince assumed the Regency, Owen was made his principal portrait painter . He was offered knighthood, but this honour he refused. He died in London in 1825. Owen, as a portrait painter, is more remarkable for his truthfulness than for any other merit. Martin Archer Shee was born in Dublin in 1769. After he had learned his art in the Academy of that city , and practised a short time as a portrait painter, he removed to London, where he soon became famous for his likenesses -- more especially those of men. In 1799 he was made an Associate ; in 1800 he became a full member, but higher honours were yet in store for him . On the death of Lawrence in 1830 he was elected President, and received the usual honour of knighthood. He continued to A.D. 1800. ] HOWARD. 419 exhibit at the Royal Academy until 1845 , in which year his declining health rendered him unfit for further work. He died at Brighton in 1850. Sir Martin Shee owed his success as much to his noble defence of the Royal Academy, and to his courteous . manners and general attainments, as to any particular talent for painting. Three works by him are in the National Gallery, the Infant Bacchus, a Portrait of Morton the dramatist, and another of Lewis as the Marquis in the ' Midnight Hour. ' He executed a few historical works of no great merit. Besides his painting, Sir Martin is famous for his literary labours - mostly criticisms on art and artists . Henry Howard, who was born in London in 1769, studied under Philip Reinagle (whose daughter he subsequently married ) and in the Academy schools. In 1790, in addition to the silver medal of the Life school, he gained the gold medal for his Caractacus recognising the dead body of his son . Though Howard began life in art under most propitious circumstances, his after life was not quite so successful. In 1791-94 he made a sojourn of three years in Italy, the result of which was seen in the numerous works exhibited in the Royal Academy in the year after his return . In 1801 he was elected an Associate, and in 1808 a member of the Royal Academy. In 1811 he was made secretary to the society , and in 1833 he became Professor of Painting. But, though he received numberless honours, his patronage was not great, and his name has not been handed down to posterity with any large amount of fame. He died at Oxford in 1847. His favourite subjects were from the classics, but somewhat feeble in design. He occasionally painted portraits. Among his best works we may notice Sunrise and the Birth of Venus. The National Gallery has one example -- the Flower Girl, a portrait of a painter's daughter in a Florentine costume. James Ward, who was born in London in 1769, began life as an engraver, but when about thirty-five years of age abandoned that art in favour of painting, for which he had always had a strong predilection. Ward may be called a portrait painter of bulls and horses, for his art rarely rose above those subjects. In 1807 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, and in 1811 an Academician. In 1820-22 Ward produced that work which is his masterpiece, and which has helped to make his name famous, a Landscape with Cattle ; it was painted, at the instigation of West, in emulation of the celebrated Young Bull at the Hague, by Paul Potter, though Ward had never seen that great work. The original cattle of Ward's picture were all in the possession of Mr. Allnutt of Clapham , who, with Sir John F. Leicester, afterwards Lord de Tabley, was this artist's chief patron . This work, which is now in the National Gallery, was bought of the painter's son for 1500l, by the Trustees. It was exhibited in the British Institution ; at the Manchester Exhibition of 1857 ; and in the International Exhibition in 1862. James Ward died in 1859 at Cheshunt, where he had resided for the last thirty years of his life . Thomas Phillips, the celebrated portrait-painter, was born at Dudley in Warwick shire in 1770. He first studied glass- painting at Birmingham , and when twenty years of age came to London, where he became a pupil of West. In 1792 his first work, a View of Windsor Castle, appeared at the Royal Academy. For some time he was a painter of historic subjects , which he ultimately abandoned in favour of portraiture, In 1804 he was elected an Associate, and four years later a full member of the Academy. In 1829 he was elected Professor of Painting ; he resigned the appointment in 1832, in which year he published his lectures on art. He died in London in 1845. Among 420 ILLUSTRATED ATE TER: (A.D. 1825 . HISTORY OF PAINTERS. 1 1the sitters of Phillips were some of the most eminent personages of the day, though he did not enjoy the patronage of royalty. In the National Gallery is a Portrait of Sir David Wilkie, by him , and also a study called the Wood Nymph. His son , Henry Wyndham Phillips, who was born in 1820, was an excellent portrait painter, and constantly exhibited at the Academy. He died in 1868. Henry Thompson, who was born in London ( some writers say at Portsea) in 1773 studied art under Opie and in the Academy schools. In 1800 he first exhibited at the Academy an historic piece – Dedalusfastening wings on to his son Icarus, in the following year he was elected an Associate, and in 1804 a Royal Academician. In 1825 he was made Keeper of the Academy, but, owing to ill-health, he resigned the post two years later and retired to Portsea, where he died in 1843. Among his best works is Perdita , which he executed for Boydell's Shakespeare. He painted portraits, subjects of history , sacred and profane, and, in later life, marine pieces. The National Gallery has a Dead Robin by him. Joseph Mallord William Turner, the most celebrated landscape -painter of the English school, was born on the 23rd of April, 1775 , in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, where his father carried on the business of a barber. His love for art developed at an early age, and it is said that his first attempt at drawing was an heraldic lion copied from a coat of arms. He was encouraged to persevere by his father, who provided him with a box of water-colours, and exhibited his son's performances in the shop window for sale. The boy soon made such progress that he was employed by Raphael Smith , the engraver, to colour prints and wash in the backgrounds of architects' drawings. Dr. Munro, a great art patron, attracted by some of the sketches, which he saw exhibited in Maiden Lane, was a great benefactor to Turner in his youth. “ Girtin and I, " said Turner, “ often walked to Bushey and back, to make drawings for good Mr. Munro at half- a - crown a piece, and the money for our supper when we got home.” Turner was admitted a student in the Royal Academy schools in 1789, when only fourteen years of age, and exhibited a View of the Archbishop's Palace at Lambeth at Somerset House in the following year. From this date he diligently pursued his pro fession, and between 1790 and 1796 exhibited no less than thirty -two drawings, of which twenty-three were architectural , principally views of the cathedrals and churches. In 1793 he made his first tour for a work, “ Margate, Ramsgate, and elsewhere ." projected by Mr. Walker, and before he became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1799 his exhibited works ranged over twenty- six counties of England and Wales, many of which he had visited several times. In 1802 Turner was elected a full member of the Royal Academy, and presented as his diploma picture Dolbadarn Castle, North Wales ; in this year he visited the Continent for the first time, travelling through France and Switzerland, and along the banks of the Rhine. He returned with his portfolio full of sketches, of which the chief were the Fall of the Rhine at Schaffhausen and Viezes of St. Michael, near Bonneville. In 18c7 Turner was elected Professor of Perspective in the Royal Academy. lectures," says Mr. Redgrave, “ were from his naturally enigmatical and ambiguous style of delivery almost unintelligible .” About this time Turner, at the suggestion of his friend Mr. Wells, commenced publishing his “ Liber Studiorum” in rivalry with Claude's “ Liber Veritatis. ” It appeared in parts, each one containing five engravings, careful elaborations of light and shide effects, executed in mezzotint on copper printed with brown ink . “ His and 31 pport io & 22 LAKE AVERNC'S . THE GOLDEN “BOCGH ."Turner By the InNational Gallery

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ASTF, 1.1 " IDEN FOUN R 1 A.D. 1810.] TURNER. 421 In 1815 Turner exhibited two of his finest works at the Royal Academy, Crossing the Brook and Dido building Carthage. He never could be persuaded to part with the latter, though high prices were offered for it. Again, when it was decided to offer Turner five thousand pounds for his two pictures , the Rise and Fall of Carthage, for the National Gallery, " No, no ,” he exclaimed, “ they shall not have it,” but added that Carthage might some day become the property of the nation. And so it eventually did , for this picture and the Sun Rising in the Mist, were left to the National Gallery on condition that they should be hung beside Claude's Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba, and the Marriage of Isaac and Rebecca. In 1819 Turner made his first visit to Italy, the second in 1829, and the last in 1840. Within the space of the ten years between the first visits he completed nearly four hundred illustrations for publications, such as his South Coast Scenery, his England and Wales, Rivers of France, Rogers' Italy, Rogers' Poems, the Keepsake, &c. Turner throughout his life always shunned the society of other men. His mania for retirement grew stronger in his old age ; even his house in Queen Anne Street, which always bore the appearance of being deserted, was too much frequented by his fellow - creatures. He sought out an obscure lodging in Chelsea facing the Thames, and here under the assumed name of Admiral Booth - or rather “ Puggy Booth , ” as he was known in the neighbourhood - he spent the remainder of his days ; and there he died on the 19th of December, 1851 , in his seventy- sixth year. His will was a fitting to his laborious life, and effaced all those traits of avarice which otherwise blemished it . His noblest dream was to found a charity for “ male decayed artists , ” and it was doubtless his intention to leave the bulk of his property to be devoted to this purpose ; but the will was so confused , that it frustrated its main object, and after a four years' Chancery suit a compromise was arranged by all parties to the following effect : 1. The real property to go to the heir -at-law . 2. The pictures and drawings to the National Gallery. 3. One thousand pounds for the erection of a monument in St. Paul's Cathedral. 4. Twenty thousand pounds to the Royal Academy, free of legacy duty. 5. The remainder to be divided amongst the next of kin. 6. The engravings to the next of kin and heir-at- law. The National Gallery now possesses more than one hundred of Turner's pictures and a great number of water-colour drawings and sketches. John Constable was born at East Bergholt, a village in Suffolk, on June 11th, 1776. His father, a man of some property and position, was a miller, and intended his son to follow the same calling ; but the young artist showed such a strong pre ference for painting that after a year's trial he was allowed to give free scope to his taste. In 1800 he was admitted as a student to the Royal Academy schools, where he was assisted in his studies by Reinagle and Farington. Although he attempted portraiture during his early years with varying success, he, from the very first, displayed a marked and peculiar talent for landscape painting. He was always firmly convinced that he had the power to produce works of the highest class, though he fully recognised the fact that their merits might probably remain unnoticed by his contemporaries. In 1816 Constable married, and settled in a house in Charlotte Street , Fitzroy Square, where --with the exception of several trips into the country for the purposes of his art, to which he was faithfully devoted — he resided until 1820, when he took a cottage at Hampstead, for the sake of the lovely scenery and extensive views. He was elected 422 ( A.D. 1810. ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1819, and a full member in 1829. After several years of imperfect health, he died at his beloved Hampstead on the ist of April, 1837. As he had himself surmised, Constable's works were more admired after his death than during his life . It is strange that he met with better appreciation from the hands of French critics than from those of his native land. His most famous pictures are the Valley Farm , a work which will ever have an enduring charm ; the Corn Field — both in the National Gallery — and a View on the river Stour. The Sheepshanks Gallery possesses six others of his important works. He was one of the most truly original landscape painters we have ever had , and kept with rare fidelity to nature, taking especial care to render the effects of light and shade. Augustus Wall Callcott was born at Kensington Gravel- Pits — then a country hamlet - on February 20th, 1779. He studied under Hoppner, and began life as a portrait painter. His first exhibited picture was a Portrait of Miss Roberts, which appeared in 1799. In 1802 he discovered that his natural taste lay in another direction, and abandoned portraiture for landscape painting. In February, 1827, Callcott married , and shortly afterwards started on a tour through Italy. On his return , he took a house in the “ Mall,” and becanie a fashionable artist. His wife, who was an accomplished woman, assisted him by her literary labours on art subjects. On the accession of her Majesty the Queen, Callcott, who was then one of the favourite artists of the day, received the honour of knighthood. Sir Augustus Callcott died in 1844, regretted by those who knew him , for he was a liberal patron of young artists and kind and courteous to all. His works are mostly views of English scenery, though he sometimes varied them by producing figure subjects in conjunction with landscape. Some of his best known paintings are—the Old Pier at Littlehampton ; Calm in the Medway, Rochester ; Entrance to the Pool of London, and Dutch Peasants returning from Market. There are nine of his paintings in the National Gallery. William Linton, the celebrated classic landscape painter, was born in Liverpool in 1791 , and began life as a clerk in a merchant's office in that city. Not liking the duties imposed upon him , he threw up his situation about the year 1820, made his way to London, and devoted himself to the study of art. In 1821 he exhibited his first picture, the Morning after a Storm , at the British Institution, and about the same time joined the then newly founded “ Society of British Artists." He then made a long tour on the Continent, with a view of extending his range of subjects ; returned to England in 1829, and produced a fine series of landscapes treated in the classic style, including his well-known Italy. He then made a second and more extended tour, visiting Greece, Sicily and Calabria, and on his return , exhibited in 1842 , at the Gallery of the Society of Painters in Water-colours, several fine pictures , such as the Embarkation of the Greeks for Troy, the Temple of Pæstum , both exhibited in Westminster Hall. In 1842 his Lake of Orta and Bellinzona appeared at the Royal Academy, and from that date he was a frequent contributor to the annual exhibitions of that Institution . During the latter years of his life Linton devoted much time to art literature , publishing a pamphlet on " Ancient and Modern Colours, " in 1852 , and a book on the " Scenery of Greece and its Islands, " with fine illustrations from his own hand, in 1858. Linton died on the 13th of August, 1876. Among his best works we may name Marius at Carthage, Jerusalem at the Time of the Crucifixion, the Triumph of Fortuna Muliebris. William Allan, the historical painter, was born at Edinburgh in 1782. He was THE VALLEY F ( “ WILLY LOTT'S HOUSE . " ) By CONSTABLE . In the National Gallery .

A.D. 1810.] UWINS. 423 first apprenticed to a coach -builder, and subsequently studied in the Trustees' Academy in bis native city. He then came to London and entered the Royal Academy schools , but, in 1803, disappointed at his art being unappreciated, he set out on a journey through Russia, Tartary, and Turkey. While away he sent but one picture to the Royal Academy, Russian Peasants keeping their holiday, but it met with little notice. In 1814 Allan returned to Edinburgh, whence he sent to the Royal Academy several pictures of the scenes he had witnessed on his travels : Circassian Captives, in 1815 , Circassian Chief selling Captives, in 1816 ; and in 1817 , Tartar Robbers dividing their spoil, now in the National Gallery. Allan next changed his subjects to those of Scotch history, and painted Prince Charlie and Flora Macdonald ; the Murder of Archbishop Sharpe ; John Knox admonishing Mary Queen of Scots, in 1823--engraved by Burnet, the friend of the painter ; the Murder of Murray, in 1825 — this picture caused him to be elected Associate of the Academy ; the Orphan in 1833, now in Buckingham Palace. In 1835 , Allan was made a full member of the Royal Academy, and three years later, he became President of the Royal Scottish Academy. In 1841 , he was made Limner in Scotland to her Majesty the Queen , and at the same time received the honour of knighthood. In 1843 appeared his Battle of Waterloo from the French side, purchased by the late Duke of Wellington ; three years later, followed the companion picture from the English side, which was sent in competition to Westminster Hall. After numerous journeys to all parts of Europe, Sir William Allan died at Edinburgh in 1850. At the time of his death, Allan's art, thanks to the friendship of Sir Walter Scott and his own perseverance, was more popular than it had been in early life. remarkable grace. Thomas Uwins was born at Pentonville on the 25th of February, 1782. In his sixteenth year he was apprenticed to an engraver, with whom , however, he did not remain long, for in 1797 he was entered as a student of the Royal Academy schools. As early as 1808 , Uwins was employed in designing illustrations for books ; these were in most cases simply frontispieces, vignettes , or title - page adornments, which displayed A year later he was elected an Associate of the Society of Painters in Water-colours, and in the following year became a full member; he afterwards acted for a short time as secretary to that institution . In 1814 Uwins went for the benefit of his health on a visit to the South of France ; while there he made many sketches and studies , and commenced painting in oil . He returned to England about 1818, and for the next few years lived in Edinburgh, where he was very successful as a portrait painter. In 1824 Uwins went to Italy, and spent seven years in wandering about that country, gathering materials for a new style of subject, with which, on his return to England, he' secured a lasting claim to recognition . The pictures he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1832 earned for him the title of Associate, and , rapidly rising in public esteem, in the next year he was elected an Academician. In 1844 he was appointed Librarian to the Royal Academy ; in 1845 , Surveyor of her Majesty's pictures ; and in 1847 , Keeper of the National Gallery. Uwins resigned the two latter offices in 1855, and finding his health failing, went to live in quiet seclusion at Staines , where he spent the remainder of his days, and died at the age of seventy -five, in August, 1857 . His best pictures in the national collection are Le Chapeau de Brigand, and the Vintage in the Claret Vineyards, in the National Gallery ; and the Italian Mother 424 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [A.D. 1810. . teaching her Child the Tarantella, and a Neapolitan Boy decorating the Head of his Innamorata, in the South Kensington Museum. John Burnet, who was born near Edinburgh , probably at Musselburgh, on the 20th of March, 1784, was apprenticed to Robert Scott , an engraver of Edinburgh, and also studied in the Trustees' Academy in that city. While engaged in this way, he made the acquaintance of Wilkie, who remained his friend for life . In 1806 Burnet went to London, where, though chiefly known as an engraver, he attained to a certain fame by his painting Of his pictures the best known and most worthy of merit is the Greenwich Hospital and Naval Heroes, which he painted for the Duke of Wellington, and which was exhi bited at the British Institution in 1837. As a writer on art, he will be long remembered by treatises on the principles and practice of different branches of art . He died at Stoke Newington , on the 29th of April, 1868, aged eighty- four. James Burnet, the landscape painter, who was born at Musselburgh, in 1788, was a younger brother of John Burnet. Abandoning wood - carving in favour of painting, he went in 1810 to London, where his brother was already established ; two years later he first exhibited Evening - Cattle returning home, at the Royal Academy, where his pictures continued to appear until 1816, in which year he died at Lee, at the early age of twenty eight. James Burnet was a disciple of the Dutch painters, but did not copy them servilely ; his pictures, which are remarkable for truth to nature, show what he might have done had he enjoyed a longer life. David Wilkie was born in the year 1785 at Cults, in Fifeshire. Brought up in the seclusion of a Scotch manse — for his father was minister of the parish—he had during his boyhood but few opportunities of cultivating his early developed talent. It was the wish of the whole family that David should enter the Church , but in 1799 the lad had so far gained over his father to his side, that he was sent to the Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh, where four years later he won the ten -guinea premium for the best painting of the term ; the subject was Callisto in the Baths of Diana. In 1804 he paid a short visit to his home, and during that time painted a picture called Pitlassie Fair, the details of which were supplied by the incidents of a neighbouring festival , and which he sold for twenty -five pounds. At this time too he painted a few portraits of friends and relatives, and, having realized a little money, started, in May, 1805, to seek his fortune in London. Wilkie's first endeavour on his arrival in the metropolis was to obtain an entrance to the schools of the Royal Academy. He soon afterwards produced the Village Politicians, one of his best works, which was followed by the Blind Fiddler, now in the National Gallery, and the Rent Day, which procured for him in 1809 the title of Associate. In 1811 he was made a full member of the Royal Academy ; and in the same year he exhibited the Village Festival, which met with universal admiration. In 1814 he went abroad, and while in Paris studied at the Louvre ; on his return he enhanced his already wide- spread reputation by executing such favourite works as the Penny Wedding, and Reading the Will. Again , in 1825 , he made a long tour on the Continent, visiting Germany, Italy , and Spain. While in Spain he painted many pictures which ,owing to the influence of foreign travel , showed a marked difference. in his style. He returned to England in 1829, and in 1836 received the honour of knighthood. On a return voyage from the East he died suddenly, on the evening of June ist, 1841 , just after the ship had left Malta. He was buried at sea. 1 BRON THE VILLAGE POLITICIANS ,ByWILLIE l'aintei for Earl the Mansfield of,

A.D. 1810.) HAYDON. 425 William Frederick Witherington was born in Goswell Street, London, on the 26th of May, 1785. In his twentieth year he gained admission to the Royal Academy schools, and it must be presumed that he made but slow progress, for it was not until 1811 that he exhibited his first picture, a View of Tintern Abbey, at the British Institu tion. At this time, and for years subsequently, his works were principally composed of landscape and figure subjects in combination. In 1830 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy. One of his best-known works at this period, a Hop Garden, now in the Sheepshanks Collection , was exhibited at the British Institution in 1835. In 1840 he was made a Royal Academician. There are two excellent.paintings by him , the Stepping Stones and the Hop Garland, in the National Gallery. Almost all the pictures ascribed to him are thoroughly English ; they are pleasing, natural, and carefully composed. Witherington died, at the age of seventy-nine, on the roth of April, 1865 . Benjamin Robert Haydon, the son of a bookseller of Plymouth , was born on the 29th of January, 1786. He showed an early enthusiasm for art, and though appren ticed to his father's business, he refused to remain in it , and against the wishes of both his parents, set out to seek in London the education he desired. In May, 1804, young Haydon succeeded so far as to obtain admission to the Royal Academy schools. Probably there never was a painter who possessed a more exaggerated opinion of his own powers. His whole life was a strange medley of brilliant successes and the utmost miseries. His first attempt was characteristic of his nature ; when only twenty- one he painted a Flight into Egypt on a large scale. The next work was Dentatus attacked and murdered by his own soldiers, the subject of which was suggested by Lord Mulgrave, for whom the picture was executed. In 1814, Haydon accompanied Wilkie to Paris, and in the same year produced the Judgment of Solomon , which was exhibited at the British Institution , and sold for six hundred guineas. His most ambitious work, however, was Christ's Entry into Jeru salem , painted in 1820, which he predicted would mark an epoch in the history of English painting ! It was exhibited at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, and in that way brought its author nearly 3,000l. At this time Haydon established an art school at his residence in Lisson Grove, where he painted the Raising of Lazarus on an enormous scale ; it contains no less than twenty figures, each nine feet high ; it was exhibited in 1823. It is now on the entrance staircase of the National Gallery. Haydon rarely sent his pictures to the Academy, having a strange and morbid animosity against the Academicians as a body ; he generally resorted to exhibitions of his own. In 1840, he commenced a series of lectures, which were published in 1844 and 1846. His last great works were Nero watching the Burning of Rome, and the Banishment of Aristides, which were exhibited in 1846. They were coldly received by the public, and this so preyed on his sensitive mind that he put an end to his life in his studio at Connaught Terrace, on the 22nd of June, 1849. William Hilton, the son of a portrait painter who practised at Newark, was born at Lincoln on the 3rd of June, 1786. In the year 1800, young Hilton was appren ticed to John Raphael Smith, the mezzotint engraver, and six years later entered the schools of art at the Royal Academy. Hilton was particularly successful as a student of anatomy and figure drawing. His early exhibited works were principally classical subjects , such as Cephalus and Procris, 31 426 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . ( A.D. 1810. Venus carrying the wounded Achilles, and Ulysses and Calypso ; in 1810, he produced a large historical picture, the Citizens of Calais delivering their keys to Edward III., which gained from the directors of the British Institution a premium of fifty guineas. In 1813 Hilton was elected an Associate, and in 1819 a full member of the Royal Academy ; in 1827 , he was made Keeper, in which office he greatly endeared himself to the pupils and students. Hilton was a man of particularly retiring habits and gentle nature, and during the last few years of his life lived in complete seclusion. He died of heart disease, aggravated by sorrow for the death of a fond wife, on the 30th of December, 1839. His fine picture, Mary anointing the Feet of Jesus, was presented to the Church of St. Michael, in the City, by the directors of the British Institution , by whom it had been purchased for the sum of 550 guineas. His Christ crowned with Thorns was sold to the same purchasers, and by them presented to the church of St. Peter, Eaton Square. The picture by which , however, Hilton is probably best known is Edith discovering the dead body of Haroli , which obtained a premium of one hundred guineas. It is now in the National Gallery. A Crucifixion, in the possession of the Corporation of Liverpool, is a fine painting in the form of a triptych. Abraham Cooper was born in Red Lion Street , Holborn , in September 1787 . During his childhood he showed much talent for drawing; and as his father was an innkeeper, he was brought into frequent contact with horses, and formed a decided taste for animal subjects, which influenced the style of his numerous productions throughout his life. His first attempt was a portrait of a favourite horse belonging to Sir Henry Meux, which was so successful that the Baronet insisted on purchasing the work , and gave him commissions for other works. In 1814, Cooper's first exhibited picture, Tam Shanter, appeared at the British Institution ; it was purchased by the Duke of Marlborough. His next picture, representing the Battle of Marston Moor, was sent to the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1817 , and was the means of procuring his election as an Associate. From that time he was a constant exhibitor at the Royal Academy during the remainder of a long life. He died at Greenwich on Christmas eve, in 1868, in the eighty -second year of his age. As might have been expected, there was but little variation in the types of his subjects and the character of their treatment. Among the more important may be mentioned, as good specimens of his style, such works as the Pride of the Desert, the Arab Sheik, the Dead Trooper, Hawking in the Olden Time, the Battle of Bosworth Field, the Battle of Naseby, Richard I. ani Salailin at the Battle of Ascalon , and Both well's seizure of Mary Queen of Scots. William Mulready was born at Ennis, County Clare, in Ireland , on the zoth of April , 1786. All the general education he received was given by three different Roman Catholic priests in various parts of London , to which city his father had brought him when he was still a child . In 1800 Mulready was admitted , through the influence of Banks the sculptor, to the schools of the Royal Academy, where he showed a remarkable aptitude for drawing from the life. When only eighteen he married Miss Varley, the sister of the water colour painter, in whose school, in company with Hunt, Linnell, and many other well known artists, he had studied . The marriage was both imprudent and unhappy. A.D. 1810. ) MULREADY. 427 From this time Mulready was for many years a constant exhibitor at the Royal Academy. In 1815 he was elected an Associate, and in the very next year he was made an Academician. In the latter year he exhibited the Fight Interrupted, -now in the Sheepshanks Collection . From this time Mulready became a great favourite with the public, and his fame . rapidly spread among all classes. The Wolf and the Lamb, an excellent study of character, the Dog with two Minds, the Interior of an English Cottage, Giving a Bite, Choosing the Wedding Gown, Haymaking, the Whistonian Controversy, First Love, the Seven Ages of Man, and Fair Time, are a few among his many pictures which will always retain their hold upon our affections. Mulready's later years were passed at Kensington , first in a house in " The Mall,” and afterwards in Linden Grove, where he died somewhat suddenly, on the 7th of July, 1863. He was buried with much honour at Kensal Green , where a monument was erected to his memory by his many friends. Several of Mulready's best works are in the South Kensington Museum. Alexander Fraser was born at Edinburgh in 1786, and took his first lessons in art at the Trustees' Academy in that city, side by side with Wilkie, Gordon, and other great contemporaries. About 1825 , or perhaps some years earlier, Fraser went to London and exhibited first several clever and truthful coast-scenes, and then a series of humorous pictures such as a Cobbler at lunch, the Blackbird and his tutor, the Village Sign -painter. Later, his affections returned to his native land, and almost all his scenes were laid in Scotland , and his Newhaven, near Edinburgh, and Sir Walter Scott dining with one of the Blue- gown Beggars of Edinburgh , may be cited as excellent examples of his matured style. Fraser died at Wood Green, in 1865. George Jones, the son of a mezzotint engraver, was born in London in 1786. He turned his attention to art early in life , and in 1801 entered the Royal Academy schools. But his military ardour was even greater than his love of art, and he fought as an officer of the Militia in the Peninsular War. When peace was once again restored to Europe, Jones resumed his brush --hastily cast aside. In 1820 appeared a picture — oft repeated by the painter — the Battle of Waterloo, to which the British Institution awarded a premium of two hundred guineas. In 1820 he was elected an Associate of the Academy, and four years later became a full member. He was for some time Librarian and also Keeper of the Academy. Jones died in London in 1869 after a most successful career. In the National Gallery we shall find examples of his different subjects. Of his scenes of European wars, there is the Battle of Borodino ; of the illustrations of the adventures of the British Army in India, the Relief of Lucknow , Cawnpore, and the Passage of the Ganges. Of his historic pictures, of a biblical nature is the Burning Fiery Furnace, and of a secular, Lady Godiva preparing to ride through Coventry. And lastly, we have, as an example of his views of continental cities, the Town Hall of Utrecht. William Etty was born at York on the roth of March, 1787. His father was a miller and baker, and a Methodist in his religious opinions. He gave his son a careful education, beyond which the boy's attainments in ordinary learning were of the humblest description. When only twelve years old , young Etty was apprenticed to a printer at Hull, where he remained seven years . At the end of his time, an uncle, who lived in Lombard Street, rejoiced his heart by inviting him to stay in London : there he found the means of pursuing the studies which he had so long desired, 428 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . [ A.D. 1810. 66 and, in 1807 , he became a student at the Royal Academy. He proved a most diligent pupil, and was especially successful in drawing from the nude. After having worked at the Academy for a year, Etty became a pupil of Lawrence. His first attempts failed to meet with favour at the hands of either the painters or the public in general, and it was not until 1811 that his first work was admitted to the exhibitions of the Royal Academy. In 1820 he exhibited the Coral Finders, and in the following year, Cleopatra, both of which met with much admiration, and he then began a period of unremitting success. Two years later Etty went to Italy, and visited Rome, Florence, Naples, and Venice. Delighted with the charms of the queen of the Adriatic, he describes it as Venice, the birthplace and cradle of colour : the hope and idol of my professional life . ” He returned to London in 1824, and in the same year was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy. Four years later he was made an Academician . Etty died, beloved by all who knew him, at York - whither he had retired late in life: -on the 13th of November, 1849. He was buried in the churchyard of St. Olave's, not far from the famous Minster. His talents were of a versatile description. Among the many types he chose for his pictures, there is a wide range from such stern biblical subjects as Judith and Holo fernes, Benaiah, and the Eve of the Deluge, to the light and playful allegory of Youth at the Prow and Pleasure at the Helm . As a colourist he has been rivalled by few Englishmen, and in the portrayal of the female form and in the loveliness of his superb flesh- painting, he probably stands alone. William Collins , the charming interpreter of English rural and seaside life, was born in London of Irish parents on the 18th of September, 1787. He learned the first principles of art in the studio of George Morland- one of the earliest English painters who chose his subjects from the home life of the lower classes of his native land - whose influence is very distinctly noticeable in the works of his pupil . In 1807 , young Collins entered the Royal Academy schools, and exhibited two fine landscapes ; but compelled to earn his living by portrait painting, he did not follow them up with anything of a similar character until 1810, when, having saved money, he was able to choose his own subjects. He then produced a series of scenes of out- door life, such as Children birds'-nesting, or Swinging on gates, Prawn Fishers, Shrimpers, Fishermen on the look - out, treated in a simple life -like and effective manner which elicited high praise from the art critics of the day. In 1820, Collins was elected a Royal Academician, and until 1836 was a continual exhibitor of subjects similar to those by which he had made his reputation. Unfortu nately for his art, he then went to Italy with a view of improving his style , and enlarg ing his experience. After two years of travel, he returned home full of enthusiasm for the beauties of Italian scenery , and Italian peasantry ; and discontented with what now seemed the “ humdrum ” simplicity of every-day English life, he tried a higher style, and produced Italian landscapes, such as the Cave of Ulysses, and the Bay of Naples, following them up with the yet more ambitious subjects, Christ in the Temple with the Doctors, and the Two Disciples at Emmaus ; these subjects were not very successful, and with true wisdom the ambitious artist returned to his first style, and remained faithful to it until his death, which took place in Devonport Street, Hyde Park Gardens, on the 17th of February , 1847. George Henry Harlow, who was born in London in 1787 , studied successively under A.D. 1810. ) THE NORWICH SCHOOL. 429 De Cort, Drummond, and Sir Thomas Lawrence, who it is said dismissed him from his studio. Harlow then maintained himself by painting the portraits of the principal actors and actresses of the day, Miss Stevens, Mathews, and the Kembles, whom he painted in a family group under the title of the Trial of Queen Catherine. In 1805, he exhibited at the Royal Academy for the first time, and continued to do so until his death in London in 1819. Patrick Nasmyth — the son of Alexander Nasmyth, a Scotch landscape painter of no great note—was born at Edinburgh in 1787. He went to London in 1807 , and soon became popular as a landscape painter. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1809, but, joining the Society of British Artists in 1824, he sent more of his pictures to their exhibitions than to the Royal Academy. This painter—who was deaf through an illness, and left -handed by necessity, having lost the use of his right hand by acci dent - died in London in 1831. Nasmyth, who loved to represent his native scenery, like Crome, studied the manner of the Dutch masters, but unlike that artist , he aimed more at detail than general effect, a grave error in a landscape painter. Two of his works are in the National Gallery - a Cottage, formerly in Hyde Park, and the Angler's Nook. Three are in the South Kensington Museum : a Landscape with an Oak Nasmyth's favourite tree - believed to be the one that was planted in Penshurst Park on the birth of Sir Philip Sidney in 1554 ; a Cottage by a Brook ; and a Landscape with a Haystack. John Martin, one of the few English artists who have achieved a great position independently of the Royal Academy -was born in 1789 near Hexham , in Northum berland. He determined from the first to be an artist , but the only opening for him in his own county was in a coachmaker's office, in Newcastle, where he was apprenticed with a view to learning heraldic painting. He remained there but one year, and then became the pupil of Boniface Musso, an Italian teacher of some note, and accompanied him to London shortly afterwards. In 1806, Martin had made so much progress as to be able to support himself by painting on glass and china, and by teaching. His first picture, Sadak in search of the waters of oblivion, was sold for fifty guineas, and was succeeded by Paradise, and the Expulsion from Paradise, all of which gave considerable promise of the grand imagina tive power which subsequently characterized everything from his hand. Martin married at nineteen, and disappointed all prophecies of consequent ruin by rapidly climbing to the very summit of his profession , producing in rapid succession such world - famous works as Belshaszar's Feast, the Fall of Babylon, the Destruction of Herculaneum , the Seventh Plague, and the Creation . His twenty-four illustrations of ‘ Paradise Lost ' were scarcely less successful. He died at Douglas in the Isle of Man on the 17th of February, 1854, leaving in his studio several important unfinished pictures. THE NORWICH SCHOOL. John Crome, commonly known as “ Old Crome," the principal painter of the Norwich School, was born at Norwich in 1769. He was apprenticed to a house and sign painter, and while he remained with his master he employed his leisure time in painting the views around his native city. On the completion of his apprenticeship, Crome determined to be an artist, and in order to gain sufficient money to enable him to carry 430 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS ( A.D. 1810. . on his profession in comfort, he gave instruction in drawing and painting. Though he travelled both in England and on the Continent, Crome delighted most in representing his native scenery. He exhibited but fourteen works —all landscapes, with the exception of a Blacksmith's Shop - at the Royal Academy, but if the number of his pictures which appeared in London during his life is comparatively small, Norwich has no cause for complaint, for on the walls of the ' Norwich Society of Artists,' of which he was the founder, he exhibited no less than one hundred and ninety- six pictures. He died at Norwich on the 22nd of April , 1821. Many of his best works have been recently shown at the Winter Exhibition of the Royal Academy. The National Gallery possesses three of his pictures, all views near Norwich : Mousehold Heath—one of his best works ; a View of Chapel-Fields, and a Windmill on a Heath, probably Mousehold. “ Crome seems to have founded his art on Hobbema, Ruysdael, and the Dutch School , rather than on the French and Italian painters ; except so far as these were represented by our countryman Wilson, whose works he copied, and whose influence is seen mingled with the more naturalistic treatment derived from the Dutch masters. He had less finesse of execution , and paid less attention to details than the Dutchmen, and had a fine sense of generalized imitation." ( Redgrave's ' Century of Painters. ) We may here notice his elder son, John Bernay Crome, who was born at Norwich towards the close of the eighteenth century. He painted in the same style as his father, but in a much inferior manner. He occasionally exhibited in the Royal Academy, London. He died in 1842 at Yarmouth, where he had resided some time previously. James Stark, who, next to Crome, is the best painter of the Norwich School , was born in that city in 1794. At the age of seventeen, he was placed with “ Old Crome ” to learn painting. He remained with that master for three years, and derived much benefit from his instruction. In 1812 he was elected a member of the Norwich Society of Artists. Soon after leaving Crome, Stark went to London, and , in 1817, entered the Royal Academy schools. Then appeared several of his best works. Bors Bathing, Flounder Fishing, Lambeth, looking towards Westminster Bridge, and others. Stark was obliged through illness to leave London, and repair for rest and quiet to his native city. In 1827 he commenced , and 1834 finished his illustrations for the Scenery of the Rivers Yare and Waveney, Norfolk ,' which were engraved by Goodall, the Cookes, and other eminent artists. This work, though it has since made his name famous, added little to the artist's pocket. In 1830, Stark was sufficiently recovered to resume his labours in London ; but ten years later he went to Windsor, in order to be near the beautiful scenery of the Thames. Returning to London, Stark died there in 1859. He was a contributor to the Water-colour Society, the British Institution and the Royal Academy. Stark is a worthy disciple of his master, Crome, but lacks his vigour both in colour and drawing. George Vincent, who was born at Norwich towards the close of the eighteenth tury , studied bis art under Crome. From 1811 till he settled in London in 1818,he sent pictures to the Norwich Exhibition ; and from 1814 till 1823, he was anoccasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy. His pictures were chiefly views near Norwich. He was also an exhibitor at the British Institution and the Water-colour Society. His masterpiece is a View of Greenwich Hospital,seen from the river. It was painted on commission for Mr. Carpenter of the British Museum, and was exhibited in the International Exhibition of 1862. Vincent was especially fond of sun - light effects on 11 cen A.D. 1810.1 HAYTER. 431 clouds in his pictures. He is supposed to have died in London, but neither the place nor the date of his death has been ascertained. John Sell Cotman, who was born at Norwich in 1782 , was in a great measure his own instructor in art, though he owed much to the kind patronage of Dr. Munro. In 1800 he came to London where he resided, and exhibited at the Royal Academy until 1806, when he returned to Norwich. In the following year he was made a member and secretary to the Norwich Society of Artists, and in one single year, 1808, he sent no less than sixty-seven works to the exhibition. After various journeys in Normandy, and a residence of some years in Yarmouth, Cotman was, in 1834, appointed Professor of Drawing to King's College School. He held this post until his death which occurred in London in 1842. Besides his landscapes, and marine pieces in oil and water- colour, he executed numerous engravings of architecture both of England and of Normandy. With this painter we close our account of the Norwich School, for, owing chiefly to the want of appreciation and patronage of art in Norfolk, the school which had risen so quickly died out almost as soon. John Watson Gordon was born in Edinburgh in 1790, and learnt the rudiments of his art in the “ Academy of Trustees for the Encouragement of Manufacture, " then presided over by John Graham ; he at first intended to be an historical painter, but soon discovered that portraiture was his true line , and his likenesses of Sir Walter Scott, Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Forbes, the Prince of Wales, and other celebrities are by some critics considered worthy to rank with the works of Velasquez and Vandyck. In 1841 Gordon was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, and in 1850 President of the Royal Scottish Academy. In the same year he was appointed “ Limner ” to her Majesty for Scotland and wasknighted, and in 1851 became a Royal Academician. He died on the ist of June, 1864, in his seventy -fourth year. George Hayter, the son of a drawing-master, author of the well- known · Intro duction to Perspective,' was born in 1792. Young Hayter began life as a sailor, but soon deserted his profession to practise miniature painting, rapidly achieving so much success as to be appointed, in 1815 , painter to the Princess Charlotte. A brief visit to Rome, somewhat later, led to his adopting a more ambitious branch of art, but his large pictures , such as the Trial of Queen Charlotte, are of inferior merit. Before his death , which took place in 1871 , at the age of seventy- eight, Hayter received knighthood , and was appointed Principal Painter-in - Ordinary to her Majesty. His Coronation of Queen Victoria is his most celebrated work. Henry Perronet Briggs, who was born at Walworth in 1792 , entered the Royal Academy schools in London in 1811 . He first exhibited in 1814 ; the work was a portrait, but for many years Briggs painted chiefly historic subjects. Of these we may notice Othello relating his adventures , and the First Conference between the Spaniards and the Peruvians, painted in 1826, and Juliet and her Nurse, painted in 1827 , now in the National Gallery. Briggs was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1825 , and full member in 32. Henceforth his talent w so much in demand for portraiture, that he, against his own wishes, abandoned historic painting in favour of that branch of art. He died in London in 1844. 432 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. [ A.D. 1810. Francis Danby, the historical and landscape painter, whose works greatly resemble Martin's in poetry of design, was born in the county of Wexford, on the 16th of November, 1793. He learnt the first principles of his art of an Irishman , named O'Connor, in Dublin, where in 1812 his earliest picture, a landscape, called Evening, was exhibited . In 1813 , master and pupil set off together to seek their fortunes in London, but their funds becoming exhausted before they reached the metropolis, they stopped at Bristol. There Danby managed to sell some drawings, and with the proceeds paid O'Connor's expenses to Dublin ; but he himself remained in Bristol , and for a few years supported himself by giving lessons in water- colour painting, now and then sending up an original picture to the Academy, such as the now well-known Dis appointed Love, Clearing up of a Shower, Sunset after a Storm at Sca . His Upas, or Poison - tree of Java, -- now in the South Kensington Museum --- first appeared at the British Institution in 1820. In 1825 , his Delivery of the Israelites out of Egypt having won him the honour of election as an Associate of the Royal Academy, he went to live in London ; he remained there until 1829, producing the yet finer works of the Opening of the Sixth Seal, and other mystical subjects from Revelations. In 1830, a quarrel with the Royal Academy drove him from England, and for the next eleven years he lived in Switzerland, giving up his time to boat- building, yachting, and the painting of pictures on commission. Two works only appeared at the annual London exhibitions during this long interim , the Golden Age, and Rich and rare were the gems In 1841 , he returned to England, took up his residence at Lewisham , and began to paint large subjects for exhibition at the British Institution or the Royal Academy, with all his old enthusiasm . His Evening Gun, with the sacred pictures already alluded to, are considered his finest works. He died at Exmouth in 1861. she wore. Charles Lock Eastlake, the son of a solicitor, was born at Plymouth on the 17th of November, 1793. Unlike most artists, who have generally had to fight their way up the ladder of success by their own unaided efforts, all was made easy for Eastlake from the beginning. He had a good education, first at the Plympton Grammar School ; then in London at the Charterhouse ; and when, at the age of seventeen, he expressed a wish to become a painter, he was placed under the instruction of Haydon, and entered as a student at the Royal Academy. In 1813 he exhibited his first picture , Christ raising the daughter of the Ruler of the Synagogue ; in the following year he went to Paris to copy some of the masterpieces collected there by Napoleon, and on his return to England in 1815 , he practised portrait-painting at Plymouth for a short time with considerable success. In 1819, he started on an art tour in Italy, and pursued his studies in that country , chiefly at Rome and Ferrara ; and for fourteen years sent home numerous fine works, which led to his election as an Associate of the Academy in 1827 , and as a Royal Academician in 1830. At the latter date he reluctantly returned to England, and during the succeeding years devoted himself entirely to painting ; producing his Greek Fugitives, Christ blessing little Children, Christ lamenting over Jerusalem , and other works. In 1842 he edited the Italian part of Kugler's ' Handbook of Painting, ' and soon after published his own Materials for a History of Oil-painting . He held the offices of Librarian of the Royal Academy, and Keeper of the National Gallery. In 1850, he was elected President of the Royal Academy, and at the same time received the honour of knighthood. From that date Sir Charles Eastlake's time was almost entirely occupied in the onerous task of selecting pictures for purchase by the British Government ; and he 6 A.D. 1810. ] CLARKSON STANFIELD . 433 rarely exhibited anything of his own. In the year 1865 he started on his annual tour for collecting examples of continental art for the National Gallery, was taken ill at Pisa , and died there on the 24th of December. His body was removed to England and interred in the Kensal Green cemetery. Sir Charles Eastlake, who is as well known for his contributions to art literature as by his pictures, was an honorary D.C.L. of Oxford , a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and a member of several foreign Academies. William Clarkson Stanfield, the celebrated marine painter, was born at Sunderland, of Irish parents, in 1794. He began life as a sailor, but even on board ship he practised drawing by sketching the vessels as they passed. A severe fall, just as Clarkson was making his way in the navy, led to his discharge. On his recovery he engaged himself to the manager of the Old Royalty Theatre as a scene-painter ; and a little later we find him in the more ambitious position of painter to Drury Lane Theatre. In 1813 Stanfield became a member of the Society of British Artists , founded in that year, and in 1827 his first large picture on canvas, Wreckers off Fort Rouge, was exhibited at the British Institution . The same year a Calm appeared at the Royal Academy, and from that date his progress was rapid. His naval battles, views of foreign seaports , mountain and river scenery, characterized by a faithfulness to nature under all its varied aspects, have been seldom surpassed. In 1832 Stanfield became an Associate of the Royal Academy, and in 1835 a full member. He died at Hampstead on the 18th of May, 1867 , having exhibited one hundred and thirty -two pictures in the Academy alone. The Winter Exhibition of 1870 included forty - five of his most important works. Among his best pictures we may name the Battle of Trafalgar, now in the National Gallery ; the Victory, with the body of Nelson on board, towed into Gibraltar ; British Troops taking possession of the Heights of San Bartolommeo ; the Abandoned ; Homeward Bound ; Castello d'Ischia ; and Isola Bella, Lago Maggiore. Charles Robert Leslie — the celebrated illustrator of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Le Sage, Molière, Addison, Sterne, and other great authors--was born in Clerkenwell on the with of October, 1794 , of English parents, and when five years of age was taken by them to America. He was apprenticed to a bookseller, and during this time drew at the theatre a Portrait of Cooke, the English tragedian, which so much excited the admiration of his master, and other influential persons, that a subscription was set on foot to enable him to obtain an art education in London, and he arrived there in 1811 , provided with excellent letters of introduction. He was cordially welcomed by West, Allston , and other American artists, and in 1813 was admitted a student of the Academy, and gained two silver medals soon after his entrance. From that time his progress was rapid . His first oil-paintings, the Murder Scene from Macbeth, and Sir Roger de Coverley going to Church , revealed his special vocation, and were rapidly followed by other similar subjects. In 1821 he was elected an Associate of the Academy, and in 1826 was admitted to full membership. During the succeeding years his finest works — including the Merry Wives of Windsor, the Taming of the Shrew , and Uncle Toby and the Widow Wadman - were produced. In 1833 Leslie accepted an appointment at the American Academy of West Point, but he threw it up in the following year, returned to England, and from that time till his death he lived and worked in London. In the years 1847 to 1852 Leslie was Professor of Painting at the Academy, and produced-in addition to his lectures in that capacity, published 3 K 434 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [ A.D. 1820. . in 1845 , under the title of ' A Handbook for Young Painters, ' —a valuable biography of his fellow -artist, Constable. Leslie died at London in 1859. His works are chiefly remarkable for dramatic power and delicate humour. Twenty -four of his best pictures are in the South Kensington Museum . Gilbert Stuart Newton, one of the group of American artists who became so entirely naturalised in England as to be justly claimed as members of our modern school - was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia , on the 2nd of September, 1795 , and took his earliest lessons in art from his uncle Gilbert Stuart, who held a good position as portrait painter in Boston . In 1817 young Newton left America to travel on the Continent, and after visiting Italy went to Paris , where he formed a friendship with his fellow -countryman Leslie, and with him came to London. At once admitted a student at the Royal Academy, he made rapid progress, exhibited a small head of great beauty, called The Forsaken , with two other fine works, Lovers' Quarrels and the Importunate Author, at the British Institution in 1821 , and in 1823 began to contribute to the Royal Academy. The Don Quixote in his Study, and Captain Macheath upbraided by Polly and Lucy, were much admired , but were thrown into the shade by his Vicar of Wakefield reconciling his Wife to Olivia, exhibited in 1828, and which led to his election as an Associate of the Royal Academy. This was succeeded by the yet more striking Yorick and the Grisetti, Cordelia and the Physician, and Portia and Bassanio, and other similar works. In 1832 Newton was elected a full member of the Academy, and the same year he paid a visit to his native land, where he married , and returned to England a few months later. All now looked bright and promising enough, but in 1833 appeared the first symptoms of the terrible malady which darkened the remainder of his life. He began to show signs of mental aberration, exhibited but one more picture , Abelard in his Study, and soon became totally insane. He died at Chelsea of rapid consumption on the 5th of August, 1835 , and was buried in Wimbledon churchyard. John Frederick Herring, the celebrated animal painter, was born in Surrey in 1795. His father was an American of Dutch descent. Till he was eighteen years of age young Herring spent his life in London. He then determined to make a start in life for himself, and went to Doncaster, where he became first an apprentice to a coach painter, and subsequently a driver of stage-coaches. He studied art at odd times, and became known as the “ artist coachman ,” but it was not till some years after that he was induced to abandon the reins for the brush . He studied for a short time under Abraham Cooper, and soon obtained numerous commissions to paint horses for country gentle men, and his name as an animal painter became firmly established . For thirty- three years in succession he painted the winners of the St. Leger Race at Doncaster, all of which have been engraved . Besides numerous other commissions Herring was honoured by commands from royalty, and painted portraits of horses both for George IV. and Queen Victoria . Herring left Doncaster in 1830, and, after a short residence at Newmarket, returned to London, From this time he took to a higher branch of art and produced rural scenes, but still the horse and dog were the prominent features in these paintings. His later works were exhibited chiefly at the British Institution and at the Society of British Artists , of which he was elected a member in the year 1841 ; his name also for many years appeared in the catalogues of the Royal Academy Exhibitions. Amongst the most popular of his latter style are : -- the Fcrry, Maseppa, Three Members of the Temperanic Society, and the Frugal Alcal , which now hangs in the National Gallery. A.D. 1820. ] DAVID ROBERTS. 435 This excellent and almost entirely self-taught animal painter, after a long course of success, died at his residence, Meopham Park, near Tunbridge, in September, 1865. David Roberts — the landscape and architectural painter, whose richly coloured interiors of continental cathedrals are so widely known and so justly popular-was born at Stockbridge, near Edinburgh, on the 2nd of October, 1796. He began life as a house decorator, and some time after became a scene-painter to a company of strolling players, which led to his obtaining an engagement at Drury Lane Theatre in 1822. His first pictures on canvas were exhibited in Edinburgh, and sold for very low prices ; but in 1824 he joined the Society of British Artists, and his views, exhibited on the walls of their gallery in Suffolk Street, brought him into general notice. In 1826 his Rouen Cathedral appeared at the Royal Academy. In 1828–29 he worked with Stan field for the “ British Diorama," and in 1830 he made excursions in France and Germany, with a view to extending his range of subjects. In 1832–33 Roberts wandered about Spain, and to this latter trip we owe some of his most valuable productions, including his large view of Burgos Cathedral and the well-known series of “ Picturesque Sketches in Spain . ” After his return to England he started , in 1838, on a most important art tour in Egypt and Syria, resulting in the pro duction in 1841 of his Ruins of Baalbec ; in 1843 of his Gate of Cairo ; in 1845 of his Jerusalem from the South - East, the Mount of Olies ; and between 1842-49 of his well known publication called “ Roberts's Sketches in the Holy Land, Syria , and Egypt.' He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy during his absence in the East in 1838, and a full member in 1841. He died suddenly of apoplexy in London on the 25th of November, 1864. Two of his pictures are in the Vernon Collection at the National Gallery. Frederick Yeates Hurlstone was born in London in 1800, and began life in the office of the Morning Chronicle, but soon manifesting great talent for art, he was placed first under the tuition of Sir William Beechey, and then of Sir Thomas Lawrence. He is also supposed to have taken lessons of Haydon. In 1820 he became a student at the Royal Academy, and after carrying off several of the medals of that Society, and producing some very fine portraits, he went to Italy , and thence to Spain and Morocco, perfecting his style by the study alike of nature and of the old masters. His Prisoner of Chillon, a Scene in St. Peter's, Rome, the Enchanted Garden of Armida, the Sons of Jacob bringing the blood - stained garment of Joseph to their Father, and Italian Boys playing at the national game of Mora, are among his best works. Hurlstone died on the roth of June, 1869. He was President of the Society of British Artists for nearly thirty years. James Baker Pyne was born at Bristol in 1800, and began life in the office of a solicitor ; soon, however, leaving it to study art and earn a scanty subsistence by painting, teaching, and restoring pictures. In 1835 he went to London, and in 1836 a painting by him was accepted by the Royal Academy. This was the beginning of a long period of success. One patron sprang up after another, and in 1846 Pyne was able to realise the dream of every art student in a visit to Italy. This resulted in the formation of his style , the main characteristic of which was the almost Turner-like treatment of sunlight, and the love of expansive distances. He became a landscape painter of the very first rank, and one of the ablest of the numerous exponents of English lake-scenery. He died on the 29th of July, 1870, in his seventieth year. Richard Parkes Bonington, the landscape painter, was born at Arnold , near 436 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . [ A.D. 1820. Nottingham , in 1801. When quite a child he was taken by his father, a portrait painter, to Paris, and was permitted to study in the Louvre and enter as a student in the Ecole des Beaux - Arts ; he was also an occasional student of Baron Gros. In 1822 Bonington paid a visit to Italy , and then returned to England ; he did not remain long, but returned to Paris, where, while sketching, he caught a sun - stroke which caused brain - fever, from which he never recovered ; he died. soon after in London, in 1828, at the early age of twenty - seven. Bonington is another sad example of genius cut off in its bloom , for the few works which he painted showed extraordinary talent. He excelled alike in landscape, marine, and figure subjects. At the British Institution he exhibited amongst others, in 1826 , two Views on the French Coast, which were much admired, and the Column of St. Mark, Venice, now in the National Gallery. To the Royal Academy he sent but four pictures, Henri III. of France, the Grand Canal, Venice, both painted in 1828 , and two Coast Scenes. Edwin Henry Landseer, the celebrated animal painter - one of the few English artists who have rivalled the realistic Dutch masters of the seventeenth century in the rendering of textures such as fur and feathers, and whose forcible and dramatic scenes from the animal creation have done more to promote sympathy with our “ dumb friends ” than the efforts of any society yet founded — was the son of John Landseer, the engraver, and was born in London on the 7th of March, 1802. His talent was recognised at a very early age, and lessons in art were given to him by his father on Hampstead Heath and the adjoining fields, where he spent hours in sketching horses, donkeys, and dogs, from the life. When still a mere boy he received a prize from the Society of Arts for a drawing of a Horse for Hunting, and he was only fourteen when he became a student at the Royal Academy and exhibited the heads of a Pointer Bitch and Puppy. At seventeen his Dogs Fighting brought him into general notice, and from that time his success was rapid and almost unprecedented. In 1826 he was elected an Associate, and in 1831 a full member of the Royal Academy; and in 1850 he was knighted. His most celebrated early works were, Alpine Mastiffs rescuing a Distressed Traveller, the Larder Invadet, and the Cat's Paw ; but their popularity was nothing to that of Chery Chase, a Jack in Office, the Hunted Stag, the Pets, and Bolton Abbey in the Olden Time, produced between 1825 and 1834 ; and when these were succeeded by the Ol Shepherd's Chief Mourner, -one of the most pathetic poems on canvas ever painted ; Tethered Rams, the Highland Shepherid's Home, There's Life in the Old Dog yet, the public enthusiasm knew no bounds. Admitted into the highest society, Sir Edwin Landseer became the constant and honoured guest of the royal family ; but at the very zenith of his prosperity ( 1851 and 1852) his life was clouded by a nervous illness which compelled him to retire into complete privacy. From this he rallied , though his powers were slightly impaired, but in 1868 a railway accident brought on a serious relapse, and he died in 1873 , after three years of great suffering. He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. In the Winter Exhibition of the Royal Academy in 1874, no less than 461 works of Sir Edwin Landseer were shown to a delighted public. George Lance, the most distinguished English painter of fruit, flowers, and still-life, --the Van Huysum of England --was born at Little Easton , near Dunmow in Essex, in 1802 . When he was still young , his father removed to London , and young Lance after a short time spent in a manufactory, engaged himself to Haydon, with whom A.D. 1825. ) SIR EDWIN LANDSEER. 437 he remained seven years, and during that time attended as a student the schools of the Royal Academy. In 1828 Lance first became an exhibitor, with a picture entitled Dead Game. From this time he continued to send works to the Academy until 1862, his picture for that year being a Gleam of Sunshine. Altogether he exhibited thirty - eight pictures, the most noteworthy of which are Red Cap, now in the National Gallery, and the Village Coquette. Although Lance excelled chiefly in producing subjects of still-life, there is evidence to show that liad he followed the footsteps of his master, he would have doubtless attained equal success as a painter of historical subjects ; for in 1836 he painted, in competition for the prize offered by the Council of the Liverpool Academy for the best historical picture of the season, Melancthon's first Misgivings of the Church of Rome, which obtained the award. One of this artist's most noted works, combining both figure and fruit, is the Seneschal, painted for Sir S. Morton Peto, to decorate his country residence at Somerleyton. Suffering from ill-health , Lance went on a visit to his son, at Sunnyside, on the banks of the Mersey, near Birkenhead, in the hope of regaining his strength, but he gradually sank, and died on the 18th of June, 1864. Robert Scott Lauder was born near Edinburgh in 1802 , and owed his art-education to David Roberts and Sir Walter Scott, the former having been the first to recognise his talent, and the latter to procure him regular instruction in the now famous Trustees' Academy, of Edinburgh. Five years in that institution were succeeded by three of study in the British Museum, and returning in 1820 to his native city, Lauder became a Member of the Scottish Academy, and the able assistant of Sir William Allan at the school in which he had long been himself a pupil. Then followed a short visit to Italy, and a long residence in London, marked by the production of some of his very finest works, such as · Ruth, the Bride of Lammermoor, the Trial of Effie Deans, the Glee Maiden, Christ teaching Humility, and Christ walking on the Waves, all character ized by forcible drawing and skill of design ; and the two last- named recalling the old masters in the severe beauty and more than mortal sadness of the face of our Saviour. Lauder died in Edinburgh on the 21st of April, 1869. John Frederick Lewis was born in London in 1805. He was the son of an engraver and landscape painter, who instructed him in both arts , but young Lewis, when about fifteen years of age, abandoned engraving in favour of painting. In 1820, his first work appeared, at the British Institution ; and in the following year, he became an exhibitor at the Royal Academy. In 1828 he was elected a member of the Water-colour Society. About this time he commenced a series of travels, which, lasting through a greater part of his life , furnished him with subjects for many of his best pictures. He went through the Tyrol to Italy, thence in 1833 to Spain where he remained two years, and made, besides original sketches and drawings, water - colour copies of many masterpieces of foreign painters. , Sixty- four of these copies were afterwards purchased by the Royal Scottish Academy as studies for young artists. After three years residence in England, Lewis went again in 1838, to Italy, thence in 1843 to Cairo, and journeyed about Egypt and Asia Minor till 1851 , in which year he returned to England, where he settled for the rest of his life. Then appeared many of his best pictures-executed from sketches made abroad. he was elected President of the Water-colour Society (which post he subsequently resigned) , and exhibited his masterpiece, a Frank Encampment in the Desert of Mount In 1856, 438 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1830. Sinai, which had occupied him for several years. In 1854, Lewis returned to the Royal Academy. In 1855 appeared an Armenian Lady ; in 1856 he sent the Greeting in the Desert ; in 1857 , a Syrian Sheik ; and in 1858, an Inmate in the Harem ; a Kibbob Shop, and three others. In the next year Lewis was elected an Associate and exhibited Waiting for the Ferry-boat. In 1865 , he was elected a full member, and continued to exhibit even up to the time of his death. His last works, Mid -day meal, Cairo, a Cairo Bazaar, and on the banks of the Nile, Upper Egypt, all show that his love for Eastern subjects was never diminished. Lewis died on the 15th of August, 1876, seventy - one years of age, at Walton -on - Thames, where he had resided for many years. Lewis's folio volumes of ' Sketches and Drawings in the Alhambra ,' and also his ‘ Sketches of Spain, ' reproduced in lithography, gained him much popularity. William Dyce, the son of a physician, was born at Aberdeen in 1806, became a pupil at the Royal Scottish Academy, and for a short time in the Royal Academy schools. He then went to Italy, where he studied the old masters, who produced a life - long effect on his style. In 1827 , Dyce exhibited at the Royal Academy, Bacchus nursed by the Nymphs, and he sent home from Italy a Madonna and Chili . In 1830, he returned and settled in Edinburgh, where he rapidly rose to fame. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1835 , and in the following year he exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, a well- known work, the Descent of Venus. He continued a constant exhibitor on the walls of the Royal Academy. About 1838, he removed to London, and in 1844, he exhibited his Joash shooting the Arrow of Deliverance, and was in the same year elected an Associate. In 1847 appeared the sketch of the fresco executed at Osborne House - Neptune assigning to Britannia the Empire of the Sea. Dyce continued to exhibit historic works - chiefly of a biblical nature — of great merit until 1861. Being chosen to decorate the Queen's robing room , he began , but did not finish the Legend of King Arthur : he painted five works typical of Hospitality, Religion, Mercy, Generosity, and Courtesy. He died at Streatham in 1864, and was buried in the parish church. Horatio McCulloch, the son of a manufacturer, was born in Glasgow in 1806. He began life as an apprentice to a house painter, but soon manifested such exceptional talent as to attract the admiring notice of his artist contemporaries. In 1834 he had already exhibited nine fine landscapes ; two years later he was an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy, and in 1838 a Fellow of that Institution ; the honour being fairly won by a succession of exquisite views of rugged Scottish scenery, which , instinct with power and pathos, raised their artist to the very first rank amongst the many great landscape painters of the North . His Loch Maree, Loch Achray, and Loch Awe, are among his finest works, but a list of all that he produced of undeniable excellence would fill many pages. The last years of his life were darkened by paralysis ; the two first shocks, though they weakened his body, left his intellect unimpaired , and he worked on at his easel ; but the third which overtook him at his seaside residence on the south of Edinburgh proved fatal, and he died on the 24th of June, 1867. George Harvey, who was born at St. Ninans, Fifeshire, in 1806, is well known from the part he took in helping to establish the Royal Scottish Academy. He was at first apprenticed to a bookseller at Stirling , but when eighteen years of age removed to Edinburgh and commenced an art career for himself. He was soon afterwards, in 1826 , made an Associate of the new Royal Scottish Academy, and in 1829 he became a full member. His popularity , in Scotland at least , was great , and in 1864 he was A.D. 1840. ) THOMAS CRESWICK . 439 made President of the Society Academy, and three years later received the honour of knighthood. He died on the 22nd of January, 1876. The works of Sir George Harvey are mostly of puritanical subjects : Covenanters' Communion, painted in 1840 ; Bunyan imagining his Pilgrim's Progress in Bedford Gaol ; and in 1836, of a less peaceful nature, the Battle of Drumclog. Thomas Duncan, who was born at Kinclaven, Perthshire, in 1807 , studied art under Sir William Allan. He was first brought into notice by his pictures of a Milkmaid, and Sir John Falstaff, exhibited in Scotland. In 1840, he sent to the Royal Academy, the Entrance of Prince Charlie into Edinburgh after Preston Pans. In the following year appeared his Waefu Heart (from " Auld Robin Gray ' ) , now in the Sheepshanks Collection, in the South Kensington Museum . In 1843, Duncan was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, but died at Edinburgh two years later without obtaining the diploma of membership. Besides his historic pictures, Duncan painted several portraits of great merit. Frank Stone, who was born at Manchester in 1800, was his own instructor in art. When thirty -one years of age he came to London, and at first painted in water- colour, but he finally abandoned that method in favour of oil . His pictures are sometimes portraits , sometimes scenes of domestic life, and occasionally historical pieces. In 1840 appeared the Legend of Montrose, then came the Last Appeal, painted in 1843 , and The Course of true Love never diil run smooth, in the following year. Some time after he exhibited his homely and humorous Impending Mate and Mated - all well known by engravings. In 1851 , Stone was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, but he died in 1859, before he was elected to the honour of full membership. Thomas Creswick-one of the most distinguished members of the modern English school of landscape painting, whose works rival , in knowledge of aerial perspective and mastery of colour, those of Turner himself - was born at Sheffield in 1811 . At the age of seventeen he went to London to seek his fortune, and his paintings being readily accepted both by the Society of British Artists and by the Royal Academy, he made the capital his home, and enriched the exhibitions with scenes from Wales and Ireland. About the year 1840 , he turned his attention to the beauties of the North of England , and produced some of his finest works — the quiet beauty of our inland scenery with its broad rivers , shady glens, and romantic delis, living again on his canvas. In 1842 Creswick was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, and received a premium of fifty guineas for the general excellence of his productions. In 1851 he became a full member of the Academy, and somewhat later painted several works in conjunction with his colleagues Frith and Ansdell, who gave life and animation to his pictures by the introduction of figures and cattle . Creswick did in December, 1869 , at Linden Grove, Bayswater, after a long career of unceasing activity, and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. Among his most noteworthy works we may name the London Road a hundred years ago, the Weald of Kent, the Valley Mill, the Blithe Brook, the Village Bridge, and Across the Beck. The three examples of his style in our national collections, the Pathway by the Village Church , a Scene on the Tummel, Perthshire, and a Summer's Afternoon, are of considerable beauty, and may serve to give a general notion of the special character of his works. He was one of the members of the well- known Etching Club, and assisted in the production of all their best works. Daniel Maclise, the son of a Scotch officer, was born at Cork , on the 25th of January, 440 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 18.10. 1811 . He was anxious to become an artist from his earliest boyhood, and at the age of fifteen he left, against his father's will, the office of a banker to whom he had been apprenticed , and entered the Art Academy at Cork . His first commissions were portraits of officers of the 14th Dragoons, stationed for a time at Cork , and in 1826 the youthful aspirant for fame was able to indulge in a sketching tour in Wicklow . In 1828 young Maciise made his way up to London , became a student at the Royal Academy, and exhibited in 1829 his first subject picture, Malvolio affecting the Count, from “ Twelfth Night.” In 1831 , he obtained, by his Choice of Hercules, the gold medal for the best historical composition ; and in 1835 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, owing chiefly to his well-known Chivalric Vow of the Ladies and the Peacock, which immediately succeeded Snap-apple Night, and the Instullation of Captain Rock, b th scarcely less popular. Between 1835 and 1840 were produced some of his finest and most ambitious works - large compositions, crowded with figures and remarkable for beauty of drawing and design -- of which we may name, among the most remarkable, Macbeth and the Witches, Olivia and Sophia fitting out Moses for the Fair, the Banquet Scene in Macbeth, the Ordeal by Touch , and Robin Hood and Richard Caur de Lion. In 1840 Maclise was made a Royal Academician. The latter years of his life were devoted to the celebrated frescoes in the Houses of Parliament, the Meeting of Wellington and Blücher, and the Death of Nelson. Under the name of Alfred Croquis ” Maclise produced a remarkable series of portraits of public men, which appeared in Fraser's Magazine' ; the original drawings have been bequeathed to the South Kensington Museum by the late Mr. John Forster. He also illustrated several works, including Moore's “ Irish Melodies ' and the · Pilgrims of the Rhine. Maclise died on the 25th of April, 1870. “ No artist, ” said his friend Charles Dickens, at the next Academy dinner, “ ever went to his rest leaving a golden memory more free from dross, or having devoted himself with a truer chivalry to the goddess whom he worshipped .” William John Müller, the son of a German father, was born at Bristol in 1812. He studied landscape painting under J. B. Pyne and more especially from nature. In 1833 he started on a journey through Germany, Switzerland , and Italy, and returning to Bath in the following year, established himself there as a landscape painter, but met with little success. In 1838 he went to Greece and Egypt, and returning to England in the following year, after a short sojourn in his native place, settled in London . In 1841 , Müller again started on his travels when he accompanied Sir Charles Fellowes to Lycia. From the sketches he made on this journey, Müller painted several of his best works : the Burial-ground, Smyrna, exhibited in the Academy in 1844 ; Land scape with two Lycian Peasants --engraved by Cousins, and now in the National Gallery — and others, exhibited at the Royal Academy and British Institution . Müller died in 1845 at Bristol, whither he had retired on perceiving signs of declining health . Immediately after his death, his works were in great request, and both his paintings in oil and his sketches in water- colour fetch large sums whenever offered for sale. Charles Lucy was born at Hereford in 1814, and began life as an apprentice to a chemist in that town, but soon threw aside the pestle for the palette, and went to Paris to study art. He first came into notice in London at the time of the keen competition for the commission to decorate the Houses of Parliament ; exhibiting a cartoon called Caractacus and his family before the Emperor Claudius which may be looked upon as a kind of introduction to a long series of historical works, such as the A.D. 1840.] JOHN PHILLIP. 441 Parting of Charles I. with his Children , the Parting of Lord and Lady Russell, Bona parte in discussion with the Savants, exhibited from time to time at the Academy. Lucy died in 1873, leaving behind him a great reputation alike in Europe and America. Augustus Leopold Egg, the son of a celebrated gunmaker, was born in London in 1816. He took his first lessons in drawing of Carey, in Charlotte Street, Blooms bury, and entered the Royal Academy as a student in 1835. His first works were Italian views and illustrations of Scott's novels, but they attracted little notice. These were followed by the Victim , exhibited at Liverpool, which gave promise of great future excellence, and was so well received that its artist sent other similar subjects to the Suffolk Street Gallery. Their success encouraged him yet further, and in 1838 he first exhibited at the Royal Academy ; producing at intervals his Spanish Girl, Sir Piercie Shafton, Buckingham rebuffet. His Lucretio and Bianca, in 1847 gained him his election in the following year as an Associate of the Royal Academy. In 1850 he painted Peter the Great se's Catherine his future Empress for the first time, succeeded by the Life and Death of Buckingham , the Night before Naschy, and Catherine and Petruchio, -- all manifesting great imagination and skill combined with a melancholy peculiarly their own. In 1860 Egg became a full member of the Royal Academy, but his health was declining rapidly, and three years later he died at Algiers, whither he had retired by medical advice. He was buried on a lonely hill near Algiers , away from his family and friends. The only , work by him in our national collection is a scene from Le Diable Boiteux, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1844. John Phillip , one of the best colourists of the English School, who was born at Aberdeen in 1817 , pursued the study of art under difficulties. In his youth he had no real instructor. When seventeen years old, his desire to see the works in the Royal Academy brought him to London, where he remained but six days, seeing all that was possible in so short a time. Soon after his return to Scotland he produced a painting, which was shown to Lord Panmure, and thus secured for him the patronage of that nobleman who, in 1836, sent him to London. In 1837 , Phillip entered the Royal Academy schools as a student. He first exhibited in 1838, when he sent only portraits. In 1840, the year of his return to Aberdeen, he sent his Tasso in disguise relating his persecutions to his sister , which was his first attempt at historical painting. His visit to Scotland was but a short one, for he was in London again in 1841 ; but we do not find him as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy until 1847 , when appeared the Catechism . Phillip continued for some years to exhibit works of Scotch home life, as the Baptism , the Free Kirk, the Spae Ilife, and others of a similar nature. In 1851 , Phillip, owing to his ill-health , repaired to the sunny climate of Spain ; the scenes he saw there, and the paintings of the artists of that country — more especially of Velasquez - produced a great effect on his mind , and he sent home works of Spanish life, executed in a Spanish style , which gained him from English critics well-merited praise , and the sobriquet of “ Phillip of Spain .” In 1853 appeared at the Royal Academy a Visit to the Gipsy Quarters, in 1854 the Letter writer of Scville, in 1855 El Paseo, and in the next year Phillip returned to England, and continued to exhibit Spanish scenes, as well as subjects of British life. In 1857 , the date of his election as Associate of the Academy, appeared the Prison window in Seville. In 1859 he became a full member ; and in the following year painted, by command of the Queen, the Marriage of the Princess Royal, which was engraved by Auguste Blanchard . In 1864 appeared La Gloria, one of his most celebrated works. Phillip died in 1867 , and 3 L 442 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. (A.D. 1850. was buried at Kensal Green. His pictures combine correctness of drawing with a beauty of colouring which is seldom met with even in the works of our best painters. George Hemming Mason was born at Witley in Staffordshire, in 1818, and had many difficulties to contend with at the beginning of his career. His father refused his consent to his son's becoming a painter, and placed him with Dr. Watts, of Birmingham , to study medicine. For a time young Mason submitted to the drudgery of mixing drugs, but a portrait painter having come to his master's house to take the likeness of one of the family, the apprentice borrowed his colour box, and by his own unaided efforts produced a picture of such great merit that the portrait painter urged him to adopt art as his profession . This first ray of encouragement so inspirited Mason that he deserted his employer, found his way to Italy, and unassisted by any lessons , worked out an original style of his own, chiefly characterized by simplicity of design , refinement of colour, delicacy of chiaroscuro and pathetic expression. His best works are the Campagna di Roma, the Gander, the Return from Ploughing, the Cast Shoe, and above all the Evening Hymn, Girls Dancing, and Blackberry Gathering. The unfinished Harvest Moon, exhibited at the Academy in the year of his death, 1872 , is also very beautiful. Mason died of heart disease, after many years of suffering, at the early age of fifty-four. He was elected an Associate of the Academy in 1868, but did not live to become a full member. Douglas Cowper was born at Gibraltar on the 30th of May, 1817 . When seventeen years of age he won from his parents — who were unwilling to allow him to become a painter — a reluctant consent to his leaving home, and made his way to London, obtained admission to the Royal Academy schools, and soon carried off the silver medal for the best copy in painting of the subject of the year. His first exhibited works, produced when only twenty years of age, were a portrait and the Last Interviet', followed in 1838 by Shylock, Antonio and Bassanio, and in 1839 by his masterpiece, Othello relating his Adventures. Unfortunately the great promise given in it was destined never to be fulfilled ; he exhibited no more at the Academy, and he painted but five more pictures, four of which he sent to the Suffolk Street Gallery. He died at the early age of twenty- two, on the 28th of November, 1839, having lived only just long enough to justify his own determination to be an artist , and to show the world what great things he might have done. George Housman Thomas was born in London in 1824, and began life as an engraver on wood in Paris. In 1845 , however, he gave up the mechanical part of a wood- engraver's profession, and accepted a situation in New York, as illustrator of a newspaper. A few years later he was the art-correspondent of the Illustrated London News, ' during the siege of Rome by the French ; and in 1850 he exhibited his first oil picture, Garibaldi at the Siege of Rome, at the Royal Academy. He then worked again as a book - illustrator, producing several clever sets of drawings, including those for the Children's History of England ,' and ` Uncle Tom's Cabin .' In 1856 an oil painting, called a Ball at the Camp, Boulogne, was exhibited at the Royal Academy, and attracting the notice of her Majesty, led to his receiving many commissions to paint public ceremonials, such as the Review in the Champ de Mars, the Parade at Potsdam, the Qucen and Prince Consort at Aldershot, but , though they brought their artist a large pecuniary return, added less to his reputation than the small genre pictures produced later, known as Dimanche, Want of Confidence, Happy Days, the A. D. 1850. ] FREDERICK FREDERICK WALKER. 443 Ghost Story, the Apple Blossom , and above all the riderless steed called Mſasterless. George Thomas died at Boulogne on the 21st of July, 1868 , from an illness brought on by a fall from his horse some years previously. Robert Braithwaite Martineau was born in London in 1826, and educated at University College School. In 1842 he was articled to a solicitor, but after four years' study of the law, he threw it aside for painting, studied drawing at an ordinary school for two years, and then entered the Royal Academy as a student; carrying off a medal in 1851. A short term in the studio of Holman Hunt completed his art education , and in 1852 his first work of importance, Kit's Writing Lesson, from the Old Curiosity Shop,' appeared at the Academy, succeeded by other similar illustrations from well known authors. It was his Last Day in the Old Home, and his Last Chapter, which by their originality of conception and exquisite finish raised their artist to the zenith of fame ; but the great expectations they excited were never fulfilled, their melancholy titles were almost prophetic, for their artist died in the very prime of life of heart disease, on the 13th of February 1869. Frederick Walker, one of the best of modern English subject painters, was born in London on the 24th of May, 1840. On leaving school, he passed a short time in the office of an architect and surveyor, and then, feeling that art was his true vocation, entered as a student at Leigh's night classes in Newman Street. Walker also occasionally studied in the Royal Academy schools. He first appeared as a book illustrator, for the Cornhill Magazine,' executing the pictures for Mr. Thackeray's · Philip and his Adventures on his way through the World,' which received much praise. When but twenty-four years of age Walker was elected a member of the Old Water-colour Society, and subsequently became an Associate of the Royal Academy. He was a constant exhibitor at both institutions for a few years. To the great regret of the art world, this promising young artist died suddenly at St. Fildan's , Perthshire, in June 1875 , before he had reached either the prime of his life or the summit of his art. He was buried in Cookham churchyard . Shortly after his death a collection of one hundred and fifty of Walker's best works were exhibited together, at the French Gallery in Bond Street, where they met with enthusiastic praise. We may especially name his Boys Bathing from the Banks of a River, retouched, it is said , after its exhibition at the Academy ; the Plough, “ Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour until the evening,” which appeared in 1870, the Right of Way, and the Old Gate. Of Frederick Walker a writer in the ' Art Journal' says, “ As an artist he was patient, conscientious, swift- sighted, imbued with an exquisite sense of beauty, and with a marvellous perception of the fitness of things. Like Millet and Mason, and Pinwell , his sympathies went forth to what was lowly and familiar, and his genius sublimed common things into the region of poetry and art. .. But whatever he touched . . . . he made ineffably sweet without the sacrifice of one iota of truth ; and when the sadder mood was on him , he could become almost Greek in the tragic character of his figures." +44 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS (A.D. 1750. . PAINTERS IN WATER- COLOURS, Although the art of painting in water-colours was known and practised by many of the early Italian and German artists , as well as by the Flemings and Dutch, yet the honour of having first created a School of Water - colour Painters must certainly be given to England. In nearly all the illuminations of missals, water -colours were used , mixed exten sively with body -white ; and such was the case also with the miniatures of the seven teenth century, in which the Englishmen Hilliard, the Olivers, and Samuel Cooper, greatly excelled ; but this was not water-colour art , as the term is now understood . In the eighteenth century drawings were generally outlined with a reed pen , and then filled in with colour as required--there are little paintings by Albrecht Dürer in the British Museum executed precisely in this way - and this style prevailed for many years, as we can see hy the admirable illustrations of the history of water- colour art exhibited in the South Kensington Museum . But gradually this plan was superseded by a better method of painting, and early in the present century the works of Thomas Girtin and J. M. W. Turner showed what much greater scope could be given to water- . colour, and what magnificent effect could be produced by it. Since then the art has made rapid progress, and it now vies with oil-painting in brilliancy and power. The exhibitions of the Societies of Painters in Water- colours are as crowded as those of the Royal Academy, and water-colour drawings decorate the walls of all lovers of art who are able to afford such luxuries. Examples of the works of nearly all the most important water-colour painters may be seen in the gallery at South Kensington ; and Mr. Redgrave's Introduction to the catalogue gives a complete and most interesting summary of the History of the Art. Paul Sandby, “ the father of water- colour art," was born at Nottingham in 1725. After some years' service as surveyor to the army, he settled in 1752 at Windsor, near which town he took the subjects of many of his landscapes. He subsequently painted many views in Wales for Sir Joseph Banks and Sir Watkin Wynne. Sandby was instructor in drawing to the children of George III . , and was in 1768 elected one of the original members of the Royal Academy, and in the same year was appointed drawing-master to the Military Schools at Woolwich . He died at London in 1809. Besides his views in water- colour and body-colour, Sandby executed numerous engrav ings in aquatint, a medium then scarcely known in England. Examples of his art may be seen in the South Kensington Museum . Thomas Hearne, who was born at Brinkworth, near Malmesbury in Wiltshire, studied for six years under Woollett, the engraver. He subsequently spent five years in the West Indies as draughtsman to the Governor. On his return he painted landscapes with architectural ruins, and assisted Byrne in “ The Antiquities of Great Britain .' Hearne died in London in 1817. His works are seen in the South Kensington Museum and in many private galleries. John Robert Cozens, Alexander Cozens, was born in 1752 . He studied art under his father, and subsequently went to Italy with his patron Mr. ford , for whom he executed numerous views of that country. Cozens died in 1799, having been son A.D. 1775. ] PAINTERS IN WATER-COLOURS. 445 insane for several years previously. He was one of the best of the early water-colour painters, and was the forerunner of Turner and Girtin. Thomas Rowlandson, who was born in London in 1756 , painted a few portraits , and historical pieces, but he is chiefly known by his caricatures, which he executed with a fine sense of humour. He died in London in 1827 . Of his works we may mention his illustrations to the “ Dance of Death ' and the ‘ Dance of Life , ' and • Dr. Syntax in search of the Picturesque.' Several of his drawings are in the Dyce Collection in the South Kensington Museum. Joshua Cristall was born at Camborne, Cornwall, in 1767. He was first a painter on china, but subsequently studied in the Royal Academy schools, and became a water- colour artist of great merit. He was one of the foundation members of the Water- colour Society, and he more than once held the presidentship. Cristall died in London in 1847. His pictures usually consist of classic figures with landscape backgrounds, and genre subjects as the Young Fisher Boy and the Fish -market on the Hastings Beach, both in the South Kensington Museum . Robert Hills, who was born at Islington in 1769, is one of the best of animal painters in water- colour. He exhibited at intervals at the Royal Academy and at the rooms of the Water- colour Society, of which he was one of the foundation members. He died in London in 1844. Hills frequently worked in conjunction with other artists ---as Robson and Barret. An example of this is in the South Kensington Museum , Der in a landscape, the animals by Hills and the landscape by Barret . Besides his water-colour drawings, Hills executed numerous etchings of deer, horses and other animals, of which the British Museum contains many good examples. John Massey Wright was born in London in 1773. He was the son of an organ builder, who wished him to adopt his own profession ; but in spite of considerable feeling for music, the youth , at his own earnest request, was allowed to become an artist: At the age of sixteen he was fortunate enough to obtain an introduction to Stothard , who gave him the run ' of his studio and, from the first, greatly influenced his style and his choice of subjects ; for both artists excelled in the treatment of figures, and were specially addicted to Shakespeare. This love of the drama was the cause of Wright's devoting much time at the early part of his career to scene painting ; he worked both at Astley's and Her Majesty's Theatre, and some of his panoramas, executed for the well-known exhibitor “· Barker,” are still remembered by those whom they delighted in boyhood. His Procession of the Flitch of Bacon, exhibited in 1817 , is one of his best works. He excelled chiefly as a book illustrator . In 1824, he was elected a member of the Society of Painters in Water-colours, and was a constant exhibitor. He died in May, 1866, in poor circumstances, in spite of many years of arduous toil . Thomas Girtin , one of the originators of modern landscape water-colour painting, was born in London in 1773. He studied under Dayes, a painter in water-colour. Girtin at first contented himself with sketching the views in and near London, but subsequently made a tour through Scotland and in the north of England. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1794, and his pictures were seen on its walls until 1801 , in which year he visited Paris, where he made twenty views which he afterwards etched with the assistance of other artists. He returned to London but to die, at the early age of twenty -nine, in 1802 , having shown what he might have done, had his life 446 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . A.D. 1775 about 1774. been spared. Girtin's favourite subjects are picturesque ruins of abbeys, churches, and castles , in the north of England. The South Kensington Museum possesses two good examples of his art-a View on the Wharfe, and Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire. George Barret, the son of a landscape painter of some note, was born in London ( ?) His early life was beset with difficulties. In 1800 he exhibited at the Royal Academy, and became celebrated for his drawings in water- colours. He was one of the first members of the Water - colour Society, and constantly exhibited his works on their walls. He was famous as a painter of sunset. After a lengthened illness, he died in 1842. William Delamotte was born at Weymouth in 1775 . He studied for five years under West — with whom he had been placed, when sixteen years of age, by George III.--- but abandoned that master's branch of art in favour of landscape painting in water-colour, which he executed in the style of Girtin, He was for forty years teacher of drawing at the Military College at Sandhurst. He was a great friend of Turner, and often went on sketching expeditions with him . Delamotte died at Oxford in 1863 , at the advanced age of eighty -eight. He painted landscapes, and architecture, equally well ; and especially excelled in representing the foliage of trees. The South Kensington Museum has examples of his art. Joseph Mallord William Turner, who was born in London in 1775 and died at Chelsea 1851 , is almost as well known as a water-colourist as by his paintings in oil. By his Liber Studiorum -- painted in rivalry of Claude's Liber Veritatis -- and his illus trations to ' South Coast Scenery, England and Wales, Rivers of France,'and Rogers's

• Italy ' and “ Poems, ' Turner will ever be remembered as one of the best water- colour

artists of England. “ Many,” says Mr. Redgrave in his . Century of Painters, " " date the perfect development of water-colour painting from Girtin, but it is far more due to Turner, who, while he could paint in that medium with the power and strength of Girtin added to that strength , delicacy and quality." ( See Index .) John Varley, who was born at Hackney in 1778, was first an assistant of a silver smith, then of a portrait-painter, and afterwards of an architectural draughtsman, but he finally found his vocation in the art of landscape painting in water - colours. He was an original member of the Water-colour Society, and a firm friend to it throughout, constantly exhibiting pictures on its walls -- chiefly views of Wales. His works are noteworthy for simplicity and truth to nature ; but in later life, as his needy circum stances compelled him to work as fast as possible, many of the drawings then executed are slight and hasty. John John Varley Varley died died inin 1842 1842.. He had two brothers, Cornelius and William Fleetwood, both painters of repute. John James Chalon , who was born at Geneva in 1778, was brought to England, when quite a boy, and was intended for a mercantile life . But his love of art prevailed , and in 1796, he entered the schools of the Royal Academy. His first picture, Banditti at their Repast, appeared in 1800. In 1808 he, his brother, and several friends, founded the ' Sketching Society ' for the mutual improvement of artists , and in the same year he joined the Water- colour Society, but in 1813 he seceded, and again devoted all his powers to painting pictures in oil for the Royal Academy. He was not elected an Associate until 1827 , and did not gain the diploma of membership till 1841. In 1847 , he was seized with an illness, from which he never recovered ; he lingered until 1854, in which year he died at Kensington ; he was buried in Highgate Cemetery. + 1 A.D. 1800.1 PAINTERS IN WATER-COLOURS. 447 For many The South Kensington Museum possesses two of his works, the Village Gossips, painted in 1815 ; and a View of Hastings, in 1819, one of his best pictures. As further examples of this artist we may notice, Napoleon on board the Bellerophon, presented by Chalon himself to Greenwich Hospital. Of this artist, Leslie says , “ Few painters had so great a range of subject. In his figures, his animals, his landscapes, and his marine pictures, we recognize the hand of a master and a mind that fully comprehended what it placed before us. ” Alfred Edward Chalon, the younger brother of John Chalon, was born at Geneva in 1781. He adopted painting as a profession in opposition to the wishes of his parents, who had intended him to be a merchant. In 1796, he entered the Royal Academy schools, and soon afterwards became popular as a portrait painter in water- colours. He was elected an Associate of the Academy in 1812 , and a full member four years afterwards. Soon after the accession of her Majesty the Queen, Chalon painted her likeness, and was also appointed portrait painter in water- colours to her Majesty. In 1855 , his own works, with those of his recently deceased brother, were exhibited in the rooms of the Society of Arts at the Adelphi. Alfred Edward Chalon died at Kensington in 1860, and was buried by the side of his brother in Highgate Cemetery. The most popular, perhaps, of his historic works, is John Knox reproving the ladies of Queen Mary's Court. Henry Pierce Bone, a miniature painter of celebrity, was born in 1779. years he was a constant exhibitor in the Miniature Room of the Royal Academy. He died in . London in 1855 . William Havell was born at Reading in 1782. After a course of self-instruction from nature, he became in 1804 a foundation member of the Water- colour Society. He was a constant exhibitor till 1817 , in which year he went to India. On his return in 1827 , he exhibited but few works at the Water- colour Society, preferring the Royal Academy, where he exhibited works in oil. Havell died at Kensington in 1857. As a painter in water-colours, he holds an honourable position among the best of English artists. Havell's works are, for the most part, painted in Turner's sunny manner. Samuel Prout was born at Plymouth in 1783. After it course of self -instruction in art, under the patronage of Britton the antiquary, he came to London , and first exhibited St. Keyne's Well, Cornwall, at the Royal Academy in 1804. From this date he continued to send his works to the Academy Exhibitions, until the year 1815, when he was elected a member pf the Water-colour Society. In 1818, Prout, in search of health , first visited the Continent, and commenced painting those picturesque views which have made his name so popular. In 1819 appeared at the exhibition of the Water -colour Society, the Indiaman ashore, a work of great merit. A few years later, he visited Venice and other cities of Italy, and likewise made a tour in Germany. Many of the sketches produced in these journeys were engraved in various publications. Prout died at his residence in Camberwell in 1852. He excelled as a painter of cottages and antique ruins, but showed a singular inability to cope with foliage. Peter de Wint was born -of Dutch extraction—at Stone in Staffordshire, in 1784. He studied under Raphael Smith, and in the schools of the Royal Academy, where he exhibited a few works. From 1810 till his death, which occurred in London in 1849 , he was a constant exhibitor at the Water- colour Society. His works are chiefly views of hay and corn fields in Lincolnshire and its neighbourhood. 448 ILLUSLLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS [ 4.D. 1825. . The South Kensington Museum possesses many good examples of his art. De Wint was a thoroughly honest water- colour painter, and entirely free from the tricks of modern artists. David Cox, the son of a blacksmith , was born at Birmingham in 1783. He first worked for a locket-painter, and then as a scene- painter in the Birmingham Theatre, and at Astley's in London . His love for landscape painting induced him to abandon the theatre, and to try his fortune as an artist. He was much assisted in his early attempts by John Varley. Cox also helped to maintain himself by giving drawing lessons. He joined the Water- colour Society in 1813 , and was for many years a contributor to their exhibitions. He resided some time in London, then at Hereford, then again in London , and finally ata small village near Birmingham, called Harbourne, where he died in 1859, having devoted the last few years of his life to oil-painting. Cox is one of the truest to nature of all landscape painters. His works, which chiefly represent scenes in Wales, Scotland, and the Thames and its neighbourhood - are noteworthy for the truth of their colouring. They now fetch very high prices. William Essex was born in 1785, and died at Brighton in 1870. He was one of the very last representatives of the great school of miniature painting, and his delicate portraits , and copies of ancient and modern subject pictures, will probably never again be excelled . His art appears to have died with him . Thomas Miles Richardson was born at Newcastle- on-Tyne in 1784. He was first apprenticed to a cabinet-maker, whom he served for seven years. On the death of his father, he succeeded bim as head master of St. Andrew's Grammar School in his native city. Richardson, however, abandoned teaching in favour of art ; he became a land scape painter of note, and practised at Newcastle ; his works appeared constantly in London at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and the New Water-colour Society. Richardson died in Newcastle in 1848. It is said that he was first inspired with a desire to become a painter by the sight of a landscape by Cox, which he saw in a shop -window ; like that master he was a true expositor of nature. William John Newton was born in London in 1785. He was a miniature painter of eminence, and obtained great popularity in this branch of the art, when still quite a young man. His most important work , the Christening of the young Prince of Wales at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, was exhibited in 1845. In 1837 he was knighted, and after having for many years held the post of miniature painter in ordinary to her Majesty, died in 1869. Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding, who was born in 1787 , studied his art under John Varley. He first exhibited at the Water- colour Exhibition in 1810, and from that time his success in art was certain. He became a popular painter, and his works realised , during his lifetime , higher prices than usually fall to the lot of artists. In 1831 , he was elected President of the Water - colour Society, and held that office until his death, which occurred at Brighton in 1857. Besides his water - colour drawings, Fielding executed several oil -paintings of merit. His pictures chiefly represent in England, sometimes on the coast. There are several examples of his art at South Kensington. George Fennel Robson, who was born at Durham in 1790, acquired an elementary education in art in his native city, and then came to London, where he rose to popularity. He exhibited for some time at the Royal Academy, but many of his best 1 scenes A.D. 1825.) PAINTERS IN WATER - COLOURS. 449 works appeared at the exhibitions of the Water- colour Society. He died in London in 1833. His Outlines of the Grampians, and his Picturesque Vicws of the English Cities, are among his best works. Robson's pictures were sometimes ornamented with animals by Robert Hills . William Henry Hunt was born in 1790 in Old Belton Street, Long Acre, and, like Turner before him , was reared in the bye-ways of London. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to the best art teacher of that time, John Varley ; and in 1808 obtained admission as a student to the Royal Academy. He was also fortunate enough to come under the notice of Dr. Munro, the liberal and benevolent art-patron. In 1807 Hunt contributed three paintings in oil to the Royal Academy, and continued to exhibit for the next four years. In 1814 he sent two views of Windsor Castle to the newly formed Society of Painters in Oil and Water- colours. He also added to his income by teaching, and by painting views of gentlemen's mansions and parks. In 1822 Hunt again exhibited at the Royal Academy, and continued to do so until 1824, when he became firmly attached to the Society of Painters in Water - colours. In that year he was elected an Associate of the Society, and three years afterwards he became a full member; from that time until the year of his death this talented artist never missed sending his works to the yearly exhibitions. Though of delicate health, Hunt lived to a good age ; he died in 1864, nearly seventy -four years old , in Stanhope Street, Regent's Park : he was buried in Highgate Cemetery. During the early period of his career Hunt painted, besides landscapes, many subjects from still -life, such as dead poultry, and vegetables ; afterwards his subjects indicated a growing taste for humour, when he produced those comic sketches of rustic boys and girls that for so many years delighted and amused the visitors to the Society's exhibi tions, such as the Attack, the Defeat, the Puzzled Politician and the Barber's Shop. In his later years Hunt was principally known by his charming representations of fruit and flowers, perfect facsimiles of nature. It appears almost incredible that the same artist who produced broad sketches so comic both in expression and sentiment, should have drawn with the utmost delicacy those careful studies of such simple subjects as a basket of plums or a sprig of May blossom . William Ross, the son of a miniature painter, was born in London in 1794. His success began at an early age. As a boy he won medals at the Society of Arts and the Royal Academy. In 1838, he was made an Associate of the Academy, and in 1839 became a full member, and was knighted. He died in London in 1860. Ross was one of the most successful ininiature painters of the day. He numbered among his sitters , her Majesty the Queen, the late Prince Consort, the King and Queen of the Belgians , the King and Queen of Portugal, and Prince Louis Napoleon . Though miniature painting was his profession, Ross also executed several creditable historical works in oil and in water -colour. James Duffield Harding, one of the best landscape-painters in water-colours, was born at Deptford in 1797. At the age of fifteen , he was placed with Samuel Prout. He soon became ambitious, and attempted to sketch from nature , but he found that a tree with its foliage was beyond his powers ; he could only produce drawings of old archi tectural buildings and dilapidated cottages, such as Prout had taught him to copy. In fact, everything he did at that time, as Harding himself used to remark, was d la Prout. Three years later, Harding gained a silver medal from the Society of Arts for 3 450 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1825. a water -colour drawing, and soon afterwards took to teaching drawing - calling in lithography to his aid ; and publishing many valuable lesson -books. Harding until about 1830 rarely produced more than one water-colour painting in a year, devoting the rest of his time to drawing with the pencil. He visited France and Italy , and the results of his tours were numerous studies of continental towns and scenery , which were afterwards reproduced in the Landscape Annual.' For many years his drawings formed an attractive feature at the annual exhibitions of the Society of Painters in Water-colours, of which he was a member ; he was the first artist to use, to any great extent, body-colour mixed with transparent colours to produce his effects. Harding died at Barnes, on the 4th of December, 1863. George Cattermole was born at the village of Dickleburgh , near Diss, in the county of Norfolk , in the year 1800. When quite a youth he began to study architectural antiquities, and at the age of sixteen commenced his career as a topographical draughts man , receiving employment to make illustrations for Britton's · English Cathedrals .' He was elected an Associate of the Society of Painters in Water - colours in the year 1822 , but was at first only an occasional contributor to the Society's exhibitions. In 1833 he became a full member. About this time, Cattermole travelled through Scotland and visited the localities mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in his works, for the purpose of making sketches of the various scenes, many of which afterwards appeared as illustrations to the · Waverley Novels .' Among Cattermole's principal works may be mentioned, Sir Walter Raleigh wit. nessing the Exccution of the Earl of Essex in the Tower ; Hamilton of Bothrocllhaugh preparing to shoot the Royent Murray, exhibited with ten others at Paris in 1855 ; the Armourer ; Cillini and the Robbers, and the Unwelcome Return , painted in 1846 , which was nearly the last drawing of any important size that he executed. He exhibited but one oil-painting at the Royal Academy ; it appeared in 1862 and was entitled a Terrible Secret . Cattermole died on the 24th of July , 1868, at Clapham Common. He was a member of the Royal Academy of Amsterdam, and of the Belgian Society of Water colour Painters. There are fourteen important drawings by this artist in the South Kensington Museum . James Holland was born at Burslem in 1800. He began his career as a flower painter, and when quite a boy was taken into the establishment of Mr. James Daven port, a manufacturer of high -class earthenware, where he remained for seven years. In 1819 he went to London, and for a short time taught flower painting, but soon threw up this unremunerative employment for the production of original pictures. His numerous works, of an almost infinite variety, included landscapes and sea subjects, and were chiefly remarkable for a high style of colouring. We may name as among the most noteworthy a View of London from Blackheath, the Interior of Milan Cathedral, and the Rialto, Venice. In 1839 Holland went to Portugal at the request of the proprietors of the Landscape Annual,' to execute drawings for that work which were published in 1839. He died in February, 1870. Aaron Penley was born in 1806, and was one of the earliest members of the Water colour Society, contributing several landscape paintings of some excellence to their gallery in the early part of his career. It is rather as an advanced theorist and teacher than an original designer however that this artist merits notice here ; he contributed A.D. 1850. PAINTERS IN WATER -COLOURS. 451 an important volume on the practice of water-colour painting to the art literature of his day, and long held the post of senior professor of drawing at the Addiscombe Military College, and afterwards at the Woolwich Military Academy. Penley died suddenly at Lewisham , in 1870. Edward Henry Wehnert was born in London in 1813 of German parents, and sent by them , when twelve years old , to a school at Göttingen. On his return to England four years later, he began studying drawing in the British Museum , and about 1830 exhibited his first oil picture, the Death of Hippolytus. In the succeeding years Wehnert travelled and resided much on the Continent, and by his earnest study of the works of the great masters of Italy and the modern painters of France, gained much of the purity of design and freedom of execution which characterized his numerous works. As typical examples of his style we may name Luther reading his sermon to some friends, the Prisoner of Gisors, the Escape of Henry IV. of Germany from his intending assassins, a Light Burden , and Caxton examining the first proofs from his Printing press. Wehnert was a distinguished member of the Institute of Painters in Water- colours and an able book - illustrator. He died at Kentish Town, London , in September 1868. Skinner Prout, the nephew of Samuel Prout, was born in 1815 ( ?) . He resided for some time at Bristol, and then went to Australia , where he lived for many years ; he finally settled in London , where he died in September 1876. Prout was a member of the Institute of Painters in Water -colours, and frequently sent works to their exhibitions. He was the painter of the paporimi of the Goll Fields, which met with much success. John Leech was born in London in 1817 , and was educated at the Charterhouse school . Though his works never appeared on the walls of our great exhibitions, no account of modern art would be complete without a tribute to the memory of the great satirist whose humorous, yet ever kindly caricatures of our English manners give so true a picture of the social life of our day, and whose contributions to · Punch’and other journals have raised his peculiar branch of art to a high level. Leech's first sketch appeared in “ Punch’in 1849, and from that date till his death in 1864, scarcely a number of that journal appeared without something from his pencil. His death was sudden and unexpected, but he is said to have suffered long from the effects of over work, and to have endured a martyrdom from his sensitiveness to street noises . George Shalders, who was born in 1826 , exhibited views of English scenery orna mented with animals painted by himself, at the Royal Academy and at the exhibitions of the Institute of Painters in Water- colours. He died in 1873, of paralysis caused by overwork. His studies of sheep and cattle are much appreciated . Arthur Boyd Houghton was born in 1836, and was one of the ablest of the many distinguished members of the Society of Painters in Water-colours, contributing many important works, both to their exhibitions, and to those of the Royal Academy ; including the Mystery of Folded Sherp, Boy Martyrs, and John the Baptist rebuking Herod . He also excelled in book illustration , and we may name his spirited renderings of scenes from the “ Arabian Nights,' as among his best works. He died in 1875 at the early age of thirty- nine. George John Pinwell was born in London in 1842 , and after a good art-education 452 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. ( A.D. 1875 at the HearthlySchool of Art, began his career as a book illustrator, achieving consi derable success in that line on the staff of “ Once a Week, ' Good Words,' & c., and later, supplementing his work as a draughtsman on wood, by painting in water-colours. In 1869 he became an Associate of the Society of Painters in Water-colours. His exhibited works were characterized by a strange inequality of power, a single picture sometimes combining delicate and exquisite finish with carelessness of execution . Much of this is supposed to have been due to ill-health, which often clouded an intellect of a high order. Pinwell died in 1875 , when only thirty - three years of age. A.D. 1750.1 AMERICAN SCHOOL 453 . 1

BOOK VIII .

THE AMERICAN SCHOOL.

American painting

T.HE last School of Painting which claims our attention , both from its high merit and its promise of future excellence, is that which, during the last hundred years, has sprung up in America. Beginning, as in England, with portrait painting, this school has progressed until it now numbers in its ranks many very excellent figure and landscape painters. Their works are constantly brought to Europe to be exhibited, and are received with the greatest admiration. Year after year we hear of new men coming to the front, and there can be no doubt but that the late Centennial Exhibition has done much to forward the true interests of Art throughout the land. We give a brief history of those painters who have, hitherto , been most distin guished ; regretting that the plan of our book does not permit us to include the naines of living artists. John Singleton Copley, the historical painter, was born of Irish parents at Boston, United States — then a British Colony- in 1737. After painting for several years in his native city , he started in 1774 for England, where, after a tour on the Continent, he finally settled. He died there in 1815. A more detailed account of Copley will be found among the British artists. ( See Index.) Benjamin West, who was born at Springfield, Pennsylvania, in 1738, went to England in 1763, and rapidly rose in public favour, until he reached the height of his ambition in 1792 , when he became President of the Royal Academy. Of this artist , who died in London in 1820, a further notice will be found among the British School. ( See Index .) Charles Wilson Peale, who was born at Chesterton, Maryland, in 1741 , was not only a painter, but a worker in wood, metal , and leather. Besides his oil-paintings, he executed numerous miniatures, for which he “ sawed his own ivory, moulded the glasses, and made the shagreen cases.” He studied under various masters — in Philadelphia under a German, in Boston with Copley, and in London with West. Peale was the most popular portrait-painter of his time, and was especially remark able from the fact that he painted, in 1772 , the first authentic likeness of Washington. He subsequently made thirteen other portraits of that President. Peale died in 1826. 454 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. A.D. 1800. Philadelphia is rich in his works—more especially in the Independence Hall , where there is a complete gallery of his pictures. Gilbert Charles Stuart, the portrait painter, was born at Narragansett, in Rhode Island , in 1756. He received his instruction in art from Cosmo Alexander, who took him to Scotland with him , but Stuart returned to America soon afterwards. In 1781 , he went again to Great Britain, and established himself as a portrait painter in London, where he enjoyed the friendship and society of some of the famous men of the day. In 1793 he returned to America , and after residing in New York, Washington and Philadelphia, he re - established himself finally , in 1806, at Boston , where he con tinued to paint with uninterrupted success until his death, which occurred in 1828. Of the works of Stuart we may notice — in the Boston Athenæum, the original Portrait of Washington, whom the artist painted from life but three times ; the first portrait was destroyed by Stuart because it did not meet with his approval ; the second was painted for the Marquis of Lansdowne, and the third is the one above-mentioned. The artist frequently repeated these pictures. The Boston Athenæum has a Portrait of Mrs. Washington, and other works by Stuart. His works are commonly seen both in the public and private galleries in America. John Trumbull, the historical painter, who was born at Lebanon , Connecticut, in 1756, is one of the best of the early American artists. He combined the professions of a soldier and a painter, and thus had the means of being an eye witness of scenes which suggested the subjects of many of the works which have made his name famous. He graduated at Harvard , entered the army, was made aide-de -camp to Washington, and became a colonel. In 1780, Trumbull went through France, to London , where he studied under his fellow -countryman , West. Arrested as a spy, he was obliged to leave the country ; he returned to America, but on the cessation of hostilities, he went again to England, and resumed his studies under West. In 1789, Trumbull returned . once more to America, and employed himself in painting the portraits of the celebrated soldiers of the late war. After a visit to London of nineteen years ( 1796 to 1815) seven of which were spent in diplomatic service — he lived constantly in America. He died in New York in 1843, at the advanced age of eighty -seven, and was buried in Yale College, in a tomb built by himseli under a gallery which formerly contained his original sketches for the four great works executed in the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington — the Declaration of Independence ; the Surrender of Burgoyne; the Surrender of Cornwallis ; and the Resignation of Washington at Annapolis. They have since been moved to the Art Gallery in Yale College. Of the first-mentioned of these works, Henry Greenenough says, “ I admire in this composition the skill with which Trumbull has collected so many portraits in formal session , without theatrical effort, in order to enliven it , and without falling into bad insipidity by adherence to trivial fact. These men are earnest, yet full of dignity ; they are firm , yet cheerful ; they are gentlemen ; and you see at a glance that they meant something very serious in pledging their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honours.” Of other works by Trumbull we may notice in the City Hall, New York, portraits of Governors Lewis and Clinton, and one of Washington — an oft-repeated subject; at New Haven the Death of General Montgomery, “ one of the most spirited battle-pieces ever painted, ” the Battle of Bunker's Hill, a full- length Portrait of Washington , in addition to the original sketches for the rotunda pictures, and numerous historic works. John Vanderlyn, who was born in 1776 at Kingston , New York , like Quintin A.D. 1800.1 AMERICAN SCHOOL. 455 1 Matsys began life as a blacksmith. His talents were noticed by Colonel Burr, who gave him a start in life at New York . In 1803, Vanderlyn went to Europe, and was in Paris and Rome, the friend and companion of Allston. In Rome he painted, in 1807 , his famous Marius sitting on the ruins of Carthage, to which Napoleon personally awarded the prize medal in the Salon of 1808, and which the emperor tried to buy ; but Vanderlyn wished to take it to America, and it was subsequently purchased by Bishop Kip , in whose possession it still remains at San Francisco. This work is especially noteworthy for the care which the artist has taken to represent, as nearly as possible, the architecture and the costumes of the time. Vanderlyn's life was a series of successes and failures, of riches and poverty, though unfortunately the latter pre ponderated , and he died in great want at his native town, Kingston, in 1852. He was buried in the Wiltwyck Cemetery, hard by. Besides the Marius, above mentioned, this artist executed but one other work worthy to be compared to it. This is the Sleeping Ariadne, which the Boston Athenæum refused to purchase for five hundred dollars, and for which Mr. Harrison of Philadelphia gave ten times that amount. Of his remaining works, most of which are portraits, we need not speak. Washington Allston, the chief painter of the American School, was born at Waccamaw in South Carolina in 1779. After the completion of his university career at Harvard, he took up his abode at Charlestown, where, however, desiring to go to Europe for the improvement of his art , he did not long remain . He arrived in London in 1801 , and at once entered the Royal Academy schools, where he became acquainted with his fellow -countryman West, who was then president. In 1804, Allston went with his friend Vanderlyn to Paris and thence to Rome, where in the following year he painted his Joseph's Dream . At Rome, Allston commenced with Washington Irving a friendship, which lasted for life. He also became acquainted with Coleridge, and the Danish sculptor, Thorwaldsen . In 1809 , Allston returned to America, married a sister of Dr. Channing, and then went to London, where he produced his Dead Man revived by the bones of Elisha, which gained a prize of two hundred guineas from the British Institution . It is now in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts at Philadelphia. Then followed the Liberation of St. Peter by the Angel, now in the church of Ashby-de-la -Zouch ; Uriel in the Sun, in the possession of the Duke of Sutherland ; and Jacob's Dream , in the Petworth Gallery. In 1818, Allston returned to America, and settled at Boston, with his health weakened by sorrow for his wife, lately deceased, and by over- work . In the same year he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy. Of the works which he executed in the following years, we may notice, the Prophet Jeremiah, now in Yale College ; Saul and the Witch of Endor ; Miriam's Song and Dante's Beatrice. In 1830 , Allston married again . His second choice was the daughter of Chief Justice Dana, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he settled. At Cambridge, Allston spent the rest of his life in secluded industry, occasionally interrupted by illness. He then produced one of his best known works, Spalatro's vision of the bloody hand, from “ The Italian ' by Mrs. Radcliffe -- especially remarkable for the effects of light and shade, and for the expression of fright and a guilty conscience on the face of Spalatro, and the firm determination visible on the countenance of the monk. This work which was painted for Mr. Ball, of South Carolina , is now in the T or Johnston Collection in New York ; it has been engravel by W. J. Linton . His Rosalic, executed late in life, is also worthy of mention.. Allston died at Cambridge in 1843 , leaving unfinished a large work, on which he 456 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS. (A.D. 1825 . had been engaged at various times for about forty years. It represents Belshazzar's Feast, and is now in the Boston Athenæum , where there is also a Portrait of Benjamin West, which, with that of Coleridge, by the same artist , in the National Portrait Gallery, proves that Allston excelled in portraiture as well as in historic painting. The works of Allston , the pride of his country, the “ American Titian ,” are especially remarkable for the beauty and power of colouring. In his subjects , he was fond of the terrible , especially noticeable in Spalatro's Vision , Saul and the Witch of Endor, and in the unfinished Belshaczar's Feast. John James Audubon, who was born in Louisiana, in 1782 , studied in Paris under David. On his return to America he devoted himself to portraying birds, just in the same manner as Catlin gave himself up to the painting of American Indians. Audubon's perseverance must have been great, for it is said that after he had collected several thousand sketches of birds, they were accidentally destroyed and the work had to be recommenced. When published in Edinburgh, the book contained more than one thousand birds' portraits , the originals of which are now in the possession of the New York Historical Society. Having exhausted the feathered tribe, Audubon was engaged on a work on the quadrupeds of America, when he died in 1851. Rembrandt Peale, the son of Charles Wilson Peale, was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1787. After a short career as a portrait painter in Charlestown, South Carolina, he went to London and studied under West. Peale also resided for some time in Paris , where he painted , among other pictures, portraits for his father's museum . Rembrandt Peale died in 1860. His works are commonly seen in America. Chester Harding, who was born in the village of Conway, Franklin County, Massa chusetts, in 1792, began his career in painting as a sign -painter, at Pittsburgh, but subsequently turned his attention to portraiture , in which he afterwards became suc cessful. From Pittsburgh he went to Philadelphia, thence to St. Louis, and then to Boston , where he became the fashionable portrait-painter of the day. In 1823, Harding paid a visit to England, where he received much patronage from the nobility. He afterwards revisited England, but died at Boston , United States, in 1866. Of his portraits, that of Daniel Webster is the most famous. George Catlin , the painter of the aboriginal Indians, was born in Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania, in 1794. He was originally intended for the law, but abandoned that profession in favour of painting, and established himself in Philadelphia. In 1832, he started on a journey among the tribes of American Indians, and made the acquaintance of no less than forty-eight of them . On his return to civilization in 1839, he published the result of his journey in the form of a book with illustrations by his own hand. He had also made a series of portraits of two hundred Indian chiefs, which he exhibited in America and in England, and which have helped to make his name famous. He resided for eight years in Europe, and published his impressions of England and the Continent, in ‘ Notes of Eight Years' Travel and Residence in Europe. George Catlin died in 1872 . Robert Charles Leslie , who was born of American parents in Clerkenwellin 1794, was taken when quite a child to the United States. In 1811 he went to England,and, with the exception of a short visit to America in 1833 , resided there for the rest of his life. He died in 1859. Further notice of Leslie will be found among the painters of the British School. (See Index. ) A.D. 1825. ] AMERICAN SCHOOL. 457 Gilbert Stuart Newton, who was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1795 , studied under his uncle, Gilbert Stuart, went to Europe in 1817 , and paid one short visit to America in 1832. He died in London in 1835 . A further account of this artist will be found among the painters of the British School. ( See Index.) Thomas Cole, the landscape painter, who was born at Bolton-le- Moor, Lancashire, in 1801 , went when eighteen years of age to Steubenville, Ohio. After travelling about the country for some time, he visited New York, where he was patronized by Trumbull and other artists. Cole made two journeys to Europe, and stayed chiefly in Italy and England, the scenery of which countries furnished him with subjects for many of his best works. He died among his “ own dear Catskills,” as he calls them ; for with all the magnificent scenery of the Alps and elsewhere in Europe, he remained true to his first love. Of Cole's works we may notice, in the possession of the New York Historical Society, the Course of the Empire - five landscape scenes ; in the Taylor Johnston Collection of New York , his famous series of Voyage of Life, the Mountain Ford, and Kenilworth Castle. Many of his works, frequently views of the Catskills, are in the private and public galleries of America. Henry Inman, who was born at Utica, New York, in 1801 , studied for some time in New York under Jarvis , a good artist of the period. On the completion of his term , Inman after several years spent in New York, married, in 1832 , and settled at Philadelphia, where he became famous as a painter of portraits, and occasionally of landscapes and genre pictures. In 1843 , he went to England, where he remained for two years, much esteemed by the artist-circle in London of the time. Inman died in New York, in 1846 , the year after his return. The works of this artist are conimonly seen in the public and private galleries of America. The City Hall, New York, has some good portraits by him ; noteworthy among these is that of Governor Van Buren, His landscapes and genre pictures are best seen in private galleries . Of the former class , we may notice, a view of Dundrennan Abbey, in the possession of Mr. James Lenox, New York ; and the Newsboy, belonging to Mr. Sturges, of the same city ; and Mumble the Peg, in Mr. Carey's collection at Philadelphia. Inman is more famous from the fact that he was equally good in three branches of art --- portraiture, landscapes, and genre — than for any particular merit in his works. Emmanuel Leutze, who was born at the village of Emingen in Würtemberg in 1816, went, when still young, with his father to America. He at first maintained himself by portrait painting, but his favourite subjects were of a historic nature. His earliest work of note is an Indian gazing on the setting sun. In 1841 , Leutze determined to visit Europe. He arrived at Amsterdam early in the year, and thence went to Düssel dorf , where he studied under Lessing. His Columbus before the council of Salamanca , was purchased by the Art Union of that city. From Düsseldorf Leutze went to Munich , and became the disciple of Cornelius and Kaulbach. After his Wanderjahre through Italy and Switzerland, he returned to America in 1859 and became justly famed as a painter of historic subjects. He subsequently paid a second visit to Europe, to bring home a wife, whom he had married at Düsseldorf on his first journey. Leutze died in 1868. Of the pictures of Leutze which are chiefly seen in New York and other American cities , we may notice in the Capitol at Washington the Western Emigration — with the motto “ Westward the course of Empire takes its way ” —which is considered one of 3 N 458 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF PAINTERS . [ A.D. 1850. his best works ; also Columbus in chains, and Columbus before the Queen ; the Landing of the Norsemen in America ; and John Knox admonishing Mary Queen of Scots, in the possession of Mr. M. O. Roberts, of New York . Charles Loring Elliot, who was born at Scipio , New York, in 1812 , was at first intended for a merchant, and then for an architect, his father's profession, but his love of painting prevailed, and he entered the studio of Trumbull in New York. On the completion of his studies, he established himself as a painter in that city, where, with the exception of several years spent in the western part of the State, he chiefly resided. He died in 1868. Elliot is said to have executed nearly seven hundred portraits. Of these the acknowledged masterpiece is that of Fletcher Harper, which was selected to represent American portraiture in the Paris Exhibition. Portraits by Elliot are in the possession of the Historical Society, and in the City Hall, New York, and also in private galleries in America. His portraits are noteworthy for vigour of drawing and colouring, and more espe cially for life -like representation . Louis Rémy Mignot, who was born in 1831 , lived some part of his life in New York; he then removed to South Carolina, and subsequently took up his residence in England, though he paid various visits to his native land . He exhibited in the Royal Academy from time to time. In 1863 appeared Lagoon of Guayaquil, South America , and a Winter Morning ; in 1865 , an Evening in the Tropics ; he was also a contributor to the exhibitions of 1866 and 1867. In 1870 appeared his last work, a Sunset off Hastings, of genuine poetical treatment. ' Mignot died at Brighton, on the 22nd of September , 1870 , in his fortieth year. “ His pictures show talent above the average order, and are characterised by much feeling for the picturesque beauty of nature, and great skill in handling." (* Art Journal.') 6

INDEX .

PAGE 65 203 . .. 337 364 129 24 , 55 236 86 161 . . 446 412 . . . 46 . . .. . .. . ABATI , Niccolò Achen , Hans van Aertszen, Pieter Agricola, Christoph Alamannus (Murano ) Albani , Francesco Albertinelli , Mariotto Aldegrever, Heinrich Aldighiero da Zevio Alfani, Domenico Alfani, Orazio Alfaro y Zamon, J. de Alfon, Juan Aliprandi , Girolamo Allan, David Allan, William Allegri , Antonio Allori , Alessandro Allori , Cristofano Allston , Washington Altdorfer , Albrecht Alunno, Niccolò Amberger, Christopher Amerighi, Michelangelo Amman, Jost . Andrea da Florentia Andrea da Solario Andrea da Salerno Andrea del Sarto Angelico , Fra Ansano di Pietro Mencio . Antonello da Messina Antonio da Murano . Antonio da Venezia . Apelles

Apollodorus . Aretino , Spinello Arias , Fernandez de Aristides Arthois , Jacques Asclepiodorus . Athenion Attavante Audubon , John J. Avanzi, Jacopo degli PAGE 131 Avanzo da Verona 254 Ayala , Bernabe de 325 258 BACKER , Jacob 83 Backhuysen , Ludolf 170 Bagnacavallo ( Ramenghi ) . 98 Baldovinetti , Alesso 250 Baldung , Hans 65 Barbarelli , Giorgio 79 Barocci , Federigo 79 Barret , George 229 Barry , James . 192 Bartolo , Taddeo di . 96 Bartolommeo della Gatta . 413 Bartolommeo , Fra 422 Basaiti, Marco 153 Bassano , Il ( da Ponte ) 159 Bazzi , Giovanni (or Razzi ) 177 Beaumont, George 455 Beccafumi 240 Beccafumi ( Meccherino ) 75 Beechey , William 241 Bega , Cornelis 182 Beham , Barthel 251 Beham , Sebald 42 Beich , Franz . 71 Bellange , Hippolyte 129 Bellini , Gentile 99 Bellini , Giovanni 48 Bellini , Jacopo 47 Bellotto , Bernardo 81 Beltraffio , Giovanni . 84 Benozzo di Lese Benvenuti , Giambattista 9 Berchem ( Claas) 6 Berkheyde, Gerrit 44 Berkheyde , Job 227 Berrettini, Pietro 9 Berruguete, Alonso . Berruguete, Pedro 9 Biagio , Vincenzio di 8 Bink , Jacob 27 Bird , Edwai 456 Bissolo , Francesco 62 Blake , William .. . . 27 97 85 147 103 414 24 104 414 344 249 249 257 394 82 82 81 191 95 53 133 355 366 .. . . 43 366 .. 318 . 180 214 193 146 250 416 142 415 . .• . 450 INDEX. PAGE PAGE 316 .. 175 175 175 175 189 203 185 182 130 177 218 218 316 337 . .. 178 66 . 184 69 85 165 165 164 228 102 264 43 50 219 204 202 193 146 . 58 Bles , Henrik de Bloemart , Abraham . Bloemen , Pieter van Blondeel, Lancelot . Bocaccino , Bocaccio Bocaccino , Camillo . Boel, Pieter Bol , Ferdinand Bol, Hans Bone , H. Pierce Bonfiglio, Benedetto Bonifazio Veneziano Bonington, Richard . Bono Ferrarese Bonsignori, Francesco Bonvicino, Alessandro Bordone, Paris Borgognone, Ambrogio Borgognone, 11 Bosch , Jerom ( Van Aeken ) Both , Andreas Both , Jan Botticelli ( Filipepi) Boucher , François Boullongne, Bon Boullongne, Louis ( the elder ) Boullongne, Louis ( the younger ) Bourdon , Sébastien . Bourgeois , Francis · Bouts , Dieric . Bramantino ( Suardi) Bramer, Leonhard Breughel, Jan. Breughel, Pieter ( the elder ) Breughel, Pieter ( the younger) Briggs, Henry P. Bril, Paul Bril, Matthew Broederlam , Melchior Bronzino, Angelo Brosamer , Hans Brouwer, Adriaan Bruyn , Bartholomäus Bry, Theodor de Buffalmacco (Cristofani) Bugiardini, Giuliano Buonarroti, Michelangelo . Buonaventura , Segna di Buoninsegna, Duccio di Burbage, Richard Burgkmair, Hans Burgkmair, Thomas Burnet , James Burnet, John . . 380 380 380 378 . 456 . 450 284 Campi, Antonio 326 Campi, Bernardino Campi, Giulio 284 Campi, Vincenzio 72 Canaletto (Antonio Canal) 72 Cano , Alonso Caracciolo , Giambattista . Caravaggio , Mich . da 288 Caravaggio , Polidoro da 447 Cardi , Lodovico 74 Carducci , Bartolommeo 146 Carducci, Vincencio 435 Carlo Dolci Carotto , Giov . Franc . 69 Carpaccio , Vittore 146 Carracci , Agostino 147 Carracci , Annibale . 71 Carracci , Lodovico Carreño , Juan 323 Carrucci , Jacopo 352 Carstens, Asmus 352 Casentino, Jacopo di Castagno, Andrea del 383 Castello, Felix Castillo , Antonio del Castillo, Juan del Castro, Juan Sanchez de . Catena ( di Biagio ) 415 Catlin , George 274 Cattermole , George 71 Cavalli, Pietro 329 Cavallini, P. . 292 Cavazzuola (Moranda) 287 Caxes, Eugenio 289 Caxes , Patricio 431 Cennino Cennini 290 Cerquozzi, Michelangelo . 289 Cesari , Giuseppe 269 Cespedes, Pablo de . 159 Chalon , Alfred 250 Chalon , J. James 339 Champagne , Philippe de 233 Chardin , Siméon 251 Chodowiecki , Daniel 41 Cigoli , da ( Cardi ) Cima da Conegliano 105 Cimabue 45 Ciampelli, Agostino 24 , 44 Cione , Andrea di 398 Cipriani, Giovanni . 236 Claas, Nicholas ( Berchem ) 235 Claude Lorraine 424 Claudius Pulcher 424 Cloet , Jehan Clouet , François 150 Clovio , Giulio 219 Coello , Claudio 254 Cole , Thomas 422 Collins, William 372 Comontes, Iñigo de 163 Conegliano, Cima da 39 Constable , John . 24 42 70 219 219 ... . . ... 184 163 199 447 446 317 384 262 17785 38 162 43 ... 98 408 355 . 375 13 370 370 27 228 457 . CAGLIARI, Paolo Cajesi , Patricio Calcar , Hans von Calcott, A. Wall Callot, Jacques Calvart , Denys Camerino, Jacobus de 428 193 85 421 INDEX 461 PAGE PAGE . 426 . 399 410 , 453 315 185 292 266 393 59 153 180 94 67 68 68 129 431 184 371 442 Dionysius ( of Colophon ) Dionysius ( of Rome) Dobson , William Dolci , Carlo . Domenichino ( Zampieri) Domenico , Veneziano Doni , Paolo Donzelli, Ippolito and Pietro Dossi, Dosso . Dossi , Giambattista Dou , Gerard ( or Dow ) Doughet, Gaspar . Dubufe, Claude M.. Duccio di Buoninsegna Duchatel, Frans Du Jardin , Karel Duncan, Thomas Dürer , Albrecht Dusart , Cornelis Dyce , William 4 13 400 178 170 50 50 185 132 133 342 375 392 24 , 44 315 ... 358 439 . 242 . . . 349 438 Cooper, Abraham Cooper, Samuel Copley , John Singleton Coques, Gonzales ( or Cocx ) Corenzio , Belisario . Cornelissen , Cornelis Cornelius , Peter von Corot, Jean Camille Corradi, Domenico Correggio ( Allegri ) Cortona , Pietro da Cosimo, Pietro di Cosmè, ni Cossa , Francesco Costa , Lorenzo Cotignola, Girolamo da Cotman , J. Sell Courtois, Jacques Cousin , Jean . Cowper, Douglas Cox, David Coxcyen , Michael van Coypel, Antoine Cozens , John R. Craddock, Luke Craeyer , Gaspard de Cranach , Lucas ( the elder ) Cranach , Lucas ( the younger ) Credi , Lorenzo di Crespi, Giov. Battista Creswick , Thomas . Crevelli , Carlo Cristall, Joshua Cristofani, Buonamico Cristofori Cristus , Petrus Crome, John ( the elder ) Crome, John ( the younger) Cuevas, Pietro de las Cuyp , Albert Cuyp, Jacob Gerritz . 448 . . . . . 285 382 444 401 302 251 253 94 176 43984 445 41 24 276 429 430 217 350 EASTLAKE , Charles Lock Egg, Augustus Elliot , Charles L. Elzheimer , Adam Engelbrechtsen, Cornelis . Engelbrechtsen , Luca Espinosa, Jacinto de Essex, William Etty , William . Eupompus Euphranor Everdingen , Aldert van 432 441 458 255 323 397 198 448 42767 355 . .. 1380 338 186 96 128 66 133 96 178 326 . . . 163 . 44848 . . FABIUS Pictor Fabriano , Gentile da Fabritius , Carel Falcone, Aniello Fassola , Bernardino Fattore , Il ( Penni) Ferrarese , Bono Ferrarese, Lodovico Ferrari , Gaudenzio . Feti , Domenico Fiammingo ( Calvart ) Fielding, Copley Fiesole, Fra Giovanni da . Fiore , Colantonio del Fiorenzo di Lorenzo Flandrin , Hippolyte Flemael, Bartholet Flinck , Govaert Floris, Frans ( Van Vriendt) Fontano , Lavinia Fontano, Prospero Foppa, Vincenza Foquet , Jehan Forli, Melozzo da Fortuny, Mariano Franco ( of Bologna ) Francesca , Pietro della Francesco da Ponte , DALMASIO , Lippo di Danby, Francis Daniele da Volterra David , Gheerardt David , Louis Decamps, Gabriel Decker, Cornelis Delacroix, Eugène Delaroche , Paul Delamotte , William Delli , Dello Delmont ( Van der Mont) . De Momper, Josse Denner, Balthasar Desportes, François Deutsch ( Manuel) De Wint, Peter De Witte , Pieter De Witte , Emanuel Dietrich , Christian . . 61 432 II2 282 386 395 351 394 394 446 192 311 291 258 383 241 447 289 365 259 185 79 395 318 337 286 163 161 70 370 .. 74 . . 230 27 73 148 462 INDEX PAGE PAGE Guido Reni . . 167 361 Francia Bigio Francia ( Raibolini) Francken , Frans Fraser, Alexander Fréminet , Martin Fuseli , Henry Fyt , Jan 99 62 293 427 371 412 312 . . 326 396 456 449 428 438 . . . 447 425 401 431 444 398 257 255 285 235 202 ... 211 41 24 , 40 41 409 193 399 60 132 291 , 398 375 80 388 291 , 398 391 277 59 99 81 409 187 86 130 70 146 42 24 , 40 48 83 445 128 434 267 . 266 HACKAERT, Jan Hals, Frans Hamon , J. Louis Harding, Chester Harding, J. Duffield Harlow, George Harvey, George Havell , William Haydon, Benjamin . Hayman , Francis Hayter , George Hearne, Thomas Heere, Luca de Heintsch , Johann Heinz, Joseph Hemskerk, Martin ( Van Veen ). Herlen , Friedrich Herrera , Francisco de Herrera , F. de ( the younger ) Herring , John F. Hess, Heinrich von Hess , Peter von Hilliard , Nicholas Hills, Robert . Hilton , William Hobbema, Meindert Hoefnagel, Jooris Hogarth , William Holbein , Hans ( the elder ) Holbein , Hans ( the younger ) Holbein , Sigmund Holland , James Hondecoeter , Melchior de Honthorst, Wilhelm Honthorst, Gerard Hooch , Pieter de ( or Hoogh ) Hoppner, John Horrebout, Gerard Luca . Hoskins , John Houghton , Arthur B. Howard , Henry Hudson , Thomas Hunt , William H. Hurlstone , Frederick Y. Huysman , Jacob Huysmans, Cornelis 398 . . . . Gaddi , Agnolo Gaddi, Gaddo . Gaddi, Taddeo Gainsborough , Thomas Gallegos, Fernando . Gandy , William and James Garbo, Raffaellino del Garofalo (Tisio) Garrard , Mark Gelée, Claude Gentile da Fabriano Gérard , François Gerard , Mark Géricault, Theodore Ghent , Justus van Ghirlandajo (Corradi) Ghirlandajo , Ridolfo Giambono , Michael Gilpin , Sawrey Giordano, Luca Giorgione ( Barbarelli ) Giovanni da Udine . Girolamo dai Libri . Girolamo, Romanino Giottino Giotto . Giovanni da Fiesole, Fra Giovanni da Murano Girtin , Thomas Giulio R no (Pippi) Giunta ( of Pisa ) Giuseppino ( Cesari ) Godeman Goltzius , Heinrich Gomez , Sebastian Gonzales, Bartolomé Gordon, J. Watson . Gossaert , Jan. Goya y Lucientes Gozzoli , Benozzo Graff , Anton . Granacci, Francesco Granet , François Grebber, Pieter Frans de Greuze , Baptiste Grien ( Baldung) Gringonneur, Jacquemin . Gros , Antoine Jean Grünewald, Matthäus Guardi , Francesco Guercino ( di Cento ) Guérin , Pierre Guidi, Tommaso Guido ( of Siena) .. . 445 425 361 288 402 235 237 , 397 236 450 366 329 329 , 400 347 414 397 399 451 419 401 449 435 316 319 38 .. . . .. 163 27 291 212 217 431 282, 397 229 53 263 . 60 416 . IBBETSON , Julius Cæsar . Imola , Innocenzio Ingegno ( Luigi) Ingles, Jorge Ingres, Jean Dominique Inman, Henry Iriarte , Ignacio de 390 330 385 236 370 388 242 191 173 389 51 131 77 193 391 457 . 211 Jacobsz , Luc . Jacopi, Giovanni Jacopo da Ponte Jameson, George Janet ( François Clouet ) 323 42 147 399 38 370 INDEX 463 PAGE PAGE 370 323 328 422 52 60 61 232 285 398 46 Janet ( Jehan Cloet ) Jans , Geertgen van St. Jansen, Cornelis Jansen van Ceulen Jansens, Abraham Jervas, Charles Joanes , Juan

Jones , George Jonge , Van der Meer de Jordaens, Jacob Jouvenet, Jean Justus van Ghent Justus of Padua Juvenel , Paulus 46 . 94 Linton , William Lippi, Fra Filippo Lippi , Filippino Lippo di Dalmasio Lochner, Stephan Lombardus (Sustermann ) Lorenzetti, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Pietro Lorenzo di Credi Lorenzo , Don ( Il Monaco ) Lorenzo , Fiorenzo di Lotto , Lorenzo Loutherbourg, Philippe Luciani, Sebastiano Lucy, Charles Ludius Luigi , Andrea di Luini, Bernardo 301 401 195 427 363 308 380 277 64 256 50 79 143 411 144 440 . 13 77 95 . . . 282 , 397 . 438 KALF , Willem Kauffmann , Angelica Kaulbach , Wilhelm von . Ketel , Cornelis Keyser , Theodor de Knapton , George Kneller, Godfrey Knoller , Martin von Koning, Solomon Koningh, Philip de . Kulmbach , Hans von Kunz Kupetzky , Johann 366 263 267 398 329 401 400 261 352 353 248 231 258 . . 439 195 338 24 24 . 66 67 241 . . 181 401 13 . 318 436 198 198 38 • 24 . 429 443 228 86 382 43 436 179 96 381 325 437 417 212 379 451 MABUSE (Gossaert) . McCulloch , Horatio Maclise , Daniel Macip , Vicente Juan Maes, Nicholas Maiano , Benedetto of Maiano , Giuliano of Mantegna, Andrea . Mantegna , Francesco Manuel, Nicolas Maratti , Carlo March , Esteban March , Miguel Margheritone Mariani . Martin , John Martineau , Robert B. Martinez, Juan B. Marziale, Marco Masaccio (Guidi) Masolino da Panicale Mason , George Master of Cologne Crucifixion ' Master of “ Death of the Virgin ' Master of Liesborn . Master of ' Lyversberg Passion ' Master Stephan of Cologne Master Wilhelm Matsys , Jan Matsys , Quintin Matteo di Giovanni di Bartolo Mayno , Juan B. Mazzolini, Lodovico Melanthius Melone, Altobello Melozzo da Forli Melzi , Francesco Memling, Hans Memmi, Lippo Memmi , Simone Mengs , Raphael Messina, Antonello da Metrodorus . LAGUERRE , Louis Laia or Lala . Lairesse , Gérard de . Lance, George Lancret, Nicolas Landine, Jacopo Landseer, Edwin Lanfranco, Giovanni Lanini, Bernardino . Largillière, Nicolas de Lastmann, Pieter Lauder, R. Scott Lawrence , Thomas . Leal , Juan de Valdes Lebrun , Charles Leech , John Lefèvre, Claude Lely , Peter ( Van der Faes ) Leonardo da Vinci . Leslie , Charles Robert Lesueur, Eustache Lethière, Guillaume Leutze , Emmanuel . Lewis , J. F. . Leyden , Lucas van Leys, Henri Liaño , Phelipe Liberale Liberatore da Foligno Libri, Girolamo dai . Liemakere , Nicholas de Lievens, Jan. Lingelbach, Johann . . 381 316, 400 88 433 , 456 51 49 442 233 233 234 234 * 232 232 284 280 47 217 1338 70 74 96 277 45 378 388 .. 457 437 323 320 217 27 , 69 75 70 301 339 366 . 45 262 81 13 464 INDEX PAGE 1 PAGE . 343 1056 326 345 381 Osorio , Francisco Ostade , Isaac van Ostendorfer, Michael Oudry , Jean Owen , William Owerbeck , Friedrich 213 344 254 384 418 265 458 102 . 103 201 13 64 189 177 349 . 95 PACCHIAROTTO, Jacopo 42 Pacchia, Girolamo del 319 Pacheco, Francesco 396 Pacuvius 24 Padovano ( Justus ) 61 , 231 | Padovanino ( Varotari) 170 | Pagani, Gregorio 180 Palamedes ( Anton Stevens) 50 Palma, Jacopo ( the younger) 69 Palma Vecchio 69 Palmezzano, Marco 214 Palomino de Castro 70 Pamphilus 286, 398 Panænus 326 1 Pantoja de la Cruz . 417 Pareja, Juan 146. Parmigiano (Mazzuoli) 286 , 398 Parrhasius . 189 143 .. Metsu , Gabriel Michelangelo Buonarroti . Micon Mierevelt , Michiel Mieris , Frans van Mignard , Pierre Mignot, L. Rémy Milano , Cesare da Milano, Giovanni da Millet , François ( Milé ) Millet, François Mino di Turrita Modena, Tommaso da Mola , Giov . Battista Mola, Pietro Francesco Monaco , Il (Don Lorenzo ) Montagna , Bartolommeo . Montagna, Benedetto Morales, Luis de Moranda, Paolo More , Anthony Moreelse , Paul Moreland, George Moretto , Il ( Bonvicino ) Moro , Antonio Morone, Francesco . Moroni, G. Battista . Mortimer, John Hamilton Mostaert, Jan Moucheron, Frederick Moya , Pedro de Mudo, El ( Navarrete ) Müller , William J. Mulready, William . Murano, Antonio da Murano, Bartolommeo da Murano , Giovanni da Murillo, Bartolomé . Mytens , Daniel 1 78 21274 217 . 227 1585 1 70 | Patel 381 383 284 1508 453 •. 456 1 . 83 .. IO NASMYTH , Patrick . Navarrete , Fernandez Neacles . Neefs , Pieter ( the elder ) Neefs, Pieter ( the younger ) Netscher , Gaspar Netscher, Theodor Netscher , Constantine Newton, G. Stuart Newton, William J. Nicias Nicomachus Northcote, James 147 Pater, Jean 413 Patinir , Joachim de 323 | Paul Veronese 361 Pausias . 204 Peale , Charles W. 216 Peale , Rembrandt 440 Pedrini, Giovanni 426 Pellegrino da San Daniele 84 Pencz, Georg 84 Penley , Aaron Penni, Giovanni 204 Pepyn , Martin 328 , 398 Perino del Vaga Perugino 429 Peruzzi, Baldassare . 216 Pesellino Pesello . 293 Peters , Bonaventura 293 Phillip , John . 346 Phillips, Thomas and Henry 349,400 Philoxenus 349 | Pietro della Francesca 434 , 457 Pinturicchio Pinwell, George J. 7 96 147 250 450 128 301 130 76 104 55 55 293 441 4199 73 78 451 144 128 68 68 66 327 203 ! 448 1 ODERISSI ( of Gubbio ) Eser , Adam . Oggione, Marco da . Oliver , Peter and Isaac Opie , John Orcagna Orrente , Pedro Ortolano ( Benvenuti) 130 55 Piombo , Sebastiano del 8 Pippi, Giulio . 413 Pisano , Vittore Pisanello 27 Pizzolo , Marco 261 Poelemberg , Cornelis 95 Polanco . Polidoro da Caravaggio Pollajuolo , Antonio 43 Pollajuolo , Pietro 198 Polygnotus 133 Pontormo, Jacopo da 398 416 4 102 INDEX . 465 PAGE . . . . . . Pordenone ( G. Antonio ) Potter , Paul Pourbus , Frans ( the elder ) Pourbus, Frans ( the younger ) Pourbus , Pieter Poussin , Gaspar ( Doughet) Poussin , Nicolas Previtali , Andrea Primaticcio, Francesco Procaccini , Camillo Procaccini , Carlo Procaccini, Ercole ( the elder ) Procaccini , Ercole ( the younger ) Procaccini, Giulio Protogenes Prout, Samuel Prout , Skinner Provenzale Prud'hon , Pierre Paul Pynacker, Adam Pyne , J. B. 257 257 301 186 449 57 178 160 102 255 445 294 , 398 . . . . . 258 . 368 353 359 315 319 . QUELLINUS , Erasmus Quellinus, Jan Querfurt, August . 62 . PAGE 143 Roos , J. Heinrich 355 Roos, Philip 288 Roose ( de Liemakere) 292 Rosa , Salvator 286 Ross , William 375 Rosselli , Cosimo 372 Rosselli , Matteo 142 Rossi , Francesco 129 Rossi , Rosso de ' 176 Rothenhammer , Johann 176 Rowlandson , Thomas 176 Rubens , Peter Paul 176 Rugendas, Georg 176 Ruysch , Rachel 8 Ruysdael , Solomon . 447 Ruysdael, Jacob 451 Ryckaert , David 24 Rysbraek , Peter 389 355 SABBATINI , Lorenzo 435 Sacchi, Andrea Salaino, Andrea 310 Salerno , Andrea da 310 Salvator Rosa 259 Salvi , Giovanni Battista Salviati , del ( Rossi ) 415 Sanchez Coello , Alonso 60 Sandby, Paul . Sandrart, J. von 405 Santerre , Baptiste 113 Santi , Giovanni 103 Sanzio , Raphael 396 Saracino, Carlo 259 Sarto, Andrea del 330 Sassoferrato ( Salvi ) . 369 Savery , Roelandt 167 Schadow, Friedrich 406 Schaffer, Martin 195 Schalken , Godfried . 196 | Schäuffelin , Hans 186, 196 Schedone, Bartolommeo 189 Scheffer , Ary . 401 Schiavone , Andrea . Schiavone , Gregorio 382 Schnorr von Carolsfeld 193 Schoenfeldt , Heinrich 219 Schongauer, Martin ( Schön ) 219 Schoreel , Jan. 393 Schut , Cornelius 435 Schwartz , Christoph 448 Scott , Samuel 150 Screta , Carl . 148 Sebastiano del Piombo 150 Semitecolo , Niccolò 261 Sermoneta , Girolamo da . 200 Sesto , Cesare da 192 Shalders, George 344 Shee, Martin Archer 146 Signorelli , Luca 128 Simbrecht, Matthias 304 Slingelandt , Pieter Van 410 Smirke, Robert .. . RAEBURN , Henry Raffaellino Capponi . Raibolini ( Francia ) . Ramsay , Allan Raphael, Sanzio Razzi, Giovanni (or Bazzi) Regnault , Henri Reiner , Wenzel Rembrandt van Rijn René , King of Anjou Reni, Guido . Reynolds , Joshua Ribalta, Francisco de Ribalta , Juan de Ribera , Josef de Ricci , Sebastiano Richardson , Jonathan Richardson, Thomas M. Rigaud , Hyacinthe . Rincon , Antonio del Rizi, Francisco Rizi , Juan Robert , Léopold Roberts, David Robson , George F. . Robusti , Domenico . Robusti , Jacopo Robusti, Marietta Rode , Christian Roélas, Juan de las . Rogel , Maestro Rokes , Hendrik Romanino , Girolamo Romano , Giulio ( Pippi) Rombouts , Theodor Romney, George 162 180 96 129 186 180 160 215 444 256 380 75 113 184 99 180 292 266 236 347 248 179 393 150 66 267 256 234 324 311 254 401 256 144 80 160 95 451 . 448 .. . 418 . 57 257 346 414 3 0 466 INDEX. PAGE PAGE 218 395 . 405 406 406 312 301 103 96 71 Tristan, Luis . Troyon, Constantine Trumbull, John Tura, Cosimo. Turner, J. M. W. Turrita, Jacobus de . 455 67 420 , 446 39 . 185 Uccello ( Paolo Doni) Udine, Giovanni da. Udine, Martino da . Uggione (Marco da Oggione ) Utrecht, Adriaan van Uwins, Thomas 50 130 147 95 312 423 . Smith , George (of Chichester ) . Smith, John Smith, William Snayers, Peter Snyders, Frans Sodoma, 11 Sogliani, Giovanni Solario, Andrea da . Solario, Antonio Solis, Virgilius Spadara, Micco Spagna, Lo (Giov. di Pietro) Spagnoletto, Il (Ribera) Spinello di Spinelli . Spranger, Bartholomäus Squarcione, Francesco Stanfield , Clarkson . Stanzioni, Massimo Staphinus, Georgius Stark, James Steen, Jan Stephanus, Hans Stefano ( Fiorentino) Stevens, Anton ( Palamedes) Stevens, Paul (Palamedes) Stone, Frank . Stone, Henry Stoop, Dirk Stothard , Thomas Stuart, Gilbert Stubbs, George Suardi, Bartolommeo Sustermann, Lamprecht Sustermans, Justus Sylvester, Don 251 186 79 186 44 288 65 433 186 . 26 . 430 344 254 42 349 349 291 130 315 212 184, 378 254 323 319 316 285, 398 315 285 365 365 365 . 439 • . . 338 399 352, 400 415 454 408 71 285 303 42 316, 400 276 361 342 366 311 . 72 . . 454 46 VÆNIUS, Otto ( Van Veen) Vaga, Perino del Vaillant, Wallerant . Valdes Leal, Juan de Valentin Moise Van Achen , Hans Van Aeken, Hieronymus . Van Bloemen, Jan Van Bloemen, Pieter Van Cleve, Joas Van Craesbecke, Joas Van Coxcyen, Michael Van de Capelle, Jan Van Deelen, Dirk Van de Heem, Jan . Van der Eeckhout . Van der Faes, Pieter ( Lely) Van der Goes, Hugo Van der Hagen, Jan Van der Helst, Bartholomew Van der Heyden, Jan Van der Hoecke, Jan Vanderlyn, John Van der Meer, Jan . Van der Meer de Jonge Van der Meire, Gerard Van der Meulen, Anton Van der Mont, Deodat Van der Neer, Aart Van der Neer, Hendrik Van der Venne, Adriaan . Van der Werff, Adriaan Van der Weyden ( the younger) . Van der Weyden ( the elder) Van der Velde, Esaias Van de Velde, Adriaan Van de Velde, W. ( the elder) Van de Velde, W. ( the younger) Van de Velde, Pieter Van Diepenbeck , Abraham Vandyck, Antony Van Egmont, Justus Van Everdingen, Aldert Van Eyck, Hubrecht Van Eyck, Jan Van Eyck , Lambert Van Eyck, Margaret Van Goyen, Jan 345 363 . 276 318 311 . 353 347 . 328 348 279 . . . 274 TACCONI , Francesco Taddeo di Bartolo Tafi , Andrea . Teniers, Abraham Teniers, David ( the elder) Teniers, David ( the younger) Terburg, Gerard Theodorich ( of Prague) Theon . Theotocopuli, Domenico . Thiele, Johann Thomas, George H. Thompson, Henry Thornbill, James Tibaldi, Pellegrino Tidemand, Adolf Timanthes ( of Sicyon ) Timanthes ( of Cythnos) Timoteo della Vite . Timomachus Tintoretto, Il . Titi, Santo di . Titian Tobar, Alonso de Tommaso da Modena Trioson, Girodet 328 24, 38 315 311 313 339 231 8 217 259 442 420 401 II2 268 IO 6 127 IO 148 162 134 213 . 363 364, 400 364, 400 398 310 . 304, 398 311 355 269 . . 271 273 273 349 61 , 231 388 INDEX 467 PAGE PAGE 127 338 84 84 311 Vite , Timoteo della Vivarini , Bartolommeo 363 Vivarini, Luigi 368, 400 Vlieger, Simon de . 352 Volterra , Daniele da 384 Vos , Martin de 384 Vouet, Simon 288 Vroom , Cornelis 345 Vroom , Hendrik 346 363 II2 287 184 , 372 398 325 311 348 248 443 400 419 382 355 368 451 Van Herp , Gerard , Van Hoogstraten , Samuel Van Huchtenburg, Jan Van Huysum, Jan Van Laer , Pieter Van Loo, Carle Van Loo , Jean Van Mander, Carel Van Mieris , Frans . Van Mieris , Willem Van Mol , Pieter Van Muscher, Michael Vannucchi, Andrea Van Oost, Jacob Van Oost, Jacob ( the younger) Van Orley , Bernhard Van Ostade, Adriaan Van Ostade , Isaac . Van Ouwater , Albrecht Van Slingelandt, Pieter Van Somer , Paul Van Steenwyck Van St. Jans, Geertgen Van Swanevelt , Hermann Van Tulden, Theodor Vanuccio , Pietro di . Van Uden , Lucas Van Veen , Martin Van Veen , Othon Van Vriendt , Frans Varela , Francisco Vargas, Luis de Varley, John Vasari, Giorgio Vazquez, Alonso Vecellio , Marco Vecellio , Orazio Vecellio , Tiziano Veit, Philipp . Velasquez de Silva . Venezia , Antonio da Veneziano , Bonifazio Veneziano, Domenico Venusti , Marcello Vermeyen, Cornelis Vernet, Claude Joseph Vemet, Emile J. H. Veronese , Paul (Cagliari ) Verrio , Antonio Verrocchio , Andrea Victor , Jan Vien , Marie Villavicencio , Nuñez de Vincent , George Vinci, Gaudenzio Vinci , Leonardo da Vinckeboons, David Vitale 99 312 316 283 340 344 323 346 292, 398 289 323 353 310 76 303 285 291 286 204 199 446 160 . WAGNER , Hans Walker, Frederick . Walker , Robert Ward, James . Watteau , Antoine Weenix , Jan ( the elder ) Weenix , Jan ( the younger ) Wehnert , Edward H. Werden , Meister von West , Benjamin Westall, Richard Westall , William Wheatley, Francis . Wildens , Jan. Wilhelm, Meister Wilkie, David Willaerts, Adam Wilson , Richard Witherington , William Wohlgemuth , Michael Wootton , John Wouters , Frans Wouvermans, Jan Wouvermans, Philip Wouvermans, Pieter Wright, John M. Wright, Joseph Wright, Michael Wurmser, Nicholas . Wynants, Jan 234 411 , 453 417 417 413 303 232 424 293 405 425 242 401 311 354 354 354 445 409 399 231 349 .... 200 . . 142 142 134 267 220 43 .. 146 .. 230 170 312 303 235 71 ... . 56 338 50 ZAMACOIS , Eduardo II2 Zampieri, Domenico 285 Zegers , Daniel ( or Segers ) 384 Zegers , Gerard ( or Seghers ) 392 Zeitblom , Bartholomäus 150 Zenale, Bernardo 401 Zeuxis Zingaro , Il ( Solario ) Zoffany, Johann 386 Zoppo, Marco Zuccaro , Taddeo 430 Zuccaro , Federigo 96 Zuccato, Valerio 88 Zuccato , Francesco . 293 Zuccherelli , Francesco 61 Zurbaran , Francisco 212 185 410 62 161 162 , 398 24 24 191 202 . LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. ha

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AUG 26 1929

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