1613. There is a great deal of contradiction among writers as to his
early history, but it has been proved that he never left his own
country. He first studied under Don Juan del Castillo, an eminent
historical painter at Seville, on leaving whom, he went to Cadiz. It was
the custom of the young artists at that time to expose their works for
sale at the annual fairs, and many of the earliest productions of
Murillo were exported to South America, which gave rise to the
tradition, that he had proceeded thither in person.
MURILLO AND VELASQUEZ.
The fame of Velasquez, then at its zenith, inspired Murillo with a
desire to visit Madrid, in the hope to profit by his instruction. He
accordingly proceeded thither in 1642, and paid his court to Velasquez,
who received him with great kindness, admitted him into his academy, and
procured for him the best means of improvement beyond his own
instruction, by obtaining for him access to the rich treasures of art in
the royal collections, where his attention was particularly directed to
the works of Titian, Rubens, and Vandyck.
MURILLO’S RETURN TO SEVILLE.
After a residence of three years at Madrid, Murillo returned to Seville,
where he was commissioned to paint his great fresco of St. Thomas of
Villanuova distributing alms to the poor, in the convent of San
Francisco, consisting of sixteen compartments.--The subject suited his
genius, and gave full scope for the display of his powers, which were
peculiarly adapted to the representation of nature in her most simple
and unsophisticated forms. The Saint stands in a dignified posture, with
a countenance beaming with benevolence and compassion, while he is
surrounded by groups of paupers, eagerly pressing forward to receive his
charity, whose varied character and wretchedness are portrayed with
wonderful art and truthfulness of expression. This and other works
produced emotions of the greatest astonishment among his countrymen,
established his reputation as one of the greatest artists of his age,
and procured him abundant employment.
MURILLO AND IRIARTE.
About this time, Murillo was employed by the Marquis of Villamanrique,
to paint a series of pictures from the life of David, in which the
backgrounds were to be painted by Ignacio Iriarte, an eminent landscape
painter of Seville. Murillo rightly proposed that the landscape parts
should be first painted, and that he should afterwards put in the
figures; but Iriarte contended that the historical part ought to be
first finished, to which he would adapt the backgrounds. To put an end
to the dispute, Murillo undertook to execute the whole, and changing the
History of David to that of Jacob, he produced the famous series of five
pictures, now in the possession of the Marquis de Santiago at Madrid, in
which the beauty of the landscapes contends with that of the figures,
and which remain a monument of his powers in these different departments
of the art.
MURILLO’S DEATH.
The last work which Murillo painted was a picture of St. Catherine, in
the convent of the Capuchins at Seville, his death being hastened by a
fall from the scaffold. He died at Seville in 1685, universally
deplored--for he was greatly beloved, not merely for his extraordinary
talents, but for the generous qualities of his heart. Such was his noble
and charitable disposition, that he is said to have left but little
property, though he received large prices for his works.
MURILLO’S STYLE.
Few painters have a juster claim to originality of style than Murillo,
and his works show an incontestible proof of the perfection to which the
Spanish school attained, and the real character of its artists; for he
was never out of his native country, and could have borrowed little from
foreign artists; and this originality places him in the first rank among
the painters of every school. All his works are distinguished by a close
and lively imitation of nature. His pictures of the Virgin, Saints,
Magdalens, and even of the Saviour, are stamped with a characteristic
expression of the eye, and have a national peculiarity of countenance
and habiliments, which are very remarkable. There is little of the
academy discernible in his design or his composition. It is a chaste and
faithful representation of what he saw or conceived; truth and
simplicity are never lost sight of; his coloring is clear, tender, and
harmonious, and though it possesses the truth of Titian, and the
sweetness of Vandyck, it has nothing of the appearance of imitation.
There is little of the ideal in his forms or heads, and though he
frequently adopts a beautiful expression, there is usually a
portrait-like simplicity in his countenances. In short, his pictures are
said to hold a middle rank between the unpolished naturalness of the
Flemish, and the graceful and dignified taste of the Italian schools.
MURILLO’S WORKS.
The works of Murillo are numerous, and widely scattered over the world.
Most of his greatest works are in the churches of Spain; some are in the
Royal collections at Madrid, some in France and Flanders, many in
England, and a few in the United States. They now command enormous
prices. The National Gallery of London paid four thousand guineas for a
picture of the Holy Family, and two thousand for one of St. John with
the Lamb. The late Marshal Soult’s collection was very rich in
Murillos--the fruits of his campaigns in Spain. The famous Assumption of
the Virgin, considered the chef d’œuvre of the master, brought the
enormous sum of five hundred and eighty-six thousand francs, and was
bought by the French government to adorn the Louvre; but it should be
recollected that the heads of three governments--those of France,
Russia, and Spain--and an English Marquis, competed for it. Such works,
too, are esteemed above all price, as models of art, in a national
collection of pictures. Of the other Murillos in the Soult collection,
the principal brought the following prices: “The Ravages of the Plague,”
twenty thousand francs; “The Miracle of St. Diego,” eighty-five thousand
francs; “The Flight into Egypt,” fifty-one thousand francs; “The
Nativity of the Virgin,” ninety thousand francs; “The Repentance of St.
Peter,” fifty-five thousand francs; “Christ on the Cross,” thirty-one
thousand francs; “St. Peter in Prison,” one hundred and fifty-one
thousand francs; “Jesus and St. John--children,” fifty-one thousand
seven hundred and fifty francs. The two last were purchased for the
Emperor of Russia. The collection was sold in May, 1852.
The works of Murillo have been largely copied and imitated, and so
successfully as to deceive even connoisseurs.
MURILLO’S ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN.
The Assumption of the Virgin is considered by all the Spanish writers as
the masterpiece of Murillo, and never, perhaps, did that great master
attain such sublimity of expression and such magnificent coloring, as in
this almost divine picture. It represents the Virgin in the act of being
carried up into Heaven. Her golden hair floats on her shoulders, and her
white robe gently swells in the breeze, while a mantle of blue
gracefully falls from her left shoulder. Groups of angels and cherubim
of extraordinary beauty, sport around her in the most evident
admiration, those below thronging closely together, while those above
open their ranks, as if not in any way to conceal the glory shed around
the ascending Virgin. The size of the picture is eight feet six inches
in height, by six feet broad, French measure. This picture was the gem
of the famous collection made by Marshal Soult, during his campaigns in
Spain, who used humorously to relate that it cost him _two monks_, which
he thus explained. One morning two of his soldiers were found with their
throats cut, and the deed being traced to the instigation of the monks,
near whose convent they had encamped, he immediately arraigned them
before a court-martial, sentenced two of the fraternity to expiate the
deed, and compelled them to designate the victims by lot. One of the
chances fell to the Prior, who offered Soult this peerless picture as
the price of their redemption.
CASTILLO’S TRIBUTE TO MURILLO.
Castillo was educated in the school of Zurbaran. After returning to his
native city, he flattered himself that he was the first Spanish painter
of the day; but subsequently, on a visit to Seville, he was painfully
undeceived. The works of Murillo struck him with astonishment, and when
he saw the St. Leander and St. Isidore, as well as the St. Anthony of
Padua by that master, he exclaimed, “It is all over with Castillo! Is it
possible that Murillo can be the author of all this grace and beauty of
coloring?” He returned to Cordova, and attempted to imitate and equal
Murillo, but felt satisfied that he had failed; and it is said that he
died in the following year, from the effects of envy and annoyance.
CORREGGIO.
The name of this great artist was Antonio Allegri, and he was born at
Correggio, a small town in the Duchy of Modena, in 1494; hence his
acquired name. It was for a long time the fashion to regard the divine
creations of Correggio as the mere product of genius and accident;
himself as a man born in the lowest grade of society; uneducated in the
elements of his art, owing all to the wondrous resources of his own
unassisted genius; living and dying in obscurity and poverty; ill paid
for his pictures; and at length perishing tragically. It has been proved
that there is no foundation for these popular fallacies. Correggio’s own
pictures are a sufficient refutation of a part of them; they exhibit not
only a classical and cultivated taste, but a profound knowledge of
anatomy, and of the sciences of optics, perspective, and chemistry, as
far as they were then carried. His exquisite chiaro-scuro and harmonious
blending of colors were certainly not the result of mere chance: all his
sensibility to these effects of nature would not have enabled him to
render them, without the profoundest study of the mechanical means he
employed. The great works on which he was employed--his lavish use of
the rarest and most expensive colors, and the time and labor he bestowed
in analyzing and refining them--the report that he worked on a ground
overlaid with gold--all refute the idea of his being either an ignorant
or a distressed man. Of the rank he held in the estimation of the
princes of his country we have evidence in a curious document discovered
in the archives of the city of Correggio--the marriage contract between
Ippolito (the son of Giberto, Lord of Correggio, by his wife, the
celebrated poetess Vittoria Gambara), and Chiara da Correggio, in which
we find the signature of the great painter as one of the witnesses.
Correggio was one of that splendid triumvirate of painters who, living
at the same time, were working on different principles, and achieving,
each in his own department, excellence hitherto unequalled; and if
Correggio must be allowed to be inferior to Raffaelle in invention and
expression, and to Titian in life-like color, he has united design and
color with the illusion of light and shadow in a degree of perfection
not then nor since approached by any painter. Hence Annibale Caracci, on
seeing one of his great pictures, exclaimed in a transport that he was
“the only _painter_!”
CORREGGIO’S GRAND CUPOLA OF THE CHURCH OF ST. JOHN AT PARMA.
The admiration which the works of Correggio excited, induced the monks
of St. John to engage him in ornamenting the grand cupola, and other
parts of their church. The original agreement has not been discovered,
but various entries have been found in the books of the convent, between
1519 and 1536, which prove, that for adorning the cupola he received,
as Tiraboschi asserts, two hundred and seventy-two gold ducats, and two
hundred more for other parts of the fabric. The last payment of twenty
seven gold ducats was made on the 23d of January, 1524, and the
acknowledgment of the painter, under his own signature, is still extant.
The subject is the Ascension of Christ in glory, surrounded by the
twelve Apostles, seated on the clouds; and in the lunettes the four
Evangelists and four Doctors of the Church. The situation for the
picture presented difficulties which none but so great an artist could
have overcome; for the cupola has neither sky-light nor windows, and
consequently the whole effect of the piece must depend on the light
reflected from below. The figures of the Apostles are chiefly naked,
gigantic, and in a style of peculiar grandeur.
Besides the cupola, various parts of the same church were adorned by his
hand. He decorated the tribune, which was afterwards demolished to
enlarge the choir; and it was so highly esteemed, that Cesare Aretusi
was employed by the monks to copy it for the new tribune. He painted
also in fresco, the two sides of the fifth chapel on the right hand, the
first representing the Martyrdom of St. Placido and St. Flavia, and the
second a dead Christ, with the Virgin Mary swooning at his feet. Of
these paintings Mengs particularly admires the head of St. Placido and
the exquisite figure of the Magdalen in the last mentioned picture.
CORREGGIO’S GRAND CUPOLA OF THE CATHEDRAL AT PARMA.
The grand fresco painting in the cupola of the Cathedral of Parma, is
considered Correggio’s greatest work, and has ever been regarded as a
most wonderful production.
The difficulties he had to encounter, were greater than those in the
church of St. John, and in overcoming them he displayed the most
consummate skill and judgment. This cupola, which is nearly thirty-nine
feet in diameter, is octagonal, the compartments diminishing as it
rises; and it is not surmounted with a lantern, but towards the lower
part is lighted by windows, approaching to an oval form. On this surface
he delineated numerous groups of figures, with extraordinary boldness
and effect; though, for the sake of variety, he partially adopted a
smaller scale than in the cupola of St. John. The subject is the
Assumption of the Virgin Mary. She is represented with an air in the
highest degree indicative of devotion and beatitude, as rising to meet
Christ in the clouds, surrounded by the heavenly choir of saints and
angels; while beneath, the apostles behold her reception into glory with
the most dignified expression of reverence and astonishment. Over the
whole is an effusion of light, which produces an impression truly
celestial.
The figures which are depicted in the upper part of the dome, are
foreshortened with consummate skill. Mengs, who saw them near, and
judged of them as an artist, appears astonished at their boldness, which
he calls “sconcia terribile,” particularly that of Christ, which
occupies the centre. But the effect, when seen from below, proves that
the painter had deeply studied that delicate branch of the art; for
nothing can exceed the bold and exquisite management of the light and
shade, and the beautiful proportion in which the figures appear to the
eye, except the life and spirit with which they are animated, and the
general harmony of the whole.
In decorating the lower part of the cupola, Correggio displayed
undiminished resources. He figured a species of socle, or cornice, which
runs round the whole cupola, yet at such a distance as to afford a space
between the windows for the apostles, who appear, some single, some in
pairs, surrounded with angels, and delineated in the same grand style as
those in the cupola of St. John. Yet, although placed on the very lines
of the angles, formed in the dome, they are so artfully disposed and
foreshortened, as to appear painted vertically on the cornice. To unite
these with the principal figures, he distributed above and on the socle,
between the gigantic figures of the apostles, and the light and airy
forms of the celestial choir above, groups of angels, of an intermediate
size, some with torches, and others bearing vases and censers.
But a striking proof of his taste and skill is manifested in the four
lunettes between the arches supporting the cupola. Here he feigned the
architecture to form four capacious niches or shells, in which he
introduced the patrons of the city, St. John the Baptist, St. Hilary,
St. Thomas, and St. Bernard degli Uberti, in magnitude equal to the
Apostles, resting on clouds and attended by angels. In depicting the
light as transmitted from the groups above, he has thrown it so
naturally upon these figures and their angelic suite, that they appear
as if detached from the wall, and animated with more than human spirit
and grace.
This great work was commenced about 1523, and finished in 1530, as
appears from the original agreements and receipts, preserved in the
archives of the Chapter, which were published by his biographer
Pungileoni, from a copy taken and authenticated by a Notary Public, in
1803. The work seems to have been delayed by the feuds and warfare which
agitated Parma at that time, and perhaps by other engagements of the
artist. The contract was signed on the 3d of November, 1522. In the plan
or estimate which Correggio drew up at the desire of the Chapter, and
which is still preserved in his own handwriting, he required twelve
hundred gold ducats, and one hundred for gold leaf; the scaffolding,
lime, and other requisites to be provided by the Chapter. But in the
contract itself, the price was reduced to one thousand ducats, exclusive
of the one hundred for gold leaf. For this sum he engaged to paint the
choir, and the cupola with its arches and pillars, as far as the altar;
also the lateral chapels, in imitation of living subjects, bronze and
marble, according to the plan, and in conformity to the nature of the
place, comprising in the whole a surface of one hundred and fifty-four
square perches (perteche). The Chapter, on their part, were to provide
the scaffolding and the lime, and to defray the expense of preparing the
walls. Thus Correggio received the sum of one thousand gold ducats
(about two thousand dollars) for his work, out of which he had to pay
for his colors, and the labors of his assistants. What then becomes of
the miserable story generally current, that this was his last work; that
when he went to receive payment, that he might take home the price of
his labors to his poverty-stricken family, the canons found fault with
his picture, and refused to pay him more than half the paltry sum
originally promised; that they paid him in copper coin; that he took the
heavy burden upon his shoulders, and walked a distance of eight miles to
his cottage, under the burning heat of an Italian sun, which together
with his despair threw him into a fever, of which he died, on his bed of
straw, in three days? It appears from the documents before cited, that
Correggio received payment in instalments, as his work progressed.
CORREGGIO’S FATE.
Vasari commiserates the fate of Correggio, whom he represents as of a
melancholy turn of mind timid and diffident of his own powers;
burthened with a numerous family, which, with all his prodigious
talents, he could scarcely support; illy recompensed for his works; and
to crown the sad story, we are told that, having received at Parma a
payment of sixty crowns in copper money, he caught a fever in the
exertion of carrying it home on his shoulders, which occasioned his
death.
This picture, however, according to Lanzi, is exaggerated; for although
the situation of Correggio was far beneath his merits, yet it was by no
means deplorable. His family was highly respectable, and possessed
considerable landed property, which is said to have been augmented by
his own earnings; and so far from his having died of the fatigue of
carrying home copper money, he was usually paid in gold. For the cupola
and tribune of the church of St. John, he received four hundred and
seventy-two sequins; for that of the Cathedral, three hundred and fifty;
payments by no means inconsiderable in those times. For his celebrated
Notte he was paid forty sequins, and for the St. Jerome, which cost him
six months’ labor, forty-seven. It does not appear probable that he
acquired great riches, but there is no doubt that he was equally
screened from the evils attendant on penury and affluence.
The researches and discoveries of the learned Tiraboschi, the
indomitable Dr. Michele Antonioli, and the zealous and impartial Padre
Luigi Pungileoni, have thrown much light upon the life of Correggio.
His father, Pellegrino Allegri, was a general merchant in Correggio,
esteemed by his fellow-citizens. His circumstances were easy, and he
intended Antonio for one of the learned professions, but his passion for
painting induced him to allow him to follow the bent of his genius. It
is not certainly known under whom he studied painting. Some of the
Italian writers say that he was instructed by Francesco Bianchi and
Giovanni Murani, called Il Frari; others that he was a pupil of Lionardo
da Vinci and Andrea Mantegna; Lanzi is decidedly of the opinion that he
formed his style by studying the works of Mantegna, who died in 1506,
which does away with the supposition that he could have studied with
him. “The manner,” says Lanzi, “in which Correggio could have imbibed so
exquisite a taste, has always been considered surprising and
unaccountable, prevailing everywhere, as we find in his canvass, in his
laying on his colors, in the last touches of his pictures; but let us
for a moment suppose him a student of Mantegna’s models, surpassing all
others in the same taste, and the wonder will be accounted for. Let us,
moreover, consider the grace and vivacity so predominant in the
compositions of Correggio, the rainbow as it were of his colors, that
accurate care in his foreshortenings, and of those upon ceilings; his
abundance of laughing boys and cherubs, of flowers, fruits, and all
delightful objects; and let us ask ourselves whether this new style does
not appear an exquisite completion of that of Mantegna, as the pictures
of Raffaelle and Titian display the progress and perfection of those of
Perugino and Giovanni Bellini.” The authentic documents revealed by the
three savans before mentioned, show that Correggio was most highly
esteemed by his cotemporaries, and that he associated with persons of
rank and letters. On two occasions he passed some time at Padua, with
the Marchese Manfredo, and the celebrated patroness of arts and letters,
Veronica Gambara, relict of Gilberto, Lord of Correggio. That he was
cheerful and lively, may be inferred from the expression of a writer
concerning him: “_La vivacitá e dal brio del nostro Antonio_;” yet
affectionate and gentle, as is evident from his being sponsor on three
occasions to infants of his friends (in 1511, 1516, and 1518), before he
had reached his twenty-second year. In 1520 he was admitted by diploma,
as a brother of the Congregation Cassinensi, in the monastery of St.
John the Evangelist, at Parma--the fraternity to which the illustrious
Tasso belonged. In the same year he married Girolama Merlini, a lady of
good family, amiable disposition, and great beauty, who was his model
for the Zingara, probably after the birth of his first child. By this
lady he had one son and three daughters. In 1529, to his great
affliction, she died, and was buried by her own request in the church of
St. John at Parma. Correggio did not marry again. He died suddenly on
the fifth day of March, 1534, aged forty years, and was buried with
solemnities worthy of his great endowments, in the church of San
Francesco, at the foot of the altar in the chapel of the Arrivabene.
ANNIBALE CARACCI’S OPINION OF CORREGGIO’S GRAND CUPOLA AT PARMA.