ITALIAN PAINTING.
THE HIGH RENAISSANCE. 1500-1600. (_Continued._)
BOOKS RECOMMENDED: The works on Italian art before mentioned
and also consult General Bibliography, (page xv.).
THE VENETIAN SCHOOL: It was at Venice and with the Venetian painters
of the sixteenth century that a new art-motive was finally and fully
adopted. This art-motive was not religion. For though the religious
subject was still largely used, the religious or pietistic belief was
not with the Venetians any more than with Correggio. It was not a
classic, antique, realistic, or naturalistic motive. The Venetians
were interested in all phases of nature, and they were students of
nature, but not students of truth for truth's sake.
What they sought, primarily, was the light and shade on a nude
shoulder, the delicate contours of a form, the flow and fall of silk
or brocade, the richness of a robe, a scheme of color or of light, the
character of a face, the majesty of a figure. They were seeking
effects of line, light, color--mere sensuous and pictorial effects, in
which religion and classicism played secondary parts. They believed in
art for art's sake; that painting was a creation, not an illustration;
that it should exist by its pictorial beauties, not by its subject or
story. No matter what their subjects, they invariably painted them so
as to show the beauties they prized the highest. The Venetian
conception was less austere, grand, intellectual, than pictorial,
sensuous, concerning the beautiful as it appealed to the eye. And this
was not a slight or unworthy conception. True it dealt with the
fulness of material life, but regarded as it was by the Venetians--a
thing full-rounded, complete, harmonious, splendid--it became a great
ideal of existence.
[Illustration: FIG. 47.--GIORGIONE(?). ORDEAL OF MOSES. UFFIZI.]
In technical expression color was the note of all the school, with
hardly an exception. This in itself would seem to imply a lightness of
spirit, for color is somehow associated in the popular mind with
decorative gayety; but nothing could be further removed from the
Venetian school than triviality. Color was taken up with the greatest
seriousness, and handled in such masses and with such dignified power
that while it pleased it also awed the spectator. Without having quite
the severity of line, some of the Venetian chromatic schemes rise in
sublimity almost to the Sistine modellings of Michael Angelo. We do
not feel this so much in Giovanni Bellini, fine in color as he was. He
came too early for the full splendor, but he left many pupils who
completed what he had inaugurated.
THE GREAT VENETIANS: The most positive in influence upon his
contemporaries of all the great Venetians was Giorgione (1477?-1511).
He died young, and what few pictures by him are left to us have been
so torn to pieces by historical criticism that at times one begins to
doubt if there ever was such a painter. His different styles have been
confused, and his pictures in consequence thereof attributed to
followers instead of to the master. Painters change their styles, but
seldom their original bent of mind. With Giorgione there was a lyric
feeling as shown in music. The voluptuous swell of line, the melting
tone of color, the sharp dash of light, the undercurrent of
atmosphere, all mingled for him into radiant melody. He sought pure
pictorial beauty and found it in everything of nature. He had little
grasp of the purely intellectual, and the religious was something he
dealt with in no strong devotional way. The fête, the concert, the
fable, the legend, with a landscape setting, made a stronger appeal to
him. More of a recorder than a thinker he was not the less a leader
showing the way into that new Arcadian grove of pleasure whose
inhabitants thought not of creeds and faiths and histories and
literatures, but were content to lead the life that was sweet in its
glow and warmth of color, its light, its shadows, its bending trees,
and arching skies. A strong full-blooded race, sober-minded,
dignified, rationally happy with their lot, Giorgione portrayed them
with an art infinite in variety and consummate in skill. Their least
features under his brush seemed to glow like jewels. The sheen of
armor and rich robe, a bare forearm, a nude back, or loosened
hair--mere morsels of color and light--all took on a new beauty. Even
landscape with him became more significant. His master, Bellini, had
been realistic enough in the details of trees and hills, but Giorgione
grasped the meaning of landscape as an entirety, and rendered it with
poetic breadth.
Technically he adopted the oil medium brought to Venice by Antonello
da Messina, introducing scumbling and glazing to obtain brilliancy and
depth of color. Of light-and-shade he was a master, and in atmosphere
excellent. He, in common with all the Venetians, is sometimes said to
be lacking in drawing, but that is the result of a misunderstanding.
The Venetians never cared to accent line, choosing rather to model in
masses of light and shadow and color. Giorgione was a superior man
with the brush, but not quite up to his contemporary Titian.
[Illustration: FIG. 48.--TITIAN. VENUS EQUIPPING CUPID. BORGHESE PAL.,
ROME.]
That is not surprising, for Titian (1477-1576) was the painter easily
first in the whole range of Italian art. He was the first man in the
history of painting to handle a brush with freedom, vigor, and gusto.
And Titian's brush-work was probably the least part of his genius.
Calm in mood, dignified, and often majestic in conception, learned
beyond all others in his craft, he mingled thought, feeling, color,
brush-work into one grand and glowing whole. He emphasized nothing,
yet elevated everything. In pure intellectual thought he was not so
strong as Raphael. He never sought to make painting a vehicle for
theological, literary, or classical ideas. His tale was largely of
humanity under a religious or classical name, but a noble, majestic
humanity. In his art dignified senators, stern doges, and solemn
ecclesiastics mingle with open-eyed madonnas, winning Ariadnes, and
youthful Bacchuses. Men and women they are truly, but the very noblest
of the Italian race, the mountain race of the Cadore country--proud,
active, glowing with life; the sea race of Venice--worldly wise, full
of character, luxurious in power.
In himself he was an epitome of all the excellences of painting. He
was everything, the sum of Venetian skill, the crowning genius of
Renaissance art. He had force, power, invention, imagination, point of
view; he had the infinite knowledge of nature and the infinite mastery
of art. In addition, Fortune smiled upon him as upon a favorite child.
Trained in mind and hand he lived for ninety-nine years and worked
unceasingly up to a few months of his death. His genius was great and
his accomplishment equally so. He was celebrated and independent at
thirty-five, though before that he showed something of the influence
of Giorgione. After the death of Giorgione and his master, Bellini,
Titian was the leader in Venice to the end of his long life, and
though having few scholars of importance his influence was spread
through all North Italian painting.
Taking him for all in all, perhaps it is not too much to say that he
was the greatest painter known to history. If it were possible to
describe that greatness in one word, that word would be
"universality." He saw and painted that which was universal in its
truth. The local and particular, the small and the accidental, were
passed over for those great truths which belong to all the world of
life. In this respect he was a veritable Shakespeare, with all the
calmness and repose of one who overlooked the world from a lofty
height.
[Illustration: FIG. 49.--TINTORETTO. MERCURY AND GRACES. DUCAL PAL.,
VENICE.]
The restfulness and easy strength of Titian were not characteristics
of his follower Tintoretto (1518-1592). He was violent, headlong,
impulsive, more impetuous than Michael Angelo, and in some respects a
strong reminder of him. He had not Michael Angelo's austerity, and
there was more clash and tumult and fire about him, but he had a
command of line like the Florentine, and a way of hurling things, as
seen in the Fall of the Damned, that reminds one of the Last Judgment
of the Sistine. It was his aim to combine the line of Michael Angelo
and the color of Titian; but without reaching up to either of his
models he produced a powerful amalgam of his own.
He was one of the very great artists of the world, and the most rapid
workman in the whole Renaissance period. There are to-day, after
centuries of decay, fire, theft, and repainting, yards upon yards of
Tintoretto's canvases rotting upon the walls of the Venetian churches.
He produced an enormous amount of work, and, what is to be regretted,
much of it was contract work or experimental sketching. This has given
his art a rather bad name, but judged by his best works in the Ducal
Palace and the Academy at Venice, he will not be found lacking. Even
in his masterpiece (The Miracle of the Slave) he is "Il Furioso," as
they used to call him; but his thunderbolt style is held in check by
wonderful grace, strength of modelling, superb contrasts of light with
shade, and a coloring of flesh and robes not unworthy of the very
greatest. He was a man who worked in the white heat of passion, with
much imagination and invention. As a technician he sought difficulties
rather than avoided them. There is some antagonism between form and
color, but Tintoretto tried to reconcile them. The result was
sometimes clashing, but no one could have done better with them than
he did. He was a fine draughtsman, a good colorist, and a master of
light. As a brushman he was a superior man, but not equal to Titian.
Paolo Veronese (1528-1588), the fourth great Venetian, did not follow
the line direction set by Tintoretto, but carried out the original
color-leaning of the school. He came a little later than Tintoretto,
and his art was a reflection of the advancing Renaissance, wherein
simplicity was destined to lose itself in complexity, grandeur, and
display. Paolo came on the very crest of the Renaissance wave, when
art, risen to its greatest height, was gleaming in that transparent
splendor that precedes the fall.
[Illustration: FIG. 50.--P. VERONESE. VENICE ENTHRONED. DUCAL PAL.,
VENICE.]
The great bulk of his work had a large decorative motive behind it.
Almost all of the late Venetian work was of that character. Hence it
was brilliant in color, elaborate in subject, and grand in scale.
Splendid robes, hangings, furniture, architecture, jewels, armor,
appeared everywhere, and not in flat, lustreless hues, but with that
brilliancy which they possess in nature. Drapery gave way to clothing,
and texture-painting was introduced even in the largest canvases.
Scenes from Scripture and legend turned into grand pageants of
Venetian glory, and the facial expression of the characters rather
passed out in favor of telling masses of color to be seen at a
distance upon wall or ceiling. It was pomp and glory carried to the
highest pitch, but with all seriousness of mood and truthfulness in
art. It was beyond Titian in variety, richness, ornament, facility;
but it was perhaps below Titian in sentiment, sobriety, and depth of
insight. Titian, with all his sensuous beauty, did appeal to the
higher intelligence, while Paolo and his companions appealed more
positively to the eye by luxurious color-setting and magnificence of
invention. The decadence came after Paolo, but not with him. His art
was the most gorgeous of the Venetian school, and by many is ranked
the highest of all, but perhaps it is better to say it was the height.
Those who came after brought about the decline by striving to imitate
his splendor, and thereby falling into extravagance.
These are the four great Venetians--the men of first rank. Beside them
and around them were many other painters, placed in the second rank,
who in any other time or city would have held first place. Palma il
Vecchio (1480?-1528) was so excellent in many ways that it seems
unjust to speak of him as a secondary painter. He was not, however, a
great original mind, though in many respects a perfect painter. He was
influenced by Bellini at first, and then by Giorgione. In subject
there was nothing dramatic about him, and he carries chiefly by his
portrayal of quiet, dignified, and beautiful Venetians under the names
of saints and holy families. The St. Barbara is an example of this,
and one of the most majestic figures in all painting.
[Illustration: FIG. 51.--LOTTO. THREE AGES. PITTI.]
Palma's friend and fellow-worker, Lorenzo Lotto (1480?-1556?) came
from the school of the Bellini, and at different times was under the
influence of several Venetian painters--Palma, Giorgione,
Titian--without obliterating a sensitive individuality of his own. He
was a somewhat mannered but very charming painter, and in portraits
can hardly be classed below Titian. Rocco Marconi (fl. 1505-1520) was
another Bellini-educated painter, showing the influence of Palma and
even of Paris Bordone. In color and landscape he was excellent.
Pordenone (1483-1540) rather followed after Giorgione, and
unsuccessfully competed with Titian. He was inclined to exaggeration
in dramatic composition, but was a painter of undeniable power.
Cariani (1480-1541) was another Giorgione follower. Bonifazio Pitati
probably came from a Veronese family. He showed the influence of
Palma, and was rather deficient in drawing, though exceedingly
brilliant and rich in coloring. This latter may be said for Paris
Bordone (1495-1570), a painter of Titian's school, gorgeous in color,
but often lacking in truth of form. His portraits are very fine.
Another painter family, the Bassani--there were six of them, of whom
Jacopo Bassano (1510-1592) and his son Francesco Bassano (1550-1591),
were the most noted--formed themselves after Venetian masters, and
were rather remarkable for violent contrasts of light and dark,
_genre_ treatment of sacred subjects, and still-life and animal
painting.
PAINTING IN VENETIAN TERRITORIES: Venetian painting was not confined to
Venice, but extended through all the Venetian territories in Renaissance
times, and those who lived away from the city were, in their art,
decidedly Venetian, though possessing local characteristics.
At Brescia Savoldo (1480?-1548), a rather superficial painter, fond of
weird lights and sheeny draperies, and Romanino (1485?-1566), a
follower of Giorgione, good in composition but unequal and careless in
execution, were the earliest of the High Renaissance men. Moretto
(1498?-1555) was the strongest and most original, a man of
individuality and power, remarkable technically for his delicacy and
unity of color under a veil of "silvery tone." In composition he was
dignified and noble, and in brush-work simple and direct. One of the
great painters of the time, he seemed to stand more apart from
Venetian influence than any other on Venetian territory. He left one
remarkable pupil, Moroni (fl. 1549-1578) whose portraits are to-day
the gems of several galleries, and greatly admired for their modern
spirit and treatment.
At Verona Caroto and Girolamo dai Libri (1474-1555), though living
into the sixteenth century were more allied to the art of the
fifteenth century. Torbido (1486?-1546?) was a vacillating painter,
influenced by Liberale da Verona, Giorgione, Bonifazio Veronese, and
later, even by Giulio Romano. Cavazzola (1486-1522) was more original,
and a man of talent. There were numbers of other painters scattered
all through the Venetian provinces at this time, but they were not of
the first, or even the second rank, and hence call for no mention
here.
PRINCIPAL WORKS: Giorgione, Fête Rustique Louvre, Sleeping
Venus Dresden, altar-piece Castelfranco, Ordeal of Moses
Judgment of Solomon Knight of Malta Uffizi; Titian, Sacred
and Profane Love Borghese, Tribute Money Dresden,
Annunciation S. Rocco, Pesaro Madonna Frari Venice,
Entombment Man with Glove Louvre, Bacchus Nat. Gal. Lon.,
Charles V. Madrid, Danæ Naples, many other works in almost
every European gallery; Tintoretto, many works in Venetian
churches, Salute SS. Giovanni e Paolo S. Maria dell' Orto
Scuola and Church of S. Rocco Ducal Palace Venice Acad.
(best work Miracle of Slave); Paolo Veronese, many Pictures
in S. Sebastiano Ducal Palace Academy Venice, Pitti, Uffizi,
Brera, Capitoline and Borghese Galleries Rome, Turin,
Dresden, Vienna, Louvre, Nat. Gal. Lon.; Palma il Vecchio,
Jacob and Rachel Three Sisters Dresden, Barbara S. M.
Formosa Venice, other altar-pieces Venice Acad., Colonna
Palace Rome, Brera, Naples Mus., Vienna, Nat. Gal. Lon.;
Lotto, Three Ages Pitti, Portraits Brera, Nat. Gal. Lon.,
altar-pieces SS. Giovanni e Paolo Venice and churches at
Bergamo, Treviso, Recanti, also Uffizi, Vienna, Madrid
Gals.; Marconi, Descent Venice Acad., altar-pieces S.
Giorgio Maggiore SS. Giovanni e Paolo Venice; Pordenone, S.
Lorenzo Madonna Venice Acad., Salome Doria St. George
Quirinale Rome, other works Madrid, Dresden, St. Petersburg,
Nat. Gal. Lon.; Bonifazio, St. John, St. Joseph, etc.
Ambrosian Library Milan (attributed to Giorgione), Holy
Family Colonna Pal. Rome, Ducal Pal., Pitti, Dresden Gals.;
Supper at Emmaus Brera, other works Venice Acad.; Paris
Bordone, Fisherman and Doge, Venice Acad., Madonna Casa
Tadini Lovere, portraits in Uffizi, Pitti, Louvre, Munich,
Vienna, Nat. Gal. Lon., Brignola Pal. Genoa; Jacopo Bassano,
altar-pieces in Bassano churches, also Ducal Pal. Venice,
Nat. Gal. Lon., Uffizi, Naples Mus.; Francesco Bassano,
large pictures Ducal Pal., St. Catherine Pitti, Sabines
Turin, Adoration and Christ in Temple Dresden, Adoration and
Last Supper Madrid; Savoldo, altar-pieces Brera, S. Niccolò
Treviso, Uffizi, Turin Gal., S. Giobbe Venice, Nat. Gal.
Lon.; Romanino, altar-pieces S. Francesco Brescia, Berlin
Gal., S. Giovanni Evangelista Brescia, Duomo Cremona, Padua,
and Nat. Gal. Lon.; Moretto, altar-pieces Brera, Staedel
Mus., S. M. della Pieta Venice, Vienna, Berlin, Louvre,
Pitti, Nat. Gal. Lon.; Moroni, portraits Bergamo Gal.,
Uffizi, Nat. Gal. Lon., Berlin, Dresden, Madrid; Girolamo
dai Libri, Madonna Berlin, Conception S. Paolo Verona,
Virgin Verona Gal., S. Giorgio Maggiore Verona, Nat. Gal.
Lon.; Torbido, frescos Duomo, altar-pieces S. Zeno and S.
Eufemia Verona; Cavazzola, altar-pieces, Verona Gal. and
Nat. Gal. Lon.