=Division into Volumes.=--In arrangement and, to some degree, in
contents the Handbook in its present form differs from the earlier
editions. Important changes have been made during the last few years
in the constitution and scope of the National Gallery itself. The
Gallery now consists of two branches controlled by a single Board of
Trustees: (1) the "National Gallery" in Trafalgar Square; and (2) the
"Tate Gallery" or, as it is officially called, the "National Gallery
of British Art" on the Thames Embankment at Millbank.[1] At the former
Gallery are hung all the pictures belonging to Foreign Schools.
Pictures of the British Schools are hung partly in Trafalgar Square
and partly at Millbank, and from time to time pictures are moved from
one Gallery to the other. It has therefore been decided to divide the
Handbook into volumes according to subject rather than according to
position. Volume I. deals with the Foreign Schools (National Gallery);
Volume II., with the British Schools (National Gallery and Tate
Gallery). By this division the convenience of the books for purposes
of reference or use in the Galleries will not be disturbed by future
changes in the allocation of British pictures between Trafalgar Square
and Millbank respectively.
=How to use the Handbook.=--The one fixed point in the arrangement of
the National Gallery is the numbering of the pictures. The numbers
affixed to the frames, and referred to in the Official Reports
and Catalogues, are never changed. This is an excellent rule, the
observance of which, in the case of some foreign galleries, would have
saved no little inconvenience to students and visitors. In the present,
as in the preceding editions of the Handbook, advantage has been taken
of this fixed system of numbering; and in the pages devoted to the
Biographical and Descriptive Catalogue the pictures are enumerated in
their numerical order. The introductory remarks on the chief Schools
of Painting represented in the Gallery are brought together at the
beginning of the book. The visitor who desires to make an historical
study of the Collection may, if he will, glance first at the general
introduction given to the pictures in each School; and then, as he
makes his survey of the rooms devoted to the several Schools, note the
numbers on the frames, and refer to the Numerical Catalogue following
the series of introductions. On the other hand, the visitor who
does not care to use the Handbook in this way has only to skip the
preliminary chapters, and to pass at once, as he finds himself before
this picture or that, to the Numerical Catalogue. For the convenience,
again, of visitors or students desiring to find the works of some
particular painter, the full and detailed Index of Painters, first
introduced in the Third Edition, has here been retained. References to
all the pictures by each painter, and to the page where some account
of his life and work is given, will be found in this Index. Finally,
a concise Numerical Index is given, wherein the reader may find at
once the particulars of acquisition, the _provenance_, and other
circumstances regarding every picture (by a foreign artist) in the
possession of the National Gallery, wherever deposited.
=History of the National Gallery.=--"For the purposes of the general
student, the National Gallery is now," said Mr. Ruskin in 1888,
"without question the most important collection of paintings in
Europe." Forty years before he said of the same Gallery that it was
"an European jest." The growth of the Gallery from jest to glory[2]
may be traced in the final index to this book, where the pictures
are enumerated in the order of their acquisition. Many incidents
connected with the acquisition of particular pictures will also be
found chronicled in the Catalogue[3]; but it may here be interesting
to summarise the history of the institution. The National Gallery of
England dates from the year 1824, when the Angerstein Collection of
thirty-eight pictures was purchased. They were exhibited for some
years in Mr. Angerstein's house in Pall Mall; for it was not till
1832 that the building in which the collection is now deposited was
begun. This building, which was designed expressly for the purpose by
William Wilkins, R.A., was opened to the public in 1838.[4] At that
time, however, the Gallery comprised only six rooms, the remaining
space in the building being devoted to the Royal Academy of Arts--whose
inscription may still be seen above a disused doorway to the right of
the main entrance. In 1860 the first enlargement was made--consisting
of one new room. In 1869 the Royal Academy removed to Burlington House,
and five more rooms were gained for the National Gallery. In 1876 the
so-called "New Wing" was added, erected from a design by E. M. Barry,
R.A. In that year the whole collection was for the first time housed
under a single roof. The English School had, since its increase in
1847 by the Vernon gift, been exhibited first at Marlborough House
(up to 1859), and afterwards at South Kensington. In 1884 a further
addition of five rooms was commenced under the superintendence of Sir
John Taylor, of Her Majesty's Office of Works; these rooms (numbered
I., II., III., V., VI. on the plan), with a new staircase and other
improvements, were opened to the public in 1887; and the Gallery then
consisted of twenty-two rooms, besides ample accommodation for the
offices of the Director and the convenience of the students.[5] A
further extension of the Gallery, on the site of St. George's Barracks,
was completed in 1911; this consisted of six new rooms.[6] At the same
time the older portions of the building were reconstructed, in order to
make it fire-proof. The rearrangement of the Gallery is described below
(p. xxv).
=Growth of the Collection.=--This growth in the Galleries has, however,
barely sufficed to keep pace with the growth of the pictures. In 1838
the total number of national pictures was still only 150. In 1875 the
number was 926. In 1911 the number of pictures, etc. (exclusive of
the Turner water-colours) vested in the Trustees of the Gallery was
nearly 2870. This result has been due to the combination of private
generosity and State aid which is characteristic of our country. The
Vernon gift of English pictures in 1847 added over 150 at a stroke.
Ten years later Turner's bequest added (besides some 19,000 drawings
in various stages of completion) 100 pictures. In 1876 the Wynn Ellis
gift of foreign pictures added nearly another hundred. In 1910 the
bequest of Mr. George Salting added 192 pictures (160 foreign and 32
British). Particulars of other gifts and bequests may be gathered from
the Appendix. Parliamentary grants have of late years been supplemented
by private subscriptions and bequests. In 1890 Messrs. N. M. Rothschild
and Sons, Sir Edward Guinness, Bart. (now Lord Iveagh), and Mr. Charles
Cotes, each contributed £10,000 towards the purchase of three important
pictures (1314-5-6); whilst in 1904, Mr. Astor, Mr. Beit, Lord Burton,
Lord Iveagh, Mr. Pierpont Morgan, and Lady Wantage subscribed £21,000
to supplement a Government grant for the purchase of Titian's "Portrait
of Ariosto" (1944). In 1903 a "National Art-Collections Fund" was
established for organising private benefactions to the Galleries
and Museums of the United Kingdom; it was through this agency that
the famous "Venus" by Velazquez (2057), in 1906, and the still more
famous "Christina, Duchess of Milan," by Holbein (2475), in 1909, were
added to the National Gallery. The same Fund contributed also to the
purchase in 1911, of the Castle Howard Mabuse (2790). Mr. Francis
Clarke bequeathed £23,104, and Mr. T. D. Lewis £10,000, the interest
upon which sums was to be expended in pictures. Mr. R. C. Wheeler
left a sum of £2655, the interest on which was to purchase _English_
pictures. Mr. J. L. Walker left £10,000, not to form a fund, but to
be spent on "a picture or pictures." In 1903 a large bequest was made
to the Gallery by Colonel Temple West. The will was disputed; but
by the settlement ultimately effected (1907, 1908) a sum of £99,909
was received, of which the interest is available for the purchase of
pictures. In 1906 Mr. C. E. G. Mackerell made a bequest, and this
will also was disputed. By the settlement (1908) a sum of £2859 was
received, and a further sum will be forthcoming at the expiration
of certain life-interests, of which sums, again, the interest will
be available for the purchase of pictures. Appendix II. shows the
pictures acquired from these several funds. This growth of the Gallery
by private gift and public expenditure concurrently accords with the
manner of its birth. One of the factors which decided Lord Liverpool in
favour of the purchase of Mr. Angerstein's Collection was the generous
offer of a private citizen--Sir George Beaumont.
=Value of the Pictures.=--Sir George's gift, as we shall see from a
little story attaching to one of his pictures (61), was not of that
which cost him nothing in the giving. The generosity of private donors,
which that little story places in so pleasing and even pathetic a
light, has been accompanied by public expenditure at once liberal
and prudent. The total cost of the collection so far has been about
£900,000[7]; at present prices there is little doubt that the pictures
so acquired could be sold for several times that sum. It will be seen
in the following pages that there have been some bad bargains; but
these mostly belong to the period when responsibility was divided, in
an undefined way, between the Trustees and the Keeper. The present
organisation of the Gallery dates from 1855, when, as the result
of several Commissions and Committees, a Treasury Minute was drawn
up--appointing a Director to preside over the Gallery, and placing an
annual grant of money at his disposal.[8] The curious reader may trace
the use of this discretion made by successive Directors in the table of
prices given in the final index--a table which would afford material
for an instructive history of recent fashions in art. The annual grant
has from time to time been supplemented by special grants, of which
the most notable were those for the Peel Collection, the Blenheim
pictures, the Longford Castle pictures, two new Rembrandts (1674-5),
Titian's "Ariosto" (1944), Holbein's "Duchess of Milan" (2475),
and Mabuse's "Adoration of the Magi" (2790) respectively. The Peel
Collection consisted of seventy-seven pictures. The vote was proposed
in the House of Commons on March 20, 1871, and in supporting it the
late Sir W. H. Gregory (one of the Trustees of the Gallery) alluded to
"the additional interest connected with the collection, for it was the
labour of love of one of our greatest English Statesmen, and it was
gratifying to see that the taste of the amateur was on a par with the
sagacity of the minister, for throughout this large collection there
could hardly be named more than two or three pictures which were not of
the very highest order of merit." The price paid for this collection,
£70,000, was exceedingly moderate.[9] The "princely" price given for
the two Blenheim pictures is more open to exception; but if the price
was unprecedented, so also was the sale of so superb a Raphael in the
present day unprecedented.
=Features of the Collection.=--The result of the expenditure with
which successive Parliaments have thus supplemented private gifts
has been to raise the National Gallery to a position second to that
of no single collection in the world. The number of pictures now on
view in Trafalgar Square, exclusive of the water-colours, is about
1600.[10] This number is very much smaller than that of the galleries
at Dresden, Madrid, and Paris--the three largest in the world. On
the other hand no foreign gallery has been so carefully acquired, or
so wisely weeded, as ours. An Act was passed in 1856 authorising the
sale of unsuitable works, whilst another passed in 1883 sanctioned the
thinning of the Gallery in favour of Provincial collections. There
are still many serious gaps. In the Italian School we have no work by
Masaccio--the first of the naturalisers in landscape; only one doubtful
example of Palma Vecchio, the greatest of the Bergamese painters;
no first-rate portrait by Tintoret. The French School is little
represented--an omission which is, however, splendidly supplied in the
Wallace Collection at Hertford House, now the property of the nation.
In the National Gallery itself there is no picture by "the incomparable
Watteau," the "prince of Court painters." The specimens of the Spanish
School are few in number, though Velazquez is now finely represented;
whilst amongst the old masters of our own British School there are
many gaps for some future Vernon or Tate to fill up. But on the other
hand we can set against these deficiencies many painters who, and even
schools which, can nowhere--in one place--be so well studied as in
Trafalgar Square. The works of Crivelli--one of the quaintest and most
charming of the earlier Venetians--which hang together in one room; the
works of the Brescian School, including those of its splendid portrait
painters--Moroni and Il Moretto; the series of Raphaels, showing each
of his successive styles; and in the English School the unrivalled and
incomparable collection of Turners,--are amongst the particular glories
of the National Collection. Historically the collection is remarkably
instructive. This is a point which successive Directors have, on the
recommendation of Royal Commissions, kept steadily in view; and which
has been very clearly shown since the successive re-arrangements of the
Gallery after the extension in 1887.
=Scope of the Handbook.=--It is in order to help visitors to take full
advantage of the opportunities thus afforded for historical study that
I have furnished some general introductions to the various Schools
of Painting represented in the National Gallery. With regard to the
notes in the Numerical Catalogue, my object has been to interest the
daily increasing numbers of the general public who visit the National
Gallery. The full inventories and other details, which are necessary
for the identification of pictures, and which are most admirably given
in the (unabridged) Official Catalogue--would obviously be out of place
in a book designed for popular use. Nor, secondly, would any elaborate
technical criticism have been in keeping--even had it been in my power
to offer it--with a guide intended for unprofessional readers. C. R.
Leslie, the father of the present Academician, tells how he "spoke one
day to Stothard of his touching picture of a sailor taking leave of his
wife or sweetheart. 'I am glad you like it, sir,' said Stothard; 'it
was painted with japanner's gold size.'" I have been mainly concerned
with the sentiment of the pictures, and have for the most part left the
"japanner's gold size" alone.
=Mr. Ruskin's Notes.=--It had often occurred to me, as a student of
Mr. Ruskin's writings, that a collection of his scattered notes upon
painters and pictures now in the National Gallery would be of great
value. I applied to Mr. Ruskin in the matter, and he readily permitted
me to make what use I liked of any, or all, of his writings. The
generosity of this permission, which was supplemented by constant
encouragement and counsel, makes me the more anxious to explain clearly
the limits of his responsibility for the book. He did not attempt to
revise, or correct, either my gleanings from his own books, or the
notes added by myself from other sources. Beyond his general permission
to me to reprint his past writings, Mr. Ruskin had, therefore,
no responsibility for this compilation whatever. I should more
particularly state that the pages upon the Turner Gallery in the Second
Volume were not even glanced at by him. The criticisms from his books
there collected represent, therefore, solely his attitude to Turner at
the time they were severally written. But, subject to this deduction,
the passages from Ruskin arranged throughout the following pages
will, I hope, enable the _Handbook_ to serve a second purpose. Any
student who goes through the Gallery under Ruskin's guidance--even at
second-hand--can hardly fail to obtain some insight into the system of
art-teaching embodied in his works. The full exposition of that system
must still be studied in the original text-books, but here the reader
may find a series of examples and illustrations which will perhaps make
the study more vivid and actual.
=Attribution of Pictures.=--In the matter of _attributions_, the rule,
in the successive editions of this Handbook, has been to follow the
authority of the Official Labels and Catalogues. Criticism has been
very busy of late years with the traditional attribution of pictures
in our Gallery, and successive Directors introduce their several, and
sometimes contradictory, opinions on such points. Thus more than One
Old Master hitherto supposed to be represented in the Gallery has
been banished, and others, whose fame had not previously been bruited
abroad, have been credited with familiar masterpieces. Thus--to
notice some of the changes made by Sir Edward Poynter (Catalogue of
1906)--among the Venetians, Bastiani and Catena have come into favour.
To Bastiani was given the picture of "The Doge Giovanni Mocenigo" (750)
which for forty years has been exhibited as a work by Carpaccio; that
charming painter now disappears from the National Gallery. To Catena
is attributed the "St. Jerome" (694), which for several decades had
been cited as peculiarly characteristic of Bellini. To Catena also is
given the "Warrior in Adoration" (234). In this case Catena's gain is
Giorgione's loss. But elsewhere Giorgione has received compensation for
disturbance. To him has been given the "Adoration of the Magi" (1160),
which some critics attributed to Catena. The beautiful "Ecce Homo"
(1310), which was sold as a Carlo Dolci and bought by Sir Frederick
Burton as a Bellini, was ascribed by Sir Edward Poynter to Cima. One
of the minor Venetians--Basaiti, who enjoyed a high reputation at the
National Gallery--was deprived of the pretty "Madonna of the Meadow"
(599), which went to swell the opulent record of Bellini. Among the
Florentines, a newcomer is Zenobio Macchiavelli, to whom is attributed
an altar-piece (586) formerly catalogued under the name of Fra Filippo
Lippi. Cosimo Rosselli, hitherto credited with a large "St. Jerome in
the Desert" (227), now disappears; it was labelled "Tuscan School,"
and was any one's picture. The attribution of pictures belonging to
the group of the two Lippis and Botticelli is still very uncertain.
A note on these critical diversities will be found under No. 293.
Among alterations in other schools we may note the substitution of
Zurbaran for Velazquez as the painter of "The Nativity," No. 232; the
attribution to Patinir, the Fleming, of a landscape formerly labelled
"Venetian School" (1298); and the discovery of Jacob van Oost as the
painter of a charming "Portrait of a Boy" (1137), which, but for an
impossibility in the dates, might well continue to pass as Isaac van
Ostade's.
Such were the principal changes made in the ascriptions of the pictures
during Sir Edward Poynter's directorate. His successor, Sir Charles
Holroyd, has recently made many others, as shown in the following list: