"One may almost apply to the School of Ferrara the proud boast
of its ducal House of Este--
Whoe'er in Italy is known to fame,
This lordly house as frequent guest can claim."
_Guidebook._
The Schools of Ferrara and Bologna, which, as will be seen, are
substantially one and the same, are interesting both for themselves
and for their influence on others. Two of the greatest of all Italian
painters--Correggio and Raphael--may be claimed as "guests," as it
were, of "this lordly" school. Correggio's master was Francesco
Bianchi of Ferrara, a scholar of Cosimo Tura, and may possibly have
afterwards studied under Francia at Bologna;[22] whilst as for Raphael,
his master, Timoteo Viti, was also a pupil of Francia. The important
influence of this school is natural enough, for the Ferrarese appear
to have had much innate genius for art, and there is a note of
unmistakable originality in their work.
"The Art of the Emilia, the region that lies between the river Po and
the Apennines, has been unduly neglected. Here there once dwelt a
vigorous and gifted race, as original in their way as the Umbrians,
Tuscans or Venetians, who found means of self-expression in form and
colour under the political security of the Court of Este, and whose
art forms an organic whole with stages of development and decay,
characteristically differing, like their dialect, from that of other
parts of Italy.... The traveller visiting the now deserted city of
Ferrara, who meditates on its records of the past, may still in fancy
see erected again the triumphal arches which welcomed emperors, popes
and princes in the 'quattro-cento'; the gilded barges ascending the
river to the city; the platforms draped with the arras, on which were
woven in gold and silk stories of cavaliers in tilt and tourney; the
duke in his robes, stiff with brocade of gold and covered with gems,
bearing a jewelled sceptre in his hand; the magnificently caparisoned
steeds; the princesses who came in their chariots of triumph, to be
brides of the house of Este.... To trace the various processes, alike
of thought, feeling and technique, which have gone to the making of a
masterpiece of Correggio, L'Ortolano or Dosso is a fascinating pursuit.
Only through knowledge of the tentative efforts of their predecessors
at the splendid jovial court of the Este, is it possible to get a
total impression. Born, as elsewhere, in bondage to rigid types and
forms of composition, Ferrarese genius began by being profoundly
dramatic and realistic. The masters of 1450 to 1475, well grounded
in geometry, perspective and anatomy, painted rather what they saw
than what they felt. Their aim was to conventionalise Nature rather
than to transfigure her, and truth was more to them than beauty. The
next generation, 1475 to 1500, developed technique so as to express
movement and emotion, tempered by the eternal charm of antique ideals,
till upon this sure foundation there arose men of high imagination and
sentiment, who grasped and solved the mysteries of tone and colour, as
distinguished from a brilliant palette" (R. H. Benson and A. Venturi
in Burlington Fine Arts Club's Catalogue, 1894). Of the first or
Giottesque period of the school no pictures survive, and the founder
of the school, so far as we can now study it, is Cosimo Tura, who
occupies the same place in the art of Ferrara as Piero della Francesca
occupied in that of Umbria, or Mantegna in that of Padua. Look at his
picture (772): one sees at once that here is something different from
other pictures, one feels that one would certainly be able to recognise
that "rugged, gnarled, and angular" but vigorous style again. Doubtless
there was some Flemish influence upon the school (see the notes on
Tura, No. 772); and doubtless also the Ferrarese were influenced by
the neighbouring school of Squarcione at Padua. But the pictures of
Tura are enough to show how large an original element of native genius
there was. The later developments of this genius are well illustrated
in this room, with the important exception that Dosso Dossi, the
greatest colourist amongst the Ferrarese masters, is very incompletely
represented. His best works are to be seen at Ferrara, Dresden,
Florence, and the Borghese Palace. He has been called "the Titian
of the Ferrarese School," just as Lorenzo Costa has been called its
Perugino and Garofalo its Raphael. Such phrases are useful as helping
the student to compare corresponding pictures in different schools, and
thus to appreciate their characteristics.
The early Bolognese School does not really exist except as an offshoot
of the Ferrarese. Marco Zoppo (590) was "no better," says Morelli,
"than a caricature of his master, Squarcione, and besides, he spent the
greater part of his life at Venice;" whilst Lippo Dalmasii (752) was
very inferior to contemporary artists elsewhere. The so-called earlier
Bolognese School was really founded by the Ferrarese Francesco Cossa
and Lorenzo Costa, who moved to Bologna about 1480, and the latter of
whom "set up shop" with Francia in that town (see under 629). Remarks
on the later "Eclectic" School of Bologna, formed by the Carracci, may
more conveniently be deferred (see p. 35)
[Illustration]