_Bernardino Luini_ (Lombard: about 1475-1533).
Bernardino, "dear little Bernard," the son of Giovanni
Lutero, called Luini from his birthplace Luino, on the Lago
Maggiore, is perhaps, says Ruskin, "the best central type of
the highly-trained Italian painter," being "alone in uniting
consummate art-power with untainted simplicity of religious
imagination." "The two elements, poised in perfect balance, are
so calmed and restrained, each by the other, that most of us
lose the sense of both." Next to nothing is known of his life
beyond journeys to various places in the lake district--Lugano,
Legnano, and Saronno, to paint frescoes. "We have no anecdotes
of him, only hundreds of noble works. Child of the Alps, and
of their divinest lake, he is taught, without doubt or dismay,
a lofty religious creed, and a sufficient law of life, and of
its mechanical arts. Whether lessoned by Leonardo himself,
or merely one of many, disciplined in the system of the
Milanese School, he learns unerringly to draw, unerringly and
enduringly to paint" ... "a mighty colourist, while Leonardo
was only a fine draughtsman in black, staining the chiaroscuro
drawing like a coloured print." Luini's "tasks are set him
without question day by day, by men who are justly satisfied
with his work, and who accept it without any harmful praise
or senseless blame. Place, scale, and subject are determined
for him on the cloister wall or the church dome; as he is
required, and for sufficient daily bread, and little more,
he paints what he has been taught to design wisely and has
passion to realise gloriously: every touch he lays is eternal,
every thought he conceives is beautiful and pure" (_Queen of
the Air_, § 157; _Catalogue of the Educational Series_, p. 43;
Oxford _Lectures on Art_, §§ 73, 92). This picture, formerly
ascribed to Leonardo, belongs to Luini's second period, when
he was under the influence of that master. To his third and
independent manner belong the frescoes at Milan, Saronno, and
Lugano, and the three pictures in Como Cathedral (Morelli's
_Italian Masters in German Galleries_, 1883, pp. 435-438).
Luini's female figures (says Sir Frederick Burton) "are full of
sweetness and gracious dignity; and should we incline to cavil
at the monotony of his type, its loveliness disarms us. But a
merit even higher than his sense of beauty is the pathos which
he infused into subjects that required it. These he imagined
from within outwards, following his inspiration without egotism
or mannerism. He appears to most advantage in fresco; for few
have understood so well as he the management of the limited
palette of the fresco painter, and that skilful juxtaposition
of tints by which the value of each is exalted. The decorated
party-wall and adjacent chapels in S. Maurizio at Milan must
once have been as conspicuous for their harmonious colouring
as the former still is for the radiant beauty of the Virgin
Saints in its lower compartment." Copies of several of Luini's
frescoes are included in the Arundel Society's Collection.
Christ is arguing with the Pharisees, but he wears the tender
expression of the man who "did not strive nor cry, neither was his
voice heard in the streets." The disputant on the extreme right, with
the close-shaven face and firm-set features, has his hand on a volume
of the Scriptures, and is taking his stand (as it were) on the letter
of the law. The one on the extreme left, on the other hand, is almost
persuaded. In contrast to him is the older man with the white beard,
who seems to be marvelling at the presumption of youth. The remaining
head is the type of the fanatic; "by our law he ought to die." This
picture, besides its splendid colouring, is a good instance of that law
of order or symmetry which is characteristic of all perfect art. The
central figure faces us; there are two figures on one side, balanced by
two on the other; the face in the left corner looks right, that in the
right corner looks left, whilst to break any too obtrusive symmetry the
head of Christ itself inclines somewhat to the left also. This famous
picture, of which there are several old copies, was formerly in the
Aldobrandini apartments in the Borghese Palace at Rome.