Florentine School (15th Century).
_See also_ (p. xix)
The authorship of this picture and of No. 781, which must
be by the same hand, is one of the unsolved problems of art
criticism. It has at different times been ascribed to Domenico
Ghirlandajo, to Antonio Pollajuolo, to the school of Piero
Pollajuolo, to Verrocchio, and to an unknown master in the
school of the last-mentioned painter. Sir F. Burton said, "If
not by Verrocchio, it must be the work of one of his most
distinguished pupils." Sir Edward Poynter says, "This picture
has all the characteristics of Andrea del Verrocchio's best
work, and is probably by that painter; but the small number of
works that can with certainty be ascribed to him renders the
attribution uncertain." Andrea del Verrocchio (1435-1488) was
the sculptor of the celebrated equestrian statue of Bartolommeo
Colleoni at Venice, than which, says Ruskin, "I do not believe
that there is a more glorious work of sculpture existing in
the world" (_Stones of Venice_, vol. iii. ch. I, § 22). As
a painter Verrocchio was for a time the master of Leonardo
da Vinci, who painted the figure of an angel in Verrocchio's
"Baptism of Christ" (in the Florentine Academy). "This figure,"
says Vasari (ii. 255), "was so much superior to the other parts
of the picture that, perceiving this, Verrocchio resolved
never again to take pencil in hand." Whether this be so or
not, Verrocchio left an enduring mark on the art of his time.
"He delighted to paint the _putto_--the infant boy who is just
beginning to rejoice in the use of his limbs--and with such
a charm did he invest his creations of this kind, whether in
sculpture or in painting, that," says Dr. Meyer, "it is not too
much to say that he was the creator of that child-type which
is so universal in the Italian art of the _Cinque-cento_."
"Verrocchio," says E. Müntz, "is the plastic artist, deeply
enamoured of form, delighting in hollowing it out, in fining it
down; he has none of the literary temperament of a Donatello,
a Mantegna, masters who in order to give expression to the
passions that stir them, to realise their ideal, need a vast
theatre, numerous actors, dramatic subjects. There is no
_mise-en-scène_, no searching after recondite ideas, with
Verrocchio. Most suggestive in spirit, he sowed more than he
reaped, and produced more pupils than masterpieces. All there
is of feminine, one might almost say effeminate, in Leonardo's
art, the delicacy, the _morbidezza_, the suavity, appear,
though often merely in embryo, in the work of Verrocchio"
(_Leonardo da Vinci_, i. 23, 25). The one undoubted picture
by Verrocchio is "The Baptism" above referred to. In the St.
George's Museum at Sheffield there is a "Madonna Adoring"
which has a marked affinity (especially in the Virgin's
expression and attitude, and in her peculiar head-dress) to our
picture. Ruskin, who purchased it in Venice from the Manfrini
collection, ascribed it unhesitatingly to Verrocchio, and
called it "a picture of extreme value, which teaches all I want
my pupils to learn of art." For an excellent reproduction of
it, and for a full discussion both of it and of our picture,
the reader should consult Mr. W. White's _Principles of Art as
illustrated in the Ruskin Museum_ (pp. 62-83). The angel on the
left of this picture resembles the angel in the "Baptism," and
the drawing of a head in the Uffizi at Florence by Verrocchio
is a study for an angel. Dr. Richter, however, thinks the
picture must be ascribed to a pupil of Verrocchio only, for
"the artist of the Colleoni monument could not have been guilty
of the abnormal extension given to the lower part of the
Virgin's body. What should we have to say of the proportions of
this figure if she were to rise from her seat?" (_Italian Art
in the National Gallery_, p. 33). Morelli, on the other hand,
on the strength of various technical details, ascribes the
picture to Pollajuolo (_Italian Masters in German Galleries_,
pp. 353-355).
This picture, whatever may be its authorship, is certainly one of
the most beautiful examples of Florentine art in the second half of
the fifteenth century. Of a very individual and fascinating type are
the faces of the two angels; their sweet and childlike loveliness
will haunt the memory of any visitor who has once studied them. Mr.
Monkhouse suggests that they may represent some member of the Medici
family: "It is at all events evident that the originals of these
beautiful children, however elevated by the refinement of the artist,
belonged to no common stock. Nor can there be any doubt that this
extremely elegant type, dainty to a degree unknown before, has a close
affinity to the ideal of Leonardo da Vinci." The angels' hands in our
picture are also very beautiful, though there is a touch of awkward
affectation in the disjointed bend of the little finger in the angel on
the left. The spectator will notice further the beautiful embroidery,
and the jewelled brooches worn both by this angel and by the Madonna.
The child holds a raspberry in one hand, some seeds of which he puts
to his lips. The expression of the mother is very beautiful in its
serene happiness of worship. Her head-dress is peculiar. "The light
golden hair is entirely off the forehead, with but little showing, and
is formed into a kind of pad, enclosed in an ornamental veil of thin
material, which being tied round upon the top of the head, lightly
forms a triangular curved peak upon the forehead, and hangs down
gracefully on either shoulder." The entire picture is, as Kugler says,
"a work of the most attractive character, from its careful finish, its
rich and transparent colour, and its great beauty of expression."