Appendix--Documents referred to in Articles 377
The Early Painters of the Netherlands as Illustrated by the
Bruges Exhibition of 1902. Written by W. H. James Weale:
Article IV 35
Article V 326
On Oriental Carpets:
Article III.--The Svastika 43
Article IV.--The Lotus and the Tree of Life 349
The Dutch Exhibition at the Guildhall:
Article I.--The Old Masters 51
Article II.--The Modern Painters 177
Early Staffordshire Wares Illustrated by Pieces in the
British Museum. Article I. Written by R. L. Hobson 64
Notes on Various Works of Art:
Two alleged ‘Giorgiones’ 78
Two Italian Bas-reliefs in the Louvre 84
Two Pictures in the Possession of Messrs. Dowdeswell 89
A Marble Statue by Germain Pilon 90
Lace in the Collection of Mrs. Alfred Morrison at Fonthill 95
The Sorö Chalice 357
The Oaken Chest at Ypres 357
A Burgundian Chest 358
A New Fount of Greek Type 358
Portrait of a Lady by Rembrandt 360
Pictures in the Collection of Sir Hubert Parry, at Highnam
Court, near Gloucester. Article I.--Italian Pictures of
the Fourteenth Century. Written by Roger Fry 117
Mussulman Manuscripts and Miniatures as Illustrated in the
Recent Exhibition at Paris. Part I. Written by E. Blochet 132
The Plate of Winchester College. Written by Percy Macquoid, R.I. 149
The Seals of the Brussels Gilds. Written by R. Petrucci 190
Note on the Life of Bernard van Orley 205
The Collection of Pictures of the Earl of Normanton, at
Somerley, Hampshire. Article I.--Pictures by Sir Joshua
Reynolds. Written by Max Roldit 206
French Furniture of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.
Article II.--The Louis XIV Style (_cont._)--The Gobelins.
Written by Emile Molinier 229
The Exhibition of Greek Art at the Burlington Fine Arts Club.
Written by Cecil Smith 236
The Lowestoft Porcelain Factory, and the Chinese Porcelain made
for the European Market during the Eighteenth Century.
Written by L. Solon 271
Titian’s Portrait of the Empress Isabella. Written by
Georg Gronau 281
A newly-discovered Portrait Drawing by Dürer. Written by
Campbell Dodgson 286
Later Nineteenth-Century Book Illustrations. Article I.
Written by Joseph Pennell 293
Andrea Vanni. By L. Mason Perkins 309
The Geographical Distribution of the First Folio Shakespeare.
Written by Frank Rinder 335
Recent Acquisitions at the Louvre 338
New Acquisitions at the National Museums 70, 194
Bibliography 104, 256, 367
Correspondence 113, 267, 376
Foreign Correspondence 373
LIST OF PLATES
PAGE
Frontispiece--The Judgement of Cambyses--Gerard David 2
The Finest Hunting Manuscript Extant:--
Stripping the Boar 9
Hunting the Fallow Buck 13
Pages from Gaston Phoebus MS. 17
Page from Gaston Phoebus MS. 19
Painted-glass Window in the Cloister of Santa Croce,
Florence--Alesso Baldovinetti 25
Altar-piece, in the Florentine Academy--Alesso Baldovinetti 29
The Blessed Virgin and Child, with Angels, surrounded by
Virgin Saints--Gerard David 34
The Blessed Virgin and Child, St. Catherine, and St.
Barbara--Cornelia Cnoop 37
Portraits of Thomas Portunari and his Wife--Attributed to
Hans Memlinc 41
Section of Oriental Carpet, showing the Svastika 45
The Cook Asleep--Jan Vermeer of Delft 50
Portrait of Himself--Jan Steen 53
Portrait of the Wife of Thomas Wijck--Jan Verspronck 53
Off Scheveningen--Jan van de Capelle 57
Le Commencement d’Orage 61
A Scandinavian Chalice, with details 71
Madonna and Child--Cariani 79
The Sempstress Madonna--Cariani 81
Adoration of the Shepherds--Venetian School (Two Pictures) 85
Bas-relief--School of Leonardo da Vinci 88
Bas-relief--Agostino di Duccio 88
Adoration of the Magi, and Dormition of the Blessed
Virgin--French fourteenth century 91
La Charité--Germain Pilon 94
Specimens of Lace:--
Plate I 97
Plate II 99
Plate III 101
Lady Betty Hamilton--Sir J. Reynolds 116
Nativity and Adoration--School of Cimabue 119
Altar-piece--Bernardo Daddi 121
Coronation of our Lady (Two Subjects: 1, by Agnolo Gaddi;
2, by Taddeo Gaddi) 123
Adoration of the Magi--Lorenzo Monaco 127
The Visitation--Lorenzo Monaco 127
Madonna and Child, with Angels--Florentine of the early
fifteenth century 129
Triptych, by the same painter 129
Mussulman Miniatures:--
Plate I--From the Makamat of Hariri--From MS. of the
Astronomical Treatise of Abd-er-Rahman-el-Sufi 133
Plate II--From the Book of Kings 137
Plate III--From the Book of Kings 141
Plate IV--A Hunting Scene 145
Plate of Winchester College:--
The Election Cup 148
Parcel Gilt Rose-water Dish and Ewer 151
Sweetmeat Dish and Gilt Standing-Salt 154
Gilt Cup with Cover 154
Rose-water Dish and Ewer, and small Gilt Standing Cup
and Cover 157
Two Tankards and Standing Salt 160
Steeple-cup and Hanap 163
Ecclesiastical Plate 165
Paintings on a vaulted roof at S. Trinita, Florence--Alesso
Baldovinetti 171
A Group of Three--Jan Miense Molenaer 176
The Archives at Veere--Jan Bosboom 179
A Jewish Wedding--Joseph Israels 179
A Fantasy--Matthew Maris 181
The New Flower--Joseph Israels 181
Watering Horses--Anton Mauve 183
The Canal Bridge--Jacob Maris 183
A Windmill, Moonlight--Jacob Maris 185
The Butterflies--Matthew Maris 187
Engravings at S. Kensington:--
Queen Elizabeth--William Rogers 195
Roman Edifices in Ruins--Thomas Hearne and William Woollett 197
The Water Mill--C. Turner 201
The Hôtel de Ville at Louvain--J. C. Stadler 203
Miss Murray of Kirkcudbright--Sir J. Reynolds 207
Charity, Faith, Hope--Sir J. Reynolds 210
Temperance and Prudence--Sir J. Reynolds 213
Justice and Fortitude--Sir J. Reynolds 216
The Little Gardener--Sir J. Reynolds 219
George, third Duke of Marlborough--Sir J. Reynolds 222
Study of a Little Girl--Sir J. Reynolds 225
The Misses Horneck--Sir J. Reynolds 225
High Warp Tapestry, Louis XIV--After Charles Le Brun 228
Gobelin Tapestry 231
A Marquetry Bureau--André Charles Boule 234
A Bookcase--André Charles Boule 234
Fragment of the Frieze of the Parthenon 237
Bust of Aphrodite--Probably by Praxiteles 239
Head of a Mourning Woman 241
Head of a Youth 241
Group of Bronzes 245
Repoussé Mirror-Cover 247
Terracottas 251
Krater, belonging to Harrow School 253
Kylix, and plate 253
The Great Executioner 270
Lowestoft Porcelain Teapot of Soft Paste 273
Small Plate painted in Underglaze Blue, with a View of
Lowestoft Church 273
Hard Porcelain Teapot, marked ‘Allen, Lowestoft’ 276
Portrait of the Empress Isabella--Titian 280
Copy of the Portrait of the Empress Isabella from which
Titian painted the above Portrait 283
Portrait of a Lady--Albrecht Dürer 287
Portrait of a Lady--Albrecht Dürer 291
Later Nineteenth-Century Book Illustrations:--
Plate I 295
Plate II 298
Plate III 301
Plate IV 304
Plate V 307
Polyptych in the Church of S. Stefano, Siena--Andrea
Vanni 311
Annunciation, in S. Pietro Ovile, Siena--Andrea Vanni 314
Virgin and Child, from the Altar-piece in S. Francesco,
Siena--Andrea Vanni 314
Madonna and Child--Andrea Vanni 317
Details of the Annunciation in S. Pietro Ovile,
Siena--Andrea Vanni 320
Annunciation, in the Collection of Count Fabio Chigi,
Siena--Andrea Vanni 323
Annunciation, in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence--Simone
Martini 323
St. Luke--Adrian Isenbrant 327
Triptych: The Blessed Virgin and Child with Two
Angels--Adrian Isenbrant 327
The Vision of Saint Ildephonsus--Adrian Isenbrant 330
Portrait of Roger de Jonghe, Austin Friar 333
Episodes in the Life of St. Bernard--John van Eecke 333
Three Italian Albarelli of the fourteenth century 339
Landscapes--Solomon Ruysdael 342
Portrait of Dame Danger--Louis Tocqué 345
Lid of an Arabic Koursi of the fourteenth century 347
Tabriz Carpet 351
The Sorö Chalice 356
Polychrome Chest belonging to the Office of Archives at Ypres 361
A Burgundian Chest of the fifteenth century belonging to the
Hospices Civiles at Aalst 361
Portrait by Rembrandt van Rijn 363
On the Seine--Charles François Daubigny 365
Le Pêcheur--Léon Lhermitte 365
[Illustration:
Walker & Cockerell, Ph.Sc.
The Judgement of Cambyses
from the picture by Gerard David in the Bruges Museum.]
❧ EDITORIAL ARTICLES ❧
I.-CLIFFORD’S INN AND THE PROTECTION OF ANCIENT BUILDINGS
We must confess that when we published Mr. Philip Norman’s appeal
to the Government to save Clifford’s Inn, we had little hope that
the appeal would be listened to; it is too much to expect an English
Government to take any interest in a question of an artistic nature; in
agreeing to ignore such questions the unanimity of political parties is
wonderful. Nor does the English public really care about such matters.
The appeal received considerable support in the press, but it was a
support given by men who, whatever they themselves think, know well
enough that an agitation for the preservation of an ancient building
would only bore most of their readers. ¶ So Clifford’s Inn has been
sold, and sold at a ridiculously low price. It is some satisfaction
to know that legal education, which condemned it to destruction, will
profit little if at all by its sale, for the income derived from the
purchase money can be no larger than could have been derived from the
rents of the Inn under proper management. The end, however, is not
yet, for the gentleman who now owns Clifford’s Inn is happily not
without appreciation of its artistic and historical interest; for
the present, at any rate, he will leave matters in _statu quo_,
and all the tenants have been informed that they need not fear early
ejection. Moreover we have every reason to believe that, if there
were any movement to preserve the Inn, the present owner would be
willing to part with his property at a very moderate premium on the
sum of £100,000 that he paid for it. ¶ The London County Council--the
only public authority in London that cares about such matters--has
had its eye on Clifford’s Inn, and a committee of the Council only
refrained from recommending its purchase from fear of the ratepayers.
We would, however, appeal to the County Council to cast aside fear
of the Philistines and reconsider the matter. Expert opinion in such
matters holds that Clifford’s Inn could be made, as it stands, to
return £3,000 a year; its purchase, therefore, at a little more than
£100,000 would involve little or no loss to the ratepayers. The County
Council has done and is doing admirable work for the preservation
of ancient buildings; it might well add to its laurels by acquiring
Clifford’s Inn for the citizens of London. ¶ The case of Clifford’s Inn
raises the larger question of the preservation of ancient buildings
generally. We in England pretend to be an artistic nation; we talk and
write very much about art, and we all collect more or less works of
art or imitations thereof; most of us try to paint pictures, and the
world will soon be unable to contain the pictures that are painted.
But there is one fact that brands us as hypocrites, the fact that
Great Britain shares with Russia and Turkey the odious peculiarity of
being without legislation of any kind for the protection of ancient
buildings and other works of art such as is possessed to some degree
by every other country in Europe, and by almost every State of the
American Union. We have calmly looked on while amiable clergymen,
restoring architects, and legal peers with a mania for bricks and
mortar and more money than taste, have hacked, hewn, scraped and
pulled to pieces the greatest architectural works of our forefathers;
too many modern architects, when they are not engaged in copying the
work of their predecessors, are engaged in destroying it. Though the
legend of ‘Cromwell’s soldiers’ still on the lips of the intelligent
pew-opener accounts for the havoc wrought in many an ancient church,
the historian and the antiquary know that to the sixteenth and not the
seventeenth century must that havoc be in the first place attributed,
and the observer of recent history knows that the mischief worked by
the iconoclast of the sixteenth century has been far exceeded by that
worked by the restorer and the Gothic revivalist of the nineteenth.
And if this has been done by persons who imagined themselves to be
artistic and were actuated by the best possible motives, what has been
the destruction wrought by those who made no profession of any motive
but that of commercial advantage? Within the memory of the youngest
among us, buildings of great artistic and historical interest have been
ruthlessly swept away in London and in every other town in the kingdom,
and the few that have been left are rapidly disappearing. ¶ There is
no way of saving the remnant of our heritage but that of legislation;
but we cannot honestly recommend the advocacy of such legislation to
a minister or a party in need of an electioneering cry, and we are
not sanguine as to the prospects of anything being done. Still, it
may be interesting to some to learn what the despised foreigner has
done in this respect; we take the information from a Parliamentary
paper presented to the House of Commons on July 30, 1897.[1] ¶ We will
briefly summarize the facts given in this paper, referring those of
our readers who wish for further information to the paper itself. In
Austria there has existed for many years a permanent ‘Imperial and
Royal Commission for the investigation and preservation of artistic and
historical monuments.’ This Commission had, in 1897, direct rights only
over monuments belonging to the State (in which churches are included);
but it acted in concert with municipalities and learned societies, and
promoted the formation of local societies to carry out its objects. No
ancient monument coming within its scope can be touched without the
sanction of the Commission. Since 1897 its powers have, we believe,
been extended. Not only buildings, but objects of art and handicraft
of every kind as well as manuscripts and archives, of any date up to
the end of the eighteenth century, come within the scope of activity of
the Commission, which is a consultative body advising the Minister of
Public Worship and Education, who is the executive authority for these
purposes. ¶ In Bavaria, alterations to all monuments or buildings of
historical or artistic importance (including churches) belonging to
the State, municipality, or any endowed institution, have, since 1872,
required the sanction of the Sovereign, who is advised by the Royal
Commissioners of Public Buildings. The ecclesiastical authorities and
even religious communities are prohibited from altering a church or
dealing with its furniture without the consent of the Commissioners.
¶ In Denmark there has been a Royal Commission with similar objects
since 1807; ancient monuments are scheduled, and since 1873 the Royal
Commission has had power to acquire them compulsorily if their owners
will not take proper measures for their preservation. ¶ In France
the Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, who is advised by
a Commission of Historical Monuments, has as drastic powers as the
Danish Royal Commission; some 1,700 churches, castles, and other
buildings (including buildings in private ownership) have been
scheduled and classified, and cannot be destroyed, restored, repaired,
or altered except with the approval of the Minister, who has power to
expropriate private owners under certain circumstances. ¶ Belgium has
statutory provisions of a similar character; there a Royal Commission
on Monuments was constituted so long ago as 1835, so that Belgium is
second only to Denmark in this matter. The Commission may schedule
any building or ancient monument, and the scheduled building cannot be
touched without the consent of the Commission, even if it is in private
ownership. In Belgium, as in France and Denmark, grants of public money
are given for the purchase and preservation of ancient monuments, and
the Belgian municipalities are very zealous in the same direction. In
Bruges, we understand, the façades of all the houses belong to the
municipality, so that their preservation is secured, and also congruity
in the case of new buildings. No object of art may legally be alienated
or removed from a Belgian church; this law, however, is unfortunately
still evaded to some extent. ¶ In Italy several laws have been passed,
beginning with an edict of Cardinal Pacca for the old Papal States in
1820. The Minister of Public Instruction may, by a decree, declare
any building a national monument, and the municipalities have large
powers; works of art, as is well known, cannot legally be taken out of
Italy, but this law is often evaded. ¶ In Greece the powers of the
State are perhaps more drastic than anywhere else. Even antique works
of art in private collections are considered as national property in a
sense and their owner can be punished for injuring them; if the owner
of an ancient building attempts to demolish it or refuses to keep it
in repair, the State may expropriate him. ¶ Holland, Prussia, Saxony,
Spain, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, and many American States have
provisions of a more or less stringent character with the same purpose.
But we need not now go further into details; the whole of the facts
will be found in the Parliamentary paper, and we have given enough of
them to show how far behind every other civilized country England is in
this matter. The protection of monuments of the past which Denmark has
had for nearly a century and Belgium for nearly seventy years we have
not yet thought of. Surely the time has come to wipe out this reproach;
until it is wiped out let us have done with the hypocritical claim that
we are an artistic people.
II.--THE PUBLICATION OF WORKS OF ART BELONGING TO DEALERS
In the April number of ~The Burlington Magazine~ we stated that it
was our intention not to exclude from the Magazine works of art
likely to be of interest to the student and collector because they
happened to be in the hands of dealers. The policy of including objects
belonging to dealers has been adversely criticized by friends who have
the interests of the Magazine at heart; we therefore think it well
to refer again to the matter, although the purpose of our decision
was, as it seems to us, clearly enough stated in the April number.
Suggestions have, it seems, been made in certain quarters that some
corrupt or at least commercial arrangement with the dealers concerned
is accountable for the publication in the Magazine of objects belonging
to them. Such suggestions we may pass over, for they are not and
will not be credited by anyone whose opinion need concern us. But we
owe it to the friendly critics who are concerned for the welfare of
the Magazine, and anxious that it should not be affected even by a
breath of suspicion, to state our position quite frankly. ¶ In the
first place we may say that we entirely sympathize with their point
of view, and we recognize as fully as they do the harm that has been
done to artistic enterprises--literary and otherwise--by commercial
entanglements, and, in the case of periodicals, by a too intimate
relation between the advertisement and editorial pages. So much
has this been the case that we are not surprised at the alarm which
is felt by some of our friends lest even a suspicion of a similar
tendency should attach to a periodical in the success of which they
are, we are glad to know, keenly interested. But we would point out
that in such cases as those to which we have referred far more subtle
methods are resorted to than that of frankly publishing a work of
art that may happen to be for the time in the hands of a dealer; a
little reflection will convince anyone that an Editor of a periodical
ostensibly devoted to art, if he wishes--to put it quite plainly--to
puff the goods of this or that individual, does not set about it in
so palpable a way as that of publishing without subterfuge objects
which are frankly stated to be in the possession of the individual or
individuals whom it is desired to advertise. It is the very purity
of our motives that has enabled us to take a course the boldness
of which we do not for a moment deny. Nor must it be supposed that
the publication of works of art in their possession is necessarily
desired by the dealers themselves; on the contrary, as is well known
to every one with experience in these matters, the idiosyncrasies of
collectors are such that in many cases a dealer who has a fine work
of art in his possession does not wish it to be generally known. We
have in some cases had considerable difficulty in inducing dealers to
allow their property to be reproduced, and we will go so far as to
say that, strange as it may seem to the purist in these matters, we
believe that some of them are really actuated by a desire to assist
the study of art. It would be false modesty on our part to affect to
believe that publication of a work of art in ~The Burlington Magazine~
is injurious to the owner, whether dealer or collector; we are willing
to admit that such publication may, on the contrary, be advantageous
to the owner of the work of art published. But, surely, that is not
the question to be considered; the only question, it seems to us, is
whether the work of art is likely to be of interest to readers of
~The Burlington Magazine~ and of value to students. This is, at any
rate, the only question that we have taken into consideration; and
we have felt that if any particular work of art is of interest to
our readers, and particularly to those who make a special study of
the branch of art concerned, we ought not to hesitate to publish it
merely because it happens to be in the hands of a dealer. ¶ Is there
not after all just a suspicion of cant in this squeamishness about the
publication of pictures or other objects belonging to dealers? Even
private collectors have, we believe, been known to sell objects out
of their collections, and, so far as our information goes, they do
not invariably sell them at a loss; indeed, when one comes to define
the boundary between collecting and dealing one finds a considerable
difficulty in doing so with exactitude; the border country between the
two is very wide in extent and very hazy. We have heard of cases in
which private collectors, who would not for the world be considered to
be dealers, have written anonymously in a periodical about objects in
their own possession and then put them up to auction with a quotation
from their own article in the catalogue. Any such practice as that we
shall certainly discourage or rather repress; these are difficulties
which beset the path of an editor of an art periodical. But if we are
to be deterred by such difficulties it will end in our being afraid to
publish any work of art in case we haply enhance its value, and thus
indirectly do a service to its owner. ¶ Let us restate more fully the
case which we have already stated shortly in the April number of this
Magazine. At any given time there are in the hands of London dealers
not a few pictures which are of profound interest to all students of
art, and which may indeed throw light on vexed problems and assist
in their solution. Are we to deprive the readers of ~The Burlington
Magazine~ of the opportunities which the publication of such pictures
may give them? Doubtless in a normal state of things such pictures
would ultimately find their way either into the National Gallery or
at least into the possession of some English collector. But as things
are they are far more likely to find a home either, let us say, in the
Berlin, Amsterdam, or Munich Museum, or in a private collection on the
other side of the Atlantic; and it may be very difficult to trace them
if the opportunity is lost of publishing them while they are in London.
Were the National Gallery still a buyer of pictures, it might not be
necessary for a periodical to take such a course as we have taken.
But it is notorious that the National Gallery is no longer a buyer of
pictures; not merely is the money allotted by the Government absurdly
inadequate, but it is also the case that, inadequate as it is, it is
not made the best use of. Only last month Mr. Weale pointed out in
this Magazine that the Berlin Gallery had recently bought for £1,000 a
charming picture by a rare Flemish master, which was sold at Christie’s
eight years ago for £3 10s., and this is merely one example of the
almost innumerable opportunities that escape those who at present
direct the National Gallery. Although we are told that present prices
in England are prohibitive so far as public collections are concerned,
it is nevertheless the fact that museums such as those of Berlin,
Boston, Munich, and Amsterdam find it worth while to buy largely in
London, and we do not suppose that they always pay exorbitant prices,
although of course a large and wealthy country like Bavaria can afford
to spend more on art than a country like England. In former years a
London dealer who had a particularly fine picture in his possession
would have offered it to the National Gallery; now that is the last
thing that he thinks of doing; he knows too well that the authorities
of the National Gallery would probably not take the trouble even to
look at it, and that some of those who would have a voice in deciding
whether it should be purchased have not the necessary qualifications
for making such a decision. The evil has been increased by the insane
rule now in force, that the trustees of the National Gallery must be
unanimous before any picture is purchased--a rule which, as anyone with
sense would have foreseen, has led to an absolute deadlock. Within the
last few weeks, for instance, the chance of purchasing a superb work of
Frans Hals at a very moderate price has been lost to the nation, simply
because one of the trustees of the National Gallery refuses to agree
to any purchase that does not suit his own preference for art of what
may be called the glorified chocolate-box type. ¶ But we need not now
enlarge upon this subject, with which we hope to deal at some future
time; we have said enough perhaps to support our contention that it is
hopeless to expect that fine pictures which have passed into the hands
of London dealers will find their way into that collection which has
been made by former directors one of the most representative in the
world of the best European art. This being so, we feel very strongly
that we ought to risk something in order to give the readers of ~The
Burlington Magazine~ the opportunity of seeing, at least, reproductions
of works of art which they may otherwise never have the opportunity
of seeing. At the same time we cannot lightly reject the objections
which have been raised by those who, as we know, have only the best
interests of ~The Burlington Magazine~ at heart; and, while we do not
at present feel disposed to alter our policy in this respect, we are
nevertheless open to argument, and if the considerations which we have
put forward can be shown to be unsound or inadequate we are prepared to
be convinced. We invite from our readers expressions of opinion on the
subject.
THE FINEST HUNTING MANUSCRIPT EXTANT
❧ WRITTEN BY W. A. BAILLIE-GROHMAN ❧
When the burly Landsknechte stormed the walls of the deer park and
therewith won the hard-fought battle of Pavia, one of the treasures
they captured in Francis’s sumptuous gold-laden tents was a vellum
Codex of folio size, almost every leaf of which bore beautifully
illuminated pictures of hunting scenes. We know from other evidence
that this precious volume was one of the favourite books of the
luxury-loving French king, and the fact that he took it with him to
the Italian wars in preference to a printed copy, infinitely more
portable, such as had been turned out in three different editions by
the hand-presses of Antoine Verard, Trepperel, and Philippe le Noir, is
a further proof that Francis’s love for finely illuminated manuscript
was a ruling passion with him. It is this very MS. which forms the
subject of these lines, and the facsimile reproductions, which the
writer obtained permission to have executed by competent hands, show
the rare skill of the fifteenth-century miniaturist of whose identity
we unfortunately know but little. ¶The history of this Codex is an
extremely interesting one and well worth the research expended upon
it by Gaucheraud, Joseph Lavallée, Werth, and others. The eighty-five
chapters are written in a wonderfully regular and perfect hand, and
the ink is today as black and clean of outline as it was four and a
half centuries ago. The author of what is unquestionably the most
beautiful hunting manuscript extant was Count Gaston de Foix, the
oft-cited patron of Froissart. This great noble and hunter began the
book on May Day 1387, and we know that it was completed when a fit
of apoplexy, after a bear hunt, cut short his remarkable career four
years later, when he was in his sixty-first year. Of the forty, or
possibly forty-one, ancient copies of this hunting book that have come
down to us, one or two were written it is almost certain during the
author’s lifetime, though the original itself, which was dedicated by
Gaston to ‘Phelippes de France, duc de Bourgoigne,’ disappeared in a
mysterious manner from the Escurial during the eventful year of 1809,
and has not turned up since. None of the other contemporary copies
have illuminations at all comparable to those in our MS., for the
simple reason that it was not until some decades later that art had
reached, even in France, the brilliancy that our illuminations show.
For although Argote de Molina--who in his ‘Libro de la Monteria,’
published in Seville in 1582, describes the lost original--says ‘el
qual se vee illuminado de excelente mano,’ it is safe to say that,
could we place the original side by side with the MS. of which we are
speaking, its illuminations would be found to be far inferior to those
in the MS. owned by Francis I. ¶ Very likely the lost original MS. was
written by one or the other of the four secretaries Froissart tells
us were constantly employed by Count de Foix. These he did not call
John, or Gautier, or William, but nicknamed them ‘Bad-me-serve,’ or
‘Good-for-nothings.’ The illuminations were probably the work of some
wandering master-illuminator attracted to the splendid court at Orthéz
by the Count’s well-known prodigal liberality. ¶ Gaston de Foix, to
interrupt for a brief spell our tale, was the lord of Foix and Béarn;
buffer countships at the foot of the Pyrenees--the castle of Pau was
one of Foix’s strongholds. He succeeded, as Gaston III, at the age of
twelve to his principalities. Two years later he was serving against
the English, and shortly afterwards was made ‘Lieutenant de Roi’ in
Languedoc and Gascony, and at the age of eighteen he married Agnes
daughter of Philip III King of Navarre. His person was so handsome,
his bodily strength so great, his hair of such sunny golden hue, that
he acquired the name of _Le Roi Phoebus_ or _Gaston Phoebus_, by which
latter both he and his hunting book have gone down to posterity.
[Illustration: STRIPPING THE BOAR
FROM THE GASTON PHOEBUS MS.]
The oldest copy that is extant is preserved in the same treasure-house
that contains our MS. and some fourteen other copies of it, namely
the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It bears the number 619 (anc.
7,098), while our MS. is numbered f.fr. 616 (anc. 7,097), and if P.
Paris MSS. Franc. V 217 is right, it was Gaston’s working copy. The
pictures in this MS. are shaded black-and-white drawings, and are not
illuminations. That its origin was the south of France is proved, as
M. Joseph Lavallée says, by the spelling of certain words: _car_ being
spelt _guar_, _baigner_ as _bainher_, _montagne_ as _montainhe_, a
manner peculiar in the fourteenth century to the langue d’Oc. The fact
that in the MS. 616 these words are spelt in the more modern fashion
supports the theory, according to the last-mentioned authority, that it
was written at a later date, _i.e._ in the first half of the fifteenth
century, thus confirming the impression already produced by the far
superior illuminations in MS. 616. These latter, as we see by a glance
at the two full-page reproductions, somewhat reduced in size though
they necessarily had to be to find space in this place, evince the
unmistakable signs of having been created during a period of transition
in the miniaturist’s art. For while the one has the characteristic
diapered background, the other has a more realistic horizon, which
betokens a later origin than the beginning of the fifteenth century. Of
the eighty-seven illuminations in our MS. 616, only four have a natural
horizon as background, the rest are diapered in the conventional older
manner, in the invention of which the miniaturists of the fourteenth
century developed a perfectly wonderful ingenuity, and of which this
exquisite Codex is one of the most remarkable examples. ¶ In the
opinion of some experts the illuminations in MS. 616 are by the hand
of the famous Jean Foucquet, born about 1415, who was made painter and
valet-de-chambre to Charles VII. Amongst the choicest works of this
artist rank, it is perhaps hardly necessary to mention, the Book of
Hours that he executed for Estienne Chevalier, Charles VII’s Treasurer,
another Hours which he made for the Duchess Marie of Cleves, and most
famous of all the ninety miniatures of the _Boccaccio_ of Estienne
Chevalier which is one of the principal treasures of the Royal Library
in Munich. Those who are acquainted with Count Bastard’s monumental
work will probably discover a distinct resemblance between one of his
reproductions, especially in the foliage and scroll work, and the
two full-page pictures now before the reader. On the other hand, the
opinion of such a painstaking critic as is Levallée deserves attention.
According to him--and nobody expended more time and trouble in _Gaston
Phoebus_ researches--the illuminations are not by Foucquet’s hand,
but possibly by an artist of his school. If they are Foucquet’s,
they cannot have been executed before 1440, or at the earliest 1435.
¶ And now to return to the romantic history of our Codex. On one of
the front leaves is painted a large coat-of-arms. It is that of the
Saint-Vallier family, and two events connected with the then possessors
of this precious manuscript throw a telling sidelight upon French
social conditions at the period to which the opening scene on Pavia’s
bloody field has introduced us. A generation before that event,
namely in 1477, Jacques de Brézé, a rich noble of well-known sporting
proclivities, returning suddenly home found his wife in a compromising
position with a young noble. Swords flashed on slighter provocation
than this one in those days, and the angry husband killed both the
lover and his wife without further ado. Unhappily for him, the latter
was no less a personage than Charlotte of France, natural daughter of
Charles VII, and it cost the stern husband a fine of 100,000 ducats,
a huge sum in those days, and a couple of years’ confinement in a
castle to save his life. The eldest of the six children who were made
motherless by this event subsequently married Diane of Poitiers, who
not long afterwards became the all-powerful mistress of Francis I, and
later on of Henry II, his son. Now Diane de Poitiers was the daughter
of Jean de Poitiers, Sieur of Saint-Vallier, on whom his King (Louis
IX) had bestowed the hand of his natural daughter Marie. The Codex
whose reproductions we have before us had been given, probably as part
of the King’s dower, to Jean de Poitiers’s wife, hence the armorial
bearings. If we want to become acquainted with the circumstances that
probably were the cause of its presence in King Francis’s tents on
the eventful day of Pavia, we have to turn to another tragic event
which occurred two years before Pavia. In 1523 Jean de Poitiers
involved himself in the Connétable de Bourbon’s conspiracy, and the
discovery by the King’s minions, among Jean’s secret papers, of the
code treacherously used by the Connétable in his correspondence with
Charles V of Germany, sent Jean speedily to the scaffold. He was in the
act of kneeling down to receive the deathblow when the pardon obtained
by his daughter from her royal lover, the King, saved his life. But
all his goods and chattels were confiscated by Francis I, and amongst
them was most probably our Codex, and thus it came to form part of the
vast booty captured by Emperor Charles’s rough-handed Landsknechte. ¶
These formidable soldiers, who, under their giant leader, Georg von
Frundsberg, had performed in the Italian campaigns deeds of great
prowess--they were really the first trained infantry--were recruited
almost exclusively in Tyrol, and for this reason it is not surprising
that the next authentic news we have of our Codex is from that country.
Bishop Bernard of Trent purchased it evidently from some returning
booty-laden Landsknecht, and, recognising its great value, he presented
it about the year 1530 to Archduke Ferdinand, Duke of Tyrol, one of
the greatest collectors of his time, whose museum and library at his
castle Ambras, near Innsbruck, was the wonder of the day. ¶ It remained
in the possession of the Hapsburgs for about 130 years, when victory
returned it once more to the country from whence defeat had removed
it. During Turenne’s campaign in the Netherlands, General the Marquis
of Vigneau became possessed of the volume--how remains unfortunately a
mystery--and on his return to Paris presented it, July 22, 1661, to his
King, Louis XIV. Bishop Bernard’s and General Vigneau’s dedications to
the respective royalties are inscribed on the fly leaves, the former,
in the shape of a long-winded Latin ‘humblest offering,’ taking up
a good deal of space, though, unlike the Frenchman’s dedication, it
fails to indicate the year when the presentation was made. ¶ Louis XIV
deposited it in the Royal Library, where it received its librarian’s
birthmark, the number 7,097, which it retained down to recent days,
when it was rechristened, to be known henceforth, as already stated,
as MS. 616. It never should have left those sacred halls, but Louis
XIV was no venerator of his own law when it suited him to break it.
Regretting his gift to the Library, a few years afterwards he demanded
the volume back, and back again he got it, his son, the Count of
Toulouse, becoming the next owner of it. From him it passed to Orleans
princes until, in the fateful year 1848, it formed part of the private
library of Louis Philippe at Neuilly, when that royal residence was
plundered and fired by the populace.
[Illustration: HUNTING THE FALLOW BUCK
FROM THE GASTON PHOEBUS MS.]
By a wonder it escaped complete destruction on that occasion, and
though the covers were badly damaged and blood-bespattered, the inside
of the book was left intact. Although a new cover of somewhat gaudy
modernity has been supplied to it in consequence of the fiery ordeal
through which it had passed, the student visiting the great Paris
library, where this unique Codex is exhibited in what is known as the
_Reserve_, will find its vellum leaves in very much the same perfect
condition as they were when Diane de Poitiers and Francis I turned them
over with the care that is bestowed upon a work one loves. ¶ Another
fine copy of _Gaston Phoebus_ is preserved in the late Duc d’Aumale’s
magnificent library at Chantilly, now the property of the French
nation. When recently making some researches there the writer came
across a pathetic little note in the late Duke’s catalogue respecting
our Codex, which, as we have heard, belonged to the House of Orleans
for upwards of a century. It occurs where the Duc d’Aumale speaks of
the MS. 616, and it runs: ‘Saved from the conflagration of 1848, it
was taken to the Bibliothèque Nationale, but our appeals for a return
of the volume addressed to the Conservateurs of the Library were
rejected, however well founded we considered our claim!’ The miniatures
in the Chantilly copy are finely drawn, but evince in some instances
a grotesqueness which is absent from those adorning MS. 616. Thus the
much suffering reindeer comes in for some exceedingly quaint limning,
with antlers of perfectly ludicrous proportions and a coat like an
Angora goat’s. ¶ One curious fact obtrudes itself upon our notice as
we examine the illumination in almost all the _Gaston Phoebus_ copies
that are adorned with illuminations (the majority of the existing forty
MSS. are not illuminated, or at best only with very inferior pictures).
It is the bright colours of the huntsmen’s dress in the fifteenth
century. With the exception of the wild-boar hunters, who are generally
garbed in grey costumes, mounted and unmounted hunters engaged in the
pursuit of the stag, buck, bear, otter, fox, wild cat, wolf, hare,
and badger, wear with curious promiscuousness blue, scarlet, mauve,
white, and yellow costume quite as often as they appear in the more
orthodox green-coloured dress. It may possibly have been merely an
instance of artistic licence on the part of the miniaturists, for
according to the text grey and green were the only colours of venery
known to the good _veneur_. ¶ To come to the contents of our MS. we can
introduce it by the broad statement that _Gaston Phoebus_ is the first
mediaeval hunting-book in prose that does not deal with the subject
in the catechism-like form of question and answer. The few previous
prose works that have come down to us take the form of questions
asked by the keen young apprentice and answered by his instructor, an
experienced _veneur_, explaining to him the A B C of venery. Some bits
in Gaston’s _Livre de Chasse_ are borrowed from _Roy Modus_, written
about sixty years earlier, some from Gace de la Buigne (or Vigne), King
John’s first chaplain, written less than thirty years earlier, and a
few from _La Chace dou Serf_, a poetic effusion of the second half of
the thirteenth century. But taking it as a whole _Gaston Phoebus_ is
unquestionably as original as could be any work upon such a popular
subject as hunting then was. ¶ To those who know their Froissart, Count
Gaston de Foix’s personality will be very familiar; but, considering
that the chronicler’s visit occurred in 1388, the year after the
commencement of the _Livre de Chasse_, it is somewhat strange, in view
of his long stay and intimate intercourse at the Count’s court, that
he does not mention the _opus_ upon which his host was then engaged. ¶
The prologue mirrors in a characteristic manner the spirit of the age,
as does also the last miniature in MS. 616, which represents the noble
sportsman in an attitude of beatitude kneeling in a chapel. That Gaston
was a pious lord we can see by the score or so of Latin prayers said
to have been composed by him in the dire hour of mortal distress after
the tragic death of his only son by his--the father’s--hand. ‘By the
Grace of God’ Count Gaston speaks wisely and well of the good qualities
that a hunter should have, and how hunting causeth a man to eschew the
seven deadly sins, concluding his homily with a sentiment that appeals
to the sportsman of the twentieth century as much as it did to him
of the fourteenth. ‘And also, say I, that there is no man who loves
hunting that has not many good qualities in him, for they come from the
nobleness and gentleness of his heart of whatsoever estate he be, great
lord or little, poor or rich.’ ¶ The prologue once finished, Gaston
starts with zest on his task, beginning with the stag, or, to be quite
correct, with the ‘nature’ of what was considered in all Continental
hunting the most important beast of venery. The next thirteen chapters
deal respectively in a similar way with the natural history of the
reindeer, the fallow deer, the ‘bouc,’ under which the ibex and the
chamois were included, the roe-deer, the hare, the rabbit, the bear,
the wild boar, the wolf, the fox, the badger, the wild cat, and the
otter. ¶ Following these fourteen chapters, we get ten very interesting
ones on the various kinds of sporting hounds, their training, treatment
when ill, the construction and management of the kennel, and other
details relating to the subject. In Gaston’s time there were five
kinds; the first is the Alaunt, which he subdivides into the _Alaunt
gentle_ and the _Alaunt veautres_; the second is the _levrier_ or
greyhound; the third the _chien courant_ or running hound; the fourth
the bird dog or _espainholz_, from which the modern spaniel has sprung;
and the fifth the _mastin_ or mastiff. Then come two chapters on how to
make nets, and how to blow and trumpet, followed by eighteen chapters
on how to track the stag and the wild boar, and how to judge of their
presence, size, age, etc., by the various signs known to the _veneur_,
who made a very exact science of what we would call woodcraft. The next
fifteen chapters relate to the chase proper of the fourteen beasts
named at first, with a double chapter on the chase of the wild boar.
The concluding twenty-six chapters deal with the various manners of
netting, snaring, trapping, and poisoning of wild beasts of prey and
other less noxious animals. They are mostly short chapters, and in
more than one place the author displays his unwillingness to deal with
matter that a good sportsman need have no ken of, except in so far as
was necessary to keep down vermin and destroy ‘marauders of the woods’
for the benefit of his legitimate quarry. ¶ Certain historians have
called _Gaston Phoebus_ a ‘cruel voluptuary,’ and no doubt some of his
repressive measures sound unnecessarily harsh, not to say merciless,
in these soft times; but the spirit in which he wrote his famous book
is unquestionably that of a really good sportsman who abhors all
underhand advantages that curtail the hunted beast’s chances, and
who takes his bear or wild boar single-handed, and pursues his stag
to a finish, be the forest a trackless maze, and the river to which
the hunted deer finally takes a swift flowing stream, into which to
plunge is but a minor incident of an exciting sport. ¶ Of the forty
or forty-one ancient MS. copies of _Gaston Phoebus_ that are known to
exist in Europe to-day, twenty-one are in France, fifteen keeping our
MS. 616 company on the shelves of the Bibliothèque Nationale. Five form
part of the Vatican Library, and six adorn the principal libraries of
Continental capitals. Of the eight copies that are or were in England
one is in the British Museum, and two form part of the well-known
collection formed in the first half of the last century by the late Sir
Thomas Phillipps, Bt., a bibliophile as wealthy as he was discerning.
Of these two MSS., No. 11,592 is an incomplete late copy of little
value; but the other MS., 10,298, is on the other hand a treasure
of great value. Of all the Continental and English copies that the
writer has examined this one contains, next to those in MS. 616, the
finest miniatures. It is less carefully written, and there are some
variations, but nothing of importance so far as is known, though it has
never been carefully collated with the best French copies.
[Illustration: FROM THE GASTON PHOEBUS MS.]
[Illustration: FROM THE GASTON PHOEBUS MS.]
[Illustration: FROM THE GASTON PHOEBUS MS.]
The British Museum copy of _Gaston Phoebus_, catalogued as Addit.
MS. 27,699, is on vellum, quarto, written in the first half of the
fifteenth century. The miniatures are by an indifferent hand, and have
been left in an unfinished state, the miniaturist having apparently
expended most of his time, and nearly all his bright colours and
shining gold, upon the diapering of the backgrounds. It was bought
at the Yemeniz Sale in Paris, in May 1867, for something less than
£400. The Ashburnham Library contained two copies, both early ones,
and of these MS. App. 179 is interesting on account of an hitherto
unknown treatise on hawking and birds being added at the end of the
hunting book, which is incomplete, and the spaces at the head of each
chapter for the usual miniatures are left blank. It was bought at the
fourth Ashburnham Sale in May 1899 by the writer. ¶ Of the copy which
Werth and Lavallée quote as being in the possession of a Cambridge
Library, it is regrettable that no information could be obtained by
them or by myself. As a rule the lot of the student making researches
of this sort in English libraries, always excepting, of course, the
British Museum and the Bodleian, is not a happy one. Not only is
study in the libraries discouraged, and letters of inquiry are left
unanswered, but valuable MSS. seem to get mislaid, lost, or stolen,
rather more frequently than should be. The two remaining copies of
_Gaston Phoebus_ in this country, one being in a public museum, the
other in a well-known ducal library, have shared this fate, and
their whereabouts are unknown. The latter copy must have been a very
beautiful MS., for it is described in Dibdin’s _Decameron_, Vol. III,
p. 478, and was bought in 1815 for £161, then a large sum, by Loché;
and according to Werth (_Altfranzösische Jagdlehrbücher_, 1889, p.
70) it was, when he wrote, in the Duke of Devonshire’s library, from
which, however, it seems to have disappeared, for no trace of it can be
found. Curiously enough, this fate is shared by yet another valuable
hunting MS., which for the English student has even greater interest,
namely, one of the few existing copies (nineteen all told) of the Duke
of York’s translation of _Gaston Phoebus_, which has disappeared from
a well-known nobleman’s library. ¶ In conclusion, it is necessary
to say a few words respecting the subject matter of the MS. just
mentioned, for many erroneous impressions regarding it are abroad.
_Gaston Phoebus_ deals with some animals that were not found in England
in Plantagenet times, _e.g._ the reindeer, the ibex and chamois, and
the bear. Hence when Edward, second Duke of York, who filled the
position of Master of Game at the court of his cousin, Henry IV, made
a translation of his famous contemporary’s hunting book, he took only
those parts of it which related to game and dogs found in England, and
added five original chapters, calling the whole ‘The Master of Game.’
This book is the oldest hunting book in English, but has never been
published. The writer’s reproduction of it, illustrated by photogravure
copies of the illuminations in the Paris Codex MS. 616, some of
which are reproduced in the present article, is now going through
the press.[2] It will, it is hoped, fill a gap in English hunting
literature, and remove numerous misconceptions concerning this subject.
A NEWLY DISCOVERED ‘LIBRO DI RICORDI’ OF ALESSO BALDOVINETTI
❧ WRITTEN BY HERBERT P. HORNE ❧