its magnificence: general as the elements, universal and permanent as
the affections of human nature, allegory breaks the fetters of time, it
unites with boundless sway, mythologic, feodal, local incongruities,
fleeting modes of society and fugitive fashions: thus, in the picture of
Rubens, Minerva, who instructs, the Graces that surround the royal maiden
at the poetic fount, are not what they are in Homer, the real tutress of
Telemachus, the real dressers of Venus, they are the symbols only of the
education which the princess received. In that sublime design of Michael
Agnolo, where a figure is roused by a descending genius from his repose
on a globe, on which he yet reclines, and with surprize discovers the
phantoms of the passions which he courted, unmasked in wild confusion
flitting round him, M. Agnolo was less ambitious to express the nature
of a dream, or to bespeak our attention to its picturesque effect and
powerful contrasts, than to impress us with the lesson, that all is
vanity and life a farce, unless engaged by virtue and the pursuits of
mind.
[80] L’Aurora Sonnacchiosa.
[81] Speaking of the figure of Christ by Raphael in the Madonna del
Spasimo, he calls it ‘Una Figura d’un Carattere fra quel di Giove, e
quello d’Apollo; quale effettivamente deve esser quello, che corrisponde
a Cristo, aggiungendovi soltanto l’espressione accidentale della
passione, in cui si rappresenta.’ Opere 11. 83.
[82] It is engraved by Villamena.
[83] The composition, and in some degree the lines, but neither its tone
nor effect, may be found among the etchings of Le Fevre.
[84] I cannot quit this picture without observing, that it presents
the most incontrovertible evidence of the incongruities arising from
the jarring coalition of the grand and ornamental styles. The group of
Lazarus may be said to contain the most valuable relic of the classic
time of modern, and perhaps the only specimen left of M. Agnolo’s
oil-painting: an opinion which will scarcely be disputed by him, who has
examined the manner of the Sistine chapel, and in his mind compared it
with the group of the Lazarus, and that with the style and treatment of
the other parts.
[85] In a picture which he painted at Rome for Bindo Altoviti, it
represented ‘Un Cristo quanto il vivo, levato di croce, e posto in terra
a’ piedi della Madre; e nell’ aria Febo, che oscura la faccia del sole,
e Diana quella della Luna. Nel paese poi, oscurato da queste Tenebre, si
veggiono spezzarsi alcuni monti di pietra, mossi dal terremoto, e certi
corpi morti di santi risorgendo, uscire de sepolcri in vari modi; il
quale quadro, finito che fu, per sua grazia non dispiacque al maggior
pittore, scultore, e architetto, che sia stato a’ tempi nostri passati?’
The compliment was not paid to M. Agnolo himself, for the word ‘passati’
tells that he was no more, but it levied a tribute on posterity.
Vita di Giorgio Vasari.
[86] A miracle means an act performed by virtue of an unknown law of
Nature.
[87] The form, but not the soul, of Julio’s composition has been borrowed
by Rubens, or the master of the well known picture in the gallery of
Dulwich college. Few can be unacquainted with the work of Vandyke,
spread by the best engravers of that school. The picture of Rembrandt
is the chief ornament of the collection in the garden-house of the
Schönborn family, in one of the suburbs of Vienna: has been etched on
a large scale, and there is a copy of it in the gallery at Cassel. A
circumstantial account of it may be found in the Eighth Letter, vol. iii.
of Küttner’s Travels.
[88] Nella arte della pittura aggiunse costui alla maniera del colorire
ad olio, una certa oscurità; donde banno dato i moderni gran forza e
rilievo alle Loro figure. Vasari vita di Lion. da Vinci, p. 559. ed. 1550.
[89] In the greater part of the cartoons, it does not appear that
chiaroscuro had more than an ordinary share of attention:
In the Miraculous Draught plain day-light prevails.
In the miracle at the Temple-gate a more forcible and more sublime effect
would have been obtained from a cupola-light and pillars darkened on the
fore-ground.
In the exceccation of Elymas, composition and expression owe little of
their roundness and evidence to chiaroscuro.
Apposition seems to have arranged the Sacrifice at Lystra.
If Dionysius and Damaris, in the cartoon of the Areopagus, had more
forcibly refracted by dark colours or shade, the light against the
speaker, effect and subject would have gained.
Considered individually or in masses, the chiaroscuro in the cartoon of
Ananias appears to be perfect; but the Donation of the Keys owes what
impression it makes on us in a great measure to the skilful distribution
of its light and shade.
[90] In the following absurd description of the well-known picture in
the palace Pitti: ‘It consists of three half-figures, one of which
represents Martin Luther in the habit of an Augustin Monk, who plays
on a harpsichord; Calvin stands by him in a chorister’s dress, with a
violin in his hand: opposite you see a young lively girl in a bonnet
with a plume of white feathers; by her Giorgione meant to represent the
noted Catharine, Luther’s mistress and wife,’ &c. Fiorillo, vol. ii. p.
63. To expose the ignorant credulity which dictated this passage, it is
sufficient to observe, that Giorgione died 1511, and that Calvin was born
1508.
[91] In every edition of the Vite subsequent to his own of 1550. The
following passage deserves to be given in his own words: ‘Giorgione
di Castel franco; il quale sfumò le sue pitture e dette una terribil’
movenzia a certe cose come è una storia nella scuola di san Marco a
Venezia, dove è un tempo turbido che tuona, et trema il dipinto, et le
figure si muovono & si spiccano da la tavola per una certa oscurità di
ombre bene intese.’ Proemio della terza Parte delle Vite, p. 558.
[92] A La Scuola di S. Marco La Tempesta Sedata dal Santo, ove fra Le
altre cose sono tre remiganti ignudi, pregiatissimi pel disegno, e per le
attitudini. Lanzi storia, &c. Tomo II. parte prima. Scuola Veneta.
Printed by A. and R. Spottiswoode,
Printers-Street, London.