Take Baedeker’s Plan of the Galleries (1st Floor) with you. Enter by the
door in the Pavillon Denon. (Sticks and umbrellas left here; tip
optional.) Turn to L and traverse long hall with reproductions of famous
antiques in bronze (Laocoon, Medici Venus, Apollo Belvedere, etc.),
which those who do not intend to visit Rome and Florence will do well to
examine. Observe, in passing, in the centre of the hall, a fine antique
sarcophagus, with figures in high relief, representing the story of
Achilles. Begin on the furthest side of the sarcophagus: (1) Achilles,
disguised as a woman, among the daughters of Lycomedes, in order to
avoid the Trojan war; (2) is discovered by Ulysses as a pedlar, through
his choice of arms instead of trinkets; (3) arming himself for the
combat; and (4, modern) Priam redeeming the body of Hector. (The work
originally stood against a wall, and had therefore three decorative
sides only.) Further on, fine sarcophagus from Salonica, Roman period,
with Combat of Amazons, representing on the lid husband and wife,
couched, somewhat after the Etruscan fashion.
Mount the staircase (Escalier Daru). Near the top is the famous Nikè of
Samothrace, a much-mutilated winged figure of Victory, standing like a
figure-head on the prow of a trireme. It was erected by Demetrius
Poliorcetes, in commemoration of a naval engagement in B.C. 305.
Attitude and drapery stamp the work as one of the finest products of
Hellenic art. Victory alights on the vessel of the conqueror.
Turn to your L just before reaching the last flight, and pass several
Etruscan sarcophagi and sarcophagus-shaped funereal urns, many with the
deceased and his wife on the lid, accompanied in some cases by
protecting genii. The early Etruscans buried; the later often burned
their dead, but continued to enclose the ashes in miniature sarcophagi.
At the top, on the L, a fresco by _Fra Angelico_, the Dominican painter,
St. Dominic embracing the Cross, with the Madonna and St. John
Evangelist: not a first-rate example of the master. End wall, R of door,
a fresco by _Botticelli_, Giovanni Tornabuoni receiving the Muses.
Opposite it, L of door, another by the same, Giovanna his wife receiving
the Graces, and accompanied by Cupid. These two frescoes stood in the
hall of the owner’s villa, and gracefully typify the husband
entertaining Literature, Science, and Art, while the wife extends
hospitality to Love, Youth, and Beauty. Descend one flight of staircase
again, passing yet other Etruscan sarcophagi (which examine), and,
mounting opposite stairs, pass the Nikè and turn to your R. Traverse the
photograph-room and the Salle Duchâtel beyond it, as well as the Salon
Carré. Enter the Long Gallery, and, taking the first door to your R, you
arrive at once in Room I (Baedeker’s VII), the
Salle des Primitifs.
The pictures in this room consist for the most part of those by early
followers of Giotto, and by members of the schools which sprang from
him, till the moment of the Renaissance. As these earliest pictures
strike the key-note of types, continued and developed later, it is
absolutely necessary to examine them _all_ very closely. In most cases,
subject and treatment were rigorously prescribed by custom; scenes recur
again and again, almost identically. Where saints are grouped round the
Madonna, they were _ordered_ by the purchaser, and oftenest represent
his own patrons. In order to obtain a chronological view, begin at the
centre of the end wall. Most of these pictures are altar-pieces. I
follow the =small numbers below=, the only ones for which a detailed
catalogue is yet published.
=*=153. _Cimabue_ (the point of departure for Tuscan art); Madonna and
Child with six angels. Almost a replica of the great picture in Santa
Maria Novella at Florence; gold ground; the Madonna’s face still
strongly Byzantine in type, with almond-shaped eyes; the Child, draped,
after the earlier fashion. Later, he is represented nude. Observe,
however, the greater artistic freedom in the treatment of the attendant
angels, where Cimabue was slightly less hampered by conventional
precedents. Do not despise this picture because of its stiffness and its
archaic style. It is an immense advance upon the extremely wooden
Byzantine models which preceded it: and in the angels it really
approaches correctness of drawing.
225. (Skied) _Don Lorenzo Monaco._ A Tabernacle for an altar of St.
Lawrence; centre, St. Lawrence, enthroned on his gridiron; L, St. Agnes
with her lamb; R, St. Margaret with her dragon, all on gold grounds. A
poor example. This Saint is usually represented in deacon’s robes. The
other saints are probably those who shared the chapel with him. See the
much later St. Margaret by Raphael as an example of Renaissance
treatment of the same figure.
=*=192. _Giotto._ St. Francis receiving the Stigmata. A genuine picture,
painted for the saint’s own church of San Francesco at Pisa; one of the
earliest representations of this subject, often afterwards copied.
Christ, as a six-winged seraph, red-feathered, appears in heaven to the
Saint; rays proceed from his five wounds to the hands, feet, and side of
St. Francis, which they impress with similar marks. A mountain
represents La Vernia; two tiny buildings, the monastery. Compare with
this subject two smaller treatments in the same room, both on the lowest
tier: one, to the L as you go towards the door, 431, of the school of
Perugino, where an attendant Brother (Leo) is seen astonished at the
vision; the second on the R, 287, attributed to Pesello, and closely
similar in treatment. Careful comparison of these pictures will serve to
show the close way in which early painters imitated, or almost copied
one another. The base (or predella) of the Giotto also contains three
other subjects: Innocent III, asleep, is shown by St. Peter the falling
church sustained by St. Francis; he confirms the Franciscan order; St.
Francis preaches to the birds. All very spirited. Notice these little
pictures for comparison later with others painted in the Dominican
interest by Fra Angelico.
Continuing along L wall are some small pictures of the Sienese school,
which should be carefully examined. (Do not suppose that because I do
not call attention to a picture it is necessarily unworthy of notice.)
Most of these little works breathe the pure piety and ecstatic feeling
of the School of Siena.
=**=426. _Perugino._ Tondo, or round picture; the Madonna Enthroned; L,
St. Rose with her roses; R, St. Catherine with her palm of martyrdom;
behind, adoring angels. An exquisite example of the affected tenderness,
delicate grace, and brilliant colouring of the Umbrian master, from
whose school Raphael proceeded. An early specimen. Observe the dainty
painting of the feet and hands, which is highly characteristic.
Beneath it, 1701, _Gentile da Fabriano_. Presentation in the Temple.
Look closely into it. A delicate little example of the Umbrian rival of
Fra Angelico. The arrangement will explain many later ones. Every one of
the figures and their attitudes are conventional.
427. _Perugino._ Madonna and Child, with St. John Baptist and St.
Catherine. The introduction of St. John shows the picture to have been
probably painted for a Florentine patron. Not a pleasing example.
Beneath it, _Vittore Pisano_, characteristic portrait of an Este
princess, in the hard, dry, accurate manner of this Veronese medallist,
who borrowed from his earlier art the habit of painting profiles in
strong low relief, with a plastic effect.
_Perugino._ St. Sebastian. One of the loveliest examples of the Umbrian
master’s later manner. Contrasted with the Madonna and St. Rose it shows
the distance covered by art during the painter’s lifetime. Observe its
greater freedom and knowledge of anatomy. St. Sebastian, bound as usual
to a pillar in a ruined temple, is pierced through with arrows. Face,
figure, and expression are unusually fine for Perugino. Sebastian was
the great saint for protection against the plague, and pictures
containing him are almost always votive offerings under fear of that
pestilence. Many in this gallery. The face here is finer than in any
other presentation I know, except Sodoma’s in the Uffizi at Florence.
258. _Lombard or Piedmontese School._ Annunciation. An unusual
treatment; the Madonna, as always, kneels at a _prie-dieu_, and starts
away, alarmed and timid, at the apparition of the angel Gabriel. The
action, as usual, takes place in a _loggia_, but the angel is
represented as descending _in flight_ through the air, an extremely
uncommon mode of depicting him. He bears the white lily of the
Annunciation. The other details are conventional. Contrast with this
subsequent Annunciations in this Gallery. L, are St. Augustin and St.
Jerome; R, St. Stephen, bearing on his head, as often, the stones of his
martyrdom, accompanied by St. Peter Martyr the Dominican, with the knife
in his head. Both saints carry palms of martyrdom. A good picture in a
hard, dry, local manner.
Now cross over to the =opposite side= of the room, beginning at the
bottom, in order to preserve the chronological sequence.
196. _School of Giotto._ Madonna in Glory, with angels. Compare this
treatment carefully with Cimabue’s great picture close by, in order to
notice the advance in art made in the interval. The subject and general
arrangement are the same, but observe the irregularity in the placing of
the angels, and the increased knowledge of anatomy and expression.
Close by are several other =Giottesque pictures=, all of which should be
closely examined; especially 425, _Vanni_, the same subject, for
comparison. The little Giottesque Death of St. Bernard, in particular,
is a characteristic example or type of a group which deals in the same
manner with saintly obsequies. All of them will suggest explanations of
later pictures. In all these cases, the saint lies on a bier in the
foreground, surrounded by mourning monks and ecclesiastics. The key-note
was struck by Giotto’s fresco of the Death of St. Francis at Santa Croce
in Florence.
187. _Agnolo Gaddi._ Annunciation; a characteristic example. Note the
loggia, and the angel with the lily; the introduction of a second angel,
however, is a rare variation from the type. In the corner is the Father
despatching the Holy Spirit. Attitude of the Madonna characteristic;
study carefully. No subject sheds more light on the methods of early art
than the Annunciation. It always takes place in an arcade: the Madonna
is almost always to the right of the picture: and _prie-dieu_, book, and
bed are frequent accessories.
666. Quaint little Florentine picture of St. Nicolas, throwing three
purses of gold as a dowry inside the house of a poor and starving
nobleman.
Next to it, unnumbered, Gregory the Great sees the Angel of the Plague
sheathing his sword on the Castle of St. Angelo, so called from this
vision.
494. St. Jerome in the Desert; lion, skull, crucifix, rocks, cardinal’s
hat, all characteristic of the subject. In the foreground, a Florentine
lily; in the background, Christ and the infant Baptist, patron of
Florence; background L, St. Augustine and the angel who tries to empty
the sea into a hole made with a bucket—a well-known allegory of the
attempt of the finite to comprehend the Infinite. Look out elsewhere for
such minor episodes.
_Fra Angelico._ Martyrdom of Sts. Cosmo and Damian, the holy physicians
and (therefore) patron saints of the Medici family; a characteristic
example of the saintly friar’s colouring in small subjects. These two
Medici saints are naturally frequent in Florentine art.
662. _Fra Angelico._ Story of the death of St. John Baptist. Three
successive episodes represented in the same picture. The lithe figure of
the daughter of Herodias, dancing, is very characteristic.
166. Battle scene, by _Paolo Uccello_. Showing vigorous efforts at
mastery of perspective and foreshortening, as yet but partially
successful. The wooden character of the horses is conspicuous. Paolo
Uccello was one of the group of early scientific artists, who
endeavoured to improve their knowledge of optics and of the sciences
ancillary to painting.
199. _Benozzo Gozzoli._ Glory of St. Thomas Aquinas, the great
=Dominican= teacher. This is an apotheosis of scholasticism, in the
person of its chief representative. R and L stand Aristotle and Plato,
the heathen philosophers, in deferential attitudes, recognising their
master. Beneath his feet is Guillaume de St. Amour, a vanquished
heretic. Below, the entire Church—pope, cardinals, doctors—receiving
instruction from St. Thomas. Above, the Eternal Father signifying His
approval in a Latin inscription, surrounded by the Evangelists with
their symbols—angel, winged lion, bull, eagle. The inscription imports,
“Thomas has well spoken of Me.” The style is archaic: the council is
supposed to be that of Agnani, presided over by Pope Alexander IV. Among
the celestial personages, notice St. Paul, Moses, and others. Pictures
of this double sort, embracing scenes in heaven and on earth, are common
in Italy.
Beneath it (287), part 2. _Pesello._ St. Cosmo and St. Damian affixing
the leg of a dead Moor to a wounded Christian, on whom they have been
compelled to practise amputation. The costumes are the conventional ones
for these saints. Remember them. This astounding miracle is often
represented at Florence: the dead man’s leg grew on the living one.
=**=182. _Fra Angelico._ A Coronation of the Virgin, painted for a
=Dominican= church at Fiesole. In the foreground, St. Louis of France,
with a crown of fleur-de-lis; St. Zenobius, Bishop of Florence, with the
lamb of the Baptist on his crosier (indicating his see); St. Mary
Magdalen, in red, with long yellow hair (so almost always), and (her
symbol) the box of ointment; St. Catherine with her wheel; St. Agnes
with her lamb, and others. Above St. Louis stands St. Dominic, founder
of Fra Angelico’s order, recognisable by his robes, with his red star
and white lily (the usual attributes); beneath him, a little to the R,
St. Thomas Aquinas, with a book sending forth rays of light, to signify
his teaching function. Near him, St. Francis. Other Saints, such as St.
Lawrence with his gridiron, and St. Peter Martyr, the Dominican, with
his wounded head, must be left to the spectator. In the background,
choirs of angels. Beneath, in the =predella=, the history of =St.
Dominic= (marked by a red star); Pope Innocent in a dream sees him
sustaining the falling Church (a Dominican variant of the story of St.
Francis in the Giotto, at the end): he receives his commission from St.
Peter and St. Paul; he restores to life the young man Napoleon, killed
by a fall from a horse (seen to left); he converts heretics and burns
their books; he is fed with his brethren by angels in his convent at
Rome; and his death and apotheosis. This picture deserves most careful
study—say two hours. It is one of Fra Angelico’s finest easel paintings
(his best are frescoes), and it is full of interest for its
glorification of the Dominicans. Compare the St. Thomas Aquinas with
Benozzo Gozzoli’s: and remember in studying the predella that St.
Dominic founded the Inquisition. The tender painting of this lovely work
needs no commendation.
222. _School of Filippo Lippi._ Madonna and angels, characteristic of
the type of this painter and his followers.
Above it, _Neri di Bicci_. Madonna, very wooden. He was a belated
Giottesque, who turned out such antiquated types by hundreds in the 15th
century.
_School of Benozzo Gozzoli._ Madonna and Child. L, St. Cosmo and St.
Damian, with pens and surgeons’ boxes; St. Jerome, with stone, lion, and
cardinal’s hat; his pen and book denote him as translator of the
Vulgate. R, St. John Baptist (representing Florence); St. Francis with
the Stigmata; St. Lawrence. The combination of Saints shows the picture
to have been painted in compliment to Lorenzo de’ Medici. Minor subjects
around it are worthy of study.
Now =cross over the room= again. You come at once upon four pictures of
nearly the same size, painted for the Court of the Gonzaga family at
Mantua. Allegorical subjects, intended for the decoration of a hall or
boudoir. Most of those pictures we have hitherto examined have been
sacred: we now get an indication of the nascent Renaissance taste for
myth and allegory.
429. _Perugino._ Combat of Love and Chastity. A frequent subject for
such situations, showing Perugino at his worst. Compare it with the
other three of the series.
253. _Mantegna._ Wisdom conquering the Vices. A characteristic but
unpleasing example of this great Paduan painter. Admirable in anatomy,
drawing, and perspective: poor in effect. Observe the festoons in the
background, which are favourites with the artist and his school.
=*=252. _Mantegna._ The amours of Mars and Venus discovered by (her
husband) Vulcan. A beautiful composition. The guilty pair, with a couch,
stand on a mountain, representing Parnassus, accompanied by Cupid.
Below, exquisite group of the Nine Muses dancing (afterwards imitated by
Guido). To the L, Apollo with his lyre, as musician. R, Mercury and
Pegasus. In the background, the injured Vulcan discovering the lovers.
This splendid specimen of early Renaissance art is one of Mantegna’s
finest. Study it in detail, and compare with the other three which it
accompanies. Observe the life and movement in the dancing Muses: also,
the growing Renaissance love for the nude, exemplified in the Venus.
154. _Costa._ The Court of Isabella d’Este. The meaning of the figures
is now undecipherable, but the general character indicates peace, and
devotion to literature, science and art. A fine example of the Ferrarese
master.
Between these four, =**=_Mantegna_; (251), Madonna della Vittoria, a
most characteristic picture, painted for Giovanni Francesco Gonzaga,
Marquis of Mantua, to commemorate his victory over Charles VIII of
France. The Madonna is enthroned under a most characteristic canopy of
fruit and flowers, with pendents of coral and other decorative adjuncts.
L, Gonzaga himself, kneeling in gratitude—a ruffianly face,
well-painted. R, St. Elizabeth, mother of the Baptist, with St. John
Baptist himself, representing the Marquis’s wife. Behind, the patron
Saints of Mantua, who assisted in the victory: St. Michael the Archangel
(the warrior saint—a most noble figure), St. Andrew (Mantegna’s
name-Saint), St. Longinus, who pierced the side of Christ, and St.
George. The whole is exquisitely beautiful. The detail deserves long and
attentive study. The reliefs on the pedestal are characteristic. From
the church of the same name, erected in commemoration of the victory (of
the Taro). I will return hereafter at greater length to this lovely
picture.
Above, to the L (=*=418), _Cosimo Tura_. Pietà, or body of Christ wept
over by the Madonna and angels. In drawing and colouring, a
characteristic example of this harsh, but very original and powerful,
Ferrarese master. You will come hereafter on many Pietàs. Compare them
all, and note the attitude and functions of the angels.
=Cross over again= to the opposite side. (183), _Botticelli_. Round
Madonna and angels, very characteristic as to the drawing, but inferior
in technique to most of his works.
221. _Filippo Lippi._ Madonna in Glory, with angels. The roundness of
the faces, especially in the child angels, is very characteristic. At
her feet, two Florentine patron saints. The absence of symbols makes
them difficult to identify, but I think they represent St. Zenobius and
St. Antonine. Very fine.
184. _Botticelli._ Madonna and Child, with St. John of Florence. The
wistful expressions strike the key-note of this painter. Compare with
nameless Florentine Madonna of the same school above it.
220. _Fra Filippo Lippi._ Nativity. Worthy of careful study, especially
for the accessories: St. Joseph, the stall and bottle, the saddle, ox
and ass, and wattles, ruined temple, etc., which reappear in many
similar pictures. Not a favourable example of the master. Beneath it,
little fragments with St. Peter Martyr, Visitation, Christ and Magdalen,
meeting of Francis and Dominic, and St. Paul the Hermit. An odd
conglomeration, whose meaning cannot now be deciphered. The ruined
temple, frequently seen in Nativities and Adorations of the Magi,
typifies the downfall of Paganism before the advance of Christianity.
Beside it, _Ghirlandajo_. Portrait of bottle-nosed man and child.
Admirable and characteristic.
=**=202. _Ghirlandajo._ Visitation. Probably the master’s finest easel
picture. Splendid colour. Attitudes of the Madonna and St. Elizabeth
characteristic of the type. The scene habitually takes place in front of
a portal, as here, with the heads of the main actors more or less
silhouetted against the arch in the background. At the sides, Mary
Salome, and “the other Mary.” Such saints are introduced merely as
spectators: they need not even be contemporary: they are included in
purely ideal groupings. At Florence, in a similar scene, the as yet
unborn St. John the Baptist stands by as an assessor.