Leyden in 1596, was destined to exert a really powerful influence,
inasmuch as he was the founder, as is generally acknowledged, of the
Dutch school of homely native landscape. Beginning with figure subjects,
he discovered in their landscape backgrounds his real _metier_, and
seems only to have realized his great gifts when he looked further into
nature than was possible when painting a foreground picture. He appears
to have been by nature or by inclination long-sighted, and he is never
so happy as when painting distance, either along the banks of a river or
looking out to sea. This extended gaze taught him something of
atmosphere that few painters beside himself ever acquired, and helped
him to the mastery of tone which appears to have influenced so many of
his followers, as for example Van de Velde in the painting of
sea-pieces.
JAN WYNANTS, born at Haarlem about 1620, and still living in 1677, was
the first master who applied all the developed qualities of the Dutch
School to the treatment of landscape painting. In general his prevailing
tone is clear and bright, more especially in the green of his trees and
plants, which in many cases, merges into blue. One of his
characteristics is a fallen tree trunk in the foreground, as may be seen
in three out of the six examples in the National Gallery. The
carefulness of his execution explains how it was that in so long a life
he only produced a moderate number of pictures. Smith's catalogue
contains about 214. These differ much according to their different
periods. In his first manner peasants' cottages or ruins play an
important part, and the view is more or less shut in by trees of a heavy
dark green, the execution solid and careful. In his middle time he
generally paints open views of a rather uneven country, diversified by
wood and water. That Wynants retained his full skill even in advanced
life is proved by a picture dated 1672, in the Munich Gallery,
representing a road leading to a fenced wood and a sandhill, near which
in the foreground are some cows (by Lingelbach) being driven along. In
his last manner a heavy uniformly brown tone is often observable.
It is his genuine feeling for nature that makes Wynant's pictures so
popular in England, where we meet with a considerable number of his best
works.
JACOB RUISDAEL (born at Haarlem 1628, died there 1682) is supposed to
have developed under the influence of a school there that was opposing
Van Goyen's tone treatment by local colour. Though not always the most
charming, Ruisdael is certainly the greatest and the most profound of
the Dutch landscape painters. His wide expanses of sky, earth or sea,
with their tender gradations of aerial perspective, diversified here and
there by alternations of sunshine and shadow, attract us as much by the
pathos as by the picturesqueness of their character. His scenes of
mountainous districts with foaming waterfalls; or bare piles of rock and
sombre lakes are imbued with a feeling of melancholy. Ruisdael's work
may be well studied in the six examples at Hertford House, and the
fourteen in the National Gallery. Among his finer works in Continental
collections the following are some of those selected by Kugler for
description. At the Hague is one of his wide expanses--a view of the
country around Haarlem, the town itself looking small on the horizon,
under a lofty expanse of cloudy sky in the foreground a bleaching-ground
and some houses reminding us, by the manner in which they are
introduced, of Hobbema. The prevailing tone is cool, the sky singularly
beautiful, and the execution wonderfully delicate. A flat country with a
road leading to a village, and fields with wheatsheaves, is in the
Dresden Gallery. This is temperate in colouring and beautifully lighted.
Equally fine is an extensive view over a hilly but bare country, through
which a river runs; in the Louvre. The horseman and beggar on a bridge
are by Wouvermans: here the grey-greenish harmony of the tone is in fine
accordance with the poetic grandeur of the subject. A hill covered with
oak woods, with a peasant hastening to a hut to escape the gathering
shower, is in the Munich Gallery. The golden warmth of the trees and
ground, and the contrast between the deep clear chiaroscuro and soft
rain-clouds, and the bright gleam of sunshine, render this picture one
of the finest by this master.
The peculiar charm which is seen in Holland by the combination of lofty
trees and calm water is fully represented in the following works:--_The
Chase_; in the Dresden Gallery. Here in the still water in the
foreground--through which a stag-hunt (by Adrian van de Velde) is
passing--clouds, warm with morning sunlight, appear reflected. In this
picture, remarkable as it is for size, being 3 ft. 10-1/2 in. high, by 5
ft. 2 in. wide, the sense even of the fresh morning is not without a
tinge of gentle melancholy. A noble wood of oaks, beeches and elms,
about the size of the last-mentioned picture, is in the Louvre. In the
centre, through an opening in the woods, are seen distant hills. The
cattle and figures upon a flooded road are by Berchem. In power, warmth,
and treatment, this is also nearly allied to the preceding work. Of his
waterfalls, the most remarkable are--A picture at the Hague, which is
particularly striking for its warm lighting, and careful execution.
Another with Bentheim Castle, so often repeated by Ruisdael, is at
Amsterdam. In the same collection is a landscape, with rocks, woods, and
a larger waterfall. This has a grandly poetic character which, with the
broad and solid handling, plainly shows the influence of Everdingen. The
same remark may be applied to the waterfall, No. 328, in the Munich
Gallery. Here the dark, rainy sky, enhances the sublime impression made
by the foaming torrent that rushes down the rocky masses. Another work
worthy to rank with the fore-going is _The Jewish Cemetry_, in the
Dresden Gallery: a pallid sunbeam lights up some of the tombstones,
between which a torrent impetuously flows.
The _Landscape with Waterfall_ at Hertford House is a good example; the
_Landscape with a Farm_ in the same collection is another, though in
this the figures and cattle are by Adrian Van der Velde. Ostade and
Wouverman are also said to have helped him with his figures, and it is
possible that one or other of them ought to have some of the credit for
the beautiful _View on the Shore at Scheveningen_ in the National
Gallery (No. 1390). The _Landscape with Ruins_ (No. 746) is perhaps the
finest of the others there.
WILLEM VAN DE VELDE, the younger, born at Amsterdam 1633, died at
Greenwich 1707. His first master was his father, Willem van de Velde the
elder, but his principal instructor was Simon de Vlieger. The earlier
part of his professional life was spent in Holland, where, besides
numerous pictures of the various aspects of marine scenery, he painted
several well-known sea-fights in which the Dutch had obtained the
victory over the English. He afterwards followed his father to England,
where he was greatly patronized by Charles II. and James II. for whom,
in turn, he painted the naval victories of the English over the Dutch.
He was also much employed by amateurs of art among the English nobility
and gentry. There is no question that Willem van de Velde the younger is
the greatest marine painter of the whole Dutch School. His perfect
knowledge of lineal and aerial perspective, and the incomparable
technique which he inherited from his school, enabled him to represent
the sea and the sky with the utmost truth of form, atmosphere and
colour, and to enliven the scene with the purest feeling for the
picturesque, with the most natural incidents of sea-faring life.
Two of his pictures at Amsterdam are particularly remarkable;
representing the English flagship _The Prince Royal_ striking her
colours in the fight with the Dutch fleet of 1666; and its companion,
four English men-of-war brought in as prizes at the same fight. Here the
painter has represented himself in a small boat, from which he actually
witnessed the battle. This accounts for the extraordinary truth with
which every particular of the scene is rendered in such small pictures,
which, combined with their delicate greyish tone, and the mastery of the
execution, render them two of his finest works. A view of the city of
Amsterdam, dated 1686, taken from the river, is an especially good
specimen of his large pictures. It is about 5 ft. high by 10 ft. wide.
The vessels in the river are arranged with great feeling for the
picturesque, and the treatment of details is admirable. His greatest
successes, however, are in the representation of calm seas, as may be
seen in a small picture at Munich. In the centre of the middle distance
is a frigate, and in the foreground smaller vessels. The fine silvery
tone in which the whole is kept finds a sufficient counter-balance of
colour in the yellowish sun-lit clouds, and in the brownish vessels and
their sails. Nothing can be more exquisite than the tender reflections
of these in the water. Of almost similar beauty is a picture of about
the same size, with four vessels, in the Cassel Gallery, which is signed
and dated 1653. As a contrast to this class of works, may be mentioned
_The Gathering Tempest_, in the Munich Gallery. This is brilliantly
lighted, and of great delicacy of tone in the distance, though the
foreground has somewhat darkened.
MEINDERT HOBBEMA (1638-1709) was a friend as well as a pupil of Jacob
Ruisdael. The fact that such distinguished painters as Adrian van de
Velde, Wouvermans, Berchem, and Lingelbach, executed the figures and
animals in his pictures proves the esteem in which he was held by his
contemporaries; nevertheless it is evident that the public was slow in
conceding to him the rank which he deserved, for his name is not found
for more than a century after his death in any even of the most
elaborate dictionaries of art, while the catalogues of the most
important picture sales in Holland make no mention of him at all up to
the year 1739; when a picture by him, although much extolled, was sold
for only 71 florins, and even in 1768 one of his masterpieces only
fetched 300 florins. The English were the first to discover his merits.
The peculiar characteristics of this master, who next to Ruisdael, is
confessedly at the head of landscape painters of the Dutch School, will
be best appreciated by comparing him with his rival. In two most
important qualities--fertility of inventive genius, and poetry of
feeling--he is decidedly inferior: the range of his subjects being far
narrower. His most frequent scenes are villages surrounded by trees,
such as are frequently met with in the districts of Guelderland, with
winding pathways leading from house to house. A water-mill occasionally
forms a prominent feature. Often, too, he represents a slightly uneven
country, diversified by groups or rows of trees, wheat-fields, meadows,
and small pools. Occasionally he gives us a view of part of a town, with
its gates, canals with sluices, and quays with houses; more rarely, the
ruins of an old castle, with an extensive view of a flat country, or
some stately residence. In the composition of all these pictures,
however, we do not find that elevated and picturesque taste which
characterises Ruisdael; on the contrary they have a thoroughly
portrait-like appearance, decidedly prosaic, but always surprizingly
truthful. The greater number of Hobbema's pictures are as much
characterized by a warm and golden tone as those of Ruisdael by the
reverse; his greens being yellowish in the lights and brownish in the
shadows--both of singular transparency. In pictures of this kind the
influence of Rembrandt is perhaps perceptible, and they are superior in
brilliancy to any work by Ruisdael. While these works chiefly present us
with the season of harvest and sunset-light, there are others in a cool,
silvery, morning lighting, and with the bright green of spring, that
surpass Ruisdael's in clearness. His woods also, owing to the various
lights that fall on them, are of greater transparency.
As almost all the galleries on the Continent were formed at a period
when the works of Hobbema were little prized (Ticcozzi's _Dictionary_,
in 1818, does not include his name), they either possess no specimens,
or some of an inferior class, so that no adequate idea can be formed of
him. The most characteristic example to be met with on the Continent is
a landscape in the Berlin Museum, No. 886, an oak wood, with scattered
lights, a calm piece of water in the foreground, and a sun-lit village
in the distance. Of the eight pictures in the National Gallery from his
hand, most are good, and one world-famous--_The Avenue, Middelharnis_,
which may be called his masterpiece. This was painted in 1689, when he
had reached the age of fifty. His diploma picture, painted in 1663, is
at Hertford House, together with four other interesting examples, all of
which repay careful study.
GERMAN SCHOOLS
The origins of the German Schools of painting are obscure, but it is
fairly certain that Cologne was the first place in which the art was
soonest established to any considerable extent. Here, as in the
Netherlands, we cannot find any traces of immediate Italian influences.
The first painter who can be identified with any certainty is WILHELM
VON HERLE, called MEISTER WILHELM, whose activity is not traceable
earlier than about 1358. Most of the pictures formerly attributed to him
have, however, been assigned to his pupil HERMANN WYNRICH VON WESEL, who
on the death of his master in 1378 married his widow and continued his
practice, until his death somewhere about 1414. His most important works
were six panels of the High Altar of the Cathedral, the so-called
_Madonna of the Pea Blossoms_ and two _Crucifixions_ at Cologne, and the
_S. Veronica_ at Munich, dated 1410.
More important was STEPHEN LOCHNER, who died at Cologne in 1451. His
influence was widespread and his school apparently numerous, until, in
1450, Roger van der Weyden, returning from Italy, stopped at Cologne and
painted his large triptych, which eclipsed Lochner. From this time
onwards the school of Cologne is represented by painters whose names are
not known, and who are accordingly distinguished by the subjects of
their works; such as _The Master of the Glorification of the Virgin_,
_The Master of S. Bartholomew_, etc., until we come to Bartel Bruyn
(_c._ 1493-1553), a portrait painter who is represented at Berlin, and
by a picture of Dr Fuchsius bequeathed to the National Gallery by George
Salting.
In other parts of Germany, particularly in Nuremberg, Ulm, Augsburg, and
Basle, various names of painters of the latter half of the fourteenth
century have survived, but their works are of little interest except to
the connoisseur as showing the influence under which the two great
artists of the sixteenth century, Albert Duerer and Hans Holbein, and one
or two lesser lights like Lucas Cranach, Albert Altdorfer, and Adam
Elsheimer, were formed.
In Germany the taste for the fantastic in art peculiar to the Middle
Ages, though it engendered clever and spirited works such as those of
Quentin Massys and Lucas van Leyden, was still unfavourable to the
cultivation of pure beauty, scenes from the Apocalypse, Dances of Death,
etc., being among the favourite subjects for art. On the other hand, the
pictorial treatment of antique literature, a world so suggestive of
beautiful forms, was so little comprehended by the German mind that they
only sought to express it through the medium of those fantastic ideas
with very childish and even tasteless results. We must also remember
that that average education of the various classes of society which the
fine arts require for their protection stood on a very low footing in
Germany. In Italy the favour with which works of art was regarded was
far more widely extended. This again gave rise to a more elevated
personal position on the part of the artist, which in Italy was not only
one of more consideration, but of incomparably greater independence. In
this latter respect Germany was so
[Illustration: PLATE XXXII.
"THE MASTER OF ST BARTHOLOMEW"
TWO SAINTS
_National Gallery, London_]
deficient that the genius of Albert Duerer and Holbein was miserably
cramped and hindered in development by the poverty and littleness of
surrounding circumstances. It is known that of all the German princes no
one but the Elector Frederick the Wise ever gave Albert Duerer a
commission for pictures, while a writing addressed by the great painter
to the magistracy of Nuremberg tells us that his native city never gave
him employment even to the value of 500 florins. At the same time his
pictures were so meanly paid, that for the means of subsistence, as he
says himself, he was compelled to devote himself to engraving. How far
more such a man as Duerer would have been appreciated in Italy or in the
Netherlands is further evidenced in the above-mentioned writing, where
he states that he was offered 200 ducats a year in Venice and 300
Philips-gulden in Antwerp, if he would settle in either of those cities.
And Holbein fared still worse: there is no evidence whatever that any
German prince ever troubled himself at all about the great painter while
at Basle, and his art was so little cared for that necessity compelled
him to go to England, where a genius fitted for the highest undertakings
of historical painting was limited to the sphere of portraiture. The
crowning impediments finally, which hindered the progress of German art,
and perverted it from its true aim, were the Reformation, which narrowed
the sphere of ecclesiastical works, and the pernicious imitation of the
great Italian masters which ensued.
LUCAS CRANACH, born in 1472, received his first instructions in art from
his father, his later teaching probably from Matthew Grunewald. In some
instances he attained to the expression of dignity, earnestness and
feeling, but generally his characteristics are a naive and childlike
cheerfulness and a gentle and almost timid grace. The impression
produced by his style of representation reminds one of the "Volksbuecher"
and "Volkslieder." Many of his church pictures have a very peculiar
significance: in these he stands forth properly speaking as the painter
of the Reformation. Intimate both with Luther and Melanchthon, he seizes
on the central aim of their doctrine, viz., the insufficiency of good
works and the sole efficacy of faith. His mythological subjects appeal
directly to the eye like real portraits; and sometimes also by means of
a certain grace and naivete of motive. We may cite as an instance the
Diana seated on a stag in a small picture at Berlin, No. 564. _The
Fountain of Youth_, also at Berlin, No. 593, is a picture of peculiar
character; a large basin surrounded by steps and with a richly adorned
fountain forms the centre. On one side, where the country is stony and
barren, a multitude of old women are dragged forward on horses, waggons
or carriages, and with much trouble are got into the water. On the other
side of the fountain they appear as young maidens splashing about and
amusing themselves with all kinds of playful mischief; close by is a
large pavilion into which a herald courteously invites them to enter and
where they are arrayed in costly apparel. A feast is prepared in a
smiling meadow, which seems to be followed by a dance; the gay crowd
loses itself in a neighbouring grove. The men unfortunately have not
become young, and retain their grey beards. The picture is of the year
1546, the seventy-fourth of Cranach's age.
ALBERT ALTDORFER was born 1488 at Altdorf, near Landshuth, in Bavaria,
and settled at Ratisbon, where he died 1528. He invested the fantastic
tendency of the time with a poetic feeling--especially in
landscape--and he developed it so as to attain a perfection in this
sort of romantic painting that no other artist had reached. In his later
period he was strongly influenced by Italian art. Altdorfer's principal
work is in the Munich Gallery, and is thus described by Schlegel:--
"It represents the Victory of Alexander the Great over Darius; the
costume is that of the artist's own day, as it would be treated in the
chivalrous poems of the middle ages--man and horse are sheathed in plate
and mail, with surcoats of gold or embroidery; the chamfrons upon the
heads of the horses, the glittering lances and stirrups, and the variety
of the weapons, form altogether a scene of indescribable splendour and
richness.... It is, in truth, a little world on a few square feet of
canvas; the hosts of combatants who advance on all sides against each
other are innumerable, and the view into the background appears
interminable. In the distance is the ocean, with high rocks and a rugged
island between them; ships of war appear in the offing and a whole fleet
of vessels--on the left the moon is setting--on the right the sun
rising--both shining through the opening clouds--a clear and striking
image of the events represented. The armies are arranged in rank and
column without the strange attitudes, contrasts, and distortions
generally exhibited in so-called battle-pieces. How indeed would this
have been possible with such a vast multitude of figures? The whole is
in the plain and severe, or it may be the stiff manner of the old style.
At the same time the character and execution of these little figures is
most masterly and profound. And what variety, what expression there is,
not merely in the character of the single warriors and knights, but in
the hosts themselves! Here crowds of black archers rush down troop after
troop from the mountain with the rage of a foaming torrent; on the
other side high upon the rocks in the far distance a scattered crowd of
flying men are turning round in a defile. The point of the greatest
interest stands out brilliantly from the centre of the whole--Alexander
and Darius both in armour of burnished gold; Alexander on Bucephalus
with his lance in rest advances before his men and presses on the flying
Darius, whose charioteer has already fallen on his white horses, and who
looks back upon his conqueror with all the despair of a vanquished
monarch."
ALBERT DUeRER (1471-1528), by his overpowering genius, may be called the
sole representative of German art of his period. He was gifted with a
power of conception which traced nature through all her finest shades,
and with a lively sense, as well for the solemn and the sublime, as for
simple grace and tenderness; above all, he had an earnest and truthful
feeling in art united with a capacity for the most earnest study. These
qualities were sufficient to place him by the side of the greatest
artists whom the world has ever seen.
One of the earliest portraits by Albert Duerer known to us is that of his
father, Albert Duerer, the goldsmith, dated 1497, in our National
Gallery. In the year 1644, another version of this picture, which was
engraved by Hollar, was in the collection of the Earl of Arundel, and is
now in that of the Duke of Northumberland, at Syon House. Of about the
same time--that is to say, before 1500--are the portraits of Oswald
Krell, at Munich, of Frederick the Wise, at Berlin, and of himself, at
the Prado.
Several of Albert Duerer's pictures of the year 1500 are known to us. The
first and most important is his own portrait in the Munich Gallery,
which represents him full face with his hand laid on the fur trimming
of his robe.
His finest picture of the year 1504 is an _Adoration of the Kings_,
originally painted for Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony,
subsequently presented by the Elector Christian II. to the Emperor
Rudolph II., and finally, on the occasion of an exchange of pictures,
transferred from Vienna to Florence, where it now hangs in the Tribune
of the Uffizi. The heads are of thoroughly realistic treatment; the
Virgin a portrait from some model of no attractive character; the second
King a portrait of the painter himself. The landscape background exactly
resembles that in the well-known engraving of S. Eustace, the period of
which is thus pretty nearly defined. It is carefully painted in a fine
body of colour.