considerable time at Venice. Of his occupations in this city the letters
written to his friend Wilibald Pirckheimer which have come down to us
give many interesting particulars. He there executed for the German
Company a picture known as _The Feast of Rose Garlands_, which brought
him great fame, and by its brilliant colouring silenced the assertion of
his envious adversaries "that he was a good engraver, but knew not how
to deal with colours." In the centre of a landscape is the Virgin seated
with the Child and crowned by two angels; on her right is a Pope with
priests kneeling; on her left the Emperor Maximilian I. with knights;
various members of the German Company are also kneeling; all are being
crowned with garlands of roses by the Virgin, the Child, S.
Dominick--who stands behind the Virgin--and by angels. The painter and
his friend Pirckheimer are seen standing in the background on the
right; the painter holds a tablet with the inscription, "Albertus Duerer
Germanus, MDVI." This picture, which is one of his largest and finest,
was purchased from the church at a high price by the Emperor Rudolph II.
for his gallery at Prague, where it remained until sold in 1782 by the
Emperor Joseph II. It then became the property of the Praemonstratensian
monastery of Stratow at Prague, where it still exists, though in very
injured condition and greatly over-painted. In the Imperial Gallery at
Vienna may be seen an old copy which conveys a better idea of the
picture than the original.
With these productions begins the zenith of this master's fame, in which
a great number of works follow one another within a short period. Of
these we first notice a picture of 1508, in the Imperial Gallery at
Vienna, painted for Duke Frederick of Saxony, and which afterwards
adorned the gallery of the Emperor Rudolph II. It represents _The
Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Saints_. In the centre of the picture
stand the master and his friend Pirckheimer as spectators, both in black
dresses. Duerer has a mantle thrown over his shoulder in the Italian
fashion, and stands in a firm attitude. He folds his hands and holds a
small flag, on which is inscribed, "Iste faciebat anno domini 1508
Albertus Duerer Alemanus." There are a multitude of single groups
exhibiting every species of martyrdom, but there is a want of general
connection of the whole. The scenes in the background, where the
Christians are led naked up the rocks, and are precipitated down from
the top, are particularly excellent. The whole is very minute and
miniature-like; the colouring is beautifully brilliant, and it is
painted (the accessories particularly) with extraordinary care.
To 1511 belongs also one of his most celebrated pictures, _The Adoration
of the Trinity_, which is also at Vienna, painted for the chapel of the
Landauer Bruederhaus in Nuremberg. Above in the centre of the picture are
seen the First Person, who holds the Saviour in his arms, while the Holy
Spirit is seen above; some angels spread out the priestly mantle of the
Almighty, whilst others hover near with the instruments of Christ's
passion. On the left hand a little lower down is a choir of females with
the Virgin at their head; on the right are the male saints with St John
the Baptist. Below all these kneel a host of the blessed of all ranks
and nations extending over the whole of this part of the picture.
Underneath the whole is a beautiful landscape, and in a corner of the
picture the artist himself richly clothed in a fur mantle, with a tablet
next him with the words, "Albertus Duerer Noricus faciebat anno a
Virginis partu, 1511." It may be assumed beyond doubt that he held in
particular esteem those pictures into which he introduced his own
portrait.
In the Vienna Gallery is also a picture of the year 1512, the Virgin
holding the naked Child in her arms. She has a veil over her head and
blue drapery. Her face is of the form usual with Albert Duerer, but of a
soft and maidenly character; the Child is beautiful--the countenance
particularly so. It is painted with exceeding delicacy of finish.
Two altar-pieces of his earliest period must be mentioned. One is in the
Dresden Gallery, consisting of three pictures painted in tempera on
canvas, representing the Virgin, S. Anthony, and S. Sebastian
respectively. Although this is probably one of his very earliest works,
it is remarkable for the novelty of its treatment and its independence
of tradition.
The other, a little later, is in the Munich Gallery (Nos. 240-3),
painted at the request of the Paumgartner family, for S. Catherine's
Church at Nuremberg, was brought to Munich in 1612 by Maximilian I. The
subject of the middle picture is the Nativity; the Child is in the
centre, surrounded by little angels, whilst the Virgin and Joseph kneel
at the side. The wings contain portraits of the two donors under the
form of S. George and S. Eustace represented as knights in steel armour,
each with his standard, and the former holding the slain dragon.
The year 1526 was distinguished by the two pictures of the four
Apostles: John and Peter, Mark and Paul; the figures are the size of
life. These, which are the master's grandest work, and the last of
importance executed by him, are now in the Munich Gallery. We know with
certainty that they were presented by Albert Duerer himself to the
council of his native city in remembrance of his career as an artist,
and at the same time as conveying to his fellow-citizens an earnest and
lasting exhortation suited to that stormy period. In the year 1627,
however, the pictures were allowed to pass into the hands of the Elector
Maximilian I. of Bavaria. The inscriptions selected by the painter
himself might have given offence to a Catholic prince, and were
therefore cut off and joined to the copies by John Fischer, which were
intended to indemnify the city of Nuremberg for the loss of the
originals. These copies are still in the collection of the Landauer
Bruederhaus at Nuremberg.
These pictures are the fruit of the deepest thought which then stirred
the mind of Albert Duerer, and are executed with overpowering force.
Finished as they are, they form the first complete work of art produced
by Protestantism. As the inscription taken from the Gospels and
Epistles of the Apostles contains pressing warnings not to swerve from
the word of God, nor to believe in the doctrines of false prophets, so
the figures themselves represent the steadfast and faithful guardians of
that holy Scripture which they bear in their hands. There is also an old
tradition, handed down from the master's own times, that these figures
represent the four temperaments. This is confirmed by the pictures
themselves; and though at first sight it may appear to rest on a mere
accidental combination, it serves to carry out more completely the
artist's thought, and gives to the figures greater individuality. It
shows how every quality of the human mind may be called into the service
of the Divine Word. Thus in the first picture, we see the whole force of
the mind absorbed in contemplation, and we are taught that true
watchfulness in behalf of the Scripture must begin by devotion to its
study.
S. John stands in front, the open book in his hand; his high forehead
and his whole countenance bear the impress of earnest and deep thought.
This is the melancholic temperament, which does not shrink from the most
profound inquiry. Behind him S. Peter bends over the book, and gazes
earnestly at its contents--a hoary head, full of meditative repose. This
figure represents the phlegmatic temperament, which reviews its own
thoughts in tranquil reflection. The second picture shows the outward
operation of the conviction thus attained and its relation to daily
life. S. Mark in the background is the man of sanguine temperament; he
looks boldly round, and appears to speak to his hearers with animation,
earnestly urging them to share those advantages which he has himself
derived from the Holy Scriptures. S. Paul, on the contrary, in the
foreground, holds the book and sword in his hands; he looks angrily and
severely over his shoulder, ready to defend the Word, and to annihilate
the blasphemer with the sword of God's power. He is the representative
of the choleric temperament.
We know of no important work of a later date than that just described.
His portrait in a woodcut of the year 1527 represents him earnest and
serious in demeanour, as would naturally follow from his advancing age
and the pressure of eventful times. His head is no longer adorned with
those richly flowing locks, on which in his earlier days he had set so
high a value, as we learn from his pictures and from jests still
recorded of him. With the departure of Hans Holbein to England in 1528
and the death of Albert Duerer in the same year, that excellence to which
they had raised German art passed away, and centuries saw no sign of its
revival.
Of HANS HOLBEIN, born at Augsburg in 1498, we shall have more to say in
a later chapter, when considering the origins of English portraiture.
But as in the case of Van Dyck, and in fact of every great portrait
painter, his excellence in this particular branch of his art was but one
result of his being a born artist and first exercising his talents in a
much wider field. In Holbein the realistic tendency of the German School
attained its highest development, and he may, next to Duerer, be
pronounced the greatest master in it. While Duerer's art exhibits a close
affinity with the religious ideas of the Middle Ages, Holbein appears to
have been imbued with more modern and more material sentiments, and
accordingly we find him excelling Duerer in closeness and delicacy of
observation in the delineation of nature. A proof of this is afforded by
the evidence of Erasmus, who said that as regards the portraits painted
of him by both these artists, that by Holbein was the most like. In
feeling for beauty of form, also in grace of movement, in colouring, and
in the actual art of painting--in which his father had thoroughly
instructed him--Holbein is to be placed above Duerer. That he did not
rival the great Italians of his time in "historical" painting can only
be ascribed to the circumstances of his life in Germany, where such
subjects were not in fashion.
Of his pictures executed before he left his native country the greater
number are at Basle and Augsburg, and are therefore less familiar to the
general public than his later works. A notable exception is the famous
_Meyer Madonna_, the original of which is at Darmstadt, but a version
now relegated, somewhat harshly, to the "copyist" is in the Dresden
Gallery, and certainly exhibits as much of the spirit of the master as
will serve for an example of his powers. It represents the Virgin as
Queen of Heaven, standing in a niche, with the Child in her arms, and
with the family of the Burgomaster Jacob Meyer of Basle kneeling on
either side of her. With the utmost life and truth to nature, which
brings these kneeling figures actually into our presence, says Kugler,
there is combined in a most exquisite degree an expression of great
earnestness, as if the mind were fixed on some lofty object. This is
shown not merely by the introduction of divine beings into the circle of
human sympathies, but particularly in the relation so skilfully
indicated between the Holy Virgin and her worshippers, and in her
manifest desire to communicate to those who are around her the sacred
peace and tranquillity expressed in her own countenance and attitude,
and implied in the infantine grace of the Saviour. In the direct union
of the divine with the human, and in their reciprocal harmony, there is
involved a devout and earnest purity of feeling such as only the older
masters were capable of representing.
Another of his most beautiful pictures painted in Germany is the
portrait of Erasmus, dated 1523. This was sent by Erasmus to Sir Thomas
More, at Chelsea, with a letter recommending Holbein to his care, and as
it is still in this country--in the collection of the Earl of Radnor at
Longford Castle--it is not perhaps too much to hope that it may one of
these days find its way into the National Gallery--perhaps when the
alterations to the front entrance are completed. This picture has for a
very long time been regarded as one of Holbein's very finest portraits.
Mr W. Barclay Squire, in the sumptuous catalogue of the Radnor
collection compiled by him, quotes the opinion of Sir William Musgrave,
written in 1785, "I am not sure whether it is not the finest I have
seen"; and that of Dr Waagen, "Alone worth a pilgrimage to Longford.
Seldom has a painter so fully succeeded in bringing to view the whole
character of so original a mind as in this instance. In the mouth and
small eyes may be seen the unspeakable studies of a long life ... the
face also expresses the sagacity and knowledge of a life gained by long
experience ... the masterly and careful execution extends to every
portion ... yet the face surpasses everything else in delicacy of
modelling."
Cruel, indeed, was England to have transplanted the one artist who might
have saved Germany from the artistic destitution from which she has
suffered ever since!
[Illustration: PLATE XXXIII.--HANS HOLBEIN
PORTRAIT OF CHRISTINA, DUCHESS OF MILAN
_National Gallery, London_]
_FRENCH SCHOOL_
I
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
When we consider the peculiar beauty of the architecture and
ecclesiastical sculpture in France during the Middle Ages and the period
of the renaissance, and of the enamels, ivories, and other small works
of art, it is wrong to regret that painting was not also practised by
the French as assiduously as it was in Italy. For there can be no doubt
that in being confined to one channel the artistic impulses of a people
cut deeper than if dissipated in various directions. We may suppose,
indeed, that if those of the French had found their outlet in painting
alone, we should have pictures of wonderful beauty, of a beauty moreover
of a markedly different kind from that of the Italian or Spanish or
Netherlandish pictures. But on the other hand we should have perhaps
lost the amazing fascination of Chartres, and the delights of Limoges
enamel and ivories.
As it happens, the earliest mention to be made of painting in France is
the arrival of Leonardo da Vinci at Amboise in 1516, whither he had come
from Milan in the train of the young king Francois I. Unfortunately he
was by this time sixty-four years old, and in less than three years he
died. At about the same time there was a court painter in the employment
of Francois--under the official designation of _varlet de
chambre_--named JEHAN CLOUET, who is supposed to have been of Flemish
extraction. Nothing very definite is known about him or his work, but he
had a son FRANCOIS CLOUET, who seems to have been born at about the time
of Leonardo's arrival, and who succeeded to his father's office. At the
funeral of Francois I. in 1547 he was ordered to make an _effige du dict
feu roy_, and he continued to be the official court painter to Henri II.
(whose posthumous portrait he was also ordered to paint), Francois II.,
and Charles IX. He died in 1572. Every portrait of this period is
attributed to him, just as was the case with Holbein in England. Neither
of the two examples at the National Gallery can be safely ascribed to
him. The little head of the Emperor Charles V., king of Spain, at
Hereford House, is identical in style and in dimensions with that of
Francis I., king of France, in the Museum at Lyons, which is attributed
to Jean Clouet. Both may have been painted when Charles V. passed
through Paris in 1539, but whether by Jean or one of his disciples
cannot be said with certainty.
Not until the very end of the sixteenth century were born Claude Gellee
and Nicholas Poussin, the only two Frenchmen who were painters of
considerable importance before the close of the seventeenth. Nor did
either of these two contribute anything to the glory of their country by
practice or by precept within its confines, both of them passing most of
their lives and painting their best works in Italy and under Italian
influence.
NICHOLAS POUSSIN was born at Villiers near Les Andelys on the banks of
the Seine, in 1594, where he studied for some time under Quentin Varin
till he was eighteen. After this he was in Paris, but in 1624 he went to
Rome where he lived with Du Quesnoy. His first success was obtained by
the execution of two historical pieces which were commissioned by
Cardinal Barberini on his return from an Embassy to France. These were
_The Death of Germanicus_ and _The Capture of Jerusalem_. His next works
were _The Martyrdom of S. Erasmus_, _The Plague at Ashdod_, of which a
replica is in the National Gallery, and _The Seven Sacraments_ now at
Belvoir Castle. By these he acquired such fame that on his return to
Paris in 1640, Louis XIII. appointed him royal painter, and in order to
keep him at home provided him with apartments in the Tuileries and a
salary of L120 a year. Within two years, however, Poussin was back in
Rome, and after twenty-three years' unbroken success died there in 1665
in his seventy-second year.
Poussin was a most conscientious painter, devoting himself seriously in
his earlier years to the study both of the antique and of practical
anatomy. Besides being the intimate friend of Du Quesnoy, he was a
devout pupil of Domenichino, for whom he had the greatest reverence. It
is not surprising therefore to find in his earlier works, such as the
_Plague at Ashdod_, a certain academic dulness and lack of spontaneity.
He was not the forerunner of a new epoch, but one of the last upholders
of the old. He was trying to arrest decay, to infuse a healthier spirit
into a declining art, so that he errs on the side of correctness. The
influence of Titian, however, was too strong for him to remain long
within the narrowest limits, as may be seen in the _Bacchanalian Dance_,
No. 62 in the National Gallery, which was probably one of a series
painted for Cardinal Richelieu during the short time that Poussin was in
Paris in 1641. In this and in No. 42, the _Bacchanalian Festival_ as
well as in _The Shepherds in Arcadia_, in the Louvre, we get a
surprisingly strong reminiscence of Titian, more especially in the
brown tones of the flesh and the deep blue of the sky.
As the result of conscientious study of the human body the figures in
these pictures are full of life--for correctness of drawing is the first
requisite of lively painting without which all the others are useless.
The fact that over two hundred prints have been engraved after his
pictures is a proof of his popularity at one time or another, and though
at the present time his reputation is not as widely recognised as in
former years, it is certainly as high among those whose judgment is
independent of passing fashions. As evidence of the soundness of his
principles, the following is perhaps worth quoting:--
"There are nine things in painting," Poussin wrote in a letter to M. de
Chambrai, the author of a treatise on painting, "which can never be
taught and which are essential to that art. To begin with, the subject
of it should be noble, and receive no quality from the person who treats
it; and to give opportunity to the painter to show his talents and his
industry it must be chosen as capable of receiving the most excellent
form. A painter should begin with disposition (or as we should say,
composition), the ornament should follow, their agreement of the parts,
beauty, grace, spirit, costume, regard to nature and probability; and
above all, judgment. This last must be in the painter himself and cannot
be taught. It is the golden bough of Virgil that no one can either find
or pluck unless his lucky star conducts him to it."
GASPAR POUSSIN, whose name was really Gaspard Dughet, was brother-in-law
of Nicholas, and acquired his name from being his pupil. He was nineteen
years his junior, and survived him by ten years. He was born in Rome of
French parents, and died there in 1675, and though he travelled a good
deal in Italy he never appears to have visited France. His Italian
landscapes are very beautiful, and we are fortunate in the possession of
one which is considered his best, No. 31 in the National Gallery,
_Landscape with Figures_, _Abraham and Isaac_. Scarcely less fine is the
_Calling of Abraham_, No. 1159, especially in the middle and far
distance. The sacred figures, it may as well be said, are of little
concern in the compositions, though useful for purposes of identifying
the pictures.
CLAUDE GELLEE, nowadays usually spoken of as Claude, was born at
Chamagne in Lorraine in 1600. Accordingly he has been styled Claude
Lorraine, le Lorraine, de Lorrain, Lorrain, or Claudio Lorrenese with
wonderful persistency through the ages, though there was no mystery
about his surname and it would have served just as well. He was brought
up in his father's profession of pastrycook, and in that capacity he
went to Rome seeking for employment. As it happened he found it in the
house of a landscape painter, Agostino Tassi, who had been a pupil of
Paul Bril, and he not only cooked for him but mixed his colours as well,
and soon became his pupil. Later he was studying under a German painter,
Gottfried Wals, at Naples. A more important influence on him, however,
was that of Joachim Sandrart, one of the best of the later German
painters, whom he met in Rome.
Claude's earliest pictures of any importance were two which were painted
for Pope Urban VII. in 1639, when he was just upon forty years old.
These are the _Village Dance_ and the _Seaport_, now in the Louvre. The
_Seaport at Sunset_ and _Narcissus and Echo_ in the National Gallery
(Nos. 5 and 19) are dated 1644--the former on the canvas and the latter
on the sketch for it in the _Liber Veritatis_, where it is stated that
it was painted for an English patron.
The _Liber Veritatis_, it should be observed, is the title given to a
portfolio of over two hundred drawings in pen and bistre, or Indian ink,
which is now in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire. Most of these
were made from pictures which had been painted, not as sketches or
designs preparatory to painting them, and in some instances there are
notes on the back of them giving the date, purchaser, and other
particulars relating to them. So great was the vogue for Claude's
landscapes in England during the eighteenth century that as early as
1730 or 1740 a good many of his drawings, which had been collected by
Jonathan Richardson, Dr. Mead and others, were engraved by Arthur Pond
and John Knapton; and in 1777 a series of about two hundred of the Duke
of Devonshire's drawings was published by Alderman Boydell, which had
been etched and mezzotinted by Richard Earlom, under the title of _Liber
Veritatis_. This was the model on which Turner founded the publication
of his own sketches under the title of _Liber Studiorum_. Thus, if
Claude exerted little influence on the art of his own country, it can
hardly be said that he exerted none elsewhere, for Turner was by no
means the first Englishman to fall under his spell. Richard Wilson, the
first English landscape painter, was undoubtedly influenced by him, both
from an acquaintance with his drawings in English collections and from
the study of his works when in Rome.
In this connection we may consider the two landscapes, numbered 12 and
14 in the National Gallery Catalogue, as our most important examples by
this master, for Turner bequeathed to the nation his two most important
pictures _The Sun Rising Through a Vapour_ and _Dido Building Carthage_,
on condition that they should be hung between these two by Claude. The
Court of Chancery could annul the condition, but they could not nullify
the effect of Claude's influence on Turner or alter the judgment of
posterity with regard to the relations of the two painters to each other
and to art in general, and the Director has wisely observed the wishes
of Turner in still hanging the four pictures together, the Court of
Chancery notwithstanding. Both of Claude's are inscribed, besides being
signed and dated, as follows:
No. 12. Mariage d'Isaac avec Rebeca, Claudio Gil. inv. Romae 1648.
No. 14. La Reine de Saba va trover Salomon. Clavde Gil. inv. faict
pour son altesse le duc de Buillon a Roma 1648.