Engraving in Italy differs, in many essentials, from the art as
practised in Germany. Germany may claim priority in point of time, but
it is doubtful whether the Florentines--for in Florence, and among
the goldsmiths, the art took its rise in Italy--in the beginning were
influenced by, or even acquainted with, the work of their northern
contemporaries. In Germany the designer and the engraver were one, and
some of the greatest masters embodied their finest conceptions in their
prints. We may truly say that the world-wide reputation which Dürer
and Schongauer have enjoyed for four centuries and more, rests almost
entirely upon their engraved, rather than upon their painted, work.
In Italy it was otherwise. There, with a few signal exceptions,
engraving was used merely as a convenient method of multiplying an
existing design. It may be that we owe to this fact both the color
of the ink used in these early Florentine prints, and the method of
taking impressions. This would seem, in many cases, to be by rubbing
rather than by the use of the roller press, which appears to have been
known and used in the North substantially from the very beginning. The
Florentine, aiming to duplicate a drawing in silver-point or wash,
would naturally endeavor to approximate the color of his original.
Consequently we do not find the lustrous black impressions, strongly
printed, which are the prize of the collector of early German
engravings.
Vasari’s story of the invention of engraving by MASO FINIGUERRA
(1426-1464) was long ago disproved, and for a time it seemed as though
Finiguerra and his work were likely to be consigned to that limbo of
the legendary from which Baldini--at one time accredited with many
prints--is only just now emerging. Yet Finiguerra, although not the
“inventor” of the art, is, beyond peradventure, the most important
influence in early Italian engraving, not only on account of his own
work on copper, but still more through the Picture-Chronicle, which
served as an inspiration to the artists working in his School and
continuing his tradition after his death. So that Vasari’s tale, though
not accurate in the matter of fact, was veracious in the larger sense.
[Illustration: ANONYMOUS FLORENTINE, XV CENTURY. PROFILE PORTRAIT OF A
LADY
Size of the original engraving, 8⅞ × 5⅝ inches
In the Royal Print Room, Berlin]
[Illustration: ANONYMOUS FLORENTINE, XV CENTURY. WILD ANIMALS HUNTING
AND FIGHTING
Size of the original engraving, 10⅛ × 14¾ inches
In the British Museum]
The Picture-Chronicle is a book of drawings illustrating the History
of the World, and evidently proceeds from the hand and workshop of a
Florentine goldsmith-engraver of about 1460. It was acquired by
the British Museum from Mr. Ruskin in 1888. The drawings are in pen
and ink and wash, often reinforced with open pen-shading like that
imitated later by the Broad Manner engravers. At its best the work
has the true early Renaissance combination of archaic strength with
attractive naiveté--the ornamental detail carried out with a masterly
power of pen, and with the patient delight of one who is by instinct
and training above all things a jeweler.
Finiguerra’s fame as the leading worker in niello was firmly
established by 1450; and although we cannot assign certainly any
engraving by him to a date earlier than 1460, there is a group of
Florentine primitives which may be placed between the years 1450 and
1460, thus antedating Finiguerra’s first plate by about ten years. The
most beautiful of these early prints in conception, and the purest in
execution, is the _Profile Portrait of a Lady_, a single impression of
which has come down to us and is now in Berlin. In style it recalls the
paintings of Piero della Francesca, Verrocchio, Uccello, or Pollaiuolo,
and although it would be unwise to attribute it to any known master,
there is a sensitive quality in the drawing, and a restraint, which
differentiates it from any other print of this period.
Among the engravings which may be by Finiguerra himself, one of
the most interesting is the plate of _Wild Animals Hunting and
Fighting_, wherein we see a number of motives taken directly from the
Picture-Chronicle--motives which reappear again and again in works
undoubtedly by other hands. This print, as also the _Encounter of a
Hunting Party with a Family of Wild Folk_, is unique. In the last-named
we see a number of motives repeated from the _Wild Animals Hunting and
Fighting_: such as the boar being pulled down by two hounds, the hound
chasing a hare, in the upper right corner; and the dog, slightly to the
left, devouring the entrails of yet another hare.
The _Road to Calvary and the Crucifixion_ is a far more elaborate and
important composition, and in this engraving we see that which is
especially noteworthy in the _Judgment Hall of Pilate_--the largest
and most important of all the Fine Manner prints--the goldsmith’s love
of ornament. In the _Judgment Hall of Pilate_ the head-dresses, and
especially the armor, are highly elaborate, while the architecture
itself is overlaid with ornate decoration directly drawn from the
Picture-Chronicle. In the only known impression the plate seems to have
been re-worked, in the Broad Manner, by a later hand.
[Illustration: ANONYMOUS FLORENTINE, XV CENTURY. TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION
OF BACCHUS AND ARIADNE
Size of the original engraving, 8⅛ × 22 inches
In the British Museum]
[Illustration: ANONYMOUS FLORENTINE, XV CENTURY. JUPITER
Size of the original engraving, 12⅝ × 8½ inches
In the British Museum]
Somewhat later in date, by an engraver of the Finiguerra School, is the
_Triumphal Procession of_ _Bacchus and Ariadne_, the most joyous of
all Florentine engravings. The original design was attributed at one
time to Botticelli; and although, as Herbert P. Horne has shown, it
cannot be by this master, it is similar in style to his compositions.
Whatever the immediate original, it shows marked traces of classical
influences, and its motive is directly derived from antique
sculpture--a sarcophagus in all probability. “The splendid design has
suffered not only from the feebleness of the engraving, but also from
the florid manner in which the engraver has exaggerated some of the
decorative details and added others.... In spite of the feebleness of
its execution it remains an incomparably greater work of art than any
other print in the Fine Manner.”[2]
[2] Sandro Botticelli. By Herbert P. Horne. London: George Bell & Sons.
1908. p. 84.
The Fine Manner, in which all of the engravings hitherto mentioned
are executed, owes its name to the method employed. The engraver has
incised his outlines upon the plate--probably unbeaten copper or
some even softer metal--and for his shading has employed a system of
delicate strokes, laid close to one another and overlaid with two, and,
at times, three, sets of cross-hatching. Such engravings, when printed,
as is usually the case, in a greenish or grayish ink, give a result
similar to a wash drawing. In the Broad Manner the style of engraving
is based upon that of pen drawing, with open, diagonal shade strokes
and without cross-hatching. The Broad Manner was finally developed by
Pollaiuolo and Mantegna, who modified it by a series of delicate lines
laid at an acute angle to the heavier shadings, blending the main lines
into a harmonious whole.
“None of the sciences that descended from antiquity,” writes Arthur
M. Hind,[3] “possessed a firmer hold on the popular imagination of
the Middle Ages than that of Astrology. That science took as its
foundation the ancient conception of the universe, with the earth as
the centre round which all the heavenly bodies revolved in the space
of a day and a night. Encircling the earth were the successive spheres
of water, air, fire, the seven planets (Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun,
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), the firmament with the constellations (the
_cœlum crystallinum_), and the Primum Mobile. To each of the planets
were ascribed attributes according to the traditional character of
the deity whose name it bore, and these attributes were regarded as
transmissible under certain conditions to mankind. The influence of the
planets depended on their position in the heavens in respect of the
various constellations, with which each had different relations. Each
planet had what was called its ‘house’ in one of the constellations,
and according to its position relative to these was said to be in the
‘ascendant’ or ‘descendant’. In regard to individual human beings the
date of birth was the decisive point, and the degree of influence
transmitted from the planets depended on the respective degree of
‘ascendance’ or ‘descendance’ at the particular epoch.”
[3] Catalogue of Early Italian Engravings ... in the British Museum. By
Arthur Mayger Hind. London. 1910. pp. 49-50.
The planets and their influences afforded subject matter for many
artists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the finest and
most important series is that engraved in the Fine Manner by an artist
of the Finiguerra School, who has, as usual, drawn directly upon the
Picture-Chronicle for his ornamental accessories. We can reproduce two
only from the set of seven--_Jupiter_ and _Mercury_. The inscription
beneath _Jupiter_ reads, in part, as follows: “Jupiter is a male planet
in the sixth sphere, warm and moist, temperate by nature, and of gentle
disposition; he is sanguine, cheerful, liberal, eloquent; he loves
fine clothes, is handsome and ruddy of aspect, and looks toward the
Earth. Tin is his metal; his days are Sunday and Thursday, with the
first, eighth, fifteenth and twenty-fourth hours; his night is that of
Wednesday; he is friendly to the Moon, hostile to Mars....” In the
landscape we again meet with several of the stock Finiguerra motives,
the muzzled hounds, the dog chasing the hare, etc. Of especial interest
is the group at the right--“wing-bearing Dante who flew through Hell,
through the starry Heavens and o’er the intermediate hill of Purgatory
beneath the beauteous brows of Beatrice; and Petrarch too, who tells
again the tale of Cupid’s triumph; and the man who, in ten days,
portrays a hundred stories (Boccaccio).”
_Mercury_--“eloquent and inventive ... slender of figure, tall and
well grown, with delicate lips. Quicksilver is his metal”--sets forth
various applications of the arts and sciences. Especially interesting
is the goldsmith’s shop at the left, where we see an engraver actually
at work upon a plate. The goldsmith is seated, his apprentice behind
him, as a prospective purchaser examines a richly ornamented vessel.
In the foreground a sculptor is chiseling his statue, while, standing
above, on a scaffolding, a fresco painter is actively at work--a record
of the Florence of 1460 or thereabouts, full of interest for us.
[Illustration: ANONYMOUS FLORENTINE, XV CENTURY. MERCURY
Size of the original engraving, 12¾ × 8½ inches
In the British Museum]
[Illustration: ANONYMOUS FLORENTINE, XV CENTURY. LADY WITH A UNICORN
Size of the original engraving, 6¼ inches in diameter
In the British Museum]
To a slightly later date, 1465-1470, belong the group of Fine Manner
prints, known as the OTTO PRINTS, also emanating from the
Finiguerra workshop. They are not a series, in any true sense, and owe
their name--also their fortunate preservation--to the accidental
circumstance of their having belonged at one time to Peter Ernst Otto,
a merchant and collector of Leipzig. The purpose served by these
prints--twenty-four in all--was the decoration of box lids, either as
patterns to be copied, in the case of metal caskets, or to be colored
and pasted on the lids of wooden boxes. The escutcheons are usually
left blank, to be filled in by hand with the device of the donor or the
recipient, or with some appropriate sentiment.
In the print entitled _Two Heads in Medallions and Two Hunting Scenes_
we again meet with the animal motives taken from the Picture-Chronicle.
One of the most charming is the _Lady with a Unicorn_ (Chastity), in
its arrangement suggestive of the beautiful drawing by Leonardo da
Vinci in the British Museum; and its symbolic meaning is doubtless
the same. “The unicorn,” writes Leonardo in his “Bestiarius,” “is
distinguished for lack of moderation and self-control. His passionate
love of young women makes him entirely forget his shyness and ferocity.
Oblivious of all dangers, he comes straight to the seated maiden and
falling asleep in her lap is then caught by the hunter.” The ermine,
likewise a sign of chastity, is to be seen at the right, gazing upward
into Marietta’s face.
Still later than the Otto prints, and greatly inferior to them in
execution, are the three illustrations for _Il Monte Sancto di Dio_, of
1477; and the nineteen engravings for Dante’s _Divina Commedia_, with
Landino’s Commentary, of 1481. _Il Monte Sancto di Dio_ is the first
book in Italy or in Germany in which there appear illustrations from
engraved plates printed on the text page. This entailed much additional
labor, and was soon discontinued in favor of the wood-block, which
could be printed simultaneously with the letterpress, and was not taken
up again until nearly the end of the sixteenth century.
Alike by tradition and internal evidence, Botticelli is unquestionably
the author of the Dante designs; but no artist has been suggested as
the probable designer of the three illustrations for _Il Monte Sancto
di Dio_. In the first illustration the costume and general attitude
of the young gallant to the left are strongly reminiscent of the Otto
prints. The lower portion of the plate shows all the characteristics of
the Fine Manner, but the angel heads are treated in a simpler and more
open linear method. _The Christian’s Ascent to the Glory of Paradise_
is allegorically represented by a ladder placed firmly in the ground
of widespread Knowledge and Humility, and reaching up to the triple
mountain of Faith, Hope, and Charity, on the summit of which stands the
Saviour. This ladder is called Perseverance, one of its sides being
Prayer, the other Sacrament. It has eleven steps: Prudence, Temperance,
Fortitude, Justice, etc.
[Illustration: ANONYMOUS FLORENTINE, XV CENTURY. THE CHRISTIAN’S
ASCENT TO THE GLORY OF PARADISE. FROM “IL MONTE SANCTO DI DIO,”
FLORENCE, 1477
Size of the original engraving, 9⅞ × 7 inches
In the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University]
[Illustration: ANONYMOUS FLORENTINE, XV CENTURY. DANTE AND VIRGIL
WITH THE VISION OF BEATRICE. FROM THE “DIVINA COMMEDIA,”
FLORENCE, 1481
Size of the original engraving, 3½ × 6⅞ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
The second illustration depicts the glory of Paradise; the third the
punishment of Hell, the main motives of the last-named being adapted
from the fresco attributed to Orcagna, in the Campo Santo at Pisa.
In the illustrations to the _Divina Commedia_, of 1481, there is little
left of the beauty which the original designs must have possessed.
They are, indeed, “disguised into puerility by the feebleness of
the engraver”; but, none the less, they remain, with the exception
of Botticelli’s superb series of drawings on vellum, in Berlin and
in the Vatican, unquestionably the best, one might say the _only_,
satisfactory illustrations of Dante’s text. No known copy contains
more than the first three engravings printed directly upon the page
itself. In every other case, where a greater number of illustrations
appear, they are printed separately and pasted in place, indicating the
difficulty experienced by the Renaissance printer in making his plates
register with the letterpress.
The first print of the series shows Dante lost in the wood, emerging
therefrom, and his meeting with Virgil--three subjects on a single
plate. The second represents _Dante and Virgil with the Vision_ _of
Beatrice_. Dante and Virgil are seen twice--first to the left, where
Dante doubts whether to follow the guidance of Virgil further, and
again on the slope of the hill to the right, where Virgil relates how
the vision of Beatrice appeared to him. Near the summit of the rocky
mountain is seen the entrance to Hell.
“Of the extant engravings in the Broad Manner, unquestionably the most
remarkable is the large print on two sheets of the _Assumption of the
Virgin_, after Botticelli. The original design [no longer known to
exist], whether drawing or painting, from which this engraving was
taken, must have been among the grandest and most vigorous works of
the last period of Botticelli’s art. The large and rugged treatment of
the figures of the apostles, their strange mane-like hair and beards,
their fervent and agitated gestures and attitudes, lend to this part of
the design a forcible and primitive character, which recalls, though
largely, perhaps, in an accidental fashion, the grand and impressive
art of Andrea del Castagno. Not less vigorous in conception, but of
greater beauty of form and movement, is the figure of the Virgin, and
the motive and arrangement of the angels who form a ‘mandorla’ around
her are among the most lovely and imaginative of the many inventions
of the kind which Botticelli has left us.”[4] In the distant valley
is a view of Rome showing the Pantheon, the Column of Trajan, the
Colosseum, and other buildings.
[4] Sandro Botticelli. By Herbert P. Horne. London: George Bell & Sons.
1908. p. 289.
[Illustration: ANONYMOUS FLORENTINE, XV CENTURY. ASSUMPTION OF THE
VIRGIN (After Botticelli)
Size of the original engraving, 32⅝ × 22¼ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
[Illustration: ANONYMOUS FLORENTINE, XV CENTURY. TRIUMPH OF LOVE. FROM
THE TRIUMPHS OF PETRARCH.
Size of the original engraving, 10⅜ × 6¾ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
If the _Assumption of the Virgin_ is the noblest print in the Broad
Manner, the _Triumphs of Petrarch_--a set of six prints--may be said
to possess the greatest charm, not less by its subject than by its
treatment. Petrarch first saw Laura on April 6, 1327, in the Church
of Santa Clara at Avignon, and “in the same city, on the same 6th day
of the same month of April, in the year 1348, the bright light of her
life was taken away from the light of this earth.” The poet’s aim in
composing these _Trionfi_ is the same which he proposed to himself in
the _Canzoniere_: namely, “to return in thought, from time to time,
now to the beginning, now to the progress, and now to the end of his
passion, taking by the way frequent opportunities of rendering praise
and honor to the single and exalted object of his love. To reach this
aim he devised a description of man in his various conditions of life,
wherein he might naturally find occasion to speak of himself and of his
Laura.
“Man in his first stage of youth is the slave of appetites, which may
all be included under the generic name of LOVE, or Self-Love. But as
he gains understanding, he sees the impropriety of such a condition,
so that he strives advisedly against those appetites and overcomes them
by means of CHASTITY, that is, by denying himself the opportunity of
satisfying them. Amid these struggles and victories DEATH overtakes him
and makes victors and vanquished equal by taking them all out of the
world. Nevertheless, it has no power to destroy the memory of a man,
who by illustrious and honorable deeds seeks to survive his own death.
Such a man truly lives through a long course of ages by means of his
FAME. But TIME at length obliterates all memory of him, and he finds,
in the last resort, that his only sure hope of living forever is by joy
in God and by partaking with God in his blessed ETERNITY.
“Thus LOVE triumphs over man, CHASTITY over
LOVE, and DEATH over both alike; FAME
triumphs over DEATH, TIME over FAME, and
ETERNITY over TIME.”[5]
[5] Le Rime di Francesco Petrarca con l’interpretazione di Giacomo
Leopardi ... e gli argomenti di A. Marsand. Florence. 1839. p.
866. Translation in, Petrarch: His Life and Times. By H. C.
Hollway-Calthrop. London. 1907. pp. 41-42.
With the exception of the first plate, _The Triumph of Love_, none
of these engravings illustrates, in any strict sense of the word,
the text of Petrarch’s poem. It is the spirit which the engraver has
interpreted. Who may have been the designer we know not, but they
show certain affinities to the work of Pesellino and Baldovinetti.
[Illustration: ANONYMOUS FLORENTINE, XV CENTURY. TRIUMPH OF CHASTITY.
FROM THE TRIUMPHS OF PETRARCH
Size of the original engraving, 10 × 6⅜ inches
In the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University]
[Illustration: ANONYMOUS FLORENTINE, XV CENTURY. LIBYAN SIBYL
Size of the original engraving, 7 × 4¼ inches
In the British Museum]
In the first plate, Cupid, the blind archer, with flame-tipped arrow,
is poised upon a ball rising from a flaming vase, the base of which,
in its turn, rests upon flame. Jupiter(?), chained, is seated in the
front of the car, while Samson, bearing a column, walks upon the
further side. Four prancing steeds draw the car; behind, Love’s victims
follow in endless procession. In the second plate, _Chastity_ stands
upon an urn; in front of her kneels Cupid, still blindfolded, with his
broken arrow beside him. Two unicorns, symbols of chastity, draw the
car, while upon the banner borne by the maiden at the extreme right
there appears the symbolic ermine. Then follow in order the Triumphs of
_Death_, of _Fame_, of _Time_, and of _Eternity_.
This series of illustrations reappears, somewhat modified and
simplified, in the form of woodcuts, in the editions of the _Trionfi_
published in Venice in 1488, 1490, 1492, and in Florence in 1499.
We have already referred to the _Evangelists and Apostles_ engraved by
the German, Master E. S. of 1466. It is from him that the anonymous
Florentine engraver borrowed his figures, in many cases leaving
the form of the drapery unchanged but enriching it with elaborate
designs in the manner of Finiguerra. The Prophet _Ezekiel_ is thus
compounded of _St. John_ and _St. Peter_, while _Amos_ is copied in
reverse from _St. Paul_. The seated figure of _Daniel_, in its turn,
is derived from Martin Schongauer’s engraving, _Christ Before Pilate_,
but the throne upon which he is seated is strongly reminiscent of the
Picture-Chronicle, and likewise recalls Botticelli’s early painting of
_Fortitude_. The _Tiburtine Sibyl_ is derived from _St. Matthew_, who,
in changing his position, has likewise changed his sex. The precedent
thus established has been followed by _St. John_, transformed into the
_Libyan Sibyl_ in the Fine Manner, with the addition of a flying veil,
to the right, copied from the _Woman with the Escutcheon_, also by the
Master E. S. In the Broad Manner print the figure of this Sibyl gains
in dignity by the elimination of much superfluous ornament upon her
outer garment, and from the fact that she now sits in a more upright
posture, the Fine Manner print still suggesting the crouching attitude
of its Northern prototype. It is to the influence, if not to the hand,
of Botticelli that such improvement is most likely due.
The twenty-four _Prophets_ and the twelve _Sibyls_, engraved both
in the Fine and in the Broad Manner of the Finiguerra School, are
individually and collectively among the most delightful productions
of Italian art. It was doubtless as illustrations of mystery plays or
pageants in Florence that this series of engravings was designed,
and we are able to reconstruct from the _Triumphs of Petrarch_, and
from these prints, a Florentine street pageant at its loveliest.
[Illustration: ANONYMOUS NORTH ITALIAN, XV CENTURY. THE GENTLEMAN.
FROM THE TAROCCHI PRINTS
(E Series)
Size of the original engraving, 7⅛ × 4 inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
[Illustration: ANONYMOUS NORTH ITALIAN, XV CENTURY. CLIO. FROM THE
TAROCCHI PRINTS (S Series)
Size of the original engraving, 7⅛ × 4 inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
However great their beauty and however strong the fascination which
they exert, they have a rival in the series of fifty instructive
prints, which, for many years, were miscalled the _Tarocchi Cards of
Mantegna_. Tarocchi cards they are not, and of Mantegna’s influence,
direct or indirect, there would seem to be no trace whatsoever. They
are of North Italian origin and are the work, in all probability, of
some anonymous Venetian engraver, working from Venetian or Ferrarese
originals, about 1465--contemporary, therefore, with the Florentine
engravings of the _Prophets and Sibyls_. Forming, apparently, a
pictorial cyclopædia of the mediæval universe, with its systematic
classification of the various powers of Heaven and Earth, they divide
themselves into five groups of ten cards each. First we have the ranks
and conditions of men from Beggar to Pope; next Apollo and the nine
Muses; then the Liberal Arts, with the addition of Poetry, Philosophy,
and Theology, in order to make up the ten; next the Seven Virtues,
the set being brought up to the required number by the addition of
_Chronico_, the genius of Time, _Cosmico_, the genius of the Universe,
and _Iliaco_, the genius of the Sun. The fifth group is based on
the Seven Planets, together with the Sphere of the Fixed Stars and
the Primum Mobile, which imparts its own revolving motion to all the
spheres within it; and enfolding all the Empyrean Sphere, the abode of
Heavenly Wisdom.
Much wisdom and many words have been expended upon the still unsolved
riddle as to which of the two sets, known respectively as the E
series and the S series (from the letters which appear in the lower
left-hand corners of the ten cards of the _Sorts and Conditions of
Men_) may claim priority of date. Both series are in the Fine Manner,
the outlines clearly defined, the shadings and modelling indicated
with delicate burin strokes, crossed and re-crossed so as to give a
tonal effect. These delicate strokes soon wore out in printing, and the
structural lines of the figures then emerge in all their beauty. It may
seem absurd that one should admire impressions from plates obviously
worn, but the critic would do well to suspend his condemnation, since
the Tarocchi Prints present many and manifold forms of beauty--in
the early impressions a delicate and bloom-like quality; in certain
somewhat later proofs, a charm of line which recalls the art of the Far
East.
[Illustration: ANONYMOUS NORTH ITALIAN, XV CENTURY. THE SUN. FROM THE
TAROCCHI PRINTS (E Series)
Size of the original engraving, 7⅛ × 4 inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
[Illustration: ANONYMOUS NORTH ITALIAN, XV CENTURY. ANGEL OF THE
EIGHTH SPHERE. FROM THE TAROCCHI PRINTS
(E Series)
Size of the original engraving, 7⅛ × 4 inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
_The Gentleman_ is the fifth in order in the first group of the _Sorts
and Conditions of Men_, and is from the so-called E series (claimed
by Sir Sidney Colvin and Mr. Arthur M. Hind, of the British Museum, to
be the earlier of the two sets). The sequence runs: (1) The Beggar, (2)
The Servant, (3) The Artisan, (4) The Merchant, (5) The Gentleman, (6)
The Knight, (7) The Doge, (8) The King, (9) The Emperor, (10) The Pope.
_Clio_ is the ninth of the Muses and is from the S series (placed first
in point of time, by Kristeller, and about ten years later than the E
series, by the British Museum authorities).
_The Sun_ naturally finds his place in the group of _Planets_ and
_Spheres_. There is a delightful and childish touch in the way in which
_Phæton_ is pictured as a little boy falling headlong into the river
Po, which conveniently flows immediately beneath him. To this group
belongs likewise the _Angel of the Eighth Sphere_, the Sphere of the
Fixed Stars, one of the loveliest prints in the entire set, both in
arrangement and in execution.
Nothing could be in greater contrast to the gracefulness of such a
print as the above than the _Battle of Naked Men_ by ANTONIO
POLLAIUOLO, “the stupendous Florentine”--if one may borrow Dante’s
title; but, for the moment, we will hold Pollaiuolo and his one
engraving in reserve while we glance at the work of CHRISTOFANO
ROBETTA, who, born in Florence in 1462, was consequently the
junior of Pollaiuolo by thirty years. As an engraver, Robetta is
inferior to the anonymous master to whom we owe the E series of the
Tarocchi prints. His style is somewhat dry, and the individual lines
are lacking in beauty; but his plates have that indefinable and
indescribable fascination and charm which is the peculiar possession
of Italian engraving and of the Florentine masters in particular. The
shaping influences which determined his choice and treatment of subject
are Botticelli, and, in a much larger measure, Filippino Lippi, though
only in a few cases can he be shown to have worked directly from that
painter’s designs. The _Adoration of the Magi_ is obviously inspired
by Filippino Lippi’s painting in the Uffizi, though whether Robetta
actually worked from the painting itself, or, as seems more probable,
translated one of Filippino’s drawings, is an interesting question. The
fact that the engraving is in reverse of the painting proves nothing;
but there are so many points of difference between them--notably the
introduction of the charming group of three angels above the Virgin and
Child--that one can hardly think Robetta would have needlessly made so
many and important modifications of the painting itself, if a drawing
had been available. It is interesting, though of minor importance, that
the hat of the King to the right, which lies on the ground, is copied
in reverse from Schongauer’s _Adoration_, and that the _Allegory
of the Power of Love_, one of Robetta’s most charming subjects, is
engraved upon the reverse side of the plate of the _Adoration of
the Magi_, the copper-plate itself being now in the Print Room of
the British Museum. Whether the _Allegory of Abundance_ is entirely
Robetta’s, or whether the design was suggested by another master’s
painting or drawing, can be only a matter of conjecture. It shows,
however, so many of the characteristics which we associate with his
work that we may give him the benefit of the doubt and consider him as
its “onlie begetter.”
[Illustration: CRISTOFANO ROBETTA. ADORATION OF THE MAGI
Size of the original engraving, 11⅝ × 11 inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
[Illustration: ANTONIO POLLAIUOLO. BATTLE OF NAKED MEN
Size of the original engraving, 15¾ × 23½ inches
In the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]
_Hercules and the Hydra_ and _Hercules and Antæus_ show so markedly the
influence of Pollaiuolo that we may conclude them to have been taken
from the two small panels in the Uffizi; though, in the case of the
first named, Pollaiuolo’s original sketch, now in the British Museum,
may also have served Robetta.
Whether POLLAIUOLO based his technical method upon that of
Mantegna and his School, or whether Mantegna’s own engravings were
inspired by his Florentine contemporary, is an interesting, but thus
far unanswered, question. Pollaiuolo’s one print, the _Battle of Naked
Men_, is engraved in the Broad Manner, somewhat modified by the use
of a light stroke laid at an acute angle between the parallels. The
outlines of the figures are strongly incised; while the treatment of
the background lends color to the supposition that, in his youth,
Pollaiuolo engraved in niello, as well as furnished designs to be
executed by Finiguerra and his School. In this masterpiece the artist
has summed up his knowledge of the human form, and has expressed, in
a more convincing and vigorous measure than has any other engraver in
the history of the art, the strain and stress of violent motion and the
fury of combat.
“What is it,” asks Bernhard Berenson, “that makes us return to this
sheet with ever-renewed, ever-increased pleasure? Surely it is not the
hideous faces of most of the figures and their scarcely less hideous
bodies. Nor is it the pattern as decorative design, which is of great
beauty indeed, but not at all in proportion to the spell exerted upon
us. Least of all is it--for most of us--an interest in the technique
or history of engraving. No, the pleasure we take in these savagely
battling forms arises from their power to directly communicate life,
to immensely heighten our sense of vitality. Look at the combatant
prostrate on the ground and his assailant, bending over, each intent
on stabbing the other. See how the prostrate man plants his foot on
the thigh of his enemy and note the tremendous energy he exerts to
keep off the foe, who, turning as upon a pivot, with his grip on the
other’s head, exerts no less force to keep the advantage gained. The
significance of all these muscular strains and pressures is so rendered
that we cannot help realizing them; we imagine ourselves imitating all
the movements and exerting the force required for them--and all without
the least effort on our side. If all this without moving a muscle, what
should we feel if we too had exerted ourselves? And thus while under
the spell of this illusion--this hyperæsthesia not bought with drugs
and not paid for with cheques drawn on our vitality--we feel as if the
elixir of life, not our own sluggish blood, were coursing through our
veins.”[6]
[6] Florentine Painters of the Renaissance. By Bernhard Berenson. New
York: Putnam’s Sons. 1899. pp. 54-55.
Pollaiuolo is the one great original engraver Florence produced, and
with him we bring to a close our all too brief study of Florentine
engraving.