Cardinal Stefaneschi, another of Giotto's patrons, was also a promoter

of illumination. His Missal, now at Rome in the archives of the Canons

of St. Peter's, is a fine example of this style. It dates from 1327 to

1343. The MS. of Boethius at Laon is another. But one of the most

masterly, whether as to design or manipulation, is a law book in the

Library at Laon (No. 382). This grand folio contains "Glossa Ioannis

Andreæ in Clementinas"--"The Gloss or Explanation of Joannes Andreas on

the Clementines."

By the way, as illuminated law books, civil and canonical, form so large

a section of Italian MSS., it may be well in this place to warn the

reader against random explanations sometimes offered in sale catalogues

concerning these books, their authors and commentators. For instance,

this commentator Joannes Andreas was not, as we have seen it confidently

stated (as if it were part of the actual contemporary title of the MS.),

Bishop of Aleria (Episcopus Aleriersis), but a jurist of Bologna. The

bishop lived a century or so after the jurist, who had completed his

long career as professor of law at Bologna extending over forty-five

years before the bishop was born. His chief works are Commentaries on

the Clementines (printed in folio at Mayence 1471, and again at Dijon in

1575), and Commentaries on Five Books of the Decretals (printed in folio

at Mayence in 1455, and at Venice in 1581). While on this topic of

Italian law MSS., it may be useful to state clearly what they are. By

way of contrast to the _Corpus Juris Canonici_, or Body of Canon Law,

the subject of books dealing with the so-called Decretals, the other

branch, including the Institutes Digest and Novellæ of Justinian, was

entitled _Corpus Juris Civilis_.

The Decretals, then, which we so often meet with in public libraries

under various names, are the canons which mainly constitute the Canon

Law. Strictly speaking they are the papal epistolary decrees (decreta),

said to have existed from very early times. In the ninth century a

collection of them was formed, or manufactured, in the name of the

celebrated Isidore of Seville. But with the donation of Constantine to

Pope Sylvester and many others in the later compilation of Gratian,

these are usually looked upon as spurious and false. The great and

authorised collection was completed by a simple Benedictine monk of St.

Felix, in Bologna, a native of Chiusi, the ancient Clusium, in Tuscany,

a man so learned in the law as to have earned the title of "Magister."

This is the work often richly illuminated which goes by the name of the

"Decretum Gratiani."[43] When glancing over the lovely initials and

beautiful foliages or resplendent ornaments, we are apt to overlook the

work itself which is truly monumental; being a summary of the papal

epistolary decrees, the synodal canons of 150 councils, selections from

various regal codes, extracts from the Fathers, and comments of

Schoolmen; all methodically arranged and digested so as to facilitate

its use as a manual for the schools. It is said to have occupied the

compiler incessantly for twenty-five years. Immediately on its

completion in 1151 it was at once authorised by the Pope Eugenius III.

as the only text-book to be used in the public schools, and to govern

the decrees of the Ecclesiastical Courts. Hence its celebrity. Its

transcripts are very numerous, and it has been often printed. As to the

Sext and Clementines they are merely additional commentaries on

supplementary collections of decrees. Thus a new collection authorised

by Boniface VIII. is called the _sext_, _i.e._ the sixth book of the

Decretals. The Clementines were the constitutions of Clement V. Other

collections such as that of John XXII. are called Extravagantes.

[43] See Add. 15274, British Museum.

The most ancient MSS. of the Decretals bear the title of _Concordantia

discordantium Canonum_ (a "concordance of discordant decrees");

afterwards The Book of Decrees; lastly, The Decretals. It was

considered, however, by some, jurists and others, to be not so much a

concordance of discordant canons as a subjugation of the ancient canons

to the decrees of the Papacy, and as already stated, many of its decrees

were found to be false and fictitious. Nevertheless, it is by no means

an uncommon volume among the illuminators. Let us now return to the Laon

example--one of four or five of the species in that collection. The

scene where the author is presenting his work to the pope--we now know

them both--is quite a painting. Except for the defect that kneeling

figures are somewhat mis-shapen or ill-proportioned in the lower limbs,

the work is quite comparable with contemporary mural painting, both for

composition and colour. It is almost modern. It is quite realistic. In

costume, expression, easy and appropriate attitude, it has quite outrun

French illumination altogether.

Another dated MS. (1332) in the same Library (No. 357), "Rubrics of the

Decretals," is a most amusing example of the universal taste for irony

and satire in the initial figures and corner effigies.

A much-lauded MS. among these fourteenth-century examples is one that

has been carefully and expensively reproduced by the late Cte. Horace de

Viel-Castel, namely, the "Statuts de l'Ordre du Saint-Esprit au Droit

Désir ou du Noeud," an order instituted at Naples in 1352 by Louis I.

d'Anjou (called Louis of Taranto), King of Jerusalem, Naples, and

Sicily, cousin and husband of Queen Joanna of Naples. The style of the

illumination is precisely the same as those just mentioned belonging to

Laon, and as several MSS. in the British Museum. Its stem and foliage

ornament is very brightly coloured in fine green, scarlet, rose,

ultramarine, and gold. The miniatures which occasionally contain evident

attempts at portraiture, are painted in the manner of the school of

Cimabue and the earlier Italian painters, more particularly that of

Simone Memmi. It is substantially the Byzantine manner, but improved and

enlivened by attention to natural attitude and expression. The greenish

under-painting of the flesh-tints is often noticeable. The decorative

portions are very skilful and elaborate, as well as extremely neat and

symmetrical; the gold profuse and brilliant. Indeed, the whole

production may be studied as a typical example of its time. The text,

though good, is not so beautiful as the Bolognese hand usually found in

Italian MSS. of the following century. But perhaps this should add to

its value as a proof of its being absolutely contemporaneous with the

foundation of the Order, and therefore of its being the identical MS.

ordered by the magnificent founder, Louis of Taranto, second husband of

the too-celebrated Joanna of Naples. Their marriage took place in the

August of 1346, and on the 27th of May, 1352, being Whitsun Day, they

were crowned. In memory of this happy event, Joanna founded the Church

of the Virgin, Louis instituted the Order of the Holy Spirit, or of the

Knot, the symbols of which appear frequently in the illumination of the

MS. It was named in honour of the Day of Pentecost--"L'Ordre de la

Chevalerie du Saint-Esprit." The phrase "au droit désir" had reference

to the circumstances preceding the marriage. The knot was worn in token

of the "perfect amity" of the members of the Order.[44]

[44] See reproduction, published at Paris by Englemann and Graf in 1853,

1. fol.

Other works of the fourteenth century are enthusiastically praised by

Italian writers, as, _e.g._, those of Don Silvestro, a Camaldolese monk,

who flourished at the same time as the illuminator of this MS. of Louis

of Taranto, and who worked on the great choir books of the Monastery

"degli angeli," in Florence, so loudly commended by Vasari and others

who had seen them. They have long been broken up and dispersed, and it

is not improbable that cuttings from them were among those bought by

Ottley, Rogers, and other amateurs. A fragment of an Antiphonary of

Nocturnal Services, now in the Laurentian Library at Florence, finished

in 1370, shows the style of work to be of the kind just described. Other

great choir books of the earlier period are preserved in the Academy at

Pisa. But the number of MSS. to which reference might be made is legion.

Those of this date are chiefly civil law books; next to these come the

canon law, and divinity. Among the intermediate class are the copies of

the Rationale of Durandus, one of these being in the British Museum

(Add. 31032). Now and then a fine Missal, like the "Stefaneschi," or the

Munich Missal of 1374, which may be referred to as being one of the

models of the school of Prag. On the whole, perhaps, the law books are

more numerous than liturgical ones, and are referable generally to

Bologna or Padua. The name of Nicholaus of Bologna occurs more than once

in these books. A book of offices of the Virgin, by Nicholaus, is now at

Kremsmünster, and a New Testament, dated 1328, in the Vatican. Tommaso

di Modena, another distinguished Italian illuminator, also had much to

do with altering the style of the artists who worked for Charles IV. at

Prag. Some of his work, or work presumed to be his, is still to be seen

in the Bohemian capital. Next to these Bolognese MSS. we may place those

of Florence--copies of the Divina Commedia and the Triumphs and Sonnets

of Petrarch, which, with historians and copies or translations of the

classics, chiefly occupied the illuminators of Florence and Siena, with

one notable exception. Whoever has visited any of the North Italian

cities cannot fail to have noticed and admired the magnificent

choir-books still to be seen in the cathedrals and cathedral libraries.

At Siena the Piccolomini service-books are truly splendid; those in San

Marco, the Riccardi, the Laurentian, and other collections in Florence,

are no less admirable. Verona's best work is chiefly elsewhere, at

Florence, Siena, etc. At Milan the Brera Graduals--each of them a man's

load to carry--are simply gorgeous in the lavish richness of their

letters, miniatures, and decorations. Venice, again, has another grand

collection of MSS. of the highest class in her Attavantes and Gerard

Davids; Rome, in a crowd of princely libraries, has multitudes--literally

multitudes--of exquisitely illuminated volumes. Naples also has some

noble examples of the great craftsmen. We have not yet mentioned the

Ambrosian Library in Milan, nor, except the Vatican, a single library by

name in Rome. The mere names of the Corsini, Sciarra, Barberini

Libraries are enough to those who have ever explored their contents to

remind them of work that can nowhere else be seen so perfect, so

profuse, as in beautiful Italy.

As specimens of local centres the British Museum offers many examples.

Thus Add. 15813, though ordered for Sta. Justina of Padua, was probably

illuminated at Venice; 15814 at Bologna; 15260 probably at Ferrara;

18000 at Venice; most of the fragments in 21412 in Rome; 20927 in Rome;

21591 at Naples; 28962 at Naples; 21413 at Milan; the majority of the

Ducali, of which the museum contains a large collection, in Venice. Some

of the Spanish-looking MSS. executed for Alphonse V. of Aragon were

actually produced in Naples.

[Illustration:

MISSALE

C. 1530

_Brit. Mus. Ada. MS. 15813, fol. 27_]

[Illustration:

KATHOLISCHES GEBETHBUCH

1584

_Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 17525, fol. 155_]

It is not safe to assert that because a work is ordered for a monastery

or a prince that the copyists or illuminators always went to the

monastery or palace to do the work, though frequently they did so. Most

of the MSS. executed for Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, were

produced in Florence. There was more than one atelier of illuminators in

Florence. There were others in Bologna, others in Rome, and quite a

large establishment in Naples. Others resided in Milan, Ferrara, and

Verona. Those at Ferrara lived chiefly at the Ducal Palace. Those at

Verona were the guests of the great Ghibelline leader, Can della Scala,

and his immediate successors. Those at Naples, in the time of Alphonso

the Magnanimous, and especially of his son, Ferdinand I., were

maintained solely for the augmentation and embellishment of the Royal

Library.[45] A list of seventeen copyists, including the famous names of

Antonio Sinibaldo, Giovanni, Rinaldo, Mennio, and Hippolito Lunensis,

and of fourteen or fifteen illuminators, all of distinguished ability,

is given by Signer Riccio from the archives of the city. The splendid

work they achieved may still occasionally be met with. In the British

Museum (Add. 21120) there is a beautiful copy of the Ethics of

Aristotle, with very peculiar initials and ornaments; and in the

National Library, at Paris, many other very fine examples of Neapolitan

work. Of the handwriting of Mennius we have a fine example in Add.

11912, which is a quarto copy of Lucretius, written on 160 leaves of

vellum. Fol. 1 has a grand border on a gold ground, with a miniature

containing a handsome initial E suspended over the author's head, who is

seated at a desk writing. The first three lines of the text are in Roman

capitals, alternately gold and blue. The illumination is of a

transitional character, inclining rather towards the candelabra style of

the Milanese and Neapolitan Renaissance--the Heures d'Aragon, executed

for Frederick III., show a similar taste for candelabra, etc. On the

other hand, the initials are of the older white stem type, with coloured

grounds. The writing is a small and very neat Roman minuscule, and dates

probably about 1485, or between 1480 and 1490. The penmanship of

Hippolito Lunensis appears in Ficino's Translation of Plato; also in the

British Museum, Harl. 3481, and in Add. 15270, 15271.

[45] Riccio, C.W., _Cenno Storico dell Accademia Alfonsina_. Naples,

1865.

The Heures d'Aragon referred to above are a rich example of the

Neapolitan Renaissance preserved in the National Library at Paris.

Writers on Italian miniatures are very numerous, and a good deal of

interesting information about Italian MSS. may be found in M. Delisle's

_Cabinet des MSS._, etc.

There is one style of Italian illumination made very popular by the

illuminators of the works of Petrarch, many of which are found in

various libraries. That is the one called the vine-stem style. It

consists of gracefully coiled stems, usually left uncoloured or softly

tinted with yellow, and bearing here and there peculiar ornamental

flowerets, while the grounds are picked out with various colours, on

which are fine white triads of dots or traceries in delicate white or

golden tendrils. A later variety of this style makes the stems of some

pale but bright tint, and the grounds of deep colour. The vine-stem

style seems to have prevailed throughout the whole of Italy just

previous to the classic revival brought about by the Medici in throwing

open their museums of sculptures, coins, and other antiquities, and by

the liberal patronage of the new classic work by Matthias Corvinus, King

of Hungary, and the Dukes of Urbino. After 1500 the vine-stem style

seems to have gradually died out, and thenceforward only varieties of

the revived antique became the fashion.

To the Italian Renaissance we shall revert in a later chapter.

CHAPTER VII

GERMAN ILLUMINATION FROM THE THIRTEENTH TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

Frederick II., _Stupor Mundi_, and his MS. on hunting--The Sicilian

school mainly Saracenic, but a mixture of Greek, Arabic, and Latin

tastes--The Franconian Emperors at Bamberg--Charles of Anjou--The House

of Luxembourg at Prag--MSS. in the University Library--The Collegium

Carolinum of the Emperor Charles IV.--MSS. at Vienna--The Wenzel

Bible--The Weltchronik of Rudolf v. Ems at Stuttgard--Wilhelm v. Oranse

at Vienna--The Golden Bull--Various schools--Hildesheimer Prayer-book at

Berlin--The Nuremberg school--The Glockendons--The Brethren of the Pen.

In a former chapter we brought up the story of German illumination to

the time of the Hohenstaufen emperors. We may now make a new start with

Frederick II., the eccentric, resolute, intractable, accomplished

_Stupor Mundi_ (1210-50). Not only was he a patron and encouraged art,

but also an author. The work which he composed is still extant, and is

preserved in the Vatican Library under the title _De arte venandi cum

avibus_. Paintings of birds and hunting scenes embellish its pages. The

art is not specially high class, and though in courtesy it may be called

German, seeing that he was the German Emperor, and in some respects is

like the Imperial MSS. of the Saxon period, in point of fact it is

Italian or Sicilian.[46] This Sicilian school is peculiar, and exhibits

very slight traits of relationship with the rest of Italy. After the

Arab conquest of the island in 827, whilst new ideas were imported,

still the old Greek cities kept their ancient traditions and methods in

art, especially in those branches we term industrial, and just as both

Greek and Arabic tongues existed as vernaculars beside the Latin, so the

arts and industries bore the features of three artistic tastes.

[46] (Bibl. Vatican, Palatina, No. 1071). Notice in Kobell, _Kunstv.

Miniaturen_, p. 44.

The silk-weaving of the Greek craftsmen was embellished with the designs

of embroidery from Damascus, and these were mingled with patterns in

which the foliages of Carolingian and German origin are distinctly

traceable. Examples of the kind of manufacture here referred to may be

seen in the robes of the Emperor Henry II., still preserved in the

Cathedral Treasury at Bamberg. Also the coronation mantle of St. Stephen

of Hungary, husband of Henry's sister Gisela--originally a closed

_casula_ covering the body, but now an open cloak richly embroidered

with figures of prophets, animals, and foliages, and even portraits of

the King and Queen. It has sometimes been thought, from the inscription

on its border, that, like the Bayeux tapestries of Queen Matilda, the

needlework was from the Queen's own hand; but no doubt both these

attributions are mistaken.[47] Still more Saracenic in taste are the

mantle and alb now in the Imperial Treasury at Vienna, of the twelfth

century, and executed at Palermo. Sicilian in some respects is

intermediate between Italian and German, hence we deem this a proper

place to speak of it, and rather as a transient phase than a style, for

it perished with the Hohenstaufen dynasty.

[47] See description in Bock, _Die Kleinodien des heiligen Römisches

Reichs_, pl. 17.

The cruel tyranny of the cold-blooded despot, remembered, but execrated,

in Sicily as Charles of Anjou, extinguished the last _scintilla_ of

native art, and when the Italian revival of the thirteenth century took

place, it was confined entirely to the North, except when such patrons

as Robert or Ferdinand or Alfonso encouraged Tuscan artists by inviting

them to Naples. Palermo was no longer of importance, though a capital,

and Sicily existed merely as a portion of the kingdom of Naples.

Let us pass, then, to the great German capital. Changes here, too, have

taken place. It is not Bamberg but Prag, for the Imperial crown has

passed from the House of Suabia through the Hapsburgs to that of

Luxembourg, and among its territories is the picturesque old city with

its historic bridge and gate-towers, a Slavonic not a German city in its

origin. The ten German circles of Suabia and Franconia, Westphalia,

Bohemia, and the rest did not as yet exist--they were the later creation

of Maximilian; the Fatherland consisted of some two or three hundred

dukedoms, counts, marquisates, and lordships, all absolute

sovereignties, but all pledged to support the Holy Roman Empire. Very

thinly, perhaps, but still the Imperial sceptre meant a real supremacy,

and in the hands of such emperors as Henry of Luxembourg, a supremacy

maintained with real and becoming dignity.

Prag, as we have said, is in a Slavonic country, and one sometimes

hostile to the Empire. It was the capital of Bohemia. In 1310 its King

was John, the restless son of the new Emperor Henry VII. of Luxembourg.

Hence we find it at the moment we begin the study of its art a nominally

German city. Shortly before this time were produced several examples of

German work; as, for instance, the "Minnelieder," with more than a

hundred miniatures of hunting scenes and similar outdoor amusements,

which are useful as studies of costume, but otherwise of little

interest. But it is not until 1312--the new King being then, for the

sake of acquiring the crown, though only, it is said, thirteen years of

age, already the husband of the Princess Elizabeth, the late King's

second daughter, yet neither a favourite with his wife nor with her

father's people--that the Abbess of St. George's in Prag, the Princess

Cunigunda, composed a Passionale, richly illustrated with interesting

miniatures. The saints, histories, and allegories are painted in tender

water-colours, the architectural details being in Gothic taste. It is

still preserved in the University Library at Prag, No. xiv., A. 17.[48]

The Emperor Charles IV., son of the valorous but impracticable John

(born 1316, died 1378), and who has already been spoken of in connection

with English illumination, was the founder of the Bohemian school, or,

rather, of the school of Prag. Owing probably his fine tastes and many

accomplishments rather to his mother than his father, he devoted himself

to art and literature, inviting painters and scholars from other

countries to reside in the Bohemian capital. For the Collegium

Carolinum, of which he was the founder, he caused many noble volumes to

be executed, and among the vast treasures and curiosities of his

celebrated Schloss Karlstein was a fine collection of illuminated MSS.

In the Museum at Prag and other local libraries are still kept some

relics of his library. The "Liber Viaticus" of Bishop John of

Newmarkt--the "Orationale" of Bishop Arnestus (under French

influence)--the "Pontificale of Bishop Albert von Sternberg" (in the

library of the Præmonstrant Monastery of Strahow)--the Missal of

Archbishop Ozko von Wlaschim (library of the Metropolitan Chapter in

Prag)--the Evangeliary of Canon John von Troppau (Johannes de Oppavia),

written and illuminated at Brunn, in Moravia, now in the Imperial

Library at Vienna. All these illuminated MSS. are examples of the great

variety of styles in which the Bohemian colony produced their work under

the auspices of their liberal patron, yet not without peculiarities

which mark the individuality of the artist. Thus while the Orationale of

Arnestus is almost French, the Passionale of Cunegunda is entirely free

from French influence. For costumes the Weltchronik of Rudolf von Ems,

1350-85, and now in the Royal Private Library at Stuttgard, is almost an

encyclopædia. Similar is the "Legenda Aurea" of 1362 in the Public

Library at Munich (Cod. Germ. 6). A very interesting MS. with miniatures

of costumes and curious usages is the "Bellifortis" of Conrad Kyeser

(Göttingen, Public Library, Philos., No. 63). The Evangeliary of Troppau

is most beautifully written; its text is a model of elegant and perfect

penmanship; its ornaments distinctly Bohemian. Three or four Prag MSS.

executed for Charles's son Wenzel (1378-1409) are, it may be said,

typical. Of these the grandest, though incomplete, is the illuminated

Bible, called the Wenzel Bible, executed by order of Martin Rotlöw for

presentation to the Emperor. The choice of illustrations in this

singular performance are rather more than on a par with the woodcuts of

the great English Bible of Cranmer. The "Wilhelm von Oranse" of 1387,

now in the Ambras Museum at Vienna (No. 7), affords splendid examples of

the fine embroidered and richly coloured backgrounds we so often see

towards 1400 in English MSS., and the Golden Bull of Charles IV., also

in the Imperial Library at Vienna (j. c. 338), has the softly curling

foliages variously coloured, which form the characteristic difference

between the French and English illumination of the fifteenth century.

[48] Wocel, _Mittheil. der Central.-Commiss._, v., 1860, p. 75, with

illustrations.

Another rich example of German as distinct from French or Italian work

of this period is the grand Salzburg Missal now at Munich (Lat. 15710).

When we reach the fifteenth century German illumination begins to grow

gaudy, especially in the revived taste for parti-coloured border-frames,

in which green and scarlet are often to be seen. The Kuttenberg Gradual

at Vienna (Imp. Lib., 15501) is of the Bohemian type. Now and then a MS.

will show the influence of Westphalian treatment of foliage--and, again,

of the school of Cologne or Nuremberg or Augsburg. These all differ,

whilst still keeping an unmistakable German character. The Hildesheimer

Prayer-book at Berlin points to Cologne. The Frankendorfer Evangeliary

at Nuremberg is characteristic of that city. The Choir-book of St.

Ulrich and Afra in their abbey at Augsburg is typical of its locality.

The Missal of Sbinco, Archbishop of Prag, inclines to Nuremberg rather

than Prag (Imp. Lib., Vienna, No. 1844). It is eighty years earlier than

the Augsburg and Hildesheim MSS. Passing actively onwards, we find

illumination still in vogue in the sixteenth century, notwithstanding

that Germany was the cradle of the printing press.

In fact, it seems to wax more and more sumptuous--the books more

profusely ornamented than ever. The Missal and Prayer-book of Albert of

Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz, once at Aschaffenburg, executed about

1524 are among the finest productions of the illuminator's art. While

perhaps we may complain that design has given way to profusion and the

border flowers and insects--a contemporary characteristic of

Netherlandish art also--are neither more nor less than portraiture

applied to flowers, fruits, and the insect world. The larger miniatures

are modern paintings, including portraits, differing in nothing but

dimensions from the works of the greatest masters of the schools of

painting. In ignorance of the strict rules of the gilds, some writers

have gone so far as to say that miniatures also such as these were the

work of the Van Eycks, the Memlings, and the Lucas van Leydens of our

public galleries. This particular MS. was the work of a famous Nuremberg

miniaturist, one of a distinguished family of artists--Nicolas

Glockendon.

A very similar, but perhaps still richer, MS., is the Prayer-book of

William of Bavaria, still kept in the Imperial Library at Vienna (No.

1880), painted by Albert Glockendon. It is one of the most exquisite

volumes possibly to be met with. A Prayer-book in the British Museum

(Add. 17525), though far inferior, may give some idea of the sumptuous

character of the Glockendon work.

The first Archbishop of Prag, Arnestus or Ernest von Pardubitz, was an

industrious collector of MSS. and employed many scribes. Another of the

famous patrons in Prag was Gerhard Groot, who employed one of the best

penmen to copy St. John Chrysostom's _Commentary on St. Matthew_. In

1383 he founded at Deventer the famous House of the Brothers of the

Common Life, who made a business of transcribing books; and, indeed, so

profitably, that, for instance, Ian van Enkhuisen of Zwolle received

five hundred golden gulden for a Bible. On account of the goose-quill

which the brothers wore in their hats, they were familiarly known as the

Brethren of the Pen.[49]

[49] Wattenbach, _Schriftwesen im Mittelalter_, p. 264.

CHAPTER VIII

NETHERLANDISH ILLUMINATION

What is meant by the Netherlands--Early realism and study of

nature--Combination of symbolism with imitation--Anachronism in

design--The value of the pictorial methods of the old illuminators--The

oldest Netherlandish MS.--Harlinda and Renilda--The nunnery at

Maas-Eyck--Description of the MS.--Thomas à Kempis--The school of

Zwolle--Character of the work--The use of green landscape

backgrounds--The Dukes of Burgundy--Netherlandish artists--No miniatures

of the Van Eycks or Memling known to exist--Schools of Bruges, Ghent,

Liége, etc.--Brussels Library--Splendid Netherlandish MSS. at

Vienna--Gerard David and the Grimani Breviary--British Museum--"Romance

of the Rose"--"Isabella" Breviary--Grisailles.

In speaking of the Netherlands we have to bear in mind that some

portions of what are now called the Netherlands were once parts of

Germany, while others were parts of France. In the thirteenth century

Netherlandish art was simply a variety either of Northern German or

Northern French. The earlier schools of Flanders and Hainaut, and

perhaps of Brabant, belong rather to France, while Holland, Limburg,

Luxembourg, and the Rhine districts were more inclined towards Germany.

But as soon as the schools of Ghent and Bruges and other Burgundian

centres began to assert their claims, it was speedily apparent that they

had an individuality of their own. In no country had the study of nature

a more direct influence on the character of illumination. The

allegorical method which so long had characterised both French and

German art was promptly abandoned, and direct realism both in figure and

landscape became the prevailing characteristic. Symbolism, it is true,

remained in the representation of cities and other generalities of

pictorial composition, but the details were in all cases direct

imitations of contemporary facts. Half a dozen soldiers or houses might

indicate an army or a city, and even some particular army or city named

in the text, but the individual soldiers, though representing the army

of Alexander or Roland, would wear the equipment or armour of the

artist's military acquaintances, or his overlord's own company. The

city, whether Ghent or Bagdad, would consist of the same sort of houses

peaked and parapeted, the same towers and pinnacles that the illuminator

saw before him in his daily walks. His conception of a scene from

Scripture history would probably be framed more or less upon the

traditions of the schools transmitted from the Sphigmenou Manual or the

master's portfolio of "schemes," but while a prophet, an angel, or a

divinity would wear ideal raiment, Abraham and Pharaoh would be arrayed

in the costume of a contemporary burgomaster, and an almost contemporary

French king. In one memorable instance, we are told, so realistic was

the scene that Isaac was about to be despatched with a horse-pistol; and

in another, representing the birth of Cain, Adam was bringing to the

French tester bedside a supply of hot water from the kitchen boiler in a

copper saucepan. This kind of anachronism, it is true, is to some degree

chargeable on all early work; we see it among the early Italian painters

no less frequently perhaps, but mostly accompanied with so much of

allegory or imagination that we scarcely notice it, or if we do, we wink

at it as part of the times of ignorance. It is really a mark of

over-haste to be truthful, or at least to be understood, and at the

worst it is no more than the natural rebound from the evil constraint of

the old Byzantine tyranny over scheme and costume and invention. It is

often truly diverting in its very _insouciance_. But its priceless value

to us--and here the same remark applies to all styles of pictorial art

before the fifteenth century--is the ocular record of dress,

architecture, implements of peace and war, incidents of daily life,

etc., for which no _Encyclopædia Britannica_ of verbal explanation could

ever be more than the poorest makeshift. As we say, this same happy

anachronism is common to other schools of illumination, and we cannot

fail to notice it from Byzantium to Britain, but it is the intense

realism of the Netherlands that forces it upon us so strongly that we

are bound to speak of it.

The oldest notice of illuminated work in the Netherlands is in a

Benedictine chronicle of the ninth century, where mention is made of two

ladies, daughters of the Lord of Denain, named Harlinda and Renilda,[50]

who were educated in the convent of Valenciennes. "In 714 they left

their native province to found a monastery on the banks of the

Maas--among the meadows of Alden and Maas-Eyck. They there consecrated

their lives to the praise of God and the transcription of books,

adorning them with precious pictures."[51] About the year 1730 an

Evangeliary of great age was discovered in the sacristy of the church by

the Benedictine antiquary, Edmond Martène, which on good ground has been

attributed to the two sisters. The MS. is still in existence, and was

exhibited in Brussels in 1880. It is a small folio, and contains a great

number of miniatures in the Carolingian or, perhaps more strictly,

Franco-Saxon manner. On the first leaf is a Romanesque colonnade of

arches surmounted by a larger one. Under the smaller arches are the

figures of saints, demons, and monsters, and in the tympanum scrolls of

foliage and birds. Between the columns are the reference numbers to the

chapters.

[50] Or Relinda.

[51] Bradley, _Dict. of Miniaturists_, ii. 87.

The evangelist portraits are dignified and saintly, recalling the

earliest work of the Byzantine school and that of the catacombs.

Draperies and other details are heavy, dull, and ill drawn. In short,

the work is of the same class as the early Carolingian. The blue, red,

green, and gold of the borders, etc., have all kept their brilliancy.[52]

It is somewhat curious that the Van Eycks, the founders of Flemish

painting, were natives of this little town--then, doubtless, pretty and

rural, now a busy place of breweries, oil-factories, tanneries, and

other fragrant nuisances. Some miles further northward lie Deventer and

Zwolle and Kempen, the land of the Brothers of the Pen, and of the

immortal Thomas à Kempis. There is a style of calligraphic ornament

deriving its origin from these Northern Hollandish foundations such as

Zwolle, which is confined almost entirely to the painting of the initial

letters and the decorating of the borders with flourished scrolls of

penwork very neatly drawn and terminating in equally neat but extremely

fanciful flowers finely painted. It seems to have been brought at some

time from the neighbourhood of Milan, where a similar kind of initial

and exceedingly neat penmanship also is found in the choir books. Many

South German choir books are similarly ornamented, so that it is not

easy to say at once where the work was done. The Dutch illuminators,

however, may usually be recognised by the Netherlandish character of the

miniatures combined with neat and sometimes rigidly careful penmanship

in the scrolls and tendrils and a hardness in the outline of the

flowers. Sometimes the large initials are entirely produced by the pen,

the labyrinthine patterns in blue or vermilion being filled in with

circlets, loops, and other designs with infinite patience and excellent

effect. Some of the border scrolls are exceedingly pretty, and the

borders differ from Flemish in mixing natural flowers painted in thin

water-colours with the more conventional flowers painted with a

different medium, not in the later Flemish manner where the flowers are

frankly direct imitations of nature, and painted in the same medium as

the rest of the illumination.

[52] See _Messager des Sciences_, etc., 110, 1858, and Deshaines, _L'Art

Chrétien en Flandre_, 34 (Douai, 1860, 8°).

After the Maas-Eyck Evangeliary the work of these northern foundations

may well reckon either with the French or German schools until the

fifteenth century. Where otherwise they are not distinguishable, the

Netherlandish miniatures are usually such as prefer plain burnished gold

backgrounds to diapered ones, or have a plain deep blue paled towards

the horizon, and lastly replace the background by a natural, or what was

intended to be a natural, landscape. As a test between French or German

influence generally, the use of green shows the latter, that of blue the

former. Not that this was any æsthetic point of difference in taste, but

somehow the Germans had the green paint when the French had not, and so

they used it. It is an open question whether Flanders or Italy first

introduced the landscape background, but Flemish artists were so

numerous, so ubiquitous, that we can hardly say where they were not at

work--in France, Italy, or Spain. Plenty of so-called Spanish

illumination is really the work of Flemish craftsmen. This was largely

owing to the political conditions of the times. The Dukes of Burgundy

and the Austrian Archdukes both ruled over Flemish municipalities, and

employed the gildmen as their household "enlumineurs." And, of course,

the success of the Van Eycks, Rogier van der Weide (de la Pasture),

Derrick Bonts, and Hans Memling, stirred up the spirit of rivalry among

the illuminators. They all worked in the same minutely, careful manner,

and one could almost take a corporal oath on the identity of

illuminations and panels which are really the work of different artists.

Even yet the illuminations of the Grimani Breviary are attributed in

part to Hans Memling--and no wonder! Only the best qualified judges can

distinguish them. It is known that Gerard David of Oudewater, in

Holland, a master painter, belonged also to the gild of miniaturists.

But no miniatures are known to be from the hands of either Ian, or

Hubert, or Marguerite van Eyck, or Hans Memling. The supposed

identifications are merely guesses. But while this is so there is still

no lack of illuminators, not to mention the illustrious few who were

employed by the brothers of Charles V., King of France; and when we come

to the days of his grandson, Philip of Burgundy (1419-67), we might name

quite a crowd of distinguished illuminators. From 1422 to 1425 Ian van

Eyck was "varlet de chamber" to Duke John of Bavaria, first bishop of

Liége, and Regent of Luxembourg, Holland, and Brabant. In 1425 he passed

into the service of Philip. He died in 1440. In court service there were

besides, Jean de Bruges, David Aubert, Jean Mielot, Jean Wanguelin,

Loyset Lyeder, and others connected more or less closely with the Maas

valley and the province of Limburg. This valley seems to have been the

cradle of Netherlandish miniature art. It is from this neighbourhood

that Paris was supplied with craftsmen in the days of the brilliant if

reckless administration of the uncles of Philip the Good. There were

schools of illuminating artists in Maestricht and Liége, and within a

very brief period the style of the Netherlander surpassed that of all

competitors for facility, clearness, and realism. A marked feature in

this mastery is the free use of architectural and sculptural design. All

Gothic draperies are in some degree sculpturesque, and in miniatures we

find sculpture to be the ruling principle. Perhaps it was the practice

of uniting the crafts of painter and "imagier" in one person that

fostered this peculiarity. But certain it is that Netherlandish

illumination, in its border foliages, after the taste for the larger

vine and acanthus leaf had superseded the ivy, the drawing is studiously

sculpturesque. Many of the Gantois borders are like undercut wood

carvings. Even as to colour we find either the gilded wood brown or the

stone grey, quite as frequently as gayer colours, and much more so than

any natural green. The after-fashion for grisailles or _camaieu gris_

has reference probably rather to stained glass than to carving. Before

the fifteenth century we do not often meet with individual illuminators

by name, but in the Limburg Chronicle under 1380 is this entry: "There

was at this time in Cologne a celebrated painter (he was probably a

native of Herle in Limburg), the like of whom was not in the whole of

Christendom," and more to his praise. His name was Wilhelm. In the

municipal expense book, under 1370-90, page 12, is written, "To Master

Wilhelm for painting the Oath Book, 9 marks." The Oath Book still

exists, but unfortunately the miniature has been cut out.[53]

[53] Woltmann, _Hist. of Painting_, Eng. transl., i. p. 412.

Of course, it may be expected that some of the best examples of

Netherlandish illumination are to be found in the Royal Library at

Brussels. The _Bibliothéque de Bourgogne_, as it is called, contains,

indeed, a great number of them. Some, of course, may be classed as

Burgundian. There are, for instance, the grand "Chroniques de Hainaut"

in three immense folio volumes, written from 1446 to 1449 (Nos. 9242-4).

Also Jean Mansel's "Fleur des Histoires" in three grand folios (Nos.

9231-3), written about 1475. The frontispiece to the "Chroniques" shows

the Duke Philip with his son the Count of Charolais receiving the work

from the author, perhaps the best illumination in all three volumes.

Another (9245), the Book of the Seven Sages of Rome, is an example of

the last quarter of the fourteenth century. Still another (9246), the

History of St. Graal, or of the Round Table, is dated 1480. A Missal and

Pontifical (9216, 9217) shows miniatures dating about 1475.

But other public libraries also possess admirable examples. The Imperial

Library at Vienna possesses a most masterly production in the fragments

of a folio Chronicle of Jerusalem (No. 2533), in which both figures and

architectural details are most delicately and minutely finished, so that

the miniatures form a most valuable treasury of costumes, armour, and

architecture, correctly drawn and exquisitely painted. The figure of

Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, shows the pointed toes which Anne of Bohemia

is said to have introduced into England. At Vienna, also, is the richly

illuminated History of Gérard de Roussillon in French (No. 2549). At

Paris we find the "Champion des Dames" (No. 12476). Round the first

miniature in this MS. are splendidly emblazoned the armorials of the

various countries and cities of his dominions--Burgundy, Brabant,

Flanders, Franche-Comté, Holland, Namur, Lower Lorraine, Luxembourg,

Artois, Hainaut, Zealand, Friesland, Malines, and Salins. On either side

are scenes from the story, and beneath a symbolical crown is the motto

of Philip's grandfather, Philip le Hardi, _aultre n'aray_. The same

motto appears in the Chronicle of Jerusalem at Vienna, and on the velvet

of the daïs of Isabella of Portugal, Philip's third consort.

It may be interesting to note, as a means of distinguishing these

Burgundian princes or their MSS., that the arms of Philip II. the Good

differ from those of his father, during the latter's lifetime, by having

in chief a label of three points, and from those of his grandfather,

Philip the Bold, by having an inescutcheon of pretence on the centre of

the arms of Margaret de Maele, first assumed by his father, John the

Fearless, that is, "or, a lion rpt. sa; for Flanders." As we have just

said, many of the MSS. claimed as Netherlandish may be classed as

Burgundian. The difference lies mainly in the miniatures. Where the

latter are manifestly French with the mixed Brugeois borders, they may

pass as Burgundian; but with similar borders yet distinguishably

Netherlandish, that is, broad-nosed, square-jawed, and excited faces as

compared with the finer features and placid expression of the French

artists, the work may still be Burgundian, but it will be also

Netherlandish. The individuality of Netherlandish illumination above

every other quality establishes its identity. Look at the expression of

the onlookers in a Crucifixion, or a Christ before Pilate, or a Stoning

of St. Stephen--the diabolical ferocity, the fiendish earnestness, the

downright intentional ugliness put on some of the characters are in

direct contrast to the sweet indifference, the calm complaisance, and

blank unconcern of a crowd as shown in similar scenes by French

illuminators.

[Illustration:

HORÆ

15TH CENT. (LATE)

_Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 17280. fol. 21_]

[Illustration:

VALERE MAXIME, TRAD. PAR SIMON DE HESDIN

15TH CENT. (LATE)

_Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 4375, fol. 68_]

We have seen something of the earlier kind of Netherlandish MSS. in

those already referred to. It now remains to take a rapid glance at a

few of the later ones, and here the difficulty is that of selection.

In 1484 Gerard David appears on the list of illuminators of Bruges,[54]

and it appears that he, and not Hans Memling, was the painter of those

marvellous miniatures in the Grimani Breviary at Venice usually

attributed to the latter, and therefore may be considered as one of the

founders of the school of Bruges, or at least of the later style that

may be referred to the Grimani Breviary as its most perfect example.

Executed in much the same manner is a Book of Offices in the British

Museum, containing portraits of Philip the Fair and his wife, the

unhappy Juana _la Loca_, son and daughter-in-law of the Emperor

Maximilian. Similar, again, are the "Offices of the Elector, Albert of

Brandenburg," possibly the work of the same artists who produced the

Grimani Breviary. There are also some fragments in a guard-book in the

British Museum (Add. 24098), which may compare with any of the preceding

examples. But perhaps to many book-lovers no better specimen of the

highest class of Netherlandish art could be more welcome or more

interesting than the celebrated copy of the "Roman de la Rose," also in

our great national collection (Harl. 4425). This justly famous MS. is a

real masterpiece in every department, whether we consider the expression

in its miniatures or the consummate technical skill displayed in the

drawing and colour of the borders. These secondary embellishments

consist of fruit, flowers, birds, beetles, and butterflies. But, of

course, the great interest of this book lies in its miniatures, scenes

from the poet's allegory, and in the little statuesque figures of the

various characters in the poem.

[54] Cf. his "Judgement of Cambyses" in the museum at Bruges.

Two marvellous little volumes there are in the National Museum at Munich

(861-2) which are surely unapproachable. One of the borders in 861

consists of the eyes of peacock feathers so absolutely perfect that we

can only wonder at its rainbow hues and pearly sheen of colour.

Something similar to it exists in a fragment (No. 4461) in the Victoria

and Albert Museum at South Kensington. The "Isabella Breviary" of the

British Museum (Add. 18851) ought not to pass unmentioned, but space

forbids us to add more on this inexhaustible topic. There is, however,

the class of work alluded to early in the chapter, and in that on French

work, which must be at least mentioned. We refer to what the Italians

call _chiaroscuro_ and the French _grisaille_; _i.e._ painting executed

in tones of grey, in which the lights are given in white or gold and the

backgrounds in rich blue. Occasionally the draperies and ornaments also

are touched with gold, and the flesh tints as in life. Grisaille is not

limited to Netherlandish illuminations. We find it both in French and

Italian, but perhaps it is among the Netherlandish books we meet with it

most frequently. Several examples are to be seen in the Royal Library at

Brussels, and there is at least one in the British Museum (Add. 24189).

CHAPTER IX

THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE

Communication with Italy--Renaissance not sudden--Origin of the schools

of France and Burgundy--Touraine and its art--Fouquet--Brentano

MSS.--"Versailles" Livy--Munich "Boccaccio," etc.--Perréal and

Bourdichon--"Hours of Anne of Brittany"--Poyet--The school of

Fontainebleau--Stained glass--Jean Cousin--Gouffier "Heures"--British

Museum Offices of Francis I.--Dinteville Offices--Paris "Heures de

Montmorency", "Heures de Dinteville," etc.

When the new ideas derived from the Italian revival first reached

France, it would be difficult to say. There must have been communication

with Italy going on the whole time that Cimabue and Giotto, Memmi and

the rest were astonishing their fellow-citizens with their divine

performances. The roads from Lyons, Poictiers, Dijon, and Paris were

well known, and frequently trodden by both artists and merchants as well

as by soldiers. The Renaissance, therefore, was no sudden convulsion.

Perhaps a very careful examination of some of our Burgundian MSS. might

reveal the presence of notions derived from Italian travel, for it is in

the details of ornament that we find the traces of a new movement, and

when the great change of style is clearly noticeable it is when the

habits of society themselves have been remodelled, and when the once

strange and foreign element has become a familiar guest.

In the fixing of schools and centres much is owing, of course, to the

residential choice of princes, on whose patronage depends the very

existence of art. This explains the schools of Bruges and Dijon, of

Paris and Tours, for while the earlier dukes of Burgundy and the earlier

kings of France had lived at Bruges and Paris, the later dukes had

preferred Dijon, and Louis XI., Charles VIII., and Louis XII. lived

mostly at Tours. So that while Dijon became the new centre of Burgundian

illumination, Tours became to the new movement from Italy what Paris had

been at the commencement of the Gothic period. Tours, in fact, became

the centre of the Renaissance. The influence of Dijon was on the wane,

Burgundy itself was going down. Michel Coulombe, the great Breton

sculptor, who had been trained at Dijon, left it for Tours, and probably

illuminators and other artists followed his example. As we know from

examples, the Burgundian art of Dijon had the Flemish stamp strongly

marked--the Flemish artists had a way of making strong impressions.

Tours, on the other hand, had had an entirely different training. The

artists of Touraine had no shadow of Flemish influence in their

practice. Their sculptures, enamels, colour-scheme were of another bias.

Their stamp came from Italy, and if not so deep as that of Flanders or

Dijon, it was equally inevitable and more permanent.

The first name that we meet with among the illuminators of Touraine who

are expressly connected with the Renaissance is that of Jean Fouquet. Of

his origin or training nothing seems to be known, but he was born

probably about 1415. He must have acquired distinction even as a youth,

for some twenty-five years afterwards (1440-3) he was invited to Rome to

paint the portrait of Pope Eugenius IV., and he stayed in Italy until

1447. On his return to France he was made _valet de chambre_ and painter

to Charles VII. at Tours, and continued in the same office under Louis

XI. It was part of the business of the _paintre du roy_ to design and

provide decorations and costumes, banners and devices for all state

ceremonies, and this became Fouquet's duty at the funeral of Charles

VII., and when Louis instituted the Order of St. Michel in 1470, and the

last trace of him as an artist occurs about 1477. His sons, Louis and

Francis, were both painters, and, like himself, worked much at the

illumination of books. It is curious that this great master--one of the

greatest miniaturists of any school, and one of the founders of the

French school of painting--became entirely forgotten until the discovery

of some fragments of a Book of Hours painted for Estienne Chevalier, the

King's treasurer.

Forty miniatures of the most masterly description came into the hands of

M. Louis Brentano-Laroche, of Frankfort-on-the-Maine. Their uncommon

excellence led to a most diligent search for information respecting the

artist, which resulted in the unearthing of many other examples of his

unequalled pencil. We now know of a dozen most precious examples.

Besides the Brentano miniatures, two other fragments of the same Book of

Hours have been found, and several large and important MSS. Among these

we may name the "Antiquities of the Jews," by Josephus, in the National

Library at Paris (MSS. Des. 6891), and a Book of Hours, executed for

Marie de Clève, widow of Charles Duke of Orleans, in 1472. Attributed to

him are the "Versailles" Livy (Nat. Lib., Paris, 6907); the "Sorbonne"

Livy (fds. de Sorb. 297). A Livy in the public library at Tours also

passes under his name, and the famous "Boccaccio" of Estienne Chevalier

at Munich, containing ninety miniatures, is also confidently assigned to

him. Other MSS. that are imputed to him are probably the work of his

sons or scholars.

The Paris Josephus is generally considered his masterpiece. The volume

(which contains only the first fourteen books) is in folio, written most

beautifully in two columns, and is adorned with miniatures, vignettes,

and initials, but much of its interest lies in the note at the end,

placed there by Robortet, secretary to the Due de Bourbon: "En ce livre

a douze ystoires les troys premieres de l'enlumineur du duc Jehan de

Berry, et les neuf de la main du bon paintre et enlumineur du roy Loys

XIe Jehan Foucquet, natif de Tours." And we gather from another note

that the book had been entrusted to Fouquet for completion by Jacques

d'Armagnac duc de Nemours. A further note informs us that the book

belonged to the Duc de Bourbon. It seems to have been one of the rich

presents made by the Due de Berry to Jacques de Nemours. The first three

miniatures are by the illuminator of the Duc de Berry, and this artist

was probably Andrieu Beauneveu, though other illuminators did work for

him, as Jacques de Hesdin and Pol de Limbourg. The fourth miniature is

by Fouquet, and represents a battle; the rest to the seventh are either

not his best work or else the work of his pupils, but the seventh on

folio 135 gives us a good idea of Fouquet at his best. It represents

David receiving with his crown the news of the death of Saul. The

eighth, ninth, and tenth are very fine, but the eleventh M. Paulin Paris

(MSS. du Roy) thinks the most beautiful of all. Its subject is the

clemency of Cyrus towards the captive Jews in Babylon.[55] Of the other

MSS. space forbids us reluctantly to forego description.

[55] See Mrs. Mark Pattison's (Lady Dilke) _The Renaissance in France_,

i. 273, etc.; Bradley, _Dict. of Miniaturists_ art. "Fouquet," i. 346.

The characteristics of the school of Tours as seen in the work of the

greatest of its expositors is (1) The clearly marked influence of Italy

and the antique. (2) A masterly understanding of French landscape (see

fine instances of this understanding also in "Trésor des Histoires," now

in the British Museum, Cott., Aug. 5). (3) A complete freedom from

Gothic influence and from the domination of the school of Bruges. The

colours for which Fouquet seems to have a preference are, first, a clear

orange-vermilion, supported by golden brown and gold, clear blue and

green, lemon-yellow; and then, as a contrast, grey of various tones in

walls and buildings, soft landscape greens, and aërial tints of distance

and sky. Perhaps the technical skill of Fouquet has never been

surpassed. It is so perfect that some have tried to explain it by

supposing that he was trained in a Flemish studio. His sons and pupils

continued his methods, and thus while Paris remains under the influence

of Flemish masters, Tours was carrying forward a quite different type of

traditions.

The Valerius Maximus (Harl. 4374) of the British Museum will give an

idea of the later Paris school. Its date is about the end of the

fifteenth century.

We ought not in this place to forget the influence brought into French

art through the marriage of the murdered Duke of Orleans with Valentina

of Milan, not only directly through books and artists, but by the

hereditary transmission of that love of art and beautiful things for

which Valentina and her family were well known. It was in art, letters,

and books that the widowed princess sought such consolation as was

possible.[56] In her best days she had united in herself a seductive

grace of carriage, beauty of person, and dignity of rank, which made her

the ornament of the French Court. She was almost the only one about the

unfortunate Charles VI. who could influence him in his moments of mental

aberration. Coming from the luxury of the most splendid court in Italy,

she brought into France the most refined taste in matters connected with

the arts. The inventory of her jewels at the time of her marriage

includes three Books of Hours, three German MSS., and a volume called

_Mandavilla_. Like her husband she was an employer both of copyists and

illuminators, and before her death had collected at her Castle of Blois

a very fine collection of beautiful books.

[56] She assumed as her impresa the _chantepleure_, with the sorrowful

motto: "Plus ne m'est rien: rien ne m'est plus."

Her son Charles, the poet, inherited her tastes, and added to her

collections. We are not surprised, therefore, to find her grandson

Louis, afterwards Louis XII., supporting the great artistic movement

which he and his Queen Anne of Brittany helped so effectually to

identify with the Court of France.

About the time that we hear the last of Fouquet we have the earliest

notices of another illuminator who plays an important part in the

illuminations executed for Anne of Brittany, the noble and gifted Queen

of France, and wife, first of Charles VIII. and then of his successor,

Louis XII.

In 1472 Jean Perréal is entrusted with the glass paintings of the

Carmelite church at Tours. Lemaire, in his _Légende des Vénitiens_,

calls him a second Zeuxis or Apelles. During the reigns of Charles VIII.

and Louis XII. he is the chief artist of the time: In 1491, and perhaps

earlier, he is engaged in the usual duties of a _valet de chambre_,

_i.e._ designing and preparing the requisite devises, arms, and banners

for public functions. In 1502 he went to Italy. In 1509 his name occurs

in connection with that of Jean Bourdichon, of whom we shall hear more

when we come to the work done for the Queen. In 1523 in the household of

Francis I. he is still _valet de chambre_. Twenty-four years previously

it was as _valet de chambre_ that he prepared the decorations for Louis

XII.'s entry into Lyons. On the death of Anne of Brittany also he

performed similar duties, and again on that of Louis XII. He even came

to England in 1514, sent by Louis XII., to superintend the trousseau of

Mary Tudor, "pour aider à dresser le dict appareil à la mode de France,"

previous to her wedding journey to Paris.[57] Four months afterwards he

was summoned to direct the funeral obsequies of Louis himself. No

illuminated work can be really identified as the work of Perréal, but

Mrs. Patteson (Lady Dilke) strongly urges the probability that he

painted the _Bible Historiée_ of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge,

bequeathed by General Oglethorpe.[58] She considers it quite the sort of

work that would grow out of that of Fouquet, and dwells upon the fact of

his official duties as _valet de chambre_ giving him just that minute

facility in the decoration of armour and furniture in the miniatures

which the MS. displays. Whether this be so or not, it is certain that

the _Bible Historiée_ is a fine example of the school of Tours.

[57] See Vespas, b. 2 (Brit. Mus.).

[58] See her _Renaissance of Art in France_, i. 303.

Another court painter and _valet de chambre_ to Louis XI. and his

successors was Jean Bourdichon, an artist born at Tours in 1457, and

therefore as a youth probably one of the scholars in the atelier of Jean

Fouquet. He is first noticed in the accounts in or about 1478: "A Jehan

Bourdichon, paintre, la somme de vingt livres dix sept solz ung denier

tournois pour avoir paint le tabernacle fait pour la chapelle du Plessis

du Pare, de fin or et d'azur."[59] Later on, after naming the painting of

a statute of St. Martin, for which he received twenty golden crowns, is

a note of his painting a MS., which we translate: "To the said

Bourdichon for having had written a book in parchment named the

Papalist--the same illuminated in gold and azure and made in the same 19

rich histories (miniatures) and for getting it bound and covered, thirty

crowns of gold. For this by virtue of the said order of the King and by

quittance of the abovenamed written the 5th April One thousand four

hundred and eighty (milcccciiiixx) after Easter, here rendered the sum

of £19 1. 8."

[59] Comptes de l'Hôtel de Louis XI., 1478-81.

Another quittance shows him to have been employed on the decorations of

the château of Plessis les Tours. We may easily see how it is that these

artists, when they came to illuminate the books entrusted to them, had

such special knowledge of embroideries and decoration of armour when we

read in the accounts how they were constantly employed in designing

dresses for weddings, tournaments, and funeral obsequies, and making

"patterns for the dress and equipment of war."

A notice in 1508 tells us that Anne of Brittany made an order of payment

to Bourdichon of 1,050 _livres tournois_ for having "richly and

sumptuously historiated and illuminated a great Book of Hours for our

use and service to which he has given and employed much time, and also

on behalf of other services which he has rendered hitherto." This refers

to the celebrated "Hours of Anne of Brittany," now in the National

Library at Paris.

This volume, peerless of its kind, has been reproduced in colour

lithography by Curmer of Paris--the result, however, is disappointing

from the flat and faded look of the prints as compared with the

brilliancy of the original pages. The MS. is an invaluable monument of

French Renaissance illumination. It is French of Touraine rather than of

Paris, yet bearing traces in its flowers and fruit borders of Flemish

modes of ornament. It has also reminiscences of Italian painting. But

the French neatness and restraint from over-decoration have kept it in a

manner unique. It has not quite the softness of Italian, and is far from

the intensity of Flemish. Indeed, its fault, if it be faulty, is in its

want of force. With the exception of Anne's own portrait given with her

patrons, St. Anne, St. Helena, and St. Ursula. The Queen's gown is of

brown gold brocade trimmed with dark brown fur. Her hair is brown, like

the fur. She wears a necklace of gems set in gold. On her head is a

black hood edged with gold and jewels, beneath which and next her face

is a border of crimped white muslin, She has brown eyes and finely

pencilled eyebrows. As to nose and mouth, she and the two younger saints

are pretty much alike. With the allowance of blue for black, St. Anne

wears the dress of a Benedictine abbess. A dark crimson cloth covers a

table before which the Queen is kneeling, and on which lies open a

finely illuminated Service-book. The Calendar which follows this

portrait is for each month enclosed in a margin of ornament. To the

outer margin of every other page of the book is placed a broad tablet or

pilaster containing flowers, fruits, insects, etc., from five to six

inches high, each having the Latin name of the plant, etc., at top in

red, and the French one in red or blue at the bottom. These names may

have been put in later. It must be admitted that the fruits, flowers,

and insects are painted with the greatest care and neatness, though

sometimes a little assisted by the imagination of the painter. The text

and initials are rather heavy and commonplace. Now and then a border

surrounds the text completely, where flowers or fruits are

scattered--somewhat recklessly at times, but usually with good

design--over a ground of plain gold, on which the branches, etc., cast

heavy shadows. This part of the design is certainly Flemish. Where

"histories" occur the border is a plain brown gilt frame within a black

border. Undoubtedly the "Hours of Anne of Brittany" is a very precious

volume. The figure subjects are of various degrees of excellence. The

four evangelists are vivid, and recall the portraits of Ghirlandaio, and

it is to Italy also that the illuminator is indebted for his

architectural and sculptural details. Yet Bourdichon is inferior to

Fouquet in colouring, as the latter is to the Italians in design and

composition. Perhaps he is most successful in his flowers and insects.

"Nothing," said Muntz, "is less like the elegant foliages of Ghirlandaio

and Attavante, and nothing is more worthy of being put in comparison

with them."[60]

[60] _La Renaissance en Italie, etc_., 547-8.

An illuminator of the name of Jehan Poyet is said to have assisted in

the "Hours," thus while Bourdichon painted the miniatures, Poyet put in

the flowers and fruit, etc.; but this share of work is by some believed

to belong to a smaller Book of Hours executed for the Queen. Flowers and

fruit are said to have been Poyet's speciality, and it is quite possible

that he may have had the painting of the borders of the "Grandes

Heures," while Bourdichon did the rest. The writer of the MS. was

another native of Tours, named Jehan Riveron. During the reign of

Francis I. the school of Tours was removed to Paris because the Court

had settled there. Louis XII. had died in the Hôtel des Tournelles, and

Francis, though full of plans for _plaisances_ elsewhere, lived mostly

in Paris. Fontainebleau is the dream of the near future. Il Rosso, the

Italian architect, painter, poet, and musician, was busy there amid a

crowd of other artists from Florence and Rome--the refuse of a once

brilliant sodality. It was the frivolous, pretty, graceful side of

Italian art that came northward in that great migration--the graver and

more dignified elements were left behind. To see what Italian art became

in France, we have only to enter the Grand Gallery at Fontainebleau, and

we see it at its best in architecture, sculpture, and painting. And we

cannot help admiring it, for it is amazingly beautiful. Yet it is not

Italian--the Italian of the Medici and Farnese palaces. Il Rosso was

neither a Michelangelo nor a Carracci; but he set a fashion. He changed

the face of art for France. Nor was it in painting and sculpture only.

The Italian passion for devises, anagrams, emblems, and mottoes became

the rage in Paris. It first came in with the return of Charles VIII.

from his Neapolitan campaign. Louis XII. adopted the hedgehog or

porcupine, with the motto "Cominus et eminus." His Queen Claude's motto

was "Candida candidis." The Princess Marguerite's emblem was a marigold

or heliotrope; others assigned her the daisy. Her motto: "Non inferiora

secutus." The well-known emblem of Francis was a salamander--why, is a

mystery--with the motto, "Nutrisco et extinguo." All this entered into

the taste of the illuminator, and elegant cartouche frames--probably of

Dutch origin, as we see in the old map-books of Ortelius Cluverius and

Bleau, imported by Ortelius and his friends into Italy, and made use of

by Clovis, and thence transferred to France--were made into

border-frames for miniatures, varied with altar-forms, doorways, and

other fanciful frameworks from the new architecture decorated with

flowers, ribbons, panels, mottoes. Another new thing, too, no doubt

afforded plenty of suggestion to the illuminator. This was stained

glass. Jean Cousin was in his glory in glass-painting; Robert Pinagrier

also. But it was Cousin who adopted the new Italian ideas, and whose

works were models for the illuminator. In the backgrounds and details of

his glass-paintings at Sens, Fleurigny, Paris, and elsewhere, we may

trace his progress; and an excellent model, too, was Jean Cousin. He has

other claims to remembrance in sculpture, engraving, authorship, but it

is as the glass-painter that his influence is seen in illumination.

Indeed, Mr. A.F. Didot strongly urged the probability that Cousin was

himself the illuminator of the splendid Breviary or Hours of Claude

Gouffier.[61] The drawing is in his best manner, the frame-border of

_caryatides_ in camaieu is of a richness of ornamentation in keeping

with the rest of the volume. The arms and motto of Gouffier are painted

in it. It is objected that Cousin's name does not appear in the Gouffier

account-books, while those of other artists are given. But only a

portion of the accounts is extant. Cousin may, perhaps, only have

designed the book, and the other miniaturists carried out his designs.

At any rate, the accounts give us the names of three miniaturists which

we may here record--Jean Lemaire, of Paris (1555), Charles Jourdain, and

Geoffroy Ballin (1359). These "enlumineurs" are stated to have decorated

two Books of Hours for Gouffier's wedding. As a good example of the

style employed in the decoration of title-pages, we may quote the

chimney-piece of the Château d'Anet, executed for Diane de Poitiers,

where a sculptured marble frame surrounds a painted landscape. Many of

the books of the time of Francis I. and Henry II. are ornamented in this

style.

[61] Now belonging to M. le Vicomte de Tanzé.

In the British Museum are several fine MSS. illustrative of this period

of French illumination, viz. Add. 18853, 18854, and 18855. These three

MSS. formed part of the purchase which included the Bedford Offices.

18853 is a Book of Offices executed apparently for Francis I. In some of

the borders is a large F with the _Cordelière_ of the third Order of St.

Francis and a rayed crown, and on folio 97 v. a large monogram

consisting of the letter F, with two crossed sceptres and palm branches,

surmounted by the crown-royal of France.

Nothing is known of the history of the MS. from 1547 to 1723, when it

was in possession of the Regent Philippe d'Orléans. Possibly it had

remained as an heirloom in the family. Philippe gave it to his natural

son the Abbé Rothelin, a great lover of rare books and a noted

collector, at whose death it was bought by Gaignat, another collector,

who sold it to the Duc de la Vallière, and so, step by step, it came at

length to Sir John Tobin, of Liverpool, and thence to the British

Museum.

The partly sculpturesque character of the border-frames are of the kind

just referred to, with festoons and garlands of flowers, and drapery,

monograms, and emblems in full rich colours; the architecture and other

ornaments sometimes finished with pencillings of gold. The miniatures

are of excellent design and colour, finely modelled, and quite in the

manner of the paintings of Fontainebleau. The text is a combination of

Jarry-like Roman with italic. It may be compared with 18854, similar in

some respects, but the smaller miniatures and the frames look more like

the older school of Tours. This MS. is also a Book of Offices, and was

written for François de Dinteville, Bishop of Auxerre, in 1525, as

appears from an inscription in gold letters on fol. 26 v.

[Illustration:

OFFICM. B. MARIÆ VIRGINES

C. 1530

_Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 18853, fol. 52_]

[Illustration:

OFFICM. MORTUORUM.

16TH CENT. (EARLY)

_Brit. Mus. Egert. MS. 2125, fol. 183_]

Some of the border-frames are drawn in sepia, others in red-brown or

burnt siena, and highly finished with gold. The writing is a small Roman

hand. On the whole it is richer in illustration than 18853, but not so

perfect in drawing, yet it is a very fine MS. Sometimes it has a border

like those in the "Hours of Anne of Brittany." On fol. 26 v. is a

curious border of twisted ribbons covered with mottoes, such as

"Virtutis fortuna comes", "Ingrates servire nephas," etc.

Some of the tiny miniatures of the saints in the _Memoriæ_ are very

charmingly painted: St. Mary Magdalene, for instance, on fol. 147 v. The

pillar architecture of some of the borders, with pendant festoons of

flowers, is also very handsome.

18855, folio, is a Book of Offices written in a Gothic text. The

miniatures are large full-page paintings within architectural frames or

porches, with coloured pillars or pilasters with panels of rich blue,

covered with golden traceries, bronze gold pendants at side,--occasional

borders as in the "Hours of Anne of Brittany." The work is of the older

school of Tours, but loaded with ornamental details from North Italian

pilaster-work. Among the best miniatures are the Nativity (34 v.), the

Adoration of the Magi (42 v.), and the Bathsheba. The last perhaps a

little too open a scene for a lady's bathroom, but placed within a most

gorgeous architectural window or doorway (fol. 62 v). Compare also Harl.

5925, No. 574, for a title-page of French Renaissance style from a

printed book, which suggests Venice as the source of the style of 18853.

In the National Library at Paris are, of course, a number of this class

of MSS., such as the Offices (MS. Lat. 10563), "Officium Beatæ Mariæ

Virginis ad usum Romanor" (1531), or the exquisitely painted "Heures de

Henry 2d" (fds. Lat. 1429), or the magnificent "Epistres d'Ovide" of

Louisa of Savoy (fds. fr. 875), and others.

By no means of less importance we may cite the beautiful volume

belonging to the late Comte d'Haussonville, now in the Musée Condé at

Chantilly, called the "Heures du Connétable Anne de Montmorency," and

the "Heures de Dinteville" (MS. Lat. 10558), the decoration of which is

quite on a par with the "Heures de Montmorency," or those of Henry II.,

also the Psalter of Claude Gouffier (Arsenal Lib., 5095), containing the

Psalms of Marot.

It is scarcely worth while to carry the subject further. What is done

later than Francis II. does not grow finer or better: it only becomes

more overloaded with ornament, too much gold, too much richness. Even

foliages are often variegated like pearls, or change gradually from

colour to colour on the same sweep of acanthus as in a MS. in the

British Museum attributed to Pierre Mignard ("Sol Gallicus," Add.

23745). Compare also the "Heures de Louis XIV." Now and then an

exceptional work, like that of D'Eaubonne at Rouen, belongs to no

particular school.

CHAPTER X

SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE ILLUMINATION

Late period of Spanish illumination--Isidore of Seville--Archives at

Madrid--Barcelona--Toledo--Madrid--Choir-books of the Escorial--Philip

II.--Illuminators of the choir-books--The size and beauty of the

volumes--Fray Andrés de Leon and other artists--Italian

influence--Giovanni Battista Scorza of Genoa--Antonio de Holanda,

well-known Portuguese miniaturist in sixteenth century--His son

Francesco--The choir-books at Belem--French invasion--Missal of

Gonçalvez--Sandoval Genealogies--Portuguese Genealogies in British

Museum--The Stowe Missal of John III.

Since all the best and best-known work of Spanish or Portuguese

illuminators was executed in the sixteenth century, and is manifestly a

reflection with peculiar mannerisms of either Flemish or Italian

illumination of the same period, it may seem almost superfluous to

devote a separate chapter to the subject. Yet there is a goodly list of

both Spanish and Portuguese artists who practised the art of

illumination.

So early as the time of Isidore of Seville we find notices of libraries,

copyists, and the like (see book iv. of his Encyclopædia), and an able

writer of the last century, Don José Maria de Eguren, published a work

on the MS. rarities of Spain.[62] The most important of the miniatures in

the famous Codex Vigilano are also reproduced in "El Museo Español de

antiguedades," most interesting respecting the calligraphy and miniature

art of the eleventh century.

[62] _Memoria de los Codices notables conservados en los archivos

ecleseasticos de Espana_. Madrid, 1859, L. 8°.

One of the earliest instances of royal patronage bestowed on painting in

Spain is a document in the Royal Library at Madrid, containing the

expenses of King Sanchez IV. in 1291-2. Thus "to Rodrigo Esteban,

painter of the king for many paintings done by the king's orders in the

bishop's palace 100 golden maravedis." Again, in the archives at

Barcelona we find that Juan Cesilles, painter of history, was engaged

16th March, 1382, to paint the "History of the twelve apostles for the

grand altar of the Church at Reps for 330 florins." In 1339 one Gonzalez

Ferran had some reputation both as a wood engraver and a painter. He was

probably a miniaturist. In 1340-81, Garcia Martinez, a Spanish

illuminator, worked at Avignon. A copy of the Decretals, dated 1381, in

the Cathedral Library of Seville is by his hand.

In the fifteenth century we have many notices of painters, especially in

Toledo, whither the taste was in all likelihood brought from Naples

after the conquest of that kingdom by Alphonso V. of Aragon in 1441.

It has been observed by those familiar with native Spanish art that its

chief characteristic is that it is gloomy. This may be so, but it is not

fairly chargeable to the artists but to the tyranny of the Spanish

Inquisidor, who laid the embargo on the illuminator that he should not

follow the wicked gaiety of the Italians, nor the sometimes too

realistic veracity of the Flemings. This accounts usually for

backgrounds of black where the Fleming would have had rich colour or

gold for the prevalence of black in the draperies and for the sombre

tone in general of Spanish painting. It is not always in evidence, as

may be seen in many of the miniatures of the famous choir-books in the

Escorial. The sombre period began under Ferdinand the Catholic, and it

has left its mark on the schools of the fifteenth century. The sixteenth

began a new era, and under Philip II. several, both Netherlandish and

Italian, miniaturists were invited to assist in the production of the

enormous choir-books ordered by the King for San Lorenzo of the

Escorial, between 1572 and 1589. The volumes are bound in wooden boards

covered with leather, stamped and bossed with ornaments of gilded

bronze. It is said that 5,500 lbs. of bronze and 40 lbs. of pure gold

were used in the bindings. The actual dimensions of the volumes are 115

by 84 centimetres. Every volume has at least seventy folios, and every

folio is splendidly illuminated, thus affording more than 30,000 pages

covered with richly ornamented initials, miniatures, and borders. The

illuminators and copyists of these choir-books were Cristobal Ramirez,

who planned the work, fixed the size and other details of the volumes

and the character of the handwriting, Fray Andrés de Leon, Fray Julian

de Fuente del Saz, Ambrosio Salazar, Fray Martin de Palencia, Francisco

Hernandez, Pedro Salavarte, and Pedro Gomez. Ramirez was engaged at the

Escorial from 1566 to 1572. In the latter year he presented a Breviary

with musical notation to the King, and was then engaged for the great

undertaking mentioned above.

Andrés Cristobal was also an illuminator of note at Seville, where he

worked from 1555 to 1559. Andrés de Leon worked at the Escorial from

1568, and is especially mentioned by Los Santos in his well-known

description of the monastery of San Lorenzo: "Son de gran numero y

excelencia las iluminaciones que tienen de mano nuestro Fray Andrés de

Leon, que fue otro Don Julio en el Arte."[63] The allusion is to the

celebrated Don Giulio Clovio, then in the height of his fame in Italy.

Fray Julian received similar praise for a _capitolario_ for the

principal festivals of the year, especially for the grand dimensions of

the miniatures, the like of which the writer says had never been seen

before, either in Spain or Italy. Andrés de Leon died at the Escorial in

1580. Salazar continued working on them till they were completed, and in

1590 went to Toledo, where he finished two Missals for the Cathedral,

which had been begun by the famous Juan Martinez de los Corrales. He was

still engaged on similar work until his death in 1604. Two other

illuminators, Esteban and Julian de Salazar, were working at the

Escorial in 1585. Bermudez[64] mentions Fray Martin de Palencia as having

executed a volume in a fine handwriting and with beautiful miniatures

for the monastery of Saso. Thus we see there were numerous miniaturists

in Spain in the latest years of the existence of the art that had been

imported chiefly from Italy.

[63] Fr. Francisco de los Santos, _Description breve del Monasterio de S.

Lorenzo el Real del Escorial_, 24.

[64] Diccionario, iv. 24.

After most of these great choir-books had been finished there were still

others in progress. In 1583 Giovanni Battista Scorza of Genoa, who is

celebrated in the "Galleria" of the Cavaliero Marini, was invited by the

King to take part in his great choir-book scheme. Scorza was then

thirty-six years of age, and in the height of his reputation as a

painter of small animals and insects. After a little time he returned to

Genoa, where he lived to be ninety years old. He had a brother,

Sinibaldo, who was equally skilful in miniature, and especially in

scenes from history. The Scorzas were pupils of Luca Cambiaso. It may be

noticed that all this work in miniature, although so late in its own

history, is accomplished before the greatest names in Spanish painting

are known. Josefo Ribera was born in 1588; Zurbaran in 1598; Velasquez

in 1599; Alonzo Cano in 1601; Murillo in 1617. This, in a sense, is the

natural course of things, as, generally, illumination has preceded the

other kinds of painting.

With regard to Portugal, very little is recorded that does not in some

way connect itself with Spain. So we find that Antonio and Francesco de

Holanda, seemingly of Netherlandish origin, are mentioned in relation to

the books illuminated for the Royal Monastery of Thomar; Francesco also

worked for the monastery of Belem. Francesco de Holanda was a great

admirer and imitator of Clovio, but he always insisted that his father

Antonio was the inventor of the method of "stippling," as the finishing

with minute points of colour is technically called, which was brought to

such perfection by Clovio and his scholars and imitators.

Taken altogether, the work of the Spanish illuminators at the Escorial

and those of Toledo and Seville is really the same, with just the

variations we might expect from pupils and imitators, as that of their

masters in Genoa, Rome, Venice, or Bruges. Examples of it may be seen

occasionally in diplomas, such as are found in the British Museum and

other public libraries, as, _e.g._ Claud. B. x. Lansd. 189, Add. 12214,

18191, 27231, etc.

In 1572, the same year in which Luiz de Camoens published his Lusiades,

an accomplished calligrapher, Miguel Barata, published an elaborate

treatise on his own art, then in high repute.

In the fourteenth century the Cancioniero of Don Pedro Affonso Ct. de

Barcellos affords an example of the calligraphy (for which Spain and

Portugal have always been famous) and illumination which is precious for

the student. It is still in existence in the Palace of Ajuda. Its date

is 1320-40. And there are MSS. in the Torre do Tombo of Lisbon that are

richly illuminated. Again, in Seville there is the "Juego de las

Tablas," executed under Alphonso the Wise in 1283, with its Gothic

arcades and ornaments. M. Joaquin de Vasconcellas has made a study of

this MS. The miniatures of the Torre do Tombo of the thirteenth and

fourteenth centuries are mostly of the French school.

About 1428 33 was executed a splendid MS. entitled "Leal Conselheiro,"

which is attributed to a famous miniaturist in his time named Vasco. It

is, however, simply a monument of penmanship, as it contains no

miniatures. The MS. has been edited by L'Abbé Roquete in 1842. The

Portuguese MSS. of the fifteenth century betray a decided Flemish

influence, as well they may, for probably the producers of them were

Flemings. Constant intercourse with the Court of Burgundy had something

to do with this.

The "Chronica do descobrimento e conquista de Guiné," now at Torre do

Tombo, is clearly a Flemish work. It was begun about 1440, and finished

in 1453. The portrait of the Enfante Don Henrique, called the Navigator,

is set in a border evidently by a pupil or imitator of J. Van Eyck. The

calligraphy of the MS. is most beautiful. This influence of the

Netherlands on Portuguese art is, indeed, confirmed by the political

diplomatic relations of the fifteenth century, and is of some importance

in the history of art. We shall refer again to this matter when dealing

with another MS.

Among all the calligraphic monuments of Portugal it is claimed that the

most splendid is the "Bible of the Hieronymites." (See _Revista

universal Lisbonense_, 1848, pp. 24-8.) This work, it is said, was a

present from the Court of Rome to Emanuel, successor of John II., in

remembrance of the homage made to the Holy See, of the first gold

brought from the Indies, but the story is very doubtful. The King, in

bequeathing the seven volumes to the convent of Belem, says nothing

about such an origin. They are manifestly in great part the work of

foreign artists. One well-known miniaturist, Antonio de Holanda, the

father of the better-known Francesco, took part in the work, and having

a good conceit of his own abilities (we shall probably hear of him

again), reserved an entire volume to himself in order to give proof of

them. The seven volumes which then were covered with crimson velvet and

silver bosses and enamels, are now simply bound in red morocco. In the

middle of each cover are the arms of Emanuel King of Portugal. Vols. v.

and vii. have those of Dona Isabel, his Spanish wife.

The initials and ornaments show that the art of Italy is freely mixed

with that of Portugal. Indeed, from the signatures in the volumes it is

seen that the work of the penman was Italian; vol. i. being written at

Ferrara by Sigismundo de Sigismundis, the well-known Italian

calligrapher, in 1495. The second volume, also finished in 1495, bears

the name of Alessandro Verazzano, another famous copyist, who wrote

several of the volumes illuminated by Attavante. Vol. iii. is dated

1496, and is unsigned. The next three volumes are also without

signature. Vol. vii. is the work of Antonio de Holanda, who from his

name appears to have been of Dutch descent. His work is certainly

excellent, and renders this volume a very precious monument of the art

of Portugal. He was the official herald of the King, and he and his son

Francesco gave their whole time to the practice of illumination. His

son's Memoirs give a most interesting account of his travels and

intercourse with Giulio Clovio and the other Italian artists whom he met

with in Rome.[65] For some years the Hieronymite Bible was in Paris,

having been brought thither by Marshal Junot, where it remained

unnoticed for several years. Being called for by the Portuguese

Government, Louis XVIII. paid 50,000 francs to the family of Junot, and

restored it to the monastery of Belem. A splendidly illuminated atlas by

an illuminator and cartographer named Fernando Vas Dourado was published

in the year of his death, 1571.

[65] See my Life of Clovio.

As an important example of what we may fairly call native art, we will

now briefly refer to the celebrated Missal of Estevam Gonçalvez Neto,

one of the productions of the busy second half of the sixteenth century.

The clever amateur who achieved this beautiful series of paintings, for

paintings they are, in addition to the writing and other ornamentation

of the MS., was descended from a noble family of Sêrem, in the parish of

Macinhata, forty-three leagues from Lisbon. He became Canon of Viseu,

and during his leisure, after this appointment, executed the Pontifical

Missal which bears his name. It is dedicated to Don Josè Manuel, of the

House of Tancos, Bishop of Viseu, afterwards of Coimbra, and lastly

Archbishop of Lisbon. This prelate gave the book to the Church of Viseu.

The original MS. was afterwards in the library of the Convent of Jesus,

and is now in the Academy of Sciences at Lisbon. Stephen Gonsalvez died

July 29th, 1627. The Missal is signed: "Steph. Glz. Abbas Sereicencis

fac. 1610." It has been very well reproduced in colours by Macia, of

Paris.

The "Genealogies of the House of Sandoval," written and painted in

Lisbon in 1612, is now in Paris. It is called "Genealogia universal de

la Nobilissima casa de Sandoval Ramo del Generoso tronco de los

soberanos Reyes de Castilla y Leon. Por Don Melchior de Teves del

Conseio Real de Castilla del Rey D? Philippe III."

At the foot of the page is written "Eduardus Caldiera Vlisspone

scripsit, Anno Dni MDCXII." This magnificent MS., which measures

forty-six by thirty centimetres, is numbered in the Catalogue of the

National Library as 10015. A grand frontispiece, formed of two columns

of the Composite Order, occupies the first page, representing a king in

royal robes and crown arresting the wheel of Fortune. Two lions

accompany the scene, and the motto of the picture is "Virtute duce non

comite Fortuna." Page 2 contains the various escutcheons of the family

of the Count of Lerma, for whom the book was written. It contains a

great number of portraits. A final instance of the influence, or rather

the inroad, of Flemish art in Portugal in the fifteenth century may be

shown in the MS. called the Portuguese Genealogies in the British

Museum.

The work consists of eleven large folio sheets separately mounted and

measuring eighteen by ten inches. It commences with a prologue, with the

arms of Portugal supported by two savages, having clubs and shields.

Outside the inner frame are three scenes: (1) wild animals in combat;

(2) a sea-nymph being rescued; (3) a fight among sylvan savages. Next

comes a series of portraits painted in the most finished and life-like

style, beginning with Dom Garcia F° del rey Abarca and Dona Constancia

on a fruitful tree with foliage, fruits, and birds, a cat, and other

things. The tree is an oak, beside it are apple and cherry trees. On the

oak are green acorns. The birds are very beautiful, the cat simply

perfect. These details recall the highly finished and lovely work of

Georg Hoefnagel on the great Missal at Vienna. Gothic brown-gold

architecture and three battle scenes complete the page.

Then follow the genealogical tables, and more portraits, the whole

showing the most patient and careful work. Letters on the borders of the

robes recall the same kind of ornament in the Grimani Breviary at

Venice. No one has been able to explain these curious inscriptions. In

the Grimani Breviary they were thought to be either Croatian or merely

ornament. Here they cannot well mean anything but decoration. The

portraits are fanciful but interesting mementoes of the period, and

include several personages noted in history.

The last MS. to be mentioned in this hasty sketch is one in the British

Museum (Stowe 597). It is a "Missale Romanum," and is said to have been

illuminated for John III. in 1557. It was once the property of the Abbé

Gamier, chaplain for near thirty years, of the French factory at Lisbon.

The binding is red morocco, and once had silver clasps.

It commences with a large mirror-like oval tablet, containing the title,

set between two pillars of pink-veined marble with bronze-gold capitals

and bases. The tablet is crimson with a violet-slate frame moulding of

egg and dart pattern. At foot are two Roman legionaries, one seated as

supporting the tablet, on each side. On folio 3 is the index in a

rose-wood panel and pale green frame. The peculiar forms of the frames

and the scroll-work on them are of the fantastic kind, differing from

Italian, which is characteristic both of Spanish and Portuguese

ornament. The chief colours are a bright emerald green and blue, with

ochre, gold, and crimson. The initials are still more fantastic--partly

human, partly plant or fish-form, sometimes sculptured ornament and

plant-forms combined--but all so sweetly painted and so delicately

finished as to be most attractive. The text is a fine and elegant Roman

minuscule interspersed with italic.

Here and there are exquisite little drawings of ecclesiastical utensils,

etc., but the everlasting variety among the quaint and fanciful initials

provides an unwearying fund of interest. Tiny birds of the loveliest

plumage sit among and beneath the limbs of the letters, or elegant

scrolls of pencilled gold cover the little coloured panels on which the

plain gold Roman initials are placed. Some of the larger initials are

very finely executed and contain full-length figures of saints, bishops,

or queens. One lovely initial B has a graceful girl simply clad in blue

tunic and pale yellow skirt with a silken coil of pale rose forming the

upper loop of the letter, the lower being formed of the curved body of a

green dragon. Her left hand lifts the silk-work, her right, hanging by

her side, holds a little golden pitcher. The whole is painted on a panel

of bright gold. Another (L) shows a peasant rushing laughingly, with a

hare slung over his shoulder, past the figure of a guardian terminus of

bronze. But the Missal should be seen to be properly understood, for

though in a general way it has a look of Italian influence, its

originality is beyond question.

CHAPTER XI

ILLUMINATION SINCE THE INVENTION OF PRINTING

The invention of printing--Its very slight effect on

illuminating--Preference by rich patrons for written books--Work

produced in various cities in the sixteenth century--Examples in German,

Italian, and other cities, and in various public libraries up to the

present time.

The art of printing, as the reading world has been frequently informed,

was invented in the fifteenth century, and undoubtedly had, to a

considerable extent, a destructive effect upon the craft of professional

copyists. But in the fifteenth century the art of the writer and that of

the illuminator had long been separate professions. There was no

particular reason, therefore, why the invention of printing should

interfere with the illuminator. As a matter of fact, it made little

difference. Nor, indeed, did printing entirely put a stop to the

professional career of the scribe. It was prophesied, before practical

experience of facts proved the contrary, that the invention of the

railway engine would abolish the horse. The printing-press did not

abolish the penman, but it certainly spoiled his trade. We have seen in

the course of the preceding chapters that it did not spoil the trade of

the illuminator. Nor was it quite owing to the fact that many printed

books were so adorned as to appear like illuminated MSS. More than one

wealthy patron absolutely declined to have anything to do with printed

books. The matter was too vulgar and too cheap. The last Duke of Urbino

was a prince of this lofty way of thinking, and scarcely a court in

Europe but continued to have MSS. produced as if no such thing as the

printing-press were known. How they were multiplied in Spain and France

we have seen in detail. We will now proceed to take a farewell look at

the German and Italian libraries, in order to see how the illustrious

presses of Mainz, Strassburg, Augsburg, Köln, Munich, Vienna, Venice,

Milan, Florence, and Rome affected the ateliers of the great schools of

illumination established in most of these cities. What do we find? In

point of fact, some of the richest, most magnificent books ever produced

by the illuminator, not only whilst the press was still a novelty, but

long after it had become perfectly familiar to everybody. For several of

the cities aforesaid we have the means of proof: thus for Mainz, at the

end of the superb copy of the Mazarine Bible, now at Paris, is the

following inscription: "Iste liber illuminatus, legatus and completus

est henricum Cremer vicari? ecclesie collegiate Sancti Stephani

Moguntini sub anno dni Melesimo quatring entesimo quinquagesimo Sexto,

festo assumptiois gloriose Virginis Marie. Deo gratias alleluya." This

was in 1456, the year before the first press was set up. In 1524 we have

two most splendidly illuminated MSS.--a Missal and a Prayer-book--executed by order of Albert of Brandenburg, Archbishop of

Mainz. Two richer examples of the German Renaissance cannot easily be

imagined. We cannot dilate upon them. We may, however, truly say that

together with very many other examples of illuminated work, both in

manuscripts and printed books, they show the art of the illuminator to be

no less splendid or elaborate after the invention of printing than it

was before.

On the last page of the Missal is written: "Ich Niklas Glockendon zu

Nurenberg hab dieses Bhuch illuminiert ond vollent im jar 1524."

The Prayer-book is similarly adorned with miniatures and brightly

coloured borders. On the cover is a copy of the Archbishop's portrait,

painted by Dürer, and on folio 1 is written by the Archbishop himself:

"Anno domini MDXXXI completum est presens opus, Sabbato post

'Invocavit.' Albertus Cardinalis moguntinus manu propria scripsit."

Other Glockendon books exist in other libraries. Then there is the Beham

Prayer-book at Aschaffenburg and a Bible in the library at Wolfenbüttel

in two thick 4° volumes--a work well worth examination. At Nuremberg is

the Service-book executed by Conrad Frankendorfer, of Nuremberg, in

1498.

In the British Museum is the fine German MS.--the Splendor Sous, a

sixteenth century MS. (Harl. 3469).

In the National Library at Paris is the Prayer-book of William of Baden

(10567-8) executed at Strassburg by Frederic Brentel in 1647.

Augsburg was producing illuminated Service-books ten years after Günther

Zainer had set up the press in that city.

Munich, also, with the Penitential Psalms, etc., by Hans Mielich.

Vienna, too, can show a magnificent Missal by Georg Hoefnagel, bearing

the dates 1582 to 1590. Venice is represented in the work of Benedetto

Bordone and the Ducali. Florence in the splendid Missals, etc., of

Attavante and his contemporaries.

Milan shows the gorgeous Graduals of the Brera belonging to the

sixteenth century and the Sforziadas of London and Paris. So we might

pass from city to city almost all over Western Europe. The great Spanish

choir-books were almost all produced under Philip II. Several Papal

Service-books are represented in the fifteenth-and sixteenth-century

examples of the scrap-book 21412 of the British Museum; and the works of

Clovio, the most noted of Italian illuminators, all belong to the

sixteenth century.

These instances are amply sufficient to prove that in every city in

Europe where printing was in full practice the art of the illuminator

continued to flourish until the progress of modern inventions and

various processes, added to the general cheapening of books, led to its

disuse. Its present application seems to be almost solely to diplomas

and testimonials, and in point of quality, usually as poor and

spiritless as the incapacity of most of its professors can make it.

There seems, however, no reason why the artistic skill and elaborate

methods of reproduction of the present day should not produce

magnificent books--indeed the "Imitation" of Thomas à Kempis, and other

continental examples prove that this is amply possible.

The next few years will probably show that readers are still desirous of

possessing beautiful books, and that artists are still found capable of

producing them.