panel (29 × 21 inches), which was formerly in the possession of Arnoldo
Corsi in Florence and afterwards in the Collection of Mr. William
Solomon in New York, the Madonna, seen at three-quarter length, is
seated in a chair. She is turned slightly to the left and wears a
red tunic edged with gold and a blue mantle. Over the white veil,
which covers her temples and hides her ears, is folded a golden-brown
head-dress that descends to her shoulders. Her head is encircled by a
gold _nimbus_. She is gazing at the Holy Child in her lap with
downcast eyes and pensive expression. The Holy Child, who is nude,
wears a red coral necklace, from which a “charm” hangs. Around His
head is a very decorative cruciform _nimbus_. In His right hand
He holds a narrow piece of white drapery and He raises His left hand
in a benediction in the Greek manner. The landscape in the background
recedes gently towards a distant range of hills, showing scanty
vegetation beneath a light-blue sky. Bernhard Berenson has pronounced
this a very characteristic work of Baldovinetti’s middle years, painted
before the pictures now in the Uffizi.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. Clarence H. Mackay_
MADONNA AND CHILD
--_Alesso Baldovinetti_]
Alesso Baldovinetti, born in Florence in 1425, was a pupil of Domenico
Veneziano and became a member of the Painters Guild in 1448, when he
was twenty-three. His entry-book, a copy of which is preserved in the
Archives of S. Maria Nuova, containing his accounts and orders, begins
with the date 1449. One of his first commissions was to finish some
panels begun by Fra Angelico for a _credenza_ in the Medici Chapel
of the Annunziata (see page 37), and some paintings on the doors of
the vestry of Santa Annunziata (now in the Museum of San Marco),
which also completed a series begun by Fra Angelico. Thenceforward
he painted frescoes and altar-pieces, including an altar-piece
representing the _Annunciation_ for the Chapel of the Medici villa
at Caffagiuolo (now in the Uffizi) and the fresco representing the
_Birth of Christ_ in Santa Annunziata (1460–1462). In 1470–1473 he was
busy on the altar-piece in the San Ambrogio and the _Trinita_ (now in
the Accademia). Of the frescoes of Santa Trinità, on which he worked
until 1497, only a small portion remains. Other unquestionable works
by Baldovinetti are the _Madonna and Saints_ (in the Uffizi) and a few
pictures in private collections.
Baldovinetti also painted a great number of panels for private
altars and he frequently turned from religious subjects to decorate
marriage-chests and other sumptuous furniture. He also worked in
mosaics, made cartoons for stained glass, and produced designs for
_intarsia_,--all of which developed his delightful, decorative
qualities.
Baldovinetti’s entire life seems to have been absorbed in painting. He
married late. After the death of his wife, he entered the hospital
of S. Paolo of the Third Order of St. Francis and bequeathed what
few possessions he had to this house of charity. After his death in
Florence in 1499, a large chest that belonged to him was opened; but
the monks, instead of seeing the hoped-for gold, only found a book
on mosaic-work and some drawings. “No one was really surprised,”
says Vasari, who tells the story, “for Baldovinetti was so kind and
courteous that he shared everything he possessed with his friends.
Alesso was a very diligent artist, who tried to copy minutely every
detail in Mother Nature. He loved painting landscapes exactly as they
are, and you see in his pictures rivers, bridges, rocks, plants,
fruit-trees, roads, fields, towns, castles, and an infinite number of
similar objects. In his _Nativity_ you can count the separate
straws and knots in the thatched roof of the hut and you see the stones
in the ruined house behind, worn away by rain, and the thick root of
ivy growing up the wall is painted with so much accuracy that the green
leaves are differently shaded on either side; and among the shepherds
he introduced a snake crawling in the most natural manner along the
wall.”
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG LADY.
_Piero Pollaiuolo
(1443–1496)._
_Collection of
Mr. Nils B. Hersloff._
In profile to the right, with features clear-cut and strongly outlined
against a light-green background, appears a young Florentine lady,
whose dress and bearing proclaim her to be a patrician. She has not
been as yet identified; but doubtless she was one of those elegant and
gay Florentines whom we meet with in song and story. We are very safe
to guess that she was a friend of the Medici and Tornabuoni group and
played her part in the brilliant life of the period. Her dress, pink
brocade with a floral pattern, is edged with white around the neck. Her
hair is fancifully plaited with pale blue ribbons and partly covered
with a head-dress of thin white gauze, which falls over the right ear
on to her neck; and her hair is also decorated with a jewel set in
pearls. According to the fashion of the time, her forehead and the nape
of her neck are shaven; for the long line of the neck was considered
of the greatest importance. It was also important to hold the head
properly; and this young lady has certainly acquired the correct and
noble carriage of the head.
An unpublished letter of Berenson exclaims enthusiastically: “This
profile portrait of a _Young Lady_ by Piero Pollaiuolo I believe
to be one of the most delightful of the series of female profiles
which, from Paolo Uccello and Domenico Veneziano down to Botticelli and
Amico di Sandro, glorifies the art of Florence during the Fifteenth
Century. Few of them have survived to our own time. With the exception
of one in the Poldi Collection at Milan, this is the most satisfactory
of them all; for besides representing an extraordinarily attractive
personality of the highest Florentine society of the time (as, indeed
is confirmed by the dress and the jewels), it is a work of art of
exquisite draughtsmanship, subtle modelling, and delicate, pure color.”
The painting in tempera is on a panel, 18 × 13 inches, and came from
several important Collections,--that of the Conte Isolani Bologna;
Baron Lazzaroni, Rome; and the late Mr. William Solomon, New York.
Mr. Berenson notes the fine draughtsmanship in this picture. Unusual
drawing is to be expected from the brothers Pollaiuolo. Benvenuto
Cellini called Antonio “the best draughtsman of his day in Florence”
and tells us that all the goldsmiths worked from his designs; and, as
Antonio trained his youngest brother, Piero, we cannot be surprised
at the simple, direct, and commanding lines and these telling effects
produced by such economical methods.
The real name of the talented brothers was Benci. Their father, Jacopo
d’Antonio Benci, was nicknamed by his friends, Pollaiuolo, because his
father kept a poulterer shop. Jacopo was a goldsmith and was employed
by Lorenzo Ghiberti; and it is said that he made a remarkable quail on
one of the Baptistery Gates.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. Nils B. Hersloff_
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG LADY
--_Piero Pollaiuolo_]
Antonio (1432–1498) was apprenticed to Bartoluccio Ghiberti, a
goldsmith, and soon achieved fame in Florence as a worker in jewelry
and _niello_. Lorenzo Ghiberti called him to work on the Baptistery
“Gates of Paradise” and the Bronze Doors. In 1459 he started to work
independently and became renowned as a painter, sculptor, and master
goldsmith. His _bottega_ near the Ponte Vecchio was the most popular
workshop in Florence; and here he remained until he went to Rome in
1484. Piero Pollaiuolo helped Antonio in his work and was also very
versatile. Engravings, drawings, _niello_, sculpture, and painting,
besides a vast amount of gold-work, silver-work, and bronze-work
prove these men to be as industrious as they were talented. They
also followed Alesso Baldovinetti in trying out new oil glazes and
varnishes. In 1460 the Pollaiuoli painted in the Medici Palace, and
about the same time executed the six life-sized _Virtues_ for the
Tribunal of the Mercatanzia. In 1471 Piero painted a portrait of
_Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan_, who was visiting Florence; and this
portrait, which hung for many years in the Medici Palace, is now in the
Uffizi. Piero’s fresco of _St. Christopher_, painted at San Miniato
outside the gates, is considered by most authorities to be the same
_St. Christopher_ now preserved in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.
Piero also painted a very fine _Annunciation_ (now in the Berlin
Gallery), which has a view of Florence and the Val d’Arno through the
open windows and which is remarkable for its Renaissance architecture;
for the profusion of pearls and other jewels adorning the Virgin’s
chair and the robes of the Angels; and for three Cherubs playing the
lute, viol, and organ.
In 1489 Antonio was called to Rome by Pope Innocent VIII to make the
bronze tomb of Sixtus IV, and a monument for himself in St. Peter’s. He
was joined by Piero. The Pollaiuoli never saw Florence again; for, on
account of the raging Plague, no travellers were allowed to come within
twenty miles of Florence. Piero died in 1496 and Antonio in 1498; and
at the request of the latter he was buried in the same tomb with Piero
in the church of S. Pietro in Vincula.
The Pollaiuoli were closely associated with Botticelli, Leonardo da
Vinci, Ghiberti, and Verrocchio.
GIULIANO DE’ MEDICI.
_Sandro Botticelli
(1444–1510)._
_Collection of
Mr. and Mrs. Otto H. Kahn._
This proud, intellectual, refined, and cold face is painted almost in
profile; but, notwithstanding that we see only a part of the face,
we seem to see it all. Never did painter achieve a more complete
presentation of personality and of character. Moreover, Botticelli has
painted the whole of Florentine Society in this portrait. And with
what amazingly simple means! There is practically no costume,--a black
doublet, giving a glimpse of a red tunic below, and a severe white
linen band doing duty for a collar. Even the background is neutral!
The simplicity of presentation and the economy of line are almost
Japanese in their severity. The skillful handling is almost Oriental,
too. Nothing seems to have been done here for _effect_,--yet what
_effect_ is here! There is almost no color; and the hair, too, which
falls to the neck, is black. If we did not know that Giuliano de’
Medici was a dashing young Florentine of high mettle and full of the
zest of life, we might easily mistake him for a priest.
The picture, painted on wood (21 × 13½ inches), gives us the impression
of a life-size portrait. It was formerly in the Collection of Conte
Procolo Isolani, in Bologna.
Giuliano de’ Medici was one of the most romantic characters in
history; and the tragedy that cut the thread of his life at the age
of twenty-five adds no little to the romantic appeal he makes to us
to-day. Yet even at this age, he had so perfected himself in all the
accomplishments that belonged to a gentleman of the Fifteenth Century
that he stands as the very type of the elegant young man of his period.
Giuliano was, like his brother, Lorenzo, proficient in the arts, a
lover of pictures, music, and poetry; he wrote charming love-songs
and other lyrical verse; he was intellectual and witty and talked
extremely well; and he was a brilliant jouster and a well-trained
all-round athlete and devoted to the chase. For all these things the
Florentines _admired_ him; but they _loved_ him for his character, his
high-mindedness, and his courtesy. He adored his brother; and Lorenzo,
who was far from handsome, had no jealousy for the admiration that his
younger brother inspired. The terrible murder of this public idol at
High Mass in the Cathedral first shocked and then grieved the entire
community. The grief manifested at the great public funeral in the
church of the Medici family, San Lorenzo, was violent and sincere, for
Giuliano de’ Medici was the beloved of both high and low.
In his book, _The Medici_, Col. Young writes:
“Giuliano de’ Medici, the youngest of the five children of Piero il
Gottoso and Lucrezia Tornabuoni, was, unlike his brother Lorenzo,
exceedingly good-looking; he was gifted with considerable abilities,
and for his many endearing qualities was greatly beloved, not only in
his own family but also by the people of Florence. Before his early
death he had already shown on several occasions that he possessed
plenty of political capacity and could give valuable advice to his
brother.
“The relations which existed between these two brothers is one of the
pleasantest things in the history of the Medici. At that epoch jealousy
between brothers placed in such a position as Lorenzo and Giuliano were
was the normal state of things. That it was entirely absent in their
case speaks well for both of them.
“Giuliano was twenty-five at the time of his death. He left an
illegitimate son, born just at that time. Lorenzo took the child and
brought him up with his own sons; and this child became in the next
generation the well-known Giulio de’ Medici, afterwards Clement VIII.”
Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi was born in Florence in 1444, the son of
a prosperous tanner who had four sons, the eldest of whom, Giovanni,
was called “_Bottecello_” from the sign of a barrel which hung
over his shop, and which name was given to all the other members of the
family. Sandro Botticelli, like so many other Florentine painters began
life as a goldsmith. Then he was apprenticed to Fra Filippo Lippi, who
was, of course, able to hand on to him the old Giottesque tradition.
Botticelli next fell under the influence of the Pollaiuoli, with whom
he worked. It was not long, however, before the young painter began to
exhibit his originality.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Otto H. Kahn_
GIULIANO DE’ MEDICI
--_Sandro Botticelli_]
Soon after returning from Prato, where he had gone to help Fra Filippo
Lippi with the frescoes in the Cathedral, he was immediately employed
by Piero il Gottoso, who with his wife, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, recognized
the genius and peculiar charm of the young painter, and took him
into the Casa Medici almost like a son. Botticelli was at this time
about twenty-one, only five years older than Lorenzo, the eldest son.
Consequently, Botticelli was on the most intimate terms with Lorenzo
and Giuliano.
All the pictures of this period except _Fortitude_ were painted
for Piero, who bestowed large rewards on the painter. The _Madonna
of the Magnificat_, one of his most beautiful pictures (now in the
Uffizi) was painted in 1465 (when Lorenzo and Giuliano were about
sixteen and twelve); and it must have been done especially to please
Lucrezia Tornabuoni, for her two sons are represented as Angels
kneeling before the Madonna and holding the inkstand and the book.
Giuliano is the one facing us with the conspicuous lock of hair on his
forehead, while Lorenzo, of darker complexion, is in profile and in
full light.
The _Adoration of the Magi_, painted in 1467 for Sta. Maria Novella
(now in the Uffizi) is also a Medici family group surrounded by their
_protégés_ in art and letters. Cosimo, “_Pater Patriæ_” (then dead), is
kneeling before the Holy Child; Giovanni, brother of Piero il Gottoso
(then dead), stands at the left in a red and black costume; Piero il
Gottoso is kneeling in the centre with back to the spectator; Giuliano,
in a robe of white and gold, is kneeling at the latter’s right and
Lorenzo, aged seventeen, stands at his left, holding a sword. The last
figure, standing on the right, is Botticelli himself. Botticelli’s
portrait of Lucrezia Tornabuoni is in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum,
Berlin.
When Lorenzo, destined to become known as the “Magnificent,” became, on
the death of his father, head of the Medici and ruler of Florence, he
continued the Medici patronage to Botticelli.
“It was a period when the exuberant vitality of the Renaissance was
at its height; and the first nine years of his rule, when he was
from twenty to twenty-nine and his brother, Giuliano, from sixteen
to twenty-five, was a time in Florence of constant festivities of
music, art, and poetry, of joy and laughter and all the bright side of
life. It was the fashion of the day to import into all amusements an
imitation of the Classic times of ancient Greece, and the Florence of
that time appears set before us as a city ‘with youth at the prow and
pleasure at the helm’ and full of all the life, joy, and pleasure of
the old pagan ideal of Greece set in a Fifteenth Century dress. Besides
all his duties in regard to State affairs and labors in the founding
of institutions to advance Learning, not to mention his own literary
work, Lorenzo with his brother led these festivities organizing
pageants and other spectacles of the most costly description (permeated
with classical learning and poetical allusions) for the popular
amusement.”[8]
These entertainments took the form of masques, _tableaux_, and
tournaments. Young Lorenzo, too, gathered at his villa in Fiesole
and even more particularly in that of Careggi the _literati_ of
the day and read classical authors with these scholars, particularly
commemorating once a year the birthday of Plato. In 1469 Lorenzo held
a magnificent tournament for his own glorification and in 1475 an even
more elaborate one in honor of Giuliano in the Piazza Sta. Croce, with
the beautiful Simonetta Cattaneo, who had lately been married at the
age of sixteen, to Marco Vespucci, as the Queen of Beauty. Giuliano,
now just twenty-two, wore a suit of silver armor and Verrocchio
designed his helmet, and Lorenzo’s also.
Botticelli, of course, witnessed this tournament and did for it in
painting what Politian did in his poem, _La Giostra di Giuliano de’
Medici_. The _Primavera_ or _Return of Spring_ (now in the Accademia,
Florence), the _Birth of Venus_ (in the Uffizi) and _Mars and Venus_
(in the National Gallery, London), were all three painted for Lorenzo.
All the elaborate imagery of Politian’s verse is reproduced in
Botticelli’s painting representing the _Birth of Venus_ in allusion to
the Queen of Beauty, Simonetta, of Giuliano’s Tournament. In the second
picture, _Mars and Venus_, Botticelli again follows Politian’s poem.
“And then having devoted one picture to the tournament’s Queen of
Beauty, and one to the victor in its mimic warfare, Botticelli makes
his _third_ picture (the most important of the three) relate to
Lorenzo and his part in all this, gathering up in one view the whole
subject of these pastimes. This Botticelli does with great talent and
in a manner all his own. He takes for his text the celebrated standard
which had been borne in front of Lorenzo at both his and Giuliano’s
tournaments, with its motto of _Le temps revient_, its device of
the bay-tree, which had appeared dead, again putting forth its leaves,
and its allusion to the new era of youth and joy which Lorenzo had
inaugurated, and had likened to the _Return of Spring_ after the
gloomy months of winter. Making the leading thought of his picture the
theme on Lorenzo’s standard, Botticelli paints for him the _Return of
Spring_ (the _Primavera_), perhaps the most widely admired of
all Botticelli’s pictures.
“And so Botticelli depicts for us a scene of light-hearted, youthful
joy, representing the return of spring, and by his great talent
contrives that the entire picture shall speak of Lorenzo and breathe
the very spirit of the poems in which the latter had sung of the joys
of May-time in Tuscany. Shielded from rough winds and scorching sun
by a grove of orange trees, backed by the ever-present laurel (always
representing Lorenzo from the play on the Latin form of his name,
_Laurentinus_), Queen Venus (Simonetta) stands presiding over the
return of spring to Tuscany; the Graces dance before her; from out a
laurel grove at her side the three spring months, March, April and May
(or it may be Zephyr, Fertility and Flora), come bringing flowers of
every hue; Mercury (Giuliano) scatters the clouds of winter; and the
little blind God of Love aims his arrows recklessly around.
“These pictures relating to Giuliano’s tournament could not have been
painted until some time afterwards, as in any case they could not have
been so until Politian’s poem had appeared; and they may have been
executed at any time during Lorenzo’s life. If painted, as is most
probable, subsequently to Giuliano’s death in 1578, they would remind
Lorenzo of a time of bygone joys; and would be all the more prized by
him on that account.”[9]
A few months after Giuliano’s grand tournament the beautiful Simonetta
was lying dead and three years later Giuliano was foully murdered,
victim of the Pazzi conspiracy.
In 1481 Botticelli was sent for by Pope Sixtus to assist Perugino and
Ghirlandaio in painting frescoes in the newly erected Sistine Chapel;
and when this work was completed Botticelli returned to Florence with
an added lustre to his name. It was the fashionable thing for wealthy
owners of villas to have frescoes painted in these country-houses; and
among many orders that Botticelli filled was an important series of
frescoes for Lorenzo Tornabuoni in the villa of the Tornabuoni family
(now Villa Lemmi) at Rifredi representing scenes in reference to the
marriage of Lorenzo Tornabuoni and Giovanna degli Albizzi in 1486 (see
page 68). These frescoes, recently discovered under whitewash, are now
in the Louvre.
The death of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the banishment of the Medici,
and the rule of Savonarola changed Botticelli’s life and his style of
painting. In this third period the painter of nymphs and goddesses
paints his charming and wistful Madonnas with many suggestions of Venus
and Simonetta and the grace and loveliness of the pagan world.
To the last period, when Botticelli had emerged from the Savonarola
influence, the great painter produced _Calumny_ (in the Uffizi) and the
_Nativity_ (in the National Gallery, London); and with these two works
the career of Botticelli ends.
The theory that the _Birth of Venus_, _Mars and Venus_ and the
_Primavera_ were painted for Lorenzo di Pier Francesco has been
thoroughly examined and disproved by Col. G. F. Young in his splendid
history of _The Medici_.
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN.
_Sandro Botticelli
(1444–1510)._
_Collection of
Mr. Clarence H. Mackay._
Standing behind a balustrade and looking wistfully toward the observer,
this handsome young Florentine appears at half-length with his head
inclined towards the left.
How we should like to penetrate his secret and help him away from the
melancholy mood that has overwhelmed him!
Although we see that he is a dreamer (and most probably a lute-player
as his hands might seem to indicate), something has touched him very
deeply--far too deeply to be classed as a momentary sorrow. We should
also like to know his identity. It is unlikely that it will ever be
revealed. But of one thing we can be well assured,--he is an aristocrat
and a young gentleman of wealth, for he has all the air of _savoir
faire_ and sureness of his position. We might make a guess that he
is one of the Medici family. Could it be Giuliano? Look again at the
_Madonna of the Magnificat_, at Giuliano immediately below the
bending Angel! The resemblance is quite surprising and grows stronger
as we study the two faces, only in the _Madonna of the Magnificat_
Giuliano is younger and is seen with the characteristic lock on his
forehead.
His costume in this portrait shows up well from the black background:
the coat is purplish brown edged with fur with white puffs at the
shoulders; and a red cap contrasts well with his light-yellow hair.
This picture, a tempera painting on panel (15¾ × 11¾), was long in the
Collection of Baron Arthur de Schickler in Martinvast, Normandy, where
it was attributed to Masaccio.
“There can be no question,” Berenson thinks, “that this portrait is
Botticelli’s own handiwork. The glamor it cast when I first saw it
frightened me into doubts that were dispelled directly I could study
the painting at my leisure. There is no one, using this formula and
technique, but Sandro himself who has the sinuous line, the inevitable
contours, the structural articulation, the firmness, convincingness,
and delicacy of modelling this work possesses; nobody else who could
produce a rhythm so subtly vibrant, or could give this limpid, radiant,
and ethereal coloring.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. Clarence H. Mackay_
PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN
--_Sandro Botticelli_]