criticism of the Milanese painters, “how it came to pass that Leonardo
left no disciples in Florence when he created such a strong School
in Milan. The first cause, in my opinion, should be sought for in
the laws that presided over the formation and development of the
Florentine School of painting. This School, created by fresco-painters
accustomed to works of vast dimensions, did not care to tarry over the
_finesse_ of execution, or the enumeration of minute details;
it simplified its vision, attaching itself particularly to the broad
lines and only retaining of the forms what was essentially expressive
in them. This character will be noticed at all periods of Florentine
painting from Giotto, Masaccio, Ghirlandaio, and Andrea del Sarto. When
the Florentine painters depart from this general conception, it is
only by accident and almost always in consequence of foreign action,
an action that will be sometimes that of Flemish painters, such as
Van der Weyden, or Van der Goes, and sometimes that of the Florentine
sculptors, who, at a given moment, about the middle of the Fifteenth
Century, exercised so powerful an influence upon the painters who were
their contemporaries. The action of Verrocchio in particular was such
as to transform the style of the Florentine School of Painting and to
give birth to the so entirely individual, and in certain respects so
little Florentine, of Leonardo da Vinci.
“But the fact that this new style was outside the traditions of the
Florentine School of Painting must have hindered its development, and
in reality Leonardo had no disciple in Florence. With Fra Bartolommeo
and Andrea del Sarto, it is the old character of the School that
reappears to follow out its natural evolution through the whole course
of the Sixteenth Century.
“In the North of Italy, on the contrary, the precision of line and
observation of detail form a predominant character of those Schools of
which Mantegna is the most illustrious representative. These Schools,
therefore, found in Leonardo a teaching that responded to their ancient
traditions; and we may thus understand how the seed planted by Leonardo
in the soil of Milan struck such deep root and produced such beautiful
flowers there.
“But however this may be and whatever may have been the causes of
this admirable blossoming of Milanese Art in the early years of the
Sixteenth Century, we may say that it represents in a highly learned
form one of the researches that have the most occupied Italian
genius,--I mean the seeking after beauty pursued in the harmonious
accord between form and poetry.”
Francesco Squarcione (1394–1474), was a native of Padua, the son of a
notary. Beginning life as a tailor and embroiderer, he chose to become
a painter, but first he decided to travel. He made a tour through
Italy and, it is said, visited Greece. It is in 1441 that his name
first appears in the Paduan Guild of Painters. Squarcione achieved
more reputation as a teacher than as a painter; and it seems that in
executing what commissions came to him he either gave over his orders
to his talented pupils, or had them, indeed, do most of the work under
his name. It is now thought that it was Mantegna’s refusal to continue
painting for Squarcione that led to the rupture between master and
pupil and not Squarcione’s anger at Mantegna’s marrying Nicolosia
Bellini, which has long been a favorite legend. Squarcione’s school,
however, was the most famous of its time and brought him the title of
“Father of Painters.” The list of his pupils runs to about a hundred
and thirty-seven. One of the features of Squarcione’s workshop was his
fine collection of fragments of statues which he used as models. It is
also said on good authority that Squarcione was a dealer in antiquities.
In Padua also lived Jacopo Bellini, with whom Mantegna worked and
whose daughter Nicolosia he married, a relation that made him, of
course, brother-in-law to Giovanni and Gentile Bellini. For a number of
years--presumably from 1444 to 1460--Jacopo Bellini had a workshop in
Mantua and, here, himself a pupil of Gentile da Fabriano, he trained
and worked with his two gifted sons and also Andrea Mantegna. This
_bottega_ became quite a rival of Squarcione’s. Indeed such a
combination as the three Bellini artists and Andrea Mantegna would
certainly offer a formidable competition to any rival, at any time, or
in any place.
The founder of the Ferrarese School was Cosimo Tura (1420?–1495), also
a pupil of Squarcione, the first Ferrarese painter of eminence; and,
from 1451, in permanent service of the Dukes at Ferrara. Tura had
certain affinities for Carlo Crivelli, Melozzo da Forli, and Andrea
Mantegna.
At Bologna, in 1485, Lorenzo Costa (1460?–1535), a supposed pupil of
Tura, established himself, thus forming one of the main links between
the Schools of Ferrara and Bologna; and it was another pupil--also a
fellow-worker of Costa, Francesco Francia (1450?–1517), who is the
chief glory of the Bolognese School (see page 107).
In Verona, first comes the Mediæval painter, Altichiero Altichieri
and next the greater Antonio (or Vittore) Pisano (1397–1455), called
Pisanello, worker in medals, painter of portraits, and mural decorator
(see page 99).
The School of Brescia is represented by Alessandro Bonvicino, called
Moretto da Brescia (1498–1554), influenced by Titian and Raphael and
considered the greatest provincial painter in Northern Italy of his
time. Moretto is also famous for having formed Moroni, the great
portrait-painter (1520–5–1578). Moretto and Moroni are regarded as
ranking among the greatest portrait-painters of the Sixteenth Century.
In mode and technique they closely follow the greatest Venetian
Masters; but the Brecians have a more silvery and a much “cooler” tone
than Titian and Tintoretto (see page 112).
We have now come to the High Renaissance, where Antonio Allegri,
called Il Correggio, from his birthplace, a small town near Modena
(1494–1534), is the dominating personality of the School of Parma.
Francesco Bianchi (1457–1510), of Ferrara, is his traditional master;
but he was influenced by Lorenzo Costa, Francesco Francia, and Andrea
Mantegna. Correggio has been called “an isolated phenomenon in Italian
art--we look in vain, after his earliest years of practice for any true
affinity between him and other masters. In his treatment of light and
shades and of atmosphere he contributed something new to Italian art.”
As the Sixteenth Century progressed the North Italians fell more and
more under the spell of the Venetians. Dosso Dossi (1479–1541), for
instance, a painter of Ferrara and a pupil of Lorenzo Costa, went
to Venice and was charmed by Giorgione and Titian before he became
court-painter of Alphonso I, Duke of Ferrara, and his wife, Lucrezia
Borgia.
Northern Italy also claims Paolo Caliari, better known as Paolo
Veronese (1528–1588), a native of Verona, whence his name; but classed
with the Venetian School, as he spent the greater part of his life in
Venice, gorgeously decorating its palaces, churches, and monasteries.
PORTRAIT OF A LADY.
_Pisanello
(1397–1455)._
_Collection of
Mr. Clarence H. Mackay._
This is a particularly rare picture as it is one of only three
portraits of this painter so far known, the other two being a female
portrait in the Louvre and a male portrait in Bergamo. Berenson says of
this portrait: “It is in the most mature and the most sumptuous manner
of this greatest master of the fascinating epoch between Gothic and
Renaissance. It has all the direct simplicity of that happy moment when
art had recovered from the mannerisms of the late Gothic style and was
still far from the modishness of the ripe Renaissance. How fascinating
are its qualities of pure decoration!”
The lady is dressed in dark-blue velvet with a curious collar of
white lawn and grey fur with another collar at its base of spangled
embroidery and around the waist a narrow girdle to match. The dress is
profusely decorated with gold filigree beads.
Gold pins are placed in her blonde hair, over which is a head-dress
of curiously puffed and twisted material decorated by blue and gold
sequins.
The background is black.
This portrait, painted in tempera on a panel (20¾ × 14¾), was
purchased by M. Veil-Picard of Paris at the Villeroy Sale in Paris
in 1922. Adolfo Venturi writes in _L’Arte_ (April, 1925): “The
Mackay portrait cut off below the waist, rises in the canvas with
Gothic grace. Picturesqueness is the keynote. The relief, even in
its slightest parts, has an ideal softness of planes. But in this
picture Pisanello’s genius has attained its maximum of expression.
Everything shows an advance on the Louvre picture--the eye sunk deep
in its socket; the eyebrow like the valve of a shell molded over the
round, while in the Louvre picture it is a mere silken strip; the ear,
no longer a mere piece of cartilage, is downy velvet; above all, the
superb decorative effect of the oval face between the strange volutes
of the turban and the chains of perforated gold beads.
“In the other portraits the decorative effect is helped by the
fantastic blossoms standing out against the dark background of the
hedge, making a greater contrast with the background than with the
face. In the Mackay portrait the background is equally dark throughout.
The interest of the face itself is accentuated by the myriad gold
lights in the gilded trefoils on the dress and in the golden beads of
the chains (light as balls of silk) and in the nebulous phosphorescence
of the little balls which adorn the neck of the dress and the dark
enamel of the ivy on the turban of Oriental splendor. The effect,
carefully prepared to isolate the face from the surrounding shadow,
acquires an intensity of refinement. The contrast between the dark
background and the phosphorescent dress is repeated in that between the
dark blue material of the dress and in the high lights of this; the
icy brilliance of the collar cuts into the softness of the fur with
unexpected suddenness; and the ivory of the flesh contrasts sharply
with the delicate softness of tone.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. Clarence H. Mackay_
PORTRAIT OF A LADY
--_Pisanello_]
“The highest pictorial and decorative value in the art of Pisanello
as a colorist is reached in this Mackay portrait, which represents,
moreover, one of the most acute character-readings of the penetrating
eye of the medallist. The proud carriage accentuated by the rigid cut
of the high velvet collar; the clear-cut outlines of the profile; the
ram’s horn head-dress; the splendid cap; the well-defined lips, from
which one expects to hear the sibilant breath issue; above all, the
keen glance directed downwards under the heavy-veiled eyelids render
this a picture of frigid haughtiness. The fine lines of the mouth and
the narrow opening of the eyes are executed with an extraordinary
penetrating observation and the contour of the face is drawn with a
delicacy that does all honor to this great master of the silhouette.
“The lines of the face are in complete harmony with the contours
of the whole figure. The curves repeat themselves in the fantastic
coiffure, in the fur border of the collar, in the lines of the arm
and in the chains hanging from the shoulders. And, contrarily, these
general sweeping curves of coiffure and costume lead up to the finely
concentrated line of the profile which stands out sharply against a
black background, as in Pisanello’s painting of _Saint Eustace_,
in London (National Gallery). The artist has understood perfectly the
value of contrast between the plastic and the decorative elements.
The flat planes of the delicate ivory-like face are emphasized by the
sculpturesque coiffure with its gold ornaments; and just where we would
naturally look for an accentuation of the physical attributes--on the
bust and arms--the artist has, through the broad curves of the chains
and the spacing of the patterns of the dress, emphasized the decorative
design. Finally, the color of this most decorative masterpiece is
of the greatest charm. There are tiny lines recalling the delicate
technique of a piece of Satsuma-ware on the surface of the ivory-tinted
face that rises from a white collar resting on grey fur while a
delightful blue predominates in the coiffure and the costume, which is
enhanced with yellow and gold ornaments.
“The dress itself is of no little charm and belongs to a period
when costume and figure were attuned to a harmonious whole as has
seldom happened in the history of costume design. By plucking out the
hair from her forehead and eyebrows this young woman has created a
high-domed brow for herself and further emphasized the up-sweeping
lines by high-arched eyebrows applied with cosmetic. What a burden that
towering coiffure must have been and how uncomfortable the high collar
and the girdle drawn tight beneath the breast! Nevertheless she suffers
these discomforts in the name of fashion with dignity and equanimity.”
Pisanello (whose real name was Antonio Pisano), born about 1397
(some authorities say 1380 and some 1385), was a renowned painter of
portraits and religious pictures of highly decorative character as
well as a famous medallist. Pisanello was a follower of Altichiero and
was also greatly influenced by Gentile da Fabriano. Of his early life
little or nothing is known; but the rest of his days he spent wandering
throughout Italy, now in Mantua, now in Verona, now in Venice, now in
Rome, now in Naples, and now in Ferrara, cutting medals and painting
portraits of distinguished personages. In 1439 he was in Mantua as an
intimate friend of the Marchese Francesco Gonzaga, whom he followed
at the capture of Verona. Therefore he had to come under the Tribunal
of the Council of Ten at Venice in 1442. Pisanello’s career coincides
almost precisely in date with Fra Angelico, Donatello, Ghiberti, and
Brunelleschi. As a medallist Pisanello was unexcelled. In his paintings
he shows the spirit of a miniaturist rather than that of a mural
decorator. He shares with Gentile da Fabriano the charming quality
of chivalric grace and attention to interesting detail. Pisanello
must have been especially fond of animals, as his rarely beautiful
drawings of them preserved in various galleries would seem to prove;
and, moreover, he was fond of introducing them into his pictures. In
the _Vision of Saint Eustace_, for instance (National Gallery,
London), in addition to the stag bearing the cross upon his horns,
there are various animals and birds as well as the fine horse with its
gay trappings, on which the handsome Eustace is mounted.
“Altichiero had scarcely ceased covering wall-spaces with pomp and
circumstance of Mediæval life,” writes Berenson, “when the task was
taken up by his better-known Renaissance follower, Vittorio Pisanello.
The larger part of this artist’s work, in fact all his decoration
of great houses and public palaces, has perished. Even now, after
earnest efforts to gather together the strewn limbs of his art, only
six paintings of his can be discovered: two frescoes, two sacred
subjects, and two portraits. His renown as a painter has, therefore,
been eclipsed by his fame as a medallist. And, in truth, never, since
the days when Greek craftsmen modelled coins for proud city states, has
there been such a moulder of subtle reliefs in miniature. Yet Pisanello
himself never signed his name without the addition of the word
_Pictor_ and it was as a painter that he received the stipends of
princes and the adulation of poets.
“Although he was much more modern than his master, there was nothing in
his paintings to startle princes and poets, or even less distinguished
persons, whose education in art consisted then, no doubt, as it does
now, in confirming a fondness for the kind of picture to which their
eyes had grown accustomed during childhood and youth. Pisanello,
although counting as one of the great geniuses of the Renaissance,
by no means broke with the past. He went, it is true, as far beyond
Altichiero as Altichiero had gone from his immediate precursors, but
he betrays no essential difference of intention or spirit. In him
art-evolution produced a painter most happily fitted to hold up an
idealizing mirror to a parallel product of social evolution, the sunset
of Chivalry. No wonder that he was employed along with the kindred
Gentile da Fabriano by the rich and noble and that he was chosen to
continue the courtly Umbrian’s tasks.”
ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS.
_Andrea Mantegna
(1431–1506)._
_Collection of
Mr. Clarence H. Mackay._
It is more than likely this is the picture described in 1586 as
“_Presepe_” (manger) in the Este Palace, Ferrara. At all events it
is an early work.
The Virgin surrounded by cherubs is kneeling in adoration before
the Holy Child, who is asleep on the bottom of her gown. Near her
St. Joseph is seated, fast asleep. On the right two Shepherds are
approaching and, behind them, a Man and a Woman are crossing a bridge.
High up on the rocks, on the right, two Angels are watching over the
scene. Behind the simple wooden building, which shelters the group,
stretches a landscape.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. Clarence H. Mackay_
ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS
--_Andrea Mantegna_]
The panel transferred to canvas (15 × 21½ inches), was formerly in
the Collection of Mr. C. A. Rouse-Boughton-Knight of Downton Castle,
Ludlow, Herefordshire, England.
Andrea Mantegna was born in Vicenza in 1431. He was inscribed in the
Guild at Padua as pupil and adopted son of Squarcione (see page 97) in
1441 and made the most extraordinary progress in his studies, perfectly
fascinated with “the antique”. “At a little more than ten years of
age,” Berenson writes, “Mantegna was adopted by a contractor named
Squarcione. How much of a painter Squarcione was, we do not know, but
we do know that he undertook designing and painting to be executed by
people in his employ. He was also a dealer in antiquities and his shop
was frequented by the distinguished people who passed through Padua,
and by the Humanists teaching in the famous University. It happened
to be a moment when in Italy Antiquity was a religion, nay, more, a
mystical passion, causing wise men to brood over fragments of Roman
statuary as if they were sacred relics, and to yearn for ecstatic union
with the glorified past. To complete the spell, this glorified past
happened to be the past of their own country.”
Another influence was Donatello, who was working in Padua in 1750
and after; and still another was Jacopo Bellini. After his marriage
to Bellini’s daughter and his break with Squarcione, Mantegna went
to Venice to have his contract with Squarcione cancelled in the Law
Courts; and, returning to Padua, he continued his work on important
frescoes. In 1460 Mantegna removed to the Court of Mantua at the
invitation of the Marchese Lodovico Gonzaga and in addition to his
painting he designed for pageants and festivals, and decorated villas
and palaces, just as Leonardo da Vinci was destined to do a few years
later for another Lodovico,--“Il Moro,” Regent and, later, Duke of
Milan. Mantegna also at this period designed for goldsmiths. When
Francesco Gonzaga succeeded his father, Mantegna remained at the Court
of Mantua and became the supreme arbiter of the taste of the day.
For Francesco’s wife, Isabella d’Este (sister of “Il Moro’s” wife,
Beatrice d’Este) and for her mother, the Duchess of Ferrara, Mantegna
painted some of his most famous pictures, such as the _Triumph of
Cæsar_ (now at Hampton Court Palace) and the _Madonna and Child
with Singing Cherubs_ (now in the Brera). On leaving for Rome in
1788 Mantegna was knighted. In Rome he decorated the Belvedere Chapel
for Pope Innocent VIII. To his last period belong delicate and lovely
mythological pieces, including the _Parnassus_ (now in the Louvre)
and the strong and decorative painting of _Judith with the Head of
Holofernes_ (now in the Widener Collection).
When Mantegna died in 1506, Lorenzo da Pavia (see page 95) wrote to
Isabella d’Este: “The death of our Master Andrea causes me great
sorrow, for in him a second Apelles has passed away; I do believe that
the Lord God wishes to employ him for the creation of some beautiful
work. I can never hope to meet a finer draughtsman nor a more original
artist.”
Padua, Mantua, Venice,--all felt Mantegna’s influence.
VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH THE INFANT ST. JOHN AND ANGEL.
_Francia
(1450?–1517)._
_Collection of
Mr. Clarence H. Mackay._
This picture came from the Collection of the Comtesse Edmond de
Pourtales of Paris and shows the Virgin seated and holding the nude
Infant Jesus on her right knee. She is wearing a crimson dress
edged with gold embroidery and a blue mantle, also edged with gold
embroidery, which is drawn over her head. Beneath this a white gauze
veil covers her hair. The Holy Child has raised His right hand in
benediction while in His left he holds a blue ball. The Angel on the
right wears a rose-colored tunic and yellow mantle and is adorned with
jewels. By his side and with one foot on a balustrade stands the Infant
St. John, dressed in blue and carrying a slender cross over his left
shoulder.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. Clarence H. Mackay_
VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH THE INFANT ST. JOHN AND ANGEL
--_Francia_]
Of this panel (23½ × 19¾ inches), painted in oil, Berenson says:
“If this most famous of the Bolognese artists ever painted a more
delightful picture than the present one, it remains unknown to me.
Perhaps its only rival in my affections would be the Munich picture
of the _Virgin in the Rose Garden_ where, however, it is not the
faces but the pale roses against the flat green that give the work its
special charm.”
Francesco Raibolini, who took the name Francia from a master-goldsmith
to whom he was apprenticed, was born in Bologna in 1450, the son of
a carpenter. He spent his early years working in metals and settings
for jewels and became very expert in _niello_, gold and silver
enamels, and designs for jewelry. He also acquired a reputation for his
coins and medals, so much so indeed that Giovanni Bentivoglio II, who
became his patron, appointed him his master of the mint. Moreover, in
1511 Francia was elected one of the _Golfalonieri_ of the people;
in 1512 re-elected to the mastership of the Goldsmith’s Guild; and in
1514 he became “Master of the Four Arts.” It is thought that he began
to paint about 1483, when Lorenzo Costa came to Bologna and formed a
friendship with Francia. Be this as it may, he worked with Costa on an
altar-piece for the Church of the Misericordia and the influence of
Costa is apparent in much of his work. Francia also painted with Costa
in 1505–1507 the series of frescoes in the Chapel of St. Cecilia and
the _Madonna del Terremoto_ in the Palazzo Communale, Bologna.
Francia painted Madonnas all his life; and in addition to these
religious pictures, he painted a number of splendid portraits. He died
in Bologna in 1517. One of his pupils was Timoteo Viti, who in turn was
Raphael’s early teacher and imparted to him some of Francia’s quality,
particularly in the general appearance of the Madonna and the full
rounded contours of the figures. About 1500 Francia began to develop
his own personal style.
PORTRAIT OF A LADY.
_Bernardino Luini
(1475?–1531–2)._
_Collection of the
Hon. Andrew W. Mellon._
The first thing we notice in this picture is a very peculiar
head-dress--large and round and fleecy.
The figure is half-length, life-size, and faces us so that we gain
a very good idea of the unknown lady, so boldly set forth from the
background of a green curtain. She wears a dark-grey dress, a white
embroidered _chemisette_ and a jewelled cross hanging from a
gold chain which she is fingering lightly. In her right hand is a pet
marten. The hands, it should be noted, are beautifully drawn. This,
an oil painting on panel (29 × 21½), came from the Benson Collection,
having been previously in the Collection of Mr. F. R. Leyland.