mountains, to meet the Emperor Maximilian, who was on his way home from
Milan to Vienna; and the place pleased her so much that she obtained
from the Doge, Agostino Barbarigo, the investiture of Asolo and its
district. A few months later--in October 1489--Caterina returned to
Asolo with a suite of four thousand persons and established a Court in
the Castle, where she lived for twenty-one years, protected by troops
granted to her by the Republic of Venice. In this beautiful residence
Caterina was said to have held three Courts--that of the Muses; that
of Love; and that of her own, which was of great magnificence. The
leading spirit there was the celebrated poet, Pietro Bembo, (in later
years Cardinal Bembo), who wrote his famous dialogues of love, _Gli
Asolani_, here in 1490, for the superb marriage festivities of one
of Caterina’s maids-of-honor. Every illustrious personage of the period
visited the Court at Asolo.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. John Ringling_
CATERINA CORNARO
QUEEN OF CYPRUS
--_Titian_]
During the wars occasioned by the League of Cambrai (1508), Caterina
returned for safety to Venice and died there in 1510, in the palace of
her brother, Giorgio, who was then procurator of St. Mark’s.
Titian painted several other portraits of Caterina Cornaro, of which
the one in the Uffizi is the most famous, representing the Queen
of Cyprus with her golden crown studded with large pearls and an
over-dress or coat of rich green brocade.
GIORGIO CORNARO WITH FALCON.
_Titian
(1489–1576)._
_Collection of
Mr. A. W. Erickson._
We have here a famous Venetian statesman and general of the Sixteenth
Century, beloved brother of Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus (see page
143), representing him probably in the habit he liked best of all--that
of a sportsman with his pet falcon. Here he stands, three quarters to
the right, in a slate-colored hunting coat with brown fur collar and
with a black belt at the waist from which hangs a sword, bound with a
crimson sash. His curly hair and beard are chestnut color and his eyes
are very bright. His head is raised and he looks intently at his falcon
perched upon his left gloved hand, with hood, bill and jacket attached,
and with his right hand grasps the bird’s breast.
From the left hand corner the head of a white, liver-spotted hound
looks up. The background is dark. The painting, an oil on canvas (43
× 38 inches) was formerly in the Collections of the Carignan branch
of the Royal House of Piedmont; Louis François de Bourbon, Prince de
Conti; the Earl of Carlisle, Castle Howard, Yorkshire, England; and Dr.
Edward Simon, Berlin. Crowe and Cavalcaselle in their _Life and Times
of Titian_ (London, 1881) say of this work: “Titian never produced a
finer picture than which now adorns the gallery of Castle Howard. This
beautiful work is modelled with all the richness of tone and smoothness
of surface which distinguishes polished flesh. The attitude is natural,
the complexion warm and embrowned by the sun; and every part is blended
with the utmost finish without producing want of flexibility.”
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. A. W. Erickson_
GIORGIO CORNARO WITH FALCON
--_Titian_]
Giorgio Cornaro succeeded his father, Marco Cornaro in 1479, he being
about twenty-five. Italian historians are fond of attributing the
Victory of Cadore to Giorgio Cornaro, who lived until 1527, having
played an important part all his life in Venetian politics.
MAXIMILIAN SFORZA, DUKE OF MILAN.
_Bartolommeo Veneto
(1480–1555)._
_Collection of
Mr. Henry Goldman._
This portrait, oil on panel (30⅞ × 23¼ inches), was formerly in the
Palazzo Sforza and later hung in the Casa Perego, Milan, until the
entire Casa Perego Collection was bought in the early Nineteenth
Century by Senator Crespi of Rome, in whose gallery it remained until
the Crespi Collection was sold. It is doubly interesting as a work of
art and as the representation of an important character in Italian
history. Bernhard Berenson calls it “one of the most manly portraits
and one of the most beautiful paintings of the Italian Renaissance.”
The half-length figure is seen almost full front, but the head is
turned slightly to the left. All the Italian Renaissance seems to be
expressed in this proud, distinguished person and in his rich dress,
which consists of a coat of green velvet trimmed with bands of gold,
a finely embroidered white shirt, black waistcoat with horizontal
gold stripes and a rich fur collar, which he clasps with his right
hand on the index finger of which is a handsome ring. His dark hair
falls to the shoulders and is surmounted by a black velvet cap, on the
side of which is a gold and enamelled medal showing an allegorical
female figure with the date 1512, of the kind that all the fashionable
gentlemen were wearing at that period. A red curtain falls behind the
figure and on the wall hangs a picture in which are introduced figures
from Dürer’s famous woodcut, _The Knight and the Lansquenet_.
In front of the sitter is a narrow ledge, or balustrade, with a card
in the centre, which originally carried the signature of Bartolommeo
Veneto.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. Henry Goldman_
MAXIMILIAN SFORZA
--_Bartolommeo Veneto_]
Maximilian Sforza was the son of Ludovico Sforza, “Il Moro,” Duke of
Milan, the most illustrious prince of Italy, and Beatrice d’Este, one
of the most fascinating and brilliant women of the Italian Renaissance.
Maximilian was born on January 25, 1493, in the Castello of Milan, and
was named Ercole out of compliment to his grandfather, Duke Ercole of
Ferrara. He was brought up in the most brilliant of Courts and his
education and training were of the very best. His mother was devoted
to him and constantly mentions him in her letters. Ercole appears in
the great altar-piece attributed to Zenale, now in the Brera, kneeling
by the side of his father. The portrait of this little child must be a
good one, for we see the same face grown older in the Veneto portrait
before us. On the altar-piece, just mentioned, Ercole’s younger
brother kneels by the side of Beatrice d’Este. It was during a visit
of the Emperor Maximilian to Ludovico and his wife in 1496 that Ercole
received his new name. The Emperor, again charmed by Beatrice, took
great interest in her two sons and requested that the elder should be
called Maximilian.
But the brilliant days passed and sorrows came. The beautiful, gifted
mother died in January, 1497, and the French invaded Milan. Ludovico
determined to seek safety in flight and sent his two sons to Germany
under the care of his brother, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, Cardinal
Sanseverino, and their kinswoman, Camilla Sforza. “A truly piteous and
heart-breaking sight it was,” wrote an eye-witness, “to see these poor
children embrace their beloved father, whose face was wet with their
tears.” Twenty mules laden with baggage and a large chariot drawn by
eight horses and containing Ludovico’s precious jewels and 240,000
gold ducats followed in the train of the young princes. These young
gentlemen never saw their father again, for “Il Moro” was captured,
taken to Paris, and imprisoned in the castle of Loches, where he died
in 1508.
An Italian writer, Marino Sanuto, exclaimed on the terrible fate of
Ludovico: “Only think, reader, what grief and shame so great and
glorious a lord, who had been held to be the wisest of monarchs and
ablest of rulers, must have felt at losing so splendid a state in these
few days, without a single stroke of the sword. Let those who are in
high places take warning, considering the miserable fall of this lord,
who was held by many to be the greatest prince in the world, and let
them remember that when Fortune sets you on the top of her wheel, she
may at any moment bring you to the ground.”
The rest of the story is well told in Mrs. Cartwright’s _Beatrice
d’Este_ (London, 1889):
“Meanwhile Beatrice’s sons grew up at Innsbrück, under the care of
their cousin, the Empress Bianca. It was a melancholy life for these
young princes, born in the purple and reared in all the luxury and
culture of Milan. And when their cousin, Bianca, died in 1510, they
lost their best friend. But a sudden and unexpected turn of the tide
brought them once more to the front. That warlike pontiff, Julius II,
who, as Cardinal della Rovere, had been one of the chief instruments in
bringing the French into Italy, entered into a league with Maximilian
to expel them and reinstate the son of the hated Moro on the throne of
Milan. They succeeded so well that in 1512, four years after Ludovico’s
death at Loches, young Maximilian Sforza entered Milan in triumph
amidst the enthusiastic applause of the people. Once more he rode
up to the gates of the Castello, where he was born, and took up his
abode there as reigning duke. But his rule over Lombardy was short.
A handsome, gentle youth, without either his father’s talents or his
mother’s high spirit, Maximilian was destined to become a passive
tool in the hands of stronger and more powerful men. His weakness and
incapacity soon became apparent, and when, three years later, the new
French King, Francis I, invaded the Milanese and defeated the Italian
army at Marignano, the young duke signed an act of abdication and
consented to spend the rest of his life in France. There he lived in
honorable captivity, content with a pension allowed him by King Francis
and with the promise of a Cardinal’s hat held out to him by the Pope,
until he died in May, 1530.”
Bartolommeo Veneto (or Bartolommeo Veneziano), born in 1480, was a
pupil of Giovanni Bellini, whose influence is apparent in Veneto’s
early pictures. In 1506–1508 Veneto was painting for Lucrezia Borgia in
Ferrara and after that he was engaged at the Court of Milan, where he
painted this portrait of _Maximilian Sforza_. The picture bears
the date 1512, which was the year the young Duke returned to Milan.
Bartolommeo Veneto was famous for his portraits. He lived for sometime
in Lombardy and, like all the painters of the time and place, fell
under the influence of Leonardo da Vinci. As the last trace of him
appears on a portrait in the Uffizi, dated 1555, it is supposed that
Veneto died in that year.
A SCENE ALONG THE ADRIATIC COAST.
_Francesco Guardi
(1712–1793)._
_Collection of
Mrs. Charles B. Alexander._
Guardi, a pupil of Canaletto, devoted himself to the study of his
native city, Venice, where he was born in 1712 and where he painted
steadily until his death in 1793. Guardi ranks with Canaletto and
Turner as one of the three greatest painters of the “Dream City” as
Charles Dickens called Venice. In Guardi’s long list of pictures we
have a perfect history in paint of the “Queen of the Adriatic” during
the Eighteenth Century. There are innumerable views of the Grand Canal;
of both the exterior and the interior of San Marco; of San Giorgio, the
Salute, San Zaccaria, and other churches; of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi
(the German banking-house); the Doges Palace; the Piazza and the
Piazzetta; scenes on the outlying islands; views on the Lagoons; and
pictures of processions of the Doges and of festivals of the church.
The picture presented here shows a scene outside of Venice, but not far
away; and it is a beautiful and characteristic work of Guardi, both as
to composition and color. The painting came from the Collection of the
Baron Maurice de Rothschild of Paris to its present owner, Mrs. Charles
B. Alexander of New York.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mrs. Charles B. Alexander_
A SCENE ALONG THE ADRIATIC COAST
--_Francesco Guardi_]
FLEMISH PAINTING
_FLEMISH PAINTING_
Flemish Painting in the Fourteenth Century was based on the
miniature-painting that illustrated the Mediæval manuscripts: indeed,
many of the early paintings look like enlarged versions of the little
pictures that adorn the vellum pages of missals and old _romans_.
The early painters were influenced by the School of Cologne until
the two Van Eycks (Hubert, 1366–1426, and Jan, 1380–1441), by their
marvellous painting and by the followers they attracted, raised Flemish
Art into importance and gave it a standing by itself as the School of
Bruges.
Little is known of the lives of these painters except that they stood
high in the favor of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, who frequently
sent Jan on missions to foreign countries, and that the brothers
painted the great and famous altar-piece, the _Adoration of the Lamb_,
for the Cathedral of St. Bavon in Ghent. This great work, which is
one of the most celebrated of all altar-pieces, is a landmark in the
history of painting. It may be said to have inaugurated the Flemish
School; and it marks an innovation as well. This _Adoration of the
Lamb_ was ordered by Jodocus Vydts, a burgomaster of Ghent, and his
wife, Isabella Borluut, for their mortuary chapel in the Cathedral of
St. Bavon; and Van Mander relates that when it was finished “swarms of
people” came to gaze upon it; but, as the wings were closed except on
special festivals, “few but the high-born and those who could afford
to pay the _custos_ saw it.” It must be remembered that at this period
changes were also taking place in Italy under Gentile de Fabriano,
Pisanello, and Masaccio. Whether the Van Eycks invented oil-painting or
not, they had much to do with perfecting the process and influencing
others to the use of the new method.
The Van Eycks had as pupils and followers all the Flemish and German
painters of the day and their influence was even felt in Italy, where
their pictures sold for their weight in gold.
In 1425 Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, took Jan van Eyck into his
service as painter and “_varlet de chambre_;” and Jan, thereafter,
seems to have spent his life at the Court, painting portraits and
designing variously, going on embassies for the Duke, and painting in
Bruges and in Lille. As a portrait-painter Jan van Eyck is ranked with
Dürer, Holbein, Raphael, Titian, Van Dyck, and the other great ones in
this line. Undoubtedly, Jan van Eyck moved about a good deal through
the Duke of Burgundy’s immense domain, which included all the Low
Countries and a great part of what is now France.
We are apt to think of these early painters who laid the foundations
of modern art as living in a much simpler day than our own. It is true
that in the Fifteenth Century the Middle Ages were still holding their
own in Flanders--the Renaissance moved very slowly northward--but it
was a time of great prosperity and great luxury, especially in the
Burgundian country.
Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, son of the King of France, was the
most luxurious prince of his time. His titles show his power. He was
Duke of Burgundy, of Brabant, of Lothier and of Luxembourg; Count
of Flanders, of Artois, and of Burgundy; Palatine of Hainault, of
Holland, of Zeeland, of Namur, and of Charolais; Marquis of the Holy
Empire; and Lord of Friesland, of Salins, and of Mechlin. The House of
Burgundy, therefore, by its inheritances, alliances and conquests, had
attained such power as even to overshadow the French throne. Philip
the Good (1396–1467) was even more luxurious than his grandfather,
Philip the Bold. His Court was unequalled in Europe and was subject to
the strictest rules of etiquette. His palaces in Brussels, Dijon, and
Paris were sumptuously furnished and his collections of tapestries,
gold-work, silver-work, jewels, embroideries, illuminated manuscripts,
and printed books excited the admiration of such travellers and
chroniclers as were privileged to see them and who, fortunately for us,
have left accounts for us to read. At this period, too, the Flemings
were the great craftsmen of Europe and they produced every kind of
article required for the tastes and comfort of the wealthy Burgundians.
Brussels and Dijon became veritable Meccas for Mediæval artists, while
Bruges, Tournay, Arras, Ypres, Ghent, and Dinant held a welcome for any
able craftsman or artist, who, driven from England, France, or Italy by
the civil wars, sought refuge and work.
And there was plenty of work to be done!
Artistic designs of all kinds were needed for tapestry-workers, for
the goldsmiths and silversmiths, for the furniture-makers, and for
craftsmen busy in making articles for household use or for personal
decoration. Moreover, for the great entertainments, such as weddings,
receptions of princes, or celebrations in honor of the Knights of the
Golden Fleece, and other important functions, a veritable army of
painters, sculptors, illuminators, carvers, and machinists was needed
to design, plan, and execute the _entremets_ exhibited during the
banquets and the grand decorations erected in the streets through which
the processions passed.
We shall gain a better idea of the spirit of early Flemish Art if we
pause for a moment to look into the palace at Lille, in 1454, when
Philip the Good was celebrating the “Feast of the Pheasant.” The large
hall was hung with tapestry representing the _Labors of Hercules_.
The _dressoir_ of enormous size was adorned with magnificent gold
and silver vessels and there were three large tables, splendidly laden
with viands artistically decorated. One of the guests wrote: “On a
raised platform at the head of the first table sat the Duke. He was
arrayed in his accustomed splendor--his dress of black velvet serving
as a dark ground that heightened the brilliancy of the precious stones,
valued at a million of gold crowns, with which it was profusely decked.
Among the guests was a numerous body of knights, who had passed the
morning in the tilting-field, and fair Flemish ladies, whose flaunting
beauty had inspired these martial sports. Each course was composed of
forty-four dishes, which were placed on chariots painted in gold and
azure and which were moved along the tables by concealed machinery.
As soon as the company was seated, the bells began to peal from the
steeple of a huge pastry church with stained windows that concealed an
organ and choir of singers; and three little choristers issued from the
edifice and sang a very sweet _chanson_. Twenty-eight musicians,
hidden in a mammoth pie,[19] performed on various instruments and the
fine viands and wines were circulated.”
After the exhibition of _entremets_, the _pheasant_ was brought in, the
Crusade proclaimed against the Sultan, and the vows registered.
It is safe to conjecture that Hubert and Jan van Eyck were among the
painters who were employed to design the _entremets_, triumphal
arches, and curiosities executed in pastry and in confections made of
sugar, as well as to paint portraits of distinguished Flemings and
altar-pieces for their churches.
The Flemish Primitives certainly had many occasions to feast their eyes
upon magnificence!
John Paston, who went to Bruges to attend Charles the Bold’s second
marriage in 1468 to Margaret of York, was overwhelmed and dazed by
what he saw. “Nothing was like it save King Arthur’s Court,” he
wrote home. The streets were hung with tapestries and cloth-of-gold,
triumphal arches were erected and at intervals along her way the bride
was entertained by “Histories,” the joint production of painters,
decorators, dramatists, and machinists. The banquet-hall was superbly
decorated and the chroniclers say “lighted by chandeliers in the form
of castles surrounded by forest and mountains with revolving paths on
which serpents, dragons, and other monstrous animals seemed to roam
in search of prey, spouting forth jets of flame that were reflected
in huge mirrors, so arranged as to catch and multiply the rays. The
dishes containing the principal meats were ships, seven feet long and
completely rigged, the masts and cordage gilt, the sails and streamers
of silk, each floating in a silver lake between shores of verdure and
enamelled rocks and attended by a fleet of boats laden with lemons,
oranges, and condiments. There were thirty of these vessels and as many
huge pastries in the shape of castles with banners waving from their
battlements and towers; besides tents and pavilions for the fruit;
jelly-dishes of crystal supported by figures of the same material
dispensing streams of lavender and rose-water; and an immense profusion
of gold and silver plate.”
When Charles the Bold was killed on the battlefield of Nancy (1477),
a New Era was about to dawn. America was soon to be discovered; Vasco
da Gama was to find an ocean route to the East Indies; the Moors
were to be expelled from Spain; the Wars of the Roses were to end in
England; Ferdinand and Isabella were to marry their daughter, the “mad
Joanna,” to Philip the Fair of Austria, heir through his mother, Mary
of Burgundy, to the Burgundian dominions (the issue being Charles V,
born in Ghent in 1500). Of still more importance to the world of Art
than these important events was the discovery of Italy by the French,
who crossed the Alps with Charles VIII. The French were dazzled by what
they saw in Italy. On their return the Renaissance in France and the
Netherlands may be said to have begun to blossom. _The ground had
already been prepared by the art-loving Dukes of Burgundy._
Let us return, however, to the Bruges painters:
“The rise of the School was aided by the Fourteenth Century Art of
Cologne best shown in the work of Meister Wilhelm. The Art of the
movement was, for the period, strongly realistic. Natural objects
were painted with the utmost fidelity, interest in still-life and
_genre_ begin to appear, and details of architecture and landscape
were rendered as carefully as the heads of the most sacred personages
in the compositions. So pronounced was this tendency that superficial
observers are led to consider Flemish painting fundamentally material;
but a thoughtful analysis will reveal a spirituality in the art quite
as sincere, if not so obvious, as in the painting of contemporary
Italy. In the early School, the painting was almost wholly religious,
and scenes and actors were handled with reverence and deep feeling.
“The Flemings, however, inherited from earlier art a religious type
to which they clung with great tenacity and which to the modern eye
is ugly. The exaggeratedly-domed forehead of the Madonna, a symbol of
intellect to the Fleming, is to the modern a distortion. Similarly the
tiny mouth, the eyes almost without brows,[20] and the other features
which Flemish symbolism demanded, are now somewhat disturbing to
the eye. When native realism and symbolism were coupled, as in the
over realistic rendering of the ascetic Christ-Child, the effect is
sometimes startling to the layman; and the beginner in the study of
Flemish Art should beware of mistaking accidents of convention for
artistic defects. If the conventions of Flemish Art make it at first
difficult to appreciate, the technical perfection of the work must
appeal to any one. Oil-painting, perfected if not necessarily invented
in Flanders, gave a richness of color and a lustre of surface which
specially distinguished the style. The play and delicate gradation
of light over richly-colored surfaces was rendered so skillfully
that the artists approached the expression of a complete visual
effect, finally reached in Seventeenth Century Holland in the work of
Vermeer.--_Mediæval and Renaissance Paintings_ (Fogg Art Museum,
Cambridge, 1927).
Next in importance to the Van Eycks comes Roger van der Weyden
(1400?–1464). By 1432 Roger had made a name for himself, for he had
become a master painter in the Tournay Guild. In 1450 he went to Italy
and seems to have visited Cologne on his way home (see page 166).
The Maître de Flémalle (Robert Campin?), who showed a great interest in
still-life, is thought to have been the master of Roger van der Weyden.
Petrus Christus (1410?–1473), a native of Baerle, Holland, free citizen
of Bruges in 1444, is regarded as one of the ancestors of _genre_
painting (see page 169).
Hans Memling (1430–5–1494), a native of Holland, was a supposed pupil
of Roger van der Weyden. It is believed that Roger van der Weyden took
Memling with him to Italy in 1450. Memling was closely associated with
his master Roger van der Weyden and sometimes painted the wing-panels
for Roger’s great altar-pieces. Memling’s chief painting was done in
Bruges (see page 172).