in case they met with his favor. The first portrait (now in the
National Gallery, London) representing, in her mourning garb of
black satin, Christina the young widow of Francesco Sforza, brother
of Maximilian Sforza (see page 148) and who was, moreover, niece of
the Emperor Charles V, in every way, therefore, a distinguished and
desirable bride, pleased Henry VIII so well that he offered his royal
hand on seeing it. But the wise young Duchess, declining the hand
replied sarcastically “that unfortunately she had only _one_ head;
if she had _two_, one would be at His Majesty’s service.” The other
portrait of _Anne of Cleves_ (now in the Louvre), in purple velvet
flashing with jewels, standing full face, with beautifully painted
hands laden with rings and clasped gracefully, gained for this lady
the Royal Bluebeard; but only for a short time. The portrait was too
flattering of the “Flanders Mare”, as Henry VIII called her, and the
_fourth_ wife was soon divorced.
In 1538 Holbein went to Basle on a mission for the King, visited his
wife and children and, refusing liberal offers from the municipality of
Basle to remain there, returned to London. Back again in his English
quarters, he continued his painting until he died in 1543, supposedly
of the Plague, which was then raging.
SIR THOMAS MORE.
_Hans Holbein
(1497–1543)._
_Collection of the late
Mr. Henry Clay Frick._
This was one of the first portraits that Holbein painted in England
and was done in 1526–1527, while Holbein was a guest in Sir Thomas’s
delightful home at Chelsea. It is a life-size, half-length portrait on
panel (23¼ × 29¼ inches), representing Sir Thomas in a dark-green coat
with purple velvet sleeves, fur collar, and large hat. The conspicuous
and heavy double S-chain of gold with a double rose pendant,
significant of the union of the Red and White Roses of Lancaster and
York, was only permitted to Knights. His right hand holds a paper and
the arm rests on a table, on which the date is inscribed.
This portrait was painted before Sir Thomas More became Lord Chancellor
in 1529.
“His face,” says Dr. Alfred Woltman, “shows that calm repose which
indicated the utmost harmony of nature and inward peace; but the
expression is one of the deepest seriousness, though gentleness is
linked with it. The finely-cut lips are firmly closed; there is
something almost visionary in the bright and penetrating glance, though
otherwise the features betoken clear judgment, combined with moral
strictness and nobility of feeling. In looking at the picture the words
occur to us with which Erasmus in another passage concisely sums up
More’s characteristics: ‘He possessed that beautiful ease of mind, or,
still better, that piety and prudence with which he joyfully adapts
himself to everything that comes, as though it were the best that could
come.’”
Sir Thomas More was born in 1478 in Cheapside, London, the son of
Sir John More, and was beheaded in 1535 for refusing to support the
Act of Supremacy. More was one of the most intellectual and highly
cultured men of his time. He wrote one of the most famous of books,
_Utopia_. Sir Thomas was also a fine critic of painting. He was
knighted in 1521.
[Illustration:
_Collection of the late Mr. Henry Clay Frick_
SIR THOMAS MORE
--_Hans Holbein the Younger_]
Erasmus gives a picture of Sir Thomas and his home in a letter to
Ulrich von Hutten, written from Chelsea. He says:
“More has built near London upon the Thames a modest but commodious
house. There he lives surrounded by his large family--his wife, his
son, his son’s wife, his three daughters and their husbands with eleven
grand-children. There is not any man living so affectionate to his
children as he, and he loveth his old wife as if she were a girl of
fifteen. Such is the goodness of his nature that whatsoever cometh
about which cannot be helped he is as cheerful and well satisfied as if
the best had happened. In More’s house you would say that the Academy
of Plato lived again save that whereas in the Academy the conversation
turned upon geometry and the power of numbers, the house at Chelsea is
a true school of Christian religion. In it is no one, man or woman,
but studdieth the liberal arts, yet above all piety is their care.
There is never any seen idle; the head of the house governs it, not by
lofty demeanor and frequent rebukes, but by gentle and lovable manners.
Everyone is busy in his place doing his business with diligence; nor is
sober mirth absent.”
DIRK BERCK OF COLOGNE.
_Hans Holbein
(1497–1543)._
_Collection of the
Hon. Andrew W. Mellon._
When Holbein returned to England on his second trip in 1532, his
friend and patron, Sir Thomas More, was out of favor. However, he
found a cordial welcome among his compatriots--the German merchants of
the Steelyard. These German merchants had formed themselves into an
association of real power: indeed, they had made a little city of their
own, which went by the name of Stahlhof, where they managed all their
business, kept their stores, had their counting-houses, their Bourse,
their Guildhall, and their homes; and, being Germans, of course they
had a festival-hall and spacious gardens on the bank of the Thames,
where they could enjoy themselves. The company, forming a part of the
great Hanseatic League, was opulent and dealt largely in iron and
precious metals.
[Illustration:
_Collection of The Hon. Andrew W. Mellon_
DIRK BERCK OF COLOGNE
--_Hans Holbein the Younger_]
Consequently, among the group were skilled goldsmiths, watch-makers,
armorers, and many other prosperous artisans as well as bankers. The
brilliant painter had no difficulty in getting orders for portraits;
and we may be very sure that after he had produced such a masterly
likeness as that of _Georg Gisze_ (now in the Berlin Museum), he
must have been in even greater demand, as the numbers of “steelyard
portraits” scattered in various galleries attest.
This particular portrait in oils on panel (21 × 16¾ inches) was painted
in 1536, as we learn from the right hand corner, which bears the date
and the sitter’s age, “An 1536 Aeta. 30.” Dirk Berck of Cologne appears
at half-length facing us full face from a background of blue relieved
by a green curtain with red strings. Dirk Berck is dressed in a heavy,
black, and lustrous silk cloak with a wide collar, an embroidered
shirt showing at the opening at the neck, a flat cap (something like a
_biretta_) at a slight angle on his head, with his hair cut in a fringe
(or “bobbed”) that nearly covers his ears. He has a slight moustache
and a full square-cut beard, which makes him appear older than his
thirty years. His small eyes are dark blue and intelligent, his brows
are black, his cheek bones are prominent, and his general expression
is serious and rather kindly. His hands rest one upon the other, the
right one on top, while the left, placed on the table, holds a letter
addressed to himself: “_Dem Ersame ’U (N) d fromen Derick berk i.
London upt. Stalhof_” with the trademark of his house and the motto,
“_besad dz end_” (consider the end). A small piece of paper lying on
the red-covered table bears this Latin sentence from Virgil: “_Olim
meminisse juvabit_” (Hereafter I shall be remembered) which speaks well
for Dirk Berck’s estimation of Holbein and his intelligent forecast of
ours.
The portrait came from the Collection of Lord Leconfield, Petworth,
Sussex, and was formerly in the Collection of Colonel Egremont Wyndham,
also of Petworth, Sussex, and the Earls of Egremont.
JEAN DE DINTEVILLE.
_Hans Holbein
(1497–1543)._
_Collection of
Mr. Henry Goldman._
This gentleman in black costume with black cap and white shirt sits
at a table covered with a red cloth (one of Holbein’s favorite
arrangements), and in front of an apple-green curtain. Around his neck
he wears a fine gold chain and a black ribbon, to which is attached a
little case of gold studded with jewels. His eyes are very blue but
rather cold, giving one the idea that Jean de Dinteville is something
of a dreamer. His hands, beautifully drawn and painted, gain additional
grace from the fine ruffles at his wrists. In his right hand he holds a
roll of paper (most likely a musical composition), and the left fingers
close around the neck of a lute. On the table before him two books are
lying--one shut and one open--and both books are supplied with green
book-marks, that draw the rest of the picture into harmony with the
green curtain at the back.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. Henry Goldman_
JEAN DE DINTEVILLE
--_Hans Holbein the Younger_]
This portrait, in oils on panel (17½ × 17½ inches), is supposed to be
the same one listed in the inventory of Alethea, Countess of Arundel,
in 1654 as _Ritratto d’un Musico_.
It was in the Collection of Ralph Bernal, London, and sold at
Christie’s in 1855 to Mr. Morant for 100 guineas; subsequently, the
picture was in the Collection of Sir John Ramsden, Bart., Bulstrode
Park, Buckinghamshire, having been purchased by him at an auction in
Scotland in 1860.
Jean de Dinteville, Lord of Polisy and Bailly of Troyes, was born in
1504 and died in 1555. After having served as a diplomat in the Court
of Francis I, he was sent as Ambassador to England in 1553, in which
year Holbein painted him with George de Selve in the large picture
known as _The Ambassadors_, now in the National Gallery, London.
In this picture Jean de Dinteville stands on the left, wearing a black
kilted costume, which includes a cloak lined with white fur. Around his
neck is a heavy gold chain with the French Order of Saint Michel, at
his side is a dagger with gold hilt and sheath, and his black cap is
ornamented with a silver skull set in gold. A lute, a case of flutes,
and a music-book near him proclaim the musician. This picture is dated
1553.
CARDINAL ALBRECHT AS SAINT HIERONYMUS.
_Lucas Cranach the Elder
(1472–1553)._
_Collection of
Mr. John Ringling._
This picture (49 × 35¼ inches), came into possession of the present
owner from Baron Viehweg of Hanover, in whose family it had been since
the time of Cranach.
All of Cranach’s delightful characteristics are represented here. It
is interesting to compare this painting with Dürer’s print of _St.
Jerome in his Study_, the latter so serious and the one represented
here so merry. Cranach’s St. Jerome reminds us of a jolly old German
folksong. In this perfectly Teutonic setting with characteristic German
furniture and the favorite “antler” chandelier, nothing has been
forgotten; and St. Jerome in his red Cardinal’s robe and _biretta_
sits propped up before his reading-desk truly monarch of all he
surveys. His crucifix and devotional books are placed conveniently
on his table and he has just looked up for a moment from his task of
translating the Scriptures.
His big red Cardinal’s hat, too, is placed in the foreground, so that
we cannot miss it and the picture of the _Madonna and Child_ on
the wall is purposely turned out of proper perspective so that we
cannot lose any of its “beauties.” St. Jerome takes good heed of time;
for on the wall, at his left, an hour-glass trickles away the minutes.
It is to be hoped that he feeds his birds and animals regularly! And
how deliciously these little friends are painted. Every member of St.
Jerome’s menagerie looks happy except the lion. There is still the
“call of the wild” in his eye and he seems to be trying to control
himself; but if St. Jerome does not watch his hour-glass and should
happen to delay the dinner-hour, it looks as if things might go very
badly for the pheasant family.
There were three traditional ways of representing St. Jerome: St.
Jerome as Penitent in the Desert; St. Jerome as Patron Saint and Doctor
of the church; and St. Jerome as Translator and Commentator of the
Scriptures. When St. Jerome is seen translating the Bible, the lion is
so frequently present that he seems to be an editorial necessity; and
almost invariably the Cardinal’s hat is lying somewhere near St. Jerome.
There is no authority for making St. Jerome a Cardinal; because
Cardinals were not ordained until three centuries after St. Jerome’s
death.
Lucas Cranach the Elder was born in Kronach in Franconia in 1472 and
died in Weimar in 1553. Cranach was the first painter of importance of
the Saxon School and took his name from his native town. He was a pupil
of his father and has as important a reputation for his engravings on
wood and copper as for his paintings. Cranach seems to have lived in
Vienna, Innsbrück, Augsburg, Wittenberg, and Weimar; and it is said
that he visited the Holy Land in 1493, with the Elector Frederic the
Wise. In 1504 he settled permanently in Wittenberg as Court-Painter to
the Elector Frederic the Wise; and he continued as Court-Painter to
the three succeeding Electors. In 1509 he was sent by the Elector on
an embassy to the Emperor Maximilian; and on this visit he painted the
portrait of his son, the Archduke Philip (father of Charles V). Cranach
was evidently of importance in Wittenberg, for he was Burgomaster in
1537 and 1540. He had an art-studio, a book-printing business, and an
apothecary-shop. His house, called the “Adler,” was burned down in 1871.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. John Ringling_
CARDINAL ALBRECHT AS SAINT HIERONYMUS
--_Lucas Cranach the Elder_]
Cranach was an intimate friend of Luther and Melancthon and,
consequently, was greatly affected by the Reformation. He painted
Luther many times. Cranach always painted with oils on panels of wood
and his coloring is warm and rich. His drawing is somewhat archaic; but
often very amusing. His cheerful fancy led him to introduce birds and
animals into his pictures. Cranach excelled in portraiture and always
gives a realistic and somewhat gay presentation of the German people of
his day.
SPANISH PAINTING
_SPANISH PAINTING_
Spanish Painting developed slowly although there were schools in all
the provinces. Even in the Fourteenth Century little was known about
Spanish Art in other countries. Starnina, who spent nine years in Spain
(having taken refuge from his part in civil disturbances in Florence),
painting pictures in the Escurial for John of Castile, had much to tell
when he returned to Florence in 1387 and introduced Spanish costumes
into the frescoes he made in the Carmine.
Other Italian painters followed Starnina and Italian ideas dominated
Spanish Art until the Emperor Charles V became King of Spain. Charles,
although heir of Maximilian and of the Holy Roman Empire, was also
a direct descendant of the Dukes of Burgundy, the great-grandson of
Charles the Bold. Charles V was born in Ghent and spent his first
sixteen years in the Netherlands, brought up by his aunt, Margaret of
Austria. Charles’s devotion to his birthplace is well-known; and his
pun that he could put the whole of Paris into his _Gant_ (glove), shows
how far superior he considered Ghent to Paris. Charles took with him to
Spain a vast horde of artists and artisans from the Low Countries; and
he also imported the punctilious and traditional etiquette of the old
Burgundian Court, which, absorbed into Spain, eventually became known
as “Spanish etiquette.”
Spanish artists were profoundly affected with Flemish technique and
realism. The leading early Spanish painters are Bartolomé Vermejo,
active in the late Fifteenth Century, a native of Cordova in Andalusia,
who combined Flemish and Arabian ideas with native traditions; Pedro
Berruguete (active 1483–1504); Luis de Vargas (1502–1568); and Luis de
Morales (1509?–1586).
Then again an important foreigner arrived--Antonio Moro (or Mor),
who, after serving Cardinal Granvella, was sent by Mary of Hungary
to Madrid, where he became Court-Painter to the House of Hapsburg.
Thenceforward Moro was constantly employed by Philip II to paint
portraits in various Courts, although his headquarters seem to have
been in Utrecht.
Moro trained the Spaniard, Alonso Sanchez Coello (1515?–1590),
who, like himself, was rather stiff and hard, but able to paint a
satisfactory portrait.
Then in 1575 another foreign painter arrived. This time it was a Greek,
Domenico Theotocopoulos (1545?–1614), a native of Crete and said to
have studied under Titian in Venice. “El Greco,” however, caught none
of the glowing colors of Venice on his palette. Austere and gloomy, he
settled in austere and gloomy Toledo, where he lived all the rest of
his life painting religious pictures and portraits from a strange and
morbid point of view.
Francisco de Ribalta (1551?–1628), revolting against Classic
taste, founded his style on Caravaggio and painted darkly in the
“_tenebroso_” manner. His pupil, Jusefe Ribera (1589–1652), called “_Lo
Spagnoletto_,” born near Valencia, settled in Naples, where he filled
many orders for Philip IV.
Francisco Pacheco (1571–1654), and Francisco de Herrera the Elder
(1576–1656) are chiefly notable because they were the masters of
Velasquez. Herrera originated the “_bodegones_” (shop-pictures),
which are scenes of popular life.
Francisco Zurbaran (1598–1662), of the School of Seville, was called
“the Spanish Caravaggio.” Through the influence of his friend,
Velasquez, he entered the service of the King. It is said that Philip
IV called him “_Pintor del Rey y Rey de los Pintores_” (Painter
of the King and King of the Painters). Zurbaran painted the great
altar-piece in the Cathedral of Seville.
Don Diego de Silva y Velasquez (1599–1660), a native of Seville, became
painter to Philip IV in 1623 and continued in his service all his life.
His works range from such groups as _Las Meninas_ and _Las Hilanderas_
to portraits of kings, queens, princes, princesses, ladies, gentlemen,
dwarfs, and idiots.
Bartolomé Estéban Murillo (1617–1682), a native of Seville, came
of the poor, laboring class and developed into a beloved painter,
particularly famous for his Holy Families and Immaculate Conceptions.
After Velasquez and Murillo there was no important painter until
the original, versatile, and prolific Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828),
a native of Aragon, who rose from a laborer in the fields to
Court-Painter. Goya had a profound influence on modern art, greatly
affecting, for instance, Manet and John Singer Sargent.
CARDINAL QUIROGA.
_El Greco_
(_1545?–1614_).
_Collection of the late
Mr. Henry Clay Frick._
This picture, oil on canvas (37½ × 43¼ inches), was discovered, coated
with the dust and dirt of ages, in a dark corner of the sacristy of
the Cathedral of Valladolid, where it had evidently been hidden for
centuries. A Parisian dealer, having heard of it, purchased it, and
from him it passed through several hands until it reached its present
home. The subject represents a Cardinal seated before a table on which
a volume is lying and the Cardinal’s hands are conspicuously posed upon
opposite pages. The right thumb pointed downwards emphatically upon a
certain verse might possibly point to a special text that the Cardinal
was associated with as betokening a famous sermon delivered by him, or,
perhaps, an important controversy with which his name was associated.
The figure, face, and hands are very elongated, as in all of El Greco’s
performances; but the general effect is more reposeful than usual
with this painter. Perhaps El Greco pulled the Cardinal out on his
bed of Procrustes as far as he dared, but the Cardinal was long and
thin and attenuated anyway, so that he was a model, as it were, ready
made. It is one of El Greco’s best works. The silvery hair and mist of
beard are marvellously painted, as are also the piercing eyes, keen
and searching, yet betraying the philosopher and man of much reading.
The face is intensely intellectual, but hard and cruel. No one would
care to attempt to break a lance with this gentleman in any kind of an
argument. With all his high-bred atmosphere, as both gentleman and
student, Quiroga expresses a narrow bigotry and remorseless cruelty.
The picture is also known as _St. Jerome_; and there are five
replicas of it, one of them being in the National Gallery, London.
[Illustration:
_Collection of the late Mr. Henry Clay Frick_
CARDINAL QUIROGA
--_El Greco_]
“El Greco” is the name by which Domenico Theotocopoulos became known
to his contemporaries. He was born in Crete, and in 1570, when he
was about twenty-five or thirty, he went to Venice, and, it is
said, studied under Titian. About 1575 he settled in Toledo, where
he lived for thirty-four years until his death in 1614, and where
“La casa del Greco” is still shown to tourists. El Greco painted a
number of pictures, chiefly religious, notwithstanding the fact that
“the individuality and strangeness of his work always more or less
disconcerted his patrons.” El Greco also painted portraits and seems
to have elongated every sitter to conform to his own ideas. Everything
that he painted proclaims his own fervor and love of motion. El Greco
also designed the dome for the then unfinished tower of the west front
of the Toledo Cathedral, which presents a very strange contrast with
its companion, the ornate Gothic tower.
Hugh Stokes says:
“El Greco stands apart, both in his portraiture and his large subject
compositions. A Greek by family, Theotocopoulos does not fail to
remind us of the archaic Byzantines. At first his limited palette,
his crudity, his angularity excite repulsion. All his figures are
muscularly distended as if they had recently passed the ordeal of the
rack. Gradually these very defects attract. There is a movement and
passion in his pictures which can be found in very few purely Spanish
works. These agitated patriarchs and apostles, with draperies caught
by every wind of heaven, are almost demoniac. Nature herself assists,
for each horizon in the background frowns with a gathering maelstrom of
black thunderclouds.”
THE VIRGIN APPEARING TO ST. DOMINIC.
_El Greco_
(_1545?–1614_).
_Collection of
Mr. J. Horace Harding._
The Virgin, in the traditional red robe and blue mantle, has floated
on a cloud into the church where St. Dominic has been praying. The
vision, as told here by El Greco, seems as real to us as it does to the
astonished monk. Dominic de Guzman, who founded the Dominican Order of
Preaching Friars in 1215, was born in Calaroga, Old Castile, in 1170.
St. Dominic went on a mission to the Albigenses in Languedoc. and the
Dominican Order grew out of the volunteers who joined him there. The
rest of his life was spent in Toulouse and Rome. He died in 1221 and
was canonized in 1234 by Gregory IX. The Dominican Order was known in
England as the Black Friars (from their black habit) and in France as
Jacobins, because their chief house in Paris was in the rue St. Jacques.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. J. Horace Harding_
THE VIRGIN APPEARING TO ST. DOMINIC
--_El Greco_]
This picture, oils on canvas (24 × 39¼ inches) came from the Collection
of Henri Rouats of Paris and shows El Greco’s ecstasy with less
exaggeration and eccentricity than is customary with him. Elie Faure
has well defined the characteristics of El Greco: “Remorse at having
been born,” he says “pursues the painter until the end, but when he
expresses it in his art, the magnificence which it takes on atones
for his terrors. At the end of his life he painted like one in an
hallucination, in a kind of ecstatic nightmare, where preoccupation
with expressing the spirit engrossed him. Deformation appears in
his pictures more and more, lengthening the bodies, attenuating the
fingers, and hollowing the faces. His blues, his wine-like reds, and
his greens seem lit by some livid reflection sent to him from the
near-by tomb and from Hell, caught sight of from eternal bliss. If
there is a place where shadows wander, if in some sinister valley
there are corpses that stand upright and living spectres that have not
yet lost their form, Domenico Theotocopoulos alone after Dante has
found it. One would say that he is exploring a dead planet, that he is
descending into extinct volcanoes, where ashes accumulate and a pale
half moon sheds her light.”
MARIANNE OF AUSTRIA.
_Velasquez_
(_1599–1660_).
_Collection of
Mr. Philip Lehman._