DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS GENIUS
The foregoing chapter contains only a bare record of certain facts in
the life of Luca Signorelli. Fortunately time has spared many of his
paintings, and in the study of these we get a fuller insight into his
nature and his aims. A man's work is, after all, the most satisfactory
and reliable document for those who take the pains to decipher it--the
autobiography which every man of genius bequeaths to posterity.
We have seen how by good fortune he was placed as a child to study
painting under Pier dei Franceschi, who was of all men most able to
bring out in his pupils the finer instincts and nobler qualities of
their genius. By his guidance and example, no doubt, Signorelli
cultivated his natural breadth of conception and of treatment, which
give grandeur and impressive solemnity to all his works, besides
acquiring the technical excellences of good drawing, solid modelling,
and the broad massing of the shadows, which are so characteristic of
Piero's own painting. The spirit of master and pupil was fundamentally
alike, the chief points of dissimilarity in their work arising from
minor divergences of temperament. Both were men of robust mind, with a
message of resolute purpose to deliver. Both chose to express themselves
through the medium of the human form in its most vigorous aspects, and
were, therefore, pre-occupied with mastering its structure. But while
Piero, with a serene nature, chose to represent unemotional figures like
the sculptures of the ancient Egyptians, the restless and impetuous
spirit of Signorelli preferred scenes of violent action, and energetic
movement.
It was, perhaps, the entire affinity of their temperament, as well as
his passion for anatomical study, which led him to choose his second
master in a man whose taste for realism, and interest in the action of
muscle and movement of limb was as keen as his own. On Antonio
Pollaiuolo, even more than on Pier dei Franceschi, had fallen the mantle
of Paolo Uccello's investigating spirit. As the latter gave all his
attention to applying the laws of perspective to landscape and figures,
so the efforts of Pollaiuolo were concentrated on giving freedom to the
limbs. Great anatomist though he was, Piero was not so ardent a lover of
the Nude for its own sake as the Florentine, and the problems of
movement have little interest for him, whereas in the most
characteristic work of Pollaiuolo it is evident that the scenes are
chosen to display the muscles in tense prominence, and the limbs in
violent action or unusual posture.[32] With precisely the same interests
in the human structure and its movements, it is no wonder that
Signorelli caught so much of his style and mannerisms. The influence of
Antonio Pollaiuolo was stronger than any other in the development of
his actual work, and is visible in all his paintings up to the last in
greater or less degree, but only less important is that of Donatello, to
whom Antonio himself owed so much. Forty years before the birth of
Signorelli, Donatello had been able to carve the human form with
absolute perfection of anatomy, and not only that, but to endow it with
freedom of limb and overflowing life. It is easy to suppose the
impression his statues must have made on the youth, whose spirit was so
much akin to his own in exuberant energy, and who had the same
uncompromising love of realism. The two artists had much in common in
their confident self-reliance, and almost arrogant buoyancy of nature,
which was the true Renaissance expression, and the outward sign of its
immense strength. Signorelli caught and revived the very essence of
Donatello's spirit--the love of bodily life in its most hopeful and
vigorous manifestations. It is significant that the swaggering posture
which became such a special feature of his painting, should have
originated with Donatello. Donatello was, before all things, a realist,
and it was probably the habitual attitude of the cavalry soldier of the
day, accustomed to straddle over the broad back of his war-horse, but
there is little doubt that it was adopted by Signorelli from the "S.
George" of Or San Michele, and perhaps half-unconsciously signified to
him--what that statue so well embodies--the confident spirit of youth
and strength. In his portrait of Pippo Spana, now in S. Apollonia,
Florence, Andrea di Castagno also imitated and emphasised it, as also
did Botticelli in his carved background of the "Calumny," and Perugino
in many of his paintings. But Botticelli's painted statue and Perugino's
"S. Michael" and "Warriors" of the Cambio seem to spread their legs
because they are too puny to bear the weight of the body in any other
manner, while with Signorelli, the attitude became the keynote of his
resolute indomitable nature, and so much a part of his work, that one is
apt to forget it did not originate with him.
Although the character and aims of the two men are so entirely
different, yet to Perugino, Signorelli owed much in his methods of
producing the feeling of free space, and the life and movement of the
atmosphere. Perugino's greatest gift to Art was this power of rendering
the magic of the sun-warmed air and the sense of illimitable distance.
He gave to his landscapes space and depth, the gentle stir of wind, and
the golden shimmer of sunshine. Signorelli also learnt this power of
presenting the life of hill and tree and sky, and some of his effects of
distance have the space and grandeur almost of Nature herself. He also,
like Perugino, could detach his figures from the background, and send
the line of hills receding back to the horizon. Signorelli owes to him,
besides, certain superficial characteristics, such as the fluttering
scarfs and ribbon-like draperies, and the upturned face with ecstatic
eyes which belongs to the Umbrian painter as much as the drooping head
belongs to Botticelli.
From these four great artists Signorelli learnt what each had best to
give, and assimilated and made it his own, with unerring instinct for
its virtue in aiding his own specific qualities. Not that he was in any
sense an eclectic, but he had the unconscious tendency of the healthy
soul to seize upon the food that best ministers to its nourishment. Thus
the fine genius and inspiration of Pier dei Franceschi and the grace of
Perugino saved him from becoming too rigorously realistic under the
influence of the scientific Florentines, Donatello and Pollaiuolo,
working upon his own uncompromising nature.
The most important writers on Signorelli--Crowe and Cavalcaselle,[33]
Rumohr,[34] and, above all, Vischer,[35] mention several other masters,
who, they claim, exercised an influence upon his work, and it is obvious
that to the Sienese school generally he was indebted for many decorative
methods, particularly in the use of gold and gilded gesso. There are
also in some of his paintings reminiscences of Verrocchio and Fiorenzo
di Lorenzo; but an impression of sufficient depth to be considered, must
touch the spirit, and here there appears to me to be little besides
superficial resemblances. It must be remembered, moreover, in the case
of Verrocchio, how much he himself owed to Donatello, while with respect
to the asserted influence of Pintorricchio, it is more probable that
what likeness there is in their style should testify to the impression
of the stronger upon the weaker nature. With Andrea di Castagno his
work, both in outward form and in spirit, has something in common; and
no doubt Signorelli was impressed by paintings which themselves show so
much the influence of Donatello.
As we have seen, Luca's chief interest, like that of Pollaiuolo, lay in
the effort to render movement of limb with facility, and therefore his
attention was concentrated on the muscles and their action. We do not
know how long he studied anatomy from the dead and living model in the
Florentine workshop, nor have we any example of his gradual development,
for when he first appears before us in his earliest remaining work, "The
Flagellation," of the Brera, he is already the master who has conquered
all the difficulties of muscular movement, and surpassed even Antonio
Pollaiuolo in freedom of gesture and correct anatomy.
It is not till later, however, that the most important advance he made
on previous painting first begins to show itself--the power, namely, of
rendering combined action, of working the limbs of a crowd into a single
movement. This is Signorelli's special achievement, on the merits of
which he takes rank with the most important masters of the Quattrocento
as a pioneer and teacher. Great as was Pollaiuolo's command over gesture
and action, it was limited to the combination of two figures only,[36]
while with Signorelli the action of the single figure is held
subordinate to that of the multitude. He gives the stately march of an
army, as in the Umbertide predella and the Monte Oliveto fresco; the
writhings of innumerable figures, like heaps of coiled serpents, as in
the "Damnation" of Orvieto; the rush of a violent mob stirred by a
common impulse, as in the Florence and Cortona "Betrayals." This command
over united movement was new in painting, though, like all other
difficulties, it had been already mastered by Donatello, as we see in
his romping children of the Prato pulpit, and the Florence Cantoria, to
name only two examples. Botticelli, who, with so different a nature, had
yet, in common with the robust Signorelli, this passion for swift
movement, achieved later, it is true, almost as great triumphs[37]; but
to Luca belongs the merit of having endowed painting with the same
freedom of combined movement which Donatello had given to sculpture.
Unlike Botticelli, he is consistently a lover of energy all through his
life, and as the source of energy, of strength, and vigorous health. His
grand conception of the body is one of the chief characteristics of his
work. Strong and stately, it is a fit receptacle for the spirit of
resolution and self-confidence with which he animates it. His Virgins
are like goddesses, and seem to typify for him the strength of
womanhood. Nowhere do we see nobler beauty than in his angels and
archangels. In these "divine birds"[38] he seems to have recognised the
ideal of all he strove for, and their wings are symbols to him of swift
movement and superhuman strength. It was always strength that attracted
him, and strength conscious of its own force, finding its expression in
exuberant animation. Thus he loves to paint the swaggering soldiers,
whose attitudes express their audacious self-reliance. He gives the
luxuriant life of Nature as no one else gave it, and his trees and
plants are as robust and unyielding as his firmly-planted figures. His
angels' wings are not merely decorative, but have real power of muscle
under the plumes to lift the body and bear it aloft without fatigue.
He was a lover of beauty, but it was not for beauty he strove, or we
should not so often find bits of realistic ugliness to risk the harmony
of his noblest paintings. Grace and charm seemed to come to him
unsought, as natural adjuncts of a vigorous and healthy nature; but his
deliberate choice of types of face and form, were those which, by their
strength, promised satisfaction to his love of energetic action. From
the first this tendency is noticeable, for example, in the
above-mentioned "Flagellation," and the Loreto "Conversion of Saul," and
goes on increasing until it reaches a climax in the frescoes of Orvieto.
Once one has grasped the main motive of Signorelli's work, his
preoccupation with movement, and consequently with the muscles, his
frequent defects and inequalities in other respects become, as faults of
inattention, less incomprehensible. For example, his values of distance
are often faulty, and give the unpleasant sensation that one figure is
standing on the top of another,[39] a defect of carelessness, for no one
is a better master of aerial perspective when he chooses. Again, his
hands and feet are often incorrectly drawn and badly modelled, but it is
only when they are not essential to the action; for although the drawing
of hands and feet is always perhaps his weakest point, yet even in his
early painting of the "Flagellation" he has already mastered some of
their greatest difficulties of foreshortening. The recognition of the
intention in a man's work enables one to dispense with much adverse
criticism in detail. It would be wearisome to reiterate the faults of
drawing in each picture when we come to deal with them separately, and
it is better to recognise in the outset that, in pursuit of a certain
definite end, Signorelli is careless of what seems to him unessential at
the moment.
Thus in dealing with him as a colourist[40] we have to bear in mind that
it was by line and modelling chiefly that his effects of movement were
obtained. To be over-critical of the shortcomings of his colour,
therefore, would be as foolish as to miss the charm of Bonifazio's
splendid harmonies in abuse of some defect of drawing. Sometimes, in
fact, Signorelli gains his end by the very crudeness and heaviness for
which he is generally condemned, the sharp contrasts giving a rugged
strength to his painting, and the copper colour of the flesh adding
robustness to the figures.
It would, however, be most unjust to speak as if his colour were always,
or even usually, crude and harsh. On the contrary, in landscape it is
invariably beautiful; and he uses certain golden and moss-greens in
foliage and grass, and a limpid greenish-blue in water, which are most
harmonious. Sometimes it is gorgeous, and in nearly all his early
paintings there is a beauty of red and soft green, and a warmth of
golden glow of great depth and tenderness. He had, perhaps, a tendency
to the use of too heavy colour, especially in the flesh; and he himself
seems aware of it, for, in middle life, for a brief time, he changed his
tone to an almost silvery lightness, with very pale flesh-tints, as in
the Uffizi "Holy Family," No. 1291, and again, after working at Orvieto,
in the "Dead Christ supported by Angels," of S. Niccolo, Cortona, whose
general colour is almost like honey; but he relapses always into his
characteristic dark tones, especially in the works of his old age, which
are for the most part heavy and rather harsh, with flesh-tints of the
reddish-brown of terra-cotta.
It is, as I have said, by form rather than colour that Signorelli
obtains his best effects. He is a superb linealist, as the often-quoted
"Flagellation" shows, and one is inclined to wish he had oftener used
outline, as here, in the manner of Pier dei Franceschi. His line is firm
and clear, simple and structural, of unerring sweep and accuracy, as we
see in his numerous _predella_ paintings; but even more remarkable is
the wonderful plastic quality of his modelling. By this he makes us
realise better than any one before him the tenseness of sinew, the
resistance of hard muscle, and the supple elasticity of flesh, giving a
solidity and weight to his forms that make them impressive as grand
sculptures.
As an illustrator Signorelli is most unequal; brilliant and dramatic
when the subject appealed to his taste, as in the Orvieto frescoes,
often weak, as in his treatment of sacred themes. He was essentially a
religious painter, but in the widest meaning of the word, and he does
not seem to have felt the dignity and significance of many of the scenes
in the life of Christ. When he has to paint Him bound to the pillar or
nailed to the Cross, submissive to scourging and insult, his interest
seems to wander from what should be the central figure, and fixes itself
on some two or three of the minor actors, to whom he gives the
importance he should have concentrated on the Christ. The painter _con
amore_ of arrogant strength, he seems to have little in common with
meekness and humility that bows the head to scourging and martyrdom.
Thus in nearly all his "Crucifixions" the central figure is ignoble in
type and expression, and in the "Flagellations" of the Brera and of
Morra, is entirely without dignity, even ignominious. This is curious
when we consider that even more than of arrogant strength Signorelli was
the painter of stately and noble beauty.
Again it seems as if he cared only to represent figures of powerful
maturity, for there is a complete lack of sympathy in his painting of
children. With one or two exceptions, his child Christs are half-animal
little beings, more like tiny satyrs than human children, although not
without a certain pathos in their very ugliness. In a picture of as
great beauty and tender feeling as the "Holy Family," of the Rospigliosi
Collection, for example, the child is more animal than human. Unlike
Donatello, who delights in childhood, and sees in it the bubbling source
of future strength, Signorelli gives his babies the overweighted,
unelastic sadness of old age. In composing his Holy Families, therefore,
his attention is centred on the Virgin, the strong woman he loved to
paint, but the child he seems to feel as an accessory to be executed
because the Church has ordered it, and so he puts it in without thought
of all it meant and typified.
But although he sometimes falls short as an interpreter of the Church's
intention, the impressive grandeur of his work is in itself intensely
religious, and he makes us feel most solemnly the dignity of Nature, and
especially of the human form. Once he was stirred into something of the
Pagan spirit, probably under the influence of the court of Lorenzo, and
he touched the real note of Pantheism in the "Pan," of the Berlin
Gallery, and the noble figures in the background of the Uffizi and
Munich "Madonnas." In these the spiritual mood dominates and is
sustained throughout, and there is no sign of the scientific absorption
which sometimes in his treatment of the nude makes us too aware of the
student and the realist. One is at times conscious that, painting
straight from the life, Signorelli's interest lay chiefly in a faithful
reproduction of the body before him. His dead Christs for example, were
obviously copied exactly as the corpses lay or hung in his studio. The
S. Onofrio of the Perugia altar-piece, stood just so, a half-starved
street-beggar, with baggy skin over rheumatic joints. The angel in the
same picture, chosen perhaps for its grace of face, must be reproduced
exactly as the child sat, with weak legs and ungainly body. Each figure
is a truthful study from life, and it was that which interested the
painter, and not that he was representing saints and angels whose noble
beauty was supposed to elevate the mind to a state of worship.
Yet with all his realistic treatment, he was intensely alive to the
graces of decoration, both in general lines and in detail. In the
frescoes of Loreto, and more particularly of Orvieto, the mere scheme of
decoration is superb, and adds beauty and distinction to every subtle
line of the architecture. He pays attention, also, to the minor details
of decorative effect, and takes pains with the ornaments and
embroideries; while his use of gold, and embossing with gesso, add much
to the aesthetic charm of his work, and proves that he could, when
necessary, subordinate his love of realism to his sense of beauty.
Before summing up the chief qualities of Signorelli's work, I must not
omit one characteristic which points to the strength of his
personality--the way he repeats his own types (and not types only, but
precisely the same forms) time after time, and often after the lapse of
many years. The child Christs he paints over and over again, the same
figure, sometimes exactly in the same attitude, as in the "Madonnas," of
the Florence Academy and of the Brera. The seated burly Bishop of the
Loreto vaulting (one of his earliest works) occurs again in the Volterra
"Madonna," and again (painted many years later) in the "Madonna," of the
Florence Academy. Line for line he reproduces the figure of Echo, out of
the early "Pan," into the fresco of "The Crowning of the Elect," at
Orvieto. In one or two cases he boldly repeats the same figure in the
same picture, feature for feature, as in the Virgin and S. John of the
Rospigliosi "Holy Family," limb for limb as in the flying soldiers of
the Loreto "Conversion of Saul."
He was also most faithful to his own type of limb or feature, especially
those in which Morelli has taught us always to look for similarity. The
fleshy ear, with its slightly pointed top, is nearly invariable, as also
is the broad hand with its little outlined nails and thick wrists.
In glancing rapidly over the whole of Signorelli's work, consistency to
an absorbing interest is the note struck again and again. He has set
himself from the first a task--the mastery of the human structure and
its movements; and with the resolution and perseverance of a strong
nature, he never swerves from his purpose. This is the conscious aim and
intention of the artist. What he was able to give to the world, of
nobility and dignity--a wider and healthier conception of Nature and her
power and beauty--was the Message of his Genius, of which he was himself
unconscious, but which spoke all the more forcibly for the learning
acquired by hard application and earnest effort. In a detailed study of
his painting, it may be that the student of anatomy and the realist
often assert themselves, but as grand figure after grand figure has
passed before the mind, the general impression is solemn and ennobling.
"To no other contemporary painter," says Morelli, "was it given to endow
the human frame with the like degree of passion, vehemence and
strength."[41] To this we may add that no other painter has ever
conceived Humanity with the same stately grandeur and in the same broad
spirit. The confident strength of youth, the stern austerity of middle
life, the resolute solemnity of old age--these are his themes.
Signorelli is, before all, the painter of the dignity of human life.
FOOTNOTES:
[32] It is sufficient to cite the double picture of "Hercules," of the
Uffizi, the "S. Sebastian," of the National Gallery, and the engraving
called "The Battle of the Nudes."
[33] Cavalcaselle e Crowe, viii. 424, etc.
[34] Ital. Forsch. ii. 333.
[35] Vischer, 77, etc. Vischer considers the likeness to Fiorenzo due to
their mutual relation to Verrocchio.
[36] Even the splendid decorative engraving called "The Battle of the
Nudes," is only a series of duels. A comparison of these figures with
the two nude executioners in the Brera "Flagellation" will justify the
assertion of Signorelli's superiority as a master of anatomy and
movement.
[37] Specially in "The Death of Virginia," of the Morelli Collection,
Bergamo, and the sketched figures in the repainted "Adoration of the
Magi," lately exposed in the Uffizi.
[38] "Purgatorio," ii. 38.
[39] For example, in the "Madonna," of the Mancini Collection, and "The
Crowning of the Elect," at Orvieto.
[40] Signorelli's pictures, when not frescoed, are invariably painted
with oil.
[41] "Italian Painters," i. 92.