LAST WORKS
We have now considered in detail most of the important works of
Signorelli's early manhood and maturity, and up to his seventy-fourth
year have found him, both in conception and execution, still maintaining
a high standard of excellence, and at an age when the life's work is
supposed to be over showing but little sign of failing powers. On the
contrary, he seems to have gained ground in certain things most
characteristic of his technical ability--in a rugged strength of
modelling, in facility of drawing and freedom of brushwork, and
particularly in that mastery of united movement, which it seemed his
special desire to attain. Even in this last group of paintings which we
have now to consider the mind works as powerfully, and the subjects are
conceived with the same impressive grandeur, as before, and only in one
or two instances can it be noticed that the hand does not always respond
so readily to the purpose.
In the "Madonna and Saints," of the Mancini collection, Citta di
Castello, a slight technical falling off is apparent, although it is
possible that this may be due to the assistance of pupils. Its history
would seem, however, to point to its being the unaided work of
Signorelli; but, as we have already seen, documentary evidence is by
no means infallible. In the archives of Montone, a little town near
Umbertide, a deed, dated September 10, 1515, was discovered, which
speaks of an altar-piece presented by the master as a free gift to a
certain French physician, Luigi de Rutanis, in gratitude "for services
rendered, and for those which he hoped to receive in future."[74]
[Illustration:
[_Mancini Coll.,
Citta di Castello_
MADONNA AND SAINTS]
The Virgin stands heavily on the heads of cherubs, with S. Sebastian on
one side, and Santa Cristina, with a terribly realistic millstone hung
round her neck, on the other. Two angels hold the crown over her head,
and below stand S. Jerome and S. Nicholas of Bari, both intently
reading. The background stretches away into a charming distant
landscape, in which is a lake, not unlike Trasimeno, and sloping hills,
on which scenes of pastoral life are taking place. This landscape, taken
by itself, is the best part of the painting; of the rest, the
composition is too mechanically precise, the values of distance are bad,
the figures being all on the same plane, and even the landscape does not
keep its proper place in the picture. This last fault may, however, be
due to repainting, which is so thick that it is useless to speak of the
present colour. The altar-piece was discovered by Signor Giacomo Mancini
in a cellar in Montone, almost destroyed by damp and neglect, and since
its restoration it is perhaps hardly fair to discuss more than the
general lines; yet these, in the awkwardness of arrangement, and the
comparative triviality of the figures, both in attitude and gesture,
betray a weakness we have not hitherto met with.
Another picture of the same date--1515--is "The Madonna and Saints," in
the church of San Domenico, Cortona, also in very bad condition. The
restoration of the seventeenth century added a piece of canvas all
round, in order to enlarge it. It was painted for Serninio, Bishop of
Cortona, whose portrait is to be seen in the corner, full of expression
and exceedingly well modelled. The Virgin, in red robe and green mantle,
sits with her feet resting on the heads of cherubs, with an angel on
either side, and below S. Peter Martyr, and S. Domenico. It is an
important work, and among the most successful of the later paintings,
and it is curious that it should not have been photographed by either of
the larger firms.
The next year, 1516, Signorelli painted "The Deposition," of Umbertide,
in which he shows all the technical power of his maturity--(or was it,
perhaps, that he left less of the execution to assistants?). It was
executed for the little dark church of Santa Croce, in this village,
till recently called La Fratta, and still stands over the high
altar--not, however, in its original frame, which was removed in the
seventeenth century. It seems that there was a lunette over the top,
containing a Pieta.[75] Terribly defaced by bad restoration, and the
cracking of the later paint, it is still a very beautiful work, and its
_predella_ has all the qualities of boldness and freedom characteristic
of the master's best times. Some of the figures are perhaps too
obviously life-studies, especially the Mary, standing in the foreground
left, which he evidently painted straight from some _contadina_, whose
stolid features he reproduced without reference to the subject. The
body of the Christ is successful, and has all the weight and helpless
inertia of a corpse; the composition is admirable, and there is
sincerity of emotion in the painting of much of the scene. It is,
however, in the three pictures of the _predella_ that we shall find most
proof of the vigour of mind and hand. It is interesting to compare
Signorelli's treatment of the same subject with that of Pier dei
Franceschi in Arezzo, at the painting of which he probably assisted,
more than forty years before--"The March of Constantine," "The Discovery
of the Cross," and "The Entry of Heraclius into Jerusalem." The first of
the three is the best, both for the special quality of animated
movement, and for the excellence of its composition and its effect of
spacious movement. How much larger a tiny panel like this appears than
some of the crowded altar-pieces of his later years! Dashed in with a
few broad touches, as a modern impressionist might paint, the scene of
the camp is most natural, with its groups of soldiers and marching
troops with raised lances and fluttering pennons.
[Illustration: [_Santa Croce, Umbertide_
THE DEPOSITION]
In the second, three scenes are run into one, without much reference to
any sequence of the story. On the right the Queen of Sheba kneels before
the bridge which she has recognised as the sacred wood; on the left the
Empress Helena finds the three crosses; and in the centre takes place
the testing of the true one in the resuscitation of the dead youth. In
the third--"The Entry of Heraclius into Jerusalem"--we have again a
splendid effect of a moving body of men. The Emperor has descended from
his horse, which is led behind him, and barefooted, in his shirt, he
carries the Cross within the gates.
The next dated work--"The Madonna and Saints," of the Arezzo Gallery,
was painted three years after this, in 1519. "He executed," says Vasari,
"in his old age, a picture for the Compagnia of S. Girolamo, part of
which was paid for by Messer Niccolo Gamurrini, Doctor of Law, Master of
the Rolls, whom he portrayed from life in that picture, on his knees
before the Madonna, to whom he is presented by a S. Nicholas, also in
the said picture; there are besides, S. Donato and S. Stephen, and below
a nude S. Jerome, and a David who sings on a Psaltery; there are also
two Prophets, who appear, by the scrolls in their hands, to be
discussing the Conception."[76]
[Illustration: [_Gallery, Arezzo_
MADONNA, SAINTS, AND PROPHETS]
The commission was given to Luca by the Compagnia of S. Girolamo, on
September 19, 1519, and the price was to be one hundred broad gold
florins, to be shared by Messer Gamurrini and the Confraternity.
In this picture it is in the intention rather than the execution that we
shall find the vigour and strength which ended only with the painter's
life. Much still remains grand and impressive, but though it shows
considerable power, the actual work is not so good. The colour is
exceedingly dark, and full of harsh contrasts; the composition is
overcrowded, as in many of his later paintings; and the figure of David,
although nobly conceived, is awkward and ill-balanced. On the other
hand, the Virgin is as powerfully executed as ever, and so is the
earnest, white-haired Prophet at her feet. It seems to me that the
master has given his own features in this upturned face, with its
firmly-cut lips and square jaw, certainly much more real a person than
the apathetic kneeling Donor. After its removal from its original place
over the altar of the Confraternity, the picture was for several years
in Santa Croce, and, after the suppression of that convent in 1849,
removed to Santo Spirito, and from thence to the Gallery.
Very close to it in style, and probably painted at no distant date, is
the _predella_ owned by Mr Ludwig Mond. It has three stories--I.
Ahasuerus and Esther, II. and III. (with no legendary connection of
which I am aware) Scenes in the Life of S. Augustine. The first is the
finest. Ahasuerus, surrounded by his councillors, bends forward, and
touches with his sceptre the head of the kneeling Esther. His figure is
very like that of the David in the foregoing picture. On the right is a
fine back view of one of the characteristic swaggering soldiers in tight
striped clothes. The treatment is broad, but the drawing in parts is
somewhat careless. In the other two scenes, the composition is jerky and
insignificant, but the individual figures are characteristic, especially
the nude _ecorche_-like old saint. They represent visions which appear
in the air to S. Augustine, who sits below under a _loggia_.
Again, very close to the Arezzo altar-piece is "The Conception of the
Virgin," painted for the church of the Gesu, Cortona, now in the
Cathedral. The Virgin stands, on the usual cherub heads, in red and blue
robes, while God the Father bends over her, and two angels scatter
flowers through the air. Below are six prophets, among them David, with
his Psaltery, and Solomon, in crown and royal robe. Under the Virgin,
apparently supporting the cherubs, is the Tree of Life, with two very
fine nude figures of Adam and Eve receiving the fruit from the serpent.
It is the lower part only we have to consider, the whole of the upper
painting, with the weak, badly-draped Virgin and the theatrical angels
being certainly the work of assistants, as also, it seems to me, is the
drapery of the half-kneeling Prophet to the right. The David is exactly
the same figure as in the Arezzo altar-piece, to which, besides, there
is a great resemblance in all the faces, and in the hard coarse manner
in which the draperies are treated. The picture, however, lacks the
rugged strength which makes the Arezzo picture, with all its
shortcomings, so impressive, and only in the nude figures is the old
power unimpaired. These, however, are very good, the Adam especially
being as fine a study of the human form as any of the earlier work.
At Morra, a little village not far from Citta di Castello, in the church
of San Crescenziano, are two very important frescoes, a "Crucifixion"
and a "Flagellation," evidently very late work of the master. In the
latter the composition is very little altered from the early picture of
the Brera. Christ is in the centre, bound to the pillar, and on the
right stands the Roman soldier. The executioner near him is almost a
repetition of the magnificent drawing in the Louvre (see reproduction),
except that the legs are wide apart. All Signorelli's energies have
again gone into the figures of the executioners, but, fine as they are,
they are not treated with the same breadth as in the earlier picture,
albeit the painting is free almost to roughness. The background, instead
of the carved wall, now opens out of the court into a spacious
landscape.
In the "Crucifixion," the group at the foot of the Cross is arranged
much like those of the San Sepolcro, Urbino, and Cortona pictures, but
it is half lost in the confusion of a crowd of mounted soldiers. The
impressive silence and solemnity of these earlier "Pietas" is changed
here to a scene of noisy turmoil, and the painter's interest is
obviously centred on the movement of this hustling crowd. The horses are
badly drawn and ill-balanced, as in the Louvre "Adoration," and the
Magdalen is very coarsely painted. The animation and action are well
rendered, but something of the grandeur of his earlier work is
sacrificed.
This grandeur was, however, fully regained in the last work of the
master, painted in 1523, the very year of his death--"The Coronation of
the Virgin," in the Collegiata of Foiano, a small town near Sinalunga.
The Virgin, in red robes and greenish-blue mantle, with fair hair,
kneels before Christ, who places the crown on her head. On either side
two angels play musical instruments, and on the right and left stand S.
Joseph and the Archangel Michael. In the foreground kneels S. Martin, to
whom the altar-piece was dedicated, in a magnificent gold cope, having
on his left S. Jerome with a grey loin-cloth. Farther back are three
monks, and behind S. Martin stands the Magdalen, while on the other side
an old saint introduces the donor, Angelo Massarelli. The general tone
of colour is not nearly so heavy as in the Arezzo painting, the reds
are of a pale rose-colour, and only the flesh-tints of S. Jerome are
very dark. This figure and the S. Martin are nobly and powerfully
conceived. The donor recalls the portrait of the Gamurrini of Arezzo.
The painting does not seem to be the unassisted work of Signorelli, the
S. Michael being too insignificant a figure, and the Magdalen too weakly
executed to be by his own hand. The _predella_ bears evidence that he
had an assistant, for, of the four stories of S. Martin, which they
illustrate, only two are by the master. These two are very fine and
bold, in composition and brushwork. In the first the Saint, clad in
armour, is seated on the characteristic white horse, with a man-at-arms
behind him, and divides his cloak with the nude beggar. The background
is a broadly-painted landscape. The other represents the Saint kneeling
before a Bishop and two acolytes, clothed in a green tabard, a romantic
and beautiful figure. The two remaining divisions are larger in size,
and obviously the work of assistants, one illustrating S. Martin
exorcising a mad bull, the other his funeral and the miraculous healing
of the sick by the dead body.
It is satisfactory to have to conclude the list of works with one so
strong, and which combines so many of the qualities which we have learnt
to look for in Signorelli's painting. Rugged energy, dignity, decorative
grace, and even romantic beauty are all to be found in this altar-piece,
which is a fit ending to the life's work of the master.[77]
FOOTNOTES:
[74] Transcribed in Vischer, p. 360.
[75] Cavalcaselle e Crowe, viii. 493.
[76] Vasari, iii. 692.
[77] These detailed studies do not include all the works of Signorelli,
but a complete list of all that are known to the author is to be found
in the catalogue at the end.