Timoteo Viti--Bramante--Andrea Mantegna--Gian
Bellini--Justus of Ghent--Medals of Urbino.
Having thus traced the advance of painting in the duchy of Urbino,
from Oderigi da Gubbio, the friend of Dante, to Raffaele Sanzio,
its _facile princeps_, it might be well to pause, and leave its
rapid descent under a new dynasty of dukes to be followed in a
future portion of our work. Yet there are still some native names,
belonging to the better period both by date and by merit. Of these
the principal was TIMOTEO VITI, who was born of reputable
parentage in Urbino about 1470, and whose mother Calliope was
daughter of Antonio Alberti of Ferrara, by whom the Giottesque
manner had been brought to that city. Timoteo was sent to Bologna to
profit by the instructions of Francesco Francia, and remained there
from 1490 to 1495. The Christian painters of that city had chosen
for their Madonnas a peculiar type, which, after being transmitted
through several artists, attained its perfection from Francia's
pencil. It may be distinctly traced in the best remaining specimen
of Lippo Dalmasio, of whom we have already spoken,[192] a lunette in
fresco, representing the Madonna and Child between two saints, which
is over the door of S. Procul at Bologna. There we find a pensive
cast of head gently bent on one side in dreamy contemplation,--the
sweetly naïve features, with less indeed of a divine or seraphic
expression than we see in those imagined by the Florentine and
Sienese masters, but whose look seems to indicate that, though
of earth, their owner was not earthy,--though a child of fallen
humanity, she had not tasted of actual guilt. Those who know the
Madonnas of Francia need not be told that they resemble sinless
women more than beautiful beings. Somewhat of the same sentiment
may be traced in the earlier productions of Timoteo Viti. Thus his
Magdalen, which, though now in the Pinacoteca of Bologna, was painted
for Urbino, is a grand figure in red drapery largely cast, standing
in front of a wide cavern. Her girlish countenance appears too pure
and gentle to have felt carnal passion, too placid to have wept over
human sin; her reverential attitude aspires heavenward, without, like
most of her class, appearing to loathe the earth. The mild character
of Timoteo, as well as his promising talents, established him in
the friendship of his master, whose diary touchingly records the
affection with which he bade god-speed to his pupil, on quitting his
studio.[193]
[Footnote 192: See above, p. 161.]
[Footnote 193: "On the 4th April, 1495, my dear Timoteo went away,
to whom may God grant all good and success." He seems to have been
received at first into Francia's "workshop" as a goldsmith, to work
for the first year without pay, the second at sixteen florins a
quarter, the last to be free, working by the piece. This indenture
was, however, broken by mutual consent after fourteen months, on his
wish to pass into the painters' studio.]
[Illustration: _Alinari_
ST. SEBASTIAN
_From the picture by Timoteo Viti in the Palazzo Ducale, Urbino_]
Few of this painter's early works are identified, and no frescoes
from his designs appear to survive; but his altar-picture painted
for the Bonaventura chapel in the church of S. Bernardino at Urbino,
and now by the hazards of war in the Brera at Milan, offers one of
the most remarkable compositions of the age. The Annunciation, that
graceful theme of Christian art, had hitherto been treated upon one
uniform type, and though ever attractive was generally trite. The
Virgin surprised by her heavenly visitor was a subject requiring, in
contrast, the purest earthly and celestial beauty which the painter
could invent. The early masters sought not to introduce any other
character than that of hallowed loveliness, refined from worldly
sentiment; their successors added what was meant for grace of manner,
which in their hands generally fell into affected mannerism. Timoteo
held a middle course, giving play to his fancy, but restraining its
flight by the spell of holy reverence. Amid a fine and far-stretching
landscape stands the Virgin, nobly beautiful, gazing with prayerful
aspect upon an angel, whose demi-figure issues from a cloud.
Far above her head the infant Saviour, supported by a dove in a
triangular halo of dazzling splendour, descends from the skies to
become incarnate in the womb of Mary; his foot poised upon a globe,
and the cross resting in his left hand, whilst his right is raised
in benediction. The archangel with out-stretched arms indicates the
mother to the child, and the child to the mother, thus beautifully
executing his mission by an expressive sign. In front of her, but
on a lower level, so as to appear of less majestic presence, stand
the Precursor and St. Sebastian; the former points to the principal
group as the fulfilment of a cycle of prophecy which in his person
was complete; the latter is a graceful prototype of that long series
of martyrs who were destined to seal with blood their testimony to
the atonement thus initiated. One portion of this novel theme had
been anticipated by Giovanni Sanzi, in whose representation of the
same subject at the Brera, though composed after old conventional
ideas, the divine Infant is seen descending from the Almighty upon
the Virgin, instead of the dove, which usually figures as the Holy
Spirit. But such innovations were looked upon with watchful jealousy
by a Church wedded to traditional conventionalities. Doubts were
raised as to the orthodoxy of this representation of the Trinity,
and an unfortunate ruddy tint suffused over the plumage of the snowy
dove was construed into a stain on the immaculate character of the
conception, which is usually represented as coincident with the
Annunciation. The altar-piece was removed to undergo along with its
author a searching examination, which resulted in its restoration as
an object of devotion, and in his escape from the rigours of the Holy
Office.
Two altar-pictures by Timoteo remain in the cathedral-sacristy of
his native city,[*194] besides a St. Apollonia in the church of
the Trinità. These exhibit much soft expression and devotional
feeling, combined with considerable breadth of execution; yet
they scarcely possess the simple sentiment of the earlier Umbrian
artificers, the noble character of Sanzi, or the fervour and finish
of Francia. During his residence at Urbino, he may not improbably
have influenced the young Raffaele's opening genius; but, ere long,
fame's many-tongued trumpet told him how much he had to learn of his
countryman, from whom he soon received an invitation to assist in
executing the commissions which were crowding upon him at Rome; and,
like many other gifted artists, Timoteo deemed it no degradation to
work under his younger but more matured genius. Although one of the
latest painters who retained that devotional spirit which we have
endeavoured to trace from the Umbrian sanctuaries, his manner, at an
after period of his life, changed with the influences to which he was
exposed in the atmosphere of the Vatican; and some of those works
produced under the superintendence of Raffaele which are generally
ascribed to his hand, such as the Sybils in the S. Maria della
Pace,[*195] display a very decided tendency to "the new manner."
Few paintings have given occasion to greater variety of opinion
and conjecture than this fresco, both as to the share in it which
belongs to Timoteo, and as to the source from which the conception
was derived. The theme is unquestionably referable to an authority
older than that of Michael Angelo; and it is remarkable that, instead
of the charge of plagiarism from his great rival being brought home
to Raffaele, as has been frequently asserted, the former must have
owed to Perugino, Pinturicchio, and Andrea d'Assisi the idea of
rendering the sybils of mythological fable subservient to religious
representation.[*196] By all these artists, pagan pythonesses
had been grouped with scriptural prophets, as foreshadowing the
mysterious plan of human salvation, and the fresco of the Pace must
be regarded as a felicitous adaptation of Umbrian feeling to the
tastes of such a patron as Agostino Chigi, deeply imbued with the
classic tendencies of the Roman court.[197] The repeated restorations
to which this fine work has been subjected render criticism of its
merits in a degree nugatory, but the inferiority of the Prophets to
the Sibyls is generally admitted.
[Footnote *194: In the Cathedral sacristy is the St. Martin and St.
Thomas of 1504, with the founders beside them. In the Pinacoteca
there is a half figure of S. Sebastian, the figures of S. Roch and of
Tobias with the Angel. The S. Apollonia, once in S. Trinità is now in
the Gallery. Of these, the S. Sebastian, S. Roch, and Tobias show the
influence of Giovanni Santi, the other two the influence of Raphael.]
[Footnote *195: Timoteo painted the Prophets above the Sibyls in S.
Maria della Pace, in Rome.]
[Footnote *196: The Sibyl was not exclusively Pagan. Consider the
first verse of the _Dies Irae_, which ends--
"Teste David cum Sibylla."]
[Footnote 197: See the learned observations of PUNGILEONE,
in the _Elogio Storico di Timoteo Vite_, pp. 23-38.]
Vasari, after communication with our painter's family, represents
him as pining for his native air in the capital of Christendom,
where his stay cannot have been of very long duration, as we find
him in 1513 one of the magistracy of Urbino. Here he shared his time
between the sister arts of poetry, music, and painting, "delighting
to play upon various instruments, but especially the lyre, to which
he sang improviso with uncommon success." On Vasari's authority,
we are also told that he "was a cheerful person, naturally gay and
jovial, handsome, facetious in conversation, and happy in his jokes."
One of the most remarkable productions of his Raffaelesque period
is a _Noli me tangere_ (the appearance of Christ to the Magdalen
after his resurrection), in the chapel of the Artieri, at Cagli,
executed about 1518, which has been, perhaps, over-praised by Lanzi
and others: the difficulty of the subject may in some degree disarm
our criticism of its rather crowded and ungainly composition. On
the whole, the merit and beauty of the few known productions of
his pencil may well make us regret those which have disappeared,
or which pass under other names; and, although Passavant accuses
him of affectation and mannerism, the constraint apparent in some
of his earlier productions may possibly be more justly ascribed to
awkwardness. Pungileone supposes him to have returned to Rome in
1521, two years before his death, and there to have acquired a number
of the cartoons and drawings of his friend Raffaele. Of these, and
his own designs, a considerable portion passed a few years ago into
the Lawrence collection, which the vacillation and ill-timed economy
of our rulers allowed to be in a great measure dispersed.
* * * * *
Few artists have been the subject of more controversy than
BRAMANTE. His architectural works procured him high reputation, for he
is associated with the genius of Julius II., and the vast piles of
the Vatican: but his name and family have been disputed, as well as
the place and province which gave him birth; while his biographers,
besides confounding him with an entirely different person, Bramantino
of Milan, have aggravated the confusion by conjuring out of these
two a third artist, who exists only by their blundering. Bartolomeo
Suardi, instead of being master of Bramante, as Orlandi and others
have supposed, was a pupil who, from attachment to his instructor,
added to his own name the diminutive Bramantino. He chanced, however,
to have a scholar, Agostino, who, by also adopting that designation,
has further perplexed matters; three persons being thus almost
inextricably mixed up. For our purpose it is enough thus to supply
a key to these masters, and to observe that their relative merits
coincide with their chronology; the first being a bright light of
the golden age, the last an obscure painter of the _decadence_, who
has left us little beyond the reflected lustre of a borrowed surname.
But although the minute diligence of Lazzari and Pungileone seems to
have set this matter at rest, their tedious disquisitions supply few
important facts or useful criticisms, and a brief notice will suffice
for our present purpose.
Donato Bramante appears to have been born at Monte Asdrualdo, near
Fermignano, in 1444, of parents in comfortable circumstances. As
his first efforts were devoted to painting, he would naturally find
instructors among the Umbrian artists already noticed; but for
his education we have no particulars, beyond a conjecture that he
studied under Fra Carnevale.[*198] At his father's death, in 1484,
he was already abroad, probably in Lombardy, where most of his
pictorial works were produced, and where some frescoes may still be
seen, meriting no ordinary meed of approbation, and particularly
distinguished by fidelity in portraits and accuracy of architectural
perspective; qualities learned, doubtless, from the productions of
Melozzo da Forlì and Piero della Francesca. Of these mural paintings,
the most interesting remains in the church of the Canepa, at Pavia,
and exhibits the artist presenting a model for that building to its
founder, Duke Gian Galeazzo Sforza, his Duchess, and his mother.
Rosini ascribes to him freedom of design, ease in movement and
draperies, grand conceptions, and much ability in perspective.
Indeed, whilst the colder genius of ultramontane nations has seldom
occupied itself with more than one branch of art, many Italian
masters attained to excellence in several; and Bramante's reputation
as an architect being established, his engineering talents were
called into exercise by Ludovico il Moro, upon the fortifications
of Milan. There too he built several churches, and constructed as
a sacristy for S. Satiro, one of those small round Grecian fanes
which have been considered so peculiarly his own, that various
churches of that type are ascribed to him on no better grounds than
their form. The conception is, however, of earlier origin, for it
appears in not a few miniatures and small devotional panels of the
preceding century. He had adopted it in a little chapel of the
Madonna di Riscatto, on the banks of the Metauro, opposite Castel
Durante, said to have been his earliest work, and the idea was freely
used by Perugino and his pupils, Raffaele included. It takes the
form of a round building cased by Corinthian pilasters, in an easel
picture preserved at Urbino, in the sacristy of Sta. Chiara, which
is interesting as an architectural study, and has been attributed to
Bramante, or to Giorgio Andreoli, the porcelain enameller of Gubbio.
A symmetrically elegant Doric chapel, at S. Pietro in Montorio
at Rome, is the chef-d'oeuvre of this classic style, and it was
reproduced by della Genga in scenic decorations prepared at Urbino
for the representation of Bibbiena's _Calandra_.
[Footnote *198: He was probably the pupil of Luciano da Laurana and
Piero della Francesca.]
As the flower of Bramante's life went by during his long stay
in Upper Italy, it is there that his pictorial talents must be
appreciated, and that his most numerous, if not his most famous
fabrics, may be found. But when Lombardy became the battle-field
of Italian independence, when art was there neglected and personal
safety compromised, he bethought him of the monuments of antique
genius still scattered over the capital of her classic times, and
came to Rome in quest of improvement as well as employment. The
moment was not propitious, for Alexander VI. was no Maecenas. Yet in
the public works, both of fresco-painting and architecture, Donato
had a share; and he supplied designs for several private churches
and palaces, varying the scene of his labours by prolonged visits to
Naples and Tivoli.
On the accession of Julius II. his star rapidly rose to the zenith
of his reputation. His Urbino extraction was a recommendation to
the new Pontiff, which his talents fully justified, while the vast
conceptions and daring energy of his Holiness found in Bramante a
willing and apt minister. To raise a temple wherein the Christian
world might worship the living God, was a project worthy of their
united genius, and it was entertained in a manner befitting the
enterprise. There, grandeur of design was seconded by resolute
purpose; nor were means and will deficient for levying from the piety
or fears of mankind contributions apparently inexhaustible. But in
a struggle with time, man is seldom victorious. The shadows of age,
falling upon the Pontiff and his architect, warned them that their
day was far spent. Anticipating the night that approached to arrest
their labours, they worked with a zeal which knew no repose, but
which proved fatal to the stability of their fabric. Death overtook
them both ere any part of St. Peter's approached to completion, yet
not before the too hurried masonry had begun to yield under its own
weight. The inadequate foundations occasioned much supplementary
trouble and outlay to those who conducted the edifice towards a
conclusion, which it did not reach until 1626, a hundred and twenty
years after it had been begun by Bramante.
By some who witnessed the rapid and indiscriminate destruction
of old St. Peter's,--that ancient basilicon, which early art had
done its best to decorate, which Christian devotion had sanctified
by cherished traditions, and over which time had cast a solemn
halo,--Bramante has been blamed as a reckless innovator; and the
charge meets a ready response from those who, in their search for
primeval monuments of Catholic faith, pass from the glare and
magnificence of the modern fane to mourn over broken sculptures and
shattered mosaics buried in its rayless crypt. It would be easy to
defend the architect at the expense of his master; but upon looking
more closely into the charge, we shall find that the original fabric
having become ruinous, its reconstruction was begun half a century
before the accession of Julius, and that its last remains were
not removed until a hundred years later. Thus it would seem that
the demolition of so much that is ill replaced to the churchman
and scholar of art, even by the gorgeous temple which commands
our wondering admiration, must have proceeded from other reasons
than haste. The slippery foundations that from time to time have
occasioned infinite anxiety and expense, both for the church and
adjoining buildings, were doubtless the original cause which lost us
the basilicon of Constantine.
But Julius was not the man to devote himself exclusively to one idea,
even though a favourite one. Wishing to provide a palace for his
successors worthy of the neighbouring fane which he had founded, he
put the Vatican into Donato's hands. That pontifical residence, after
being enlarged by Nicolas V. and Sixtus IV. was in a great measure
reconstructed by Alexander VI., whose predecessor, Innocent VIII.,
had erected a casino in the adjoining gardens of the Belvidere.
In order to unite this casino to the palace, Bramante contrived a
double corridor, the vast intervening area of which he designed for
festive spectacles. This fine idea, left by him unfinished, was
marred by succeeding architects, who broke up the extensive court by
cross galleries and unseemly appendages. We may, however, pardon the
transmutation, as it has afforded admirable accommodation for the
treasures of art, ever since accumulating in these almost boundless
museums. In that handsome street to which Julius bequeathed his name,
there may be seen near the church of S. Biagio, straggling vestiges
of vast substructions, with rustic basements resembling the gigantic
masses of fabulous ages, on which have been reared some mean and
modern dwellings. These are the sole remains of a vast undertaking,
nobly conceived by the Pontiff, and ably commenced by his architect,
in order to unite under one palace the scattered law-courts and
public offices of Rome. But it was Bramante's misfortune to serve a
restless spirit, which attempting more than the span of human life
could overtake, left its finest conceptions abortive.
The merits of Bramante were appreciated by his contemporaries as well
as by posterity, and gained him a substantial meed of honour and
wealth. At the pontifical court he moved in a circle where refinement
perfected the emanations of genius, and which included the choicest
spirits of a brilliant age. Enriched by papal favour, magnificent in
his expenditure, frank and joyous in his nature, he lived up to the
advantages of his position, and made his palace the resort of many
celebrities: there his Umbrian countrymen, Perugino, Pinturicchio,
and Luca Signorelli, frequented his board; and after his death the
house was bought by his friend Raffaele. He was a poet, for in Italy
all sentiment readily falls into rhyme; but he was likewise a man
of the world, whose natural tact and ready fluency compensated for
a defective education. Dying in March, 1514, he was buried beneath
that splendid fane which he had founded, but which many successive
architects failed to raise. No monument testifies the gratitude of
his countrymen, yet his name is entwined with garlands of undying
verdure, and some of the noblest Italian piles bear the impress of
his solid and enduring style.
* * * * *
FRA BERNARDO CATELANI was a Capuchin monk of Urbino, whose
devotion sought scope in the exercise of Christian art, and who is
generally considered a follower of Raffaele, although this is doubted
by Grossi. Nor does it much matter, for the only work now identified
with his name is an altar-piece of the Pietà with two attendant
saints, in the church of his order at Cagli. Still less is known
of one CROCCHIA of Urbino, named by Baldinucci as a pupil
of Raffaele. His countryman, Centogatti, is said to have exercised
the arts of architecture, sculpture, and painting, and to have
instructed Duke Francesco Maria I., and also Gian Battista Comandino,
in engineering. To him Lomazzo ascribes the invention of _baluardi_,
and the erection of walls round his native town; but in both respects
he appears mistaken, as we have had occasion to show in speaking of
Francesco di Giorgio.[199]
[Footnote 199: See p. 214 above. In an old MS. chronicle I
find, besides most of the names here enumerated, the following
now-forgotten painters of Urbino, at the close of the fifteenth
century:--Bartolomeo di Maestro Gentile, Bernardino di Pierantonio,
Ricci Manara, Francesco di Mercatello, and in 1528 Ottaviano della
Prassede.]
* * * * *
The patronage extended to Francia by Duke Guidobaldo seems, from
Vasari's authority, to have been of a very undiscriminating
character, for his commissions to that painter of sweet Madonnas
consisted of a Lucrezia, and a set of horse-trappings, whereon was
depicted a blazing forest, with various animals escaping from it.
Gaye has recovered some facts as to the favour bestowed by this
dynasty upon Andrea Mantegna. In 1511, Duchess Elisabetta wrote
to interest her brother, the Marquis of Mantua, in favour of his
son Francesco, expressing herself as mindful of the regard she had
borne his father, on account both of his own merits and his devotion
to her family. Andrea's acquaintance with Giovanni Sanzi, already
referred to, may have been formed on his journey to Rome in 1488,
or on his return thence in 1490; but his fame had ere then reached
Umbria, for in 1484 Ludovico Gonzaga, bishop of Mantua, wrote to the
Prefect della Rovere, pleading his excuse for declining an order for
a Madonna, his time being engrossed in the palace of Mantua. Vasari
further tells us that Marco Zoppo, another Lombard painter, took a
portrait of Guidobaldo when in the Florentine service. To his reign
probably belongs a very grand specimen of Giovanni Bellini in the
church of S. Francesco at Pesaro. We have already noticed him as a
pupil of Gentile di Fabriano; and his visit to the duchy may have
enabled him to confirm his early devotional impressions, by there
depicting that favourite theme of the mystic school, the Coronation
of the Madonna, surrounded by witnessing saints. The countenances,
though without the unearthly inspiration belonging to the Umbrian
art, have great beauty softened by reverential sentiment, and a
colour which glows even through the dirt of centuries. In the Sta.
Maria Nuova of Fano are preserved two of Perugino's finest works,
the Annunciation, and the Madonna enthroned between six saints,
exhibiting all the qualities of his best time, with less timidity
than belongs to his manner. The latter was executed in 1490, and
the predella had been considered equal to Raffaele, who of course
was then too young for such an undertaking. Such are some of the
remaining pictures which must have influenced taste and art in
the duchy. The catalogue is far from complete, for in the obscure
villages may still be discovered altar-panels of scarcely inferior
importance, besides not a few transported thence to Milan, Berlin,
and other galleries.
We owe to Lord Lindsay some very interesting views on the influence
of early Teutonic art beyond the Alps, a subject long overlooked
and still far from exhausted.[200] Among its masters no celebrity
equals that of Jean Van Eyck. He was not only _capo-scuola_ in the
Low Countries and inventor of a new method and vehicle of painting,
but was the first to introduce that "feeling for nature and domestic
sentiment" which, subordinate at the outset to religious delineation,
has continued, through many phases, and for the most part with
strictly naturalist aims, to characterise the Flemish pencil. The
fame of his mechanism spread into Italy, and Vasari speaks of a
bath scene being sent by him to Duke Federigo of Urbino. This was,
however, probably the same work described as belonging to Cardinal
Ottaviani by Facio, who wrote about 1456. In a room lighted by a
single lamp, a group of nude females issued from the bath, an aged
beldame, their attendant, bathed in perspiration, their thirsty dog
lapping water. A mirror accurately gave back the scene, reflecting
the profile of the one whose figure was turned from the spectator.
Without, was elaborate and far-spreading scenery, with men, horses,
castles, hamlets, groves, plains, and mountains, dexterously
graduating away as the evening shadows fell. Keeping in view the
state of art at that time, this painting, of which all further trace
mysteriously vanishes, must have exercised an important influence.
The borrowed illumination, the mirror reflections, the nude forms,
the heated atmosphere detected by its physical effects on animal
life, the minutely pencilled landscape, the delicately receding
perspective, were all more or less innovations in Italy, apart from
the colour and surface produced by the new process.
[Footnote 200: _Sketches of the History of Christian Art_, Letter
VIII., especially part II., §§ 1, 2, 4, and part III., § 6.]
Among the followers of Van Eyck who first made their way to the
Mediterranean shores was JOSSE or JUSTUS OF GHENT, who, under the
signature of Justus de Alemania, appears to have executed an
Annunciation in fresco, at the convent of Sta. Maria di Castello
at Genoa in 1451.[*201] Admiration for Van Eyck's bath scene may
probably have obtained for him an invitation to Urbino, where,
however, he does not seem to have shared the ducal patronage, but
was employed by the fraternity of Corpus Christi to paint for them
an altar-piece, which, after nine years of labour, was completed in
1474, and is still preserved in the church of Sta. Agata.[*202] It
was executed in oil, about ten feet square without the now missing
predella, and seems to have cost 500 florins, besides materials.
Its subject was appropriately the Institution of the Eucharist, in
contradistinction from the Last Supper, and it is treated after
the manner of the Romish mass,--Christ distributes the sacramental
wafer to his Apostles kneeling round a table, over whom hover two
white-draped angels of the Van Eyck type. Four personages stand
apart, spectators of the sacred mystery, and these, by the legitimate
rules of sacred art, might be portraits. Among them may be easily
recognised the Duke; and a turbaned figure is said by Baldi to be the
ambassador from Usum-cassan, King of Persia, while visiting the court
in 1470-1, on a mission to unite the Italian princes in a league
against the Turk,--a fact garbled by Michiels, whose commendations
of the picture are greater than its distance above the eye allows me
to confirm or challenge, as, without scaffolding or a very strong
glass, all detailed criticism must be in a great measure conjectural.
Neither have I discovered that influence upon art at Urbino which he
and Passavant impute to this Fleming, whose only other known work in
Umbria was a now lost church standard.
[Footnote *201: But Justus de Alemania, who painted at Genoa, and
Justus of Ghent, are different persons.]
[Footnote *202: Now in the Pinacoteca.]
* * * * *
Art has in many instances been able largely to compensate the
liberality of its early patrons. Besides preserving to after times
the person of those
"Whose barks have left no traces on the tide,"
it has frequently transmitted to us the form and comeliness of
men whose characters, actions, or talents have left an impress
on their age. Although the pencil and the chisel were at first
rarely dedicated to portraiture, a mode of representation arose in
Italy during the fifteenth century which supplied this want with
singular success. Reviving classical taste found few more attractive
relics than the coins and medals of Greece and her colonies; but
their imitators, struck with the inferiority of those under the
Roman empire, adopted, and even surpassed, the bold style and
high relief of the former. When almost every principality in the
Peninsula possessed a mint, and die-cutting was a usual branch of
the goldsmith's craft, there were great facilities for the new
art. The circulation of precious metals being very limited, trade
was then conducted chiefly by barter, or by the transmission of
coin in sealed bags, stamped with the value they contained, whilst
small transactions were made almost solely in copper money.[203]
Heroic medals, which soon became the established meed of egotism
and incense of flattery, were at first cast,--and, when machinery
became more perfect, were struck,--in an alloy of copper, under the
name of bronze. Those of the fifteenth century were of great size,
varying from one to four and a half inches in diameter; many bear
the names of well-known sculptors and painters as their artists,
and exhibit a grandeur of conception unequalled in other numismatic
productions.[*204] About three hundred and seventy-five such medals
have been published in the Trésor de Numismatique et de Glyptique,
and although the _procédé Collas_ there adopted in general fails
to preserve the sharpness and finish given to the originals by
careful retouching, no work of art is so delightful a companion
to Italian mediæval history. Zannetti's elaborate collections on
Italian coinages, and the fifth volume of Cicognara's great work upon
sculpture, may also be consulted with pleasure and advantage.
[Footnote 203: The coinage of Duke Federigo consisted of Bolognini
and Piccioli. The former were small thin silver pieces, weighing
19-1/2 grains, of which 3-1/2 were copper alloy, and forty of them
made a florin. The florin, a nominal coin, thus contained 634-34/59
grains of pure silver, and 146-1/2 grains of copper; and supposing
pure silver worth, as now, 5s. 6d. an ounce, it would be worth 7s.
3-1/4d. sterling, making a bolognini 7-1/3 farthings. The piccioli
(3-3/5 to a farthing) were about the size of bolognini (52 or 56 to
the ounce); but were of copper alloyed with about three per cent. of
silver. All this Duke's coinage seems to have been minted at Gubbio,
and it is described at great length by Reposati, in his _Zecca di
Gubbio_. See p. 41 above, and Author's Preface.]
[Footnote *204: See on this subject the most excellent book by
G.F. HILL, _Pisanello_ (London, 1905); a good bibliography
is there given.]
The only medallist of Urbino now known was called Clemente, and,
besides the portrait by him to be immediately noticed (No. I.), he is
said to have ornamented the great hall of the palace with six round
bas-reliefs of Duke Federigo's exploits. Seven medals of that prince
have come to my knowledge, all of extreme rarity: the first five are
described and engraved in the _Zecca di Gubbio_; the first, second,
and fourth in the Trésor de Numismatique; the sixth is probably
unnoticed elsewhere. The heads of all are in profile.
No. I. A medallion of 3-5/8 inches diameter. The Duke's bust is in
armour, on which are chased a Lapitha reducing a Centaur, and other
emblematic devices; his cap, called by the French a _mortier_, is
of the usual cinque-cento form, exactly resembling a round Highland
bonnet. The legend is a Latin couplet, signifying,
"HE COMES, ANOTHER CÆSAR AND ANOTHER ROMAN SCIPIO,
WHETHER HE GIVES TO THE NATIONS PEACE OR FIERCE WARS."
The reverse is redundant in allegory. In base, the eagle of Jove
supports with extended wings a stage whereon are three devices,--the
globe of command, with on one side a cuirass, buckler, and sword,
and on the other a clothes-brush[205] and olive-branch; overhead are
the planetary signs of Jupiter between Mars and Venus. On the vacant
spaces are the names of the hero, "FEDERIGO THE INVINCIBLE, COUNT
OF URBINO, A.D. MCCCCLXVIII.," and of the artist, "THE WORK
OF CLEMENTE OF URBINO." The surrounding astrological legend runs
thus:--
"THE FIERCE MARS AND VENUS, IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE MIGHTY THUNDERER,
UNITE TO GIVE YOU KINGDOMS, AND INFLUENCE YOUR DESTINY."
[Footnote 205: Riposati mistakes this for a metal weight. The French
work does not venture on any conjecture as to the object represented.]
The date indicates this medal to have commemorated his campaign
in Romagna against Colleone, in 1467, and notwithstanding the
questionable taste of crowding in so many symbolical appendages, its
merit is ranked high by Cicognara (see his eighty-sixth plate).
No. II. A medal 1-6/8 inches across, which was probably cast at
Naples in 1474, by order of Ferdinand, in honour of Federigo's visit
and installation as a knight of the Ermine. Being no doubt prepared
before his arrival, the likeness is not striking. Round the bust is
"FEDERICO COUNT OF MONTEFELTRO, URBINO, AND DURANTE"; on the
reverse, over a collared ermine, "ROYAL CAPTAIN-GENERAL. THE WORK
OF PAULO DI RAGUSA."
No. III. A similar but smaller medal, executed after he had been
elevated to the dukedom. His head is bald, and the legend is
"FEDERIGO THE MONTEFELTRIAN, URBINO'S DUKE;" over the ermine, "NEVER,"
the motto of the Order.
No. IV. A medal 3-3/8 inches across, commemorating his dignities
of Duke and Gonfaloniere of the Church. Round his bust in armour,
with the mortier cap, we read, "OF THE DIVINE FEDERIGO DUKE OF
URBINO, COUNT OF MONTEFELTRO AND DURANTE, ROYAL CAPTAIN-GENERAL,
AND UNCONQUERED GONFALONIERE OF THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH." On the
reverse he is represented in a cuirass, mail-coat, jack-boots, and
the mortier cap, mounted on a heavy war-horse in housings of mail.
He moves forward, stretching forth his truncheon in the attitude of
anxious command, a two-handed sword on his side. Legend, "THE
WORK OF SPERANDEI," who was a native of Mantua, greatly
patronised by the sovereigns of Ferrara.
No. V. is a magnificent production, and of peculiarly English
interest. On a medal 4-3/4 inches across, clasped round by the badge
and gothic motto of the Garter, is a noble bust of Federigo in
armour, his massive bald head uncovered. The reverse has five winged
loves supporting an ample basin, from whence issue two grape-laden
cornucopiæ; between them the crowned eagle of Montefeltro sits on
a globe of command, gazing sunward, and supporting the armorial
shield of that house, with the papal arms in pale as borne by the
Gonfaloniere: the contracted inscription "DUKE FE." appears
on the ground. Riposati conjectures that in this device may be
preserved the design of a fountain for serving wine to the populace
during the festivities on his investiture with the English order;
at all events, this piece, in size and style, perhaps the grandest
medallion of the age, bears interesting testimony to the honour in
which that decoration was held.
No. VI. Among the Vatican Urbino MSS. (No. 1418) is a case containing
two impressions, stamped on leather, of another medallion, which we
have nowhere else met with. It is 3-1/2 inches in diameter, and round
the head is "FEDERIGO DUKE OF URBINO, COUNT OF MONTEFELTRO, ROYAL
CAPTAIN-GENERAL AND GONFALONIERE OF THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH."
The reverse gives us a mounted knight cap-a-pie, who tramples down
an armed soldier, while charging others who fly; in the distance
are seen cities, and a martial host. Legend, "MARS GIVES HIM A
WORSTED FOE, VICTORY SECURES HIM FAME. MCCCCLXXVIII. THE WORK OF GIAN
FRANCESCO, OF PARMA." This alludes to his successes against the
Florentines when general of Sixtus IV.
No. VII. A medal of Federigo by Francesco di Giorgio, has neither
been described nor preserved, unless it may have been No. V. above.
We have no medal of Duke Guidobaldo I.; but two have come down to us,
representing his consort and her favourite Emilia Pia, so similar in
character as to indicate probably the same artist and period, which
Riposati presumes to have been in the Duchess's widowhood.
I. Elisabetta's bust on a medallion 3-1/2 inches in diameter; her
hair braided under her cap, and gathered behind into a long pendant
tail or fillet plaited with ribbon; her forehead, neck, and
shoulders ornamented with chains; legend, "ELISABET GONZAGA, THE
FELTRIAN, DUCHESS OF URBINO": which we give. The mystic science
of emblematic devices was often used by medallists without proper
discrimination; and Riposati avows himself unable to interpret its
allegorical reverse: the French editor describes it as a nearly nude
female reclining on the ground, her head supported against a wicket,
grasping in both hands a fillet from which a wig flies away, with the
motto, "THIS TELL TO FUGITIVE FORTUNE"; he interprets her
attitude as contemptuous towards a passing opportunity, in allusion
to her recent widowhood spurning fresh ties.
II. The medal of Emilia was evidently a posthumous memorial; we
reproduce it also. It is 3-1/4 inches broad, the bust in the costume
of the Duchess, and is inscribed "EMILIA PIA THE FELTRIAN":
on the reverse, a tapered pyramid crowned by a cinerary urn, with
"TO HER CHASTE ASHES." The whole is studiously classical,
and pagan in feeling. Her name Pio, turned into the adjective _pia_,
becomes a complimentary epithet.
In order to dismiss this branch of our subject, we may here mention,
that, although a few smaller medals were struck for the second
dynasty of Urbino, none of them are worthy of special notice; indeed,
this art was entirely degenerate after 1500.
BOOK FIFTH
OF THE DELLA ROVERE FAMILY