CHAPTER III.

PAINTING IN ITALY, FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE RENAISSANCE

TO THE PRESENT CENTURY.

The reawakening of Art in Italy which followed the darkness of the Middle

Ages, dates from about the beginning of the fifteenth century and is

called the Renaissance. The Italians have a method of reckoning the

centuries which differs from ours. Thus we call 1800 the first year of the

nineteenth century, but they call it the first of the eighteenth; so the

painters of what was to us the fifteenth century are called by Italians

the "_quattrocentisti_," or men of the fourteenth century, and while to us

the term "_cinquecento_" means the style of the sixteenth century, to the

Italians the same century, which begins with 1500, is the fifteenth

century.

I shall use our own method of reckoning in my writing; but this fact

should be known to all who read or study art.

The first painter of whom I shall now speak is known to us as FRA

ANGELICO. His name was Guido, the son of Pietro, and he was born at

Vicchio in the province of Mugello, in the year 1387. We know that his

family was in such circumstances that the young Guido could have led a

life of ease; but he early determined to become a preaching friar.

Meantime, even as a boy, he showed his taste for art, and there are six

years in his life, from the age of fourteen to twenty, of which no one can

tell the story. However, from what followed it is plain that during this

time he must somewhere have devoted himself to the study of painting and

to preparation for his life as a monk.

Before he was fully twenty years old, he entered the convent at Fiesole,

and took the name of Fra, or Brother Giovanni; soon after, his elder

brother joined him there, and became Fra Benedetto. Later on our artist

was called Fra Angelico, and again _Il Beato Angelico_, and then,

according to Italian custom, the name of the town from which he came was

added, so that he was at last called _Il Beato Giovanni, detto Angelico,

da Fiesole_, which means, "The Blessed John, called the Angelic, of

Fiesole." The title _Il Beato_ is usually conferred by the church, but it

was given to Fra Angelico by the people, because of his saintly character

and works.

It was in 1407 that Fra Angelico was admitted to the convent in Fiesole,

and after seven years of peaceful life there he was obliged to flee with

his companions to Foligno. It was at the time when three different popes

claimed the authority over the Church of Rome, and the city of Florence

declared itself in favor of Alexander V.; but the monks of Fiesole adhered

to Gregory XII., and for this reason were driven from their convent. Six

years they dwelt at Foligno; then the plague broke out in the country

about them, and again they fled to Cortona. Pictures painted by Fra

Angelico at this time still remain in the churches of Cortona.

After an absence of ten years the monks returned to Fiesole, where our

artist passed the next eighteen years. This was the richest period of his

life: his energy was untiring, and his zeal both as an artist and as a

priest burned with a steady fire. His works were sought for far and wide,

and most of his easel-pictures were painted during this time. Fra Angelico

would never accept the money which was paid for his work; it was given

into the treasury of his convent; neither did he accept any commission

without the consent of the prior. Naturally, the monk-artist executed

works for the adornment of his own convent. Some of these have been sold

and carried to other cities and countries, and those which remain have

been too much injured and too much restored to be considered important

now.

[Illustration: FIG. 31.--FRA ANGELICO. _From the representation of him in

the fresco of the "Last Judgment," by Fra Bartolommeo, in Santa Maria

Nuova, Florence._]

He painted so many pictures during this second residence at Fiesole, not

only for public places, but for private citizens, that Vasari wrote: "This

Father painted so many pictures, which are dispersed through the houses of

the Florentines, that sometimes I am lost in wonder when I think how works

so good and so many could, though in the course of many years, have been

brought to perfection by one man alone."

In 1436 the great Cosimo de Medici insisted that the monks of Fiesole

should again leave their convent, and remove to that of San Marco, in

Florence. Most unwillingly the brethren submitted, and immediately Cosimo

set architects and builders to work to erect a new convent, for the old

one was in a ruinous state. The new cloisters offered a noble field to the

genius of Fra Angelico, and he labored for their decoration with his whole

soul; though the rule of the order was so strict that the pictures in the

cells could be seen only by the monks, he put all his skill into them, and

labored as devotedly as if the whole world could see and praise them, as

indeed has since been done. His pictures in this convent are so numerous

that we must not describe them, but will say that the Crucifixion in the

chapter-room is usually called his masterpiece. It is nearly twenty-five

feet square, and, besides the usual figures in this subject, the Saviour

and the thieves, with the executioners, there are holy women, the founders

of various orders, the patrons of the convent, and companies of saints. In

the frame there are medallions with several saints and a Sibyl, each

bearing an inscription from the prophecies relating to Christ's death;

while below all, St. Dominic, the founder of the artist's order, bears a

genealogical tree with many portraits of those who had been eminent among

his followers. For this reason this picture has great historic value.

At last, in 1445, Pope Eugenius IV., who had dedicated the new convent of

San Marco and seen the works of Angelico, summoned him to Rome. It is said

that the Pope not only wished for some of his paintings, but he also

desired to honor Angelico by giving him the archbishopric of Florence; but

when this high position was offered him, Fra Angelico would not accept of

it: he declared himself unequal to its duties, and begged the Pope to

appoint Fra Antonino in his stead. This request was granted, and Angelico

went on with his work as before, in all humility fulfilling his

heaven-born mission to lead men to better lives through the sweet

influence of his divine art.

The honor which had been tendered him was great--one which the noblest men

were striving for--but if he realized this he did not regret his decision,

neither was he made bold or vain by the royal tribute which the Pope had

paid him.

From this time the most important works of Fra Angelico were done in the

chapel of Pope Nicholas V., in the Vatican, and in the chapel which he

decorated in the Cathedral of Orvieto. He worked there one summer, and the

work was continued by Luca Signorelli. The remainder of his life was

passed so quietly that little can be told of it. It is not even known with

certainty whether he ever returned to Florence, and by some strange fate

the key to the chapel which he painted in the Vatican was lost during two

centuries, and the pictures could only be seen by entering through a

window. Thus it would seem that his last years were passed in the quiet

work which he best loved.

[Illustration: FIG. 32.--AN ANGEL. _In the Uffizi, Florence. By Fra

Angelico._]

When his final illness was upon him, the brethren of Santa Maria Sopra

Minerva, where he resided, gathered about him, and chanted the _Salve

Regina_. He died on the 18th of February, 1455, when sixty-seven years

old. His tombstone is in the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, in Rome;

on it lies the figure of a Dominican monk in marble. Pope Nicholas V.

wrote his epitaph in Latin. The following translation is by Professor

Norton:

"Not mine be the praise that I was a second Apelles,

But that I gave all my gains to thine, O Christ!

One work is for the earth, another for heaven.

The city, the Flower of Tuscany, bore me--John."

In the Convent of San Marco in Florence there are twenty-five pictures by

this master; in the Academy of Florence there are about sixty; there are

eleven in the chapel of Nicholas V., and still others in the Vatican

gallery. The Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, the Cathedral of

Orvieto, the Church of St. Domenico in Perugia, and that of Cortona, are

all rich in his works. Besides these a few exist in some of the principal

European galleries; but I love best to see them in San Marco, where he

painted them for his brethren, and where they seem most at home.

The chief merit of the pictures of Fra Angelico is the sweet and tender

expression of the faces of his angels and saints, or any beings who are

holy and good; he never succeeded in painting evil and sin in such a way

as to terrify one; his gentle nature did not permit him to represent that

which it could not comprehend, and the very spirit of purity seems to

breathe through every picture.

Two other Florentine artists of the same era with Fra Angelico were

MASOLINO, whose real name was PANICALE, and TOMMASO GUIDI, called MASACCIO

on account of his want of neatness. The style of these two masters was

much the same, but Masaccio became so much the greater that little is

said of Masolino. The principal works of Masaccio are a series of frescoes

in the Brancacci Chapel in Florence. They represent "The Expulsion from

Paradise," "The Tribute Money," "Peter Baptizing," "Peter Curing the Blind

and Lame," "The Death of Ananias," "Simon Magus," and the "Resuscitation

of the King's Son." There is a fresco by Masolino in the same chapel; it

is "The Preaching of Peter." Masaccio was in fact a remarkable painter.

Some one has said that he seemed to hold Giotto by one hand, and reach

forward to Raphael with the other; and considering the pictures which were

painted before his time, his works are as wonderful as Raphael's are

beautiful. He died in 1429.

PAOLO UCCELLO (1396-1479) and FILIPPO LIPPI (1412-1469) were also good

painters, and SANDRO BOTTICELLI (1447-1515), a pupil of Filippo, was

called the best Florentine painter of his time. FILLIPINO LIPPI

(1460-1505) was a pupil of Botticelli and a very important artist. ANDREA

VERROCCHIO, LORENZO DI CREDI, and ANTONIO POLLAJUOLO were all good

painters of the Florentine school of the last half of the fifteenth

century.

Of the same period was DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO (1449-1494), who ranks very

high on account of his skill in the composition of his works and as a

colorist. He made his pictures very interesting also to those of his own

time, and to those of later days, by introducing portraits of certain

citizens of Florence into pictures which he painted in the Church of Santa

Maria Novella and other public places in the city. He did not usually make

them actors in the scene he represented, but placed them in detached

groups as if they were looking at the picture themselves. While his scenes

were laid in the streets known to us, and his architecture was familiar,

he did not run into the fantastic or lose the picturesque effect which is

always pleasing. Without being one of the greatest of the Italian masters

Ghirlandajo was a very important painter. He was also a teacher of the

great Michael Angelo.

Other prominent Florentine painters of the close of the fifteenth century

were FRANCISCO GRANACCI (1477-1543), LUCA SIGNORELLI (1441-1521), BENOZZO

GOZZOLI (1424-1485), and COSIMO ROSSELLI (1439-1506).

Some good painters worked in Venice from the last half of the fourteenth

century; but I shall begin to speak of the Venetian school with some

account of the Bellini. The father of this family was JACOPO BELLINI

(1395-1470), and his sons were GENTILE BELLINI (1421-1507) and GIOVANNI

BELLINI (1426-1516).

The sketch-book of the father is one of the treasures of the British

Museum. It has 99 pages, 17 by 13 inches in size, and contains sketches of

almost everything--still and animal life, nature, ancient sculpture,

buildings and human figures, stories of the Scriptures, of mythology, and

of the lives of the saints are all illustrated in its sketches, as well as

hawking parties, village scenes, apes, eagles, dogs, and cats. In this

book the excellence of his drawing is seen; but so few of his works remain

that we cannot judge of him as a colorist. It is certain that he laid the

foundation of the excellence of the Venetian school, which his son

Giovanni and the great Titian carried to perfection.

The elder son, Gentile, was a good artist, and gained such a reputation by

his pictures in the great council-chamber of Venice, that when, in 1479,

Sultan Mehemet, the conqueror of Constantinople, sent to Venice for a good

painter, the Doge sent to him Gentile Bellini. With him he sent two

assistants, and gave him honorable conduct in galleys belonging to the

State. In Constantinople Gentile was much honored, and he painted the

portraits of many remarkable people. At length it happened that when he

had finished a picture of the head of John the Baptist in a charger, and

showed it to the Sultan, that ruler said that the neck was not well

painted, and when he saw that Gentile did not agree with him he called a

slave and had his head instantly struck off, to prove to the artist what

would be the true action of the muscles under such circumstances. This act

made Gentile unwilling to remain near the Sultan, and after a year in his

service he returned home. Mehemet, at parting, gave him many gifts, and

begged him to ask for whatever would best please him. Gentile asked but

for a letter of praise to the Doge and Signoria of Venice. After his

return to Venice he worked much in company with his brother. It is said

that Titian studied with Gentile: it is certain that he was always

occupied with important commissions, and worked until the day of his

death, when he was more than eighty years old.

[Illustration: FIG. 33.--CHRIST. _By Gio. Bellini._]

But Giovanni Bellini was the greatest of his family, and must stand as the

founder of true Venetian painting. His works may be divided into two

periods, those that were done before, and those after he learned the use

of oil colors. His masterpieces, which can still be seen in the Academy

and the churches of Venice, were painted after he was sixty-five years

old. The works of Giovanni Bellini are numerous in Venice, and are also

seen in the principal galleries of Europe. He did not paint a great

variety of subjects, neither was his imagination very poetical, but there

was a moral beauty in his figures; he seems to have made humanity as

elevated as it can be, and to have stopped just on the line which

separates earthly excellence from the heavenly. He often painted the

single figure of Christ, of which Lübke says: "By grand nobleness of

expression, solemn bearing, and an excellent arrangement of the drapery,

he reached a dignity which has rarely been surpassed." Near the close of

his life he painted a few subjects which represent gay and festive scenes,

and are more youthful in spirit than the works of his earlier years. The

two brothers were buried side by side, in the Church of SS. Giovanni e

Paolo, in Venice.

There were also good painters in Padua, Ferrara, and Verona in the

fifteenth century.

ANDREA MANTEGNA, of Padua (1430-1506), was a very important artist. He

spent the best part of his life in the service of the Duke of Mantua; but

his influence was felt in all Italy, for his marriage with the daughter of

Jacopo Bellini brought him into relations with many artists. His services

were sought by various sovereigns, whose offers he refused until Pope

Innocent VIII. summoned him to Rome to paint a chapel in the Vatican.

After two years there he returned to Mantua, where he died. His pictures

are in all large collections; his finest works are madonnas at the Louvre,

Paris, and in the Church of St. Zeno at Verona. Mantegna was a fine

engraver also, and his plates are now very valuable.

In the Umbrian school Pietro Perugino (1446-1524) was a notable painter;

he was important on account of his own work, and because he was the master

of the great Raphael. His pictures were simple and devout in their spirit,

and brilliant in color; in fact, he is considered as the founder of the

style which Raphael perfected. His works are in the principal galleries of

Europe, and he had many followers of whom we have not space to speak.

FRANCISCO FRANCIA (1450-1518) was the founder of the school of Bologna.

His true name was Francisco di Marco Raibolini, and he was a goldsmith of

repute before he was a painter. He was also master of the mint to the

Bentivoglio and to Pope Julius II. at Bologna. It is not possible to say

when he began to paint; but his earliest known work is dated 1490 or 1494,

and is in the Gallery of Bologna. His pictures resemble those of Perugino

and Raphael, and it is said that he died of sorrow because he felt himself

so inferior to the great painter of Urbino. Raphael sent his St. Cecilia

to Francia, and asked him to care for it and see it hung in its place; he

did so, but did not live long after this. It is well known that these two

masters were good friends and corresponded, but it is not certain that

they ever met. Francia's pictures are numerous; his portraits are

excellent. Many of his works are still in Bologna.

[Illustration: FIG. 34.--MADONNA. _By Perugino. In the Pitti Gallery,

Florence._]

We come now to one of the most celebrated masters of Italy, LEONARDO DA

VINCI (1452-1519), the head of the Lombard or Milanese school. He was not

the equal of the great masters, Michael Angelo, Raphael, and Titian; but

he stands between them and the painters who preceded him or those of his

own day.

In some respects, however, he was the most extraordinary man of his time.

His talents were many-sided; for he was not only a great artist, but also

a fine scholar in mathematics and mechanics; he wrote poetry and composed

music, and was with all this so attractive personally, and so brilliant in

his manner, that he was a favorite wherever he went. It is probable that

this versatility prevented his being very great in any one thing, while he

was remarkable in many things.

When still very young Leonardo showed his artistic talent. The paper upon

which he worked out his sums was frequently bordered with little pictures

which he drew while thinking on his lessons, and these sketches at last

attracted his father's attention, and he showed them to his friend Andrea

Verrocchio, an artist of Florence, who advised that the boy should become

a painter. Accordingly, in 1470, when eighteen years old, Leonardo was

placed under the care of Verrocchio, who was like a kind father to his

pupils: he was not only a painter, but also an architect and sculptor, a

musician and a geometer, and he especially excelled in making exquisite

cups of gold and silver, crucifixes and statuettes such as were in great

demand for the use of the priesthood in those days.

[Illustration: FIG. 35.--LEONARDO DA VINCI. _From a drawing in red chalk

by himself. In the Royal Library, Turin._]

Pietro Perugino was a fellow-pupil with Leonardo, and they two soon

surpassed their master in painting, and at last, when Verrocchio was

painting a picture for the monks of Vallambrosa, and desired Leonardo to

execute an angel in it, the work of his pupil was so much better than his

own that the old painter desired to throw his brush aside forever. The

picture is now in the Academy of Florence, and represents "The Baptism

of Christ." With all his refinement and sweetness, Leonardo had a liking

for the horrible. It once happened that a countryman brought to his father

a circular piece of wood cut from a fig-tree, and desired to have it

painted for a shield; it was handed over to Leonardo, who collected in his

room a number of lizards, snakes, bats, hedgehogs, and other frightful

creatures, and from these painted an unknown monster having certain

characteristics of the horrid things he had about him. The hideous

creature was surrounded by fire, and was breathing out flames. When his

father saw it he ran away in a fright, and Leonardo was greatly pleased at

this. The countryman received an ordinary shield, and this _Rotello del

Fico_ (or shield of fig-tree wood) was sold to a merchant for one hundred

ducats, and again to the Duke of Milan for three times that sum. This

shield has now been lost for more than three centuries; but another

horror, the "Medusa's Head," is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and is

a head surrounded by interlacing serpents, the eyes being glassy and

deathlike and the mouth most revolting in expression.

While in Florence Leonardo accomplished much, but was at times diverted

from his painting by his love of science, sometimes making studies in

astronomy and again in natural history and botany; he also went much into

society, and lived extravagantly. He had the power to remember faces that

he had seen accidentally, and could make fine portraits from memory; he

was also accustomed to invite to his house people from the lower classes;

he would amuse them while he sketched their faces, making good portraits

at times, and again ridiculous caricatures. He even went so far, for the

sake of his art, as to accompany criminals to the place of execution, in

order to study their expressions.

After a time Leonardo wished to secure some fixed income, and wrote to the

Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, called Il Moro, offering his services to

that prince. This resulted in his going to Milan, where he received a

generous salary, and became very popular with the Duke and all the court,

both as a painter and as a gentleman. The Duke governed as the regent for

his young nephew, and gathered about him talented men for the benefit of

the young prince. He also led a gay life, and his court was the scene of

constant festivities. Leonardo's varied talents were very useful to the

Duke; he could assist him in everything--by advice at his council, by

plans for adorning his city, by music and poetry in his leisure hours, and

by painting the portraits of his favorites. Some of these last are now

famous pictures--that of Lucrezia Crevelli is believed to be in the Louvre

at Paris, where it is called "La Belle Ferronière."

The Duke conferred a great honor on Leonardo by choosing him to be the

founder and director of an academy which he had long wished to establish.

It was called the "Academia Leonardi Vinci," and had for its purpose the

bringing together of distinguished artists and men of letters. Leonardo

was appointed superintendent of all the fêtes and entertainments given by

the court, and in this department he did some marvellous things. He also

superintended a great work in engineering which he brought to perfection,

to the wonder of all Italy: it was no less an undertaking than bringing

the waters of the Adda from Mortisana to Milan, a distance of nearly two

hundred miles. In spite of all these occupations the artist found time to

study anatomy and to write some valuable works. At length Il Moro became

the established duke, and at his brilliant court Leonardo led a most

agreeable life; but he was so occupied with many things that he painted

comparatively few pictures.

[Illustration: FIG. 36.--THE LAST SUPPER. _By Leonardo da Vinci._]

At length the Duke desired him to paint a picture of the Last Supper on

the wall of the refectory in the Convent of the Madonna delle Grazie. This

was his greatest work in Milan and a wonderful masterpiece. It was

commenced about 1496, and was finished in a very short time. We must now

judge of it from copies and engravings, for it has been so injured as to

give no satisfaction to one who sees it. Some good copies were made before

it was thus ruined, and numerous engravings make it familiar to all the

world. A copy in the Royal Academy, London, was made by one of Leonardo's

pupils, and is the size of the original. It is said that the prior of the

convent complained to the Duke of the length of time the artist was

spending upon this picture; when the Duke questioned the painter he said

that he was greatly troubled to find a face which pleased him for that of

Judas Iscariot; he added that he was willing to allow the prior to sit for

this figure and thus hasten the work; this answer pleased the Duke and

silenced the prior.

After a time misfortunes overtook the Duke, and Leonardo was reduced to

poverty; finally Il Moro was imprisoned; and in 1500 Leonardo returned to

Florence, where he was honorably received. He was not happy here, however,

for he was not the one important artist. He had been absent nineteen

years, and great changes had taken place; Michael Angelo and Raphael were

just becoming famous, and they with other artists welcomed Leonardo, for

his fame had reached them from Milan. However, he painted some fine

pictures at this time; among them were the "Adoration of the Kings," now

in the Uffizi Gallery, and a portrait of Ginevra Benci, also in the same

gallery. This lady must have been very beautiful; Ghirlandajo introduced

her portrait into two of his frescoes.

But the most remarkable portrait was that known as Mona Lisa del Giocondo,

which is in the Louvre, and is called by some critics the finest work of

this master. The lady was the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, a lovely

woman, and some suppose that she was very dear to Leonardo. He worked upon

it for four years, and still thought it unfinished: the face has a deep,

thoughtful expression--the eyelids are a little weary, perhaps, and

through it all there is a suggestion of something not quite understood--a

mystery: the hands are graceful and of perfect form, and the rocky

background gives an unusual fascination to the whole picture. Leonardo

must have loved the picture himself, and it is not strange that he

lavished more time upon it than he gave to the great picture of the Last

Supper (Fig. 37).

Leonardo sold this picture to Francis I. for nine thousand dollars, which

was then an enormous sum, though now one could scarcely fix a price upon

it. In 1860 the Emperor of Russia paid twelve thousand dollars for a St.

Sebastian by Leonardo, and in 1865 a madonna by him was sold in Paris for

about sixteen thousand dollars. Of course his pictures are rarely sold;

but, when they are, great sums are given for them.

In 1502 Cæsar Borgia appointed Leonardo his engineer and sent him to

travel through Central Italy to inspect his fortresses; but this usurper

soon fled to Spain, and in 1503 our painter was again in Florence. In 1504

his father died. From 1507 to 1512 Leonardo was at the summit of his

greatness. Louis XII. appointed him his painter, and he labored for this

monarch also to improve the water-works of Milan. For seven years he dwelt

at Milan, making frequent journeys to Florence. But the political troubles

of the time made Lombardy an uncongenial home for any artist, and

Leonardo, with a few pupils, went to Florence and then on to Rome. Pope

Leo X. received him cordially enough, and told him to "work for the glory

of God, Italy, Leo X., and Leonardo da Vinci." But Leonardo was not happy

in Rome, where Michael Angelo and Raphael were in great favor, and when

Francis I. made his successes in Italy in 1515, Leonardo hastened to

Lombardy to meet him. The new king of France restored him to the office to

which Louis XII. had appointed him, and gave him an annual pension of

seven hundred gold crowns.

[Illustration: FIG. 37.--MONA LISA.--"LA BELLE JOCONDE."]

When Francis returned to France he desired to cut out the wall on which

the Last Supper was painted, and carry it to his own country: this proved

to be impossible, and it is much to be regretted, as it is probable that

if it could have been thus removed it would have been better preserved.

However, not being able to take the artist's great work, the king took

Leonardo himself, together with his favorite pupils and friends and his

devoted servant. In France, Leonardo was treated with consideration. He

resided near Amboise, where he could mingle with the court. It is said

that, old though he was, he was so much admired that the courtiers

imitated his dress and the cut of his beard and hair. He was given the

charge of all artistic matters in France, and doubtless Francis hoped that

he would found an Academy as he had done at Milan. But he seems to have

left all his energy, all desire for work, on the Italian side of the Alps.

He made a few plans; but he brought no great thing to pass, and soon his

health failed, and he fell into a decline. He gave great attention to

religious matters, received the sacrament, and then made his will, and put

his worldly affairs in order.

The king was accustomed to visit him frequently, and on the last day of

his life, when the sovereign entered the room, Leonardo desired to be

raised up as a matter of respect to the king: sitting, he conversed of his

sufferings, and lamented that he had done so little for God and man. Just

then he was seized with an attack of pain--the king rose to support him,

and thus, in the arms of Francis, the great master breathed his last. This

has sometimes been doubted; but the modern French critics agree with the

ancient writers who give this account of his end.

He was buried in the Church of St. Florentin at Amboise, and it is not

known that any monument was erected over him. In 1808 the church was

destroyed; in 1863 Arsine Houssaye, with others, made a search for the

grave of Leonardo, and it is believed that his remains were found. In

1873 a noble monument was erected in Milan to the memory of Da Vinci. It

is near the entrance to the Arcade of Victor Emmanuel: the statue of the

master stands on a high pedestal in a thoughtful attitude, the head bowed

down and the arms crossed on the breast. Below are other statues and rich

bas-reliefs, and one inscription speaks of him as the "Renewer of the Arts

and Sciences."

Many of his writings are in the libraries of Europe in manuscript form:

his best known work is the "Trattato della Pittura," and has been

translated into English. As an engineer his canal of Mortesana was enough

to give him fame; as an artist he may be called the "Poet of Painters,"

and, if those who followed him surpassed him, it should be remembered that

it is easier to advance in a path once opened than to discover a new path.

Personally he was much beloved, and, though he lived when morals were at a

low estimate, he led a proper and reputable life. His pictures were pure

in their spirit, and he seemed only to desire the progress of art and

science, and it is a pleasure to read and learn of him, as it is to see

his works.

Other good artists of the Lombard school in the fifteenth century were

BERNARDINO LUINI (about 1460-1530), who was the best pupil of Leonardo,

GIOVANNI ANTONIO BELTRAFFIO (1467-1516), GAUDENZIO FARRARI (1484-1549),

AMBROGIO BORGOGNONE (works dated about 1500), and ANDREA SOLARIO, whose

age is not known.

We return now to the Florentine school at a time when the most remarkable

period of its existence was about to begin. We shall speak first of FRA

BARTOLOMMEO or BACCIO DELLA PORTA, also called IL FRATE (1469-1517). He

was born at Savignano, and studied at Florence under Cosimo Rosselli, but

was much influenced by the works of Leonardo da Vinci. This painter became

famous for the beauty of his pictures of the Madonna, and at the time

when the great Savonarola went to Florence Bartolommeo was employed in the

Convent of San Marco, where the preacher lived. The artist became the

devoted friend of the preacher, and, when the latter was seized, tortured,

and burned, Bartolommeo became a friar, and left his pictures to be

finished by his pupil Albertinelli. For four years he lived the most

austere life, and did not touch his brush: then his superior commanded him

to resume his art; but the painter had no interest in it. About this time

Raphael sought him out, and became his friend; he also instructed the monk

in perspective, and in turn Raphael learned from him, for Fra Bartolommeo

was the first artist who used lay figures in arranging his draperies; he

also told Raphael some secrets of colors.

About 1513 Bartolommeo went to Rome, and after his return to his convent

he began what promised to be a wonderful artistic career; but he only

lived four years more, and the amount of his work was so small that his

pictures are now rare. His madonnas, saints, and angels are holy in their

effect; his representations of architecture are grand, and while his works

are not strong or powerful, they give much pleasure to those who see them.

MICHAEL ANGELO BUONARROTI was born at the Castle of Caprese in 1475. His

father, who was of a noble family of Florence, was then governor of

Caprese and Chiusi, and, when the Buonarroti household returned to

Florence, the little Angelo was left with his nurse on one of his father's

estates at Settignano. The father and husband of his nurse were

stone-masons, and thus in infancy the future artist was in the midst of

blocks of stone and marble and the implements which he later used with so

much skill. For many years rude sketches were shown upon the walls of the

nurse's house made by her baby charge, and he afterward said that he

imbibed a love for marble with his earliest food.

[Illustration: FIG. 38.--PORTRAIT OF MICHAEL ANGELO BUONARROTI.]

At the proper age Angelo was taken to Florence and placed in school; but

he spent his time mostly in drawing, and having made the acquaintance of

Francesco Granacci, at that time a pupil with Ghirlandajo, he borrowed

from him designs and materials by which to carry on his beloved pursuits.

Michael Angelo's desire to become an artist was violently opposed by his

father and his uncles, for they desired him to be a silk and woollen

merchant, and sustain the commercial reputation of the family. But so

determined was he that finally his father yielded, and in 1488 placed him

in the studio of Ghirlandajo. Here the boy of thirteen worked with great

diligence; he learned how to prepare colors and to lay the groundwork of

frescoes, and he was set to copy drawings. Very soon he wearied of this,

and began to make original designs after his own ideas. At one time he

corrected a drawing of his master's: when he saw this, sixty years later,

he said, "I almost think that I knew more of art in my youth than I do in

my old age."

When Michael Angelo went to Ghirlandajo, that master was employed on the

restoration of the choir of Santa Maria Novella, so that the boy came at

once into the midst of important work. One day he drew a picture of the

scaffolding and all that belonged to it, with the painters at work

thereon: when his master saw it he exclaimed, "He already understands more

than I do myself." This excellence in the scholar roused the jealousy of

the master, as well as of his other pupils, and it was a relief to Michael

Angelo when, in answer to a request from Lorenzo de Medici, he and

Francesco Granacci were named by Ghirlandajo as his two most promising

scholars, and were then sent to the Academy which the duke had

established. The art treasures which Lorenzo gave for the use of the

students were arranged in the gardens of San Marco, and here, under the

instruction of the old Bertoldo, Angelo forgot painting in his enthusiasm

for sculpture. He first copied the face of a faun; but he changed it

somewhat, and opened the mouth so that the teeth could be seen. When

Lorenzo visited the garden he praised the work, but said, "You have made

your faun so old, and yet you have left him all his teeth; you should have

known that at such an advanced age there are generally some wanting." The

next time he came there was a gap in the teeth, and so well done that he

was delighted. This work is now in the Uffizi Gallery.

Lorenzo now sent for the father of Angelo, and asked that the son might

live in the Medici palace under his own care. Somewhat reluctantly the

father consented, and the duke gave him an office in the custom-house.

From this time for three years, Angelo sat daily at the duke's table, and

was treated as one of his own family; he was properly clothed, and had an

allowance of five ducats a month for pocket-money. It was the custom with

Lorenzo to give an entertainment every day; he took the head of the table,

and whoever came first had a seat next him. It often happened that Michael

Angelo had this place. Lorenzo was the head of Florence, and Florence was

the head of art, poetry, and all scholarly thought. Thus, in the home of

the Medici, the young artist heard learned talk upon all subjects of

interest; he saw there all the celebrated men who lived in the city or

visited it, and his life so near Lorenzo, for a thoughtful youth, as he

was, amounted to an education.

The society of Florence at this time was not of a high moral tone, and in

the year in which Michael Angelo entered the palace, a monk called

Savonarola came to Florence to preach against the customs and the crimes

of the city. Michael Angelo was much affected by this, and throughout his

long life remembered Savonarola with true respect and affection, and his

brother, Leonardo Buonarroti, was so far influenced that he withdrew from

the world and became a Dominican monk.

Michael Angelo's diligence was great; he not only studied sculpture, but

he found time to copy some of the fine old frescoes in the Church of the

Carmine. He gave great attention to the study of anatomy, and he was known

throughout the city for his talents, and for his pride and bad temper. He

held himself aloof from his fellow-pupils, and one day, in a quarrel with

Piètro Torrigiano, the latter gave Angelo a blow and crushed his nose so

badly that he was disfigured for life. Torrigiano was banished for this

offence and went to England; he ended his life in a Spanish prison.

In the spring of 1492 Lorenzo de Medici died. Michael Angelo was deeply

grieved at the loss of his best friend; he left the Medici palace, and

opened a studio in his father's house, where he worked diligently for two

years, making a statue of Hercules and two madonnas. After two years there

came a great snow-storm, and Piero de Medici sent for the artist to make a

snow statue in his court-yard. He also invited Michael Angelo to live

again in the palace, and the invitation was accepted; but all was so

changed there that he embraced the first opportunity to leave, and during

a political disturbance fled from the city with two friends, and made his

way to Venice. There he met the noble Aldovrandi of Bologna, who invited

the sculptor to his home, where he remained about a year, and then

returned to his studio in Florence.

Soon after this he made a beautiful, sleeping Cupid, and when the young

Lorenzo de Medici saw it he advised Michael Angelo to bury it in the

ground for a season, and thus make it look like an antique marble; after

this was done, Lorenzo sent it to Rome and sold it to the Cardinal Riario,

and gave the sculptor thirty ducats. In some way the truth of the matter

reached the ears of the Cardinal, who sent his agent to Florence to find

the artist. When Michael Angelo heard that two hundred ducats had been

paid for his Cupid, he knew that he had been deceived. The Cardinal's

agent invited him to go to Rome, and he gladly went. The oldest existing

writing from the hand of Michael Angelo is the letter which he wrote to

Lorenzo to inform him of his arrival in Rome. He was then twenty-one years

old, and spoke with joy of all the beautiful things he had seen.

Not long after he reached Rome he made the statue of the "Drunken

Bacchus," now in the Uffizi Gallery, and then the Virgin Mary sitting near

the place of the cross and holding the body of the dead Christ. The

art-term for this subject is "La Pietà." From the time that Michael Angelo

made this beautiful work he was the first sculptor of the world, though he

was but twenty-four years old. The Pietà was placed in St. Peter's Church,

where it still remains. The next year he returned to Florence. He was

occupied with both painting and sculpture, and was soon employed on his

"David," one of his greatest works. This statue weighed eighteen thousand

pounds, and its removal from the studio in which it was made to the place

where it was to stand, next the gate of the Palazzo Vecchio, was a

difficult undertaking. It was at last put in place on May 18, 1504; there

it remained until a few years ago, when, on account of its crumbling from

the effect of the weather, it was removed to the Academy of Fine Arts by

means of a railroad built for the purpose.

About this time a rivalry sprang up between Michael Angelo and Leonardo da

Vinci. They were very unlike in their characters and mode of life. Michael

Angelo was bitter, ironical, and liked to be alone; Leonardo loved to be

gay and to see the world; Michael Angelo lived so that when he was old he

said, "Rich as I am, I have always lived like a poor man;" Leonardo

enjoyed luxury, and kept a fine house, with horses and servants. They had

entered into a competition which was likely to result in serious trouble,

when Pope Julius II. summoned Michael Angelo to Rome. The Pope gave him an

order to build him a splendid tomb; but the enemies of the sculptor made

trouble for him, and one morning he was refused admission to the Pope's

palace. He then left Rome, sending this letter to the Pope: "Most Holy

Father, I was this morning driven from the palace by the order of your

Holiness. If you require me in future you can seek me elsewhere than at

Rome."

Then he went to Florence, and the Pope sent for him again and again; but

he did not go. Meantime he finished his design, and received the

commission that he and Leonardo had striven for, which was to decorate the

hall of the Grand Council with pictures. At last, in 1506, the Pope was in

Bologna, and again sent for Michael Angelo. He went, and was forgiven for

his offence, and received an order for a colossal statue of the Pope in

bronze. When this was finished in 1508, and put before the Church of St.

Petronio, Michael Angelo returned to Florence. He had not made friends in

Bologna; his forbidding manner did not encourage others to associate with

him; but we now know from his letters that he had great trials. His family

was poor, and all relied on him; indeed, his life was full of care and

sadness.

In 1508 he was again summoned to Rome by the Pope, who insisted that he

should paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, in the Vatican. Michael

Angelo did not wish to do this, as he had done no great painting. It

proved to be one of his most famous works; but he had a great deal of

trouble in it. On one occasion the Pope threatened to throw the artist

from the scaffolding. The Pope complained also that the pictures looked

poor; to this the artist replied: "They are only poor people whom I have

painted there, and did not wear gold on their garments." His subjects were

from the Bible. When the artist would have a leave of absence to go to

Florence, the Pope got so angry that he struck him; but, in spite of all,

this great painting was finished in 1512. Grimm, in his life of Michael

Angelo, says: "It needed the meeting of these two men; in the one such

perseverance in requiring, and in the other such power of fulfilling, to

produce this monument of human art."

[Illustration: FIG. 39.--THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. _By M. Angelo. From the

Sistine Chapel._]

It is impossible here to follow, step by step, the life and works of this

master. Among the other great things which he did are the tomb of Julius

II. in the Church of S. Pietro in Vincoli, in Rome, of which the famous

statue of Moses makes a part (Fig. 40).

[Illustration: FIG. 40.--STATUE OF MOSES. _By M. Angelo._]

He made the statues in the Medici Chapel in the Church of San Lorenzo, in

Florence, the painting of the Last Judgment on a wall of the Sistine

Chapel, and many works as an architect; for he was called upon to attend

to fortifications both in Florence and Rome, and at last, as his

greatest work of this sort, he was the architect of St. Peter's at Rome.

Many different artists had had a share in this work; but as it now is

Michael Angelo may be counted as its real architect. His works are

numerous and only a small part of them is here mentioned; but I have

spoken of those by which he is most remembered. His life, too, was a

stormy one for many reasons that we have not space to tell. While he lived

there were wars and great changes in Italy; he served also under nine

popes, and during his life thirteen men occupied the papal chair. Besides

being great as a painter, an architect, and a sculptor, he was a poet, and

wrote sonnets well worthy of such a genius as his. His whole life was so

serious and sad that it gives one joy to know that in his old age he

formed an intimate friendship with Vittoria Colonna, a wonderful woman,

who made a sweet return to him for all the tender devotion which he

lavished upon her.

Italians associate the name of Michael Angelo with those of the divine

poet Dante and the painter Raphael, and these three are spoken of as the

three greatest men of their country in what are called the modern days.

Michael Angelo died at Rome in 1564, when eighty-nine years old. He

desired to be buried in Florence; but his friends feared to let this be

known lest the Pope should forbid his removal. He was therefore buried in

the Church of the Holy Apostles; but his nephew, Leonardo Buonarroti,

conveyed his remains to Florence secretly, disguised as a bale of

merchandise. At Florence, on a Sunday night, his body was borne to Santa

Croce, in a torchlight procession, and followed by many thousands of

citizens. There his friends once more gazed upon the face which had not

been seen in Florence for thirty years; he looked as if quietly sleeping.

Some days later a splendid memorial service was held in San Lorenzo,

attended by all the court, the artists, scholars, and eminent men of the

city. An oration was pronounced; rare statues and paintings were

collected in the church; all the shops of the city were closed; and the

squares were filled with people.

Above his grave in Santa Croce, where he lies near Dante, Machiavelli,

Galileo, and many other great men, the Duke and Leonardo Buonarroti

erected a monument. It has statues of Painting, Sculpture, and

Architecture, and a bust of the great man who sleeps beneath.

In the court of the Uffizi his statue stands together with those of other

great Florentines. His house in the Ghibelline Street now belongs to the

city of Florence, and contains many treasured mementoes of his life and

works; it is open to all who wish to visit it. In 1875 a grand festival

was held in Florence to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of his

birth. The ceremonies were very impressive, and at that time some

documents which related to his life, and had never been opened, were, by

command of Victor Emmanuel, given to proper persons to be examined.

Thus it is that the great deeds of great men live on and on, through all

time, and it is a joy to know that though the fourscore and nine years of

the life of this artist had much of care and sorrow in them, his name and

memory are still cherished, and must continue to be, while from his life

many lessons may be drawn to benefit and encourage others--lessons which

we cannot here write out; but they teach patience, industry, and

faithfulness to duty, while they also warn us to avoid the bitterness and

roughness which are blemishes on the memory of this great, good man.

DANIELE DE VOLTERRA (1509-1566) was the best scholar of Michael Angelo.

His principal pictures are the "Descent from the Cross," in the Church of

Trinità di Monti, in Rome, and the "Massacre of the Innocents," in the

Uffizi Gallery; both are celebrated works.

The next important Florentine painter was ANDREA DEL SARTO (1488-1530).

His family name was Vannucchi; but because his father was a tailor, the

Italian term for one of his trade, _un sarto_, came to be used for the

son. Early in life Andrea was a goldsmith, as were so many artists; but,

when he was able to study painting under Pietro di Cosimo, he became

devoted to it, and soon developed his own style, which was very soft and

pleasing. His pictures cannot be called great works of art, but they are

favorites with a large number of people. He succeeded in fresco-painting,

and decorated several buildings in Florence, among them the Scalzo, which

was a place where the Barefooted Friars held their meetings, and was named

from them, as they are called _Scalzi_. These frescoes are now much

injured; but they are thought his best works of this kind.

Probably Andrea del Sarto would have come to be a better painter if he had

been a happier man. His wife, of whom he was very fond, was a mean,

selfish woman who wished only to make a great show, and did not value her

husband's talents except for the money which they brought him. She even

influenced him to desert his parents, to whom he had ever been a dutiful

son. About 1518 Francis I., king of France, invited Andrea to Paris to

execute some works for him. The painter went, and was well established

there and very popular, when his wife insisted that he should return to

Florence. Francis I. was very unwilling to spare him, but Andrea dared not

refuse to go to his wife; so he solemnly took an oath to return to Paris

and bring his wife, so that he could remain as long as pleased the king,

and then that sovereign consented. Francis also gave the artist a large

sum of money to buy for him all sorts of beautiful objects.

When Andrea reached Florence his wife refused to go to France, and

persuaded him to give her the king's money. She soon spent it, and Andrea,

who lived ten years more, was very unhappy, while the king never forgave

him, and to this day this wretched story must be told, and continues the

remembrance of his dishonesty. After all he had sacrificed for his wife,

when he became very ill, in 1530, of some contagious disease, she deserted

him. He died alone, and with no prayer or funeral was buried in the

Convent of the Nunziata, where he had painted some of his frescoes.

[Illustration: FIG. 41.--THE MADONNA DEL SACCO. _By Andrea del Sarto._]

His pictures are very numerous; they are correct in drawing, very softly

finished, and have a peculiar gray tone of color. He painted a great

number of Holy Families, one of which is called the "Madonna del Sacco,"

because St. Joseph is leaning on a sack (Fig. 41). This is in the convent

where he is buried. His best work is called the "Madonna di San Francesco"

and hangs in the tribune of the Uffizi Gallery. This is a most honorable

place, for near it are pictures by Michael Angelo, Raphael, Titian, and

other great painters, as well as some very celebrated statues, such as the

"Venus de Medici" and the "Dancing Faun." Andrea del Sarto's pictures of

the Madonna and Child are almost numberless; they are sweet, attractive

works, as are also his St. Barbara, St. Agnes, and others of his single

figures.

We will now leave the Florentine school of the sixteenth century, and

speak of the great master of the Roman school, RAPHAEL SANZIO, or SANTI

(1483-1520), who was born at Urbino on Good Friday. His father was a

painter, and Raphael showed his taste for art very early in life. Both his

parents died while he was still a child, and though he must have learned

something from seeing his father and other painters at their work, we say

that Perugino was his first master, for he was but twelve years old when

he entered the studio of that painter in Perugia.

Here he remained more than eight years, and about the time of leaving

painted the very celebrated picture called "Lo Sposalizio," or the

Marriage of the Virgin, now in the Brera at Milan. This picture is famous

the world over, and is very important in the life of the painter, because

it shows the highest point he reached under Perugino, or during what is

called his first manner in painting. Before this he had executed a large

number of beautiful pictures, among which was the so-called "Staffa

Madonna." This is a circular picture and represents the Virgin walking in

a springtime landscape. It remained in the Staffa Palace in Perugia three

hundred and sixty-eight years, and in 1871 was sold to the Emperor of

Russia for seventy thousand dollars.

In 1504 Raphael returned to Urbino, where he became the favorite of the

court, and was much employed by the ducal family. To this time belong the

"St. George Slaying the Dragon" and the "St. Michael Attacking Satan," now

in the gallery of the Louvre. But the young artist soon grew weary of the

narrowness of his life, and went to Florence, where, amid the treasures of

art with which that city was crowded, he felt as if he was in an enchanted

land. It is worth while to recount the wonderful things he saw; they were

the cathedral with the dome of Brunelleschi, the tower of Giotto, the

marbles and bronzes of Donatello, the baptistery gates of Ghiberti, the

pictures of Masaccio, Ghirlandajo, Fra Angelico, and many other older

masters, while Michael Angelo and Leonardo were surprising themselves and

all others with their beautiful works.

At this time the second manner of Raphael begun. During his first winter

here he painted the so-called "Madonna della Gran Duca," now in the Pitti

Gallery, and thus named because the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand III.,

carried it with him on all his journeys, and said his prayers before it at

morning and evening. He made a visit to Urbino in 1505, and wherever he

was he worked continually, and finished a great number of pictures, which

as yet were of religious subjects with few and unimportant exceptions.

[Illustration: FIG. 42.--PORTRAIT OF RAPHAEL. _Painted by Himself._]

When he returned to Florence in 1506, the cartoon of Leonardo da Vinci's

"Battle of the Standard" and Michael Angelo's "Bathing Soldiers" revealed

a new world of art to Raphael. He saw that heroic, exciting scenes could

be represented by painting, and that vigor and passion could speak from

the canvas as powerfully as Christian love and resignation. Still he did

not attempt any new thing immediately. In Florence he moved in the best

circles. He received orders for some portraits of nobles and wealthy men,

as well as for madonnas and Holy Families. Before long he visited Bologna,

and went again to Urbino, which had become a very important city under the

reign of Duke Guidobaldo. The king of England, Henry VIII., had sent to

this duke the decoration of the Order of the Garter. In return for this

honor, the duke sent the king rich gifts, among which was a picture of St.

George and the Dragon by Raphael.

While at Urbino, at this time, he painted his first classic subject, the

"Three Graces." Soon after, he returned the third time to Florence, and

now held much intercourse with Fra Bartolommeo, who gave the younger

artist valuable instruction as to his color and drapery. In 1508, among a

great number of pictures he painted the madonna which is called "La Belle

Jardinière," and is now one of the treasures of the Louvre. The Virgin is

pictured in the midst of a flowery landscape, and it has been said that a

beautiful flower-girl to whom Raphael was attached was his model for the

picture. This picture is also a landmark in the history of Raphael, for it

shows the perfection of his second manner, and the change that had come

over him from his Florentine experience and associations. His earlier

pictures had been full of a sweet, unearthly feeling, and a color which

could be called spiritual was spread over them; now his madonnas were like

beautiful, earthly mothers, his colors were deep and rich, and his

landscapes were often replaced by architectural backgrounds which gave a

stately air where all before had been simplicity. His skill in grouping,

in color, and in drapery was now marvellous, and when in 1508 the Pope,

who had seen some of his works, summoned him to Rome, he went, fully

prepared for the great future which was before him, and now began his

third, or Roman manner of painting.

This pope was Julius II., who held a magnificent court and was ambitious

for glory in every department of life--as a temporal as well as a

spiritual ruler, and as a patron of art and letters as well as in his

office of the Protector of the Holy Church. He had vast designs for the

adornment of Rome, and immediately employed Raphael in the decoration of

the first of the Stanze, or halls of the Vatican, four of which he

ornamented with magnificent frescoes before his death. He also executed

wall-paintings in the Chigi Palace, and in a chapel of the Church of Santa

Maria della Pace.

With the exception of a short visit to Florence, Raphael passed the

remainder of his life in Rome. The amount of work which he did as an

architect, sculptor, and painter was marvellous, and would require the

space of a volume to follow it, and name all his achievements, step by

step, so I shall only tell you of some of his best-known works and those

which are most often mentioned.

While he was working upon the halls of the Vatican Julius II. died. He was

succeeded by Leo X., who also was a generous patron to Raphael, who thus

suffered no loss of occupation from the change of popes. The artist became

very popular and rich; he had many pupils, and was assisted by them in his

great frescoes, not only in the Vatican, but also in the Farnesina Villa

or Chigi Palace. Raphael had the power to attach men to him with devoted

affection, and his pupils gave him personal service gladly; he was often

seen in the street with numbers of them in attendance, just as the nobles

were followed by their squires and pages. He built himself a house in a

quarter of the city called the Borgo, not far from the Church of St.

Peter's, and during the remainder of his life was attended by prosperity

and success.

One of the important works which he did for Leo X. was the making of

cartoons, or designs to be executed in tapestry for the decoration of the

Sistine Chapel, where Michael Angelo had painted his great frescoes. The

Pope ordered these tapestries to be woven in the looms of Flanders, from

the richest materials, and a quantity of gold thread was used in them.

They were completed and sent to Rome in 1519, and were exhibited to the

people the day after Christmas, when all the city flocked to see them. In

1527, when the Constable de Bourbon allowed the French soldiers to sack

Rome, these tapestries were carried away. In 1553 they were restored; but

one was missing, and it is believed that it had been destroyed for the

sake of the gold thread which was in it. Again, in 1798, the French

carried them away and sold them to a Jew in Leghorn, who burned one of the

pieces; but his gain in gold was so little that he preserved the others,

and Pius VII. bought them and restored them to the Vatican. The cartoons,

however, are far more important than the tapestries, because they are the

work of Raphael himself. The weavers at Arras tossed them aside after

using them, and some were torn; but a century later the artist Rubens

learned that they existed, and advised King Charles I. of England to buy

them. This he did, and thus the cartoons met with as many ups and downs as

the tapestries had had. When they reached England they were in strips; the

workmen had cut them for their convenience. After the king was executed

Cromwell bought the cartoons for three hundred pounds. When Charles II.

was king and in great need of money he was sorely tempted to sell them to

Louis XIV., who coveted them, and wished to add them to the treasures of

France; but Lord Danby persuaded Charles to keep them. In 1698 they were

barely saved from fire at Whitehall, and finally, by command of William

III., they were properly repaired and a room was built at Hampton Court to

receive them, by the architect, Sir Christopher Wren. At present they are

in the South Kensington Museum, London. Of the original eleven only seven

remain.

[Illustration: FIG. 43.--THE SISTINE MADONNA.]

Both Henry VIII. and Francis I. had received presents of pictures by

Raphael: we have told of the occasion when the St. George was sent to

England. The "Archangel Michael" and the "Large Holy Family of the Louvre"

were given to Francis I. by Lorenzo de Medici, who sent them overland on

mules to the Palace of Fontainebleau. Francis was so charmed with these

works that he presented Raphael so large a sum that he was unwilling to

accept it without sending the king still other pictures; so he sent the

sovereign another painting, and to the king's sister, Queen Margaret of

Navarre, he gave a picture of St. Margaret overcoming the dragon. Then

Francis gave Raphael many thanks and another rich gift of money. Besides

this he invited Raphael to come to his court, as did also the king of

England; but the artist preferred to remain where he was already so

prosperous and happy.

About 1520 Raphael painted the famous Sistine Madonna, now the pride of

the Dresden Gallery. It is named from St. Sixtus, for whose convent, at

Piacenza, it was painted: the picture of this saint, too, is in the lower

part of the picture, with that of St. Barbara. No sketch or drawing of

this work was ever found, and it is believed that the great artist,

working as if inspired, sketched it and finished it on the canvas where it

is. It was originally intended for a _drappellone_, or procession

standard, but the monks used it for an altar-piece (Fig. 43).

While Raphael accomplished so much as a painter, he by no means gave all

his time or thought to a single art. He was made superintendent of the

building of St. Peter's in 1514, and made many architectural drawings for

that church; he was also much interested in the excavations of ancient

Rome, and made immense numbers of drawings of various sorts. As a sculptor

he made models and designs, and there is in the Church of Santa Maria del

Popolo, in Rome, a statue of Jonah sitting on a whale, said to have been

modelled by Raphael and put into marble by Lorenzetto Latti.

Raphael was also interested in what was happening outside the world of

art; he corresponded with scholars of different countries, and sent men to

make drawings of places and objects which he could not go to see. He was

also generous to those less fortunate than himself, and gave encouragement

and occupation to many needy men.

At one time he expected to marry Maria de Bibiena, a niece of Cardinal

Bibiena; but she died before the time for the marriage came.

While Raphael was making his great successes in Rome, other famous artists

also were there, and there came to be much discussion as to their merits,

and especially as to the comparative worth of Michael Angelo and Raphael.

At last, when this feeling of rivalry was at its height, the Cardinal

Giulio de Medici, afterward Pope Clement VII., gave orders to Raphael and

Sebastian del Piombo to paint two large pictures for the Cathedral of

Narbonne. The subject of Sebastian's picture was the "Raising of Lazarus,"

and it has always been said that Michael Angelo made the drawing for it.

Raphael's picture was the "Transfiguration," and proved to be his last

work, for before it was finished he was attacked by fever, and died on

Good Friday, 1620, which was the thirty-seventh anniversary of his birth.

All Rome mourned for him; his body was laid in state, and the

Transfiguration was placed near it. Those who had known him went to weep

while they gazed upon his face for the last time.

He had chosen his grave in the Pantheon, near to that of Maria Bibiena,

his betrothed bride. The ceremonies of his burial were magnificent, and

his body was followed by an immense throng dressed in mourning. Above his

tomb was placed an inscription in Latin, written by Pietro Bembo, which

has for its last sentence these words: "This is that Raphael by whom

Nature feared to be conquered while he lived, and to die when he died."

Raphael had also requested Lorenzo Lorenzetti to make a statue of the

Virgin to be placed above his resting-place. He left a large estate, and

gave his works of art to his pupils Giulio Romano and Francesco Penni; his

house to Cardinal Bibiena; a sum to buy another house, the rent of which

should pay for twelve masses to be said monthly, for the repose of his

soul, from the altar near his grave; this was observed until 1705, when

the income from the house was not enough to support these services.

For many years there was a skull at the Academy of St. Luke, in Rome,

which was called that of Raphael; but there was no proof of this, and in

1833 some antiquarians received the consent of the Pope to their searching

for the bones of Raphael in his grave in the Pantheon. After five days of

careful work, and removing the pavement in several places, the skeleton of

the great master was found, and with it such proofs of its being his as

left no room for doubt. Then a second great funeral service was held; the

Pope, Gregory XVI., gave a marble sarcophagus in which the bones were

placed, and reverently restored to their first resting-place. More than

three thousand persons were present at the service, including artists of

all nations, as well as Romans of the highest rank. They moved in

procession about the church, bearing torches in their hands, and keeping

time to beautiful chants from an invisible choir.

[Illustration: FIG. 44.--SAINT CECILIA LISTENING TO THE SINGING OF ANGELS.

_By Raphael._]

Raphael left two hundred and eighty-seven pictures and five hundred and

seventy-six studies and drawings, and all done in so short a life. In

considering him and the story of his life, we find that it was not any one

trait or talent that made his greatness; but it was the rare union of

gifts of genius with a personal charm that won all hearts to him. His

famous picture of "St. Cecilia," with its sweetness of expression and

lovely color--its union of earthly beauty with spiritual feeling, is a

symbol of the harmonious and varied qualities of this prince of painters

(Fig. 44).

GIULIO ROMANO (1492-1556) was the favorite pupil of Raphael, and the heir

of a part of his estate; but his remaining works would not repay us for a

study of them.

Of course, the influence of so great a master as Raphael was felt outside

of his own school, and, in a sense, all Italian art of his time was

modified by him. His effect was very noticeable upon a Sienese painter,

BAZZI, or RAZZI, called IL SODOMA (1477-1549), who went to Rome and was

under the immediate influence of Raphael's works. He was almost unrivalled

in his power to represent beautiful female heads.

His important works were frescoes, many of which are in the churches of

Siena. Doubtless Bazzi was lost in the shadow of the great Raphael, and

had he existed at a time a little more distant from that great man, he

would have been more famous in his life.

During the sixteenth century the Venetian school reached its highest

excellence. The great difference between it and the school of Florence

was, that the latter made beauty of form the one object of its art, while

the Venetian painters combined with grace and ease the added charm of

rich, brilliant color.

GIORGIO BARBARELLI, called GIORGIONE (1477-1511), was the first great

artist of Venice who cast off the rigid manner of the Bellini school, and

used his brush and colors freely, guided only by his own ideas, and

inspired by his own genius.

He was born at Castelfranco, and was early distinguished for his personal

beauty. Giorgione means George the Great, and this title was given him on

account of his noble figure. He was fond of music, played the lute well,

and composed many of the songs he sang; he had also an intense love of

beauty--in short, his whole nature was full of sentiment and harmony, and

with all these gifts he was a man of pure life. Mrs. Jameson says of him:

"If Raphael be the Shakspeare, then Giorgione may be styled the Byron of

painting."

There is little that can be told of his life. He was devoted to his art,

and passionately in love with a young girl, of whom he told one of his

artist friends, Morto da Feltri. This last proved a traitor to Giorgione,

for he too admired the same girl, and induced her to forsake Giorgione,

and go away with him. The double treachery of his beloved and his friend

caused the painter such grief that he could not overcome his sadness, and

when the plague visited Venice in 1511, he fell a victim to it in the very

flower of his age.

Much of the work of Giorgione has disappeared, for he executed frescoes

which the damp atmosphere of Venice has destroyed or so injured that they

are of no value. His smaller pictures were not numerous, and there is much

dispute as to the genuineness of those that are called by his name. He

painted very few historical subjects; his works are principally portraits,

sibyls, and religious pictures. Among the last, the altar-piece at

Castelfranco holds the first place; it represents the Virgin and Child

between Sts. Francis and Liberale, and was painted before 1504.

Giorgione gave an elevated tone to his heads and figures; it seemed as if

he painted only the beings of a superior race, and as if they must all be

fitted to do great deeds. His fancy was very fruitful, and in some of his

works he pictured demons, sea-monsters, dogs, apes, and such creatures

with great effect. In clearness and warmth of color Giorgione is at the

head of the Venetian painters; in truth, it seems as if the color was

within them and showed itself without in a deep, luminous glow.

The most important of Giorgione's scholars was called FRA SEBASTIANO DEL

PIOMBO; his real name was _Luciani_, and he was a native of Venice

(1485-1547). This artist excelled in his coloring and in the effect he

gave to the atmosphere of his work, making it a broad _chiaro-scuro_, or

clear-obscure, as it really means. This is an art term which is frequently

used, and denotes a sort of mistiness which has some light in it, and is

gradually shaded off, either into a full light or a deep shadow. But from

the earliest efforts of this artist, it was plain that he had no gift of

composition, neither could he give his pictures an elevated tone or

effect. For this reason his portraits were his best works, and these were

very fine.

A portrait of his in the National Gallery, London, and another in the

Städel Gallery at Frankfort, are both said to be of Giulia Gonzaga, the

most beautiful woman of her day in Italy. In 1553, Ippolito de Medici, who

was madly in love with her, sent Sebastian with an armed force to Fondi to

paint her portrait; it was finished in a month, and was said to be the

best ever painted by Sebastian. It was sent to France as a gift to Francis

I., and its present abiding-place is not known.

While Raphael was at the height of his fame in Rome, the banker Chigi

invited Sebastian to that city, and in the Farnesina he painted works

which were very inferior beside Raphael's. Then Sebastian tried to improve

by study under Michael Angelo. This last great master would not compete

with Raphael himself, but he was very jealous of the fame of the younger

man, and it is said that he aided Sebastian, and even made his designs for

him, in the hopes that thus he might eclipse Raphael. We have spoken of

one large picture of the "Raising of Lazarus" said to have been made from

Michael Angelo's design, which Sebastian colored; it was painted in

competition with Raphael's Transfiguration, and even beside that most

splendid work the Lazarus was much admired. This is now in the National

Gallery, London.

After Raphael's death Sebastian was called the first painter in Rome, and

was made a _piombatore_. It was necessary to be an ecclesiastic to hold

this office, and it is on account of this that he gave up his real name,

and became a friar. He wrote to Michael Angelo: "If you were to see me as

an honorable lord, you would laugh at me. I am the finest ecclesiastic in

all Rome. Such a thing had never come into my mind. But God be praised in

eternity! He seemed especially to have thus decreed it. And, therefore, so

be it." It is not strange that he should have been so resigned to a high

office and a salary of eight hundred scudi a year!

Another Venetian, of the same time with Giorgione, was JACOPO PALMA,

called IL VECCHIO, or the elder (about 1480-1528). He was born near

Bergamo, but as an artist he was a Venetian. We do not know with whom he

studied, and he was not a very great man, nor was he employed by the

state--but he dwelt much in the palaces of noble families and did much

work for them. When he died he left forty-four unfinished paintings.

His female figures are his best works, and one of his fine pictures at

Dresden, called the "Three Graces," is said to represent his daughters.

The work which is usually called his masterpiece is an altar-piece in the

Church of Santa Maria Formosa, in Venice; the St. Barbara in the centre is

very beautiful, and is said to have been painted from his daughter

Violante.

[Illustration: FIG. 45.--PORTRAIT OF TITIAN. _From the etching by Agostino

Caracci._]

The greatest master of the Venetian school is called TITIAN, though his

real name was TIZIANO VECELLI, and sometimes Cadore is added to this,

because of his having been born in that village (1477-1576). His family

was noble and their castle was called Lodore, and was in the midst of a

large estate surrounded by small houses; in one of these last, which is

still preserved, the painter was born.

As a child he was fond of drawing, and so anxious to color his pictures

that he squeezed the juices from certain flowers, and used them as paints.

When but nine years old he was taken to Venice to study, and from this

time was called a Venetian; he is said by some writers to be the first

portrait-painter of the world.

He first studied under Sebastian Zuccato, and then under the Bellini,

where he was a fellow-pupil with Giorgione, and the two became devoted

friends, at the time when they were just coming to be men and were filled

with glad hopes of future greatness. After a time, when Titian was about

thirty years old, the two were employed on the "Fondaco dei Tedeschi," or

the exchange for German merchants in Venice. Here the frescoes of Titian

were more admired than those of Giorgione, and the latter became so

jealous that they ceased to live together, as they had done, and there is

cause for believing that they were never good friends again. But after the

early death of Giorgione, Titian completed the works he had left

unfinished, and, no doubt, sincerely mourned for him.

One of the most celebrated pictures by Titian is the Presentation in the

Temple, which was painted for the Church of the Brotherhood of Charity,

called in Italian "La Scuola della Carità;" this church is now the Academy

of Fine Arts in Venice, where the picture still remains. It represents the

Virgin Mary when three years old entering the temple and the high priest

receiving her at the entrance. All around below the steps is a company of

friends who have been invited by her father and mother to attend them on

this important occasion. The picture is full of life and action, and is

gorgeous in its coloring. Several of the figures are said to be

portraits, one being that of Titian himself.

Among his female portraits, that of Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus, is

celebrated; also one called "Flora;" both of these are in the Uffizi

Gallery, in Florence, while near by, in the Pitti, is "La Bella," or the

beautiful lady of Titian. He also made many portraits of his daughter

Lavinia, who was very beautiful; sometimes he represented her as a fruit

or flower-girl, again as Herodias and in various characters (Fig. 46). One

of the finest of these is at Berlin, where she is in a very rich dress,

and holds up a plate of fruit; it is one of his best works.

Titian's fame extended throughout Italy, and even all over Europe, and the

Duke of Ferrara invited him to his court. The artist went, and there

painted two very famous mythological pictures, besides portraits and other

works. One of these important subjects was "Bacchus and Ariadne," and it

is now in the National Gallery, London; the second was a Venus, surrounded

by more than sixty children and cupids; some are climbing trees, others

shoot arrows in the air, while still others twine their arms around each

other; this is now in Madrid.

While at Ferrara the Pope, Leo X., asked Titian to go to Rome; but he

longed for his home--he wished for his yearly visit to Cadore, and he

declined the honorable invitation, and returned to Venice. In 1530

Titian's wife died, leaving him with two sons, Pomponio and Orazio, and

his daughter, Lavinia. In this same sad year the Emperor Charles V. and

Pope Clement VII. met at Bologna. All the most brilliant men of Germany

and Italy were also there, and Titian was summoned to paint portraits of

the two great heads of Church and State, and of many of the notable men

among their followers.

[Illustration: FIG. 46.--PORTRAIT OF LAVINIA. _By Titian._]

When the painter returned to Venice he was loaded with honors and riches.

He bought a new house at Berigrande, opposite the island of Murano; it

commanded fine views and its garden was beautiful. The landscapes of his

pictures soon grew better than they had been, and no wonder, when he could

always see the Friuli Alps in the distance with their snow-capped peaks

rising to the clouds; nearer him was the Murano, like another city with

its towers and domes, and then the canals, which at night were gay with

lighted gondolas bearing fair ladies hither and thither. Here Titian

entertained many people, and some of them were exalted in station. The

house was called "Casa Grande," and on one occasion, when a cardinal and

others invited themselves to dine with him, Titian flung a purse to his

steward, saying, "Now prepare a feast, since all the world dines with me."

While living at "Casa Grande," the artist saw the most glorious years of

his life. It seemed that every person of note in all Europe, both men and

women, desired their portraits at his hand. One only, Cosmo I., Grand Duke

of Florence, refused to sit to him. If these pictures could be collected

together, most of the famous persons of his time would be represented in

them.

After he was sixty years old Titian made a second journey to Ferrara,

Urbino, and Bologna. This time he painted a portrait of Charles V., with a

favorite dog by his side. After this, in 1545, at an invitation from Pope

Paul III., the great master went to Rome; while there he painted many

wonderful pictures--among them, one of the pope with his two grandsons was

very remarkable; it is now in the Museum of Naples. He left Rome when he

was sixty-nine years old.

In 1548 Charles V. summoned Titian to Augsburg, and while there made him a

count, and gave him a yearly pension of two hundred gold ducats. The

emperor was very fond of Titian, and spent a good deal of time with him.

On one occasion the painter dropped his brush; the emperor picked it up,

and returned it to him. The etiquette of courts forbade any one to receive

such a service from the sovereign, and Titian was much embarrassed, when

Charles said, "Titian is worthy to be served by Cæsar," this being one of

the great ruler's titles. Charles continued his favors to Titian through

life, and when he resigned his crown, and retired to the monastery of

Yuste, he took nine pictures by this master into his solitude. One of

these, a portrait of the Empress Isabella, was so hung that the emperor

gazed upon it when dying; this is now in the museum at Madrid, where are

also many fine works by Titian, for Philip II. was his patron as his

father had been.

When eighty-five years old he finished his wonderful picture of the

"Martyrdom of St. Lawrence" for the Church of the Jesuits in Venice, and

his old age was one of strength and mental clearness. Though he had seen

great prosperity and received many honors, he had not escaped sorrow.

After the death of his wife, his sister Orsa, who was very dear to him,

had kept his house; she too sickened and died; his son Pomponio was a

worthless fellow, and caused him much grief; Lavinia had married, and the

old man was left with Orazio alone, who was a dutiful son. He also was an

artist, but painted so frequently on the same canvas with his father that

his works cannot be spoken of separately.

At length Titian's work began to show his years, and some one told him

that his "Annunciation" did not resemble his usual pictures. He was very

angry, and, seizing a pencil, wrote upon it, "_Tizianus fecit

fecit_"--meaning to say by this, "Truly, Titian did this!" When he was

ninety-six years old he was visited by Henry III. of France, attended by a

train of princes and nobles. The aged painter appeared with such grace and

dignity as to excite the admiration of all, and when the king asked the

price of some pictures, Titian presented them to him as one sovereign

might make a gift to another who was his equal, and no more.

In 1576 the plague broke out in Venice, and both Titian and Orazio fell

victims to it. Naturally the man of ninety-eight years could not recover,

and, though Orazio was borne off to the hospital and cared for as well as

possible, he also died. After Titian was left alone robbers entered his

house while he still lived, and carried away jewels, money, and pictures.

He died August 27th, and all Venice mourned for him.

There was a law that no person who died of the plague in Venice should be

buried within the city; but Titian was so much honored and beloved that

exception was made, and he was buried in the Church of Santa Maria

Gloriosa de Frari; or as it is usually called, "the Frari." He had painted

a great picture of the Assumption for this church, which has since been

removed to the Academy of Venice; but another work of his, called the

Pesaro altar-piece, still remains near his grave. His burial-place is

marked by a simple tablet, inscribed thus: "Here lies the great Tiziano di

Vecelli, rival of Zeuxis and Apelles."

A little more than two centuries after his death the citizens of Venice

determined to erect a monument to Titian, and Canova made a design for it;

but political troubles interfered, and prevented the execution of the

plan. In 1852 the Emperor of Austria, Ferdinand I., placed a costly

monument near his grave; it consists of a Corinthian canopy beneath which

is a sitting statue of the painter, while several other allegorical

figures are added to increase its magnificence. This monument was

dedicated with imposing ceremonies, and it is curious to note that not far

away from it the sculptor Canova is buried, and his own monument is made

from the design which he made for that of Titian.

Some writers consider the "Entombment of Christ," in the Manfrini Palace,

as the greatest work of Titian. At all events, it is the best existing

representation of this subject, and is a picture which has had a great

effect upon art; its chief feature is the general expression of sorrow

which pervades the whole work.

Titian gave a new importance to landscape-painting by making backgrounds

to his pictures from natural scenery, and that not as if it was merely for

the sake of a background, but in a manner which showed his love for

Nature, and, in fact, he often rendered it with poetical significance.

The works of Titian are very seldom sold. One subject which he oftentimes

repeated was that of "Danäe" with the shower of gold falling about her;

one of these was purchased by the Emperor of Russia for six hundred

thousand francs. One of the most important of his religious pictures was

that of "St. Peter Martyr;" this was burned in the Church of SS. Giovanni

e Paolo in Venice in 1868. An excellent copy of it had been for a long

time in the Museum of Florence, and this was presented to the Venetians in

order to repair their loss as far as possible. Victor Amadeus of Sardinia

presented nine pictures by Titian to the Duke of Marlborough, and these

were all destroyed in 1861 when the château of Blenheim was burned. Kugler

says: "In the multifariousness of his powers Titian takes precedence of

all other painters of his school; indeed, there is scarcely a line of art

which in his long and very active life he did not enrich." His last work

was not quite completed by himself, and is now in the Academy of Venice.

It is a Pietà, and although the hand of ninety-eight years guided the

brush uncertainly, yet it has the wonderful light this master threw around

his figures, and the whole is conceived with his accustomed animation.

The pupils and followers of Titian were too numerous to be spoken of one

by one, and none of them were so great as to require their mention in

detail here; yet they were so good that, while the other schools of Italy

were decreasing in importance during the sixteenth century, that of

Venice was flourishing, and some great masters still existed there. Among

these was JACOPO ROBUSTI (1512-1594), who was called, and is best known as

Tintoretto, which name was given him because his father was a dyer. He

studied under Titian for a time, and then he attempted to follow Michael

Angelo, and it is said that his motto was, "The coloring of Titian, the

drawing of Michael Angelo." His best pictures are slightly treated, and

others are coarse and unfinished in the manner of painting. His portraits

seem to be his best works, probably because they are more carefully

finished.

Several works of his are simply enormous; one is seventy-four by thirty

feet; the school of St. Roch has fifty-seven large pictures by him, in

many of which the figures are of life size. His two most famous works are

the "Miracle of St. Mark," in the Academy of Venice, and the

"Crucifixion," in the school of St. Roch. The last is, for every reason,

his best work; there are crowds of people in it, on foot and on horseback,

while their faces show every possible kind of expression, and their

movements are infinitely varied. The immense painting mentioned above is

in the Doge's Palace, and is called "Paradise." His daughter, MARIETTA

ROBUSTI (1560-1590), was a pupil of her father's, and became so good a

portrait-painter that she was invited to the Court of Spain by Philip II.,

but her father could not consent to a separation from her. Some excellent

pictures of hers still exist, and her portraits of Marco dei Vescovi and

the antiquarian Strada were celebrated pictures. When the Emperor

Maximilian and the Archduke Ferdinand, each in turn, desired her presence

at their courts, her father hastened to marry her to Mario Augusti, a

wealthy German jeweller, upon the condition that she should remain in her

father's house. She was celebrated for her beauty, had fine musical

talents, and was sprightly and enthusiastic; her father was so fond of

having her with him that he sometimes allowed her to dress as a boy, and

go with him to study where young girls were not admitted.

When but thirty years old Marietta Robusti died; she was buried in the

Church of Santa Maria dell Orto, where are several works by her father.

Both he and her husband mourned for her all their remaining days. Many

pictures of Tintoretto painting his daughter's portrait after her death

have been made by later artists.

PAOLI CAGLIARI, or CALIARI, called PAUL VERONESE (1528-1588), was born at

Verona, but as he lived mostly at Venice, he belongs to the school of that

city. He was an imitator of Titian, whom he did not equal; still he was a

fine painter. His excellences were in his harmonious color, his good

arrangement of his figures in the foreground, and his fine architectural

backgrounds. He tried to make his works magnificent, and to do this he

painted festive scenes, with many figures in splendid costumes. He is

buried in the Church of St. Sebastian, where there are many of his works.

In the gallery of the Louvre is his "Marriage at Cana." It is thirty by

twenty feet in size, and many of its figures are portraits. His pictures

are numerous and are seen in the European galleries. The "Family of

Darius," in the National Gallery, London, cost that institution the

enormous sum of thirteen thousand six hundred and fifty pounds; it was

formerly in the Pisani Palace, Venice, and was said to have been left

there by Veronese as payment for his entertainment during a visit he had

made in the palace. In 1868, at the Demidoff sale, a portrait of his

daughter sold for two thousand five hundred and twenty-four pounds.

At the close of the sixteenth century a family of a father and four sons

were busy painting what may rightfully be termed the earliest _genre_

pictures of Italy. This term is used to denote pictures that stand

between historical and utterly imaginary subjects; that is to say, the

representation of something that seems real to us because it is so

familiar to our imagination, or because it is something that we know might

have happened, that it has all the naturalness of an actual reproduction

of a fact. There may be interior or landscape _genre_ pictures. The first

represent familiar in-door scenes--the latter are landscapes with animals

or figures to give a life element and to tell a story.

The name of the family of which I speak was Da Ponte, but it was called

Bassano, from the birth-place of JACOPO DA PONTE BASSANO (1510-1592), the

father, who was the most important of the family. He studied in Venice,

but returned to his native town. His portraits are fine; among them are

those of the Doge of Venice, Ariosto, and Tasso. His works are very

numerous and are seen in all galleries. He introduced landscapes and

animals into most of his pictures, sometimes with great impropriety.

We come now to ANTONIO ALLEGRI, called CORREGGIO (1493-1534), who was born

at the end of the fifteenth, but did his work in the beginning of the

sixteenth century. His name of Correggio is that of his birth-place, and

as he was not born at any of the great art centres, and did not adopt the

precise manner of any school, he, with his followers, stand by themselves,

and yet, because his principal works were done at Parma, he is sometimes

said to be of the school of Parma.

When Correggio was thirteen years old he had learned to draw well. He

studied under Andrea Mantegna and his son Francesco Mantegna. From these

masters he learned to be very skilful in drawing, especially in

foreshortening, or in representing objects seen aslant. But though he

learned much of the science of art from his teachers, his grace and

movement and his exquisite light and shade are all his own, for they did

not possess these qualities.

[Illustration: FIG. 47.--PORTRAIT OF CORREGGIO.]

Foreshortening is so important that I must try to explain it; and, as

Correggio is said to be the greatest master in this art since the days of

the Greeks, it is quite proper for me to speak of it in connection with

him. The art of foreshortening is that which makes different objects

painted on a plane or flat surface appear as if they were at different

distances from the eye of the person who is looking at the picture, or as

scenes in nature appear, where one part is much farther off than another.

To produce this effect it is often necessary to make an object--let us

say, for example, an arm or a leg, look as if it was stretched forward,

out of the canvas, directly toward the person who is looking at it. Now,

the truth is that in order to produce this effect the object is often

thrown backward in the drawing; sometimes also it is doubled up in an

unnatural manner, and occupies a small space on the canvas, while it

appears to be of life size when one looks at it. A "Christ in Glory"

painted by Correggio in the cupola of the Church of San Giovanni

Evangelista, in Parma, is a fine piece of foreshortening. The head is so

thrown back, and the knees are so thrown forward, that the whole figure

seems to be of life size; yet if the space from the top of the head to the

soles of the feet were measured, it would be found to be much less than

the height of the same figure would be if it were drawn in an erect

position.

I have already explained the meaning of chiaro-scuro, and this delicate

manner of passing from light to shade was another quality in the works of

Correggio. It is even seen in his early works, as, for instance, in the

beautiful Madonna di San Francesco, now at Dresden, which he painted when

he was but eighteen years old.

When this master was twenty-six years old he married Girolama Nurlini, and

about the same time he was summoned to Mantua by the Duke Federigo

Gonzaga. During eleven years after his marriage he was occupied with works

in Mantua, and with his great frescoes at Parma. In 1530 he returned to

Correggio, and there passed the remainder of his life. That he held a high

position is proved by certain records of his life, among which is the fact

that in 1533 he was invited to be one of the witnesses of the marriage of

the Lord of Correggio.

It is said that when this painter saw one of the great works of Raphael,

he exclaimed, enthusiastically and thankfully, "I, too, am a painter!" and

no doubt he then felt himself moved to attempt such works as should make

his name known to all the world through future centuries. When Titian saw

Correggio's frescoes at Parma, he said: "Were I not Titian, I should wish

to be Correggio." Annibale Caracci, also a great artist, said of

Correggio, more than a hundred years after his death, "He was the only

painter!" and declared that the children he painted seemed to breathe and

smile with such grace that one was forced to smile and be happy with them.

In 1534 Correggio died of a fever, and was buried in his family tomb in

the Franciscan Convent of his native city. His grave is simply marked with

his name and the date of his death.

Some of his oil-paintings are very famous. One at Dresden, representing

the "Nativity of the Saviour," is called the "Notte," or night, because

the only light on the picture comes from the halo of glory around the head

of the Holy Child. Correggio's "Reading Magdalen" is in the same gallery;

probably no one picture exists which has been more universally admired

than this.

[Illustration: FIG. 48.--UPPER PART OF A FRESCO BY CORREGGIO.]

There was a large work of his representing "The Shepherds Adoring the

Infant Saviour," at Seville, in Spain. During the Peninsular War (1808-14)

the people of that city sent many valuable things to Cadiz for safety, and

this picture, on account of its size, was cut in two. By some accident

the two parts were separated; but both were sold, and the purchaser of

each was promised that the other portion should be given him. From this

much trouble arose, because both purchasers determined to keep what they

had, and each claimed that the whole belonged to him, and as they were

equally obstinate, the two parts of the same work have never been

reunited. Fortunately, each half makes a picture by itself.

The frescoes at Parma are the greatest works of this master, and it is

very interesting to visit that quaint old city; his works are in the

Cathedral, the Church of St. John the Evangelist, and in the parlor of the

Convent of the Benedictine Nuns. This last is a wonderful room. The

ceiling is arched and high, and painted to represent an arbor of vines

with sixteen oval openings, out of which frolicsome children are peeping,

as if, in passing around behind the vines, they had stopped to look down

into the room. The pictures here will make you understand the effect

(Figs. 48 and 49). Beneath each of these openings or lunettes is a

half-circular picture of some mythological story or personage. Upon the

wall of the parlor, above the mantel, there is a picture of Diana, the

goddess of the moon and the protector of young animals, which is a

beautiful picture.

When Correggio worked on the frescoes at the Church of St. John, he lived

much in the monastery connected with it. The monks became very fond of

him, and made him a member of the Congregation Cassinensi; the poet Tasso

also was a member of this fraternity. This membership gave him the right

to share in the masses, prayers, and alms of the community, and after his

death the same offices for the repose of his soul would be performed as if

he had been a true monk.

[Illustration: FIG. 49.--LOWER PART OF A FRESCO BY CORREGGIO.]

The works of Correggio are very rarely sold. The madonna in the National

Gallery, London, known as "_La Vierge au Panier_," was formerly in the

Royal Gallery at Madrid. During the French invasion of Spain, Mr. Wallace,

an English artist, obtained it. It is painted on a panel, and is 13½

inches high by 10 inches wide. In 1813 it was offered for sale in London

at twelve hundred pounds. In 1825 it was sold in Paris for eighty thousand

francs, and soon after sold to the National Gallery for thirty-eight

hundred pounds, or nearly nineteen thousand dollars.

A copy of the "Reading Magdalen" was sold to Earl Dudley for sixteen

hundred pounds, or more than seven thousand dollars.

Correggio had but few pupils, but he had many imitators. The one most

worthy of mention was FRANCESCO MAZZUOLI (1503-1540), called IL

PARMIGIANO, or PARMIGIANINO. He was not a great painter. The "Vision of

St. Jerome," in the National Gallery, London, is one of his best works. It

is said that during the sack of Rome, in 1527, he was painting the figures

of the Virgin and Child in this picture, and was so engrossed by his work

that the invaders entered his studio, and surrounded him before he was

aware of their approach. And they, for their part, were so moved by what

they saw that they went away, and left him undisturbed.

Art writers often use the term "early masters." This denotes Michael

Angelo, Raphael, and other men so great that they were very prominent in

the history of art, and were imitated by so many followers that they had

an unusual effect upon the world. Titian may be called the last of these

great masters of the early school, and his life was so long that he lived

to see a great decline in art.

The painters of the close of the sixteenth century are called

"Mannerists," which means that they adopted or imitated the manner or

style of some great master who had preceded them--and this was done in so

cold and spiritless a way that it may be said that true artistic

inspiration was dead in Italy. No one lived who, out of his own

imagination, could fix upon the wall or the canvas such scenes as would

befit a poet's dream or serve to arouse the enthusiasm of those who saw

the painted story born in the artist's brain.

About 1600, the beginning of the seventeenth century, there arose a new

movement in Italian art, which resulted in forming two schools between

which there came to be much bitterness of feeling, and even deadly hatred.

On one side there were those who wished to continue the study and

imitation of the works of the old masters, but with this they united a

study of nature. These men were called "Eclectics," because they elected

or chose certain parts of different systems of painting, and from these

formed a new manner of their own.

Opposed to the Eclectics were the "Naturalists," who insisted that nature

only should be studied, and that everything should be represented in the

most realistic way, and made to appear in the picture exactly as it did in

reality, not being beautified or adorned by any play of fancy or

imagination.

The chief school of the Eclectics, of whom I will first speak, was at

Bologna, and is known also as the "school of the Caracci," because

LUDOVICO CARACCI (1555-1619) was at the head of a large academy there, and

was assisted by his nephews, AGOSTINO CARACCI (1558-1601) and ANNIBALE

CARACCI (1560-1609), the latter being the greatest artist of the three.

The lives of the Caracci are not of such interest as to require an account

of them here, neither are their works so interesting that we may not leave

these artists by saying that they have great consideration as the heads of

the Eclectic Academy, and for the work they did in it at an important era

in the history of Italian art; but the fruits of their work are shown in

that of their scholars rather than in their own paintings, and in this

view their influence can scarcely be overvalued.

The greatest of their scholars was DOMENICO ZAMPIERI (1581-1641), called

DOMENICHINO, who was born at Bologna, and was instructed by Denis Calvert,

who forbade his drawing after the works of Annibale Caracci. Domenico

disobeyed this command, and was so severely treated by Calvert that he

persuaded his father to take him from that master, and place him in the

school of the Caracci. When he entered the Academy he was so dull that his

fellow-pupils nicknamed him "The Ox;" but Annibale Caracci said: "Take

care: this ox will surpass you all by and by, and will be an honor to his

art." Domenichino soon began to win many prizes in the school, and left it

well trained and prepared for a brilliant career.

He gave much thought to his art, shunned private society, and if he went

out at all he frequented public places where large numbers of people were

gathered, thus affording him an opportunity to study their varying

expressions. He also tried to feel in himself the emotions of the person

he was painting. For instance, it is said that when he was painting the

"Scourging of St. Andrew," he threw himself into a passion, and used

threatening gestures and high words. In the midst of this his master,

Annibale Caracci, surprised him, and was so impressed with his method that

he threw his arms about his pupil's neck, exclaiming, "To-day, my

Domenichino, thou art teaching me!"

The most celebrated work by Domenichino is the "Communion of St. Jerome,"

in the Vatican. It is universally considered the second picture in Rome,

the "Transfiguration," by Raphael, being the only one that is placed

before it. The scene it represents is just before the death of the saint,

when he was borne into the chapel to receive the sacrament of the

communion for the last time (Fig. 50).

[Illustration: FIG. 50.--COMMUNION OF ST. JEROME.]

Domenichino was made very unhappy in Rome, on account of the jealousy of

other artists, and he returned to Bologna. However, his fame had reached

the court at Naples, and the viceroy of that city invited the artist to

decorate the Chapel of St. Januarius. There was in Naples at that time an

association of artists who had determined that no strange artist should be

allowed to do work of any account in their city. As soon as Domenichino

began his work, therefore, he received letters threatening his life. His

colors were spoiled by having ruinous chemicals mixed with them, his

sketches were stolen from his studio, and all sorts of insults and

indignities were heaped upon him.

After a time, the painter was so disheartened that he fled to Rome; but

the viceroy sent for him and took every precaution possible to protect him

and enable him to work in peace. But just as all seemed to be going well

he sickened and died, and it has always been said that he was poisoned. Be

this as it may, there is no doubt that the fear, vexation, and anxiety of

his life caused his death, and on this account his tormentors were his

murderers.

The works of Domenichino are not numerous, and are not seen in as many

galleries as are those of some Italian painters; but there are a

considerable number scattered over Europe and very beautiful ones in

several galleries in Rome.

The next painter of importance in the Eclectic school was GUIDO RENI

(1575-1642), born at Bologna, and the son of a professor of music. His

father intended that Guido also should be a musician, and the poor boy was

much persecuted on account of his love for drawing. But after many

struggles the boy came into the Caracci school, and was soon a favorite

pupil there.

When still young he listened with great attention to a lecture from

Annibale, in which he laid down the rules which should govern a true

painter. Guido resolved to follow these rules closely, and soon he painted

so well that he was accused of trying to establish a new system of

painting. At last Ludovico Caracci turned against him and dismissed him

from his school.

[Illustration: FIG. 51.--AURORA. _By Guido Reni._]

The young artist went to Rome; but his persecutions did not cease, and it

seemed to be his fate to excite the jealousy of other painters. Now, when

so much time has elapsed, we know that Guido was not a very great master,

and had he painted in the days of Michael Angelo he would not have been

thought so. But art had lowered its standard, and Guido's works were

suited to the taste of his time; he had a high conception of beauty, and

he tried to reach it in his pictures.

In the course of his career Guido really painted in three styles. His

earliest pictures are the strongest; those of his middle period are

weaker, because he seemed only to strive to represent grace and sweetness;

his latest pictures are careless and unequal in execution, for he grew

indifferent to fame, and became so fond of gaming that he only painted in

order to get money to spend in this sinful folly.

His masterpiece in Rome was the "Aurora," on a ceiling of the Rospigliosi

Palace; it represents the goddess of the dawn as floating before the

chariot of Apollo, or Phoebus, the god of the sun. She scatters flowers

upon the earth, he holds the reins over four piebald and white horses,

while Cupid, with his lighted torch, floats just above them. Around the

chariot dance seven graceful female figures which represent the Hours, or

Horæ. I have been asked why seven was the number; the ancients had no

fixed number for the Hours; sometimes they were spoken of as two, again

three, and even in some cases as ten. It has always seemed to me that ten

was the number chosen by Guido, for in that case there would naturally be

three out of sight, on the side of the chariot which is not seen (Fig.

51).

[Illustration: FIG. 52.--BEATRICE CENCI.]

The portrait of Beatrice Cenci is another very celebrated picture by

Guido; it is in the gallery of the Barberini Palace, in Rome (Fig. 52).

The interest in the portrait of this unhappy girl is world-wide. She was

the daughter of a wealthy Roman noble, who after the death of her mother

married a second time, and treated the children of his first marriage in a

brutal way. It is even said that he hired assassins to murder two of his

sons on their return from a journey to Spain. The story also relates that

his cruelty to Beatrice was such that, with the aid of her step-mother and

her brother, she killed him. At all events, these three were accused of

this crime and were executed for it in 1599. Other accounts say that he

was murdered by robbers, and his wife and children were made to appear as

if guilty. Clement VII. was the pope at that time, and in spite of his

knowledge of the cruelty of the father he would not pardon them, though

mercy was implored of him for this lovely girl. The reason given for this

action of the pope's is that he wished to confiscate the Cenci estates,

which he could do if the family suffered the death penalty. So many

reproductions of this sad face have been made that it is very familiar to

us, and almost seems to have been the face of some one whom we have known.

Guido did not paint his St. Michael for the Cappucini in Rome until after

he returned to his native city. When he sent the picture to the monks, he

wrote: "I wish I had the wings of an angel to have ascended into Paradise,

and there to have beholden the forms of those beautified spirits from

which I might have copied my archangel; but not being able to mount so

high, it was in vain for me to search for his resemblance here below, so

that I was forced to make an introspection into my own mind, and into that

idea of beauty which I have formed in my own imagination."

We are told that he always tried to paint his ideal of beauty rather than

to reproduce any human beauty that he had seen. He would pose his

color-grinder, and draw his outlines from him, and then fill in with his

own conceptions of what the head he was painting should be; this accounts

for the sameness in his heads and faces.

His passion for gaming degraded the close of his life. It led him into

great distresses, and for the sake of money he painted many pictures which

are not worthy of his name. He had always received generous prices for his

pictures, but he left many debts as a blot upon his memory. His works are

seen in the galleries of Europe, and are always admired for their feeling,

beauty, and grace.

FRANCESCO ALBANI (1578-1660), born at Bologna, was another scholar of the

Caracci school, and a friend of Guido Reni. There are many works of his in

Rome. His pictures of landscapes with figures were his best works, and

beauty was his characteristic. His own home had all the advantages for

painting such works as he best succeeded in, such as Venus and the Loves,

maids and boys, children and Cupids in unending variety.

His villa was surrounded by charming views. His wife was very handsome,

and they had twelve lovely children, so lovely that it is said that other

artists besides himself made use of them for models.

There were several other Eclectics of some importance of whom we shall not

speak, but shall leave them with an account of ELISABETTA SIRANI

(1640-1665), who also was born at Bologna, and is worthy of attention on

account of her talents, while the story of her life adds another interest

than that which she has as an artist.

She was an imitator of the attractive manner of Guido Reni. The heads of

her madonnas and magdalens are charming, and, indeed, all her work speaks

of the innate refinement of her nature. Her industry was marvellous, since

she made one hundred and fifty pictures and etchings in a period of about

ten years. Much has been said of the rapidity with which she worked, and

one story relates that on a certain day the Duchess of Brunswick, the

Duchess of Mirandola, and the Duke Cosimo de Medici, with other persons,

met in her studio, and she sketched and shaded drawings of subjects which

they named to her, with a skill and celerity which astonished and

delighted her guests.

Her masterpiece is a picture of "St. Anthony Adoring the Virgin and

Child," which is in the Pinacoteca of Bologna. There are pictures by her

in the Belvedere and Lichtenstein Galleries at Vienna, in the Hermitage at

St. Petersburg, and in the Sciarra Palace, Rome.

In person Elisabetta Sirani was beautiful, and her character commanded the

affection of all who knew her. She was a sweet singer, and her biographers

increase her virtues by praising her taste in dress, and even her

moderation in eating! She was skilful in domestic affairs, and was in the

habit of rising early to perform her share in the household duties, never

allowing her art to displace any occupation which properly made a part of

her life. Her name has come down through more than two centuries as one

whose "devoted filial affection, feminine grace, and artless benignity of

manner added a lustre to her great talents, and completed a personality

which her friends regarded as an ideal of perfection."

She died very suddenly, and the cause of her death has never been known;

but the theory that she was poisoned has been generally accepted. Several

reasons for the crime have been given; one is that she was the victim of

jealous artists, as Domenichino had been; another, that a princely lover

whom she had scorned thus revenged himself. A servant-girl in her family

was suspected of the crime, tried, and banished; but after a time she was

recalled to Bologna at the request of the father of Elisabetta, for he saw

no proof of the girl's guilt. Thus the mystery was never solved, but the

whole city of Bologna was saddened by her death. The day of her burial was

one of public mourning; her funeral was attended with great pomp, and she

was buried beside Guido Reni in the splendid church of the Dominicans.

Poems and orations in her praise were numerous, and a book was published,

called "Il Penello Lagrimate," which contained these, with odes, anagrams,

and epitaphs, in both Latin and Italian, all setting forth her charms and

virtues. Her portrait in the Ercolani Gallery at Bologna represents her

when occupied in painting her father's portrait; according to this picture

she had a tall, elegant figure, and a very pretty face. She had two

sisters, Barbara and Anna Maria, who also were artists, but her fame was

so much greater than theirs that she quite overshadowed them.

The earliest master of the Naturalists was MICHAEL ANGELO AMERIGI, called

CARAVAGGIO, from the name of his birth-place (1569-1609). His life and

character was not such as to make him an attractive study. His subjects

and his manner of representing them combined in producing what has been

called "the poetry of the repulsive." He was wild in his nature and lived

a wild life. His religious subjects, even, were coarse, though his color

was vivid and his figures arranged with good effect. His "False Players"

is one of his best works; it represents two men playing cards, while a

third looks over the shoulder of one as if advising him what to play.

Naturally, his manner of painting was best suited to scenes from common

life, though he made those coarse and sometimes painful; but when he

attempted subjects of a higher order his works are positively offensive.

Some of his sacred pictures were removed from the altars for which they

were painted on account of their coarseness. His most celebrated work is

the "Entombment of Christ," at the Vatican; in the Gallery of the Capitol

in Rome there is a "Fortune Teller," which is also a fine work.

Next to Caravaggio came GIUSEPPE RIBERA, called IL SPAGNOLETTO

(1588-1656). He was a native of Valencia, and when very young made his way

to Rome, so that, although his education as an artist was wholly Italian,

his familiar name arose from his Spanish origin. While living in

miserable poverty in Rome, and industriously copying such frescoes as he

could gain access to, he attracted the attention of a cardinal, who took

him to his home, and made him comfortable. But the young painter soon ran

away, and returned to his street life. The cardinal sought him out, and

called him an "ungrateful little Spaniard;" but Ribera excused his conduct

by saying that as soon as he was made comfortable and was well fed he lost

all ambition to work, adding that it would require the spur of poverty to

make him a good painter. The cardinal respected his courage, and the story

being repeated to other artists, much interest was attracted to him.

Later he went to Naples, and joined the cabal there which had agreed to

persecute the strange artists who should come to work in that city. If

Ribera did not actually commit many of the crimes which were done there,

he was responsible for them through his influence. His works are

frequently so brutal in their subjects and treatment that one feels that

he who painted them must have lost all the kindliness of his nature.

He married the daughter of a rich picture dealer, and became very rich

himself. In 1630 he was made a member of the Academy of St. Luke, at Rome,

and in 1648 Pope Innocent X. sent him the cross of the Order of Christ.

Few Italian artists were better known in their own country, and many of

his pictures were sent to Spain. His greatest excellence was in his

knowledge of anatomy, and he painted subjects that enabled him to show

this. Among his famous works are a "Descent from the Cross;" "The Flaying

of St. Bartholomew;" "Ixion on the Wheel;" and "Cato of Utica." His works

are in all the famous galleries of the world.

Ribera's greatest pupil was SALVATOR ROSA (1615-1673), the landscape

painter, who was a very gifted man, being a poet and musician as well as

an artist. His father was an educated man, and with his other relatives

encouraged his son in his taste for art. When twenty years old he went to

Rome, and with the exception of some intervals remained there during his

life.

It is said that as a youth he associated much with bandits, and, when one

considers the wildness of many of his scenes and the character of the

figures in their midst, it is not difficult to believe that this may have

been true. It is certain that he painted the portrait of the famous

Masaniello more than once, and he is believed to have joined the

_Compagnia della Morte_, of which Falcone, one of his masters, was the

captain.

Salvator made many enemies by his independence and his inclination to

satire. He wrote satires on various subjects which were not published

until after his death, but it was known that he had written them. He

married a Florentine woman, who was the mother of his two sons. When he

died he was buried in the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, where a

monument is erected to his memory.

He painted some historical subjects and portraits in which he followed the

Naturalists, but his principal works were landscapes. Jagged rocks and

mountains, wild dells and lonely defiles, with here and there robbers,

hermits, or soldiers, make his most effective pictures. There is a deep

sense of desolation, almost of fear, in them which is very impressive.

Sometimes he painted serene landscapes and poetic figures; but his best

works are not of this sort. His pictures are in the principal public and

in some private galleries. He also left about ninety etchings which are

masterly in execution and full of expression in the heads, while the

atmosphere is soft. When his works are sold they bring great prices. A

large landscape with Apollo and the Sibyl in the foreground brought eight

thousand five hundred dollars in England years ago, and is now worth much

more than that.

Early in the eighteenth century an artist named ANTONIO CANALE

(1697-1768), called CANALETTO, began to make views of the city of Venice

and scenes on the canals. He had two followers, BERNARDO BELLOTTI

(1720-1780), who was his nephew, and FRANCESCO GUARDI (1712-1793), and

these three painters executed a large number of these pictures, which are

found in many European galleries, and it is not always easy to distinguish

their authorship. There is no doubt that many which were once attributed

to the first master were really painted by his pupils.

Before the commencement of the eighteenth century the decline of the

Renaissance school in Italy had begun; in fact, the painting of the

seventeenth century came to be mere mechanical realism. For this reason

the portraits were the best pictures of the time, as in them it was

requisite to be true to the object represented.

Late in the eighteenth century a new impulse was given to Italian

painting, chiefly through the influence of foreign artists such as Raphael

Mengs, and the French painter David. In the beginning of our own century

LORENZO BENVENUTI (1769-1844) executed some excellent frescoes in

Florence, Siena, and Arezzo, which was his native city. He decorated the

ceiling of the Medici Chapel in the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence, and

Leopold II., Grand Duke of Tuscany, erected a tomb to this painter in the

same church where he had spent so much time and talent. His portrait,

painted by himself, is in the gallery of the Uffizi, at Florence.

VINCENZIO CAMMUCCINI (1775-1844), too, was a celebrated master of his

time. He was a Roman by birth, and became President of the Academy of St.

Luke; he was also a member of the Institute of France, and received

decorations from sovereigns of various countries. He made many copies from

the works of the great masters. His portraits were so much admired as to

be compared to those of Rubens and Tintoretto, and his ceiling frescoes

in the Torlonia Palace, Rome, were among his important works, as was a

"Presentation of Christ in the Temple," painted for the Church of San

Giovanni in Piacenza.

But there has been no true restoration of Italian art. The painting of

Italy in our time has been largely a commercial enterprise rather than an

outcome from artistic genius or impulse, and the few works which are

exceptions to this rule are not sufficient to encourage the hope that this

nation can again attain to her former rank or regain the fame of her past

in the history of modern art.