PAINTING IN FLANDERS, HOLLAND, AND GERMANY.
Flanders formerly embraced a larger part of Belgium than is contained in
the present Belgian provinces of East and West Flanders. It also covered a
portion of Holland and some territory in the northwest of France. The
principal Flemish towns connected with the story of Flemish art were
Bruges, Tournai, Louvain, Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels, Mechlin, Liege, and
Utrecht.
There are some records of Flemish painting much earlier than the fifteenth
century, but they are so vague and uncertain that I shall pass them over,
and begin with the family of Van Eyck, in which there were four
painters--three brothers and a sister. The eldest, HUBERT VAN EYCK
(1366-1426), effected a great change in the art of his time and country.
Very little is known of him as a young man, or indeed of his personal
history at all, except that he passed his middle life at Bruges and his
later years at Ghent. The subjects of his pictures were mostly scriptural.
I do not suppose that the pictures of this master would seem very
beautiful to you if you saw them, but they are of great value. His
greatest work was an altar-piece for Judocus Vyts and his wife Lisabetta;
it was for the decoration of their funeral chapel in the Church of St.
Bavon in Ghent. It was an immense work, with a centre-piece and wings that
could be closed; the inside was divided into twelve different pictures,
and the outside also was painted. We do not know how much of this was
completed when Hubert died and left it to be finished by his brother John.
Philip I. of Spain wished to buy this altar-piece, and when he could not
do so, he employed Michael Coxie to copy it; this artist spent two years
on the work, and was paid four thousand florins. Of the original work, a
large portion remains in the Church of St. Bavon; the wings, consisting of
six beautiful, tall panels, are in the Berlin Museum, and two outer
compartments are in the Brussels Museum. The picture of holy men who have
served God is on one of the wings of this altar-piece (Fig. 53).
But the principal interest attached to Hubert van Eyck comes from the fact
that he made such discoveries in the use of colors as led to what we call
the "Invention of Oil-Painting," and this invention is always attributed
to the Van Eycks, for it is probable that the discoveries of Hubert were
perfected by JAN VAN EYCK (1390-1440), who became a celebrated painter.
Oil-painting had been known, it is true, a long time, but the manner of
preparing the colors and the varnish used before the time of the Van Eycks
was very unsatisfactory, and the improvement of these substances was the
work of these masters.
The pictures of Hubert van Eyck are stronger than those of Jan, who was
really the founder of a school remarkable for delicacy and fine finish
rather than for power. It was after the death of Hubert that the fame of
the new colors spread abroad, and thus it happened that it was to Jan that
other artists went to learn his secrets.
[Illustration: FIG. 53.--THE ANCHORITES. _In S. Bavon at Ghent._]
Jan van Eyck was something of a diplomat as well as a painter, for when he
was in the service of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, he was sent on
several secret missions, and in 1428 he accompanied the ambassadors of the
duke to Portugal in order to paint the portrait of Isabella of Portugal,
who was betrothed to the duke. There is a goodly number of works by Jan
van Eyck in various galleries. The portrait of himself and wife in the
National Gallery, London, is very interesting; they stand hand in hand,
with a terrier dog at their feet; their dress and all the details of their
surroundings are painted with great care. It is said that the Princess
Mary, sister of Charles V., gave a barber who owned it a position with a
handsome salary in exchange for the picture. Jan van Eyck, being twenty
years younger than his brother Hubert, naturally learned all that the
elder knew, and the story of his life gives him the appearance of being
the more important artist, though in point of highest merit he was not the
superior.
Of LAMBERT VAN EYCK very little is known. It is believed that he made the
copy of Hubert's great work which is in the Antwerp Museum; another work
called by his name is in Louvain. MARGARETHA VAN EYCK is said to have been
a skilful artist, but no one picture can be ascribed to her; she was
buried beside her brother Hubert in the Cathedral of Ghent.
Of course the Van Eycks had many followers. Among them were PETRUS
CHRISTUS (records 1444-1471), GERARD VAN DER MEIRE (records 1447-1474),
HUGO VON DER GOES (1405?-1482), and JUSTUS OF GHENT (1468-?), all of whom
were good artists, but I shall pass to a more important one, ROGIER VAN
DER WEYDEN (1400-1464), who was himself the head of a school of as great
importance as was that of the Van Eycks. His realism was his chief
characteristic, and this was so great as to make some of his works
repulsive, especially his martyrdoms, in which he detailed horrors with
great exactness. He also loved to paint pictures which illustrated the
myths of the Middle Ages. Our illustration is from one of these works
(Fig. 54).
This picture is from the story that when the Roman Senate decreed divine
honors to the Emperor Augustus, he consulted the Tiburtine Sibyl as to
whether he ought to receive them or no. She replied to him that it was
more becoming for him to go away silently, and told him that a Hebrew
child should be born who should reign over the gods themselves, or that a
king should come from heaven whose power should never end. Another
version, which is the one this picture represents, says that the heavens
opened, and a vision of the Virgin with the Saviour in her arms, standing
on an altar, was shown the emperor. He worshipped it, and heard a voice
saying, "Haec ara filii Dei" (This is the altar of the Son of God).
Augustus reported this to the Senate, and erected an altar upon the spot
in Rome where the Church of Santa Maria in Capitolio, or the "Ara
Coeli," now stands.
[Illustration: FIG. 54.--THE SIBYL AND THE EMPEROR AUGUSTUS. _By Rogier
van der Weyden. In the Berlin Museum._]
Many pictures by Van der Weyden are seen in European galleries. He was
also a fine miniaturist. He was official painter to the city of Brussels,
and was buried in its cathedral.
His son, ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN the younger, became very rich and
benevolent. He died at Brussels in 1529. His works are not numerous in
public galleries.
The elder Van der Weyden had a pupil, HANS MEMLING (records 1450-1499),
who became the greatest master in Belgium. I shall not give you a long
account of him; but shall tell you of his greatest work, which was the
Shrine of St. Ursula, at the Hospital of Bruges, and is the best example
of this type of early Flemish art which still exists. It is divided into
six compartments, with two ends, and other panels on top, all of which are
finished with the greatest care, and give the whole story of St. Ursula
and her eleven thousand virgins, which is that Ursula was a daughter of a
king of Brittany who was a Christian. The young girl was educated with the
greatest care, and the fame of her beauty and wisdom spread all over
Europe. At length the king of England asked for her to be the wife of his
son. The princess replied that she would wed him on three conditions:
first, that he should give her ten virgins of noble blood for her
companions, then to each of these virgins and to herself he should give a
thousand maidens as attendants; second, he should allow her three years
with these companions, with whom she should visit the shrines where the
bodies of the saints repose; and third, the English king and his court
should receive baptism.
I cannot give space for all the details of this story, which is of great
interest; but the result was that Ursula received all that she asked, and
started on her journey to Rome, in the course of which she and the eleven
thousand maidens met with many adventures. At last, having reached Cologne
on their return, they encountered an army of barbarians which was
besieging the city, and all were slain.
The subjects of the pictures as they were painted by Memling were: 1, the
first landing at Cologne in the beginning of the journey; 2, the landing
at Basle; 3, the arrival in Rome; 4, the second arrival at Basle on her
return toward home; 5, commencement of the martyrdom, when Ursula and her
train are first seen by the barbarians; 6, death of Ursula.
The works of Memling which still remain are numerous, and are seen in many
public galleries. After the death of this master the purity of Flemish
painting declined. Many artists visited Italy, and the manner of Flemish
painters was influenced by association with Italian art and artists. I
shall, therefore, pass over a period when no very important masters
appeared, and speak next of a great man, QUINTIN MATSYS (1466-1529), who
began life as a blacksmith. He was born at Antwerp, and there are
specimens of iron work there said to have been executed by him. It is said
that he fell in love with the daughter of an artist who refused to allow
him to marry her because he was not a painter; for this reason Matsys
devoted himself to the study of art, and became the best Belgian master of
his time. His pictures of religious subjects are full of tender
earnestness and deep feeling, and his most important work was an
altar-piece which is now in the Museum of Antwerp. His scenes from common
life, his misers and lovers are spirited and truthful.
His portrait and that of his second wife, both painted by himself, are in
the gallery of the Uffizi in Florence. His works are not very numerous,
but they are seen in the principal galleries. He was buried in the
Cathedral of Antwerp, and a slab is inserted in the wall which tells his
story; one sentence is, "_Connubialis amor de mulcibre fecit Apellene_"
(True love changed the smith to an Apelles).
Rubens is the next great master of whom I shall speak, but I wish to say
that during the last part of the sixteenth century there were many Flemish
painters of considerable note whose pictures are seen in galleries, and
are well worth consideration, but whose lives had no circumstances of
especial interest. Among the best of these artists were ANTONIO MORO,
PETER POURBUS (1510-1583), and his son and grandson, both named Frans,
PIETER BREUGHEL (1530-1569), and his sons Jan and Pieter the younger, and
PAUL BRIL, an early Flemish landscape painter.
All the early Flemish pictures are very interesting, but in the beginning
of the seventeenth century a new manner of painting was introduced through
the genius of PETER PAUL RUBENS (1577-1640). This master was descended
from two good families: his mother was of the distinguished family
Pypeling, and his father, John Rubens, was one of the two principal
magistrates of Antwerp. This city was the home of Rubens, although he was
born at Siegen, in the county of Nassau, during a time when his father was
in exile on account of a civil war which was then raging. He was born June
29th, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, and hence was named for those
apostles.
He was a bright, scholarly boy, and soon showed his love for drawing. When
he began to study art under Adam van Noort he had already a good
education. During the four years he passed with this teacher he learned
thoroughly all the technical part of painting; then, in another four years
under Otto Vænius, he cultivated his taste and the more poetical elements
of his nature, for Vænius was a very learned and elegant man. In 1598,
when twenty-one years old, Rubens was admitted to the guild of painters in
Antwerp. Two years later he went to Venice, and, after studying the works
of Titian and Paul Veronese there, he entered the service of the Duke of
Mantua, to whom he had been recommended by the governor of the
Netherlands.
While in Mantua he painted some fine pictures, and the duke sent him to
Rome to copy celebrated works there. Rubens also executed some other
orders in Rome, from which place he was recalled by the duke, who wished
to send an envoy to Spain, and had chosen the young artist for that duty.
He showed great political ability in the way he conducted his embassy,
and through his personal charms made many friends.
[Illustration: FIG. 55.--RUBENS AND HIS SECOND WIFE.]
After his return from Spain he went again to Rome and then to Genoa, and
finally, on account of the illness of his mother, he returned to Antwerp,
having been absent seven years. His mother died before he reached her. He
then decided to remain in Antwerp, and built himself a fine house with a
charming studio. He soon married his first wife, Isabella Brant, and
during the next fifteen years led a very regular and industrious life, and
executed many important works. He also received a large number of pupils
into his studio, and he has been accused of allowing them to paint
pictures which he called by his own name; but it is true that Rubens, with
his own hand, completed pictures of almost every kind, and so proved his
power as an artist.
He was fond of study, and could read and speak seven languages. He was in
the habit of having some one read aloud to him while he painted, and
preferred books of history and poetry. In 1620 he was invited to France by
Marie de Medicis, for whom he executed many works. Among them the most
important were scenes illustrating the life of this queen which decorate
some apartments in the Louvre.
In 1628 the Infanta Isabella sent him on a second mission to Spain, and
while there he painted many grand and important pictures, which are fine
examples of his gorgeous coloring. He proved himself so good a diplomatist
that he was sent to England to try to make peace between that country and
Flanders, in which he was successful. He was knighted by King Charles in
1630, and received the same honor from the king of Spain.
In 1630 he married Helena Forment, a niece of his first wife, who was but
sixteen years old. She became the mother of five children; he had two sons
by his first marriage, to whom Gevartius was tutor. Rubens made so many
portraits of both his wives and so often used them as models in painting
his large pictures, that their faces are familiar to all the world (Fig.
55).
Rubens made a valuable collection of all sorts of beautiful objects, and
lived luxuriously. After his death a portion of his collection was sold at
private sale for more than seventy-five thousand dollars. His death
occurred in 1640, and he was buried in a private chapel in the Church of
St. James in Antwerp; he had decorated this chapel with some works of his
own. His family erected a monument to him, upon which an epitaph written
by Gevartius was inscribed.
In painting Rubens was almost a universal genius, for he left a great
variety of works as well as a great number. About one thousand eight
hundred are ascribed to him: doubtless his pupils did much work on these;
but there is something of himself in all. They include historical,
scriptural, and mythological subjects, portraits, animals, _genre_
pictures, and landscapes. His style is a strange mingling of northern and
southern elements. His handling and his arrangement of his subjects was
like that of the Italians; but his figures, even when he represented
Christ and the holiest men, were like Spanish kings or German peasants, or
somebody whom he had seen.
We have not space to speak in detail of the works of Rubens. Some critics
insist that one class of his pictures is best, and some another. Of course
this depends largely upon the taste of those who make the judgment. It is
certain that he was a wonderful painter, and many of his pictures give
great pleasure to those who visit the galleries where they are seen.
His pictures of children were so painted that they seem to have been done
from pure love of the work. His portraits are splendid, his _genre_ scenes
delightful, and his landscapes fine; in short, the amount and variety of
his work is a proof of his great genius and industry, such as can
scarcely be equalled in the history of painting. Yet it cannot be denied
that there is much incorrect drawing, unnatural coloring, and coarse, bad
taste in some of his works. On the other hand, the fertility of his
imagination, his bold design and effective execution, as well as his
brilliant color, are all to be admired, and the name of Rubens stands high
on the list of Flemish artists who are famous the world over.
[Illustration: FIG. 56.--THE RETURN FROM EGYPT. _By Rubens._]
FRANS SNYDERS (1579-1657) was born at Antwerp and lived in the time of
Rubens. He was a famous painter of animals, and it sometimes happened that
they worked together, Rubens painting the landscapes and figures and
Snyders the animals in the same pictures. Snyders, like Rubens, excelled
in representing animals in the most exciting moment of the combat or the
chase, and his pictures are full of life. They are seen in all large
European galleries, and are much prized.
JAN FYT (1609-1661), also born at Antwerp, is the greatest Flemish animal
painter after Snyders. His greyhounds cannot be equalled, while his live
dogs are wonderful; but his best pictures represent dead game. The fur and
feathers in his paintings are marvellously done, and his pictures are
among the best in the world in which such subjects are treated.
JACOB JORDAENS (1593-1678), another native of Antwerp, studied under Adam
van Noort at the same time with Rubens, but later in life he became a
follower and a sort of assistant of his former fellow-pupil. He married a
daughter of their old master and never visited Italy. His color was fine;
in truth, he sometimes excelled Rubens himself in the "golden glow" which
is much admired in his works. Many sacred pictures by Jordaens are seen in
the churches of Flanders. A fine historical work of his represents scenes
from the life of Prince Frederick Henry of Orange, and is in the House of
the Wood, near the Hague; but the larger part of his pictures represent
the manners and customs of the common people, and are seen in public
galleries.
The greatest artist among the pupils of Rubens, as well as one of the
greatest of Flanders, was ANTHONY VANDYCK (1599-1641). He was born in
Antwerp, and was the son of a silk merchant, this having been the
occupation of the Vandycks for several generations. The mother of the
painter was extremely skilled in various kinds of embroidery, and had such
artistic tastes as enabled her to make many original designs, which she
worked out with her needle in delicate and elaborate tapestry work.
Some people believe that to this taste and talent of his mother's Vandyck
owed the instinct for drawing which he early showed; at all events, she
did all she could to develop his taste, and when he was still a boy she
persuaded her husband to place him under the teaching of Henry van Balen.
He was still quite young when he entered the studio of Rubens, and was
soon so much trusted by the master as to be allowed to make drawings from
his works for the use of the engravers. This sort of drawing must be done
with great care and exactness, and Vandyck must have had much skill to be
fitted for it. His fellow-pupils also had great faith in him, as is shown
by the story that one day, when Rubens had gone out, the young student
bribed his old servant to show them the painting with which the master was
then occupied. While jostling each other it happened that one of them hit
the fresh picture, and injured it. They were much alarmed, and begged
Vandyck to repair it. After some hesitation he did so, and was so
successful that at first Rubens did not detect the fact that another had
worked on the picture. When he did discover it, and learned the truth
about it he forgave the offence heartily.
When Vandyck was nineteen years old he was admitted to the Society of
Artists in Antwerp, an unusual honor to one of his age. In 1620 Vandyck
went to England, having been invited there through the Earl of Arundel.
Little is known of this visit, and two years later he was invited to the
Hague, where he spent several months.
When Vandyck was passing through Haarlem he went to the studio of Franz
Hals, who was at a tavern just then. A message was sent him saying that a
stranger desired to have his portrait made, and had but two hours to spare
for it. Hals hastened home and dashed off the portrait within the time
stated. Vandyck then said, "Portrait-painting seems to be a simple thing;
take my place, and give me the brush for awhile." Hals complied with the
request and Vandyck made his portrait with great celerity. Seeing this,
Hals cried out, "You are Vandyck; he alone can do such work."
The young artist was suddenly called to the death-bed of his father, who
commanded him to paint a picture for the Dominican Sisters who had cared
for his father in his illness. Seven years later Vandyck presented the
Sisters with a Crucifixion. At the foot of the cross was a rock upon which
was inscribed, in Latin, "Lest the earth should be heavy upon the remains
of his father, Anthony Vandyck moved this rock to the foot of the cross,
and gave it to this place." When the monasteries were broken up, this
picture was purchased for two thousand seven hundred dollars for the
Antwerp Academy, where it now is.
At length Vandyck prepared to set out for Italy. When he paid his farewell
visit to Rubens he presented the master with three of his pictures, and in
return Rubens gave him one of his finest horses. As Vandyck was on his way
from Antwerp to Brussels he halted at the village of Saventhem, where he
fell in love with Anna van Ophem, and so stayed on in the lovely valley of
Flanders, week after week, as if he had forgotten that Italy existed. Anna
persuaded him to paint a picture for the village church, and he executed
a Holy Family in which the Virgin was a portrait of Anna, and St. Joachim
and St. Anna were drawn from her father and mother. This picture pleased
the church authorities so much that they gave the young painter an order
for another, which represented St. Martin dividing his cloak with beggars.
In this work the saint was a portrait of Vandyck, and the horse on which
he rode was like that which Rubens had given him.
This picture has quite a history. In 1758 the priest agreed to sell it to
a collector from the Hague for one thousand eight hundred dollars; but
when the villagers knew of it they surrounded the church with clubs and
pitchforks, and drove the purchaser away. In 1806, when the French
invaders tried to carry it away, the people again prevented it, and they
were forced to call more soldiers from Brussels before they succeeded in
taking it. The St. Martin was placed in the Gallery of the Louvre, at
Paris, but was restored to Saventhem in 1815. About 1850 a rich American
offered twenty thousand dollars for the picture, no matter who brought it
to him. Upon this a set of rogues tried to steal it at night; but the dogs
of the village gave such an alarm that the town was roused, and the
robbers escaped with difficulty. Since then a guardian sleeps in the
church, and the St. Martin is still there.
The news that Vandyck was thus lingering on his way to Italy reached the
ears of Rubens, and he sent such urgent messages to his pupil as induced
him to continue his journey, and he also sent him letters of introduction
to artists and to nobles whom the master had known when he made his
studies beyond the Alps.
Vandyck went first to Venice, where he worked hard to copy and learn to
imitate the rich color and refined manner of Titian and other Venetian
masters. He also painted some original pictures in Venice, and made many
portraits which gave him fame in that and other cities. He was asked to
go to other places for the painting of portraits; but he remained in
Venice until his money was spent, and then went to Genoa, where he was
well received and generously employed by the old friends of Rubens. His
works are still to be seen in some of the palaces of that city, while some
have been sold and carried to other countries--they were so fine that they
still maintain the name which they gained for him when they were executed.
The principal work done in Genoa was a picture of the Lomellini family
which is now in Edinburgh; it is about nine feet square. His different
visits to Genoa during his absence in Italy make up a period of about
three years, and he did a vast amount of work there.
When he first went to Rome Vandyck was invited to the house of Cardinal
Bentivoglio, who had been papal nuncio to Flanders, and for whom our
artist made a picture of the Crucifixion. The full-length portrait which
Vandyck painted of the cardinal is now in Florence; a copy of it is in one
of the halls of Harvard College. It is one of the finest among the many
splendid portraits by this great master.
Vandyck was fascinated with Rome, but he was so unpopular with the other
Flemish painters there that he shortened his stay in the Eternal City in
order to escape the vexations he there received. The artists disliked him
for his ostentation, and he was called _Il pittore cavalieresco_--and he
offended them by declining to associate with them at taverns or to join
their coarse festivities. After leaving Rome he visited Palermo, from
which place he was driven away by the appearance of the plague. He
returned to Genoa, visited Florence and other cities in the north of
Italy, and finally returned to Antwerp after an absence of four years.
During the first years after his return he met with small success--Rubens
was so great that he filled all the space about him--but at last, in 1628,
Vandyck began to receive important commissions, and from this time was
constantly busy with works for the churches of the Low Countries. He also
painted portraits of many notable persons, and made great numbers of them
in brown and white for the use of engravers. While Vandyck was thus
executing great numbers of fine pictures for the embellishment of
Flanders, he became so unpopular and his rivals said such hard things of
him that he determined to go away. One of his unfortunate experiences was
in the house of the bishop, who had sent for him to paint his portrait.
Vandyck had first sent his implements to the care of the porter of the
palace. When he went himself he was taken into the presence of the bishop,
who was reclining on a sofa, and gave little attention to the artist. At
last the bishop asked if he had not come to paint his portrait. Vandyck
declared himself to be quite at the service of his lordship. "Why, then,"
said the bishop, "do you not go for your implements? Do you expect me to
fetch them for you?" Vandyck calmly replied, "Since you have not ordered
your servants to bring them I supposed that you wished to do it yourself."
Then the bishop leaped up in anger and cried out, "Anthony, Anthony, you
are a little asp, but you have a great deal of venom!" Vandyck thought it
safe to make his escape, and after he crossed the threshold he called
back, "My lord Van der Burch, you are a voluminous personage, but you are
like the cinnamon tree. The bark is the best part of you."
In 1629 Vandyck went to England with the hope of being employed by King
Charles I.; but he was not able even to get an introduction to the
sovereign, and went to the continent filled with mortification. At length,
however, Charles called him to London, whither he went in 1632, and soon
became the friend of the king as well as his favorite artist. He was
assigned a city and a country residence, and within three months of the
time of his arrival at court the king knighted him, and gave him a gold
chain with a portrait of himself set in brilliants suspended from it.
Charles was in the habit of passing much time with Vandyck, and the studio
of the court-painter became one of the most fashionable resorts in London
for the courtiers and other distinguished people.
Vandyck kept up a fine establishment, and lived luxuriously. He had a
habit of asking his sitters to dinner; thus he could study their faces and
retouch their portraits with the more natural expressions of their
conversational hours, for it is rare that one is natural when posing
before an artist who is painting one's portrait. But in the midst of his
busy life as an artist and his gay life as a man of the world, Sir Anthony
did not forget the needs of his brother painters. There was at that time
no club or place where artists met socially to consult and aid each other
in their profession. Vandyck founded the Club of St. Luke; it met at the
Rose Tavern, and all painters of talent living in London joined it. One of
the more personal acts of kindness which are related of him is that having
seen by chance a picture which was painted by William Dobson, Vandyck
sought him out, found him in a poor garret, instructed him with great
care, introduced him to the king, and, in short, by his kind offices so
prepared the way that Dobson was made sergeant-painter to the king after
Vandyck's death, and won the title of "the English Tintoretto."
The portraits which Vandyck executed in England are numbered by hundreds
and are magnificent pictures. Those of the royal family are very numerous
and important, and there is scarcely a man or woman belonging to this
period whose name has come down to us in history or literature, whose
portrait he did not paint. He also made thirteen portraits of himself
which are still preserved. He was very skilful in painting horses and
dogs, and frequently introduced these animals into his portrait groups.
There is a large collection of the pictures of Vandyck at Windsor Castle;
there are many also in the private galleries of Great Britain and other
countries, besides a goodly number in the public galleries of Europe. He
executed at least thirty-six portraits of Charles I., as many as
twenty-five of Queen Henrietta Maria, and he also painted several groups
of the children of the royal pair. Prince Rupert of the Rhine and Thomas
Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, were also frequently portrayed by him, and
one of his most important large works was a family picture of the Earl of
Pembroke and his household. It is called the Wilton Family, as it is in a
salon at Wilton House; it contains eleven figures, and has been called
"the first and most magnificent historic portraiture in the world." Again,
it is said to be stiff, wanting in harmony, bad in color, and so on, but
after all it still remains a splendid monument to the skill and genius of
Vandyck. The picture is twenty feet long by twelve feet high.
Vandyck painted no portraits of the Puritans nor popular leaders of his
day; neither did he of the literary men who flourished at that time, with
the exception of the court poets, Sir John Suckling and Thomas Carew.
I shall not give a list of Vandyck's historical and religious pictures,
though they are quite numerous. They are not as interesting as his
portraits, and we have not space to give them. His ambition, however, was
never satisfied, for he wished to do some great historical work. At one
time his opportunity seemed to have come, for the great banqueting-room of
Whitehall Palace, the ceiling of which Rubens had painted, still remained
with plain walls. Vandyck desired to paint on them the history of the
Order of the Garter. The project was laid before the king, and he desired
sketches to be made for the work, and one of them, the "Procession of the
Knights of the Garter," was sold after the execution of the king for five
pounds. It was owned by Sir Peter Lely and Sir Joshua Reynolds, and is
now at Belvoir in the collection of the Duke of Rutland. We cannot help
being sorry for Vandyck's great disappointment when he knew that his work
could not be done. He was weak in health and much in debt, for the king
could not pay him his pension nor what he owed him for pictures. The
artist grew sad and discouraged. He sought relief in the study of alchemy,
and indulged the vain hope of discovering some chemical means of making
gold from base metals. All this wasted his time and means, and it is to be
regretted that he was less wise than his master, for when an alchemist
tried to interest Rubens in the same subject, that great artist replied:
"You come too late, my good fellow; I have long since discovered the
philosopher's stone. My palette and brushes are worth far more than any
other secret."
The king and all Vandyck's friends were troubled by his state of health
and mind, and a marriage was brought about for him with the hope that he
would be a happier man. His wife was Maria Ruthven, a lovely Scotch girl
who held a high position among the attendants of the queen. Not long after
his marriage Vandyck took her to Flanders, where he enjoyed much the
honorable reception which he met with in revisiting the scenes of his
childhood and youth. But having learned that Louis XIII. was about to
adorn a large gallery in the Louvre, Vandyck hastened to Paris hoping to
obtain the commission. He was too late--the work had been given to
Poussin, and Vandyck returned to London greatly disheartened.
While at Antwerp he had received much attention, as, indeed, had been the
case before, for in 1634 he had been elected Dean of the Confraternity of
St. Luke and a great feast was held in his honor. When he came now to
London the social atmosphere was full of sadness. The political troubles,
which were finally so terrible in England, had already become alarming.
In a few months the Earl of Strafford was executed, and Vandyck saw the
royal family, to whom he was so much attached, surrounded with danger and
at last separated.
His physical health was already delicate, and his sorrows brought on a
disease from which he soon died. He continued to work until the very last
days of his life. Eight days before his death his daughter was born; she
was named Justiniana, and when she grew up married an English baronet, Sir
John Stepney.
A short time before Vandyck died the king came from the North to London,
and though he was overburdened with his own cares and griefs he found time
to sorrow for the condition of his friend and artist. He offered his
physician three hundred pounds if he would save the life of Sir Anthony;
but nothing availed to baffle his disease, and he died December 9, 1641.
Two days later he was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. It is said that many
nobles and artists attended his funeral, which was conducted with
impressive ceremony. The fire which destroyed St. Paul's made it
impossible to say exactly where Vandyck was laid, but his coffin-plate was
found at the time of the burial of Benjamin West.
There were no artists of importance after the time of Rubens and his
followers whom we call Flemish artists. There were good painters,
certainly, belonging to the schools of Flanders; but these schools had
reached their highest excellence and were on the decline, and so we pass
to the Dutch school, or the painters of Holland.
There was doubtless a very early school of Dutch painters, dating back to
the fourteenth century even; but the records of it are so imperfect, and
so few pictures remain from its early days, that for our purpose it is
best to pass over the fifteenth century and say that during the sixteenth
century the painters of Holland gave up the painting of sacred subjects
very largely, and began to take on the characteristics of what is
generally known now as the Dutch School. This school is distinguished for
its portraits, which form a large and important part of its painting; next
for its domestic scenes, which are realistic and true to life in an
astonishing degree.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century Holland had obtained a
position as a nation that freed its artists from the influence of the
Romish Church and the fear of the Inquisition, and they soon used their
freedom to establish a national art, and one which became very important
to the world. FRANZ HALS (1584-1666) was the most noteworthy of the
portrait-painters. He was born at Mechlin, but passed most of his life at
Haarlem. There was a custom in Holland of painting portraits of the
members of guilds and societies in groups, and some such works of his at
Haarlem are very fine. I have told a story of his rapid manner in the
sketch of Vandyck. He was the first master to introduce that free, bold,
sleight-of-hand manner which was afterward used by the Dutch masters, and
is so strong in its effect. This painter led a merry, careless life. His
portraits of single heads or figures are rare, and his small _genre_
subjects still more so. In the Hôtel de Ville at Haarlem there are as many
as eight of his large works, most of them having ten or a dozen portraits.
The Dutch painters of still-life--flowers, dead game and poultry, and
metals, glass, and other beautiful objects--were very skilful, and have
never been surpassed. The names of these masters would make a long list.
There is little to be told of the circumstances of their lives, though
their works are seen in most European galleries, and well repay one for
careful examination.
[Illustration: FIG. 57.--PORTRAIT OF AN OFFICER. _By Franz Hals._]
Another form of Dutch art is the representation of scenes from peasant
life, and there were some very eminent painters who devoted themselves to
these subjects entirely. The interiors of inns with men smoking and
drinking, playing cards or making jokes, were subjects many times
repeated; dancing villagers, fêtes, and fairs were often pictured, and in
all these scenes everything was given exactly to the life. It follows that
these pictures of coarse, vulgar people engaged in rude amusements cannot
be beautiful; but they are oftentimes wonderful. Among the most noted
names in this kind of painting are those of Adrian Brauwer, the Van
Ostades, the Teniers, and Jan Steen. Most of these artists executed small
pictures only. I shall speak particularly of but one of these Dutch
_genre_ painters--DAVID TENIERS the younger (1610-1694), who became the
greatest painter of his time of scenes from common life. This is very
great praise, because there were many Dutch and several Flemish painters
who were noted for such pictures. This Teniers studied with his father,
but his works show that he was much influenced by Rubens. He excelled in
guard-house scenes and peasant life in every aspect. In representations of
the alchemist also he was unequalled, as well as in fairs and festivals of
every sort. He sometimes painted sacred subjects, but they are the least
praiseworthy of all his works.
The pictures of Teniers are very numerous. One author describes nine
hundred of his works which are known to be genuine, and it is believed
that there may be one hundred more. He often represented a great number of
figures on one canvas. At Schleissheim there was a large picture, thirteen
and a half feet by ten feet in size, which contained one thousand one
hundred and thirty-eight figures. It was not unusual for him to paint from
one hundred and fifty to three hundred figures in a single picture of
moderate size. He had a light, brilliant touch, his color was exquisite,
and his arrangement of his subjects was very picturesque. His chief fault
was a resemblance in his heads, and for this reason those pictures with
the fewest figures are his best works.
Teniers had several royal patrons, and earned sufficient money to live in
handsome style in his home in Perck, not far from Mechlin. He chose this
place in order to be near the peasant classes, whose life was his chief
study. He also excelled in his ability to imitate the styles of other
masters. In the Vienna Gallery there is a curious work of his which
represents the walls of a room hung with fifty pictures, imitating those
of various Italian masters; in the foreground are portraits of Teniers and
the Archduke Leopold William, who are represented as conversing with each
other.
Teniers reached his excellence early in life, and was but twenty-two years
old when he was admitted to the Guild of Painters at Antwerp. That Rubens
was his friend is proved by the fact that when Teniers married the
daughter of Jan Breughel, in 1637, that great master was one of the
witnesses to the ceremony. In 1656 he married his second wife, the
daughter of the Secretary of State for Brabant. By his artistic and
personal merits Teniers gained a higher place in society than was ever
held by any other _genre_ painter of the Flemish or Dutch schools. He was
eighty-four years old when he died, and was active and industrious up to
the close of his life.
Although Teniers had such good fortune during his life, I fancy he would
have been surprised if he could have known what his fame would be now, or
what prices would be paid for his pictures about two centuries after his
death. The "Flemish Kermes" was bought for the Brussels Museum in 1867 for
twenty-five thousand dollars, and at the San Donato sale, in 1880, the
"Prodigal Son" sold for sixteen thousand two hundred dollars, and the
"Five Senses" for fifteen thousand dollars. It is difficult to distinguish
the etchings of the son from those of the father, David Teniers the elder,
though it is well known that the son executed such works.
GERARD HONTHORST (1592-1660) was also a painter of _genre_ scenes, and
many of his works had figures of life size. His chief distinction,
however, was that of painting the effects of artificial lights. He was
famous in England and Italy as well as in his own country, and the
Italians called him "_Gherardo della Notte_," or Gerard of the Night,
because he painted so many night-scenes lighted by candles, lamps, and
torches.
Then there was a class of Dutch artists who represented the interiors of
fine houses--rooms with all sorts of beautiful furniture and ornaments,
with ladies and gentlemen in splendid costumes. They tried to show the
effects of light upon satins, glass, metals, and other shining objects.
They painted with great care, and finished their pictures in the most
perfect manner. GERHARD TERBURG (1608-1681), GERHARD DOW (1613-1675), and
GABRIEL METSU (1615-after 1667) were all remarkable for works of this
kind.
PIETER DE HOOGE, who worked from 1628 to 1671, and of whose life little is
known, painted similar pictures of court-yards as well as of rooms in
houses. The list of the names of all these Dutch masters cannot be given
here, and I hasten to tell you of one whose name and fame is so great that
when we hear of Dutch art we always think first of him, because he stands
out as its head.
REMBRANDT VAN RYN (1607-1669) was born at Leyden, and was educated by his
parents with the hope that he would be a scholar and a prominent man in
Leyden. But his taste for drawing and painting would not be put aside, and
in 1620 he entered the studio of J. J. van Swanenburg, where he learned
the first lessons in his art, and was then placed under the teaching of
Pieter Lastman in Amsterdam, where he remained only six months, after
which he returned to his father's house, and there lived for seven years.
He was not far from seventeen years old when he thus left the usual course
of study. From this time he gave himself up to close observation of nature
in every form.
He studied broad landscapes--farms, groves, gardens, rivers, canals,
sunshine, clouds, and shadows, and with and above all these, the human
faces that he saw, as well as the varying forms, movements, and
peculiarities of the men and women about him. That nothing escaped his
observation is proved by the works he did in later life.
In 1630 Rembrandt settled in Amsterdam, which was called the "Venice of
the North," and was the centre of northern commerce, civilization, and the
activity of political and intellectual life. Rembrandt was no sooner
established in his studio on one of the western quays than he was pressed
with orders for pictures and applications from young men who desired his
instructions. The years following were crowded with work--with painting
and engraving. Rembrandt is called the "Prince of Etchers," and he used
the etching needle most skilfully, but he also employed the dry-point and
even the graver in finishing. Thus he may be said to have established a
new school of engraving of great excellence.
[Illustration: FIG. 58.--ONE OF REMBRANDT'S PORTRAITS OF HIMSELF.]
It would seem that in these early years one of his amusements was to make
etchings of himself. In one year, 1630-31, he made nineteen of these
portraits in different costumes and positions, with as many kinds of
expression on his face. He often repeated the portrait of his mother also.
[Illustration: FIG. 59.--THE LECTURE ON ANATOMY. _By Rembrandt._]
In 1632 he painted the "School of Anatomy," now one of the gems of the
fine gallery at the Hague. It represents a lecture by Professor Tulp, who
is dissecting the arm of a dead body and explaining its structure to seven
other surgeons. It is a wonderful picture and one of the most famous works
of this great master. In 1828 it was sold for the benefit of the fund for
surgeons' widows, and the Dutch Government paid thirty-two thousand
florins for it. This picture is in a certain way a portrait picture, and
comes within the class of Dutch pictures of which I have spoken as
portraits of guilds and societies; for Tulp was very famous, and Rembrandt
probably attended his lectures, and was chosen by him to be the painter of
this celebrated portrait of himself surrounded by members of his guild.
Rembrandt's influence upon the art of his time was very great almost from
the beginning of his career. About 1634 he introduced his manner of
portrait-painting, with dark backgrounds and deep shadows on the face,
with a bright light on the cheek and nose passing down to the shoulder,
and immediately other artists adopted this manner. They considered it a
necessity to imitate him, so much was he admired.
In 1634 Rembrandt married Saskia van Ulenburg, who was very beautiful and
of an aristocratic and wealthy family. She was only twenty-one years of
age when she married, and Rembrandt painted many portraits of her besides
making her his model for beautiful figures in his mythological and sacred
subjects. She lived but eight years after her marriage, which were the
happiest of the artist's life. She left but one child, a son named Titus,
and showed her confidence in her husband by leaving all her fortune to
him, with the single stipulation that their son should be properly
educated.
After the death of Saskia it seems that the only thought of the master was
to work without rest, and in this way to drown the remembrance of his
sorrow. There is little material for a story of his life--it is told in
his pictures. The house in which Saskia lived was very fine, and Rembrandt
was so fond of collecting all sorts of curious and beautiful objects that
he finally made himself poor, and his collection was sold. He never
travelled, and some writers have said that he was ignorant of classic art;
but the list of his collections proves that he had busts of Homer and
Socrates and copies of ancient sculptures, such as the "Laöcoon," a
"Cupid," and so on. He also had pictures of some of the best Italian
masters. After the sale of his home and all his rare objects he hired a
house on the Rosengracht near the West Church. This house still stands,
and has a shield dated 1652, though the artist did not live there until
1658.
His life here was not lonely or desolate. He had many friends in Amsterdam
who did not forget him. He was near the bastions of the city, and had not
far to go to sketch, as he loved to do, and he was busy with his brush
until 1662, when he did nothing of which we know. In 1666 he executed four
pictures. Among his works of 1667 there is a portrait of himself which is
of great interest. In October, 1668, Rembrandt died after a short illness.
He was buried in the West Church, and his funeral was so simple that its
cost was registered as only fifteen florins.
Rembrandt's pictures are so numerous and so varied in their subjects that
no adequate list or account of them can be given here. And his numerous
engravings are as interesting as his pictures, so that a volume would
scarcely suffice to do him justice; but I will try to tell something of
his style. His management of light was his most striking characteristic.
He generally threw a strong, vivid light upon the central or important
object, whether it was a single figure or a group, and the rest of the
picture was in shadow. This is true of all his works, almost without
exception--portraits, pictures both large and small, and etchings.
Rembrandt loved to paint unusual things. We are apt to think that an
unusual thing is not natural; but if we closely observe nature, especially
the effect of light and shade, we shall find that no imagination could
make pictures more wonderful than the reality we see. Rembrandt had that
keen observation that helped him to seize upon the sharp features--the
strong points in a scene or a person--and then he had the skill to
reproduce these things on his canvas with great truth.
His etchings are much prized. One of the most famous represents Christ
healing the sick, and is called the "Hundred Guilders Print," because that
sum was the price he fixed for it; now a good impression of it is worth
ten times as much. At his death he left about six hundred pictures and
four hundred engravings. His landscapes are his rarest subjects. Most of
these are in private collections, but I have seen one in the Cassel
Gallery; the color of it is bright and glowing--the sky magnificent. In
the foreground there is a bridge, and on an eminence are the ruins of a
castle.
Some fine works by Rembrandt are in England, and very large prices have
been paid for them. In 1867 "Christ Blessing Little Children" was sold for
seven thousand pounds. At the San Donato sale in Florence, in 1880,
"Lucretia" brought twenty-nine thousand two hundred dollars, and a
"Portrait of a Young Woman" nearly as much.
Among Rembrandt's pupils Gerbrandt van der Eeckhout holds a high rank, and
his pictures are seen in many galleries.
Among the landscape painters of Holland ALBERT CUYP (1605-1691) is very
famous. He sometimes introduced figures and animals into his pictures, but
they were of secondary importance; the scenery was his chief thought. His
works are in many galleries, and the increase in their value is
marvellous. Sir Robert Peel bought a landscape, twelve by twenty inches
in size, for which he paid three hundred and fifty guineas: it was
originally sold in Holland for about one English shilling! During the
first century after his death no picture by Cuyp brought more than thirty
florins; now they cost almost their weight in gold.
Other fine landscape painters were Jan and Andries Both, Jan van Goyen,
Jan Wynants, Adrian van de Velde, and, finally, PHILIP WOUVERMAN
(1619-1668), who introduced much life into his works. He painted battles,
hunting parties, and such subjects as allowed him to introduce white
horses, for which he became noted. His works, as well as those of the
other painters last mentioned, are valuable. There are so many in
galleries which are attributed to Wouverman that it is doubtful if they
are all genuine. He had animation and fine feeling for the picturesque.
His execution was light and delicate, and there is much tenderness shown
in his works. There were many excellent Dutch landscape painters whom we
have not mentioned.
PAUL POTTER (1625-1654) was born at Enkhuysen, and though he died young he
made himself a great and enduring reputation by his pictures of animals.
"Paul Potter's Bull," which is in the gallery at the Hague, is as well
known as any one picture the world over. He left one hundred and eight
pictures and eighteen etchings. He was most successful in representing
cattle and sheep; his horses are not as fine. He never crowded his
pictures; they have an open landscape, but few animals, and perhaps a
shepherd, and that is all. Some of his pictures have been valued as high
as fifty thousand dollars.
JACOB RUYSDAEL (1625-1681) was born in the same year with Paul Potter. His
birth-place was Haarlem. He came to be the very best of all Dutch
landscape painters, and though most of his pictures represent the dull,
uninteresting scenery of Holland, they are so skilfully drawn and painted
that they are really most attractive, if not cheerful. His works number
about four hundred and forty-eight pictures and seven fine, spirited
etchings. He was fond of giving a broad, expansive effect to his pictures,
and frequently placed church spires in the distance. He painted a few
marine views with rough seas and cloudy skies. Though many of his works
are gloomy, he sometimes painted sunshine with much effect. Some of his
finest works are in the Dresden Gallery.
MINDERT HOBBEMA was a pupil of Jacob Ruysdael, and this is almost all that
is known of him personally; but his pictures show that he was a great
landscape painter. They sell for enormous sums, and many of the best are
in England. Most of those seen in the continental galleries are not those
he should be judged by. At the San Donato sale in Florence, his picture of
the "Wind-Mills" sold for forty-two thousand dollars.
The number of reputable Dutch painters is very large, but I shall mention
no more names. After the great men whom we have spoken of there comes an
army of those who are called "little Dutch masters," and their principal
work was making copies from the pictures of the greater artists.
In the history of what we know as German art we find a very early school
at Cologne, but the records of it are so scarce and imperfect that I shall
give no account of it here. At Augsburg there was an important school of
art which commenced with the Holbeins. The first Hans Holbein is known as
"Old Holbein," and so little is known of him that I shall merely give his
name. The second HANS HOLBEIN, called the elder (1460-1523), painted a
great number of religious pictures, which are seen in various churches and
galleries in Germany. Some of the best are in the Cathedral of Augsburg.
In one salon of the Munich Pinakothek there are sixteen panels painted by
him. But it was HANS HOLBEIN the third, known as "the younger," who
reached the perfection of his school (1495-1543). This painter was
instructed by his father and by Hans Burgkmair. He was but fifteen years
of age when he began to receive commissions for pictures. When he was
about twenty-one years old he removed to Basle, and there he painted many
pictures, though not nearly as many as have been called by his name.
About a year after Holbein went to Basle he was called to Lucerne to
decorate a house, and he executed other works there and at Altorf. In
1519, when he had been three years in Basle, he became a citizen of that
town and a member of its guild of painters. His works at Basle were mostly
decorative, and he painted few easel pictures there.
Holbein married a widow with one son; her name was Elizabeth Schmid. She
had a very bad temper. It is said that she made Holbein's life so
miserable that he left Basle for that reason. He visited her sometimes,
and always gave her money, but lived away from her. In 1526 Holbein went
to England, and his friend Erasmus said that he went because he had so
little to do in Basle. He carried a letter to Sir Thomas More, who
received him with great kindness, and the artist made many portraits of
Sir Thomas and his family. There is a story about one of these portraits
of that nobleman. He had refused to be present at the marriage of Anne
Boleyn to King Henry VIII., and she never forgave him. On the day that
More was executed she looked at one of Holbein's portraits of the
ex-chancellor and exclaimed, "Ah, me! the man seems to be still alive;"
and seizing the picture she threw it into the street.
In 1530 Holbein returned to Basle to complete some unfinished frescoes,
and this being done he went again to London. About this time he began to
be employed by the king, and did many pictures for him from time to time.
In 1538 Henry sent Holbein to Brussels to make a portrait of the Duchess
of Milan, of whom the king was thinking for his fourth wife. No citizen of
Basle was allowed to enter the service of a foreign sovereign without the
consent of the council, so in 1538 the artist went home to ask permission
to serve the King of England. Great efforts were made to keep him in
Basle, but at last he received permission to remain two years in England:
the artist never went again to Basle. Henry VIII. became fond of Holbein,
and was generous to him, even giving him a painting-room in the palace of
Whitehall.
In 1539 the artist was sent to paint a portrait of Anne of Cleves, whom
the king married the next year. It has been said that the picture was so
flattering that when the king saw the lady he was disappointed; we know
that he was soon divorced from her.
In 1543 the plague raged in London, and on the 7th of October Holbein
prepared his will. He died before the 29th of November, but the facts
concerning his death and burial are not known.
There are several interesting anecdotes of Holbein. One relates that when
passing through Strasburg he visited the studio of an artist, and finding
him out, painted a fly on a picture which was on an easel. When the
painter saw the fly he tried to brush it away, and when he found who had
painted it he searched the city for Holbein; but he had already left for
England. Another story shows the regard which Henry VIII. had for him. One
day a nobleman went to Holbein's studio, and insisted upon entering,
though the artist told him that he was painting the portrait of a lady by
his Majesty's orders. The nobleman persisting, Holbein threw him down the
stairs with great violence, and then rushed to the king, and told him what
he had done. Soon after the nobleman was borne to the presence of the
king; he was unable to walk, and was loud in his complaints. The king
ridiculed him, and the nobleman was angry, and threatened to punish the
artist legally. Then Henry got angry, and said: "Now you have no longer to
deal with Holbein, but with me, your king. Do you think that this man is
of so little consideration with us? I tell you, my lord, that out of seven
peasants I can make seven earls in a day; but out of seven earls I could
not make one such artist as Hans Holbein."
[Illustration: FIG. 60.--BURGOMASTER MEIER MADONNA. _By Holbein. Dresden
Gallery._]
At Basle one may see some of the most important of the early portraits of
Holbein; these are in the gallery where are also his ten well-known scenes
from the Passion of Christ. While at Basle he probably made the designs
for the "Dance of Death." For a long time it was believed that he painted
this subject both at Basle and at Bonn, but we now know that he only made
designs for it. He also decorated the Town Hall at Basle; of this work,
however, but little remains.
The most celebrated work by Holbein is the "Meyer Madonna" in the royal
palace of Darmstadt, of which there is a copy in the Dresden Gallery. It
takes its name from that of the Burgomaster Meyer, for whom it was
painted. The Madonna, with the infant Jesus in her arms, stands in a niche
in the centre of the picture; the burgomaster and his family kneel before
her. This is what is called a votive picture, which means a picture made
in the fulfilment of a vow, in gratitude for some signal blessing or to
turn away some danger. Many of these works commemorate an escape from
accident or a recovery from sickness.
The picture is very beautiful, and it seems as if the Virgin wished to
share her peace with the kneeling family, so sweet is the expression of
her face, while the child seems to bestow a blessing with his lifted hand.
The original was probably painted for a "Chapel of Our Lady."
His "Dance of Death" was very curious, the idea being that Death is always
near us and trying to strike down his prey. The pictures represent a
skeleton clutching at his victims, who are of all ages and occupations,
from the lovely young bride at the altar to the hard-working pedlar in the
cut we give here, and all of them are hurried away by this frightful
figure which stands for Death itself.
Holbein made many wood engravings, but none so important as these. When
the set is complete there are fifty-three cuts, but it is rare to find
more than forty-six.
Holbein was one of the foremost of German masters. All his pictures are
realistic, and many of them are fantastic; he gave graceful movement and
beauty of form to many of his subjects; his drapery was well arranged; his
color and manner of painting were good. He painted in fresco and oil
colors, executed miniatures and engravings. His portraits were his best
works, and in them he equalled the greatest masters. The most reliable
portrait of this artist is in the Basle Museum. It is done in red and
black chalk, and represents him as a man with regular, well-shaped
features, with a cheerful expression which also shows decision of
character.
[Illustration: FIG. 61.--FROM HOLBEIN'S DANCE OF DEATH.]
There were other good artists in the Augsburg school after the time of the
Holbeins; but I shall pass immediately to the Franconian school, or that
of Nuremburg, and to its great master, ALBERT DÜRER (1471-1528), whose
life was very interesting, and who stands, as an artist, among the
greatest painters of the world. The city of Nuremburg was a grand, rich
old place even in Dürer's time, and as a boy he was familiar with its
scenery and architecture, which helped him to cultivate his artist tastes,
and to make him the great man that he became. He was an author of books as
well as an architect, sculptor, painter, and engraver.
His father was a goldsmith, and Albert was apprenticed to the same trade;
but he was so anxious to study painting that at length his father placed
him as apprentice to the painter Michael Wohlgemuth. At this time Albert
was fifteen years old, and the two years he had spent with the goldsmith
had doubtless been of great advantage to him; for in that time he had been
trained in the modelling of small, delicate objects, and in the accurate
design necessary in making the small articles in precious metals which are
the principal work of that trade.
Albert Dürer had a very strong nature, and Michael Wohlgemuth was not a
man who could gain much influence over such a youth. During the three
years which Dürer passed under his teaching he learned all the modes of
preparing and using colors, and acquired much skill in handling the brush;
he also learned the first lessons in wood-engraving, in which he afterward
reached so high a perfection that a large part of his present fame rests
upon his skill in that art.
One of the earliest portraits painted by Dürer is in the Albertina at
Vienna, and bears this inscription: "This I have drawn from myself from
the looking-glass, in the year 1484, when I was still a child. ALBERT
DÜRER." Six years later he painted the beautiful portrait of his father
which is now in the gallery at Florence; and it is a question whether this
is not as finely executed as any portrait of his later years.
When Dürer left Wohlgemuth he started upon the student journey which was
then the custom with all German youths, and is still practised in a
modified degree. These youths, after serving their apprenticeship in the
occupation they were to follow, travelled, and worked at their trade or
profession in the cities of other countries. Dürer was absent four years,
but we know little of what he did or saw, for in his own account of his
life he says only this: "And when the three years were out my father sent
me away. I remained abroad four years, when he recalled me; and, as I had
left just after Easter in 1490, I returned home in 1494, just after
Whitsuntide."
In the same year, in July, Dürer was married to Agnes Frey. He was also
admitted to the guild of painters, and we may say that he was now settled
for life. It is a singular fact that, although Dürer painted several
portraits of his father and himself, he is not known to have made any of
his wife. Some of his sketches are called by her name, but there is no
good reason for this.
Dürer was so industrious, and executed so many pictures, copper-plates,
and wood engravings within the six years next after his return to
Nuremburg, that it is not possible to give an exact account of them here.
In 1500 an event occurred which added much to his happiness and to his
opportunities for enlarging his influence. It was the return to Nuremburg
of Willibald Pirkheimer, one of the friends of Dürer's childhood, between
whom and himself there had always existed a strong affection. Pirkheimer
was rich and influential, and at his house Dürer saw many eminent men,
artists, scholars, reformers, and theologians, and in their society he
gained much broader knowledge of the world, while he received the respect
which was due to his genius and character.
[Illustration: FIG. 62.--A SCENE FROM DÜRER'S WOOD ENGRAVINGS OF THE LIFE
OF THE VIRGIN MARY.]
Dürer's health was not good, and his continual work proved more than he
could bear. His father died in 1502, and this loss was a deep grief to the
artist. So little money was left for his mother and younger brother that
their support came upon him. At length, in 1505, he made a journey to
Venice, partly for his health, and in order to study Venetian painting. He
was well received by the painters of Venice. Giovanni Bellini and
Carpaccio were the leading painters of that time. They were both quite
old, but Giorgione and Titian were already coming into notice and
preparing to fill the places of the older men. Bellini was especially
delighted with the exquisite manner in which Dürer painted hair, and asked
the German to give him the brush he used for that purpose. Dürer gave him
all his brushes, but Bellini insisted upon having _the one_ for painting
hair. Dürer took a common brush, and painted a long tress of fine hair:
Bellini declared that had he not seen this done he could not have believed
it.
While in Venice Dürer received an order to paint a picture for the Fondaco
de' Tedeschi, or German Exchange. It is believed that this work was the
famous "Feast of Rose Garlands," now in the Monastery at Strahow, in
Bohemia. The Emperor Rudolph II. bought it, and had it carried from Venice
to Prague on men's shoulders. In 1782 it was purchased for the Abbey of
Strahow, and was almost lost to the world for many years. It is a
beautiful picture, and the praise it received was a great pleasure to
Dürer, because heretofore many painters had said that he was a good
engraver, but could not use colors. Dürer wrote to Pirkheimer: "There is
no better picture of the Virgin Mary in the land, because all the artists
praise it, as well as the nobility. They say they have never seen a more
sublime, a more charming painting."
The Venetian Government offered Dürer a handsome pension if he would
remain in Venice, and he declined many orders for the sake of returning to
Germany, which he believed to be his duty. From the time of his return, in
1507, to 1520, there is very little to tell of the personal history of
this artist. Almost all that can be said is that he labored with great
industry; it was the golden period of his art; he had many young men in
his studio, which was the centre of art to Nuremburg. At this time he
probably executed the best carvings which he ever did. During seven years
he made forty-eight engravings and etchings and more than a hundred
wood-cuts. The large demand for these works was a source of good income to
Dürer, and gave him a position of comfort. The Reformation was at hand,
and Dürer's Virgins and Saints and his pictures of the sufferings of
Christ were very well suited to the religious excitement of that period.
The house in which Dürer lived and worked for many years is still
preserved in Nuremburg as public property, and is used as an art gallery.
The street on which it stands is now called the Albrecht-Dürer Strasse. On
the square before the house stands a bronze statue of the master which was
erected by the Nuremburgers on the three hundredth anniversary of his
death.
About 1509 Dürer occupied himself considerably in writing poetry; but,
although there was much earnest feeling in his verse, it was not such as
to give him great fame as a poet. It was at the same period that he carved
the wonderful bas-relief of the "Birth of John the Baptist," now in the
British Museum. It is cut out of stone, is seven and one-half by five and
one-half inches in size, and is a marvellous piece of work. Two thousand
five hundred dollars were paid for it nearly a century ago. He made many
exquisite little carvings in stone, ivory, and boxwood, and in these
articles the result of his work as a goldsmith is best seen.
In 1512 Dürer was first employed by the Emperor Maximilian, and for the
next seven years there was a close relation between the sovereign and the
artist; but there are few records concerning it. It is said that one day
when the painter was making a sketch of the emperor the latter took a
charcoal crayon, and tried to draw a picture himself: he constantly broke
the crayon, and made no progress toward his end. After watching him for a
time Dürer took the charcoal from Maximilian, saying, "This is my sceptre,
your Majesty;" and he then taught the emperor how to use it.
Dürer executed some very remarkable drawings and engravings. Among them
was the "Triumphal Arch of Maximilian," composed of ninety-two blocks. The
whole cut is ten and one-half feet high by nine feet wide. It shows all
the remarkable events in the emperor's life, just as such subjects were
carved upon the triumphal arches of the Romans and other nations.
Hieronymus Rösch did the engraving of this great work from Dürer's blocks,
and while it was in progress the emperor went often to see it. During one
of these visits several cats ran into the room, from which happening arose
the proverb, "A cat may look at a king."
The emperor granted Dürer a pension; but it was never regularly paid, and
after the emperor's death the Council of Nuremburg refused to pay it
unless it was confirmed by the new sovereign, Charles V. For the purpose
of obtaining this confirmation Dürer made a journey to the Netherlands in
the year 1520. His wife and her maid Susanna went with him. His diary
gives a quaint account of the places they visited, the people whom they
met, and of the honors which were paid him. In Antwerp he was received
with great kindness, and the government of the city offered him a house
and a liberal pension if he would remain there; but his love for his
native town would not allow him to leave it.
After several months Dürer received the confirmation of his pension and
also the appointment of court-painter. This last office was of very little
account to him. The emperor spent little time at Nuremburg, and it was
not until he was older that he was seized with the passion of having his
portrait painted, and then Dürer had died, and Titian was painter to the
court.
[Illustration: FIG. 63.--THE FOUR APOSTLES. _By Dürer._]
When Dürer returned to his home there was quite an excitement over the
collection of curious and rare objects which he had made while absent.
Some of these he had bought, and many others were gifts to him, and he
gave much pleasure to his friends by displaying them. There had been a
great change in Nuremburg, for the doctrines of the Reformation were
accepted by many of its people, and it was the first free city that
declared itself Protestant. The change, too, was quietly made; its
convents and churches were saved from violence, and the art treasures of
the city were not destroyed. Among the most important Lutherans was
Pirkheimer, Dürer's friend. We do not know that Dürer became a Lutheran,
but he wrote of his admiration for the great reformer in his diary, and it
is a meaning fact that during the last six years of his life Dürer made no
more pictures of the Madonna.
These last years were not as full of work as the earlier ones had been. A
few portraits and engravings and the pictures of the Four Apostles were
about all the works of this time. He gave much attention to the
arrangement and publication of his writings upon various subjects
connected with the arts. These books gave him much fame as a scholar, and
some of them were translated into several languages.
As an architect Dürer executed but little work; but his writings upon
architectural subjects prove that he was learned in its theories.
During several years his health was feeble, and he exerted himself to make
provision for his old age if he should live, or for his wife after his
death. He was saddened by the thought that he had never been rewarded as
he should have been for his hard, faithful labors, and his latest letters
were sad and touching. He died in April, 1528, after a brief illness, and
was buried in the cemetery of St. John, beyond the walls, where a simple
epitaph was inscribed upon his monument. This cemetery is an interesting
place, and contains the graves of many men noted in the chronicles of
Nuremburg.
On Easter Sunday in 1828, three hundred years after his death, a Dürer
celebration was held in Nuremburg. Artists came from all parts of Germany.
A solemn procession proceeded to his grave, where hymns were sung, and the
statue by Rauch, near Dürer's house, was dedicated.
I can give you no description of Dürer's many works, and although it is
true that he was a very great master, yet it is also true that his
pictures and engravings are not noted for their beauty so much as for
their strength and power. His subjects were often ugly and repulsive
rather than beautiful, and his imagination was full of weird, strange
fancies that can scarcely be understood. Indeed, some of them never have
been explained, and one of his most famous engravings, called "The Knight,
Death, and the Devil," has never yet been satisfactorily interpreted, and
many different theories have been made about it.
Many of the principal galleries of Europe have Dürer's paintings, though
they are not as numerous as his engravings, and, indeed, his fame rests
more upon the latter than the former, and very large sums are paid by
collectors for good impressions of his more important plates.
Dürer had several followers. His most gifted scholar was LUCAS SUNDER
(1472-1553), who is called Lucas Cranach, from the place of his birth. He
established a school of painting in Saxony, and was appointed
court-painter. Although there were a goodly number of German painters late
in the sixteenth century, there were none of great eminence, and, in
truth, there have been few since that time whose lives were of sufficient
interest to be recounted here, so I shall tell you of but one more before
passing to the artists of Spain.
ANGELICA KAUFFMAN (1742-1808) was a very interesting woman who gained a
good reputation as an artist; but there is such a difference of opinion
among judges as to her merits as a painter that it is difficult to decide
what to say of her. As a person, she excited an interest in her lifetime
which has never died out, and Miss Thackeray's novel, "Miss Angel," tells
what is claimed to be her story, as nearly as such stories are told in
novels.
She was born at Coire, in the Grisons. Her father was an artist, a native
of Schwarzenburg, and when Angelica was born he was occupied in executing
some frescoes at Coire. When the child was a year old he settled at
Morbegno, in Lombardy, and ten years later, when she had shown a taste for
music, her parents again removed to Como, where there were better
opportunities for her instruction. Her progress in music was remarkable,
and for a time she was unable to say whether she loved this art or that of
painting the better. Later in life she painted a picture in which she
represented herself, as a child, standing between allegorical figures of
Music and Painting.
The beautiful scenery about Como, the stately palaces and charming villas,
the lake with its pleasure boats, and all the poetry of the life there,
tended to develop her talents rapidly, and, though she remained but two
years, the recollection of this time was a pleasure to her through all her
life. She was next taken to Milan, where a world of art was opened to her,
and she saw pictures which excelled all her imaginations. The works of
Leonardo and other great Lombard masters stirred her soul to its very
depths. She soon attracted attention by her pictures, and Robert d'Este
became her patron, and placed her under the care of the Duchess of
Carrara. She was now daily associated with people of culture and elegance,
and thus early in her life acquired the modest dignity and
self-possession which enabled her in her future life to accept becomingly
the honors and attentions which were paid her.
Her mother's death occurred at Milan, and her father returned to
Schwarzenburg. The people about her were so coarse and disagreeable to
Angelica that she passed much of her time in the grand forests. At this
time she painted frescoes of the Twelve Apostles, copied from the
engravings after Piazetta. Her father was not content to remain away from
Italy, and they went again to Milan, then to Florence, and at last to
Rome. She was now eighteen years old, and found much profit in the
friendship of the great scholar Winckelmann, who allowed her to paint his
portrait. Angelica visited Naples and Bologna also, and finally Venice,
where she met Lady Wentworth, who became her friend, and afterward took
her to England.
She had a most brilliant career in London, where her friends were in the
highest rank of society. De Rossi described her appearance at this time,
and said that she was not very tall, but had a slight, elegant figure. Her
complexion was dark and clear, her mouth well formed, her teeth white and
even, and all her features good. He speaks of her azure eyes, so placid
and bright that their expression had a charm which could not be described.
No one felt like criticising her. Other artists paid her many honors, and
she was made a member of the Academy of Arts. It has been said that
Fuseli, the learned art critic, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, the great artist,
both asked her hand in marriage. Some members of the royal family became
her friends, and she was at the height of honorable success and of
happiness.
It is painful to turn from this bright picture of her life to all the
sorrow and darkness which followed it. She made an unhappy marriage, her
husband proving to be an adventurer who had assumed a distinguished name.
For a time she was crushed by this sorrow; but her friends remained true
to her, and she found relief in absolute devotion to her art. For twelve
years she supported herself and her father; then his health failed, and it
was thought best for him to go to Italy. Angelica was now forty years old,
and before leaving England she married Antonio Zucchi, an artist who had
long been her friend. He devoted himself to her and to her father with
untiring affection, and when the old man died he was happy in the thought
that his beloved daughter had so true a friend as Zucchi.
From this time their home was in Rome, where Angelica was the centre of an
artistic and literary society of a high order. Among her visitors were
such men as Herder and Goethe. The latter wrote of her: "The light and
pleasing in form and color, in design and execution, distinguish the
numerous works of our artist. No living painter excels her in dignity or
in the delicate taste with which she handles the pencil." She was very
industrious, and her life seems to have been divided between two
pleasures, her work and the society of her friends, until the death of her
husband, which occurred in 1795. She lived twelve years longer, but they
were years of great sadness. She made journeys in order to regain her
spirits. She visited the scenes of her childhood, and remained some time
in Venice with the family of Signor Zucchi.
Even after her last return to Rome she worked as much as her strength
would permit, but her life was not long. She was mourned sincerely in
Rome; her funeral was attended by the members of the Academy of St. Luke;
and her latest works were borne in the procession. She was buried beside
her husband in the Church of St. Andrea dei Frati. Her bust was placed in
the Pantheon.
Various critics have praised her works in the most liberal manner; others
can say nothing good of them. For myself, I cannot find the extreme of
praise or blame a just estimate of her. No one can deny the grace of her
design, which was also creditably correct. Her portraits were good; her
poetical subjects are very pleasing; her historical pictures are not
strong; her color was as harmonious and mellow as that of the best
Italians, excepting a few of the greatest masters, and in all her pictures
there is something which wins for her a certain fondness and praise, even
while her faults are plainly seen. Her pictures are to be found in
galleries in Rome, Florence, Vienna, Munich, and England; many are also in
private collections. She painted several portraits of herself; one in the
Uffizi, at Florence, is very pleasing. She represents herself seated in a
solitary landscape, with a portfolio in one hand and a pencil in the
other. She has an air of perfect unconsciousness, as if she thought of her
work only. Her etchings are much valued, and sell for large prices. Many
of her pictures were engraved by Bartolozzi, and good prints of them are
rare. On one of her pictures she wrote: "I will not attempt to express
supernatural things by human inspiration, but wait for that till I reach
heaven, if there is painting done there."