S36 ~K 3 L> CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1 89 1 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Date Due AQQ o 1950 J IVrK ^ j -APR 2 8 J950 HII *■ ■ 1951 tr ,4it,*„«tJ- - '•■ *^"^~««*»fe;i«-^vj*K5,«W««. Cornell University Library N 5300.R36 1907 Apollo : 3 1924 025 928 122 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924025928122 THE MADONNA DI SAN S1STO. (Virgin and Child with St. Barbara and Pope Sixtus II.) Raphael. (Dresden Gallery.) APOLLO AN ILLUSTRATED MANUAL OF THE HISTORY OF ART THROUGHOUT THE AGES By S. REINACH Member of the Institute of France From the French by FLORENCE SIMMONDS TVith Six Hundred Illustrations NEW EDITION, REVISED BY THE AUTHOR New York: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS London: WILLIAM HEINEMANN i9°8 • f >k A.« i: iL f Copyright, 1904, 1907, by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS Published, April, 1907 PUBLISHER'S NOTE The universal success and popularity achieved by M. Salomon Reinach's manual of art-history, which is now in its third French edition, and has been translated into all European languages, have made it the publisher's pleasant duty to prepare a new edition of his version. This appeared two years ago under the title The Story of Art throughout the Ages. Apollo, the name of the French original, with its implied relation to Minerva, an earlier work by the same author, was not retained in the first English issue, as it was sup- posed it might not clearly indicate the general scope of the work to the English-speaking public. But the book is now so widely known that there is no longer any occasion for a gloss, and the publisher gladly reverts to M. Reinach's graceful and suggestive title. The new edition has been carefully revised by the author. A number of interesting illustrations have been added, certain unsatis- factory blocks have been replaced by new ones, and the bibliographies have been expanded and brought up to date. The slight additions made, with the author's approval, in the sections dealing with British artists and art-treasures, are indicated in the present issue by square brackets. FUNKRAL OF RICHARD II. IN LONDON. (Miniature from a French MS. of 14S0 at Breslau.) PREFACE WlTH the exception of the last, which I have altered and re- written several times, all these lectures appear more or less exactly as given by me at the Ecole du Louvre in 1902-1903. I claim it as a merit for them, that they have stood the test of oral delivery. The dissent and approval of an audience, some echo of which always reaches the lecturer, are the most instructive of guides to him; I have taken them into account in revising these lessons for publication, just as I took note of them when lecturing. Every science requires not only special works of erudition, but synthetic exposition, written and spoken. In such exposition, general ideas are necessarily of the first and facts of the second importance, whereas in erudite instruction, every hour of synthesis should, as Fustel de Coulanges has said, be based on a year of analysis. This hour does not come to all men; but when it comes, it is well to profit by it, and, better still, to make others profit. At the Ecole du Louvre, I finished each of my lessons with a few words of bibliography, restricting myself to the mention of three or four recent and indispensable works. In publishing these lectures I have thought it well to develop this feature more especially. I have been very moderate with regard to antique art, because there are many accessible books of reference; I myself have published one or PREFACE two. But there is scarcely anything touching the Middle Ages and modern times even in the largest works. I have had to build up a complete bibliography, and I am sure it will prove useful. After careful consideration, I deliberately excluded all works bearing rather upon archaeology than on art-history. I have also excluded, with few exceptions, all books and articles published before 1 880, and more especially large and expensive volumes, only to be found in important libraries. On the other hand, I have freely quoted good popular works and articles in reviews, particularly those of the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, which has a wide circulation, may be pur- chased in single numbers, and has no good indices. If my text appeals primarily to beginners and to the leisured classes, I may hope that even the most highly educated will be able to glean in the bibliographies; they will also find there references to many works and artists which I have omitted to mention, or have only mentioned in passing in the text, being anxious to avoid a monotonous enumera- tion of proper names. The title Apollo reminds my readers that this book is intended to be a companion volume to Minerva, an introduction to the Greek and Latin classics published by me in 1 889, and still maintaining its popularity after four large editions. I hope that Apollo may share the good fortune of his sister, and that by disseminating the principles of art-history, he may gain new adherents for that antique Wisdom, that Minerva of the Acropolis, which, far from teaching us to neglect, the study of mediaeval and modern art will help us to enjoy more perfectly. S. REINACH. r " B yiftj&J Hi ite22i ROMAN ALTAR OF THE FIRST CENTURY. (Museum, Aries.) CONTENTS PAGE I.— THE ORIGIN OF ART 1 Art a Social Phenomenon. — The Art of the Savage and of the Child akin. — Primitive Manifestations of the Artistic Instinct. — -Art in the Quaternary Period. — The Art of the Reindeer Hunters. — Prehistoric Paintings in Cave Dwellings. — The Caves of PtEri- gord and of the Pyrenees. — The Magic Element in Primitive Works of A rt. II.— ART IN THE POLISHED STONE AND BRONZE AGES ... 9 The Extinction of the Art of the Reindeer Hunters. — Primitive Dwellings ; Rude Flint Implements. — Lacustrine Dwellings and Polished Stone Implements. — Dolmens, Men- hirs, Cromlechs. — Domestication of Animals and Culture of Cereals. — First Use of Metals. — The Bronze Age.- — Tumuli of Gavrinis, Morbihan, and New Grange, Ireland. — The Absence of Animal Forms in the Decoration of the Bronze Age. — High Degree of Excellence in Linear Decoration of this Period. — Stonehenge. — The Second Stone Age in Egypt. — Pre-Pharaonic Art: Painted Vases discovered at Abydos and Nega- dah (.Upper Egypt). — Primitive Art in the Grecian Archipelago. — Babylon and Egypt the Precursors of Classic A rt. III.— EGYPT, CHALD/EA, AND PERSIA 17 Art in Egypt under the Pharaohs. — The Satte Revival. — The Characteristics of Egyptian Art. — Egyptian Temples. — Karnak- — Egyptian Statues, Figurines, Bas-reliefs, and Paintings in Tombs. — The Scribe in the Louvre. — Conventions of Egyptian Art. — Lange's " Law of Frontality. " — Egyptian Decorative Motives. — The Idea of Duration dominant in Egyptian Art. — Chaldsean Art: The Monuments of Tello, near Bas- sorafi. — Assyrian Art: The Bas-reliefs of the Palace of Nineveh. — Assyrian Palaces. — Type of Assyrian Temples.- — Persian Art: The Palaces of Susa and Persepolis. — The Frieze of Archers in the Louvre.— Hittite Art based on that of Assyria. — The Phoenicians : Purely Industrial Character of their Art. — Jewish Art derived from that of Assyria. — The Antiquity of Indian and Chinese Art a Delusion. — Both derived from Greece. IV — /EGEAN, MINOAN, AND MYCENAEAN ART : TROY, CRETE, AND MYCEN/E 30 Primitive Art in the Grecian Archipelago. — Its Tendency to reproduce the Human Form. — Schliemann's Excavations at Hissarlik (Troy), Mycenae, and Tiryns. — The Golden Vases of Vaphio. — Excavations made by Mr. A rthur Evans in Crete. — Discovery of Minos' Palace, the Labyrinth. — Discovery of the Palace of Phsestus. — The Three Periods of Prehistoric Greek Art. — Destruction of the Mycenazan Civilisation by Bar- xi CONTENTS PAGE bartons. — Myceneean Refugees in the Islands of the Archipelago. — The Hellenic Middle Ages.— Cyclopean Walls. — The Gate of the Lions at Mycense. — Minoan and Mycensean Bas-reliefs and Metal-work- — Animation the Distinguishing Character- istic of Minoan A rt. V.— GREEK ART BEFORE PHIDIAS . . . . . . .37 The Abundance of Marble a Determining Factor in the Tendencies of Greek Art. The Rationalistic Cast of the Greek Intellect. — The Rapid Development of Greek Art.— Archaic Statues. — The Artemis of Delos, the Hera of Samos, and the Statue of Chares. — The Treasury of the Cnidians. — The Chian Sculptors and their Invention of the Winged Victory. — The Dawn of Expression in Sculpture. — The Orantes of the Acropolis. — Archaic ApoWos and Athletes. — The Type replaced by the Individual.— The Impetus given to Art by the Greek Victories over the Persians. — The Pediments of the Temple of Aphaia at /Egina. — -The Pediments of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. — Myron and the Statue of the Discobolus. — Polyclitus and the Statue of the Dory - phorus. — The Creation of the Type of the Amazon. — Phidias, Myron, and Polyclitus the Supreme Masters of the First Great Period. — The Eternal Progression of Art. VI— PHIDIAS AND THE PARTHENON 47 The Embellishment of Athens under Pericles.— Phidias, Iclinus, and Collides. — The Building of the Parthenon and of the Erechiheum. — The Structure of Greek Temples. — The Three Orders. — The Technical Perfection of the Parthenon. — The Propyleea, the Erechiheum, and the Temple of Nike' A pteros. — -The Sculptures of the Parthenon. — The Chryselephantine Statues of Athene and of Zeus. — Fu r twang ler's Reconstruc- tion of the Lemnian Athene. — The Venus of Mi lo. VII— PRAXITELES, SCOPAS, AND LYSIPPUS 56 The Modification of the Athenian Temperament brought about by the Peloponnesian War. — The Psychological Art of Scopas and Praxiteles. — The Irene and Plutus of Cephisodotus. — The Hermes with the Infant Dionysus of Praxiteles. — Other Works by the Master.- — Lord Leconfield's Head of Aphrodite.— The Sculptures of the Temple of Tegeea. — Passion the Characteristic of Scopas' A rt. — Lysippus and his Work in Bronze. — The Apoxyomenus. — The Borghese Warrior. — The Woman of Herculaneum at Dresden. — The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. — The Group o/Niobe and her Children. — The Victory of Samothrace. — The Demeter of Cnidus. — Funereal Steles. — The Cera- micus at Athens. VIII.— GREEK ART AFTER ALEXANDER THE GREAT . . . .67 The Conquests of Alexander and their Influence on Greek Art. — The Rise of Alexan- dria, A ntioch, and Pergamum. — The Hellenistic Epoch. — The Schools of Rhodes and Pergamum. — The First Representation of the Barbarian and of Nature in Art. — The Dying Gaul, formerly known as the Dying Gladiator. — The Altar of Zeus at Perga- mum. — The Laocoon. — The Belvedere Apollo. — The Pourlale's Apollo. — The Centaur and Eros. — The so-called Sarcophagus of Alexander. IX.— THE MINOR ARTS IN GREECE 74 The Artistic Character of Greek Industrial Objects. — Silver and Metal Cups and Vases. — The Treasures of Hildesheim, Bernay, and Boscoreale. — The Greek Painters. — The Nozze Aldobrandini. — Mosaics and Frescoes. — Egyptian Portraits of the Gnsco- Roman Period. — Greek Vases: Dipylon, Corinthian, and Etruscan Vases. — Lecythi. The Manufacture of Vases ceased to be exclusively an Athenian Industry. — The Industry flourishing in Southern Italy. — Principal Types of Greek Vases. — Terra- cotta statuettes found at Tanagra and Myrina. — Engraved Gems and Cameos. — Coins. xii CONTENTS PAGE X— ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ART 85 7Ae SeH/emen! o/ LyJian Emigrants in Eiruria. — Etruscan Monuments and Decoratioe Objects.—^The so-called Etruscan Vases chiefly Importations from Athens. — Paintings < n Me Tomb of Francois " at Vulci. — Etruscan Portraits in Terra-cotta. — Roman ■<4 rt - j ne Invasion of Italy by Greek Art. — The Evolution of an Individual Roman ■Art. Its Manifestation in Architecture. — TheColiseum. — The Adoption of the Vault. ~The Pantheon and the Basilica of Constantine. — Triumphal Arches. — The Archa- islic Reaction under Augustus. — lis Decline after Claudius and Revival under Hadrian.— The Antino'tis Type. — Portraits of the Imperial Epoch. — The Orientalised Art of the Roman Decadence. — Frescoes at Pompei.— The Rospigliosi Eros with- a Ladder. — Analysis of Roman Art. XI— CHRISTIAN ART IN THE EAST AND IN THE WEST ... 95 The Terms Early Christian and Byzantine Art explained.— The Catacombs in Rome: Early Christian Paintings and Symbols. — Early Christian Sarcophagi. — Early Chris- tian Churches built on the Plan of the Roman Basilicas. — St. Paul-without-the-Walls, Rome.— Decorative Mosaics at Rome and at Ravenna, Sant' Apollinare Nuovo and Sant' Apollinare in Classe. — St Sophia at Constantinople. — The Iconoclasts. — The Byzantine Renaissance. — Byzantine Ivories, Enamels, Miniatures, and Metal-work-— The Decline of Byzantine Art. — Arab and Moorish Art.— The Mosque of Amrou. — The Alhambra. — The Persistence of the Byzantine Tradition in Russia and Southern Italy. — St. Mark's Church, Venice. — The Byzantine Tradition discarded by Giotto and Duccio. XII.— ROMANESQUE AND GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE . . . .106 The Term Romance or Romanesque. — Inaccuracy of the Term Gothic. — Its First Use by Raphael.- — A Comparison of Romanesque and Gothic Architecture. — The Celtic Influence on the Art of Northern Europe. — Grseco-Syrian Elements. — Influence of the Byzantine Cities, Constantinople and Ravenna. — Phases of the Transition from Romanesque to Gothic.— Characteristics of Romanesque Architecture.— Of Gothic — • The Invention of the Pointed Arch.— The Age of Cathedral-building. — The Three Periods of Gothic. — Town-halls, Dwellings, and Fortresses.— The Architecture of the Future Foreshadowed by Gothic. XIII.— ROMANESQUE AND GOTHIC SCULPTURE 120 The Church the Patroness of Art in Ihe Middle Ages. — The Origin of Painted Class. — Illuminated Manuscripts. — Decoratioe Sculpture in Romanesque and Gothic Churches. — Conventional Character of Romanesque Ornament. — Realistic Character of Gothic. — The " Vintage Capital " at Reims. — The Educational Intention of the Gothic Cathedral. — Vincent de Beauvais' Miroir du Monde. — The Supposed Ascetic Character of Gothic A rt Denied. — The A nli-Clerical Tendencies of the Gothic Imagiers a Roman- tic Fiction. — Portrait Statues on Tombs. — Statuettes in Wood and Ivory. — The Serenity of Gothic Art. — The Rise of the Burgundian School. XIV— THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE RENAISSANCE AND MODERN ARCHITECTURE 130 Gothic Architecture Alien to the Italian Genius. — Renaissance Architecture in Italy. — "Renaissance Art" a Misleading Term. — The Florentine Palaces Types of Renais- sance Architecture. — The Differences between Gothic and Renaissance Churches. — The Duomo of Florence. — The Riccardi and Strozzi Palaces. — St. Peter's, Rome. — The Disastrous Influence of Michelangelo on his Imitators. — The Baroque Style. — The Palazzo Pesaro or Beoilacqua, Venice. — Renaissance Architecture never fully accepted by the Northern Nations. — French Castles and Mansions of the Renaissance Period. — The Louvre. — Chateau of St. Germain. — Heidelberg. — Renaissance Buildings in Paris and London. — The Rococo Style. — The Empire Style. — French Architecture of the Second Empire. — Renaissance Architecture in Germany. — Modern Gothic in England. — The "New Art," or Anglo-Belgian Movement. xiii CONTENTS PACK XV.— THE RENAISSANCE AT SIENA AND FLORENCE . . . .149 The Renaissance in Italy no mere Revival of Classicism. — The First Renaissance the Logical Development of Gothic Art. — The Apulian School of Sculptors. — Niccold Pisano.— The Legend of Cimabue and Giotto a Myth. — Duccio of Siena and his School. — Giotto and his Frescoes at Assist and Florence. — The Giolteschi. — Fra Angelico and Benozzo Gozzoli. — Masaccio, Paolo Uccello, Andrea del Castagno.- — Verrocchio, Sculptor and Painter. — Botticelli.— Ghirlandajo. — Filippino Lippi. — Piero di Cosimo and Lorenzo di Credi. — Piero dei Franceschi and Luca Signorelli. — The Character of Florentine Painting. — Florentine Sculpture. — Donatello, Verrocchio, Desiderio da Set- tignano. — Jacopo della Querela. — Luca della Robbia. — facopo Sansovino.— Fifteenth Century Florence compared with the Athens of Pericles. — The Living or Tactile Quality of the Highest A rt. XVI— VENETIAN PAINTING . .168 The Origin of the Venetian School. — The Vivarinir — The Bellini. — The Influence of Padua upon Venice. — Mantegna. — Antonello da Messina. — Internal Prosperity and Social Brilliance of Venice. — Sante Conversazioni. — The Joyousness of Venetian Art. — Crivelli. — Carpaccio. — Cima. — Giorgione. — Titian.— Palma. — Lorenzo Lotto. — Sebastiano del Piombo. — Tintoretto. — Paolo Veronese. — Tiepolo. — The Enduring In- fluence of the Venetian School. XVII— LEONARDO DA VINCI AND RAPHAEL.— THE MILANESE SCHOOL, THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL, AND THE ROMAN SCHOOL 183 Leonardo's Genius a Synthesis of the Renaissance. — His Birth. — His Works for Lodovico Sforza. — His Manuscripts : Scientific IVritings. — Leonardo as a Sculptor. — Leonardo's Pictures. — Raphael's Birth and Parentage. — Timoteo Viti his First Master. — The Knight's Dream. — Raphael Perugino's Assistant. — The Sposalizio. — Raphael at Florence.— T he Madonnas of the Florentine Period. — Raphael at Rome. — Giulio Romano his Assistant. — The Vatican Frescoes. — Madonnas and Portraits of the Roman Period. — An Appreciation of Raphael's Genius. XVIII— MICHELANGELO AND CORREGGIO 203 The Development of the Florentine School after Leonardo. — Fra Bartolommeo, Andrea del Sarto, and Michelangelo.- — Ponlormo and Bronzino. — The Extinction of the Floren- tine School caused by Michelangelo. — The Titanic Nature of Michelangelo's Genius. — His Early Masterpieces of Sculpture. — The Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. — The Un- finished Tomb of Julius II. — The Medici Chapel, Florence. — The Fresco of The Last Judgment, in the Sistine Chapel. — Pictures by Michelangelo. — Sebastiano del Piombo, Daniele da Volterra, Benvenuto Cellini, Giovanni da Bologna. — Correggior — His Decoration of the Cupola of Parma Cathedral. — His Type of the Virgin. — His Art the Expression of the Counter-Reformation. XIX.— THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE AND IN FLANDERS . . .216 The Union of Flanders and Burgundy. — The Valois Dukes of Burgundy and their Patronage of Artists. — The Rise of the School of Burgundy at Dijon. — The Early French Renaissance checked by National Calamity. — Flanders in Advance of Italy at the Beginning of the XV ih Century. — Early Flemish Artists. — Claux Sluter and his Works at Dijon. — The Brothers Limbourg. — The Book of Hours at Chantilly. — The Painter Malouel. — The Affinity between the Flemish and Italian Primitives. — The Reciprocal Influence of the Two Schools. — The Supposed Invention of the Oil Medium by Van Eyck.— The Brothers Hubert and fan van Eyck- — The Polypiych of the "Adoration of the Lamb." — The Masterpieces of Jan van Eyck- — His Disciples: Albert van Ou water, Thierry Bouts, Rogier van der IVeyden. — The Flemish School at its Apogee.— Jacques Daret, Simon Marmion. — Hugo van der Goes, and the Portinari Altar-piece. — Memling, Gerard David, Quentin Matsus. — The Italianised Flemings: Mabuse, B. van Orley. — The Realists: Jerome Bosch, Breughel the Elder. — The Realistic Tendencies of Flemish Art. — The Franco-Flemish School at Paris, Avignon, and the Court of King Rene'. — Froment, Jean Fouquet. — The Clouets. — The School of Fontainebleau.— Michel Colombe, Germain Pilon, and Barthe'lemy Prieur. — fean Goujon. — The Rise of the Dutch School. — The Leyden Painters: Engelbrechtsen and Lucas van Leyden. xiv CONTENTS PAGE XX.— THE RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY 233 The National Character of German Art. — The School of Prague. — Master Wilhelm of Cologne. — Stephan Lochner. — His Adoration of the Magi. — The School of Cologne. — The Master of the Altar of St. Bartholomew, and other Anonymous Masters of the School. The Lack of Refinement in German Art. — German Wood-carving and its Influence on Painting. — The Suabian School. — Martin Schongauer. — The School of Augsburg. — The School of Nuremberg. — Albert Diirer and his Pupils. — Holbein. — Lucas Cranach. — The School of Alsace. — Mathias Grunewald. — Hans Baldung Grien. — Joos von Cleue. — Barthel Bruyn. — The Extinction of National Art in Germany. XXI.— THE ITALIAN DECADENCE AND THE SPANISH SCHOOL . . 245 The Phenomenon of Artistic Decadence. — The Decline of Art in Italy and its Causes. — The Jesuit Style. — Originality Checked by Excessive Admiration of the Great Renais- sance Artists. The Influence of the Decadent Italian Schools on France and Spain. — The Mannerists. — The Carracci. — The Frescoes in the Farnese Palace. — Albano, Domenichino, Guido, Guercino. — -Guido's Religious Types. — Caraoaggio and his School. Pietro da Cortona and Luca Giordano. — The Neapolitan School. — Salvator Rosa and Bernini. — Sassoferrato.^The Allori. — Carlo Dolci. — Ribera and his Influence on the Spanish School. — Morales. — The School of Seville. — Herrera and Zurbaran. — Mon- ianez and A Ion zo Cano.- — Velasquez. — His Technical Supremacy. — The Modern Cult of Velasquez. — His Relations with the Spanish Court. — The Historical Significance of his Works.^The Impersonal Character of his Art. — Mutillo. — His Qualities as a Colourist. — His Interpretation of Spanish Religious Sentiment. — Goya. — The Unim- paired Vigour of Modern Art in Spain. XXII.— ART IN THE NETHERLANDS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 259 The Revolt of the Netherlands. — The Separation of Dutch and Flemish Schools. — The Character of Dutch Art Determined by Social Conditions. — The Non-literary Quality of Dutch Art. — Frans Hals. — Adriaen Brouwer and Adriaen van Ostade. — The Ruisdaels. — Rembrandt. — His Life and Work- — The Originality of his Art. — His Etchings. — Masters of the Second Rank- — The Decline of Dutch Art under Italian Influences. — Flemish Art. — Rubens. — The Fecundity of his Genius. — Jordaens. — Van Dyck- — David Teniers. XXIII— THE ART OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY IN FRANCE . 275 The Imitation of Italian Art in France. — Jean Cousin. — Philippe de Champaigne. Jacques Callot. — Simon Vouet. — The Frigidity of French Art in the XVIIth Century. — Le Brun, Nicolas Poussin. — Le Sueur. — Jouoenet. — Claude Lorrain. — Hyacinlhe Rigaud. — Largillicre. — Mignard. — Moliere the Apologist of Academic Art. — The Sculptors of the Grand Si&cle : Guillain, Girardon, the Coustous, and Coysevox. — Puget. — The Industrial Arts under Louis XIV. — The Foundation of the Gobelins — Boulle and Caffieri. — The Decadence of French Art at the Close of Louis XIV. s Reign. XXIV— FRENCH ART IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.— THE RISE OF THE ENGLISH SCHOOL 285 The Emancipation of Art after the Death of Louis XIV. — The School of Watteau. — The Feminine Element in XVIIIth Century Art. — Coypel, Van Loo, Lagrene'e — Raphael Mengs. — Anloine Watteau. — Lancrel and Pater. — Boucher.— Fragonard.— The Classical Reaction. — Winckelmann. — Piranesi. — The so-called Empire Style originated under Louis XV. — Vien and Daoid. — Diderot's Salons. — Chardin and Greuze.— The French Portraitists of the XVIIIth Century: Maurice Quentin La Tour, Nattier, Tocque, Madame Vige'e Le Brun.— Eighteenth Century Sculpture.— Falconet, Pigalle, Houdon.— The "Boudoir" Sculptors. — CIodion.—Canooa.—The English School.— Its Tardy Fruition.— Foreign Painters Working in England. — Hogarth the First Representative English Painter. — The Great English Portraitists of the XVIIIth Century. — The English School of Landscape. — Its Influence on other Countries. XV CONTENTS PAGE XXV— ART IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY ..... 302 David the Autocrat of French Art.- — His Contemporaries, Gue'rin, Gerard, Girodel, Gros. — Prudhon. — Ingres. — Gdricauli. — Delacroix. — The Rise of Romanticism, — The Eclec- tics, Paul Delaroche, Scheffer, Flandrin, Cabanel, etc. — Bouguereau. — The Military Painters, Charlet and Rajfet. — Meissonier. — Detaille and Neuoille. — The Painters of Oriental Subjects, Decamps, etc. — The Barbizon School. — Corot and Millet. — The Realists, Courbet and Manet. — The Impressionists and Pleinairistes. The Symbolists: Moreau and Baudry. — Puvis de Chaoannes.— The Modern Belgian School. — The Modern German School. — The Predominance of French Influences. — England alone Independent. — The English School of the XlXth Century. — The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. — Sculpture in the XlXth Century. — The Growing Internationalism of Art. — A Forecast. BAS-RELIEF, THE ACROPOLIS, ATHENS. Fourth Century B.C. THE ORIGIN OF ART Art a Social Phenomenon. — The Art of the Savage and of the Child akin. — Primitive Manifestations of the Artistic Instinct. — Art in the Quaternary Period. — The Art of the Reindeer Hunters. — Prehistoric Paintings in Cave Dwellings. — The Caves of P&igord and of the Pyrenees. — The Magic Element in Primitive Works of Art. HUMAN industry is the outcome of need, or as the proverb has it, necessity is the mother of invention. From the first dawn of humanity, man was obliged to fashion tools, weapons, and clothing, to provide himself with shelter against the fury of the elements and the attacks of wild beasts. He was industrious of necessity before he became an artist by choice. A work of art differs in one essential characteristic from those products of human activity which supply the immediate wants of life. Let us consider a palace, a picture. The palace might be merely a very large house, and yet provide a satisfactory shelter. Here, the element of art is superadded to that of utility. In a statue, a picture, utility is no longer apparent. The element of art is isolated. This element, sometimes accessory, sometimes isolated, is itself a product of human activity, but of an activity peculiarly free and disinterested, the object of which is not to satisfy an immediate need, APOLLO but to evoke a sentiment, a lively emotion — admiration, pleasure, curiosity, sometimes even terror. Art, in whatever degree it may manifest itself, appears to us under the dual aspect of a luxury and a diversion. Its object being the evocation of sentiment in others, art is primarily a social phenomenon. Man fashions a tool for his own use, but he decorates it to please his fellow-men, or to excite their admiration. No society, however rudimentary, has altogether ignored art. It is to be found in embryo in the strange tattooed devices that cover the body of the savage, as also in his efforts to give an agreeable shape to the handle of his hatchet or of his knife. The study of primitive art may be carried on in two ways: by the observation of living savages, or by examination of the relics of primaeval savages found buried in the soil. It is interesting to find that the two methods have, on the whole, the same results. Art manifests itself first in the desire for symmetry, which is analogous to the rhythm of poetry and music, and the taste for colour, not so arranged as to produce images, but applied or exhibited to please the eye. It goes on to trace ornaments composed of straight or curved, parallel or broken lines. Man next attempts to reproduce the animals that surround him, first in the round, afterwards in relief and by means of drawing; finally he essays, though timidly, the imitation of the human figure and of vegetation. This suggestion of evolution may be verified by observing children, who, in our civilised society, offer a parallel with primitive savagery. A child delights successively in symmetry, colour, the juxtaposition and inter- lacement of lines. When he begins to draw, his first scrawls are the silhouettes of animals, which interest him much more than his fellow-creatures; it is not until later that he draws men and plants. A science born in the nineteenth century, prehistoric archaeology, has revealed to us the fruits of human industry at a period pro- digiously remote, centuries anterior to the building of the pyramids of Egypt and the palaces of the Babylonian kings. Geologists have given the name quaternary period to this epoch, because it was the last of the four great geological periods. The aspect of the earth was very different to that it wears at present. To mention but one or two divergences, France was not then separated from England by the Straits of Dover, nor Sicily from Italy by the Straits of Messina. Sweden, Denmark, and Scotland were buried under a sheet of polar ice; the glaciers of the Alps were of vast extent; one descended as far as Lyons. 2 THE ORIGIN OF ART In the quaternary period, horses, cattle, and goats already existed both in England and in France, but as wild animals; man had not domesticated them, and --.^,,.. : ,^, FIG. I. — ENGRAVED BONE. From the Caverne de la Madeleine, Dordogne. (British Museum.) ignorant of agriculture, he lived solely on the fruits of plants and the spoils of hunt- ing and fishing. In addition to the species which still per- sist, there were others which have disappeared, such as the mammoth and the rhinoceros with divided nostrils; and others again which now exist only in warmer climates than ours, such as the hippo- potamus, the hyaena, and the lion, or in colder latitudes, such as the reindeer. Man, armed with clubs, flint axes, and horn daggers, contrived to nourish himself on the flesh of cattle, horses, and reindeer, which he took in snares, or hunted down in the chase. Armed with a harpoon of bone or horn, he also killed fish, and so varied his diet. The quaternary period lasted for thousands of years, coming to an end some 10,000 or 12,000 years before the Christian era, according to the most moderate calculations of the geologists. It closed when the climate, the fauna, and the flora of Europe had become much what they are to-day, when the last reindeer of the Alps and Pyrenees had disappeared after the last mammoth. We are beginning to acquire some exact knowledge of the phases of this long period: we know that there was an earlier one, when the climate was hot and very damp; a later one, when it was cold and dry. During the first phase, man, hunter or fisher, lived on the banks of the rivers, then much broader than now. He made flint axes which have been found in thousands in the valleys of the Thames, of the Somme, the Marne, &c, deep beneath the sands piled up by rivers in flood. Many of these axes, triangular or oval in shape, are carved with great dexterity by means of small chips flaked off the stone, and show a regularity of outline which testifies to the delight of primitive man in symmetry. It seems probable that the men of this period lived in the open air, or in huts made of the branches of trees ; no traces of their habitations have been found. APOLLO Our knowledge of the second period is more abundant. The reindeer, non-existent in the earlier phase, became as numerous as horses or kine, furnishing man not only with succulent meat, but with horn, bone, and tendons, which lent themselves to the first essays of industry and art. Daggers, harpoons, stilettoes, and various implements made of reindeer horn have been unearthed; and also carved reindeer-horns and bones, covered with reliefs and drawings. , The man who lived on reindeer's flesh had remarked the chro- matic qualities of certain earths, more particularly of ochre. He was fond of vivid colours, and it is probable that like the savages of our own times he painted his body. But he did much more than this. On the walls and roofs of the caves where he sought shelter from the cold (which at that period obtained for nine months of the year) , he amused himself by engraving and painting animals with extraordinary dexterity. During the last few years, prehistoric paint- ings of the highest interest have been discovered in many of the caves of Perigord and the Pyrenees. In those caves of France, where it has been possible to observe the superposition of the various strata of civilisa- tion, it has been found that figures in the round, carved in stone, or in the bones of mammoth and reindeer, lay buried more deeply, and are consequently earlier, than those carved in relief or drawn. Drawings made with a style, the products of this art in its greatest perfection, are contemporary with paintings, which show the same characteristics, and deserve no less admiration. Of these characteristics, the most striking is realism. Fancy seems to be absolutely excluded ; whether represented alone or in groups, the animals are depicted with a correctness to which we find no parallel in the art of the modern savage. The next characteristic is sobriety. There are no useless details ; certain animal forms of this period, either engraved or painted, will bear comparison with the fine animal-studies of modern artists. Finally — and this is perhaps the most extraordinary trait of all — the artist of the reindeer FIG. 2. — MAMMOTH ENGRAVED ON WALL. (Cave of Combarelles, Dordogne.) THE ORIGIN OF ART IG. 3. BISON ENGRAVED AND PAINTED ON . WALL. (Cave of Fond de Gaume, Dordogne.) Revue de V Ecole d' Anthropologic, July, 1002. Felix Alcan, Paris. age is in love with life and movement; he likes to represent his animals in lively and picturesque attitudes; he seizes and reproduces their movements with extra- ordinary precision. It must, of course, be understood that these eulogies do not apply to all the works of art of the cave-dwellers. They apply to perhaps thirty or forty specimens, carved, engraved, or painted, among the hundreds that have been collected and reproduced. Then, as always, there were gifted artists and mediocre artists. But in this rapid sketch of the art of all ages, I must confine myself to the mention of masterpieces, and the masterpieces of the reindeer period are worthy of the name. How and where was this art developed? It is evident that its finest productions were the final outcome of a long progression. The man of the quaternary period, like the modern man, was perhaps born with the artistic instinct, but he was not born an artist. Many generations had to pass before he had learnt to draw the outline of an animal correctly with his sharpened flint, before his first essays, his first scrawls, took on the dignity of true works of art. Our knowledge of this period is as yet far too restricted to enable us to trace the stages of this development. It is indeed possible, and even probable, that it began in another part of Europe, for the reindeer, which did not exist in France in the warm phase of the quaternary period, must then have abounded in the more northern regions, and there is every reason to suppose that the ancestors of the reindeer hunters of Perigord and the Pyrenees flourished together with their favourite game. The evolution of art, however, cannot have made much progress in this primitive field; and, no doubt, it was in the basin of the Garonne that it was accelerated and accomplished. When the cold period came to an end, the reindeer disappeared almost suddenly, and was replaced by the stag. At this epoch, which marks the close of the quaternary period, the drawings become rare and finally disappear altogether. The civilisa- tion of the reindeer-hunters seems to have died out, or to have 5 APOLLO migrated with the reindeer towards the north of Europe. But, so far, no trace of it has come to light, nor has it been possible to establish any definite connection between the art of the reindeer- hunters and that of civilisations of great antiquity, though certainly more recent than theirs, such as those of Egypt and Babylonia. Thus we find that the art of quaternary France forms a clearly defined phase in the very genesis of art history. We may trace the successive apparition of the desire for symmetry, of sculpture, bas- relief, engraving, and painting: of all the loftier forms of art, archi- tecture alone is absent. The masterpiece of this phase of art is perhaps the group of stags (Fig. 4) engraved on an antler discovered in the cave of Lorthet (H. Pyrenees). First we see the hind feet of a stag which is galloping away. Next comes another galloping stag, in an attitude first revealed to us in modern times by instantaneous photography as applied to the analysis of rapid movement. An artist of our own day, Aime Morot, first made use of the knowledge gleaned from photographs, and reproduced this action in his horses. It was unknown to all the artists of intermediate ages. The second stag is followed by a doe, turning her head to bell and call her fawn; her action again is like that of the deer in front of her. Between the animals the artist drew some salmon, as if to fill up the empty spaces; above the last stag, he placed two pointed lozenges. It has been suggested that these constitute a signature. But what is the meaning of the salmon? This association of the great river-fish with the stag is doubtless due to some re- ligious idea ; the artist com- bined the two species which formed the principal nouiish- | ment of his tribe or clan. It is, in fact, to be noted that all the animals represented by quaternary art are of the J comestible kinds, which sav- ages engraved or painted in „ , ,, „ order to attract them by a Grotte dc Lorthet, Hautes Pyrenees. r . J . (Museum, St. Germain.) SOrt . . oi magic Sympathy. VAnihropohgic, 1S04. (Masson, Paris.) Civilised man makes hyper- , . M bolic use of the expression the magic of art. ' The primitives actually believed in it. In a cave in the department of the Indre, a slab of schist was 6 Fin. 4. ENGRAVED SLAG BONE. THE ORIGIN OF ART FIG. 5. — A HORSE GALLOPING. (From instantaneous photographs.) recently discovered, decorated with a galloping reindeer, another example of the taste for movement, combined with precision and sobriety of outline, which characterised the best artists of this period. Of their paintings, the finest, those in the cave of Altamira near Santander in Spain, were only copied in 1902 (Fig. 6). Other specimens found in the caves of Perigord (Figs. 2, 3) are also of the deepest interest. In one of these caves was found a stone lamp, ornamented with a beautiful incised representation of an ibex. The artists of the period must have made use of such lamps when graving and painting their decorations, for the ornamented portions of the caves are quite dark, even in broad day- light. Among all these surpris- ing discoveries, this seems to be the most amazing! These paintings, consisting sometimes of over a hun- dred animals of large dimensions, could only have been executed, and were only visible, by artificial light ! Why then did their authors take the trouble to ™. 6.— wsos painted on the hock. .1 1 \\7„„ ,"f Cave of Altamira (Spain). execute them? Was It r Anthropologic, 1904. (Masson, Paris.) only to please the eye or .. , the reindeer-hunter, when, retiring to his cavern at nightfall, he made his evening meal on the spoils of the chase, by the dim light filled with oil from the fat of deer? of smoking lamps It is impossible to accept such an hypothesis. 7 I h ave a lready APOLLO spoken of the magic element in the works of art carved, engraved, or painted by primitive man. They show us the first steps of humanity in the path which led to the worship of animals (as in Egypt), then to that of idols in human shape (as in Greece), and finally to that of divinity as a purely spiritual conception. The study of the birth of religion is interwoven with that of the origin of art. Born simultaneously, art and religion were closely connected for long ages; their affinity is still evident enough to the thinking mind. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER I. Alex. Bertrand, La Gaule aoanl les Gaulois, 2nd ed., Paris, 1891 (with an Appendix by E. Piette on the Reindeer Age and the Pyrenean caverns explored by him) ; G. and A. de Mortillet, Le Musee Prehistorique, 2nd ed., Paris, 1903 (copiously illustrated); S. Reinach, Alluvions et Caoernes, Paris. 1889; E. Cartailhac, La France Prehistorique, Paris, 1889; M. Hoernes, Der diluoiale Mensch in Europa, 1903. For the paintings recently discovered in the caves by Messrs. Riviere, Capitan, Breuil, and Cartailhac, see the Revue Mensuelle de VEcolc d' Anthropologic, 1902, and L Anthropologic, 1902-1904; Cartailhac and Breuil, Altamira 'L' Anthropologic 1904, p. 625). For an explanation of these works, cf. S. Reinach, LArt et la Magic l L Anthropologic, 1903, p. 257). On primitive Art in general : E. Grosse, Les Debuts de {'A rl, French translation, Paris. 1 902. On the Art of the Child : J. Sully, Studies of Childhood, London, 1 903. On the idea of Art and /Esthetics: E. Veron, L'Esthetique, Paris, 1876; English ed., London, 1877; V, Cherbuliez, LArt et la Nature, 2nd ed., Paris, 1892; G. Seailles. Essai sur le Clinic dans I'Art, 2nd ed., Paris, 1897 ; M. Guyau, LArt au point de vue Sociologique, 5th ed., Paris, 1901 ; A. Fouillee, La Morale, LArt el la Religion d'aprcs Guyau, 3rd ed., Paris, 1901 ; K. Lange, Dcs Wesen der Kunst, 2 vols., Berlin, 1 901 . On Method in Art History : C. Bertaux, L 'Histoire dc I' A rl et les CEuores d'A rl (Reouc de Synlhesc historique, 1902). II ART IN THE POLISHED STONE AND BRONZE AGES The Extinction of the Art of the Reindeer Hunters. — Primitive Dwellings, Rude Flint Implements. — Lacustrine Dwellings and Polished Stone Implements. — Dolmens, Menhirs, Cromlechs. — Domestication of Animals and Culture of Cereals. — First Use of Metals. — The Bronze Age. — Tumuli of Gavrinis, Morbihan, and New Grange, Ireland. — The Absence of Animal Forms in the Decoration of the Bronze Age. — High Degree of Excellence in Linear Decoration of this Period. — Stonehenge. — The Second Stone Age in Egypt. — Pre-Pharaonic Art: Painted Vases discovered at Abudos and Negadah {Upper Egypt). — Primitive Art in the Grecian A rchipelago. — Babylon and Egypt the Precursors of Classic A rt. The extinction of the civilisation of the reindeer-hunters seems to have been brought about by a change of climate. Some geological phenomenon hitherto unexplained caused a cessation of the cold, which was succeeded by torrential rains and damp warmth. The reindeer, for which the present climate of St. Petersburg is too hot, disappeared or migrated; the caves, invaded by streams of water, and often swept by the rivers in flood, became uninhabitable; vast plains were transformed into swamps. The population of France was not, indeed, annihilated, but it certainly diminished very greatly, the reduction being brought about partly by the change of climate, partly by emigration. The civilisation of the reindeer age dis- appeared. When we find traces of a new civilisation in France, it is marked by a poverty and coarseness that reveal the catastrophes among which it was brought forth. A new humanity may almost be said to have come into being; and if that of the quaternary age had required thousands of years to evolve true works of art, some thirty or forty centuries had again to pass before works of art worthy of the name were produced in Western Europe. The first buildings of the present period (using the term in its geological sense) are the camps or remains of villages, where the chief evidences of human activity are the flint implements of a primi- tive type known as celts, and fragments of coarse pottery with incised ornaments. These latter mark an industrial progress, for the artists of the reindeer age knew nothing of pottery. To a later epoch, some 4,000 or 3,000 years before Christ, belong the first traces of those encampments built upon piles on the banks of lakes 9 APOLLO TIG. ?. — DOLMEN OF KORKONNO. (Morbihan, Brittany.) in Switzerland and France, and known as lacustrine dwellings. These were used as places of refuge and as workshops. The civilisation of the lake- dwellers is familiar to us, for thousands of objects fashioned by them have been discovered embedded in the mud. Among these, in addition to hand - made pottery, are hatchets of polished stone, sometimes and pendants; but not a single very elegant in shape, arms, tools work of art has come to light. This polished stone period to which the lake-dwellings belong, was also the age when in other regions of Europe, notably in Brittany, the Cevennes, England, Denmark and Sweden, men began to raise those huge tombs of undressed stone known as dolmens (Fig. 7), the obelisks known as menhirs, the circles of rough stone known as cromlechs, and long lines of massive blocks such as those of Carnac (Fig. 8). The dolmens are indubitably of the same period as the most ancient of the lacustrine dwellings, for in both polished stone axes have been discovered, whereas there is scarcely a trace of metals. The phase of human history on which we are now touching is marked by two innovations of the highest importance: the culture of cereals and the domestication of animals. Carbonised cereals PIG. 8. — ROWS OF STONE BLOCKS AT CARNAC. (Morbihan, Brittany.) 10 THE POLISHED STONE AND BRONZE AGES FIG. 9. — CARVED MENHIR. PRIMITIVE STATUE. (Saint Sernin, Aveyron.) and heaps of manure have been found in the mud of the lake-dwellings, and it is more than probable that the civilisation of the dolmen-builders was analogous to that of the lake-dwellers. We cannot now inquire into the question how man first conceived the idea of domesticating animals, sowing corn, barley, millet, and flax; it will be sufficient to point out that these immense advances in civilisation were made before the discovery of metals. The construction of lake-dwellings and of dolmens continued even after man had begun to make use of gold and copper, the first two metals he knew. A little later the dis- covery of tin, and some happy incident which led to the idea of fusing tin and copper, placed a new metal, bronze, at man's disposal, and thus gave a considerable impetus to material civilisation. Lake-dwellings of the age of bronze have been discovered, the axes, swords, and metal ornaments of which bear witness to the advanced stage of technical proficiency reached by their inhabitants. But in the dolmens, only very simple bronze objects, such as beads, buttons, and knives have been found; the practice of burying the dead in dolmens must therefore have been discontinued before the abandonment of the lake-dwellings (B.C. 1000?). The total absence of pure works of art at this period is a subject of much sur- prise to archaeologists. If we except a few wretched figures in terra cotta, a few menhirs rudely carved into a semblance of the human form (Fig. 9), there are no images either of men or animals. But, on the other hand, linear decoration is very highly developed. On the little island of Gavrinis, off the coast of Morbihan, -ENGRAVED GRANITE BLOCKS IN THE COVERED ALLEV, GAVRINIS. (Morbihan, Brittany.) II APOLLO rises one of those huge mounds of earth called tumuli. Inside the tumulus is a dolmen, approached by a long alley bordered with enormous blocks of granite. These blocks are covered with elaborate designs, carved with flint implements, works which must have cost their authors an infinity of time and trouble (Fig. 10). We find a few axes introduced among the ornament, but nothing resembling any living creature. There is a similar monument in Ireland, at New Grange, near Dublin. Here the walls are covered with designs very like those at Gavrinis, and perhaps older. In Den- mark, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal there are other large dolmens, in all of which representations of human and animal life are likewise conspicuous by their absence. The existence of art in the age of bronze is manifested by the graceful form of such objects as spears, daggers, swords, bracelets, vases, etc., and also by the purely linear ornament with which they are embellished. This ornament consists of dog-toothing, triangles, zigzags, rectangles, dotted bands, and concentric circles, showing a variety and ingenuity of com- bination that bear witness to the decorative instinct of the potters and bronze-workers of the age (Fig. 11). But the decoration is invariably and exclusively linear, as if some religious law, some fear of maleficent sorcery, had for- bidden the representation of men and animals. In Western Europe this was the case for centuries, with some unimportant exceptions, even after the introduction of iron tools and weapons. The utmost achieved by the Gauls before Caesar's conquest of Gaul was the execution of a few animals in bronze, and of a few more or less shapeless figures on coins. Before a new plastic art arose among them, the Gauls, who excelled alike as workers in metal and in enamel, had to become the pupils of Roman artists, themselves disciples of the Greeks. In Great Britain, as in the regions now included in the German Empire, it was also Roman conquest or Roman com- merce which led to the tardy adoption of figure-ornament. Sweden and Denmark only began to produce it towards the period of the downfall of the Empire, though the inhabitants of these countries 12 FIG. II. — BRONZE BRACELET. Found at Rcallon, Hautes Alpcs. (Museum, St. Germain.) THE POLISHED STONE AND BRONZE AGES had continuously manu- factured weapons, orna- ments, and vases of metal, decorated with an as- tonishing variety of linear motives (Fig. 12). All this was art, for it was in the nature of luxury and amusement; but it was incomplete art, for the imitation of living nature had no place in it. Dolmens and menhirs mark the beginnings of architecture, but of archi- tecture scarcely worthy of the name, for decoration plays hardly any part in it, and the elements of construction can claim no excellence other than that of a massive solidity. The only monument of this nature which has any artistic character is the circle of triliths, each con- sisting of two uprights with a lintel, at Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, but the blocks of stone are hewn, and Stonehenge does not apparently date from a more remote period than the bronze age (Fig. 13). After this age, the only stone buildings of Western Europe were walls of defence ; the dwellings and even the temples were of wood. It was the Roman Conquest, again, which gave the Gauls the principles and the first models of architecture. FIG. 12. — BRONZE PLAQUE. Found in Sweden. (Stockholm Museum.) FIG. 13. — STONEHENGE. (Photo, by Spooner.) 13 APOLLO Thus we see that the genius of the arts, after having flourished in France for several thousands of years before the Christian era, underwent a long eclipse of at least forty centuries, giving place to a decorative sentiment that excluded the representation of living things. This was, happily, not the case on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. Stone axes like those of Saint-Acheul have been discovered in Egypt and on the coast of Asia ; but so far, we have no evidences that art had developed there in the quaternary age, nor do we find there traces of anything analogous to the marvellous drawings of the reindeer hunters. On the other hand, the second stone age in Egypt was marked by a civilisation no less consummate than rapidly achieved. Of the corre- sponding period in Babylon we know little as yet; but thanks to the recent researches of Messrs. Morgan, Amelineau, and Flinders Petrie in Egypt, we know that the Egyptians, before they had begun to use bronze and iron, produced thousands of fictile vases decorated with paintings, large flint knives most admirably worked, articles of luxury, and per- sonal ornaments of hippopotamus- ivory and schist, and vases of hard stone. Before the epoch of the Pharaohs, which was also that of the introduction of metals, Egypt, though destitute of architecture, boasted a very flourishing industry, which did not hesitate to essay the representation of human figures, animals, and plants, in painting, in terra cotta, in ivory, and in schist. It is true that these essays are extremely rude, and that the personages drawn or engraved by the Egyptians of the stone age resemble the sketches of savages; but the Egyptian savage possessed a manual dexterity superior to that of his western contemporaries, and, for him, art was not confined to linear decoration. Let us examine the flint-knife, ornamented with a sheet of engraved gold, in the Museum of Cairo. Gold, which is found in its raw state, was known in the later stone age ; it was, perhaps, this 14 m pi ft \ [ = - : 51 i'ir FIG. 14. — FLINT KNIFE WITH A GOLD SHEATH. (Museum, Cairo.) Morgan, Recherchcs sur les Origincs (Lcroux, Paris.) de l'£gypte, vol. THE POLISHED STONE AND BRONZE AGES metal which suggested the discovery and employment of others, Ihe style of the engraved animals — serpents, lions, and antelopes- - is totally different from that which obtained in the Egypt of th Pharaohs ; but it is already a style which aims at the suggestion life (Fig. 14). This object, however, is exceptional in quality. To get a gene idea of primitive Egyptian art, we must study the painted va.' which have been discovered in large numbers in the burial-places &. Abydos and Negadah (Upper Egypt) . Some of these are decorated with paintings of ostriches, and of Nile boats, with flags fore and aft; there are also human FIG. 15.- PAINTINGS ON PRIMITIVE EGYPTIAN VASES. (Museum, Cairo.) Morgan, Recherches sur les Origincs de VUgypte, vol. ii. (Leroux, Paris.) figures in attitudes expressive of adoration or distress. Other examples of these gestures are to be seen in the terra cotta figures at Negadah, which appear to be tattooed all over. From the same necropolis we have little figures in ivory and in schist, dating, no doubt, from about the year 4500 B.C. In the deeper strata of the city of Troy, excavated by Schliemann, as also in the more archaic tombs of the Archi- pelago, vases and primitive figurines have been discovered which may be compared to those found in Egypt, though they are not in any sense imitations. Here, also, the civilisation of the stone age, though not strictly speaking artistic, reveals elements other than those of the purely decorative style. On the other hand, the eastern shores of the Mediterranean did not, during the bronze age, show a development of geometric decoration equal to that achieved in the west and north of Europe. A parallel may be found in the fact that Mussulman art, which refrained from the representation of the human figure, reached a higher stage of development in the science of ornament than the western art of the Middle Ages. We have now come to the period verging on the year 4000 B.C. At this epoch, Babylon and Egypt took the lead in civilisation, and prepared the way for the splendour of classic art. From about the year 2500 B.C. a new centre of activity was formed in the Archi- pelago, and developed with extraordinary rapidity. After a tem- porary eclipse about the year 1000 B.C. Greece entered upon her 15 APOLLO triumphal progress towards the art of Phidias and Praxiteles. iGreece had to submit to Rome, and Rome to conquer part of the ncient world, before Italy and the west of Europe at last parti- >ated in the radiance of this manifestation. It was destined to die .l- in Greece, as it had already died out in Egypt and Assyria, and - dawn again, after a fresh eclipse, in Western Europe, which, jVjrom the year 1000 A.D., became and has remained the home or ^jart. This rapid survey will have indicated the divisions of my subject, and prepared my readers for the developments I propose to trace. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER II. Works by A. Bertrand and G. de Mornllet, given in bibliography of Chap. I. (lacustrine dwellings, dolmens, menhirs, cromlechs). For the carved menhirs (Aveyron), see Hermet, Bulletin du Comiti, 1898, p. 500. For the Bronze Age in Western and Northern Europe : O. Montelius, Chronologic der aellesten Bronzczeil, Brunswick, 1900, and Les Temps pre'historiques en Suede, French trans- lation by S. Reinach, Paris, 1895; La Chronologic prehistoriquc en France (L ' Anthropologic, 1901, p. 609); Orient und Europa, 1 90 1 ; Die aelteren KulLurperioden im Orient und in Europa, vol. i., Stockholm, 1903; M. Hoernes, Urgeschichte der bildenden Kunst in Europa, Vienna, 1898; J. Romilly Allen, Celtic Art, London, 1904. For Prehistoric Egypt; J. de Morgan. Recherches sur les Origines de I'Eguple, 2 vols.. Pans, 1896, 1897 ; W. Budge, Egypt in the Neolithic and Archaic Periods, London, 1902 ; J. Capart, Primitive Art in Egypt, London, 1905; S. Reinach, L' Anthropologic, 1897, p. 327. For the Prehistoric Civilisation of the Archipelago : Perrot and Chipiez, Histoire de I A rt, vol. vi.. Paris, 1894; S. Reinach. L' Anthropologic, 1899, p. 5 1 3 ; W. Ridgway, The Early Age of Greece, vol. i., Cambridge, 1901. Ill EGYPT, CHALD/EA, AND PERSIA Art in Egypt under the Pharaohs. — The Saite Revival. — The Characteristics of Egyptian Art. — Egyptian Temples. — Karnak. — Egyptian Statues, Figurines, Bas-reliefs, and Paintings in Tombs. — The Scribe in the Louvre. — Conventions of Egyptian Art. — Lange's "Law of Frontality." — Egyptian Decorative Motives. — The Idea of Duration dominant in Egyptian Art. — Chaldaean Art: The Monuments of Tello, near Bassorah. — Assyrian Art: The Bas-reliefs of the Palace of Nineveh. — Assyrian Palaces. — Type of Assyrian Temples. — Persian Art: The Palaces of Susa and Persepolis. — The Frieze of Archers in the Louvre. — Hittile Art based on that of Assyria. — The Phoenicians: Purely Industrial Character of their Art. — feulish Art derived from that of Assyria. — The Antiquity of Indian and Chinese Art a Delusion. — Both derived from Greece. The art of historic Egypt, the Egypt of the Pharaohs, began about the year 4000 B.C. The so-called Ancient Empire lasted from about this date to the year 3000 B.C. ; the Middle Empire, destroyed by the incursion of the shepherds of the desert, or Hycsos, from 3000 to 2000 B.C. and the New Empire from 1 700 to 1 1 00. This was succeeded by a long period of decadence, only temporarily arrested, from 720 to 525 ,„ B.C. by a brilliant Renais- sance under the Pharaohs of Sais (Saite period) . In 525, Egypt was conquered by the Persians, in 332 by Alexan- der, and then successively by the Romans, the Arabs, the Turks, the French and the English. She has never re- gained her independence since 525 B.C. But in our own times she has achieved a prosperity almost equal to that of her period of ancient splendour. The history of Egyptian art which we are able to trace in existing monuments, is marked by certain invariable characteristics; on the one hand, a technical skill that has remained unsurpassed throughout the ages; on the other, an absolute incapacity to throw aside archaic conventions and rise to liberty and beauty. First among the nations of the earth, the Egyptians raised great 17 FIG. 16. — HYPOSTYLE OR COLUMNED HALL OF THE TEMPLE OF KARNAK. (Reconstructed by Ch. Chipiez.) WITH THE GREAT only their rated briety. (Near Cairo.) APOLLO buildings of stone, with vast halls upheld by columns, lighted laterally from above. Such is the great hall of the temple of Karnak at Thebes (Fig. 16) .with its 134 columns, some of them nearly 70 feet high (New Empire). Egypt boasted many temples more imposing than the Athenian Parthenon ; but these massive buildings are impressive because of bulk ; they are deco- without taste or so- The most obvious defect of the Egyptian temple is that it is too long for its height and that the exterior shows too much wall and too few aper- tures. In this respect the Egyptian temple is the antithesis of the Gothic church; in the one we have an excess of massive surface, in the other an excess of empty space ; Greek and Renaissance art found the just mean and kept to it. Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian who flourished towards the Christian era, says that the Egyptians looked upon their houses as mere places of passage, and on their tombs as their permanent dwellings. So true is this, that our knowledge of Egyptian art is i j ii i — _^^„ . derived mainly from the enor- mous pyramids of stone and brick destined for royalty, or the chapels built above the ground, and the sepulchres hewn in the rocks. The tombs of the rich are adorned inside with sculpture, paint- ings, and bas-reliefs. They are, in fact, temples, of which the dead were the divinities. Thousands of Egyptian statues have come down to us, statues in stone, bronze, and terra-cotta, from the colos- FIO. IB. — EGYPTIAN BAS-RELIEF AT ABYDOS. Jackal-headed Anubis and Falcon-headed Heros. . sal Sphinx adjoining the great Pyramids (Fig. 1 7) and the royal statues of Ipsamboul, some 60 feet high, to the tiny figurines which fill the glass cases of our museums. 18 ;t s fj WM 1 \ 1 'L ' FIG . 19. WOODEN STATUE KNOWN AS THE CHEIK EL BEI.ED (MAYOR OE THE DISTRICT). (Museum, Cairo.) EGYPT, CHALD/EA, AND PERSIA These statues represent gods and goddesses, often with the animal heads ascribed to them by Egyptian mythology, men, women, and children, singly, and in groups, and animals, both real and fantastic. The bas-reliefs and paintings are even more varied in subject. The majority represent the Pharaonic vic- tories, the interminable ceremonial of religious worship, scenes of daily life, or of the soul's journey to the land of the dead (Fig. 18). Landscape backgrounds are very frequent ; but as the Egyptians had no knowledge of per- spective, their views of country or of gardens appear in the guise of maps on the vertical surfaces, without foreshortening or differentia- tion of planes. On first entering an Egyptian museum, we are struck by the apparent resemblance between all the figures, and we wonder that the art of a nation should have remained so uniform for centuries. But a more careful examination, such as may be adequately carried on at the British Museum or the Louvre, at once reveals essential differences. Under the Ancient Empire, the figures are shorter and sturdier, and are more directly inspired by nature (Fig. 19) ; the admirable Scribe in the Louvre, in limestone painted red, would be a masterpiece, had the artist, who showed such skill in rendering the human form, been able to give an expression of in- tellectual life to the vigorous head (Fig. 20). From the rise of the Middle Empire, the figures begin to lengthen, the modelling to be- come more flaccid ; a superficial ele- gance is the accepted ideal, and the lesults, though occasionally charm- ing (Fig. 21), are more often superficial and frigid. These ten- dencies were still more pronounced under the New Empire, the acade- mic period of Egyptian art, a period 19 FIG. 20-— THE SCRIBE. (The Louvre.) APOLLO r t ' ii M 1 J FIG. AN (Bronze in the * , > ■ Museum, Athens.) jroMalll}). characterised by extraordinary technical skill, sub- servient to a conventional style destitute of character. In the Saite epoch, the traditions of the Ancient Empire again prevailed, encouraged by a national reaction against exotic influences. At this period, Egyptian art produced masterpieces such as the basalt head in the Louvre (Fig. 22), which, in the realistic perfection of its modelling, is comparable to the finest Flemish portraits of the fifteenth century, Van Eyck's Man with the Pinfy and Canon Van de Paele. Nevertheless, the visitor's first impression of monotonous uniformity finds at least a partial justi- fication. Throughout its long career, Egyptian art never succeeded in casting off the trammels of certain n eoy7tian iady T ' conven,:lons - Conspicuous among these is what the Danish archaeologist, Lange, called the larv of All the figures, standing or sitting, walking or motionless, confront the spectator; the top of the head, the junction of neck and shoulders, and the centre of the body are on the same vertical plane ; all deviations from the vertical column, or, in other words, any inclination to the right or to the left, is forbidden. When several figures are grouped on the same pedestal, the verti- cal axes of their bodies are exactly parallel (Fig. 23). Secondly, all the figures, whether motionless or walking, rest all their weight on the soles of their feet; no Egyptian ever represented a person resting his weight on one leg, and touching the ground lightly with the disengaged foot. The male figures are nearly always walking, with the left foot advanced ; but the women and children are generally in repose, their legs pressed together. In the reliefs and paintings, with very few exceptions, the figures are in profile, but strange to say, the eyes and the shoulders are 20 FIG. 22. — BASALT HEAD. SAITE PERIOD. (The Louvre.) FIG. 23.- -EGYPTIAN CROUP IN LIMESTONE. (The Louvre.) EGYPT, CHALD/EA, AND PERSIA turned to the front (Fig. 18). Such a disregard for realities is striking enough, but it does not end here. Painting, whether applied to statues and reliefs, or executed on a flat surface, is mere colouring, without gradation or fusion of tones, and without chia- roscuro. Perspective is so abso- lutely ignored, that when two per- sons are supposed to be side by side, the second is generally drawn on top of the first. Thus Egyp- tian compositions, whether carved or painted, hardly deserve this name, for they lack any attempt at arrangement and symmetry ; they consist of a medley of motives, which bear the same relation to the grouping of Greek art as does the driest of chronicles to history. After monumental architecture, of which they set the example, the greatest gift of the Egyptians to art was their system of decoration. Of all the sculptural types they created, one only, that of the Sphinx, or lion with a human head, has persisted down to our own times (Fig. 24) ; but we have retained, with very slight modification, the decorative motives borrowed by the Egyptians from the flora of the Nile, notably from their two favourite plants, the lotus and the papyrus. We feel ourselves strangely out of touch with a collection of Egyptian statues and bas-reliefs, but we greet a group of Egyptian ornaments almost as familiar objects (Fig. 25). This is why our modern goldsmiths and jewellers are able to draw inspiration from the admirable jewels of ancient Egypt, with- out any unduly archaistic effort. Summing up the character of Egyptian art in a word, we might say that it repre- -egyptian sphinx of pink chanite. sents, above all things, the (The Louvre.) idea of duration. Nature 21 APOLLO has decreed that all things should persist in Egypt, from the im- perishable granite of her monuments to the most fragile objects of wood and stuff, preserved by the dryness of her climate. But the Egyptian himself was in love with the idea of duration. He built gigantic tombs like the Pyramids, impervious to the action of long ' ^ ~ 4 ages, and temples with columns '- lasSI t^WS^^M massive and manifold, and sloping walls like earthworks. He em- balmed his dead for eternity, plac- ing beside them in the tomb statues and statuettes of rare material, to serve them as companions, and in case of need, to replace them, should their mummies disappear; he carved and painted on the walls of tombs and temples historic, re- ligious, and domestic scenes, destined to perpetuate the memory of the history of the gods, of the mighty deeds of kings, of the ritual and familiar life of his day. This idea of duration naturally engendered a respect for the past and for tradition. Egyptian art was not immobile, for no living thing is without motion, but it was fettered by conventions and formulae. It achieved liberty only by the accident of individual inspiration, and even when it came in contact with Greek art, it persevered in the narrow path it had marked out for itself. FIG. 25. — EGYPTIAN DECORATION. Did primitive Egypt exercise any influence upon Chaldaea, or was she herself influenced by the latter? The question is open to controversy. Perhaps neither influenced the other. It is unques- tionably the fact that the most ancient of the works of art discovered since 1 877 by M. de Sarzec at Tello, not far from Bassorah in Lower Chaldaea, examples dating from between 4000 and 3000 B.C., show no trace of Egyptian feeling, but contain all the qualities and defects of Assyrian art in embryo. Up to the present time, the art of the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates is known to us mainly by two groups of monuments: those of Tcllo, which date from very remote antiquity, and those of Nine- veh, the capital of the Assyrian kings, which date from the eighth 22 EGYPT, CHALD/EA, AND PERSIA -THE ARCHITECT OP TELLO. (The Louvre.) and seventh centuries before Christ. The former are known as Babylonian or Chaldaean. There are further great numbers of small objects, notably cylindrical seals in hard stone (called cylinders) on which are engraved mythological or religious scenes, which reveal the art of Chaldeea and Assyria at every period of their history, under the kings of Babylon and those of Nineveh. The chief monuments of Chal- daean art, discovered at the palaces of Tello and Susa, are all in the Louvre. They are bas-reliefs, such as the famous Stela of the Vultures, which represents Eannadou, king of Sirpourla, exulting over enemies whom vultures are devouring, and the great statues of black diorite, eight of which bear the name of Goudea, Prince of Sirpourla (Fig. 26). The statues are not only astonishing by virtue of their workmanship, to which technical difficulties seem mere child's play; they reveal a particular conception of the human form, directly opposed to that of the Egyptians. Whereas the Egyptian sculptor loved to attenuate details, to soften his modelling, to elongate his figures, the Chaldaean artist preferred sturdy, robust types, with salient muscles and broad shoulders. The bas-reliefs of the palace of Nineveh, though later by fifteen centuries than these Chaldaean sculptures, are a con- tinuation of the same art. As M. Heuzey has remarked: "the muscular forms of Assyrian art, standing out from the body like pieces of mail, and generally carved in relief in the soft stone, represent a systematic exaggera- tion of those qualities of strength and power which Chaldaean sculp- ture drew directly from nature." To get some idea of the characteristics of this art, realistic 23 TIG. 27. — HEAD. Discovered at Tello, Babylon. (The Louvre.) APOLLO FIG. 28- — ASSYRIAN HER- CULES. (The Louvre.) and almost brutal, yet refined by its striving after expressive modelling, we have but to study one of the statues in the Louvre, The Architect with the Rule (Fig. 26). As a fact, it represents, not an architect, but one of the princes of the land in the character of a constructor; on his knees is a rule, the length of a Babylonian foot (about 1 Cl- inches) subdivided into sixteen equal parts. The modelling of the arm and of the foot sufficiently indicates the tendencies of Chaldaean art; we find nothing akin to it in Egypt, save perhaps the heads of the Saite school, later by some 2000 years. Even in Greece it would be difficult to point to sculpture showing the same exaggeration of muscular energy. A head, in very excellent preservation, was discovered at the same place (Fig. 27). It represents a fat man with a shaven face, wearing a sort of turban with swathed folds in relief. The thick eyebrows and widely-opened eyes are features common to all Chaldaean and Assyrian art. The square structure of the face, and the prominent cheek-bones, bear the same stamp of physical vigour we have already noted in The Architect frith the Rule. The expression has no touch of benevolence, not the shadow of a smile ; the folks of Tello must have been unpleasant neighbours. The glorification of brute- force, and a delight in cruel spectacles characterise the long series of alabaster bas- reliefs dating from about 800 — 600 B.C. which Botta and Layard discovered at Nine- veh, and brought home to the Louvre and the British Museum. They formed the interior decoration of palaces, and commemorated the vic- tories and diversions of the Assyrian kings. Whereas in Egyptian art the gods are the protagonists, in that of Assyria the kings take their -ASSYRIAN WINGED BULL. (The Louvre.) 24 FIG. 30. — ASSYRIAN BAS-RELIEF, (British Museum.) (Photo, by Mansell.) EGYPT, CHALD/EA, AND PERSIA place, kings eager for military fame, glorying in the recollec- tion of bloody victories. The bas-reliefs show scenes of re- volting carnage, of horrible tortures inflicted on the vanquished in the presence of the conqueror. The cunei- form inscriptions that accom- pany the bas-reliefs celebrate the most hideous butcheries as high exploits. Representations of tutelary divinities are not, however, altogether lacking. The Louvre owns a colossal figure of a bearded god, probably Gilgames, the Assyrian Hercules, gripping a lion to his breast (Fig. 28). Elsewhere, Assyrian sculptures show winged genii, sometimes mighty bulls with humari"faces, guarding the entrances of palaces (Fig. 29), sometimes eagle-headed monsters performing some sort of ritual on either side of a sacred tree. The goddesses who figure so frequently on the cylinders never appear in the bas-reliefs ; indeed, the Assyrian sculptors did not portray women, save in a few instances as queens or captives. Another favourite theme is a royal hunting party. The repre- sentation of animals (horses, dogs, and lions) is the triumph of Assyrian art (Fig. 30). Greek antiquity produced nothing finer than the wounded lion and lioness in the British Museum (Fig. 31 ) ; the realism of these studies is startling. The men, with their hard, bony faces, their square, symmetrically curled beards, their exaggerated muscularity, are at once less elegant and less natural than the animals. Yet the drawing is more correct here than in the Egyptian bas-reliefs; and if the eyes are still shown look- ing to the front in pro- file figures, the shoulders do not confront the spectator, as do those of the Egyptian sculptures. Assyrian art has left us but very few figures in the round. Its essential object was the decoration of surfaces, which FIG. 31. — ASSYRIAN BAS-RELIEF. LION. (British Museum.) A WOUNDED 25 APOLLO were also faced with painted stuccoes, enamelled bricks, and figured bronzes. A party of German explorers has recently discovered at Babylon a colossal lion in enamelled bricks, very similar to the great friezes in the Louvre, brought by M. Dieulafoy from Susa ; but the exploration of the temples and palaces of Babylon has only just begun. The Assyrians had no building stone. They used bricks for the construction of their vast palaces, composed of rectangular halls and long corridors surrounding a series of interior courts, and decorated their immense surfaces with paintings and sculptures. We know very little about their temples, save that they were in the shape of a pyramid with steps, surmounted by a chapel containing the image of the god (Fig. 32). This was the traditional type of the famous Tomer of Babel, a temple dedicated to the god Bel, built at Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar about the year 600 B.C. The most interesting feature of Assyrian architecture is the import- ance given to the vault. The Egyp- tians were not altogether ignorant of it, but they made only a very re- stricted use of it, whereas the Assyrians built not only vaults, but cupolas of brick, rising boldly above their square halls. It is a mistake, therefore, to attribute this oriental invention to the Romans, an in- vention which Greek art of the perfect period did not adopt, but which seems to have passed from Assyria to the Lydians, from the Lydians to the Etruscans, from Etruria to Rome, and thence to Byzantine and modern art. Indeed, the influence of Chaldaean and Assyrian art was very much more extensive and far-reaching than that of the art of Egypt; it made itself felt on the one hand in Persia, on the other over a great part of Asia Minor. Persian art is, strictly-SpiaTdiTg, only the official art of the dynasty of the Achaemenides, which began with Cyrus and ^sn^n 1 Dar ' US Codoman; k lasted for barely two centuries (550-330 B.C.). Its most important relics are the ruins of the palaces of Susa and Persepolis. The architecture of these palaces 26 FIG. 32. — CHALDAEAN TEMPLE. (Reconstructed by Ch. Chipiez.) EGYPT, CHALD/EA, AND PERSIA is thoroughly impregnated with the influences of Ionian Greece, in other words, of the Greeks of the Asiatic coasts; the decoration — bas-reliefs and friezes of enamelled bricks — is derived from Assyrian art. The master- piece of Persian art, the Frieze of Archers in the Louvre (Fig. 33), reveals not only an Assyrian origin, but a delicacy of drawing and a sobriety of motive due to the proximity, if not to the direct intervention, of Greek artificers. Bas-reliefs, statues, and jewels of a peculiar style, bearing inscriptions as yet indecipher- able, have been discovered in the vast region lying between Northern Syria and Armenia (Fig. 34). These objects have been attri- buted to the Hittites, a people mentioned in the Bible, who maintained relations alter- nately peaceful and hostile with the Egyp- tians and Assyrians, and who seem to have founded an empire in Asia between 1 300 and 600 B.C. Hittite art is saturated with Assyrian influences ; those of Egypt are much less perceptible. It lacked vitality as it lacked originality, and hardly deserves mention in such a rapid survey as the present. The coast of Syria, with which the neighbouring island of Cyprus was closely connected, was inhabited by the Phoenicians. Attempts have been made to show that the Phoenicians, a race of skilful traders, were the masters of the Greeks; an art founded on that of Assyria and of Egypt has been attributed to them, and of this art, it has been main- tained, traces have been found, not only in Greece, but in Italy, in Central Europe, and even in Gaul. The whole assumption is baseless. A brisk trade in decorative objects was undoubtedly carried on by the Phoenicians ; but for the last hundred years, students have vainly sought any traces of that 27 FIG. 33- — ARCHERS FROM THE PALACE AT SUSA. (Frieze of enamelled brick, in the Louvre.) FIG. 34. — HITTITE LION. (Museum, Constantinople.) APOLLO Phoenician art, the existence of which was first suggested to them at the beginning of this period. Both in Phoenicia and Cyprus, the Phoenicians of B.C. 1000 were mediocre imitators of the Assyrians; about the period of the Egyptian renaissance under the Saite dynasty, they imitated the Egyptians, while at the same time they imitated the Greeks. We may allow that they showed a certain skill in the manufacture of coloured glass and of engraved metal cups ; but these industrial products, the designs of which were inspired by foreign models, are not sufficient to constitute a national art. The Biblical descriptions of the Temple of Jerusalem and Solo- mon's palace show that these monuments were Assyrian in character; prominent among the decorative motives were the Kherubim, which are identical with the winged bulls of Assyria. The word cherub, which is now used to signify an angel, a winged child, is an Assyrian term which passed into the Hebrew tongue, and thence into all modern languages. It was likewise from Assyria, or rather from Chaldaea, that modern art received at the hands of the Greeks those winged figures of men and animals of which it still makes so liberal a use, especially in decoration. Thus, if we set aside the primaeval art of the reindeer-hunters, we see that before the fruition of Hellenic genius only two great schools of art had flourished in the world, those of Egypt and of Chaldaea. The first gave expression mainly to the idea of duration, the second to that of strength ; it was reserved to Greek art to realise the idea of beauty. If I pass over the art of India and of China, it is because the great antiquity attributed to these is a delusion. India had no art before the period of Alexander the Great, and as to Chinese art, it first began to produce masterpieces during the mediaeval ages in Europe. The most ancient Chinese sculptures of ascertained date were executed about the year 1 30 of our era. They show the influences of a bastard form of Greek art, which had spread from the shores of the Black Sea towards Siberia and Central Asia. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER III. G. Perrot and Ch. Chipiez, Histoire de I'Arl dans t'Anliquile (vols. i.-v.. Paris. 1882-1890: Egypt, Assyria Phoenicia, Cyprus, Judaea, Asia Minor, Phrygia, Lydia, Persia, E. Babelon, Manuel dArchiologie Orienlale, Paris, no dale; G. Maspero, Histoire ancienne des Peuples de I Orient, J vols Pans, 1895-1899; L 'A rchiohgie Eguptierme, Paris, no date; A. Choisy, L'Arl de balir che2 les Eguptiens, Pans, 1904; W. Spiegelberg, Geschichte der aguplischen Kunst, Leipzig, 90 j ; L. Heuzey, Catalogue des Anliquites Chaldeenncs du Louvre, Paris. 1902; C. Bezold. Niniveh und Babylon. Bielefeld, 1903.- On the law of Frontality, see Lechat, Line Loi de la Slaluaire primitive, in the Revue des University duMidi.vdi. (1895), p. I , and Perrot, Histoiie de I'Arl, vol. viii., p. 689. Lange's work, written in Danish, has been translated into German. 28 EGYPT, CHALD/EA, AND PERSIA Short notices : G. B^nedite, Staluelle de la Dame Tout, xx. Dynastie (Monuments Piot, vol. ii., p. 29) ; Berthelot, Sur tes Metaux Egyptiens (ibid., vol. vii., p. 121); G. Maspero, Le Scribe accroupi de Gizeh (ibid., vol. i., p. 1) ; L. Heuzey, Le Vase d'Argent d'Entemena (ibid., vol. ii., p. 1 ) ; E. Pottier, Les Antiquiles de Suse, Mission Dieulafoy (Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1886, ii., p. 353); Les Fouilles de Suse, Mission de Morgan (ibid, 1902, i, p. 17; 1906,i.,p. 5); Le Lotus dans {'Architecture Egypiienne (ibid., 1898, i., p. 77, after a work by G. Foucart) ; Le Mastaba (Tombe de la if- Dynastie) du Louore (ibid., 1905, i., p. 177) ; S. Reinach, Le Mirage Oriental (Chroniques d'Orient, Paris, 1896. vol. ii, p. 509); Le De'blaiement du grand Sphinx, Les Fouilles de Suse, etc. (Esquisses archeologiques, Paris, 1886); A. Foucher, Sculptures gre'co-bouddhiques (Monuments Piot, vol. vii., p. 39); L'Art gre'co-bouddhique, vol. i., Paris, 1905 ; E. Chavannes, La Sculpture sur pierre en Chine, Paris, 1893 (cf. Reuue Archiologique, 1901, i.. p. 224). 29 IV /EGEAN, MINOAN, AND MYCEN/EAN ART: TROY, CRETE, AND MYCEN/E Primitive Art in the G/ecian Archipelago. — Its Tendency to reproduce the Human Form. Schliemann's Excavations at Hissarlik (Troy), Mycenee, and Tiruns. — The Golden f^" of yaphio. — Excavations made by Mr. Arthur Evans in Crete. — Discovery of Minos' Palace the Labyrinth. — Discovery of the Palace of Phxslus. — The Three Periods of Prehistoric Greek Art. — Destruction of the Mycensean Civilisation by Barbarians. — Mycensean Refugees in the Islands of the Archipelago. — The Hellenic Middle Ages. — Cyclopean Walls. — The Gate of the Lions at Mycense. — Minoan and Mycensean Bas-reliefs and Metal-work- — Animation the Distinguishing Characteristic of Minoan Art. The islands and the coast of the /Egean Sea (the Archipelago) were the seat of a very ancient civilisation which had become a mere brilliant memory by the time of Homer (about 800 years before Christ). It was not until our own day that the evidences of this civilisation were brought to light. As early as 3000 B.C. the hardy mariners of these regions were familiar with copper, the first metal commonly used by man. It was found in abundance in the island of Cyprus, from which, no doubt, its name was derived (Kwpos). Many vestiges of primitive industry have been discovered in this island, of a much earlier date than the imitations of Assyrian works; similar discoveries have been made in Crete, at Amorgos, and at Thera (Santorin) , and in certain districts on the coast of Asia and in Northern Greece (Thrace, the modern Roumelia). The products of this industry have one marked charac- teristic; the tendency to represent, more or less rudely, the, human form. They consist for the most part of coarse sculptures, feminine idols in white marble, which, contrary to the usage of Egypt and Chaldaea, are always nude. Even the clay jars found often affect the form of the body, with paunches, shoulders and necks, surmounted by indications of eyes and of a pointed nose. From the year 1870 onwards, Heinrich Schliemann, a German who had made a fortune in America, undertook a series of important excavations at Hissarlik, on the Dardanelles, the supposed site of legendary Troy. Beneath the Greek city of Ilium he found six small towns, one beneath the other; the most ancient of these contained but a few objects made of copper, with a number of stone 30 AEGEAN, MINOAN, AND MYCEN/EAN ART FIG. 35. — MYCEN.EAN DAGCER. (Museum, Athens.) implements. The four towns above this first contained bronze tools, and vases with incised ornament, unpainted. The town sixth in order from the base yielded many fragments of painted vases, similar to those Schliemann after- wards discovered at Mycenae. This town was the Troy of Priam, destroyed by the Achaeans under Agamemnon. Thus it may fairly be said that the discoveries of archaeology con- firmed the Homeric tradition in its main lines. Schliemann's excavations at Troy brought to light a vast number of objects of all kinds, among others a treasure of golden vases and ornaments, clay jars in the shape of human figures, weights orna- mented with incisions which mark a first step towards written characters, a little leaden figure of a nude woman, etc. But all these discoveries were eclipsed by those Schliemann himself made at Mycenae and Tiryns in 1 876 and 1 884. In these two ancient cities mentioned by Homer, he found relics of an advanced civilisation, which bore testimony to a very original artistic taste, absolutely independent of that of Egypt and Assyria. At Mycenae, where tombs built of stone in the form of cupolas were already known to exist, Schliemann excavated royal tombs of extra- ordinary splendour under the great public place of the ancient city. The faces of several skeletons were covered with mask-like sheets of gold; there were also vases of gold and silver, delicately-wrought orna- ments, bronze daggers, incised with hunting-scenes inlaid with fillets of gold and silver (Fig. 35), and a gold ring engraved with a religious subject. 1 • 1 1 At Tiryns, Schliemann unearthed a palace ornamented with mural paintings, the best preserved of which represents an acrobat or a hunter bounding over a galloping bull. ,1111: Both at Mycenae and at Tiryns, the explorer found hundreds or 31 FIG. 36. — MYCENAEAN VASE. (Museum, Marseilles.) APOLLO fragments of painted pottery of a very original character, decorated with plants, leaves, and marine animals (cuttle fish, octopuses, etc.), that is to say, with objects drawn from organic nature (Fig. 36). Nothing of the sort occurs in Chaldaea or Egypt, or in central and western Europe, where geometrical decoration prevails. He also found a great many seals of hard stone, on which fantastic figures of men and animals were engraved in a precise and vigorous style, which recalls that of the Chaldaean cylinders, but shows no likeness to that of Egypt. In 1 886, a learned Greek, M. Tsountas, explored a large tomb at Vaphio, not far from Sparta. It contained, besides engraved stones -RELIEFS ON ONE OF THE GOLDEN VASES OF " (Museum, Athens.) and other objects, two admirable golden goblets, decorated with scenes representing the capture of wild bulls (Fig. 37). These vases are celebrated, and the bulls of Vaphio are as life-like and as well- drawn as the finest productions of the Assyrian animal-painters. Lastly, since the year 1 900, Mr. Arthur Evans has excavated at Cnossus, in the island of Crete, the ancient palace which the Greek legend described as the habitation of King Minos, and called the Labyrinth. This word, which is still used to signify a complicated arrangement of paths and passages, originally meant, according to Mr. Evans, " The Palace of the Axe," and was derived from the old word, labrys, which signifies axe in one of the dialects spoken on the Asiatic coast. Now the Palace of Cnossus was certainly the Palace of the Axe, for throughout it a two-edged axe, a religious symbol, is outlined on the walls, and it is difficult not to lose one's way in it, for, like the Assyrian palaces, it shows a most perplexing tangle of corridors. This palace was decorated with a profusion of plaster bas-reliefs and paintings. These latter are amazing in their variety and freedom of style (Figs. 38, 39) . Interspersed among the life-size figures there are little scenes with numerous personages, among others a group of 32 -A CUP-BEARER. resco in the Cnossus. /EGEAN, MINOAN, AND MYCEN/EAN ART elaborately adorned women in low-cut gowns, as- sembled on a balcony. A woman's face in profile is so modern in treatment that we should hesitate to attribute it to the sixteenth century before Christ, if there were any room for doubt in the matter (Fig. 39). There are also hunting scenes, landscapes, a view of a town, in short a whole series of pictur- esque subjects, which have come as a revelation to the art-historian. Two other palaces similar to that of Cnossus were discovered at another point on the island of Crete, Phaestus, and successfully explored by an Italian scholar, Halbherr. Together with a number of mural paintings, he found a vase of hard stone, decorated with very spirited reliefs, representing a procession of reapers (Fig. 40). Modern archaeologists indicate three periods in *ig. 3 8 the distant past of pre-Homeric Greece : 1 st. The Fr p™ la £ e £f /Egean Period, of little marble idols (from about (Museum Candia) 3000 to 2000 years before Christ) ; 2nd. The Minoan Period (that of Minos), or Cretan Period, of which the Island of Crete seems to have been the principal centre, characterised by a rapid advance in the arts of design and of work in metal, first towards realism and afterwards towards elegance ; Egyptian influences appeared in this development, without inducing servile imitation (2000-1500 b.c). 3rd. The Mycenaean Period, the only one known to Schliemann, which seems, in certain respects, to have been the age of the Minoan de- cadence ; it is characterised by a very original style of painted pottery, decorated with plants and animals (B.C. 1500-1 100). These civilisations, forming a con- tinuous development, are reflected in the poems ascribed to Homer, which received their present form towards the year 800 B.C. In the interval between the Mycenaean civilisation and Homer, a catas- trophe had come about, analogous 33 ! FIG. 39. — YOUNG CRETAN GIRL. Fresco from the Palace of Cnossus (Crete). (Museum, Candia.) APOLLO to the ruin of the Roman Empire by the Barbarians. Certain warlike tribes from northern Greece, the Dorians among others, destroyed the Mycenaean civilisation and plunged Greece once more into barbarism, about 1 1 00 B.C., a few years after the Trojan war. But civilisation did not utterly perish. Several tribes, Hying before the invaders, took refuge in the islands, notably at Chios and Cyprus, on the coast of Asia Minor and of Syria; these places inherited a part of the Mycenaean civilisation, and preserved the memory thereof. The isle of Chios was doubtless the birthplace of the Homeric poems, which celebrated the vanished glory of the ancient royal houses of Greece. The day came when the descend- ants or heirs of the exiled Mycenaeans presented themselves as the educators of a Greece that had relapsed into barbarism, and gave her back some sparks of the genius their ancestors had received from her. We see here a phenomenon similar to that which manifested itself in the fourteenth century, at the close of the Christian Middle Ages, when the learned men of Constantinople, remote heirs of Roman civilisation, came to carry on its tradition on Italian soil, and prepared the way for the Renaissance in Florence and in Rome. The term Hellenic Middle Ages (in contradistinction to that of Christian Middle Ages) is applied to the period of about three centuries which elapsed between the downfall of the Mycenaeans, and the first dawn of the Renaissance in Greece. Before Schliemann's excavations, our knowledge was confined to the beginnings of this Renaissance; we therefore owe him an immense increase in our knowledge. The energetic explorer has added more than six centuries to the glorious history of Greek art. Mycenae, Tiryns, and other ancient towns of Greece, Italy, and Asia Minor, are surrounded by walls composed of enormous blocks of stone, irregular or polygonal in shape, sometimes 1 8 or 20 feet FIO. 40. — CARVED RELIEF. On the so-called Vase of Reapers, discovered at Phrcslus, Crete. (Museum, Candia.) 34 FIG. 41. GATE OF THE LIONS AT MYCEN.-l /EGEAN, MINOAN, AND MYCEN/EAN ART long. These walls are called Cyclopean, because the Greeks believed them to be the work of the giants of mythology called Cyclops. At Mycenae the wall is interrupted by a huge gate, crowned by two lionesses, one on either side of a column (Fig. 41). This sculpture forms a single triangular block, probably much later in date than the wall. Indeed, the so-called Cyclopean walls are older than the Mycenaean civilisation, and point to an initial occupation of the district by a military or sacerdotal aristocracy. They show a certain affinity with the dolmens of Western Europe, and bear witness to the existence of an analogous social order, in which thousands of men obeyed the commands of a small number of chieftains, and worked in their interest and for their glory. The fact that similar walls are found from Italy to Asia proves that the invasion of the tribes among whom the My- cenaean civilisation was evolved, about the year 2000 B.C. , was not con- fined to the Balkan peninsula, but extended east and west of this region. No Minoan or Mycenaean temples have been unearthed; the buildings discovered are all palaces. It seems probable therefore that the palace was also the temple, and that the dwelling of the god was comprised in that of the king. The palaces are very slight in construction, and wood was used more freely than stone in building them. They had wooden columns, which, like the legs of our modern chairs and tables, taper from top to bottom. When these wooden columns were imitated in stone, as, for instance, in the Gate of the Lions at Mycenae, their characteristic form was retained, a form only found in Mycenaean art. The capitals which surmount the columns show the first essays in the constitution of the two orders, the Doric and Ionic, which played such a brilliant part in Greek architecture, and are still used at the present day. The Minoans and Mycenaeans have left us no large statues in the round, but a great number of their bas-reliefs in alabaster, plaster, and metal, figurines in terra cotta, ivory, and bronze, and specimens of chased and repousse metal-work have come down to us. Both at Cnossus and Mycenae there is a strange difference in quality between works excavated at the same level, and belonging, no doubt, to the same period ; the explanation is, that a popular art, as yet rude and 35 APOLLO imperfect, existed side by side with the official art, which was perhaps the monopoly of certain corporations, and produced its masterpieces only for the great. To say that Greek art before the year 1 000 B.C. realised the ideal of beauty would be a manifest exaggeration. Even in works as remarkable as the goblets of Vaphio, probably made at Cnossus, the human figures with their wasp-like proportions and their long thin legs, are still far indeed from the masterpieces of classic art. But if Assyrian art expresses the idea of strength, Minoan art may be said to embody that of life. It has no trace of the cold elegance of the Egyptian art of the new Empire, which flourished at the same time. Objects of Egyptian manufacture have been found in the Minoan and Mycenaean towns, and Mycenaean vases have been unearthed in Egypt; the Egyptians, Minoans, and Mycenaeans knew each other, and traded together; but these Greeks were in no sense tributary to Egypt, and all they borrowed from the latter were certain technical processes and an occasional decorative motive. 1 The love of the Minoan artist for life and movement manifests itself most strongly in his admirable renderings of animals; in this respect there is a certain likeness between his art and that of the reindeer-hunters. It would be interesting to trace a connection, a historic link between these two arts, in spite of the interval of some sixty centuries that lies between them. Who shall say we may not some day discover that the art of the reindeer-hunters, which disappeared from France some thousands of years before the glories of Cnossus and Mycenae, was preserved in some unexplored corner of Europe, and finally introduced into Greece in one of the numerous invasions of the northern tribes, who were incessantly pouring down irom Central Europe to the Mediterranean? Be this as it may, the future will no doubt reveal what is now an unsolved mystery — the origin of that extraordinary manifestation of plastic genius which it was reserved to our own age to discover. 1 Writing was an art known to the Minoans ; thousands of tablets bearing inscriptions have been discovered in Crete ; but these inscriptions, which have not yet been deciphered, have hardly any- thing in common with the Egyptian hieroglyphs. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER IV. G. Perrot and Ch. Chipiez, Hisloire de VAtt, vol. vi., Paris, 1895 {La Gre'ce primitive, Troie, Mucencs, Tirunthe) ; W. Doerpfcld, Troja und Ilion, 2 vols., Athens, 1902; E. Pottier, Catalogue dcs Vases du Louvre. Paris, 1896, vol. i., pp. 173 21 1 ; A. Furtwangler, Die anliken Gemmen, Leipzig, 1900, vols, iii., pp. 1 3 67 (Mycenaean Epoch and Hellenic Middle Ages). On the recent discoveries in Crete there are various articles by Mr. Arthur Evans {A nnual oj Ihe British School of Athens, vol. vi. x., London, 1899 1904, Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. xxi., London, 1901). See also for the Italian excavations. Monument! anlichi dei Lincei, vols, xii.-xiv., Milan, 1902-1905; R. Weill, Le Vase de Phaeslos (Reoue Archiologlqae, 1904, i.. p. 52). Summaries of these works in French have been published by E. Pottier, Revue de Paris, and Revue de I'Art ancicn et moderne, 1902, and by S. Reinach, in L' Anthropologic, 1902, pp. 1-39; 1903, pp. 1 10-193 ; 1904, p. 257. R. Dussaud, Revue de VEcole dAnthropologie, 1905, p. 37. 36 V GREEK ART BEFORE PHIDIAS The Abundance of Marble ji Determining Factor in the Tendencies of Greek Art. — The Rationalistic Cast of the Greek Intellect. — The Rapid Development of Greek Art. — Archaic Statues. — The Artemis of Delos, the Hera of Samos, and the Statue of Chares. — The Treasury of the Cnidians. — The Chian Sculptors and their Invention of the Winged Victory- The Dawn of Expression in Sculpture. — The Orantes of the Acropolis. — Archaic Apollos and Athletes. — The Type replaced by the Individual. — The Impetus given to Art by the Greek Victories over the Persians. — The Pediments of the Temple of Aphaia at ALgina. — The Pediments of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. — Myron and the Statue of the Discobolus. — Polyclitus and the Statue of the Doryphorus. — The Creation of the Type of the Amazon. — Phidias, Myron, and Polyclitus the Supreme Masters of the First Great Period. — The Eternal Progression of Art. MANY of the islands of the Archipelago, notably Paros, are merely enormous blocks of marble ; this material is also very abundant in Attica — where were the famous quarries of Pentelicus and of Hymettus — in northern Greece, and on the coast of Asia. The Greeks had this great advantage over the Assyrians and the Egyp- tians: they had at their disposal an admirable material, less hard than granite, less soft than alabaster, agreeable to the sight, and comparatively easy to work. Nor was this all ; still more important was the fact that as yet they had never felt the yoke of despotism and superstition. As soon u s they appeared in history, the Greeks presented a striking contrast to all other peoples: they had the instinct of liberty, they loved novelty, and were eager for progress. The Greeks were never bound to the past by the chains of a tyrannical tradition. Even their religion was but a slight restraint on their liberty. At a very early period we find among them a ten- dency of which there is no trace in any Oriental nation, the habit of considering human things as purely human, of reasoning upon them as if they were concerned solely with reason. This tendency is what is known as Rationalism. Together with their love of liberty and their taste for the beautiful, rationalism is a precious gift made by Greece to humanity. The progress of the Greeks in the domain of art was extraordinarily rapid; barely two centuries and a Found at Delos. half elapsed between the origin of sculpture in marble (Museum, Athens.) 37 FIG. 42. — ARCHAIC STATUE OF ARTEMIS. APOLLO (3. — ARCHAIC STAT HERA. Found at Samos. (The Louvre.) and its apogee. This would seem inexplic- able and altogether phenomenal had not Asiatic or Ionian Greece, the legatee of Mycenaean art, influenced by the art of Egypt and Assyria, played a part it would be unjust to ignore in the education of Greece proper. But we must hasten to add that no genius was ever less prone to servile imitation than that of the Greeks ; what they knew of Oriental art only incited them to rise above it. One of the most ancient marble statues discovered in Greece is an Artemis, ex- cavated by M. Homolle at Delos; it dates from about the year 620 B.C. (Fig. 42). It might almost be taken for a pillar or a tree- trunk, with summary indications of a head, hair, arms, and a girdle; it is more primitive than the Egyptian art of the period of the Pyramids. The Greeks called these figures xoana (from xeein, to scrape wood), that is to say, images carved in wood, which seems to have been the material first used for large statues. Another feminine type, the Hera of Samos (Fig. 43), now in the Louvre, is about thirty or forty years later in date (580 B.C.). The general aspect is still that of a column, but if we observe the shawl in which the goddess is draped, we shall note folds that were studied from nature, a severe grace, a dawning freedom. By the middle of the 6th century B.C., we get the seated statue of King Chares, dis- covered at Branchidae, near Miletus, in Asia Minor, and preserved in the British Museum (Fig. 44). It is a typical example of Greek art in Asia, or Ionian art; it shows a tendency to squatness in the forms, but the lines of the body are already indicated under the draperies, which are cast with a certain bold- ness. A similar heaviness of form, 38 . 44. — STATUE OF CHARES. (British Museum.) GREEK ART BEFORE PHIDIAS FIG. 45.- -FACADE OF THE TREASURY OF THE CNIDIANS AT DELPHI. (Reconstruction in the Louvre.) (Photo, by Giraudon.) combined with great delicacy of execution, characterises the Caryatides and friezes of the little temple known as the Treasury of the Cnidians (Fig. 45) dating from 530 B.C., which was excavated at Delphi by M. Homolle, and recon- structed in plaster at the Louvre, to the left of the Victory of Samothrace. About the year 550, a family of sculptors, mentioned by two ancient writers, were working in the isle of Chios. One of them, Archermos, invented a new type, that of a winged goddess, Victory or Gorgon, advancing with a rapid movement. A statue of this school was discovered in the isle of Delos (Fig. 46). This figure marks an important innovation in sculpture. Remember that Egyptian art had hardly ever essayed to represent a woman, save with her legs pressed together as in a sheath, and that Assyrian art rarely repre- sented her at all; here, barely 150 years after the first lispings of Greek art, we have a woman who is running, displaying the upper part of a muscular leg, and even smiling, a greater innovation than all the rest. It is true that the smile lacks sweetness, that it is somewhat of a grimace, that the mouth is harsh, the cheek bones too prominent: but the smile is there, and this is the first time we meet with it in art (Fig. 47). The Egyptian and Assyrian divin- ities have too little of humanity to smile; they either grimace or look out stolidly at the spectator. In the Nike of Delos, we see an art 39 FIG. 46.— RECONSTRUCTION OF AN ARCHAIC STATUE OF NIKlS. Found at Delos. (Museum, Athens.) APOLLO -HEAD OF THE KIKE OE DELOS. (Museum, Athens.) which is no longer content to imitate forms ; it is seeking after, and beginning to express, senti- ment, spiritual life. This was a great discovery, heralding a new art. The Chian sculptures were brought to Athens, and soon found imitators. Thanks to the excavations made on the Acro- polis in 1 886, in the stratum of debris accumulated by the Persians in 480 B.C., we possess a whole series of statues of this school. As they represent neither Gorgons nor Victories, but Orantes, they are closely veiled, and are not running; but occasionally they smile delightfully, with an evident desire to please (Fig. 48). Stiff and rigid in their long tunics, they are neverthe- less living, and no one who has seen them can forget them. This appearance of life was enhanced by vivid colouring, of which, happily, considerable traces still remain, a proof that Greek archaic sculptors were not content to carve the marble, but that they also painted it. A male type akin to this, that of a nude man, standing, his arms against his body, was probably created in the isle of Crete before the year 600 A.D., and developed in the sixth century, notably in Attica. It was the type first applied to Apollo and to victorious athletes (Fig. 49). A series of examples has survived in which we may trace the gradual progress of art. Here it was the form of the body, the indication of the muscles, with which the sculptor was primarily occupied. Just as the school of Chios developed the expression of faces and the rendering of draperies, that of the Athletes, as we may call it, first taught the treatment of what are known as academies," i.e., studies from nude models. These statues of men and women, in spite of dawning qualities of drawing and expression, 40 FIG. 48.— ARCHAIC STATUE. Found on the Acropolis. (Museum, Athens.) GREEK ART BEFORE PHIDIAS FIG. 40. — ARCHAIC STATUE OF AFOLLO. (Museum, Athens.) have the grave defect of being mere abstract types, distinguished by no individuality of action. It was in vain that the sculptor be- stowed attributes on his personages; they seem to take no sort of interest in these, which appear merely as labels. The momentous progress which was accomplished towards the close of the sixth century, consisted in breaking the mould in which these types had been cast, and essaying the representation of individuals, in all the diversity of their occupations and attitudes. This progress was achieved rapidly, but not all at once. It is probable that painting, always a freer vehicle of expression than sculpture, contributed largely to the result. In default of the frescoes of this period, which have perished, we have the last vases with black figures, and the first vases with red figures, in which the rupture with traditional motives is very marked. The habit of representing the victorious athletes of the public games in sculpture must also have exercised a salutary influence, for it was necessary to differentiate these images, and to make them commemorative of the various exploits of strength and skill by which the victors had distinguished themselves. 'The great historic events of 490 to 479 B.C. 1 gave an immense impetus to all the forces of Hellenic genius, by revealing to it the full extent of its powers, and its superi- ority to the servile civilisations of Asia. To this beneficent crisis we owe the master- Fi s ure from the ™*f? Pfdjment of the Temple of pieces of Greek poetry, the {Munkh Photo . by Br uckmann.) odes of Pindar and the tragedies of /Eschylus. But after Salamis and Mycale, there were not only paeans to sing, but ruins to rebuild.- The Persians had destroyed the majority of the Greek temples, and all those in Athens. Rich with the spoils taken from the invaders, the Greeks 1 The invasion of Greece by the armies of Darius and of Xerxes (the so-called Persian Wars). 41 FIG. 50. — WOUNDED WARRIOR. APOLLO -CENTRAL PART OF THE WESTERN PEDIMENT OF THE TEMPLE OP ZEUS AT OLVMPIA. (Reconstruction by Treu.) were able to restore what their enemies had sacked or de- molished. They set themselves to the task, and new born classic art found an excep- tional opportunity of expressing itself in many ways at once. The first works which presage the perfect emancipa- tion of Greek genius were produced between 480 and 470 B.C. These were the pediments of the temple of Aphaia at /Egina (now at Munich). 1 The sculptured groups represent combats between the Greeks and the Trojans, an allusion to the recent struggle between Hellas and Asia ; the Greek warriors are protected by Pallas Athene. The heads are more archaic than the bodies, as if the emancipation of art in dealing with these, being more recent, was for that very reason more complete. The body of a fallen warrior on the eastern pediment is almost equal to the masterpieces of the perfect period (Fig. 50). The pediments of the temple of Zeus at Olympia, discovered during the German excavations of 1874 to 1880, are some fifteen years later, and date from about 460 b.c. (Figs. 51, 52). The eastern pediment represents the preparation for the race in which Pelops and (Enomaus were to compete; that of the west depicts ^| ^m J*^l W --^ ■ -*'""'x ™^£k WOMAN OF THE FIG. 52. — HEAD OF . LAPITIEE. Western pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. 1 It was discovered in 1901 that the temple (Complex rendus de l'Acad 1 ' 1 ■i'VTlwm iklwl ^P FIG. 6c. — VIEW OF THE PARTHENON. FIG. 59. RECONSTRUCTED VIEW OF THE ACROPOLIS AT ATHENS. From R to L. : Erechtheum, Colossal Statue of Athene Promachos by Phidias, Parthenon, Propylaia, Temples of Athene Ergane and Nik£ Apteros. (Springer and Michaelis, Kunstgeschichte. Seemann, Leipzig.) Surrounded by a numerous band as Ictinus and Callicrates, were men of superior talents, Phidias directed and superintended all the work. His position was much like that of Raphael in the court of Leo X. during the decoration of the Stanze and Loggie of the Vatican. Like Raphael, he was not the sole author of the works he con- ceived or inspired; but he left the sovereign impress of his genius upon them all. 47 APOLLO The tutelary divinity of Athens was Athene Parthenos, that is to say, the Virgin; the temple which was her dwelling was called the Parthenon. The ancient stone Parthenon on the Acropolis had been destroyed by the Persians in 480 B.C., and Pericles deter- mined to build another, larger and more sumptuous. For twenty years, the quarries of Attica yielded their most beautiful marbles to thousands of artists and workmen. Their labours, favoured by a period of com- parative peace, were completed in 435 B.C. Soon afterwards, they began to rebuild in marble the little temple of Poseidon and Erechtheus, called the Erech- theum, to the north of the Parthe- non ; it was not finished until 408, after the death of Pericles, who fell a victim to the plague in 429. The Peloponnesian war had al- ready begun, casting a shadow of mourning over the close of the century. Parisians, and visitors to Paris, having seen the church of the Made- leine, have some general idea of the form of a Greek temple. It is essentially a rectangular building, with doors, but with- out windows, surrounded on all sides by a single or double row of columns which, while sup- porting the roof, seem to mount guard round the dwelling of the god (cella). On the two shorter sides of the temple, the roof forms a triangle called the pediment, which is sometimes decorated with statues. The upper part of the wall is adorned with bas-reliefs, forming the frieze. When the temple is of the Doric order, like the Parthenon, the upper part of the architrave supported by the columns is composed of slabs with three vertical grooves 48 FIG. 6l. — CORNER OF THE PARTHENON. From a drawing by Niemann. (Springer and Michaelis, Kunstgcschichle. Seemann, Leipzig.) FIG. 62. THE PORTICO OP THE CARYATIDES, THE ERECHTHEUM, ATHENS. PHIDIAS AND THE PARTHENON -TEMPLE OF NIKE APTEROS, ON THE ACROPOLIS. Lateral view. called triglyphs, alternating with other slabs, sometimes plain, sometimes ornamented with reliefs known as metopes (Fig. 61). Greek architecture made use of three orders, that is to say, three principal types of columnar construction. The most ancient, to which be- long the Parthenon, the temple of Zeus at Olympia, the temple of Aphaia at /Egina, the temples of Sicily and Southern Italy (Paestum, Selinus, and Agrigentum), is called Doric, because the ancients believed it was invented by the Dorians. In the Doric order the column was not very lofty; it was crowned by a simple capital, composed of a part that formed an ex- panding curve and was called the echinus, and of a square slab called the abacus. In the Ionic order, the great ex- amples of which are in Asia Minor, at Ephesus, and Priene, though there is also a beautiful specimen on the Athenian Acropolis (Fig. 63), the __ column is more slender, and it is crowned by a capital which is like a cushion with volutes. Finally, the Corin- thian order, which was chiefly used in the Roman period, as also during the Renais- sance and in our own times, is characterised by a capital which reproduces a cluster of acanthus leaves. Both the Doric and the FIG. 64. GROUP OF THE FATES. From the eastern pediment of the Parthenon. (British Museum.) (Photo, by Mansell.) . 65. — PROCESSION OF ATHENIAN MAIDENS From the Frieze of the Parthenon. (British Museum.) 49 APOLLO v& >-"-, FIG. 66. — HORSEMEN*. From the Frieze of the Parthenon. (British Museum.) (Photo, by Manscll.) Ionic orders are derived from the forms used in timber construction. The column was evolved from the wooden post which upheld a beam. The shaft was strengthened at the top to receive the beam, by the addition of a cube or slab, and this expansion was the origin of the capital. The Corin- thian capital was adopted at a period when Greek artists had forgotten the exigencies of timber construction, or they would hardly have proposed to support a burden on a bunch of leaves. The Doric order is marked by a solidity, a virile robust- ness which contrasts with the somewhat frail and feminine elegance of the Ionic order. The Corinthian order sug- gests luxury and splendour. One of the most striking proofs of the genius of the Greeks is the fact that neither the Re- naissance nor modern art has created a new order ; our architecture continues to rely upon the wealth of the Greek orders, which lend themselves to the most varied combinations. The most admirable feature of the Parthenon is, perhaps, its perfection of proportion. The relation between the height of the columns, their thickness, the height of the pediments, and the dimensions of the temple, was determined with such unerring judgment that the whole is neither too light nor too heavy, that the lines harmonise in such a manner as to give the impression at once of strength and grace. The technical perfection of the construction is no less amazing. The great blocks of marble, the drums of the columns, are joined and adjusted without cement, as exactly as the most delicate piece of goldsmith's work. Modern architecture, 50 FIG. 67.— ZEUS, APOLLO, AND PEITHO. From the Frieze of the Parthenon, at Athens. PHIDIAS AND THE PARTHENON FIG. 68. — HEAD OF FEITHO. From the Frieze of the Parthenon. (Museum, Athens.) which makes such a lavish use of cement, has never been able to compete with the workmen directed by Ictinus. The Parthenon is now a ruin. The Byzantines used it as a church; it was gutted by an explosion in 1 687 ; in 1 803, Lord Elgin carried off the greater part of the sculptures, which are now the pride of the British Museum. But the wreck remains a masterpiece and a place of pilgrimage for all humanity. A magnificent portico, the Propylaea, gave access to the Parthenon from the side near- est the sea; it was decorated with paintings which have disappeared. The little temple of Posei- don and Erechtheus, to the north of the Parthenon, is better preserved ; it is flanked by a portico, where, in place of columns, the architect introduced female figures, to which the ancients gave the name of Caryatides (Fig. 62), because they supposed them to represent young maidens carried away captive from the city of Caryae in Laconia. Another little Ionic temple, that of the Wingless Victory (Nike Apteros) , was restored after 1 830 with frag- ments found in a Turkish bastion. It stands in front of the Propylaea (Fig. 63). The pediments of the Parthenon represented the birth of Athene, and the dispute between Athene and Poseidon for the possession of Attica (Fig. 64). On the metopes were carved the battles of the Centaurs and the Lapithae. The subject of the frieze was the procession of the Panathenaea, the principal festival of the goddess, on which occasion the young girls of the noblest families, clad in the long chiton falling in vertical folds, came to offer Athene a hew veil woven for her. These young girls, 51 FIG. 69. — REDUCED COPY OF THE ATHENE PAR- THENOS OF PHIDIAS. (Museum, Athens.) APOLLO ""■ ^ w J^^tji. >JH H? ™; JfiliLv mttr : ''' : -■ '™w% ^*!7;kB wsp . ■■-■■ ■ P^ ,; I JH FIG. 70.— HEAD OF ZEUS, STYLE OF PHIDIAS. (Ny-Carlsberg Gallery, near Copenhagen.) bearing different objects, walk in an imposing cortege of old men, matrons, soldiers, horsemen, and men leading the sacrificial beasts. They advance towards a group representing the gods in the centre of the eastern front: this part of the frieze is, fortunately, one of the best preserved portions of the whole (Figs. 65, 66, 67). Inside the temple was a chrysele- phantine statue (i.e. a statue of gold and ivory) of Athene, standing. This and the seated Zeus, also of gold and ivory, in the temple of Olympia, were, according to the ancients, the masterpieces of Phidias. Both have disappeared ; but we can form some idea of the Athene Par- thenos from a little marble copy discovered at Athens in 1 880, near a modern school called the Varvakeion (Fig. 69). No copy of the Zeus has come down to us; but it is probable that a beautiful marble head in the Ny-Carlsberg collection in Denmark reproduces the majestic features of the god with sufficient accuracy (Fig. 70). Another Athene by Phidias, a colossal bronze, about 30 feet high, stood in front of the Par- thenon on the north west. It was called the Athene Promachos, that is to say, the Guardian. I think I discovered a copy of it in a little sta- tuette of very fine quality, new at Boston; it came from the neighbourhood of Coblentz, where a legion known as the Minervia was stationed under the Roman Empire (Fig. 71 ). 52 FIG. 71.— STATUETTE OF ATHENE PRO- MACHOS. (Museum, Boston.) FIG. 72. — COPY OF AN ATHENE ATTRIBUTED TO PHIDIAS. (Museum, Dresden ; the head' at Bologna.) (FurhvanRlcr, Afas/cr- Pieces 0} Greek Sculpture. Heinemann, London.) PHIDIAS AND THE PARTHENON FIG. 73.— HEAD OF ARTEMIS. From the eastern pediment of the Parthenon, British Museum. (Laborde Collection, Paris.) (Photograph by Giraudon.) Lastly, by combining a head at Bologna with a torso at Dresden, Herr Furtwangler has reconstituted an admirable statue, the marble copy of a bronze original, which, in common with various other experts, he pro- nounces to have been an Athene by Phidias, the one executed by the master for the Athenian settlers on the isle of Lemnos (Fig. 72). Classic writers have not asserted in so many words that the sculptures of the Parthenon were by Phidias him- self; but it is certain that they were executed under his direction. To form any idea of this series of master- pieces, we must study not only the original sculptures, but the casts of the whole series in the British Museum. I would call particular attention to the group of the three goddesses, generally called the Three Fates, from the eastern pediment, whose draperies are indescribably beautiful, and to some fragments of the frieze, the despair of all artists who have striven to imitate their noble composition, their serene majesty, and infinite variety (Figs. 64-68). If we examine the type of all these heads (Fig. 73), we shall be struck not only by their vigorous forms and the robust oval of the faces, characterised by a certain squareness of out- line, but by two traits which appear in all of them alike: the short distance between the eye- brow and the eyelid, and the strong protuberance of the eye- balls. These are relics of the archaic style. The general FIG. 74.— HEAD OF A STATUE OF APOLLO (PERHAPS AFTER PHIDIAS). (Museum of the Thermal, Rome.) 53 APOLLO impression they produce is that of a serene and self-reliant strength, a quality that breathes from all the art of Phidias (Fig. 74). But there are other things in human nature besides strength, serenity, and beauty; enthu- siasm, for instance, and reverie, and passion, and suffering, clamant or dis- creet. These were the things that remained to be expressed in marble after Phidias ; we shall see how his successors carried out the task. I cannot turn from the work of Phidias, whose pupils (Agoracritus, Alcamenes) continued to work during the first decades of the fourth century, without speaking of the masterpiece in the Louvre, the statue discovered in 1820 in the island of Melos (Figs. 75, 76). Though the majority of modern archaeologists pronounce it to be a work dating from about 100 B.C., I am con- vinced that it is some three centuries older than this ; and I believe it to be a masterpiece of the school of Phidias, representing, not Venus, but the goddess of the sea, Amphitrite, holding a tri- dent in her extended left arm. One reason I give for this belief is, that we find in it all the qualities that go to make up the genius of Phidias, and nothing that is alien to it. The Venus of Milo is neither elegant, nor dreamy, nor nervous, nor impassioned; she is strong and serene. Her beauty is all noble simplicity and calm dignity, like that of the Parthenon and its sculp- tures. Is not this the reason FIG. 75. — VENUS OF MILO (APHRODITE OF MELOS). (The Louvre.) (Photograph by Giraudon.) FIG. 76. — HEAD OF THE VENDS OF MILO. (The Louvre.) 54 PHIDIAS AND THE PARTHENON the statue has become and has remained so popular, in spite of the mystery of the much-discussed attitude? Agitated and feverish generations see in it the highest expression of the quality they most lack, that serenity which is not apathy, but the equanimity of mental and bodily health. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER VI. M. Collignon, Htsloire de la Sculpture Grecque, vols. i. and ii., Paris, 1892, 1897; G. PerTot and Ch. Chipiez, Histoire de VArl, vol. vii., Paris, 1898 (the Greek orders, elements of architec- ture) ; A. Choisy, Histoire de {'Architecture, vol. i., Paris, 1899; H. Lechat, Le Temple Grec, Paris, 1902; E. Gardner, Handbook of Greek Sculpture, London, 1896; A. Furtwangler, Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture, London, 1 895 ; A. Michaelis, Der Parthenon, Leipzig, 1870-1871 (with a volume of plates); A. Michaelis and A. Springer, Handbuch der Kunstge- schichte, 7th ed., vol. i., Leipzig, 1904; A. Murray, The Sculptures of the Parthenon, London, 1903; Bruno Sauer, Der Laborde'sche Kopf, Giessen, 1903; and Das sogenannte Theseion, Leipzig, 1899; S. Reinach, Repertoire de la Statuaire, Paris, 1897-1904; Teles Antiques, Paris, 1903. For the controversies concerning the Venus of Milo, see the Revue Archeologique, 1906, i., p. 199, which gives all the recent bibliography. Shorter Studies: H. Lechat, L'Acropole d'Athenes (Gaz. des Beaux Arts, 1892, ii., p. 89); E. Michon, Tete a ''Athlete (de Bendoent) au Louvre (Monuments Piot, vol. i., p. 77) ; E. Pottier, La Tete au Ce'cryphale (Bullet, de Correspondance hellenique, vol. xx., 1896, p. 445; study on the feminine type of Phidias) ; S. Reinach, Teres de I'Ecole de Phidias (Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1902, ii., p. 449 ; Le Blesse difaillani de Crisilas (ibid., i., p. 193). 55 VII PRAXITELES, SCOPAS, AND LYSIPPUS The Modification of the Athenian Temperament brought about by the Peloponnesian War. — The Psychological Art of Scopus and Pruxiteles. — The Irene and Plutus of Cephisodolus. — The Hermes with the Infant Dionysus of Praxiteles. — Other Works by the Master. — Lord Leconfield's Head of Aphrodite. — The Sculptures of the Temple of Tegeea. — Passion the Characteristic of Scopas' Art. — Lysippus and his Work in Bronze. — The Apoxyomenus. — The Borghese Warrior. — The Woman of Herculaneum at Dresden. — The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. — The Group o/Niobe and her Children. — The Victory of Samothrace. — The Demeter of Cnidus. — Funereal Slclze. — The Ceramicus at Athens. FIG. 77. — IRENE AND PLUTUS. Copy of a tfroup by Cephisodotus. (Museum, Munich.) The Peloponnesian War, undertaken by Pericles in 432 B.C., came to an end in 404 B.C. with the capture of Athens. These disasters brought about a religious and political reaction, the most illustrious victim of which was Socrates (399 B.C.). Meanwhile Athens, though conquered and humiliated by Sparta, never ceased to be the intellectual capital of Hellas ; it might even be said that her sove- reignty became more extensive and firmly rooted in the fourth century. But her charac- ter, ripened by ad- versity, had changed. In addition to this, the school of philo- sophy founded by Socrates and carried on by Plato, bore fruit; it inculcated reflection, self-examination, and fostered depth and subtlety of thought. To the serene art of the fifth century B.C. suc- ceeded a meditative art, the most illus- trious exponents of which were Praxiteles and Scopas. Praxiteles' master, Cephisodotus, is known to us by a statue of Irene (Peace), carrying the infant Plutus (Riches) ; there 56 78. — HEKMES, BY PRAXITELES. (Museum, Olympia.) \ PRAXITELES, SCOPAS, AND LYSIPPUS -HEAD OF THE HERMES BY PRAXITELES. (Museum, Olyrapia.) is a good antique copy of the work at Munich (Fig. 77). The goddess bends her dreamy head over the child with an air of tender solici- tude. In the proportions and the cast of the draperies, this group shows its close affinity to the school of Phidias; but the sentiment that pervades it is identical with that which informs the work of Praxi- teles. The Irene dates probably from the year 370 B.C. By Praxiteles, who was born about 380 B.C., we possess one original work, which was found in 1877 in the temple of Hera at Olympia, in the very spot where Pausanias had noted its presence. It is a group repre- senting Hermes carrying the youthful Dionysus, whom Zeus had con c ded to his care (Figs. 78, 79). The analogy of the conception with that of Cephisodotus' group has often been pointed out. But the Hermes shows a greater independence of the Phidian tradition than the Irene. It is characterised by a sinuous, almost feminine, grace and an intensity of spiritual life, which is a new phenomenon in art. The execution has a beauty of which neither photographs nor casts can give an adequate idea. A careful examination of the head reveals two characteristics which distinguish it from all others of the fifth centuries : first, the hair, treated with a picturesque freedom, and a determination to emphasise the contrast between its furrowed sur- face and the polished smoothness of the flesh; and secondly, the overhanging brow and deep-set eye, the material indications of reflection. 57 FIG. So. — SII-ENUS AND INFANT DIONYSUS (Upper part of a group in the Louvre, perhaps after Praxiteles.) APOLLO Numerous copies of the Roman period have preserved other works by Praxiteles for us, at least in their general features: a Silenus (Fig. 80) , a Satyr, two figures of Eros, and two of Dionysus, an Artemis (Fig. 81), an Apollo, and perhaps a Zeus. The most famous of his works among the ancients was a nude figure of Aphrodite about to enter the sea, which was long admired in the temple of the goddess at Cnidus. Unfortunately, the copies that have come down to us are very mediocre (Fig. 82). But in Lord Leconfield's London house there is a head of Aphrodite, so marvel- lously supple in execution and so exquisitely suave in expression that we may fairly accept it as the work, if not of Praxiteles himself, then of one of his immediate pupils (Fig. 83) . The characteristics of the feminine ideal as con- ceived by this great and fascinating genius are all clearly defined in this head. The form of the face, hitherto round, has become oval ; the eyes, instead of being fully opened, are half closed, and have that particular expression which the ancients described as " liquid," the eye- brows are but slightly marked, and the attenuation of the eye- lids is such, that they melt, by almost insensible gradations, into the adjoining planes. The hair, like that of the Hermes, is freely modelled ; and finally, the whole reveals a preoccupation with effects of chiaroscuro, of a sub- dued play of light and shadow, which precludes any lingering vestiges of harshness and angu- larity. It is here that we note the influence of painting upon sculpture. The great achieve- ments of Attic painting are entirely unknown to us; but as the ancients extolled them as 58 FIO. iJl. — ARTEMIS, KNOWN AS THE DIANA OF CAB II. Perhaps after Praxiteles. (The Louvre.) ^^^^tJ Hk^ji ^ ^k>" <- ■ .' i . :__.Xji 1 FIG. 82. — HEAD OF AN ANTIQUE COPY OF THE APHRODITE OF CNIDUS BY PRAXITELES. (The Vatican.) (Photo, by Alinari.) PRAXITELES, SCOPAS, AND LYSIPPUS equal to the sculptures, we may believe that they were indeed masterpieces. The most renowned painter of the fifth century, Polygnotus, was, we are told, less pre-eminent as a colourist than as a draughtsman, whereas those of the fourth century, Parrhasius, Zeuxis, and Apelles, were above all colour- ists. If their pictures had been pre- served to us, we should perhaps have found them more akin to Cor- reggio than to Mantegna, or Bellini. The suavity of a head like Lord Leconfield's Aphrodite does, as a fact, recall Correggio; we recognise in it that essentially pictorial quality which the Italian critics call sfumato, meaning a vaporous gradation of tones, a melting of one tint into another. Scopas survives for us in certain heads from the pediment of the temple of Tegaea (about 360 B.C.). has enabled us to recognise the same marbles, copies of works by Scopas. it from two heads, one that of a warrior from the pediment of Tegaea, the other a beardless Heracles (Fig. 84). The oval of the face is less pronounced than with Praxiteles, but the eyes are more deeply set, and the eyebrow forms a strong projection, casting a semicircle of shadow above the eye. This pecu- liarity, combined with the marked undulation of the lips, gives an impassioned and almost suffering expres- sion to Scopas' heads ; we seem to divine in them the intensity of a struggle against desire, the anguish of un- satisfied aspirations. Here lay the originality of Scopas. Praxiteles expressed a languor- ous reverie in his marbles, Scopas gave utterance in his to passion. 59 FIG. 83- HEAD OF APHRODITE. (Lord Leconfield's Collection, London.) The study of these fragments style in a number of Roman We may form some idea of FIG. 84-- -HEADS OF THE SCHOOL OF SCOPAS. (Athens and Florence.) APOLLO i'i( Ss. — COPY OF THE APOXYOMENUS OF LY- SIPPUS. (The Vatican.) (Photo, by Anderson.) The third great artist of the fourth century, Lysippus, was younger than the two others. He was the accredited sculptor of Alexander the Great, and worked principally in bronze, whereas Praxiteles and Scopas won renown mainly by their works in marble. Lysippus was born at Sicyon, a town in the Pelopon- nesus; he declared that his sole teachers had been Nature and Polyclitus' Doryphorus, that figure of an athlete which was known as the Canon. Polyclitus, as I have said, was a native of Argos. Thus the art of Lysippus presents itself as a kind of Doric reaction against Attic art, which tended to lay on sentiment, and an increasing stress might be thought to incline to effeminacy and sensuality. Lysippus modified the Canon of Polyclitus, that is to say, the classic tradi- . 86. — HEAD OF THE APOXYOMENUS. (The Vatican.) -THE B0R0HESE WARRIOR. (The Louvre.) tion of the fifth century, by a more marked ten- d e n c y to elegance, making his bodies nearly eight times the length of the head (instead of seven times) , and emphasising the joints and muscles at the expense of their fleshy covering. His heads express neither reverie nor passion; they are content to be merely nervous and refined. There is in the Vatican a good copy of his best statue of an athlete, the Apoxxiomenus, rubbing his arm with a strigil to remove the oil and dust of the palestra (Figs. 85, 86) . It is probable that the famous 60 PRAXITELES, SCOPAS, AND LYSIPPUS FIG. 88.— VENUS DE' MEDICI. (Florence, Uffizi.) (Photo, by Alinari, Florence.) Borghese Warrior in the Louvre, another athlete, also reproduces a bronze original by Lysippus; the artist who has signed his name on this fine, but somewhat frigid study of the nude, Agasias of Ephesus, was obviously only the copyist (Fig. 87). A statue of an athlete, discovered at Delphi, is believed to be a free copy of a lost bronze by Lysip- pus. Lastly, there are seve- ral statues of Heracles and of Alexander the Great, de- rived from originals by the master, and we further owe him some fine female statues, of which there are various FIG. Sg. — COPY OF THE A1NEM0SYNE (?) OF LYSIPPUS. (Museum, Dresden.) replicas, among them the so-called Venus de Medici at Florence (Fig. 88), and a draped figure discovered at Herculaneum (Figs. FIG. OO. — HEAD, COPY OF THE MNEMOSYNE (?) OF LYSIPPUS. (Museum, Dresden.) 61 PIG. 01. — ARTEMISIA AND MAUSOLUS. Statues from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. (British Museum.) (Photo, by Le*vy.) APOLLO FIG. 02.— COMBAT OF GRFF.KS AND AMAZONS. Bas-relief from the Frieze of (he Mausoleum at Halicaraassus. (British Museum.) 89, 90) . This feminine type, the head of which shows analogies with that of the Apoxyomenus, is certainly one of the most beautiful creations of antique art; her draperies have such simpli- city and grandeur that they still find many imitators. Four sculptors, Scopas, Bryaxis, Leochares, and Tim- otheus, worked about the year 350 B.C. on the decorations of the Mausoleum at Hahcarnassus, raised by Artemisia, Queen of Carta, to the memory of her husband Mausolus. Thanks to Newton's ex- cavations in 1 85 7, the British Museum possesses a series of statues and bas- reliefs which formerly decorated this mausoleum. Two fine statues, re- presenting Mausolus and Artemisia crowned the structure (Fig. 91). The statue of Mausolus is one of the most ancient Greek port raits known to us, and is all the more re- markable in that the face of the model was not that of a Hellene, NIOBE AND HER YOUNGEST DAUGHTER. (Uuizi, Florence.) FIG. 04. NIKE (VICTORY) OF SAMOTUKACE. (The Louvre ) but of a Carian, that is to say, a semi-barbarian. The draperies, modelled with a perfect comprehension of the play of light and shadow, mark a stage in the progress that led up to the masterpiece of classic drapery, the Victory of Samothrace. The bas-reliefs of the Mausoleum 62 PRAXITELES, SCOPAS, AND LYSIPPUS FIG. 95. — DEMETER OF CNIDUS. (British Museum.) represent a battle of Greeks and Amazons; it is very instructive to compare these with the frieze of the Parthenon. We find in them all the characteristics of the new art, a taste for lively and sudden movement, for the picturesque and the effective, an elegance which does not preclude vigour, but which sometimes verges on excessive refinement (Fig. 92). Even in classic times it seems to have been an open question whether Scopas or Praxiteles should be credited with the authorship of the famous group of Niobe and her children, struck down by the arrows of Apollo and Artemis. Antique copies of several figures of the composition, varying a good deal in quality, are preserved in Florence, Rome, Paris (the Louvre) , and elsewhere. To judge by these copies, the originals must have been works of the school of Scopas. In the centre was Niobe with her youngest daughter, a group of which there is a copy at Florence (Fig. 93). The deeply pathetic motive, that of a mother who sees her daughter killed before her eyes, is treated with noble simplicity; we find as yet no trace of the physical anguish, the painful contortions of the Laocoon. The child, pressed closely to the mother, is an admirable con- ception. Her transparent tunic, cling- ing to her young body, and gathered into innumerable little pleats, bears witness to the influence of painting upon sculpture. We shall find a diaphanous pleated tunic of the same sort draping the Victory of Samo- thrace. We are again reminded of this Victory by another fine figure from the Niobid group, known to us by an excellent copy in the Vatican. 63 ^ FIG. 06.— STELA OF HEGESO. (Museum, Athens.) (Photo, by Giraudon.) APOLLO TIG. 97. — FRAGMENT OF AN ATTIC TOMBSTONE. (Museum, Athens.) Here the analogy is most evident in the movement, and in the pic- turesque cast of the drapery. The date of the Victor]) of Samothrace (Fig. 94), which the Louvre is fortunate enough to possess, is well authenticated. The figure, which stands on the prow of a galley, blowing a trumpet, was carved to com- memorate a naval victory gained in 306 B.C. by Demetrius Polior- cetes over the Egyptian General Ptolemy, off the island of Cyprus. Two influences were at that time predominant in Greek sculpture, that of Lysippus, and that of the school of Scopas; it was the latter which inspired the Victor]). The irresistible energy, the victorious swing of the body, the quivering life that seems to animate the marble, the happy contrast afforded by the flutter of the wind-swept mantle, and the adherence of the closely-fitting tunic to the torso, combine to make the statue the most exqui- site expression of movement left to us by antique art. The sculptor has not only translated muscular strength and triumph- ant grace into marble; he has also suggested the intensity of the sea-breeze, that breeze the breath of which Sully-Prud'- homme, too, has caught in a verse winged like the Victory herself: — " Un peu du grand zephir qui souffle a Salamine." fic. 08. — fragment of an attic tombstone. a i-r • r r\ (Museum, Athens.) A lire-size statue or Deme- ter, seated, and mourning for her daughter Persephone, carried off by Pluto, was discovered by Newton at Cnidus, and is now 64 PRAXITELES, SCOPAS, AND LYSIPPUS in the British Museum (Fig. 95). It is a work dating from about 340 B.C. and betrays the double influence of Praxiteles and Scopas. It has often been compared to those figures of the Mater Dolorosa so frequent in the art of the Renaissance. But if we examine it closely, we shall see that the differences are more profound than the analogies. The grief of the heathen mother is reticent and subdued; it is suggested rather than proclaimed. We shall see that after the fourth century the ancients did not shrink from realistic expression of the most intense physical suffering; but they expressed moral suffering only in a discreet and chastened form. A figure like Roger van der Weyden's Mater Dolorosa is entirely alien to classic genius. This expression of discreet sorrow gives charm to a great number of funereal stela, by anonymous artists, which are among the purest and most delicate productions of Attic art in the fourth century (Figs. 96 — 98). The regret of survivors is expressed in these with so much reserve that their significance has not always been under- stood, and they have been supposed to represent the dead reunited to the members of their family in the Elysium of the blest. Despair is never suggested in these compositions; gestures and countenances are alike placid; a slight inclination of the head is all that reveals the pensive intention of the sculptor. One of the most beautiful of these monuments is the Athenian stela which represents a dead woman, seated, taking a jewel from a casket held by an attendant (Fig. 96). The deceased is shown engaged in one of the familiar occupations of her earthly life. We must not look here for any mystic meaning, any promise of a happy life beyond the tomb. But the veil of sadness that obscures the charming faces is woven with true Attic subtlety. How noble is this tearless sorrow which conceals itself with a certain modesty, and, over a newly-made grave, recalls a smile of the lost one! Fortunately for us, we have many means of entering into the secrets of the classical mind. We can read Euripides and Plato, Xenophon and Isocrates, the fragments of Menander, we can study hundreds of statues and painted vases. But nothing, not even the most beautiful of Plato's pages, can so familiarise us with antiquity, can make us so appreciate its delicate taste and the infinite refinement of its grace as a walk through the Ceramicus of Athens, the quarter of Tombs, where amidst the spring scents of mint and thyme, we breathe another perfume, that of the unique and immortal flower of human genius we call Atticism. 65 APOLLO BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER VII. C. J. Newton, A History of Discoveries at Halicarnassus, Cnidus, and Branchidas, 2 vols., London, 1862-63. M. Collignon, Histoire de la Sculpture grecque, vol. ii., Paris, 1897 (descriptions of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Niobe and her children, etc.); E. Gardner and S. Reinach, works quoted on p. 55; Klein, Praxiteles, Leipzig, 1898, and Praxitelische Studien, Leipzig, 1899; G. Perrot, Praxitele, Paris, 1905; B. Graef, Romische Mittheilungen, vol. iv., 1889, p. 189 (on Scopas) ; G. Mendel, Fouilles de Te'gee (Bulletin de Correspondence helUnique, 1901, vol. xxv., p. 241); Th. Homolle, Lysippe et I'ex-volo de Daochos (Delphi) {Bulletin, 1899, vol. xxiii., p. 42 1 ) ; M. Collignon, Lysippe, Paris, 1905 ; S. Reinach, Strongylion (Reoue Archeologique, 1904, i., p. 28) ; Le Type femintn de Lysippe (ibid., 1900, ii., p. 380; on the Herculanean statue at Dresden) ; A. Mahler, La Venus de Medicis ( C. R. de I'Acad., 1905, p. 623) ; O. Rayet, Monuments de I' Art Antique, vol. ii., pi. 64 (the Borghese Warrior) ; C. B. Stark, Niobe und die Niobiden, Leipzig, 1863; A. Furtwangler. Masterpieces, London, 1895; A. Furtwangler and H. L. Urlichs, Denkmaler griechischer und romischer Skalptur, 2nd ed., Munich, 1904; P. Gardner, Sculptured Tombs of Hellas, London, 1896. On the influence of Painting: S. Girard, La Peinture Antique, Paris, no date; A. Michaelis, Von griechischer Malerei (Deutsche Revue, 1903, p. 210). 66 VIII GREEK ART AFTER ALEXANDER THE GREAT The Conquests of Alexander and their Influence on Greek Art.— The Rise of Alexandria -Tl C eFZ?RlZ° m "7r T i SMSr*" EPoch.-The Schools of Rhodes andPer^Z. 1 he first Represenlahon of the Barbarian and of Nature in Art.— The Dyiri Gaul ThettdTe Aooll ^"fP^'-The Altar of Zeus at Per g a m um.-Tnl ^coon ^ LrcophatusofArextaVr^ *"** ' A ^-~ T ^ Centaur and Eros.-The so-called IN the year 336 B.C. Alexander of Macedon succeeded his father Philip; he was but twenty years old. After consolidating his father's work in Greece, by taking and laying waste Thebes, and subduing Athens, he conquered successively Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Persia, Bactriana, and the north of India, and died at Babylon in 323 B.C. His generals divided his vast empire between them, and estab- lished Greek civilisation from the banks of the Nile to those of the Oxus and the Indus. India, which had perhaps re- ceived the rudiments of her art from Persia, thus became the pupil of Greece, but she remained a capricious pupil, whose temperament, recalcitrant to every kind of rule and measure, was destined to produce a totally different style. The consequences of Alexander's victories were momentous for Hellen- ism and for Greek art. Athens ceased to be the centre of the latter; her in- tellectual supremacy passed to the Alexandria of the Ptolemies in Egypt, to the Antioch of the Seleucidae in Syria, and the Pergamum of the At- talidae in Asia Minor. Thus uprooted and internationalised, Hellenism lost in purity what it gained in extent. Its political organisation underwent a complete change. The small Greek states with their free cities, were supplanted by Oriental monarchies, with hereditary sovereigns wielding almost absolute power. Art worked primarily for these 67 A t., m I fl ! ■■' ■ # f. El ml | 1 ; \ i m\ jMui ifeti^ -*^i^^mH FIG. QQ. — GAUL KILLING HIMSELF AFTER KILLING HIS WIFE. Formerly in the Ludovici Collection. (Museum of the Thermae, Rome.) APOLLO FIG. IOO.— THE DYING GAUL. (Museum of the Capitol, Rome.) (Photo, by Anderson.) sovereigns and the new capitals they sought to beautify ; its aim was to dazzle by material greatness and splendour, and it strove after grandiose effects rather than perfection of form and work- manship. The term Hellenistic Epoch is applied to the period comprised between the death of Alexander (323 B.C.) and the conquest of Greece by the Romans (146 B.C.), to distinguish it from the Hellenic Epoch. During this period art made a rapid evolution, and under- went a complete transforma- tion, which cannot, however, be described as decadence, for amidst these changes were born and developed new elements, the destined heritage of modern art. After serene strength (Phidias), lan- guorous grace (Praxiteles) , passion (Scopas) , and nervous elegance (Lysippus), art had yet to express physical suffering, anguish, the tumult and disorder of the soul and the body, and this was ad- mirably done by the schools of Rhodes and Pergamum. But this was not all. After having fixed the types of gods and heroes, and sculptured amazons and athletes, art had still to render the individual man, to create por- traiture ; it had further to admit into its sphere beings who were neither gods nor Greeks, to repre- sent, with a due regard for reality and picturesqueness, barbarians such as the Ethiopian and the Gaul. This was accomplished mainly at Pergamum and Alexandria. Genre sculpture, the familiar treatment of familiar themes, scarcely existed; the Alexandrians 68 -ATHENE SLAVING A YOUNG GIANT. Fragment from the Pergumenc Frieze. (Berlin Museum.) (Photo, by Levy and Son.) FIG. I02. — LAOCOON AND HIS SONS. (Museum of the Vatican.) GREEK ART AFTER ALEXANDER THE GREAT developed it, following the example set them in the art of ancient Egypt. Finally, in addition to gods and men, there was nature, hitherto \\ neglected. The Hellenistic artists taught the art of landscape to the world; rura scenes, in all their rustic simplicity, made their appear- ance not only in painting, but in statuary and bas-reliefs. All this progress, all these interesting innovations, were brought about in less than two centuries. The period that witnessed them is one of the great epochs of the human mind. Among the Hellenistic capitals, Pergamum, to the north of bmyrna, is the one of which we know most. About 240 B.C. King Attalus repulsed the Gauls who had invaded Asia Minor after devastating Delphi in 278 B.C. To commemo- rate his victory, he made votive offerings of bronze statues repre- senting vanquished Gauls. Marble copies of several of these were found in Rome early in the 1 6th century ; the two most important are, a Gaul killing himself after having slain his wife (Fig. 99), and the famous statue, erroneously called the Dying Gladiator (Fig. 1 00) . The so-called gladiator is clearly a Gaul, for his neck is encircled by a torque, and his physical type, his shield and his trumpet, have nothing Greek in their character. The Dying Gladiator is a work at once realistic and pathetic ; the Greek sculptor — he was called Epigonus — was interested in the brave and robust barbarian, who had met his death so far from his own land, a victim to his adventurous spirit. The treatment of the marble recalls that of the Warrior in the Louvre, and allows us to ascribe the statue to the school of Lysippus. At a later date, about 166 B.C., another king of Pergamum, Eumenes II, commemorated other military successes by the erection of a colossal altar in white marble, dedicated to Zeus, on the Acro- polis of Pergamum. The remains of this were brought to light by a German archaeological mission. The base was decorated with a frieze in high relief representing the contest between the Gods and the Giants. The Hellenes saw in this frieze an allusion to con- 69 APOLLO FIG. IO3. — STATUE KNOWN AS THE APOLLO BELVEDERE. (Museum of the Vatican.) temporary events: the Giants of the fable were the Gauls, the Gods were the Greeks of Asia. Some three hundred feet of this frieze, the figures on which are six feet high, were excavated between 1 880 and 1 890 and taken to the Berlin Museum. As a complete decorative composition, this is the most imposing achievement that has come down to us from antiquity ; the first impression made on the spectator by these colossal sculptures is dazzling. On closer ex- amination defects become apparent; there is a tendency to exaggeration, a certain monotony of violence and agitation ; but, on the other hand, what a profusion of admirable episodes, what wealth of motive, what a mastery of the chisel ! If we look about in modern art for anything to compare with it, we find only isolated groups or figures, such as Puget's Milo of Crolona, and Rude's Mar- seillaise; neither the Renaissance nor the nineteenth century offers any parallel in the shape of a sustained and continuous composition. No artist has imagined a mightier figure than that of the warring Zeus, a more moving one than that of the vanquished giant, for whom his mother Gaea (The Earth) intercedes, emerging from the ground to arrest the arm of Athene (Fig. 101). It is one of the glories of the art of Pergamum that it could celebrate victories without refusing sympathy to the vanquished. This eloquence of physical suffering, so touchingly rendered in the head of the young giant, is carried still farther in the famous Laocoon group in the Vatican, the work of three Rhodian sculptors, who executed it about the year 50 B.C. (Fig. 102). Now that the marvels of the great 70 FIG. 104. — HEAD OF APOLLO. Formerly belonging to the Comte de Pour-tales. (British Museum.) GREEK ART AFTER ALEXANDER THE GREAT period of Attic art have been revealed to us, the Laocoon is no longer for us what it was to Lessing and his contemporaries, the highest expression of Greek genius ; but it is undoubtedly the most P™ ^nd the most moving. The Trojan priest, enveloped in the folds of the serpents, sees his two sons dying beside him, and breathes out his own life in a supreme cry of anguish. A purely physical anguish, it has been objected, and the superficial subtlety of this criticism has made its fortune. But in the Laocoon, is not the agony of the dying man complicated by the pangs of the father? And why should the sufferings of Laocoon be less interesting than those of the martyrs, whose tortures are so fre- quently set forth in modern art? To decry Greek art after Phidias and Italian art after Raphael is a very common form of intellectual snobbishness; of those addicted to it, it may be said that the most venial of their faults is a total mis- apprehension of the evolution of art. If Greek art had made no further developments after producing the pediments of the Parthenon, it would have been as incomplete in its way as that of Assyria or of Egypt; we cannot appreciate its in- comparable grandeur unless we can admire at once the productions of its youth, its adolescence, and its maturity. Since the middle of the nineteenth century the prejudices of an intolerant aestheticism have, in like manner, tended to belittle the famous Apollo in the Belvedere of the Vatican (Fig. 1 03) . It is a copy of a bronze statue which must have been executed a few years after the death of Alexander; the original has been attributed, on no very sufficient evidence, to Leochares, one of the artists who worked upon the Mausoleum under the direction of Scopas. The body of Apollo offers a complete contrast to those of the gods and giants of the frieze of Pergamum. In the latter, the muscles are all strongly emphasised; the artist seems to take pleasure in insisting upon them; in the Apollo, the skeleton is enveloped in flesh and skin; elegance has been achieved at the expense of vigour. The head of the 71 FIG. IO5. — CENTAUR AND EROS. (The Louvre.) (Photo, by Giraudon.) APOLLO Belvedere Apollo has characteristics which connect it with the school of Scopas. The god has just hurled a dart, and his expression is wrathful; but he is at the same time passionate and uneasy. In Hellenistic art, the gods have lost their Olympian calm; even when victorious and triumphant, they are agitated. This characteristic is still more strongly marked in a beautiful head of Apollo, formerly in Paris, which passed from the Pourtales Collection to the British Museum, and bears a sort of family likeness to the Apollo Belvedere (Fig. 1 04) . Why does the Pourtales Apollo seem to suffer? Is it a musical frenzy that agitates him, as has been suggested? The question has not yet received a satisfactory answer. But how remote is this pain or disquietude which shows itself in the drawn features of a beautiful face from the discreet sadness of the Demeter of Cnidus! Here Greek art touches the limit of pagan aes- thetics, a limit Christian art will not hesitate to overstep when it represents the Virgin and St. John sobbing at the foot of the cross. The head of an old man with a suffering expression in the Barracco Collection at Rome would no doubt have provoked a lively controversy, if it had not been recognised as a replica of the head of a Centaur tormented by Eros, a Hellenistic group, of which there is a fine copy in the Louvre (Fig. 105). But Eros inflicts no material torture on the Centaur ; he is but the symbol of the pangs of love. Thus an unhappy or unsatisfied passion may set its stigmata on the face just as do the fangs of the serpents in the Laocobn. Excelling in the rendering of vivid and painful emotions, Hellenistic art sought motives for such representations even in episodes of mythologic love-lore, finding in 72 FIG. IQO.— FRAGMENT OF THE SO-CALLED SAR- COPHAGUS OF THE WEEPERS. (Museum, Constan- tinople.) FIG. 107. — FRAGMENT FROM THE SO-CALLED SARCOPHAGUS OF ALEXANDER. (Museum, Constantinople.) GREEK ART AFTER ALEXANDER THE GREAT them a medium for the display of its mastery, and opportunities of interesting by exciting sympathy. The Hellenistic epoch witnessed the building of a great number of temples, larger and more ornate than the Parthenon, though hastier in workmanship and less pure in style. Unfortunately, but few fragments have survived of the statues and bas-reliefs with which they were ornamented. To get some idea of the great compositions in relief of this period, we may examine the magnificent sarcophagus in the museum at Constantinople, discovered at Sidon in 1 888 (Fig. 107). This shrine of Attic marble, which dates from about the year 300 B.C., is decorated with episodes from the history of Alexander, and no doubt contained the body of one of his comrades, whom his favour had enriched and exalted. The work is already eclectic, in so far as we recognise in it not only the predominant in- fluence of Scopas, but also that of Lysippus and of others; yet the genius and individuality of the great artist who conceived and executed these scenes are never for a moment obscured. Not only is the so-called Sarcophagus of Alexander one of the masterpieces of Greek art, but of all these masterpieces it is the one which is most intact, both as regards the modelling of the figures, which might date from yesterday, and the delicate charm of the polychromatic colour- ing. Hellenistic art is there, though the period it characterises has but just begun. Hellenistic art rich with the promise of all its ulterior developments: life, movement, emotion, realism in costume and accessories. We know not which should move us to wonder most, the genius which produced such a work, or the strange caprice of the military chieftain who thrust it away, as soon as it was finished, into a dark and inaccessible cavern, where the chance of a fortunate exploration brought it to light, together with several others (Fig. 1 06) , for the joy of the student and the glory of Greek art. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER VIII. M. Collignon, E. Gardner, S. Reinach, op. crt. p. 49 ; M Collignon and E ,. FWmoB, Pergame, Paris, 1900; Furtwangler, Masterpieces .London. 1895 (The Apollo Belvedere) ;W. Amelung, L'AMmis de Versailles el V Apollo du Beloedkre {Reouearcheo., 1904, u P 325) ; S. Reinach, Les Gaulois dans VArl antique, Pans 1889; R . Forster Laokoon ijahrb des Instil 1 906, p. 1 ) ; Hamdi-Bey and Th. Reinach, Une Nicropole royale a bidon. Pans, I 692 ; Th Reinach \lJ Sarcophages de Sidoni Gazette des Beau X -A rls, 1892, ,., p 89) ; Fr Hauser Die neu-atlischen Reliefs, Sluttgart, 1899; Th. Schrgber ,D» Wtencr Bwnjvnrdgl «K Palazzo Crimani, eine Sladie liter das hellenislische Relief hid, Leipzig 1888; Das B,ldn,ss Alexanders des Grossen, Leipzig, 1903; J. J. Bernoulh, Gneehsche Ikonographe, 3 vols., Munich 1901-1905; E. Courbaud, Le Bas-relief romatn, gam, ItW. Plot, vol vii., p. 39). 73 IX THE MINOR ARTS IN GREECE The Artistic Character of Greek Industrial Objects. — Silver and Metal Cups and Vases. — The Treasures of Hildesheim, Bernay, and Boscoreale. — The Greek Painters. — The Nozze Aldobrandini. — Mosaics and Frescoes. — Egyptian Portraits of the Graeco-Homan Period. — Greek Vases: Dipylon, Corinthian, and Etruscan Vases. — Lecythi. — The manufacture of Vases ceased to be exclusively an Athenian Industry. — The Industry flourishing in Southern Italy. — Principal Types of Greek Vases. — Terra-colla statuettes found at Tanagra and Myrina. — Engraved Gems and Cameos. — Coins. The Greek artisan had a natural inclination to work in the manner of an artist. When he had to decorate a vase, a tripod, a mirror, to model a terra-cotta figurine, to engrave a seal or a coin, he carried out his work with an instinctive desire to please the taste and rejoice the eye. Even in the humblest crafts, he showed himself the imita- tor, and sometimes even the rival of the great masters of his time. We may say, indeed, that there was no essential difference in Greece between high art and indus- trial art, for artists and artisans sought inspiration from the same sources, and dis- played the same unerring taste. Examples of great Greek art are, unfortunately, few in number, and nearly all elements and to accidents of various the most part, destroyed or damaged. statues have come down to us — I FIG. Io8. — SILVER VASE. Found at Alesia (Cote d'Or) (Museum, St. Germain.) mutilated. Exposed to the kinds, they have been, for Barely fifty antique bronze mean life-size statues — and of these only some fifteen belong to the Greek epoch. But the productions of the minor arts were often buried with the dead; and they are to be found in great numbers in tombs, often in exactly the same state as when they were laid in the grave by the ancients. To give but a few examples, the great tombs of the Crimaea and of Etruria have yielded gold orna- ments extraordinarily beautiful in workmanship ; the burial places of 74 THE MINOR ARTS IN GREECE FIG. 109. — THE ALDOBRANDINI MARRIAGE. (Antique painting in the Museum of the Vatican.) Asia Minor, Greece, Southern Russia, Etruria and Cyrenaica have restored to us thousands of painted vases, terra-cotta figurines, glass vessels, and en- graved stones which were used as seals. In the same way, the smaller bronzes have been better able to escape the destructive forces that threaten pre- cious objects than the larger statues. These minor works, statuettes or reliefs, have made us familiar with many motives of sculpture which would have remained unknown to us but for them. But the great majority of them are not reduced copies of more important works ; they were specially designed for execution on a small scale. Finally, engraved stones or gems, thanks to their durability, and coins, thanks to their number and their relatively small size, have survived in thousands, and furnish materials no less precise than abundant for the history of art. Besides the ornaments — necklaces, bracelets, and earrings — taken from tombs, our museums guard magnificent chased and repousse silver vases, which chance has preserved from the greed of man. In some cases they were buried in the centre of huge tumuli very difficult to explore (like the Crimean vases in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg) ; in others they formed the treasure of some temple or of some private individual, and were carefully concealed by their guardians or their owners at the time of the barbaric invasions (like the Treasure of Hildesheim, Hanover, now in the Berlin Museum, and the Treasure of Bernay, Eure, now in the Cabinet des Medailles in Paris) ; while in others, again, they were lost in the stress of 75 FIG. IIO.— ACHILLES AMONG THE DAUGHTERS OF SCYROS. (Painting at Pompei.) APOLLO battle (Fig. 108). A splendid collection of silver vases and other objects presented by M. Edmond de Rothschild to the Louvre, was discovered under the ashes of Vesuvius, at Boscoreale, near Pompei. Antique metal vases were often decorated with plaques in relief, cast and chased separately, and some of these, better able to resist chemical action than the vases themselves, have come down to us, though the vessels they decorated have disappeared. The great works of the classic painters have all perished. Polyg- notus, Zeuxis, Parrhasius, Apelles, are but names to us. The best fresco that has survived, the nuptial scene known as the Nozze Aldobrandini in the Vatican (Fig. 109), so much admired by Poussin, makes us divine the greatness of our loss, though it is but the shadow of a beautiful work. 1 The same may be said of the mosaics, somewhat coarse imi- tations of painting, executed with many-coloured cubes of stone, which were used to decorate pavements and occa- sionally walls, notably in the Roman period. One of the finest mosaics known is at Naples. It represents the battle of Issus, and like many other works of the same class, it seems to be the copy of a painting executed at Alexan- dria. The numerous frescoes discovered at Pompei, Herculaneum, Rome, and Egypt are, for the most part, decorative works of slight importance, all of later date than the Greek period (Figs. 1 1 0, 1 1 1 ). Egypt has given us a series of good realistic portraits, dating from the first centuries of the Roman Empire, which are very valuable specimens of encaustic painting. Eleven of these are in the National Gallery, London. Failing the actual works of Polygnotus and Zeuxis, we have the -THE PHRYGIAN PARIS JUDCING THE THREE GODDESSES. (Painting at Pompei.) In the centre is the bride conversing with the goddess of Persuasion (Peitho) ; both are crowned with garlands ; the bridegroom is sealed on the threshold. A third woman holds a patera with oil tor the libations. 1 o the left, attendants prepare the bath : on the right, others offer a sacrifice. Ihis painting was discovered at Rome in 1606, and belonged at firsl to Cardinal Aldobrandini, whence its name. 76 THE MINOR ARTS IN GREECE FIG. 112. — VASE. Found in the DipyJon, Athens. (Museum, Athens.) painted vases of their period, inspired by their style and by the motives they created. The Louvre and the British Museum own the largest and perhaps the best arranged collections of these in the world. A few words will suffice to classify them roughly. ' . I have already mentioned the My- cenaean vases ( 1 600 to 1 1 00 B.C.) , the ornament of which is characterised by a sort of aversion from the straight line, and a preference for plant forms and those of marine creatures. From 1 I 00 to about 750 B.C. the geometric style obtained, or rather reappeared; in this style the decoration is composed of single or concentric circles, and of lines, broken, parallel, crossed, or in- terlaced in various combinations. On vases of this type even the figures and animals are conventionalised ; the varied and sinuous lines of nature are approximated to those of geometrical design. The most interesting series of these vases, a series painted with naval battles and funeral processions, comes from the Athenian cemetery of the Dipylon (the double gate) , whence the name Dipylon Vases by which they are distinguished (Fig. 112). About 750 b.c. a new style appeared, charac- terised by an ornamentation in zones, recalling that of Oriental carpets; the vases so treated are called Corin- thian (Fig. 113). The ground is light yellow, the figures reddish - brown, heightened with white, black, and violet. Finally, about the year 600 B.C. began the period of Greek pottery, with black figures on a red ground, which lasted till about the year 500 B.C., when a fresh type of decora- tion was gradually evolved, FIG 113. — CORINTHIAN VASE. (Museum, Munich.) (From Woermann's Geschichte der Malerei, vol i., Seemann, Leipzig ) 77 APOLLO FIG. 114. — ATHENE ON HER CAR. Greek Vase with Black Figures. (Museum, Wurzburg.) that of red ornament on a black ground. These two kinds of vases are often called Etruscan, because great numbers of them have been found in the tombs of Etruria; but the term is in- accurate, for it seems certain that nearly all the vases were made in Athens, at least in the fifth century, and that all the finer vases discovered in Etruria are of Athenian origin. The style of the vases with black figures is archaic, but already shows a remarkable precision of draughtsmanship (Fig. 114). Among the vases with red figures produced in great quantities at Athens from 500 to 400 B.C., and still manufactured in the fourth century (Fig. 115), there are masterpieces signed by the potters or painters to whom we owe them; three of these names at least, Euphronios, Douris and Brygos, deserve to be generally known. The lecythi are a peculiarly interesting class of Athenian vases. They were made especially to deposit in tombs, and are or- namented with polychrome figures on a white ground. The motives deal for the most part with the worship of the dead. Among them are de- signs which may be reckoned among the most exquisite of all ages, as, for instance, that in which Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death) gently bear a young woman to the tomb in the presence of Hermes (Fig. 116). After the Peloponnesian War, Athens ceased to be the exclusive centre of the manufacture of vases. Important potteries were established in Southern Italy. Here were modelled and painted those enormous 78 PIG. 115. — CEDIPUS AND THE SPHINX. Bottom of a Cup painted with Figures in. Red. (Museum of the Vatican.) THE MINOR ARTS IN GREECE FIG. Il6. ATHENIAN LECYTHUS. (Museum, Athens.) vases which first attract the visitor's attention in museums, though the decoration is often mediocre. The specimen reproduced in Fig. 117 is very fine. It adorns a large amphora in the Munich Museum, and represents the infernal re- gions, a subject frequently treated at this period (about 350 B.C.), though rarely in the great period of art. The manufacture of vases with red figures ceased, even in Italy, about the year 280 B.C. They were replaced by vases decorated with reliefs of bright red glaze, imitations of metal vases. As the reliefs were made by the help of moulds, it was easy to multiply specimens; but this was industry in the modern sense of the word rather than art. In the whole of Greek ceramic art, as known to us, there are perhaps no two painted vases absolutely identical ; Athenian workmen had a horror of servile copies, and did not even work from patterns or tracings. The types of Greek vases are very varied; our illustration shows the chief of these (Fig. 118). The classic names for many of them are unknown to us. In special works on ceramics they are indicated by numbers. The study of terra-cotta figurines is even more seductive than that of vases. The Greeks never ceased to model these from the Mycenaean times onward. They have left us a whole world of statuettes representing gods and god- desses, heroes and genii, men and women engaged in the pursuits and pleasures of familiar life, caricatures, animals, reduced copies of famous statues. Together with these figurines we may study the bas- reliefs, often used for the decoration of temples and houses. Nearly all the towns and many of the antique burial grounds have furnished 79 FIG. 117— AMPHORA OF CANOSSA, WITH PAINTING OF THE IN- FERNAL REGIONS. (Museum, Munich.) APOLLO FIG. IlS. — TYPES OF CREEK VASES. (The Louvre.) Above, from left to right : Hydria, Lecythus, Amphora, CEnochoc, Crater. Below : Cantharus, Arybalhis, Kylix, Rhyton, Aryballisc Lecythus. specimens of terra-cotta ; they were the least costly among works of art, and, at the same time, the most in vogue as ex-voto offerings to the gods, and as objects to be deposited with the dead in their tombs. The most famous burial-places in this connection are those of Tanagra in Boeotia, and of Myrina in Asia Minor (between Smyrna and Pergamum). At Tanagra there are figurines of every period, but the finest, dating from the close of the fourth century B.C., reveal the influence of Praxiteles. The chief types are draped female figures, often with hats and fans, characterised by the most delicious grace and coquetry (Fig. 119). At Myrina, the finest statuettes date from after the period of Alexander, and are quite different in character. This necropolis 80 i rp. — TANAGRA STATUETTE. (The Louvre.) FIG. 120.— TERRA-COTTAS FROM MYRINA. (The Louvre.) (Necropolc de Myrina, Fontemoing, Paris.) THE MINOR ARTS IN GREECE has furnished a large number of figures representing women and youths, both draped and naked, playing, frolicking, and indulging in a variety of animated move- ments (Fig. 120). We note an echo here of those Asiatic schools of sculpture which loved mobility and exuberant life, the schools to which we owe the frieze of the great altar cf Pergamum. Alex- andrian art, too, with its taste for familiar scenes and carica- ture, obviously influenced the brilliant modellers of Myrina. Antique terra-cottas may be studied exhaustively in the Louvre and the British Mu- seum, where specimens from Smyrna, Cyprus, Rhodes, Italy, and Cyrenaica, as well as from Tanagra and Myrina, are to be found in large numbers. From the Mycenaean period onward, engraving on hard stones was practised throughout the Greek world. Hundreds of engraved gems of the Mycenaean type have survived; they have been discovered chiefly in the islands of the Archipelago. They served as seals, and impressions from them have been found on terra-cotta tablets. Stones on which the design is hollowed out are called intaglios; they are not to be confused with cameos, which were not seals, but ornaments, adorned with a design in relief. Of all antique objects, en- graved gems are the only ones which have come down to us for the most part in exactly the state in which they were used by the ancients. We have intaglios of nearly all the periods of art, in which we can trace the successive styles, and the influence of the great schools of sculpture. Among the 81 FIG. 121. —THE TRIUMPH OF AUGUSTUS, THE VICTOR OF ACTIUM. (Intaglio in the Boston Museum; more than twice the actual size.) APOLLO -PTOLEMY PHJLADELPHUS AND QUEEN ARKINOE. CAMEO. (Museum, Vienna.) many gems which are master- pieces it is difficult to choose a typical example. Our Fig. 1 2 1 reproduces an intaglio, now at Boston, which repre- sents the triumph of Augustus at Actium; though its length is little over an inch, it has all the delicacy and breadth of style of a historical bas-relief. The vogue of cameos cut in sardonyx of several strata began with the Alexandrine epoch and lasted till the last century of the Roman Empire. The largest known cameo, repre- senting the Apotheosis of Tiberius, is in the Cabinet des Medailles, Paris. The two most beautiful, on each of which are cut the portraits of Ptolemy Philadelphus and his queen, belong respectively to the Museums of Vienna and of St. Petersburg (Fig. 1 22). These marvellous cameos certainly date from the third century before Christ. They rank among the most perfect achievements of art, and have never been equalled by the moderns. If the art of engraving precious stones is very ancient, that of striking coins is comparatively recent; it was unknown in Assyria and in Egypt. The oldest Greek coins date from the seventh century B.C., and were made upon the coast of Asia. It was not until the fifth century that they became veritable works of art, under the influence of the school of Phidias. In this case Athens is no longer supreme. The finest coins were produced in Sicily, where certain engravers of genius, such as Evenetus and Cimon, occasionally signed their works. The incomparable Sicilian coins of the second half of the 82 FIG. I23. — SILVER COIN OF SYRACUSE. (Face and reverse.) THE MINOR ARTS IN GREECE fifth century attest the superiority of Greek art no less eloquently than the Hermes of Praxiteles and the Venus of Milo; the profile of the nymph Arethusa is, indeed, perhaps the most exquisite Greek head known to us (Fig. 123). Fine coins have certainly been pro- duced in modern times, as, for instance, the English sovereign with the St. George and the Dragon, and Roty's charming Solver, but the superiority of the Greeks in this art is incontestable, and is partly to be explained by a purely material cause. The modern minted coins, intended to be piled one upon the other, are necessarily flat; those of the ancients were always more or less globular, which made it possible to give greater definition and relief to the image upon them. It is not within the scope of this work to pass in review all the infinite variety of Greek industrial products. I wish only to point out their great interest in connection with the general history of art. Those who are convinced of this truth will find in museums informa- tion and satisfactions which escape others; they will recognise that the material and the dimensions of works are of little importance, that style is the essential element, and that the Greek genius set its stamp upon everything which the hand of a Greek artificer fashioned. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER IX. M. CoIIignon, Manuel d 'A rchdologie grecque, Paris, no date (1884). E. Babelon et A. Blanchet, Catalogue des Bronzes antiques de la Biblioiheque Nationale, Paris, 1895: H. B. Wallets, Catalogue of the Bronzes in the British Museum, London, 1899; S. Reinach, Bronzes figures de la Gaule romaine, Paris, 1894; A. de Riddel, Catalogue des bronzes dAthenes, 2 vols., Paris, 1894, 1896; Miroirs grecs a reliefs {Monuments Piol, vol. iv., p. 77) ; A. Dumont and E. Pottiet, Miroirs grecs orne's de figures au trait (Les Cdramiques de la Grecc propre, vol. ii., Paris, 1890, p. 167). H. de Fontenay, Bijoux anciens et modernes, Paris, 1887; A. Darcel, La Technique de la Bijouterie ancienne {Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1888, i., p. 146) ; K. Hadaczek, Der Ohrschmuck der Griechen, Vienna, 1903. . H. de Vtllefosse, Le Trtsor de Boscoreale, Monuments Plot, vol. tv. t 1899; E. Peinice and Fr. Winter, Der Hildesheimer Silberfund, Berlin, 1 902 : Konkadoff, Tolstoi', S. Reinach, Antiquities de la Russie mdridionale, Paris, 1892. P. Girard, Hisloire de la Peinture antique, Paris, no date ; A. Michaelis, op. cit. p. 59 ; U. Wilcken, Hellenistische Porlrals aus El-Faijum {Arch. Anzeiger, 1889, p. I); G. Ebers, Antike Porlrals, Leipzig, 1893; P. Gauckler, article Musioum opus in the Diclionnaire des A ntiquites de Saglio (cf., by the same author, Monuments Piol, vol. iii., p. 177 ; vol. iv., p. 233). H. B. Walters, History of Ancient Pottery, 2 vols., London, 1905 ; O. Rayet and M. CoIIignon, Hisloire de la Cdramique grecque, Paris, 1 888 ; E. v. Rohden, art. Vasenkunde in Baumeister's Denkm'dler, vol. iii., Munich, 1888; S. Reinach, Repertoire des Vases peints grecs et elrusques, 2 vols., Paris, 1899 (with a complete bibliography of ceramics); E. Pottier, Catalogue des Vases antiques du Louvre, 3 vols., Paris, 1896-1904 (with album); Etude sur les le'cythes blancs altiques, Paris, 1 883 ; La Peinture industrielle des Grecs, Paris, 1 898 ; Le Dessin par ombre porte'e chez les Grecs (Reoue des Etudes grecques, 1898, p. 355; origin of painting with black figures); Eludes de Ciramique grecque (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1902, i., p. 19); Douris, Pans, 1905 ; H. B. Walters [and others], Catalogue of Vases in the British Museum, 3 vols., London, 1 893 et seq. ; P. Hartwig, Die griechiscnen Meisterschalen, Stuttgart, 1 893 ; Furtwiingler and Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei, Munich, 1900-1904 (very costly) ; W. Klein, Griechische Vasen mil Meislersignaluren, 2nd ed., Vienna, 1887; A. Joubin, De Sarcophogis clazo- meniis Paris 1901 (Sarcophagi of painted clay, discovered at Clazomenes) ; J. Dechelette, Les oases ornes de la Gaule romaine, Paris, 1904; F. Winter, Die antiken Terracotten, 2 vols., Berlin 1 903 (repertory of types) ; E. Pottier, Statuettes de lerre cuile, Pans, 1 890 ; Les 7 erres 83 APOLLO cuiies de Myrina (Gazelle des Beaux-Arts, 1886, i., p. 261.) ; E. Pottier and S. Reinach, La Necropole de Myrina, 2 vols., Paris, 1887; H. Lechat, Tanagra {Gazelle des Beaux-Arls, 1893, ii., p. I , E. Babelon, La Graoure en pierres fines, Paris, no date ; Les Came'es antiques de la Btbliotheque Nationale [Gazette des Beaux-Arls; 1898, i., p. 27) ; S. Reinach, Pierres gravies, Paris, 1895 ; A. Furtwangler, Antike Gemmem, 3 vols., Leipzig, 1900; F. Lenormant, Monnaies el Med a i lies, Paris, no date ; R. Weil, art. Munzkunde in Baumeister's Denkmaler, vol. ii., Munich, 1887; A. Babelon, Traite des Monnaies grecques el romaines, Paris, 1895; A. Blanche!, Les Monnaies grecques, Paris, 1894; Les Monnaies romaines, Paris, 1895; Hill, Handbook of Greek and Roman Coins, London, 1 899 ; P. Gardner, Types of Greek Coins, Cambridge, 1883 ; A. Evans, Syracusan Medallions, London, 1892 ; Barclay Head, Historic Numorum, London, 1887; Coins of the Ancients, London, 1899; Th. Reinach, L'Histoire par les Monnaies, Paris, 1903 ; W. Froehner, La Verrerie antique, Paris, 1879. 84 X ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ART The Settlement of Lydian Emigrants in Etruria. — Etruscan Monuments and Decorative Objects. - — The so-called Etruscan Vases chiefly importations from Athens.- — Paintings in the " Tomb of Francois " at Vulci. — Etruscan Portraits in Terra-Cotta. — Roman Art. — The Inoasion of Italy by Greek Art. — The Evolution of an individual Roman Art. — Its Manifestation in Architecture. — The Coliseum. — The Adoption of the Vault. — The Pantheon and the Basilica of Constantine. — Triumphal Arches.— The A rchaistic Reaction under Augustus. — Its Decline after Claudius and Revival under Hadrian.— The Antinous Type. — Portraits of the Imperial Epoch. — The Orientalised Art of the Roman Decadence. — Frescoes at Pompei. — The Rospigliosi Eros with a Ladder. — Analysis^/ Roman Art. ABOUT the year 1 000 B.<£., a band of emigrants coming by sea from Lydia in Asia Minor, settled in central Italy, and intermingling with the natives, laid the founda- Et ruscan con- FIG. I24. — ACHILLES IMMOLATING PRISONERS. Etruscan Frescoes in a Tomb at Vulci. (Woermann, Geschichte der Malerei, Seemann, Leipzig.) tions of the federation. Etruria was conquered by the Romans in the year 283 B.C. Throughout four centu- ries before this period, she had developed a flourishing civili- sation, important evidences of which have survived in the shape of town walls, ruined temples, vast tombs orna- mented with paintings and reliefs, statues, sarcophagi, terra-cottas, bronzes of various kinds, and golden ornaments. As to the painted vases known as Etrus- can, it will be well to repeat that they were, for the most part, imported from Attica. The original element in this civilisation was the ground- work of Italian ruggedness that underlay it. In all else, it was but a reflection of that of Greece, primarily of Asiatic Greece, then of Athens. The FIG. 12$. — ETRUSCAN SARCOPHAGUS. Known as the Lydian Tomb. (The Louvre.) 85 APOLLO Athenians exported thousands of painted vases and artistic objects of all kinds to Etruria, because the Etruscans had not only the taste to appreciate them, but the money to pay for them. There were, however, local schools in Etruria, and these produced many important works, which, though imitated from Greek models, yet bear the stamp of national indivi- duality, like the astonishing paintings in the so-called " Tomb of Francois " 1 at Vulci, representing Achilles offering sacrifices of Trojan prisoners to appease the manes of Patroclus (Fig. 124). The subject is Greek, but the treatment is thoroughly Etru- scan ; the Charon FIG. 126. ROMAN TEMPLE AT N1MES. Known as the "Maison Carree." km '■'*%' *S*«: armed with a mal- s fS' s 'BWH"5TC K 1 iif? •• HftBV"-^ let is unknown in gl ■;'- v. --..*■■ Hellenic art, but he is to be found similarly depicted in Roman Gaul, a proof that he was inspired by some old myth peculiar to the West. The style has something of the precision and of the harsh vigour that appear some eighteen centuries later in the frescoes of Mantegna at ' The name of a professional excavator, who worked in Etruria during the first half of the nineteenth century. 86 FIG. 127. THE COLISEUM, ROME. ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ART FIG. 128. — RUINS OF THE BASILICA OF CON- STANTINE, ROME. Padua, and of Signorelli at Orvieto. The same vigour and originality distinguish the numerous Etruscan portraits in terra cotta, some of which are whole length figures (Fig. 125). These are essentially native works, in which the sense of life, the fidelity to the model, the contempt for all that is abstract and typical, attest a taste not in the least Hellenic, but racy of the soil. What we call Roman art is not merely Hellenistic art imported into or copied in Italy, as has been too often asserted. It is true that the imitation of Greek works was an important factor in Roman art. From the third century before Christ onwards, the victorious generals of Rome enriched their city with a quantity of Greek masterpieces from Sicily and Southern Italy; later, after the year 150, the methodical pillage of Greece and Asia Minor began, carried on not only by military leaders and governors, but by influential private persons. On the other hand, the wealth of Rome attracted the Greek artists, who readily found purchasers for their imitations or copies of classic works; the houses, villas, and gardens of wealthy Romans, such as Lucullus or Crassus, were veritable museums. This taste for art became still more general under the Empire. Everyone knows that an eruption of Vesuvius buried Pompei and Herculaneum in A.D. 79, and that more than half of Pompei has been excavated since the year 1753. Now this third-rate town has already yielded up more paintings, statues, and statuettes than could be found to-day in most of our large provincial cities. At the same time, this invasion of Italy by Hellenism did not interfere with the parallel development of a Roman art, which 87 FIG. 129.— THE ARCH OF TITUS, ROME. APOLLO appears rather as the continuation of the na- tive art of Italy, than as a degenerate form of Greek art. Roman architecture has covered the earth with great monuments, temples, thermae, theatres, amphitheatres (or arenas), triumphal arches, and columns, eloquent witnesses to the grandeur of the Empire and its pros- perity. The temples and theatres are inspired by Greek models (Fig. 126) ; but arenas like the Roman Coliseum (Fig. 127) are novelties in the history of art, and the triumphal arches seem to have their prototypes in FIG. 130. — VIEW OF THE ROMAN AQUEDUCT. Known as the "Pont du Gard." (Photo, by Neurdcin.) FIG. 131. — INTERIOR OF THE SMALL TEMPLE OF BAALBEK, SYRIA. FIG. 132. — LIONESS AND YOUNG. Bas-relief in the Vienna Museum. (Wickhoff, Roman Arl, Heinemann, London.) the gates of the Etruscan towns rather than in the commemorative monuments of the Greek world. The Romans, following the example of the Greeks, made use of 88 ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ART FIG. 133. — FRAGMENT FROM THE ALTAR OF PEACE. Dedicated at Rome under Augustus. (WickhofT, Roman Art, Heine- mann, London.) the flat roof. But they also constructed great vaults, and domes like that of the Pantheon in Rome, no instance of which is to be found in Greek classic architec- ture. We have seen that these domes were not unknown to the Assyrians; it is probable that the Etruscans took the principle of them from the east and trans- mitted it to the Romans. Within the last few years we have learnt that the vault of the Pantheon was built in the time, not of Augustus, but of Hadrian (A.D. 1 1 7 — 1 38) . This date is of importance in the history of art, for it marks the definite adoption of a system of construction, the further development of which was to produce Byzantine and Romanesque architecture, and less di- rectly, Gothic architecture. From the first century after Christ to the time of the completion of St. Peter's at Rome, the problem of the vault never ceased to occupy architects. The various solutions they essayed had a power- ful influence on the successive styles. Vaulted architecture was so essentially a Roman product that it continued to develop when sculp- ture had sunk to uniform medio- crity. Constantine's basilica (Fig. 1 28), built after 305 A.D., with its three colossal vaults, the central one nearly 1 20 feet high, with a span of more than 80 feet, marks a great advance on former con- structions; it served as a model to the architects of the Renaissance. Bramante, when he conceived the plan of St. Peter's, said that he intended " to raise the Pantheon over the basilica of Constantine. One only among the Roman 89 FIG. I34. — AUGUSTUS AS A YOUTH. Museum of the Vatican. (Wickhoff, Roman Art, Heiaemann, London.) APOLLO 135. — BAS-RELIEF The Emperor N THE ARCH OF TITUS. Triumph. triumphal arches, that of Titus (Fig. 129), which commemorates the destruction of Jerusalem (a.D. 70), shows any actual beauty of execution; the others are chiefly interesting to archae- ologists. The same may be said of the vast utilitarian works, aqueducts (Fig. 130), bridges, dams, and sewers with which Rome endowed all parts of her Empire. It will be enough here to men- tion them in passing. A characteristic of the architecture of the Roman period, which gives it a cer- tain affinity to that of Egypt and Assyria, is its tendency to colossal proportions, as exemplified in the temples of Baalbek and of Palmyra, in Syria (Fig. 131). These temples, imitated from Greek models, are primarily remarkable for their size; the decoration is as careless as it is exuberant. But this exuberance, though it offends our taste, does not lack originality; it was in Syria mainly that the new style was elaborated, which gave birth to Byzantine decora- tive art. The sculptors of Pergamum and Rhodes had exaggerated the element of pathos. About the year 100 B.C., a reaction set in, the centres of which were Athens and Alexandria; artists returned to the types of the fifth and fourth centuries ; they even imitated archaic works; and in their paintings and bas- reliefs they represented calm, and occasionally idyllic scenes (Fig. 132). This tendency was at its height in the time of Augustus ; it is very evi- dent in the beautiful frag- ments of the Altar of Peace (B.C. 13), the minute work- manship of which suggests the art of the chaser of metal (Fig. 133), and in the portraits of the time of Augustus, notably in the charming head of the youthful Octavius in the Vatican 90 TIG. 136.— BAS-RELIEF ON THE ARCH OF TITUS. Spoils from the Temple of Jerusalem carried in Triumph. ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ART (Fig. 134), a work cold and distinguished as one of Canova's busts. From the reign of Claudius onward, this elegant and some- what timid style gave way before an art far less subser- vient to the classic tradition, a vigorous, animated, realis- tic style, good examples of which are the bas-reliefs on the Arch of Titus (Figs. 135, 1 36), and those on the column set up by Trajan on the Forum A.D. 103, representing the Roman campaigns against the Dacians (Fig. 137). Be- sides these historic bas-reliefs, others of a more decorative character have come down tf^^S?; to us (Fig. 138), showing on innn riG - J 37- — DACIAN PRISONER BROUGHT BEFORE an inno- trajan. vation in Bas-relief on the Trajan Column at Rome. Graeco- Roman art in the form of leaves, flowers, and fruit realistically treated, an abandonment of the conventions that governed plant-form in Greek classic decoration, the chief features of which were the conventionalised palm and acanthus leaf. This picturesque and expressive Gchool also threw off the old trammels in its representation of animals (Fig. 139). From the Alexandrine period onward, occasional signs of an unexpected return to naturalism appear. It was, however, short-lived. To find later ex- amples of decoration based directly upon nature, the student of art must pass over ten centuries and go to Gothic architecture. After the death of Trajan in 117, a fresh Attic and archaistic reaction took place, mani- festing itself notably in the reign of Hadrian by the execution of a large number of copies of classic sculpture, and by the creation of the ideal type of Antinoiis, the favourite of Hadrian, a type inspired by the traditions of the fifth and fourth century before Christ 91 FIG. 138- — PILASTER OF THE MONUMENT TO THE HATERII. (Lateran Museum, Rome.) (Wickhoff, Roman Art, Heinemann, London.) APOLLO On Holy FIG. I39. — EAGLE. Bas-relief in the Church of the Apostles at Rome. (Wickhoff, Roman Art, Heinemann, London.) (Figs. 140, 141). The numerous statues erected in honour of Antinoiis, after his early and mysterious death, are frigid imitations of Greek works, and have nothing in common with the realistic portraiture of Roman art. After the middle of the second century, Roman sculp- ture degenerated in Italy. Though it continued occa- sionally to produce fine rea- listic busts of emperors, like that of Caracalla, plastic art fell more and more under the influence of the school that had developed in Asia Minor and Assyria. In these rich provinces, which were never Roman in anything but name, a sort of orientalised Hellenistic art flourished, that had undergone late Persian, i.e. Sassanian influences. This art, as yet but little known, was, at least, to some extent, the source of Byzantine art. In addition to the historic bas- reliefs, the finest examples of which are furnished by the Arch of Titus, and the buildings of Trajan, sculpture of the Imperial Epoch produced a number of admirable portraits, modelled from life, and marked by great individuality. These realistic por- traits are inspired not only by Hellenistic influences, but also, and perhaps to a greater degree, by the traditions of antique Italian art. In this connection it is in- teresting to compare a portrait of Augustus, from a Greek work- shop in Rome, with a portrait of Nerva executed a century later, in which the realistic tendency is as vigorously asserted as in any portrait by Donatello or by Rodin (Fig. 142). The painting of the Roman period is known to us in the numerous 92 FIG. 140.— HEAD OF ANT1NOUS. Crowned with Ivy, as Dionysus. (Cast in the University of Strasburg, from a lost original.) ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ART frescoes at Pompei, as well as in the stucco decorations of the walls of houses and tombs in Rome and in the provinces. We also possess the first essays of Christian pic- torial art, executed in the cata- combs from the second to the fourth century. I pass over the mosaics, very numerous in Italy and more especially in Africa, because they are not, strictly speaking, works of art; but they would play an im- portant part in any study of the evolution of ornament. Roman painting was not in any sense a mere continuation of Hellenic painting. Here, again, side by side with Greek works, easily recognisable by the vigour of the drawing and the more or less deliberate imitation of bas- reliefs, we find, from the middle of the first century, manifestations of an original style, especially at Pompei. This style is not unlike that of the modern Impressionists; it is characterised by the use of patches of light and colour, sometimes producing the most charming effect. Certain mural decorations at Pompei, executed in this style, have not been surpassed in our own times. Did it originate in Rome or in Alexandria? It is difficult to say ; but it is certain that it flourished in Italy, and that no examples of it have survived elsewhere. There is a wonderful specimen in Rome itself, the Eros rvilh a Ladder, of the Casino Rospigliosi, a fresco so free p.— portraits of nerva and of j n execution that it might (Mu.seumTtheV.Ucan.) easil y ^^f^ l ° F ™ S ' (Photo, by Anderson.) onard (Fig. 143). 93 FIG 141. — ANTINOUS AS DIONYSUS. (Museum of the Vatican.) Mj^^^ "^ I' J % — A APOLLO Thus we see that the accepted idea of Roman art as a long and monotonous decadence is as contrary to fact as to historic laws. Wholly incontestable, however, is the retrogressive evolution of Hellenic art and classic tradition, which was modified by the inter- mixture of Oriental elements in Asia, though it still clung to antique types and formulae, and was finally merged in Byzantine art. But side by side with this obsolescent art sprang up, as early as the first cen- tury after Christ, a realism which may fitly be called Roman, since its masterpieces were produced in Rome, a realism which seems to have had its root in Italian soil. Throughout the Middle Ages the tv^o opposing principles were ar- rayed against each other. Byzan- tine art lowered for a long time over the western countries like a nightmare; but the day came when Italian realism, brought into touch with the French realism of the four- teenth century, triumphed, and the Renaissance was the result. At the present day, Byzantine art still prevails in Greece, Turkey, and Russia, the ancient religious domain of Byzantium, while the western nations have a wholly different art, akin to the realism of the Romans. - - ' "1 ) -r *! Est & *p |frjr -- ' ^4r^ ;: hi WJ 1 -^a ^ ''^Sm *? ''■ J 1 v% !*— ' — - .-.] FIG. 143. — EROS WITH A LADDER. Antique painting in the Casino Rospigliosi at Rome. (Wickhoff, Roman Art, Heinemann, London.) BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER X. J. Martha, L'Art ftrusque, Paris, 1899; Arche'ologte e'trusque et romaine, Paris, no date; A. Choisy, Histoire de I 'Architecture, vol. i., Paris, 1899; F. Wickhoff, Roman Art, translated by Eugenie Strong, London, 1900 (German original, Wiener Genesis); J. Strzygowski, Orient oder Rom, Leipzig, 1901 (cf. Rec. archeoi, 1903, ii., p. 318); E. Courbaud, Le Bas-relief romain, Paris, 1899; M. Collignon, Style decoratif a Rome au iemps d'Auguste (Revue de I' Art, 1897, ii., p. 97); E. Petersen, Ara Pads Augusts, Vienna, 1903; A. Mau et F. Kelsey, Pompei, its Life and Art, London, 1899; P. Gusman, Pompei, English translation, London, 1900; Thddenat, Pompei, 2 vols., Paris, 1906 ; R. Cagnat, La Resurrection d'une Ville antique, Timgad (Gazette des Beaux-Arls, 1898, ii., p. 209); Alois Riegl, Die spa'trbmische Kunstindustrie, Vienna, 1901 (cf. Byzantinische Zeilschnft, 1902, p. 263); J. J. Bernoulli, Rbmische Ikono- graphic, 4 vols., Stuttgart, 1882-1894. Many reproductions of buildings are to be found in V. Duruy's Histoire da Romains and Histoire des Grecs. 94 XI CHRISTIAN ART IN THE EAST AND IN THE WEST The terms Early Christian and Byzantine Art explained. — The Catacombs in Rome- Early Christian Paintings and Symbols.— Early Christian Sarcophagi.— Early Christian Churches built on the flan of the Roman Basilicas. — St. Paul without-the-W alls Rome — Decoration Mosaics at Rome and at Ravenna. — Sanf Apollinare Nuovo and Sunt' Apollmare in Uasse. — St. Sophia at Constantinople. — The Iconoclasts. — The Byzantine Renaissance. — Byzantine Ivories, Enamels, Miniatures, and Metal-work. — The Decline of Byzantine Art.— Arab and Moorish Art.— The Mosque of Amrou.— The Alhamhra.—The Persistence of the Byzantine Tradition in Russia and Southern Italy. — St. Mark's Church, Venice. The Byzantine Tradition discarded by Giotto and Duccio. The term Christian Art was first used in the nineteenth century by the historian Alexis Rio, who died in 1874. Properly speaking, it applies to all manifestations of art in countries where Chris- tianity has prevailed, from the first paintings in the Roman catacombs to the works of our own day. It is, however, usual to reserve the term Early Christian Art for that of the western Christian coun- tries down to the time of Charlemagne, after which the Romanesque epoch begins. The distinctive term Byzan- tine Art is applied to that of Eastern Christendom, from the time when Byzantium became the capital in 330 A.D. until the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, and even later. Although monuments of each of these arts exist in all the Medi- terranean countries, in a rapid survey, such as ours, we must study them mainly in their three principal centres: Rome, Ravenna, and Constantinople. The Catacombs at Rome are subterranean galleries where the early Christians buried their dead and held certain periodic services 95 , mm ~ FIG. I44-— PAINTING IN THE CATACOMBS. ORPHEUS CHARMING THE BEASTS, ETC. (Woermann, Gesckichte der Malerei, Seemann, Leipzig.) APOLLO Representing the Virgin and Child, with a Prophet ( ?) . (Liell, Herder, in their honour. They were used for these purposes from the yeai 1 00 to about the year 420. When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire the Christians had no longer any need to make these galleries their sepulchres, and they used burial- places above the ground. Indi- vidual Christians, however, continued to be buried in the Catacombs occasionally, that their bones might rest beside those of the martyrs. Early Christian art showed no aversion from imagery, but it was I tfiar opposed to the representation of God, and that of the crucified Jesus does not appear till the fifth cen- tury. Speaking generally, sculpture in the round was repugnant to the early Christians, because the idols of heathen temples were statues. The Catacombs were decorated chiefly with paintings, and with stucco reliefs. Among these works of art, there are some which set forth inci- dents in the Old and the New Testament; there are also allegorical figures, like that of the Good Shepherd (Jesus), bringing back the lost sheep to the fold, Orpheus charming the beasts (Fig. 144), a fish, symbolising sometimes the Saviour, and sometimes the faithful, a peacock, typifying eternity. But the examination and ex- position of these motives must not detain us; it is a special branch of archaeology. Suffice it to say that the art of the Catacombs is only to be dis- tinguished from that of the pagan by the motives it treats, and those it avoids (notably nude figures). In style it is closely akin to the decorative Maricn-Darsldluugen, Freiburg. J FIG. 146- CHRISTIAN SARCOPHAGUS. (Salona, Dalmalia.) CFrom Garrucci's Storia dcW Arte Cristiana.) art of Pompei, and it never succeeded in giving to its personages an expression of purity and beatitude in harmony with the moral 96 FIG. 147. — INTERIOR OF THE BASILICA OF ST. PAUL WITHOUT-THE-WALLS. (Liibke, Architektur, Seemann, Leipzig.) CHRISTIAN ART IN THE EAST AND IN THE WEST and religious ideal of Christianity. To convince ourselves of this, we need but examine the Virgin and Child with a Prophet (Isaiah?), a motive which appears in a Roman painting of the third century (Fig. 145). Here there is nothing Chris- tian but the subject. At the time when Chris- tianity finally triumphed over Paganism, wealthy pagans of- ten caused themselves to be buried in large marble troughs called sarcophagi, decorated with reliefs inspired by myth- ology, or dealing with the earthly career of the de- ceased. The Christians fol- lowed the pagan example, save that episodes from the Scriptures replaced those of fable, and the artists who carved these monuments were so accustomed to the introduction of certain decorative motives, that we still see on Christian sarcophagi, Medusa-heads, griffins, and cupids, the primi- tive pagan sense of which had been forgotten. As works of art, the Christian sarcophagi are of little interest. They have' all the defects of the Roman sculpture of the period, heaviness, crowded composi- tion, incorrect drawing. The interpretation of subjects from sacred history is nearly al- ways prosaic or clumsy. The best examples are those which deal with motives commemo- rating the life of the deceased, and refer to his faith only by a symbolic figure like that of the Good Shepherd carrying the sheep (Fig. 146). Architecture was no more successful than painting and sculpture in discovering a new formula, when it was applied to the building of temples for the new faith. The Christian Church is a place for the gathering together 97 FIG. 148.— THE EMPRESS THEODORA AND HER COURT. Mosaic in the Church of San Vitale, at Ravenna. APOLLO FIG. I4p. INTERIOR OF SANT' APOLLINARE IN CLASSE, RAVENNA. of the faithful, thus differing essentially from the pagan temple, which was the abode of the divinity. The first Christian churches were accordingly modelled on those enclosed places of assembly known as basilicas. Instead of serving as tribunals or mar- kets, they were used for public worship; here, again, the new wine was put into old bottles. Among the Roman basi- licas, that of St. Paul without- the-Walls, built by Constantine and restored after a fire in 1 823, may be cited as a cha- racteristic example (Fig. 147). It consists of a large nave with a horizontal roof, and of two lower side-aisles; the central nave is lighted by win- dows above the side - aisles. At the end is a gate called the Triumphal Arch, behind which is the altar; the end wall is circular and forms the apse. Both apse and triumphal arch are richly decorated with glass and mosaics on a blue or gold ground, the splendour of which rivals that of goldsmiths' enamels. These mosaics ornament the vertical walls and the vaults, instead of forming pavements as in the Roman houses and temples. Speci- mens of them, very beautiful in colour, and grandiose though frigid in style, are to be seen in Rome, and at Ravenna (Fig. 1 48) , which was the seat of the Roman Court from 404, the resi- dence of Theodoric, King of the Goths, about 500, and an appanage of Byzantium from 534 to 752. Several churches of the sixth century still exist, as Sant' Apollinare Nuovo, Sant' Apollinare 98 ISO. — INTERIOR OF SANT APOI.LINAKE NUOVO, RAVENNA. (Photo, by Alinari.) CHRISTIAN ART IN THE EAST AND IN THE WEST .. 151. — EXTERIOR OF SANT* APOLLINARE IN CLASSE, RAVENNA. (Lubke, Arckitektur, Seeraann, Leipzig.) in Classe (on the ancient port) and San Vitale : the last is a circular domed building, in which Byzantine influences are very apparent; the others are basilicas, the interiors of which are striking and majestic, though their external aspect is neither graceful nor dignified (Figs. 149-151). If the architectural type of the basilica, characterised by its rectangular plan and flat roof, predominates in the churches in Italy, those of Constantinople applied and developed the principle of the dome. The great church of Byzantium, St. Sophia (Fig. 152), was built between 532 and 562 under Justinian, by Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus, that is to say, by Asiatic architects. We have seen that the cupola was known to the Assyrians; the tradition had been preserved in Persia, whence it spread into Syria towards the third century after Christ, passing from Syria into Asia Minor in the following centuries. The archi- tects of St. Sophia were probably inspired by Asiatic models, and not by the Roman Pantheon. As all the world knows, this famous Byzantine temple has been a Turkish mosque since 1453. The mosaics are covered with white- wash, but, as a whole, the building is in good preserva- tion. The superficies of the in- terior is over 23,000 square feet. Passing through two vast porticoes, we stand beneath a huge vault some 1 86 feet high and over 1 00 feet wide. About the middle of the nineteenth century, when some restorations were being carried out in the mosque, permission was given to copy the mosaic figures in water-colours. Although the compositions themselves, dealing with episodes in the history of Justinian, are 99 FIG. 152.— ST, SOPHIA AT CONSTANTINOPLE APOLLO tp^^WWff^glM lk ,! ^\.--^;3^^3| feg^^^feffl JS^fT^^^^^mM ^fife'' '.tj^M iftii«H3 FIG. IS3. — INTERIOR OF ST. SOPHIA AT CONSTANTINOPLE. poor in design and mediocre in conception, the splendour of the mosaics must have added greatly to the grandeur of the general effect (Fig. 153). Even under present conditions, we are dazzled by walls faced with marble slabs, multi- coloured columns supporting galleries, the sparkle of cubes of mosaic made of gilded glass. The luxury of By- zantine art lay in splendour, in the profusion of colour and gilding. It is a truly Asiatic luxury, which found inspiration in the Persia of the Sassamdes, and took as its models the carpets of the Orientals, rather than the severe creations of Graeco-Roman art. In the sculptured ornament of capitals and friezes, the human figure is con- spicuously absent; all is purely geometrical and conventional. Christian art went through a redoubtable crisis at Byzantium in connection with the ascetic heresy of the image-breakers, called the Iconoclasts, who gained the upper hand for a time. During the eighth and part of the ninth century, these fanatics destroyed a great number of works of art, both at Con- stantinople and in the provinces of the Empire. The Byzantine sculptors and mosaicists had to quit their native land, and some of them came to work at Aix-la-Chapelle, at the Court of Charlemagne. The suppression of I this heresy, about the year 850, was the signal for an artistic renaissance that endured throughout the tenth and part of the eleventh Byzantine : ivory executed 3 . f r . , about 1,000 A. D. century, an epoch of great prosperity and ( Museum, Utrecht.) military glory for the Byzantine Empire. (Schlumberger, Epopee It was also, to a certain degree, a period Bymmiine, Pans.) of intellectual renaissance, for the best manu- scripts of the Greek writers date from this time ; there was even an attempted reaction of liberal philosophy against the theocratic 100 PIG . 1 54. — VIRGIN AND CHILD. CHRISTIAN ART IN THE EAST AND IN THE WEST Carrousel, the buildings date from the time of Catherine de' Medici (1566-1578). The rest of the Louvre on the riverside was constructed by Ducerceau under Henry IV., but was restored by Lefuel under Napoleon III. (1863- 1868). The part of the Louvre courtyard which we owe to Lescot (south - west) struck the note that was taken up fig. 213.-CHATEA11 oe chambord. by y s successors, and it is not too much to say that this courtyard affords the most admirable view of a palace in existence (Fig. 218). On the outside, facing the Rue du Louvre, Louis XIV. com- missioned Claude Perrault to build a long monotonous fagade with double columns (Fig. 219), which gives the measure of the distance be- tween the art of the French Re- naissance and that of the age of Louis XIV. Even the exquisite grace of a Lescot seemed frivolous to that age; its artists no longer sought inspiration in the Italy of the sixteenth century, but found their models in imperial Rome. The style then adopted is 139 jgHront, ll« Sp» l "lJTfllE3fFl'l^ w? Sip t-^-^-rrfca! STAIRCASE IN THE CASTLE OF BLOIS. APOLLO kno'/n as the academic style, because it was enforced mainly by tl e Academies of Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture founded by Mazarin (1648) and by Colbert (1671). Perrault's colonnade and the facade of the Palace of Versailles, com- pleted by Jules Hardouin Mansard (1646-1708), are memorable examples of this sad, solemn, and lofty style, in which symmetry is the supreme law, and every pic- turesque and unexpected ele- ment is banished. Mansard's best work is the dome of the Invalides (1675-1706), the silhouette of which, at once elegant and majestic (Fig. 220), is much finer than that of the Pantheon by Soufflot (1757-1784). The imposing facade of St. Sulpice ( 1 733) is the work of an Italian 215. — SAINT GERMAIN-EN-LAYE. (Restoration.) HG. 216. — CASTLE OF HEIDELBERG. Part built by the Elector-Palatine, Otto Henry (1556-1550). -CASTLE OF HEIDELBERG. Part built by the Elector-Palatine, Frederick IV. (1601-1607). architect, Servandoni (Fig. 221). The two Garde-Meubles, on the Place de la Concorde, akin to Perrault's colonnade, but greatly 140 RENAISSANCE AND MODERN ARCHITECTURE superior to it, are due to Gabriel, the best architect of the time of Louis XV. These fine buildings have one very unsuitable feature, the flat Italian roofs, so ill- adapted to the climate of Paris. As it is abso- lutely necessary to warm them, the roofs have been crowned by a forest of chimney - pots, which produce a somewhat gro- tesque effect. Gothic archi- tecture endured a new lease of life [To this transitional FIG. 218. — COURTYARD Or THE LOUVRE, WEST FRONT. longer in England than elsewhere, and took under the name of Tudor Style ( 1 485-1 558) . style belong the Royal Chapels, St. George's at Windsor and Henry VII. 's Chapel, Westminster Abbey (Fig. 222), with their unique system of fan-vaulting. Hampton Court Palace is a charming example of the Tudor Style as applied to domestic architecture (Fig. 234).] Renaissance ar- chitecture only flourished in the time of Charles I., when it was rep resen ted principally by I n i go Jones (1572 - 1662), the author of the beautiful Ban- queting Hall of Whitehall, Lon- don (Fig. 223), and by Chris- topher Wren (1 632-1 723), the architect of the vast church of St. Paul s, a building inspired by St. Peter's at Rome, though not copied from it (Fig. 224). 141 FIG. 219.— COLONNADE OF THE LOUVRE. APOLLO pen I gf i FT^R 9 (JiiliU g The delightful art of the eighteenth century showed its influence on archi- tecture only in little sylvan buildings and in interiors. The origin of the style known as Rococo is probably to be found in the ornamentation of woodwork, which passed from furniture to rooms. Pilasters, colonnades, and flat mouldings disappear, and are replaced by garlands, festoons, shells, a profusion of sinuous lines entwin- ing and interlacing; every detail of orna- ment aims at coming as a surprise to the spectator. With all this we find FIG. 220. — THE DOME OF THE 1NVALIDES, PARIS. an exquisite sense of proportion, and marvellous dexterity of execution (Fig. 225). At the outset of Louis XVI. 's reign a reaction, which had been in process of pre- paration from about the year 1 760, declared itself ; this was the revival of the Academic Style, improperly called the Empire Style, because it ■ ^rj?- ja- j ■¥ ; -* Jt^- 221. — ST. SULPICE, PARIS. FIG. 222. — HENRY VIT.'s CHAPEL, WESTMINSTER ABBEY. (Photo, by Spooner.) reached its apogee un- der N apo- leon I. Here, again, it was not the Italy of the Renaissance which gave the example; the antique was the avowed source of inspiration, and architects even ventured to set up in Paris copies of Roman monuments, such as the Madeleine (begun in 1 764) , the triumphal arches of the Carrousel and of the Etoile (Fig. 226), and the Vendome column. One general even proposed, about the year 1 798, to bring the Trajan column to Paris. These were errors of taste that had never been committed during the Renaissance. The qualities of the 142 RENAISSANCE AND MODERN ARCHITECTURE ^ ► »mnm«.«^||^? "*******& -BANQUETING HALL, WHITEHALL, LONDON. (Photo, by Spooner.) Empire style are purely executive; invention and sentiment have no part in them. Under the Restoration and the July Monarchy, these qualities were lost, and no compensating originality replaced them. Happily, this disas- trous mania for the imi- tation of the antique was tempered in certain artists — notably Duban, the author of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, completed about l 860 — by a delicate feeling for detail de- rived from the direct study of Greek monuments, and by a return to the severe elegance of great Florentines such as fig. 223.- Brunellesco and Bramante (Fig. 227). At the same time, ViolIet-le-Duc, a learned writer of the highest order, who was also a distinguished architect, boldly enounced the programme of a new architecture, emancipated from the exclusive cult of past styles, and seeking its way in the rational satisfaction of modern wants. He foretold the advent of construction in iron, and its promotion from the domain of industry to that of art. Labrouste, in the Bibliotheque Ste. Genevieve, and the Reading Room of the Biblio- theque Nationale ( I 859), and Due, in the Salle des Pas I Perdus of the Palais de Jus- j tice, admirable constructions well suited to their respective uses, seem to have been inspired by these ideas, which did not reach full fruition till much later. The close of the Second Empire witnessed a revival of Italian architecture, especially the Venetian architecture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to which are due Ballu's Church of La Trinite and Garnier's Grand Opera House (Fig. 228) This tendency still persists, modified by a rather more severe 1 43 FIG. 224. — ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, LONDON. APOLLO taste. The last important buildings erected in Paris, the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais (Fig. 229), are Renaissance buildings, the decora- tive elements in which are borrowed from an- tiquity, but which are no mere copies of Greek or Roman monuments. On the other hand, works of metallic architecture, which have multiplied rapidly since 1878, mark a more or less deliberate reaction against the traditional art of the schools. Engineering feats, like the Tour Eiffel and the Palais des Machines, with their soaring vertical lines, the marked predominance of empty spaces over solid surfaces, and the lightness of their frankly displayed framework, are much more closely akin to the conceptions of Gothic architecture, a renaissance of which, in different materials, and governed by a secular spirit, is quite among the possibilities of the future. The examples I have given here are mainly French. I have chosen these as conveniently typical, and not because other countries have not also produced notable monuments. In the case of these, I can only indicate the filiation of styles. The German Renaissance, interrupted by the Thirty Years' War, was followed by the imitation of French and Italian styles, by the Academic, the Baroque, and the Rococo styles. The finest ex- ample of the Baroque style in Germany is the Pavilion of the Zwinger (bas- tion) at Dresden (Fig. 230), the work of Pop- pelmann ( I / I j), fig. 220. —arc de triomphe lie l'etoile, paris. 144 FIG. 225. — DECORATIVE PANEL IN THE CHATEAU OF VERSAILLES. 227-— COURTYARD OP THE ECOI.E DES BEAUX-ARTS, PARIS. RENAISSANCE AND MODERN ARCHITECTURE L^lWff ° f L the £ R 7 al r Pala « of Berlin, Andreas Schliiter Id. I / 14), author of the fine bronze statue of the Great Elector in the same city, revealed superior gifts in unfavour- able surround- ings. In the nine- teenth century, Schinkel and Klenze may be cited as the pro- tagonists of the dominant neo- Gr e e k style, frigid as are all imitations, weari- some as are all anachronisms. Meanwhile, at Dresden and at Vienna, a new evolution in the direction of the Italian Renaissance took place about 1 850. It is to this movement that Vienna owes her fine modern buildings, notably the two Imperial Museums by Semper and Hasenauer (Fig. 231). [In England, the national variant of the Renaissance style was carried on in the eight- eenth century by the followers of Wren: Van- brugh, Colin Campbell, Kent, Lord Burlington, Gibbs, and the Brothers Adam. Pari passu with the architecture of these men advanced a charming style of fur- niture and decoration, of which Sheraton, Chip- pendale, and Hepple- white were the chief exponents. On their works the style so greatly in vogue at the present day is based. The neo-Greek style, suggested by the publica- tions of Stuart, Revett, and others, followed closely upon this 145 FIG. 228.— FAfADE OF THE OPERA HOUSE, PARIS. APOLLO Renaissance; the Baroque and Rococo styles were hardly known in England.] Then, as if by way of return to the national style, there was a recrudescence of perpendicular Gothic, the most important example of which is the Houses of Parlia- ment (Fig. 232), built by Barry on the banks of the Thames ( 1 840- 1860). Finally, Belgium raised in the nineteenth cen- tury the most huge accumulation of freestone in Europe, the Palais de Justice at Brussels (Fig. 233), in style a conglomeration of Assyrian and Renaissance influences, the effect of which is by no means proportionate to the vast expense and labour involved. FIG. 22Q.— THE PETIT PALAIS, PARIS. FIG. 230. — PAVILION OF THE 2WINGER, DRESDEN. FIG. 231. — NEW IMPERIAL MUSEUM, VIENNA. (L'Arl en Tableaux, Seemann, Leipzig.) (Liibke, Architektur, Seemann, Leipzig.) Nevertheless, in England and Belgium, there has sprung up within the last few years a new style, which seems 146 RENAISSANCE AND MODERN ARCHITECTURE destined to put an end to the imitation of antique and Re- naissance models in our day, even more effectually than the introduction of iron buildings. It was in England, under the influence of the aesthetic writer, Ruskin, William Morris, and other artists, seconded by the painters Burne-Jones and Walter Crane, that the move- ¥IG 232 ._ HOUSES 0F mrl „ u ,ent, london. ment originated which trans- formed the interiors of houses, substituting for trite and con- ventional models, in furniture, hangings, and applied orna- ments, expressive forms, or at least forms which are intended to be expressive. Then two Belgian architects, Hankar and Horta, ventured, towards the year 1 893, to apply equally bold principles to ex- ternal decoration, waging war upon imitation and breaking with all tradition. An Aus- FIO. 23 3--PALA.S DE JUSTICE, BRUSSELS. ^ Q^ Wagner , became acquainted with this Belgian movement, and initiated a new school of FIG. 234— WEST SIDE OF THE GUEAT QUADRANGLE, HAMPTON COURT PALACE. (Photo, by Spooner.) 147 APOLLO construction at Vienna, to which the term "Secessionist " was applied, a name which sufficiently indicates its independent and even rebel- lious character. From Vienna, the " heresy " spread to Berlin, Darmstadt, and even Paris, but so far the new style has had no opportunity of manifesting itself there in a public building. To define this new Anglo-Austro-Belgian style would be almost im- possible, for it has no credo, and seeks its way in very diverse directions. But its existence is a well-established fact, which proclaims itself in the disposition and arrangement of private buildings. In its determination to belong to its own times, to reject anachronisms, it is related, in spite of individual aberrations, to the great programme of good sense and good taste laid down about 1 860 by Viollet-le-Duc. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER XIV. W. Liibke, Geschichte der A rchitektur, 6th ed., 2 vols., Leipzig, 1886; E. Miintz, Histoire de I'Arl pendant la Renaissance, 3 vols., Paris, 1889-1891 ; E. Hanel, Spdtgothik und Renais- sance, Stuttgart, 1899; J. Durm, Die Baukunsi der Renaissance in Italien, Stuttgart, 1903; A. G. Meyer, Oberitalienische Fruhrenaissance, Berlin, 1 896 ; L. Palustre, La Renaissance en France (Le Nord, 2 vols., Bretagne, 1 vol.), Paris, 1879-1888; L'Archit. de la Renaissance, Paris, no date; W. Liibke, Geschichte der Renaissance in Frankreich (A rchitektur), Stuttgart, 1883 ; H. von Geymiiller, Die Baufaunst der Renaissance in Frankreich, Stuttgart, 1901 ; M. Vachon, L 'Hotel de Ville de Paris (Bulletin Monumental, 1903, p. 438) ; G. von Bezold, Die Baukunst der Renaissance in Deutschland, Holland, Belgien und Danemarfa, Stuttgart, 1899 ; M. Reymond, Les Debuts de {'Architecture de la Renaissance (Gazette, 1900, L, p. 89) ; A. Doren, Zum Bau der Florentiner Domkuppel {Repertorium, 1898, p. 249) ; C. von Fabriczy, Fit Brunelleschi, Stuttgart, 1892; L. Scott, Brunellesco, London, 1902; Luca Beltrami, Sioria docum. della Ccrtosa di Pavia, Milan, 1896; A. G. Meyer, Die Certosa bei PaVia, Berlin, 1900; Aug. Schmarsow, Barok und Rokoko, Leipzig, 1896; Gust. Eve, Die Schmc.ckformen der Monumentalbauten , VI. Spat renaissance und Barockperiode, Berlin, 1896 ; A. F. Calvert, Moorish Remains in Spain, London, 1906; A. Haupt, Die Baukunst der Renais- sance in Portugal, 2 vols., Frankfort, 1894; C. Justi, Philipp II. als Kunstfreund (Zeit- schrifl fiir bildende Kunst, 1881, p. 342, on the Escorial) ; M. Rosenberg, Quellen zur Geschichte des Heidelberger Schlosses, Heidelberg, 1882; A. Haupt, Peter Fleltner, der erste Meister des Otto-Heinrichbaus zu Heidelberg, Leipzig, 1904 (ci. Repertorium, 1905, p. 63). C. Lemmonier, Philibert de Lorme (Revue de I'Arl, 1898. i., p. 123); C tc de Clarac, Le Louvre et les Tuileries (vol. i. of the text of the Muse'e de Sculpture), Paris, 1841 ; A. Babeau, Le Louvre, Paris, 1895; L: Vitet, Le Nouveau Louvre (Reoue des Deux Mondes, July 1 , 1866); E. Bonnefon, Claude Per rau It (Gazette, 1901 , ii., p. 209) ; P. de Nolhac, Histoire du Chateau de Versailles, Paris, 1899; La Creation de Versailles (Revue de I'Art, 1898, i„ p. 399); Le Versailles de Mansart {Gazette, 1902, i., p. 209); L. Courajod, Lemons professe'es al Ecole du Louvre, vol. iii., Paris, 1903 (Origincs de I'Art modeme, rococo, baroque, style jesuite, acade'misme) ; Lady Dilke, French Architects and Sculptors of the XVIII th Century, London, 1900; F. Mazerolle, /. D. Anloine, architecte de la Monnaie (Reunion des Societes savants des Beaux-Arts, 1897, p. 1038); R. Miles, Les Maisons de plaisance du XVIIfc siecle, Paris, 1900; C. Sechlle, Charles Gamier (Gazette, 1898, ii., p. 341); O. Reichelt, Das Zwingerge- baude in Dresden (Deutsche Bauzeitung, 1898, p. 410) ; H. Ziller, Schinkel, Bielefeld, 1896; L.Gonse, Les Nouveaux Palais des Musees d Vienne {Gazette, 1891, ii., p. 353); C. Seville, L Architecture modeme en A nglcterre (Gazette, 1886, i., p. 89) ; H. Fierens-Gevaert, NouVeaux Essais sur I'Art coniemporain, Paris, 1903 (on the new Austro- Belgian school, and kindred tendencies). 148 XV THE RENAISSANCE AT SIENA AND FLORENCE The Renaissance in Italy no mere Revival of Classicism. — The First Renaissance the Logical Development of Gothic Art. — The Apulian School of Sculptors. — Niccold Pisano. — The Legend of Cimabue and Giotto a Myth. — Duccio of Siena and his School. — Giotto and his Frescoes at Assisi and Florence. — The Giotteschi. — Fra Angelico and Benozzo Gozzoli. — Masaccio, Paolo Uccello, Andrea del Castagno. — Verrocchio, Sculptor and Painter. — Botticelli. — Ghirlandajo. — Filippino Lippi. — Piero di Cosimo and Lorenzo di Credi. — Piero dei Franceschi and Luca Signorelli. — The Character of Florentine Painting. — Florentine Sculpture. — Donatello, Verrocchio, Desiderio da Settignano. — facopo della Quercia. — Luca delta Robbia. — Andrea Sansooino. — Fifteenth Century Florence compared with the Athens of Pericles. — The Living, or Tactile Quality of the Highest Art. THE plastic and pictorial art of the Renaissance is not to be defined as an imitation of classic models. In Italy, as in the north and east of France, there was an initial Renais- sance in the fourteenth cen- tury, which owed little, if anything, to antiquity. It was the logical development of the great Gothic style, passing gradually to naturalism, from the art of the imagiers under St. Louis, to that of the por- FIG. 236. THE NATIVITY. NICCOLA PISANO. (Pulpit in the Baptistery at Pisa.1 PIC. 235. THE CRUCIFIXION. NICCOLA PISANO. (Pulpit in the Baptistery at Pisa.) traitists of the time of Charles V. Gothic naturalism found its way into Italy, and awoke Italian realism, which had been slumbering for a cen- tury (c/. p. 91 ). But whereas in France and Flanders, na- turalism was unbridled and soon degenerated into triviality, in Italy, thanks to the dawn of Humanism and the study of antique examples, it was chastened and disciplined, and learned to desire beauty even 149 237- — CHRIST BEFORE PILATE. DTJCCTO. (Siena Cathedral.) (Photo, by Lombard!.) APOLLO before expression. Thus the part played by antiquity was that of a teacher, not of a mother; it regulated, but it did not create, the Renaissance. One art does not act upon another by mere propinquity. Before any such action takes place, the second must have reached a point in its natural evolution, at which it is pecu- liarly sensitive to the first. From the fifth to the fifteenth century it never occurred to the Italians to imitate their antique buildings; they used them merely as quarries. A barbaric Rome rose side by side with imperial Rome. About the year 1 240, a school of sculptors and engravers, who took as their models the busts and coins of the Roman Empire, rose in Apulia, under the fostering guidance of the Emperor Frederick II. This school lasted barely forty years. Niccola of Apulia, an artist who had worked for Frederick, and who was afterwards more famous as Niccola Pisano, came to Pisa, and there, in 1 260, carved the pulpit of the Baptis- tery, a work which, while Gothic in form, is decorated with bas- reliefs so skilfully imitated from those on Roman sarcophagi that they might easily be mistaken for antiques (Figs. 235 and 236). This astounding resurrection of the antique ideal is an iso- lated phenomenon, and bore no fruit. Niccola's own son, Giovanni Pisano, was a pure realist of the Gothic school, who probably drew his in- spiration from French and Rhenish sources. Before Italy became susceptible to the teachings of her Roman past, she had to pass through a Gothic period, of which the first Renaissance, made memorable by Giotto and Duccio, marks, not the close, but the apogee. Indeed, the Gothic spirit, modified 150 FIG. 238. — HEROD'S FEAST. GIOTTO. (Church of S. Croce, Florence.) THE RENAISSANCE AT SIENA AND FLORENCE FIG. 239. — THE ANNUNCIATION. ERA ANGELICO. (Church of Cortona.) by the influences of Flanders and the valley of the Rhine, did not die out in Italy till the sixteenth century. It was only then that Greeco-Roman aesthetics definitely prevailed, and inaugurated the propa- gandist movement which has assured its domination down to our own times. 1 In the middle of the six- teenth century it was generally believed in Florence that cer- tain Byzantine painters, who had been summoned to the town about the year 1 260, awakened the latent talent of Cimabue, and that this artist was the first Italian painter, just as Adam was the first man. The legend went on to tell how Cimabue, in his turn, discovered the genius of the shepherd, Giotto, by seeing him draw the outline of a sheep on the rock with a sharp stone. These tales are mere fables. Cimabue was a worker in mosaic; no authen- ticated pictures by him are known to us. Siena, the rival city of Florence, produced the first Italian painter of genius, Duccio, who had evidently seen and studied the Byzantine paint- ings and enamels (1255-1319). Duccio combined with a sense of grandiose composition a broad, if as yet not very delicate, feeling for line (Fig. 237). He was the first to translate into true pic- tures, that is to say, expressive groupings of figures, the painted were formulated by Leon rje Laborde in 240. — THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN FRA ANGELICO. (The Louvre.) 1 These ideas, which I have summed up in a few lines, 1 849 and further developed by Courajod in 1 890. 151 APOLLO chronicles of the Middle Ages, which pious souls had spelt out for centuries as a kind of Bible for the unlettered. Duccio was the progenitor of a numerous family of painters at , Siena, among them Simone FIG. 241 THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. BENOZZO GOZZOLI. (Palazzo Riccardi, Florence.) Martini, called Memmi, the Lorenzetti, and Taddeo Bar- tolo, who, though they did not equal the Florentines in power, surpassed them perhaps in passion, poetry, and tender- ness. A little Sienese picture of the highest quality is a feast for the eyes; but works of the first rank are rare in this school, which produced too quickly and too abun- dantly. The weakness of the Sienese school was, that it aimed rather at expression and emotion than at perfection of form, that it " marked time," so to speak, and was incapable of following the Florentines on the salutary path of naturalism while preserving its distinctive charm. By the middle of the fifteenth century, the vitality of the Sienese school was exhausted. Thenceforth, Florence, who had learnt from her in the be- ginning, sent artists to her. The first of the great Flor- entine painters was Giotto, who died in 1 336. Was he influenced by Duccio? It is possible. But his great merit lies in his having rejected the Byzantine tradition, which continued to hold Duccio in thrall. To understand Giotto, -J and, indeed, nearly all the fig. 242. — the medici watching the building Italian masters, it is necessary OF THE TOWER OF BABEL. ^ ^ n i S ffeSCOCS ', but the BENOZZO GOZZOLI. 11 ' 1 1 ■ • 1 (Fresco in the Campo Santo, Pisa.) excellent picture by him in the Louvre, Si. Francis receiving the Stigmata, gives some idea of his powers. Giotto's drawing is not always correct, his draperies are sometimes heavy and his heads vulgar; but with what clarity and poetry he expresses what 152 THE RENAISSANCE AT SIENA AND FLORENCE he has to say ! Giotto's frescoes at Assisi, illustrating the life of St. Francis, and those at Padua and in the Church of Santa Croce at Flor- ence (Fig. 238) are among the most charming achievements of painting, although not one of the figures they contain is above criticism, -f Giotto was inspired by the Gothic masters, notably by Giovanni Pisano (d. 1 329) , but above all, by Nature. His disciples were nearly all merely Ciottesques, who escaped from the salutary contact with realities. Their very prolific school extended through- out Italy. It produced many ingeni- ous and inventive illustrators, such as the unknown painters of the great frescoes in the Campo Santo of Pisa ; but, preoccupied above all with narrative, they made no progress towards greater purity and precision of form. Giottism produced but one great artist, the monk Fra Angelico of Fiesole (1 387-1455), and even he was influenced by Masaccio, an uncom- promising realist. Fra Angelico was ? IG. 243. — SS. PETER AND JOHN GIVING ALMS. MASACCIO. (Church of the Carmine, Florence.) FIG. 244. — PORTRAIT OF PIPPO SPANO. ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO. (Sanf Apollonia, Florence.) FIG. 245. — THE LAST SCPPER. ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO. (Sant' Apollonia, Florence.) the painter par excellence of Christianity as preached by St. Francis of Assisi. The joys of belief, the happiness of suffering for the faith, the beatitude of the elect, have never been more elo- 153 APOLLO FIG. 246. — MADONNA WITH TWO SAINTS. VERROCCHIO AND LORENZO DI CREDI. (Pistoia Cathedral.) (Photo, by Alinari.) (1420-1498) reveals himself as storyteller of the Renaissance in quently expressed than by him. He was also, though this has been often overlooked, a learned painter, whose knowledge of the human form was far greater than that of Giotto; but his mystic lyre had but few chords. There is a certain insipidity in his genius, the reflection of a somewhat puerile soul, whose outlook was bounded by the walls of a cloister. His suave virgins and angels delight us at first, and finally pall on us; we long for a few wolves in this impeccable sheepfold (Figs. 239-240). Fra Angelico's best pupil, Benozzo Gozzoli the most exquisite and naive his frescoes in the Palazzo 247. — FRAGMENT OF THE CORONA- TION Or THE VIRGIN. FII.IPPO L1PPT. (Florence.) (Photo, by Anderson.) FIG. 24S.- -YIRGIN AND CHILD WITH TWO ANGELS. VERROCCHIO. (National Gallery, London.) (Photo, by Hanfstaengl.) 154 THE RENAISSANCE AT SIENA AND FLORENCE Riccardi at Florence, at San Gimignano, at Montefalco in Umbria; his visions of the world are the golden dreams of a child (Figs. 241,242). But the world is not peopled by children, nor can it live by golden dreams alone. Giottism would have dragged down Florentine art to the puerility of pietistic illustration, if the naturalism so brilliantly vindicated by Donatello in sculpture had not also found a great pictorial interpreter in Masaccio (1401-1428). The Brancacci Chapel, in the Church of the Carmine at Florence, decorated by Masaccio with frescoes, was a source of virile inspiration to all the Florentine artists of the fifteenth century (Fig. 243). His contemporaries, Paolo Uccello, the first painter of battles and of perspec- tive, and Andrea del' Castagno, a master of almost brutal vigour — influ- enced, like himself, by Donatello — completed the work begun by him and disgusted the Florentines with insipidity Fra Filippo Lippi, another monk, but a monk who had not altogether broken with the world (1406-1469), was, as it were, the synthesis of Fra Angelico and Masaccio; strength ■ — still somewhat rugged in its vigour — is happily mar- ried to tenderness in his best works, examples of which are to be seen both in the National Gallery of London and the Louvre (Fig. 247). Ver- rocchio (1 435- 1488), who is best known as a sculp- tor, proves him- self a master of FIG. 240. — TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL. A. POLLAIUOLO. (Museum, Turin.) (Photo, by Anderson.) (Figs. 244, 245). 250. — ALLEGORY 01" SPRING. BOTTr'XLLI. (Academy, Florence.) 155 APOLLO FIG. 251. — MADONNA AND ANGELS BOTTICELLI. Ambrosiana, Milan. (Photo, by Alinari.) line in his rare pictures (Figs. 246, 248) ; he was moreover, the first of the Florentines to understand landscape, and the part played therein not only by forms, but by light and air. We must not, however, forget that twenty years before the birth of Verrocchio, the Van Eycks had painted exquisite land- scapes in Flanders. Italian art, as Courajod has well said, was the favoured child, but not the eldest one of the Renaissance. Botticelli fl 444-1510). a somewhat y o u n g ;er_ mas t e r than Verrocchio, wa^ the pupil of Fra Fifippo T -but,- like Verrocchio, he was much in- fluenced by the realist, An- tonio Pollaiuolo (Fig. 249), a pupil of Donatello and of Uccello. He was one of the most original of painters, a creative genius, but fantastic, restless, and vehement, an artist who, in his passion for expressive line, often overshot the mark, and became violent rather than suggestive. The very mixed pleasure caused by his works is a kind of nervous vibration or hyperaesthesia. We have heard of the " superman," a creation of the disordered brain of Nietzsche; Bot- ticelli " may be styled the " super- painter." Without being a colourist, without even desiring to be one, he succeeds in emphasising the continuous and contagious tremolo of his line_by colour. When he is at his best, as in the Spring, at Florence, he gives us the most perfect expression of Humanism, the very quintessence of Florentine dis- tinction. (Figs. 2507251.) Botticelli has found his most fervent adorers among the neurasthenic spirits of the close of the nineteenth century. They fall into ecstatic swoons (for this is the fashion in which such persons proclaim admiration) , as 156 FIG. 252.— THE VISITATION. D. GHIRLANDAJO. (The Louvre.) THE RENAISSANCE AT SIENA AND FLORENCE ihey contemplate, not only his defects, but those of his coarsest imitators. To recognise the real strength and the subtle vitality of his art, the equipment of a connoisseur is necessary. Two painters of the most amazing facility, ingenious, graceful, and pellucid, admirably summed up the amiable qualities of the High Renaissance in Italy. The older of these, Domenico Ghirlandajo (1449- 1494) is a some- what suaver Verroc- chio, whose large re- ligious compositions are enlivened by gay and transparent colour ( Figs. 252-254). One of his masterpieces, the Visitation, is in the Louvre. The younger artist, Filippino Lippi, is not represented there, but may be studied in two fine examples in the National Gallery. The son of Fra Filippo Lippi and the pupil of Botticelli, he was to his master what Ghirlandajo was to Verrocchio. A very gifted, though uninventive artist, he has given several exquisite works to painting, the best of which is the Virgin appearing to St. Bernard, in the Badia at Florence (Figs. 255-257). To the same group of artists belongs Piero di Cosimo, the creator of charming idylls, an , 2S4 _ THE BIRTH 0F j,,,,* t,„. B,,™ exquisite portrait-painter, and d. ghirlandajo. Lorenzo di Credi, the unequal (Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence.) fellow-Student of Leonardo, 157 FIG. 253. — ADORATION OF THE MAGI. D. GHIRLANDAJO. (Church of the Innocents, Florence.) (Photo, by Alinari.) APOLLO FIG. 255. — THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. FILIPPINO LIPPI. (Uffizi, Florence.) whose large picture, painted in collaboration with his master, Verrocchio, adorns the Cathe- dral of Pistoia (Fig. 246). The two giants of the Flor- entine Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, must be reserved for special consideration. But there are three masters, of Southern Tuscany and the Romagna respectively, whom we must mention here: Piero dei Fran- ceschi, his pupil, Luca Sig- norelli, and Melozzo da Forli. Piero (1416-1 492) , master of the graceful Melozzo, cold and impersonal, occupies a place apart in Italian art; there is something spectral and disquiet- ing, together with a touch of melancholy disdain, in his pale straight figures (Fig. 258). Signorelli (1441-1523) is the Dante of fifteenth century painting; he, too, is sad, and almost fierce in his energy, even in the rendering of his admirable Virgins with their powerful chins, lofty fore- heads, and austere mouths. There is tenderness under this mask of strength, but it conceals itself. His End of the World (Fig. 262), in the Cathedral of Orvieto, presages Michel- angelo's Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel. His Education of Pan, in the Berlin Museum, is a master- piece of severe and sculptur- esque design (Fig. 260). Thus we see that Florentine painting moves between two extremes, mystic suavity and melancholy power. It is a perfect reflection of an agi- F1G. 256. — THE VIRGIN APPEAR1NC TO ST. BERNARD. FILIPPINO LIPPI. (Church of the Badia, Florence.) (Wocrmarrn, Gcschichtc dcr Malerei, Seemann, Leipzig. ) 158 3.257- — THE VIRGIN ADORING THE INFANT CHRIST. SCHOOL OF FILIPPINO LIPPI. (Pitti Palace, Florence.) (Photo, by Alinari.) THE RENAISSANCE AT SIENA AND FLORENCE tated society, fevered by luxury and enjoyment, and afire with civil discords, a society in which the fanatical Christianity of a Savonarola jostled the almost pagan Humanism of the Medicean Court. Classic art gave it lessons in design, and fur- nished it with examples of the correct interpretation of forms, but left it entirely untouched by its spirit. All the roots of the Florentine soul were deep-set in the Middle Ages ; it was neither Greek nor Roman, because it was still profojmdly^— re- ligious, alternately illumined and obscured by the radiant or terrible visions of another world. Florentine sculpture began with Lorenzo Ghiberti ( 1 378-1 465 ) , who modelled the marvellous series of scriptural bas-reliefs which decorate the two great bronze doors of the Baptistery at Florence, between 1405 and 1452. Of the second, Michelangelo said that it was worthy to figure on the gates of Paradise (Fig. 263). These bas- reliefs are treated pictorially, with plans in perspective, and the more distant figures in lower relief than the rest. Like Masaccio's frescoes, they were a source of inspiration to the whole Florentine School. At the same period, the great Donatello (1386-1466) set the example of a vivid naturalism in his statues of saints, his portraits, and his bas-reliefs, as well as that of an exquisite grace in the repre- sentation of childhood (Figs. 264- 267). Donatello's naturalism is seen in the manner in which he 159 r FIG. 258. THE DREAM OF CONSTANTINE PIERO DEI FRANCESCHI. (Church of S. Francesco, Arezzn.) APOLLO FIG. 25Q. — MELOZZO DA FORLI. (ANGEL PLAYING A LUTE.) (Sacristy of St. Peter's, Rome.) the statue of the condottiere Col I do not except even Donatello Another pupil of Donatello's who died young, in 1 464, was the leader of a fascinating group of workers in marble, sua- ver and more idealistic than Donatello, who has left us heads of the Virgin, and portraits of women and children, marked by a sweetness gave life in bronze or marble to models conforming to the Floren- tine ideal, slender, muscular, ener- getic, and expressive from head to foot. This ideal is almost the antithesis of that of classical anti- quity, but it is identical with that of modern art, emancipated from academic bondage. Rodin and Constantin Meunier are the heirs of Donatello, who is himself much more akin to the Gothic masters than to the Greeks. One of Donatello's pupils, Ver- rocchio (1435-1485), was both painter and sculptor. The master of Leonardo da Vinci, of Lorenzo di Credi, and many others, he created the most beautiful equest- rian figure of the Renaissance, eone, at Venice ( 1 4 79 ) ( Fig. 2 68 ) . s Caitemalaia at Padua. , Desiderio da Settignano (Fig. 269), FIG. 260. — THE EDUCATION OF PAN. LUCA SIGNORELLT. (Museum, Berlin.) (Photo, by Hanfstaengl.) 160 THE RENAISSANCE AT SIENA AND FLORENCE veiled with sadness, and touched by a sentiment quite unknown to antique art. To this group be- long Mino da Fiesole (d. 1484), Antonio Rossellino (d. 1478), and Benedetto da Majano (d. 1497). They were chiefly em- ployed on portraits, votive bas- reliefs, altars, and tombs in churches (Figs. 270-272). Jacopo della Quercia of Siena, contemporary with Donatello, was Michelangelo's exemplar. A powerful and original sculp- tor, he was certainly influenced by Flemish and Burgundian realism. The delightful artist, Luca della Robbia, whose glazed polychrome bas-reliefs afforded one of the sources of Raphael's inspiration, worked at Florence itself; other members of his family, Giovanni and Andrea, carried on the manufacture of these glazed terra-cottas till about the year 1530. Jacopo Tatti, called Sansovino (1486—1570), the pupil of Andrea Sansovino (Fig. 277) gave noble expression to the FIG. 26l. — MARY SALOME. LUCA SIGNORELLI. (Fragment of a Crucifixion at Borgo San Sepolcro.) (Photo, by Alinari.) FIG. 262. — THE DAMNED. SIGNORELLI. Fragment of Fresco at Orvieto. (Photo, by Anderson.) FIG. 263. — THE STORY OF ISAAC AND JACOB. GHIBERTI. (Second Gate of the Baptistery, Florence.) 161 APOLLO FIG 265. — ST. JOHN. DONATELLO. (Duomo, Florence.) FIG. 264. DAVID. DONATELLO. (Florence.) plastic genius of the Re- naissance, because, like Raphael in painting, he was able to reconcile the classic and the Christian spirit (Fig. 276). Nearly all the great works of the Florentine sculptors have remained in their native land, whereas those of the painters have migrated to the museums of other countries in large num- bers. Hence it is that the former are less widely known, though they are no less worthy of fame. Even had the painting of the fifteenth century disappeared like Greek painting, the whole genius of the Renaissance would still survive in the works of the great Florentine sculptors. But what a difference there is between Florence, the Athens of the fifteenth century, and the Athens of Pericles! At Florence, there is no serenity, nothing which attests a happy equilibrium between the facul- ties of the mind and the feelings; now we have an agitated, p^o i g n a n t , almost painful realism, now a lan- guorous grace, melancholy even in the rendering of joy. For between Athens and Florence stood Christi- anity, a purely spiritual re- ligion, which deifies suffering and anathematises the flesh. After the dry, dogmatic phase which ended in the thirteenth century, Christianity became, 266- BUST OF NICCOLO DA UZZANO ( ?) . DONATELLO. (Museum, Florence.) 162 THE RENAISSANCE AT SIENA AND FLORENCE FIG. 267. — ANGEL WITH TAMBOURINE. DONATELLO. (Berlin Museum.) (Photo., Seemann.) FIG. 268. — EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF COLLEONE. VERROCCHIO. (Venice.) FIG. 269. — MADONNA AND CHILD DESIDERIO DA SETTIGNANOr (Florence.) I'TG. 270. — MADONNA WITH SAINTS. MINO DA FIESOLE. (.Cathedral, Hesole.) 163 APOLLO FIG. 271. — THE NATIVITY. A. ROSSELLINO. (Church of Monte Ohveto, Naples.) (Photo, by Ahnari.) FIG. 272. THE ANNUNCIATION. BENEDETTO DA MAJANO. (Church of Monte Oliveto, Naples.) (Photo, by Ahnari.) thanks mainly to St. Francis of Assisi (d. 1 226) , a religion of mystic tenderness and fervid asceticism. In an estimate of the art of the High Renaissance, it is impossible to overstate the importance of the moral revolution accomplished by the disciples of St. Francis. The dominant quality of Floren- tine sculpture, a quality to be recognised also, though less defi- nitely, in the painting, is the delicate firmness of the lines, a something we might call their quality. Why is it that the copy of a masterpiece is rarely itself a masterpiece? It is because the personal sentiment of a great artist manifests itself not only in the invention and disposition of the figures, but in the infinitely subtle shades of form which escape the attention of a copyist. A very just distinction has been drawn between living lines and 164 FIG. 273. — ADAM AND EVE. JACOPO DELLA QUEKCIA. (Church of San Pelronio, Bologna.) THE RENAISSANCE AT SIENA AND FLORENCE surfaces, and dead lines and surfaces. Only the first have what a contemporary critic, Mr. Berenson, calls tactile values, that is to say, the almost imperceptible quiver of life, the effect of which on the eye is analo- gous to that of living flesh against the finger-tips. An artist of genius has the faculty of infusing life into each sinuosity of contour, each square inch of surface. In a work of art the presence of dead lines and surfaces, that is to say, of flat or rounded surfaces, insignificant and void of expression, suf- fices to show that it is either a copy, or the work of a mediocre artist. In this connection there is nothing more instructive than such a comparison as may be made in the Louvre between one of Michelangelo's Slaves, in which every inch of the marble seems to vibrate, and a statue of Canova's -THE MADONNA WITH TWO SAINTS. LTJCA DELLA ROBBIA. (Cathedral, Prato.) E^~5 P«ul li^R# 1 t FIG. 275. — THE VISITATION. ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA. (Church of San Giovanni, Pistoja.) FIG. 276.— BACCHUS. JACOPO SANSOVINO. (Museum, Florence.) 165 APOLLO FIG. 277. — TOME OF CARDINALS SFORZA AND DELI.A ROVERE. ANDREA SANSOVTNO. ( Church of S. Maria del Popolo, Rome.) or Pradier's, where the grace of the general effect, that is to say, of the silhouette, does not atone for the cold- ness of the modelling, the facile and flaccid execution. The ancients were well aware that this faint quiver of life is the supreme quality of a masterpiece : spiraniia mollius aera y said Virgil. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER XV. Work by X. Kraus, given p. 104. — L. Courajod, Lecons professees a I'Ecole du Louvre, vol. ii., Paris, 1 90 1 ( the origin of the Renaissance ; cf . Gazette ties Beaux-Arts, 1888, i., p. 21); E. Miintz, Histoire de I' Art pendant la Renaissance en ftalie, 3 vols., Paris, 1889-1895; J. Burckhardt, Der Cicerone, 8th ed. by Bode, 3 vols., Leipzig, 1901 ; Die Cultur der Renais- sance in Italien, 8th ed. by Geiger, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1901 ; L. Pastor, Geschichte der Papste, 4th ed., vol. i-iii., Freiburg, 1900 (period of the Renaissance); E. Miintz, Les Pricurseurs de la Renaissance, Paris, 1 882 (an Italian edition, with considerable additions, Florence, 1902); H. Wolfflin, Die fclassische Kunst, Einfiihrung in die italienische Renaissance, Munich, 1901 (evolutionist point of view), English edition. The Art of the Italian Renaissance, London, 1903. J. Crowe and G. Cavalcaselle, A New History of Painting in Italy, 3 vols., 1864—66 (a new Italian edition in 5 vols., 1889-1892; a new English edition has begun to appear, London, 1903); Woermann and Woltmann, Geschichte der Malerei, 3 vols., Leipzig, 1870—1888; English transl. ed. by S. Colvin, London, 1880; J. Lermolieff (pseudonym of Morelli), Kunstkrilische Studien iibei italienische Malerei, 3 vols., Leipzig, 1890-1893 (English and Italian editions); B. Beren- son. The Study and Criticism of Italian Art, vol. ii., London, 1902 (with an exposition of the Morellian method 1 ) ; G. Lafenestre, La Peinture ilalienne jusqu' a la fin du XV e Steele, Paris, 1900 ; H. Thode, Franz von Assist und die Anfange der Kunst in Italien, Berlin, 1903. W. Liibke, Geschichte der Plastik, 3rd ed., 2 vols., Leipzig, 1880; Ch. Perkins, Italian Sculp- tors; W. Bode, Die italienische Plastik, 3rd ed., Berlin, 1902 ; L. F. Freeman, Italian Sculptors of the Renaissance, London, 1902. A. Brach, Niccold und Giovanni Pisano, Strasburg, 1903 ; Apulian origin of Niccola Pisano : Polaczek, Repertorium fitr Kunstwissenschaft, 1903, p. 361 (against) ; E. Bertaux, L'Arl dans I'ltalie mdrid., Paris, 1903. vol. i., p. 787, (for) ; cf . Male, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1905, i., p. 1 17. L. Douglas, A History of Siena, London, 1902; W. Rothes, Die Bliitezeit der Sienesischen Malerei, Strasburg, 1904 ; W. Hey wood and Lucy Olcott, A Guide to Siena (History and Art), Siena, 1903; S. Borghesi and L. Banchi, Nuovi documenii per la storia dell' arte senese, Siena, I 898 ; F. Wickhoff, Ueber die Zeit des Guido von Siena (Mittheil. des Instil, fiir oesterr. Ge- schichtsforschung, 1889 ; vol. x., 2 ; refutation of the legend of Cimabue) ; J. Destree, Sur quelques peintres de Sienne, Brussels, 1903; A. Perate\ Duccio (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1893, i., p. 89) ; B. Berenson, A Sienese Painter of the Franciscan Legend, Sassetta (Burlington Magazine, 1903, ii., p. 3 ; cf., L. Douglas, ibid., 1903, ii., p. 265) ; E. Bertaux, Sancta Maria di Donna Regina e I'arte senese d Napoli nel secolo XIV., Naples, 1899 (cf. Repertorium, 1899, p. 401) ; A. Gosche, Simone Martini, Leipzig, 1899; B. Supino, Arte Pisana, Florence, 1903. R. Davidsohn, Geschichte von Florenz, vol. L Berlin, 1896 (cf. Repertorium, 1897, p. 215) ; E. Miintz, Florence et la Toscane, Paris, 1896; M. Conway, Early Tuscan A rt, London, 1903. Berenson, The Drawings of the Florentine Painters,! vols., London, 1903 (enormous folios, exceedingly costly and difficult to handle) ; The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance, 2nd ed., London, 1900; G. Lafenestre and E. Richtenberger. Florence, Paris, 1895 (Painting) ; Julia Cart- wnght. The Painters of Florence from the A7/M to the XVI th Century, London, 1901 ; M. Zimmermann, Giotto und die Kunst Italiens im Mittelalter, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1899-1900; H. 'This method consists in deciding upon the authorship of works of art by studying minute details or execution. Cf. Revue critique, 1895, i., p. 27 1 . 166 THE RENAISSANCE AT SIENA AND FLORENCE Thode, GioHo Bielefeld, I 900 ; John Ruskin, Giotto and his Works in Padua, London, 1900; M. Perkins, C,o«o, London, 1902; J.-B. Supino, // Camposanto di Pisa, Florence, 1896 (cf. Repertormm I 897, p. 67) ; O .Siren. Don Lorenzo Monaco, Strasburg, 1 905 ; L. Douglas, Fra Angelico, 2nd ed., London, 1902 ; Aug. Schmarsow, Masaccio-Sludien, Cassel, 1895-1900 (on the brancaccr Chapel and the authorship of its frescoes), cf. Gazette des Beaux- Arts, 1902, !., p. 89) ;W. Weisbach Francesco Peseffira, Berlin, 1901 ; C. Loeser, Paolo Uccello (Reper- lonum, 1898 p. 83) ; Wolfram Waldschrmdt, Andrea del Caslagno, Berlin, 1900; H. Ulmann, Bildei und Zeichnungen der Bruder Pollajuoli (Jahrbiicher of the Berlin Museums 1894 p 230) ; W. Bode, Verrocchio (ibid., 1882, p. 235) ; H. Mackowsky, Verwcchio, Bielefeld, 1901 ; M. Cruttwell, Verrocchio, London, 1904; H. Ulmann, Sandra Botticelli, Munich, 1893; E. Steinmann, Botticelli, Bielefeld, 1867 (Eng. transl., London, 1901); A. Streeter Botticelli London, 1903; E. Miintz, Botticelli (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1898. ii., p. 177); F. Lippmann, Botticelli's Drawings for Dante's Divina Commedia, with facsimiles and commentary, English transl., London, 1896; E. Jacobsen, Allegoria della Primavera di Botticelli (Archivio slorico dell' Arte, 1897, p. 321); H. Mackowsky, Jacopo del Sellaio ( Jahrbiicher of the Berlin Museums, 1899); E. Steinmann, Ghirlandajo, Bielefeld, 1897; E. Strutt, Fra Filippo Lippi, London, 1902 ; J.-B. Supino, Les deux Lippi, French transl. by Crozals, Florence, 1904; W. G. Waters, Piero della Francesco, London, l9()l ; B. Berenson, Alessio Baldovinetti et Piero della Francesco (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1898, ii., p. 39); F. Wilting, Piero dei Francescbi, Stras- burg, 1898; Maud Cruttwell, Signorelli, London, 1902; F. Knapp, Piero di Cosimo, Halle, 1899; H. Haberfeld, Piero di Cosimo, Breslau, 1901; E. Steinmann, Die Sixtinische Kapelle, vol. i., Munich, 1901 (period of Sixtus IV.) ; W. Kallab, Die toskanische Landschaflsmalerei (Jahr- biicher of the Vienna Museums, 1900); J. Guthmann, Die Landschaflsmalerei der toskanischen und umbrischen Kunst, Leipzig, 1902; F. Rosen, Die Nalur in der Kunst, Leipzig, 1903. M. Reymond, La Sculpture florentine, Florence, 1898; W. Bode, Florentinische Bildhauer der Renaissance, Berlin, 1902; M. Reymond, Lorenzo Ghiberli (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1896, ii., p. 125); Hope Rea, Donatello, London, 1900; A. G. Meyer, Donatello, Bielefeld, 1902; B. Bertaux, Autour de Donatello (.Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1899, ii., p. 241) ; Frida SchottmiiUer, Donatello, Munich, 1905 (cf. Repert., 1905, p. 384); E. Muntz, A ndrea Verrocchio et le Tombeau de Francesco Tornabuoni (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1891, ii., p. 27) ; F.Wolff, Michelozzo di Bartolomeo, Strasburg, 1900; M. Cruttwell, Luca and Andrea della Robbia, London, 1902; cf. Mary Logan (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1905, i., p. 256) ; S. Weber, Die Entwickelung des Putto in der Plastik der Friihrenaissance, Heidelberg, 1 898. F. Lippmann, Der Kupferslich, 2nd ed., Berlin, 1897 ; H. Delaborde, La Gravure, Paris, no date; Armand, Les Me'dailleurs italiens des XV e et XVI e slides 2nd ed-, 3 vols., Paris, 1883- 1887; A. Heiss, Les Medailleurs de la Renaissance, 7 vols., Paris, 1881-1887; C. von Fabriczy, Medaillen der ital. Renaissance, Leipzig, 1903 (cf. Bode, Zeitschrifl fiir bildende Kunst, 1903, ii., p. 36); E. Molinier, Les Plaquettes, Paris, 1 886 ; J. Maindron, Les Collections d'armes du Louore et du Musie d'Arlillerie (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1891, ii., p. 466; 1893, ii., p. 265) ; Les A rmes, Paris, no date. A. de Champeaux, Le Meuble, vol. i., Paris, 1888; E. Molinier, Les Meubles du Moyen Age el de la Renaissance, Paris, 1896; Les Iooires, Paris, 1896; L'Emaillerie, Paris, 1901 ; A. Maskell, Ivories, London, 1905; J.-W. Bradley. A Dictionary of Miniaturists, Illuminators, etc., London, 1888; F.-H. Jackson, Inlarsia and Marquetry, London, 1903; Drury Fortnum, Maiolica, London, 1896; O. von Falke, Majolika, Berlin, 1896; W. Bode, Allflorenlinische Majoliken, (Jahrbiicher of the Berlin Museums, 1898, p. 206) ; H. Wallis, Early Italian Maiolica, London, 1901 (cf. Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1902, i., p. 352) ; A. Darcel, La Ceramique italienne (ibid., 1892, i., p. 136) ; E. Molinier, La Ceramique italienne au XV siecle, Paris. 1888; R. Davillier, Les Origines de la Porcelaine en Europe, Paris. 1 882 ; G Vogt. La Porcelaine, Pans, no date ; R. L. Hobson, Porcelain, London, 1906; Th. Deck, La Faience, Paris, no date; E. Muntz, La Tapisserie, 3rd ed., Paris, 1888; Isab. Errera. Collection d'anciennes Eloffes, Brussels. 1901 ; H. Moore, The Lace Book, New York, 1904. Handbooks of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, London. 167 XVI VENETIAN PAINTING The Origin of the Venetian School. — The Vioarini. — The Bellini. — The Influence of Padua upon Venice. — Manlegna. — Anlonello da Messina. — Internal Prosperity and Social Bril- liance of Venice. — Sante Conversazioni. — The foyousness of Venetian Art. — Criuelli. — Carpaccio. — Cima. — Giorgione. — Titian. — Palma. — Lorenzo Lotto. — Sebastiano del Piombo. — Tintoretto. — Paolo Veronese. — Tiepolo. — The Enduring Influence of the Venetian School. ALTHOUGH in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Venice pro- duced such excellent sculptors as the Lombardi, it is always of her painters that we think when the Venetian school is in question; I therefore propose to deal only with painting. The Venetian school, as it existed in the second half of the fifteenth century, sprang from two earlier schools. The first of these centred in the Island of Murano, where a Byzantine style, tempered by Sienese influences, long pre- vailed. Towards the middle of the fifteenth century, the most prominent masters of this school belonged to the Vivarini family ; the most distinguished of the Vivarini, Alvise, born in 1450, seems to have been the master of Lorenzo Lotto (Fig. 278). The second of the primitive Venetian schools was founded by Jacopo Bellini, the father of the two great painter., Gentile and Giovanni. Jacopo was the pupil of the Umbrian painter. Gentile da Fabriano; but he seems to have been more affected by the school of Padua, which was the true mother of the great Venetian School. Padua, which was politically dependent on Venice, had, from the 168 FIG- 278. — VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH INFANT ANGELS. ALVISE VIVARINI. (Church of the Reclentore, Venice.) VENETIAN PAINTING year 1 222 onwards, owned a flourishing university, which was in close touch with France and the Valley of the Rhine; it soon became the intellectual centre of all northern Italy. At a very early date, Florentine artists began to arrive at Padua, notably Giotto and Donatello, who spent ten years there (1443-1453). The Pa- duan school is a combination of Florentine elegance, and of a style founded on that of Graeco-Roman bas-reliefs. No- where is the influence of antique sculpture on a basis of an- cient Gothic severity more marked. Mantegna, the pupil of Squarcione (1431-1506), was a mighty genius who is well represented in the Na- tional Gallery and in the Louvre, though his more im- portant works are his frescoes at Padua and Mantua. His sculp- turesque and abstract style, in which classic and Gothic reminiscences play an equal part, has a severity marked by a sort of haughty correctness ; it should be studied not only in his pictures, but in his admirable engravings and in his draw- ings (Figs. 279-281). His ruggedness is healthy and .yjrnre, as far removed from Giottism as from the emas- culated classicism of the academic school. Mantegna's fig. 280— rBARs\ra of Brandenburg, marchesa influence upon the Venetian . di gonzaga and her conRT. school of Bellini, and even on « • „!' A pT NA ' , m , , the rival school of Murano, (rresco in the raJace at Mantua.) . T was immense. It is not too much to say that the highest qualities of~the great Venetian art of the fifteenth century were derived from him. 169 . 279. THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. JAMES. MANTEGNA. (Fresco in the Eremitani, Padua.) FIG. 281. — THE TRIUMPH OF OESAR. MANTEGNA. (Fragment of the Cartoon at Hampton Court.) APOLLO A third element on which much stress is to be laid is the part played by Anjoneljo da Messina, a painter who, though by birth a Sicilian, worked at Venice. Born in 1444, he went, it is said, to study in Flanders, and there learned the process of paint- ing in oil from one of the successors of Van Eyck, perhaps Petrus Cristus. (It is, however, quite possible that the Venetians, who were constantly in communication with Flanders, knew the process before his time.) Antonello is the author of the beautiful portrait in the Louvre known as the Condottiere; he painted several others almost equally fine, that, for instance, in the Casa Trivulzio, at Milan (Fig. 282), and certain little pictures, marvellously dexterous in execu- tion, among them the Crucifixion in the Antwerp Gallery, and the St. Jerome in the London Na- tional Gallery, which also owns the reputed Portrait of Himself, and his earliest signed work, the Satvator Mundi. It will be well to explain here that at this period oil-colours were only used to give superficial lustre to very carefully executed painting in tempera (pigment mixed with white of egg), which formed the basis of the picture. The first artist who used oil as his sole medium was the Spaniard, Velasquez. Venice was better governed than the other towns of Italy. Her trade with the East had 170 FIG. 282. — PORTRAIT OF A MAN. ANTONELLO DA MESSINA. (Trivulzio Collection, Milan.) (Photo, by Anderson.) VENETIAN PAINTING FIG. 283.- - CONCERT CHAMPETRE. GIORGIONE. (The Louvre.) made her rich and prosperous; civil war was unknown to her. Religion was respected within her territory, but was less tyrannical than elsewhere; even in the thirteenth century Venice held her own against the Inquisition, and reserved the right of punishing heretics for her own magistrates, to the exclusion of monks sent from Rome. Social life had de- veloped brilliantly ; the Vene- tians loved pleasure, fine clothes, courtly assemblies, and stately pageants, in which all the representative bodies took part. These tendencies are reflected in Venetian painting; it is gay, luminous, full of the joy of life ; it loves to render magnificent processions — as in Gentile Bellini's famous picture at Venice — or social gatherings, sacred and profane. The sacred groups are the Holy Conversa- tions, a kind of composition peculiar to Venetian painting, in which male and female saints and Scriptural characters are gathered together without any apparent reason, for the mere pleasure of meeting. The secular assemblies are of the type of Giorgione's exquisite Concert Champetre in the Louvre (Fig. 283), a group of nude women and musicians in a rich landscape. Such gatherings certainly never took place in Venice; but the painters of Conversazioni were not con- cerned with actualities; they wished to paint beautiful bodies and gorgeous costumes, to suggest the idea of free luminous background of landscape, and FIG. 284. — PIEtX. GIOVANNI BELLINI. (Brera, Milan.) and joyous life against a in this they succeeded. From the close of the fifteenth century the Madonnas and baints 171 APOLLO FIG. 285. — VIRGIN AND CHILD. GIOVANNI BELLINI. (Academy, Venice.) (Photo, by Naya.) of the Venetian painters were no longer ascetic and morose persons, but beautiful young women and handsome young men, with bloom- ing complexions and sunny hair, who loved to deck themselves with gorgeous stuffs, and held life to be well worth living. This smiling optimism is the essential characteristic of Vene- tian painting, and is expressed chiefly in the radiant splendour of its colour. It is inadmissible to explain this by the climate, for the skies of Naples are much more brilliant than those of Venice, and Neapolitan colour is grey and black. It was a result of moral and physical health at Venice, as in the Flanders of Rubens. At Florence, even in the works of de- licate and skilful colourists, the colour is more or less an accessory of the drawing; at Venice, from the time oF Giorgione onwards, it was painting itself, and this seems sometimes less intent upon the ob- jects it represents than upon the atmosphere in which they are bathed, the light that penetrates and envelops them. The Venetians were not only . colourists, but lumi- nists. Giovanni Bellini, who lived eighty-six years ( 1 430-1 5 1 6), passed through such a variety of stages that he was a school of painting in himself, rather than a single painter. His first works are subtle and some- what dry, akin to those of Man- tegna, with a certain hardness and eccentricity in the drawing. The compositions of his maturity are masterpieces in which scarcely any quality is lacking, not even a reflec- FIG. 286. — VIRGIN AND CHILD. GIOVANNI BELLINI. (National Gallery, London.) 172 VENETIAN PAINTING 287. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH SAINTS. GIOVANNI BELLINI AND BASAITI. (Benson Collection, London.) (Photo, by Risch-ritz.) FIC. 288.— VIRGIN AND CHILD. CEIVELLI. (Benson Collection, London.) (Photo, by Braun, Clement and Co.) 173 289. — VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH TWO SAINTS. CIMA DA CONEGLIANO. (Museum, Vienna.) APOLLO FIG. 290. — HISTORY OF ST. URSULA. CARPACCIO. (Academy, Venice.) tion of the colour of his pupil, Giorgione, who died six years before him. In his laborious life this great artist traversed all the road that led from Mantegna to Titian. One single gift was denied him: the power, or the desire to represent movement (Figs. 284-287). Crivelli, on the other hand, who was formed at Padua (1430-1 494 ) , never ceased to be a primitive. In his fragile Virgins, with their slight grimace, their slim, nervous figures, their quivering contours and dazzling draperies, the rich lustre of Japanese lacquer is united to the subtle elegance of Gothic art (Fig. 288). Carpaccio (1460-1522) and Cima da Conegliano (1460-1517) are the most lovable personalities among this group of men of genius. In his series illustrating the Le- gend of St. Ursula in the Venice Academy (Fig. 290), Carpaccio is a story-teller both amused and amusing, less smiling than Benozzo Gozzoli, but more thoughtful and suggestive. Cima is the delightful painter of Virgins who are still serious, but conscious of their own beauty, whose softly rounded forms are in strong contrast to the ascetic, bony frames of the Florentines (Fig. 289). Giorgione, in the course of his brief life (1478-1 5 10). united the gaiety of Carpaccio to the poetry and delicacy of his master, Bellini; but he surpassed all his contempora- FIG. 2QI. — THE ENTOMBMENT. TITIAN. (The Louvre.) 4Pff fig. 202. — an invitation to love, (sacred and profane love.) TITIAN. (Borghese Gallery, Rome.) 174 VENETIAN PAINTING ries by the extraordinary magic of his brush (Figs. 283, 294). His Conversazioni, his mythological and allegorical pictures, and his portraits had FIG. 293. PORTRAIT OF FRANCIS I. TITIAN. (The Louvre.) FIG. 294. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH SS. GEORGE AND LIBERALS. GIORGIONE. (Church of Castelfranco.) (Gazette des Beaux-Arts.) an immense suc- cess, attested by numerous copies and still more numerous imita- tions ; the Vene- tian Renaissance acclaimed its most perfect ex- pression in this painter of light and of glowing flesh. Titian did not, as was formerly believed, live to be ninety-nine, but died at the ripe old age of eighty-five. Born about 1 490, and collaborating, while still a youth, with Giorgione, he finished one of his master's most beautiful works, the Reclining Venus, at Dresden, and inherited his splendour of colour, while surpassing him in fertility of invention. Titian never ceased to ad- vance in his art, even in his extreme old age. His first pictures, without being dry, are still somewhat timid in touch ; as an old man, he painted with unprecedented fire and boldness, preparing the way for Velasquez and the French painters of our own day. He essayed every class___of. subject, including great episodes of pagan myth- ology, in which his passionate love of life, of movement, and of beautiful nature are more perfectly expressed than elsewhere. Even his sacred pictures often share the radiant gaiety of his 175 FIG. 295. — THE THREE SISTERS. PALM A. (Dresden Gallery.) APOLLO FIG. 296.— THE ANNUNCIATION. LORENZO LOTTO. (Church of S. Maria, Recanati.) (Photo, by Anderson, Rome. 1 ) FIG. 297— PORTRAIT OF LAURA DI POLA LORENZO LOTTO. (Brera, Milan.) (Photo, by Erogi.) -THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS, SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO. (National Gallery, London.) (Woermann, Gescktchte tier Malerei. Seemann, Leipzig.) FIG. 209.— PORTRAIT OF A ROMAN LADY, WITH THE ATTRIBUTES OF ST. DOROTHF,A. SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO. (Museum, Berlin.) 176 VENETIAN PAINTING Bacchanals. As to his portraits, such as the Man with the Clove, in the Louvre, and the seated Charles V ., at Munich, they are 29T-2°93 Pr 30°0 Un 30 P n y " We " aS "^ aeSthetl ° feaStS (Figs ' Palma Vecchio (1480-1528). a painter somewhat older than 1 itian, who died long before the latter, was, like him, a successor % °ol'ov e ' ,?- ugh ^ f a te mperament calmer and less original (tig. 282). His Adoration of the Shepherds, in the Louvre, is one of the most charming idylls of Venetian painting; lacking the genius of Titian, it has all the seduction of his brush. A very different master was Lorenzo Lotto ( 1 480-1 556) , the most individual of the great Venetians, who felt the influence of Giorgione less than any of his contemporaries. In his art there is a touch of melancholy, and a sympathetic suavity which strikes a strangely modern note in his best pictures and is even echoed in his admirable portraits (Figs. 296, 297). This gentle sadness of Lotto's must have been the outcome of personal tempera- ment; if it were to be accounted for by the political events of his maturity — the abasement of Venice, the beginning of the Counter- Reformation — we should find traces of the same sentiment in other painters of his day. A fact that remains inexplicable is the resemblance between certain works by Lotto and those of Correggio, an artist with whom it is highly improbable that he ever came in contact, and who worked at Parma, a city Lotto is not likely to have visited. The youngest of the great painters of this generation, Sebastiano del Piombo ( 1 485-1 547) , was a highly gifted artist, who began by successfully imitating Giorgione ; but going to Rome, he came under the influence first of Raphael, and afterwards of Michelangelo, to 177 300. — THE MADONNA OF THE PESARO FAMILY. TITIAN. (Church of the Frari, Venice.) APOLLO such an extent that he lost his in- dividuality. He remained a Venetian, however, in the fine intensity of his colour. In his best works, such as the Resurrection of Lazarus, in the National Gallery, he approaches Titian and Michelangelo; in his portraits he is closely akin to Raphael, for whom he is often mistaken (Figs. 298, 299). But the true Michelangelo of Venice was Tintoretto (1518-1594), who, together with Paolo Veronese (1528- 1588), dominates the second epoch of the Renaissance in Venice with his feverish and somewhat trivial activity. Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel have inspired hundreds of artists; but how few had the tem- perament of their exemplar! Tintoretto was one of these few; he was not an imitator of the great Florentine, but a younger brother, born under serener skies. Amazing in his fecund- ity, eager for difficulties to overcome, fiery and unequal, Tintoretto sought and found in violent contrasts of light and shade grandiose effects unknown to his predecessors. As a draughts- man he is often brutal and incorrect, but never common- place; as a painter he took up the tradition of the aged Titian, who, weary of the russet and golden tones so lavishly used in the Venetian Renaissance, had created a new palette for himself, in which silvery greys and blues predominated over more bril- liant colours (Figs. 302, 303). Nearly all Tintoretto's large pictures have blackened ; but TIG. 30I. — THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN. TITIAN. (Academy, Venice.) (Photo, by Alinari.) FIG. 302. — THE PRESENTATION OF THE VIRGIN IN THE TEMPLE. TINTORETTO. (Church of S. Maria dell' Orto, Venice.) (Pholo. by Naya.) '78 VENETIAN PAINTING we may form some idea of his gifts as a colourist from his small sketches and his portraits. _Ea.olo Calian, called Veronese, sprang from a family of painters at Verona, in spite" of which he has expressed the luxuri- . ous life of Venice, in the second half of the sixteenth century, without a touch of provincialism in his accent. Something of the pomp and solemnity of Spain, whose ascendency weighed heavily upon Italy in his time, mingles in his fine compositions with his essentially Venetian love for clear light and splendid costumes (Figs. 304, 305). He also shows a marked pre- ference for silvery tones; it may truly be said that in Venetian painting the silver age succeeded the golden age. The fact that there were two Renaissances at Venice, in spite of the political and commercial decay of the city after the League of Cambrai (1512), shows how favourable her soil had proved to the development of Renais- sance tendencies. Venice was, further, fortunate enough to escape the academic eclecti- cism which, after the fruition of the Roman School under Raphael, destroyed the great schools of painting in Italy. Even in the middle of the eighteenth century Venice possessed one great Renais- sance artist, Tiepolo ( 1 696- 1770). She was still the loveliest and the gayest city in the world, the trysting-place of pleasure and elegance; as of old, the scene of magnificent processions and imposing ceremonies. 179 FIG. 303. THE ORIGIN OF THE MILKY WAY. TINTORETTO. (National Gallery, London.) FIG. 304. — THE RAPE OF EUROPA. PAUL VERONESE. (Doges' Palace, Venice.) APOLLO Life there was easy and comparatively free, in a marvellous setting, enveloped in a transparent atmosphere, which first Canaletto, and then Guardi, the painters par excellence of the lagoons, rendered with such infinite truth and charm. Tiepolo gave final expression to these splendours. His genius is akin to that of Tintoretto, but he has more moderation, more elegance ; he was the painter of a polished aristo- cracy, conscious of its supe- riority to the crowd, whose religion, modified by Spain, the Counter - Reformation, and the Jesuits, was a subtle mingling of devotion and worldliness (Figs. 306, 307). Tiepolo, it has been truly said, was the last of the old painters and. r 1 ■ t' 1 ' 44K El 1 »W*»- ■ .■-■'..:;■.,. . -.v-/rr ^ ,.:.y r«!«tMWIWM(Wwl FIG. 305. — INDUSTRY. PAUL VERONESE. (Doges' Palace, Venice.) ;. 306." — ST. JOSEPH AND THE INFANT JESUS. TIEPOLO. (Academy, Venice.) (Photo, by Alinari.) FIG. 307. — THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. TIEPOLO. (Munich.) (Photo, by Hanfstaengl.) the first of the moderns; nearly all the great decorators of the nineteenth century were inspired by him. 180 VENETIAN PAINTING it J he k n i UenCe ° f th f Venetia " School was immense. In Italy I gave birth to var,ous local schools, Verona, Vicenza, and Brescia, the last-named memorable as having produced the great Moretto (1498- j \V Wh ° forestalle d Tintoretto and Veronese in the use of silvery tones (Fig. 308). Tintoretto, and Bassano (1510-1592), one of the creators of modern landscape, were the first exemplars of Velasquez. Titian inspired Rubens and Rey- nolds; Tiepolo was imitated by the Spaniard, Goya, to whom we may, in a measure, ascribe the origin of French painting in the second half of the nineteenth century. In these, her offspring, it may be said that the Venetian School still exists, differing essentially in this respect from that of Florence, which has known but one ephemeral and artificial resurrec- tion in the group of English Pre- Raphaelites. We have seen, in our survey of architecture, that the palaces of Venice continued to serve as models, whereas the severe art of Bramante merely inspired isolated imitations. The Renaissance triumphed at Venice, and was widely propagated by her. But something was lacking to her that was the glory of Florence: gravity of life and depth of thought. FIG. 308. — ST. JUSTINA. MORETTO. (Museum, Vienna.) BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER XVI Works by Burckhardt, Crowe, and Cavalcaselle, Lu'bke, Morelli, Miintz, Woltmann, quoted on p. 166. — B. Berenson, The Venetian Painters, 3rd ed., London, 1898; Lafenestre and Richten- berger, Venise, Paris, 1897 (Painting): P. Paoletti, L' Architecture el la Sculpture de la Renaissance a Venise, Venice, 1899; P. Paoletti and G. Ludwig, Neue archie. Beitrage zur Gesch. der venez. Malerei (Reperlorium, 1899, p. 427; 1900, p. 274); Romain Rolland, La Decadence de la Peinlure ilalienne (Revue de Paris, 1896, i., p. 168; excellent notes on Mantegna, Titian, Paul Veronese, etc. P. Schubring, Allichiero und seine Schule, Leipzig, 1898; J. Ffoulkes, Vincenzo Foppa (Burlington Magazine, 1903, i., p. 103). P. Kristeller, Andrea Mantegna, Berlin, 1902 (English ed., 1901); H. Thode, Mantegna, Bielefeld, 1896; Maud Cruttweil, Mantegna, London. 1902. P. Molmenti and G. Ludwig, Carpaccio, Milan, 1 905 (cf. Mary Logan, Burlington Magazine, G.Gronau, Anlonello da Messina (Reperlorium, 1897, p. 347. and 1904. p. 464) ; on the for- mation of Antonello's art (cf. Jahrhiicher of the Berlin Museums, 1902, ii., p. 59). R Fry, Giovanni Bellini, London, 1899; R. Burckhardt, Cirna da Conegliano, Leipzig, 1905; J Rushforth Carlo Crioelli, London, 1900; H. Cook, Giorgione, London, 1900; Crowe and 181 APOLLO Cavalcaselle, Titian, 2 vols., London, 1877; H. Knackfuss, Tizian, Bielefeld, 1696; G. Gronau, Titian, London, 1904; G. Lafenestre, La Vie et IXEuore de Tilien, Pans 1886; M. Hamel, Tilitn, Paris, 1903; O. Fischel, Tizian, Stuttgart, 1904 (photographs of all his pictures); G. Gronau, Tizian's himmlische und irdische Liebe (Repertorium, 1903, p. 177 ; an explanation of the picture known as Sacred and Profane Looe ; for other explanations cf. Reoue archio- logiqae 1905, ii , p. 393 ; that we have adopted under Fig. 292 is due to Riese). On the date of Titian's birth: H. Cook, Repertorium, 1902. p. 98, and Nineteenth Century, 1902. B. Berenson, Lorenzo Lotto, 2nd ed., London, 1895 ; H. Thode, Tintoretto, Bielefeld, 1901 ; B. S. Holborn, Tintoretto, London. 1903; R. Fry, Paolo Veronese, London, 1903; F. H. Meissner, Paolo Veronese, Bielefeld, 1896; H. de Chennevieres, Les Tiepolo, Pans, 1898; F. H. Meissner, Tiepolo, Bielefeld, 1896 ; H. Modern, G. B. Tiepolo, Vienna, 1902. 182 PIG. 30Q. — THE LAST SUPPER. LEONARDO DA VINCI. (.Refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.) (From Raphael Morghen's engraving.1 XVII LEONARDO DA VINCI AND RAPHAEL THE MILANESE SCHOOL, THE UMBRIAN SCHOOL, AND THE ROMAN SCHOOL Leonardo's Genius a Synthesis of the Renaissance. — His Birth. — His Works for Lodooico Sforza. — His Manuscripts : Scientific Writings. — Leonardo as a Sculptor. — Leonardo's Pictures. — Raphael's Birth and Parentage. — Timoteo Vili his first Master. — The Knight's Dream. — Raphael Perugino's Assistant. — The Sposalizio. — Raphael at Florence. — The Madonnas of the Florentine Period. — Raphael at Rome. — Giulio Romano his Assistant. — ■ The Vatican Frescoes. — Madonnas and Portraits of the Roman Period. — An Appreciation of Raphael's Genius. ALL the intellectual curiosity of the Renaissance, its dreams of glory and of infinite progress, its enthusiasm for science and for beauty, were combined with many other attributes of genius in Leonardo. Born at Vinci, between Pisa and Florence, in 1452, he died at Amboise in 1519, having spent his youth in Florence, his maturity in Milan, and the last three years of his life in France, where he seems to have become too feeble to work. Few artists have been more industrious, but few have produced less ; in science as in art, he was tormented by a passion for innovation, a desire to strike out new paths. In some respects he recalls those alchemists of the Middle Ages, who squandered the most brilliant gifts in the pursuit of a chimerical ideal. When, in 1483, Leonardo offered his services to Lodovico il Moro, Duke of Milan, in a letter that has been preserved, he 183 APOLLO FIG. 310. THE VIRGIN OF THE ROCKS. LEONARDO DA VTNCI. (The Louvre.) recommended himself as an inventor of engines of war, a builder of movable bridges and chariots, an engineer skilled in the science of artillery and sieges. At the end of his letter he adds: " Item, I will execute sculpture in marble, bronze, or terra-cotta ; also in painting I can do as much as any other, be he who he may." It was evidently as an engineer and inventor that he esteemed himself most highly. His manuscripts, the majority of which are preserved in the library of the Institut de France, bear witness to his passion- ate interest in science, and more par- ticularly in mechanics. He believed he had made a practical design for a flying machine. The value of Leonardo's scientific work has been successively exaggerated and depreciated. His manuscripts contain many notes and extracts which merely reproduce the ideas of others, but, on the other hand, he certainly foreshadowed many important dis- coveries, and, more especially in geology, he had formed opinions far in advance of his times. In his capacity as a sculptor, Leonardo worked for seventeen years at an equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza, the father of Lodovico il Moro. The plaster model of the horse, without the rider, was shown in 1493, and destroyed by the archers of Louis XII. It is not even cer- tain that any copies have been preserved. No trace remains of his other works in sculpture, which were not numerous. The beau- tiful profile head of a man in a helmet, bequeathed to the Louvre by M. Rattier, has been attributed to him. FIG. 311. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ST. ANNE. LEONARDO DA VINCI. (The Louvre.) (Photo, by Neurdein.) 184 LEONARDO DA VINCI AND RAPHAEL 312. MONNA LISA GIOCONDA. LEONARDO DA VINCI. (The Louvre.) FIG. 313.— VIRGIN AND CHILD. BELTRAFFIO. (Poldi Pezzoli Collection, Milan.) !G. 314. — VIRGIN AND CHILD. BELTRAFFIO. (National Gallery.) (Photo, by Hanfstaengl.) FIG. 315. VIRGIN AND CHILD. (Vierge au Coussin Vert.) ANDREA SOLARIO. (Tlie Louvre.) 185 APOLLO FIG. 316. — CARTOON FOR A HOLY FAMILY. LEONARDO DA VINCI. (Royal Academy, London.) The extant paintings by Leo- nardo comprise four masterpieces of the highest rank, three of which are in the Louvre: The Last Supper, painted in oil on the wall of the refectory at Santa Maria delle Grazie at Milan (1497), a work that is now a wreck, but of which some twenty good copies exist; the Virgin among the Rocfys, 1 painted about 1 483 ; the Virgin with St. Anne, painted about 1502, and, finally, the famous portrait of Monna Lisa Gioconda, executed from 1 502 to 1 506 (Figs. 309-312). Leonardo's pictures at Florence and in the Vatican, The Adoration of the Magi and the St. Jerome, are unfinished. Others ascribed to him in Paris and elsewhere have been very much repainted, or are the works of pupils. Among these disputable works there are, however, two of great beauty, the so-called Portrait of Lucrezia Crivelli and the John the Baptist, the latter marred by a certain affectation. Both are in the Louvre. Even the three great pictures I have grouped with the Last Supper are almost in a state of ruin. Modern restorers are not responsible for this. Leonardo did nothing with simplicity. His oil- painting was a complicated cuisine predestined to scale and blacken. Nevertheless, the Virgin among the Rocks and the Gioconda suffice to give the measure of his genius. Leonardo, unlike his master 1 A replica, probably painted in Leonardo's studio, is in tbe National Gallery. 51 p€^ rn^JM _^r \i FIG. 317. — THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. LEONARDO DA VINCI. (Fragment of a Drawing in the Louvre.) 186 LEONARDO DA VINCI AND RAPHAEL FIG. 3l8. — THE VIRGIN WITH THE SCALES. CESARE DA SESTO. ( ?) (The Louvre.) Verrocchio, his contemporary Botticelli, and the great Florentines of the fifteenth century in general, sought to. express the fluidity of. Atrnpsghere^..and discarded the dry, angular manner of the Primi- Jaxfis, But this did not lead him into inaccuracy or flaccidity. With him, rigour of drawing and im- peccable refinement of line were completed by the art of veiling them under the fusion of model- ling and chiaroscuro, the manner called by the Italians lo sfumato. Precision of outline is, indeed, but a first stage, leading to a precision subtler and more difficult of attain- ment, that of planes. By the middle of the sixteenth century, the Gioconda was accepted in Italy as the inimitable masterpiece of the art of portraiture, the greatest effort of the painter setting himself to compete with Nature. It was said that Leonardo worked at it for four years, and that to call up the sweet and smiling expression on his sitter's face, he caused her to be entertained with music and other diversions. It was not until modern times that a mysteri- ous and romantic character was attributed to Monna Lisa, a sphinx-like gaze, a scornful irony, and a hundred other things undreamt of by Leonardo. Leonardo's type of the Madonna, — whence he took that he has impressed on the Gioconda, for the portraits of an artist of genius always show the influence of his ideal — is akin to the favourite type of his master Verrocchio. Leo- nardo embellished and spiritualised it, eliminated its harshness and dryness, and endowed it with that smile which had already taken 187 3I9> — T hE MARRIAGE OF THE VIRGIN. LUINI. (Fresco in the Church of Saronno.) APOLLO on a touch of affectation in the St. Anne, and was destined to become still more exaggerated and insipid in the hands of his imitators. The Last bupper at Milan shows with what deep atten- tion to the underlying thought Leonardo grouped his figures. The subject had been very often treated before, but he laid down a quasi-definitive formula for it. Jesus has just said: "One of you shall betray Me," and He bows His head, as if to the blast of emotion He has evoked. It is not only a great work of art, but a page of the pro- foundest psychology, a study of character and feeling, trans- lated at once by the expressions of the faces, the gestures, and the attitudes. In addition to these beautiful but half-ruined works, we have happily a good many of Leonardo's drawings, which are to be reckoned among the undisputed masterpieces of the Renaissance, FIG. 320. — THE NATIVITY. LUINI. (Fresco in the Church of Saronno.) (Photo, by Anderson.) FIG. 321. — ST. VICTOR. SODOMA. (Palazzo Pubblico, Siena.) FIG. 322. — THE VISION OF ST. CATHERINE. SODOMA. (Church of San Domenico, Siena.) 188 LEONARDO DA VINCI AND RAPHAEL and would suffice of themselves to make the glory of a great artist. Two of these drawings may be mentioned as incomparable: the cartoon of the Virgin with St. Anne (Fig. 316), in the Royal Academy of London, and the Adoration of the Magi (Fig. 317), in the Louvre. At Milan a local school existed, derived from that of Padua, and founded about 1450 by Vincenzo Foppa. At the time of Leonardo's arrival ( 1 483 ) it boasted an exquisite master, at once Mantegnesque and Umbrian, Ambrogio Borgog- none (Fig.324). Leonardo himself formed several pupils, or inspired several artists of talent, Beltraffio, Solario, Cesare da Sesto, Gaudenzio Ferrari (Figs. 3 1 3-3 1 5, 3 1 8) , but also a large proportion of clumsy and mediocre imitators. The most popular of these disciples was and is Luini, who may be said to have translated the ideal of Leonardo into simple terms, a process -VIRCIN AND CHILD WITH SAINTS. (Museum, Turin.) (Photo, by Anderson.) FIG. 324. — VIRGIN AND CHILD. A. BORGOGNONE. (National Gallery, London.) (Photo, by Hanfstaengl.) FIC. 325. — THE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH SAINTS AND ANGELS. PERUGINO. (The Louvre.) (Photo, by Neurdein.) 189 APOLLO FIG. 326.— THE ENTOMBMENT. PERUGTNO. (Pilli Palace, Florence.) FIG. 327. — THE VIRGIN IN GLORY. PERUGINO. (Museum, Bologna.) (Photo by AlinarO FIG. 328. — MARY MAGDALENE. TIMOTEO VITT. (Museum, Bologna.) FIG. 329. — VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH DONOR. PINTORICCHIO. (Cathedral of San Sevcrino.) (Photo, by Alinari.) 190 . 330.— THE RETURN OF ULYSSES. PINTORICCHIO. (National Gallery, London.) LEONARDO DA VINCI AND RAPHAEL he carried out not altogether without vulgarity, for his elegance is superficial, his drawing uncertain, and his power of invention limited. His most characteristic trait is a certain honeyed softness that delights the multitude; but he rose to great heights in his frescoes in the Church of Saronno, where he appears as the Filippino Lippi of the Milanese School (Figs. 319, 320). Leonardo's influence is also very apparent in the work of the Sienese Sodoma (d. 1549), an artist who, though unequal and man- nered, is sometimes very hap- pily inspired ( Figs. 32 1 -32 3 ) . Finally, Leonardo is the artist whom the Flemings of the first half of the sixteenth century imitated more than any other Italian ; many of the reputed Leonardos of our museums are nothing but Flemish pasticci. The life of Raphael Santi (or Sanzio) is a complete contrast to FIG. 33I. — VIRGIN AND CHILD. COSIMO TURA. (Accademia Carrara, Bergamo.) FIG. 332. — VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH SAINTS. ERCOLE ROBERTI. (Brera, Milan.) 191 APOLLO FIG. 333. — SS. TETER AND JOHN. FRANCESCO DEL COSSA. (Brera, Milan.) that of Leonardo. If the latter, in the course of his long life, produced so little, Raphael, who died at the age of 37, left an immense artistic legacy behind him, which has come down to us almost in its entirety. To understand this pas- sionately acclaimed artist, we must first get a clear idea of the origin of his talent; for no painter was more open to influences, or even more prone to imitate. The truth about the formation of Raphael's genius was discovered by Morelli about 1 880 ; it is the more necessary to insist upon it, because it has not yet become an accepted fact in the teaching of art history. We will first take a rapid survey of Raphael's more remote precursors. The Umbrian School, the offspring of the Sienese School, revealed itself towards the close of the fourteenth century in Gen- tile da Fabriano's ( 1 360-1 428) Adoration of the Magi, in all the freshness of its youthful visions, its gay tints, and amusing narra- tive. At Venice, Gentile col- laborated with his friend, the Veronese Pisanello, the engraver of admirable medals, a draughts- man of genius, and, further, the first Italian who observed ani- mals, and rendered their attitudes and action faithfully. When Roger Van der Weyden visited Italy about 1450, he expressed his admiration for the works of ^kf'*tP»F <8\ /s tD\S \mLx'. '/ jNl J-V4 * 1 [■ 192 FI C 334. — VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH SAINTS. LORENZO COSTA. (Church of S. Giovanni in Monte, Bologna.) LEONARDO DA VINCI AND RAPHAEL TIG. 335. THE ADORATION OF THE INFANT JESUS. FRANCIA. (Museum, Bologna.) FIG. 336. — THE ENTOMBMENT. FRANCIA. (Museum, Turin.) (Photo, by Anderson.) Pisanello and Gentile; the great artist from the North recognised in them talents akin to his own. It is indeed probable that both Pisanello and Gentile, but more especially the former, were familiar with the master- pieces of the Flemish School, and were influenced by them. Verona was in constant com- munication with the Court of Burgundy, and as early as the year 1400 Philip the Bold bought Italian medals. The precursors of the Van Eycks, and doubtless Hubert Van Eyck himself, learned much from Italy, though it is not easy to say on which side r 1 a 1 .1 1 FIG. -537.— THE KNIGHTS DREAM. of the Alps the loans were raphael most numerous and most lm- (National Gallery.) (Photo, by Hanfstaengl.) portant. . . In the second half of the fifteenth century the Umbnan towns, notably Perugia, developed a school of painting very unlike that of 193 APOLLO m IB ifflLgJ ^^^^ i ' r * j * \jf juy -\^ * ^ "j» ^M U Hi » J^5] Wr-^- *" T^^^ji FIG. 33S. — THE MARRIAGE OF THE virgin (Sposalizio). RAPHAEL. (Brera, Milan.) FIG. 339.— THE MADONNA " DEL GRAN DUCA." RAPHAEL. (Pitti Palace, Florence.) Florence. Taking up, as it were, the tradition of the Sienese, they opposed a soft and dulcet suavity to the austere elegance of the Florentines. They are fascinating masters, full of freshness and poetry, but with something childish and limited in their art. If the Flor- entines are over intellectual, they are often puerile. The two great Umbrian masters were Vannucci, called Perugino, born in 1 446, and Betti, called Pintoricchio, born in 1454. Perugino had an instinct for large, airy compositions, and golden, transparent colour, an ex- quisite sense of reverie and ecstasy (Figs. 325-327). Such qualities may be admired to*the full in the beautiful triptych m the National Gallery and the delicate londo in the Louvre. But he could not re- present movement, and when he 194 1 W i ^^j PIG. 340.— THE MADONNA DELLA CASA TEMPI. RAPHAEL. (Pinacothek, Munich.) (Photo, by Hanfstaengl.) LEONARDO DA VINCI AND RAPHAEL attempts to set his figures in motion, they skip rather than walk. Pintoricchio, for a time the foreman of Perugino's studio, had certain gifts which were denied his master (Figs. 329, 330) ; but he drew worse, and thought even less; his large compositions, such as the series in the Libreria at Siena and the frescoes of the Borgia Rooms in the Vatican, are decorative and seductive, though not powerfully conceived. But he is a very interesting figure in the history of art, for it was he who created, or at least developed, the ex- quisite type of the Umbrian Madonna, transmitting the ideal to Raphael. A malady of taste common among novices in connoisseurship -LA BELLE JARDINIERE. RAPHAEL. (The Louvre.) -"";"" 0> & A I i ,]■ •' '* -THE "MADONNA DEL PRATO. RAPHAEL. (Museum, Vienna.) FIG. 343. — THE "MADONNA DI FOLICNO.' RAPHAEL. (Museum of the Vatican.) 195 APOLLO FIG. 344. — THE MADONNA DI SAN SISTO. (Virgin and Child with St. Barbara and Pope Sixtus II.) RAPHAEL. (Dresden Gallery.) G- 345-— THE MADONNA WITH TT FISH. RAPHAEL AND GIULIO ROMANO. (Prado Museum, Madrid.) (Photo, by Manzi, Joyant & Co.) leads them to prefer Perugino and Pintoricchio to Raphael, and even to all other Italian painters. The remedy is a simple one: go to Perugia. The patient will return disillusioned and cured. We have seen that the Venetian School had thrown out in- numerable off-shoots in the north of Italy. One of its colonies, which developed first at Ferrara, and spread to Bologna, produced some dis- tinguished masters, such as Cosimo Tura (Fig. 331), Ercole Roberti (Fig. 332), Francesco del Cossa (Fig. 333), and Lorenzo Costa (Fig. 334), the collaborator of the goldsmith - painter, Francia (b. 1450), who came very near to being a genius. In style he was halfway between Giovanni Bellini and Raphael. 1490, was one Timoteo Viti PIG. 346.- -LA DISPUTA, OR TRIUMPH OF THE CHURCH. RAPHAEL. (Fresco in the Vatican.) His pupil and foreman, about (Fig. 328). 196 347i — THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS. RAPHAEL. (Fresco in the Vatican.) LEONARDO DA VINCI AND RAPHAEL Born at Urbino in 1 483, Raphael was eleven years old when he lost his father, Giovanni Santi, a mediocre painter to whom he owed nothing, not even the first principles of his art. Soon after this (1495), Timoteo Viti quitted Francia's studio to set up for himself at Urbino. He was Raphael's first master, and grounded him in the manner of Francia. It was from him that Raphael acquired a certain predilec- tion for round and opulent forms, which is in itself the negation of the ascetic ideal. About 1499, at the age of sixteen, Raphael painted the charming little picture in the National Gallery, the Vision of a Knight (Fig. 337). Nothing in this work recalls Perugino, as whose pupil and successor Raphael has so long passed. The following year (1500), Raphael entered Perugino's work- shop at Perugia, not as his pupil but as assistant. The master, then overwhelmed with work, was at Florence; Pintoricchio was the foreman of the studio. Raphael, whose nature was peculiarly im- pressionable, drew his inspiration for some four years from Pinto- ricchio and Perugino ; there are pictures by him painted at this period, the cartoons and studies for which are by one or the other of his Umbrian masters. Thu_s.bis first sympathetic manner was evolved, by a blending of the styles of Francia and Peru- gino. He is, however, more akin to the former than to the latter in the masterpiece of his youth, the Sposalizio or Marriage of the Virgin, at Milan (1504) (Fig. 338). It was long supposed that this picture was almost an exact copy of a large composition attributed to Perugino in the Museum of Caen. 197 FIG. 348.- POPE LEO I. CHECKING THE ADVANCE OF ATTILA. RAPHAEL. (Fresco in the Vatican.) APOLLO But Mr. Berenson found the Caen Sposalizio to be no Perugino at all, but a feeble Umbrian imitation, probably by Lo Spagna, of Raphael's Sposalizio. From 15 04 to 15 08 Raphael was at Florence, already famous, and advanc- ing from one success to another. This was the period of the beautiful Madonnas, for which the civilised world has eagerly competed for some four centuries, the Munich Madonna, the so- called Madonna del Gran FIG. 349. — HELIODORUS DRIVEN PROM THE TEMPLE. T) u rn '\T\ the Pitti PalaCC (FrescoTnThTv'atican.) the Belle Jardiniere of the Louvre, the Madonna del Prato at Vienna (Figs. 339-342). At Florence, Raphael began to imitate Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Fra Bartolommeo, a languid draughtsman, but a remarkable composer and colourist. One reason of the unparalleled popularity of Raphael was that faculty for adaptation and intelli- gent imitation which made his art the synthesis and quintessence of all that was most fascinating in Italian genius. Summoned to Rome in 1508, Raphael became successively the favourite painter of Julius II. (d. 1 51 3) and of Leo X. Honours were showered upon him, and he was overwhelmed with commis- sions. He had not only a numer- ous school, but a veritable court. From this time forward, it was his almost invariable practice to furnish only the cartoons for pictures, leaving the execution of them to his pupils, and re-touching them before sending them home to his clients. The most active and gifted of his pupils, Giulio Romano, painted carnations with a 198 FIG. 350.— THE LOGGIE OF THE VATICAN. (Decorated under the direction ot Raphael.) LEONARDO DA VINCI AND RAPHAEL PIG. 351. — PORTRAIT OF JULIUS II. (FRAGMENT) . RAPHAF.L (Pitti Palace, Florence.) (Photo, by Anderson.) peculiar brick-red tone, which appears as the assistant's signature in many pictures of Raphael's Roman period. This tone was admired and imitated by the fer- vent Raphaelites of the nineteenth century, though it is now univer- sally held to be very unpleasant. The great task confided to Raphael in Rome was the de- coration of certain rooms in the Vatic an (le Stanza) and of a long covered gallery round the Courtyard of San Damasio (le Loggie) . The Stanze contain vast historical, allegorical, and re- ligious compositions, such as the Dispute of the Sacrament (more exactly described as The Triumph of the Church), The School of Athens, Parnassus, Heliodorus driven from the Temple, Pope Leo Checking the Advance of Attila, L'Incendio del Borgo (Figs. 346-349). The Loggie are decorated with a series of frescoes com- monly known as Raphael's Bible, representing scenes in sacred his- tory, and a profusion of ingenious ornaments imitated from ancient Roman paintings (Fig. 350). In spite of these labours, which might have filled a whole life -time, Raphael found time to paint ad- mirable portraits (Figs. 35 1 , 352) . and, aided by his pupils, to com- plete large pictures such as the Madonna di San Sisto at Dresden, the Madonna di Foligno in the Vatican, and the Holy Family of Francis I. in the Louvre. He began, but left unfinished, one of his most grandiose works, the Trans figuration, which was com- pleted after his death by Giulio 199 FIG. 352. — PORTRAIT OF BALTHAZAR CASTIGLIONE. RAPHAEL. (The Louvre.) (Photo, by Neurdein.) APOLLO Flr " 353- — THE TRANSFIGURATION. RAPHAEL AND GIULIO ROMANO. (Museum of the Vatican.) Romano (Fig. 353). In addition to all this, Raphael had been appointed architect of St. Peter's after the death of Bramante, and inspector of the antiquities and monuments of Roma. If we further accept the statement that he led a life of pleasure, and was the assiduous worshipper of a lady of whom he has left a fine portrait, the Donna Velata in the Pitti Palace, we can only wonder that for twelve years of untiring productiveness he was able to withstand so many causes of nervous fatigue, especially as he seems from his portraits to have been by nature frail and delicate, almost effeminate. An anthropologist, examining a cast of his skull, supposed it to be that of a woman. His art, with its predominance of sweetness over strength, and its sus- ceptibility to novel influences, has indeed a certain feminine and recep- tive character. The darling of the Papacy and of the Church, the object of a worship from which there was hardly any dissent down to the middle of the nineteenth century, Raphael is now beginning to expiate his glory, and his imprudence in relying too much on the help of his assistants. As is always the case in such matters, the reaction has gone too far. Raphael, in the Slanze and the Loggie, shows himself the greatest illustrator that ever lived; pagan and Christian antiquity alike fur- nished him with immortal images which realised the ideal of the Renaissance, and have been graven in the minds of men for four centuries. His type of the Virgin, half Christian, half pagan, neither 200 FIC. 354. — THE ENTOMBMENT. RAPHAEL. (Borgliese Gallery, Rome.) LEONARDO DA VINCI AND RAPHAEL too ethereal nor too sensual, has won all hearts,' and still retains its sovereignty. It seems as if the momentary fusion of two hostile worlds, Paganism and Christianity, had been brought about by the genius of Raphael ; if others were the flowers of the Renaissance, he was its perfect fruit. To admit the faults of a genius is not to discredit him. Raphael, the marvellous creator of images, was a mediocre colourist (save in a few portraits such as the Balthazar Castiglione in the Louvre) ; and, though Ingres would never have allowed this, his drawing was often commonplace and nerveless. There is no picture by him in which an impartial critic may not find loose, inaccurate, and inexpressive contours. The work in which he attempted to compete with Michelangelo, the Entombment, in the Borghese Gallery in Rome, has all the frigidity of a seventeenth century " academy." Not without reason has the decadence of art been dated from the apogee of Raphael's glory. The worship of Raphael, " the divine painter," has had its day. His works must now be analysed and judged one by one, not as those of a god in the form of a painter, but as the creations of an artist of great genius, fallible like the rest of mankind, and deified by irresponsible enthusiasm. All that is truly great in his art can but gain by being studied critically, not in the spirit of depre- ciation, but, on the other hand, without a blind determination to admire at any price. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER XVII Works and articles already quoted (pp. 166, 181) by Burckhardt, Morelli (essential for Raphael), Romain-Rolland, Wolfflin, and Wolunann. J. P. Richter, Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, 2 vols., London, 1883; E. Miintz, Leonard de Vinci, Paris, 1898; English edition, London, 1898; B. Berenson, The Florentine Painters, 2nd ed., London, 1900 (Leonardo) ; A. Rosenberg, Leonardo da Vinci, Bielefeld, 1898; G. Gronau, Leonardo da Vinci, London, 1903; E, MacCurdy, Leonardo da Vinci, London, 1903; H. Cook, Le Carton de Leonard a la Royal Academy {Gazette des Beaux- Arts, 1897, ii., p. 371) ; G. Carotti, Le Opere di Leonardo, Bramanle e Ragaello, Milan, 1905 ; F. Malaguzzi-Valeri, Pittori lombardi dal quattrocento, Milan, 1902; Eth. Halsey, Gaudenzio Ferrari, London, 1903; M Reymond, Cesare da Seslo (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1892, i., p 314)- G. Williamson, Bernardino Luini, London, 1899; P. Gauthiez, Nouoelles recherches sur Bernardino Luint (Gazelle des Beaux-Arls, 1903, ii., p 189); R. H. Cust, Bazzi (Sodoma), London, 1906 . , . , B. Berenson, The Central Italian Painters, London, 1898 (Raphael) ; A. Ventun, Gentile da Fabriano e Pisanello, Florence, 1896; L. Courajod, Lecons, vol. ii.. Pans, 1900 (Pisanello el les (coles du Nord) ; E. Miintz, Pisanello (Reoue de I'Art. 1 897. i., p. 67) ; A. Grayer, Villore Pisano (Gazelle des Beaux-Arls, 1893, ii.. p. 353); G. Hill Pisanello, London, 905; J. Williamson, Francia, London, 1901; S. Weber, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo Strasburg 1904; Mrs. Graham, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, Rome, 1904; R. Schneider, L Ombrie, Pans 905; Abbe Broussolle, La Jeunesse de Pdrugin el les Origines de I Ecole ombrienne, Pans, I9UI ; t. Stein- mann, Pinluricchio, Bielefeld, 1898; C. Ricci, Pintoricchio .London, 1902; A. Schmarsow Raphael und Plnluricchio in Siena, Berlin, 1903; F. Ehrle and E. Stevenson, U, affreschi del Pinluricchio nelV Apparlamento Borgia, Rome, 1897 (cf. Repertormm, I8y7, p. ilB); A. Schmarsow, Giovanni Sanli, Berlin, 1887. . . . A. Rosenberg, Raffael, Stuttgart, 1904 (reproductions of all his pictures, 202 engravings); A. Springer Raffael und Michelangelo, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1895; E. Miintz, Raphael, new ed„ 201 APOLLO Paris, 1 900 ; English edition, London. 1 882 ; Julia Cartwright. Raphael, London, 1 895 ; H. Knackfuss, Raphael, 4th ed., Bielefeld, 1896; Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Rafaello, new ed., Florence, 1901; Alex. Amersdoffer, Kritische Studien iiber das venezianische Skizzenbuch (wrongly attributed to Raphael), Berlin, 1902 (cf. Repertorium, 1902, p. 130); B. Berenson, Le Sposalizto da Muse'e de Caen (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1896, ii., p. 273); The Study and Criticism of Italian Art, vol. ii., London, 1902; G. Gronau, Aus Raphaels fiorentiner Tagen, Berlin, 1903; H. Dollmayr, Raffaels Werkstatle (Jahrbuch of the Vienna Museums, 1895; cf. Repertorium, 1896, p. 368); Giulio Romano und das klossische Altertum, Vienna, 1902; Lafenestre and Richtenberger, Rome, Paris, 1903 (detailed study of the frescoes of Raphael in the Vatican) ; J. Klaczko, Rome and the Renaissance, the Pontificate of Julius II,, London, 1903 (English illustrated translation ; Melozzo da Forli, Michelangelo). On the feminine character of Raphael's skull, see Bonner J 'ahrbiicher, vol. Ixxhi., p. 182. 202 XVIII MICHELANGELO AND CORREGGIO The Development of the Florentine School after Leonardo. — Fra Bartolommeo, Andrea del Sarto, and Michelangelo. — Pontormo and Bronzino. — The Extinction of the Florentine School hastened ou Michelangelo. — The Titanic Nature of Michelangelo's Genius. — His Early Masterpieces of Sculpture. — The Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. — The Unfinished Tomb of fulius II. — The Medici Chapel, Florence. — The Fresco of The Last Judgment, in the Sisline Chapel. — Pictures by Michelangelo. — Sebastiano del Piombo, Daniele da Volterra, Benvenuto Cellini, Giooanni da Bolognq. — Correggio. — His Decoration of the Cupola of Parma Cathedral. — His Type of the VHrgin. — His Art the Expression of' l the Counter-Reformation. • The genius of Leonardo summed up and dominated the second period of the Florentine Renaissance, inaugurated by Masaccio's frescoes in the Carmine. But Leonardo's pupils and imitators were all Milanese. At Florence the development of the school pro- ceeded on independent lines. In the sixteenth century it could boast three other great names, Fra Bartolommeo, Andrea del Sarto, and Michelangelo. After Botticelli, Ghirlandajo, and Filippino Lippi, painting had to make a certain progress in its special domain, that of colour. The somewhat crude methods of the illuminators were to be super- seded by the use of warm, brilliant tones, brought into harmony by chiaroscuro, and that of delicate tints, on a golden or silvery base, in which Venice and Brescia ex- celled. Leonardo had set the example in the employment of chiaroscuro, though he aimed at fusion rather than at brilliance or colour. The first Florentine who competed with the Venetians in this domain, though he did not equal them, was Baccio della Porta, the friend of Savonarola, who became a Dominican monk 203 —MADONNA WITH SAINTS AND ANGELS. FRA BARTOLOMMEO. (Cathedral, Lucca.) APOLLO FIG. 356. THE VIRGIN APPEARING TO ST. BERNARD. TRA BARTOLOMMEO. (Academy, Florence.) under the style of Fra Bartolommeo, after Savonarola had ex- piated his reforming zeal at the stake in 1 498. Fra Bartolommeo (1475-1517) had an- other merit, the instinct for rhythmic composi- tion, scientifically bal- anced and pyramidally arranged. By virtue of this quality and of his gifts as a colourist he exercised a very happy influence on the youth- ful Raphael from the year 1504 onwards. He would have been a master of the first rank if he had been able to create types; unfortunately, the faces of his personages are inexpressive, and lack both originality and charm (Figs. 355, 356). His pupil, Andrea del Sarto (1486-1531), was a yet more skilful colourist, the Florentine who approached most nearly to Giorgione. He was influenced by Leonardo, from whom he borrowed his sfumato, and later by Michelangelo, often an un- healthy source of inspiration, who gave him a taste for heavy draperies. Andrea, although a commonplace thinker, was a great painter. Like Fra Bartolommeo, he composed skilfully, and he excelled his compatriot in giving movement to his figures, bathing them in a soft and luminous atmosphere, and suggesting ten- 204 357. — THE BIRTH OF THE VIRGIN. ANDREA DEL SARTO. (S. Annunziata, Florence.) MICHELANGELO AND CORREGGIO derness without affectation. He had, further, the rare gift of narrative, and his great mural paintings at Florence, such as the Birth of the Virgin in the Convent of the Annunziata, add to their other fine quali- ties that of being delightful illustrations. His fresco of the Last Supper, at San Salvi, near Florence, is admirable, even if we come to it after seeing Leonardo's great work (Figs. 35 7-360). These fres- coes of Andrea's, which must be studied in Tuscany, are of the greatest importance his- torically, for if we compare them with similar works of the fifteenth century — Andrea del Castagno's Last Supper, for instance — we realise what progress had been made by art towards the goal of complete emancipation. Not only has all Gothic rigidity disappeared, but sentiment has under- lie 3^8. THE LAST SUPPER. ANDREA DEL SARTO. (S. Salvi, near Florence.) FIG. 359.— CHARITY. ANDREA DEL SARTO. (The Louvre.) (Photo, by Neurdein.) 360. — THE MADONNA DELLE ARPIE. ANDREA DEL SARTO. (Pitti Palace, Florence.) gone a complete change; harshness has given place to sweetness, asceticism to a playful and smiling humour. Finally, Andrea was 205 APOLLO FIG. 361. — PORTRAIT OF THE DUCHESS ELEONORA OF TOLEDO AND HER SON FERDINAND. BRONZINO. (Uffizi, Florence.) FIG. 362. — PIETA. MICHELANGELO. (St. Peter's, Rome.) (Photo, by Anderson.) one of the rare artists who created a novel and enduring type of Virgin, with large, liquid, dark eyes, an exquisite mingling of pride and simplicity. One of the most beautiful examples of the type is the Madonna delle Arpie at Florence (1517), where the Vir- gin is enthroned on a pedestal decorated with figures of harpies (Fig. 360). The Florentine School pro- duced a few more good artists, such as Pontormo ( 1 494- 1 5 5 7 ) , and Bronzino ( 1 502-1 572), who painted excellent portraits (Fig. 361 ) and mannered religious com- positions. Broadly speaking, how- ever, it ceased to exist before the end of the sixteenth century. This sudden extinction was not due to political revolutions, but to the crushing superiority of Michelangelo. Though a Flor- entine, he worked in Rome, 206 FIG. 363- HEAD OF THE DAVID. MICHELANGELO. (Academy, Florence.) MICHELANGELO AND CORREGGIO made it the centre of Italian art, and, in his life-time, founded a school which his violent person- ality governed like a new ideal. Venice alone, where Titian out- lived Michelangelo, preserved a local tradition; everywhere else, Michelangelo held undisputed sway. Florentine art, uprooted and Romanised, died like a luxu- riant plant that has flowered too freely, and grown too tall. Michelangelo was born near Florence in 1475, the same year as Fra Bartolommeo. He died in 1564, forty-four years after Raphael, and eighteen years after Raphael's most active disciple, Giulio Romano. Poet, architect, sculptor, and painter, Michelangelo Buonarroti felt himself, and claimed to be, exclusively a sculptor. At Rome, after 1 508, when he was painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he signed his letters ostentatiously: Michelangelo, Sculptor. And, indeed, the genius he applied to painting was a purely sculptural and plastic one. la chiaro- scuro, landscape, and local colour he was indifferent. One thing absorbed all his interest, man; not man in the variety and mutability of actual life, but man as he con- ceived him, a sombre giant with eloquent gestures, brusque arid" vehement attitudes, and a formidable tension of. the muscles, which touches the limits of possibility, even when it does not overstep them. Michelangelo plays with the FIG. 364. FRAGMENT OF CEILING IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME. MICHELANGELO. FIG. 365. — MOSES. MICHELANGELO. (Church of S. Pielro in Vincoli, Rome.) 207 APOLLO FIG. 366. — JEREMIAH. MICHELANGELO. (Sistine Chapel, Rome.) human body as on an instrument, from which he continuously draws the most piercing, strident, and sonorous sounds. On that summit which others only reach occasionally, as if by accident, he maintained himself habitually with- out apparent fatigue; the exceptional became his normal standard. Those who imitated him without possessing his temperament fell into mannerism, that is to say, the affectation of an emotion they did not feel. This was why the stormy Titanism of Michel- angelo was more pernicious to art than the dawning Academicism of Raphael. Michelangelo lived for eighty years ; he did not begin his artistic career with the Titanic fervour of his later life. The pupil of Ghirlandajo and of a sculptor formed in the school of Donatello, he was strongly influenced by the vigorous works of Jacopo della Quercia (Fig. 273) , and also, in his Florentine period, by the antique marbles of the Medici collections. The story of his Cupid, the statue he buried to make it pass for a Roman antique, is well known ; the work was acclaimed with all the more fervour because its admirers thought it was fifteen centuries old. But Michel- angelo's genius had nothing in common with antique art save the predilection for general types. Serenity was unknown to him, and all tradition was intolerable to him. This is apparent even in his early masterpieces (Figs. 362, 363) : the Piela, in St. Peter's, Rome (1498), the Virgin and Child, at Bruges (1501), and the David, at Florence (1 504). The David, a masterpiece of anatomy, seems to some critics to offend against taste, but the two Madonnas are admirable, and reveal a great genius already mature. Michel- angelo boldly placed the naked body of FIG. 367. — FETTERED SLAVE. MICHELANGELO. (The Louvre.) 208 MICHELANGELO AND CORREGGIO m^^osuKsafsae, '"^ -¥*"ih ^vB few * 1H FIG. 36S. — LORENZO DE MEDICI. (II Pensieroso.) (Medici Chapel, Florence.) Jesus on the knees of a draped Madonna, win- ning a very striking effect from this contrast. The Virgin suffers in silence; she is too proud and too majestic for tears. The conception of the Bruges group is no less bold. The Child is not on his mother's lap. This was the traditional attitude, and Michelangelo accordingly rejected it. He stands between her knees, a sturdy, thoughtful boy. She, too, is robust and thought- ful, displaying neither emotion nor tenderness, but vibrating with restrained vitality. The fingers of her right hand, which hold a book, seem to quiver. All the genius of Michelangelo is already present in these works, for those who look at them with knowledge and sympathy. Pope Julius II., the most energetic of the successors of St. Peter, was worthy to under- stand and admire such a man. In 1 508 he commissioned him to decorate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The vast work, carried out by Michelangelo in four years, is unrivalled and even unapproached in the history of painting. These scenes from the Old Testament, these Prophets, Sibyls, and seated Slaves, resemble nothing the world had ever seen (Figs. 364-366). These colossal, statuesque figures, resplendent with muscular strength and athletic effort, in attitudes disconcertingly bold and novel, are the representa- tives of a race at once human and superhuman, in which Michelangelo realised his vision of wild energy and grandeur. Entrusted with the execu- tion of the tombs of Julius II., and of the Medici at Flor- ence, Michelangelo carried the truculent visions of the Sistine Chapel into his chosen domain of sculpture. The tomb of Julius was never finished ; the_Moses sculp- tured for it, and now in the FIG. 369. — DAWN. MICHELANGELO. (Medici Chapel, Florence.) 209 APOLLO FIG. 370. ANGELS BEARING THE CROSS. MICHELANGELO. (Fragment from the Fresco of the Last Judgment.) (Sistine Chapel, Rome.) Church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome, is an extraordinary creation, full of " repressed movement " 1 and vibrating with wrath and passion, the sublimity of which affects one like some great natural spec- tacle (Fig. 365). Two of the Slaves designed for the tomb are among the most precious possessions of the Louvre ; they are standing figures, but bent, twisted, and oblique, marking the extreme of reaction against primitive art, in which the law of frontality prevailed (Fig. 367). The Medici Chapel at Florence was also left unfinished. Michelangelo completed only the two niches, where the seated statues of Giuliano and Lorenzo de' Medici (Fig. 368) dominate two groups of figures reclining on the sarcophagi, Evening and Daren, Day and Night. The seated princes are not portraits, but personifications of melancholy power; they are like two Prophets descended from the Sistine ceiling, and like them are robust, sombre, and con- templative (Fig. 366). A still higher degree of strength, a strength which finds expres- sion in impatient contortions, characterises the four reclin- ing figures, whose audacious attitudes and violent play of muscle evoke both admiration and stupefaction (Fig. 369). FIG. 371. — HOLY FAMILY. MICHLLANGEl.O. (Uffizi, Florence.) ' A very apt term used by H. Wolfflin, The Art of the Italian Renaissance, Heinemann, London. 210 MICHELANGELO AND CORREGGIO FIG. 372. — GROUP KNOWN AS THE CLIMBERS." (From Marc Antonio Raimondi's Engraving " gment of the Cartoon by X angclo, The Pisan War.) On his return to Rome, Michel- angelo, at the request of Pope Paul III., began, in 1 535, to paint the Last Judgment on the end wall of the Sistine Chapel (Fig. 370). This colossal fresco, on which he worked for seven years, is a mistake as a whole, but it is the most complete expression of his genius. In it he exhausted all the possibilities of movement and of line, creating a sinister world of exasperated giants, some victorious, others vanquished, all naked and muscular as athletes. Christian sen- timent is conspicuously absent from this conception, which is like the nightmare of some fevered Titan. What trace of Christianity is to be of aFragr^tofjhe (',■■(„,,„ i,> micIh-i- seen in the avenging Christ with his herculean frame, and the terrified Virgin who cowers beside her Son? The sublimity of the Last Judgment verges on insanity; neither /Eschylus, nor Dante, nor Victor Hugo ever carried the audacity of substituting personal vision for a given argument to such lengths as this. There are very few pictures by Michelangelo (Fig. 371), and the most famous of his cartoons, executed for the city of Florence in 1505, has perished. Fortunately, Marc Antonio, the engraver, the friend of Raphael, engraved a fragment of it, represent- ing Florentine soldiers surprised by the Pisans while bathing (Fig. 372). Antique art has given us nothing superior to these naked bodies in their athletic vigour, and the ele- gance that sets off their strength. If this engraving were all we had by which to judge Michelangelo, FIG. 373. — THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS. DANIELE DA VOLTERRA. (Church of S. Trinitk dei Monti, Rome.) (Photo, by Anderson, Rome.) 211 APOLLO we should recognise the giant in it, as we know the lion by his paw. The Venetian, Sebastiano del Piombo, owed the epic grandeur of his Resurrection of Lazarus in the National Gallery to Michel- angelo's collaboration (Fig. 298). One of Michelangelo's pupils, Daniele da Volterra, imitating his master, achieved the sublime in the great Crucifixion of the Church of the Trinita, at Rome (Fig. 373). A sculptor of the same school, Benvenuto Cellini (1500- 1572), who was also a goldsmith and chaser of metal, and an FIG. 374. — PERSEUS. BENVENUTO CELLINI. (Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence.) FIG. 375. MERCURY TAKING FLIGHT. GIOVANNI DA BOLOGNA. (Bargello, Florence.) adventurer and charlatan to boot, rose to great heights in his Victorious Perseus (Fig. 374) at Florence, inspired both by Dona- tello and Michelangelo. Giovanni da Bologna (Boulogne in France, and not Bologna) , a French sculptor, settled in Italy, was the author of an admirable Mercury taking Flight, in which both Michelangelo and the classic sculptors are imitated (Fig. 375) . But, with very few exceptions, the crowd that made up the other disciples of the master did nothing but imitate his gestures, dislocate colossal figures for no apparent reason, and, " running amok " in cold 212 MICHELANGELO AND CORREGGIO fig. 37c-.- FRACMENT OF THE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITFI ST. JEROME. CORREGGIO. (Parma Gallery.) blood, overstep the narrow boundary that separates the sublime from the ridicu- lous. Younger by some twenty years than Michelangelo, whom he nevertheless pre- deceased by thirty years, a Parmesan painter, Antonio Allegri, called Correggio, ex- ercised almost as great an influence over the Italian art of the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries. He seems to have been formed in the School of Ferrara, and to have been the pupil of the painter, Bianchi, of whom there is a beautiful example in the Louvre. He was of a gentle, sensuous temperament, equally attracted by the romantic myths of paganism and the pious legends of Christianity. He treated both in the same spirit, and with the same delight in flickering and caressing light, mellow, vaporous forms, and the languorous softness of chiaro- scuro. Leonardo inspired him first, then Michelangelo. From the latter he took his taste for aerial movement, for figures hovering in mid-air, soaring overhead, riding on clouds, dumb- founding the spectator by foreshorten- ings that seem incredible and are perfectly true to nature. These audaci- ties of draughtsmanship were a strange innovation in religious painting, but one to which Italian taste speedily reconciled itself. To this sentimental Michelangelo, who was a painter to his finger-tips, and had none of the sculptor's severity, we owe one of the great achievements of art, the decorations of the dome of Parma Cathedral, where the Virgin ascends in the midst of saints borne up heavenwards like herself; 213 7- — VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ST. GEORGE. CORREGGIO. (Dresden Gallery.) APOLLO a tumult of legs and fluttering draperies dominated by ecstatic heads in perspective. , , , Of the pictures which shed lustre on his brief career, the most characteristic are those at Parma and Dresden (Figs. 376 3//), in which there is a good deal of Francia and of Michelangelo, but above all of Correggio, that is to say, of a soul enthralled by beauty, light and joy, and carrying its worship for loveliness to the very verge of effeminacy. His two pictures in the Louvre, one essentially profane, the Jupiter and Antiope, the other full of tender sentiment, if not of religious feeling, the Marriage of St. Catherine (Fig. 378), give an almost perfect idea of his genius ; the same may be said of the two analogous works in the National Gallery, the Mercury instructing Cupid, and the delightful little Ma- donna della Cesta. He created a type of Virgin of exquisite but superficial charm, the in- fluence of which was the more far-reaching in that, on the morrow of the Reforma- tion, it harmonised with the new departure of Catholicism. The Catholic Renaissance, provoked by the schism of Luther towards 1540, had nothing in common with the triumphant and dogmatic re- ligion of the Middle Ages. The task in hand was not to govern minds, but to win hearts. The shrewd and energetic Popes who saved Catholicism from ruin, and helped it to regain the ground lost during the first years of the Reformation, had as their auxiliaries the Jesuits, who made religion easy, and the artists, who made it attractive. In contrast to austere Protestantism, the enemy of art, to whom mystic fervours were suspect, and who sought to restrict the way of salvation, the Counter- Reformation decked the old Roman creed with all the seduction of beauty accessible to the multitude, with all the blandishments of devotion and ecstasy. The art which it protected and which grew up under its influence, notably in Italy and Spain, is typified in church architecture by the Jesuit style, and in painting by the 214 FIG. 37S. — THE MYSTIC MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE. CORREGGIO. (The Louvre.) MICHELANGELO AND CORREGGIO somewhat sensual mysticism, the first examples of which were furnished by Correggio. There is nothing here which resembles the great Christian art of the Middle Ages, not even that of the fifteenth century, which, while it borrowed forms from paganism, remained austere and Christian in thought. To this very day, popular religious illustrations, multiplied ad infinitum by chromo- Iithography, must be finally referred to the master who painted the Antiope, to the decorator of the cupola of Parma Cathedral. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER XVIII Works already quoted by Berenson (more especially The Drawings of Florentine Painters) , by Burckhardt, by Miintz, and by Woermann.— C. Cornelius, Jacopo della Querela, Halle, 1896 (cf. Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1897, ii., p. 172) ; A. Michel, Madone et Enfant de jacopo della Querela au Louvre {Monuments Piot, vol. iii., p. 261 ) ; H. Grimm, Leben Michel-Angelo ' s, 10th ed., 2 vols., Stuttgart, 1901 ; H. Knackfuss, Michel-Angelo, 3rd ed., Bielefeld, 1896; J. A. Symonds, The Life of MichelAngelo, 3rd ed., 2 vols., London, 1899 ; H. Wolfflin, Die Jugend- werke des Michelangelo, Leipzig, 1891 ; Die Klassische Kunst, Munich, 1899, English trans., London, 1903; C. Justi, Michelangelo, Leipzig, 1900; F. Knapp, Michelangelo, Stuttgart, 1906. (photographs of all his works); C. Ricci, Michel-Ange, transl. Crozals, Florence, 1902; Ch. Holroyd, Michel Angelo, London, 1903; Romain Rolland, Michel-Ange, Paris, 1905; C. Strutt, Michael Angelo, London, 1903; R.Sutherland Gower, Michael Angelo, London, 1903; H. Thode, Michel Angelo und das Ende der Renaissance, vols. i. and ii., Berlin, 1903-1904; K. Lange, Der schlaf ende Amor des Michelangelo, Leipzig, 1898; Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini (English edition by John Addington Symonds, London, 1888); E. Molinier, Benvenuto Cellini, Paris, 1894; J. B. Supino, Benvenuto Cellini, Florence, 1901 ; H. Guinness, Andrea del Sarto, London, 1901. Burlington Club, School of Ferrara-Bologna, London, 1894 (very important for Correggio, but not in circulation) ; H. Cook, Francesco Bianchi-Ferrati {Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1901, i., p. 376; cf. for the School of Ferrara, Venturi, fahrbiicher of the Berlin Museums, 1887, p. 71 ; 1888, p. 3); H. Thode, Correggio, Bielefeld, 1898; C. Ricci, Correggio, London, 1897; B. Berenson, Study and Criticism of Italian Art, London, 1901 (p. 20, Correggio); S. Brinton, Correggio, London, 1900; J. Strzygowski, Das Wtrden des Barock bet Raphael und Correggio, Strasburg, 1898. . • 215 XIX THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE AND IN FLANDERS The Union of Flanders and Burgundy.^ The Valois Dukes of Burgundy and their Patronage of Artists. — The Rise of the School of Burgundy at Dijon.-^tThe Early French Renaissance Checked by National Calamity. — Flanders in Advance of Italy at the Beginning of the \5th Century. — Early Flemish Artists. — Claux Sluter and his Works at Dijon. — The Brothers Limbourg. — The Book of Hours at Chantilly. — The Painter Malouel. — ~The Affinity between the Flemish and Italian Primitives. — The Reciprocal Influence of the Two Schools. — The Supposed Invention of the Oil Medium by Van Eyck- — The Brothers Hubert and fan van Eyck. — The Polyptych of the "Adoration of the Lamb." — The Masterpieces of Jan van Eyck. — His followers : Albert van Ouwafer, Thierry Bouts, Roger Van der Weyden. — The Flemish School at its Apogee.—) 'acques Daret, Simon Marmion. — Hugo van der Goes, and the Porlinari Altar-piece. — Memling, Gerard David, Quentin Malsys. — The Italianised Flemings: Mabuse, B. Van Orley. — The Realists: Jerome Bosch, Breughel the Elder. — The Realistic Tendencies of Flemish Art. — The Franco-Flemish School at Paris, Avignon, and the Court of King Rene". — Froment, Jean Fouquet. — The Clouets.^'-The School of Fontaine- Mean. — Michel Colombe, Germain Pilon, and Barthelemy Prieur. — fean Goujon. — The Rise of the Dutch School. — The Leyden Painters: Engelbrechtsen and Lucas van Leyden. In 1361, Jean le Bon, King of France ( 1 350-1 364) , inherited the Duchy of Burgundy on the death of the last native Duke, Philippe de Rouvre. He gave this fair domain to his fourth son, Philippe le Hardi, who mar- ried Marguerite, heiress of the Counts of Flanders, and thus Burgundy and Flanders were united in 1 384. This union lasted through- out the reigns of the princes of the House of Valois, who were all zealous protectors of art and artists, Jean Sans Peur ( 1404-1 4 19), Philippe le Bon (1419-1467), Charles le Temeraire (1467-1477). Very close relations were established between Burgundy, Flanders, France, and Italy; many Flemish artists came to work at Dijon, and there founded the School of Burgundy, which is but a branch of the Flemish School, itself a graft on the French Gothic trunk. The eldest son of Jean le Bon, who reigned in France under the name of Charles V. (1 337-1 380), was a great lover of books and 216 " ; - 379-~ THE VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH PHILIPPE LE HARDI AND MARGUERITE OF FLANDERS ADORING. CLAUX SLUTER. (Porch, of the Chartreuse of Champmol, near Dijon.) FIG. 380.— THE WELL OF MOSES. CLAUX SLUTER. (Chartreuse of Champmol, near Dijon.) THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS works of art. His court painter was Jean Bandol of Bruges, the author of the cartoons for the tapestries in Angers Cathedral. Another son of Jean le Bon, Jean, Due de Berry, who died in 1416, surrounded him- self with a brilliant court at Bourges, and collected a magnificent library of manuscripts illuminated by Flemish artists, a good number of whom worked in Paris. This city was the great artistic and intellectual centre of Europe at the end of the fourteenth century. Flemish art, a little heavy in Flan- ders and Burgundy, had. in Paris taken on a character of urbanity and refinement which manifested itself in the miniatvlres of manu- scripts. A brilliant French Renaissance was about to unfold there, when the Civil War (1410), the disaster of Agincourt (1415), and the Treaty of Troyes (1420), plunged France into misery. Art took flight towards the Duchy of Burgundy, and it was there, and not in Paris, that the Franco - Flemish Renaissance culminated. Gothic art had developed in Flanders together with the wealth of the country, which, from the beginning of the four- teenth century, excited the wonder and the envy of all Europe. About 1390, Mel- chior Broederlam, of Ypres, painter to Philippe le Hardi, painted the shutters of a carved reredos preserved at Dijon. At the. same time, a sculptor of genius, Claux Sluter, arrived PAUL VK LIMliUUKG. f r ^, *-^*-«™=*.~ * ~~ . (Miniature from the Book of Hours, at Chantilly.) from _ F landers in Burgundy. (Chanlilly, Plon, Nourrit and Co., Paris.) 217 FIG. 381. THE DUC DE BERRY AT TABLE. PAUL DE LIMBOURG. He left there some master- APOLLO FIG. 382.- TOMB OF PHILIPPE PUT, SENESCHAL OF BURGUNDY. (The Louvre.) pieces of expressive realism, notably the porch of the Car- thusian Monastery of Champ- mol, near Dijon (Fig. 379), and (in the same place) the famous Well of Moses, the hexagonal base of a Calvary, each compartment of which is ornamented with statues of prophets (Fig. 380). The group of the Virgin and Child, the smiling and somewhat silly figure of Due Philippe and that of Marguerite of Flanders, are admirable details which worthily sustain the great tradition of the imagiers. The Moses is a mighty figure, at once scriptural and realistic. All this was finished before 1 405 ; now Ghiberti's beauti- ful gates for the Baptistery at Florence are later by thirty years, and Masaccio was not born till 1401. It is, therefore, evident that, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, Flanders was greatly in advance of Italy. And this was not only true as regards sculpture. Before 1416, the date of the Due de Berry's death, Paul de Limbourg and his brothers illuminated the exquisite Book of Hours which is the glory of the Musee Conde at Chantilly (Fig. 38 1 ) . This was no iso- lated masterpiece. There is in the Louvre a Trinity by the Guelderlander Malouel, probably the un- cle of the Limbourgs, who was working in Paris about 1 400. In this many of the finest qualities of the Book of Hours are foreshadowed. (Museum, Berlin.) We must therefore look FIC. 383- — CHOIR OF ANGELS. HUBERT AND JAN VAN EYCK. FIG. 384.— VIRGIN READING. HUBERT VAN EYCK. (Fragment of the Polyptych, The A deration oj the Lamb.) (Church of St. Bavon, Ghent.) 218 THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS FIG. 385. — THE JUST JUDGES AND THE KNIGHTS OF CHRIST. HUBERT AND JAN VAN EYCK. (Shutters of the Polyptych, The Adoration 0} the Lamb.) (Museum, Berlin.) upon it as a product of the Pari- sian Renaissance, born from the contact of artists of Flemish birth with the taste and refinement that distinguished the court of the Valois. At this period (1400-1410), Franco-Flemish art had spread throughout France, and invaded the valley of the Rhine. Social and commercial intercourse soon carried it beyond the Alps; we may note that the Duke of Or- leans, assassinated in 1407, had married a Visconti, Valentina of Milan. About the year 1400, Philippe le Hardi was buying Italian medals and ivories; an Italian, Pietro of Verona, was his librarian. On the other hand, Flemish art was finding its way into Italy, and this migratory movement continued throughout the fifteenth century. The artistic affinities of the Limbourgs, the Van Eycks, Gentile da Fabriano, and Pisanello are obvious. Now it is more than probable that rich and prosperous Flanders did not borrow everything from Italy. It may even be that the realistic influence of Flemish art had its share in Masaccio's reaction against Giottism. These are points a good deal discussed just now, which will no doubt be presently solved. Although the sculptors of the Flemish Renaissance left us many important works which upheld the tradition of Claux Sluter — it will be enough to give as examples the tombs of the Dukes of Burgundy at Dijon and at Bruges, and that of Philippe Pot in the Louvre (Fig. 382) — I shall confine myself here 219 FIG. 386 THE VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH CARTHUSIAN DONOR. HUBERT OR JAN VAN EYCK. (G. de Rothschild Collection, Paris.) (Photo, by Le"vy and Son.) APOLLO FIG. 387. JAN ARNOLFINI AND HIS WIFE. FIC. 3SS. THE RAISING OF LAZARUS. }AN VAN EYCK. A. VAN OUWATER. (National Gallery, London.) (Museum, Berlin.) (Photo, by Hanfstaengl.) to painting, the art in which its genius was most brilliantly mani- fested. The Italians of the middle of the fifteenth century were well aware that the Flemish painters had no compeers ; they collected their works eagerly, and sent '~~~—*m them many pupils. 1 Common opinion even attributed the invention of oil-painting to the Van Eycks, though the method had been known since the twelfth century, and the Flemings had merely per- fected drying mediums, and given a new splendour and intensity to colour. Superior as the Italians were, to" the Flemings in the decorative style, they admitted their in- feriority in the rendering of life. Later on opinion became less equitable, and even somewhat oblivious. It was only in the Mn 1460, Bianca Maria Sforza, Duchess of Milan, sent the youthful painter Zanetto Bugatto to Brussels, to study in Roger, van der Weyden's atelier. In 1463. Zanetto returned and the FIG. 38p. ST. FRANCIS RECEIVING THE STIGMATA (Museum, Turin.) (Photo, by Anderson.) Duchess wrote to Roger to thank him. ( Malaguzzi Valeri, Pitlori, Lombard,, Milan, 1902 ) 220 THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS nineteenth century that full justice began to be rendered to those admirable artists, the Van Eycks, Roger van der Weyden, Hugo van der Goes, Thierry Bouts, Memling, Gerard David, Albert van Ouwater, and Quentin Matsys. The great altar-piece of The Adoration of the Lamb at Ghent was all, and even more, to Flemish painting, that Masaccio's frescoes were to the Italian School. This work, now divided between the towns of Ghent, Brussels, and Berlin, was begun about the year L4 1 5 by_Huhert _van Eyck, and finished in 1 432 by his brother Jan. It is not easy to assign to each brother his part in the work; but I am in- clined to think that Jan's share was confined to the two magnifi- cent portraits of the donors. The angels playing musical instru- ments, the processions of the Soldiers of Christ and of the Just Judges, the figures of Adam and Eve, the great central panel, which is all that remains at Ghent, moved Fromentin to say that in this work art had achieved perfection in a first effort (Figs. 383-385). But the miniatures in the Chantilly Book of Hours, which were unknown to Fromentin, attest that the Van Eycks had their peers. It is quite evident that they were not the dis- ciples of the brothers Lim- bo urg; the two families were contemporary manifest- ations of two kindred styles, the one (that of the Van EycksX-.P ure Iy Flemish, the other modified by Italian influences, and refined by a "Parisian environment. 221 FIG. 390. THE MEETING OF ABRAHAM AND MELCHISEDECH. THIERRY BOUTS. (Pinacothck, Munich.) (Wocrmann, Ge- Secmann, Leipzig.) schichte der Malcrei. WE* m ; ■ 4m, ~*v «r*N^ m FIG. 391. — THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS. R. VAN DER WEYDEN. (Museum, Madrid.) (Photo, by Lacoste.) APOLLO FIG. 3Q2. THE JUDGMENT OF THE EMPEROR OTHO. THIERRY BOUTS. (Museum, Brussels.) (Photo, by Hanfstacngl.) merit, no fer- vour; the Virgin is ugly, the In- fant Jesus sickly ; the St. George is a peasant in armour. But Jan van Eyck is the greatest portraitist of all time. Never did keener eye scrutinise the living form, never did more skilful hand fix its image on the panel. There is also a little series of unsigned pictures, nearly all masterpieces, which are ascribed sometimes to Jan, sometimes to Hu- bert. Two of the most perfect of them are in Paris; one, in the Louvre, represents Rolin, Chancellor of Philippe le Bon, kneel- ing before the Virgin and Child, against a marvellous landscape background; the other, in M. Gustave de Rothschild's collection, shows the Vicar of the Carthusian monastery of St. Anne at Bruges, Hermann Steenken, before the Virgin, St. Anne, and St. Barbara, with the same landscape as the first. There is a third panel from the same atelier at Turin (Figs. 386, 389). 222 Jan van Eyck, (1 385-1 441 ) was employed by Philippe le Bon on various diplomatic missions. He visited Por- tugal, Spain, and the Hague. There is nothing to show that he was ever in Italy. From 1 432 to 1 440 he painted a whole series of signed and dated pictures, among them such incompara- ble portraits as those of his wife, of Canon Van de Paele at Bruges, and of the Arnolfini couple in the National Gallery (Fig. 387). The great pic- ture at Bruges, in which Van de Paele appears as donor, enables us to appreciate both the greatness of Jan's genius and its limitations. He has no religious senti- FIG. 393. VIRGIN AND CHILD. JACQUES DARET (called the Master of Flemalle). (Museum, Frankfort.) (Photo, by Bruckman.) THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS FIG. 394. THE BISHOP GUILLAUME FILLATRE PRESENTS THE VOLUME TO PHILIPPE LE BON. SIMON MARMION. (Frontispiece of a Manuscript in the Library at St. Petersburg.) FIG. 3QS- ARRIVAL OF ST. URSULA AT COLOGNE. H. MEMLING. (Shrine of St. Ursula.) (Hospital of Bruges.) During their long sojourn at the Hague, the two Van Eycks must have formed a certain number of pupils; the best known of these is Albert van Ouwater, the author of a masterpiece, The Resarrection of Lazarus, in the Berlin Museum (Fig. 388), which his pupil, Gerard of Haarlem (Geertgen) , successfully imi- tated in a picture acquired by the Louvre in 1902. With these Dutchmen we must class a Haarlemer, who was perhaps a fellow-pupil of Ouwater's, Thierry Bouts ( 1 4 1 0-1 475 ), and who worked" at Louvain about 1 459. He was an artist whose vigour of temperament verged on bru- tality, whose realism led him into deliberate ugliness, and ™- 396.— the nativity. hi £ I 'IT :„t„ HUGO VAN DER GOES. is desire tor brilliance into , _j . ... .,, r , i i- 1 (Academy, Florence.) (Photo, by Ahnan.) crudity or colour. His best works, such as the Judgment of Otho at Brussels, are extraordin- ary in their intensity of tone and expression, but better in drawing 223 APOLLO and painting than in composition (Figs. 390, 392). Between 1 435 and 1 464, a painter of Tournai, Roger de la Pasture (in Flemish, Van der Weyden) worked at Brussels. It is very doubtful that he was a pupil of the Van Eycks; in any case, if he resembles them in his technique, his was a different and even a dissimilar genius. Where the Van Eycks aimed at calm and serene grandeur, Van der Weyden strove for pathos. TTe tht had reli- - 597- PORTRAIT OF MARTIN VAN NEWENBOVEN. H. MEMLING. (Hospital of St. John, Bruges.) FIG. 39Q. THE BANKER AND HIS WIFE. QUENTIN MATSYS. (The Louvre.) gious and dramatic sentiment, the gifts of tenderness and emotion, a taste for sinuous, even tortuous and dislocated lines, which express the strong emotions of the soul. His Descent from the Cross, in the Escorial, with a good replica at Madrid, is one of the masterpieces of art (Fig. 391 ) ; other pictures by him are at Munich, Berlin, and Beaune. Between 1450 and 1480, the Flemish School, then at its apogee, produced a long series of prodigies. The first was a Tournay pupil of Van der Weyden's, Jacques Daret, known until quite lately as the Master of Merode, or of Flemalle, 1 the author of an admirable Crucifixion and of a Virgin and Child at Frank- fort {Fig. 393). Then Simon Marmion of Amiens, who, about the year 1455, painted 224 FIG. 30S THE VIRGIN SURROUNDED BY SAD GERARD DAVID. (Museum, Rouen.) (Photo, by Petiton.) THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS the Life of St. Berlin (Berlin Museum, 1905), and illuminated a manuscript of the Grandes Chroniques de France, presented to Philippe Ie Bon by the Abbe de St. Beirtin, with exquisite miniatures ( Fig. 394 ) . About 1470, the Zeelander, Hugo van der Goes, painted for Tommaso Portinari, the agent of the Medici at Bruges, a colossal Nativity (Fig. 396), which Portinari presented to the hospital at Florence, and from which the Italian painters, Lorenzo di Credi, Ghirlandajo, etc., hastened to copy details. Finally, from 1468 to 1489, Memling pro- duced his, exquisite series of portraits and large religious compositions (Figs. 395, 397). Is there a more fascinating achievement in all the domain of painting than the Shrine FIG. 4OO. THE VIRGIN AND ST. ANNE. QUENTIN MATSYS. (Museum, Brussels.) (Photo, by Hanfstaengl.) of St. Ursula at Bruges? If we except those of Van Eyck, what portraits are superior to JyJeinJing's? He was, jndeed, the Raphael of Flemish art, the man in whom all the gentler gifts of his school were combined to the exclusion of all that was harsh and brutal. Inferior to Van der Weyden in his mas- tery of expressive line, and to Jan van Eyck in solid and plastic realism, the heir of the miniaturists rather than of the painters, he is the most at- tractive, if not the most origi- nal, of all these gifted masters. Memling had a successor at Bruges, Gerard J3avid, who flourished from 1488 to 1509. His masterpiece, a Virgin surrounded by Saints, is at Rouen (Fig. 398) ; we note therein, 225 FIG. 401. THE JUGGLER. JEROME BOSCH. (Municipal-Museum, St. Germ a in -en- Lay e.) (Photo, by Levy and Son.) APOLLO TIG. 402. — VIRGIN AND CHILD. JAN GOSSAERT, CALLED MABUSE. (Museum, Berlin.) (Photo, by Hanfstaengl.) FIG. 403. THE BURNING BUSH. NICHOLAS FROMENT OF AVIGNON. (Cathedral of Aix.) (Photo, by Neurdein.) together with a return to the types of Van Eyck, indications of the increase of Italian influence. These are also apparent in the works of the Antwerp master, Quen- tin Matsys (1466-1530); but Van der Weyden's tradition is maintained in his Descent from the Cross at Antwerp, his St. Anne at Brussels (Fig. 400), and his head of the pray- ing Virgin in the National Gallery. There is an idealistic element in Matsys' art, though he appears as a realist, and even a satirist upon occa- sions (Fig. 399), but he did not deliberately imitate the Italians. Unfortunately, the Flemings were stirred to emulation by the glory of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo. Certain very gifted painters, such as Jan Gossaert of Maubeuge (called Mabuse) and Ba- rendt van Orley, went to Italy and brought back a style which har- 226 FIG. 404. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. J. FOUQUET. (Minkilure in the Musee Condi', Chantilly.) (Photo, by Braun, Clement et Cie.) FIG. 405. TRIPTYCH PRESENTED BY PIERRE II. DE BOURBON AND ANNE DE BEAUJEU TO THE CATHEDRAL OF MOULINS. (By a French Master, perhaps Jean Perreal.) (Photo, by Neurdein.) THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS monised ill with that they had received from native masters (Fig. 402). It is unnecessary to linger over these hybrid, though often fasci- nating, works, in which Italian ideal- ism, the imitation of the antique, and Flemish realism are associated but not assimilated. These Italianised painters reigned supreme throughout the second half of the sixteenth century, and had at least this merit, that they pre- pared the way for Rubens. Side by side with them, as if in reaction, other Flemings were following a very different path, delighting in jests and satires, painting and working for the people. These racy and spirited realists, Jerome Bosch (Fig. 401) and the elder Breughel, prepared the way for the Dutch Little Masters of the seventeenth century, who were to raise genre-painting to the level of great art. This tendency to give poetry to realities, rather than to realise a conventional ideal, is prominent throughout the whole course of Flemish art. Painters were obliged to paint sacred pictures, Virgins, angels and martyrs, because their clients asked for these; but how clearly they show that all of them, even Memling himself, would gladly have painted anything else! The things that interest them, that they study and render most lovingly, are figures of donors, rich stuffs, distant glimpses of landscape. They are never so great as when they escape from the bondage of the given theme. There is one--exceptionJ.a this rule— Roger van der Weyden. But we know he had made a pilgrimage to Rome, and that he lived for a time at Ferrara. He was thejsole mystic among the numerous Flemish painters of religious luEjectsT 227 FIG. 406. PORTRAIT OF HENRI II. F. CLOUET. (The Louvre.) APOLLO FIG. 407. DIANA AND HER NYMPHS. SCHOOL OF FONTAINEBLEAU. (Museum, Rouen.) (Photo, by Petiton.) The French branch of Flemish art in the fifteenth century followed a similar course, save that the realistic tendency here was early tem- pered by the essentially French taste for sobriety and ele- gance. At the close of the fourteenth century, Paris was an artistic centre of the first rank. About 1410, the mis- fortunes that befell the mon- archy scattered the artists of the capital to Burgundy, Touraine, and Provence. The establishment of the Papal court at Avignon in 1 309 had created a centre of Italian art in the city, round which a local school soon grew up; the masterpiece of this school is the large Piela of the hospital of Ville- neuve (1470), now in the Louvre. Froment, of Avignon, the painter of the Burning Bush (Fig. 403) intheCathe- dral of Aix, worked at the court of Rene of Anjou (1417-1480), who established himself in Provence after losing Naples and Sicily. During the reigns of Charles VII. and Louis XI. a very great artist flourished in France, Jean Fouquet (1415- 1 485 ) , who was in Italy about 1445, and later at Tours. There are powerful portraits by him at Paris and at Berlin, and at Chantilly an admirable series of forty miniatures, 1 Temperance, with her attributes, a yoke and a clock. 228 ffl \ /^*8k'' iWmk IlHilti SKIP IP^K liiBteSE^Siiiil FIG. 40S. — A CARDINAL VIRTUE. 1 MICHEL COLOMBE. (Figure from the Tomb of Francois II. of Bretagne.) (Nantes Cathedral.) TIG. 409. — THE THREE GRACES. GERMAIN PILON. (The Louvre.) JgpR-T f^ 1 §||o*n 1 Wffif.A \ !$3$ Wm'w K^S K§lf U MR/ W^-'iM& ^^u THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS Panted about 1455 for the Book of Hours of Etienne Chevalier (Fig. 404). The decorative elements of these little pictures are Italian to some extent, but the senti- ment is purely French, and suggests a gentler Van Eyck. The colour is delicate, but lacking in brilliance, and occasionally in harmony. The school of the Bourbonnais, of which we are only just beginning to learn something, was formed under the influences of those of Touraine and Provence. A large picture in the Cathedral of Moulins, perhaps by Jean Perreal, painter to Charles VIII., shows strong Italian influences, together with a native taste for a somewhat mannered grace and pale, delicately shaded colours (Fig. 405). A yet finer work by this master is the Nativity in the Bishop's palace at Autun, the background of which reveals the influence of Van der Goes (cf. Fig. 396). A family of painters of Dutch origin, the C loue ts, produced a large number of portraits from the time of Francois I. to that of Henry III., both in oils and crayons, in which lightness of touch, learned pre- cision of line, and contempt for unnecessary detail, presage the qualities of the classic spirit as manifested in France in the seventeenth century (Fig. 406) . These fine portraits, so non- insistent, so reticent, and yet so delicately psychological, seem " made out of nothing," like Racine's tragedies. The Italians summoned to France in 1531- 1532, Rosso and Primaticcio, busied themselves mainly in propagating the defects of the School of Michelangelo, but their imitators, who formed the so- called School of Fontainebleau, remained French rather than 229 FIG 4IO- — RELIEFS ON THE FON- TAINE DES INNOCENTS, PARTS. JEAN COUJON. (Photo, by Giraudon.) FIG. 411. — DIANA. JEAN GOUJON. (The Louvre.) contemporaries of Catherine de' APOLLO Italian. This is evident in the pictures of the school, which is well represented at the Louvre and at Rouen (Fig. 407). Their authors speak Italian, but with a strong French accent. In sculpture, Italianism first invaded decoration, then bas-relief and statuary; but, here again, down to the end of the sixteenth century, the French element predominated, in the works of Michel Colombe (d. 1512), Germain Pilon, and Barthelemy Prieur, the ■ Medici and Henri IV. (Figs. 408, 409). The most Italian, and also, perhaps, the most gifted of the artists of this period, was Jean Goujon, whose nymphs on the Fontaine des Innocents in Paris (1550) and the portal of the Louvre which bears hjf name, are among the most delightful works of the Franco-Italian Renaissance (Fig. 410). These an decorative sculptures; but the portraits of the period, especiallyj| those of dead persons kneeling, ||re inspired rather by the French imagiers than by Italian models. French art was never completely Italianised, even under Louis XIV. ; the his- tory of national resistance to foreign taste may be followed throughout the seventeenth century. Seemann, Leipzig.) At the beginning of the sixteenth century, a very individual school of Dutch painting arose. The centre of this school was Ley den, where Engelbrechtsen (d. 1 533), the master of Lucas van Ley den ( 1 494-1 5 33), worked. Few pictures by Lucas have survived; the most important is the Last Judgment in the Leyden Museum. But he left nearly two hundred^iengravings, which will bear comparison with those of Diirer himself {Fig. 412). His taste for rustic and comic scenes, the boldness and facility of his burin, herald the development of familiar art in Holland- Lucas, who died at the age of 39, was an artist of great capacity. Jacob Cornelisz of Amsterdam and Jan van Scorel of 'tltrecht were also gifted painters, less susceptible than their Flemish Contemporaries to those transalpine influences, which have nearly aftvavs proved 230 ?IG. 412. THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTHONY. (Engraving.) LUCAS VAN LEYDEN. (Woermann, History oj Painting. THE RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS pernicious to men of northern race. Holland, by espousing the cause of the Reformation, and breaking with Rome, preserved her artistic originality to some extent, before she won her independence. This was done at the expense of cruel sacrifices; but she reaped the reward of her courage, in the seventeenth century, when she gave the world one of the heroes of art, Rembrandt, a genius at once Dutch and universal. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER XIX L. Courajod, Lecons professies d I'Ecolc du Louvre, vol. ii., Paris, 1901 ; L. Courajod and F. Marcou, Le Musie de Sculpture compare'e du Trocade'ro, Paris, 1892; L. Gonse, La Sculpture francaise depuis le XI V e Steele, Paris, 1895. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Early Flemish Painters, London, 1 879 ; A. Michiels, Histoire de la \P vols., Paris, 1865-1874; L'Artflamand dans VEst el le Midi de la France, 'auters, Le Peinture flamande, Paris, 1 882 ; C. Dehaisnes, L'Arl chre'lien en ~; Histoire de ['Art dans la Flandre, aoant le XV e siecle, 2 vols., Lille, rt dans les Flandres aoant le XV e siecle (Gaz. des Beaux-Arts, 1887, i., 'Les Influences classiques et le Renouvellement de I' A rt dans les Flandres au 1898, i., pp. 289, 472); M. Friedlander, Meislerwerke der niederldndischen ,1903; J. Weale, The Early Painters of the Netherlands {Burlington 1 p. 41); F. Gevaert, La Renaissance septentrionale, Brussels, 1905; H, )n des Primilifs flamands a Bruges, Paris, 1902; R. Fry, The Exhibition of it Bruges (The Athenxum, September 13 and 20, 1902; cf. Rev. arche'ol., 1 G. Hulin, Catalogue critique de I'Exposition de Bruges, Bruges, 1 902 (cf. [03, i., p. 110; 1903, ii., p. 319) ; E. Male, Le RenouVellement de I'Art par \desB.-Arls, 1904, i., p. 89). \xposilion des Primilifs francais (Revue de I'Art, 1904, i., p. 82) ; Bouchot, , 1905 (with 100 illus.) ; K. Fry, same subject (Burlington Magazine, 1904, Lasteyrie, Les Miniatures d'Andri Beauneveu et de Jacquemart de Hesdin, !., p. 71) ; Delisle, Les Heures du Due de Berry (Gaz. des B.-Arts, 1884. i., lampeaux and P. Gauchery, Les Arts d la Cour du Due de Berry, Paris, 1894 des Beaux-Arts, 1895, ii., p. 254, and for the works of this school, H. Bouchot id., 1904, i., pp. 1 and 55) ; P. Durrieu, Les tres riches Heures du Due de ; A. de Champeaux, Le Due de Berry et I'Art italien (Gaz. des Beaux-Arts, , L'Ancienne Ecole de peinture de la Bourgogne (ibid., 1898, i., p. 36) ; A. 'Art en Bourgogne, Paris, 1894 (cf. Leprieur, Repertorium, 1895, p. 383): aus Slater (Gaz. des Beaux-Arts, 1903, i., p. 121, and Paris, 1905); L'Art ■urgogne (ibid., 1901, ii., p. 441 ; 1905, ii., p. 26) Sculpture au pays de Liege, Liege, 1890; La Peinture au pays de Liege, ~i. Cremer, Studien zur Geschichte der Oelfarbentechnik, Dusseldorf, 1 895 ; Je'buls des Van Eyck (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1903, i., p. 1 ; The Book of L. Kammerer, Hubert and fan Van Eyck, Bielefeld, 1898; W. H. Weale, k (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1901, ii., p. 474); Hubert and fan Van Eyck, I. Dvorak, Das Ratsel der Kunst der Van Eyck, Vienna, 1904; K. Vol], Die •an Euch, Strasburg, 1900; W. Bode, Le Relable de I'Agneau (Gazette da i., p. 211; cf.J. Six, ibid., 1904, i..p. 177) ,...,„ , Rogier van der Weyden, Brussels, 1856; L. Maeterlinck, Roger van der igiers de Tournai, Brussels, 1901 ; Rogier sculpteur (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, M. Friedlander, Bildniss des Meisters von Flemalle (fahrbucher of the Berlin 17) ■ H von Tschudi, Der Meister von Flemalle (ibid., 1898, p. 8) ; A. der 'Goes, Brussels, 1872; E. Michel, Le Triplyque d'Hugo van der Goes ■Arts 1 896, i , p. 36 1 ) ; W. Bode, Die A nbelung der Hirlen von H. Van der the Berlin Museums, 1 903, p. 99) ; «C. Dehaisnes, Recherches sur le retable . Simon Marmion, Lille, 1892; L'Art ii Amiens vers la fin du moyen age, an Even, Thierry Bouts, Louvain, 1864; L. Kammerer, Memlmg, Bielefeld, ale, Hans Memlinc, London, 1901 (same subject in French, Bruges, 1903) ; ludien, Dusseldorf, 1900 (cf. Repertorium 1900, p. 416 ; G Semeres, Le ding a Lubeck (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1902, i. p. I 19) ; W. H. Weale, ' n 1895- E. von Bodenhausen, G. David, Munich, 1905; M. Fnedlander, (fahrbucher of the Berlin Museums, 1903, p. 63); C. Benoit, LaResur- Gtrard de Harlem (Monum. Plot, vol. ix., p. 73) ; H. Hymans, Quentm Peinture flame Paris, 1877 ; ^ Flandre, Dou 1886; A. Dl p. 158); E. XV e siecle (ii Malerei, Munif Magazine, 19(7 Hymans, L'Exf Early Flemish . 1903, i., p. 7( Reoue arche'ol} les Musteres (I P. Durrieu, same subject, i., p. 279). ' (Mon. Piot, vc p. 401); A. d4 (cf. B. Prost, and S. Reinacrj Berry, Paris, 1 If" Perrault-Dabotj A. KleinclauszJ funiraire de la J. Helbig, Liege, 1903; P. Durrieu, L\ Hours at Tur Hubert Van . London, 1903: Werke des J at Beaux-Arts, I( J. A. WauJ Weyden et le , 1901, ii.. p. 26 Museums, 190J Wauters, Hugoy /{Gazette des Be Goes (JahrbUcI de Saint-Berlin Bruges, 1890; 1889; W. H. „ T. Bock, A/emfl Polyptyque de Gerard DaOid, Geerlgen tot S. rection de Lazar &Ve taken various items in Chapter XIX. from these articles. 231 APOLLO Matsys (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1888, i., p. 1) ; C. Benoit, Jean Mostaert (ibid., 1899, i., p. 265); M. Gossart, Jean Gossart de Maubiuge, Lille, 1903; A. Wauters, Bernard van Orhy, Paris, 1893; H. Dollmayer, Hieronymus Bosch (Jahrbiicher of the Vienna Museums, 1 898, p. 284) ; L. Maeterlinck, One CEuvre inconnue de Jerome Bosch {Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1900, i., p. 68); H. Hymans, Breughel le Vieux (ibid., 1890, i., p. 361 ) ; Basteluer and De Loo, P. Brueghel, Brussels, 1905 ; W. M. Conway, Early Flemish Ariists, London, 1887. G. F. Warner, Illuminated Manuscripts in the British Museum, London, 1899 and after (facsimiles in colour) ; R. Beer, Die Miniaturenausstellung in Wien (Kunst and Kunsthandwerk, Vienna, 1902, p. 285); P. Durrieu, Un grand Enlumineur parisien du XV e siecle, Jacques de Besancon, Paris, 1892; S. Reinach, Un Manuscrit de Philippe-le-Bon d Saint-Petersbourg (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1903, i., p. 265; miniatures attributed to Marmion) ; P. Durrieu, Histoire du bon roi Alexandre (Revue de I'Art, 1903, i., p. 49; miniatures by Ph.de Maze- roUes) ; Aug. Schestag, Die Chronik von Jerusalem (Jahrbiicher of the Vienna Museums, 1899, p. 195; manuscript illuminated for Philippe le Bon); J. Destree, Les Heures de N.-D. dites de He nn essy, Brussels, 1896; P. Durrieu, A. Bening et les Peinlres du bre'viaire Grimani (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1891, i., p. 353) ; G. Pawlowski, Le Livre d' Heures d' Alexandre Borgia (ibid., 1691, i., p. 511); Kammerer, Ahnenreihen aus dem Stammbaum des portugiesischen Konigs- hauses (Flemish miniatures in the British Museum), Stuttgart, 1903 (cf. Weale, Burlington Magazine, 1903, ii., p. 321). H. Curmer, Les Evangiles, Paris, 1864 (chromos after miniatures of the 15th century) ; CEuVres de Jean Fouquet, Paris, 1865 (chromos); H. Bouchot, Jean Fouquet (Gazette des Beaux- Arts, 1 890, ii., p. 273); P. Leprieur, Jean Fouquet (Revue de I'Art, l£97, i., p. 25); G. Lafenestre, Jean Fouquet (Revue des Deux-Mondes, Jan. 15, 1902); M. Friedlander, Die Votijtajel des Eiienne Chevalier von Fouquet {Jahrbiicher of the Berlin Museums, 1897, p. 206); F. Grayer, Eiienne Chevalier et saint Etienne par Fouquet (Gazelle des Beaux-Arts, 1896, i., p. 89); Les Quarante Fouquet [Chantilly] , Paris, 1900; E. Michel, Les Miniaiures de Fouquet d Chantilly (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1897, i., p. 214) ; P. Durrieu, Miniatures inedites de Fouquet (Memo, of the Soc. des Antiquaires, 1903, vol. lxi., p. 105); P. Durrieu and J. J. Marquet de Vasselot, Les Manuscrits d miniatures des Hiroides d'Ovide {L'Artiste, May, June, 1 894 ; sequel to the school of Fouquet at Tours) . L. de Laborde, La Renaissance d la Cour de Fiance, 2 vols., Paris, 1850, 1855 ; E. Miintz, La Renaissance en Italie et en France d I'epoque de Charles VIII, Paris, 1885 ; H. Lemonnier, Les Guerres d'ltalte (vol. v, of the Histoire de France, edited by Lavisse), Paris, 1902; L. Dimier, French Painting in the XVIth Century, London, 1904; P. Mantz, La Peinture Jran- caise du IX e au XVI e siecle, Paris, 1898; C. Benoit, Le Peinture Jrancaise a la Jin du XV e siicle (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1901, u„ pp. 89, 318; 1902. i., p. 65); G. Lafenestre, La Peinture Jrancaise du XV e siecle {ibid., 1900, ii., p. 377, and 1904, i.. p. 353) ; P. Gelis-Didot, La Peinture dicoratioe en France, du XI e au XVI e siecle, 2 vols., Paris, 1891 ; H. Lamlle*e, La Peinture murale en France avant la Renaissance, Paris, 1904; M. Poete, Les Primiiijs parisiens, Paris, 1904; J. Dechelette and E. Brassart, Les Peintures murales du moyen age et de la Renaissance en Forez, Montbrison, 1900; L. de Farcy, Histoire et Description des Tapis- series de VEglise cathedrale d' Angers, 1896 (extr. from the ReVue de I'Anjou). G. Lafenestre, Nicolas Froment (Revue de I'Art, 1897, ii., p. 305) ; L. Dehaisnes, La Vie et IXEuvre de Jean Bellegambe, Lille, 1890 (cf. Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1890, i., p. 514); R. Maulde de la Claviere, Jean Perrial, dit Jean de Paris, peintre de Charles VIII, Paris, 1896; E. Male, Jean Bourdichon (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1902, i., p. 185, and 1904, ii., p. 441) ; H. J. Hermann, Ein unbekanntes Gebetbuch von Jean Bourdichon (Beitrdge zur Kunstgeschichte Wickhoff gewidmet, Vienna, 1903, p. 46). H. Havard, La Peinture hollandaise, Paris, 1882; F. Diilberg, Die Leydener Malerschule, Berlin, 1899 (cf. Repertorium, 1899, p. 328) ; Th. Volbehr, Lucas v. Leyden, Hamburg, 1888. F. Dimier, Le Primatice, Paris, 1902; E. Miintz, LEcole de Fontaincbleau et le Primatice (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1902, ii., p. 152) ; H. Bouchot, Le Portrait en France au XVI e siecle (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1887, ii., p. 108) ; Les Clouet et Corneille de Lyon, Paris, 1892; F. Wickhoff, Die Bilder weiblicber, Halbfiguren (Jahrbiicher of the Vienna Museums, 1901 ; cf. Chrontque des Arts, 1902, p. 240). St. Lami, Dictionnaire des Sculpleurs de I'Ecole Jrancaise jusqu'a Louis XIV, Paris, 1898; M. de Vasselot, Antoine le Moiturier (Monuments Piot, vol. hi., p. 247) ; R. Koechlin and M. de Vasselot, La Sculpture & Troyes et dans la Champagne me'ridionale au XVI e siecle, Paris, 1901 (cf. Gazette des Beaux- Arts, 1901, i.. p. 260) ; E. Thiollier, Sculptures Jorcziennes de la Renaissance (ibid., I, p. 496) ; P. Vitry, Michel Colombe, Paris, 1902 (cf. Lefevre-Pontalis, Bull. Monumental, 1902, p. Ill); L. Palustre, Germain Pilon (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1 894, i., p. 1); H. Jouin, /. Goujon, Paris, 1906. L. Bourdery and E. Lachenaud, Leonard Limosin, Paris, 1897; Edm. Bonnaffe\ Les Faiences de Saint-Porchaire (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1895, i. p. 277; P. Burty, Bernard de Palissy, Paris, 1886 ; C. Dupuy, Bernard de Palissy, Poitiers, 1902 ; H. Havard, Histoire de I'OrJivrerie Jrancaise, Paris, 1 890 ; E. Molinier, L 'Orjevrerie religieuse du V c d la Jin du XVe siecle, Paris, no date; J. Guiffrey, La Tapisserie, son histoire depuis le moyen age jusqu'd nos jours, Tours, 1886; E. Gamier, Histoire de la Verren'e, et de VEmaillerie, Tours, 1886. 232 FIG. 413- — THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. STEPHAN LOCHNER. (Cologne Cathedral.) XX THE RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY The National Character of German Art.— The School of Prague.— Master Wilhelm of Cologne —Stephan Lochner.—His Adoration of the Map— The School of Cologne.— The Master of the Altar of St. Bartholomew, and other anonymous Masters of the School.— 1 he Lack of Refinement in German Art.— German Wood-cawing and its Influence on Pamtmg.— 1 he Suahian School.— Martin Schongauer.— The School of Augsburg.— The School of Nurem- berg.— Albert DUrer and his Pupils.— Holbein.— Lucas Cranach.— The School of Alsace Mathias Grilnewald.—Hans Baldung Grien.—Joos oon Cleoe.—Barthel Bruyn.— 1 he Ex- tinction of National Art in Germany. ITALIAN art dreamed of beauty and realised its dream. Flemish art was in love with truth, and "held the mirror up to nature German art rarely achieved either truth or beauty. But it succeeded in rendering, with a fidelity that was often brutal, the character of the German people immediately before and after the Reformation. The first School of German painting of which we have any knowledge flourished at Prague about the year 1 ^60 under the Emperor Charles IV., who summoned the Modenese painter, Tommaso, from Italy to Bohemia. Somewhat later, m 1 38U we hear of one Master Wilhelm, of Cologne, who is much lauded by the chroniclers of the time. Wilhelm was succeeded by Stephan Lochner, from the neighbourhood of Constance. About the year 1435, during the lifetime of Van Eyck, he completed the ^ most important work produced by the German School in the Middle Ages, the famous Adoration of the Magi in Cologne Cathedral (Fig 413). Lochner has been called the German Fra Angehco; his art is devout, radiant, and sentimental; his characters are rosy, 233 APOLLO FIG. 414. SS. COLOMBA AND ANDREW. (School of Cologne. The Master of the Altar of St. Bartholomew.) (Museum, Mainz.) end of the fourteenth 3. 415. THE ANGELIC SALUTA- TION. VEIT STOSS. (Church of St. Lawrence, Nuremberg.) chubby children, who are always good and go to church regu- larly. The Van Eycks were already famous in 1435, but the Cologne picture shows no trace of their influ- ence. Lochner's art was derived from illuminated manuscripts, probably the work of the Flemish minia- turists who flourished at the century in Flanders, Bourges, and Paris. A novel tendency towards realism made its appearance towards 1 460 in the numerous pictures of the Cologne masters. A pupil of Bouts founded a school there which be- came very flourishing. Henceforth, though it remained very German in its defects, the School of Cologne, which existed till the middle of the sixteenth century, was merely a Rhenish off-shoot of Flemish art. The two masters most imitated at Cologne were Bouts and Van der Weyden. The great, and as yet unknown, master who painted the Colognese Descent from the Cross in the Louvre was inspired by the latter and by Schongauer(p. 237) ; he is distinguished as the Master of the Altar of St. Bartholomew, from one of his works at Munich (Fig. 414). As a general rule, indeed, the artists of this prolific 234 FIG. 416. THE TOMB OF ST. SEBALD. TETER VISCHER. (Church of St. Sebald, Nuremberg.) THE RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY school are anonymous, and are known as the Master of the Lyversberg Passion (from the name of the owner of the series), the Master of the Life of the Virgin, the Master of the Holy Family (Heilige Sippe), &c. It was not only at Cologne that painters sought inspiration from the Flemings, but throughout Germany. But the political and social conditions of the country were not yet propitious to the fruition of a delicate art. There were no rich patrons, as in Italy and Flanders; the nation was backward, manners were rough. A great number of petty princes, civil and ecclesiastical, ordered pic- tures and expected to be served without delay; the artists, aided by their pupils, pro- duced too much, and worked too rapidly. They imitated the brilliant colour of the Flemings, but without achieving their delicacy of touch. The colour of the German painters is harsh and often FIG. 417. THE VIRGIN j THE ROSE-GARDEN. MARTIN SCHONGAUER. (Cathedral, Colmar.) FIG. 418. PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST. ALBERT DURER. (Pinacothek, Munich.) (Photo, by Hanfstaengl.) FIG. 419. — PORTRAIT OF OSWOLT KRELL. ALBERT DURER. (Pinacothek, Munich.) heavy. They long continued to use gold backgrounds instead of landscapes as a setting for their figures, the former being more 235 APOLLO PIG. 420. PORTRAIT OF JEROME HOLZSCHUHER. ALBERT DURER. (Museum, Berlin.) (Photo, by Hanfstacngl.) dazzling to the ignorant and easier of execution ; aerial perspective was therefore developed very tardily. But the quality most conspicuously lacking in the Germans of the fifteenth and even of the sixteenth century was taste, the talent for selection. Their compositions are crowded with figures; these figures are often grotesque and grimacing; in place of strength and beauty, we find sometimes a sickly insipidity, sometimes a painful tension of style, sometimes an almost ridiculous man- nerism of attitude and gesture. It is the art of devout peasants, at once coarse and sentimental, which at- tracts at first by its artlessness and vigour, and finally wearies by a vulgarity, now clamorous, now in- significant. Compared with Italian or Flemish pictures of the same period, a German picture appears as the work of a rustic beside that of a polished man of letters. But the rustic is a good fellow, who has done his best; one of the virtues of this inferior art is its honesty. The German art par excellence was wood-carving. Among its most gifted craftsmen were the Suabian, J. Syrlin of Ulm (d. 1491), and the Galician Veit Stoss (d. 1533, Fig. 415). At Nuremberg, where Stoss worked for many years, flourished the stone-carver, Adam Krafft (d. 1508). These masters carried on, with great skill and admirable vigour, the tradition of the realistic imagiers of the four- teenth century. They influenced the painters of their time, instead of being influenced by them. It was 236 FIG. 421. — THE FOUR EVANGELISTS. ALBERT DURER. (Pinacolhck, Munich.) FIG. 422. — THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. ALBERT DURER. (Uffizi, Florence.) THE RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY they who were responsible for the long-continued prevalence in German art of broken draperies with deep and un- necessarily numerous folds, an angular style, and a taste for crowded compositions. But the types of old men created by Krafft, and of women created by Stoss, are among the most expressive in the whole range of sculpture, and their dense compositions are in- stinct with a fervid piety which makes those of the Italians seem almost frivolous and worldly. The School of Nuremberg also produced sculptors of bronze, the Vischers, the best of whom, Peter_ Vischer, who died in 1 529, translated the types and con- ceptions of the wood and stone carvers into metal (Fig. 416). The school next in order of de- velopment after that of Cologne was the S chool of Suabia, the great master of which was Martin Schon- gauer of Colmar (1450-1491). Martin was a disciple of Roger van der Weyden, but he has an indi- vidual quality of purely German sentimentality. Like many of the German painters who had to pro- vide pictures for the poor as well as for the rich, he engraved on wood and on copper; his engravings, characterised by much vigour and feeling in the line, are superior to his pictures, the best of which is the Virgin in the Rose - garden at Colmar (Fig. 417). Zeitblom of Ulm (d. 1517), a deeply re- ligious painter, fascinating in spite of his incorrectness, had much in common with Schongauer. The School of Augsburg developed side by side with those of 237 FIG. 423. THE HOLY FAMILY RESTING ON THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. ALBERT DURER. Gazette des Beaux-Arts. APOLLO FIG. 424. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. HANS VON CULMBACH. (Museum, Berlin.) (Photo, by Hanfstuengl.) wood-carving. The head of Wohlgemut (b. in 1434), a prolific but mediocre artist, whose chief title to fame is that he was the master of Diirer. During the first half of the sixteenth century, Germany could boast two painters of genius, and one very richly gifted artist: Albert Diirer, Hans Holbein, and Lucas Cranach. Diirer (1471-1528) was a thinker as well as an artist, and in this connection claims a place in the history of art side by side with Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo (Fig. 418). The Italians said he would have been the greatest of their artists had Colmar and Ulm. Its best painter was Burgkmair, a pupil of Schon- gauer, who went to Venice in 1 508, and finally settled at Augsburg, where most of his works are pre- served. Another Augsburg master, whose spirited and robust art is sometimes of a rather vulgar type, was Holbein the elder, father of the great Holbein. In his last pictures, he seems to be forsaking the Gothic style, and preparing the way for that emancipation of art which was to be consummated by his famous son. Nuremberg, with its rich com- mercial class, was the Florence of Germany about the year 1500, but it was a coarser Florence, intent on expression rather than on beauty. It produced many masterpieces of its school of painting was Michel FIG. 425.- -THE BIRTH OF ST. JOHN BAPTIST. A. ALTDORFER. (Museum, Augsburg.) (Photo, by Hanfstaengl.) 238 THE RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY he been born in Rome or Florence. A native of Nuremberg, he first learned the craft of a goldsmith, his father's calling, and in 1 486 entered Wohlgemuth work- shop. In 1 490 he went to Colmar and Basle, and to Venice, where he came under the influence oF~Man- tegna and Bellini. In 1497 he set up a studio in Nuremberg, and adopted his famous monogram, a D under an A. Even at this period, he painted admirable portraits, such as that of Oswolt Krell, at Munich (Fig. 419). In 1505 he went back to Venice, only returning to Nurem- berg in 1 507. It was after this that his period of great and feverish activity began, not only in the field of art, but also in that of the intel- lect and of literature, for Nurem- berg had become a centre of Humanism, and Diirer was the friend and painter of the Human- ists. In 1521, he visited the Netherlands, and was received with great honour. It was after his return from this last visit that he painted his masterpieces, the portrait of Holz- schuher at Berlin (Fig. 420) and the Four Evangelists (Fig. 421) at Munich, works that were undoubtedly inspired by the Van Eycks. The latter, the most imposing picture of the Ger- man School, " a creation of super- human types, a supreme effort towards simplicity and grandeur," attests the master's sympathy with the Reforma- tion, which appealed to the Evangel- ists in order to bring Christianity back to the ancient paths. Ecclesiastical architecture in Ger- many was ill adapted to mural paint- Durer never painted on a wall. Some forty easel pictures portraits by him exist; his most beautiful picture is the 239 FIG. 426. THE VIRGIN WITH THE FAMILY OF THE BURGOMASTER MEYER. (Castle, Darmstadt.) — PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS. HOLBEIN. (The Louvre.) mg. and APOLLO Adoration of the Magi, at Florence (Fig. 422), a vigorous, pro- foundly thoughtful work, thoroughly German in its contempt for FIG. 42S. CHARITY. LUCAS CKANACH. (Errera Collection, Brussels.) 29. PORTRAIT OF AN OLD MAN. LUCAS CRANACII. (Museum, Brussels.) (Photo, by Hanfstaengl.) elegance. When Diirer attempted to imitate the antique after the manner of the Italian masters, the result was almost grotesque, as m his Lucretia, at Munich. The Germans in general were even less skilful than the Flemings in the treatment of the nude. Sometimes they fell into a coarse realism; sometimes they disfigured borrowed types by the stiffness and dryness of their execution. But where Diirer was superior to the Italians, and equal to the greatest geniuses of all time, was in engraving. Composi- tions such as his Repose in Egypt (Fig. 423) , St. Jerome in his Cell, Melancholy, and Death and the Knight, show a profundity of thought, a reticent poetry, and at the same time a knowledge of form only equalled in the works of Leonardo and 240 430. — HERriH.ES AND OMPKALE. LUCAS CRANACH. (Museum, Brunswick.) (Photo, by Bruckmann.) TIC. 431. — PORTRAIT OF A MAN. CHR. AMBERGER. (Museum, Brunswick.) (Photo, by Bruckmann.) THE RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY Michelangelo. At a period when Classicism reigned supreme, Goethe justly wrote: "When we know Diirer thoroughly, we recognise that in truth, nobility, and even grace, his only equals are the greatest of the Italians." Among the pupils of Diirer who worked at Nuremberg and Ratisbon, two were artists of re- markable talent: Hans von Culm- bach (Fig. 424) and Albrecht Altdorfer (Fig. 425). Holbein (1497-1543), the second great master of the Ger- man Renaissance, was the son of the Augsburg painter I have already mentioned. Like Diirer, he travelled, going still further afield. In 1 5 1 5 he was at Basle, and afterwards in England at the Court of Henry VIII., painting the king and his family, his ministers, several members of the English aristocracy, and the famous portrait- group of the two French envoys, known as The Ambassadors, in the National Gallery. Holbein has no affinities with Diirer. He is the only great German artist who shows a strong tendency to idealism. There is no trace of Gothicism in his manner, no touch of devotion and asceticism. The results of his German education are tempered by an elegance and reticence which make him the most French, rather than the most Italian of the Germans. Of his larger pictures, one is a masterpiece. This is the Virgin and Child (Fig. 426) at Darmstadt, of which there is a Dutch copy at Dresden, suaver but less expressive. In this work a result quite novel in Germany was achieved : 241 FIG. 432. — THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS LUCAS CRANACH. (Museum, Carlsruhe.) (Photo, by Bruckmann.) APOLLO character is reconciled to beauty. The important wall-paintings executed by Holbein at Basle are known to us only by sketches or fragmentary copies. Holbein's great title to glory is to be found in his series of engravings and his portraits. In some of these he equals Diirer in precision while sur- passing him in freedom of touch. All deserve mention ; but we must be content to name those of Amerbach, and of the painter's wife and children, in the Basle Museum, of the mer- chant, George Gisze, at Berlin, of Erasmus in the Louvre (Fig. 427), of Archbishop Warham at Lambeth Palace, of Sir Thomas More in Mr. E. Huth's collection, and the Sieur de Morette at Dresden. His engravings have not the intellectual depth of Diirer's, but they charm by their wit and fertility of invention. Holbein's influence was far-reaching, extending into Holland and France. One of his imitators at Augsburg, Am- berger, was a vigorous and penetrating portrait-painter (Fig. 431 ). Lucas Cranach (1 472-1 553), the founder of the Saxon School, was a very different person- ality. Although he was the intimate friend of the Elector of Saxony, and familiar with Luther and Melanchton, whose portraits he painted, he is neither thoughtful nor subtle. The basis of his art is German rusticity, a rusticity with a veneer of literature and myth- ology, and a superficial ele- gance, such as might be ac- quired by a parvenu sprung from the peasantry. His "c 434--the death of the virgin. 1 . i . r . lr JOOS VON CLEVE. science, which manifests itself (Knacothek, Munich.) in his fine portraits, seems rather (Photo, by Bruckmann.) 242 FIG- 433. — THE NATIVITY. BALDUNG GRIEN. (Museum, Frankfort.) (Photo, by Bruckmann.) . i . ' : 111 a^" . .: - ym f:8 "i» 3 ■■. Ml-* **2**;-:j»Uft srv^fe iMfe^kri^r THE RENAISSANCE IN GERMANY thin in quality, especially as he produced very rapidly, and also signed many pictures painted by his pupils with his monogram, the dragon. His feminine type is a very peculiar one, with an enormous forehead and narrow oblique eyes. Unlike Diirer and Holbein, he was fond of treating the nude, not only Adam and Eve, whom all the German masters painted, but the goddesses of fable (Fig. 432). These nudities of Cranach's, often, as in his Venus in the Louvre, crowned with a large red velvet hat, are supremely comical. His painting, like his drawing, has a certain wooden quality in its dry uniformity ; he is all the more a German, in that he suggests his national art, that of wood-carving. Sometimes, especially in his angels, he recalls Perugino, some of whose pictures he must certainly have seen. Cranach is the most divert- ing of painters, not only because he is eager to amuse, but because his artlessness and his false ideal of elegance often provoke a smile at his expense (Fig. 430). But he painted certain realistic portraits which are among the best works of the school (Fig. 429). As an engraver, he is inferior to Diirer and Holbein, but more popular and good-humoured. His son, Lucas the Younger, continued his art (I had almost said his trade) , and flooded all Germany with facile pictures. The school of Alsace produced an eminent artist in the sixteenth century, Mathias Griinewald, the forerunner, in his Carlsruhe Crucifixion, of the modern realists, and the first German who used colour, not in the manner of an illuminator, but as a painter. Hans Baldung Grien, who worked at Strasburg, and was influenced by Diirer, was a nervous draughtsman and a good colourist (Fig. 433). The school of Cologne fell more and more under the sway of the Netherlands and of Italy. A very prolific painter, thoroughly im- bued with Italianism, who was known as the Master of the Death of the Virgin down to 1 898, and has lately been identified as one Joos von Cleve, was born at Antwerp, and died in 1 540 (Fig. 434) . This remarkable artist, who probably worked at Cologne, was the 243 FIG. 435- THE MAN WITH THE PINK. BARTHEL BRUVN. (Museum, Frankfort.) (Photo, by Bruckmann.) APOLLO master of the last notable painter of that town, the portraitist Barthel Bruyn (Fig. 435). But from the second half of the sixteenth century German art may be considered dead, stifled on the one hand by imitators of the Italians, who produced only mediocre works without any character, and on the other by the religious wars, which devastated Germany and threw civilisation back by a full century. When the storm abated, the country was impoverished, and national tradition was interrupted. French and Italian art reigned alone ; these were succeeded by Academicism, Neo- Hellenism, Raphaelism, and Impressionism. At present, though she boasts several great artists, Germany has no national school, and the worship she professes for her ancient masters has all the intensity of regret, nay, of remorse. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER XX Works quoted on pp. 118 and 166 by Liibke and Woltmann. — Dohme. Bode, Janitschek, Lippmann and Lessing, Geschichle der deutschen Kunsl, 5 vols., Berlin, 1885-1890; H. Janitschek, Geschichle der deutschen Malerei, Berlin, 1690; G. Ebe, Der deulsche Cicerone, Leipzig, 1901 ; w. Liibke and M. Semrau, Die Kunst der Renaissance, Stuttgart, 1903; A. Lebmann, Das Bildniss bei den altdeutschen Meislern bis auf Durer, Leipzig, 1901 . J. von Schlosser, Tommaso von Modena (Jahrbucher of the Vienna Museums, 1898, p. 240) ; A. Marguillier. Michel Pacher (Gazelle des Beaux-Arts, 1894. i.. p. 327); L. Scbeiblei and C. Aldenhoven, Geschichle der Kolner Malerschule, Lubeck, 1897-1902 (with a portfolio of 131 photographs) ; E. Delpy, Die Legendc von der heiligcn Ursula in der Kolner Malerschule, Cologne, 1901. P. Clemen, Die rheinische und die weslfalische Kunst, Leipzig, 1903 (sculpture) ; F. Wanderer, Adam Kraffl und seine Schule, Nuremberg, 1896 (with plates); B. Daun, Adam Krafft Berlin, 1897 (cf. Michaelson, Reperlorium, 1899, p. 395) ; G. Seeger, Peter Vischer der Aellere, Leipzig, 1898; C. Headlam, Peter Vischer, London, 1901 ; E. Tonnies, Tilmann Riemen- schneider, Strasburg, 1900; G. Hager, Die Kunslenlwicklung Altbayerns (/Congress hathol Gelehrten, Munich, 1901, p. 143); E. Muntz, Syrlin (Gaz. des B. -Arts', 1899, ii., p. 369). F. von Reber, Schwabische Tafelmalerei im XIV'" 1 und XV'-' 1 Jabrhundert (Silzungs- berichle der bayeriscben Akademie, 1894, iii., p. 343); M. Bach, Schongauerstudien (Reper- lorium, 1895, p. 253) ; Bulletin dc la Sociclc Schongauer, 1893-1902, 1 vol., Colmar, 1903; G. von Terey, Hans Baldung Grien, Strasburg, 1898; F. von Reber, Hans Mullscher von Ulm Munich, 1898. M. Thausing. Durer, 2 vols., Stuttgart, 1884; Mrs. Heaton, Life of Albert Durer, London, new ed., 1870; Ch. Ephrussi, Albert Durer el ses dessins, Paris, 1882; G. Duplessis, CEuores de Ddrer ( 108 engravings), Paris, 1898 ; F. Lippmann, Zeichnungen von Albert Durer, 4 vols., Berlin, 1883-1896; V. Scherer, Durer, Stuttgart, 1904 ( photographs of all paintings and en- gravings); L. Cust, Albtechl Durer, London, 1898; H. Knackfuss, Durer, 6th ed Bielefeld 1899; A. Weber, A. Durer, 3rd ed.. Ratisbon, 1903; M. Hamel. Durer, Paris, 1904; Derniers Traoaux sur Durer ( Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1903, i, p. 59) ; L. Justi, Durets kunstlerisches Schaffen (Reperlorium, 1903, p. 447); H. Thode, Die Malerschule von Niirnberg, Frank- fort, 1 89 1 . r> A- Woltmann, ff- Holbein und seine Zett, 2nd ed., Leipzig. 1874; P. Mantz, H. Holbein, Pans, 1879; H. knackfuss, Holbein der Jungerc, 2nd ed., Bielefeld, 1896; H. Stein Biblio- graphic de Holbein, Pans. 1897; G. S. Davies, Hans Holbein, London, 1903; A. Goette, Holbeins Totentanz und seine Vorbilder, Strasburg, 1897; L. Dimier, Les Danses des Moris dans I Art chrelien. Pans, 1903 ; E. Haasler. Crisloff Amberger, Konigsberg, 1894 E. Flechsig, Cranachsludien, Leipzig, 1900 (with a portfolio of 129 plates); M Friedlander Die frUheslcn H' erke Cranachs (Jahrbucher of the Berlin Museums, 1902, p. 228)- F. Lipp- mann, Lucas Kranach, Naehbildung seiner Holzschnille und Stiche, Berlin, 1896; Seidlitz, L Exposition de I'ccuore de Cranach a Dresde (Gazelle des Beaux-Arts, 1899, ii., p. 191); H. Michaelson, Lucas Cranach, Leipzig, 1902; Campbell Dodgson, Bibliographie de Cranach, Pans 1900; Sturce Moore. Alldorfer, London, 1900; F. Bock, Die Werke des Malhias Griine- wald, Strasburg, 1904; J. K. Huysmans, Les Griinewald de Colmar, Paris, 1905; E. Firmenich- Richartz, B. Bruyn, Leipzig, 1 89 1 . 244 XXI THE ITALIAN DECADENCE AND THE SPANISH SCHOOL The Phenomenon of Artistic Decadence. — The Decline of Alt in Italy and its Causes. — The Jesuit Style. — Originality Checked by Excessive Admiration of the Great Renaissance Artists. — The Influence of the Decadent Italian Schools on France and Spain. — The Mannerists. — The Carracci. — The Frescoes in the Farnese Palace. — Albano, Domenichino, Guido, Guercino. — Guido's Religious Types. — Caravaggio and his School. — Pielro da Cortona and Luca Giordano. — The Neapolitan School. — Salvator Rosa and Bernini. — Sassoferrato. — The Allori. — Carlo Dolci. — Ribera and his Influence on the Spanish School. — Morales. — The School of Seville. — Herrera and Zurbaran. — Montanez and Alonzo Cano. — Velasquez. — His Technical Supremacy. — His Relations with the Spanish Court. — The Historical Significance of his Works. — The Impersonal Character of his Art. — Murillo. — His Qualities as a Colourisl. — His Interpretation of Spanish Religious Sentiment. — Goya. — The Unimpaired Vigour of Modern Art in Spain. The word decadence, when applied to art, must not be taken in too strict a sense. Art never declines so far as to return to its point of departure; thus the Bolognese are in no way akin to the Giot- tesques, but are more remote from them than from the Florentines of the golden age. As a fact, evolution is always going on, even when artists believe that they are slavishly imitating their predecessors. But it sometimes happens that the works of art of FIG. 436. NEPTUNE AND AMPHITRITE. ANNIBALE CARRACCt. (Farnese Palace, Rome.) Woermann, Geschichle dcr ilalcrei. (Seemann, Leipzig.) a country or of a period are more fitted to awaken curiosity than to excite admiration. This is true of those produced by the Italians from the death of Michelangelo to our own times, though we must make a reservation in the case of Venice. The other exceptions, some of which we will point out, have not sufficed to prevent us from talking of the decadence or decline of Italian art; but there has been neither retrogression nor stagnation. Various causes have been assigned for this depressing phenomenon. 245 APOLLO Some urge the loss of Italian liberty, crushed successively under the heel of Spain and of Austria ; others the Counter-Reformation (1545), 437. THE LAST COMMXJNIO ST. JEROME DOMENICHINO. (Museum of the Vatican.) (Photo, by Anderson.) FIG. 438. — ECCE HOMO. GUIDO RF.NI. (Gallery, Bologna.) (Photo, by Brogi.) which brought about the predominance of a religion whose chief pre- occupation was to touch and to dazzle. It is certain that Italian art of the seventeenth century aims at effect, that it dwells unduly on ecstasy and rapture, sentimental effusions, the physical tortures of the martyrs. It introduced a variety of new motives, such as that of Christ and the^Virgin as half-length figures, with eyes cast mourn- fully heavenwards, an ex-voto of a vague and sickly piety quite unknown to the fifteenth century. In place of the Venuses of Titian and Gior- gione, or even the Graces and Galateas of Raphael, art re- peated to satiety the type of the repentant Magdalen, of which Morelli said that it was " the Venetian Venus trans- It shows an unpleasant mingling of FIG. 439. — AURORA. GTJIDO RENT. (Rospigliosi Palace, Rome.) lated into the Jesuit style." sensuality and devotion. 246 ITALIAN DECADENCE AND SPANISH SCHOOL FIG. 440. MARY MAGDALENE. GUERCINO. (Spoleto.) (Photo, by Alinari.) Assuredly what is known, in architect- ure especially, as the Jesuit style, had a disastrous influence in the domains of painting and sculpture. But why did this style, which was that of Rubens, produce masterpieces in Flanders and not in Italy? Here another cause of decay intervenes, the legitimate but stupefying admiration evoked by the great masters of the Renaissance. It was held that they had said everything to perfection; artists studied the masterpieces of the past rather than Nature, and in this study acquired a somewhat mechanical facility, which they abused. It is, of course, true that artists in all ages have been inspired by their masters; but these masters have been for the most part living. At the close of the sixteenth and throughout the seventeenth century, they took, sometimes as their only masters, dead men, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, Correggio, or more remote dead artists, the authors of antique statues and bas-reliefs. At Rome, in the fifteenth century, these works were comparatively rare; in the six- teenth century, thanks to the excava- tions that were carried on on every side, they multiplied rapidly, and the first museums were established at Rome and Florence*. Italian art was the victim of many simultaneous tyrannies, that of the foreigner, that of the Counter-Reformation, that of the great men of the Renaissance, that of classic art. And yet, as we shall see, this art was vital and inno- vating. In Spain and in France, it threw out vigorous off-shoots, which have not yet ceased to bear fruit. A walk through the Musee du Luxem- bourg in Paris suffices to show that the Romans of the Empire and the Bolognese of the seventeenth century 247 FIC. 441. THE ENTOMBMENT. CARAVAGGIO. (Museum of the Vatican.) Woermann, Geschichte der Malerei. (Seemann, Leipzig.) APOLLO had a larger following in France than the Greeks of Phidias and the Florentines of Botticelli. After the death of Michelangelo in 1 564, a first period of unbridled imitation set in, that of the Man- nerists, which lasted to the end of the century. An Antwerp painter, Denis Calvaert, founded a school at Bologna (about 1 575), which thenceforth became what Florence and Rome had been, the most active centre of Italian art. It was there that Lodovico Car- racci, born at Bologna in 1515, opened jointly with his cousins, Agostino and Annibale, an Acad- emy known as that of the Incam- minati, which became the rival of Calvaert's school, and the seminary of art in the seventeenth century. Carracci taught eclecticism, in- stead of the imitation of Michelangelo; his theory was that from each school and each painter the artist should take what was best, so as to rise above the masters by combining their qualities. The practice of the Carracci was superior to their doctrine. The fres- coes Annibale spent eight years in painting in the Farnese Palace in Rome show fine qualities of grace and invention (Fig. 436). The dominant influences in this school were those of Raphael and Michel- angelo in drawing and composition, of Titian and Correggio in colour. These exemplars are not so diverse but that they might be imitated simultaneously. The school of the Carracci produced certain painters who were formerly very famous, and are now somewhat unduly depreciated, Albano (1578-1660), who was called the Anacreon of Painting, 243 JIG. 442. THE DEATH OF THE VIRGIN. CARAVAGGIO. (The Louvre.) (Photo, by Ncurdein) G. 443. APOLLO AND DAPHNE. BERNINI. (Borghese Gallery, Rome.) ,'Photo. by Anderson.) ITALIAN DECADENCE AND SPANISH SCHOOL -THE ECSTATIC VISION ST. THERESA. BERNINI. (Church of Sta. Maria della Vittoria, Rome.) (Photo, by Anderson, Rome.) FIG. 445- JUDITH WITH THE HEAD OF HOLOFERNES. CRISTOFORO ALLORI. (Pitti Palace, Florence.) (Woermann, Ge- schichte der Malerei. Seemann, Leipzig.) FIG. 446.— THE MADONNA OF THE ROSARY. SASSOFERRATO. (Church of Sta. Sabina, Rome.) (Photo, by Anderson.) FIG. 447. ST. CECILIA. CARLO DO LCI. (Museum, Dresden.) (Woermann, Geschichte der Malerei. Seemann, Leipzig.) 249 APOLLO FIG. 448. — THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS. RIBERA. (The Louvre.) (Photo, by Neurdein.) Domenichino (1581-1641), who was compared to Raphael, Guido Reni (1575-1642), a clever and prolific decorator. These artists, to whom we must add Guercino (1591-1 666) , who, like them, was influenced by the Carracci, are the principal representatives of the Bo- lognese School. Their pictures are to be found in every town in Italy, and in every museum in Europe (Figs. 437-440). Domenichino's masterpiece, St. Jerome's Last Communion, in the Vatican, gives a good general idea of the Bolognese style (Fig. 437). It is an academic and eclectic work, betraying the imitation of Raphael and Michelangelo, and showing neither originality of conception nor depth of thought; nevertheless, it reveals a high degree of know- ledge, and a sense of composition unknown to most of Raphael s predecessors. Guido Reni's famous painting, again, Aurora, in the Rospigliosi Palace at Rome ( 1 609 ) , though a little strident in its high- toned colour, and over-facile in drawing, is one of the great achieve- ments of decorative painting (Fig. 439). Guido Reni further created types of Christ, the Virgin, and the Magdalen, which may not be free from the reproach of a certain senti- mental vulgarity, yet whose pro- digious popularity attests that they realised the religious ideal of the day, a merit that claims some recog- nition (Fig. 438). The Academicism of the Eclectics was not long in provoking a reaction. Caravaggio, a plasterer, without any artistic education, but naturally gifted ( 1 569-1 609), preached a return to 250 FIG. 44g. — VIRGIN AND CHILD. MORALES. (Pablo Bosch Collection, Madrid.) ITALIAN DECADENCE AND SPANISH SCHOOL riC. 450. — A DOMINICAN MONK PRAYING. ZURBAEAN. (National Gallery, London.) nature, not smiling and serene, but brutal and ugly. Painting in a dark studio, lighted by a trap-door in the roof, he ob- tained striking effects of colour and relief which were new to the Italians. If the illumination of his pictures is artificial, his types are those of the street, and even of the prison. Caravaggio was the first Italian who deliberately renounced ideal- ism (Figs. 441 , 442). In this respect he was the Manet of his day ; but as he be- longed essentially to that day, he had more in common with the Carracci than he supposed. His masterpiece, the Death of the Virgin, in the Louvre (Fig. 442), inspires a certain respect; only a true pioneer could have had the courage to hurl such a gage of naturalism in the faces of Raphael's votaries. Besides his religious subjects, Caravaggio painted with evident gusto violent episodes of real life, murders, quarrels, tavern scenes, adventures of gipsies and vagabonds. The Carraccists inveighed against Caravaggio, but nearly all of them succurnbed to his influence. Guercino became his disciple, and Guido Reni imitated him so far as to abandon his light, crude colour, and paint figures that seem to be hiding in a cellar. Even now, the disciples of Caravaggio are more numerous than those of Raphael; and it was the reaction against this tenacious tradition in the nineteenth century that created the practice of painting in a strong light, in the manner described barous term pleinairisme ism ). Yet another decorator of astonish- ing spirit and vigour was Pietro da Cortona(1 596-1 669), whohad a gifted but over-facile pupil in Rome, Luca 251 by the bar- (*' open-air- . 451. THE CRUCIFIXION. VELASQUEZ. (Museum, Madrid.) (Photo, by Lacoste.) APOLLO FIG. 452. — THE INFANT, BALTAZAE CARLOS. VELASQUEZ. (Museum, Madrid.) Giordano, called Fa presto (does quickly), the author of numerous works preserved at Naples and at Madrid. The school of the Corlonists covered the churches and palaces of Italy with clamor- ous, rapidly executed composi- tions, the brio of which, to use the Italian term, does not com- pensate for their vulgarity and incorrectness. After Bologna, Naples and Genoa witnessed the rise of schools which played an import- ant part in the second half of the seventeenth century. Naples was the field of the greatest landscape and battle-painter of Italy, Salvator Rosa (1615- 1673), whose violent, sombre style is akin to that of Caravaggio. Naples also produced the most distinguished Italian sculptor of the seventeenth century, Bernini (1598-1680), who was invited to Paris by Louis XIV., and who, thanks to the protection of succes- sive Popes, exercised a sort of artistic dictatorship in Rome (Figs. 443, 444). His contemporaries acclaimed him as a second Michel- angelo. Lie was, in reality, the Rubens of sculpture, the repre- sentative par excellence of the Jesuit style. But his abuse of pathetic gestures, fervid expres- sions, fluttering draperies, and superfluous ornament should not blind us to the fact that his works are those of a marvellously gifted artist, thoroughly familiar with all the resources of his art, and with all the intellectual vices of his time, and making use of the one to flatter the other. FIG. 453- — THE MAIDS OF HONOUR. VELASQUEZ. (Museum, Madrid.) 252 FIG. 454. THE FORGE OF VULCAN, VELASQUEZ. (Museum, Madrid.) (Woermann, Geschichte der Malerei. Scemann, Leipzig.) ITALIAN DECADENCE AND SPANISH SCHOOL In the seventeenth century the Roman School dragged on an inglorious existence. Its best artist, Sassoferrato (1605-1685), imitated Raphael's Florentine manner with some success, and painted sentimental canvases in a silvery tone which has a cer- tain charm. His masterpiece, the Madonna of the Rosary (Fig. 446), recently stolen from the Church of Sta. Sabina in Rome, was recovered by the Italian police and restored to its place. Even a masterpiece by Sassoferrato did not find an immediate purchaser ! At Florence, the two Allori, Alessandro and Cristoforo, showed genuine artistic quali- ties. Cristoforo's Judith (about 1 600) is a fine academic work, which Musset eulogised as one of the supreme pictures in Italy (Fig. 445). But even in this we note, instead of the austere grace of the earlier masters, a deplorable taste for a liquid fusion of surface, for languid syrupy colour. The most popular representative of this style was Carlo Dolci (1616-1 686) , whose works are often to be met with in English and German collections; the Louvre, fortunately, has no example of him. His most characteristic pro- ductions are half-length figures, blue, waxen, and streaky, which mark the transition from the amenities of Cor- reggio to our most nauseous religious prints (Fig. 447). An artist of Valencia, Ribera (1588-1652), arrived in Italy when still a youth. He was fascinated by the style of Caravaggio, then went to Parma to copy Correggio's works, and returned to found a school at Naples. Philip IV. of Spain took him under his protection. He carried the style of Caravaggio into 253 3- 455- VIRGIN AND CHILD. MURILLO. (Pitti Palace, Florence.) APOLLO 1 <2tf J*!^.. -| i ^fl ...i.^ ->~* lv' ' *$ M if I"*i v -";* * t^ii BiMSig Pi| y ™ ^«? FIG. 456. ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. MURILLO. (Museum, Madrid.) Spain, where it found congenial territory, and exercised an influence that has never died out. Ribera was a true artist and a true Spaniard. " In his choice of subjects and still more in their interpretation, he al- ways shows an intense realism, which in the execution, and in the ex- pression of form, sometimes betrays a sort of instinctive ferocity. He took pleasure in the rendering of tortures and martyrdoms. Beggars and old men with deep wrinkles are his favourite models." 1 Ribera's violent illumination was derived from Caravaggio; but his types are nobler and his drawing better than those of the Neapolitan. He sometimes approaches Correg- gio, as in the beautiful Adoration of the Magi in the Louvre (Fig. 448) . It is mainly owing to Ribera that Caravaggio's manner has persisted in modern art. A skilful imitator thereof in our own times was the French painter, Theo- dule Ribot. The natural tendencies of Spanish art were monkish and ascetic. In the middle of the sixteenth century a belated mystic of considerable talent. Morales, called the Divine, was still painting emaciated Virgins and Christs inspired by Roger van der Weyden (Fig. 449). But at the same time the influences of the Italian Renais- sance took root in Seville, the school of which city became the centre of Spanish art. There again eclectic classicism provoked a reaction. About 1 620, the elder Herrera set the ex- ample of a brutal and impetuous naturalism, aptly interpreted by an amazing breadth of touch. (It is said 1 Bonnat, Gazelle da Beaux-Arts, 1698. i., p. 180. 254 FIG. 457. — THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. MURTIXO. (Museum, Madrid.) (Photo, by Lacoste.) FIG. 458.— BOYS EATING MELONS. MURILLO. (Pinacothek, Munich.) ITALIAN DECADENCE AND SPANISH SCHOOL that he painted with reeds instead of brushes.) The most gifted of his successors, Zurbaran, born in 1 598, has been called the Caravaggio of Spain. He was primarily a painter of religious scenes, of ecstatic vision- ary monks. The Kneeling Domini- can, in the National Gallery of London, is a picture which compels a painful admiration, and lingers hauntingly in the memory (Fig. 450) . A contemporary of Zurbaran's at Seville, Montanez, was the head of the school of Spanish sculpture. At once ascetic and brutally realistic, he produced a series of terrifying works, quivering with a mournful and intense vitality, the eloquence of which ap- peals rather to the senses than to the mind. His best pupil, Alonzo Cano (1601-1667), painter and sculptor, rebelled against the excesses of naturalism, and turned again to Italian idealism without ceasing to be touching and expressive. Younger by a year than Zurbaran, and brought up like him at Seville, Velasquez, brimming over with health and strength, escaped from the influence of Caravaggio and the paralysing grip of Spanish mys- ticism (1599-1660). His career, like that of Raphael, was a long series of triumphs. He knew neither the difficulties of a beginning, nor the melancholy of a neglected old age. Velasquez studied the admir- able series of pictures by Titian which the Emperor Charles V. had collected at Madrid; he also spent two years in Italy. But the Vene- tians merely revealed to him his own profoundly personal genius. As re- gards technique, he was perhaps the greatest painter the world has ever seen. Let us hear how some distin- Pf'Hl BB ■ ■., < * FIG. 459. — LAS MAJAS ON THE BALCONY. GOYA. (Museum, Madrid.) (Photo, by Lacoste.) 255 APOLLO guished modern masters, his most fervent worshippers speak of his art- " She [i.e., Art] ," said Whistler, dipped the Spaniard s brush in light and air," and Bonnat tells us of his " clear^ colouring, limpid as water-colour, brilliant as a precious stone, of his grey, golden, and silvery tones," of " the happy union and exquisite tenderness of the most delicate tints in his works His method is surprisingly simple. He paints his composition directly on the canvas. The simplified shadows are merely rubbed in, all the high lights are laid on in a rich impasto ; and the result, with its broad, delicate, and justly executed tonalities, is so perfect in value that the illusion is complete.' Yet withal, he does not, like Rembrandt, create an arti- ficial atmosphere for his per- sonages. " The air he breathes is our own, the sky above him is that under which we live. Before his creations we re- ceive the same impressions as that made upon us by living no. 460.-LA kaja clothed. beings." " Before a work of GOVA. -17 1 >> , II (Museum, Madrid.) Velasquez, w r o te Henri Regnault, " I feel as if I were looking at reality through an open window." Velasquez' por- traits are miracles of truth, of power, of implacable psychological analysis; in his large pictures, he combines with his high qualities as a painter clarity of composition and a grandiose simplicity. " He envelops his models in ambient air, and places them so exactly on the planes they ought to occupy that we feel as if we were walking round them." Velasquez painted not only individuals but a whole society, a whole epoch. The Spanish court and aristocracy live again on his canvases in all their pride, their melancholy, the sinister indications of their physical degeneracy. What lessons in history we may read in his sickly Philip IV., in his prematurely serious royal children, with their unhealthy faces and rigid attitudes ! On the other hand, when he painted his mythological or genre pictures, Velasquez took his models from the robust Madrilene populace, which attracted Murillo also, when he wearied of Virgins and saints. Velasquez, the painter of an anaemic court, turned from it occasionally to the people, where he found not only physical health, but a joy of life which echoed his own. 256 ITALIAN DECADENCE AND SPANISH SCHOOL If this great observer, this prodigious craftsman, felt a heart beating strongly in his breast, if he knew sympathies and antipathies, love and hate, he has not confided them to us. He is a haughty and indifferent genius, whose soul never appears in his pictures; he is content to live and to make others live. The warmest of painters 4^' 4 a rA eaSt a PP arentl y. as cold as a photographer's lens (Figs. Very different was the gentle Murillo (1-686-1682). also a native of Seville, who studied Rubens and Van Dyck at Madrid, and created a style of his own, sometimes devout and sentimental, as in his numerous pic- tures of the Virgin, sometimes realistic, but tempered by a certain pity and tenderness, as in his charming boys and girls of the people. Murillo is weak and wanting in distinction as a draughtsman. His much admired Virgins are fundamentally common- place; but he was a master of vaporous colour, sometimes silvery, sometimes golden, always suave and caressing. This colour is not merely spread upon his figures, .but around them ; it is like a, nirqbu*-f rom which they emerge, ^mbellisned by its glamour. Murillo was the most eloquent interpreter of that tender and sensuous piety which, in his country of strange contrasts, flourishes together with a taste for bloody spectacles and the disdainful indifference of the hidalgo (Figs. 455-458). Spanish art never lost sight of these traditions. Goya ( 1 746- 1 828) appeared as a second Velasquez at a time when scarcely any- one in Europe knew how to paint. The French colourists of the nineteenth century felt his influence as they did that of the English successors of Titian and Rubens. If he carried his taste for realism to the verge of vulgarity and ugliness, it was tempered, both in his pictures and engravings, by a strong dramatic instinct, and the mordant vigour of the satirist (Figs. 459-461 ). Spain suffered very little from the disease of Academicism, which ravaged Italy, France, and Germany. The love for true painting was never extinguished there. Those of our contemporaries who have lived in Spain, 257 FIG. 461.- PORTRAIT OF DONA ISABEL Y CORCEL. GOYA, (National Gallery, London.) APOLLO Regnault, Bonnat, and Carolus Duran, have come back colourists. " I was brought up in the worship of Velasquez," wrote Bonnat in I 898. And in recent exhibitions we have seen pictures signed with Spanish names — such as Zuloaga and Bilbao — that no Italian, no German, and no Englishman could have painted. They bear eloquent testimony to the vitality of a school which prides itself on its descent from the great Velasquez, a school which perhaps reserves for the Europe of the twentieth century the apparition of some new genius of the first rank. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER XXI. Work by Woltmann quoted on p. 166, — G. Ehe, Die Spat- Renaissance, Kunstgeschichle der europaischen Lander oon der Mitte der XVI tt:1 ' bis zum Ende des XVIII /e " Jahrhunderls, 2 vols., Berlin, 1866; G. Gurlitt, Geschichte des Bamcksliles, 3 vols., Stuttgart, 1887-1869; Ch. Scherer, Studien Zur Elfenbeinplastik der Barockzeit, Strasburg, 1898 ; J. Strzygowski, Das Werden des Barock. bei Raphael und Correggio, Strasburg, 1898. S. Fraschetti, // Bernini, Milan, 1900; M. Reymond, La Sainle-Cecile de Maderna (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1892, i., p. 37); E. Steinmann, Sassoferrato's Madonna del Rosario (Kunst- ckronik, 1901-1902. p. 27). P. Lefort, La Peinture espagnole, Paris, 1894; L'Ecole espagnole au Prado (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1894, ii., p. 405); Manuel Cossio, El Greco, in preparation; C. G. Hartley, A Record of Spanish Painting, London, 1904; P. Lefort, Zurbaran {Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1892, i., p. 365); Sir Walter Armstrong, Velasquez (Portfolio Monographs), London, 1897; A. de Beruete, Velasquez, Paris, 1898; L. Bonnat, Velasquez {Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1898, i., p. 177); H. Knackfuss, Velasquez, Bielefeld, 1896; C. Justi, Diego Velasquez, Bonn, 1889 (English translation, London, 1890); R. Stevenson, Velasquez, 2nd ed., London, 1899; E. Faure, Velasquez, Paris, 1903; W. Gensel, Velasquez, Stuttgart, 1905 (photographs of all his pictures); A. Breal, Velasquez, London, 1905; C. Justi, Murillo, Leipzig, 1892" P Lefort Murillo et ses Eleves, Paris, 1892; H. Knackfuss, Murillo, 2nd ed., Bielefeld, 1896; Ch! Yriarte, Goya, Paris, 1867; P. Lafond, Goya, Evreux, 1902 (cf. Revue de I'Art, 1899, i., p. 133) ; V. von Loga, Francisco de Goya, Berlin, 1903 ; P. Lafond, Ignacio Zuloaga {Revue de VArt, 1903, ii., p. 163) ; C. S. Ricketts, The Prado, London, 1904. B. Handcke, Studien zur Geschichte der spanischen Plastik (Monlanez, Alonso Cano, Pedro de Mena, Zarcillo) , Strasburg, 1900; M. Dieulafoy, La Siatuaire polychrome en Espagne (Mon. Piot, vol. x., p. 171) ; Le Steele d'Or, Paris, in progress (1906) VENUS. VELASQUEZ. (National Gallery.) 258 XXII -QJU/^ ' ti ART IN THE NETHERLANDS IN THE SIXTEENTH' CENTURY The Revolt of (he Netherlands. — The Separation of Dutch and Flemish Schools. — The Character of Dutch Art Determined hy Social Conditions. — The Non-literary Quality of Dutch Art. — Frans Hals. — Adriaen Brouwer and Adriaen can Ostade. — The Ruisdaels. — Rembrandt. — His Life and Work. — The Originality of his A rt. — His Etchings. — Masters of the Second Rank- — The Decline of Dutch Art under Italian Influences. — Flemish Art. — Rubens. — The Fecundity of his Genius. — fordaens. — Van Dyck.. — David Teniers. In 1556, the Netherlands, which had formed a part of the Empire of Charles V., passed to the Kingdom of Spain. For some thirty years past the Reformation had made steady progress in the Low Countries, in spite of persecutions and tortures. In 1 5 64 the up- heaval began, which brought about the Union of Utrecht after terrible carnage; the Dutch Provinces formed the Republic of the Seven United Provinces. In 1648 the Peace of Westphalia recog- nised the independence of Holland, which was then allied to France. In the seventeenth century, in spite of the unjust and cruel war waged against her by Louis XIV., she was the richest and most civilised country of Europe, the heir of the glory and prosperity of Venice. f Thus, from the end of the sixteenth century onwards, there is a / very clear distinction between Belgium, which had remained Spanish and Catholic, and Holland, which was free and Protestant. Th