books N 5020 . S45 1920 PAINTINGS BY OLD MASTERS THE SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF ART CATALOGUE OF THE LOAN EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS BY OLD MASTERS IN THE PALACE OF FINE ARTS SAN FRANCISCO % BY J. NILSEN LAURVIK DIRECTOR SAN FRANCISCO PUBLISHED BY THE MUSEUM A. D. MCMXX <^ Published, OSiober i^,ig20, in an edition of 2000 copies. Copyright, ig20, by The San Francisco 'iMuseum of Art. Printed by Taylor $5* Taylor, San Francisco. *^ The Printer has drawn on two early Italian Renaissance books in the making of the co'^er: For the border and general arrangement, the "Publii Fran- cisci Modesti Ariminensis\ ' printed by Bernardinus de Vitalis Venetus in 1521; and the Phcenix rising from the flames, from the " Marsilii Ficini Epistola," printed in the year 14(^3 by Matthaus Capcasa Parmensis. Halftones made by the Commercial Art Company, San Francisco. PREFACE The Exhibition last spring of the J. Pierpont Morgan Loan Col- lection of Drawings and Etchings by Rembrandt was a fitting cul- mination to our four years of experimental work in testing the public demand for a Museum conducted on a serious basis. These four years brought forth such an overwhelming response in general interest and attendance* as to make the permanent establishment of such a Museum appear nothing short of a necessity, which we consider it our duty to supply, and the creation of a Museum organization, with a responsible Board of Trustees] to administer its affairs, is the initial step in that direction. This Exhibition of Paintings by Old Masters is the first act of the new board, and may be taken as an earnest of the high plane upon which it is proposed to conduct the San Francisco Museum of Art, which now comes into being, inaugurating a new era in the cultural life of San Francisco and bringing to a happy fruition the seed planted some fifty years ago, when the San Francisco Art Association was founded by a small band of idealists who had the future welfare of their city at heart. That their faith was not misplaced, nor their efforts in vain, is eloquently attested by the long list of names appended hereto of those who, by their generous support during these last four years, have made possible the successful development of Museum activi- tiesX in the Palace of Fine Arts. To them is due our grateful acknowledgment of a civic service performed unostentatiously , for the pure love of San Francisco, and to them primarily the Museum now established owes its existence. And here we wish to record our deep appreciation of the co-operation of the patrons and pa- tronesses whose sponsorship has made possible this Exhibition of Old Master s% by guaranteeing the very considerable expense in- * Since May, igi6, over one million persons have visited the Museum in the Palace of Fine Arts, with a total of 26,000 paid admissions registered for the Zu- loaga, Anisfeld, and Rembrandt exhibitions. t See Museum Board of Trustees, on p. viii. XOver forty exhibitions, more than fifty Sunday afternoon recitals in the Co- Relation of the Arts Series, and scores of lectures and gallery talks have been given during these four years, not to mention two Promenade Concerts with a full orches- tra and eminent soloists, and two out-of-door choral concerts on the Lagoon. § See page 2. VI PREFACE volved in bringing the collection to the coast; while to Mr. Robert Rea, the Librarian of our Public Library, and to Miss Byrne, of the Reference Department, our thanks are due for materially aiding in the making of this catalogue by supplying us with the list of titles of all books in the library referring to the artists and periods of art mentioned herein; and last, but not least, we wish to express our grateful appreciation of the unremitting thought and attention devoted by printer and engraver to perfecting their part of this pub- lication, and, above all, to thank Messrs. Bourgeois, DeMotte, Durand-Ruel, Ehrich, Gimpel and Wildenstein, Kleinberger, and Knoedler for their kindness in lending us these priceless examples of the works of the Old Masters that constitute this notable exhi- bition. The collection is a chronological exposition of the main currents influential in the development of painting in Europe, from the four- teenth century down to and including the eighteenth-century English and French schools, as exhibited in the work of the foremost painters of each period, in examples that, for the most part, are brilliantly typical and always characteristic of their particular style. Though, to be sure, the exhibition boasts neither a Leonardo, a Michelangelo, nor a Raphael, it does contain, in the works of Gianpedrino, Dosso Dossi, and Penni, eloquent and indeed significant reverberations of these giants of the Italian Renaissance, while their great con- temporaries and their forerunners in Flanders and in Germany are found reflected in the art of men whose work continues to be ascribed wrongly to Diirer, Holbein, Metsys, and V an der W eyden, so closely did they approach these famous masters in matter and manner. In the case of Penni, as exhibited in his "Portrait of a Lady,^^ we have something more than a mere echo of the voice of the master; it is the very embodiment of his style and spirit, expressed by one who was not merely a slavish follower and an intimate friend of Raphael, but actually the author of most of the portraits executed in the latter" s studio during his last years, thus becoming in a very real sense his alter ego, through whom Raphael attained a peculiarly personal and authentic extension of his personality. It will be seen therefore that this beautiful example of Raphael's favorite pupil is charged with a significance that rarely attaches PREFACE Vll to the works of pupils and assistants and becomes a fruitful field of study as a manifestation of the reflected personality of the master no less than of the pupil. Similarly this is true also of the work of Amberger, whose well- known "Portrait of Charles V" in the Institute of Fine Arts at Siena, continues to be attributed to Holbein, so intimately did Amberger share the force and flavor of his illustrious compatriot, as may be seen in his "Portrait of Conrad Zeller'' shown here. For other examples of the kind in this exhibition we refer the reader to the notes appended to the exhibits catalogued herein, from which it will also be apparent that most of the paintings are his- torically famous canvases, coming from well-known European collections, and listed and described in numerous published works in which their pedigrees are in many instances traced back directly to the artists who painted them. Virtually, every subject that en- gaged the interest of the Old Masters, from allegorical, classical, mythological, and religious to landscapes, portraits, and still life, is represented here. As this is an exhibition of Old Masters, it will of course be under- stood that the Introduction {which follows) deals only with the art of the periods represented and makes no pretense to being a complete survey of the art history of their respective countries. Those familiar with the researches of Morelli, Bernhard Berenson, Jens Thiis, Osvald Siren, Wilhelm Bode, Friedl'dnder, W. R. Valentiner, Bredius, C. Hofstede de Groot, Max Rooses, A. de Beruete y Moret, and A. J. Wauters will recognize how much this catalogue owes to their work, and I take pleasure in making acknowledgment of a debt that is shared by all the world. J. NiLSEN Laurvik, Director. San Francisco, October 15, 1920. THE SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF ART BOARD OF TRUSTEES WILLIAM C. VAN ANTWERP ARTHUR BROWN, JR. CHARLES W. CLARK' WILLIAM H. CROCKER SIDNEY M. EHRMAN DANIEL C. JACKLING JAMES D. PHELAN LAURENCE I. SCOTT JOHN I. WALTER EDWIN RAYMOND ARMSBY FRANCIS CAROLAN CHARLES TEMPLETON CROCKER JOHN S. DRUM JOSEPH D. GRANT WALTER S. MARTIN GEORGE A. POPE RICHARD M. TOBIN GEORGE WHITTELL DIRECTOR J. NILSEN LAURVIK THE MUSEUM IS HOUSED IN THE PALACE OF FINE ARTS, ERECTED BY THE P AN A M A - P A C I F I C INTERNA- TIONAL EXPOSITION IN I9I5 CONTENTS For a list of the paintings catalogued and illustrated herein, see the subjeSl and title index at the end of the volume PREFACE Page V SUBSCRIBERS xi INTRODUCTION : Byzantine Painting xvii Italian Fainting XX Flemish Painting xxiii Dutch Painting xxvii German Painting xxix Spanish Painting xxxiii French Painting xl /tf r At /It VI 1 1 'Vl