DEX.LA ROBBIA VOLUMT ^ 1 1 ii i '^4 on, Adam,^Wthers of the tGIAN PE iiRED ALBERTYPE : Vr--., "^48 pif'-ces photographs unocf the ^luspices of tM To thi5^ exhibition were contril ; : 1; ; . > vniplcs from the richest coilectiol u J We can offer this work as om . . the subject of what is known in this )NIAL FURNITUR , , — , ;>,. vv/sh'^J ehher unbound in bucki .>.r j index or bound in broi }>orliolfo, $10.00. Bound, $12, MASTERS IN ART A SERIES OF ILLUSTRATED MONOGRAPHS: ISSUED MONTHLY PART 21 SEPTEMBER, 1901 VOLUME 2 3tuca anil 3lntirea CONTENTS Plate I. Singing Gallery of the Cathedral Museum of the Cathedral: Florence Plate II, Singing Gallery of the Cathedral [end panels] Museum of the Cathedral: Florence Plate III, Tomb of Bishop Benozzo Federighi Church of Santa Trinita: Florence Plate IV. Madonna and Child with Angels Via dell' Agnolo: Florence Plate V, The Visitation Church of San Giovanni fuorcivitas: Pistoja Plate VI, Bambini Hospital of the Innocenti: Florence Plate VII, Meeting of St, Francis and St, Dominic Loggia di San Paolo: Florence Plate VIII. The Annunciation Hospital of the Innocenti: Florence Plate IX. Coronation of the Virgin Church of the Osservanza: near Siena Plate X, Madonna and Child with Saints Cathedral of Prato Portraits of Luca and Andrea della Robbia Page 20 The Lives of Luca and Andrea della Robbia Page 21 Church (Quarterly Review, Volume 21 (1885) The Art of Luca and Andrea della Robbia Page 25 Criticisms by Marquand, Cavalucci and Molinier, E, H. and E, W. Blashfield and a. a. Hopkins, Editors, Oliphant, Reymond, Pater The Works of Luca and Andrea della Robbia : Descriptions of Plates and List of Works Page 34 Della Robbia Bibliography Page 39 Photo- Engravings hy Folsorn and Sunergren: Boston. Press-work hy the Everett Press: Boston. PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENTS SUBSCRIPTIONS: Subscription price, $1.50 a year, in advance, postpaid to any address in the United States or Canada: to foreign countries in the Postal Union, ^2,00, Single copies, 15 cents. Subscriptions may begin with any issue, but as each yearly volume of the magazine commences with the January number, and as index-pages, bindings, etc., are prepared for complete volumes, intending subscribers are advised to date their subscriptions from January. REMITTANCES : Remittances may be made by Post Office money-order, bank cheque, express order, or in post- age stamps. Currency sent by mail usually comes safely, but should be securely wrapped, and is at the risk of the sender, CHANGES OF ADDRESS : When a change of address is desired, both the old and the new addresses should be given, and notice of the change should reach this office not later than the fifteenth of the month to affect the succeeding issue. The publishers cannot be responsible for copies lost through failure to notify them of such changes. BOUND VOLUMES AND BINDINGS: Volume I., containing Parts l to 12 inclusive, bound in brown buckram with gilt stamps and gilt top, $3.00, postpaid; bound in green half-morocco, gilt top, ^3.50, postpaid. Sub- scribers' copies of Volume I. will be bound to order in buckram, with gilt stamps and gilt top, for ^1.50; or in half- morocco, gilt top, for ^2.00. Indexes and half-titles for binding Volume I. supplied on application. BATES & GUILD COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 42 CHAUNCY STREET, BOSTON, MASS. I lSg or Entered at the Boston Post Office as Second-class Mail Matter. Copyright., IQOI., by Bates &f Guild Company., Boston. MASTERS IN ART Artistic ^otter^ anti (ilass The subscribers invite the attention of those inter- ested in ^^xmt CMna anU (31^S6 in their Bric-a-brac Department, third floor (Art Pot- tery Rooms) gleaned from the best sources in England, France, Germany, China, and Japan. Inspection in- vited. JONES, McDUFFEE & STRATTON CO. (Seven floors) I20 Franklin, cor. Federal Street, Boston, Mass. ^cf)ool of Bratultig mxt ^amtms MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON, MASS. fnj^tructori^ : E. C. TARBELL, F. W. BENSON, and PHILIP HALE, Drawing and Painting B. L. PRATT, Modelling Mrs. WM. STONE, Decorative Design E. W. EMERSON, Anatomy A. K. CROSS, Perspective Twenty-sixth Year. Fall term opens September 30. Free use of Museum galleries. Paigt Foreign Scholarship for men and women. Helen Hamblen Scholarship. Ten Free Scholarships. Six prizes in money. For circulars and terms address Miss Emily Danforth Norcross, Manager M 9ltaliem? of Cincmnati ENDOWED FOR HIGHER EDUCATION IN ART Money Scholarships Year's Tuition, $25 Frank Duveneck, Thomas S. Noble V. NowoTTNY, L. H. Meakin, J. H. Sharp for drawing, painting, composition, artistic anatomy, etc. C. J. Barnhorn for modeling. W. H. Fry for wood-carving Anna Riis for design and china-painting Thirty-Fourth Year: Sept. 23, 1901,10 May 24, 1902 Write to A. T. GOSHORN, Director, Cincinnati WASHINGTON, D.C., 1 342 Vermont Avenue /fM^A^^V^A^¥« BOARDING-SCHOOL FOR CpenOlDEtt) YOUNG LADIES Mrs. MARY D. CHENOWETH - TURNER Mrs. ELIZABETH CHENOWETH - SLOAN €&e 25r0cl)ure ^erie^, august, 1901 Church of St. Mark, Venice Capitals, Palazzo Gondi, .... Florence The Chateau of Pierrefonds Twenty-nine illustrations, lo cents a copy. $i.ooayear BATES & GUILD CO., Publishers, Boston, Mass. BoMrvd Vol\imes MASTERS IN AR.T Jbr 19 00 masteH HALS S KAPHA Ell BUN Yi ■ T rfi TLI 1 • : II randtI LElUiMI iviViULLc Full Cloth, postpaLid. $3.00 Gold lettering and gilt top ; brown buckram. Subscribers' copies bound in this style for $1.50. HslH Morocco (green) postpaid, $5.50 Gold lettering and gilt top. Subscribers' copies bound ip this style for $2.00. Bates Guild Company, Boston MASTERS IN ART W. ^ J. SLOANE ^he SLOANE EXHIBIT ai the PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION OCATED in the Central Court of the Manufac- tures Building, gives a comprehensive idea of our skill in the different branches of interior fur- nishings and decorations. Visitors are cordially invited to visit this ex- hibit and inspect the many beautiful tapestries, damasks, pieces of furniture, etc., that are shown there. Most interesting, perhaps, will be found the Henry II. room, — the pieces of rich furniture designed and produced by us, the damasks man- ufactured at our own mills, the magnificent fire- place moulded from an old sandstone found in the south of France, and the panel, a reproduction of which is given herewith, representing the Graphic Arts, — Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting. Our Department of Upholstery, Decoration, and Furniture is making elaborate plans for the autumn season, and will show and offer for sale a superb collection of fabrics in controlled designs, Lace Curtains of exquisite beauty, Wall-Papers, etc. An exhibition and sale of Furniture, showing the new departure in French and English models, and consisting of reproductions of old and famous pieces, many of them duplicates of furniture now in the English museums, will be held in August. A condition of the sale will be that all the Furniture forming this interesting collection shall be allowed to remain in our salesroom for thirty or sixty days, in order that the exhibit may remain intact for that period of time. Broadway 6^ 19th St.. NEW YORK MASTERS IN AHT PLATE III PHOTOGRAPH BY ALINARI LUCA DELLA KOBBIA TOMB OF BISnOP BENOZZO FEDEEIGHI CHURCH OF SANTA TRINITA, FLORENCE MASTEKS IN AET PLATE V PHOTOGRAPH BY ALINARI LUCA DEi,LA liOBBIA (?) THE VISITATION CHURCH OF SAN GIOVANNI FUOECIVITAS, PISTOJA I MASTEKS IN AUT PLATE IX PHOTOGRAPH BY ALINARI AXDHEA BELLA ROBBIA COROXATIOX OF THE VIRGIN CHURCH OF THE OSSERVANZA, NEAR SIENA POKTHAITS OF I.tJCA AND ANDHEA DELXiA EOBBIA No unquestionably authentic likeness of Luca della Robbia exists. The sketch of him here shown is from the engraving given by Vasari in the original edition of his "Lives," and as Vasari had seen and describes a now lost portrait of Luca, painted by Luca himself, it is not unlikely that the engraving was based upon this portrait, especially as the drapery corresponds with Vasari's description. In one of the series of frescos in the Annunziata in Florence, Andrea del Sarto is said to have depicted Andrea della Robbia as a subordinate figure, representing him as an infirm old man. It is from Del Sarto' s fresco that our portrait of Andrea della Robbia has been sketched. MASTERS IN ART Cuca ani Snirrea Mia IJottia BORN 1400: DIED 1482 BORN 1435: DIED 1525 CHURCH QUARTERLY REVIEW VOLUME 21 (1 885) BORN in 1400, Luca della Robbia was the son of Simone di Marco della Robbia, a shoemaker, who lived in the Via Sant' Egidio at Florence. Here the boy grew up, and, after receiving a thorough education in all that was held necessary for a youth of his class, was apprenticed, according to Vasari, to the aged Leonardo di Ser Giovanni, then the best goldsmith in the city. But higher ambitions stirred his young heart, and, fired by the example of Lorenzo Ghiberti, who probably gave him his earliest train- ing in art, he soon left the goldsmith's shop to work in bronze and marble. Such was the ardor with which young Luca devoted himself to his profession that Vasari assures us he forgot to eat or sleep, and spent the day in drawing and the night in modelling, careless of cold and hunger. We know nothing of his earliest works, but by the time he was thirty his talents had attracted the attention of the Medici. On their recommendation he was employed by the administrators of the Cathedral works to execute ten bas-reliefs for the decoration of one of the organ galleries under that fair cupola which Brunelleschi had just raised to be the wonder of all Florence. The commission for this work, a worthy task for any Florentine master, was given to Luca in 143 1; and two years later the decoration of the other organ gallery on the opposite side was assigned to Donatello, then at the height of his fame. During the next eight or nine years Luca worked at these bas- reliefs, and we may infer that his employers were satisfied with the result from the fact that the price of sixty florins, originally agreed upon for the larger bas-reliefs, was raised to seventy in consideration of the time and labor expended on them. . . . Before these immortal works had left Luca's studio, fresh commissions came in from all sides. Once more he and Donatello were required to com- pete for the execution of a colossal head to be placed on the top of Brunel- leschi's cupola; and when this project was abandoned for lack of funds a joint commission was given them to carve two altars for the chapels of St. Peter and St. Paul in the Duomo. Again, however, the money was not forth- coming; and Donatello never even attempted his share of the task, while Luca only carved two unfinished bas-reliefs, representing the deliverance 22 0ia^ttt^ in ^tt from prison of St. Peter and his crucifixion, fine fragments bearing strong marks of Ghiberti's influence, which are now preserved in the National Museum, Florence. It is pleasant to learn that Luca, who was so often brought into compe- tition with Donatello, had the greatest admiration for his illustrious rival, and inspired his own nephew, Andrea, with the same veneration. When Andrea himself was old, and long after Luca's death, he often spoke with enthusiasm of the master, and told young Giorgio Vasari with pride that he had been present at the great Donatello's funeral. In May, 1437, Luca was entrusted with a still more honorable task, — the execution of the five lozenge-shaped bas-reliefs which were still wanting to complete the series representing the progress of civilization on the base of Giotto's Tower. All five were copied from Giotto's own designs, and, but for the sharpness and clearness of the work and the loving care with which every leaf of the foliage is carved, have little in common with Luca's finer style. But the longest and most laborious task on which Luca was employed in Santa Maria del Fiore was the execution of the bronze doors of the sac- risty under the organ gallery. These had been originally assigned to Dona- tello in 1437, and it was not until 1446 that the administrators of the Cathe- dral works, tired of awaiting that master's pleasure, gave the commission to Michelozzo, Maso di Bartolommeo, and Luca della Robbia. Maso died, and Michelozzo being absent, Luca completed the doors alone in 1464. Before he had even begun to work at these gates, however, he had already entered on the second period of his career, and had, in Vasari's words, en- riched the world by another art, ^^nuova, utile, et hellissimaJ^ His fertile genius, ever seeking for new means of expression, could not rest content with the slow production of works in bronze and marble. Some easier, less costly material was needed for the more prompt and spontaneous expression of those countless forms of beauty which thronged upon his vision, and it is Luca's glory to have discovered an art exactly suited to his wants. It has been sometimes supposed that, as Vasari intimates, Luca della Robbia was the first to apply a glaze of enamel to pottery; but this is a mistake, for ma- jolica was manufactured in Italy long before his time. On the other hand, there seems little doubt that he was the first to apply this stanniferous en- amel to works of sculpture in terra-cotta, and thus give the clay he moulded the charms of transparency and brightness, while at the same time he ren- dered it durable enough to resist many centuries of exposure to the air. How long he labored and how many times he failed in his experiments we do not learn, but by 1443 his success was complete, for in that year he was commanded to make a relief of the 'Resurrection' in glazed terra-cotta for the lunette above the sacristy door in the Duomo. There the work is still to be seen to-day. The figures are white on a blue ground, and little other color is introduced; but in the relief of the 'Ascension,' executed by Luca three years afterwards, and which occupies the space above the other sacristy door, green and brown and yellow are all employed to throw out the principal figures and avoid confusion. In the contract for this relief the 23 colors to be used are specified, and it is expressly said, ^^Mons sit sui coloris, arbores etiam sui coloris,'' — a fact which sufficiently refutes the idea that Luca confined himself solely to blue and white, although it is true that as a rule his figures are white, and that he employed other colors only for the subordinate parts of the picture, while the tones he used are more delicate than those of his later followers. Every day the new art became more popular with the Florentines, and Luca was called upon to adorn one building after another. His reliefs were not exclusively employed to ornament churches, and several Florentine pal- aces were decorated with shields and medallions by his hand. His masterpiece in this kind was Piero de' Medici's study, a small room which he decorated entirely, from the ceiling to the floor, with reliefs and enamelled tiles, "a rare thing," says Vasari, "and very useful for the summer-time." Occasionally we find Luca still working in marble as well as in terra- cotta, and both are happily blended in the tabernacle now in a church at the village of Peretola, which bears a marble relief of a Pieta surrounded by a terra-cotta frieze, and also in the tomb of Benozzo Federighi, Bishop of Fiesole, which stands at present in the Church of Santa Trinita, Florence. Luca's powers and industry showed no falling off as he advanced in years, and the vaulting of the Chapel of San Jacopo at San Miniato, executed when he was past sixty, is the finest and most complete scheme of roof decoration which he ever accomplished. This work was not completed until 1466, and is the last one of Luca's of which any record remains. Five years afterwards he was elected head of the Artists' Guild, but declined to accept the honor — the greatest to which a Florentine master could aspire — on the score of his great age and increasing infirmities. In 1446, at about the time that his glazed terra-cotta work first became famous, he had bought a house in the Via Guelfa, where he spent the re- mainder of his life with his two orphaned nephews, Andrea and Simone, the sons of his only brother, Marco. He had never married, and adopted them as his own children ; and while Simone followed his father's and grandfather's trade of shoemaking, Andrea had been trained by his uncle to his own art, and was already a distinguished sculptor. To him Luca left, as his most precious possession, the practice of the art which he had invented, while to Simone he bequeathed the whole of his modest fortune. His reasons for this division are fully explained in the quaintly worded will which he made on February 19, 147 1. Since he had in his lifetime taught Andrea his art, while he had never taught Simone anything, since the practice of the said art which Andrea inher- ited from Luca was sufficiently remunerative to support his family honor- ably, and as all the goods Luca had were not equal to this art which Andrea had received as a gift from Luca, and since it was well that Simone should have his share, and that no one should be able to reproach him, Luca, with injustice, he now left all his remaining fortune to the said Simone, his nephew. After making his will Luca lived eleven years more in the same house with his nephews, who were both married and had children of their own. At 24 ;^a^ttt ^ in art length, on February 20, 1482, he died, and was buried in his own sepulchre in the Church of San Pietro Maggiore, leaving a long roll of great works and the memory of a noble life to be the glory of his native Florence. The pains which he had spent on his nephew Andrea's training had already met with their reward; and when Luca closed his eyes on this world he had the satisfaction of knowing that he left a successor well fitted to continue his work and perpetuate the name which he had made illustrious. Born in 1435, Andrea della Robbia had married when he was about thirty, and in 147 0, according to the tax-papers of that year, he had already three children by his wife, Nanna, aged twenty-one. He led the same simple, hard- working life as his uncle before him, never leaving the old house, where he reared seven sons to be his helpers. During the ninety years of his long life the new art enjoyed an ever-increasing popularity, and attained a fuller de- velopment than ever before. It was now applied with great success to a number of different objects. Altars of every size and description, friezes, statues, and shields, issued in countless numbers from the workshop in the Via Guelfa. While Luca's activity had been almost entirely confined to Florence, Andrea's works are to be found not only in every part of Tuscany, but among all the cities and convents of Umbria and Romagna. After his uncle's death he was employed on works for the Cathedral, which have for the most part perished. In 1489 he finished a beautiful lunette for the Duomo of Prato. Two years later he completed a frieze of garlands and medallions for Santa Maria delle Carceri in the same town. He was back at Florence soon afterwards, working at the Hospital di San Paolo, and both he and his sons were witnesses of that great religious revival by which Savo- narola made the close of the fifteenth century memorable. The whole of Andrea's family, we learn from Vasari, were deeply attached to the friar of San Marco, and, like so many of the best Florentine artists, devoted their art to his cause. More than this, two of Andrea's sons — Marco, the eldest, and Paolo — took the vows, and received the Dominican habit at the hands of Savonarola himself. On that terrible night when the faithful Piagnoni rallied in the Convent of San Marco, three of Andrea's sons were among its defenders, and the best account we have of those last sad scenes was given by Fra Luca, otherwise known as Marco della Robbia, in his examination before Savonarola's judges. He it is who describes how, as night closed on that anxious day, the little band of armed monks met in the church, and how the frate^ standing calm and unmoved in their midst with the sacrament in his hands, bade them lay down their arms; how, too, some of them disobeyed his word, and he among the rest struck wildly with his sword at the furious mob who rushed in to seize their victim. We know that it was all in vain, that Fra Luca and his brave friends were overpowered, and that Savonarola died. But the Della Robbias were among the faithful Piagnoni who revered his memory to the last ; and we learn from Vasari that they commemorated his name in medals, bearing Savonarola's head on one side, and on the other a fortified city with the sword of the Lord de- scending upon her, as he had prophesied. 2DeIla iSo66ia 25 In his last years the aged Andrea executed several works for the Domin- icans, to whom he was bound by so many ties. He adorned an altar in the Church of San Marco itseU. For the monks of La Quercia at Viterbo he accomplished several important works between 1498 and 1514; and a Ma- donna, his last work of all, was destined for Plan di Mugnone, a house in the country, belonging to the monks of San Marco. This was finished in 1515, when Andrea was already eighty years old. Ten years after he died, on the fourth of August, 1525, and was buried by the side of his uncle and master, the great Luca, in the Church of San Pietro Maggiore. C|)e M of iLuca auti 9[nUrea liella IMUu ALLAN MARQUAND SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE: 1893 THE monuments of the Robbia school are well distributed throughout Tuscany; they are found also in the Marches and in Umbria, and as far south as Rome and Naples. Many of them have travelled to the mu- seums and private collections of northern Europe, and a few have reached the United States. These sculptured monuments are made of terra-cotta, and covered with an opaque stanniferous glaze, in which the colors are mixed as in enamel. The figured reliefs are sometimes white against a blue background, but often exhibit a variety of colors. The popular impression — for which Vasari is responsible — that the art of making these glazes was discovered by Luca della Robbia, that it was preserved as a secret, and perished with his school, has proved to be unfounded. Opaque glazes were applied to sculpture dur- ing the Gothic period in Spain, and found their way to Italy long before Luca della Robbia was born. They disappear in the late Renaissance, partly because paint and varnish produced brilliant effects on terra-cotta with less labor, and partly because stucco and paintings on canvas were cheaper than sculptures in marble and terra-cotta. The spirit of the age also demanded brilliant reds and naturalistic flesh-colors, and these were impossible in opaque glazes. CAVALUCCI AND MOLINIER «LES DELLA ROBBIA' ALTHOUGH he stands in a somewhat different category, Luca della ^ Robbia deserves to rank with the three greatest sculptors of the first half of the fifteenth century, — Ghiberti, Donatello, and Della Quercia. Lacking their originality and their higher gifts of conception, he yet achieved in his own day a reputation equal to theirs, and this reputation posterity has confirmed. The founder and chief of a family of artists who continued his work to the end of the century, he, still remaining a realist, yet contrived to imbue his works with so profound a sentiment, so much grace, and so 26 f^a^ttt^ in ^rt much naivete, that few Renaissance artists so closely approach the classic in style. Many writers have paid Luca della Robbia their tributes of praise, but to our thinking none has given a truer summary of his qualities in fewer words than the Marquis de Laborde, in his monograph upon the * Chateau du Bois de Boulogne.' He writes: — "Luca was a sculptor of the first rank. He set himself to seek beauty through the earnest study of classic models, through persevering imitation of nature, through purity of form, through truth of expression, and through graceful variation of pose; and he was so far successful that even in the face of Ghiberti's overpowering glory, and even in rivalry with Donatello, he was able to make his name equal to theirs in Florence itself. Such were his talents that he might have attained eminence had he done no more than join his contemporaries in that broad fifteenth-century highroad of art which had been opened for them by Niccola Pisano. But he did more; impa- tient of the slow processes of sculpture in marble, and perhaps weary of the monotony of its whiteness, he sought for a new path, or strayed into a long- abandoned one, and struck out for himself. Whatever may have led him into the byway, whether he had seen the colored terra-cottas of the ancients, whether he had in mind the painted sculptures of the middle ages, or whether his own initiative led him to attempt to fuse the sister arts of sculpture and painting, there is no more interesting figure than that of this man, who re- discovered and taught to his family an art which for two centuries was to be monopolized by those who bore the name of Della Robbia." To affirm, as some critics have done, that Luca della Robbia was entirely under the influence of Ghiberti's mysticism, and only rarely felt the natural- istic impress of that school of which Donatello was the great representative, is an over-statement. M. Rio, who has shown himself the warmest partisan of mysticism in the art of the Italian Renaissance, claims for Luca the honor of having revolted against naturalism. "The credit of having kept sculpture in a path so opposed to contemporary prejudices," he writes, "must be shared by three men, all advanced in age when Donatello died, but who outlived him long enough to change the course into which he had directed contemporary art. These men were Luca della Robbia, Desiderio da Settignano, and Mino da Fiesole." This statement may be true to some extent, but it is surely misleading to add, as Rio does, that because of the influ- ence of these men the study of the antique marbles in the Medici gardens "came to occupy only a secondary place in the education of the best-known Flor- entine artists." The bas-reliefs of the 'Singing Gallery' are alone quite suffi- cient to demolish, in regard to Luca at least, any such theory. Indeed, it is impossible to misunderstand the influence which classic art must have had upon his genius when we look at this work. Luca's naturalism is more temperate than the naturalism of Donatello, but it is quite sufficiently marked, and especially in this, his greatest work, to falsify any such sweep- ing statement. The truth is that Luca cannot be ranked as either wholly naturalistic or wholly mystic in his art. The two influences swayed him conjointly, and neither ever completely outweighed the other. In a word, SDella iiofifiia 27 the education which Ghiberti may himself have given Luca della Robbia never effaced Luca's profound admiration for Donatello. . . . If we were obliged to briefly summarize the preeminent qualities of Luca's art, we should be tempted to call them simplicity and nobility. Sym- metry is also one of his prime characteristics — a symmetry so perfect that it sometimes recalls the sculpture of a previous age, yet without its mon- otony. To fully recognize these qualities, we should not confine our studies to his works in terra-cotta alone. The latter unquestionably brought him his wide renown, but on the other hand, they have done no little wrong to his true genius. Luca's name has been so often connected with works in terra- cotta which were produced in the decadence of that style during later years that amateurs in general have come to regard him, while no doubt an artist of the greatest talent, yet as one whose distinguishing characteristics are amia- bility and grace. But Luca had higher and stronger qualities. Indeed, we must repeat that it is not in his works in Della Robbia ware at all, but in the bas-reliefs executed for the 'Singing Gallery' of the Cathedral — executed when he was still young in years but already mature in talent — that we must turn if we would see him at his very best. If he was unquestionably and above all a Quattrocentist, if he knew how to be most supple in his workmanship, yet he could also give his personages attitudes so full of calm and dignity, and expressions so noble, that we may, without partisanship, rank him among the greatest sculptors of his day. . . . Luca's death did not check the production of the Della Robbia reliefs. Indeed, a great number of enamelled terra-cottas were produced by Andrea, his nephew and successor, before Luca's death. But although taught and educated by Luca himself, Andrea stamped his own productions with an individuality which makes them in general easy to distinguish from those of his uncle. Master to the full of Luca's finest qualities of suppleness and grace, and, indeed, often surpassing him in these respects, Andrea, on the other hand, cannot be defended from the charge of over-delicacy, and never succeeded in imparting to his figures that strength and nobility by which Luca atoned for frequent over-minuteness in the treatment of de- tails. Lovely as they are, — and they are invariably lovely, — Andrea's Vir- gins (and, like many Renaissance sculptors, Andrea wrought the effigy of the Virgin oftener than any other subject) are far less living than those of the elder sculptor; and if they evince a genuine striving after the ideal, their expressions are, on the other hand, sometimes a trifle affected, and the modelling is somewhat too soft and round. But though Andrea was incontestably inferior to his uncle, and did not possess either the latter's originality or strength, it is not fair, nevertheless, to attribute the whole of this inferiority to lesser genius on his part. It should be remembered that while Luca lived in the first half of the fifteenth century, Andrea was not born until 1435, and that it was not until after 1450 that he began to wield the chisel. He was, at least, no more inferior to Luca than his own age was inferior to those nobler days in art during which Luca had wrought. — from the French. 28 0la^ttt^ in art E. H. AND E. W. BLASHFIELD AND A. A. HOPKINS, EDITORS 'VASARI'S LIVES' LUCA DELLA ROBBIA'S style is so sober and contained, so delicate J and yet so healthy, so lovely yet so free from prettiness, so full of sen- timent and devoid of sentimentality, that it is hard to find words for any critical characterization. The vv^ork, exactly suited to its place, leaves little to be said but that it is one of the loveliest inheritances which the Renais- sance has bequeathed to us, looking, indeed, says Walter Pater, "as if a piece of the blue sky had fallen down into the streets of Florence" to be fixed above some door or window. Here there is not one bit of the bravura of Verocchio (in his Colleone) or of Pollajuolo (in his papal monuments), none of the "feverish vitality" of Donatello; all is contained and measured, his range of subject like the rest, for Luca varies the latter but little, and sings one long hymn to Madonna, with angels for choristers. . . . Andrea della Robbia, a little less measured and grave than Luca, is just as lovely. Somewhat more florid, his work is still none too much so to be perfectly decorative. And in looking at his 'Annunciation' of the Innocenti, the children's heads in his altar-pieces of Arezzo, above all at his lunette over the cathedral door at Prato, one is tempted to set him side by side with Luca, or at the least to call him a most worthy successor. MRS. OLIPHANT THIS: V^^^ JANUARY. XShirty.four Illujtraiions Some Minor French Chateaux. French Renaissance Fireplaces. Development of the Greek Doric Style. Pompeiian Bronzes. FEBRUARV. Uhir1y-_four Jltusiralionj German Half-Timber Houses. Florentine Armorial Shields. English Rural Churches. Roman Decorative Reliefs. MAR_CH. XBhiriy-four Iltusiralions The Paris Opera House. Gothic Carved Woodwork. Moorish Architecture in North Africa. APR.il. Utuenfysije lUuslralions. Swiss Chalets. The Temples of Baalbec. Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris MAY Forly-lhree Ulujlrations . Hieronymite Convent, Belem. Interiors of Derbyshire Churches. Marie Antoinette Rooms. Glimpses in Italian Gardens JUNE Xohiriy lUujIralions . Spanish Churches in Mexico Fifteenth Century Marble Rosettes. English Cottages and Farmhouses. JULY Whiriy-jet)en Iltusiralions. A Rural English Bridge. French Wrought Iron Gate Grilles. Rothenburg on the Tauber. The Italian Countryside. AUGUST. U'tefenly-nine Itluslralions . Church of St. Mark, Venice. The Chateau of Pierrefonds. Capitals from Palazzo Gondi, Florence. The entire volume for igoi will contain about 400 illustrations, carefully selected, classified, and accompanied by explanatory and descriptive text. Subscriptions may be dated back to January. ^1.00 a year, Tayable in Ad-Vance. BdLtes ^ Gxiild Co.. TtiblUhers 42 Chocxincy Street, v V V Boston, MacssaLcKvisetts MASTERS IN ART Ot£f tiers of 'Bxiil dings A'Void Ltabilitjr from damages caused by ice or snow falling from roofs by applying T!l£ Folsom New Model Snow Guard TRADE MARK A This is the simplest and only perfect device which holds snow where it falls, prevents slides, or the gathering of snow and ice at the eaves, which so frequently causes water to back up under the shingles or slates and damage walls and ceihngs. Folsom Snow Guards are made for shingle, slate, tile, or metal roofs, both old and new, and are applied at trifling expense. Specified as the standard snow guard by architects everywhere. Write for information. FOLSOM SNOW GUARD CO. 105 Beach Street, Boston, Mziss. PYROGRAPHY OR BURNT WOOD ETCHING The art of decorating wood, leather, or cardboard by burning the design into the article to be decorated A descriptive booklet , g^^^^S directions, description, and price-list of tools and materials, designs, etc., will be sent free upon request THAYER & CHANDLER IMPORTERS AND DEALERS IN ART GOODS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION 144-146 Wabash Ave., Chicago, 111. Visitors to New York Are cordially invited to the exbibition Of Paintings By Bouguereau, Rosa Bonheur, Cazin, Corot, Daubigny, Dupre, Diaz, Fromentin, Henner, Jacque, Meissonier, Roybet, Rousseau, Thaulow, Troyon, Ziem, and a COLLECTION of Portraits by the Old Masters of the Early French, English, and Dutch Schools m Galleries of EDWARD BRANDUS 391 Fifth Avenue Rue de la Paix Between 36th and jyth Streets J ^ New York Paris The Great Picture Light. Nos. 7034, 7035. Pat. Dec. 14, '97. FRINK'S PORTABLE PICTURE REFLECTORS For electric light, meet all requirements for lighting pictures. Every owner of fine paintings could use one or more of these portable reflectors to advantage. The fact that so many have ordered these outfits for their friends is proof that their merits are appreciated. Height, closed, 51 inches ; ex- tended, 81 inches. The light from the re- flector can be directed at any picture in the room and at any angle. Frink's Portable Picture Reflector with Telescope Standard. No. 7034, brass, polished or antique, with plug and socket for electric lamp, $27.50. No. 7035, black iron, with plug and socket for electric lamp $16.50 These special Reflectors are used by all the picture-dealers in New York, and by pri- vate collectors not only in this country, but in Paris, London, Berlin, and other cities. When ordering, kindly mention the system of electricity used. Satisfaction guaranteed. Parties ordering these Reflectors need not hesitate to return them at our expense if not found satisfactory. P. FRINK. 551 Pcarl Street. New York City. GEO. FRINK SPENCER, Manager. Telephone, 860 Franklin. VOLUME 1. OF " MASTERS IN ART," COMPRISING THE IS: BEH, 1900, INCLUSIVE ,(P«rt« I to n), CONTAINS MONOOR.MMi; Ui PA RT 1 ^ V AN DYCK PART 2 TITIAN PART 3 V E L A S QUS: Z PART* HOLBEIN, PART 6 B O T T I C F. L L I M II P A R T G I o y B p A r M U R, ? R. E M B R A N D T Ar^j- pa-i* separately, i VOLUME L.CCrNTAIN-^:':. T^r T'.vr: v.- .''Vi COVER-DESIGN AND G-'^-i -V ) 1 ^ ; , r- : SIGN AND niT.T rcP,T:i.y. vc vi I. , : v f^. . • , : ■ IN CLOIH WilK ocll; 3ta»v;.^ AN\i .•■{.; I : : .1; . GILT TOP,, .$»,i~c- (;)f ' ' (] ] ] vcdcn " aucl i^:- . )v r;L; j^nci Bockiss houscs, : • ' ;V(ij ''Woodlcrn/' .li ^ ^ i: / \'h'g-inia, designed 1> cii : :^^(>yed by fire ; Gunslori IVaoiv' • -iUv ' "Farmington," Shirley Marylan on 12 r r: n 1 ) : 5 the Court House iLer c.f other examp ■ r'lci'!e? pre from ;-'0 popci ]>y tne > •.r^v. <:;■) clo ;vCd in a Trice in Tortfclii:^, cj^pre^j^ •:>v-^^ Guild 42 Chavjncy StrJ|