(2L -:^ * • • •■ «••• » fc W X i. 1 K r; K aa ^H >' @te Y n1 // /v '// PACK. List of Steel Engravings of Paintings vi List of Steel Engravings of Sculpture viii Introduction : Egyptian and Asiatic Painting ix Italian School, First Part i Italian School, Second Part . . 17 German School • 85 Netherland School 141 Spanish School 177 French School 205 Belgic and other Schools 254 Table of Engravings on Wood printed with the Text ..." 265 Index 267 V _85014 vi CONTEXTS. STEEL ENGRAVINGS OF PAINTINGS. ARTIST. ENGRAVER. . . The Monastery Achenbach, E. Goodall. 94 Judith and Holofcrncs Allori. J.Carter .; Pastime in Ancient Egypt AlmaTadema, L C.W. Sharpe 176 The Sibyl Angeio, .'/. A J. Didter 6 Hie Reading Lesson Anker, A A. ami E. Winn 24K The Captives in Babylon Btndemann J. C. Armxtage 104 Oxen Ploughing Bonkeur, Rosa P. Moran 23a The Ring of" St. Mark Bordimi. C. Geyer 14 The End of the Day Breton, Jules L. Flame ng 228 Reading the Bible Brian, Gustare Rajon 230 The Critics Browne, A/me. //..... C.W. Sharpe 234 The Spring of Life Campotosto, //. J. C. Armxtage 76 St. Mark's— The Bucentaur Canaletti, A J. B. Allen 58 Silence Carracci, A G. Levy 30 Sslv.in Calm Claude Lorraine .5. Bradshaw 206 The Reproof Coatra Guide. ... Shenton and Bewney. ... 46 The Skein Winder Lfamon, J. L J. C. Thevenin 236 Andromeda Lngrcs, J. A. D L. Flameng. 224 Hcro.li.i-. Levy, III Boilvin 230 The Infant Christ Kfaratti, C. Lecomte 54 The Misers Matsys, Q // Poume 134 Waiting an Audience Meissonicr, J. /.. E. ■ ■ ■ C. Carey 238 Cherries Riik- Metzmacher, Entile . . . . P. Lightfoot 248 The Bunch of Grape* M.t-.u. G G.Levy 158 I Vath and the Wood-Cutter ' Millet, J. F. Ed. Hedouin 226 Eccc Homo MSraies, L MatlteJer 178 The Fountain Muller, C. L C. Cousen 222 CONTENTS. ARTIST. ENGRAVER. PAGE. St. Francis d'Assisi Murillo L. Flameng. 196 The Infant St. John Murillo Lumb Stocks 202 The Foot-Bath Plassan, A. E P. Pelee 242 Studio of Van der Velde Poitevin, E. C. C. IV. Sharpe 256 Daughter of Zion Portaels, J. F. IV. Greatbach 258 Milking Time Potter, P. /. Godfrey 168 The Shepherds of Arcadia Poussin, N. F. F. Walker 205 Morning Prud'/ion L. Flameng. 218 Angels of the Madonna Raphael. F. Lutz 1 Salome Regnault, Henri. Rajon 226 The Beauty of Albano Reiilel, A Lumb Stocks 144 Weary Travelers Rembrandt. Mauduit 15 Soldiers Gambling Rosa, Salvator Lumb Stocks 52 Mary Anointing the Feet of Jesus Rubens, P. P. IV. Greatbach 154 The Wife of Rubens Rubens, P. P J. de Mare 85 Marguerite at the Fountain Schaffer, Ary L. Flameng. 220 The Sisters Sohn, Carl. P. Lightfoot 90 Ariadne and Bacchus Tintoretto, J. G. Goldberg 28 Titian's Model Titian .S. Smith 10 The Cow Doctor Tschaggeny, C. J. Couscn 258 Marriage of St. Catherine Van Dyck IV. Ridgivay 164 Charity Van Eycken,J. P. Lightfoot 252 Phillip IV Velasquez W. Haussoullier 188 Passing the Brook Verboeckhoven, E J. Cousen 256 The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian Veronese, P. C. Ceyer 16 The Death of Columbus Wappers, Baron D. T. Desvachez 254 Insanity of Van der Hooge IVauters, E L. Monzies 252 Lady Constance Winterhalter, F. T. Vernon 136 Hawking Party at Rest Wouvermans, P R. IVa/lis 172 Russian Peasants' Home Yvon, A R. C. Bell. 244 The King's Favorite Zamacois, D. E Durand. 184 Venice Zeim, F. L. Gaucherel. 228 The Waterfall Zuccharelli, F E. Radclyffe 64 STEEL ENGRAVINGS OF SCULPTURE. Schiller . . Begas, R . W. Roffe 118 Hebe Canova W. II. Mote 62 Entre deux Amours Carrier- Belleuse IV. Roffc 246 Cupid Captured by Venus Fontana, G G. Stodart 80 The Lion in Love Gee/s, IV J. H. Baker 120 Medicine Hahnel, E G. Stodart 148 The Leopard Hunter Jerichau R. A. Artlett xiii A Scene of the Deluge Lucardi, V. G. Stodart 68 Europa McDowell, P. W. Roffe Title The Sleep of Sorrow and Dream of Joy .... Monti, R E. IV. Stodart 72 Cornelia Moreau, M. G. Stodart. 250 Love the Ruler Reilschel, E. F. A R. A. Artlett 10S Protecting Angels Reitschel, E. F. A E. Roffe no The Filatrice Schadoiv E. Roffe 132 The Bavaria Schwanthaler G. R. Hall. 100 A Basket of Loves Tlwrwaldsen E. IV. Stodart. ix Psyche Von Hover, IV. J. H. Baker 140 EGYPTIAN AND ASIATIC PAINTING. 'HE daughter of Dibutades, a potter of Corinth, whilst bidding farewell one evening to her lover, was struck by the distinctness of his shadow cast by the light of a lamp on the plaster wall of her dwelling. The idea occurred to her to preserve the image of her beloved by tracing with a pointed implement at hand the outline of his figure on the wall ; and when her father the potter came home, he, appreciating the importance of her work, rude though it was, cut the plaster out within the drawing she had thus accomplished, took a cast in clay from it, and baked it with his other pottery. Such is the well-known Greek tradition, assigning a simultaneous origin to the graphic and plastic arts, and claiming both as of Greek invention. But unfortunately for the truth of this pretty story, these arts were known and practised long before even the original Pelasgians had settled in Greece; indeed, it seems certain that they were merely transmitted to Greece from Egypt, in which country they had been long cultivated before they were acquired by any of the Indo-European nations. Amongst the remains that have been discovered in various countries of Europe belonging to those early pre-historic periods, called by archaeologists respectively the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages, many vessels, utensils, metals, and ornaments have been found engraved with rich and delicate tracery, and remarkable for their graceful shape and elegant proportion, proving that there must have been a distinct recognition of artistic beauty and fitness even at that early period. These belong, certainly, more especially to the bronze age ; for the rough earthenware vessels and flint arrow-heads of the stone age cannot strictly be reckoned as works of art; but even the poor stone man hewing his square coffin may have been moved to give a greater finish and merit to his work, in obedience to an impulse, unrecognized, no doubt, towards artistic perfection. lx MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Looking onward from those dimly seen ages — whose existence is only revealed to us by means of such works as have been mentioned — we come next upon the gigantic monuments of EGYPT, whit h st.ind at the beginning of history, as if to mark the boundaries of our knowledge. Before them everything is vague and mythical, but after their erection we are enabled to proceed U|>on something like historical data, and to reckon the succession of centuries and dynasties. Hut we must not forget that the pyramids, whilst they thus form the starting point of history, point back also to long ages of endeavor, before the wonderful knowledge and skill displayed in their construction could have been attained. It is strange, perhaps, that no archaic remains of Egyptian art have ever been discovered} no traces of the rude and simple efforts of an early people. Hut so it is. Everything in Egypt, at the moment we first catch sight of it, seems to have been long established on the same basis that we find enduring until the end of its history. the origin of (Minting — the youngest born of three sister arts — dates back beyond our knowledge. It i> impossible to say when the Egyptians first practised it, but the paintings in the tombs, many of which arc referred to the fourth and fifth dynasties, that is to say, to a period not less than two thousand four hundred years before our era, or upwards of four thousand years ago, reveal an art already far advanced beyond infancy. Pliny, indeed, tells us that the Egyptians boasted of having been masters of painting for more than six thousand years before it was acquired by the Greeks, and possibly this was not such a "vain boast," as he imagined. The earliest paintings that have been brought to light in Egypt are those in the tombs around the pyramids, su pp o sed to be those of individuals living in the reigns of the founders of the pyramids and their immediate successors. Next come those of the sepulchral grottoes of Beni Hassan, of the twelfth dynasty which afford a variety of representations of private life. From these and similar works in other places, much of our knowledge of the manners and habits of the ancient Egyptians is derived. Scenes of husbandry, such as ploughing, reaping, gathering and pressing the grape; l>eating hemp; the various trades of carjienter, boat-builder, potter, leather-cutter, glass-blower, and others; scenes of fashionable life, amongst which a favorite one is the reception of guests at a banquet; hunting parties, duck-catching, and fishing, everything that is killed being in each cane registered by a scribe; wrestling exercises, comprising games of various kinds; darning; musical entertainments, the instruments being principally harps, lyres, guitars, drums, and tambo u rine s ; funeral processions, chariots and articles of furniture belonging to the deceased, are some of the principal subjects that occur on the walls of these tombs. But the subject most frequently met with is a rep re se ntation of the I.ast Judgment, where the deeds of the deceased, typified by a heart or the funeral vase containing it, are weighed in a l>alance by Anubis and Horus against a figure of Thmei (Truth) placed in the opposite scale, a symbolism that reminds one forcibly of the mediaeval representations of the same subject, in which St. Michael, in like manner, weighs the souls of the departed in his balance; but it is remarkable, that in the Egyptian symbolism we have not the detailed representation of the tortures of the wi< ked that the Mediaeval artist delighted to depict. Only Cerberus, the guardian of the Hall of Justice, crouches l>efore Osiris, the Supreme Judge, to prevent any from entering his presence who have been found wanting in the balance against Truth. Forty-two assessors of the dead, or avengers of crime, also arc represented assisting at the trial as witnesses for and against the deceased. The transport of the lwdy after death over the sacred lake in a boat, is another subject often met with, and was no doubt the origin of the river Styx and the ferry-boat of Charon, of Greek symbolism. Sacrifices to the dead some- times occur. There are several Egyptian paintings of great interest preserved amongst the numerous other remains of Egyptian art in the British Museum. Unfortunately, the originally brilliant colors of these have faded, ami many of them arc now fast decaying; but when first discovered— such at least as had not been exposed to the influence of the atmosphere — their colors were as bright ami pure as when they were first painted. Red, vellow, green and blue, with black and white, were the < olors employee). These were applied singly, so that no variety of tint was produced. Different colors were used for different things, but almost invariably the same color for the same thing. Thus men and women were usually red —the men several shades darker than the women — water blur, birds blue and green, and so on. The Egyptians painted their walls; they painted A BASKET OF LOVES engraved by e . w. stodart , from the bas-relief by thorwaldsen. at Stockholm) BBIE ke. "in this epoch, painting applied to great monumental objects, simply and strictly directed to the representation of heroic events and to the spiritual and thoughtful element they contain; yet still far from realistic perfection — aiming rather at simple grandeur, worth and solemnity, than at sweetness and variety. In sober severity of execution it consequently appears allied with the works of Christian art in the early- Middle Ages ; but in the delicacy of its forms, and in the delineation of various expressions of the mind, it is indisputably superior to it." The second age of Greek painting was ushered in by Apollodorus of Athens, who lived about a generation later than Polygnotus, and was the first to study the various phenomena of light and shade. For this reason he had the name of the Shadower, or Shadow-painter, given to him. But the most celebrated painter of this time was the famous Zeuxis of Heraclea, born about 450 B. c With him painting attained to a marvellous expression of sensuous beauty, and to a |xrrfection of illusory effect that was almost complete.* His chief charms lay in the soft grace and delicate expression that he gave, especially to his female figures, and in a dramatic power of expression that has never perhaps been equalled. One of his most extolled works was the Centaur family, so minutely described by Lucian, in which he succeeded in blending the human and animal nature so intimately that " it was impossible to discern where the one ceased and the other began." His Helen of Croton, also, for which the people of Croton allowed him to select five of their noblest and most beautiful maidens for models, was one of the most famous pictures of the ancient world. Zeuxis, it is said, exhibited this picture to the public, charging so much a head for seeing it, after the manner of modern exhibitions, on which account it acquired the name of the Prostitute; but it was painted for the temple of Juno, at Croton. Parrhasius of Ephcsus was a formidable rival even to Zeuxis. He styled himself, indeed, the prince of painters, and boasted of descent from Apollo. According to Pliny he was the first to study the rules of proportion, and he came very near Zeuxis in his power of depicting passion and feeling. An allegorical painting by him of the people, or the Demos of Athens, wherein he set forth all the opposed attributes of the Athenian character, is especially celebrated. Uniting the sensuous beauty and rich coloring of the Ionic school with the severer intellectual qualities of the Sicyonic, we next come to the great Apeu.es of Cos, the hero-painter of the ancient, as Raphael of the modern world. As with Zeuxis, grace and beauty formed the distinguishing charms of his works, but he seems more than any other painter, except perhaps Leonardo da Vinci, to have united and harmonized in himself all the various gifts and faculties of the artist nature. It was this marvelous harmony doubtless that rendered his celebrated Venus Anadyomene so perfect. The goddess was represented rising from the sea, wringing the water from her hair, which fell in a veiling shower around her lovely form. There was nothing more than the single figure of the goddess, but the ancients seem to have lost themselves in admiration of • A*, for example, the story of the frapes, at which the bird* came and pecked ; and the curtain painted by hit rival. Parrhuius. which deceived even Zruxis himself. INTRODUCTION. xv it. Ovid even declared that but for this picture Venus would for ever have remained hidden beneath her native waters.* Besides heroic and mythological subjects, Apelles painted many portraits, one in particular of Alexander of Macedon. The great king was represented in the character of Jupiter, with the thunderbolt in his hand, which hand, Pliny records, stood out in a wonderful manner from the picture. Alexander admired Apelles' style so much that he would not be painted by any other master, and was wont to say that "there were two Alexanders — one the unconquered son of Philip, and the other the unrivaled work of Apelles." He paid the painter, we are told, as much as twenty talents (about $250,000) for this portrait. Zeuxis made presents of his pictures in his later life because their price could not be estimated. But with Apelles, Greek painting reached its highest point of perfection. After this short blooming time, the inevitable decay began, and when once it began it proceeded with fearful rapidity. Greek art rose and fell, in truth, with Greek freedom. The last painters of Greece were genre painters, and so numerous were they that the Greeks invented a name for their style of art. They called it " Rhuparographia. " which in its literal signification is dirt painting. Etruscan Painting can only be regarded as a branch of Greek, but it developed several peculiar charac- teristics. The plastic genius of the Greeks, which to a certain extent dominated even in their paintings, was not so conspicuous with the Etruscans. Instead of sculpturesque relief they sought after picturesque effect, and painting was early cultivated by them in preference to sculpture. Still, however, no Etruscan painters ever attained to the celebrity of the Greek artists; nor have the names of any been handed down to us. On the other hand, a few remains of Etruscan wall-paintings have been discovered in subterranean passages, and such like places, which give us a general idea of their style of art. Roman Painting. — Rome accepted her art from Greece with more subservience than the Oriental nations had shown towards Egypt. She did not invent one new type nor conceive one new idea. The Romans, in fact, utterly lacked that artistic faculty which, as we have seen, the Greeks possessed in so high a degree. With the latter, every citizen was an amateur and critic, a lover and a judge of art, and had as much national pride in the production of a master-work as in the conquest of a town ; but the encouragement of art with the Romans seems to have been more a matter of ostentation than of love, or rather they loved it as a means of displaying their magnificence, not from any true vocation to its service. In painting, the Grsco-Roman school was of less importance than in sculpture; but on the other hand the Romans themselves evinced a greater capacity for painting than for the other arts. With the exception of portrait-painting, for which there was a constantly increasing demand, nothing beyond mere decorative works seems to have been produced; but even portraiture fell to such follies as representing the Emperor Nero one hundred and twenty feet high, and executing likenesses inlaid in silver, and even in pearls and precious stones, the richness of the material being evidently esteemed more than the art. Landscape Painting was also practised under the empire, but only, it would seem, for decorative purposes. The paintings that have been discovered at Pompeii and Herculaneum and a few other places, although undoubtedly the work of inferior artists, in an age when art was greatly degraded, yet possess such a wonderful charm in their correct design, their perfectly harmonious color, and their easy classic grace, that we are enabled to form some notion of the perfection that painting must have attained in the palmy days of Greek art, when we reflect that even in the time of its degeneracy, and in a foreign country, it was enabled to produce works such as these. The subjects chosen were usually from the mythic history of Greece, but perhaps the most beautiful of all the representations are the figures floating, as it were, above the earth, of gods, dancing-girls, genii, and fluttering winged forms, interspersed generally with garlands and other floral * It was originally painted for the Temple of Asclepius at Cos, but was subsequently carried to Rome by Augustus, who remitted a hundred talents of tribute, imposed upon the island, in consideration of it. It was in a decaying state as early as the time of Nero, but no artist ventured to restore it. XVI AfASTERPfECES OF EUROPEAN ART. decorations. Nothing indeed can well be conceived of greater elegance and beauty than many of these I'.nnpeian decorations, and yet this art lacked all the qualities that constitute noble intellectual work. During the whole of the Grseco-Roman period we must indeed regard art, in spite of its many lovely productions, as l>ecoming more and more degenerate, until at last, about the time of the Christian era, it sank into a state of utter exhaustion. The old classic life was at an end, with all its physical and intellectual beauty and moral deformity; the old forms of belief were no longer credible; the old gods had fallen from < Mympus. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the conditions that had produced classic art having thus ceased, the art itself should likewise die out. A new religion was needed to express the new ideas of the Deity that were gradually gaining possession of men's minds, and a new art was needed to embody these ideas. This religion and this art were found in Christianity. ITALIAN SCHOOL. /^"CHRISTIANITY, in its first noble protest against , ffityr ^"^ the idolatry of the world, wholly rejected art from its service because of the interpretation then given to the commandment "Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image;" and it was not till Christians had ceased to be a persecuted minority, that they began to perceive the value of art in embodying their ideas and teachings. The first Christian painters were probably converted pagan artists, or had learnt from pagan teachers, and naturally their work as Christians bore the impress of their previous modes of thought. This is especially seen in the Catacomb paintings. Christ, under the figure of Orpheus taming the wild beasts of the forest by the sound of his lyre, Noah in the Ark, Daniel in the lions' den,tMoses striking the rock, and Elijah i MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. ascending to heaven in a chariot resembling that of Apollo, are among the many paintings in the Catacombs in which the direct influence of classic models is clearly apparent The traditional heat! of Christ — with which every one is familiar — we owe to Byzantium rather than to Rome, although the first time we meet with it is in the Catacombs. All die efforts of Constantine to revive in his new capital "The glory that was Greece And the grandeur that was Rome," proved in the end as unavailing as those of Julian to reinstate the old religion "The Galilean had conquered," as Julian is said to have acknowledged on his death-bed, and classic art fell with the religion that it had embodied. The whole teaching of Christianity, as distinguished from paganism, lies in the Byzantine conception of Christ. It is the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Solemn visaged Madonnas, weird Infants, and long-limbed lean saints have often a mysterious supernatural life that awes us more than the natural and eardily beauty of more perfect works. It is the direct expression of die artist's own religious feelings. But, before developing, Christian art sank to a very low ebb. The influence of classic models gradually grew fainter and fainter: Byzantine art soon took the place of this feeble classico-Christian school, and in the latter works in the Catacombs we find it everywhere triumphant The eleventh century witnessed the lowest degradation of all in art. Fearful and disgusting martyrdoms and blood-streaming crucifixes were the favorite subjects. Raoul Rochette regards the strange predilection for this class of subjects as an expression of the "gradual saddening of the soul of Christendom," probably, however, simply the result of religious terrorism, for we have no paintings of that kind earlier than the tenth century, and it was precisely at that period that a paralyzing fear took possession of men's minds in consequence of the widely-spread belief in the approaching end of the world in the year iooo. When the dreaded point was safely turned, Europe breadied more freely, and art revived with the reviving life of the nations. Architecture, especially, accomplished at this time many magnificent works, and blos- somed mto the Gothic style. Sculpture, as independent from architecture, was little practiced by the early Christians; it had. however, even less artistic merit than the painting of the first twelve centuries. But with the thirteenth century a new epoch commenced in the intellectual history of Europe. Modern painting dates its birth from this century. Nicola PXsamo (born with the thirteenth century) was undoubtedly die first who gave expression in art to the forward movement of his age; for, casting aside the traditions of the Byzantine Art, he turned back to die antique for inspiration, and formed by its teachings a new and nobly classic style. But more especially in Tuscany, the ancient Etruria, — which was to witness die full glory of the rivival, — these stirrings of a new life in art were early apparent ITALIAN SCHOOL. Andrea Tafi, "Painter of Florence," the earliest artist to whom Vasari accords a separate biography, (born about the beginning of the thirteenth century,) executed many works in mosaic, which obtained for him the judgment of his contemporaries "an excellent, nay, a divine artist." Mosaic workers, were, at this time, fully entitled to be ranked as artists, for they generally worked from their own designs, and did not as in later times, simply copy pictures. Gaddo Gaddi (born 1239, died 13 12) was another mosaist of Florence of con- siderable merit for his time. Giovanni Cimabue, born at Florence 1240, ends the Byzantine succession in Italy, which had continued from the time of Constantine till the thirteenth century. In him "the spirit of the years to come" is decidedly manifest; but he never entirely succeeded in casting off the hereditary asceticism; although in his later years he attained to much greater freedom of drawing, probably owing to the influence of his great pupil, Giotto. With Giotto, the revival of art was finally and fully accomplished, and a noble Christian school founded. He was, in truth, the first master of real creative genius that Christianity had as yet produced, and the impulse given by him was transmitted through succeeding centuries, until the highest perfection of Christian art was reached. Giotto has left us, in the well-known portrait of Dante, painted on the walls of the council chamber of the Podesta, at Florence, a striking proof of his skill in this par- ticular; for, simply outlined as the portrait is, it is an undoubted likeness of the great poet. Dante was the intimate friend of Giotto, and doubtless exercised an important influence over his mind. In 1 298 Giotto was invited to Rome by Boniface VIII, where he executed the cele- brated mosaic of the Navicella for St. Peter's. The chief cities of Italy were decorated by the hand of this great master, mostly frescoes, treasured to this day. His last work in Florence was not as a painter, but as an architect. In 1334 he was appointed by the Republic to superintend the works of S. Maria del Fiore, and it is from his design that the beautiful bell-tower arose which " Soars up in gold its full fifty braccia, Completing Florence as Florence Italy." Like all original masters, Giotto was followed by a large number of pupils and imitators. We often find it thus in the history of art. He was, however, fortunate in very intelligent pupils, who spread his teachings far and wide. In one sense, indeed, all the great painters of the modern world may be said to be the - followers of Giotto, for he was the earliest pioneer in that vast kingdom of nature from which succeeding artists have drawn their noblest inspirations ; but the term is more conveniently limited to his MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. immediate successors, "The Giotteschi." Foremost among these stand Taddeo Gaddi, Agnolo Giotto (the. son of the master), Tommaso di Stefano, Buonamico Christofani, and several others of varied degrees of talent and success. This influence extended far beyond their immediate school, especially at Pisa, where the revival ^ yrAS begun before his time by Nicola Pisano. Pisa in the fourteenth century was undoubtedly the greatest school of sculpture in all Italy, but strange to say, she produced no great native painter; yet we have ITALIAN SCHOOL. at Pisa some of the most remarkable painted works in the world — the far-famed frescoes of the Campo Santo. "There are few places in the world," writes W. B. Scott, "likely to make a deeper impression on the traveler than the Campo Santo of Pisa." This ceme- tery was founded at the close of the twelfth century by the Archbishop Ubaldo, who is said to have brought home fifty-three vessels laden with earth from Pales- tine, and to have formed with it the Campo Santo, so that the bodies of the departed Pisans might have the advantage of resting on holy ground. An open arcade or cloister was built round the sacred burial-place, and during the two following centuries numerous MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. artists were employed l>y the Pisans to adorn this cloister with paintings. Like the church of St Francis at Assisi, the Campo Santo thus contains a grand pictorial history of early Italian art Indeed, were there no other remains of the works of the artists of the fourteenth century, we should be able to form a very good idea of their style and capabilities from these two places alone, A painter named Datus is supposed to have been the earliest artist of the Campo Santo, but what he executed is not now discoverable. Other painters, some of whose names are mentioned in the records of the Duomo di Pisa, succeeded, but it was not until late in the fourteenth century that any important work was undertaken. The frescoes illustrating die trials of Job, by Francesco Da Volterra, who, although not a Pisan by birth, had been long setded in Pisa. Pietro di Puccio, Spi- nello Arettno and Andrea Da Firenze illustrated the lives of several saints. Andrea Orcagna — in his frescoes, "The Triumph of Death" and "The Last Judgment" — achieved the most remarkable work of the Campo Santo. Spinello Aretino (born 1330), before mentioned as one of the artists of the Campo Santo, is best known by his "Fall of the Rebel Angels," a fresco in the church of S. Maria degli Angeli, at Arezzo. Vasari relates that Lucifer was highly affronted at his portrait in this picture, and appeared to the artist in the form under which he had represented him, and demanded to know why he had made him so ugly. Spinello never recovered from the fright of this dream. The original fresco has now entirely disap- peared, but many drawings and engravings of it exist The mention of some of the minor schools, and the names which constituted them, may without blame be omitted in a work which professes to treat only ol the masterpieces of Europe. The Sienese School, from Guido da Siena to Gherado Starnino, deserve a passing mention; the latter especially, as the master of Masolino, — a name which brings us to the fifteenth century in Florentine Art, and to a new period in its development. The fifteenth century was an age of rapid intellectual growth: everywhere the germs that had been planted in the two preceding centuries started into life and sent forth shoots in new directions. With this age, indeed, the history of the modern world may fairly be said to begin; for, with the knowledge of the true solar system, the discovery of America, and the invention of printing, the mind of man first attained its enfranchisement from ignorance and superstition. Yet in all things the work of the fifteenth century can only be regarded as the preparation for those of the sixteenth. In art especially, this was the case. The great artists of this age were the forerunners of the still greater artists of the next Masaccio and Mantegna prepared the way for Michael Angelo; Fra Angelico and Perugino for Raphael, and Bellini for Titian. Florence, the city of the Lily, Florence republican, Florence oligarchical, or Florence Medicean, was indeed, under whatever form of government she chose, the loved abode S CUMiBAN SIH1TIL, . UNIVERSITY ITALIAN SCHOOL. of the arts. In architecture, sculpture, and painting she expressed her thoughts with a power and a beauty that no other city ever before had done, except indeed Athens, to which she has often been compared. The history of Italian art now limits itself for a time, almost exclusively, to the history of Florentine art; for the schools of Pisa and Siena which seemed to have been putting forth their energies in the preceding century, had no development in this. It is true the Venetian School arose during this period and made considerable progress under the Bellini; but the Venetian School in its aim and form of expression is so totally different from the Florentine that it will be best to consider it apart, and to follow the line of Florentine painters through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries unbroken. As in the thirteenth century we saw sculpture preceding painting in artistic devel- opment, so in the fifteenth century we find a sculptor at the head of the forward movement of the age. Lorenzo Ghiberti occupies, in fact, the same position with regard to Masolino, Masaccio and their followers, as Nicola Pisano with regard to Giotto. Each was the herald of progress, and of a progress that was to be achieved by painting as well as by their plastic art. The celebrated gates of the Baptistery of San Giovanni, at Florence, of which Michael Angelo said "They are worthy to be the gates of Paradise," were begun by Ghiberti in 1402, when he was not quite three and twenty, and were only finished after forty-two years of labor, — labor on which he bestowed, as he himself tells us "Grandissima diligenza e grandissima amore" — the greatest diligence and the greatest love. These gates may be taken as inaugurating the new era in the progress of art, for the scien- tific principles, which were now for the first time applied to art were fully carried out in them, and the rules of the perspective intelligently obeyed. The knowledge of perspec- tive seems to have come to the early painters of this century almost as a new revolu- tion. Giotto, indeed, had often obeyed its rules, but we may presume that he did so unconsciously, for there was no science of perspective in his day. Foremost among these devotees to perspective were Pietro della Francesca, and Paola Uccello. Masolino Da Panicale was another scientific painter of this period, but he did not study perspective so much as light and shade, which, likewise, had hitherto been but little understood. The intellectual spirit of the age is, however, most clearly apparent in Tommaso Guidi, ( 1 402-1 428,) better known as Masaccio, — a name given him, it is said, by his companions in boyhood, on account of his abstracted air and slovenly appearance, and which has remained to him through posterity. Masaccio, or "Slovenly Tom," was undoubtedly the representative painter of his age, as Ghiberti was the representative sculptor. In him the revival of ancient learning, to which the great scholars of that time were devoting their whole attention, first bore fruit in painting. MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Masaccio's earliest works are supposed to be the frescoes in the Church of San Clemente at Rome, — where he represented various scenes from the life of St. Catherine; but those by which he is best known are the celebrated paintings of the Brancacci Chapel, in f the church of the Carmelites, at Florence, — illustra- tions of the life of St Peter, — he clearly proved himself the first painter of the age. He died at the early age of twenty-six. Giovanni Da Fiesole, called Fra Angelico (i 387-1455) although a contemporary From the original, THE GATE OF THE BAPTISTERY, FLORENCE. by Lorenzo Ghiterti io AfASTERP/ECES OF EUROPEAN ART. of Masaccio, belonged in feeling entirely to the preceding century. His ideal, so he imagined, had been revealed to him from above, and not built upon his own mind. He lived, like all religious visionaries, in a world of his own, — peopled with holy things, with whom says a monk, he conversed, wept, and prayed by turns. A delicate and feminine purism charms us in Fra Angelico ; they are the expression of a pure and lovely nature, which sinks into the heart of the beholder, and dwells there in association with looks and thoughts too sacred for sunshine and "too deep for tears." His pictures are to be found in many of the capitals of Europe — "The Coronation of the Virgin," in the Louvre, "The Predella" of the Dominican altar-piece in the English National Gallery, and several in Rome, Florence, Orvietto and other places. Bknozzo Gozzoli (born 1424, date of death uncertain), was a pupil of Fra Angelico's, but he was not a monk, and regarded life from a less ascetic point of view. His works are much more human in character than his master's, and although he remained a religious painter, it is evident that the naturalism and even the classicism of Masaccio produced a greater effect upon his art than the mysticism of Angelico. In 1469 Gozzoli was called to Pisa, where he was employed to continue the work that the artists of the preceding century had so nobly begun in the Campo Santo, but wh'ch had been set aside for a long period, owing to the political disturbances and ceaseless misfortunes of that city. Here, in a series of twenty-four frescoes, he set forth in a dramatic manner the whole history of the Old Testament, from Noah to the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon. "The endless fertility of fancy and invention," says Mrs. Jameson, "displayed in these compositions; the pastoral beauty of some of the scenes, the Scriptural sublimity of others; the hundreds of figures introduced, many of them portraits of his own time; the dignity and beauty of the heads; the exquisite grace of some of the figures, almost equal to Raphael; the ample draperies, the gay rich colors, the profusion of accessories, as buildings, landscapes, flowers, animals, and the care and exactness with which he has rendered the costume of that time — render this work of Benozzo one of the most extraordinary monuments of the fifteenth century." It is not, however, quite so extraordinary in one respect as Mrs. Jameson imagined. She thought that these frescoes were executed "when the painter was upwards of sixty years of age, and worn with toil and trouble ;" but it has lately been ascertained that, as would appear more probable, they were really executed when he was in the prime of his life, having been begun in 1468, and finished after sixteen years of labor* in 1484. Gozzoli is the first among the Italian painters who seems to have had any true feeling for landscape. His landscape backgrounds, although unfortunately often filled with archi- • It appears that be contracted to paint these frescoes at the rate of three a year, for the small sum of ten ducats each, about equal to $yx> at the present dajr. TIT1AKS MODEL SAMUEL SMITH SCULP" ic BAT! R1E. ITALIAN SCHOOL. u tectural details, show a real appreciation of the beauty of the earth, and an honest endeavor to express it. They are as different from the Flemish landscape backgrounds of this period as the Italian landscape itself from the lowlands of Flanders ; but it is not impossible that Gozzoli was tempted to introduce landscape by the Flemish example. The Pisans, it appears, were so delighted with his work in their Campo Santo, that they presented him, in 1478, with a grand tomb there, in order that he might enjoy the advantage of resting in their holy ground. The date of the gift of this tomb has long been supposed to have been that of his death, but he lived some time after this sug- gestive present. Besides the grand altar-piece by Gozzoli in the English National Gallery, there is a very quaint little picture by him, assumed to represent " The Rape of Helen." There is certainly not much evidence of the influence of classicism in his rendering of this classic subject. It is impossible to help laughing at the grandly attired Helen, who sits composedly on the back of Paris, her flowing blue dress hiding to some extent his bright green coat, but not his ridiculously slender legs encased in scarlet stockings. Other ladies are borne off by the heroes in a similar manner. Fra Filipo Lippi, the Dominican brother of Fra Angelico ; Benozzo Gozzoli, Lorenzo Monaco, and Cosimo Roselli were distinguished contemporaries (some of them imitators) of Fra Angelico and Masaccio ; but a passing record is all we can afford in the limits of this work. Cosmo de Medici, the patron of Paolo Uccello, died in 1464; but his son, Piero, in spite of strong opposition, succeeded him in the government. At Piero's death, which happened in a few years, his two young sons, Guiliano and Lorenzo, known as Lorenzo the Magnificent, became rulers of Florence. The name of Lorenzo the Magnificent calls up all the remembrance of a grand constellation of scholars, poets, politicians, historians, architects, sculptors and painters of which he was the central star. It is only with the artists that we have here to do, "but it is well to remember that the achievements of art at this time were dependent on the general achievement of intelligence. Besides its own internal development, two new inventions at this time gave a strong impulse to art — namely, the invention of engraving, whereby works of art were multiplied and diffused abroad ; and the invention of oil painting, which added greatly to the beauty and dura- bility of paintings. The latter invention was made in Flanders by the brothers Van Eyck, but the process was quickly introduced into Italy, and was at once practised by all the great painters of the time. Engraving on copper, discovered by Maso Finguerra, a goldsmith, in Florence, 1452, and wood-engraving, discovered some time before this, in Germany, were henceforth actively employed, and aided in the dissemination of art throughout Europe. This important period in the history of art is the date of Renaissance ; and passing over such respectable names as Sandro Filipepi, called Botticelli (1437-15 15), and Filip- I-' MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. GALLERY OF THE UFFIZI. FLORENCE o z LU o X >- cc 3 CO X I- i 4 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. pino Lippi (1460-1505), both useful devotees to the original principles and the new practice, we come to the great painter upon whom the spirit of the Renaissance took the strongest hold — Domenico Bigordi, called Ghirlandjo, or the Garland-maker — a name given to him, says Vasari, because he was the first to invent the beautiful silver bands or garlands that the Florentine maidens of that day wore on their heads. Without adding much specially to the total amount of experience acquired by die efforts of suc- cessive searchers, he conduced much to the masculine art of Florence, which culminated at last in Raphael and Michael Angelo. We must now turn from Florence for a time and look to Padua for the next great painter of diis age — Andrew Mantegna, (1 431-1506.) Mantegna was perhaps the most pagan painter of his age ; yet his religious pictures have a forcible reality that affect us more powerfully than the weak spiritualisms of many of the religious painters of the Chris- tian School. The most important of his earlier works are some frescoes setting forth the history of St. James, in the chapel of the Eremitani, at Padua, — a chapel which occupies the same position with regard to Paduan art as the Brancacci with regard to Florence. In 1468 Mantegna entered the service of Ludovico Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, from whom he received a pension of seventy-five lire a month, equal to about one hundred and fifty dollars a year of our money — at that time, however, a considerable sum. After this he spent a considerable part of his time at Mantua; but in 1488 he was called to Rome for a time, and executed frescoes for Innocent VIII. His most famous works are his triumphal processions, subjects that seem to have suited his pagan proclivities. The best known of those is the celebrated "Triumph of Julius Caesar," now at Hampton Court. It consists of nine water-color drawings, each nine feet square, originally executed for a saloon in the palace of Ludovico Gonzaga. Mrs. Jameson says of these frescoes: "Hur- ried and uninformed visitors will probably pass them over with a cursory glance, yet Hampton Court contains nothing so curious and valuable as this old frieze of Andrew Mantegna." The great "Madonna della Vittoria," of the Louvre, is another of Man- tegna's important works. Like many of the fifteenth century artists, Mantegna excelled, not in one branch of art alone. He was a sculptor, architect and engraver. Mkllozzo I).\ Forli (painting in 1472) and Luca Signorelli Da Cortona, 1 471-1524, are the immediate successors of Mantegna. Luca was one of the early painters of the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican, which was built in 1473 under Pope Sixtus IV. Perugino, a master of a different school and of a totally opposed style, was also associated with Luca at this time. Perugino's three frescoes were afterwards destroyed to make room for Michael Angelo's "Last Judgment"; but Luca's remain to testify to his dramatic powers of composition. They represent scenes in the history of Moses. The end of the fifteenth century is perhaps the most brilliant era in the history VENETIAN PAINTERS. PARIS BORDOSE. The Fisherman delivering to the Doge the miraculous ring of S t Mark. 62 \\ a n a n y* UNIVERSITT ITALIAN SCHOOL. 15 of Florence. Under the splendid rule of Lorenzo the Magnificent, every branch of human knowledge was cultivated with an enthusiasm that has no precedent in history and art, especially, under his direct personal superintendence, was stimulated to ever greater achievements. But notwithstanding the outward magnificence, the whole fabric of Italian society was utterly rotten. The Renaissance, it is true, kept on pursuing its victorious course, but a reaction against it now set in, and the Spiritual, or Christian School, which had languished from the time of Fra Angelico, assumed a new and deeper significance. The early school of Siena, which in the fourteenth century numbered some excellent masters, missed the Florentine development. It had never, in fact, the vigorous manly qualities of its rival, but its deep religious sentiment and its mystic spirituality were destined to find an everlasting expression in the work of the favorite painter of Christianity; for although Raphael is not generally reckoned as a master of the Sienese School, yet the Umbrian School, from which he gained all the spiritual qualities of his art, grew naturally out of the Sienese, as the Sienese out of the Byzantium. This grand development of religious art occurred, as before stated, at the time when the worship of the purely intellectual was at its height; but it was not in Florence that Christian development was first made manifest, but in a very quiet place. Umbria, a country district of the upper Tiber, had been from an early period the chosen seat of mysticism. It was here that St. Francis — the favorite saint of the middle ages — was born, and here at Assisi was the most celebrated convent and church of his order. The Umbrian conception of life was totally different from the Florentine ; the keen-eyed Florentines regarded life ever from a cheerful point of view — the Umbrian character was characterized by deep religious feeling. Niccolo Allimo, of Foligno, was the first master in whom the distinct features of the school appeared. But Pietro Vannucci, better known as II Perugino, from the place where he principally worked, (1446-1524,) is beyond all the others the represen- tative master of the Umbrian School. One of his finest paintings is an altar-piece in the National Gallery of England, originally painted for the Carthusian Convent of Pavia. His school at Perugia was one of the most celebrated in Italy. Numerous students from all parts being attracted to it. None of his scholars, however, except Raphael, attained anything like the deep purity of Perugino's color. He and Francia are, indeed, distinguished beyond many of their contemporaries for this one quality. Vasari tells us of Perugino that "he was an irreligious man, and could not be made to believe in the immortality of the soul." It was, therefore, not from the religious enthu- siasm of his nature, as was the case with Fra Angelico, that the exalted devotion of his i6 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. works was derived Perugino, indeed, gives a rude shock to the theory that the art of the painter is an accurate exponent of his ethical state. Bernardino I)i Betto, called Pinturiccho, a pupil of Perugino, and a sort of art partner (for he received a third of the gains of their joint labor), is chiefly famous from his frescoes with which he decorated the great Piccolomini Library at Siena. Francesco Raibolini, called Francia, (1450-15 17,) is so closely allied in sentiment, expression and color to Perugino, that, though by birth and education he belongs to the early school of Bologna, he seems naturally to rank in his art with the Umbrian painter. Francia's Madonnas are to be found in most galleries on the continent of Europe; but he was so well imitated by several pupils, especially by his son and nephew, that it is difficult to decide whether the paintings ascribed to him are really the work of his hands. There is a lovely Madonna at Munich, about which there can be no doubt; it is a so-called " Madonna in a Rose-garden." The Virgin sinks on her knees in loving adora- tion of her chikl, who lies before her on a plot of grass surrounded by roses. On taking our leave of Francia, we leave behind the fifteenth century, which was progressive, and begin the glorious sixteenth ; but we will find that the sixteenth was not progressive. It reaches ;perfection all at once in the works of several painters, has a short flowering season, and then, alas ! according to the universal law, falls into decay. Its history and laws will be found in the "Second Book of the Italian School." w M H N H ^ H CO m n w SECOND PART OF THE ITALIAN SCHOOL. EONARDO DA VINCI, rather than Raphael, Michael Angelo or Titian, may be taken as the representative artist of the sixteenth century. He was the son of a notary of Florence, and was born at Vinci, in the Val d'Arno, below Florence, in 1452. His genius was marvelously pre- cocious, and his bent towards art so early apparent that his father, struck by some remarkable designs that he had made at a very young age, placed him with Andrea Verocchio to study painting. The pupil soon eclipsed the master, who "took this so much to heart, that a mere child should do better than he had done, that he would never touch colors more," but continued to work in marble, and also to execute those exquisite little works in metal for which he was greatly celebrated, although unfor- tunately but few of them now exist. Meanwhile, nothing exceeded the powers of his astounding pupil. Not only was he the greatest painter and sculptor of his day (for Raphael's and Michael Angelo's stars had as yet scarcely risen), but he likewise ranks as one of the earliest leaders in science. Mathematics, geometry, physics, 17 iS MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. chemistry, astronomy, geology, botany, were all studied by him with an ardent love of knowledge that would not allow him to rest content with mere superficial acquirements, but led him to search out the secrets of nature for himself. His scientific theories are often strangely in advance of the knowledge of his time; indeed, many of his treatises reveal a dim insight into natural phenomena which have only been understood rightly at the present day. More especially, however, he turned his attention to those sciences that bear upon art, and in his celebrated treatise on painting has left us a most valu- able record of his investigations. Anatomy he made a profound study; perspective likewise engaged his attention, and even geology and botany were attacked by him with fruitful results. In fact, there is scarcely any branch of natural science to which he did not contribute some pregnant thought In the lighter accomplishments of society he was no less distinguished. The charm of his conversation was such, we are told, that all were fascinated who heard it; and his rare beauty of face and dignity of form seemed to be only a fitting setting for the beauty and dignity of his intellect. He was a poet and a skilful musician, and used to play on a kind of lyre invented by himself, often improvising both words and music. Of the works of this great master, but few and faint relics now remain — rencs whose sweet lingering beauty only makes us mourn the more for that which is lost. His "Last Supper," which ranks, perhaps, as the best known and most famous picture in all the world, and which may be taken as the highest expression of Christian art, is now a hopeless ruin. Only the dim outline of a few of the heads can still be traced of the original work; and yet, by means of copies and engravings, which have found their way alike into the poorest homes and the richest palaces, it is known to almost every Christian child. And often as we see it, in wood-cut or in Raphael Morghen's noble engraving, it ever speaks to us with some new significance, so unfathomable is its solemn beauty. Endless criticisms have been written upon it Fuseli, lecturing on the celebrated copy belonging to the Royal Academy, says, "The face of the Saviour is an abyss of thought and broods over the immense revolution in the economy of man- kind which throngs inwardly on his absorbed eye, as the spirit creative in the beginning over the water's darksome wave, undisturbed and quiet" And yet this divine face is but the perfect development of the type founded at Byzantium. We have the same cast of features, the same oval face and melancholy expression; but instead of the hard staring ugliness and crude art of the early Christian artist, we have the deepest soul-beauty expressed by an art that has reached its final perfection. There is a strange contrast in this solemn "brooding" head of the Saviour to the dramatic rendering of the other characters in the scene. Each one of the disciples is moved in a different manner l>y the Master's fearful words, "One of you shall betray me," so that their different charac- ITALIAN SCHOOL. 19 ters mount, as it were, to the surface, and can be easily read on their countenances. Only the Master himself sits unmoved and calm in the storm of feeling around him. "The Last Supper" was painted on the wall of the refectory of the convent of S. Maria delle Grazie, at Milan. It was painted in oils, a more perishable process for wall-painting than fresco ; but still it is more from neglect and barbarous ill-usage that it has perished than from natural decay. It was about the year 1483 that Leonardo left Florence and established himself at Milan, having been summoned there by Ludovico Sforza, then the Regent, and soon after the usurping Duke of Milan. One of his celebrated female portraits, that in the Louvre, known by the title of "La belle Ferroniere," was executed during his residence at Milan. It is supposed to represent Lucrezia Crivelli, a mistress of Ludovico Sforza. The other famous portrait of the Louvre is the enchanting Mona Lisa, the wife of his Florentine friend, Francesco del Giocondo. "Who that has seen Mona Lisa smile," says an enthusiastic critic, "can ever forget her?" "It fascinates and absorbs me," wrote Michelet, "I go to it in spite of myself, as the bird is drawn to the serpent." Excelling thus in depicting the charm of female beauty, it is natural that he should have painted the most exquisite Madonna pictures. Unfortunately, there are not many of these in existence. In 1499, after Milan had submitted to the French, and his patron, Ludovico Sforza, defeated in battle, had been taken prisoner by the enemy, Leonardo returned to Flor- ence — if not immediately, at least within a year or two. After this, and when his fame was at its height, he was chosen by the Council of Florence to prepare a cartoon for the decoration of one of the walls of the Palazzo Vecchio, the other wall being assigned to Michael Angelo. With this commission began the rivalry of these two great artists. Leonardo chose for his subject the victory of the Florentines over Nicolo Picinnino in 1440; whilst Michael Angelo chose an incident from the Pisan campaigns, and repre- sented some Florentine soldiers surprised by the enemy whilst bathing. Both cartoons have, now perished, but the memory of Leonardo's is preserved in a powerful group, that Rubens copied from it, of four horsemen fighting for a standard, whilst a small copy exists to show the strength of Michael Angelo's conception. Two more opposite natures than those of Leonardo and Michael Angelo could perhaps scarcely be found. The rich, generous, handsome Leonardo, with his trains of servants and studs of horses, living in the most extravagant manner, and attracting every one, rich and poor, by the spell of his manners and conversation ; and the proud, repel- lant, bitter-tongued Michael Angelo, whose real heart lay too deep for men to discover, and whose solitary soul found expression only in his works and not in his words. When Leo X was elevated to the Papal throne he invited Leonardo to Rome, and 20 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. accordingly he accompanied Giuliano de" Medici thither in 15 13. He was kindly received by Leo, and commissions were given to him, but from some cause he did not stay long. Either he was offended by a remark of the Pope, who, on hearing that he was distilling oils for the varnishing of a picture before he had begun to paint it, is reported to have said, "Alas the while! this man will assuredly do nothing at all, since he is thinking of the end before he has made a beginning," or else he who had been first in Milan found it difficult to share his honors with Michael Angelo and Raphael, who already held the field in Rome. However this may be, he left Rome and joined the brilliant French king, Francis I, at Pavia, and afterwards returned with him to France. Honors and commissions were showered upon him by Francis 1, but his health and spirits seemed to fail from the moment he entered France. After five years of languor and exhaustion, during which he was unable to accomplish any of the great works he had undertaken, he died on May 2, 15 19, breathing his last, not in the arms of the French king, as Vasari and tradition relate, but probably as a reconciled child in the arms of mother church, from whom in life he appears to have strayed away. Leonardo's pupils and followers have a rare, excellence, which must in part be attributed to the overshadowing greatness of the master. Lorenzo di Credi (i459-'537)« a Florentine artist and the fellow-pupil of Leonardo and Perugino, in the school of Verocchio, owed much to the former. Credi was one of the band of artists in Florence who were moved by the words of Savonarola, who was at that time thundering forth his eloquence against Florence. But foremost among the painters who went to hear the Florentine Jeremiah was a young man called by his e*3 H a m y ITY en 111 a. a. ■5> 22 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Tuscan associates Baccio della Porta, because he lived with his mother near one of the gates of the city, but who is better known to posterity by the title of Fra Bak- tolommeo (1469-15 1 7). The mind of Bartolommeo, in the impressionable season of youthful aspiration, was completely subjected to the influence of Savonarola; and when, in the Lent of 1495, the words of the preacher excited the Piagnoni, as his followers were called, to fanatic extremes, he, as well as other young artists, threw all the draw- ings and studies he had made from the antique upon one of those "pyramids of vanities" which were lighted by the excited Piagnoni, and which, unfortunately, burned up many things besides rouge-pots, false hair, playing-cards, and other even less reputable "anathema." Bartolommeo, however, though thus renouncing profane studies, still pur- sued his art; but happening to be in the convent of San Marco when it was besieged by the mob, and Savonarola dragged forth, his mind was so completely unhinged by the fearful scenes that then occurred, and by the subsequent martyrdom of Savonarola, that after that event he took the vows of a monk and entered the Dominican order, entirely abandoning painting, and leaving his friend Albertinelli to finish all the works he had in hand. Mariotto Albertinelli, although the intimate friend and assistant of Fra Bartolom- meo, was a man of a totally different stamp of mind. In politics, as in everything else, these two artists took opposite sides — Albertinelli being an adherent of the Medici, and a scoffer at Savonarola and his mission. Nevertheless, in spite of this contrast in their characters and opinions, he and Fra Bartolommeo seem to have been much attached; and when, after spending four years in religious melancholy in the convent he had entered, Bartolommeo again began to paint, he summoned his old associate, Albertinelli, to work with him in the monastery; and the layman and the monk entered, as it were, into partnership* the monastery dividing the profits with Albertinelli. Fra Bartolommeo's principal subjects are Madonnas, generally surrounded by cherubs or l>oy angels of exquisite beauty. In the pure loveliness of his Madonna pictures, indeed, not even Raphael or Leonardo excel him. Raphael, whose receptive mind received impressions from every artist with whom he associated, gained much from his intercourse with Fra Bartolommeo. On his arrival in Florence in 1504. he entered into a cordial friendship with Bartolommeo, and received from him many valuable hints on the management of drapery, learning also the secret of his pure and harmonious color The greatest work that Bartolommeo accomplished at this time — indeed the master- work of his art — is the celebrated Madonna della Misericordia, in the church of S. Romano, at Lucca. The Virgin, in all the beauty of holiness, and with the solemn dignity that Bartolommeo has always given her, stands with her arms outstretched, and • Crowr and Ovakasrllc. vol lit. ITALIAN SCHOOL. 23 her eyes uplifted to her son, whom she beholds in glory. At her feet kneel groups of suppliants, who look to her as she to her son, beseeching her to shelter them from his wrath. There are forty-four heads in all in this picture, and many of them of wonderful grace and beauty. "The Madonna Enthroned," of the Louvre, was painted for Bar- tolommeo's own convent of S. Marco, but was afterwards sent as a present to Francis I. On the 6th of March, 1475, Michael Angelo Buonaroti was born at Castel Caprese, near Florence, of which small fortified town his father, Ludovico Buonaroti, was the podesta, or governor. On his parents' return to Florence he was put out to nurse with the wife of a stone-mason, thereby imbibing, as he was wont in jest to assert, his love for his profession with his nurse's milk. His taste for art being at all events unmistakably declared at an early age, his father in 1488, when Michael Angelo was only thirteen, bound him for three years to the masters Domenico and David Ghirlandaji. His first attempt at painting, according to Vasari, was a copy of the celebrated plate of Martin Schongauer, the "Temptation of St. Anthony," which he reproduced in colors, and on a larger scale than the original. This gained him great credit, and although copied from the German engraver, he doubtless threw somewhat of his own mind into it. We are told he studied attentively the fish exposed in the market at Florence, in order thoroughly to comprehend the fishy nature of Schongauer's devils. His genius, however, in spite of his early education as a painter, turned naturally towards the plastic art, in which his love of form could more freely be exercised; but the sight of the treasures of classic art in the famous gardens of Lorenzo de Medici, seems first to have given him a powerful impulse towards sculpture. These gardens formed a sort of art-nursery for the young artists of Florence, and Lorenzo himself took especial interest in the development of any youths among them whom he perceived to possess talent. Thus it was Michael Angelo fell under his observation. Passing one day along the garden he noticed the young sculptor as he was copying the antique mask of a faun, one of the statues in the garden. He had not, however, copied the original implicitly, but had given his representation a wide-open mouth, in which the teeth could be seen. "Thou shouldst have remembered," remarked Lorenzo, "that old folks never retain all their teeth — some of them are always wanting." The hint was taken, and the next time Lorenzo passed that way he found that one of the faun's teeth had been knocked out and the gum filed away in such a manner as to look as if it had dropped out naturally. Prompt to remunerate genius as well as to recognize it, Lorenzo immediately took Michael Angelo into his own house, making arrangements with his father, upon whom he bestowed a small post in the Customs, that his son should be given up entirely to MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. his care. Thus the early artistic life of Michael Angelo bloomed under the sunny skies and amidst the refined splendor of the court of the Medici. Every day there was a grand public banquet in the palace, at which Lorenzo the Magnificent, the politician, the philosopher, the poet; the rewarder of genius, and the destroyer of the virtue and freedom of Florence, sat at the head of the table, the place at his right hand being free to whoever should come first, regardless of rank. Thus it sometimes happened ALJ.O.RI PTi-TXT JTiUMTIK WILTS. T2E3 7£^i,Z OF ffl ITALIAN SCHOOL. 25 that Michael Angelo sat next his patron, who always showed him great favor, and once " presented him, for his gratification, with a violet-colored mantle." But these prosperous BOLOGNA. times were not of long duration. In 1492 Lorenzo died, and although his son Piero succeeded him in the government of Flor- ence, it soon became evident to every one that the overthrow of the Medici was near at hand. Michael Angelo, like many other of their adherents, left the city before the storm broke, and retired to Bologna, where Piero himself was soon after obliged to take refuge. 26 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. After passing a year in Bologna, under the protection of the noble and generous family of the Aldovrandi, Michael Angelo returned to Florence, where Savonarola was uttering his warnings and exhorting his fellow-citizens to repentance. He is said to have been one of the adherents of the Florentine prophet, but he could scarcely have been such a devoted disciple as Bartolomineo and several other well-known artists, for in the midst of the wild religious excitement of the Lent of 1496, when statues of pagan gods and other antique relics were especial objects of abhorrence, and when, as we have seen, Fra Bartolommeo threw all his drawings from the nude, as " vanities," upon the fanatical bonfire lighted by the Piagnoni, he executed a small figure of Cupid, of such classic beauty, that he was advised to keep it underground for a time, until it had assumed a weather-worn and ancient look, and then to pass it off as a genuine antique This was done, and the Cupid was bought as an antique by die Cardinal San Giorgio, who afterwards, on finding out diat it was really the work of a young Florentine sculptor, instead of resenting the cheat, immediately invited Michael Angelo to Rome. It was in June, 1496, when he was just one-and-twenty, that Michael Angelo entered the capital, which was henceforward to be the chief theatre of his labors, his contentions, and his triumphs. His fame was not at this time so great as that of Raphael when he also came to Rome, at about the same age, twelve years later. The first important work that he executed at Rome, was the statue of Bacchus, now in the Ufifizi, at Florence. Critics disagree greatly in their judgment of this work; some considering it the perfection of manly beauty, and others, among whom may be mentioned Shelley, calling it "nothing but a detestable representation of a drunken man." His famous Pieta, however, a noble marble group, representing the Madonna mourning over the dead body of her son, executed about the same time, at once raised him to the position of the first sculptor in Italy. After acquiring great fame for this work in Rome, he again returned in 1499 to Florence, where the storm hat! broken in his absence, and had kindled the faggots in the market-place for the martyrdom of Savonarola and his companions. The greatest work that he executed at this time was his colossal statue of David, which still stands in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, at Florence, and is hewn out of a single block. "The erection of this David was like an occurrence in nature, from which people are wont to reckon. We find events dated so many years after the erection of the giant. It was mentioned in records, in which there was not a line besides respecting art. For centuries the David has now stood at the gate of the dark powerful palace, and has passed through the various fates of the city." Soon after the triumphant erection of the David, in 1504, Michael Angelo received the order for the painting of one wall of the Palazzo Vecchio, the cartoon for the other ITALIAN SCHOOL. 27 wall having been already prepared by Leonardo da Vinci, who had returned to Florence about the same time as himself. The subject of this work — Florentine soldiers surprised whilst bathing in the Arno — has been already mentioned, as well as the rivalry that arose out of it between Leonardo and himself. Before he could finish even the cartoon for this work, he was summoned to Rome in great haste by Julius II, who, hearing that Michael Angelo was the greatest sculptor in Italy, at once felt a desire to secure his services for the execution of a colossal monument which he desired to have erected for himself in St. Peter's. Michael Angelo's design for this monument greatly delighted the Pope, and he was ordered to proceed to Carrara forthwith to arrange about the trans- mission of the marble for its execution. Whilst he was gone, however, Bramante, who was then the architect of St. Peter's, and who appears to have always opposed Michael Angelo, did his utmost to dissuade the Pope from the idea of this mausoleum, suggesting that it was an evil omen to build himself a tomb in his lifetime, so that when Michael Angelo returned, he found the ardor of Julius for this undertaking considerably abated, and when the marble finally arrived in Rome, he could not obtain the money to pay the marble-cutters.* In terrible anger at this, and also at not being able to gain admittance to his Holiness, who had before been so gracious to him, he suddenly took flight from Rome, and rode without ceasing until he was upon Florentine territory. "If you require me in future," he said in a letter he left for the Pope, "you can seek me elsewhere than in Rome." He must have been a brave man who could thus defy the power of Julius II. Messengers were sent after him, who commanded, entreated, threatened, implored in vain. He would not return, maintaining that he was released from his engagement respecting the mausoleum, by Julius neglecting to fulfil his part of the contract, and that he had no wish to execute any other commissions in Rome. At last, Julius wrote to the Signiory of Florence, requesting that his refractory artist should be sent back to him, but promising that he should go "free and untouched," for "we entertain no anger against him, knowing the habit and humor of men of this sort." Julius, in fact, did not care to offend the man whom he recognized as the greatest genius in his capital. Still, however, Michael Angelo refused to trust these fair promises, and it was not until Soderini, who was then Gonfalonier, or chief magistrate of Florence, sent for him and told him plainly that he would not go to war with the Pope on his account, that he returned to his allegiance. After executing a large bronze statue of the Pope, at Bologna, where Julius was then residing, he obediently took up his residence in Rome, where, instead of being •Grimm. Life of Michael Angelo. 28 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. r tr . . . •' ' .Li allowed to finish the mausoleum as he desired, he found that Julius was now bent on employing him as a painter, and that the work allotted to him was no less than the w Q ft < "» R A R ^CALlFOj ITALIAN SCHOOL. 29 decoration with frescoes of the whole vaulted roof of the Sistine Chapel. The task presented many difficulties. He had never before worked in color, and it was difficult to get artists to assist him. But Julius overruled all objections, and in the end, the From the original, LA MADONNA OF THE HARPIES. by Andrea del Sarto. Sistine Chapel was covered with those marvellous frescoes which have been the wonder and admiration of all succeeding ages. In the triangular compartment of the vault are placed those figures of the Prophets and Sibyls with which his name is forever associated. These idealizations have all an MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. underlying reference to the subject of the world's redemption by Christ They signify die waiting and longing of the world for his advent, as do also the groups of the ancestors of Mary. Julius II, as usual, was extremely impatient to see the work he had commissioned finished; but as Michael Angelo worked almost without assistance (for he found the few painters who adhered to him unable to carry out his ideas), his frescoes in the Sistine naturally did not progress so fast as those of Raphael in the Vatican, who was helped by a number of first-rate scholars. One day, it is related, that Julius came to him and demanded to know when he would have finished. "When I can," replied Michael Angelo. "When thou canst!" thundered the fiery old Pope. "Hast thou a mind that I should have thee thrown from this scaffolding?" Michael Angelo dared not brave the lion's anger any further, and accordingly allowed the scaffolding, which he had constructed on a peculiar plan of his own, to be taken down, and on All Saints' Day, 1509, the whole of Rome crowded to the chapel, the Pope first, "who indeed had not patience to wait until the dust caused by removing the scaffolding had subsided." When Leo X succeeded to the papal throne, Raphael was the favorite artist. Michael Angelo himself desired nothing more than to be permitted to work on at the mausoleum of Julius II, for which he had already executed his great figure of Moses, and he even went on with this mausoleum on his own account, without receiving payment; but hindrances were constantly thrown in his way, and at last he was sent to Florence to superintend the building of the facade of San Lorenzo, and to execute the sculptures for it This was a most important commission; but he contrived to quarrel with the Pope, and also with the people of Carrara about the marble, and In the end nothing was accomplished. Indeed, the ten years of Leo's pontificate seem to have been well- nigh lost years in Michael Angelo's life. He dwelt alone, a gloomy, self-centred man, with thoughts too great sometimes for utterance; but Condivi and Vasari, and others who knew him best, testify to the real goodness of heart of the bitter-tongued old man, and many kind deeds are recorded of him. His style of living — very different from that of Leonardo and Raphael — was almost ascetic in its abstinence. "Rich as I am," he once said to Condivi,* "I have always lived as a poor man," Yet he was never a miser, but contributed freely to the support of his relations, many of whom seem to have needed his help. "The I^ast Judgment," the work which Michael Angelo now undertook, to complete the decoration of the Sistine Chapel, has suffered more fatally from time, neglect and • Ascanio Condiri m ■ pupil of Michael Angelo. and lived in his house. He published a biography of him about the same time as Vasari. « ITALIAN SCHOOL. 31 injury than any other of his works. The paintings on the roof, it is true, are faded by time, and blackened by dirt and clouds of incense-smoke. Large cracks also run across them, and the rain has oozed through in many places ; but in their inaccessible position they have at least been safe from the ravaging hand of man. Not so "The Last Judgment," which has been subjected to every species of ill-treatment, but has received its most fatal injury from the purism of a later pope, who, offended with the nakedness of Michael Angelo's figures, had most of them painted over with gaudy drapery. This was Michael Angelo's last work in painting. In 1547 he was appointed by Paul III chief architect of St. Peter's, an office which he undertook at the age of seventy- two "for nothing but the honor of God." From his plan was raised the great dome of St. Peter's, and the whole of the remainder of his life was occupied with this building. He died at Rome, on the 18th of February, 1564. His body was carried to Flor- ence, by his own desire, to be buried, although he had been a voluntary exile for thirty years from his native city. Sebasttano Luciani del Piombo (born 1485, died 1547) was undoubtedly the greatest of Michael Angelo's assistants. He was a Venetian by birth, and learned the secret of Venetian color in the schools of Bellini and Giorgione. Another assistant, Daniele Ricciarelli, or da Volterra, is somewhat original, but his originality is unpleasant. He exaggerates Michael Angelo's peculiarities — treads on the dangerous heights of sublimity, and, not possessing his master's calm power, is apt to slip down to the ridiculous. His principal work is "The Descent from the Cross," in the Church of the Trinita de Monti at Rome. The other followers of Michael Angelo fell more and more into painful mannerism, and exaggerated anatomical displays. They produced immense paintings with nude figures in every variety of attitude; but instead of the grand ideal of Michael Angelo, which was based on a profound knowledge of the real, we have in them feeble imita- tions, which strive to reach the ideal by despising the real. Giorgio Vasari (born 151 2, died 1574) was another instance of a tasteless painter, who strove hard to attain his master's "grand style," but failed most deplorably. Per- haps, however, had he been a greater painter he might not have left us his delightful biographies, which amply atone for all his deficiencies. There yet remains to notice one other artist, a Florentine, who was not a scholar of Leonardo, Raphael or Michael Angelo, but who maintained, like Fra Bartolommeo, an independent position, while all lesser men were irresistibly attracted into the schools of one or other of these three great masters. This artist was Andrea del Sarto, or more correctly, Andrea Vannuchi (1487-1531). He was the son, as his cognomen implies, of a tailor, and received his earliest education in art from the eccentric old Piero di 3* MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Cosimo. It is difficult to understand why Andrea del Sarto does not rank with the very greatest masters of his time. In many respects he was their equal, and yet in the bril- liant constellation of painters that rose and set in Italy in the sixteenth century, he can only be reckoned as a star of the second magnitude. Such a classification affords a ROME. strong proof of the surpassing greatness of those few masters whose names shine so brightly in art history, that besides them, even that of Andrea del Sarto, "the Fauldess Painter," grows pale. His works have many of the elements that usually constitute greatness. His drawing is masterly, his modeling perfect, his style dignified, and, above all, his coloring lovely and harmonious. In this latter quality, indeed, he exceeds nearly every master of the Florentine school, and approaches closely to the excellence of Cor- reggio and the Venetians. DOMEfUCHIHO, P1NX1 L. STOCKS, SCULP ST (B E C I L K A (■ i-, bb i t- * n ' ,B H A ft UNIVERSITY ITALIAN SCHOOL. 33 Most people know something of the sad history of Andrea's life — how he was married to a beautiful but faithless woman, who exercised a sort of fatal fascination over him; how he was invited to France by Francis I, where he executed a number of works From the original. THE MADONNA OF THE CHAIR. by Raphael. for the king and his court, especially the splendid picture of Charity, in the Louvre; but how, after having pledged himself to execute many commissions, he returned to Florence at the solicitations of his wife, and not only thought no more of his promises to Francis and his nobles, but even used the money with which the French king had 34 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. entrusted him to purchase works of art in Italy, for his own purposes. This breach of trust does not seem to have met with any direct punishment, except the contempt and avoidance of his fellow artists and citizens. But Andrea, although too weak to resist the devil, was, like many other weak men, miserable in his service, and "from an eminent position," says Vasari, "he sank to the very lowest, merely working for a live- lihood, and passing his time as best he could."* Besides his easel-pictures — Madonnas, Holy Families and similar subjects for altar- pieces — Andrea executed several important series of frescoes. Those in the SS. Annun- ziata at Florence are the most celebrated. He seems to have painted here at three distinct periods — first, when he painted a series of five frescoes, setting forth the history of Filippo Benizzi; next when he executed "The Adoration of the Kings and the Birth of the Virgin," a composition of great dignity, and beautiful in color; and lastly, when he executed his famous Madonna del Saccof in the lunette above the entrance to the court of the convent. A Last Supper, painted in the refectory of the convent of S. Salvi, is also spoken of as being a very grandly composed work. It is by his oil-paintings, however, that Andrea is best known. In all his repre- sentations of the Virgin we have the same type of beauty; indeed, it is said that he was so completely absorbed by his wife, the lovely Lucretia, that unconsciously, as well as consciously, he reproduced her features in every woman he painted, whether Virgin, saint or goddess. Raphael Santi was born on the 28th of March, 1483, in the elegant city of Urbino, where the Santi family had for some time been settled. His father, Giovanni Santi, was an Umbrian painter of some little reputation, and likewise a man of cultivated taste. Of the young Raphael's early productions nothing is known for certain, although much is imagined by his biographers. There seems no reason for doubting, however, that his father being an artist, he learned to paint as soon as he learned anything. At nine years of age he accompanied his father to Cagli, and it is not improbable that he assisted him in the execution of a fresco that still exists in the church of S. Domenico. A beautiful boy angel in this fresco is said by tradition to be the portrait of the chiKl Raphael; and Passavant conjectures, likewise, that a Madonna and Child in Santi's house, at Urbino, are portraits of Raphael and his mother, Magia Ciarla, who died when he was but a child. In 1494 his father died also, and Raphael, whose inclination towards art was now decided, was placed by his uncles, when he was twelve years of age, in the school of Perugino, the most celebrated painter in Umbria. Here the quick * l!i\ supposed state of mind at this time i» id forth in Robert Browning's dramatic poem, "Andre* del Sarto." In "Men and Women ' t So called because Joseph is represented leaning on a sack. ITALIAN SCHOOL. 35 genius of the boy soon caught the style of the master, and before long even excelled him in that dreamy poetic sentiment which is the chief charm of Perugino's art. Raphael's early works, indeed, resemble so closely those of Perugino that it is difficult to distinguish them, especially as we know that the master was wont to employ the pupil on works for which he had received the commission. Raphael had at all times a curious talent for imitation — curious, that is, considering the undoubted originality of his mind. He could never come within the sphere of any great artist or great work of art without the influence being at once perceptible in his works. It was not perhaps so much that he imitated, as that he assimilated the style of any artist whom he admired, and carried it to perfection ; and thus it was with Perugino — the most perfect expression of his art is by Raphael. It is said that the first independent commission Raphael received was for one of the great religious banners to be carried in procession. This banner is still preserved at Citta da Castello, as well as some others of his early paintings in Perugia; but his most celebrated work of this period, "The Sposalizio, or Marriage of the Virgin," so well known by means of Longhi's fine engraving, is now at Milan. It is one of the noblest pictures of the Umbrian school. In the autumn of 1 504, when he was twenty-one years of age, Raphael, a youth already "known to fame," quitted the school of Perugino, whose teachings he had exhausted, and repaired to Florence, attracted there, no doubt, by the report of the mighty works that Leonardo and Michael Angelo were executing in that city. "When," says Vasari, "he first saw Leonardo's works, he stood before them perfectly amazed and astonished. They pleased him at once better than all he had seen before, and he felt therefore impelled to a deeper study of them." The effects of this study were soon visible. At Perugia, Raphael executed his first fresco, a painting of the Holy Trinity, in the church of San Severo. This work, it is said, is strongly reminiscent of Fra Bar- tolommeo's fresco in Santa Maria Novella; but Raphael afterwards carried out the same composition in the fulness of his power in his celebrated "Disputa del Sacramenta," and thus made it his own for ever. But it is evident that Raphael, having once become acquainted with the achieve- ments of Florence, was anxious to return to that stirring and art-loving capital, and accordingly, neglecting a commission he had received from the nuns of Monte Luce, who desired an altar-piece by "the best painter," we find him at the close of 1506 again in Florence, after having made, probably, a short visit to Bologna. His stay in Flor- ence, however, was not destined to be long, although he seems to have gone there with the intention of settling, and the development of his art under Florentine influences I» H A „ UNIVERSITY MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. was steadily progressing. Some of his most lovely and famous Madonnas were executed at this period, and evince the fullest comprehension of the aims of the Florentine school. "The Madonna del Cardellino" (with the goldfinch), in the Uffizi at Florence; "The Madonna with the Palm-tree," in the Bridgewater gallery; "The Madonna in die /■'rem Iht anginal. TEMPTATION. fy Rafkatl. Meadow," at Vienna; the Madonna of the Tempi family, at Munich; "The Holy Family" of the House of Canigiani, also at Munich; "The Madonna with the Pink," and the famous "Belle Jardiniere," of the Louvre, as well as several others less known, are all considered to have been painted at Florence before he had attained the age of five- LE DOM . AUG. BLANCHAKD SCULPT SAISOI, ITALIAN SCHOOL. 37 and-twenty. But the work above all others that most strikingly reveals his study and comprehension of the progressive Florentine masters is "The Entombment," of the Palazzo Borghese at Rome. It was not Florence, however, that was destined to be the theatre of Raphael's greatest triumphs. About the middle of 1508, after he had spent about a year and a half at Florence, during which time he had achieved a surprising amount of work, he From the original. THE DELIVERANCE OF ST. PETER. apnae was called to Rome by that extraordinary old pope, Julius II, who, although he had Bramante and Michael Angelo already in his service, could not rest content without securing also the rising genius of Raphael to decorate his magnificent palace of the Vatican, which Bramante had now reconstructed with unsurpassed skill, and in an incred- ibly short space of time. Buildings and other works of art arose, indeed, as if by magic in the Rome of Julius II, for such was this pope's impatience to see the great works that he had planned completed before his death, that he left those he employed no peace until they executed his commissions. Three chambers in a large saloon, now 38 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. known by the name of the Stanze of Raphael, were covered by him, ceilings and walls, with paintings. In the first chamber — Camera della Segnatura — is symbolized the power of Intellect. Theology, Poetry, Philosophy, and Jurisprudence, the highest pursuits of the cultivated mind, are represented by noble allegorical figures on the ceiling. Beneath Theology, on the walls of the chamber, is the great expression of the power of the Church of Rome, known as "La Disputa." The upper part of this fresco represents the Church Triumphant, with Christ in glory. Rays of light, glorifying angelic forms, beam down on the Son, the Virgin and St John. The Dove of the Spirit flies beneath, shedding rays downwards on the altar in the lower portion. Above, in the midst of the glory, is the grand figure of the Father, represented according to the tradition of earlier painters. The lower half of this subject shows the fathers, bishops and doctors of the Church grouped on either side of an altar bearing the Host, or mystical embodiment of Christ on earth. The liveliest action is displayed by these figures, who seem to be arguing (hence the name, "La Disputa") about some of the doctrines of the Church. Great must have been the satisfaction of Julius II when he looked round upon the works that his commands had incited the two greatest artists of his age to produce. But whilst planning still greater achievements, he died in 15 13, at a great age, his energy and intellect undiminished to the last. We seem to know the man from Raphael's magnificent portrait. His shrewd understanding looks forth from the small piercing eyes, and his inflexible will is set in the firmly compressed mouth. A grand old man, who subjugates us even now, as we look at him with his fine snow-white beard falling on to his velvet cape, and with his great ruby ring flashing from his finger as he grasps the arm of his chair. At the time of the painting of this portrait, Raphael's reputation was already greater than that of any other artist, not even excepting Michael Angelo, who seems to have felt some bitterness at the astounding success of his youthful rival. Fortunately the death of Julius II did not at all interfere with the work which was going on in the Vatican; for Leo X, who succeeded him, encouraged art and learning with still greater intelligence than Julius, and immediately extended his patronage to Raphael. No break, therefore, occurred in the plan that the old pope had proposed; only in honor of the new pope, Raphael's two next frescoes, "The Delivery of St Peter from Prison," and "The Vision of Attila," had direct reference to the personal history of Leo — "The Deliverance of St Peter" referring to the Cardinal de Medici's escape from prison after the battle of Ravenna, and the Attila being suggested by the retreat of the French from Italy in the same year. Among Raphael's other famous works of the Roman period are the Cartoons so well known to all students. Leo X, wishing still further to decorate the Sistine chapel, ITALIAN SCHOOL. 39 where Michael Angelo had already produced his mighty prophets and sibyls, as well as the history of creation, on the ceiling, desired that the walls should be hung with tapestry woven in the famed looms of Arras, in Flanders. Raphael was accordingly called on to prepare the designs or cartoons for the weavers. There were originally ten of these cartoons, and an eleventh intended for an altar-piece, representing the Coronation of the Virgin, but only seven now remain, and, indeed, it is wonderful that any should remain, considering the various vicissitudes and shameful ill-treatment to which they had been subjected. The original tapestries, ten in number, now hang in the Vatican, but they are greatly injured and badly restored, and so faded that the effect of the coloring is quite lost. This makes the cartoons all the more valuable, for in them Raphael's genius still stands forth in all its surprising power. "The Miraculous Draught of Fishes," indeed, is admitted by almost all authorities to bear the direct evidence of Raphael's own hand having been at work upon it ; and many of the grand figures and expressive countenances in the other cartoons, such as "The Lame Man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple," and the Christ, St. Peter and St. John in the charge to Peter, were doubtless painted by him; though for the most part we must suppose that the execu- tion of these large cartoons from the small drawings that Raphael in the first instance made for them was left to his pupils. Many of his most beautiful Madonna pictures belong to the later Roman period — easel pictures and altar-pieces executed in the intervals of his vast monumental works. " The Holy Family," known by the name of " The Pearl," the treasure of the Madrid gallery; the magnificent Madonna di Fuligno, painted in 1511, now in the Vatican; the ever-lovely St. Cecilia, of which Francia took charge ; the well-known Madonna della Sedia, painted in 1 5 1 6, now in the Pitti Palace at Florence ; the Madonna del Pesce at Madrid ; the Holy Family of the Louvre ; the Madonna of the Aldobrandini family, now called the Garvagh Raphael, in the English National Gallery; and numerous other Madonnas, many of which were doubtless executed by his pupils, are all referred to the last few years of his life, when the sentiment he had gained from Umbria was expressed with the intellectual knowledge of Florence and the calm power of Rome. Last and greatest of all his Madonnas is the world-famed Madonna di San Sisto, the glory of the Dresden Gallery. Constantly as we see reproductions of this marvelous work, it ever gleams upon us like some vision of heavenly beauty. Surrounded by a glory of exquisite angel-heads, the Virgin stands in simple majesty on the clouds, with the Child enthroned upon her arm. She looks forth into infinity with no shade of sorrow on her countenance such as Raphael has sometimes cast into his representations of her as the earthly mother, but as if now beholding the meaning of those things she had " pondered in her heart" on earth. The Child also has a supernatural beauty that we can only 40 AfASTERP/ECES OF EUROPEAN ART. express by the word divine. "It is," writes Liibke, "as if Raphael had wished to com- bine in this incomparable creation his deepest thoughts, his most sublime ideas and his most perfect beauty, that it might be and might remain the highest production of all From Ik* original. VENUS AND VULCAN. tr Gimlio Romano. religious art" The San Sisto Madonna was painted about 1518, when the painter's brilliant but short summer-life was drawing towards its close. To the same time belong two other grand altar-pieces, in which his dramatic powers are more fully displayed — namely, " Lo Spasimo di Sicilia," or " Christ bearing the Cross," now at Madrid ; and "The Transfiguration," painted in rivalry with Sebastian del Piombo. which was still ITALIAN SCHOOL. 4i unfinished at the time of his death, and was placed as a fitting memorial at the head of his bier, whilst his body lay in state in the church of Santa Maria della Rotondo. He died on his birthday, the 6th of April, 1520, after a short illness caused by cold followed by fever. He was never married, but was betrothed for some time to a niece of the Cardinal Bibiena. She however died before him. It seems certain that she was not the beloved one of the sonnets, for in a letter to his uncle he speaks of the Bibiena al- liance as if it were a mere matter of business. The sorrow caused by Raphael's death was felt by all classes of so- ciety in Rome. " No eye," says Vasari, "was tearless at his burial," and Count Castiglione wrote to his mother, some months afterwards, "I am well, but I cannot fancy myself in Rome now that my poor dear Raphael is no longer here." His delicate beauty, as we see it in the por- trait supposed to be his own, must have gone far PERSEUS. to win men's hearts; but he preserved their love by the goodness of his nature and the fasci- nating charm of his so- ciety. Giulio Romano was an artist of great talent and of considerable fer- tility of invention. Dur- ing Raphael's lifetime he copied his style so closely that it requires a good judge to tell the work of the pupil from that of the master, and in the frescoes of the Sala di Constantino, also, which he executed after Ra- phael's death from his drawings, the same close resemblance to Raphael's style is apparent. But very soon after this he broke loose from the restraint that Raphael's pure style had imposed upon him, and indulged in the riotous imagina- tions of his own mind. His taste became, indeed, utterly depraved, and his classicism followed not the severe art of ancient Greece, but the debased art of the Roman period, the art of Pompeii and Herculaneum. In 1524 he was summoned to Mantua by the Marquis Federigo Gonzaga, in whose MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. service he passed the rest of his life, directing works in architecture as well as painting. In the frescoes of the Palazzo del Te that he built and decorated for his patron, his unbridled style is more fully displayed than in any other of his works. These frescoes are often, it may be admitted, powerful in conception and rich in invention; but there is a coarseness of mind apparent in them that it is peculiarly unpleasant to find in the pupil of the refined Raphael. Eastlake speaks of many of these frescoes as being "decidedly bad" and "uselessly indecorous," and in others, such as the well-known "Overthrow of the Giants," the style of Michael Angelo is carried to an immoderate excess. His simpler decorative works are much more pleasing. They have generally a charming antique grace and beauty. But, in spite of this antique grace, Giulio Romano did more to hasten the fall of art, which proceeded with terrible swiftness after the death of Raphael, than any other artist, for he had an immense number of scholars and assistants, all of whom copied the vicious qualities of his art, rather than its excel- lences, and, without his faculty of invention, attempted similar flights of pagan fancy with miserable results. Primaticcio has the glory of having imported Giulio's style into France, where he decorated the palace of Fontainbleau for Francis I. Benvenuto Cellini, a worker in metal, was born in Florence when Raphael was still a youth in the studio of Perugino. He early exhibited a taste for sculpture, and the works in gold and silver in the antique style were greatly admired. The chief events of his life are related in his own biography, in which he describes the progress of his career as a silversmith and a sculptor from his apprenticeship with the goldsmith Marcone, in Florence, to his great successes in Rome, Florence and Paris. He pro- duced a medal with a portrait of Clement VII, "so life-like that it seemed to breathe,'' and at Florence he executed a gold medal with the device of Hercules tearing open the jaws of the Nemean lion. Hra masterpiece in sculpture is the bronze statue of "Perseus, with the head of Medusa," now in the Loggia de Lauzi at Florence. While at Paris, whither he had gone at the invitation of Francis I, he commenced some fine works ; but he got into trouble with the queen's favorite, Madame d'Etampes, and he obtained permission to return to Italy. Cellini wrote a treatise on the various branches of his art. It is highly praised by Vasari, and bears incontestable evidence of his original and comprehensive genius. He died at Florence in 1570, at the age of threescore and ten, and was buried with great pomp in the Nunziata. The blooming time of Italian art in Florence and Rome, even before the death of Michael Angelo, who survived, so to speak, his age, drew to its close. Before the death of Raphael, indeed, symptoms of decay had begun to show themselves, and these increased -so rapidly that by the end of the century the art of Leonardo, Raphael and CARLO DOLCI.PINXT F BAL . SCULP' M A ITALIAN SCHOOL. 43 Michael Angelo lay dead in the dust. These artists had no successors. It seemed as though they had reached the perfection of art, and from them only decline was possible. We must now turn to the north of Italy, and watch the flower of Italian art unfold- ing, blooming and declining in a similar manner there. Venetian painting was considerably later than Florentine in its development. The influence of Giotto was, indeed, less felt in Venice than almost any other city of Italy, and the Byzantine style, or "Greek manner," as Vasari calls it, continued in favor until far into the fifteenth century — such artists as Jacobello del Fiore, Negroponte, Donato, and Giambono, although called sometimes early Venetians, being, strictly speaking, only Venetio-Byzantine painters. It was not, in fact, until Antonello da Messina (141 4 to about 1478) introduced into Italy the Flemish method of oil-painting, that he had learned in the school of the Van Eycks, that the true color school of Venice can be said to have been really founded. The brilliancy and richness of oil-painting seem from the first to have been pecu- liarly attractive to the Venetian taste, and no sooner was the secret of Van Eyck's invention known in Italy than his method was almost universally adopted. Antonello has the reputation of having first taught the Venetians the Flemish method, which evidently, by the enthusiasm which it excited, was an immense improvement on all that had preceded it. Vasari gives a most graphic and interesting account of Antonello's proceedings, only, unfortunately, as is usual with the old chronicler, he has blundered fearfully in his facts, from his easy habit of setting down every anecdote that was related to him, without taking the trouble to verify it. Antonello, he says, "a man of lively genius, of much sagacity, and of considerable experience in his calling," having heard of a picture that Alfonso, king of Naples * had received from Flanders painted in oils by Jan Van Eyck, obtained leave to see it, and was so forcibly impressed by the vivacity, beauty and harmony of its coloring, that, laying aside all other business, he at once repaired to Flanders, where he sought the acquaintance of Jan Van Eyck, and learned from him, apparently without any jealous difficulty being thrown in his way, the whole secret of his process. Returning first to Messina, but soon after settling in Venice, it soon became known that he had brought the Flemish secret back with him, and his society was greatly courted, not only by artists, but by "the magnificent nobles of Venice, by whom he was much beloved and amicably treated." • Alfonso did not begin to reign until 1442, two years after Jan Van Eyck's death. It could not therefore, have been he. It was probably his predecessor, the unfortunate Ren£ of Anjou, himself a painter as well as a poet, to whom this picture belonged. 44 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Beyond all other early Venetians, however, the Bellini are the representatives of Venetian art at this time, and must be reckoned as the founders of its true greatness. Jacopo Bellini (born about 1400, died 1470), the father of the more renowned Gentile and Giovanni, was a pupil of Gentile da Fabriano, a master of the early part of the fifteenth century, who resided for some time at Venice, and appears to have exercised a considerable influence over early Venetian art. Jacopo Bellini is perhaps more important as the father and teacher of Gentile and Gi- ovanni, than as an independent master, but he is spoken of by Vasari as hav- ing been held in high repute in his day. Unfor- tunately.scarce- ly one authen- tic painting by him is preserv- ed. Gentile Bel- LINl(l42I-I507) probably ex- celled his father as much as he in turn was ex- Btnvtnuto Cellini. younger broth- er, . Giovanni. This we are told was what the good father de- sired, who "en- couraged his sons, constant- ly telling them that he desired to see them do as did the Flor- entines, who were perpetu- ally striving among them- selves to carry off the palm of distinction by outstripping each other, that so he would have Giovanni surpass himself, celled by his whilst Gentile should vanquish them both." It was, however, Giovanni who "vanquished them both," but Gentile also accom- plished excellent work in his day. Both brothers were highly esteemed in Venice, and in 1474 Gentile was honored by the government with a commission to decorate the Great Hall of Council of the Ducal Palace with frescoes, representing events of Venetian history. Gentile da Fabriano had before this executed some frescoes in this Hall; but it appears that they had already fallen into decay, when his godchild, Gentile ITALIAN SCHOOL. 45 Bellini, was appointed to " renew and restore them." The two brothers worked together, and accomplished some great works, all of which, however, perished by fire in 1577. The most important works that now remain by Gentile are the pictures in the academy at Venice, representing "The Miracles of the Cross." In one, a fragment of the true Cross, borne in solemn procession, effects a miraculous cure, and in the other the same fragment, having fallen into the canal, can only be recovered by the hands of the pious brother Andrea Vendramin. The name of Giovanni Bel- lini (1426-1516) stands at the head of that great cluster of painters who in the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- turies illumined the dark walls of the churches and palaces of Venice with a glorious reve- lation of color to which no pre- vious masters had ever at- tained. Yet, in the first in- Titian. stance, Giovan- ni as well as Gentile was much influenced by Mantegna, whose chief characteristic was, as we have seen, form and not color. It was not, indeed, until after he had adopted the new method of oil-painting that the original qualities of his genius became apparent. His greatest works all belong to the later period of his life, for, unlike most painters his art knew no stand-point, but went on progressing even in his great old age, when, in fact, he still continued learning from the pupils he had formed. No decrease of power is shown even in his latest works, many of which were painted after he had attained the age of eighty, and in warmth and splendor of color many of them rival even Titian. Venice, whatever other crimes she may have been guilty of, cannot be accused of having neglected her painters. Giovanni Bellini, especially, was revered by all, and his MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. society courted by the highest in the state, as well as by most of the painters, men of letters and collectors of the time. Ariosto has celebrated him in his verse, and the celebrated Pietro Bembo wrote rapturous sonnets upon his portrait of his mistress. Albrecht Diirer also, who visited Venice in 1507, speaks of him in one of his letters as "very old, but the best painter of them all." Giorgio Bakbarelli, called Giorgione, because of the greatness of his stature (born 1477, died 151 1), is reckoned by Ruskin as one of the "seven supreme colorists of the world,"* and truly, from what tradition tells us of his pictures, they must in their first beauty have been miracles of glowing loveliness. Unhappily, his greatest works were executed in fresco on the walls of the palaces at Venice, and even in Vasari's time were already falling into decay. Now, effaced by time and the salt damps of the lagoon, scarcely a trace of them exists. Born at Castelfranco, in the province of Treviso, Giorgione came to Venice at an eariy age, and entered the school of the Bellini, where he and Titian, who was his fellow- student, soon asserted their superiority, and became, so to speak, the masters of the master, for undoubtedly Bellini's genius in his later years was stimulated to ever nobler exertions by the works of his great pupils. Their influence over each other is still more apparent, although their minds were of a different stamp, and their view of human life dissimilar. Giorgione, who witnessed in early life the noble resistance that his country, and especially his own province, Treviso, made to the invader, naturally con- ceived an admiration for the military rather than the ascetic type of character, and accordingly we find the "Heroic Ideal," as it has been called, prevailing in his works. It is not so much beautiful women as powerful women that he delights to paint, and his heroes are generally of the martial type. Titian, it is true, has likewise exalted the heroic type in many of his works, but his heroes are simply historic, whereas Giorgione's, even when they are portraits, are distinctly ideal. One of his earlier works was a Madonna altar-piece, for the church of his native town, Castelfranco, a painting that has happily escaped the fate of so many of his works. The Madonna is here represented between St Liberale and St. Francis, and the sketch for the noble young figure of St Liberale is now in the National Gallery, London. Giorgione's skill in fresco-painting was first put forth, it is said, on the front of his own house, which he adorned with beautiful frescoes. After this, in 1504, he was com- missioned, conjointly with Titian, to paint the exterior of the Fondaco de Tedcschi, or Hall of Exchange of the German merchants in Venice. Ridolfi tells us that he died of a broken heart, in consequence of the unfaithfulness of his mistress, who deserted him for his friend and pupil, Morto da Feltri. Vasari also • The other lii being Titian, Veronese, Tintoret, Correggio. Reynolds, and Turner. GUIDO, PIHX T C.SHENTON. FINISHED BY H BOURNE. THE DEATH OF CLEOPATRA. \.»B' ITALIAN SCHOOL. 59 as being, "for color, character and expression, the perfection not only of Correggio, but of painting." "The Reading Magdalen" of the Dresden Gallery, who lies on the soft grass in a wood, deeply absorbed in a book, is well known by means of repetitions and engravings ; but were it not for the vase of ointment by her side, she might, as Rio well remarks, be taken for "some errant muse, if only a little more chastely dressed," but never for the repentant sinner whose love was awakened by her forgiveness. More suitable, perhaps, to Correggio's "picturesque sensuality," are his mythological nudities, in which he has attained to a charming expression of love and physical beauty. "Leda with the Swan," in a wooded landscape with her bathing companions, in the Berlin Gallery; the "Jupiter and Antiope" of the Louvre; the "Ganymede" at Vienna ; the " Danae" in the Borghese Palace at Rome ; and the " Education of Cupid" in the National Gallery, London, are among the most famous of these mythological subjects. He has reached in them, perhaps, the utmost development of sensuous life that could be gained without falling into base sensuality. The passionate desire and voluptuous softness of several of them approach, it must be owned, dangerously near to the licen- tiousness of the later Greeks, but Correggio's own mind appears to have been so unconscious of evil that even in these there is an innocent naivete that redeems them from coarseness. The drawing of Michael Angelo, with the coloring of Titian, was the aspiring motto of Jacopo Robusti, known as II Tintoretto, from the circumstance of his father having been a dyer by trade (born 15 12, died 1594). We find that the Venetians were accus- tomed to say that "he had three pencils — one of gold, one of silver, and a third of iron." From his rapid mode of painting he acquired the name of II Furioso. Covering walls and ceilings with the boldest designs in less time than the mere decorator would have spent over the work, it is not surprising that the execution of some of these won- derful paintings was as rough and mechanical as that of the decorator, whose mode of proceeding he imitated. Much of his painting, indeed, could have been nothing more than the bold decoration of a skilful journeyman. On the other hand, there are several works by him in which the highest artistic excellence, not only of conception and com- position, but likewise of execution, is reached. The celebrated "Miracle of St. Mark," now in the Academy at Venice, wherein the saint, a powerful-bodied man, descends head downwards from heaven to rescue a Christian slave from his executioners, is a a painting that is astounding, alike by its boldness of design, its marvelous effects of light and shade, and its powerful coloring. "Cest un ceuvre de coloriste," says Charles Blanc, "qu'aucune autre meme a Venise ne ferait palir." The same, possibly, might once have been said of his "Paradise," a gigantic oil-painting seventy-four feet long by 6o MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. thirty feet high, in the Ducal Palace, which was executed by Tintoretto when he was seventy-six years of age (assisted only by his son Domenico) in the incredibly short space of three or four years. Sacred subjects were treated by Tintoretto with a coarse realism entirely opposed to the feeling and dignity of religious art He even degraded the mystery of "The Last Supper" into a scene of vulgar carousal, and travestied "The Last Judgment" until, as Vasari says, notwithstanding the power displayed in it, "it had all the appear- ance of having been painted as a jest." Mythological subjects were more suited to his Tintoretto and Daughter. bold style, and his rendering of these was often gracefully antique. Like Titian, he lived to a great age, and painted with vigor to the last His fine portraits are now about the best specimens of his art that remain ; for unfortunately but few of his great works have escaped destruction. The paintings assigned to him in galleries are very seldom genuine. There is a fine etching by him (the only one he is known to have executed) of "The Doge Paschalis Ciconia." Besides his son Domenico, Tintoretto had a daughter, a portrait painter, known as Tintoretta. He had very few followers; his son, a German named Jacob Rotten- h.wimer, and a painter called L'Alicuse, were indeed about the only masters who attempted to imitate his outrageous style. ITALIAN SCHOOL. 61 With Veronese, Tintoretto and Correggio, the glory of the great color-school of Venice departed ; but before tracing its fall, there remains to be noticed one other master, who, like Titian and Veronese, went to nature for instruction, but who, unlike these masters — who only delighted in her glory of purple, crimson and gold — loved her in her most homely garb. Instead of kings and queens, splendid architecture and rich banquets, Jacopo da Ponte, called Bassano, from his native town (i 510-1592), painted From the original, by Tintoretto. THE MARRIAGE IN CANA. peasants, beggars, cottages, cattle, poultry, and even the pots and pans that were after- wards such favorite subjects of the Dutch still-life painters. In fact, he drew the dignified art of Venice down to mere genre-painting, and without any attempt at ideality — simply imitated the ordinary types he saw around him. Thus, whether he represented a saint or a peasant girl, it was all the same; one model did for both, or for the Queen of Sheba, if the occasion required it. But yet his execution is so clever, and his coloring 62 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. so radiant, that his simple scenes of country life are not unworthy to be placed beside Veronese's elaborate representations of pompous city life. In truth, there is not much difference between the aims of these two masters, different at first sight as their styles appear. Veronese, it is true, surrounded his sacred characters with all the attributes of wealth and dignity, and Bassano placed them not unfrequently amidst the accompani- ments of poverty, but they each brought them down to earth, and made them of the earth, earthy; and we cannot suppose that it would matter much to an ecstatic saint whether he were placed in a palace or a cottage. Bassano had four sons, all of whom he brought up as painters, and who, after his death, inundated the markets with pictures of familiar life, all cast, as it were, in the same mould. Even in Bassano's lifetime, in fact, the manufacture of such works was begun, and he, assisted by his sons, turned them out by wholesale. The portraits of this manufactory are, however, almost always excellent, and the work of the Bassani, as they were collectively called, is generally remarkable for dexterity of hand, skilful, if not beautiful coloring, and an able imitation of the humbler beauties of nature. To this, Venetian art had fallen even before the beginning of the seventeenth century, and during that century it sank to still lower and lower degradation. The "grand style," as the dignified expression of the great masters was called, still, it is true, remained in vogue, genre-painting being but little practised in Italy, except by the Bassani ; but the homely qualities of their art are far preferable to the strained and meretricious productions of the host of feeble mannerists and imitators who, in Venice, as in Florence and Rome, succeeded to the great masters of the sixteenth century. The schools of art known as the Eclectic, which flourished in Italy in the seven- teenth century, undertook the impossible task of uniting and harmonizing opposing principles. Seeing that it was hopeless to attempt to surpass the individual greatness of Michael Angelo, Raphael, Titian, and the other chief masters of the blooming-time, these schools sought to produce a higher perfection, by selecting the peculiar excel- lences of each great master, and forming them into one harmonious whole. But in this great aim they succeeded no better than the other eclectic schools that have arisen at various periods of man's history, and have, in like manner, attempted to bind together the scattered truths of different systems of philosophy. In all these endeavors, the force which alone produces a true synthesis seems to have been wanting, and the elements having no real affinity, have remained simply mixed without being united. This was especially the case with the eclectic schools of painting we are now about to consider. The principal of these was that founded by Lodovico Carracci (born 1555, died 161 9), at Bologna. Lodovico, though not as great a painter as the more famous Annibale, ' ■ ■ I ITALIAN SCHOOL. 63 was a man of cultivated mind, who exercised a vast and, to a certain extent, beneficial influence over the art of his time, for whether we consider his principles right or wrong, he must at least be credited with having given Italian art a fresh and powerful impulse at the time when it was in danger of becoming utterly stagnant. With the aid of his nephews, Agostino and Annibale Carracci, whom he educated as artists, he opened, in 1589, an academy at Bologna, which boldly professed to teach painting on a scientific system, and in spite of the opposition this excited, his school soon became the most important of the time in Italy, artists from all parts of Italy being attracted to it by the fame of Lodovico's teaching and the success of his pupils. The eclectic principles of this school are set forth in the well-known sonnet by Agos- tino Carracci, wherein the artist, who desires to be a good painter, is recommended to acquire "the design of Rome, Venetian shade and action, and the dignified coloring of Lombardy [that is, probably of Leonardo and his school], the terrible manner of Michael Angelo, Titian's truth to nature, the sovereign purity of Correggio's style, and the true symmetry of a Raphael, the decorum and the fundamental knowledge of Tibaldi, and the invention of the learned Primaticcio, and a little of Parmigiano's grace [it being clearly implied that it was possible to have too much of this quality], but without so much study and so much toil, let him apply himself to imitate the works that our Nic- colino has left us." "Our Niccolino," the imitation of whose works is thus pointed out as a royal road to excellence, was a painter of Modena, called Niccolo Abati, or Dell' Abbate. He belonged to the Roman school, and is said to have acquired Raphael's manner more nearly than any of his other followers. He executed several works at Bologna, which brought him great reputation in that city, especially a fine Nativity in the portico of the Leoni Palace, which was no doubt the reason of his appropriation by the Carracci ; but he went to France, in 1552, to assist Primaticcio, who way then engaged on the decoration of the palace of Fontainbleau, and remained there until his death in 1571. Pellegrino Tibaldi was styled by the Carracci "the reformed Michael Angelo" — Michelagnolo Riformato ; but what they meant by such a title it is difficult to under- stand. It appears to us now as if it must really have been bestowed in jest, but Tibaldi's conventional style was greatly admired in his day, and he achieved both in Italy and in Spain, where he was invited in 1586, by Philip II, a vast reputation both as an architect and a painter. The genius of the Carracci, especially that of Annibale, was too strong to be con- fined by rules, and was perpetually asserting its independence. Even Lodovico, who occupies more the position of a teacher than a painter, has executed works, remarkable MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. not only, as one might imagine, for their academic conventionality of style, but for much Dm a J Palatt. fruit*. individual beauty and sentiment; and Agostino also, especially in his engravings (he i*n graved more than he painted), evinces considerable originality. WAT ? AIL.iL, KEi • 71 A ITALIAN SCHOOL. 65 But Annibale (i 560-1 609), the youngest of the Carracci, is undoubtedly the greatest master of the three. He had been brought up to his father's trade of tailor, but under his uncle's or cousin's instructions* his artistic abilities were quickly developed. In his earlier works he is strongly reminis- cent of Correggio. His "Adoration of the Shepherds," for instance, is so completely in * Lodovico is thought by some to have been the cousin oi Agostino and Annibale. There was another Carracci, a painter, Antonio, the natural son of Agostino. 66 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Correggio's manner that it has been stigmatized by a French critic as a "parody" on Correggio's "Notte. " The study of Raphael and Michael Angelo also exercised a powerful influence in the formation of his style, but still at no period was he a mere mechanical copyist; and in his later works we find the evidence of a strong and original mind. Madonnas, Holy Families and Pietas are among his most frequent subjects, and many of these he has treated in a decidedly naturalistic manner, with no thought of eclectic selection ; for nature early provoked a reaction against eclecticism, and in the very centre of the school of the Carracci, and at a time when it was at its height of success, a rebellion broke out, which declared as its object a return to the study and indiscriminate reproduction of nature. By the Naturalisti, as the artists were called who headed this movement, all selec- tion was eschewed, and nature was taken as a model even in her lowest and most repulsive forms. Bold coloring, dark strong shadows, abrupt lights, and a powerful but coarse expression of human passion, are the prevailing characteristics that distinguish didr works from those of the more ideal eclectics ; still, notwithstanding the violent opposition of the two schools — an opposition that expressed itself, we are told, by such crimes as poisoning and assassination as well as by fairer means — it is evident that they acted and reacted to a great extent upon each other, so that it is often difficult to separate their adherents ; indeed, it was by their united influence that several of the best masters of the time were formed. Even Annibale Carracci, the greatest of the eclectics, did not altogether, as we have seen, escape this reactionary naturalism ; but he never, like too many of his opponents, did violence to nature by setting her ugliest and most repellent forms in striking relief. His greatest work is usually considered to be a series of mythological frescoes, in the Farnese Palace at Rome; but he is better known by his easel pictures. "The Three Maries," as it is called, a Pieta at Casde Howard, is one of the most celebrated of these. He was the first Italian master who practised landscape-painting for its own sake, and made it a separate branch of art The great Venetians had all manifested a deep feeling for landscape beauty, and Titian's landscapes especially are among the finest that have ever been painted ; but they never ventured upon them except as a setting for their figures, whereas Annibale Carracci, without any true feeling for landscape, made it a chief study, and founded the landscape school, that was afterwards more fully developed by Claude and Poussin. Several of the pupils of the Carracci, or painters formed in their school, attained to almost equal distinction with die masters. Domenico Zami'ieki, better known as Domenichino (1581-1641), is, for example, held by many to be superior to Annibale, but he has a less powerful individuality. His most important painting is "The Communion of St Jerome," reproduced in most works ITALIAN SCHOOL. 67 on Italian art, and esteemed by the critics of the eighteenth century, by whom these later Italian masters were so greatly exalted, as the greatest altar-piece in Rome, with the exception of Raphael's Transfiguration. The subjects of his pictures are mostly religious — legends of saints, martyrdoms and such like themes, set forth with a realistic and passionate effect, especially intended to awaken the emotions of the spectators. For the Church of Rome, from which, as we have seen, art had become alienated in the sixteenth century, had once more, after the deep wounds she had received from Rationalism and Protestantism, taken her early handmaid into her service ; but she now no longer demanded from her the calm devotional productions of the early time, but, adopting the taste of the age in art, admitted passionate and emotional, or, as we should now call them, sensational pictures into her churches, seeking to satisfy, by such drugs, the emotional cravings of her children. Martyrdoms, therefore, became greatly in vogue, for they harrowed the feelings, like the murders of a modern sensational novel. Pietas and Mater Dolorosas were likewise in fashion, in which grief was depicted with great energy. Domenichino, however, although he supplied such subjects with ready skill, did not rise in his own day to anything like the estimation in which he has since been held. He seems, indeed, to have been the victim of a disgraceful persecution on the part of an opposed clique of painters, whose malice drove him from Rome, and afterwards followed him to Naples, where he went about for some years in constant fear of his life, and finally died, it was suspected, by poison. Francesco Albani (1 578-1 660), whose mythological allegories, impossible landscapes, silly nymphs, elegant meaningless goddesses, and clouds of graceful amorini have been much admired; and Guido Reni (1 575-1 642), whose weak ideality has been extolled as the perfection of artistic beauty, were likewise eclectics, but of a different stamp to Domenichino and Annibale Carracci. They were at first fellow-pupils in the school of Denis Calvert, a Flemish master, established at Bologna, who seems to have had the happy knack of disgusting his pupils as much with his style of art as with the brutality of his manners. At all events, Albani and Guido, as well as many other of his scholars, after submitting to his ill-treatment for a time, ran away and enlisted under his hated rivals, the Carracci. Guido's facility in imitation and undoubted cleverness were soon perceived by the Carracci, who set him forward as a rival to the powerful Caravaggio, his soft inane abstractions forming a strong contrast to the coarse realism of the chief of the naturalisti. He soon, indeed, proved a formidable rival not only to Caravaggio, but to Annibale himself, and most of the painters of his time. More fortunate than Domenichino, he made a great position in Rome, and was honored by the friendship of Paul V, who fondly hoped to make his pontificate as illustrious in the history of art 68 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. as those of Julius II and Leo X. With this view he employed Guido to paint several private chapels for him, works which he executed with great taste and skill. His frescoes and light decorative works are, indeed, usually far superior to his altar-pieces and easel pictures. But it was for ideal Madonnas and soft female saints that he was chiefly celebrated, and commissions for these flocked in upon him in Rome faster than he could execute them. He was, in fact, as much in fashion there, and received as From tht original. hjGuuU. FORTUNL much adulation, as Raphael had formerly done. This ruined him. Weak and vain by nature, all his bad qualities were fostered by the brilliant dissipated life he led; and after a giddy height of success he sank both in his art and his life to a very low level. An absorbing passion for gambling, it is said, was one cause of this degradation. In the latter part of his life he only painted when he wanted money to stake at the gaming-table; and after having gained enormous sums by his art, he died at last in A SCENE OF THE DELUGE . ROFESSOR VINC 1 LUCCARDLOF ROME • ■ ITALIAN SCHOOL. .. l . .".RSITY 69 poverty and want. His well-known fresco of "Phoebus and Aurora with the Hours," painted in the garden-house of the Rospigliosi Palace at Rome, is one of his most charming and graceful conceptions, breathing forth a truly classical feeling for beauty. The rhythmical movement of the Hours, as they advance in rapid flight with the car of Phoebus, is excellently expressed, and the coloring of the whole is both pure and brilliant. The Assumption of the Virgin was a favorite subject with him. His finest and most celebrated painting is, perhaps, the Ecce Homo. Francesco Barbieri, known, in consequence of a squint, as Guercino (1 592-1 666), affected a sentimental ideality of the same style as Guido's, and had even less feeling From the original. AURORA. by Guido. for real beauty. He is distinguished by his strong crude coloring, heavy shadows imitated from Caravaggio, and insipid mannerism. His greatest work is "The Woman of Samaria." Carlo Dolci (161 6-1 686) acquired a great and lasting reputation for a class of subjects admirably adapted to his pencil, which he treated in a style peculiarly his own. These were chiefly heads of Christ, the Virgin and Madonnas. His paintings are admirable in composition and expression, the color pleasing, and judicious management of the chiaroscuro gives his figures wonderful relief; and the graceful air of his heads, with their general harmony and exquisite finish, have induced so many to copy and imitate, that there are more pictures in the public and private collections of Europe, esteemed genuine by him, than he could have executed had he painted one every day of his life. MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Dolci's work exhibits careful and patient labor. Indeed, his contemporaries cen- sured him for this and for giving his carnations more of the appearance of ivory than of flesh. His pencil was delicate, his touch inexpressibly neat, and his coloring trans- parent The soft and tranquil expression of resignation or devotion in the patient sufferings of Christ, the plaintive sorrow of the "Mater Dolorosa" — his most successful subjects — the compunctious visitings of conscience in his Magdalenes, are all treated with great delicacy and tenderness. It is reported of Dolci that his brain was affected on seeing Luca Giordano dispatch more work in four or five hours than he conld have done in as many months. He generally painted in small size, though he executed some works life-size, the principal of which are the "St. Anthony" in the Uffizzi Gallery, a "Crucifixion," "St Sebastian," and "Four Evangelists." His half-length figures of Christ and of Madonnas are very numerous and most generally esteemed. He instructed his daughter, Agnes, to paint and she copied many of his works as well as producing several beautiful original compositions. His pupils Lorna and Mancini never attained any eminence, and we cannot regard Dolci as having exercised any influence in retarding the decline in art which was rapidly taking place in his day. Carlo Maratti (1625-1713), when twelve years old, was sent by his father to Rome, where he entered the school of Andrea Sacchi, with whom he studied for several years, and became his most favored disciple. By the advice of his master he made the works of Raffaelle his chief study. He rose to great distinction, and during his lifetime was considered one of the first artists in Europe. Mengs assigns to him the enviable distinction of having "sustained the art at Rome, where it did not degenerate as at other places." At the commencement of his career, he confined himself to painting Holy Families, pictures of the Virgin and Madonnas, on which account the cotemporary artists, particularly Salvator Rosa, thought him incapable of higher productions, and satirically called him Carluccio dalle Madonne. To counteract the evil efforts of his enemies, Sacchi obtained for him a commission to paint a picture for the Baptistery of St. John of Lateran, where he represented Constantine destroying the Idols, a perform- ance which stifled calumny and established his reputation as one of the ablest artists of his time. It also procured him the patronage of Alexander VII, under whose protection and that of his successors he became the most popular and the most employed artist at Rome. He was commissioned to restore the great frescoes of Raffaelle in the Vatican and the Farnesian Palace, which had begun to suffer from the effects of time — a task, says his biographer Bellori, "requiring infinite care and judgment and which he performed to the satisfaction of his patron." Lanzi says that "Maratti was no machinist therefore neither he nor his scholars ever distinguished themselves in frescoes or in large compositions. At the same time, he had no fear of engaging in ITALIAN SCHOOL. ?1 works of that kind, and willingly undertook the decoration of the Duomo of Urbino, which he peopled with his figures." This work, with the cupola itself, was destroyed by an earthquake in 1782, but the sketches of it are preserved in the Albani Palace at Urbino. Though Carlo Maratti painted some pictures of extraordinary magnitude, as his "St. Carlo," in the church of that saint at the Corso, and "The Baptism of Christ," in the Certosa, yet his pictures for the most part are on a smaller scale. He had a predilection for cabinet pictures and altar-pieces, of the child Jesus, Holy Families, Madonnas, and other sacred subjects, of which he executed a multitude, which are to be found not only in the churches and every private collection at Rome, but in the State, as well as at Florence, Genoa and other places. He was a chaste and elegant designer, but his forms discover too little acquaintance with the antique. His compo- sitions are rich and magnificent, but they bear the character of coldness and languor, and appear rather the productions of labor than the inspirations of genius. He prided himself on the copious castings of his draperies, but in this he displays a species of mannerism, and the multiplicity of his folds exhibits little of the beauty of the figures. His coloring is generally silvery and pleasing, but towards the latter end of his life it became somewhat cold and chalky. Yet it is admitted that some of his productions are exquisitely beautiful; the forms of his female saints lovely; his Madonnas dignified, and his angels angelic. Lanzi says his pictures approaching nearest to Sacchi are most prized at Rome, among which are "The Baptism of Christ," in the Certosa, which is copied in mosaic in the Basilica of St. Peter's ; "The Death of St. Francis Xavier," in II Gesu; "The Visitation," in La Pace; and "The Conception," in S. Isidore. Among his most charming compositions are "St. Stanislaus Kostka," at the altar where his ashes repose, and "David's First View of Bathsheba," which last is a work inexpressibly beautiful. He executed a few free, spirited etchings, after his own designs and other Italian masters, though they are more highly finished than is usual with painters. Michelangelo Amerighi, better known as Caravaggio (1 569-1609), was, as already mentioned, the chief of the Naturalisti, or Tenebrosi, as they were likewise called from their love of strong dark shadows relieved by glaring lights. The principles that Cara- vaggio and his school opposed to the eclecticism of the Carracci were a direct study from and imitation of common nature, and a forcible representation of human passion. No painters have, perhaps, more powerfully represented the dark and evil side of humanity, and they appear to have drawn their illustrations of this mostly from their own personal experience, for the lives of too many were as dark and wild as the pictures they painted. Incapable of understanding the higher teachings of nature, they interpreted her lessons according to the brutish comprehension of their dull sensual hearts, and painted pictures, the moral ugliness of which is rendered the more repulsive 7* AfASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. by the effective and striking light in which it is placed. Caravaggio, especially, used his great powers to degrade instead of exalt the subject of his art, and even in a Pieta NAPLES. *^f# ' introduced the most vulgar types. Leading a wild vagabond kind of life himself* he was particularly successful in depicting the brigandage and vagabond- ism of his age; and his genuine vagabonds — such, for instance, as his celebrated "False Players," of which * He committed homicide, if not murder, In earljr life, and was obliged to fly to Naples to escape the law. Afterwards, upon soma o hat orT«"i<-r. he was thrown into prison, but contrived to escape. SEP OF SORROW AND THE DR.' ' ?' JOY ETTfrl ■■ i FROM THE SCULPTU1 : . ■ JNTI. A R V ITALIAN SCHOOL. n there are several repetitions — are far less repellent than when he clothes the same types in an incongruous religious garb. On such subjects, indeed, as "The False Players," "The Fortune-teller," and others of the same class, his powers are suitably employed; and the bold brute force, if one may call it so, of his style, the vigor of his coloring, and the effective contrasts of his chiaroscuro produce a powerful impression on the mind. Caravaggio's art seems to have been peculiarly well adapted to the taste of the Neapolitans, with whose passionate southern natures it was, in truth, much in accord, and he was the found- er in Naples of a school which is chiefly notorious for the in- famous characters of its members. The disgraceful Ca- bal of Naples, as it was called, was com- posed of a triumvirate of painters, who made it their object to drive away every artist of note who came to practise in their city, and who, when they could not succeed by fair means, resorted unscrupulously to poi- From the original, by Caravaggio. CHRIST CROWNED WITH THORNS. son and assassination to attain their end. Domenichino was a victim of this Cabal, and Annibale Carrac- ci and several other artists were obliged to leave Naples because of the shameful treat- ment to which they were subjected. Two of the painters of this Cabal — Belisario Co- renzio and Giambat- TISTA CARACCIOLO though important from the authority they as- sumed in their own day, are but little known in this ; but the third, Giuseppe Ribera, called, from his being by birth a Spaniard, Lo Spagnoletto (i 588-1656) has acquired a wider renown. His style is an exaggeration even of that of his master, Caravaggio. It is brutal and savage in its strength, like the character of the painter, but is well calculated by its striking effects to produce an impression on minds incapable of feeling the beauty of a more refined expression. He dipped his paint-brush, as Byron says, in blood,* and painted horrible martydoms and other scenes of cruelty with a sort of ferocious delight, enhancing their diabolical effect by the dark masses of shadow in which he set them. * " Spagnoletto tainted His brush with all the blood of all the sainted." 74 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. • A more famous name among Neapolitan painters is that of Salvator Rosa ( i 6 i 5— 1673), who carried out in landscape the style of Caravaggio, and Lo Spagnoletto in figure-painting. Fuseli describes his landscapes as abounding "in ideas of desolation, solitude and danger;" and truly he gives the same gloomy character to inanimate nature as the Tenebrosi to human nature. Thunder-clouds darken his skies ; sullen waves beat upon his rork-bound coasts, and danger lurks in his impenetrable forests and gloomy caverns ; his figures are banditti dividing their spoil, or lonely travellers who pursue their fearful way in evident danger of the same banditti whom we feel are somewhere near at hand. And yet with all this savageness and gloom there is a subjective poetry in Salvator Rosa's lowering landscapes that is not without its peculiar charm. The fierce power of Caravaggio's and Spagnoletto's works has been characterized as "the poetry of the repulsive," but it may be doubted whether the truly repulsive is capable of being poetical ; it is not, at all events, the evil, so much as the melancholy, the despair that it has brought with it, that is reflected from Salvator's mind upon his canvas. The Tenebrosi, it would almost seem, took delight in the wickedness around them, whereas Salvator was at war with it, though it too often overcame him. He saw the storm, but never the rainbow, in the sky. Besides landscapes he painted many ambitious historical and biblical scenes; but these in general have very little merit, and it is by his landscapes that. he. is best known. Antonio Canale, generally styled Canaletto (1 697-1 768), painted with consider- able skill and accuracy the palaces and canals of Venice, his native city, but he seems to have been deficient in real feeling for their beauty, and his coloring is somewhat cold and dead. They have a truthful kind of excellence, and fairly represent the beautiful mistress of the Adriatic; for although the heroic heart of the Republic had now ceased to beat, her canals had not yet become stagnant and her seas frozen. These were the last painters worthy of mention of Venice. They bring us down far into the eighteenth century, when art had fallen into its deepest degradation, they being, perhaps, the most meritorious masters of the time. Everywhere — in Rome, Florence, Venice, Umbria, Bologna, Milan, and Parma — there had succeeded to the wonderful exaltation of Italian art, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, a corresponding depression, and by the beginning of the eighteenth century it stood at one dead level of mediocrity — no school, no painter even, being much better or worse than another. The Eclectics and the Naturalists had made, it is true, a vigorous effort to revive its former life and glory, but the very effort made such a revival impossible; for all great art is spontaneous, and cannot be produced as they tried to produce it. by law ITALIAN SCHOOL. 75 and by rule. After a time, therefore, the Eclectics and Naturalists themselves, who had tried hard to avoid the mistake of the Mannerists, of copying one particular master, became known equally with them by the fatal appellation of Machinists (Macchinisti), and truly their huge, rapidly-painted canvases, in which there is not the slightest indica- tion of mind or feeling, are just such works as we might expect to have executed by steam-power if it were ever so applied. In early life Antonio Canova (i 757-1822) produced some excellent pictures, especially a "Descent from the Cross," which proved that he would have been eminent with the pencil — as he was with the chisel — had he devoted himself wholly to it. He was born at the little village of Possagno, situate in the plains of Treviso, in the Venetian States. His father, who was a stone-mason, died when Antonio was only three years of age, and being of a delicate constitution, he was taken under the care of his grandfather, Pasino Canova. The latter (who was also a stone-mason) had some knowledge of architecture and a taste for design, and he imparted such instruction as he could to his grandson. Antonio found every opportunity in the workshop of his grandfather to gratify the bent of his genius, and he frequently indulged his inclination for sculpture, even at this early age. Two shrines, cut in Carrara marble at the age of nine years, prove the excellence of his first attempts. The patrician family of Faliero, whose villa was situated near Possagno, were warm patrons of Pasino, and from his good qualities he was held in much esteem by Sig. Giovanni Faliero, the chief of his house and a senator of Venice. Owing to this acquaintance, he frequently saw the young Canova, whose skill in the use of the chisel attracted his notice, and h'e soon after took him under his own immediate protection. It is said that die warm interest taken by Faliero in the welfare of Canova arose from his having seen a lion which the young artist had modeled in butter, as an ornament for the table of the senator. Canova, when but sixteen years of age, at the desire of his patron, began his group of Orpheus and Eurydice. He commenced with the figure of Eurydice, which he completed in his seventeenth year. This statue, which is of life-size, is remarkable for simplicity of action, and gave promise of that future excellence which was nobly attained when, in three years afterward, he produced the statue of Orpheus. At this time, while Canova was actively employed at his favorite art, he found sufficient leisure to enrich his mind by an attentive study of ancient and modern history; he also acquired a knowledge of several continental languages, and did not neglect the study of anatomy. His next production was the group of Daedalus and Icarus, which is considered the best work of his early years. In 1790 a pension of three hundred ducats for three years was granted him by the Venetian Senate, and he went to Rome, where he was patronized by Sir William Hamilton and several others, and also found a sincere patron MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. in the Venetian ambassador, Zuliani, a man of cultivated taste. Canova had now an opportunity of studying the splendid remains of antiquity, and he soon proved that he profited by this study, by producing his group of Theseus vanquishing tin- Minotaur, which at once established his fame. He now attempted another branch of the art — namely, a grand monument in honor of Pope Clement XIV. It was finished in 1787, and is a most admirable specimen of monumental sculpture. During the progress of this great work he produced his statue of the youthful Psyche, an exquisite piece of sculp- ture, and also the model of the group of Cupid ami Psyche in a recumbent pos- ture, executed in marble in 1793. In 1795 and the two succeeding years, several beautiful works appeared, among which were his celebrated group of. Cupid and Psyche standing, and his group of ' 'trmmggU Venus and Ad- onis. The latter was sent to the king of Naples, who expressed his approbation of its excellence by honoring the sculptor with the order of the Two Sicilies. The troubles of 1 798 obliged him to n tire to his na- tive village, Pos- sagno, where, in strict retirement, he devoted him- self to painting. He soon after- wards returned to Rome, and produced his "Perseus with the Head of Medusa," which by a public decree was honored with a place in one of the Stanzi of the Vatican. In 1802 Canova was invited to Paris at the special request of Napoleon. On his arrival he was received with great honor, and admitted a member of the Institute. He modeled a colossal statue of Napoleon, which was not completed till six years afterward. In 1805 he produced his "Venus Victorious," a recumbent figure of exquisite grace and beauty; and in this year he completed his splendid monument of Christina, arch-duchess of Austria, erected in the church of the Augustines at Vienna. In 18 10 he revisited Paris, where he modeled the X \ \ \ H CAMPOTOSTO. P1"NX T C AR.YYTAGE SCULPT ITALIAN SCHOOL. 77 bust of the Empress Maria Louisa, and executed a statue of the mother of Napoleon. In 1815 he was sent to Paris to demand of the French government the great works of art which had been taken from Italy. In the same year he visited England. On his return to Rome, new honors awaited him. The Pope inscribed with his own hand the name of Canova in the Golden Volume of the Capitol. He received the title of Marquis d'Ischia, and an annual pension of fifteen thousand dollars was granted him. Among his last works was one of his best — the group of Mars and Venus. In the arrangement of the figures it resembles the Venus and Adonis, but in grace and beauty it far surpasses it. His last work was a bust of his friend and biographer, Count Cigognara. Francesco Zuccarelli, or Zuccherelli, one of the greatest Italian land- scape painters, was born at Pitigliano, in Tuscany, in 1 702. For some time he applied himself to his- torical painting, but his natural genius leading him to landscape, he af- terwards confined him- self to that branch, in which he so greatly ex- celled. His scenery is always pleasing, and usu- ally embellished with Carlo Mnrali. ruins, cottages and fig- ures elegantly designed, and touched with great neatness and spirit. His pictures are greatly ad- mired and extolled all over Europe. His prin- cipal field in Italy was in Venice until the British consul, Sir Frederick Smith, induced him to visit England in 1752, where he met with very flattering encourage- ment, and was elected one of the original forty members of the Royal Academy. About 1773 he returned to Italy and settled at Florence, where he invested a considerable sum of money, the produce of his talents, in the security of one of the monasteries, intending to pass the rest of his days in tranquil repose, but the monastery was soon afterwards suppressed by Joseph II of Austria, and the unfortunate artist, being reduced to indigence, was obliged to resume his pencil. He sometimes decorated the landscapes and architectural pieces of his cotemporaries with beautiful figures. He died at Florence in 1788. In a notice so brief as this is of the "Masterpieces of Italian Art," we have had to exclude much which very deservedly would come under the title ; but we must make room for the five great masters of Engraving — the art which translates to the student and the amateur the great compositions — whose names equal in renown their five great 78 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. brethren of Painting.* We refer to Marc Antonio Ramondi, Bartolozzi, Raphael Morghen, Longhi, and Toschi. Marc Antonio Ramondi was born at Bologna, in 1487, and is generally known in art by the name of Marc Antonio. He was instructed in design and in the art of working in niello by Francesca Francia, and next proceeded to engrave some of the productions of his master, the first of which was "Pyramus and Thisbe," dated 1502. At first he imitated Andreas Mantegna, and next Albert Diirer. According to Vasari, while on a visit to Venice in search of improvements, Ramondi met with a set of DUrer's thirty-six wooden cuts, representing the life and passion of our Saviour, and, being greatly pleast ■<.! with them, he copied them on copper (affixing the cipher of 1 Hirer), with such precision that the prints were readily sold in Italy as originals. This deception reaching the ears of Diirer, he went to Venice and complained before the Senate of the plagiarism and injustice, but could obtain no further redress than an order forbidding Marc Antonio to use Diirer' s monogram on any future copies he might make of his works. He next proceeded to Rome, where his remarkable talents immediately recommended him to the notice of Raphael, who employed him to engrave after his designs. It is well known that under the instruction of Raphael he acquired great improvement and brought the art to a degree of perfection that has hardly ever been surpassed. This is shown by the prints he engraved after Raphael. The first was "The 1 )eath of Lucretia," which, though neatly executed, was somewhat stiff and formal ; the next. "The Judgment of Paris," is executed in a more bold and spirited manner, and these wen; followed by others, exhibiting marked improvement, until Raphael himself was satisfied with his performances, who is said to have sent some of his prints to Albert Diirer, together with several of his own drawings, as a most acceptable present to that eminent artist, who had honored him by sending him his portrait. After the death of Raphael, in 1520, he engraved Bandinelli's "Martyrdom of St. Laurence," and on this picture he exerted all his powers. The Pope (Clement VII), delighted at this masterpiece, quickly took him under his protection. He continued in Rome in full possession of public esteem and favored with the patronage of the great, till the dreadful sacking of the city by the Spaniards in 1527, when he was despoiled of all his property, and obliged to flee to Bologna, where he continued to practice his art until 1539, when he engraved his last print, "The Battle of the Lapithse," after Gulio Romano. Marc Antonio is justly regarded as one of the most remarkable engravers that ever lived. Francisco Bartolozzi was lK>rn in Florence in 1730, and was instructed in drawing •The fire great nusten of Italian art are Giotto. Raphael. I*onardo da Vinci. Michael Angclo, and Titian; aad the chronological similarity of difference between the pioneer of each and his succeeding followers is very curious. ITALIAN SCHOOL. 7g by Hughfort Ferretti, and studied engraving under Joseph Wagner, of Venice. His first productions were some plates from F. Zuccherelli. His principal works, however, were executed in England, where he arrived in 1764. His etchings after drawings of the most celebrated painters represent admirably the fire and spirit of the originals ; and he was not less successful in the exquisitely finished plates of his own designing, which he produced in the various styles he practised. He died at Lisbon in 181 3, on his way back to his native Italy. Giuseppe Longhi was born at Monza in 1758. His father early placed him in the Academy of Brera, at Milan, where he learned the art of engraving. He afterwards went to Rome, where he formed an acquaintance with Raphael Morghen. In 1798 he was chosen professor of the Academy, of Brera, and filled his professorship with great honor and distinction, and to him many of the most distinguished engravers of the present day owe their education. Among his great works are "The Vision of Ezekiel," "The Marriage of the Virgin," a Holy Family, after Raphael, and "The Madonna del Lago," after Leonardo da Vinci. He died of apoplexy in the sixty-fifth year of his age. Raphael Sanzio Morghen was born at Florence, June 19, 1758. His father was a painter of some ability, and patronized by the court of Charles III. Raphael Morghen was early instructed by his father in the elements of the art, and he made such rapid progress as to be able to engrave a tolerable plate when he had reached the age of twelve years. , He first gained distinction by seven engravings from the masks of thq carnival of 1778, — "The Pilgrimage of the Grand Signor to Mecca." This work possessed such extraordinary merit that his father determined to give him the best advantages, and accordingly sent him to Valpato, at Rome. The latter first set him at copying "Soldiers of Christ" and "Mary Magdalene in the Garden;" and he shortly afterwards engraved Gavin Hamilton's allegorical figure of "Painting" for the brothers Hackert. In 1781 he engraved, in concert with his father-in-law, Raphael's "Parnassus, or the Historical Illus- tration of Poetry and Theology," in the Stanze of the Vatican. In the same year he married Valpato's only daughter, Domenica. In 1787 he engraved the "Aurora" of Guido. In 1 790 he visited Naples, and engraved a portrait of his father. The Neapolitan Court in 1792 wished him to remain permanently at Naples, and offered him a salary of six hundred ducats ; but he chose to accept an invitation from the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and accordingly settled at Florence in 1793, with a salary of four hundred scudi and free apartments in the city, under the sole condition that he should keep a public school, with the privilege of engraving what he might choose, his prints remaining his own property. The fame of Morghen soon rose to a great height, and he receivecn many com- missions from the royal family of Florence. In 1795 he commenced the celebrated 8o MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Ludwtg Passim, fmx. FRA FILIPPO. ENGRAVED BT G . STODART , FROM THE GROUP BY G . FONTANA F OF GjS*' ITALIAN SCHOOL. 81 82 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. "Madonna del Sacco," after Andrea del Sarto, and "The Transfiguration," after Raphael. The latter was not completed till 1812, when it appeared with a dedication to Napoleon. He was occupied three years on his print of "The Last Supper," after Leonardo da Vinci, which is his masterpiece. Morghen was associated with the French Institute after the year 1803, and he visited Paris in 181 2 at the invitation of Napoleon, who honored him with many presents. By Louis XVIII he was honored with the decoration of the Legion of Honor and the Cordon of St. Michael. Morghen married three times, and left several children. He died at Florence in 1823. Paolo Toschi, the greatest engraver of modern days, was born at Parma in 1788. At an early age he was sent to Paris, and commenced his studies under Charles C. Bervic (who had been the most successful pupil of the great Wille). He soon gave promise of his future excellence, and remained in Paris till 1825. Toschi was Bervic's favorite pupil, and when the latter was overtaken with blindness in 1818, he entrusted Toschi with the high honor of finishing the work on which he was then engaged — the Testament of Endamidas — a work now very rare. After finishing this great work, he returned to his native Parma, where he was welcomed by the grand duke and honored with the directorship of the Academy of Fine Arts, a position which he held till his death in 1858. He found a liberal patron in the ducal family of Parma, and was employed chiefly on engraving the great paintings and frescoes in the church of St Paul at Parma, which had been liberally decorated by die hand of Correggio. These engravings are now held in great esteem, but from the high prices at which they are sold, are to be found only in the portfolios of the wealthy. We have now passed in review the illustrious names which have thrown a halo of art-glory around Italy, and rendered her more famous than her warriors, her emperors, her statesmen, her authors, or her Popes; and in modern Italy, although we see a promise of a revival of the art-greatness of former days, especially in sculpture, it may be hazardous to place on the list of great masters any name that the verdict of the future might fail to confirm. We have, however, ventured — partly in a spirit of con- fidence that this verdict may be confirmed, and partly from a desire to bring the history down to the present day — to choose examples from the following moderns: Sculpture — Monti, Fontana, Rosetti, Luccardi, Monteverde, Barzaghi, and Magni ; and from Passini, Campotosta, and Fontana in Painting; but without comment, believing that they will speak for themselves: there are doubtless other names equally worthy, but our space forbids a more extended notice. The studios of modern Italian artists, painters and sculptors (especially in Rome) are among the most delightful visiting-places in this delightful country. You need no ITALIAN SCHOOL. 83 ceremonious introduction here; you merely knock and enter. Around you are the workmen and their labors — the living artists who cut from the shapeless marble-block From, the original. DOCTOR JENNER. works destined to last ages after the frail human hand that fashioned them has mouldered into its native clay — or limning on canvas imperishable beauty, which will there remain (or in its shadow — engraving) for the world "a joy for ever." MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Happy men, seem they all ! for all true lovers of Art most be happy. The con- sciousness of the appreciation of beauty is a joy to ever) mind. How much more must be the pleasure of giving that consciousness a tangible form, an enduring exist- ence, rewarding him who made it, gratifying him who pos it, and hundreds yet unborn who may gaze on it! Master-minds of various grades of life there are many; but the poet and the artist have the most powerful mastery in the witchery of their works through all ages of change. The nature of their studies breaks down all barriers which nationality or custom might impose elsewhere. Looking on ever)' visitor as a lover of art, they all meet on common ground, whatever their native country may be. It would not be easily possible to conceive an existence more replete with the elements of happiness than that of a true votary of Art. Removed from the turmoil of life, he exists only for the study of the beautiful ; and if his course be checkered by the crosses which are the lot of all, he may console himself by knowing they are fewer than those that beset the more adventurous in the battle of life, while his mental organizations open a field of pleasure closed to more worldly men. If Italy offered no other lesson, this, that teaches the amenities which Art always offers to its devotees, whether professional or amateur, is worthy of all consideration — "Ve nobler arts! as life's last lustre given, • lililing earth's grossness with the gloss of heaven, Th your; to crown complete the social plan, Ami harmonize the elements of man." ' J.DZ MARE. SCULPT THE ' ■ ROYAl - THE GERMAN SCHOOL. IITTLE is known of "the rosy dawn of German art." When the Germanic nations had thrown off the yoke of Rome, and when the chaos that succeeded the overthrow of the ancient world had subsided into something like order, the newly founded king- doms began to evince their independence in their art, as well as in their noble national poetry, which arose about the same period. Gothic architecture, which may be regarded as the petrified expression of the religious aspirations, the poetry and the idealism of the mediaeval mind, had its rise in France about the end of the twelfth century, and from this date we may trace a continued development in the art, not only of Italy (though by the influence of Giotto, that country, of course, took the lead in painting), but likewise of less favored lands. In France, Germany, England, the Netherlands, and Spain, Gothic architecture bloomed into a more delicate and ideal beauty than even in Italy; and although by breaking up the extensive wall surfaces that the Romanesque style had afforded for painting, it hindered to a certain extent the free exercise of the painter's 8? 86 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. art, it nevertheless burst the fetters which Byzantine tradition had hitherto imposed, and gave a new direction to his thoughts. For a time, it is true, the German painter hesitated to obey this impulse, and as the miniatures and the illuminated manuscripts (the only works that we have in painting of the early Gothic period) show, remained under Byzantine influence ; but even in northern Byzantine illuminations, an independent spirit is often visible, which finds its outlet in grotesque shapes, fantastic animals, and other quaint devices. The forms, also, in the later illuminations are less meagre, and the outlines less hard, showing that the' Ascetic ideal was already giving place to the Romantic. Painting on glass was carried to the greatest perfection in this age by northern artists, as the exquisite beauty of the old painted glass in many Gothic cathedrals abundantly testifies ; still the restraint that the mosaic-like character of glass-painting necessarily imposed, contrasted unfavorably with the freedom that fresco-painting offered to the Italian artist. The earliest wall-paintings of which we find any mention in German history are some said to have been executed for Queen Theodolinda in the sixth century, and to have represented the Victories of the Lombards ; but of these, as well as of the more important paintings with which Charlemagne decorated his church and castle at Upper Ingelheim, wc have only the historical record, none of them now existing. A few traces of early German wall-painting still remain, however, in various places, which reveal considerable feeling for grace and simple beauty. More particularly in the early art of Bohemia this feeling becomes manifest. The School of Bohemia is about the earliest school of painting that arose in Ger- many. It dates from the beginning of the fourteenth century, but chiefly flourished in the time of the Emperor Charles IV (1348-1378), who employed several native artists in the decoration of his castle and church at Karlstein, near Prague. The names of three of these artists, namely, Theodorich OF Prague, Nicolaus Wukmser and one KtJMZ have been handed down to us, but it is impossible now to assign to them their respective work. Moreover, it is evident that many more artists than these were employed of whom no record remains. The ruined and more than half- obi iterated wall-paintings of Schloss Karlstein, to which F. von Schlegel, in 1808, was the first to draw attention, stand in the same relation to early German art as the earliest paintings of the Campo Santo to early Italian art. They were about the first efforts of independent national genius, working still, it is true, from Byzantine models, but infusing into them a new spiritual beauty. The Bohemian school, indeed, so softens the harshness of the Byzantine type as to render it somewhat weak and sentimental. GERMAN SCHOOL. 87 The School of Nurnberg during the early Gothic period was a school of sculpture rather than of painting. It produced the most exquisite carved and chiseled works — works which more than rival those of Italy of the same time in their rich fancy, deep feeling and original thought, if not in their classic spirit; but for a long time painting remained entirely subordinate, and was only used to heighten the effect of bas-reliefs, statues and wooden carvings. The preference for those richly carved and colored wooden altar-pieces of which we still find so many specimens in German churches, had, indeed, at this time, a some- what depressing influence on the development of German painting. The coloring of these altar-shrines, which were entirely filled with small figures in magnificent gilded and damasked drapery, standing in relief from a gold ground, was often the only employ- ment that even a skilful German master could find. This was especially the case at Nurnberg, where, as before said, sculpture was long predominant. We find, however, a few early paintings in Nurnberg, such as the celebrated Imhof altar-piece, executed about 1418-22, and the beautiful Virgin with Cherubs, in the Lorenz Kirche, that prove that the Nurnberg masters, even in painting, were not behind the other early schools of Germany in artistic development. The Imhof altar-piece, indeed, is remarkable for its tender sentiment^ graceful forms, dignified expression, and beauty of color. Its centre compartment represents "The Coronation of the Virgin." The name of its painter is unknown. In Suabia, also, German art appears to have developed at an early date; but here, as at Nurnberg, it was sculpture that was principally practiced. In the more celebrated and better-known School of Cologne, on the other hand, painting, although undoubtedly preceded by architecture and sculpture, rose at a very early date to separate importance. As early as the beginning of the thirteenth century, Wolfram von Eschenbach, in his famous romance of "Percival," in describing the beauty of his knight, declares that — " From K6ln nor from Maestricht No limner could excel him" — proving that even at that date Cologne was celebrated for its "limners." Cologne, indeed, from the time of Charlemagne, occupied a foremost position amongst the cities of Germany, and a constant communication was kept up between her and Italy. It is natural, therefore, to suppose that Italian and Byzantine artists travelling northward would have settled by preference in the city that had most direct intercourse with the south. By such artists, doubtless, painting was first taught and practiced in Cologne, and their scholars formed what has been called the Byzantine-Rhenish or Byzantine-Romantic School, the principal seat of which was in Cologne. MASTER PI ECbS OF EUROPEAN ART. The chief characteristic of the Byzantine- Romantic school is a deep-seated devotional sentiment. The harsh asceticism of Byzantium is softened to a tender spiritual beauty and childlike purity of expression, such as only Fra Angelico and one or two of the Italian purists ever attained. Added to these spiritual graces, if so they may be called, we find in the early Cologne masters a true feeling for form, a dignified grace, a delicate fr»m Ikt original. SAMSON SLAYING THE LION. fy Alhtrt Durtr. and soft execution, and a sweet harmonious blending of color; and although their works lack the accurate drawing and powerful coloring of the great school of the Van Eycks, many of them possess a wonderful charm of their own. The first of the "limners" of Cologne, of whom we gain any real sight, is that patriarch of German art, Mkistkk Wii.hklm or CoLOONS (painting in the latter half of GERMAN SCHOOL. 89 the fourteenth century). According to some historians, Meister Wilhelm was born at Herle, but he appears to have settled at Cologne about the year 1358, and to have formed there a large school. Unfortunately but few of his productions survive, or at least can be identified. A "Madonna and Child" in the Wallraf Museum at Cologne, however, which is still ascribed to him, evinces the before-mentioned characteristics of his school in a remarkable degree. On the countenance of the Virgin there is an expression of the most heavenly purity and peace. No earthly emotions disturb her holy contemplation, as, with the God-child in her arms, she gazes forth from the gold back-ground which surrounds her. A pure harmony of color adds to the singular states : " Item. I have paid two silver pennies to have the picture opened which Meister Stephan painted at Cologne." This picture was the great "Dombild," as it is called, an altar-piece still preserved in the Cathedral of Cologne, which, until this entry was noticed, had always been attributed to Meis- ter Wilhelm ; but when, in addition to Durer's assertion, the name of a by Hans Balding. p a i n ter, Stephan Lochner, or Loethener, was actu- ally discovered by M. Merlo in some old registers of the years 1442 and 1448 in Cologne, the evidence seemed strong in his favor. Some writers, however, even now hold to the opinion that Meister Wilhelm was the real painter of the Dom-bild. The fame of being the painter of such a picture as the Dom-bild, the crowning work of the Cologne school, is truly worth contending for, it being one of the noblest and most beautiful works of early religious art. The spiritual ideal is never for a moment forgotten in it, but the figures are more strongly modeled, and have a greater naturalistic freedom than in most other productions of this school. The realism blended with mysticism that produced "The Mystic Lamb" of St. Bavon, of Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, produced, in fact, likewise this earlier work of German art, which, in many beauty of this old work. But the fame of Meis- ter Wilhelm has of late years paled before the superior merits of an- other master of the Co- logne school, Meister Stephan, or Stephan Lochner, who flourished in the first half of the fifteenth century, and who, it is possible, was one of Wilhelm's pupils. The name of Meister Stephan was first made known to critics by an entry in the "Journal of From the original. .„ THE KISS OF DEATH. Albrecht Diirer,' which MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. respects, may be compared to the masterwork of the Van Eycks. It is divided into three compartments, the centre representing "The Adoration of the Kings," whilst on the wings are St. Ursula and her Virgins, and St Gereon and his men-at-arms, the figures being all painted on a gold background, with a depth and beauty of color which almost equals Flemish oil-painting in effect, although it seems to be painted in tempera on wood. The dark-green foreground, studded with flowers in the Flemish manner, is most carefully worked out and extremely beautiful ; but we scarcely notice details in looking for the first time at this work, so impressive is the mild majesty of the enthroned Virgin, the deep reverence and love of the noble old king kneeling before the Child, and the tender beauty and innocence of St. Ursula and her companions. On the outside of the wings, as was customary in these altar-pieces, the Virgin Annunciate and the Annunciate Angel are depicted, the only paintings seen when the altar-piece is closed. These figures also have an exquisite tenderness of sentiment and deep spirituality. A "Last Judgment," conceived with great dramatic power, but with very little knowledge of form, and in that quaint old comic spirit of symbolism that usually prevails in early representations of this subject, is also ascribed to Meister Stephan. There are many other curious works of the same school in the Wallraf collection, which is peculiarly rich in works of early German art. There are also many scattered in old German churches. Before the end of the fifteenth century the influence of the Flemish school was powerfully exerted over the masters of Cologne. Their spiritual idealism naturally gave way before the noble realism and better technical methods of the Van Eycks, and accordingly we find that most of the German painters of this time belong to the school of Rogier Van der Weyden rather than to that of Meister Stephan. The influence of Flemish realism is especially apparent in the works of a German master, who was formerly but erroneously called Israel Van Meckenen, but who is now usually styled after his principal work, "The Master of the Lyversberg Passion" (about 1463-1480). "The Lyversberg Passion" is in eight compartments, representing the scenes of the Passion of Christ. There is not the elevated feeling in the conception of this work that marks the creations of the earlier Cologne masters, but on the other hand there is far greater power of expression and knowledge of form, and much richer color. The technical execution was, in fact, greatly advanced by this painter, and a more natural life infused into the old types, but the pure religious feeling of the Cologne school is only now and then apparent. There are several charming works ascribed to this master in the cabinets of the Munich Gallery, and there is also one, a "Presentation in the Temple," in the English National Gallery. GERMAN SCHOOL. 9 i Another anonymous painter of this time is The Master of "The Death of the Virgin." He is unfortunately but little known, and consequently but little spoken of even by German critics, but the one certain work by which he is known, "The Death of the Virgin," and its side wings representing "The Family of the Donor" (the male portion under the protection of St. George and St. Nicasius, and the female portion under St. Christina and St. Gudula), is a painting worthy of being classed with many of the most extolled works of the school of Bruges. It has all the power and color of Rogier Van Weyden, while in the peaceful beauty of the Virgin who lies dying on the bed, there is a touch of the ideality of Meister Stephan. The scene is laid in a chamber wherein all the Apostles are assembled, as is usual in representations of this kind. St. John supports the dying Virgin, and St. Peter in full pontifical robes kneels by her side, reading prayers. All the rich details that the Bruges masters loved to introduce into their works are present here ; on a footstool in the fore-ground lies a rosary and an incense-pot ; a mirror hangs on the wall, and also a small painted altar- piece, in which one can distinguish that the middle compartment represents the creation of Eve, and the wings, the figures of Moses and Aaron. There are two repetitions of this work — one in the Pinakothek, and the other, slightly varied, in the Cologne Museum.* The exclusive taste of the preceding generation of critics for the works of the later Italian and Dutch schools caused the paintings of the German schools, which were stig- matized as hard and barbarian, to be overlooked. Germany has only within the present century awakened to the importance of her own national art, the Italian mania having previously prevailed there, as elsewhere. To Goethe, more than to any one else, belongs the distinction of having first drawn the attention of his countrymen to the merits of these early German masters. He was followed by the enthusiastic critic F. von Schlegel, who reminded the rising artists of his day that, "next to the finest of the old Italians, the style of the German masters well deserved their study." Two brothers named Boisseree also made a collection of all the old German paintings they came across, especially those of the Cologne school. This collection they sold to the king of Bavaria, and it now forms part of the great Munich Gallery. Other German galleries also are now abundantly stocked with works of the same school, so that, after being interested at first, the traveller in Germany is apt to get a little bored with these early German painters, particularly as in many cases their art is extremely crude and hard, and the subjects they chose for representation were too often martyr- doms, rendered with all their repulsive details. For it must not be supposed that the • As an example of the realistic detail of this picture, it may be mentioned that a corner of the rich carpet in one of the wings is positively painted on the frame, as if it hung over it. MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. majesty and sweetness of Meister Stephan, or the powerful realism of the master of "The Death of the Virgin," was reached by all or even many of the German masters of this time. A large proportion of them continued, even after the revival that art had experienced in Italy and the Netherlands, to work on in the old Byzantine trammels, from tki original. BURGKMAIR AND HIS WIFL ty Johann Burgkmair. and, indeed, we find, even in the sixteenth century, after the free schools of Upper Germany had attained to a noble national development, that the Byzantine type was, in many instances, still perpetuated in the Lower Rhine schools. BartolomAus Bruvn, a Cologne master living at the same time as DUrer, in another way also utterly missed the development of the stirring reformation age. His early GERMAN SCHOOL. 93 works are somewhat allied in style to those of the master of "The Death of the From the original, THE MEIER MADONNA, BY HOLBEIN. at Dresden. Virgin," whose pupil he is said to have been, but in his later ones an Italian influence is perceptible, which wholly undermines their genuine character. Q4 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. N. The spiritual life of the Byzantine-Romantic school had by this time, in fact, com- pletely died away. That unquestioning obedience to the Church of Rome which had been, perhaps, a salutary discipline in the arr^as well as the life of the European nations in the early ages of Christianity, was felt in Germany sooner than elsewhere as a galling restraint by the inquiring minds of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Reason asserted her claims, and the Teutonic intellect, now advanced beyond childhood, listened to her voice, and was the first to break the chains wherewith Rome still sought to bind die nations to her footstool. In Italy, when under the Medici the spirit of progress and rationalism prevailed, art, as we have seen, turned for inspiration to the classic works of Greece and Rome, and sought knowledge in ancient writers, and beauty in antique forms ; but German art, in casting off the traditions of Catholic Rome, did not, like Italy, receive the teaching and adopt the language of Pagan Rome, but immediately set to work to express German thought in honest German language. It is in its national character and its intellectual and moral dignity diat the real worth of German art lies at this date, and not in classic grace or sensuous beauty. Of what may appropriately be called the Reformation school of Germany, Albrecht Diirer and Hans Holbein the Younger were the two chief masters. Albrecht DOrer (born at Niirnberg, 1471, died 1528) was the son of a working goldsmith, and himself worked, for some time, at his father's trade; but "his inclination carrying him more towards painting than to goldsmiths' work," his father bound him apprentice to Michael Wohlgemuth, with whom he served for three years. To these student years {Lehrjahre) succeeded four years of travel ( Wandcrjahre), of which, unfor- tunately, we have no record. On his return he settled in his native town as a painter, and married Agnes Frey, with whom it is supposed he lived very unhappily.* In 1505 Diirer undertook a journey on horseback to the north of Italy, and was kindly received by the painters of Venice. Especially Giovanni Bellini, whom Diirer calls 'the best painter of them all," noticed the German artist, and highly praised his work. This visit to Venice formed a bright episode in Dlirer's restrained work-a-day life. "I wish you were here," he writes to Pirkheimer, from Venice. "There are so many pleasant companions amongst the Waischcn" (an old German term for Italians), "that it does one's heart good to be with them: learned men, good lute-players, pipers, connoisseurs in art, — all very noble-minded, upright, virtuous people, who bestow on me much honor and friendship." And in another letter he says: "Here I am a gentleman, * WUlibald Plrahalwr. in a letter written some time after Diirer'i death, tells his correspondent that Agnes Frey, by her fretful temper and bitter tongue worried her husband to death. On (he other hand, Agnes Frey has of late years found several vindicators, wbo attribute Pirkheimer » injurious expressions to malic*. H g 3 H o o Pi 3 S Pi H O w s H 2 o GERMAN SCHOOL. 95 whilst at home I am only a parasite. Oh, how I shall freeze after this sunshine !" Yet at the end of 1506 he returned to Niirnberg, refusing an offer of two hundred ducats a year that had been made him by the Venetian Government if he would settle at Venice. Whilst at Venice he executed a great altar-piece for the guild of German merchants, which, he tells us, effectually silenced the jealous assertion of the Venetians, that "although he was a good engraver, he did not know how to color." This painting — "The Feast of the Rose-garlands" — is now preserved in the monastery of Strahof, near Prague. It represents the Virgin with a Pope, an Emperor (Maximilian), numerous saints and knights, and various members of the German guild kneeling before her, and receiving crowns of roses from her hands, or those of the Child. St. Domenic, the founder of the feast, stands to the right, and also crowns with roses a monk of his order. In this painting we see that Diirer had greatly overcome the hard and unlovely manner gained from Wohlgemuth, which characterizes his earlier works, and yet it is strange to notice how very little influence Italian art had over him. "The Venetians," he says, "abuse my style, and say that it is not after the antique," and their criticism was true enough. Nothing can well be less antique than his strongly marked individu- ality and genuinely national mode of expression. Even in the Madonna of "The Rose- garlands," which ranks as one of his most beautiful and poetical works, and which was painted while under the immediate influence of the works of the great masters of Venice, we find no trace of imitation of their style, nor adoption of their ideas. On his return from Venice, it is true, he executed two large single figures of Adam and Eve (now in the Royal Gallery at Madrid), which, perhaps, might have been intended to rival the nude displays of Italian art; but, if so, this was but a solitary and probably conscious effort, and did not in the least affect the thorough independence of his genius. To the period immediately following his return from Venice belong some of the finest and most original of his works. His powers had now reached their full perfection, and from this time until the journey to the Netherlands, in 1520, may be reckoned the most productive period of his life — the blooming-time of his art. Before this — namely, in 1498 — he had already published the powerful wood-cuts of "The Apocalypse," in which the mystic and fantastic spirit before spoken of as lingering in German art, first assumed distinct shape. These wood-cuts are, moreover, important as marking a period in the history of wood- engraving, they being far superior not only in design, but also in execu- tion, to anything that had previously appeared. In 151 1 he followed up the success of his "Apocalypse" series by another magnificent set of large cuts known as " The Great Passion ;" a set of thirty-seven smaller ones, called "The Little Passion," and the series of "The Life of the Virgin." To the same fertile year belongs also the great painting of "The Adoration of the Trinity" (now in MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. the Belvedere at Vienna), which is usually considered to be his finest painted work. In this, God the Father, throned on the double rainbow, holds forth for the love and adoration of the Christian church, the form of his crucified Son, while the Dove of the Spirit hovers above. Two bands of the glorified elect approach on either side, the female saints being led by the Virgin Mary, who, it is significant to notice, has not the same prominent position accorded to her here as is usual in Catholic art Below, but still caught up into the air with Christ, are the various classes and conditions of men — emperor, pope, monk, peasant, knight, and burgher, all expressing die same incompre- hensible faith, and worshipping the mystic Trinity in unity. Another of his great- est religious paintings represented "The Coro- nation of the Virgin." It was painted for the Frankfort merchant, Ja- cob Heller, and several of Diirer's letters re- specting it are preserved, but unfortunately the pic- ture itself perished by fire in 1674. An excel- lent copy of it, however, still hangs in the old Town Gallery, at Frank- fort. It must have been From the original QUIS EVADET? by Coltxiui. a grand work. But the masterwork of Diirer's art is undoubtedly found in "The Four Apostles of the Pinakothek" at Munich. So strikingly contrasted are the char- acters of the Apostles St John and St. Peter, St Paul and St Mark, that it has been supposed that Diirer meant to symbol- ize the Four Tempera- ments by them, but there is nothing beyond this forcible individualization of character, and a vague statement of Neudorffer's, whereon to found such a theory. In these noble figures, which are the size of life, Diirer has thoroughly overcome all the hardness and mannerism of his early style, and has attained to a simple grandeur of expression and deep harmony of color that may bear comparison with almost any Italian work of his time. Without exaggeration or mannerism, or Germanism, or Italianism, he has set forth with all the power of his great intellect his conception of the Four Teachers of pure Christian doctrine before that doctrine had been corrupted by the traditions, superstitions and vain ceremonies of the Church of Rome. Kugler calls these pictures "the first complete work of art produced by Protestantism," and it is possible that Diirer may have remembered some of his conversations with Melancthon when he painted them; but it is not Protestantism or Catholicism, or any other "ism," that they express, but the artist's own individual thought on the subject unbound by any creed whatever, and GERMAN SCHOOL. 97 free from the dogmas of any Church. They were executed in 1526, two years before his death, and as if with a consciousness that this was the final expression of his art, he refused to sell these works, but presented them as "a remembrance to his native town."* But it is less by his paintings than by his engraved works that Diirer is known to the world. His paintings, even if we reckon all that are attributed to him, are but few and scattered, and none of them, except perhaps "The Apostles," are equal in dignity of form or harmony of color to the works of the great Italians of his time, From the original, THE DEATH OF ADONIS. by y. Rottcnhamcr. but his engravings are fantastic poems of which we never grow weary, for there is a sense of mystery in them that exerts a powerful fascination over the mind. Every one knows the celebrated print of "The Knight, Death and the Devil." Each time we see it we regard it with fresh interest, and although we may not be poets like Fouque, who founded upon it his wild and romantic tale of Sintram, yet we cannot help constructing some theory to explain its strange charm. To how many theories, likewise, has that weird conception called "Melancholia" given rise! The grand winged woman, sitting brooding in darkness of mind over the hidden mysteries of nature, while the insufficient 1 * Only copies now hang in the Rath-haus of Niirnberg, the originals having been given up by the Rath, or Town Council, to the elector Maximilian in the seventeenth century. They are now in the first Saal of the Pinakothek. 98 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. instruments of human science lie scattered around — symbols of man's futile endeavors to reach heavenly wisdom. In "The Coat of Arms, with the Death's Head," also, a less known engraving, and many other of his prints, the same sense of mystery prevails. Of the execution of his engravings, no praise can be too great. They are often perfect miracles of delicacy and finish. In 1520 Albrecht Durer, accompanied by his wife, undertook a journey to the Netherlands, probably with a view of gaining from the newly elected emperor, Charlie V . an acknowledgment or ratification of the debt due to him from the emperor Maximilian, and also a continuance of his position as court-painter. The journal that he kept during this tour has been preserved, and gives many interesting details of artist-life at that period. Everywhere he was received with high honor and cordial esteem, and his visit appears to have afforded him the greatest satisfaction. At Antwerp die Guild of Painters gave a grand banquet in his honor, at which he tells us "they spared no expense." "When I was going in to the dinner," he says, "all the people formed in a line on two sides for me to pass through, as though I had been a great lord. When I was seated at table there came a messenger from the Senate at Antwerp, who presented me with four tankards of wine in the name of the Senators (Raths lurni), and he said that they desired to honor me with this, and that I should have their good-will. Then I said that I gave them my humble thanks and offered them my humble service." These marks of respect from foreigners were, perhaps, the more pleasing to Durer, as he does not seem to have been held in any high honor in his native town. At all events, in writing once to the Rath of Nurnberg, he told his noble lords that for thirty years during which he had worked in the town he had never received so much as five hundred florins of Nurnberg money, although both at Venice and Antwerp he had been offered a munificent sum if he would remain in those cities. In another place, also, he speaks of his circumstances as "lamentable and shameful." Germany, indeed, had at this time no munificent patrons of art, such as those we have seen in Italy, to give worthy employment to her artists. Holbein, as we know, was forced to go to England to seek his fortune, and Durer once wrote, "Henceforth I shall stick to my engraving. If I had done so before I should be richer by one thousand florins than I am at the present day." But, although he had but few patrons, Diirer was the friend of many of the most distinguished men of his time. Melancthon, the most liberal-minded reformer of his age, had the truest regard for him. "I grieve," he wrote at Diirer's death, "for Germany, deprived of such a man and such an artist;" and again he records, "His least merit was his art" Luther, also, appears to have been personally known to him, and from an outburst of feeling in his journal on the occasion of Luther's supposed captivity, it is evident how deeply Dtlrer sympathized with the reforming spirit that GERMAN SCHOOL. 99 Luther had evoked, although it is not certain that he ever entirely withdrew from com- munion with the Church of Rome. For Erasmus, with whom he became acquainted in the Netherlands, he had less respect, but he has given us a most characteristic portrait of him, as well as of Melancthon. Like Leonardo da Vinci, Diirer was not limited to one mode of expression. He was an architect and sculptor as well as a painter and engraver. He was likewise the author of several scientific treatises, one in particular, on human proportion, which was for a long time the received text-book on the subject, and was translated into several ( languages. The portraits he has left us of himself, more especially the well-known one of the Munich Gallery, show us a noble, thoughtful countenance, with large melancholy eyes, far-seeing, and yet full of human sympathy. The hair, parted in the middle, flows down in rich curls on to the shoulders, as in the usual portraits of Christ.* The hand, holding the fur collar of the coat, is exquisitely formed. Altogether we recognize, as Camerarius says, that "nature had given him a form well suited to the beautiful spirit which it held within." Diirer had a considerable number of pupils and followers, but most of them are better known as engravers than as painters. The term "Little Masters," which is often made to include the whole following of Diirer, is more correctly limited to seven artists, all of whom worked during some part of their lives in Nurnberg under Diirer, or under his immediate influence. These artists were: Heinrich Aldegrever (1502-55-65); A. Altdorfer, 1 488-1 540; Bartel Beham, 1504-40; H. Sebald Beham, 1500-50; George Pensz, 1500-55; Jacob Bink; Hans Brosamer. These are called the "Little Masters," or "the Little Masters of Niirnberg," on account of the small size of their prints, few of which measure more than three or four inches across, some being much smaller. Their painted works are for the most part extremely rare, and not remarkable for any particular excellence. Of Hans Sebald Beham, for instance, only one authentic painting is known.f and scarcely more of any of the others, but their prints are often met with, and are highly prized by connoisseurs. Beham's cuts, etchings and engravings alone amount to about four hundred. They are wonderfully skillful in workmanship, and show a fertile invention, only unfortunately they are often coarse, indeed indecent, in subject, a fault into which many of these little masters fell, although their master, Diirer, was singularly free from it. An Italian sentiment prevails in the later works of several of them. As Diirer's influence faded they became less German and less truthful. » The likeness of the Munich portrait of Diirer to the typical head of Christ has been often remarked. It has likewise something of the character of the Greek Zeus. t A series of scenes from the life of David, forming a square table divided into four triangles. It is now in the Louvre. IOO MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Holbein's life has a particular interest for Englishmen from the fact that the most important years of it were passed in their country, and that he was associated with several of the great men of the time of Henry VIII. Until recently, however, the biographies we have had of him have been only a confused mass of contradictory state- ments. No one, for instance, knew for certain where or in what year he was born, or when he died, and this caused endless mistakes, pictures being often assigned to him that were dated long after his death. But two comprehensive biographies of Holbein have been published within the last From tkt original. ZEUXIS PAINTING HELEN OF CROTON by J. Von Sandrarl. few years* that have at length set the principal facts of his life in a satisfactory light, and have solved many of the questions that had puzzled preceding writers. With two such men as Woltmann and Wornum working — the one in Germany and the odier in England — on the same subject at the same time, it is not indeed surprising to learn "that light has been let in on to the biography of Hans Holbein;" but it is provoking to find that, after all. it is only facts and dates that arrange themselves more clearly, • Some Account of the Life and Work* of Hani Holbein. Painter of Augsburg." R. N. Wornum. 1867. " Holbein und wine Zrit." A. Woltmann. I-n|>«i«. 1866. 'KE BAVARIA. I If A NTHALERS : GERMAN SCHOOL. 101 and that we do not, even in these biographies, gain a much closer view of the painter himself, of the real mind of the man. than we had before. Hans Holbein, the youngest and greatest painter of the name, was born at Augs- burg, in 1494 or 1495. His father was an artist of considerable merit, by whom there are a number of paintings in the Munich Gallery, as well as several at Augsburg* His mother was the granddaughter of Thomas, and sister of Hans Burgkmair, so that on both sides he may claim an artistic descent. His uncle also, Sigmund Holbein, was a skillful painter, as may be seen by an excellent though stiff portrait by him of a Swiss Lady, with an extraordinary white linen cap, on which a fly has settled, in the National Gallery. Hans Holbein, the younger, therefore, was born, so to speak, into an art-atmosphere in which the hereditary talent that he soon showed for paint- ing was carefully devel- oped and fostered. When he was only fifteen, we find him receiving independent commissions as well as working for his father. In 1 5 1 6, he left Augs- burg, and set up for him- self at Basel, where he soon achieved so great a From the original, by C. IV. E. Dietrich. THE RAT-CATCHER. reputation that he was employed by the town- council, in 151 2, to paint in fresco the council-cham- ber of the new Rathhaus. Unfortunately, most of these frescoes have been utterly destroyed by damp, only a few detached frag- ments being now preserv- ed in the museum at Basel, but by the sketches and copies that remain of them they must have been powerfully designed works. They set forth, as was usual in the decorations of council-chambers, the virtue of justice, especially illus- trated by examples in ancient and biblical history. But by far the greatest work of Holbein's early or Basel period is the celebrated votive picture known as the Meier Madonna (engraved on page 93), executed for the Burgomaster Jacob Meier, of Basel, and representing him and his family kneeling before the Virgin. This picture has recently given rise to a storm of criticism. Two repetitions of it are known to exist — one in the possession of the Princess Elizabeth of Hesse at Darmstadt, and the other the well-known Holbein Madonna of the Dresden Gallery, that long reigned without a rival. Whichever was painted first, there seems to be little * Of Hans Holbein, the grandfather, less is known ; but several pictures by him are preserved at Augsburg, in which the heads are said to have a thoroughly portrait-like character, so that it would seem that a realistic treatment was adopted from the first by the Holbein family. 102 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. doubt that both examples were executed by the master himself in the fulness of his power, and, in reality, then- is but little to choose between them. If the Darmstadt picture has greater force, the Dresden example, on the other hand, has greater grace and beauty, and however critics may decide, this long-reverenced picture will not easily be displaced from its high position. It is, in truth, one of the noblest works of which German art can boast : earnest in thought, powerful in characterization, dignified in con- ception, pure and holy in sentiment, and of a solemn beauty unmarked by the hardness of the German style, and yet withal intensely German in expression. Another Holbein Madonna, recently discovered in a private collection at Solothurm, is praised in high terms by Liibke. It represents the Virgin enthroned between the German saints, Ursus and Martinus, and is dated 1522, and belongs therefore also to the Basel period In 1526 Holbein, either because he failed in obtaining a sufficient reward for his labors in Basel, or from some other cause, quitted that city and went to England, leaving his wife and child behind him ; but that he deserted his family, as has been stated, is a question open to extreme doubt. He took with him a letter of introduction from Erasmus, with whom he had probably become acquainted at the house of the celebrated printer Frobenius, at Basel, to Sir Thomas More, who received him most kindly, and lodged him in his own house at Chelsea. In 1529 he returned for a short time to Basel, in order, it would appear, to finish his paintings in the Rathhaus, but very soon he was back again in England. England, indeed, at that time offered a far wider and richer field for his art than the impoverished cities of Germany. The Court of Henry VIII was then about the most magnificent in Europe, and as there were no English painters attached to it, it is not strange to find that Holbein was soon installed as court-painter, or "servant of the king's majesty." with a salary of £2,0 per annum, besides rooms in the palace. The oft repeated reply of Henry VIII to the noble earl who complained that Holbein had kicked him down stairs, illustrates, whether the story be true or not, the estimation in which the painter was held at the court of the bluff Tudor. "I can, if I please, make seven lords out of seven plowmen, but I cannot make one Holbein even out of seven lords;" and no one but a Holbein, the sagacious monarch was aware, could have executed those incom- parable portraits of himself and his courtiers. Although Holbein's portraits and religious subjects are characterized by a broad and simple treatment, and a rigid regard for truth, yet it is evident from some others of his works that he did not altogether escape the fantastic spirit which was prevalent in German art in his time. This is especially manifest in his famous "Dance of Death.' most likely executed during the Basel period, but not published until 1538, at Lyons. GERMAN SCHOOL. 103 The enormous popularity of these death-dances, and similar subjects in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, is, indeed, in itself a striking proof of the deep hold that this fantastic mode of viewing even the most solemn subjects had taken on the imaginations of the people. Tragedy takes the form of burlesque, but the skeleton is none the less appalling because it cuts capers and grins. Nothing, indeed, can be more weird than Holbein's conceptions of this terrible dance, in which popes, kings, emperors, lovely women, children, warriors, priests, and peasants are obliged to bear part. No one is too high or too low for Death to claim as a partner, except, indeed, the poor leper Lazarus, who vainly implores Death to lend him a helping hand. Holbein employed wood-engraving for this series of designs, but it is conjectured by some writers that he likewise painted a "Dance of Death" in fresco either at Basel .or in the Palace of Whitehall in London. It has always been known that Holbein died of the plague in London, but it has not been proved until recently that it was the plague of 1543 to which he fell a victim. He died some time between the 7th of October (on which day he made his will) and the 29th of November, 1543. V The number of portraits resembling Holbein's in style, that are found both in public and private galleries, would lead to the belief that he had a goodly number of followers and imitators ; but, strange to say, but few of these can, with any certainty, be identified. Christoph Amberger (1490-about 1563), although, strictly speaking, a pupil of the elder Holbein, evidently owed much to the younger, to whom, in many of his portraits, he approaches very closely. Nicolaus Manuel, generally called Deutsch (1484-1530), a Swiss painter, poet, and reformer of considerable power, studied Holbein with great effect, and with but little loss to his originality. There are several remarkable pictures by him in the interesting museum at Basel, where so many of the quaint and crude works of early German art are preserved, but his principal work seems to have" been a "Dance of Death," executed in fresco on the cemetery- wall of the Dominican monas- tery at Berne. This has unfortunately perished, but the copies that still exist show it to have been conceived in a humorous rather than a fantastic spirit. Deutsch is said to have studied under Titian in Venice about 151 1. He is known to the Italians as Emanuelo Tedesco. * 1 A more important and independent master is Lucas Sunl\er, called Cranach, from his birthplace in Franconia (1472-15 13). In 1493,. Cranach accompanied Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, to the Holy Land, and on his return was appointed court- painter to the Electoral House o'f §axony, an office that he held under three successive electors, the last being the noble Frederick the Magnarfimous, to whom Cranach was so much attach^! that he preferred sharing tha't unfospnate prince's five years' captivity »■ ■ m <4 ■ m m ra ^ GERMAN SCHOOL. 105 after the battle of Muhlberg, to accompanying the victorious Charles V to the Nether- lands. He spent the greater part of his life at Wittenberg, where it appears he kept an apothecary's shop, called the "Adler," at the south-west corner of the market-place* He was, however, a man of high mark in the town, and was twice elected to the office of Burgomaster. On returning from his attendance on the Elector during that prince's From the original, by Frederick Overleck. THE ENTOMBMENT. imprisonment, an imprisonment that he greatly enlivened by his art and cheerful society, Cranach, then an old man, retired to Weimar, where he died at the age of eighty. A medal was struck in his honor, with his portrait on one side, and on the other his crest — a dragon with a crown on its head, a well-known mark on his pictures and prints. Cranach's art is thoroughly national. He delights in quaint invention, and some- * This " Cranachhaus" has unfortunately been recently destroyed by fire. io6 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. times even indulges in caricature. His pictures have a cheerfulness of character and a certain naive childlike grace that seems like the unconscious expression of the happy disj>osition of the artist They do not affect us in the same way as those of Albrecht DUrer, for there is no sense of mystery in them. The mind of Cranach is as clear as that of DUrer is dark to human sight. Even his allegories, although original in treat- ment, are of the most obvious kind. "The Fountain of Youth," for example, a painting in the Berlin Gallery, is amusing in its realism. A number of ugly old women are dragged through a barren land down to the large decorative fountain that fills the middle of the picture, and, after playing about in its waters, turn out as frolicsome young maidens, in the beautiful country that lies on the other side. He excelled in the delinea- tion of birds and animals, and was especially fond of hunting-scenes. The border- drawings by him, in what is known as Albrecht Diirer's Prayer Book, are admirable examples of his skill in these subjects. His mythological pieces are far less pleasing, often, indeed, appearing like German burlesques on classic form and beauty. His por- traits, on the other hand, are powerfully conceived, and he has left us portraits of many of the most noteworthy men of his time. His female portraits have especially a peculiar charm. There is a wonderful portrait by him of a young girl, in the English National Gallery, which gives an excellent idea of his style. Although so richly dressed, and loaded with ornament, the little girl herself is exquisitely sweet and unaffected, and smiles so pleasantly at us from out her magnificent trappings, that we fall in love with her on the spot Of Cranach's large religious works, a Crucifixion — an altar-piece in a church at Weimar — is perhaps the most important. The blood from the wounded side of Christ is represented as pouring on to the head of the painter, who stands beneath the cross with his friends Luther and Melancthon, the latter in the character of St. John the Baptist directing the attention of the other two to the Great Sacrifice. It is by his engravings that Cranach is best known. He executed a vast number of these, both on wood and copper, and his execution was so rapid as to gain him the title of "celerrimus pictor" on his tombstone. Heller enumerates eight hundred of his prints. After DUrer, Holbein and Cranach, German art fell from its high independent position to a mere mannered imitation of Italian. As in Flanders at the same period, the honest national mode of expression was entirely deserted by the German artists of the seventeenth century, and that "frantic pilgrimage to Italy," as Fuseli calls it, set in, which ended in the utter degradation of all northern art. Amongst the German Italianizers, Heinrich Goltzius (i 558-1 617) is one of the cleverest. He however struggled after Michael Angelo in distorted dreams. GERMAN SCHOOL. 107 Johann Rothenhammer, who was born at Munich in 1564, was the pupil of a painter named Hans Donnauer. He went, when still young, to Rome, where his works were fully appreciated, but a desire to improve his color caused him to leave the papal capital and repair to Venice, where he studied the works of Tintoretto. After an absence of many years, Rothenhammer returned to his native country, and established himself as a painter at Augsburg, where he resided until his death in 1623. Though he had been much patronized — especially by the Emperor Rudolph II — Rothenhammer, owing to his extravagant habits, died in poverty. His small works are better executed than his large, and of the greatest merit are those of which Paul Bril or Jan Breughel painted the backgrounds. Rothenhammer frequently painted on copper. Of his works which are numerous, we may mention a "Death of Adonis," in the Louvre, and a "Pan and Syrinx," with a background by Jan Breughel. Joachim von Sandrart, the painter and historian, was born at Frankfort in 1606. He first studied drawing under Theodor de Bry and Matthew Merian ; and then engraving, at Prague, under Egidius Sadeler, who advised him to abandon that art for painting. Sandrart accordingly entered the school of Gerard Honthorst at Utrecht. Decamps and other writers have affirmed, but probably erroneously, that Sandrart accompanied Honthorst to England. Be that as it may, Sandrart went in 1627 to Venice, thence to Rome, where he dwelt for many years, the companion of great artists and other celebrated men of the day. He numbered among his friends Cardinal Bar- berini and Prince Giustiniani. After his return to his native land, Sandrart executed many altar-pieces for the churches of Bavaria and the convents of Austria. Towards the close of his life he turned his attention more to writing on art, for which he is so justly famous. He also opened an academy at Nuremberg, where he eventually died in 1688. Among Sandrart's pictures, which are numerous, the most noteworthy are "An Allegory," representing Pallas and Saturn defending the genii of the Fine Arts against the Furies of Envy, in the Belvedere at Vienna; a "Celebration of the Peace of West- phalia," formerly in the Landauer Briiderhaus, at Nuremberg; "Zeuxis;" and "The Company of the Amsterdam Archers at the Entry of Mary of Medici," in the town- hall of that town. Besides historic and mythologic subjects, Sandrart executed many portraits. Of Sandrart's literary works, the chief is the "Teutsche Academie," published at Nuremberg in 1675. Raphael Mengs (1 728-1 774), in the eighteenth century, under the influence of Winckelman, the first modern expounder of the meaning of Greek art, attempted to revive the severe spirit of classic art, and to return to a purely ideal conception of human nature. He only succeeded, however, in attaining to a cold, lifeless eclecticism, ■ ■1 : SB H [Sw : . Jg h knvrr. THE DEATH OF SILGFRlEO o to < k1 w H 2 o in H w < < ffl Q W 5 Hi o S5 no MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. for although his drawing was correct, his forms ideal, and his style classic, he lacked the inspiration necessary to the production of all truly great creative works. Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich, who was born at Weimar in 171 2, studied first under his father and then under Alexander Thiele at Dresden, where he was much patronized by Count Briihl. Dietrich was, in 1730, made court-painter to Augustus 11. King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, and in 1741 he received the same appointment from Augustus III, who afterwards sent him to Italy to study the old masters. Dietrich remained at Rome but one year. In 1 746 he was made keeper of the Dresden Gallery, with a salary of four hundred rix-dollars. In 1763 he was made a professor in the Academy of Arts in that town, with a salary of six hundred rix-dollars, and also director of the school of painting in the porcelain manufactory at Meissen. Dietrich continued to live honored and patronized by all until his death in 1774. Dietrich is the Luca fa presto of Germany. A universal imitator and fruitful copyist, he has performed in the north precisely what Luca Giordano did in the south. In the beginning of the present century, a new and powerful impulse was given to German art by a few youthful and aspiring artists who were at that time pursuing their studies at Rome, and who almost simultaneously became animated with the desire of reviving not so much the material form, as the true Christian spirit of early religious art. Renouncing the vain worship of sensuous beauty, and rebelling against the cold formalisms of academies, these artists sought once more to awaken that feeling for spiritual beauty which had formerly inspired Italian art. but which had now long lain dormant. Passing by the great masters of the Renaissance, they turned back, therefore, like the English Pre-Raphaelites, to the early religious painters of Italy for guidance in the ways of truth, and endeavored to found a new Christian school of painting on the old basis of faith and devotion Foremost in this movement stand the names of Pkter von Cornelius, Friedrick Overbeck, Philip? Yeit, and Wilhelm Schadow. A favorable opportunity was soon afforded to these artists for expressing their prin- ciples, by the Prussian Consul Bartholdi, who in 181 6 had his villa in Italy decorated with frescoes representing the history of Joseph. These were the first of several vast series of frescoes, both in Italy and Germany, accomplished by what is called the Minn 11 School, a school that especially affects large monumental works. German enthusiasm saw in these ambitious compositions the inauguration of a new and glorious epoch in German art These were the flowers to which the hard buds of early German art had expanded ; but unfortunately, although several of the masters of this school were men endowed with great inventive faculty and a true feeling for spiritual beauty, it cannot be denied that the power was wanting to them to give to the revolution they achieved a deep and lasting importance. One chief reason for diis was that they fell back on . iL ■ ■ GERMAN SCHOOL. in the past for inspiration, and drew their ideas from fountains which, though once living, had long become exhausted. Overbeck, indeed, who is generally regarded as the founder of the school, soon went wholly over to Rome, and limited his art, like the fourteenth century masters whom he copied, to a mere expression of Catholic asceticism. Cornelius, it is true, has given to his works a far wider significance, and in several of his great frescoes at Munich has expressed the eternal truths of religion, apart from creeds, with comprehensive intellect and in a thoughtfully ideal style. Wilhelm von Kaulbach, the most distinguished pupil of Cornelius, had too much originality to adhere very closely to the ideal style of his master. His fancy disports itself in less exalted regions, and he often seems to have no greater aim than that of mere pictorial effect. Indeed, it soon became apparent that the grand Christian ideal of the Munich school could not so easily be reached, and that even in the works of its most devoted worshippers it had found but a cold and unsatisfactory expression. A realistic reaction accordingly set in, and the Dusseldorf School arose with lesser aims but more perfect accomplishment than the Munich. At the present day this school is principally distinguished by its careful and clever genre painting. If we were asked what a religious artist of the Middle Ages was like — if any one would wish to learn what was the devout life and the earnest work of an old Italian painter — we would, without hesitation, point to Overbeck. Here is a man the very type not only of what history tells us the spiritual painter was, but also the personal reali- zation of that which the mind conceives the Christian artist should be. It has been our privilege not unfrequently to visit the studio of this venerable man ; to listen to his hushed voice, solemn in earnestness of purpose, and touched with the pathetic tones which rise from sympathy ; to look upon that head gently bowed upon the shoulders, the face furrowed with thoughts which for eighty years have worn deep channels, the forehead and higher regions of the brain rising to a saint-like crown ; and never have we left those rooms, where Christian Art found purest examples, without feeling towards the artist himself gratitude and affection. The world, indeed, owes to* such a man no ordinary debt. The Art of Europe had fallen, and Overbeck believed that to him was entrusted its restoration. His life had been a mission, his labor a ministration, and as years rolled on a gathering solemnity shadowed round his work. That work was the building up of the ruined structure of Christian Art. And thus Overbeck became the founder of the modern school of religious painting, and his name is now identified with the forms of pure and spiritual beauty which clothe the Christian faith. As a father, then, of the so-called " Christian school of painting," purified from paganism, and delivered from the carnal allurements of corrupt Renaissant masters, Overbeck will now claim our reverent yet critical regard. 114 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. The life of Overbeck, like that of other quiet, self-contained and inwardly-centred men, has been unmarked by startling incident Cornelius was born at Diisseldorf in the year 1787, Overbeck, his brother in Art, his companion in labor, his fellow-citizen in Rome, came into the world two years later, in the ancient, gothic and gable-built town of Lubeck, a free port on the Baltic. It has often been said that nature never repeats the same types, nor history recurs to identical situations; yet between the Art epochs and the Art leaders in Rome of the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, rise analogies which strike the mind as something more than accidental. In these periods, divided by an interval of three centuries, were alike existent two opposing schools, the one distinguished by spiritual expression, the other by physical power. In Italy of the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries, Fra Angelico, Perugino and the youthful Raphael clothed Christian Art in tenderest lineaments of beauty. On the other hand, Signortlli and Michael Angelo, of the opposite school, attained unwonted grandeur through massive muscular development And so we shall see, likewise, it happened within living memory, when new birth was to be given to noble Art. that the two contrary yet ofttimes co-operative principles from the first prevailed, the one steadfast in spirit, the other stalwart in the flesh; the one which, in the Middle Ages, had acknowledged Raphael for its disciple, the other which was proud to recognize Michael Angelo its giant master ; the one which, in our own day, inspired the loving devotion of Overbeck, the other which commands the stern service of Cornelius. Anil thus, as we have said, history is here, in remarkable analogies, repeating herself. The world of modern German Art, as that of old, divides itself into two hemispheres : Overbeck rules as the modern Raphael over the one; Cornelius, as a German Michael Angelo, bears iron sway over the other. Overbeck is the St John which leant in love on the bosom of our Lord ; Cornelius is St Peter, strong as a rock on which to build the Church. And as with Michael Angelo, followers were wanting, so with Cornelius: he walks in diat "terribil via" wherein few can venture to tread. The lot of Overbeck was more blessed. Like to Raphael, his forerunner, he drew by love all men unto him ; near to him, through fellowship of an endearing sympathy, warmed by the emotion which beauty, akin to goodness, in the universal heart begets. The biography of an artist such as Overbeck is not so much the record of events as the register of thoughts, the chronicle of those specific ideas which have given to his pictures an express character, and the recognition of the living faith which begets fol- lowers and creates a school. Overbeck, in the year 1808, at the age of twenty-one, went to Vienna to pursue his studies in the academy of that city. Already we find his mind brooding over the thoughts which fifty years later had become visibly engraven on his countenance, and were legibly transferred to his canvas. Overbeck in Vienna soon grew Ed. Grufzner pirac . Adolf Neumann sculps HARD X,XTCK; GKBB1E &.- BARRIE OF 0^0 GERMAN SCHOOL. 115 impatient of cold academic teaching, and to the much-lauded pictures of Guido and others of the eclectic school he was indifferent. Enthusiasm he reserved for the early masters of Italy and Germany, whose earnestness and simplicity taught him how far modern painters had wandered from the true and narrow way. Other students he knew to be like minded. The zeal of the youthful artists seems to have overstepped discretion. Refusing to take further counsel of the director of the academy, and despising the classic style then in vogue at Vienna, Overbeck and his associates broke out into revolt, and were in consequence expelled from the schools. This happened in the year 18 10, and immediately the rebels, nothing daunted, betook themselves to the more congenial atmosphere of Rome, and there chose the deserted cells of the cloister of St. Isidor for their dwelling and studio. The Art-brotherhood grew in zeal and in knowledge, and for ten years these painters kept close company, mutually confirming the common faith, all putting their shoulders together to meet the brunt of opposition. The numerous works which crowd the busy life of Overbeck afford evidence of teeming invention and untiring industry. These creations are divisible into three classes — outline compositions of the nature of cartoons, frescoes executed in churches or palaces, and lastly, oil or easel pictures. When first we visited the studio of Over- beck, some twenty-five years ago, then located in the palace of the Cenci, his rooms were occupied by designs executed in charcoal, intended for engraving and publication in one of those series of religious prints which have since obtained universal currency over Europe. Referring to our note-book, we see the record of the deep impression made on our mind by the painter and his works. Here was a man who lived in the presence of prophets, patriarchs and saints, and who seemed to have entered the spirit- world to bring down to earth those forms of purity and beauty which his canvas revealed. We were in company with a young sculptor in whom Overbeck took a fatherly interest. "What," said the venerable man, "are you now studying?" "I have received," said the sculptor in reply, "a commission to execute in marble a ballet-girl, slightly draped." A cloud shadowed the face of the Christian purist as he saw one more artist a wanderer from the fold, allured and lost. Designs similar in character to those to which we have referred, sometimes slight and sketchy in outline, and sometimes shaded into roundness and hatched with detail — the illustration on page 105, "The Entombment of Christ," is a favorite and well-known example — have occupied a large portion of Overbeck's labors. This is a style of work, indeed, for which, both physically and mentally, he is obviously expressly fitted. Wanting in bodily vigor, deficient in technical aptitude, and taking no delight in color, these simple designs in black and white did not over-tax his powers. Such compositions came moreover as special fulfilments of his own Art aspirations. It is well-known that the new-born Christian school declared all painting II'. MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN APT. must henceforth I*- "soul-painting," and accordingly the shadowy forms found in these ,11s, frail in bodily lineaments, freed from fleshy lusts, and delivered from die vain adornings of fashion, may be taken as the deliberate exponents of the theory held and promulgated. Coleridge said that a picture was a product occupying an intermediate position somewhere between a thought and a thing, and this aphorism of the English poet-metaphysician serves to show the attitude held by Overbeck among painters. Artists there are who lay strong emphasis on the "thing." who, to borrow the favorite term of German philosophers, are "objective," positive in line, powerful in form, and triumphant in all outward and material manifestations. Overbeck was not of their number. He be- longed, on the con- trary, to the other category — paint- ers of "diought." Long before his picture became a "thing" visible and tangible, it dwelt, unencumbered by gross bodily form, as a shadow)' con- ception in the chambers of se- Fr—i Ikt erifinat. J'. J/atttHclt.tvcr. THE WINE TASTERS. eluded meditation. While Overbeck the devotee knelt, as did the monk Beato of Fiesole, in his church, when he walked in soli- tude along the si- lent cloister, these " t h o u g h t - p i c- tures," even like "word-pictures" to the poet, came crowding to his mind; and as with the prophet of old. so with the prophet-painter in our day, would the exclamation arise, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." Artists like these — such, for example, as vision-seeing Blake — live in close communion with the world of spirits ; the heavenly portals arc thrown open, and rays of light and truth shower down abun- dantly on him who waits and watches for guidance and divine conception. Ideas thus framed or communicated seek utterance, and no more facile expression can be gained than that sought by Overbeck through the point of soft charcoal, which readily transfers each inward form to th<- visible surface of paper. His drawings bespeak whence they come. In technical qualities they may fail, in physical structure they may be feeble ; but then each line is sensitive, each form seems begotten in realms removed from this lower sphere; the figures belong to worlds untainted by sin; the characters are the imaginings of a mind loth to look outward on the earth, but prone to gaze inward on consciousness and upward towards Deity. Taken for all in all, these works are perhaps the nearest approach to disembodied thoughts possible to pictorial forms. GERMAN SCHOOL. 117 "Christ Blessing Little Children" is deservedly one of the most popular among Overbeck's numerous compositions. It is interesting to note that though Overbeck, as a spiritual artist, may be supposed to transcend all mundane conditions, yet that in the From the original, PORTRAIT OF HASSENCLEAVER. by J P. Hassencleuvcr. putting together of this design he studiously conforms to the technical laws of compo- sition. He seems to have known that of all the bases upon which the materials of a picture can be built, the circle is the most pleasing and intelligible; and his study of historic art doubtless told him that many renowned works owe their popularity to con- Il8 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. centration of the eye on a fixed centre, round which, at the circumference, the action of the story revolves. The Saviour stands in the midst with upraised hands of bene- diction, pronouncing the words, "Whosoever shall receive this child in my name, receiveth me," and "Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." The upper portion of the figure is maintained in undisturbed isolation; the head of the Saviour rises to a culminating point above the surrounding figures, and thereby dignity and importance are gained. At the same time the needful connection with the bystanding groups is secured through the company of little children drawn around the Master's feet. The accessory figures range themselves in balanced symmetry on either side, and are skilfully gathered iuto unity by lines which, in. broken, yet with recurring contiguity, indicate a containing circle. This geometric distribution has, through the correspondence which connects outward form with inward thought, a value felt without being analytically understood. As mental discord would be indicated through disturbed composition, so on the other hand are inward tranquillity and peace made appreciable to sense by pictorial symmetry and well-balanced order. Rightly is it saitl that order is heaven's first law ; the spheres move in cadence through the heavens, and the old painters, by happy intuition, when they descanted on the blessedness of earth, or approached to the bliss which reigns in the upper sky, arranged their figures in groups of appointed harmony. In this placid concord of sweet forms, in a rest unruffled by the strife of tongues, in an inward peace which makes the rugged paths of the world smooth, and the current of life to flow in music, the compositions of ( )\ rrbeck are unsurpassed, save, perhaps, by the designs of Angelico, ever supreme in those celestial harmonies the cadence whereof the modern Germans have caught. Overbeck's "Life of Christ," exemplified in forty designs, admits of interesting comparison with the like theme depicted by Fra Angelico. Each painter being leader in the same spiritual school, their works naturally possess much in common. The differ- ence between the two modes of treatment arises, in fact, from the wide interval of four centuries which lies between the artist of the fifteenth century and the artist of the nineteenth century. The painters of the modern German school wished to revive the use of mediaeval ages. How far they have done so is evident on a comparison of one of the most memorable of the Lives of Christ known in Italy with the scarcely less celebrated series published at Dlisseldorf. The simplicity of form, the symmetry of composition, the solemnity of thought which we admire in the cloister school of Over- beck, can be traced back to a fountain-head within the Florentine monastery of San Marco. But Art, during four eventful centuries, had in some points progressed, and in certain other directions suffered retrogression. In what relates to spirit, even spiritual schools have gone back ; but in all which concerns the body, in all that pertains to ENGRAVED BY W. ROFFE . FROM THE MONUMENT AT BERLIN BY REIKKOLD BEGAS. ■ . GERMAN SCHOOL. n 9 outward material form, modern painters have moved forward. We think, for example, that no one will pretend that Overbeck, in the treatment of "The Annunciation," approaches the monk of Fiesole in spiritual purity and beauty. Art, then, as a spirit- utterance, as a soul-outpouring, lacks the life and unction of other days, and herein she shares the common lot of the moral and metaphysical sciences which cease to be pro- gressive. But Art in her bodily structure partakes of the onward development known to new physical discoveries ; and hence in all that pertains to perspective, foreshortening, anatomy, the cast of drapery, and even the management of an intricate composition, modern painters are in far advance of their early forerunners. On these points Angelico was the child, and Overbeck is the man: die child, however, in all things else is father to the man. Overbeck's "Holy Family" shows how faithfully and how lovingly the modern German painters follow in the footsteps of their Italian predecessors. Their designs are sometimes modeled on the works of Perugino, or are derived from still more early, and perhaps even more devout, conceptions of other Umbrian artists. Sometimes, again, their compositions take us to Bologna, in memory of pale and placid Francia ; and still more often to Sienna, to commune with Pinturicchio and his fellows. How closely it may be permitted with impunity, even to a Pre-Raphaelite, to copy Raphael, the supposed source of countless evil, this "Holy Family" by Overbeck is the witness. Overbeck's Madonna, of a beauty, yet of a saint-like dignity, seldom seen in the common nature known to modern realistic schools, might have stepped out from a frame hung in the Florentine Tribune; and St. Elizabeth is almost identical with the "Mother of St. John," as portrayed by Sanzio. Nor does the transcript of Raphaelesque forms stop here. Overbeck died at the venerable age of eighty years ; he reared to himself a monu- ment, and wrote his epitaph, in the multitude of his works. In what has been said already, little has been done beyond offering a mere sketch of his Art-life. In repeated commissions given by Pope Pius, Overbeck received from the head of his Church that approval which, to a mind subject to authority, is peculiarly grateful. Among his paintings in fresco specially worthy of note is the masterpiece in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, built at the foot of the hill crowned by the town of Assisi. This work, "The Vision of St. Francis," when last we saw it, sixteen years ago, suffered not by immediate comparison with the sacred pictures of the devout Umbrian school, in the midst of which it shone as a witness to the worth of German Christian Art. Among the oil-paintings of Overbeck, "The" Triumph of Religion in the Arts," one of the choicest treasures in the Stadel Institute, Frankfort, is certainly the most elaborate and ambitious. This grand composition, which may be likened in its intent to Raphael's / «• Iht eri{in.tl. hf B. Sltmmtl. SELLING THE BOOTY. GERMAN SCHOOL. 121 "School of Athens," or to "The Hemicycle," by Delaroche, has been aptly termed by German critics "The Christian Parnassus" — the dawn of light in Europe. We wish that space were left for detailed description of this work, weighty in thought, and loaded with ' ■ "V'vKv.:-;- ™..v. symbolism — a work meant as a declaration of faith, the programme of a creed, preaching to the world a homily. Yet while pondering on this picture well worthy of veneration one could not but regret once more that Overbeck, in maturing his pictorial thoughts, had not shown like diligence in the perfecting of the material instruments, through 123 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. which alone ideas can be made visible. In the remembrance of the heavenly harmonies of Angelico and Perugino it is hard to forgive even a spiritual artist for crudeness of tone, and for the use of colors which are of the earth earthy. In the recollection of Italian pictures, lovely in all perfections, it is not easy to bestow unqualified admiration on figures which, whatever be their Christian graces, are severe in outline, ungainly in form, and feeble in bodily frame. Such defects, however, may be perchance but motes that darken the sunbeam: they are, perhaps, but the vapors of earth which the light of heaven has struggled in vain to dispel. Peter von Cornelius was born in Diisseldorf, on the 27th of September, 1787. His father was keeper of the gallery in that town, then rich in the pictures which are now the pride of the Munich Pinakothek. The future painter seems to have been no excep- tion to the proverbial precocity of genius : betimes did he show, while yet a youth, an unusual predilection towards art, and gave promise of the powers which ere long were to win him renown. It is interesting also to observe how the young artist's ardent mind at once kindled at the approach of those high thoughts which have since proved the guide and the inspiration of a life now reaching far beyond threescore years and ten. It appears that Cornelius was not sixteen when he fell within the sphere and became captive to the spell of the poet Goethe. Thus was he early enamored with the ideal beauty of classic art. But the course of an artist's true love for art seldom runs smooth, especially in its opening passages. Accordingly we need not be surprised to find that the road to fame was for Cornelius obstructed at the outset by obstacles. His father dies, and it becomes a question whether the son may not be forced by the needs of the family into the drudgery of a mere handicraft trade. From this calamity, how- ever, he is delivered chiefly by indomitable courage and perseverance, upborne happily by the never-to-be-forgotten injunction of his father, that he should always strive after the things which are most excellent. The works which gave first proof of the creative power of Cornelius, were a painting in the old church of Neuss, near Diisseldorf, executed when the artist was of the age of nineteen, a series of designs illustrative of Goethe's "Faust," and another series of works taken from the "Niebelungen Lied." These two last compositions, echoing a popular German drama and a national German ballad, show the direction at this time given to the painter's tumultuous imagination. His heart evidently was kindled with the new love to which the Fatherland had fallen a willing captive. The "Niebe- lungen Lied" — a national song chaunted in olden time by the people — became a theme for the exercise of the critic's ingenuity, or for the display of the artist's creative power, and many were the remnants of legendary romance thus disinterred from the ruins of the dark ages and placed once more in the light of day. A national revival in litera- GERMAN SCHOOL. 123 ture set in, and the movement growing general, and even intense, found of course in the end diverse and divergent manifestations. Klopstock, Wieland, Lessing, Herder, Goethe, and Schiller — in literature the predecessors, or the contemporaries, of the school of painters among whom Cornelius was the prince — each gave to the spirit of the age his own varying bias. Cornelius, having reached the age of twenty-four years, made the much-longed-for pilgrimage to Rome — poor, we are told, in pocket, but richly stored in projects.' Italy was for him, as for others, the promised land, and not to have reached this country, so fertile in art, would have been to perish in the desert where gushed no wells of water for the thirsting soul. In spirit, at least, Cornelius did not come as a foreigner to this land of classic and mediaeval art; he had long in imagination dwelt among the ruins of the seven hills ; he had in fancy wandered through the halls of the Vatican crowded with statues of the gods, and visited the churches adorned with paintings of Christian saints. Reaching, as the realization of long- cherished hopes, the Eternal City, he beheld the cupola of St. Peter's from afar, and loosing himself from the fetters with which he might yet be bound, casting aside the incumbrance of old prejudices laid upon him by obsolete academic teaching, he felt himself free for the coming future ; and as he gazed on that exultant dome which seemed to proclaim faith triumphant, the thought rose in his mind that upon this rock would he build his school — that from this city would he preach the doctrines which should bring to the world of art deliverance. From the northern Fatherland there was soon gathered a German brotherhood. Overbeck, Schnorr, Veit, and the brothers Schadow were of the company of these German enthusiasts, who day and night thought of little else than of the building up of this "new and old," this "German and Italian school of painting." Cornelius among these his fellows appears as a giant, and stood as a tower of strength. He seems to have been confident in the consciousness of power, and he evidently had the faculty of inspiring other minds with the faith which so strongly held possession of his own. The small company of painters among whom he was a presiding spirit were in Rome poor and unknown, but ere long they gathered within their sphere kindred and sympathetic intellects. Learned professors, who could give to comparatively inexperienced students guidance, patrons who were able to afford these unproved painters a trial, and men of state, whose privilege it is to bestow prestige and sanction, were all in the end ready to extend to the young adventurers a helping hand. The palace of Niebuhr, the histo- rian, then ambassador from the court of Berlin, was open to his countrymen of the new school ; the Prussian consul-general, Bartholdy, had a house on the Pincian, which he inclined to decorate after the fresco manner his young friends sought to revive ; there was the villa, too, of the Marchese Massimi, standing in a garden near the church of 124 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. the Lateran, which was ready to submit its walls as a field whereon the poetic fancy of these sciolists might loose the rein to the utmost of its bent ; and lastly, and not least, the Crown Prince of Bavaria, the ex-king Ludwig, ever glad to coquette with a new idea, made overtures to the novices, now matured into adepts, and nothing would do but that Cornelius should consent to be carried away captive to Munich in order that he the ongtmat. THE LAST SUPPER ty Carl Mulltr might aid in painting the new toy, the prince's pet capital. In biographies such as that of Niebuhr, we find scattered, interesting details oT the mode of life to which the dis- ciples of high art were at this time addicted. These painters, especially cloister-loving Overbeck, desiring to live in the simple spirit of olden times, adopted a stern, almost a monastic way of life. Wishing to raise themselves to the height of a great argument, they ever loved to talk of the pictures which embodied noblest thoughts; at the house of their kind friend Niebuhr, would they night after night discuss the principles in which ' ".' GERMAN SCHOOL. 125 From ike original. iy Joseph Settegast. THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST. they put their trust, and there did they lay out in the mind's eye the leading ideas of those great compositions which have since extended throughout Europe their renown. Among the works by which Cornelius will be best remembered are two grand 126 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. compositions, "God the Creator" and "Christ the Judge." Cornelius, in the ceiling of the Glyptothek, threw his imagination into the midst of classic myths; again, in the Loggie of the Pinakothek, he unfolded the annals of art. Following in the steps of the great Christian artists, Cornelius had even from his youth cherished the ambition to give proof of his power by a painting of "The Last Judgment," the most arduous in the whole cycle of biblical subjects. Giotto, Orcagna, Fra Angelico, Signorelli, and Michael Angelo had put forth their utmost strength in surmounting the difficulties of this tremendous theme. The treatment adopted by these successive artists shows progressive development, and Cornelius, coming last of all, has at least the merit of producing the most elaborate composition. This, his culminating work, occupies the east wall of the church of St. Ludwig. If estimated by its mere size, or by the time occupied in its design, it is almost without rival in the history of art. On the cartoon the artist spent ten years ; in other words, upon die composition and the drawing, as evident from an examination of the work, he devoted, after the manner of his school, severest study. The fresco itself is sixty-two feet high, and die seated figure of Christ occupies no less than twelve feet. Such are the giant propor- tions of the composition, and such the commensurate toil involved in its manipulation. The execution of less important pictures had been delegated to scholars. Cornelius with his own hand painted this his master work. At the end of some fifteen or twenty years, taken from the very prime of his life, Cornelius finds his mission at Munich accomplished. In an interval of comparative leisure he made a journey to Paris, and a year afterwards he visited London. Soon, however, he is again in harness, for yet another labor of Hercules there may be time to finish before the hour cometh when no man can work. Four capitals of Europe, we have said, acknowledge the painter's dominion, and Cornelius now enters Berlin to win his final triumph. Here, under commission from the king, he was to compose what the Germans call a "Christian picture cycle," for the decoration of the Campo Santo. Of the designs executed for this place of burial, one of the painter's boldest and most original compositions, "The Four Riders of the Apocalypse," is taken from the sixth chapter of the Revelation of St. John. In the terror-striking vision, the demons of Pesti- lence, Famine. War, and Death, let loose at the opening of the seals, with the voice of thunder hurl their curses on the earth. This astounding composition suggests one or two critical remarks. In the first place, it is matter for commendation that the mystery and the mysticism which the inspired writer maintains, Cornelius has not dispelled. Furthermore, the feeling of undefined horror which fills the mind on the reading of the text finds response on turning to its illustration. Lastly, in the spirit of this work we recognize the weird genius of northern art dominant over that plagiarism from Italian GERMAN SCHOOL. 127 masters which has too often plunged the modern German school into servility. In short, in this mature composition it is interesting to find Cornelius reverting to that German form of thought, that national mode of treatment to which, as we have seen, he gave himself while yet a youth, but which doubtless was put in jeopardy by his sojourn in Rome. Cornelius died in 1867, at the advanced age of eighty-three, crowned in the honors which great achievements gain. In the retrospect of a long life he had the satisfaction to know that the world at length acknowledged his deserts. The revival of which he was the pioneer at first encountered violent opposition and provoked the keenest ridicule. He lived to see the day when every German pronounced the name of Cornelius with pride. Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow was born in Berlin in the year 1789. The stars seem about this time to have shed over northern latitudes a light favorable to sacred art, and the planets it would appear ruled a common destiny for several painters who were in coming seasons to shine in the heavens as one constellation. This concentra- tion of concurrent intellect on a given spot at one time comes in confirmation of a doctrine promulgated by Ullmann, the law under which men of genius make in the world a periodical appearance, and seems to suggest in the economy of Divine provi- dence "the idea of a great spiritual choir, extending, in harmonious succession, through the whole history of human progress." Such a line of thought will prepare the reader to find an ever-recurring correspondence running through the lives and the works of the chief leaders in the new school. We are not surprised to learn that in the year 18 10 Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow went, in company with his brother, Rudolph, to Rome, that he there joined fellowship with Cornelius and Overbeck, became identified with the so-called sect of "Nazarites," and entered two years later, in company with his brethren, the Holy Catholic Church. Like other members of his school, Schadow tried a prentice hand in the decoration of the Casa Bartholdi. A more mature work is the large picture, "The Wise and Foolish Virgins," in the Stadel Instituts, Frankfort, which may be accepted as a fair manifesto of the artist's powers. Schadow is known by numerous productions, including portraits ; but his position in Germany was less due to his works as a painter than to his skill as a professor. As a teacher in the Academy of Berlin, scholars crowded round him ; when Director of the Dusseldorf Academy, which he re-organized, among his pupils were numbered Hilde- brandt, Sohn and Lessing ; but he had not strength to hold the seat into which he had mounted. A reaction set in against the party he espoused, and he had to endure from rivals cruel attacks. He was accused of being a narrow partisan of sacred, or rather sacerdotal, art, and his style was stigmatized as soft and sugared superficiality. A 138 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. younger generation of men hail arisen, who, according to the spirit of the age, demanded vigorous naturalism, vivid color and bold execution. Schadow, after a severe struggle, laid down his authority. H<- died in 1862, not without honor. He was doctor in the University of Bonn. Knight of the Red Eagle and other orders, and member of the idemy of Berlin and of the Institute of France. Fram Ht artgimal. THE RAISING OF JARIUSS DAUGHTER. I'mupp Veit was made of stouter stuff. His ancestors, it appears, were Jews, and Frederich von Schlegel, who had married a daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, was his stcpfatlu-r. To recount his history is but to repeat the incidents already recorded in the lives of the other disciples of the school. Veit went to Rome, joined the brother- hood, and painted frescoes in the Casa Bartholdi and the Villa Massimi. In 1830 he was made Director of the Stadel Instituts, Frankfort, and he numbered Settegast and the lamented Alfred Rethel among his scholars and assistants. His works are few. Among his designs it may be worth while to mention "The Heavenly Stranger," the F. roLTZ , PINXT C.H.JEENS. SCULPT THE JA o - o ! — I 1-1 c v v r GERMAN SCHOOL. 131 liancy in the flash of the impassioned eye, a boldness in the stroke of the adventurous arm, an originality in the discursive thought of a mind let loose without restraining curb, — such were the power and the franchise which made the painter free, and gave to his works endless fertility and resource. The completion of Schnorr's Bible, involving in its one hundred and eighty compositions no slight labor, seems to have been the occasion of jubilee. The artists of Saxony made a feast, the painters of Dresden gave a drinking-cup, those of Leipzig a writing-desk, together with a gorgeous copy of the Bible itself; the municipality of Leipzig honored Schnorr with the freedom of their town ; the University conferred on him the diploma of Doctor. Thus rewarded, bearing, moreover, the decoration of many orders, and being member of divers academies, Schnorr reaped the harvest of a life laden in years and rich in abundant fruits. Peter von Hess, the "Horace Vernet of Central Germany," was born at Diisseldorf in 1 792-3. He was the son of Karl von Hess, the professor of engraving in the Diis- seldorf Academy, and the brother of two other artists — Heinrich von Hess, an historical painter, and Karl von Hess, a painter of battle-pieces, of less note. Peter von Hess was, at various times, much patronized by the Bavarian Government. He died at Munich on the 4th of April, 1871. Of his pictures we may mention "The Entrance of King Otho into Nauplin," "The Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube," and "The Crossing of the Bere- sina" — painted for the late Emperor of Russia. Hess executed genre subjects with almost as much success as he did battle-pieces, but not to nearly the same extent. About the year 1850 he published "An Album of Greek Heroism, or the Deliverance of Greece," which contains forty illustrations, executed in chromo-lithography. Heinrich von Hess was born at Diisseldorf, on the 19th of April, 1798. He first studied under his father, Karl von Hess, who was professor of engraving in the Diis- seldorf Academy. In 1806 young Hess went to Munich, and entered as a student in the academy of that city. Seven years later appeared his first great works, "The Sepulchre of Christ" and a "Holy Family," which attracted the notice of Queen Caro- line, who henceforth became his liberal patroness. In 1821 he received a royal travelling- grant. He went to Italy, where he stayed until 1826, in which year he returned to Munich, and was soon afterwards made Professor of the Academy. In the following year he commenced a series of cartoons for the Allerheiligenkirche, which he completed in 1837. In 1849 Hess was made director of the Royal Collection, which post he held until his death, which occurred on the 29th of March, 1863. Among the best known of his works we may mention a "Christmas," painted for Queen Caroline; and "Faith, Hope and Charity," painted for the Leuchtenberg Gallery, at St. Petersburg. The Academy of Diisseldorf occupies a leading position in the history of European painting. Within the last thirty or forty years, it has gone through varying phases of .' — > Hr ttjgtml. fr Hrir I I. EVERY MAN TO HIS TRADE. THE FILATRICE PROM THE STATUE BY SCHADOW. R it HARRIS "^} A A R y GERMAN SCHOOL. 135 nection with Dusseldorf does not appear to be intimate. The position to which this painter is entitled will be seen from the picture we engrave, "The Ascension of Our Lord," certainly one of the most impressive among the very many renderings of the glorious theme, which is the seal and the triumph of the Christian's faith. This subject is sometimes included in the Life of the Madonna, as the seventh and last of her sorrows. More expressly, however, it comes as the final scene in the Passion and Death of the Redeemer. The event has been overlaid and encumbered by Perugino and others with a multitude of accessories. The composition of Settegast is to be applauded for its simplicity. The secret upon which this picture is put together is seen at a glance. The Apostles and the Holy Women are grouped in a circle ; space and isolation are thus obtained for the principal figure in ascension. The calmness and the benignity of Christ as he is received into heaven, lifted up by power divine into the radiant sky, are traits nobly conceived. This central figure gently floating upwards finds effective contrast in the eagle swoop of the two angels downwards. The lines of composition are ingeniously thrown together. Johann Eduard Steinle was born in Vienna in the year 18 10. He studied art in that city until 1828, when he went to Rome, and joined company with Overbeck and Veit. In common with the chiefs of his party, Steinle has designed numerous cartoons, and has practised with success the revived art of fresco-painting. He has also been engaged in the restoration of the tempera pictures of the cathedral at Cologne. In the year 1850 he went to Frankfort as professor of historical painting in the Stadel Institut. The pencil of Steinle is a magic wand which evokes out of the vast abyss, ideas, mystic and ominous. In a simple strain is conceived that sweetly sympathetic composition, "The Raising of Jairus's Daughter," which we have selected for engraving on page 1 28. There is pathetic loveliness in this child of twelve years, frail and beautiful as a flower that has faded out of life. The girl awakes as from a gentle sleep ; the eyes are still drooping, as when the cold wind and the dew of night have closed the petals of a tender plant. The painter has evidently caught the idea "the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth." Decay's effacing fingers have not yet swept away the lines where beauty lingers in the languor of the placid cheek. The ecstatic rapture of surprise in the father and the mother contrasts finely, both with the gentle movement of their child upward rising, and with the calm dignity that presides over the figure of Christ. Karl Piloty was born in the year 1826. On the death of his brother-in-law Schorn, the painter of the huge picture of "The Deluge," now in the new Pinakothek, Munich, he was appointed professor in the academy of that city. Piloty has since acquired European fame by two great works which, of their kind, are almost without rivals — the one, "The Death of Wallenstein," which for some years has attracted the eye of every t. WINTERHALTER, PINXT T.VERNON, SCULPT THE LADY COKTSTAFCE, FROM THE PICTURE IN THE ROYAL COLLECTION. GERMAN SCHOOL. m visitor to the new Pinakothek ; the other, "Nero Walking among the Ruins of Rome," which, in the International Exhibition of 1862, astounded all comers by its intense realism. The dramatic action which Piloty and his fellow-workers delight in, is an element A. Feuerbach, Pinx. IPHIGENIA AT AULIS. that has been of comparatively late development in the history of art. Repose was the supreme sentiment of Greek sculpture. Eternal rest seems the heritage of the figures which Byzantine artists wrought in mosaic on the apses of churches, and a like unruffled serenity dwells in the faces of saints depicted by the early Italian painters. Action appears first to have crept into Christian art by the smallest of incidents, as when Raphael, in a i 3 8 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. well-known picture, makes pretty play for the infant Jesus and John by the introduction of a goldfinch. And descending to modern works, tragedy thickens apace, as seen, for example, in "The Death of Queen Elizabeth," "The Execution of Lady Jane Gray," "The Children in the Tower," 'The Trial of King Charles," by Delaroche, "The Execu- tion of Counts Egmont and Horn," by Gallait, "The Children in the Tower," by Hilde- brandt, ami ■ I hiss on the Funeral Pyre," by Lessing. These works all partake of that realistic and dramatic treatment of history whereof ''The Death of Wallenstein," by Piloty, is a late and illustrious example. In art. as in philosophy, the opposing schools of idealists and realists have existed from all time, and will continue to endure while the world lasts. That the two systems will ever be entirely reconciled, or completely merged the one in the other, is scarcely probable, or, indeed, taken for all in all, desirable. Once or twice perhaps in the history of art this fusion has been on the point of accomplishment. The statues of Phidias and the pictures of Raphael are both real and ideal. To the works of other men — to the pictures of Piloty for example — this universality has been denied. Genius, however, which is less discursive, often in compensation gains proportionately greater concentration within its narrower sphere. In the realism of history, at all events, Piloty has not been surpassed. Edward Bendemann was born in Berlin, in the year 1811. The first instruction he received came from the academy of his native country. In the year 1828 he went to Diisseldorf, where he fell under the tuition of Schadow, with whom, two years later, he traveled in Italy. His talents expanded so early that he acquired with his first picture a reputation. While in Diisseldorf, he seems to have taken the life of the children of Israel, in joy and sorrow, for illustration — a theme around which have been gathered many of the artist's most renowned works, such, for example, as the well-known picture, "The Captive Israelites mourning by the waters of Babylon." Bendemann is one of the many German artists who have used the medium of fresco for the expression of noble thoughts. By him, in common with his brethren tutored in Rome, holding communion with the great works of Michael Angelo and Raphael in the Sistinc and the Vatican, fresco painting was deemed pre-eminently a monumental art. This art of fresco painting, like the architecture that is its framework, requires to be simple in treatment, symmetric in proportion, and broad in the distribution of its distinctive members and masses. The themes it chooses, too, should be endowed with the elements of greatness; the truths it embodies should be enduring as the tenements they adorn. Bendemann may be surpassed by some of his contemporaries for play of fancy and fertility of imagination, by others for classic subtlety or beauty in form, by many again for Christian graces and direct spiritual utterance; but to him pertain supremely patri- archal power and presence. GERMAN SCHOOL. i 39 With Wilhelm von Kaulbach, whom we have referred to on page in, we close our review of the German School immediately preceding the contemporary. Kaulbach comes as a crowning climax to the long and illustrious series of German painters of the modern school. He is the consummation of the great revival. If born in ancient Greece, he had been a Phidias; if in middle-age Italy, a Raphael; if in modern France, a Dela- roche; but a native of Waldeck, in west Germany, his genius has taken on the guise which is better in keeping with his time and country. His father, a goldsmith by trade, proposing to make of Wilhelm an artist, took the youth, when seventeen years old, to Diisseldorf, and placed him as a student in the academy, then under the direction of Cornelius. At the age of twenty-one, Kaulbach followed his master to Munich, and commenced the works which first brought him into notice. Among his earliest produc- tions were six allegorical frescoes, executed in the arcade of the Hofgarten. His subjects, his styles, and his materials, which are many, are alike worthy of note. His themes are wide in range and lofty in aspiration. History in epochs which are landmarks in the world's civilization; philosophy that teaches through example; poetry as manifested in the creations of Shakespeare and Goethe; life in its light and shade, in the climax of its joy and the depth of its sorrow — such are the subjects which in their diversity and import measure the genius and circumscribe the labors of Kaulbach. In style, too, as in subject, this painter displays the same versatility; by turns he is grave and gay. Like dramatists and actors of first quality, he is great at once, in comedy and in tragedy; his impersonations, in short, are close upon the models of Phidias and Raphael, of Diirer and Hogarth. The name of Kaulbach will also be identified with the most successful efforts to free Art from the tyranny of the Church. Such are the services which Kaulbach has conferred upon his age and country. Wagner, a pupil of Piloty, is well known to all visitors to the Centennial Exhibition, where his "Chariot Race in the Circus Maximus" was exhibited; as was also an excellent etching of the same subject. We engrave on page 132 a fine example of his early manner, but in recent years he has displayed his powers as an interpreter of certain phases of equine character in which he is successful. Other notable painters of the contemporary German School are — Gretius, whose "The State, it is I" we engrave on page 129; Professor Becker of Berlin, whom we represent by one of his greatest and perhaps best known works, " Charles V and Titian," on page 109; Stevers, a fellow pupil of Becker's, and now settled in Diisseldorf, graces these pages by his "Rubens and his Master," page 112, a subject somewhat analagous in sentiment to Becker's great work. Stammel is well known in America by the speci- mens of his work to be found in nearly every good private gallery. He is very happy in depicting certain phases of human nature, and acute in seizing certain expressions 140 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. of the countenance, especially the humorous. The same may be said of Greutzner, with this difference, that Stammel selects his subjects principally from soldier life in the middle ages, whilst Greutzner deals with civilian life of the present time. The reader will observe the affiliation of these artists' minds by looking at Stammel's "Selling the Booty," on page 120, and the steel engraving of Greutzner's, "Hard Luck." Munich taught Hans Makart and A. Feuerbach, and both now are professors at the Royal Academy in Vienna. Makart in many of his paintings selects subjects somewhat similar to Feuerbach's creations, or Feuerbach is similar to Makart. We engrave on page 137 "Iphigenia at Aulis," by Feuerbach, which exhibits capital drawing, and the painting is subdued in tone; those who saw Makart's "Venice paying Homage to Catharine of Cornaro," at the Philadelphia Exhibition, will believe that the "Faust and Marguerite," which we engrave on page 135, is from a canvas of similar proportions. The Iphigenia — one of the most admired paintings at the Vienna International Exhibition — represents her gazing at the blue ^Egean, thinking probably of her approaching doom; but "Artemis snatched her from the altar, and carried her to Heaven, substituting a hind in her place." " Till Agamemnon's daughter's blood Appeased the gods that them withstood." We close this chapter with an engraving of a water color, exhibited by E. Bitterlich, at Vienna, in 1873 — th e Graces. PSYCHE FROM. THE STATUE BY W. VON HOYER. IN THE ROYAI, COLLECTION. THE NETHERLANDS. 141 THE NETHERLANDS. the early Christian painters of the Netherlands we have but few records. No examples, such as those in the Catacombs at Rome, are to be met with in the Low Countries, yet indications are not wanting that the same classico-Christian mode of representing sacred subjects was adopted by the early artists of Flanders and Germany, as well as of Rome. Very soon, however, the Byzantine influence prevailed, and we have star- ing, oval-faced Madonnas, and lean, olive-green Saints, displaying the well- known Byzantine ideal of grace and beauty. The eleventh cen- tury was character- ized in Flanders, as elsewhere, by the lowest degradation of Christian art. Blood-streaming Crucifixions and dis- gusting Martyrdoms were the favorite subjects of this age, as well as represen- tations of the Last From the original. by L. Van Leyde. THE DENTIST. Judgment, in which the torments of the damned were made use of by the Church to awaken the terror of the living. But dating from the thirteenth cen- tury, a gradual im- provement took place in the art of the Netherlands, as well as of Italy, and even before the time of the Van Eycks there were several Flemish artists whose works mani- fest a decided ad- vance on the old- established modes of representation. A new impulse was given to art at the beginning of the fifteenth century by the two Flemish brothers, Hubert and Jan Van Eyck. The great success of these masters, it has been asserted, was wholly owing to their invention of a better medium for painting — to their discovery, as it has been called, of the secret of oil-painting; but no one who has studied the works of Jan Van Eyck can doubt that the real secret of his t4 2 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. admirable painting lay, not in the mechanical medium he used, but in the genius of the man who used it. But although undoubtedly some process of painting in oils was in use before the Van Eyck method, it is nevertheless clear that the process they invented must have supplied a want that had been long felt by painters, for it was at once enthusiastically welcomed and adopted by all to whom it was made known. The greatest anxiety was evinced by the artists of Italy as well as by those of the Nether- lands to gain possession of the secret, and many stories are told of the furtive manner in which this was sometimes accomplished. The Flemish brothers seem, in fact, to have solved a problem that had long been vexing painters' brains. It seems tolerably certain that Hubert was born at Maaseyck, in the Duchy of Limburg, in the year 1366. He entered the guild of painters at Ghent, in 141 2, and appears to have resided chiefly at Bruges and Ghent. He died in the latter city, Sep- tember 18, 1426, and was buried in St. Bavon in the vault of his patron, Jocidus Vydt, who had commissioned him to paint the great altar-piece that he left unfinished. Except his epitaph, which gives us a curious insight into the character of the man and of the age in which he lived, we have no further record of Hubert Van Eyck. Even his arm which was severed from his body and preserved as a relic in the Cathedral of St. Bavon until the sixteenth century, has disappeared. Of the life of Jan Van Eyck there exists more personal detail. He was born at Maaseyck between the years 1381 and 1390. The exact date has not yet been satis- factorily proved ; but many arguments tend to show that he must have been, as the older historians assert, at least twenty years younger than Hubert. His first patron was the infamous John of Bavaria, the warlike Bishop of Liege, surnamed, from his cruelty to his own subjects, Jean Sans Pitie. On his death-bed this stormy prelate recommended Jan Van Eyck, "his painter and varlet de chambre," to the magnificent Philippe le Bon, Duke of Burgundy. Of all the rich and rebellious towns of Flanders, Bruges, in the time of the Van Eycks, was the richest and the most flourishing. This prosperous commercial city was the favorite residence of the good Duke Philippe, who more frequently held his court there than in any other of his domains. Could there be more favorable conditions for the development of the fine arts? A prosperous city, with a wealthy bourgeois class, and a magnificent court, ruled over by a despotic monarch, who loved art for its own sake as well as from motives of ostentation. It was to this city and this court that Jan Van Eyck came, in the early part of the fifteenth century, accredited by the recom- mendation of Jean Sans Pitie. who not only left his painter, but likewise his dominions, to Philippe le Bon. Philippe, who possibly might have known Jan at Liege, and who, at all events, was well acquainted with his merits, received him with much kindness, and THE NETHERLANDS. 143 in 1425 appointed him to be his "yarlet de chambre." The salary of Jan Van Eyck as painter and varlet was fixed at one hundred livres parisis, and the duke's treasurers were exhorted to be regular in their payment of that sum half yearly. This exhorta- tion was evidently necessary, for twice Philippe had to write to his "trusty and well- beloved people of accounts," reprimanding them for having been negligent in this particular, and ordering that the pension "of our well-beloved Jan Van Eyck" should be paid "without delay, cunctation, variation, or difficulty." Over and above this fixed pension, Jan was paid by the Duke for various missions and "secret journeys" that he undertook for him. In 1428 he was employed on more open and important service. Philippe, who had already lost two wives, desired again to enter into matrimony, and being pleased with the description he had received of Isabel of Portugal, he sent an embassy to that country to negotiate a marriage. With his ambassadors, Hue de Lannoy, and the Sire de Roubaix, he associated his painter, who was to paint the portrait of the young princess, and to send it home at once to Flanders, for Philippe to judge of, we may presume, before finally committing himself to the alliance. The ship in which the embassy from Bruges sailed was driven by reason of bad weather to put into three English ports, Sandwich, Plymouth and Falmouth, on her outward voyage, so that it is probable England had the honor of a visit from the great Flemish painter. Finally, however, Portugal was reached in safety, December 18, 1428, and Jan Van Eyck obtained sittings from the lovely Isabel, and sent her portrait painted "bien au vif" to her suitor. After having thus accomplished his commission, he went on a pleasure tour through Portugal and some parts of Spain, returning to Lisbon the following July, when the portrait and the negotiations having proved successful, the marriage of Philippe of Bur- gundy and Isabel of Portugal was celebrated by proxy with great splendor, the feasts and rejoicings on the occasion lasting until September, when the youthful bride at last set sail for her husband's dominions. Soon after his return from Portugal, Jan purchased a house in Bruges, where he continued to reside until his death. He probably married about the same time, but the first notice we have of this event having taken place is in June, 1434, when we find that the Duke stood godfather to the painter's infant daughter, presenting on the occasion, with his usual profuse magnificence, no less than six silver cups. The Duke also used frequently to visit Jan in his workshop, and on such occasions was wont to distribute all the silver he had in his pocket amongst the apprentices. Indeed, all the records we have of the relations of Philippe le Bon and his varlet painter tend to prove that there was a cordial intimacy between them. There is but one specimen of Jan Van Eyck's work in the Louvre, but that is a most charming one. The picture is usually styled "The Virgin and the Donor," and •44 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. represents the Chancellor Rollin kneeling before the Virgin and Child with a missal in his hand. An angel with gorgeous wings places a crown on the Virgin's head. The landscape background, seen through three arcades, has been supposed to represent Jerusalem ; but if so, the holy city, in its towers, spires and bridges, has a remarkable resemblance to an old Flemish town. A chain of snow-clad mountains in the ethereal i tkt trigimal. CLEOPATRA'S FEAST. by G. dt Lairtstt distance alone gives it an ideal character. The delicacy of finish and minuteness of detail of the work are wonderful. There are said to be two thousand figures in it "The Virgin and St Donat" (also called "The Pala Madonna," from its having been painted for George Van der Paele, Canon of St Donat), in the Bruges Academy, is chiefly distinguished by the noble figure of St Donat. In the same gallery there is an excellent portrait by Jan Van Eyck, of his wife, painted in 1439, when she was thirty- three years of age. "St Barbara," in a landscape with a large tower (her emblem) rising up behind her, is a most interesting though unfinished work. Only the sky is A.RrEDEL.PIN2 T r. STOCKS. AH. A. SCULP T T JUL K IBKMJTY OF ALB AN' FROM THE PICTURE IN THE ROYAL COLLECTION. THE NETHERLANDS. «45 colored, but the drawing in every part is complete, and the admirable care with which this drawing is done shows how patiently the master worked. It is in the Antwerp Academy. The Van Eycks in the British National Gallery are of undoubted authenticity, and From the original. THE DEPARTURE OF HAGAR. by P. Van Dyke. the nation is truly fortunate in possessing such excellent specimens of a master whose genuine works are exceedingly rare, although his name is often found in catalogues. There are several good Van Eycks in England in private hands. Especially may be mentioned a small Madonna and Child, belonging to Weld Blundell, Esq., at Ince Hall 146 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. (called the Ince Madonna), and another in the possession of the Marquis of Exeter at Burleigh, which is said to be even more minute in detail and finish than the Rollin Madonna in the Louvre. The date of Jan Van Eyck's death was for a long time as uncertain as that of his birth, but it is now proved that he died at Bruges on the 9th of July, 1440. The last record of him in the ducal accounts is a payment to the church and convent of Maaseyck in 1 448-49, in order that " Lyennie, daughter of Jan Van Eyck," might enter the convent Margaret Van Eyck, the sister of Hubert and Jan, was likewise a painter. "She devoted herself to art," says Van Mander, "preserving her maidenhood through life." She died shortly after Hubert. We often meet with pictures with her name in galleries, but none of them are proved to be by her. The name of Lambert Van Eyck also, a third brother, occurs in the ducal records. The followers of the Van Eycks of the School of Bruges had the same religious sentiment as their masters, and expressed it in similar realistic language. The spirit of doubt had not yet stirred their reverent minds, and they went on painting Virgins, Infants, Saints, Martyrs, representations of heaven and hell, Annunciations, and Cruci- fixions, with fervid belief in the teaching of the Church. Among the earliest of these scholars may be mentioned Petrus Cristus, born about the same time as Jan Van Eyck. He is supposed to have been a pupil of Hubert's, whom he resembles in style more than he does Jan. His best known picture was for some period in the possession of the Jewelers of Antwerp. It represents the legend of St Godeberta, and is remarkable for having the scene laid in a jeweler's shop. Gerard Vander Meire is only a name in Flemish art, for few of the pictures attributed to him can be satisfactorily authenticated, and nothing is known of his life but a slight mention of him by Van Mander, who says he lived at Ghent, and the praise of one of his paintings by Sanderus. Hugo Vander Goes was born at Ghent, and was a distinguished painter in 1468, when he was employed at the marriage of Charles the Bold to Margaret of York to produce the "pleasant devices" and "histories" that were set forth in the streets on that occasion. He likewise had the superintendence of the "entremetz" at the ducal banquet. But although Hugo did not disdain to receive fourteen sous a day for work of this kind, he was nevertheless a master of great ability, and several beautiful paintings still remain by his hand. Of these the most important is, perhaps, the altar-piece of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence, painted for the rich family of the Portinari, a member of which. Tommaso Portinari. was agent for the Medici at this time in Bruges, and by this means doubtless became acquainted with Hugo. In this altar-piece, a Nativity, he has represented rays of light emanating from the Child, and lighting the scene, as in the THE NETHERLANDS. 147 well-known "Notte" of Correggio. Another painting by him, much praised by old writers, was the meeting of David and Abigail, an unusual subject, Flemish painters seldom choosing their themes from the Old Testament. Under the guise of Abigail, it is said, the artist depicted a young lady with whom he was desperately in love, the David being his own portrait. Lucas Van Here, in the sixteenth century, wrote a sonnet on this picture, in which Abigail and her fair attendants approve of the manner in which the painter has represented them. They can do everything but speak, "an uncommon fault in our sex," they are made to remark. But it is to be feared that Hugo Vander Goes did not prosper in his love for his Abigail, for we find that he entered the Augus- tine Convent, of Rooden Clooster, near Brussels, where he died in 1479. Rogier Vander Weyden, called by Vasari, Ruggieri da Bruggia, was, undoubtedly, the greatest of Van Eyck's scholars. He was, indeed, a master of original power, and it was chiefly through him that the school of Bruges extended its influence over the schools of Italy and Germany. Hans Memling, Memlinc, or Memmelinghe (died about 1499), was the pupil of Rogier Vander Weyden, and continues the direct line of artistic descent from Jan Van Eyck. His works have less force of mind than those of Vander Weyden, but more beauty and grace. Grace and beauty, with great tenderness of feeling, are the qualities he added to the school of Bruges. His outlines are softer, his draperies more flowing, and his Virgins much more beautiful than those of his master ; he was, in fact, to some extent, an ideal painter, whereas Van Eyck and Vander Weyden were faithful realists. The place and time of his birth have not yet been satisfactorily ascertained, and we have as little true information about his life as we have of most other of these old Flemish painters. There are more paintings in existence by Memling than by any other master of the School of Bruges. Rathgeber, indeed, enumerates a hundred, but many of these are doubtful. On the other hand, many that he does not enumerate probably belong to him. He appears to have resided principally at Bruges, and possessed a house there in the Rue St. George, so he couid not have been so poor as tradition has made him out. In fact, he must in his later life have been a man of property, for in 1480 he contributed to a loan raised for the Emperor Maximilian in Bruges. He died in 1495. With Memling the direct Van Eyck descent died out. Several of his followers, it is true, continued to paint much in his style for some time to come, but they were none of them men of original genius. Most of the rising artists of the time deserted the school of Bruges, and went over to the more powerful school of Antwerp, which was now becoming important, and which, although it owed its origin to the Van Eycks, developed in a totally different manner to that of Bruges. I4« MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Although it seems now tolerably certain that Quentin Massys was born at Louvain about the year 1444, he must nevertheless be reckoned as the founder of the school of Antwerp, for the artists of Louvain were distinguished for nothing more than a weak imitation of Rogier Vander Weyden, and Dierick Stuerbout was probably the only man who rose to any importance. The school of Antwerp, on the other hand, although it preserved the Van Eyck methods of coloring and execution, was animated by a totally different spirit to that of Bruges, and had a far wider aim. According to the well-known story, Quentin Massys forsook his first calling of blacksmith from love of a painter's daughter. Her father had refused to bestow her /■torn iht original. tr D. I an Htem. FRUIT. From tke original. MOONLIGHT. by Van itr Netr. hand on any but a member of his own profession. So the gallant young blacksmith of Louvain turned painter, and won his bride and a noble fame into the bargain. Thus, as tradition relates, and a tablet set up to his memory in the cathedral records: "Connubialis amor de Mulcibrc fecit Apellem." It is pleasant to find that this pretty little narration, which has been long doubted by critics, is in the main really true, so many similar stories about painters having vanished beneath the stern analysis to which recent investigators have submitted the statements of the older art historians. The first really authenticated date in Quentin Massys' history occurs in the register of the Brotherhood of St. Luke, at Antwerp. He was received into that guild as a free master, "/rant-malt re," in the year 1491, but he must at that time have been a MEDICINE ENGRAVED BY G.STODART. FROM THE STATUE BY ERNST HAHNEL THE NETHERLANDS. 149 painter of some note, for a few years only after his reception a medal was struck in his honor. His school was a very large one, and attracted painters to Antwerp from all the towns of the Netherlands, in the same way as they had before been attracted to Bruges. A strange element of grotesque humor and tendency to caricature crops up in many of Massys' works. It is different to the fantastic spirit of early German art, but From the original. THE GOOD SAMARITAN. by Rembrandt. corresponds somewhat with the love of the grotesque evinced by the early Norman sculptors. Often in an earnest, impressive representation by him of a solemn event we are moved to a smile by some incongruous head or feature. Perhaps this characteristic in his art was derived from association with the sarcastic philosopher of Rotterdam. We have nothing like it certainly in the works of the masters of Bruges. "The Entombment of Christ" was painted by Massys as an altar-piece for the chapel of the Guild of Antwerp Joiners in the Cathedral. He was to receive in pay- ment for it three hundred florins, equal to about one hundred and twenty-five dollars, i 5 o MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. but even this small sum was not to be paid all at once, but in three parts, and was afterwards commuted into a payment of the interest to two of his children. The Joiners, however, knew how to prize their altar-piece, for we find that they refused enormous sums for it from Philip II of Spain, and Elizabeth of England, both of whom coveted its possession. However, becoming poorer, they sold it in 1580 to the magistracy of Antwerp for fifteen hundred florins, and after various changes of place it has now found its proper position in the Antwerp Gallery. Besides his religious paintings, Quentin Massys was celebrated for what may be called his money-pieces. A great many pictures of this class that pass with his name were really painted by his son, and by other copyists of his style, but some few are genuine, and his admirable representations of subjects of this kind evidently induced a taste for them amongst wealthy purchasers, and led to the frequent repetitions that we meet widi of "Quentin Massys' Misers." "The Banker and his Wife" in the Louvre, and the "Misers" of Windsor Castle, are the most noteworthy examples of this class. In the Uffizi Gallery at Florence there is a portrait of Quentin Massys and his second wife, Catherine Heyens, dated 1520. His first wife, die painter's daughter, Adelaide Van Tuylt, must have died some time before 1 508, for in that year he married again. He had six children by his first wife, and seven by his second. Besides his son, Jan Massys, he appears to have had two other sons who were painters. Another Quentin Massys, probably a grandson, is likewise mentioned as having been received into the Antwerp Guild in 1574 as "fits de maitre." Quentin lived to a good old age, dying in 1530 or 1531. His successors very soon departed from his vigorous style of painting, and fell into weakness and imitation. Jan Gossaert, or Mabuse, as he is called from the place of his birth, Mauberge (born about 1470), was the first Flemish painter who felt the influence of the Italian Renaissance. It would seem probable that Mabuse studied in the school of Quentin Massys, but we have no information about his early life. His early pictures, however, are all painted in the old Flemish manner, and have a power of color and mastery of execution that no master of his school, not even Quentin Massys, has excelled. He was undoubtedly a great Flemish painter, but unfortunately he tried to be a great Italian painter, and in this he failed miserably. Two pictures in the Antwerp Museum — "The Four Maries returning from the Tomb of Christ," and "The Upright Judges" — may be taken as examples of his first or Flemish manner, while a magnificent triptich, at Brussels, of "Christ in the House of Simon," weakly resembling one of die gorgeous banqueting scenes of Paolo Veronese, is a good specimen of his Italian style. Mabuse died at Antwerp in 1532, and not in the prison of Middleburg, as is stated by his early biographers. THE NETHERLANDS. 151 Bernard Van Orley, or Bernard Van Brussel (1470-1541), was contemporary with Mabuse, and was likewise a leader in the unfortunate revolution which overthrew the Van Eyck succession, and set up a foreign rule in the Netherlands. He and Michael Coxcien superintended the manufacture in the Netherlands of the tapestries from the Raphael cartoons, and it must be owned that with such works as these constantly before them, it would have needed powerfully original minds to resist the influence of the great master. Diirer met Van Orley at Brussels, at the court of Margaret the Regent of the Netherlands, and records that "Maister Bernhart" invited him to such a "costly meal as could not be paid for with ten florins !" Michael Coxcien, or Van Coxcyen (1499-1592), was the pupil of Van Orley, and imitated his master's imitations. He has been styled "the Flemish Raphael" by his admirers, but we might more appropriately use the title in scoff. He is, in fact, Raphael many times diluted, and with a slight addition of Flemish vulgarity in the weak liquid. Perhaps the best, certainly the most pleasing work he ever accomplished was a copy of "The Mystic Lamb of St. Bavon," which he executed for his patron, Philip II of Spain. It took him two years to paint, and was very faithfully rendered. Michael Coxcien was the son of a painter of the same name, but of whose works nothing is known. He likewise had a son, Raphael Coxcien, admitted into the Antwerp Guild in 1585. Jan Schoreel (born 1495, died 1562) was a pupil of Mabuse, and also, it is said, of Albert Diirer, but be this as it may, his art was neither true Flemish nor true German, but of a composite style, in which the Italian element largely preponderated. Adrian VI made him overseer of the art treasures of the Vatican, and he resided in Rome for a time, but on the death of Adrian he returned to his own country, and was made prebend of the church of St. Mary in Utrecht, in which town he resided until his death. Lamprecht Susterman, better known as Lambert Lombard (1 506-1 566), was another artist who was ruined by an early visit to Italy. He went thither in the suite of Car- dinal Pole, and made the acquaintance of Andrea del Sarto. After his return he more than any other, perhaps, spread the Italian taste far and wide in the Netherlands. He had a large school in Liege, and, unfortunately, many scholars who profited only too well by his example and his teaching. Frans van Vriendt, called Frans Floris (1 520-1 570), was the most notable of Lambert Lombard's scholars, and propagated the teachings of his master to an alarming extent. He had, it is said, no less than one hundred and twenty scholars in his school at Antwerp, but we do not find one great artist proceeding from this extensive school. It is needless to trace the successors of Quentin Massys and Mabuse any further. Suffice it to say that the succession from Frans Floris was carried on by a host of «5* MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART inferior painters, of more or less merit when compared with each other, but of no merit at all when compared with the great masters in Italy, Flanders and Germany, who had preceded diem. Amongst diem, perhaps, the three Bkeugiiels, known respectively as />.•■ tkt trtftmtl. THE GALLANT fy G. Mttn. Peasant Breughel, Hell Bmrjohbl and Velvet Breughel, from the class of subjects they painted, may be distinguished. From the solemn religious realism of the masters of Bruges, Flemish art had, indeed, fallen when it could express religious events with a vulgarity equal to that of Teniers and the painters of his school, but without any of THE NETHERLANDS. *53 his redeeming power and execution. But whilst the direct artistic descendants of the Van Eycks were thus wasting their powers in attempted rivalry with the Italians, there were a few early Dutch masters who preserved for a longer time their national style and individual originality of mind. A school of painting seems to have existed at an early date at Haarlem, founded by Albert Van Ouwater, a contemporary of Rogier From the original. THE NIGHT WATCH. by Rembrandt. Vander Weyden. The early school of Holland is, indeed, so totally separate in style and aim from the later Dutch schools, that for that reason it seems better to consider it here under Flemish art, to which it is at all events allied in point of date, than to refer it to Dutch art, with which it has nothing in common Cornells Engelbrechtsen (1468-1533) is the earliest master of Holland of whom we have any authentic record. His father was a wood-engraver, and Cornelis, who had probably studied at Bruges, introduced the oil method into Leyden. The greater number of his works were destroyed by the iconoclasts, but a few remain that are thought to 154 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. be genuine, the most important Iwing a triptich in the town-hall at Leyden. The best known and most characteristic artist of this school is Luc Jacobez, the celebrated Lucas Van LxYDKN 11494-1533). whose rare engravings are amongst the most coveted treasures of connoisseurs. His genius must have been remarkably precocious in its development, for, before he was twelve years of age he was already known as a painter and engraver, and also, it is said, as a wood-carver, and amongst his early works are reckoned the curious engraving of "The Temptation of St. Anthony," and nine circular prints of the scenes of the Passion, executed with extreme care and finish. He is now far better known by his engravings than his paintings, the latter being extremely rare, and for the most part in out-of-the-way places, so that it is difficult to form an opinion about them. But it is in his prints that the peculiar characteristics of his genius are most strikingly manifested. Here his wild fancy has full play, and he treats not only the fantastic legends of the Church of Rome, but also the events of biblical history, in a spirit of grotesque realism that shocks minds accustomed only to the dignity and beauty of Italy, or to the pious realism of the Bruges masters. There seems, indeed, to have been a sort of squint in his mental vision, which prevented him from seeing things in their natural positions, and led him to all kinds of whimsical effects. "His works," says Schlegel, "are sometimes like those of a highly intellectual but sickly child, and some- times like those of a wonderful but premature old age." This may be accounted for in part by the circumstances of his life. His genius was, as we have seen, very prema- ture in development, and it was also premature in decline. For the last six years of his life (and he died at the age of thirty-nine) he was a prey to some mysterious disease, which clouded his brilliant life with pain and melancholy. Such works as he then executed were done on a bed of sickness. Peter Paul Rubens (1 577-1 640) was the master who raised Flemish art to a high pinnacle of greatness. He never, it is true, attempted to revive the religious spirit that liad animated the early Flemish masters. That was now utterly dead, or at all events had no place in Rubens' art ; not that he was in any respect an irreligious man, like many who have, nevertheless, painted deeply devout pictures; on the contrary, we know that in private life he was upright and charitable, performing all the moral and social duties of life with the utmost propriety, but there is not the slightest trace in his works of any spiritual emotion ; his mind was never clouded by doubt, carried away by enthu- siasm, nor troubled by the mystery of life. His life, in truth, had no mystery in it, but was one continued course of success and worldly prosperity, and his art reflects its ease and full enjoyment Considerable doubt formerly hung over the birthplace of Rubens ; Antwerp and Cologne both claiming the honor. It has, however, been recently ascertained that it was 1=1 m o (5 1=1 H THE NETHERLANDS. 155 in neither of these cities, but in Siegen, a town of Westphalia, that the great Nether- land master first saw the light, on the day of St. Peter and St. Paul, June 29, 1577. A year after his birth, his parents, who had been driven from the Netherlands by the religious disturbances of that time, settled in Cologne, where the young Rubens was brought up until he was ten years old, when, upon the death of his father, his mother returned to Antwerp. Here, as he showed a marked predilection for painting, he was placed, after some preliminary instruction by Adam Van Noort, with a master of note in his time, Otto Van Veen, called Otto V^enius, whose gaudy and yet cold coloring offers a singular contrast to that of his celebrated pupil. In 1600 Rubens went to Italy, where the coloring of the Venetians failed not to produce a great impression upon his art. His gorgeous style and coloring are, in fact, directly founded on those of Paolo Veronese, who beyond all other Italians seems most immediately to have influenced him. But unlike the other Netherland painters of his time, he profited by his Italian studies without sacrificing his own individuality; what he took from the Italians he quickly assimilated and made his own, his powerful originality preventing his ever being an imitator. In Italy he entered the service of Vincenzio Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, who not only employed him as a painter, but likewise, it is said, entrusted him with a secret mission to Philip III of Spain. On his return from Spain he appears to have passed some time in Rome, where Michael Angelo's works doubtless contributed to his rich stores of knowledge, and perhaps first led him to attempt that bold dramatic action which so peculiarly marks his works. In 1608 he returned to Antwerp, being summoned there by the death of his mother, and from henceforth, although he made frequent journeys abroad, both for pleasure and on diplomatic missions, he made that city his home. A rich pension and the appointment of Court Painter given him by Albert and Isabella, the Regents of the Netherlands, bound him, in fact, "by a chain of gold," says one of his biographers, to his country, although he often longed for the blue skies and soft breezes of Italy. He stipulated, however, that he should not be obliged to reside at Brussels, the seat of the Court, but built himself a magnificent house in the Italian style at Antwerp, where he soon attracted a large school, and was universally acknow- ledged as the greatest master of his time. The famous "Descent from the Cross," of Antwerp Cathedral, which is usually reckoned Rubens' greatest work, formed the centre subject of this grand altar-piece, and whatever may be the faults of conception and sentiment of this picture, certainly, for vigorous color and effective chiaroscuro, it stands unequalled. Such a work could not fail to increase the ever-growing renown of the master, and while pupils flocked to his studio, sovereigns and princes vied with one another to show him favor. No painter, l 5 6 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. except perhaps Titian, was ever so courted by Fortune. But it was not only to his artistic abilities that Rubens owed his high position : he was likewise a most successful diplomatist, and although we may regret that his time should have been taken up with affairs of state, the Infanta Isabella, when, at the death of her husband, she was left / / m $y /• Afirri F MIERIS AND HIS WIFE. alone in the government of the Netherlands, found him a valuable counselor. In 1628 he undoubtedly went to Spain on Suite business, and met with a most flattering recep- tion at the Court of Madrid. The great beauty of his person, the amiability of his character, and the courtly grace of his manners seem, indeed, to have fascinated all classes. In Hngland, likewise, when- he was sent in the following year to negotiate a peace with Charles I, he was eminently successful. THE NETHERLANDS. 157 Soon after his return to Antwerp, Rubens married a second time ; his first wife, Isabella Brandt, having died in 1626, leaving him two sons. His second choice fell upon Helene Fourment (Forman), a beautiful girl of sixteen, belonging to one of the wealthiest families in Antwerp. He has left us several portraits of his wives, and Helene Four- ment, especially, served him as a model in many of his pictures. In such works as From the original, THE ANCIENT SUITOR by G. Mieris. "The Battle of the Amazons," "The Last Judgment," "The Lion-Hunt," "The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus," and the marvelous smaller picture of "The Fall of the Damned," we see him in the full exercise of his strength, and are overpowered with wonder and admiration. There is a sense of rapid movement in the glorious confusion of the last-named picture, for instance, which no other painter has ever fully expressed. We have had numerous falls of the damned, expulsions of rebel angels, etc., but none ever fell like those of Rubens, with rushing tumultuous movement, so that we seem to i S 8 MASTkRPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. feel them actually tumbling headlong upon us. In "The Battle of the Amazons," like- wise, the powerful action carries us along with it into the midst of the fearful struggle. His versatile genius is also apparent in his landscapes. "Peter Paul Rubens alone," says Coleridge, "handles the everyday ingredients of all common landscapes as they are handled in nature; he throws them into a vast and magnificent whole, consisting of heaven and earth, and all things therein," which means, in more prosaic criticism, that his landscapes are remarkable for their breadth, and masterly distribution of light and shade. Rubens has suffered, like so many other masters, by having too many pictures attributed to him. In spite of what we are told of his marvelous rapidity of execution, we cannot suppose that more than a very small proportion of the thousands of pictures which now bear his name were really painted by him. He had a large school, and reckoned in it such pupils as Vandyke, Teniers, Jordaens, and die great animal painter, Snyders ; it is not, therefore, much to be wondered at that even in his life-time he left many of his designs to be executed by his scholars, and that many of the pictures issuing from his atelier were scarcely touched by the master. Anthony Vandyck (1599-1 641) may be called the Velasquez of Flanders, both artists being especially noted for the dignified air and courtly elegance of their aristo- cratic portraits. No vulgar or commonplace character can be found amongst their sitters ; all are courdy gentlemen, gallant soldiers, and delicate ladies, or are transmuted into such by the painter's refined taste, which, whilst preserving to the full the individu- ality of the likeness, surrounded it, as it were, with the perfumed atmosphere of courts. Vandyck entered the school of Rubens, at Antwerp, at a very early age, and his abilities being soon apparent, he received every assistance from his generous master, who always sought to further his pupils' interest, even when he was, as in Vandyck's case, in danger of rivalry. Before his twentieth birthday he was admitted into the Antwerp guild of painters, thus becoming a master himself whilst still working under a master. After this, in 1623, he went to Italy, and passed some time at Venice, studying the works of Titian and the other great masters. From Venice he proceeded to Rome, and thence to Genoa, where he made a longer stay, and where many works by him may still be found. In 1626, however, he must have been again in Antwerp, for an agent of the Earl of Arundel, writing at the close of that year to his lord from Antwerp, says: "Vandyck is here with Rubens, and his works are beginning to be as much esteemed as those of his master." It is as a portrait-painter that Vandyck has acquired his almost unrivaled fame. A magnificent series of portraits of all the distinguished painters of his day, executed soon TEE BUNCH OF GRAPES FROM TH1 :il THF. ROYAL COLLECTION G.LEVY. SCULPT n V M U ' T.' «. H A 13 Cj T W THE NETHERLANDS. '59 after his return from Italy, proved that this was his true vocation ; and from this time he gave himself up almost entirely to this branch of his art, even his historic and ideal characters always being more or less of an individual or portrait-like character. About the year 1631, Vandyck went to England, probably moved to do so by the flattering reception that Rubens had recently experienced in that country, but Charles I seems to have been unaware at this time of Vandyck's fame as an artist, and his visit created no sensation. In much disgust he returned to Antwerp, but no sooner had he gone, than Charles I found out what a treasure he had suffered to escape him, and in all haste sent a personal invitation to him to return. Accordingly, in 1632 he returned, and this time had no cause to complain of his reception. Charles I delighted to have such a painter in his service, gave him at once a salary of ^200 a year, besides raising him to the dignity of knighthood. One of Vandyck's most beautiful female portraits is that of Lady Venetia, wife of Sir Kenelm Digby, now in Windsor Castle. The Lady Venetia is said to have been poisoned by her husband, who passionately loved her, by means of a potion that he had himself prepared and administered to her for the purpose of heightening her beauty. Calumny was also busy with the fair fame of this noted beauty, and in allusion to this, the emblems of defeated slander lie around her in Vandyck's celebrated picture. Vandyck died in London, in his forty-third year, and in spite of his extravagant style of living, left a large amount of property behind him. Gaspard de Crayer (i 582-1 669) was a Flemish painter, much esteemed in his own time, but whose works have failed to gain the approving verdict of posterity like those of his great contemporaries Rubens and Vandyck. He was the friend of Rubens, but was not one of his followers, although he did not altogether escape his influence. He belongs in style more to the preceding school of Flemish art — that, namely, intermediate between the early religious schools of Flanders, and the florid school, as it has been called, of Rubens, and is somewhat cold in coloring and conventional in style. Jacob Jordaens (1 593-1 678) imitated Rubens in his coarsest style. His pictures are generally vulgar in conception and glaring in color, for he aimed at the splendor of Rubens' coloring without understanding its brilliant harmonies. The master never jars even in his loudest notes, whereas many of his pupils produce strong discords. Jordaens was, however, a clever and powerful painter, notwithstanding his crude and discordant coloring, and in many of his works comes very near to Rubens. He suffers, indeed, by having many of his good pictures attributed to his master. Frans Snyders ( 1 572-1 657), as an animal painter, is almost equal to Rubens, to whom he was long an assistant. His wild beasts are truly marvelous. They are usually depicted by him when their ferocious instincts have been called forth by the most angry i6o MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. passions; hunts, and fights with lions, tigers and such like creatures being his favorite subjects. He likewise painted Bowe r s and vegetables with extreme skill, and was often the painter of these accessories as well as of the animals in Rubens' pictures. Entirely different from Rubens and Vandyck, both in style and in the class of Nw^lI ' — ^ ' v- t .- — — ■ -■■ i 1: \ . Ftvm Ikt original. THE MUSIC LESSON *r (». Tirtmrg. subjects he chose for representation, is the third great master of the Flemish school of painting in the seventeenth century, David Teniers the Younger (1610-1694). Although, undoubtedly, greatly influenced by Rubens, even if he were not one of his scholars, In- had none of that master's dashing magnificence. His strong preference for small genre subjects, instead of mythological and historical scenes, separates him still more from a painter like Rubens, who felt his activities cramped unless he had a large arena allowed THE HE- R M L^S THE NETHERLANDS. 161 him for their display. Teniers, in truth, belongs by his style to the Dutch genre school of the seventeenth century, rather than to the Flemish school of that time, as repre- sented by Rubens and his chief followers. Like Adrian Brauwer, Frans Hals, Adrian Van Ostade, and several other Dutch masters of the same stamp, he delighted in From the original. THE DANCING DOG. by Jean Stein. representations of peasant and tavern life, and exercised his marvelous skill in the delineation of drinking-bouts, merry-makings, village fairs, peasant weddings, guard- rooms, markets, rustic feasts, dances, and other similar subjects. Alchemy, also, which was a favorite pursuit in his time, attracted his observation, and his representations of the victims to the search for the philosopher's stone are amongst his cleverest produc- 162 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. tions. He was likewise fond of wizards, witches and incantation scenes, to which he gave a humorous rather than a weird effect His comic imps and demons are conceived in a totally different spirit from that which produced the grotesque realism of early religious art, or die fantastic conceptions of German art They have nothing super- natural about them, but are simply the offspring of the painter's humorous imagination, having no reality to his mind. In his well-known "Temptation of St. Anthony," for instance, in the Louvre, a subject of grim earnest with earlier masters, the whole affair is treated as a kind of joke. Such devils as these could never inspire horror or fear; one frightful little imp is positively smoking a pipe. In the picture of the same subject in the Berlin Gallery, the tempting fiend takes the shape of a ripe Flemish beauty, and here also the various impish creatures, fighting and screaming in the air, have an unmis- takably comic character. Little is known of the personal history of Teniers, but it would seem that, although perhaps not quite such a fine gentleman as Rubens or Vandyck, he held a high position in society, and that his acquaintance was courted by men of rank and distinction. He learned painting under his father, David Teniers the Elder, an artist of some repute, and was admitted into the Antwerp Guild as early as 1632-33. His religious subjects, or rather the subjects to which he has given a religious title, are the most unpleasing of all his works, the most sacred characters being conceived under the same vulgar forms as his boors and drunken peasants. Such subjects as "Christ Crowned with Thorns," "Christ Buffeted." and "Peter Denying Christ," are degraded, for instance, info vulgar and almost repulsive scenes of low life. He was, in fact, totally wanting in that elevation of feeling that marks all the great Italian masters. In landscape he is often excellent Teniers had many pupils and imitators, several of whom, it is said, paid him the compliment of signing his name on their works; but none of them have any original talent, and they need not. therefore, detain us here. At the head of the Dutch school of painting in the seventeenth century stands the great name of Rembrandt Van Ryn. A few foolish incapable artists carried on the Dutch line of succession, from the time of Lucas Van Leyden to that of Rembrandt, lut fortunately their works have for the most part perished, and their names are not- necessary to comment upon here. We will leave them in the limbo into which they have fallen, and turn to one of the most powerful and original artists that the world has ever seen. REMBRANDT Hermanszoon van Ryn (son of Herman of the Rhine) was born at Leyden (not in an old mill on the Rhine) in 1608. His father, instead of being a poor miller, was a bourgeois in easy circumstances, who at his death left a considerable THE NETHERLANDS. 163 property to Rembrandt and his six brothers and sisters. Rembrandt was educated at the Latin School at Leyden, but as he early showed a far greater taste for art than for learning, his father refrained from sending him to the University as he had intended, and placed him under a master named Isaakszoon van Swanenberg to study painting. Pieter Lastman, a painter of some reputation in his day, and Jacob Pinas, are likewise said to have been his teachers, but his course of study with these masters could not have been long, for in 1630, when he was only twenty-two, we find that he had set up for himself at Amsterdam, and had gained much notice by the originality of his style. Four years afterwards, namely, in 1635, he married Saskia Uilenberg, a young lady belonging to a noble Friesland family, and possessed of a good fortune, which at her death, in 1642, she left to Rembrandt in trust for their only son Titus. Why, in the face of these facts, it should have been always asserted that Rem- brandt married a low peasant girl of Ransdorp, it is difficult to understand, unless the facts were invented to suit the preconceived theory of Rembrandt being a vulgar sot, whom no lady would have married. But we not only find that the rich and beautiful Saskia chose him for a husband, but that some of the most learned and polished men in Amsterdam sought his society, and valued his friendship. The burgomaster Jan Six, and the celebrated professor Nikolaus Tulp, depicted in "The Anatomy Lesson," were his intimate friends, and the staid Dutch poet Decker wrote a sonnet in his praise. In 1656, however, he became a bankrupt, and all his valuable pictures, drawings and other works of art, as well as his household effects, were sold under a judicial execution. After this trouble, which was, probably, caused more by the financial difficulties of the times than by any fault of his own, Rembrandt seems to have led a very secluded life in Amsterdam, devoted entirely to his art. The time and place of his death were for a long time unknown to his biographers, but Dr. Scheltema has at last satisfactorily proved, from the registry of his burial, that he died on the 8th of October, 1669, at Amsterdam, and was buried in the Westerkerk of that city. Beneath this registry is a statement to the effect that "Catherina Van Wyck, the widow, has declared that she has no means of proving that her children had anything to inherit from their father," so that it is clear that Rembrandt must have married again aft°r the death of Saskia, but when is not known. We find pictures by Rembrandt in almost every gallery, and their individuality of style is so marked that even the careless lounger soon gets to know them, and is able to affirm "there is a Rembrandt" without reference to the catalogue. Powerful contrasts of light and shade, intense gloom lit up by a single concentrated beam of light, making "darkness visible," these are the chief effects that Rembrandt sought after and repro- duced. He never looked at nature in her soft twilight moods, but loved to set her •6* .U.1STERP/ECES OF EUROPEAN ART. noonday and her night in sudden fierce opposition. It is only by degrees, and some- times after long contemplation, that objects dawn on our view out of his great masses of warm shadow, for at first, as in nature, our eyes are too dazzled with the glory of the light to see clearly. This is especially the case with that marvelous picture at f'rvm Ik* original. VAN OSTADE IN HIS STUDIO ky Vam OsUd*. Amsterdam, called "The Night- Watch." which we engrave on page 153, the most celebrated, perhaps, of all his works. What this picture is meant to represent no one has been able to define. The scene is a daylight one, although for some unaccountable reason called "The Night-Watch," and apparently depicts a company of arquebussiers going forth to OUT THE MARRIAGE OF S? CATHERINE FROM THE PICTURE IN THE ROYAL COLLECTION. GEBBIE 8c BARRIE THE NETHERLANDS. 165 shoot at a mark. A young girl in strange festal attire is in the midst of them with a fowl, supposed to be meant as a prize for the victor, attached to her belt. Such is the From the original. THE WATERFALL. by y. Ruysdale. literal prosaic interpretation of this painting, but whoever has eyes to see it will perceive that this extraordinary production is lifted far above the prosaic by the golden 166 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. radiance that (alls upon it. We know not, indeed, the meaning of the picture, but we fed in looking at it that we are in the presence not of the vulgar portrayer of Dutch marksmen, but of the "King of Shadows" and Prince of Light. "The Night- Watch" was executed in 1642, in the full maturity of the artist's powers; but ten years before this he had already achieved a high position amongst artists by his powerful "Anatomy Lesson," a picture now at the Hague, in which all the peculiar characteristics of his style are strikingly displayed. Many of his works, both painted and etched, are por- traits, and if we accept Ruskin's dictum that "the highest thing art can do is to set before you the true image of a noble human being," then, surely, Rembrandt has done the very highest of which art is capable. Every one knows his old men's and old women's heads, in which not only every wrinkle and every shade is faithfully depicted, but every care, every sorrow, and every joy of the sitter's life is expressed. His por- traits, in fact, like Titian's and all truly great portraits, are, strictly speaking, biographies, and we learn more of those impassable, shrewd old Dutchmen from them than from many elaborate histories. His landscapes express the poetry of northern scenery, for the north has a poetry of its own, however much the worshippers of Claude's sunny skies may despise it; but study Rembrandt's well-known etching of "The Three Trees" for half an hour in silence, and the poetry of the flat, dull Netherland landscape will dawn even on minds educated to behold no beauty out of Italy. His etched landscapes, in fact his etchings generally, reveal the peculiarity of his genius still more strikingly than his paintings. They were not only conceived, but executed in a manner of his own, the secret of which no one has since been able to discover. His prints are now the prized treasures of collectors, and fabulous sums are given for early impressions. Gerard 1><>i (161 3-1 675) worked for three years, we are told, in Rembrandt's school, and no doubt acquired his accurate knowledge of chiaroscuro there, but he cannot, strictly speaking, be classed as a follower of Rembrandt, for he struck out the "little" line for himself, and was faithfully followed in it by several pupils and imitators. He painted portraits with great skill, only it is said that he so wearied his sitters by the time he required, that he got but few to sit to him. He took his own portrait, however, many times. Perhaps the most celebrated of all his works is the painting known as "La Femme Hydropique." in the Louvre. A lady of middle age, and appa- rently the prey to some dreadful disease, leans back on a chair by a window, her daughter kneeling beside her in hopeless grief. A physician stands by examining the contents of a bottle, on which, possibly, his verdict of life or death depends. Every accessory is, of course, painted with tin- minutest accuracy "The Prince of his scholars," as Gerard Don called him, was Frans Mieris (1635- 1 68 1 ). He, indeed, excelled even his master in the minutiae of his painting, and nothing atfl < © © < B M THE NETHERLANDS. 167 can be more perfect than some of his little cabinet pictures. This class of Dutch genre painters seem, in fact, to have had every faculty of great artists. Good Dutch house- wives bargaining for poultry in the market-place, or plucking their winged purchases in the kitchen ; stolid boors drinking outside or inside a tavern ; buxom damsels in rich satin dresses talking to foolish cavaliers, or having music-lessons, or sitting for their portraits, or partaking of elegant refreshments offered by little footboys on silver salvers ; children blowing soap-bubbles ; such were the favorite themes of these men. The cheerful character of their works is another of their distinguishing features. We never find anything like gloom in a Dutch genre painter. Life to him was simply a time to eat, drink and be merry, to marry and be given in marriage, to lay up corn in barns, and in fact to make the most of present enjoyment, it being quite uncertain what comes next. Frans Van Mieris has this happy carelessness to the full. His pictures are full of good humor and self-satisfaction, and we have in them, at all events, a most skilful delineation of furniture and ornamental accessories. "The quality of his stuffs," says a critic appreciative of this kind of work, "is distinctly defined, and no representation can surpass in truth the beauty of his silks, satins and velvets." But by far the greatest painter of silks, satins and velvets was Gerard Terburg ( 1 608-1 681). Terburg is pre-eminently the painter of white satin! The glossy folds of a lady's rich dress he reproduced with a comprehension of their soft texture, and an appreciation of the degrees of light and shade that fell upon them, that have never been equaled in art. Gabriel Metsu (161 5, living in 1667) is a painter of exactly the same taste. "His subjects generally," says a commentator, "are of the genteel and decorous order," but he was not so uniformly "genteel" as Terburg, and often painted the market and kitchen scenes of more homely life. Occasionally, indeed, we have a touch of humor in his works. Jan Steen (1626-1679) is another original genius amongst the Dutch genre painters. He is a thoroughly sympathetic artist, and enters into the broad fun of the scenes he depicts with keen appreciation and enjoyment. In one of his most celebrated pictures he has set forth the pleasures of oyster-eating. The painting is called, it is true, "A Representation of Human Life," but it is really nothing more than a large oyster-party. About twenty persons of different ages, varying from infancy to old age, are engaged simply in opening and eating oysters. The subject is raised above vulgarity by its whimsical contrasts, its humorous expression, its effective chiaroscuro, and its wonderful execution. It is now in the Gallery at the Hague. "The Effects of Intemperance," before mentioned, is likewise a remarkable work. In it the artist has positively intro- duced portraits of himself and his wife, as pointing the moral of the scene. Both are 1 68 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ARE depicted in drunken slumber after the enjoyments of a feast The confusion that reigns around them is supreme One of the children, who are playing about, is picking the pocket of her unconscious mother, another is smashing wine-glasses, a dog upon the table is devouring the remains of a pasty, a monkey has possessed himself of some parchment deeds, whilst a servant in the background is stealing some money-bags, and a cat knoe Vargas, of the school of Seville, began the study of painting in his native city, then repaired to Italy, and passed some twenty-eight years there, improving him- self and becoming familiar with the great masters. He returned to Spain, about the middle of the sixteenth century, being himself about fifty years of age. Several of his works are still pointed out in Seville Cathedral. His admirable picture of "The Nativity.'* in one of the chapels, was executed in 1555. Another, called, from one of its features, "LaGamba," or "The Leg-Painting," represents the human ancestors of the Redeemer adoring their descendant, as He lies in His mother's lap. In the foreground is the foreshortened leg of Adam, to which the picture owes its name. He died at Seville, about 1568. It is related of Vargas, not only that he frequently used the discipline of the scourge, but Uiat he kept a coffin in his house, and used to lie down in it from time to time, to meditate on death. The instruments and evidences of his self-castigation and torture were found in his chamber after his death. Tradition represents the painter as a man of modest and kindly nature, and not indisposed, now and then, to have his joke. His works are little known out of Spain. Luis Morales, surnamed El Divino, from the intensely devotional character of his works, is sometimes mentioned as the single master of the school of Estremadura, if LUIS MORALES JOTC MALLL'ETER.S: ECCE HOI! ■ B *■ A K XJHIVERSITT^ SPANISH SCHOOL. 179 school it can be called. "The Circumcision," engraved on wood on this page, is from the original in the Royal Gallery at Madrid. It was bought at the Louis Philippe sale in 1853; so also was the "Ecce Homo," engraved on steel by M. Mailleffer for "this work. These two pictures are great examples of the divine Morales' manner. Born about 1509, he studied either at Toledo or Valladolid. His life was passed in From the original. bv Luis Morales THE CIRCUMCISION. painting for churches and private oratories. About 1654, he was commanded by Philip II to execute a picture for his newly-built palace-monastery of the Escurial. Seventeen years afterwards, as the king was passing through Badajoz, Morales waited upon him. "You are very old, Morales," remarked Philip. "Yes, sire, and very poor," was the reply. On which, the king desired his treasurer to pay the artist a pension of two hundred ducats "for his dinner." "And for supper, sire?" rejoined the old man — a word i8o MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. of repartee which gained him another hundred ducats, as the story goes. He died at Hadajoz, 1586. Morales was never out of Spain, yet he managed to clothe his devo- tional subjects with the fit-ling and expression associated with Italian art, and more particularly with the school of Rome. The elaborate finish of his pictures, always painted on panel, and the purity and grace of their composition, procured for Morales the title of the Parmegiano of Spain. The painter's finest works were formerly preserved in his native city, but the French pioneers of civilization robbed it of four of them, and time and repainting have mined the rest. In ever so cursnn* a review of early Spanish art, place must be found for the great portrait-painter of Philip II's court — ALONZO SANCHEZ Coello. Although Portugal has sometimes been named as his native country, there seems little doubt that he was born at Valencia, early in the sixteenth century. Neither the place nor manner of his studies is now known ; it is, however, inferred, from his leaving behind him several careful copies of Titian's works, that he formed his style on Italian models. Before the middle of the century, he is found settled at Madrid with his wife. Philip II, on his accession, showed the artist distinguished favor, lodging him in the royal palace, and dropping in. every now and then, to while away an hour in his company. Coello painted the features of the great first Jesuit, Ignatius Loyola, not from life, but from wax casts taken from his head some thirty years before, aided by the recol- lections of Ribadeneyra, the hagiologist. No portrait was ever taken of Loyola during life, not even that striking one which hangs in San Miguel's church, Seville. Francisco de Ribalta, a master of the Valencia school, has a little romance con- nected with his story. While studying art at Valencia, he fell in love with his master's daughter. Her father thought too little of his pupil's self-supporting skill as a painter onsent to their union. The daughter, however, agreed to wait till the young man should perfect himself in Italy. He accordingly started for Rome, and labored diligently before the works of Raphael and the Carracci. In four years or so he ventured back to Valencia, and reaching the house of the lady, at a moment when her father was not at home, |»- put the last touches to a painting he found on the easel, and disappeared. The father, returning, was so much pleased with what had been done, as the story runs, that he declared the youth who had touched the picture should be his son-in-law, and not that bungler, Ribalta. It is the story of Quentin Matsys over again. Whether true in all particulars or not, the subsequent narrative of Ribalta's life was in every respect conformable to this beginning. He entered on a course of diligent work and uninter- rupted success. His pictures were nearly all of a sacred character; they are very numerous, especially in the city and province of his native Valencia. The College of Corpus Christi. Valencia, is said to be a "museum of Ribaltas." We engrave, on SPANISH SCHOOL. 181 this page, one of his best works, now in the National Gallery of Madrid. Ribalta has been termed the Domenichino and Sebastian del Piombo of Spain, in one. His career closed in 1628, when he was between seventy and eighty years of age— for the exact year of his birth is not ascertained. There is not a more curious episode in the history of art than the story of the eccentric painter, El Greco, or the Greek. His real name was Domenico Theotocopuli ; 18a MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. his family is supposed to have taken refuge in Venice at the time when Constantinople fell into the hands of the Turks. Domcnico was born probably in Venice, about the middle of tin- sixteenth century, He is said to have studied in Titian's school ; color was the passion of his soul. Michael Angelo's inferiority as a colorist provoked the Greek to say. on one occasion, to Pacheco, who records it, that he was a good enough sort of man, but he didn't know how to paint. The Greek is found at Toledo, 1577, engaged in painting what is still believed his masterpiece — "The Stripping of Christ" — in the cathedral sacristy. The Greek next received a commission from Philip to paint a St. Maurice for the Escurial. The uncertain powers of the artist here showed them- selves. The finished picture fell so very far short of his reputation, and indeed of what he had actually achieved, that the king refused to admit it into the church, although he paid die stipulated sum. A great opportunity was thus lost, for Philip was not the man to give another chance. The painter, however, at eccentric intervals, produced excellent works, especially in portraits. The Louvre possesses two of the best, representing the painter himself, and his beautiful daughter. The latter is engraved on the next page. "Her countenance," says Stirling-Maxwell, "in depicting which her fond father has put forth all his skill, is one of the most beautiful that death ever dimmed, and that the pencil ever rescued from the grave." In the Louvre may be seen what the Greek could do in one of his mad moments of incapacity, the subject is "The Adoration of the Shepherds." Yet, when at his best, he could make his heads stand out from the canvas like Velasquez, and paint flesh and draperies so as to make one think of Titian. Several of his pupils rank high in the Castilian school. In sculpture also, and archi- tecture, the Greek had a considerable reputation. He died at Toledo, 1625, regretted by the whole city. Juan db las Roelas, surnamed El Clerigo, or the ecclesiastic, was "a very great master," as Mr. Ford remarks, "although much less known and appreciated than he deserves." His name, in fact, is hardly known out of Spain. Seville was his native city ; his family was illustrious. His style has induced the belief, in the absence of all direct proof, that he studied painting at Venice, under Tintoretto, after leaving the university of Seville with the degree of licentiate. In 1 603, being then upwards of forty years of age, Roelas was appointed to a prebend, or minor canonry, at Olivarez, a small town not far from Seville. Fol many subsequent years, the painter seems to have been non-resident, living in the more congenial society of Seville and Madrid. He failed to obtain the office of painter' to the king, Philip III, but remained at Madrid, painting for churches and convents, as also at Seville, until he was made canon of Olivarez, the year before his death, in 1625. He was the master of Zurburan, whose great works are now better known, and bear the impress of Roelas' teaching. 1 1 © 4f 3= ■«; cq r- SPANISH SCHOOL. 183 We have noticed, in El Greco, an instance of a foreigner identifying himself with Spanish art; we have now, in Josef de Ribera, an example of a Spaniard by birth taking his place in the Neapolitan school of Italy. Ribera, better known by his Italian surname of II Spagnoletto, or the little Spaniard, was a native of Xativa, or San Felipe, near Valencia; born 1588. Ribalta is generally supposed to have been his master; but he went to Italy in early youth, and adopted the vigorous and naturalist style of From the original, by Domenico Theotocopuli. THE DAUGHTER OF EL GRECO. Caravaggio. At first very poor, he owed his subsistence to the charity of a Roman cardinal. When he had made good progress in art, he removed to Naples, out of jealousy of Domenichino, it is alleged. There he married the daughter of a wealthy dealer in pictures. He also ingratiated himself with successive viceroys of Spain, and was made their court-painter, with a fixed salary. Commissions poured in upon him ; many works of his pencil were executed for Spain. He was hated, of course, as a successful foreigner, by his Neapolitan neighbors ; nor, if half the evil reported of him 184 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. a true did he deserve much better. A cabal he formed with a Greek painter to monopolize Naples, as a field for themselves, was carried out unscrupulously, and with complete success. In the Royal Gallery at Madrid is an admirable example of Ribem, "Jacobs Dream," which is described as an exact transcript of a wayworn monk asleep. Few artists have excelled Ribera's portraits, either in force or spirit One of himself, from the gallery at Naples, we engrave on page 185. Ribera died at Naples, 1656. according to one account ; but according to another, perhaps equally trustworthy, he left Naples surreptitiously a few years earlier, under the pressure of a severe family morti- fication, ami was never afterwards heard of. Salvator Rosa and Luca Giordano were his pupils. Fkan. isco Pacheco has several claims to a place in the Masters of Spanish art as a writer on painting, as the teacher of Alonso Cano and of Velasquez, apart from the moderate merit of his own pictures. He was born in Seville, 1571, the descendant of a noble* family long distinguished in letters and in arms. He acquired his art in the studio of Luis Fernandez, of Seville, the school of many celebrated painters. His first essays were in painting flags or standards for the fleet of New Spain, in 1594. On their crimson damask material he emblazoned in oil the royal arms of Spain, with her patron, St. Jago, on horseback, surrounded by rich borders and decorations. His brush was again in request for the funeral obsequies of Philip II, 1598. The painting which probably does Pacheco most credit is a "Last Judgment," executed for the nuns of St. Isabel. Pleading the example of Titian, he introduced into a foreground group a |K>rtrait of the author. The work was a good deal criticised, and not less eulogized; a Jesuit father wrote in its behalf; a gallant knight of St. John composed a long copy of verses in its praise. In the course of time, Pacheco was nominated a Familiar of the Inquisition, and an Inspector of Pictures. The latter office imposed on him the duty of seeing that nothing offensive to pious eyes was introduced into churches, or even <>ttf. Zurbaran, the Caravaggio of Spain, was born in the cottage of a laboring man at Fuente de Cantos, in Estremadura, 1598. By the kind indulgence of his parents he was permitted to follow his strong natural bent for art, instead of following the plough, and he eventually became the pupil of Roelas, at Seville. His talent was equaled by his incessant application. He trusted nothing to memory. If it SPANISH SCHOOL. 187 was only a bit of drapery, there must be something to paint it from on the lay figure. In this way he laid the foundation of his fame as the most intensely realistic painter of the Spanish school. The fine sacristy of the Geronymite convent at Guadaloupe pos- sesses eight out of eleven large pictures from the life of St. Jerome, patron of the monks, executed by Zurbaran at this time, as were also three others, for the Cartuxa, From the original. ST. JOHN, THE EVANGELIST. by Alonso Cano. or Charterhouse, of Seville, now in the museum. These are Kruno, the founder, con- versing with the Pope, a painting of rare merit ; St. Hugo visiting monks at dinner, in the act of breaking their rule that forbids animal food, a masterpiece of the painter ; and St. Mary protecting a company of Carthusians. The faces of the monks in the last two pictures have all the force of truthful portraits. Zurbaran resided for the greater part of his life at Seville. He once or twice visited Madrid ; on one of these occasions Philip IV, who admired good art, appointed him his court-painter, by tapping the artist on the shoulder, it is said, and saluting him 188 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. as "King's painter, and king of painters." He is represented in nearly all the principal galleries of Europe. Seville, Madrid and other Spanish cities possess many of his paintings; the Louvre has thirty which are genuine, and fifty more of doubtful or spurious character. In the British National Gallery hangs one of the artist's Carthu- sians in prayer, holding in both hands a skull. An engraving of this will be found on page 189. Probably the finest example of this master, out of Spain, is at Stafford House, the Duke of Sutherland's London residence, one of four Zurbarans in the gallery. The subject is "The Adoration of the Magi," which is engraved on page 191. "As is usual with Spanish painters," says Mrs. Jameson, describing the picture, "the head of the Virgin is a portrait, and so peculiar and marked in character as to leave a strong impression on the fancy and memory. The painting is beautiful ; the colors bright and warm ; the imitation of nature, in the objects introduced, careful ; on the whole, a very remarkable and interesting picture of the master." Diego Rodriquez de Silva y Velasquez, son of Juan de Silva, a lawyer, and Geronima Velasquez, his wife, was born at Seville, 1599. His mother, by whose name he is best known, belonged to a noble Andalusian family; his father, Juan, was of good Portuguese descent, but with fortune so reduced as to make it necessary for him to adopt a profession. Their son early evinced his strong inclination for art, and, after a liberal education, was sent to study painting under Herrera the elder, a vigorous but somewhat coarse master of the Andalusian school. Herrera, in his transports of rage, did not hesitate to beat his pupils. Ere long, young Velasquez left him in disgust, and sought instruction in the studio of Pacheco, which is described by the master himself, in his "Arte de la Pintura," as "an academy of good taste." In this school he worked for five years, won the regard of his master, and married his master's daughter, Juana. Velasquez did not content himself with merely copying studies for his master; he labored very constantly in drawing and painting from solid objects. Nothing came amiss to him. He drew flowers, fruits, animals, birds, fish, still life, plate, metal, earthen pots, and pans, and colored them with extreme care after the reality before him. In this way he trained his eye and hand to transfer whatever he desired to the canvas with ease and certainty. His studies from the living model were quite as important. A young peasant was engaged to sit to the artist continually, in every variety of attitude, weeping, laughing, grimacing. When we are told diat Velasquez's works were once described as more like the spontaneous creations of the will than the labored result of manual skill. we know where the consummate painter gained the art that could thus conceal his art An example of his early manner, as a sagacious observer of nature, exists in the Duke of Wellington's gallery, Apsley House, London. It is called the "Aguador," or "Water- Seller of Seville." It is engraved on page 195. King Joseph Bonaparte took a fancy K* OF GMS>" SPANISH SCHOOL. 189 From the original. iv Francisco de Zurbaran. THE MONK IN PRAYER. to it, and carried it off with him when he fled from Madrid. At the battle of Vittoria it fell into the British hands, and Ferdinand VII presented it to Lord Wellington. This picture contains but three figures : a man in rough dress, rugged and sunburnt, stands beside his water-pitcher; while of two boys, also rudely clothed, one is taking a glass 190 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. of water from the man, and his companion slakes his thirst from a pipkin. Man, boys and pitcher stand out from the. canvas with the solid reality of actual fact. Velasquez, at the age of twenty-three, traveled for the first time beyond his native province, and paid a short visit to Madrid, furnished with introductions by his father-in- law, more particularly to the canon Fonseca, an accomplished ecclesiastic and a fellow- townsman of the young painter, who had set his heart on securing the rising artist for Madrid, and in a few months obtained from the minister, Olivarez, a royal command summoning Velasquez to Madrid. The painter then took up his residence for life in the capital. Pacheco accompanied him, as did also a young mulatto slave named Juan de Pareja, whom Velasquez kept, and who eventually became a good painter. Fonseca's portrait, the first that Velasquez ever painted, opened the gate of the court to the artist. Olivarez next sat to him, and, in no long time, Philip IV himself. The latter painting is now at the Royal Gallery of Madrid. We present our readers with an engraving of this wonderful portrait, etched by the now famous M. Haussoullier. Velasquez was named painter in ordinary to the king, with a salary. Velasquez had also executed a noble equestrian portrait of Philip. When finished, it was exhibited to the people on a holiday, and excited a storm of applause. From that date Velasquez's brush was in constant demand to paint the royal features, and those of other members of the reigning family. In the celebrated Madrid portrait represented in our illustra- tion, the spectator admires the easy attitude, the astonishing reality of the narrow forehead, the insignificant eye, and the massive under-jaw. Note also the deer-skin gloves, the fowling-piece, the tawny coat of the sporting dog, and the barren Castilian landscape into which the pursuit of game has brought Philip. Wlasquez, with his faithful Pareja, set out for Italy in 1629, with a two years' leave of absence. During his year's residence in Rome, Velasquez painted only three original pictures — his "Forge of Vulcan," now at Madrid; his "Joseph's Coat," now in the Escurial ; and his own portrait, for his father-in-law. The painter's next move was to Naples ; there he found his fellow-countryman, Ribcra, and managed, with his usual tact, to associate with him, yet without arousing the jealousy of the rude Valencian. Early in 1631, Velasquez returned home, to receive fresh honors and achieve new successes with his pencil. New apartments were assigned to him in the Alcazar, where Philip was in the daily habit of visiting the artist at all hours, admitting himself with a private key, and chatting, while Velasquez painted, for hours together. In 1639 ne executed one of his finest works, a crucifixion, for the nuns of San Placido, Madrid. The one solitary figure, without either landscape, clouds or attendants, hangs there on the cross, which is not carried down to the ground, and is relieved against a plain dark background, like an ivory carving on sombre velvet. The SPANISH SCHOOL. 191 anatomy of the nude figure is carefully executed; the linen cloth about the loins, the fir-wood of the cross, are depicted in their minutest details. " The treatment is most impressive — awful in the very simplicity of its means. It was offered for sale in Paris, From the original. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI. by Francisco de Zuriaran. after the French robberies of Spanish galleries; a patriotic Spaniard redeemed it, at a high figure, and gave it to the Royal Gallery, Madrid, where it now hangs. Velasquez painted the portraits of many of the court dwarfs, generally as single figures, and seated i 9 2 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. on the ground, so as a little to dissemble their diminutive height, for the artist disdained to caricature. Two of them were introduced into his celebrated picture of the "Meninas," or "Maids of Honor." It must be mentioned, to the credit of Velasquez as a man, that notwithstanding his intimacy with the king, when his original patron, Olivarez, fell into disgrace at court, the painter did not turn his back upon him, but went to see him in his exile. Neither did Philip resent this independence of spirit. Between 1 645-1 648, the painter executed one of his most celebrated works, "The Surrender of Breda," sometimes called "Las Lanzas," or "The Lancers," from the pikemen massed at one side of the picture, opposite the spectator's right. Velasquez again visited Italy, 1648, commissioned by Philip to collect works of art for the royal gallery he desired to found in his capital. He sailed from Malaga to Genoa, accompanied by his faithful man of color, Pareja ; traveled by way of Milan and Padua to Venice, and thence by Bologna and Parma to Florence. Carlo Dolce and Salvator Rosa were living there at that time. His progress was everywhere a kind of triumph, his reception the most cordial. In Rome, the Pope, Innocent X (Pamfili-Doria), welcomed him. and sat to him for the fine portrait, now in the Doria palace. The following year he returned to Spain, bearing widi him works of Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese for the king. His recent services were acknowledged by his promotion to the dignified office of Aposcntador-mayor of the royal household. The duties, which were not light, regarded the personal accommodation and lodging of the king. It cannot be doubted that the world is poorer by many great works of art in consequence of this promotion. Yet the office was one of high rank and good emolument. The holder placed the royal chair when the king dined in public ; he set chairs for cardinals and viceroys at audiences. He carried at his girdle an official key. From that date the brush of the painter was less in requisition. Yet to that period belongs a group of portraits reckoned the best ever painted by him — "Las Meninas," or "The Maids of Honor." In his portrait engraved on page 193, it should be noted that the painter wears on his breast the red cross of Santiago. The story goes that it was painted by the king himself, who, taking up a brush, conferred the honor of knight- hood in that distinguished order on the favorite artist. Velasquez* connection with the court ultimately proved fatal to him. In the summer of 1660, a festival meeting of the French and Spanish courts was arranged, in honor of the nuptials of Louis XIV, and the Infanta, Maria Theresa. The place of meeting was the Isle of Pheasants, in the river Bidassoa. Velasquez was officially charged with the whole arrangements — the erection of a range of pavilions, and all that was required for the great court ceremony. Not only so, but he was bound to find suitable lodging SPANISH SCHOOL. 193 and entertainment for the king and his suite at every stage of the long road from Madrid to Fontarabia, a journey which occupied six weeks. The festivities were all over in a week. Then the return journey commenced, and ended in about three weeks more. By the end of June, Velasquez was able to take some repose at home with his family. A month later, he was suddenly seized with mortal illness, and died seven days after, August 6, 1660. His wife, Dona Juana, survived him only one week. From the original. PORTRAIT OF VELASQUEZ. by Velasquez. One or two more of his pictures claim a brief notice. "Las Hilanderas," or "The Tapestry Manufactory," at Madrid, is indeed the perfection of reality. In front are several women, of various ages, occupied in spinning and chatting to one another. It would seem that the vainest of their charms are not the youngest. Within an alcove at the back, other women are in treaty for the sale of a piece of tapestry with a lady of tall and elegant figure, but whose face is averted from the spectator as she looks at the tapestry, so that, as Ford remarks, "it is left to the imagination of each spectator to invest her with that quality of beauty which best accords with his peculiar liking." 194 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. In the gallery of the Duke of Sutherland's London residence, Stafford House, there is a very striking picture by Velasquez, representing Francis Borgia, Duke of Gandia, meeting Ignatius Loyola at the gate of a Jesuit convent The duke has come to renounce his rank and fortune as a grandee of Spain, and associate himself with the fortunes of the new religious order. An impressive single-figure picture by Velasquez's hand is now in the British National collection, entitled "El Orlando Muerto" ("Dead Roland"). That it represents the hero of Roncesvalles has not been proved; but however that may be, the solitary figure lying outstretched on a bed of rock, in darkness rendered only more visible by the still burning wick of an extinguished lamp suspended over him, leaves on the spec- tator a weird recollection of solemn power. The countenance is already stamped with the complexion of the grave. The mailed body is in strange contrast with the square shoes and ribbons on the feet The difficulties of foreshortening were never more com- pletely overcome. As regards Velasquez's portraits in general, they rank among the best of any school. "His portraits baffle description and praise," remarks Mr. Ford. "They must be seen. He elevated that humble branch of art to the dignity of history. He drew the minds of men ; they live, breathe and seem ready to walk out of their frames. His' power of painting circumambient air, his knowledge of linear and aerial perspective, the gradation of tones in light shadow and color, give an absolute concavity to the flat surface of his canvas; we look into space, into a room, into the reflection of a mirror." J i an Pareja, the slave and valet of Velasquez, was born in 1610 in the West Indies, of a Spanish father by an Indian woman. His business was to pound the colors, clean the brushes, and put the colors on the palette. Pareja, who had been a long time in the studio, every day learning some secret of the art which was carried on before him, had, at last felt his true vocation. Carried away by his passion, Pareja began to study with as much ardor as he was forced to use mystery. During the day he watched his master paint, and listened to the lessons he gave to his pupils ; then, during the night, he practised the lesson with pencil and brush. Studies such as these could not lead to rapid progress; it required much time and the most obstinate perseverance on the part of Pareja before he could attain to a knowledge of his art At last when he was forty-five years old, he thought himself sufficiently skillful to reveal the secret so long kept To do this and obtain his pardon at the same time, he employed the fol- lowing artifice: Philip IV used to amuse himself with looking over the sketches which were scattered about the room. Having completed a picture of small dimensions, Pareja slipped it amongst other paintings with their faces turned to the wall. At his first visit the king did not fail to ask for all the sketches in the studio. When Pareja presented SPANISH SCHOOL. '95 him with his own picture, Philip, much surprised, asked who had painted that fine work which he had not seen commenced. The mulatto then, throwing himself at his feet, confessed that he was the author, and entreated the king to intercede for him with his From the original, THE WATER-SELLER OF SEVILLE. by Velasqutz. master. Still more astonished at this strange revelation, Philip turned to Velasquez, saying, "You have nothing to reply; only remember that the man who possesses such talent cannot remain a slave." Velasquez hastened to raise Pareja, and promising him his liberty, which he afterwards gave him in an authentic deed, he admitted him from 196 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. that day into his school and society. Certainly this is a singular and touching history of a slave earning his liberty by the power of labor and talent, and obtaining it through the intercession of a king. Pareja, however, showed himself worthy of it, less by his merit than by his humble and grateful conduct He continued to wait on Velasquez freely, and even after the death of the great painter he served his daughter, who was married to Mazo Martinez, until his own death, which took place in 1670. We engrave, on page 197, "Christ calling Matthew," which was painted by command of the king for the palace of Aranjuez. It is now in the Royal Gallery of Madrid. Pareja introduced his own portrait in this painting; he stands on the left of the observer. He is usually called "Pareja. the Slave of Velasquez," as Sebastian Gomez is called the "Mulatto of Murillo." Bartolom£ EsTfevAN Murillo was a native of Seville. Authorities differ as to the exact year of his birth, which took place, probably, late in 161 7. As soon as the boy had learned to read and write, he was placed in the studio of Castillo, a relation of his own. He set his heart on visiting Rome, and for this purpose he made up a number of small pictures of popular saints, of landscapes and flowers, and sold them to the dealers who traded with the Spanish American colonies. In this way he made up a little purse, and leaving his sister in the care of her relations, he set out first for Madrid ; he was then about twenty-six years of age. There he applied to Velasquez for some Roman introductions. The king's painter took an interest in the needy artist, lodged him in his house, and procured him access to the royal galleries for the purposes of study. The few months immediately following, Murillo turned to so good an account that Velasquez pronounced him ready for Rome, and offered him introductions. By Uiis time, however, Murillo had discovered his own powers, and, instead of going to Italy, he returned to Seville, after two years' absence, and commenced his career as a painter. Chance soon threw in his way a commission to paint a series of pictures for the cloister of the Franciscans at Seville. There were eleven of them, illustrating as many incidents connected with the history of the order. They were all carried off by Soult, the French general and picture-dealer. A year or two afterwards a destructive fire overwhelmed the convent, so that the world at large was a gainer, if Spain was a loser, by the wholesale robberies of Napoleon's general. These fine pictures belong to what is called the first of Murillo's styles of execution, distinguished by a firm outline, bor- dering on hartlness, and a management of chiaroscuro suggesting Zurbaran or Caravaggio. Ilnr year 1660 is remarkable for the institution of an Academy of Art at Seville, chiefly through the agency of Murillo. The hospital of the Santa Caridad at Seville employed Murillo to paint eight of his finest works for the church of the establishment. Several of them remain in their places ; others were carried off* by Soult. All of them represent religious subjects — events in Scripture history and the lives of saints. One 'KURIL! ', ; t ? // / ■ .'. j f < 36 / /. / j <■ SPANISH SCHOOL. 197 of them is now in the Academy collection, Madrid, and represents the charity of St. Elizabeth of Hungary towards the sick. Murillo's life was less eventful and less varied than that of his great contemporary, Velasquez. The lapse of years in the Seville painter's house was marked only by the successive works of beauty that issued from his hand. His last painting was under- taken for the Capuchin friars at Cadiz, "The Espousals of St. Catherine." It was painted From the original. CHRIST AND ST. MATTHEW. by Juan Pareja. in its place over an altar, and had nearly reached completion when a severe accident befell the painter, who never worked again, and returned home to Seville to die, April 3, 1682. There can be no question that Murillo is the best-known painter of Spain ; Velasquez even cannot compete with him in this. Not only are there more pictures of his in foreign collections, but many more of them rank among the highest efforts of the master's skill. Velasquez's best works must be sought for in Spain. Seville is the stronghold of Murillo's masterpieces, but France, England and America can show a great number of his works hardly if at all inferior to them. The most celebrated of I9« MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Murillo's Madonnas, if not the finest, is now one of the costliest gems in the Louvre, and represents "The Conception of the Virgin"— a favorite subject with the Franciscan patrons of Murillo, and often flourished in the face of their great rivals, the Dominicans, who rejected it Our steel engraving of Murillo's "St. Francis of Assissi," is taken from a painting now in the Seville Museum, and originally in the Capuchin convent — "alike won- derful in expression and marvelous in execution," as Ford remarks. It is the legend of St. Francis' vision on Mount Alvernio, in which the suffering Redeemer seemed to admit the saint into the "fellowship of His sufferings," by marking his palms, his feet and his side with the wounds of His own passion. The right hand of the Saviour is for the moment released from the cross and laid on Francis' shoulder; the saint looks up into his face with love, pity and adoration blended together. Francis' foot tramples on a globe, as an emblem that a moment like that were cheaply purchased by the wealth of a world. The other engraving, "St. John," by Mr. Stocks, after the original in the gallery of the Duke of Sutherland, is a representation of Murillo's earlier style. "The Guardian Angel" of Murillo claims one word of notice as a guide to any traveller who happens to find himself in Seville Cathedral. A delicious child, full of love and confidence, is led by the hand of one of the heavenly host, draped and plumed, over a gloomy landscape, illuminated only by a ray of light from heaven, toward which the angel is pointing. Frequent robberies of pictures in foreign galleries are often mentioned in histories of art. Copyists have been known to leave their copies in the gallery, and carry away the originals. Only a few years ago a valuable "St. Antony," by Murillo, was abstracted from Seville Cathedral, and carried to New York. The fortunate purchaser was amply repaid for his outlay by the liberal reward the Spanish authorities had offered for the recovery of the picture. Its return to Seville was made the occasion of public rejoicings. Claudio Cof.ii/) may be termed the last of the great school of Spain. It came in with a Coello, and went out with one. He was born at Madrid, about 1640. He worked assiduously at his art, and painted many pictures for monasteries and churches. His principal title to fame is the picture of the "Santa Forma," the altar-piece in the sacristy of the Escurial — an elaborate collection of more than fifty portraits of ecclesi- astics and others, including the contemptible Charles II of Spain. He died in 1693, eleven months after Luca Fa-presto (or Look-sharp), as Giordano was nicknamed, sup- planted him in the royal patronage. The artistic night of the eighteenth century in Spain is illuminated by one solitary star, who, though not of the first magnitude, was more than visible to the unaided eye; that star was Francisco Goya y Lucientes. His portrait is engraved on the following page. SPANISH SCHOOL. 199 He was a native of Aragon, born in 1746, and in his fourteenth year began the study of art, in the studio of Martinez, at Saragossa. Settling at Madrid, he soon attracted attention and became a popular artist. He enjoyed the honors of the Academy of San Fernando ; and on the accession of Charles IV, Goya was promoted to the office of royal painter in ordinary. The queen, the notorious Maria Louisa, a Bourbon princess of Parma, took him into favor, and thus introduced him to the best society and to remunerative practice. He grew rich, kept a fine villa near Madrid, which was the scene of his hospitalities as well as of his daily work. He retained his office at court ■ From the original. by Goya. PORTRAIT OF GOYA. after the accession of Ferdinand VII, and receiving permission to retire to Bordeaux, spent the closing years of his life there, dying in 1828. Goya painted a little in every style ; even the Church gave him commissions, though his own natural vein lay in a very different direction. He is the author of many valu- able portraits — one of Charles IV and Queen Maria Louisa ; the one of himself on this page is in the gallery Madrazo at Seville ; another, of two dark-eyed ladies with their mantillas, and two gentlemen, at a balcony, engraved on page 201, is now at Madrid; and that of the Duchess of Alba, in a black lace national dress of Andalusia, is in the Louvre. It was as a satirist that Goya showed most original talent. He may be called the Hogarth of Spain. He engraved a series of eighty illustrations of Spanish life, which he named "Caprichos," or "Whims," in which he held up to ridicule every kind of social too MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. absurdity. Goya also illustrated the great national sport of the bull-fight. His "Daughter- in-Law," which is engraved by M. Hedouin on copper, is in the gallery of the Marquis d'Isasi. It has been sometimes supposed that this portrait of his son's wife was a portrait of Charlotte Corday. It has not the slightest resemblance to her; although it is true that Goya twice attempted the subject of Marat's assassination. One or two members of the young Spanish school of painting have made their names known. The chief of these is Fortuny, a native of Reuss, in Catalonia, born in 1838, and prematurely cut off, in the full bloom of his promise, November 21, 1874. He entered, at an early age, the Academy of Barcelona, and studied, besides, in the school of Lorenzalez and of Mila. At the age of twenty, young Fortuny gained the prize of Rome, and was about to start for Italy, when he was drawn for the conscrip- tion, and had not a wealthy family stepped forward to ransom him (his own family being of humble rank), the young painter would in all probability have been lost for ever to art in the ranks of the Spanish army. He then set out for Rome, in company with another painter, Armet, a fellow-countryman of his own, carrying letters of intro- duction to Overbeck. Fortunately (or the reverse) the fancy of the youthful prizeman had been so taken by comic drawings of Gavarni, which chanced to fall in his way, that he never visited Overbeck. His talent lay in another direction. A group of young Spanish artists welcomed him to Rome ; he passed his days before the great masters, and his evenings at the Academy di Chigi, studying from the life, working at costume-, crayon- and pen-drawing, water-color, and etching by turns. He also roamed about the neighborhood of die city, painting landscape, thus making himself familiar with art in ever)- form. While thus engaged, he was recalled to Spain to take part in the expedition led by General Prim against Morocco. Fortuny was attached to the staff, and took his meals with the general, who made a great deal of him. He went about everywhere sketching, and incurred frequent risks by venturing too far from the Spanish outposts. He wit- nessed the battle of Tetuan, and on the conclusion of peace returned for a short time to Barcelona, and soon afterwards to Rome. His best work at this time was done for the Barcelona Academy, in executing the pictures which were expected from their prize- man as a return for his pension. In 1861 he visited Florence, and was so much impressed by several modern works in the exhibition then open, as to modify his original style, and enter on his second manner. He made sketches among the native population in the Trastcvere, a suburb of Rome, inhabited, it is said, by a race of the purest Roman blood. A commission had been sent him from Barcelona to paint the battle of Tetuan, and from 1862 it engrossed great part of his time. He made studies for it, and sketched SPANISH SCHOOL. 201 From the original. AT THE BALCONY. by Goya. MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. its various parts, and even undertook a journey to the scene of the battle, to make his picture a transcript of reality. All this conscientious work took time; his Barcelona patrons thought him remiss, and pressed for their picture. The battle was already sketched in ; the canvas was upwards of thirty feet long, and about four in height. Nettled by the reproaches that reached him from Barcelona, Fortuny packed up all the sketches, studies, water-color drawings, copies of figures, and, in short, everything he had done by way of preparation, sent them off to Barcelona, and announced that he had thrown the picture aside. In fact it was never finished. Several of the painter's French friends in Rome, Francais, Chenavard and others, had long urged him to visit Paris. He did so at last in 1866, and was introduced by his friend Zamacois to a wealthy amateur of art, the late Mr. Stewart, of New York, who gave him several commissions. He remained only a short time in Paris, and then paid a long visit to Madrid, where he copied several works of Velasquez, Ribera and Goya. A few months later he married a daughter of Sefior Madrazo, director of the Musee, who had treated him with great kindness. Fortuny was now in easy circumstances, and led a delightful life among his friends and acquaintances in Rome. His studio and apartments were richly furnished with choice works of art, among which he and his wife received their numerous circle of painters and amateurs. Among these was Henri Regnault, a young French painter, of whom we shall hear more by-and-by. In 1869 Fortuny finished his celebrated picture, "The Circassian," engraved on page 203. It is said to combine all the freshness of a sketch from life, with the finish of a masterpiece — "a study by Goya," says another critic, "retouched and recast by Meissonier." It was originally painted for Messrs. Goupil, of Paris, and afterwards became the property of Madame de Cassin. He passed the winter of 1869 and the following spring among the art-circles of Paris, and at work in his apartment there. When war was declared with Germany, Fortuny retired to Spain, and settled at Granada, in an ancient palace of the Moors, working under an awning stretched across a corner of the court. At this time he made the acquaintance, and appreciated the merit, of a young Spanish painter, Villegas, of Seville, who will probably become better known within a few years. At the end of two years Fortuny once more took up his residence in Rome, and for the last time. In 1874 he removed from an apartment to a villa, and the change proved fatal to him. The unwholesome air induced fever, which carried him off after a few days' illness. His loss was a heavy blow to the rising school of Spanish painters; so also was that of Eduardo Zamacois, who died at Madrid on the 14th of January, 1871, whom we represent by an etching, "The Royal Favorite," exhibited in the Salon, 1868, which is full of comical satire. It belongs strictly to a MURILLO. P1NXT L . STOCKS SCULPT THE INFANT ST JOKI, GF.BBIE &. BARRIE. SPANISH SCHOOL. 203 From the original. by Mariano Fortuny. THE CIRCASSIAN bygone age, when kings were in the habit of keeping dwarfs for their amusement. This particular specimen of the tribe carries his pompous arrogance in a way that must have rivaled his master's. He disdains even to look at the troop of courtiers gathered in the *H MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. ante-chamber. They revenge themselves by saluting the favorite with ironical bows and demonstrations of mock-deference, expressed in various ways and degrees. A little lap-dog in die lower corner salutes, in a similar way, the sleepy, well-fed hound that accompanies this caricature of royalty. We remarked that the age of such favoritism was past But, unfortunately, no lapse of time can efface stupid presumption, flattery and servility. The pungent satire of this litde picture, therefore, can never grow out of date. Zamacois was a pupil of Meissonier. His earlier style, to which our illustration, engraved by M. Durand, belongs, has been somewhat modified. He is essentially a painter of comedy, and will probably remain so ; but several of his later pictures evince a tendency to exchange its broader forms for a more subtle, though not less humorous, style of satire; instead of a shout of laughter, he sometimes prefers to excite a smile. A picture of his, entided "The Good Shepherd," will illustrate the difference. "It repre- sents two distinct types of Roman monastic life," says a recent French critic: "one of them is that of a thin, hard, cross confessor, whom penitents shun with terror; the other that of a fat, jolly priest, with rosy tint, and small twinkling eye, his vast chest whispering at ease under his flannel robe; complying and indulgent as regards little peccadillos; or, as they say, with wide sleeves. He gathers about his tribunal a constant crowd of penitents, who carry away his absolution as lightly as the long rod of the good father touches their garments." Zamacois first appeared in the Salon, 1867, with his •Buffoons in the Sixteenth Century." "The Royal Favorite" appeared in the following year, and "The Good Shepherd" in 1869. He died at Madrid, January 14th, 1871. m Q B3 H & H 03 E=J #5 |HE commencement of Art-history in France is traced by some writers to the era of glass-staining, which attained a high state of perfection in mediaeval France. The attempt has, no doubt, been made with a [ pardonable desire to assign as high an antiquity as possible to painting. Yet the rejoinder is obvious, that the two forms of Art have no funda- mental connection; each must stand on its own principles, which are widely different ; and the dignity of French Art-history is not really promoted by confusing things which have only a very remote relation one to the other. There is a little more to be said for the illuminators of manuscripts as the fore- runners of French painting, and more particularly in the latter half of the fifteenth century. It was hardly possible that even this humbler form of Art should not to some extent feel the influence of the painters both of Flanders and of Italy. The result was work which, if inferior to that of both countries in original conception, was in many respects a reflection of the best features of both. At the head of one of those schools of illumination was Jean Fouquet, of Tours, court-painter to Louis XI. The best known ex- ample of the other is the Prayer Book (Heures) of Anne of Brittany. An excellent sample of Fouquet's school is the manuscript of a French translation of Josephus. Nurherous other manuscripts, illuminated in the same style, show that the school was a large one. 20 S 206 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Before the middle of the fifteenth century France possessed a painter in the miniature style of the Van Eycks, in Rene. 1 Hike of Anjou, father of Queen Margaret, of Tewkes- bury memory. At Aix. the cathedral contains a triptych painted by his hand, representing, in the centre compartment, Moses surrounded by his sheep, and in presence of an angel at the Burning Bush. In the centre of the bush, high up in the picture, Christ and his Mother are shown. Over all, in a cornice, the eternal Father appears, holding a cross-surmounted orb in the left hand, and blessing with his right. An inscription runs beneath: — Qui me imenerit invotht vitam ct hauriet salutcm a Domino. On the wing opposite the spectator's left is a portrait of Rene himself kneeling at a small altar, assisted by St. Maurice, St. Antony, and St. Mary Magdalene. The corresponding wing is occupied by Jeanne de Laval, Rene's second wife, in a similar attitude, in presence of St. John, St. Katharine, and St. Nicholas. At the back of the triptych wings the Annunciation is depicted ; on one wing the archangel Gabriel, with an olive-branch, stands under a canopy, addressing St. Mary on the opposite wing, who bears a book, also beneath a canopy. We now approach the actual history of French painting, which commences in the reign of Francis 1. (151 5—1 547.) That splendor-loving monarch was a great patron of Art, and invited several painters of Italian fame to visit him and enrich his court with their works. Primaticcio of Bologna, Pacchiarotto of Siena, Andrea del Sarto. Rosso, and Leonardo da Vinci were among these. The last died in France, and. as some authors report, in the arms of Francis. Benvenuto Cellini also was brought to Paris by the king at this period. To J r..\N Cousin and the three Clouets must be assigned the earliest place in the Art history of France. Cousin, who flourished in the reigns of Henry II. and III., and of Charles IX., was a native of Soucy, near Sens. His birth is variously stated at dates ranging from 1 462-1 530. Most probably it may be fixed in the closing decade of the fifteenth century. He pursued many distinct branches of Art, and became famous as painter, sculptor, architect, and engraver. He also worked in colored glass, much of which perished in the Revolution. All that seems to be known of Cousin, except as an artist, is that he left behind him at his death an only daughter, Marie. A few years before the birth of Cousin, Jean Clouet, or Cloet, a native of Brussels, and an artist, removed to France; and, about 1460, spent some time in Paris, attached to the house of the Duke of Burgundy, He ultimately settled at Tours, where he married, ami had a son, Jehan, who was destined to be one of the founders of the French school. Jehan was l>orn about 14S5; dying in 1545. His cunning pencil attracted the patronage of Francis I., who, in 1523, appointed him royal painter in ordinary, and "varlct de chambre," at a yearly salary of two hundred and forty francs. The title and rf V < w u Hi «i & $ > la < > CO A ?5 h P r/7\ <; Wl > w n FRENCH SCHOOL. 207 office of "varlet" had nothing of a menial character attached to it, and were in great request among men of birth at that time. A portrait of Francis I. by his hand is now at Florence. The king is on horseback, in armor, wearing a flat cap with a plume. The king sat to him again, and was painted, the second time, out of armor, in a doublet of grey satin, and with a head- dress similar to the other. Jean Clouet's work combines simplicity and finish in a high degree. Strange to say, excepting these portraits, there is no other example of his work known to exist. As regards his son Francois Clouet, surnamed Jeannet, the case is very different. His portraits are numerous. He was born about 15 10, and lived in great fame till 1572. At his father's death, he was appointed to succeed him in the E. FROMENTIN. F. DAVID. double office of "varlet de chambre" and of painter to the king. When Francis died, in 1547, Clouet was officially employed to take a cast of the royal features, for the purpose of making an effigy; a ceremony which is now generally superseded in favor of the court-photographer. In Simon Vouet, whose life is the next landmark in our history, the French school resumed its studies in that of the great Italian masters. Born in Paris, January 9, 1 590, he was trained to Art by his father, Laurent, himself but an indifferent artist. Vouet, the son, was commissioned to follow a lady of rank to England, whither she had fled, and to paint her portrait. He was well received in London, and returned to Paris with increased reputation. He next visited Constantinople, in the train of the French Ambassador, de Harlay de Saucy, and made his art of portrait-painting profitable. At the audience, he managed to fix the features of Achmet I. in his memory, to such good purpose that he completed the portrait at his leisure; and, in consequence of his success, 2o8 MASTERPIECES Ot- EUROPEAN ART. obtained many commissions. Tiring, at length, of his mode of life at the Ottoman court, Vouet traveled to Venice, and. probably for the first time in his life, saw pictures better than his own. Vouet not unfrcquently neglected perspective (as greater artists than he have done) and chiaroscuro. Great ease of conception and rapidity of execution were among his gifl Vou«t died in Paris, June 30. 1649. He left behind him a school of Art, in his numerous pupils, many of whom far surpassed his own performance. Vouet's later years were embittered by jealousy of Poussin, whom Louis XIII. had also recalled to France. One need be at no loss to understand where his pupil, Le Sueur, acquired his Italian manner, although he never crossed the frontier of his native country, when one knows that in Vouet's studio he must have had before his eyes his master's Italian copies and sketches. Eustache Le Shir, who next passes in review, was a native of Paris, born in 1617, and dying there, in 1655. Eustache, evincing a turn for Art, was placed in Vouet's studio for instruction. One of his fellow pupils, Le Brun, became, a few years later, his rival. Both of them were noticed by Poussin, and received lessons from him also. When Poussin returned to Italy, Le Brun went with him; Le Sueur corresponded with him, and deeply studied the master's various hints. His own taste drew him to any sketches of Italian pictures that he could find. He studied antique figures and bas-relief, yet managed to secure all that was noble in them, while dropping the dry, hard, and stiff: an excellence which is not always found in French painters. Yet he was by no means restricted to such models. He gathered from modern works of Art the grace and ease of nature, instinctively avoiding their frequent imperfections of feebleness and littleness. It has been suggested that Le Sueur's never having visited Italy must have been a positive advantage to him, leaving him always original and simple in style. He certainly owes less to any master than perhaps any painter ever did. We shall look in vain, in the works of Vouet or of Poussin, his instructors, for the secret of his remarkable pathos as a painter. He has been called the French Raphael, but by comparison with other artists of his school, rather than from any near approach to the matchless compositions of the painter of Urbino. When Vouet perceived that his pupil could learn nothing more from him, he retained Le Sueur's services as an assistant. The young painter married, in 1642, Genevieve Gousse; a son and a daughter were the issue of the marriage. Exigencies of family life obliged him to accept any kind of work offered to him; and much of it was consequently far beneath his talent. He would design and engrave frontispieces for books, medals for nuns, or pictures illustrating lives of saints. In fact, his sympathy with religious Art stood much in the way of his advancement. It was out of all har- SIMPLICITY. GKBB1E & BARRIE. &j?2 FRENCH SCHOOL. 209 mony with the spirit of his age and his country. Hence he was slow to obtain patron- age; and, which is a matter of permanent regret, he exercised no influence whatever on the contemporary Art of France. His undoubted merit, and the recommendation of Vouet, at last brought Le Sueur into notice, notwithstanding his want of ambition. Cardinal Richelieu divided his com- missions between master and pupil. Le Sueur produced one of his great works — "St. Paul healing the sick by imposition of hands." His attainments as an artist were re- warded by admission into the Civil Service; as inspector of receipts at the Barriere From thi THE DEATH OF SOCRATES. by F. D d'Ourcines. The appointment no doubt added to his means of livelihood; it also led indirectly to a crisis in his life, which again suggested the most extensive work of his pencil. One day a gentleman disputed the Civil servant's legal authority; high words followed, ending in a challenge. In the subsequent duel, Le Sueur killed his adversary, and presently sought an asylum in the Carthusian monastery (Chartreux) of the Luxem- bourg. While he remained there, until the affair should blow over, he occupied his leisure in painting a series of frescoes in the cloisters, illustrating the life of St. Bruno, the great founder of the Carthusian order. A copy was afterwards taken on canvas, and another, by Le Sueur himself, on wood. The series includes twenty-two subjects,' and, ,,o MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. as a whole, is reckoned the most important work produced by the master. They may now be studied in the Louvre. He never opened a school, but his studio was attended by a few pupils. After the death of his wife, his gentle spirit seems to have closed his account with life. He again retired to his beloved Carthusian monastery, where he died at the premature age of 3S. His remains were interred in the church of St Etienne du Mont Charles Lk Brun, the fellow- pupil and successful rival of Le Sueur, was born in Paris, March 22, 1619. Mis early love of Art must have been hereditary; his father being a sculptor of no mean reputation. When barely ten years of age, Charles began to take lessons from Perrier, surnamed Le Bourguignon, but soon left him for Vouet, in whose studio he made such rapid progress, that, at the age of thirteen, he painted |x>rtraits of his father and of his uncle. About the same time he drew with a pen on vellum a sketch of Louis XIII., on a field of battle. The story of this sketch lets us a little into the secret of the artist's success in life, which he owed quite as much to his politic tact as to his talent. The juvenile work of art was presented to Seguier, then chancellor of France, who took the precocious youth under his patronage, and lodged him in his palace. With an eye, no doubt, to yet higher patronage, Le Brun executed an allegorical picture of Cardinal Richelieu's career of success; in which sly allusion was made to his name, by laying the scene in a splendid palace (Richelieu). The Cardinal could hardly avoid giving him, in return, a commission for three mytho- logical subjects, for the decoration of his, palace, where they long remained after its name had been changed to the Palais Royal. These pictures are said to have received tl)»- approbation of Poussin. When this last artist returned, in 1642, to Rome, he took Le Brun with him, lier paying the expenses of the younger painter for four years. After a few years' study in Italy, Le Brun returned to Paris, 1648. Valuable commissions were soon offered tlv rising artist; Mazarin presented him to Louis XIV., and Le Brun's fortune was made. In 1662, Colbert made him first painter to the king, and procured for him a patent of nobility; he was named director of the Gobelins manufacture; and, in turn, rector and chancellor of the Academy of Painting. The Academy of St. Luke at Rome, elected him, in his absence, a member of their body. Fourteen of his best years were spent in decorating the new palace at Versailles. There he traced the history of his time, from the peace of the Pyrenees to that of Nimeguen. At the Louvre, he painted the great Victories of Alexander. In 1666, Le Brun took an active part in the foundation of a French School of Art in Rome, for the education, at the public expense, of students who had proved tluir proficiency by gaining the first prize at the annual competition in Paris. The < ;'■■- n3 < FRENCH SCHOOL. 211 influence of that institution has done, and still does, much for French Art. The Villa Medici, on the Fincian, where the school has long been established, is the object for which every ambitious Art-pupil in Paris works, and about which he dreams, sometimes for years before attaining the summit of his desires. At the death of Colbert, in 1683, a bitter disappointment awaited Le Brun. The new favorite, Louvois, superseded him in all his appointments in the royal palaces, in favor of Mignard, a rival painter. From that time, Le Brun, in deep mortification, retired from the practice of his art, and took up his residence at Montmorency. Later, From the original painting, by Ary Scheffer. CHRISTUS CONSOLATOR. feeling his end approaching, he had himself conveyed to the Gobelins, where he died, February 10, 1690. His body was buried in the church of St. Nicolas du Chardonnet; and his widow erected a superb monument to his memory. Before leaving the school of Vouet, some notice is due to another of his pupils, Pierre Mignard, and to Pierre's elder brother, Nicolas. Both were natives of Troyes, in Champagne. Nicolas was born, 1605, or 1608; Pierre, 1610. The elder brother is distinguished from the younger by the affix of Paine, or a" Avignon, to his name. He never attained to the popularity of his brother; yet his knowledge of Art was consider- able; and many of his works may be met with in European Galleries. aia MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Nicolas' younger brother. Pierre, named for distinction-sake le Rotnain, was origi- nally destined by his father to the study of medicine. His bent for Art, however, was too strong, and he entered the studio of Boucher, a Bourges painter and engraver. One year of this artist's instructions sufficed for young Mignard; and he presently re- paired to Fontainebleau, where he passed a couple of years in studying the Italian masters in that once famous collection. His next change was to Paris; and in Vouet's studio Pierre practised his art to his master's entire satisfaction: so much so, that wishing to keep the youth always with him, Youet procured him employment and proposed to his pupil to marry his daughter. But Mignard longed to visit Italy, and his master's pleas- ant offer would have probably forever deprived him of the great opportunity he desired. March, 1635, he set out for Rome, then much frequented by French artist's and men of letters. At the age of 47 Mignard had passed 22 years in Italy. His wife was a Roman; anil he had come to be regarded as one of the living masters of the Italian school. But the tempting invitation of the French king, and Mazarin's promise of lucrative employ- ment, overcame his attachment to his second home; and Mignard revisited France, but at first alone, leaving, for the time, his wife and family in Rome. His journey was arrested for several months by serious illness, in the house of his brother Nicolas, at Avignon. It was here that Mignard and Moliere first made acquaintance, and laid the foundation of a close and lasting friendship. The painter reached Fontainebleau in September, 1658, and, after his introduction to the court, began to paint the portrait of the Infanta of Spain, Maria-Teresa, the fiancee of young Louis XIY. His success at once established his reputation. Le Brun was at that time the official painter of royalty; and a keen rivalry commenced between the artists. Mignard, for the moment, became the fashion; and about this period the queen-mother employed him to paint the dome at Val-de-grSce. The work, though now injured by time, attests the learning, if not the genius, of the painter. When it was completed, in 1664. Mignard sent for his family, and settled for life in France. His rivalry with Le Brun lasted till the death of Colbert, 1683; when, at the instigation of his successor. Louvois, Mignard was appointed to the official post till then held by Le Brun. His first work after this was the decoration of some smaller apartments at Versailles. In June, 1687. Mignard was elevated to the rank of a noble. At the death of Le Brun, 1690, the new court-painter was admitted, by royal command, into the Academy of Painting, an honor he had hitherto refused, not choosing to occupy a subordinate place. His promotion through all the grades at one sitting gave great offence. His diploma picture was a copy, in white and grey, of the Val-de-grace dome. From this time, Mignard rested on his laurels, painting only sacred subjects. At his death, May 1 3. 1695, ne h*d j ust finished his plans for painting the dome of the Invalides, in Paris. F OERARJD. PI1IX C. ARMYTAOE. SCULPT ejli&arih FRENCH SCHOOL. 213 Nicolas Poussin, a member of a good Norman family, was born, 1594, at Grand Andely, close to the historical Chateau Gaillard. He studied art under Varin, a master not otherwise distinguished. Engravings after Raphael and Giulio Romano did more, probably, to educate his eye and hand in drawing than all Varin's instructions. The young painter made several unsuccessful efforts to reach Rome. He gained his point From the original fainting by /•'. Desportes. THE POINTERS. at last, when he was thirty years of age. Marino, an Italian poet, whose acquaintance Poussin had casually made, presented him to Cardinal Barberini. But Marino, soon after, dying, and the Cardinal accepting a mission to Spain, the painter was left to his own resources in a strange city, and sold his works for a trifle to gain his daily bread. Titian and Domenichino were the masters he chiefly affected. Poussin's style, however, owed little or nothing to either of those masters. It was formed much more on the antique, as exhibited in ancient statues. Barberini's return to Rome relieved the artist from the pressure of want. Commissions were soon entrusted to him, and his reputa- 214 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. tion was established. In 1629, he married Anna Dughet, daughter of a French family long settled in Rome. Poussin had been set upon and wounded by soldiers at night, and had found refuge with this family; and, as a suitable conclusion to the adventure, the patient fell in love with the daughter of his host, and was eventually married to her. His brother-in-law, Gaspar, a good landscape painter, was taken into Poussin's friend- ship, and learned much from him in his art. Finally he adopted Poussin's name, and is n>>w known as Gaspar Poussin. His connection, however, with the French school is sufficiently remote; yet he is sometimes assigned a place in it, as in the National ( iallery, in London. Ten years later, Nicolas Poussin was invited to France by Louis XIII., and went, accompanied by his brother-in-law. Cardinal Richelieu introduced him to the king, and he was received with due honor and distinction. Vouet was devoured with envy when Poussin was named first painter in ordinary to the king, a title which Vouet himself also bore. Poussin returned to Italy in the following year, intending to bring back his family and settle in Paris. But Richelieu dying in a few months, and Louis XIII. the year after, he never executed his purpose, but remained in Rome for the rest of his life. In 1664, Anna, his wife, died; and on the 19th of November, in the year following, Poussin himself expired. Poussin stamped a character on the Art of France which may be said to have lasted till this day. His style, based in some degree on a confusion of the capabilities of sculpture and painting, exhibits statuesque forms, fine drawing, and the composition of a bas-relief, clothed in unpleasing* color. In fact, a novice in the school would be astonished to be led up to one of Poussin's dim, reddish-brown pictures of dancing Bacchanals, and bidden to admire the work of his master. Yet his surprise would give way to pleasure as the admirable drawing of the figures broke upon him, and their grouping together, allowance being always made for the sculpturesque tendency of the painter's composition. The life and movement of the dancing groups, the longer they are cxamin<-.|. the more they increase the student's admiration of the master's genius. And if he turns to the work which we have engraved on steel, "The Shepherds of Arcadia.'' he will confess that probably never were the human forms painted with more perfect drawing, and more exquisite refinement, than the Shepherds. The unpleasant color predominating in tliis master's works is said to be an accident of time; the darkened ground on which he painted is now seen through the lights, and affects the tone of the local colors. Claude, surnamed Lorraine, from the province of his birth, an eminent painter of landscape, was born at Chamagne, in 1600, and died in Rome, at the age of eighty-two. His parents were very poor, and little Claude is said to have been apprenticed to a p o ffl w p H w H O b w «l o w HI FRENCH SCHOOL. 215 pastry-cook. His elder brother was a wood-carver, and lived at Friburg. A traveling dealer persuaded the brother to let Claude go with him to Rome, and support him o ce CO oast that he painted the largest picture probably ever executed in the world — the ceiling of the Salon d'Hercule, at Versailles. This vast surface measured sixty-four feet in length, fifty-four in width, and nearly nine in depth; all in one sweep, without any architectural feature to divide it. Lemoine took upwards of four years to fill this hollow space with some forty life-size figures in oil. His, too, is the less admirable distinction of marking the earliest decided decline of the first period of French Art. His style of composition and execution evinced the corrupt influence of all the accumu- lating falsities and affectations of the later Louises and their courts. He perished by his own hand in 1737. Watteau, the painter of fetes and ladies' costumes ami manners, was himself a sign of a period of decadence in Art ; more, perhaps, on account of his unvarying choice of subject than of his method of treating it. Only to a careless and superficial society is life nothing but holidays and merriment, and full-dress and flirtation. Yet Watteau's style is in itself so unique, so unrivaled, although a frivolous one, as to demand special notice. A\t<>ink W.vrrEAU, the son of a master-tiler at Valenciennes, was born October io. 1684. He is found, when still a youth, in Paris, engaged in decorating the Opera. His employers and he quarreled in a few months, and the young artist had to make 1=3 © & ^ 'X :■ b c H O ?-- 3 o X & -cfl FRENCH SCHOOL. 217 sketches and small paintings, which he sold for sums varying from twenty francs down to six. A brother-artist detected his talent, lodged him in his house, and encouraged him to persevere. In 1709 he gained the second prize of Rome. Perhaps out of disappointment, he went back to his native town, to pursue his studies in private. By-and-by he exhibited two pictures in Paris. Lafosse, then Director of the Academy, From the original painting, by Paul Delaroche. FAME— CENTRAL FIGURE OF THE HEMICYCLE. was so much struck by them as to seek an interview with the artist. Young Watteau communicated to him his eager wish to perfect himself in Rome. Lafosse assured him he had already as much knowledge of Art as any of them, and bade him stand for the Academy. He did so; the other candidates retired, and he was elected, 171 7. His diploma-picture was the "Embarkation for the Island of Cythera," now in the Louvre, and the only example of this artist it possesses. Three years later, Watteau made a tour in England. His health beginning to fail, he retired to Nogent-sur-Marne, near Paris, and died there, July 18, 1721, bequeathing all his pictures and sketches to four of his friends, who paid his debts and erected a 2l8 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. funeral monument. We might have expected that a painter of nothing but festivals and brightness should be himself bright and buoyant. On the contrary, his character was an unsettled and a melancholy one. Sometimes a grim humor betrays itself in his work, as in the picture representing a procession of doctors, apothecaries, and their patients, moving in pairs to the churchyard. When he wanted a particularly jovial face, he always painted that of the cure of Nogent, whom the artist often saw. There is a story of his almost involuntarily complaining of the ugliness of the crucifix presented to his lips, in the closing moments of his life, by his friend the merry cure. The national collection at Berlin has two fine Watteaux, representing the Pleasures of French Comedy and of Italian respectively. The Russian Hermitage at St. Petersburg, of which gallery of art we give an engraving on page 215, has three; one of them a religious picture of the "Holy Family" in a landscape. Dresden, Munich, Madrid, each possesses several of his works. Sir R. Wallace is the owner of eleven. The gallery at Dulwich has a "Fete-Champetre," and a " Val-Champetre." The sparkling delicacy of pencil and variety of fancy he has displayed in these subjects have lent them a certain value. Francis Desportes was born at Champigneul, in 1661. He studied under Bernaert, a pupil of Snyders, but Bernaert died before Desportes had made much progress; but without any further instruction he applied himself with great assiduity to the study of nature and animals. An example of his style is engraved on page 213; it is copied from the original now in Versailles. He rose to great eminence in the branch he made his particular study, and was principally employed by Louis XIV, who appointed him his painter and gave him a pension. In the early part of the eighteenth century he went to England with the French ambassador, the Due d'Aumont, where he received many commissions from the nobility. He died in Paris, in 1743. Martin Freminet was born at Paris, in 1567. After a long sojourn in Italy, he brought back with him the taste which prevailed there at the close of the great age, a little before the foundation of the Carracci School. He was eminent for his ostentatious display of anatomy and his mania for foreshortening, of which we have engraved an excellent example, the "St. John." on page 219. He was court painter to Henry IV.. who commissioned him to decorate the ceiling of the chapel at Fontainebleau. Freminet died at Paris, in 1619. Jl w BaptistE Greuze was born in 1726, at Tournus, near Macon, in Burgundy. His father, in the usual course of things, did his best to divert the bent of his son's mind from Art; and with the usual want of success. The contest had become serious, when Grandon. a portrait painter of Lyons, on his way through Tournus, happening to witness a scene between father and son. persuaded the father to trust young Greuze with him to learn painting. Greuze owed him the secret of his superiority in painting \ miii iim HORACE VERNET< FRENCH SCHOOL. 219 the heads of young children and of old men. When the master removed to Paris, the pupil followed him, and settled there. To his "Blind Man Deceived" he owed his admis- sion into the Academy as an associate. His works exhibited in the annual Salon became the fashion as the most recent novelty. There were detractors, however, who gratified their envy by repeating that the artist's style was trivial, and betrayed his From the original painting, by Martin Freminet. ST. JOHN. ignorance of the great masters of painting. Greuze was not proof against their ill- nature, and undertook a journey to Rome, in the hope of obtaining a better method of coloring and a little more elevation and grace of style. After the Revolution he sent a few portraits to an exhibition of living artists; but his best days were then past. He died March 21, 1805. Greuze was inspired neither by mythology nor by history in his choice of subjects. His field was chiefly domestic and rural life, in its attractive and sometimes in its re- jjo MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. pulsivc aspect. "The Father's Curse," and "The Son Punished," are examples of the latter. Of a pleasanter class may be named "Simplicity," of which we present an engraving on steel.— this is generally considered the artist's best work: "Twelfth Cake," "The Broken Pitcher." "The Village Bride." The last two are in the Louvre, and are greatly prized. The style of this painter was for a while discredited by the classical taste introduced by David and his school, as we shall presently see. But bigotries in Art do not last for- ever, and Greuze has fully recovered his former popularity among lovers of nature, if we may judge by the prices his works command. Thus, "The Village Bride" was bought for the Louvre for 16,650 francs; and "A Young Girl holding a Dove," sold, in 1847, for 35,000 francs. Jacques Louis David marks an epoch in French Art He was a native of Paris, born August 31, 1748. After the early death of his father in. a duel, an uncle brought up young David as his own. At the College des Quatre Nations, where he was educated, his mouth was injured by a stone thrown at him, and, through life, his speech was impeded in consequence. The future first painter of France used to scribble his school books over with sketches, like many other idlers who never grow to be painters at all. \\ 'c may presume, however, that young David's caricatures were of more than average merit, as one of his masters had foresight enough to offer him a new copy for the boy's scribbled book; and, ■when David grew famous, was able to show him the volume and justify his own prescience. According to the regular course of study, in those days, David competed for the prize of Rome, when he was twenty-three years of age; but he had to renew the contest no fewer than four times before his perseverance was rewarded by success. After the fourth defeat he was so disgusted, we learn, as to resolve to starve himself to death. His friends interfered to prevent him, and the next competition, 1775. was decided in his favor. A picture of "Belisarius" procured David admission into the Academy as an associate; the full honor of Academician was gained by the "Death of Socrates," of which we give an engraving on page 209. His school was frequented by pupils. One of them, Drouais, gained the prize of Rome, and his master accompanied him to Italy. While there, David finished his picture of the "Horatii." a work which excited a furore of applause. The Revolution presently engaged all men's thoughts, and David entered into the fray with the activity of a man of the world. Perhaps he had an eye to business as well, for he certainly was employed by the Constituent Assembly, in 1790, to paint the "Oath of the Tenniscourt." Two years later, David was returned as one of the deputies for Paris to the Convention. He was consistent in his imitation of the classic type, even in politics. Like some of his Roman heroes, he voted for the ■• *^fcL EUCJ TROM.SUTiN.WNXT LEOF 7LAMENC- DEL SCULT \ ;ii FALC.ONKRo ' /-/??/ ///'?/ f. <■// // • • // W//t / From the original painting, BEGGING MONK AT THE DOOR OF A MOSQUE. ty J. L. Girbi MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. execution of the king. Under the Republic, the artist was entrusted with the preparation of the great national fete. He painted several of the striking scenes of the day, such as the "Assassination of Le Pelletin in Paris," and the "Death of Marat in his Bath, under the dagger of Charlotte Corday." At the Restoration, things were not pleasant in Paris for the painter of the Republic and of the Empire. His picture, " Thermopylae," was refused at the Salon, but all Paris went to his studio to admire it. By the law of January, 1816, he, with others, was exiled from France, and went to reside at Brussels, where he died, 1825, at the age of seventy-seven. His expulsion from the Institute seems to have wounded him more keenly than anything else. The King of Prussia made him tempting offers if he would settle at Berlin, but he declined all advances. A medal was struck in his honor in the name of the French School, and carried to him at Brussels by Gros, a former pupil, and then an eminent painter. The old man was affected to tears by this act of spontaneous homage. His old pupils and numerous admirers visited him, and pressed him to write his own memoirs. He soon gave up the attempt, saying that the founder of a school must let his works speak for him. He still handled his brush in history and portraiture. At length he fell seriously ill, and for ten days lay unconscious. Recovering himself a little, he conversed about his art, but it was only a fitful return of strength, and he soon after sank and expired. Claude Joseph Vernet was born at Avignon, in 171 4. Three generations of this family distinguished themselves as painters. The first artist of the family was Antoine, the father of Claude Joseph, a painter and decorater of Avignon, born 1689. His son, Claude Joseph, received his first lessons in Art from his father, whom he assisted in his business. He was next sent to Aix, to study under Yiali, a painter of landscape and sea-views. Figure-painting he learnt afterwards, in his native city, from Philippe Sauvan, an artist of distinction. Several noble and wealthy friends of Claude Joseph's father, admiring the son's talent, clubbed together to send him to Italy, to improve himself in Art, when he was twenty years of age. On the journey, he was caught in a storm at sea, between Marseilles and Civita Yecchia, when the young painter, bent on losing nothing of the spectacle, had himself bound to the mast, that he might study the phenomena at his ease. His foreign residence terminated in 1753. and in the most agreeable manner for a painter who loved his art. A royal order was communicated to him lrom Paris, that he should paint twenty of the chief seaports of France, under the supervision of the Director des Beaux Arts. Marquis de Marigny. Vernet settled finally in Paris. Many of his old Roman friends were glad to find him again, and gave him numerous commissions. The sovereigns of Europe bought y m ■■■■". pinx" ■ h ' ( '/ t /' ■ r/ ' ' < n r r -K li a b o: FRENCH SCHOOL. 223 his works. He is reported to have decided the fate of Paul et Virginie, the pretty little From the original painting. THE FLUTE-PLAYER. by y. L. Meissonier. romance of Bernardin de St. Pierre. The author despaired of its success; Vernet was requested to hear it read. He complied, wept over the tale, arranged for a second 224 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. reading before a company of his friends, and the fortune of the book was made. Not the least pleasing solace of his age was the growing success of his son Carle as a painter. In 1789. Carle was admitted into the Academy by his father. December 3, in the same year, Claude Joseph closed his useful and pleasant life in his apartment in the Louvre, which looked out on the church of St. Germain 1'Auxerrois. Louis Gihodet de CouSSY, a son of the Director of Domains to the Duke of Orleans, was born at Montargis, January 5, 1767. Left an orphan at an early age, he owed his education to M. Trioson, a court physician. His precocious talent for drawing induced him to decline all proposals that he should study architecture or enter the army. He would be a painter, and nothing else. So his benefactor placed him in the studio of David, then at the height of his fame as the painter of the "Horatii." Girodet missed the prize of Rome the first time he competed. His picture was the best, but he had contravened a regulation that forbade the use of studies made at home. He had, in fact, smuggled into the place of competition sketches concealed in a hollow cane. In 1 789, young Girodet respected the conditions of the contest, or, more probably, contrived to elude detection, gained the prize, and went, in the usual course, to Rome. There he saw enough to decide him to modify his style. Retaining the firm and learned drawing he had acquired under David's tuition, he aimed at infusing some ideality into his work. The first result was "Endymion," now in the Louvre. When it reached Paris no one applauded it more than the painter's old master, David. Girodet's second work was executed for his benefactor, Trioson, 1792. It represented "Hippocrates refusing the Presents of the King of Persia's Envoys." The artist's own portrait is introduced into it. The good doctor bequeathed it to the School of Medicine, Paris. The French Revo- lution found Girodet still in Rome; but, the National Academy being broken up, he went traveling through Italy, to study, in company with Pequignot, a landscape painter. At the end of five years, Girodet returned to Paris, and soon after painted his "Danae," also the "Four Seasons," for the King of Spain. His brush was not prolific, but most of his works have a stamp of their own. There is an amusing, if rather malicious, anecdote of Girodet, and his method of paying off a certain actress, Madame Lange, who had commissioned her portrait, but refused to pay for it when it was finished, on the pre- tence that it was not like her. The artist sent it to the next Salon as "Danae," having previously painted the lady under a shower, not of gold, but of sou-pieces. All Paris recognized her and laughed Her friends interposed, compromised the affair, and took away the pictur--. In 1806, the paintn-'s "Deluge" was first exhibited, and gained the prize, in compe- tition with David's "Sabui David, as became him, showed no bad feeling. Two years later a sensation was produced by the exhibition of the "Burial of Atala." of which we FRENCH SCHOOL. 225 give an engraving, the subject is from Chateaubriand's Genie de Christianisme. For From the original painting. by A. Cabanel. THE ANNUNCIATION. several years after this, portraits and sketches chiefly occupied Girodet's hand. During that period the benefactor of his youth lost his only son, and adopted Girodet as his heir, who thereupon took the name of Trioson in addition to his own. In 18 19 his last MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. great picture appeared — "Pygmalion and Galatae." The applause it excited was immense. A laurel crown was placed upon it amidst the cheers of the bystanders. Girodet was a great sufferer for many years before his death, which occurred December 9th, 1824. at the age of fifty-seven. GfeKAki'. one of David's pupils, can hardly be said, in his later works at least, to belong to the same school. The conciergerie of Cardinal Bernis' residence, the ambas- sador of France in Rome, was kept by Gerard's parents, and there he was born, 1 770. His first start in the study of Art was made in the studio of Pajou, a sculptor in Paris, where he learnt to draw. His preference for painting led him to take Brenet for his master; but the connection did not last long, and he ultimately entered the studio of David. From a pupil he became an assistant, until 1794. when he made his first ap- pearance in his own name, in a picture of the revolutionary "Tenth of August;" it was a drawing, and gained the first prize. Gerard was for a time carried away by the revo- lutionary mania, like his master, but he seems to have perceived his error sooner than David, and withdrew into his studio, as the artist's proper place. Under Napoleon he rose to the usual honors awaiting successful Art. Among his celebrated works may be mentioned his "Psyche," his "Belisarius." (the latter of which is engraved for our work,) his "Battle of Austerlitz," painted by command of Napoleon for the Tuileries, in 1810; and another masterpiece of the class, his "Entrance of Henri IV. into Paris." Gerard died January 12. 1837. As an artist, he cultivated more popular qualities than his master, although the austere purity of David's classical style did not form one of them. A few lines are due to GufeRlN, also a pupil of David; Guerin seems to have carried out his master's dominant principle even more completely than the master himself. A picture of his in the Louvre, of which we give an engraving, will illustrate another disciple of the antique model. It represents "Phaedra and Hippolytus." Mr. Wornum describes it "as a gorgeous and elaborate work; and yet a mere group of four elabo- rately-painted figures." Guerin was born, 1774. and died 1833. It is manifest that, within the limits of a short history, it were impossible to give an extended notice of every painter belonging to the national school of France. All one can do is to make a selection of the artists whose style has been more than usually characteristic of an epoch; who founded or reformed particular schools of Art; or whose works are more popularly known, or merit more general study. TiiE<>ix>kK GfcRiCAULT, who was born at Rouen in 1791. was a pupil first of Carle Vcrnet, and next of Pierre Guerin. At first li<- was a simple amateur, cultivating Art only as a pastime, and as he died very young, leaving scarcely anything but sketches, it is difficult to understand how it happened that he played so important a part in French Art, and exerted such influence on the whole school. But he came forward at SALOMEo '. ,; -'. ; y FRENCH SCHOOL. 227 the time when literary liberty was reviving with political liberty, and the whole of society was advancing. The example of Gericault coming in at this moment was sufficient to urge French Art forward in this general movement of the human mind. From the original painting, GENERAL PRIM. by Henri Regnault. His works in the Louvre mark the commencement and close of his short life. The "Chasseur de la Garde" and the "Cuirassier blesse" belong to the period when, still following on the traces of Carle Vernet, he was simply a painter of horses. It was towards the close of his life that Gericault painted the only great work of 22* MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. his life, the "Raft of the Medusa." After the destruction of a frigate of that name on the coasts of Senegal, the crew endeavored to save themselves on a raft made from the wreck of the ship, and scarcely fifteen men, kept alive with the flesh of the dead, sur- vived the horrors of revolts, combats, stormy seas, hunger, and thirst. It is the moment preceding their deliverance that the artist, after some hesitation, chose for his subject This picture was at first received with a storm of reproaches, but when it was exhibited in London it won much praise, and is now one of the celebrities of the Louvre. Gericault died, when but thirty-three years of age, in 1824. 1'iEkkE Prud'hon, son of a master mason, was born at Cluny (Sadne et Loire), 1758. His father dying while Pierre was a child, the monks of Cluny showed him kimlness, and educated him in their school. The Bishop of Macon, on learning his precocious talent for drawing, placed him in the studio of Devosges, a painter at Dijon. Pierre made rapid progress in Art Unfortunately for himself, he made an imprudent marriage, before he was twenty years old, with a notary's daughter at Cluny. The parties were so ill-assorted that a separation took place. Prud'hon went to Paris to improve himself, and competed for the Roman prize offered by the States of Burgundy. While the competition was going on, he was so much affected by the distress of the candidate in the next compartment, who felt incompetent to treat the subject proposed, that he broke open the partition, and finished the picture for him. The prize of Rome was awarded to it; but honor forbade the student to profit by Prud'hon's kindness; the truth was declared, and Prud'hon was sent to Rome, at the expense of the States, when he was about six-and-twenty. His stay there lasted for about five years. Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci chiefly attracted the young artist who used to term Leonardo the " Homer of painting." Canova, then residing in Rome, admitted Prud'hon into his intimate friendship, and urged him to settle there for life. France, however, proved more attrac- tive, and he declined the proposal. During his stay in Rome he was employed to make a copy of Pietro da Cortona's ceiling in the Barberini palace, for the Hall of the States of Burgundy, at Dijon. It represents the "Triumph of Glory;" and Prud'hon's copy was so much appreciated that his pension at Rome was renewed for a second term of three years. He returned to Paris, only to find it agitated by the impending revolution. He supported himself at first by selling small drawings to illustrate books. The time was in every way unpropitious for a painter. David and his classic models ruled the world of Art; anarchy threatened all rule in the political world. The storm was at last weathered, and Prud'hon is found in Franche Comte painting portraits, in oil and in pastel, for a living. His first success in an important original work was obtained after his return to Paris, in "Wisdom and Virtue Descending to the Earth." It was much admired, and was purchased for St. Cloud. V \ A \ Front the original paintings THE LITTLE MARAUDERS. by W. Bouguercau. ajo MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Prud'hon executed a number of other works, now distributed in private collections. They chiefly consist of allegorical and classical subjects, a few religious, a few genre, and a good many portraits. His style is described by critics of his own nation as graceful rather than severe; he is compared with Correggio rather than with Raphael. Gifted with a greater imagination, his productions charmed the eye, and never at the expense of correct drawing and solid color. Prud'hon has his place, and a high one, among the cultivators of painting in France. His last years were overclouded by a tragical occurrence, which destroyed his only remaining chance of social enjoyment. The society of a favorite pupil, Mademoiselle Mayer, whose studio adjoined his own, had for nearly twenty years compensated him for the cruel disappointments of his domestic life. Without any warning, a morbid sensibility impelled her to take her own life. Prud'hon never recovered from the shock. He was removed to the house of M. de Boisfremont, his friend and pupil, and worked at intervals at his last pictures; among them, a "Dying Christ," now in the Louvre. Two years after the fatal day, he died in the arms of his friend, whispering, as he ex- pired, "My God, I thank thee; the hand of a friend will close my eyes." Our engraving, "Morning; or, Waking of Psyche," almost tells its own tale. A companion picture of Prud'hon's, or rather of his pupil, Mademoiselle Mayer, represents the beautiful creature asleep, with her little Cupid nestling by her side. He leaves her, and we see her here in the act of waking, to find him gone. The bustle of the little loves to light up the wood where their mistress has been sleeping is well depicted ; they only enable her more fully to perceive her loss. The wings of the butterfly may be traced at the shoulders of Psyche. The original painting is in the gallery of the Due d'Aumale. Turning to the Vernets, we note the birth of the third son of Claude Joseph, at Bordeaux, August 14, 1758. He was christened Antoine Charles Horace, and is best known as Carle Ykrnet, perhaps, the most interesting of the three painters who bore the name of Vernet At eleven years of age, Carle was confined to Lepicie, an in- different painter, to be taught his art. He gained the prize of Rome when he was three- and-twenty, and began his residence at the villa Medici. But the life was too retired and monotonous for a youth who had passed many years in Parisian society; and the state of mental depression to which he was subject — in consequence, perhaps, of his frail health — returning with renewed force, his indulgent father recalled him to Paris, in 1783. After this, Carle attempted one large picture, in obedience to the taste of the time: a classical subject, "The Triumph of Paulus Emilius." The artist's own private bias led him to be an enthusiastic painter of horses. This style was of great service to him afterwards, when he entered <>n the later part of his career as a painter of battles. H : LEVY P!NX BOILVIN SCULP # / FRENCH SCHOOL. 231 The advent of the Revolution plunged Carle into the deepest distress. His favorite sister, Emilie, married to the architect, Chalgrin, perished on the scaffold. A few years before this i 3 2 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Carle had married Fanny, daughter of the painter. Moreau. He soon attached himself to the rising fortune of Napoleon, and painted several of his great battles — "Marengo," "Austerlitz," "Rivoli." With no less facility, he submitted to the Restoration, and in 1 8 1 6 was named a member of the Academy des Beaux- Arts, then in process of organi- zation. At the same period he produced in prolific abundance several hundred litho- graphed caricatures of the manners and incidents of the day, anticipating, in fact, the political caricatures of a later period. He laughed at the Prussians, the Cossacks, the English who invaded Paris. Horses, hounds, everything he loved to draw, were intro- duced into his sketches, and were welcomed with broad grins. In 1819, Carle Vernet accompanied his son Horace to Rome, as usual, amusing everyone he met, during many months of travel. When Horace returned to Paris, 1835, Carle returned with him, and at once resumed his active, merry life. In November, 1836, however, a slight imprudence brought on a violent illness, which carried him off in a few days. Carle Vernet died in Paris, November 28, 1836, in the arms of his son. Near the end, he uttered these epigrammatic words: "C'est singulier comme je ressemble au grand Dauphin: fils de roi, pere de roi, et jamais roi." He, in fact, summarised his own position in the Art-family of Vernet. He was not a king in Art; he wanted concentration of purpose, perhaps power. But he served Art in another, and not unuseful, way; and his witty productions mingled the lighter elements of mirth and good-humor with many gloomy recollections of history. His son Jean Emii.e Horace, the last and most eminent of the three Vernets, was born in Paris, June 30, 1789. In crossing the Place du Carousel, on the terrible 10th of August, 1792, with his parents, the same ball that struck his father's hand knocked off Horace's cap. His father superintended his education with a woman's tenderness. The boy had the run of several studios — his father's, Moreau's, and Vincent's. Perhaps, on that very account, the young artist never attained .the solid knowledge of figure- drawing which then lay at the foundation of Academic success. Hence, when Horace competed for the prize of Rome, he failed; but revenged himself by producing his earliest battle-piece, a style of Art in which he was hereafter to have no rival. His early taste for military affairs would probably have led him to the army; but Carle, nis father, anxious to have his son settled near him, married him, in 1801, to Marie Pujol, and had him appointed draughtsman to the depdt of war. Horace shared all his father's tastes, his love of horses, his love of humor, and, above all, his admiration of "battles' magnificently stern array." A Honapartist to the backbone, he found it a little difficult to fall into the new order of things at the Restoration ; but by management, he succeeded in pleasing his new masters, while still gratifying his independent sympathy with the empire and its victories. Thus he painted for the Duke of Bern, "The I>og of the iRWllir' i If I', 11 Uii 1 ;: Illirr, I I If ill 11181 ■ lllim I . ' Iff ■Mg?MU ■ II! ll I ll':- i ■H I 11 ll i ,! i I' ill HP If ; »j4 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Regiment,'' and "The Trumpeter's Horse," and such episodes, for his own pleasure, as "The Farewell at Fontainebleau," "Napoleon the Evening before Waterloo," "The Rock of St. Helena," which, like the songs of Beranger, kept alive the recollections of the exile. Charles X., jealous of the patronage the artist was receiving from the Duke of Orleans, gave him several commissions; and, in 1828, Horace was named to the directorship of the Roman Academy. Here, a brilliant gathering of celebrities happened to throw a charm over his period of office. Thorwaldsen, Leopold Robert, Stendhal, Mendelssohn, and others, frequented the director's lively reunions. His old father, too, was with him, the youngest in spirits. But Horace had no sympathy with the great painters whom all the world worshiped in Rome. He tells us himself, no matter what he was painting, he was ready to run to the window at any moment, at the first tap of a drum. Returning, in 1835, to Paris, he found another political revolution in power, and his former patron, Louis Philippe, at the head of it. Royal commissions engrossed his whole energies. Battles, sieges, grew under his busy hand to unusual dimensions. From 1 836-1 84 1 was the most productive period of his life. At length, however, in a moment of independence, he gave temporary offence to his patron; painting the "Siege of Valenciennes," he was commanded to place Louis XIV. — where he was never to be seen in his whole life — leading the assault. The king was in fact hiding in a windmill with Madame de Montespan. So Vernet laid down his brush, and went to St. Peters- burg, on a visit to the Czar. He then traveled through Sweden, and went to England, on his return to Paris. In the meantime, the progress of French arms in Algeria was making fresh matter for his hand. Fifteen days after the fall of Constantine, Vernet started for the seat of war, and brought back sketches for three more of his great siege-pictures for Versailles. He next set out for the East, attracted by what he had seen of partially Oriental life in Algeria. Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor, and Turkey were in turn visited and described in numerous letters. In 1842, another misunder- standing sent the artist again to the Czar; but the fatal July 13, when the Duke of Orleans met his death, seems to have given a turn to his feelings, and he rushed back to Paris to condole with the king. Two more feats of arms, the "Capture of the Smala of Abd-el-Kadir," and the "Battle of Isly," engaged this painter, also for Versailles. The latter subject cost him another journey to Algeria. Anotlvr revolution in 1848 disconcerted Vernet, and he never again worked with the vigor of former days. Subsequent wars did not inspire him; he went to the Crimea, indeed, and painted the "Battle of the Alma;" he also executed an equestrian portrait of Napoleon III. A last honor was offered him at the Exhibition of 1855. when the jury voted him a gold medal in view of his collected works exhibited at that time. But the distinction of this compliment was diminished by the fact that three other s HENRIETfE BRCTWTJE . PINXT C."W. SHARPE SCTTiF" FRENCH SCHOOL. 235 From the original painting, bv C. Herrmann- Leon. A PAUSE IN THE ARGUMENT. French painters, Decamps, Delacroix, and Ingres, were associated with him in the vote. 236 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Time was passing; the painter was weary. He had a villa at Hyeres, to which he frequently retired. The last sketch he made was for a painting he meditated for the entrance to his villa. It was a "Holy Family," with an inscription — Dieu seul ne se repose pas. An accident placed his life in danger; he was taken to Paris, and on the 17th January. 1863, he died. The vigorous portrait of this great artist (for in his own military genre he was great,) painted by his son-in-law, Delaroche, of which we give an excellent engraving by F. Gaillard, enables us to understand how the army of Algeria always called him Colonel Vernet. The name of Hippolyte (or by abbreviation Paul) Delaroche is the first that occurs in the present century. He was a native of Paris; 1797 the year of his birth. As a painter he has much to interest an English-speaking nation, because many of his subjects were selected from English history. Delaroche's father was a dealer in pictures; he conducted public sales, and brought out well-known catalogues. His son, Paul, studied first under Wattelet, and made his first appearance in the Salon of 1822, with three pictures. One of these, "Joash Saved by Josabeth," attracted the notice of Gericault, who, at Paul's request, gave him lessons and advice. Avoiding the extremes of Academic stiffness and of unmeasured license, the pupil held a middle course, and thus gained friends and patrons among independent lovers of art. Delaroche was a diligent painter, and his reputation rose, from year to year, as fresh works attested his mastery of his art and the variety of his attainments. His striking picture of the "Death of Queen Elizabeth of England," exhibited in 1827, made a great impression. After the Revolution of 1830, Delaroche became still better known and appreciated as a painter of history. Many of these works have become familiar by the intervention of engraving. Thus, the "Two young English Princes in the Tower," "Cromwell Opening the Coffin of Charles I.," the "Execution of Lady Jane Grey," and "Strafford on his way to Execution," (now in the gallery of the Duke of Sutherland, London,) show his preference for several dramatic incidents in English history. Among his French subjects two are very well known, "Cardinal Richelieu on the Rhone, in a Barge;" the dying Cardinal is accompanied by Cinq-Mars and de Thou, two conspirators who are going to their doom. A companion picture to this is the "Death of Cardinal Mazarin," who is fading out of life in a chamber filled with ladies and courtiers of fashion, few of whom seem to take the event much to heart. No one who has ever seen even a good engraving of either of these remarkable pictures, can ever forget iL Delaroche was also frequently engaged in portraiture. He painted "Guizot," "Thiers," and "Gregory XVI.," now at Versailles. In this class of Art, Delaroche's critics were not agreed as to his merit Some of them detected in his earlier works the influence of Horace Vernet, and that of Ingres in the later. The portrait of Horace 1=1 t=l £5 m FRENCH SCHOOL. 237 Vernet in this volume is a favorable specimen of this style of his art. In 1841, special attention was again drawn to Delaroche by the unveiling of a work which had occupied him for four years: "The Decoration of the Hemicycle in the Palace of the Beaux Arts." This, if not actually the best of his works, was beyond all question the largest. It covered a hollow surface, eighty-eight feet by thirteen. Upwards of eighty figures are arranged in groups, and represent the great painters, sculptors, and architects of the From the original painting. THE SISTERS. by Leon Bonnat. middle ages and of modern times, convoked before the chair of the judges, on which are seated the three masters of antiquity, Ictinus, Phidias, and Apelles. Between the elevated chair — at the foot of which, kneels "Fame," which we engrave on page 217 — and the level of the assembly, on either side, there are allegorical figures symbolizing Greek and Roman Art, the Middle Age, and the Renaissance. Where it was possible, all the heads are portraits, even the Middle Age is said to represent the beautiful face of the painter's wife. Whatever there may be in the objection that this is a mere 238 MASTERPIECES OE EUROPEAN ART. gathering of portraits and costumes, and for all its careful execution, wanting in severity ol style and unity of comjxisition, it cannot be denied that it contains many beautiful groups, or that its archaeological details are full of interest. Delaroche afterwards made a reduced copy of this vast picture, which was exhibited in England, and from which Dupont's admirable engraving was taken. Death overtook him, almost suddenly, in Paris, November 4, 1856. An exhibition of his collected works took place shortly afterwards, for the benefit of the Association of Artist-Painters and Sculptors, of which Delaroche had been President. At the same time, Messrs. Goupil executed photographs of his principal works, which were published, with an excellent notice by Delaborde. M. About shall sum up a great deal of criticism on Delaroche, and his place in Art. ,, lle excelled in sketching an idea on the canvas, and in arranging the scene with proper effect. He had not, indeed, the long breath required for a historian; but he had no want of the animation necessary for a chronicler. His small pictures are greater than his large pictures — a proof that greatness does not lie in mere size of canvas. Delaroche formed the most numerous of all the schools of our time." • In Akv ScHEFFER and his works, German sentiment somewhat incongruously mingles with the result of French training. Ary was born at Dordrecht, in Holland, February, 1 795. the eldest of three sons of a German painter, who died when Ary was about fifteen years old. The boy's talent for art was early manifested; a painting of his had been admitted into the Amsterdam Salon before he was twelve. The young widow, his mother, left with slender means, at once resolved, for the sake of her children, to re- move to Paris, which thus became Ary's permanent home. How wise a counsellor and friend of her sons she must have been, appears from a few words of advice she once gave Ary about his progress in art: "Be assiduous in work; above all, be modest; and, when you can say that you excel others, then compare your work with nature, and with the ideal you had formed; this comparison will save you from yielding to pride or pre- sumption." Among the best of his works in this style is his "Francesca da Rimini," the tearful episode in Dante's "Inferno.'' It alone would plead against oblivion for iis author's name. A wave of religious feeling seems next to have passed over Scheffer. To 1837 must be referred his "Christ the Consoler," which we engrave on page 211. The failuns of humanity are gathered around the great master of comfort;- the faces of the sorrowing are illuminated by the Divine presence, and in the background are the representatives of evil. Yet the countenance of Christ is not, in this picture, equal to other parts, or to what might have been expected of it. Several pictures from the last scenes of the Saviour's life followed. His admirers applauded; his critics did not fail to find material for their craft. Scheffer also painted several Old Testament subjects. ■ tfjjkf FRENCH SCHOOL. 239 Scheffer, already in declining health, yet unable to resist the impulse that urged him to the funeral of the Duchess of Orleans, near London, in 1858, died at Argenteuil of the fatigue and agitation consequent on the journey, June 15 of that year. An unfinished picture of the "Angel Announcing the Resurrection" remained to testify the hope that had illuminated the artist's closing hours. Our engraving by M. Flameng represents "Margaret at the Fountain," painted in 1858 by Scheffer, and let into a panel in the dining-room of the Hotel-Pereira, Paris. The scene is taken from Goethe's sorrowful drama of Faust. A distant view of her lover fascinates her gaze, and she neglects her water-pitcher, which is running over, to look after him. A prophetic melancholy is seated in those dreamy eyes. They remind you of all the sorrow and of all the beauty of her tragic tale. This work was one of the master's latest. Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix, who takes rank among the first, if not as the* very first, in the contemporaneous school of art in France, was born at Charenton- St. Maurice, near Paris, in the last year of the eighteenth century. Eugene's infancy is said to have been remarkable for the many escapes he made from a violent death. His cradle caught fire, and the baby was badly burnt; he carried the marks of this accident through life. Then he was once nearly poisoned with verdigris ; he was twice almost strangled. One day he fell into the harbor at Marseilles, and was saved by the promptness of a seaman. His father dying when Eugene was six years old, the child was taken by his mother to Paris, and put to school at the Lyceum Louis-le- Grand. Happening one day to visit the Musee Napoleon, at a time when the treasures of many European galleries were collected in Paris as spoils of war, Eugene is said to have been so fascinated by what he saw, as to decide at once that he would be a painter. He entered Guerin's studio, but master and pupil soon disagreed ; and Eugene presently made the acquaintance of Gericault, and began to profit by his counsels. In 1827 the Salon contained many important works of Delacroix; among the rest was the " Death of Marino Faliero," Doge of Venice, which forms one of our engra- vings. The Doge was detected in a conspiracy against the State he ruled, and was condemned to die for his treason. The fatal moment is just over; the sword of justice has fallen, and the headless form of Faliero encumbers the Scala dei Giganti, in the ducal palace, Venice. Attendants are carrying away the robes of state, for the Doge had been executed in his official costume. The officers of state, in a higher balcony, are completing the formalities of the law. The executioner and his assistant are standing below, on either side of the corpse. The composition of this work is, in the highest degree, dramatic. It is said to have been preferred by the artist to all his other works. It was purchased for $4000, by Isaac Pereira, a munificent patron of Art. 24t> MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. A large selection from Delacroix's works was placed in the Exhibition of 1855. beginning with his earliest, "Dante's Boat" A gold medal was awarded him; but a still more valuable testimony must have been the unanimity of approbation with which his pictures were received. Two years afterwards he was admitted to a seat in the Academy of the Beaux Arts, vacated by the death of Delaroche. As "Heliodore," engraved by M. Flameng, forms the subject of one of our illustrations, a few words must be devoted to it Heliodorus, as every reader of the Maccabees (iii. 23) must remember, was the treasurer of Seleucus Philopator, and was commissioned by his master to carry away the private treasures deposited in the Temple at Jerusalem. In the very act he was visited by "a great apparition," so that he fell down speechless, and "compassed with a great darkness." An angel of God, mounted on a fiery horse, rode over him, while two others sharply scourged him, as he lay. His life was spared at the intercession of Onias, the high priest, and he reported to his master the super- human protection extended over Jerusalem. The story is dramatically related in the picture. Stately architecture, befitting the Temple, is introduced, and fills the whole background. A grand staircase, flanked by columns, ascending and descending from the foreground, is the scene of the robbers punishment. From an upper balcony, the high priest and his attendants look down, in agitation, on what is passing below, and intercede for the culprit's life. The winged angel of God, mounted on a horse and holding a short sceptre or baton, rushes at the sacrilegious man ; while two other angels, but without wings, scourge him as he lies prostrate among the scattered treasures he was carrying away. The artist contributed from time to time to literature, in the Revue des Deux Afondes, and elsewhere. He was still meditating new conquests with his brush, when death put a period to his work. Returning to Paris, June, 1863, from his country house near Versailles, he was seized with fatal illness, and after two months of suffering he died August 13, with a smile on his lips, and was buried at Pere la-chaise. In him French art lost one of its masters. Jean Aucusre Dominique Ingres, one of the most independent, original and pleasing of all the French School, was born at Montauban, 1780; and, although his life was prolonged to his eighty-seventh year, such was the elasticity of his mind and body, that he seemed at last to have died young. He inherited what George Sand has termed T&me d'artiste from his father, who was a sculptor, an architect, musician and painter in one. The son found his violin useful in supporting him on his first arrival in Paris, 1796, in search of instruction as a painter. He had acquired the elements of art in the school of Roques, a pupil of Vien's, at Toulouse. In Paris he placed himself under the tuition of David. The intensity and gravity of his character even thus early mani- G . DORE , PINXT J. SADDLER. SCULP? HOMELESS, FRENCH SCHOOL. 241 fested themselves; his style already indicated the delicacy of outline, the deep feeling for form, and the union of firmness and exactness in modeling, which marked the late works of the master. In 1800, his unremitting attention to study was rewarded, but as yet only with the second prize. In 1806 the way to Rome was opened to him, and he went. On his return to Paris, the painter opened a school and drew around him a number of pupils who learned to value his genius underneath his somewhat unattractive manners. He painted portraits of Charles X. and many of his court. At the end of ten years he returned to Rome, as director of the French Academy there. There he painted little, preferring to devote himself to the duties of his office. One of the few pictures belonging to this period was the "Andromeda," of which we give an engraving by Flameng. The Paris Exhibition, 1855, was a triumph for Ingres; he had a whole chamber to himself, filled with his works. The painter of the First Consul and first Emperor was promoted, under the Second Empire, to the rank of senator, and received medals and decorations, loved of Frenchmen. 1867 was the year of his death. Early in the year, he entertained a number of his friends one evening with quartets of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, for music remained to the last his principal diversion. He had never appeared in better health. The following night he was roused from bed by the fall of a burning log on the floor of his room. In extinguishing it Ingres caught a violent cold, which terminated in his death, January 14. Montauban erected a statue to her illustrious citizen. The Musee of that town possesses several of his finest works, one of them is "Jesus among the Doctors." Joseph Louis Bellange, a pupil of Gros, and almost exclusively a painter of French battles, was born in Paris with the present century. His first public appearance was in the Salon of 1822, with a battle, of course; and for upwards of forty years, with rare exceptions, he never failed to exhibit some new military glory; his works amounted, at last, to more than a hundred pictures of large size. He painted the victories of the Republic and of the Empire; not, certainly, with the talent of Horace Vernet, yet with so much of the untranslatable element chic, as to take the French taste and raise himself to considerable popularity. Bellange was director of the Rouen Musee for nearly twenty years, and died in Paris, 1866. His son and pupil, Eugene, carries on the task of representing life in the barrack and on the battle-field. Jean Francois Millet, an eminent painter of landscape, was born at Greville, near Cherbourg, about 181 5. His parents were peasants. The Cherbourg authorities en- couraged his talent, and sent the youth to Paris, stipulating for a certain number of his pictures in return. Millet studied under Delaroche, and for a while hesitated between genre and historical painting. His natural bent withdrew him from both styles, and made him a painter of the simpler scenes of country life. He married early, and 242 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. settled in the little village of Barbizon, on the confines of the forest of Fontainebleau. There he painted those small easel pictures which have delighted so many persons of cultivated taste, and, in a more limited measure, the general public. The Salon of 1844 was the place and date of his earliest appearance. He was, at first, little appreciated. His style, if masterly, was felt to be somewhat austere, his color monotonous, the feeling of his work tinged with melancholy. Slowly he made his way, and was at last recog- nized as the "poet of country life." His life was, like his talents, simple, noble, un- obtrusive and genuine. It closed in the first month of 1875, and Millet was interred at Chantilly, near Fontainebleau, where many of his brethren of the brush have found their last resting-place. The fable of La Fontaine is familiar to every one; to the effect that, however figuratively weary of life a sane man may become, in consequence of labor and suffering, he in his heart prefers the ills he must bear, "to others that he knows not of," in another state of existence. In "Death and the Wood-cutter," engraved by E. Hedouin, we have the old man groaning under the trial of his wood-cutting craft; he has carried his heavy bundle of faggots a long way; he sits down and wishes he were dead. On the instant death is upon him, wrapped in a winding-sheet, carrying his scythe and winged hour-glass. The face of the skeleton is averted to soften, in an artistic sense, the horror of his appearance. He seizes the discontented woodman and summons him away. Jean Baftiste Corot, a natfve of Paris, was born shortly before the end of last century. His parents, of the lower-middle class, opposed, as usual, his precocious tendencies to Art, and insisted on his entering a cloth-merchant's establishment in the Rue St. Honore. Passive obedience, as usual, succeeded in the long run, and young Corot was permitted to begin his Art-studies under Michallon. This artist died a few months afterwards; but a lesson he gave Corot, one day when they were sketching in the country, was never forgotten. He bade him always to copy simply what he saw before him. After Michallon *s death, Corot sought further instruction in the studio of Benin. In 1826 he went to Italy and passed several months there, repeating his visits at intervals of about ten years. The Salon of 1849 contained a picture by him which carried everything before it. It represented the silence and sadness of evening; it breathed freshness, calm and peace in a manner never to be forgotten. He died in Paris in the Spring of 1875. He did not always confine himself to landscape, but it is in landscape that he must be taken at his best. Jk.an Baftiste Isabey, an eminent miniature painter, was a native of Nancy. He repaired to Paris, in 1786, being then nineteen years of age; anil, while he was studying miniature under Dumont, supported himself by painting snuff-boxes. When David returned from Rom--. Isabey entered his studio as a pupil, and finished his art-education. '» 5 FRENCH SCHOOL. 243 David helped him to live, as well as to improve himself in Art. When the Revolution came, Isabey had his hands full of portraits of the Constituent Assembly. Under the Directory, he became the most popular miniature painter in Paris. Some of the best portraits he ever took were of that date. "They represent some incredible oddities, with dog's ears; and as for his women, they are the boldest and the most licentious," says M. Charles Blanc. Isabey became Hortense Beauharnais' drawing-master, and thus established a connection with the Bonaparte family. A portrait of General Bonaparte in the Malmaison Gardens, painted at that time, is a first-rate work of art. Later on, he was appointed painter and draughtsman to the Emperor's cabinet, and instructed the Empress Marie Louise in drawing. He was dispatched to Vienna to paint portraits of her family; and received the coveted office of director of painting at Sevres. Political changes did Isabey no harm. Charles X. was as well pleased as another to have the great miniaturist for his court painter also. Louis Philippe, in his turn, could not do without him, and made him director of all the royal Musees. Still more lucky for Isabey was the next Revolution, of 1848; the son of his old pupil, Queen Hortense, became President of the Republic, and afterwards Emperor. Decorations and pensions naturally fell to his share. Thus, pleasantly smiled on by Fortune, Isabey prolonged his life to the advanced age of eighty-eight, and died in Paris, 1855. Constant Troyon, who divides with Rosa Bonheur the laurels of animal painting, was born 1810, in an atmosphere of art, at Sevres;' and was originally intended for a painter on porcelain. Subsequent travel, however, in picturesque parts of France, attracted him to landscape and animals. For the last forty years he has been engaged in this manner, and his works are widely known and distributed among collectors of pictures. Many of them are also popularized in engraving. Medals and decorations are the least valuable witnesses to his reputation. Henri Regnault drew his first breath in the art-atmosphere of Sevres, where his father was director of the porcelain manufactory. His education finished at the Lycee Napoleon, Henri decided to be a painter. At seventeen he entered the studio of Lamothe, a pupil of Ingres and Flandrin ; he also studied under Cabanel, and in the school of the Beaux Arts. In 1866, being then three-and-twenty years of age, he secured the prize of Rome by his picture of "Thetis carrying to Achilles the Armor forged by Vulcan." The following year Regnault began his studies in Rome. In a year or two he traveled in Spain, where .he made a portrait of General Prim, and a copy of Velasquez' "Surrender of Breda." Regnault's admiration for Velasquez amounted to enthusiasm. He called him "the Moliere of painting." Early in 1869 he returned to Rome to finish his "Judith," and thence back again to Spain, which had fascinated him. He traveled about Valencia, Murcia and Anda- 244 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. lusia, in company with his friend Clairin. He next crossed over to Africa, and fixed his residence at Tangier for several months. A studio was improvised, and the artists passed a delightful time in studying Moorish scenes and life. It was here that Regnault finished a favorite picture which he had begun in Rome, and which his servant, Legraine, was ordered to bring from Italy to Tangier. This was the "Salome," of which we offer an engraving by M. Rajon. It is an elaborate study of a gipsy woman in the Roman Campagna. The unfinished picture had a narrow escape from destruction on its way to Africa. Legraine was to sail from Marseilles, but, suspecting the first boat, he waited for another which would sail in a few days. The first boat went to the bottom, and the news of its loss reached Regnault several days before he heard that his sen-ant, his "Salome" and a favorite greyhound were safely arrived. This strange picture at first repels and then fascinates the gazer. The wild, animal head and face of Herodias' daughter bear a mixed expression of folly and stolid indifference. The original is described as a miracle of sumptuous color, running through all its tones, from lightest to darkest, in perfect harmony. Her superb head of raven-black hair is relieved against a background of lemon-colored satin. Her limbs are only half concealed by her gauze robe, ornamented with gold. She is seated on a highly decorated coffer, her naked feet are escaping from the dark slippers that repeat the black tone of her hair. A gold plate and sheathed knife on her lap indicate her story. "Caressing ferocity is at the bottom of her nature," was the remark of her painter; "she is, in fact, a sort of dark panther, half tamed, perhaps, but always savage and cruel." In short, "Salome" must be an artist's delight, and an insoluble puzzle for a collector of "Scripture prints." The original was exhibited in the Salon of 1870, and was sold at first hand for $2800, and afterwards to Madame de Cassin for $8000. Regnault's portrait of Prim, which is engraved on page 227, was exhibited in Paris in 1869. Amidst the artist's charming life at Tangier, the news of the declaration of war with Germany fell like a thunderbolt. In August, 1870. Regnault reached Paris, and immediately joined the National Guard. January 17, 1871, on the eve of a sortie, he took a last farewell of the lady he loved. Marly in the morning of the 19th his regiment was engaged with the enemy, in the woods of Buzenval. Towards dusk the fight was desperate: the retreat was sounded; but Regnault was never again seen alive. Next evening he was recognized among the dead, who had been carried to Pere-la-Chaise; a bullet had pierced his left temple. A few days after— on the very same day that Paris capitulated— his funeral senice took place in the Augustinian church. He was only seven-and-twenty. But, although so young. Regnault lived long enough to make his early death a loss, in some respects irreparable, to the French school of painting. A RUSSIAN PEASANT'S HOME FRENCH SCHOOL. 245 In the Pas-de-Calais, in 1827, Jules Breton first saw the light. He studied painting under De Vigne, whose daughter he subsequently married. He was also a pupil of Drolling, and appeared in the Salon of 1849. At first his works made but little mark; but his "Return of the Reapers," 1853, attracted attention, and was the foundation of his reputation. Three of his works in the International Exhibition, 1855, further pro- moted it, and year after year he gained a step in public esteem, as a rising master of the younger contemporary school. In 1865, his "End of the Day," which is reproduced in our engraving by L. Flameng, was exhibited, was purchased for the collection of Prince Napoleon, and is one of Breton's best works. You see here a lonely hay-field, at the evening hour, with a group of young Artois peasant-women wearied by the long day's work. On the spectator's left a young mother is feeding her baby, just brought to her by her sister, — the only untired figure in. the group; for she has not been making hay all day, but minding the house and the baby. She wears no sabots or wooden shoes; no covering on her head to screen her during the burning hours of noontide. The mother's pose is admirable; so much need of rest, but just so much of it taken as the imperative claims of baby will permit. Look at her wearied hands folded limply round him; but her feet are firmly set together, that he may lie securely on her lap. On the other side of her a tired worker, with no such encumbrance, lies down uneasily and sleeps. In the central foreground are two excellent figures. They stand, but partly leaning on their rakes. One of them leans forward, the rake supporting her chin; the other is inclined slightly backwards towards the point of support behind her. Repose is im- pressed on every line of their forms, on every fold of their rough but whole garments. The sunburnt face and arms of one of them contrasts with the fair complexion of the other; and' either harmonizes with the warm tones of the distant sky. Behind them a young girl leans against a haycock, seated on the ground. Two elder women, on the spectator's right, true to nature or better inured to fatigue, are employing the first moments of their leisure in a visit to the provision-basket. The one who bends forward is pouring out something from a pitcher, for the other who is kneeling with her back to us. The distance is filled with long lines of haycocks, the achievement of the day. The sun has gone down behind them in a blaze of glory; twilight is just coming on. Surely the beauty and the pathos of human labor were never more charmingly depicted ; nor its well-earned reward in peaceful rest. Note, also, how the lines of perspective assist in imparting a sense of stability to the whole composition. The three rakes have one vanishing point, just above the heads of the central group. The quality of the etching also is well worthy of mention: the fine gradations of distance, the management of light and shade, the roundness of relief in all the figures. Shut one eye and look at the picture with the other, through the closed fist, taking care that the light falls from MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. the proper side; ami the figures will seem as though they were solid. Lastly, note that though the sun has set behind the extreme distance, a bright light is falling from the spectator's left, throwing strong shadows in a corresponding direction. We require no great insight to perceive that the low summer moon must be rising. We also illustrate M. Breton, by an engraving of his "Eve of St. John's Day," on page 233. Jean Leon Gekume. one of the most learned of living French painters, was born at Vesoul (Haute Saone.) 1S24. He acquired the rudiments of his art in his native town, and, about the age of seventeen, went to Paris, and entered as a pupil the studio of Dclaroche, whom he afterwards accompanied to Italy. His earliest exhibited picture was a "Cock- Fight." 1847. He had evidently not yet settled the style that best suited him, for next year, of his two pictures, one represented "Christ, his Mother, and St. John," and the other "Anacreon, Bacchus, and Cupid.". Scenes of antique character succeeded, in which the artist had imitators who were termed Pompeii-ists or Neo-Greeks. In 1854 Gerome made a tour in Turkey, and along the Danube; and, a few years later, another in Egypt, enriching his portfolio with sketches of what struck him most. We grace our pages with an engraving by Jeens, of his "Dante." Among his more recent works may be enumerated "Louis XIV. and Moliere," the "Reception of the Siamese Ambassadors," the "Death of Marshal Ney," and the "Monk at the Door of a Mosque," which we engrave on page 221. Gerome's pictures have been popularized by engravings and photographs beyond most others. His works fetch very high prices. Eugene Fkomentin is a native of Rochelle; born in 1820. At the end of his studies he took M. Louis Cabat for his master in landscape; then traveled in Algeria, and made an extensive series of sketches. His debut in the Salon of 1849 won him a second-class medal for his Algerian subjects. He revisited Africa, 1852, with an archaeological commission, drawing and writing as he traveled about the Sahara. In 1859 he succeeded in gaining a first-class medal. His works, which are very numerous, chiefly comprise African and Arab subjects, such as our illustration, the original of which is in the Luxembourg Museum. The "Arab Falconer" is reckoned one of M. Fromentin's best rendered and most interesting pictures. Falconry, in Algeria, is the exclusive privilege of the Emirs, or high Arab chiefs. To be seen bearing a falcon is a visible patent of nobility. A Bedouin meeting a falconer in the desert alights from his horse and pays him humble homage. The falconer in the illustration rushes forward, full gallop, maddened by the wild joy of the ride and of the chase, and stimulating his birds to follow their quarry, the hare. His figure, though a little barbaric, is full of vigor and motion. Elegance, high finish, and harmonious coloring are among the painter's leading characteristics. His published accounts of adventures in Africa arc also highly interesting and popular. . --- rr*^^* _ ENTRE DEUX AMOURS. ENGRAVED BY W. ROEFE FROM THE GROUP IN MARBLE BY CARRIER BELLEUSE UEBBIE & BARRIE FRENCH SCHOOL. 247 Alexandre Cabanel, born at Montpellier, 1823, became a pupil of Picot, and brought out a religious picture in the Salon of 1844. The year after he gained the first prize of Rome, also with a sacred subject. After terminating his residence in Rome, the first picture he exhibited which made an impression was his " Death of Moses." It reappeared in 1855, among the pictures of the International Exhibition, with two other religious works, the "Christian Martyr" and the "Glorification of St. Louis." Portraits, religious works, — an example of which we engrave on page 225, the "Annunci- ation," — and genre seem to have employed the artist's pencil in nearly equal proportions. In 1863 he produced a work in a different style, which obtained some applause, the "Birth of Venus" from the sea-foam. Cabanel's portraits, particularly those of women, have been among his most successful works hitherto. His brush was also in requisition for the decoration of the Hotel de Ville. He succeeded Horace Vernet as a member of the Academy of the Beaux Arts, and was appointed professor of painting in the school. Rosalie, or Rosa Bonheur, a native of Bordeaux, may be said to have been born an artist. The daughter and pupil of a painter of merit, and the sister of three artists, she amused herself, even in early childhood, with making sketches of animals and children, and then cutting them out in paper. Her family removed to Paris while Rosa was still a child, and a few years afterwards she lost her mother. Reverses of fortune also overtook the family, and Raymond, the father, had to support himself by painting, while the children were sent to boarding-schools. As Rosa grew in years her passion for Art also grew. Her father then took her training in hand himself, and before she was out of her teens her first picture was accepted and exhibited in the Salon of 1841. She had worked hard for this early distinction. She often passed hours of the day in the abattoirs, watching the tricks and manners of animals. It was there only that a Parisian artist could see them. Having secured a start, Rosa's pencil was never idle. AH kinds of domestic animals, horses, ponies, asses, cows, sheep, goats and dogs were her favorite study, and were reproduced from year to year at the Salon, till her commissions became too numerous to permit her to exhibit. One of these years her father, then on his death- bed, asked to see Rosa's last work. It was brought to him, — the "Oxen Ploughing," engraved for this work by Mr. Moran, — and greatly affected him. It is now in the Luxembourg. In 1853 Rosa exhibited her celebrated "Marche aux Chevaux" (Horse Market.) At the International Exhibition of 1855 she produced a large landscape entitled the "Fenaison (haymaking) en Auvergne." In 1867 she exhibited a number of fine pictures of shepherds with sheep, of cattle, of deer, and of ponies. Rosa Bonheur has long resided in the country, near Fontainebleau, where she studies and paints without interruption. Visitors carry off her works as fast as they are finished, and they 2 4 8 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. are now seldom or never to be seen in exhibitions. Rosa's eldest brother, Jules Isidore, is a sculptor of superior talent. Her younger brother, Francxhs Auguste, has made his mark with landscapes studied in the Pyrenees, the Cantal, and the Auvergne. Paui Q STAVE DoRfe, whom we represent in this work by two superb engravings, • Homeless," on steel, by M. Saddler, and "Alexander Weeping over the Body of Darius," on wood, on page 231, is the best known of living French painters out of France, he is a native of Strasbourg, where he was born in 1833. His education was finished in Paris. His first essays in Art were in lithography. In his sixteenth year he contributed to Philipon's Journal pour Rire a series of "The Labors of Hercules," which excited attention. His connection with that periodical lasted a long time. Other publications of a similar class, such as the Journal pour Tous, competed with one another for his work. Dore next undertook the illustration of standard classical works; of Rabelais, Balzac, Dante, Cervantes, Milton, La Fontaine, and Tennyson. The Bible also engaged his busy hand. Dore came out as a painter in 1853, in several pictures of natural genre, and in landscape. Thenceforth his brush was employed on many various subjects: "Scenes from Dante's Poem," "The Deluge," "The Battle of Inkermann," "Tobias and the Angel;" and, perhaps the most interesting of all, living sketches of Spanish peasants. His larger and more ambitious works are less agreeable. Dore works too much and studies too little. His reputation is made indeed for the present; but, if it is to endure, quality must, sooner or later, be aimed at rather than quantity. A German critic relates a fable which applies well to Dore and his works. A she-wolf one day was boasting of her litter of half-a-dozen cubs to a lioness, with implied pity and contempt for the single cub of the lioness. " It is true, I have only one," was the reply; "but then he is a lion." Gustave Brion, a native of Rothau, Vosges, 1824, learnt drawing at Strasbourg, under Guerin, and brought out his first Alsatian picture in 1847. The peasants of Alsace and die banks of the Rhine are this artist's specialty, occasionally varied by subjects taken from the manners of Brittany. He also illustrated, a few years ago, Victor Hugo's novels of "Ndtre Dame de Paris," and "Miserables," in two-hundred and fifty designs. We offer an engraving by Rajon of "The Reading of the Bible," exhibited in the Salon in 1868; it is remarkable on several accounts. As a study of the costumes, the manners, and the homes of the Alsatian farmers, it is full of historical interest. Since this picture was first exhibited, Alsace has ceased to be part of France, and has relapsed to its original nationality. A group of nine persons, women, children and servants, are skilfully ranged in front of the old farmer, to hear him read the Bible. The effect pro- duced on the auditors varies considerably. Of the two women next him, one listens with quiet attention, the othr r with eager sympathy. The youngest child, who stands between w i I ' - - ♦ P. L1GHTFO0T Snll' CHERRIES RIFE Published, try OEORGE BARRIE.Phxiodclp hta.. FRENCH SCHOOL. 249 them, can with difficulty be kept quiet; his eyes betrays how far away his thoughts are roving. Two daughters of the family, seated immediately behind the front group, are apparently lulled, by the quiet monotony of the reader, into a state of mind between thinking and dreaming. The servants at the back listen with propriety, perhaps only dimly understanding what they hear. The old reader himself is completely absorbed in what he is doing. His left forefinger serves to assure him of the place ; with his right hand he throws emphasis into his words, raising and lowering it as the sense seems to him to require. The very dog knows better than to move about. The vast stove near the door, with its pitcher of water to moisten the air of the chamber ; the tall eight-day clock j the dresser, and cupboard, and chairs of old-fashioned pattern, all tell their story, and identify the province they belong to. The picture has other technical merits as a composition, which artists will understand and appreciate. It is impossible to look long at it without imagining that the old man is reading aloud, and that in another moment we shall hear his voice. We offer an example of Madame Henriette Browne's, which is a pseudonym for Mademoiselle Sophia de Bouteiller, descended from an ancient noble family in Brittany, and who became Madam de Saux, by her marriage in 1855 with an under- secretary in the French Foreign Office. In the " Critics," engraved by C. W. Sharpe, Madame Browne sustains her reputation as a popular painter of genre. Her early works are full of nature and feeling ; and her execution, if slight, is distinguished. Since then she has exhibited many portraits and scenes of Oriental manners of a riper character. Charles Francois Daubigny, an eminent French landscape painter, was born in Paris in 181 7. He learnt his first Art lessons from his father. At fifteen he could paint little pictures, such as are seen on the boxes of Spa, and other similar articles which tourists much affect. Thus placed above the reach of want, he applied himself seriously, at the same time, to painting on a wider field, studying for a while under Delaroche, and always working from nature. A gold medal of the first class was awarded in 1867 to Daubigny's paintings and etchings. His son and pupil, Karl- Pierre, born in 1843, * s devoted to the same branch of Art, which, however, he is said to cultivate rather in the style of Corot. Jean Francois Gigoux is a native of Besancon, born in 1806. He began life as a blacksmith, if we are to believe the Salon Catalogue of 1834. From Besancon he removed to Paris, and exhibited, in 1831, several lead-pencil portraits. A year or two later he appeared as a painter of genre or of portraits. The romantic school claimed him, and perhaps excessively vaunted his merits, which produced a corresponding depreciation of his talent in other quarters. Gigoux has been a diligent exhibitor, and has worked honestly and hard to improve both his drawing and coloring. aso MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Jules Dupre is an instance of a youth lost to commerce and gained for Art, by his early and irrepressible turn for drawing. Nancy is his native city, 1812 the year of his birth. Landscape is his chosen specialty. His impressions are derived from nature direct He has been long and favorably known as a successful exhibitor; several of his best works have found their way into the Luxembourg. Twelve of his landscapes were placed in the memorable International Collection of 1867. The public appreciation of Dupre is proved by die rising prices received at sales of his pictures. Leon Belly, a pupil of Troyon, and a native of St. Omer, on completing his artist- education, repaired to the East, like Decamps ; to Egypt and Syria, and repeated his visit several years afterwards. His best inspirations in landscape are derived from those picturesque lands. At the present time he is among the very first French painters of Oriental scenes. Though essentially a landscape painter, he understands figures and cos- tumes. He is the author, also, of several good portraits, as of " Manin," the Venetian patriot. Alexandre Jean Baptiste Hesse, a nephew of Nicolas-Auguste Hesse, and only eleven years his junior, was a pupil of Gros, and completed his studies in Italy. A picture of "Titian's Funeral Honors," painted at Venice, 1833, laid the foundation of his repute. The Chapel of St. Francis de Sales, at St. Sulpice, attests his powers as a church decorator. History, religion and genre, in turn, engaged his pencil. He was elected, in 1867, a member of the Institute, in the room of Ingres. Eugene Louis Gabriel Isabey, son and pupil of his more eminent father, Jean Baptiste, carries on his traditions of art, but as a painter of genre and sea pieces. His works, which are highly appreciated, have been exhibited in successive Salons during the last half century. Km 1 1 1: LEvy was born in Paris, 1826. A pupil of Picot and De Pujol, and of the school of the Beaux Arts, he won the Roman Prize in 1854. From Italy he sent home several pictures, one of which " Noah Cursing Canaan," was purchased by the State. He has secured a good reputation as an artist of elevated style, and excellent qualities as a painter. For the last five-and-twenty years his name is familiar to frequenters of the Paris Salon. The "Herodias" — engraved for this work by Boilvin — of M. Levy was exhibited in the Salon in 1872. As a work of art it is rich in detail, picturesque and full of life. The moment when Salome enters the hall, bearing to her mother the head of the Baptist, is .that chosen by the artist for his dramatic effect. Every figure in the scene is thrown into agitation; even Herodias is disturbed as she half turns to her daughter. Salome alone looks rigid and defiant, yet with a strange sort of charm about her that seems to fascinate like the look of a serpent. The sense of universal flutter is pur- chased at some sacrifice of definition and clear outline. A diagonal arrangement of the ENGRAVED BY G. STODART. FROM THE GROUP, IN BRONZE. BY M. MATHURIN-MOREAU. GF.I3BIK & IjAKhlK. FRENCH SCHOOL. 251 composition gains space for more figures, and gives more variety in distance than would otherwise be possible. A rich architectural background, partly in the open air, completes the work. The lines also follow the diagonal disposition of the figures. Two painters of the name of Frere have established a reputation for Art. Pierre Edouard has exhibited his works in various Salons, and with distinction, during the last thirty years. Born in 1819, he was a pupil of Delaroche and of the Beaux Arts School, and is a painter of genre. A fair share of official recognition has been accorded to him. Charles Theodore Frere has been an exhibitor for upwards of forty years. A pupil of Coignet and of Roqueplan, he traveled in the East and in Algeria; and was present at the capture of Constantine. His style has been much influenced by his recol- lections of his Oriental and African journeys. His works consist, in great part, of views in Algeria, in Egypt, in Syria, and Turkey. Joseph Nicolas Robert Fleury was born at Cologne in 1797, at that time in the French Department of the Roer. He studied art in Paris under Girodet, Gros and Horace Vernet, passed several years in Italy, and first exhibited in the Salon of 1824. His works are familiar to the frequenters of the Salon. They are principally historical, and illustrate biography. He has more than once held up to reprobation religious intolerance, in his "Scene from St. Bartholomew," and one or two representations of the Inquisition. In portraiture, also, Fleury is remarkable. He has attained classic rank as a painter. His works are many of them in the French National Collection, and have been frequently reproduced. He succeeded Granet at the Academy of the Beaux Arts in 1850, and Blondel in 1855, as professor in the school. In 1865 he held the director- ship of the French Academy, Rome, for a short time. His son is a rising artist in history, and has gained honors in more than one Salon. Adolphe Yvon, born in 1817, is a native of Eschwiller (in the Department of the Moselle.) His ordinary education finished, he repaired to Paris, against the wish of his friends, and became a pupil of Delaroche. In 1843 he traveled in Russia, and exhibited a number of sketches of that country a few years afterwards. Pictures of genre, like the "Russian Peasants," engraved by R. C. Bell for our pages, and portraits, formed his principal style at first. In the Russian war he was sent officially to the Crimea ; and exhibited in 1857, the "Storming of the Malakoff," a picture commissioned for Versailles. The subsequent Italian war also called forth his powers, in depicting the victories of Solferino and Magenta. "The learning, the life, the effectiveness and the vigorous touch of Yvon's manner are universally acknowledged," says a French critic. L. Bonnat, born at Bayonne, in the lower Pyrenees, is well known to American collectors. We engrave on page 237 his "Sisters" which he exhibited at Vienna in 1873. He is a pupil of MM. Mudrazo and Coignet. He was decorated in 1867. 2 S a VASTER PIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. Jean Louis Meissonier, a son of poor parents, was born at Lyons in 1811. At nineteen years of age he went to Paris to learn to be a painter, having already got over the first difficulties in his native city. For a time he was obliged, in company with Daubigny, to paint pictures at five francs the square yard, for exportation. His superior talent attracted notice ; and he was admitted by Cogniet among his pupils. Meissonier selected a genre of his own ; pictures of very small size, but possessing the utmost finish and sharpness of touch, exactness of detail, and truth of outline. Meissonier first exhibited in 1836, and for twenty years afterwards continued to advance in public favor. The International Exhibition of 1855 — a kind of festival for so many French artists — was an occasion of triumph for Meissonier. Since then, although now wealthy and famous, he works at his microscopical pictures with the same unwearied care as at first. After the Italian campaign he attempted a new style of subject — the "Napoleon III. at Solferino," surrounded by his staff. It is an historical picture in miniature. Several other works in the new style followed. Mr. Probosco, of Cincinnati, purchased a "Charge of Cavalry" for $30,000. Meissonier's small pictures, of which the dimensions are measured by inches, often fetch prices which, a few years ago, would have seemed fabulous. The illustration — "The Audience," engraved by M. Carey — selected from Meissonier, shows a fashionably dressed courtier waiting his turn in the great man's chamber of audience. Every detail of his costume defies- criticism ; his careless air befits a man who can trick himself out so minutely. The whole is naturally worked out, although the nature is of no exalted stamp. Meissonier must look to his laurels. He is closely followed by some excellent imitators. Last summer a small painting was exhibited in London, at MM. Goupil's, which very closely resembled Meissonier's genre. A single figure, also of a highly finished gentleman of fashion, with exquisite feeling of light and shade, was offered for $600. The painter's name is Berne-Bellecour. Although M. Alexandre Bida is little known as a painter, yet, as a draughtsman and illustrator of books he has earned a reputation so high as to entitle him to a place in the history of contemporaneous French art. Toulouse is his native city. The com- paratively few paintings which have represented him in various Salons were for the most part reproductions of Eastern scenes, in the manner of genre. Egypt, Syria, and Con- stantinople supplied him with subjects. His drawings, however, are more esteemed than his pictures. But. even in those, critics complain of the artist's too minute finish, even in subordinate parts. It is everywhere a ground of China-ink, relieved by fine, white touches. Force never animates the artist's elbow. Detail is pushed to the verge of coldness. With less perfection, M. Bida would be the most perfect of living draughts- men. Of late years he has found the illustration of books a more direct and more -• 1=1 N Q fcl g Q FRENCH SCHOOL. 253 profitable path to fame and other rewards of diligence. He has illustrated, for example, the works of Alfred de Musset, and an edition of the Bible. A drawing of his, entitled the "Wall of Solomon," obtained great popularity among the Israelite community in Paris. It is said to have cost the publisher $1200, and to have afterwards passed into the possession of a wealthy financier, on condition of paying the artist $10,000 more. M. Herrmann-Leon, born at Havre, is a rising artist of the present day. We engrave his "Pause in the Argument" on page 235, — a picture which tells its own story. He is a pupil of MM. Fromentin and Rousseau. Felix Ziem was born at Braune, Cote-d'Or, about 1822, studied painting in Paris, spent three years (1 845-1 848) in traveling in Italy and the East. He first appeared as a landscape painter in the Salon of 1849; an d is well known as the author of numerous views in Venice, Constantinople, Tripoli, and Marseilles. Our illustration, "Venice," engraved by M. L. Gaucherel, represents the Lagoon, Venice, with gondolas plying on its waters. Across the Lagoon we observe the Ducal Palace, the Campanile or Bell Tower, and the three domes of St. Mark. Further off, on the spectator's left, are the domes and towers of St. George. Gustave Courbet, reckoned chief of the French Realist School in our time, is a native of Ornans (Doubs), born in 18 19. He proposed to devote himself to the study of the law, and went to Paris for that purpose at the age of twenty. But his passion for painting was too strong for him, and he resumed the Art studies which he had already begun at Besancon. He took lessons for a short time from Hesse, and worked at the Flemish, Spanish and Venetian pictures in the Louvre. For several years his own paintings produced little impression ; they were not unfrequently refused admit- tance into the Salons. It was not till after ten years of patient effort that Courbet made himself felt. Out of nine works he exhibited in 1850, consisting of portrait and genre, one in particular excited the critics to praise and blame with equal warmth. This was entitled the "Stone-Breakers." Courbet threw himself with characteristic ardor into the Commune civil war which convulsed Paris at the close of the late German occupation. He organized an attack on the famous column in the Place Vendome, composed of cannon taken at Austerlitz, and surmounted by a statue of Napoleon I. Courbet and his associates leveled it with the ground. When order was established, the artist was tried and condemned by a Council of War, but escaped the extreme penalty of the law, partly on account of his eminence as a painter. He died in 1878. Clarles Gleyre, of whose work we give an example in the " Evening Hymn," engraved by M. Lemercier, was born in Switzerland. Originally a field-laborer, he was enabled by an uncle to take instruction in Paris, by which he profited so much that he 2 54 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. became one of the first masters of the French modern school, to whom Delaroche transferred his own pupils. Antoine Emile Plassan was born at Bordeaux, and, in 1852, was awarded a medal for genre painting by the Academic des Beaux Arts. "The Foot-Bath" was exhibited in 1854, and gained a gold medal at the Salon. It is one of this artist's most charming genre compositions, — it is almost a marvel of delicate manipulation and high finish, although the lady, we think, shows some small degree of affectedness in her attitude and action ; this, however, can scarcely be considered a venal offence under the circum- stances in which she is placed. Her fille de c/iambre is as graceful a representation as the mistress. M. Plassan has not departed from the path in which he started as an artist, and at the Exposition Universelle, of 1878. he exhibited two pictures of a genre character, which excited a great deal of admiration. The son of M. Leopold Flameng has already obtained a good reputation for a young artist in France, and he is looked forward to as one of the army of artists who are to sustain France in her position of mistress of the art world. The father of such a promising pupil has painted few pictures ; his early career of an aqua-fortist having gained him a world-wide reputation, his time is very completely taken up with thus translating other men's creations. But he sometimes shows his own ability as a draughtsman as well as an etcher, and an example of this we have given in " Columbus Before the Junta," which will remind our readers that the career of a discoverer has its periods of depression as well as of exultation. W. A. Bouguereau is a French painter, who enjoys a good reputation in the United States. It is not uncommon to meet with examples of his works in private galleries in the seaboard cities. He was a pupil of M. Picot, and, in 1850, was awarded tho grand prize of Rome; he proceeded there to study. His works are all of the genre kind, of which we offer an excellent example in "The Little Marauders," engraved on page 229. M. Bouguereau makes a fine display of his works at the Paris Exposition Universelle, of 1878. of which we noted a "Flora and Zephyr," an exceptionally good composition and with the high finish which characterizes all his works. Jean Louis H\m<>n was born at Plonha, in the North of France, in 1821, and in 1840 entered the studio of Paul Delaroche. A few years later he entered the Royal Manufactory at Sevres, where he executed some remarkable works, one of which, an enameled casket, gained him a medal at the London Exhibition of 1851. In 1853 he exhibited at the Salon, " My Sister Is Not In." for which he was awarded a medal, and the picture was bought by the Emperor. The compositions of M. Hamon are frequently devoted to the delineation of domestic life of the ancient Greeks; but whatever the subjects, they are invariably characterized by delicacy and grace. His picture, which we w p p © <3 FRENCH SCHOOL. 255 engrave, " The Skein Winder," is a fair example of this master's works, which are remarkable for purity of design, harmony of color, and elegance in the figures. M. Mathurin-Moreau is a French sculptor of eminence, who first made his mark at the French International Exhibition of 1855, by a beautiful marble statue, "Summer," which gained him a medal. The " Cornelia" was exhibited at the International Exhibition of 1867, where it was purchased by a bronze founder, who benefited the public by issuing small bronze copies. The story of " Cornelia" — the mother of the Gracchi — is too well known to the readers of Plutarch to be told here. The artist has chosen the moment when a lady of the Campania made a display of her jeweled ornaments in the house of Cornelia, and entreated the latter to exhibit her own ; the Roman matron producing her two surviving sons, says, "These are the only jewels of which I can boast." M. Carrier-Belleuse is another eminent French sculptor, an example of whose work, " Entre deux amours," we have engraved in stipple on steel. The group belongs to the class "Pictorial," and not intended to tell anything in particular; it produces satisfaction by its pleasing execution. Albert Anker was a pupil of M. Gleyre, whose ability as a teacher gained him high commendation from Paul Delaroche. In 1866 M. Anker obtained a medal for works exhibited at the Salon. His pictures of young children are specially esteemed in France, and of these the " Reading Lesson" is a good example ; and the Messrs. Varin have made us an engraving of it with which we are charmed. It is brilliant in effect yet delicate in tone ; the group is excellent in composition, and both figures are won- derfully true to nature. The school of French art is to be congratulated on possessing such a capital worker as M. Emile Metzmacher. He is a pupil of MM. Boulanger and Gleyre, and has dis- tinguished himself by his original conceptions in genre painting. The " Cherries Ripe" contains a touch of playful humor ; the cherry gatherer evidently tempts the lady to take the bunch in her lips: she will not understand his meaning, but holds her robe to catch them. The rich dresses of the ladies are painted with the utmost care and fidelity, and in a manner we are accustomed to see in the works of Terburg and Meissonier. Charles Louis MCller is a distinguished artist of the modern French school. He is a native of Paris and a pupil of Gros and Coignet. In 1838 he gained, at the Salon, a third class medal; in 1846 a second class one; in 1848 a first class one; and in 1859 he was decorated with the ribbon of an officer of the Legion of Honor. Muller has painted a large number of small pictures of rural scenes of Italy and else- where: one of these, "The Fountain," is engraved for our work by M. Cousen. Some > 5 z o K t=l w o CO < C5 w THE BELGIC AND OTHER SCHOOLS. 257 that they should be buried with him. The painting is entirely in gray tone, and we cannot too much compliment M. Devachez, the engraver, for the beautiful rendering he has made of the color. J. Van Eycken was born at Brussels in 18 10. After studying some time under M. Navez, pupil of David and a painter of high reputation, he entered the Academy of Brussels, and in 1835 carried off the first prize in painting. He attained a high repu- tation in religious subjects, or episodes of life treated allegorically; his " Charity," which we engrave, is of this latter class. Van Eycken died in December 1853, under some- what melancholy circumstances. While painting a large composition in the transept of 4 the church in the rue Laute, called " La chapelle," he had the misfortune to fall from the scaffolding. Although not much injured it had a bad effect on his fragile health, occasioned by the poignant grief felt at the premature death of his wife, to whom he was so tenderly attached, that he never ceased to mourn her up to the period of his own decease, which occurred at his residence, place de la Chancellerie, Brussels. William Geefs was born at Antwerp in 1806, and studied in the School of Art in that city. His " Lion in Love," which we engrave, is by Mr. Baker. It is difficult to tell whence he drew his inspiration ; but, whether it is a fable or a creation of his own, it is a most beautiful composition, treated with remarkable power and elegance, and with a well defined expression ; altogether it is a work of high art, the production of a man of genius. E. Verboeckhoven is a Belgian artist whose works are well and favorably known in this country. He was born at Warneton in 1 799, and we may, therefore, now class him as venerable. This artist has been a follower of the style of Paul Potter: his studio is a miniature museum of natural history, it is filled with innumerable sketches and plaster models executed by himself. He has been styled the master of " bucolics." His pictures, especially the smaller ones — and " Passing the Brook" is a small picture — are very carefully finished, the form and anatomical structure of the respective animals are most accurate in drawing, while his compositions often exhibit poetic and dramatic conception. J. Dyckmans, chevalier of the Order of Leopold, holds a prominent position in the Belgian school of painting ; he is a native of Antwerp, and entered the studio of Baron Wappers, who at one time was director of the Academy of Fine Art in that city. The picture, "The Blind Beggar," of which we have an engraving on steel by M. Desvachez, has a curious history. A notorious English railway defaulter, named Redpath, had gathered a fair collection of works of art, when the government seized and auctioned his effects, among which was the " Blind Beggar ;" a lady bought it for nearly five thousand dollars, and at her death she bequeathed it to the National Gallery. The 258 MASTERPIECES OE EUROPEAN ART. picture is painted on wood, in a tone of color exceedingly low, but the whole is worked to an extreme of finish ; the countenance of the girl is very sweet, but void of all the cheerfulness of youth ; it is grave, thoughtful, but not distressed. The combined attitude of the pair is as touching as the circumstances of their case are sad and appalling. "Mr. William Van de Velde. senior, late painter of sea fights to their majesties King Charles II. and King James," as his tombstone in St. James' Church, London, sets forth, was on terms of intimacy with the distinguished Dutch admiral, De Ruyter; and it is related that, on one occasion, the artist being desirous of studying the effect of a cannon fired from a ship, begged his friend to afford him such an opportunity from one then under the command of De Ruyter. It is this scene which E. Le Poittevin has made the subject of his picture, and of which we have a most excellent transcript by Mr. Sharpe. M. Le Poittevin is a Belgian artist of good reputation, who had for a fellow-student the rising Josef Israels. •' All that pass by clap their hands at thee ; they kiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem." It is this which supplied M. J. F. Portaels with the subject of his picture, "The Daughter of Zion," of which we have an engraving by Mr. Greatbach. M. Portaels is a Belgian painter of considerable repute; he gathers his subjects principally from countries of the East in which he has been a frequent traveler. Visitors to the Belgian Department of Fine Art, of the Philadelphia Exhibition, may rememember a " Rebecca" sent by Portaels to that display. A young Greek boy, who may grow up to be a Leonidas, a Miltiades, a Pausanius, or it may be a Pindar or a Thucydides, has been guilty of some misconduct, and the lady calls the delinquent to her side to read him a lecture ; such is the motif of J. Coomans' picture, "The Reproof," of which we have an engraving in these pages. Yet we may suppose the " reproof" is given with all gentleness, the smile on her face almost contradicting her words, while the little fellow looks upwards to his mother as if half ashamed of himself, yet assured of pardon. Coomans was born at Brussels in 1816, and studied under De Keyser and Wappers. He has made Greek and Roman life his studies, and all his works which we have seen are of this character. Kmii.k Wauters is one of the younger masters of the school of Belgian art. He is a pupil of Portaels and has won distinction at several Belgic Exhibitions, as well as at the French Salon. The example of his work which we engrave is "The Insanity of Hugo Van der <;<><-s." The story is told that Van der Goes, who was born in Bruges about 1405, and had studied under Van Eyck, had been crossed in love, and partially losing his reason, he retired to a monastery of the Augustin order, near Brussels, and in lucid intervals decorated its cloisters. In return for his work, the monks, by means 1=1 5fl <3 © Q H V ^ THE BELGIC AND OTHER SCHOOLS. 259 of music, recovered him his reason ; and it is this scene which M. Moniez has so well interpreted from the picture. Her majesty, of England, if she selects the pictures for her gallery at Osborne, is not devoid of humor. The work of the living Belgian artist, C. Tschaggeney, the "Cow Doctor," has humor and pathos. The original title of the picture we believe was " l'Emperique," and certainly, none can doubt, looking at the principal personage in the composition, his empirical character. He is a peripatetic quack, vending medicines to heal all disorders whether of man or beast. The aged couple, standing in front of their cottage, are seeking his advice touching the malady of, perhaps, their only cow, whose unhealthy condition is most forcibly expressed by her drooping head and sickly, half- closed eye ; the faces of her owners are scarcely less pitiable, for it is just possible that destitution is involved in the death of the animal. What a dramatic figure is the doctor! he is undoubtedly master of the case : with a bland smile he assures the old people that under his judicious treatment the patient will recover, a fact about which, perhaps, the dog is incredulous. The whole story is well told, in true Hogarthian style ; and the picture is most carefully painted. Albert Thorwaldsen, the great Danish sculptor, was the son of a carver on wood. He was born in 1 771, and was gratuitously educated at the Copenhagen Academy of Arts. He then went to Rome, and when about to leave that city for his native one, his clay model of "Jason" was seen by a princely patron of art, who immediately ordered it in marble at a price which determined Thorwaldsen to make his home in Rome. "Jason," when completed, was exhibited, and the artist's fortune was virtually made. Among his most celebrated works are the "Triumph of Alexander," "Night," "Day," and "Christ and the Twelve Apostles." The " Basket of Loves," engraved for this book, is one of those poetical compositions in which Thorwaldsen occasionally indulged. Into this picturesque subject the sculptor has thrown all his energies. Thorwaldsen died at the age of seventy-three, " he was mean and money-loving, fond of drink and pet dogs, very licentious and faithless, and basely jealous of rivals in his art." It is said that the mantle of Thorwaldsen fell upon his fellow-countryman and pupil, Professor Jerichau, whose "Leopard Hunter" we offer an engraving of by Mr. Artlett. The action of this sculpture is seen at a glance : the hunter has invaded the lair and carried off a cub, the enraged mother scents the spoiler, and, following, falls upon the despoiler: it is now a struggle for life between the combatants; she aims to seize his throat, whilst he, with keen eye, uplifts his javelin to thrust it down his opponent's throat. The subject is a favorite one everywhere, and is well known by the small copies in clay, which are to be found in all places where ceramic wares are sold. 26o MASTERPIECES OF FAJROPEAN ART. Cri : i i i. whose "Judith with the Head of Holofernes" is engraved for this work, is an Italian artist, born at Florence in 1577. He executed several reputable works for the churches and convents of Florence, and for the Palace of the Medici. The head of Holofernes, in the picture we engrave, is the head of the artist hinwll : the Judith is a j>ortrait of his mistress, and the attendant is that of her mother. Allori lived a vicious life, and died at the comparatively early age of forty-four. The name of Schadow is one most distinguished in the art annals of modern Germany. Rudolph Schadow was born at Rome in 1766, but, in 1788, his family returned to Berlin, where he pursued his studies till 1810, when he went back to Rome, where he remained until his death, in 1822. His three principal works are in the Royal Collection at Berlin: • 'Tying the Sandal." a " Cupidon," and "The Filatrice," the latter of which is engraved for our work. ScHWANTHALBR was born in Munich in 1802, and when he died, in 184S, the, modern German school of sculpture . lost one of its most distinguished artists, and one who had perhaps done more than any other sculptor to ornament his country with fine examples of his art. He was an indefatigable worker; from 1832 to 1844 he executed one hundred and twenty-one statues, including the " Bavaria," of which an engraving graces our pages. The statue is fifty-two feet high. It is said that Schwanthaler's mother was advised to take her son from the Art Academy because he would never be an artist ; but it so happened that one of the equerries of King Maximilian of Bavaria, observing the young artist modeling the forms and attitudes of horses, recommended him to his Majesty, who engaged him to model designs for a dinner service, to be executed in silver, which service was to be ornamented with bassi-re/icz-i, taken from Greek mythology. In this way originated the first work of Schwanthaler, the " Kntrance of the Younger Deities to Olympus." FkANZ • Xavikk Wimikiiai.tkk, portrait painter, was born at Baden in 1806. He studied his art first at Munich and afterwards at Rome, where he lived for some years. In 1834 he settled at Paris, but made frequent journeys into ( iermany. Kngland, Begium, &c He went to London in 1842, was well received at Court, and painted, in 1848, a group of "The Queen, the Prince Consort, and their Children. He was em- ployed to paint many other portraits of the royal family; and his picture, " Florinda." exhibited in 1853, was bought for the Royal Collection. Among the works of Wintcrhalter are portraits of "Louis Philippe and his Queen;" "Napoleon III., the Km; m\(\ the Prince Imperial;" the "Grand Duchess Helena of Russia," and the "l.ady Constance." of which we have an engraving by T. Vernon. He received the Cross of the Legion of Honor in 1839, and was promoted officer in 1857. He died, July 8th. 1873. J COOMANS PINX* J DEMANNEZ. SCULP* THE REPROOF. THE BELGIC AND OTHER SCHOOLS. 261 We have adorned our pages with two examples of the work of the great German sculptor, E. F. A. Reitschel, who died in i86r! They are "Protecting Angels," and " Love the Ruler," both bas-reliefs, in which class of work Herr Reitschel excelled. The "Protecting Angels" is a lovely group of four figures, — a mother and her three children, — one of whom she bears in her arms ; and we know of no better example of the poetry of the sculptor's art than " Love the Ruler." The Hall of the University of Leipsig contains some of M. Reitschel's best works, the " Genius of Truth," and the series of twelve compositions, in bas-relief, representing the " Progress of Human Civilization, and Moral and Mental Culture," which some of our readers no doubt remember. " Psyche," which we engrave after W. Von Hoyer's statue, has long been, and we suppose will continue to be a kind of " stock" subject with young sculptors. Von Hoyer, while studying in Rome, made his first model of this, and afterwards executed it in marble for Queen Victoria, in whose collection the statue is. The figure is elegant and easy in its pose; but the drapery, considering the mission whereon Psyche was sent, is too cumbrous, but it has enabled the sculptor to arrange the folds with much taste. A. Reidel is a native of the town of Herr Wagner's Theatre — Baireuth ; he was born about the beginning of the present century, and entered the school of Munich. In his early years, Reidel attained considerable celebrity by the boldness of his designs and the spirit of his compositions. About forty years ago he went to Rome and altered his style of painting from historical to genre ; to the latter class belongs, " The Beauty of Albano," engraved by Lumb Stocks. He rose into public favor in Rome, where he continued to reside until his death. The " Schiller," by R. Begas, is the outcome of an invitation to sculptors, some few years ago, to submit designs for a monument to be erected in Berlin in honor of .Schiller. The competition was decided in favor of the model submitted by Reinhold Begas, who already enjoyed a good reputation in Germany. This statue of the great dramatist and philosopher of Germany represents him in the prime of life, the lineaments of the face are small and regular, the expression is that of thought, amounting very nearly to severity. Four figures at the angles of the pedestal represent respectively, Lyric Poetry, Dramatic Poetry, History, and Philosophy. Among the numerous works of art which adorn the city of Berlin, this is one of the most imposing. Bingen is the birth-place of P. Foltz, but as an artist he belongs to Munich, in which city he has long been resident, and of whose art school he is a distinguished ornament. Count Raczynski, in his " History of German Art," speaks highly of Foltz as an historical as well as a genre painter, and of the latter kind is " The Jager's Wife," of which we have an engraving. In this picture the artist, no doubt, has given to the peasant of the Tyrol a poetical sentiment, that is ideal rather than actual, for it has 362 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART. been truly said that, " the real life of the Tyrolesian differs widely from the beau-ideal of poetry and romance." I HAtfNEL was a pupil of Schwanthaler's, and assisted that artist in several of his large and notable commissions. In the theatre at Dresden, Hahnel was employed by Herr Semper to do some of the friezes for the exterior and four statues for the interior; the subjects of the latter are "Euripides," "Aristophanes," "Shakespeare," and " Moliere," and these were highly commended. He next executed the " Medicine," which we have engraved; a cast of it stands in the Crystal Palace, London, and the original is in Dresden. The figure is a fine allegorical one; "Medicine" is enthroned and crowned with laurel, in her right hand she holds the cup from which a serpent is feeding — the Greek attribute of health; in the right hand is a scroll on which is written the name of the celebrated Greek physician, Hippocrates. There is remarkable dignity, united with simplicity, in this conception. Andke and Oswald Achenbach for many years have held high positions in the I )usse!dorf School as landscape painters. Andre Achenbach is one of the chief sup- porters of the reputation of this school — in landscape, and his younger brother, Oswald, follows fast in his footsteps. The tendency of the Dusseldorf School is towards naturalism rather than idealism ; their works are carefully studied, and as carefully painted. The " Monastery," by Oswald, of which we have an engraving, affords an example of these remarks ; as a composition it is very skillfully put together, and the scene, altogether, seems a veritable copy from nature. Times are indeed changed since Charles V. picked up the brush (see page 109) that had accidentally dropped from Titian's hand; since Philip used to let himself in, at all hours, with a private key, to the studio of Velasquez. Then, kings, and the noblest personages, and the wealthy holders of church property were the sole patrons of the artist. Since then, even thrones have become visible types of mutability; and the exchange of royal estates for limited civil lists often leaves the sovereign without the power to do what he would for art. The noblest personages of a later day are not always the wealthiest; the splendid endowments of mediaeval churches have been diverted to other less exclusive objects; and thus the artist has to look elsewhere for his encouragement, his means of livelihood, and his fame. The sovereign people is now the great patron of art. National galleries and museums possess its choicest examples ; private persons of easy fortune furnish their houses with pictures and engravings as a matter of course. In humbler homes, chromo-lithographs, copied from celebrated pictures, suggest at least the ideas of the master, when they do not J. DYCKMANS. P1NX? D. DESVACHEZ SCULPT 'HE BLOTB BEGGAM FROM THE PICTURE IN THE NATIONAL G-ALLERY. CONCLUSION. 263 reflect it with power of another sort, as they not unfrequently do. Engravers, etchers and photographers are busy popularizing works which, in another age, could have been known only to a few who either lived in the neighborhood or had undertaken a distant journey, perhaps, in order to visit and admire them. The question naturally arises, what effect is produced by so radical a change on the quality of art, and on the discriminating taste of the people ? It is a very impor- tant one, and not very easy to answer off-hand. Nothing, indeed, can be plainer than that some kinds of art have, in consequence of the change, ceased to be inquired for, and therefore ceased to be supplied. Thus, for example, high religious art has simply disappeared, as utterly as the Dodo or the lost Pleiad. The remark applies to no one country in particular: it is universal. There is no use in concealing the fact, whatever may be its proximate cause. In Italy and Spain, high religious art is dead, quite as much as in France, which never possessed much of it, or in its best form. There are persons who believe in the Diisseldorf and Munich revival of "Christian Art" within the last half-century, just as there are people who enjoy the crudities of recent glass- staining, which, they think, has called back to life the many-colored glories of Bourges or of Chartres Cathedral. As the principal patron of art is now the sovereign people, it follows, from their many-headed character, that portraiture is an engrossing branch of popular art. Here, at least as to quantity, the demand is abundantly supplied. As to quality, that is a different matter. A keen observer of contemporary life remarks : " It is trade, not art ; the aim is to produce money, not a painting. The terrible rule which infects all production, the rule of small profits and quick returns, is the death-blow of art. That is not the way great things are done. It is not the way our fathers did even little things." The judgment is severe ; but, if strictly limited to the domain of art, we think it neither too severe nor yet inconsistent with a firm belief in the general progress of human affairs towards improvement. We might extend our remarks into other departments of Art, as, for example, into landscape and genre. It will suffice, however, to say that nothing appears more directly calculated to raise the character of modern painting, in every department, than the promotion of sound art-education among the masses of the people. To know a good picture from an indifferent one is not a natural gift, nor, like one of the senses, the inheritance of all persons alike. It must be acquired and cultivated by studying good pictures. To this end museums of art-works, our academies and galleries of art, directly point. The same end, also, is powerfully served by the liberality of art-collectors, who permit the public to inspect their treasures of art. The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts is open for several hours daily, Sundays included. This last privilege, we can -"-4 MASTERPIECES OF EUROPE AX ART. <»nally testify, is largely taken advantage of by a grateful public. Education of the public eye and taste will soon re-act on the painters. Appreciation stimulates to higher efforts; intelligent and discriminating criticism exerts a wholesome and corrective influence on the eccentricities of genius. And while tl\e discriminating critic exercises his function of "discerning the glorious from the base," there is no one more ready than he to uncover and worship the moment he recognizes the presence of one of the mighty masters of the pencil, who have received, how or whence no one can tell or imagine, the rare power of representing what they see, and much more than they see. Like poetry or music, in its highest form, art is "a power that comes and goes like a dream;" it is a hint of the eternal beauty that haunts us all through life, and insensibly draws us towards itself. Study and practice no doubt develop the manual dexterity, the penetrating observation necessary to the artist; but the original power of reproducing what is seen or imagined in the attractive forms of pure art is inborn and incom- municable. If a great poet is said to be a precious gift of nature to any nation, no less can be asserted of a great painter. Happy the nation that can appreciate his value when he comes ! Lrr ' 1« Kf.l. »» MM KM C A- •SlttTII* • XMIDA». fill! M.»irHI» ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD PRINTED WITH THE TEXT. ^OfTRAITS PAGE. Angelo, Michael 20 Caravaggio 76 Cellini, Benvenuto 44 David, F 207 Da Vinci, Leonardo 17 De Ribera, Josef 185 Fromentin, E 207 Goya 199 OF ARTISTS. PAGE Hassencleaver, J. P 117 Maratti, Carlo . .• 77 Raphael 20 Tintoretto 60 Tintoretto's Daughter 60 Titian 45 Velasquez 193 Veronese, P 49 VIEWS OF ART CENTRES. Bologna 25 Florence 4 Gallery of the Uffizi 12 Gate of the Baptistry 9 The Tribune of the Uffizi 13 Hermitage, St. Petersburg 215 Mantua 8 Milan 24 Naples 72 Pisa 5 Rome 32 Schwerin Castle 136 Turin 65 Venice 57 The Ducal Palace 64 PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE. Laocoon xii Venus de Medici xiii Angelo, M The Fates .... 28 Balding, Hans The Kiss of Death 89 Becker, Carl Charles V. and Titian 108 Berghem, N. . . .* Milking Time 169 Bitterlich, E The Graces 140 Bonnat, L The Sisters 237 Bouguereau W The Little Marauders 229 Breton, Jules Eve of St. Johns Day 233 Burgkmair, J Burgkmair and his Wife 92 Cabanel, A The Annunciation 225 Cano, Alonso St. John 187 Caravaggio Christ Crowned with Thorns 73 Cellini, B Perseus 41 Cornelius, P The Destruction of Troy 104 Correggio Chamber of St. Paul 52 Head of Christ 53 Leda and the Swan 56 David, F. . ' . * . Death of Socrates 209 Da Vinci, L The Last Supper 21 De la Charlerie, H Cupid and Psyche , 1 De la Roche, P Fame .... * 217 Del Sarto, Andrea 754* Madonna of the Harpies 29 De Lairesse, G Cleopatra's Feast 144 De Moor, K The Mandoline 176 De Ribalta, F St. Mark and St. Luke 181 265 Fortuny. M The Circassian ^^^ "^ Frrminct. M ST. John afe • flB *<9 ..(.(. ENGRAVINGS OX WOOD. Dc Zurbaran. F Adoration of the Magi 191 The Monk tn Prayer 189 Dc»porte*. F. The Printers 215 Dietrich. G W. E The Rat- Catcher 101 Dorr, G Alexander Weeping over Darius 131 I hirer. Albert Samson Killing the Uon 88 Fruerbath. A Iphigtnin at AnHs 137 Fontana, R The Evocation of Sank 81 '•me, J. L. • Pegging Monk at the Door of^ntosqut^W 221 Goltxhti Qtis Evadeit 96 // the Balcony 201 « trctius The State, it is I 1 29 ( luido . . Inrora 69 Fortune 68 Hassencleaver. J. I* The Wine Tasters 116 Herrmann-Leon 4 Pause in the Argument 235 Holbein The Meier Madonna 93 Malcart. Hans Faust ami Marguerite 133 Meissonier, J. 1 The Flute-Player 223 Metro, <; The Gallant 152 Micris. F Teasing the Pet 156 Minis, ("» The Ancient Suitor 157 Montevcrdc Dr. Jenner Inoculating his Son 83 Morale*, I The Circumcision 179 Mailer. C The Last Sufiper 124 Overbcck, F The Entombment 105 Pareja. Juan Christ and St. Mat/hew 197 Pasini, L Fra Filippo 80 I'iloty, C The Dauphin 113 Raphael Deliverance of St. Peter 37 Madonna of the Chair 33 •• The Temptation 36 Regnault, H General Prim 227 Rembrandt The Good Samaritan 149 The Night Watch 153 Romano, G Venus and Vulcan 40 Rnttcnhamcr, J Death of Adonis 97 RuvMl.de. J The Waterfall 165 S.mdrart. J Zeuxis Painting Helen of Croton loo Scheffer, Ary Christus Consolator .' 211 Selinorr. J Death of Sicgfrieii 107 Joseph Before Pharaoh 121 Srttegast, J The Ascension 125 Stammel, I- Selling the Jiooty 120 Steen, Jean The Dancing Dog 161 Stcinle. J I". The Raising of Jarius' Daughter 1 28 Steven, Herr Rubens ami his Master 112 Tcrburj;, (". The Music Issson 160 Thcotoroptili 1 F.I Greco) F.I Greco's Daughter 183 Tintoretto Th' Ma triage at Cana 61 Titian The Crown of Thorns 48 Van Dyke, P The Departure of If agar MS V.in del Veer Minmlight '48 Vandevelde. W The Coming Storm ......' 148 Vander WertT. A Samson and Delilah 17* Van Heem. I) Fruit 148 Van MwvMini Fruit .' 173 Van Ixyde. I. The Dentist '41 Van Oatad Ian Ostade in his Studio 164 quel The Water-Seller of Seville <9S Wagn-i \ Every Man to his Trade M- INDEX. Abale, Niccolo. Achenbach, A. . Achenbach, O. Agesender. Albani, Francesco. Albertinelli, M. . Aldegrever, Heinrich Allegri, Lorenzo. Allimo, Niccolo. Allori, C. . Alma-Tadema, L. Altdorfer, A. Amberger, C. Angelico, Fra. . Angelo, M. . Anker, Albert. . Apelles. . Apollodorus. Aretino, S. Athenodorus. Backhuysen, L. Badile, A. . Bartolomeo, Fra. Bartolozzi. . Barzaghi. Bassano. Becker, Carl. Begas, R. . Beham, Bartle. Beham, H. Sebald Bellange, J. L. Belley, Leon. Bellini, Gentile. Bellini. Giovanni. Bellini, Jacopo. Bendemann, E. . Beni-Hassan. Berghem, Nicholas Berne- Bellecour. Bida, Alexander. Bink, Jacob. . Bisschop. . Bitterlich, E. . Bonheur, F. A. Bonheur, Rosa. Bonnat, L. . Bonsignori, F. Bordone, Paris. Both, Jan. Botticelli. . Bouguereau. W. Brauwcr, Adrian Breton, Jules. Breughels. The. Brion, Gustave. PACiE. ■ 63 134, 262 . 262 xii • 67 22 • 99 57 13 260 • 175 99 • 103 8, 118 9. 23, 5° 255 xiv xiv 6 xii 172 54 22 78 82 61 139 261 99 99 241 250 44 45.99 44 '38 x 172 252- 252 99 175 140 248 247 251 S3 51 172 II 254 161 245 152 248 Brosamer, Hans. Browne, Henriette. Bran, C. Le. Bruvn, Bartolomiius. Cabanel, A. . Calvert, Denis. . Campotosta. . Canaletto. . Cano, Alonzo. Canova, Antonio. Carracci, Agostino. Carracci, Annibale. Carracci, L. . Caracciolo, G Caravaggio. . Caroto, F. . Carrier-Belleuse. Cellini, B. . Christofani, B. Cimabue, G. Cimon. . Claude (of Lorraine). Cleanthes. Cleomenes. Cleophantus. . Cloet, Francis. . Cloet, Jean. . Coello, A. S. Coejlo, Claudio. Coomans, J. Coreggio. Corenzio, Belisario. Cornelius, Peter, Von Corot, J. B. Courbet, Gustave. . Cousin, Jean. Coxcien, Michael. . Cranach, Lucas. Crayer, Caspard De. Credi, L. De. Cristus, Peter. Cuyp, Albert. Datus. . Daubigny, C. F. David, J. L. . De la Croix, F. V. E. De la Roche, P. . Desportes. F. Dibutades. . Dietrich, C. W. E. Dionysius. Dolci, Carlo. Domenichino. Donate Donnauer, Hans. . "3 no, PACE. 99 249 210 92 247 67 82 74 185 75 63 65.73 62 73 71 53 255 42 4 3 xiii 214 xiii xiii xiii 207 206 180 198 258 55 73 114, 122 242 253 206 151 103 159 20 146 170 6 249 220 239 236 218 ix no xiv 69 66 43 107 Dore, G. . Douw, Gerard. Dupre, Jules. Diirer, Albrecht. Dyckmans, J. Engelbrechtsen, C. Eumarus. . Fabriano, Gentile De Feltri, Morto Da. Fiore, Jacobello Del. Fireneze, Andre Da. Flameng, L. . Fleury. J. N. R Foltz, P. Fontana, G Fontana, R. . Fortuny, M. Fouquet, J. Francesca, P. Delia I'rancia. Freminet, M. Frere, C. T. . Frere, P. E. Fromentin, E. Gaddi, Gaddo. Gaddi, Taddeo. Gallait, L. . Geefs, Wm. . Gempt, Te. Gerard, F. . Gericault. T. Gerome, J. L. Ghiberti, L. Ghirlandjo. Giambono. Gigoux, F. J. Giolfino. Giorgione. Giotto. Giotto, Agnoto. Girodet. Gleyre, C. Goltzius, H. Goya. Gozzoli, B. Greco, El. Gretius. Greiitzner, E. Greuze, J. B. Guercino. Gue>in. Guido, Rene. Guidi, T. . Hahnel, E. . Hals, Frans. PAGB. 248 166 25° 94 257 '53 xiii 44 46 43 6 254 251 261 82 82 200 205 7 16 218 251 251 246 3 4 138 257 175 226 226 246 7 14 43 249 54 46 3.43 4 224 253 106 198 10 181 139 140 218 69 226 67 8 262 161 267 Jnjimuno. Sebastiano Del. , I'isano, Nicolo. . Ilassan. A. K. Porrd Pi lygnotn*. . Portaeb, J. F. . Potter, I'aul. Pousain, N. Primaiiccio. . ; Prud'hon. P. j Puccio. Pietro Du. Raphiel. 1 Rrgnauli. Henri. . Reidrl. A. . Raltsebel, E. K. A. indl. . Redid, A. . Ribalta, F. De. Rilx-r... G. . RilxT.l. Joscl Rlncon, Antonio. Roelas, Juan De Las. Romano. Guilio. Ronner. H. . Rota, Silvalor. Roselli. C. . Rosetti. Rotlenhamer. Jacob. Rotlenhamer, Johann. Rubens. P. P. Ruysdale, Jacob. Sacchi. Andrea. Sanchez. J, I)c Castro. Sandrarl. Joachim Von. Santi, Giovanni. Sarin, Andre Del Schadow, R. Schadow. Wilhelm. Scheffcr. Ar\ Schloas. KaillUlll. Schnorr. Julius. Schorccl. Jan. Schwanthaler. SetirijaM J . •'li. I.uca. Snydcrv Pram. S..hn. ' Stammel. Sumino. Gherado. Siren. |an. Steinle 33, 26 race SO 6 no, 133 184 47 xiv 7 194 . XIV 83 99 15.34 XIII 135 • ««>3 16 3«. 40 a ■ »54 xii . xiii »58 • »70 313 4^.63 328 6 30.34 • "43 361 . 361 163 . 306 "34 . 180 73 . 183 178 . 183 4" 175 70.74 n 83 60 107 1-4 171 70 177 107 34 • 3" aoo 133. 137 338 86 «30 1 1 360 134 H "59 "34 "39 6 «67 4 "39 IQ. rAi.«. ao8 "M 163 3 160 Sueur. E. Le Sun tin- i.im datt Maapad below. JUN JLT 4 AUG 14 1963 v*\* ,^ v WW 22 REC'D LD MAY 1 1961 c MAY 2 7*64 "^PM OEC 6 1957 5* J** RECfcivED NOV 22*67*10 AW loan D«rr, IOOm e, , 47(A5702il«)476 U.C.BERKELEY LIBRARIES CDM7fll7b?a 1 TO\ 4 -Pty'0/O UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY •*"('*