:^} XTbe Hrt of the flDetropolftan flDueeum r^ F^ '^ Q S3 aSB tbe Same Hutbot £P art of tbe mctberlan^ S ^ (Balleries ^ JX3 Being a History of the Dutch q?0 ^l^f\ School of Painting Illuminated q^ cK; and Demonstrated by Critical cM CyS Descriptions of the Great fO 5^1« Paintings in the many Galleries ^^ Cyj With 48 Illustrations. Price, ^2.00 net CVJ ^ L. C. PAGE & COMPANY SS >»)3 New England Building, Boston, Mass. JJ^ £2SSSSSSS8feSSSSS£2S GIBBS - CHANNING PORTRAIT OF GEORGE WASHINGTON. By Gilbert Stuart. (See page 287) ije ^rt of tjje^ ;Mttto^olitan^ Mmtnm of *^ Giving a descriptive and critical account of its treasures, which represent the arts and crafts from remote antiquity to the present time. Jt By David C. Preyer, M. A. Author of " The Art of the Netherland Galleries," etc. Illustrated Boston L. C. Page & Company M DCCCCI X ^ ^t) S o \ Copyright, igog By L. C. Page & Company (incorporated) All rights reserve a First Impression, November, 1909 Electrotyped and Printed at THE COLONIAL PRESS CM.Simonds&'Co., Boston, U.S.A. preface A VISIT to a museum with a guide book is not inspiring. Works of art when viewed should con- vey their own message, and leave their own im- pression. And yet, the deeper this impression, the more inspiring this message, the more anxious we will be for some further information than that conveyed by the attached tablet, or the catalogue reference. The aim of this book is to gratify this desire, to enable us to have a better understanding of the works of art exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum, to point out their corelation, and thus increase our appreciation of the treasures we have seen and admired. But this book is also intended for those who have never been able to visit the Museum. Even these may thus attain some fair idea of the aesthetic and instructive value of the countless objects displayed. By reading this book they may become better pre- pared to enjoy more fully and with clearer per- ception all that is to be seen within the walls of the Metropolitan. vii viii pretace On occasion I have freely quoted from the de- scription given by the Museum Bulletin^ of objects in different departments. These descriptions are furnished by the Museum's experts, and in most cases could not well be improved upon. Only in a few instances I have reserved the privilege of holding a differing opinion. Acknowledgment should be made of valuable suggestions made by Mr. W. Stanton Howard, the well-known writer on art-subjects, who kindly consented to read the manuscript. The plan of the book is, I believe, a logical one. This is not a guide book, so it was not necessary to follow the walls — if this were practicable on account of the constant changes of location, necessitated by new accessions and in- creasing space. Since the arrangement in the Museum is ever tending towards systematic dis- play, it will be easy to find every work of art men- tioned here by the aid of the small " Circular of Information," to be had free at the Entrances, in which the location of all the departments is given. These works of art that have been lent to the Museum for a short time have in most instances been passed by, with the exception of a few of unusual interest. D. C. Preyer. New York, October i, igog. Contents CHAPTER I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. Preface The Metropolitan Museum of Art — -» Its Aim and History . The Antiquities . The Plaster-casts and Models Sculpture .... The Drawings The Italian Paintings The Flemish Paintings . The Dutch Paintings The German Paintings The Spanish Paintings The French Paintings The English Paintings . The American Paintings . Metalwork .... Wood Work .... Ceramics .... Glass Gems and Articles de Vertu Textiles — Laces Vari/e Index PAGB vii I II 35 60 75 83 112 134 173 188 202 251 282 307 329 336 355 362 371 392 411 IX Xist of illustrations ♦ r- PAGE GiBBS - Channing Portrait of George Wash- ington (See page 287) .... Frontispiece By Gilbert Stuart Diagram of Museum Buildings, — First Floor 4 Portrait of President John Taylor Johnston. 8 By Bonnat Portrait of President Henry G. Marquand . 8 By Sargent Diagram of Museum Buildings, — Second Floor 10 Athenian Lekythos, Herakles and Pholos . 21 Athenian Oinochoe, The Return of Hephaistos 21 White Attic Lekythos, Perseus and Medusa . 21 Etruscan Bronze Chariot of the 6th Century B. c 23 Bronze Statuette of a Diskos - Thrower . . 26 Statuette of a Greek Athlete, 5TH Century b. c. 26 Poseidon, Bronze Statuette ..... 26 View of the Hall of Casts 35 Model of the Pantheon 35 The Mares of Diomedes . „ , . . 67 By Gutzofi Berglum L'Age d'Airain .0 71 By Rodin Mother 74 By Arthur Lewin-Funcke xi xii Xist Of Ifllustrattons PAGE The Sluggard „ „ . 74 By Lord Frederick Leighton Tabernacle of the Muranese School . . 90 The Nativity 90 By Fiorcnso di Lorenzo Madonna and Child 93 By Giovanni Bellini Portrait of Cosmo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany 102 By Angela Bronzino Portrait of a Young Man 102 By Lorenzo Lotto The Story of the Life of a Saint (?) . . 116 By Henricus Blesius (?) The Holy Family 121 By Rubens Marriage Festival 121 By David Teniers, the Younger Portrait of James Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox 125 By Anton van Dyck The Celebration of the Freedom of the Port of Antwerp, 1863 131 By Paul Jean Clays Portrait of a Man 142 By Frans Hals A Dutch Interior 156 By Pieter de Hooch Winter in Holland 156 By Izaac van Ostade Woman Opening a Casement 157 By Jan Vermeer van Delft The Bashful Suitor 171 By Joseph Israels Spring 171 By Anton Mauve Portrait of a Man 179 By ILans Holbein, the Younger Oxen Going Through the Water .... 187 By Heinrich Ziigel Altar Piece Dedicated to Saint Andrew . . 190 Attributed to Luis Borrassd Portrait of Don Sebastian Martinez . .198 By Francisco Goya Xist ot miustrations xiii PAGE Portrait of a Spanish Lady 198 By Mariano Fortuuy The Bath, Javea 200 By Sorolla y Bastida A Seaport 206 By Claude Lorrain Venus with Sea - nymphs and Amours . . .214 By N. N. Coypel L'Enlevement de Rebecca 214 By F. V. E. Delacroix Day Dreams . . , 219 By Thomas Couture The Sleep of Diana 219 By J. B. C. Corot The Brothers Adriaan and Willem van de Velde 233 By J. L. E. Meissonier The Shulamite 233 By A. Cabanel Among the Lowly 236 By L. A. L'Hermitte Mme. Charpentier and her Children . . . 249 By P. A. Renoir Portraits of the Hon. Henry Fane and his Guardians, Inigo Jones and Charles Blair . 260 By Sir Joshua Reynolds English Landscape 267 By Thomas Gainsborough Midday Meal 267 By George Morland Ariadne in Naxos 277 By G. F. Watts Lady Lilith 277 By D. G. Rossetti Lachrymae 280 By Lord Frederick Leighton The American School 290 By Matthew Pratt Flower Girl 290 By C. C. Ingham Peace and Plenty 297 By George Inness xiv %ist Of miustrations PAGE The GuLi' Stream 303 By Winslow Homer Carmenciia 304 By W. M. Chase Portrait 304 By F. W. Benson Greek Jewelry — Diadem, Rosettes, Necklace . 311 Irish Plate 313 Reproduction of the Eleanor Grille in Westminster Abbey 313 Brass Bowl, inlaid with Gold and Silver, Sy- rian 313 View of the Hall of Armour .... 320 Chairs, Swiss, 17TH Century 332 Bowls, tazze shaped, Chinese, 15TH Century . 338 Bowl of Rakka Ware, Persian, 13TH Century. 344 Enamelled Tiles, from the Palace of Forty Columns Ispahan, Persian i6th Century . 346 Death of Cleopatra, Brussels Tapestry, 17TH Century 374 Velvet, Italian, 15TH Century .... 381 Cotton Fabric, North Germany, 17TH Century 381 The Lace Room 384 Judith and Holofernes, Needlepoint : punte in aria, Venetian, about 1600 .... 384 Flemish Bobbin Lace 388 Lacis or Punto Ricamento, French or Italian, i6th Century 388 Needlepoint, Italian or Spanish, early 17TH Century 388 Bookplates of the Library 401 Portrait of Miss Catherine Lorillard Wolfe , 406 By Cabanel Portrait of Mr. Heber R. Bishop . . . 406 By Bonnat iHetropoUfan ;Mmmm of Jteto iork CHAPTER I THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART — ITS AIM AND HISTORY From the first inception of the founding of the MetropoHtan Museum its aim has been " the educa- tion of the pubhc and the cultivation of a high standard of artistic taste." It was not merely to establish a great collection of art objects, but to encourage and develop the study of the fine arts to the advancement of general knowledge and its application to manufactures and practical life. The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded to be an educational institution — with an inspiring thought, carried through without abate- ment of enthusiasm, not " Art for art's sake," but " Art for humanity's sake." 1 2 Ube Hct of tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum Various opinions have been expressed as to what should be the scope of the purpose of an art mu- seum, and many have denied the possibihty of unit- ing its aesthetic and its didactic mission. Some have even gone so far as to say that its purpose can never be a pedagogic one, that the aim of instruc- tion must remain essentially subordinate to that of aesthetic comprehension. Prof. Maebius, the man- aging director of the Museum of Natural History in Berlin, insists on the division and separate instal- lation of objects for show and those for study; and Prof. Ernst Gross, director of the Freiburg Museum, coincides with him in this fundamental sundering of the aesthetic purpose from the practical side. But a museum need not confine itself to minis- tering to the pride and luxury of spiritually aesthetic and artistically developed minds — a mere play- thing for the few. Belonging to the people, it may, and by rights should be, the best resource for their relaxation from strenuous labour, and also the most efficient educator to sharpen the taste and the ar- tistic sense. Its collections should be arranged, " not with the vagueness belonging to the emotions, but with the definiteness belonging to the under- standing," as Tyndall expressed it. This eclectic method has been pursued by the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum. They have Ube /iDetropolitan /IDuseum of Brt 3 not only brought together beautiful objects and dis- played them harmoniously, but they have endeav- oured to assemble the masterpieces of different countries and times in such relation and sequence as to illustrate the history of art in the broadest sense, to make plain its teaching, and to inspire and direct its national development. Thus there may be found within the walls of the Central Park Museum collections that will give aesthetic enjoyment to some, knowledge to others. In painting and sculpture, in the ceramic arts, the decorative arts, the crafts, and in those peculiar works of exquisite beauty which distinguish the Oriental nations, refinement and culture will find their highest ideals gratified. But the student, the artisan, the teacher and pupil of our schools and colleges may go farther and profit more. Every apprentice will find here the teaching his eye needs. Every skilled mechanic may study the beautiful objects which it must be his ambition to equal. The potter, the joiner, the weaver, the smith, the glass- worker, the hundred artificers, have opportunities afforded to find instruction in the successes and in the failures of their predecessors. And by this means the Museum has become the animating, in- forming and directing source of impulses, the most civilizing and refining influences, that radiate throughout the land; that spread into homes, into 4 XTbe Hrt of tbe /iDetropoUtan /iDuseum workshops, factories and commerce; and will yet in time make it the centre of artistic progress in this country — even as in Europe the influence of museums is felt in its products. The Collections of Art — in its broadest sense it includes the work of the artificer or craftsman — cover all the links of its history from ancient times to the present day. The first gropings of half- skilled hands are found in the department of An- tiquities. The Plaster-Casts trace the further de- velopment of art in Architecture and Sculpture. The entire range of the Glyptic art is shown here — the oldest Assyrian records, the Egyptian monu- ments with their characteristic extreme simplicity of design with great breadth of treatment to the exclusion of minute details, the greater variety of Etruscan Sculpture, and then the apogee of Sculp- ture, Greek art. Its " noble naivete and placid grandeur," as Winckelmann sums up its attributes — its love of symmetry and restraint, its robust- ness, sanity and vitality, its consummation of grace, will ever form the highest ideal of plastic expres- sion. It illustrates noble objects under appropriate forms of beauty. Before, Sculpture had been sim- ply mechanical, and employed exclusively for mon- umental or religious objects — with the Greeks it became a fine art. From this classical art, appropriate to the age of Xlbe /iDetropoUtan Museum ot Hrt 5 lucid and self-possessed ideas, and characteristic of the Greek and Roman period, we pass to the Ro- mantic art of Painting. From the early Renais- sance to the latest plein air productions of the Giverny school the art may be followed in all its manifestations of the poetic, sensuous sense of form and colour of the painter. The offspring of the glyptic art is found in metal work, coins and gems, as the weaver of textiles was inspired by the colour gamut of the painter's pal- ette; while the blending of art and manufactures is further demonstrated in the products of the wood- worker and the carver. Glass and ceramics have furnished from ancient times to the present day an outlet for the artistic conceptions of their cre- ators. There is no vagueness in the display of these col- lections. They do not merely give illustration, but are broadly outlined along synthetic methods, the gaps being constantly filled up. The collections could not at first be developed under any compre- hensive plan — the inevitable consequence of having to rely for their expansion upon gifts. Nor were funds at hand to enlarge by purchase the collections in those directions which gifts did not supply. Up to a fev/ years ago the department of paintings was confined to narrow limits ; and even to-day there is a lamentable paucity of the work of the Italian 6 trbe art ot tbe /iDetropoUtan /iDuseum schools, although modern work is well represented, notably that of the later American artists. The departments of Ceramics, Musical Instru- ments, Textiles and Laces are as complete as may- be desired, while strenuous efforts are being made to present adequately, by original work or reproduc- tions, the art of the workers in metal and wood. A natural consequence of the manner in which in the early years the Museum acquired its exhibits, by gift or bequest which could not be wisely de- clined, there were included objects hardly worthy of permanent display, and even such, the authen- ticity of which could not stand the probe of scholarly research. Yet withal, the Metropolitan Museum became far less the dumping ground of the ignorant selections of wealthy benefactors than has been the case in many other famous institutions. Especially the departments of paintings and antiquities have been open to attack, and frequently hysterical clamour has been heard to turn the museum upside down — as if the first self-styled expert that comes along should have the last word to say in the attri- bution of paintings or the genuineness of antiques. Questions of authenticity are constantly opened and re-opened here and abroad. The Metropolitan Museum does not stand alone in these attacks, which are often levelled at paintings in the Louvre, Berlin, Vienna, London, and everywhere for that Xlbe /iDetropoiitan /iDuseum of Hrt 7 matter. There is not an art gallery in Europe whose lists are impeccable. Revision of every museum catalogue is a periodical necessity. But as the doctors frequently disagree it is rarely safe to follow the specious activity of the crass doctrinaire. As an example we might take the " Portrait of a Lady," in the Lichtenstein Collection at Vienna, as- signed to Verrocchio by Morelli. Others attribute this painting to Sodoma. Dr. Bode argues in favour of Leonardo da Vinci, while still others give it to one of Leonardo's pupils, Boltraffio. Dr. Bre- dius disagrees with Max Rooses, Berenson assails Crowe, and so the merry dance goes on. Like conditions prevail in the department of An- tiquities, where especially the di Cesnola collection has been frequently assailed. Under the present administration we have found, however, that avoid- ing the stagnation of indifference and routine, and utilizing the results of progressive scholarship, gov- erned by common sense, such spurious works as were found are being weeded out and mistakes rec- tified. Careful, systematic work, combined with a large expenditure of money, provided by the munif- icence of its benefactors, is transforming the nu- cleus of " a collection of objects illustrative of the history of art from the earliest beginning to the present time," to a Museum of Art, which shall be adequate to the needs and desires of the public, and 8 ZTbe art ot tbe /iDetiopoUtan /iDuseum a powerful stimulant to the development of Amer- ican taste and culture. The Metropolitan Museum of Art ha^ been a growth, fostered by individual initiative and effort. " It had to be created out of nothing." It had no government foundation, as with the great museums of Europe, often fostered by royal bounty. And when municipal help came to house the collections that were gathered, it was only after the value of the Museum's work had been demonstrated. The first suggestion to establish a museum came from the Hon. John Hay, made at a dinner in Paris; and on the 23d day of November, 1869, a meeting of gentlemen in New York considered the subject of forming a Museum of Art. The Com- mittee appointed prepared the way for the incor- poration, on the 13th of April, 1870, of the Met- ropolitan Museum of Art. John Taylor Johnston, the President, and twenty-one Trustees undertook a work which, in one generation, showed results that are nothing short of marvellous. Some of these Trustees poured out their money, and each in his degree gave unstinted time and study for the ad- vancement of their cherished purpose. The first exhibition-hall was at No. 681 Fifth Avenue, a building which for a time had some notoriety as Allen Dodworth's Dancing Academy. A skylight was let into the ceiling of the large H ^^^^ciiH ^liu^l ■ kJl Hfl ^;-.^-fci.- ^^^^Mffl^^^H 1^1 ^■*^^^jE^SffltiSVH||^^^^^^^^^| ^^^St ^^^^1 F I^H Q < < o a a! a >> So m o H O o H :?; a o 1—4 o ?« < H o I— > H 2; w Q M « c <; H Pi O P4 o Ubc /IDetropolitan /IDuseum ot Hrt 9 dance-hall, which was thus converted into a picture gallery. Here the 175 paintings, chiefly of the Dutch and Flemish schools, were hung, that had been purchased in Europe by Mr. W. T. Blodgett for the Trustees in 1871, together with a loan col- lection of various paintings and works of art. The Legislature, in 1871, authorized the Depart- ment of Parks to raise $500,000 for the erection of a building for the Museum in Central Park. The site was known as the Deer Park, located on the Fifth Avenue side, between 79th and 85th Streets. In the meantime the Museum speedily outgrew its first quarters, and in 1873 the Douglas or Cru- ger Mansion, in West 14th Street, was leased and occupied ; and the interest was extended by the display of a part of the di Cesnola collection of antiquities from Cyprus. The Museum remained in 14th Street until its collections were transferred to the new building in Central Park, which was formally opened by the President of the United States on March 30th, 1880. The Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection of paintings, which had been bequeathed to the Mu- seum, was then first placed on exhibition. In 1888, and in 1894, the building was enlarged, and in 1894 the architect, Richard M. Hunt, de- signed plans for a new building which was to sur- round the first structure on all sides. On December 10 Zlbe Hrt of tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum 22, 1902, the centre portion of the East front of this new building, forming the Fifth Avenue en- trance, was completed. A new North wing with several additional galleries is now being added to the exposition space. The President, John Taylor Johnston, had died in 1893, and Henry Gordon Marquand was the President of the Board of Trustees until his death in 1902, when he was succeeded by F. W. Rhine- lander, at whose death in 1904 J. Pierpont Morgan assumed the Presidency. The Johnston and Mar- quand collections, and the present munificence of Mr. Morgan have greatly added to the Museum's treasures. The income of the Rogers' bequest of almost five million dollars is constantly used to fill up the various gaps. The magnificent generosity of Mr. George A. Hearn in providing a fund of $150,000, the income of which shall be spent in the purchase of paintings by living American art- ists, is affording a long sought opportunity to make the achievements of American painters fully recognized. Q z O o W o 2 < i 5 i a uJ PTOj T" ^ 1 k. **■ > 1 ■" < w W § W i-t Q Z < H H M < u u W C/2 H h- ( tn ^: z « ;d H w u tj ffi w H o H »^ m >^U :i-i o < a a c; P^ O W Z a HH o (:M O z < t-^ 2 w w H <: OJ u a tn ^ O t« J o o a a H 04 > « Q w y, t-l < z Vi < W t— 1 I-) z >< Ube Hntlauities 21 acteristic ornament for the shoulders of vases of this kind are palmetto leaves. An Olpe (wine jug) is more severe in its decora- tion, while an Alabastron (ointment vase) is of a little later period, the middle of the 5th century b. c. In the Corinthian style there are a number of small aryballoi, amphorae, and plates of the 8th and 7th centuries b. c. Most of these are of Athenian manufacture with black-figure decoration on red ground, or the black background showing the fig- ures in the red clay. Although no signed examples of Attic vase painting are found here, there is a cup in the red-figured style in which the influence of the great master Euphonios may be detected. Two youths in kneeling posture are represented, one holding a kylyx, the other a skyphas. A large Oinochoe (wine jug) is also of the red-figured style. Three Amazons are featured, each fully armed. One of these presents a rare example in Greek vase painting, in being drawn full-face, which indicates the later departure from the Egyptian style of pro- file painting. A White Athenian Pyxis, or toilet box, decorated with a scene representing the Judgment of Paris is one of the finest examples of the beginning of the red-figured period, about the middle of the 5th cen- tury B. c. A characteristic example of the Rhyton, or cup terminating in the head of an animal, which 22 zbc Brt ot tbe riDetropolitan /iDuseum could not be set down, its contents to be drained at a draught, is seen in a finely modelled bull's head, decorated with figures around the neck, which forms the bowl. A Skyphas is a pot of graceful lines with red- figured decoration. It is earlier than the large two- handled cup, of 1 200 B.C., with a tall narrow foot and finely curved bowl. It is decorated with bands at the top of the foot and an octopus on the swell- ing of the bowl. Apuleian vases of the 3d century b. c. and Etrus- can vases furnish the transition to a number of Greco-Roman terra cotta masks, which were found at Alexandria in tombs belonging to the Roman period. Of the Greek terra cotta work the figurines or statuettes have been most popular. Small terra cotta figures were used by the Greeks extensively as household gods, as offerings in tombs and tem- ples, and as ornaments. Although these figurines were not made by the great artists, they reflect at all times the spirit of the higher artist, and they bear witness to the universality of the artistic in- stinct of the simple artisans who fashioned them, and of the people who desired their possession. Over thirty years ago a large number of these was found in the cemetery of the ancient town of Tanagra, in Boeotia, whence such little sculptures ETRUSCAN BRONZE CHARIOT OF THE OTH CENTURY B. C. Zbc Hnttquitics 23 are often indiscriminately called " Tanagra fig- urines." Many other sites in Greece, in the islands, and in Asia Minor have furnished examples of this work. It is conceded, however, that those found at Tanagra are artistically superior in conception and execution to those found in other places. While the masters wrought their conceptions of gods and goddesses, the figurines give us the more intimate counterfeits of men, women and children, although young Eros or Cupid was also a favourite subject as coming near to humanity. Without the dignity or grandeur of the Hellenic masterpieces these figurines possess greater charm and loveliness, and skilfully and sympathetically they portray the types of the people from whom they were modelled. A large number of these exquisite statuettes of the 4th and 3d centuries b. c. are displayed. They are arranged in chronological order. The terra cottas of the bronze age, before 800 b. c. are very primi- tive female figures with bird like faces. The Greco- Phoenician period runs from 800-400 B. c, and the Hellenic period from 400-100 b. c. Among the many articles in the Bronze Room, such as tripods, disks, statuettes, sacrificial shovels, oinochse, and so forth, we are first attracted by one of the rarest of museum pieces. This is an Etrus- can Bronze Chariot of the 6th century b. c, which was found in fragments in a tomb on a hillside in 24 Ube Hrt ot tbe /iDetropolttan /IDuseum Umbria. The bronze fragments have been mounted on a modern framework, and the chariot furnishes an important example of ancient bronze repousse work. With the horse's yokes and iron bits it is the only complete specimen of an ancient bronze chariot in any museum. The decorations were plainly borrowed from Greek designs which were common among the Etruscan artists of the period. They do not present, however, the vitality of orig- inal Greek work, but show more the conventionality and heaviness of the copyist. Some Etruscan ob- jects in bronze were found in the same tomb, to- gether with two small Athenian drinking cups (Kylikes). Most interesting of all are the small bronze fig- ures. Some of these, the earliest, carry archaic characteristics — the stiffness of the outlines, and the primitive manner of carving the features. A small figure of a young girl, which must have served as a mirror handle, belongs to the 6th cen- tury B. c. In the later examples, of the 5th century, greater naturalness and freedom obtain, until the modelling of some maidens, no longer with the Ionic chiton, but with the Doric peplos, point to the 4th century b. c, preceding the height of Greek art. Especially to be noted is a bronze statuette of a Diskos-thrower, nine inches in height, showing the xrbe Bnttquities 25 athlete just starting to throw the diskos. A study of this beautiful example of early Greek sculpture proclaims it to be of Attic origin. There is a rem- nant of archaic traits in the modelling of the head, the ears being placed too high, and the hair not even indicated by incised lines. The body on the other hand is perfectly modelled, with the ideal characteristics of the Greek athlete, giving the im- pression of strength and sturdiness. This places the date in the " period of transition," or about the beginning of the 5th century b. c, when Greek sculptors were commencing to free themselves more and more from the earlier restraints. Surviving works of this period are extremely rare. Another statuette of the same period is of a nude youth, the figure being 1 1 ^ inches high. The bronze shows many signs of corrosion, notwith- standing which the characteristic expression of pose and perfect symmetry of form make it a beautiful specimen of the age of transition. It represents a young athlete in the attitude of salutation before a divinity, with the head slightly bent and the fingers of the right hand brought to the lips. Still of this same period is a bronze figurine of an athlete ready to jump. It is scarcely 6 inches high, and in a beautiful state of preservation. Were it not for the clumsy manner of depicting the features and the eyes we would readily place it in the Phei- 26 Ube Brt ot tbc /IDetropolitan /IDuseum dian age, because of the delicate modelling and the perfect study of the human form. A small bronze figure of a female panther, nine inches high, with beautiful blackish green patina, is a wonderful presentation of animal portraiture of the Hellenistic period. The pose is one of catlike playfulness, and in its perfect realism rivals any of Barye's creations. The school of Lysippos, of the 4th century b. c, is represented by a statuette of Poseidon, which has the spirit of vigour and manliness, to which may be opposed a small Hermes of the Imperial Roman period with its clumsier modelling and striving for muscular detail. Statuettes of a nude satyr, of an archaic Apollo, of Poseidon, belong to the later Roman period. Of still later workmanship is the heroic size statue of Trebonianus Gallus, which was dug up at Rome near the Church of San Giovanni in Late- rano. It was found in pieces and badly put to- gether, but on being broken again it was put in perfect order by M. Andre of the Louvre, a noted restorer of antique art. The identity of this statue, which was at first called a statue of Julius Caesar, has been established by comparison with the so-called " Florianus," a coin in the Jakobsen Col- lection at Copenhagen. It is chiefly of interest Ube Bntiquities 27 because few of these Roman iconic statues are in existence. Of greater artistic value is a Roman bronze group dating from the 2d century a. d. representing the statue of Cybele on a car drawn by two lions. It portrays a part of the noisy procession which used to carry the image of the goddess on a car out of the city to be bathed in the Almo. The lions drawing the car are probably borrowed from the usual representations in which the chariot of the goddess is drawn by lions. Of historical interest are two bronze crabs which formerly, with two others now lost, stood in the corners of the base of the Alexandria obelisk. A section among the bronzes is devoted to mir- rors. The mirrors used in the three most important centuries of Greek art, the sixth, fifth and fourth before our era, were of bronze. The flat disk itself was of bronze, highly burnished to give a reflective surface. In the oldest examples this disk was mounted vertically upon a bronze stand in the form of a human figure. Later, about the middle of the 5th century, they were supplanted by hand mirrors, the disk being inserted in handles. Many of these are of Etruscan origin. There is a Greek handle- mirror on the back of which is an engraved design representing Aphrodite fishing, with Eros aiding 28 tlbe Hrt of tbe /iDetropoUtan /iDuseum her. Although of Etruscan design the character of the drawing leaves no doubt that this one is Greek, and probably of the 4th century b. c. Towards the end of the 5th century a third dis- tinctive type appeared, the box-mirror, where a lid was hinged to the reflective disk to protect it from becoming tarnished or scratched. The outside of the cover was decorated with a relief, cast in very thin bronze. The inside of the cover was some- times decorated with an engraved design. Speci- mens of these box-mirrors are found here. The decorations were generally female heads, and the examples shown are typical of the work of the period. Among the smaller articles to be found here are the fibulae and the buckles. These especially at- tract attention because of their likeness to articles in use now-a-days. An antique fibula is nothing more or less than a safety pin. It is constructed on the same principle, that is, a pin with a coiled spring to keep the point pressed against a sheath to insure fastening. With this bronze safety pin the ancient Attic philosopher fastened the loose and flowing folds of his mantle. The way in which this pin was used in the olden days may be seen on some of the antique statues — the Apollo Belvedere, for example, where, at the right shoulder, an orna- mental fibula clasps the mantle. Ube Hntiquities 29 These bronze fibulae vary from two inches to seven inches in length. Some have a guard to pro- tect the point of the pin, others a simple catch of bent wire. The fronts are of all shapes; in some cases the wire is twisted into odd forms, but in most cases the front broadens and swells out, pre- senting a larger surface to admit of ornamentation. The larger ones are hollowed, making a mere shell of bronze, on the outer surface of which are cut wavy lines and zigzag decoration. In the Gold Room there is the front of a gold fibula, which pre- sents a fine design in filigree thread ending at the corners in the foreparts of winged horses. This is of the 4th century b. c. The Room of Marble Antiques displays the stages in which the graphic art of the Greeks rose from its early crudities to perfection. At once attracting our attention is the statue of Eirene, of Pentelic marble, which was discovered in 1903 during excavations for building purposes in the grounds of the Villa Patrizi in Rome. It is of heroic size, the missing head would bring the figure to over seven feet in height. In comparing this statue with the Cast in the Museum of Eirene and the infant Ploutos (the god of wealth), the original of which is in the Glyptotheck of Munich, we will readily recognize the analogy between the two. Both must have been Roman copies, dating 30 Zbc Hrt of tbc /iDetropolitan /iDuscum from the early Empire, of the work of an Athenian sculptor, Kephisodotos (about 400 b. c), whose work was illustrated on an Athenian coin and has been described by Pausanias. It was probably erected to celebrate the end of the Peloponnesian war in the year 404 b. c, being an allegorical repre- sentation of peace bringing prosperity. The Mu- seum example, although more mutilated than the Munich copy, still presents a better proportioned ap- pearance than the cast. As an example of relief sculpture we have a Greek gravestone of Pentelic marble, dating from the 4th century b. c, many of such being found in the National Museum of Athens, near which city this Attic sculpture was dug up. It measures two feet wide and is nearly four feet high. A woman seated, representing the deceased, is clasping the hand of an elderly woman, probably her mother, in token of farewell. Between the two stands a third woman holding a small box. While not of masterly performance there is much in the simple spirit of the conception, the pose and grouping of the figures, and the easy execution of the drapery which indicate the style and influence which the great masters had stamped on the work of even the minor sculptors. The two names inscribed at the top of the tombstone, with a place vacant for a third name, bear out the accepted theory that Ube Bntiqultfes 31 Greek graves were often used in common for dif- ferent members of a family. A little masterpiece is found in the small relief of a young horseman, which is of marvellous per- fection in all the details, both of composition and modelling. Although only one and a half feet high, and one foot wide it presents a complete design of a high spirited horse with a splendidly proportioned rider. The elaboration of the youth's face and fig- ure place it in the best period of Greek art, prob- ably the 3d century b. c, and artistically on a par even with the horsemen of the Parthenon. A small archaic statue of a woman, of which only the feet and small portions of the arms are missing, standing a little over two feet high, was found in the neighbourhood of Laurion. The head seems to be an ancient restoration of somewhat later date than the body, which is truly archaic of the second half of the 6th century b. c, while the head and left arm were apparently supplied in the best Greek period (early part of the 4th century). The statue was doubtless erected as a votive offering in some sanctuary, and represented a young woman bring- ing offerings to a divinity. Another interesting piece is the fragment of the life size statue of a woman, which probably is the product of an Ionic school, wherein the arrange- ment of the drapery shows the early interest which 32 xibe Brt of tbe /iDetropolitan /IDuseum the archaic sculptors took in this accessory, and how successfully they surpassed their Assyrian and Egyptian models. A life size Head of a Youth, the nose of which is partly restored, is found in the style of Polykleitos, the great contemporary of Pheidias. Marble Torsoes of a Youth and of a mature Man of ideal type, both of Attic workman- ship of the latter part of the 5th century b. c, are modelled in vigorous, lifelike manner, the larger muscles being correctly indicated, but with a ten- dency towards broad surfaces rather than detailed elaboration. A tombstone of a youth, on which the deceased is portrayed scraping his body with a strygil to re- move the oil and dust, and the wreath on his head, makes us think of the grave of a Marathon runner ; while a little marble caricature of an old man is presumably the portrait of a philosopher of the Epicurean school. A Pergamene fragment of Parian marble con- sists of the legs and lower part of the torso of a Celtic soldier, as evidenced by the tight fitting trou- sers, metal belt and shoes. It resembles the " Delos Warrior " of the Museum at Athens, a cast of which is in the Metropolitan. The Giustiniani Marbles, given by Mrs. Fred- erick F. Thompson, are not masterpieces but typical of the period when the great masters exercised trbe Hntiquities 33 strong influences upon the lesser men. In the statue of a goddess the most characteristic features are the dignity of pose and the spontaneous freedom of rendering the folds in the garments. It is probably an original Greek work of the 4th century b. c. We note also " Young Dionysos riding on a Pan- ther," statues of Herakles and of Apollo with a lyre, and busts of the Herma of Dionysos, and of Athene. These marbles came from the Giustiniani palace in Rome, having come in possession of this family in the 17th century. They have been much restored, but still preserve the spirit of the original. A Roman Sarcophagus, said to be the finest of its kind in existence, and in excellent state of pres- ervation, shows the work of the 2d or 3d cen- tury A. D. A fair idea of the art of mural decoration as it existed at the beginning of our era is furnished to us by the Boscoreale Frescoes even though they may have undergone extensive restoration. They are said to have been discovered in 1899 by Vin- cenzo de Frisco in a villa near Boscoreale, a village on the southern slope of Mount Vesuvius, not very far from Fompeii, and show the decorations of a Roman villa at the period of the eruption in the first century of our era (79 a. d.). The ciihiculum or bed chamber is set up in practically the same man- ner in which it existed originally. A grated win- 34 Ube Brt ot tbe /iDetropoUtan /IDuseum dow is at the further end, while the wall is covered with paintings, the character of which makes the room look more spacious. On the right of the window a garden scene is painted, in the fore- ground a rocky cave with a marble fountain and vines clambering around the side. Above the cave is the vista of a peristyle, and a large column sepa- rates a view of buildings beyond. There are also paintings from the tablinium or sitting room, and from the triclinium or dining room, some with life sized figures. These decorations indicate the Hel- lenistic influence which was followed in early Impe- rial art, for Italy did not presume to individual con- ception until centuries afterward. A number of Peruvian and Mexican vases and antiquities give ample opportunity for comparison between the art of the ancient East and that of the so-called New World. The study of their relation- ship forms an interesting subject. VIEW or THE HALL OF CASTS. MODEL OF THE PANTHEON, ROME. CHAPTER III THE PLASTER - CASTS AND MODELS The foundation of the Collection of Casts, which has become one of the largest in the world, was laid by Levi Hale Willard, himself deeply inter- ested in architecture, who bequeathed in 1883 a large sum for " the purchase of a collection of models, casts, photographs, and other objects illus- trative of the art and science of architecture." It took ten years to carry out the plans which had been adopted, the result being that now there is a rich assortment of casts of architectural details of all styles and periods, in which is apparent that Sculpture ever was the handmaiden of Architecture. Of great interest are the complete models of archi- tectural masterpieces of four different periods. These are the great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak, the most imposing example of Egyptian temple con- struction; the Parthenon, the crowning glory of the Akropolis ; the Pantheon, the most beautiful type of Roman Architecture; and the marvellous model of the Cathedral of Notre Dame at Paris, the ideal of Gothic Architecture, admirable for its 35 36 Ube Btt of tbe /iDetropoUtan nDuseum delicacy of sculpture and for its architectural de- tail. These models will serve the purpose of indicating the development of architecture in its distinctive types. Egyptian architecture came from India, where possibly the earliest inhabitants were Hima- layan troglodytes, or cave dwellers. When their art was transported to Egypt, it was repeated in the pyramids to simulate the mountain peaks, and in the low, cavernous stone temples of Abou Simbel and Karnak. The Greeks borrowed their architec- ture from Egypt, but their purer art and freer spirit lightened and idealized it. They changed the dark granite to white marble ; they made the roofs loftier and lighter, the columns more slender; and they substituted the volute of a shell and the acan- thus leaf for the lotos capital. The Romans, who invented nothing, a nation of robbers, having rav- ished every country of its wealth and art, took the Greek styles in architecture, as they took the Greek mythology in religion, and made them both more gross and more simple. The Roman builders elimi- nated the oval and epicycloid curves of Greek archi- tecture, and put in their places the arcs of circles, while they reduced the refined sociability of the Greek Olympus to the level of a bagnio. Gothic architecture came at a time when the world after a long period of darkness was awaken- Ubc lplastec*casts ant> /iDo^els 37 ing to new life. By substituting the vertical for the horizontal line of the Greeks it showed the aspiration of new life and the struggle of the spirit of the Northern nations among which it took its rise and found its active development. President Marquand initiated, in 1886, the gath- ering of the collection of Sculptural Casts, to which various benefactors at times contributed, the Cul- lom collection and the John Taylor Johnston Me- morial collection forming no inconsiderable part of the whole. This section gives now a survey in plaster of the entire history of Sculpture, and is, for object of study, the most systematically arranged of all the Museum collections. It starts with Egyptian art, and leads through Oriental art up to Greek and Roman art in all their successive periods. From a few early Christian, and Byzantine, and Saracenic examples we proceed to Gothic art in its French, Italian, German, Flemish, English and Spanish manifestations. Renaissance art is abundantly il- lustrated both in architecture and ornament, and in sculpture. A few casts of modern sculpture con- clude this exhaustive survey. Among the examples of Egyptian art we find those of the pure Egyptian type — sculpture in re- lief of scenes of daily life, and in the round of royal portrait statues. The occupation of Egypt by the '^'5 SO I 38 TLbc Brt Of tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum Persians under Cambyses, in the 6th century b. c, did not seriously affect its art expression, the strong national prejudice against all religious sculpture maintaining itself, until militated by Greek influ- ences, when we find statuettes of Osiris and Isis. While throughout the changes which took place the national peculiarity of style maintained its definite character, we notice from the high finish and more careful execution of the works of the time that the height of Egyptian art is found in the XV Dynasty, during the reign of Rameses — who seems to be the same as the Sesostris of the Greeks — about 1350 B. c. Afterwards the national spirit became broken, and the energies of the people were irre- trievably paralyzed. Although the catalogue of this department — which is a monument of accuracy and research — places the Oriental section, Chaldean, Assyrian and Persian sculpture, next in order, it must not be sup- posed that the art of these people had a later de- velopment than that of Egypt. Indeed the Chal- dean exhibits antedate the Egyptian by a thousand years, and are the earliest known examples of the iconic art. The Assyrian reliefs found in the ruins of the palace of Ashur-nasir-pal, King of Assyria (885-860 B. c), indicate, however, the great im- provement which Egyptian influence exercised over an art which up to that time had never been success- Ube plaster^casts an& /IDo^els 39 ful — more fixed than progressive. The Persian examples are still later, and reveal a step forward in the matter of drapery and an attempt to con- ventionalize movement in the figures. The Greek mind perceived the capability of de- velopment of the art, which became recognized as a most powerful aesthetic influence. In the section devoted to Greek and Roman sculpture we find an unbroken record from the earliest prehistoric exam- ples to the ultimate decay in the 4th century a. d. In the first archaic monuments of the Aeginetan school we find the proportion of the figures short, the waists remarkably contracted, the extremities large and heavy, the legs and feet in profile while the figures front ; the hair is long and formal, fall- ing over the shoulders; the face always laughing. The earliest Doric style is most severe, the male figure is nude and the female draped. In the Ionic style the figures lose more of their rigid attitude, and the richer complication of drapery becomes more apparent. The Attic style presents even ele- gance in drapery, grace of gesture, and delicacy of finish, as seen in the series of draped female statues on the Akropolis of Athens. Owing to remnants of paint on these statues, they have not been cast, and there are unfortunately no examples in the collection. The earliest extant statue of the goddess of Vic- tory, Nike, from the island of Delos (Cast 351), is 40 Ubc art of tbe /iDetropolitan /IDuseum of the early 6th century b. c. One of the Bran- chiday sculptures (Nos. 353-356) is inscribed with the name of Terpsicles, which probably supplies the name of the sculptor — a rare opportunity to make an attribution. The sculptures of the Pediments of the Temple at Aegina (dating about 490 b. c), most of warriors, afford some instructive and in- teresting details of costume. The heads are still of the archaic type. However earnestly engaged, and even when wounded and dying, each warrior has a smiling expression, the mouth being slightly open — as though the occupation of slaying and being slain was of the most pleasing and satisfac- tory nature. The hair is worked with the utmost care, ending on the forehead in small curls and knobs. In the Attic style are various heads, and a terra cotta relief, " The Birth of Erichthonios," truly characteristic. In the transitional period, from about 480 b. c. to 450 B. c, the Greek arts commenced to liberate themselves from archaic shackles. The country it- self was awakening to national individualism after the Persian wars had been successfully concluded, and art shared the impetus. It began to show the way to the golden age in freer spirit. The value of an improved standard of form became recog- nized. Although scarcely yet sufficiently truthful the statue approximated more nearly to beauty and xrbe BMaster^casts an& /iDoDels 4i delicacy. The Greek commenced to recognize sculp- ture as an imitative art, while heretofore it seems to have been considered little other than symbolical. Most of the casts in this section are from Roman copies, the originals being lost. The most interesting exhibit are the groups from the two pediments of the temple of Zeus at Olym- pia. These statues were found in a mutilated con- dition and with many parts missing. The casts show them complete, as restored. The decoration of the metopes of the friezes illustrate the twelve labours of Herakles. Five of these are cast. The Great, or Hellenic, period of Greek art may be considered to run from 450 to 380 b. c. It was the period of Athenian ascendency, the age of Peri- cles. The Parthenon is the monument which pre- serves the genius of Pheidias, for although it is not supposed that he himself executed its sculptures, his influence dominated the passionless majesty, the largeness and grandeur in the masses, and the high- est type of beauty in the forms, which characterize such parts of the pedimental groups, of the metopes, and of the frieze of the cella, which have been pre- served. The chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statue of Athene, which Pheidias himself made for the inte- rior of the Parthenon, is lost, but many copies have been made which suggest the original. The most 42 Ube Hrt of tbe /IDetropolitan /IDuseum popular of the Athene statues is the " Minerva Medici " (cast 567) which may come nearest to the original. Sculptures from other temples in Attica and elsewhere show the elements of excellence by which the Pheidian school carried Greek art to a perfec- tion which made its best products unrivalled. Polykleitos of Argos and Myron of Athens were fellow-pupils with Pheidias of Ageladas, and they contributed most to this condition. Pliny says that Myron was not considered successful in expressing sentiment or passion, and that in his art treatment there was much of the stiffness of the early schools. A Roman copy of his famous Diskobolos does not bear out the ancient critic. The statue is full of action, even to exaggeration. There is a peculiar expression, very true to nature, given in the drag- ging of the left leg, or rather foot, of which the toes are bent, showing their underside. The ancient critics regarded the works of Poly- kleitos with greater favour, Cicero admitting them to be of a higher quality — " indeed, well-nigh per- fect." His work is noted for the great care and perfection of its finish, but the frequent repetition of the same attitude in his statues detracts some- what of high encomium. His " Doryphoros," or Lance-bearer, is so perfect in its proportions that Pliny already referred to it as a rule or standard Ube iplaster^casts ant> /lDot)els 43 of art. A " Head of Kronos," the so-called " Bor- chese Achilles," and a large number of grave monu- ments belong to this period. The school of Praxiteles, Skopas, and Lysippos is distinguished from the Pheidian school in that sculpture addressed itself more directly to the senses by more voluptuous execution. The aim was not so much to elevate and instruct as to please, v^'hereby the art left its higher and noble purpose. There was greater prominence given to exquisite manipulation. Praxiteles was the first to carve the female nude. Skopas excelled in the rendering of passionate emotion. Lysippos was eminent for his greater elegance. He it was of whom it was said : " Others show men as they are, he as they appear to be." There was much attention paid to charac- teristic detail. In this period the first portrait statues are found, while those of the deities have no longer the impersonality and immutability of the Pheidian age, but assume human characteristics. His " Hermes," and the " Aphrodite of Knidos," with its harmonious rhythm of lines and subtle flow of contours, are the most famous examples of Praxiteles — although the Venus is only one of many copies that had been made of his original, which was burned in Constantinople in the 5th cen- tury. The " Satyr," which inspired Hawthorne's Marble Faun, is probably also from, his hand, and 44 Zbc Brt of tbe /Metropolitan /iDuseum it may be a copy of the work concerning which Pausanias tells us the following story. Phryne, a beautiful courtesan, and his favourite model, was desirous to possess a work of Praxiteles, and when she was permitted by the sculptor to make a choice she used a stratagem to discover which sculpture the master himself prized highest. One day she sent a servant in haste to the sculptor to tell him that his workshop was in flames, and Praxiteles rushed out, exclaiming that " all was lost if his Satyr and Cupid were not saved." Phryne chose the Cupid, which is now lost, although an adaptation of this statue, called the " Eros of the Vatican " (cast 704), made a few centuries later, gives an idea what it must have been. The " Apollo Sauroktonos," a youthful Apollo in the act of killing a lizard, is a composition of agreeable lines, great purity of form, and appropri- ate expression, but can hardly have been a faithful copy, since it is scarcely of so full and rich a char- acter as might be expected in a work by Praxiteles. Of the celebrated group " Niobe and her Chil- dren," in the Uffizi of Florence, Niobe and her youngest daughter are shown. This is in the style of Klopas, but probably cast from a poor copy. The " Colossal Female Head " (cast 724) may possibly be a fragment of the original Niobe, since it is markedly superior. tlbe fMastet^casts an^ /IDo&els 45 Lysippos, of Sicyon, worked chiefly if not en- tirely in bronze, and is said by Pliny to have executed as many as six hundred and ten statues. He united all the necessary attention to character- istic details with that generalization which consti- tutes a fine style. The estimate in which he was held by Alexander the Great is voiced by Pliny, who tells us that " Alexander issued an edict that no artist but Apelles should paint him, Pyrgoteles engrave gems of him, or Lysippos make statues in brass (bronze) of him." The " Apoxyomenos," a youth scraping his body with a strygil, is the only work in the collection which is supposed to be originally by Lysippos, although in the section of the Hellenistic period, further on, there is a cast of a small bronze " Her- akles with the Apple of the Hesperides " (cast 840) which many authorities think it not improbable to be an original work of this great master. Sculptures from the Temple of Artemis, at Ephesos, and from the Mausoleum at Halikar- nassos — the magnificent tomb erected by Arte- misia in memory of her husband Mausolus of Caria — belong to this period. The " Venus of Melos," of the Louvre, is placed also in this section, although its unknown author belongs more properly to the later Hellenistic period. 46 Ube Bet ot tbe /iDetropoUtan /iDuseum This Hellenistic period, from the death of Alex- ander the Great (323 b. c.) to the fall of Egypt (30 B. c. ), is the last period of Greek sculpture, and did not preserve the impress of genius, the seal of true and original impulse. Decline became gradually manifest by mannerism instead of style, by imitation, or bad innovation. It was no longer a true Hellenic age. Asia Minor had risen in polit- ical importance over Athens, and the schools of Pergamon, Ephesos, and Rhodes overshadowed the minor Grecian artists. The most noteworthy monument of the school of Pergamon is " The Dying Gaul," formerly called " The Dying Gladiator," which is in the Capitolene Museum of Rome. The " Nike of Samothrake," the " Apollo of the Belvedere," the " Torso of the Belvedere," — a fragment of a statue of Herakles, by Apollonios of Athens (first century b. c), — the " Laokoon Group" of the second century b. c, and the " Borghese Warrior," by Agasias of Ephesos, are the most famous re- mains of the Hellenistic period, and show yet the late continuance of a school of good sculpture. A large number of other casts, however, elucidate the statements made concerning the weakening of artis- tic grasp, although accompanied by consummate skill and fertility of invention. The Roman period of the first four centuries Ube plaster*casts an& /lDo&eIs 47 A. D. declares an absence of ideal beauty. There is no refinement of selection, on the other hand unconcentrated composition, without grandeur of design in mass and breadth. Rome had conquered Greece, still Hellenism im- posed its culture on the conquerors. But not in the vigorous, independent manner as of yore — the transplanted art had the stamp of servitude. Only in that which became distinctly Roman its sculptors excelled, that is in the glorification of Roman conquests, and the realistic portraiture in- tended to flatter the self-esteem of their leaders. The largest and most typical product of the Augustan age is not represented here, possibly owing to the difficulty of casting a complicated group of a straggling character of design. This is the " Toro Farnese," in marble, and now in the Borbonico of Naples. It represents Zethus and Amphion tying Dirce to the horns of a wild bull. The three principal figures are of heroic size, with the rearing and infuriated animal forming the apex of the composition. The forms are of a fine gen- eral type, the heads are treated in the manner of the best schools, and the drapery of Dirce, which covers the figure from the hips downward, is in a good style. Although Winckelman ascribed it to the school of Lysippos, it is more probably a Roman work with Greek imitations, for none of 48 Ube art ot tbe /IDetropolitan /iDuseum the ancient writers mentions this important group, which is the most extensive work in marble known. The talent of the artists of this age is shown in the busts and statues of the Emperors, especially in the statue of the favourite Antinous (cast 984). But after the glories of Greece even these form an insipid aftermath. The most important part of this section is formed by the reproductions of the bronze sculp- tures found in the famous villa at Herculaneum. These bronzes were excellently preserved, because Herculaneum was deeply buried under mud at the first eruption of Vesuvius, the hot lava covering the locaHty at later eruptions. These bronzes are all of the Roman period, except the archaic head of Apollo (No. 1021) and the bust of a youth (No. 1037). Most of the busts are portraits, while the statues are Roman copies of Greek work. Reproductions of a large number of statuettes and other small objects, from the archaic to the Roman periods, are displayed, the most noted being the famous " Portland Vase," in which the figures of the relief are cut in cameo style from a thin coating of white biscuit laid over the dark blue glass of the vase itself. The large Central Hall contains a number of casts of architectural details, such as capitals of pillars, cornices, antefixes, waterspouts, mouldings, Zbc plaster^casts ant> /lDo&els 49 etc. The " Porch of the Maidens," of the Erech- theion from the Akropohs, is of great interest. The model of the Pantheon is also found here, as well as the model of the Arch of Constantine. The Pantheon was first built by the Consul Mar- cus Agrippa, in 27 b. c, and entirely reconstructed by the Emperor Hadrian in 120-124 a. d. The model of the building is as it has been generally accepted by archaeologists, with exception of the sculptures, which are introduced to suggest the gen- eral appearance of the original temple. There are but few remnants of the Art of the Middle Ages. Some carvings of the fifth century, of early Christian art, and of the later developed Byzantine art, and architectural details in the so- called Romanesque section bring us to the birth of the Gothic, rich in its decorative carving and sculp- ture. Cathedrals, churches, palaces and public buildings were adorned, all with a distinct aim, which was the cause of the growth, but also of the ultimate sterility of art — the service of the Church. The earliest sculpture presents a character of extreme rudeness and coarseness. Its applica- tion alone gave it value among the simple and primi- tive Christian flock. It received a sort of super- stitious veneration from an uncultivated population which resented any innovations. An interesting ex- ample of this Mediaeval art is a cast of the famous 50 Zhc Hrt ot tbe /IDetropolitan Museum cross of Muiredach, at Monasterboice, in Ireland, one of the finest examples of this class of Celtic sculpture. The shaft is divided into compartments which contain sculptured figures or animals, and symbolical tracery. It dates probably from about the tenth century a. d. The first artist whose works arrest attention for the real art feeling they exhibit is Niccolo Pisano, whose pulpit in the Siena Cathedral (cast 1810) is the best representation of his varied talents. A sculptor of considerable power was Andrea Or- cagna, who executed various works in Florence in the middle of the fourteenth century. Some of these are still preserved in the small chapel or ora- tory of Or San Michele, and justify the praise that has been accorded to this artist. His style partook of the dry and minute character of the early school, but he was superior to many of his contemporaries in his bolder treatment of drapery (see cast 1802 a.). Not until the 15th century do we find a Renaissance of artistic invention and individual conception. The manner in which Renaissance architecture and ornament developed in the various countries of Europe presents a fascinating study. Each style originated in the various operations of natural conditions, with an evolution of its own, dominated by local or racial conditions. Reason trbc UMastetscasts anb /iDobcls 51 and commonsense, usefulness as well as the decora- tive instinct, were the factors. But when these were neglected — when an arbitrary decree of fashion, or the development of a new fanciful taste became the criterion by which buildings were judged — architecture fell. The casts of the Renaissance Sculpture are as complete as those of the Greeks, although the ar- rangement is not nearly as systematic. A great advantage, however, is found in the grouping of the works of each artist as near together as prac- ticable. Taking an historical survey we must first notice the work of Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), whose gates of the Baptistery at Florence (cast 2306) form one of the most remarkable produc- tions in sculpture, which Michelangelo is said to have declared, that they were " worthy to be the gates of Paradise." It is no wonder that this work should have produced a great impression at the time it was executed, for it seemed to be the sudden opening of an entirely new treatment of sculpture. The subjects are biblical scenes, in re- lief, the conception bordering on mysticism. The arrangement is picturesque, with bold originality of design, appropriate expression in the figures, beauty of forms, and especially the graceful arrangement and flow of the draperies. 52 Ube Hrt of tbe /Metropolitan /iDuseum This work is so exceptional that it may be per- mitted to point out a few of the defects which make it fall short of pure sculpture. The number of small parts and of unimportant details, and the crowding together of figures, trees and shrubs, and animals tend to confuse the composition and dis- turb the attention. It is inclined to the dangerous tendency to show executive power — a not uncom- mon ambition in inexperienced sculptors. Ghi- berti also fell into the error of transcending the limits of sculpture, which has to do only with form, in an endeavour to show perspective by remote, diminishing figures and retiring scenery. It is easy to recognize in this the influence of the orefici or goldsmiths, who demanded such minute details in the embellishment of caskets, cups, etc. To apply this to larger works made Ghiberti fall short of perfection. Vasari gives an entertaining account of the competition among sculptors for the design of these doors in which the youthful Ghiberti was victorious. While in this Central Court attention should be called to the large collection of photographs of architectural and sculptural subjects which are placed in cases on the floor for free examination and study, and from which the visitor may derive much pleasure and profit. The next sculptor who claims our attention is Xlbe iplaster^casts an& /iDoDels 53 Donatello (1386-1466). His work extends from relievo stiacciato, or bassissimo relievo, in which the delicate effect of drawing pure and simple is united with the finely graduated tones of modelling, to the monumental equestrian statue of Gattamelata, the Venetian General, which stands in the Piazza del Santo, Padua (cast 2281). In his statues there appears a degree of exaggeration and mannerism, which may have been caused by his desire to avoid the timid and undecided execution of the earlier artists, and so far it is an indication of original power. This occurs chiefly in the bendings of the wrists, and in the articulations of the bones. His " Judith and Holofernes " is a case in point, al- though this melodramatic tendency may also be seen in his "St. George" (cast 2283) and his "David with the Head of Goliath" (cast 2286). His relief of " Children Dancing," in the Galleria, Florence, is one of his most effective reliefs. Of Brunelleschi (1377-1446), the architect of the Pitti Palace, and Donatello's chum, there is a fair relief (cast 2252). The work of Jacopo della Quercia (1374-1438) should be studied, as he, with Ghiberti and Donatello formed the triumvirate which dominated the art of the first half of the 15th century. The Della Robbias, Luca (1400-1482), and Andrea (1435-1525) are famous for their religious 54 XTbe Hrt ot tbe /IDetropoUtan /iDuseum groups in high relief. They covered the terra cotta throughout with a lustrous glaze, of their own in- vention, parts of the figures being more or less coloured. Many of their compositions are enclosed in a framework of elaborate design, consisting of fruits and flowers, gracefully entwined and bound together by ribbons, which are inscribed with mot- toes or texts. Usually these are coloured black, blue, green and yellow, in a conventional manner, with- out any thought of naturalness. Luca's Organ Gallery (cast 2371) still remains the finest and most characteristic of his achievements, while Andrea's " Annunciation " (cast 2359) has never been treated with greater loveliness or charm. Andrea Verrocchio (1436-1488) is the author of several works preserved at Florence. He is not only distinguished for having been the teacher of Leonardo da Vinci, and of Pietro Perugino, the master of Raphael — for he applied himself to painting in his earlier years — but his sculptures possess great strength, a large style, and a bold use of the human form, though at the sacrifice of feel- ing. His equestrian statue of the Venetian General Colleoni (cast 2398) rivals that of Donatello — horse and rider seem actually alive and in move- ment. His " Boy with a Fish " (cast 2400) is our first introduction to the realistic type of child. The most powerful genius of this period was Ube plaster^casts an^ /TOobels 55 Michelangelo (1475-1564). His broad and simple lines give solidity and force with vigorous inven- tion. The artistic power of this great master ef- fected a total revolution in style, which has stamped his art with a character exclusively its own, and which has been happily and expressively termed " di Michel Agnol' la terribW via." Rude and unpleasing as his figures sometimes n.ay be, they are never petty or ordinary ; and in the essen- tial qualities of sculpture, equilibrium, justness of movement, the exact balance of the masses, Order, he is absolutely classic, the most classic of all modern masters. The " Pieta " (cast 2322) is the only work which he signed, because when completed it was ascribed to Christoforo Solari, a Lombard sculptor. The group abounds with the deepest pathos, and dis- plays the most perfect alliance between art and Christianity. It is the boundary stone of the Quattrocento. Its devotional spirit marks its con- nection with the art of the past, while its anatomical precision and masterly treatment connect it with that of the future. Carved when Michelangelo was twenty-four years old, it signalizes the first stage of his development. The " Moses " (cast 2316) and the "Bound Captives" (casts 2317, 2318) were designed for the tomb of Pope Julius II. The Moses has a grandiose aspect, expressing a 56 JLbc Hrt ot tbe /IDetropolitan /iDuseum majestic calm, and breathing the authority of him who has talked alone with God within the clouds on Sinai. Of the Captives, the sleeping prisoner may be said to fix the master's standard of mas- culine beauty. The " Medici Tombs " (casts 2314, 2315) beggar description. It is idle to apply here the rigid rules of realism. The attitudes are dis- torted and almost impossible, and yet one is over- whelmed with the thought that in the four figures, Night and Day, Evening and Dawn, he is con- fronted with the weight of the unexplained mystery of life. It is even to be questioned whether the apparently unfinished condition was not intentional, even as they are they convey the thought of the violent struggles of humanity, oft unsolved and uncompleted. The statues of Giuliano and of Lorenzo are interpretations of character, partic- ularly of Lorenzo, // Pensieroso — they represent the art of sculpture carried to its highest pitch of grandeur. His contemporary Sansovino (1486-1570) shows already the coming decadence. His " Faun and Bacchus " (cast 2429) is a little weak in style and affected in expression, but still showing a refined feeling for form and great delicacy of execution. Benvenuto Cellini, (1500-1571), the goldsmith and sculptor, indicates still further the trend of art. His " Perseus beheading Medusa " (cast Ube plaster^casts ant> flDo^els 57 2256) is theatrical to a degree. The figure is heroic size, entirely naked, but having on its head the picturesque winged helmet of Hermes, and the falaria, or wings, are attached by sandals to his ankles. In his left hand, stretched out before him, he holds the bleeding head of Medusa, whose body is lying at his feet ; in the other he grasps the peculiarly formed falchion or sword, called by the Greeks harpe. Although the figures are over- charged, the work is bold in conception and has power of execution. Giovanni da Bologna (1529-1608) is the only sculptor of considerable note, who shows the de- cline of sculpture at the end of the 16th cen- tury by its love of display, a desire to astonish by bold and skilful ingenuity, and a preference for the mechanical above the nobler objects of the art. Fertile imagination, uncontrolled, gave a tendency to florid and insincere treatment. Giovanni's statue of Mercury, in the Bargello, Florence, (cast 2422), is conceived in the true spirit of poetry. The action is buoyant and full of energy, and the form light and graceful. It may be added that the mode of indicating that the god is borne by the winds — one foot being supported by expand- ing rays (but very material, and like a bundle of sticks) issuing from the pufifed-out cheeks, or rather mouth, of a zephyr, whose head only is shown — 58 Ube Hrt of the /IDetropolftan /iDuscum is a conceit quite in keeping with the fancy of the age. This bravura of style came to its culmi- nation in Bernini, whose " Apollo and Daphne " goes beyond the limits of true art. But neither this nor other works of the decadence are shown. The man who a century and a half later might have rescued Italian sculpture from the Bernini in- fluence was Antonio Canova (1757-1822). His " Theseus " and his " Daedalus and Icarus " gave promise of a return to classic example, but he appears gradually to have been seduced from his early simplicity by the fascination of highly- wrought execution. The original plaster model of his "Cupid and Psyche" (No. 2438) is pre- served here. Turning from Italian sculpture we should notice the work of Jean Goujon (1510-1572), of France. His style was evidently founded on the mixed principles of the Italian school of the time, but his talent was great enough to stamp him as " the first modern French sculptor." His reHefs of the "Innocents Fountain" (cast 2485 a-d) are su- perbly sculptural — by no means arabesques, like much of Renaissance relief. His " Diana and the Stag," whereof the head of Diana is shown (cast 2284) is fine in line and expression. Another French sculptor whose works illustrate the Franco-Italian style was Germain Pilon (1535- Zbc iplaster^casts anb /iDobels 59 1590). His chameleon-like imitativeness evinces a lack of personal force, although his work is always graceful and decorative (casts 2494-2498). Of the 18th century French sculptors we must single out Houdon (1741-1828). One of the works on which his fame chiefly rests is his unequalled statue of Voltaire, the head of which is reproduced (cast 2506). It shows a masterly combination of strength with style; the physiognomy, the pose are marvellously characteristic. Casts from the works of German sculptors, none of great significance, and a few Flemish examples, conclude this survey of sculpture up to the 19th centur)r. CHAPTER IV SCULPTURE The department of original sculpture virtually begins where the department of casts of sculpture leaves off. It is, however, in embryonic state, the objects not even being gathered together in one hall, but placed here and there in handy corners. With a few exceptions of earlier original work the sculptures of the Museum reveal the temper and life of the present day. Some are vapid, others imitative or declamatory, or again they are filled with the beauty of material or literary suggestive- ness. Modern sculpture may not have the deep historical and deep ethical significance of classic times, much of it still unfolds latent harmonies, and its communications, expressed in familiar physical forms, are simple and direct. The far superiority of the original over the cast is apparent in the few early originals that are shown. None of these is of supreme importance, or rather, is by a supreme master, yet the compari- son insists how in the plaster reproduction the 60 Sculpture 6i change of material has disturbed the subtlety of the author's creation. We find first a bronze bust of Pope Innocent X at top of the staircase, attributed to Alessandro Al- gardi. The bust is a life-size portrait of the Pope, with carlotte on the head, and an embroidered cape around the shoulders, the design of the embroidery embracing the olive branches, dove and fleur-de-lis of the Panfili family of which he was a member. The face is bearded, a kindly thoughtful look rests on the brow and in the eyes, while the mouth is firmly set. It has the appearance of being a good portrait, and must have been made by a man belong- ing to the 17th century of Italian decadence. Nino Pisano belonged to that great family of sculptors, the Pisani, who in the 14th century re- tained, despite the Gothic influences under which they wrought, much of the grace and delicacy of the earlier period. His " Statue of Temperance " is unusually restrained, for Nino was better known for gayer subjects. The Hoentschel Collection contains some original examples of the wood sculpture of the Gothic period in France from the 12th to the 15th century. The severe composition proclaims their use for archi- tectural adornment. They serve as records of the temporal style, without the characteristics that would influence modern aspirations. It is a curious 62 Ube art of tbe /IDetropolitan /IDuseum fact, and worthy to be noticed that when Gothic architecture reached its culminating point in the perfection of the so-called Pointed and Decorated styles, the sculptor, associated with it accessionally, should with respect to beauty of form and technical excellence, have been in a state of quasi barbarism and rudeness. Sculpture at the time was under the dominance of the Church, as may be seen in the majority of statues that bear the realistic impress of consecrated misery. This dominance can scarcely, however, be reconciled to the fanciful com- binations so often met with in the ornaments and accessories of Gothic architecture — the unmeaning, however decorative, crockets and finials; the squeezing of figures of saints and others standing in horizontal and curved sunk mouldings; the em- ployment of the human head and face as brackets for supporting heavy weights; to say nothing of the irreverent use often made of monks and other ecclesiastical characters, mixed up with nondescript monsters to act, with widely opened mouths, as gar- goyles or draining pipes to throw off the water from the roofs of buildings. The use of sculpture for such purposes naturally resulted in arresting devel- opment and pushing back the canons of classic art. Two stone statues of the 15th century, one of St. Catherine, the other of a burgher, are early French. A marble statuette " Sleeping Venus," by Sculpture 63 Canova, is in the style of his Cupid cast ; while the marble bust " The Vestal " by the much overrated Dane Thorwaldsen, is in the late 18th century Academic manner. AMERICAN SCULPTURE An excellent beginning has been made in bringing together a collection of the works of American Sculptors. Most of these, indeed, are small exam- ples suitable for household decoration, and as such may be instructive to American art lovers in their search for plastic works, for they surely excel much that is produced in other lands. A few larger pieces, however, reveal the aspirations of the native artist, and also indicate the national spirit and the personal note far more than has been the case with the American painters — although there are signs of improvement among these. The marble statues by W. W. Story are in pure academic style. There is a punctilious neatness and regulation about them which impresses one with the perfect propriety of the subjects. Even the features are illustrative in a literary sense. " Medea Medi- tating the Murder of her Children " bears the tablet on its brow. " Cleopatra " is a figure filled with the neo-classicism of David — yet all of Story's work lacks the compelling note, and leaves us as cold as the marble of which it is formed. The " Antigone 64 Ube Hrt of tbe /Metropolitan /iDuscum Pouring Libations at the Tomb of Polynics," by- William H. Rinehart, is of the same order. With slightly more of human interest did Hiram Powers infuse his work. His " Fisher Boy " is mediocre, but the nude " California " was wrought with the artist's imagination in complete accord with the old Greek ideal of abstract beauty. The quiver- ing contour, flowerlike and fragrant, is produced by firm modelling. Some work by Thomas Crawford, the sculptor of " Liberty " on the dome of the Capi- tol in Washington, bears the early academic earmarks. Olin L. Warner was one of the first to allow the quality of imagination to control the rigid, academic restraint. His portrait bust of Daniel Cottier is a magnificent example of portraiture in that it con- veys not only the impression of being a likeness but a type, and imbued with life. As profoundly con- vincing as human documents are his plaques of portraits of Indian Chiefs. These are studies of Indian types such as have well-nigh disappeared. The aboriginal traits of determination and noble reserve in these faces are not obliterated by the contaminating traces of the red man's association with so-called civilization. Little is shown of the foremost master of Ameri- can Sculpture, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who con- Sculpture 65 tributed measurably much to resuscitate the slavish dependence upon the Italian Renaissance into a vigorous, national feeling. We find here, however, replicas of three low-reliefs of children, which are among the best and most characteristic of Saint- Gaudens' productions. The one of the children of Jacob H. Schiff, a girl and a boy hand in hand, accompanied by a wolf-hound, is a magnificent pro- duct, not only in technique, but in the note of human feeling that pervades it. Some of the younger men have indicated their proficiency in the larger element of design, the dis- position of the mass, combined with suavity of out- lines, changing planes of flesh, and free play of muscular movement. George Gray Barnard's mar- ble group, " I feel Two Natures Struggling within Me," is dominating by its sheer intensity and creative energy. It is thought visualized, a Titanic dream of struggle that draws us away from every day humdrum life. It is a work of striking original- ity and divergence. Not that the sculptor solves the riddle he pro- pounds. The heroic figures are twin brothers, nor does he indicate which is which. The momentary triumph of one, not a whit more prepossessing than the other, leaves us in doubt whether right is triumphing at the time, and yet — such is the potent 66 Ube Hrt ot tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum spirit of the artist's genius that not a suggestion of modern pessimism despoils the inspiriting contem- plation. Paul Wayland Bartlett's " The Bohemian," a man teaching a bear-cub to dance, has the same rugged- ness of modelling and structural expression. A bronze group, " Primitive Man," is by Edgar Walter, a Californian sculptor. The strongly modelled, muscular figure of a man holds a bear-cub by the scruff of the neck. The poise is well-balanced and natural, with a neo-classic adherence to detail in execution. The Boston squabble about placing the " Bac- chante," by Frederick MacMonnies, in the Court of the Public Library, resulted in its finding a resting place in the Metropolitan Museum. The Boston Trustees were perfectly correct in their view that this statue, expressive of playful paganism, was not a proper ornament for the retired shades of their Court, nor furnishing the symbolism of true inspiration of browsing litterateurs. It is a sculpture which is truly modern in its con- ception. There is not a trace of classic decorum or restraint. The joyful abandon of the vinous priestess, the solid contour, and the suppleness of movement are masterfully shown. Replicas of his two bronze groups, the " Horse-Tamers," that grace the Brooklyn Park Entrance, have a dashing, florid B^^^^^H ^BP| I^^^^^^^^^^^^^^C^ r^^^^^^^^^^^H^^^I SfrntK^^*' %. 1KI^S%. J|^&/:J Wm (FJi ^^ >^k^ J^P ^i A^/.'.. . ^J BP jK;^ . ■(F 1 mkk. 1 Hb 'Iljflll ^^^^K^S^ -^'7 ^H^^B^^^^L ^ flj^^t JH| SffiHSj Sculpture 67 spirit that speak of the love of freedom and wild ac- tion, and thrill us with their superabundant vitality. Equally spirited is the fine group by Gutzon Borglum, " The Mares of Diomedes," in which the fury of the high-strung steeds is manifest. The modelling is excellent, and it is in every way effective. The expression of eager straining of the ferocious man-eaters is admirably set forth. Bor- glum has given movement and instantaneous signifi- cance to this sculpture. A statuette of Ruskin, by the same sculptor, evinces the broad thought with which he approaches his subjects. Nothing could be in more striking contrast — the mad stampede of the tumbling mass of horses, and this quiet dignified repose of the writer and thinker. Apparently sketchy, it has all the comprehensiveness of execution that makes one forget medium and size, and only regard the in- timate revelation of a human character. His brother, Solon Borglum's groups, " Bulls Fighting " and " On the Borders of White Man's Land," are echoes of Western life, which is the inspiration of much in our national sculpture. We find it in E. D. Palmer's " Indian Maiden " and "White Captive"; in E. W. Deming's "The Fight " and " Mutual Surprise " ; in H. A. Mac- Neil's " Sun Vow " and " Primitive Chant," and in the groups by Frederick Remington. These last 68 Ube Btt of tbe /IDetropolitan /IDu5eum may border on the melo-dramatic, they are vital presentments of white man or red man, from sober dignity to sordid squalor. Several American artists are noted for their ani- mal sculpture. Foremost among these are A. P. Proctor, Edward Kemeys, Anna V. Hyatt and F. G. M. Roth. William Rimmer, a noted lecturer and writer on the theory of art, was practically unknown as practitioner, but his " Dying Centaur " has classic proportions, and his " Fighting Lions " are equally successful. Among the most promising of the younger artists is Janet Scudder, whose " Frog Fountain " has natural grace and ingenuity. There are several figurines, by Bessie Potter Vonnoh, that breathe a modern spirit, founded on classic study. A fine example of realistic portraiture is D. C. French's bust of Ralph Waldo Emerson, which the philosopher himself epitomized when saying: " That is the face that I shave." FRENCH SCULPTURE The well-known action of the State of Virginia to procure a portrait statue of George Washington, re- sulted, at the instance of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, in the visit of Jean Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) to Mount Vernon in 1785. From casts then taken of Washington's face, and Sculpture 69 measurements of his figure, Houdon made the statue which is now in the Rotunda of the Capitol at Richmond, and is regarded as the best repre- sentation of the face and figure of Washington. A repHca of this statue is found in the Museum, together with one of the several busts which Houdon made from the original masks. A marble bust of Franklin by Houdon is in the same grand style in which he made his bust of Moliere — the personal interest accentuates every detail of physiognomy. Antoine Louis Barye (1796-1875) has a place in the history of art more nearly unique, perhaps, than that of any of the great artists. He has been called the Michelangelo of the animal kingdom. He has given us animals, motionless and at rest, or in move- ment and tense attitude. The forms offer an har- monious union of anatomical truth and artistic truth — his prime tenet being to produce idealized natu- ralism. Barye's choice of bronze as his medium was intentional, since the tenacity of bronze allows of freer outline with but small supports, and the out- line, the drawing was the chief object of his style. A cast of one of Barye's masterpieces, " Lion Crushing a Serpent," was presented to the Museum by the French Government. The original stands in the Tuileries Gardens. It is a comparatively early 70 Ubc art of tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum work, being first exhibited at the Salon of 1833. The details of the group are not so broadly handled as in Barye's later work, and the composition is somewhat confused, but it is full of energy and realism. We do not see here the circus lion with his bowling-ball, but a snarling, bristling, ferocious beast of prey, pinning under his claws the writhing reptile. The bronze " Centhaur and the Lapithae " is a group imbued with the Greek sentiment and character, while it has all the life and warmth of modern work. In the " Crocodile and Antelope " one almost smells the menagerie, its vivid vitality compelling attention. As realistic and as powerful a group is the " Tiger Devouring a Gazelle." Properly belonging to the examples of modern French sculpture are some casts of the work of Paul Dubois (1829-1905). Dubois was a person- ality of very positive idiosyncrasy, and may be regarded to have been the strongest of the academic group of French sculptors. His statue of a " Florentine Singer " is a conventional conception, faultlessly executed. He was a follower of the Renaissance spirit of perfect workmanship of detail, to which idealism was subjected. Hence his portrait busts lack the subjective spirit, although objectively they are flawless. A marble statue " Ariadne," by Aime-Millet, is in the same perfect academic style, over-careful in l'age d'airin. By Rodin. Sculpture 71 execution, and regarded as complete by the Phil- istine. The latest modern French effort is seen in two statuettes by Leo Laporte Blairsy, " Laitiere de Bruges," and " Les Rameaux." Fortunately we find here the two greatest men in the new movement in Sculpture represented by original work — Rodin and Dallou. Rodin's revolt against the accepted convention of sculpture may be likened to the romanticist revolt of Gericault and Delacroix against David and Ingres — the revolt of nature against classified canons. The first pass in the duel between Rodin and the aesthetic tastes of literary drapers and haberdashers was made when his " L' Age d'Airain " was exhib- ited at the Salon of 1877. The character of the mod- elling of this statue was so unusual, and its general effect so lifelike that some members of the jury suspected that it was not a genuine piece of sculp- ture, but a reproduction from moulds pressed on the living model, and, therefore, not entitled to admis- sion. The possibility of greater genius and a more consummate artist arising outside of their own little coterie, never entered the head of these sapient jury- men. The statue was well-nigh refused admission, and only the insistence of Adrian Gaudez and Ed- mund Turquet prevented this. A replica of this " Bronze Age " — which the French government 72 Ube Hrt ot tbe /iDetropolitan Museum bought and placed in the Luxembourg — has now an honoured place here at the foot of the grand stairway. One of Rodin's latest works, a marble, " The Hand of God," is a huge hand modelled with all the science of an anatomist, physiologist, and necromancer combined, and all the art the sculptor can show in fashioning the whole body. In the palm is a miniature Adam and Eve revolving from the clay that serves to make them. The head of his much praised and much reviled " John the Baptist " is also shown in bronze. It is difficult to explain clearly and concisely the oft vague gropings of an artist's mind. It may, therefore, only be suggested that the reason Rodin often leaves so much of the unfinished block, and does not give the outline free is, as he himself has said, " that sculpture is the art of the hole and the lump, not of clear, well-smoothed figures. Finish kills vitality." Rodin is a profound student of light and shade, and by deliberate amplification of the surfaces of his statues, avoiding dryness and harsh- ness of outline, he secures a radiancy of luminosity. He handles values in clay, as a painter does his tones. His woi^k reminds one most of Rembrandt's chiaroscuro, which creates the illusion of reality. The most typical example of this is his own favour- ite work, " The Thinker," which is shown here in Sculpture 73 plaster cast. Although the pose is distorted and un- natural, it represents with psychological exactness the emotion of being oppressed and almost over- mastered by the workings of the brain. Whatever canting terms blind prejudice hurls at the man who broke with convention, he will never be called insig- nificant or mediocre. He is a master among men. The only sculptor who comes near to Rodin in eminence is Jules Dalou. His aversion to conven- tion is scarcely less uncompromising. There is, however, less of a note of melancholy in his realism, so often found in Rodin. His vivacity excludes the pathetic. He cares for the essence of life, less for its phenomena. His " Maternal Love," and the statuettes " Bather Crouching " and " Bather Sit- ting " show how full of colour, how exuberant in nuances his work may be. It is to be regretted that, having less of the defiant resistancy of Rodin, his decorative instinct is of late drawing him some- what into the slur of the modern art movement that is so much like the Renaissance when the Venetians had become supreme. ENGLISH SCULPTURE The English bronze statuettes, in the gallery above the Central Court, all represent the human figure, and express delicacy and charm, thoroughly imbued with French taste — but not the massive 74 Ube Hrt of tbe % •^.^. s;fl ^ ^^^H ^fe MARRIAGE FESTIVAL. By David Teniers, the Younger. Zbc fflemisb paintings 121 often transgressing to grandiloquence; and in his Louvre series of Marie de Medici's tableaux peril- ously near coming to bombast. But even there it is saved by so many excellences that the trans- gression of good taste is forgotten in the lyric intensity of his style, its sonorous and progressive rhythm; in his prismatic light and colour; in the passions, the heroic attitudes of bodies, the multi- farious expressions of countenance. Add to all this an authoritative draughtsmanship, the relief of his modelling, the spirit of power — and we have but lightly touched upon the vastness and force of the talents of Rubens. A painting which is in every way representative of the Flemish master is " The Holy Family," a canvas which for many years was at Leigh Court, England, in the Miles family, a slightly changed replica of which is to be found at Windsor Castle. It is No. 325 of the list of the works of Rubens made by Max Rooses. There is no idealism about these people. It is a group of Flemish characters, the " Virgin " being manifestly Helena Fourment in her morning robes, and " St. Francis d' Assisi," a monk in the brown habit of the Franciscan order such as walked the Antwerp streets. It is a very matter-of-fact gathering. But we never look for exalted religious feeling in Rubens' work, instead we find breadth of treatment, forms full of life 122 XLhc Hrt ot tbe /IDetropoUtan /IDuseum and vigour, a luxuriant contrast of colour, dra- matic action of the persons engaged, and yet im- personal, calm serenity — in all this we recognize Rubens in all his glory. Another painting, " Return of the Holy Family from Egypt," has a provenance attached reaching back to the early part of the 18th century, refer- ring to a painting by Rubens with that title. The trouble with a provenance, the documentary evi- dence of its history, is, however, twofold — it may refer to an original painting, the question always being open whether the painting at issue is the one referred to ; or the provenance may be manu- factured altogether. That the provenance does not always belong to the painting with which it is delivered may be surmised when we remember that in numberless houses in England, France and Italy original paintings have been taken from their frames and sold, and copies substituted — and the provenance stays with the copy. The last and only resort is the painting itself, with or without prov- enance. In the case of the " Return from Egypt " in the Museum, the painting was greatly damaged when being transferred from wood to canvas, and its restorations have further obliterated many char- acteristic details. It may be, therefore, the original mentioned in various catalogues, or it may be a copy of Rubens' work. Other examples, " Susan- Ubc jflemisb paintiuGS i23 nah and the Elders," " Cambyses' Punishment of an Unjust Judge," and " Pyramus and Thisbe " are frankly acknowledged school copies from his atelier. Frans Snyders (1579-1657) became one of the intimate friends of Rubens, after Frans had studied with Pieter Breughel, the Younger, and with Hen- drik van Balen. At first he was a still-life painter, led thereto by the dead game and fish, fruit and vegetables, which he saw in the eatinghouse, which was kept by his parents. After a visit to Italy he enlarged the scope of his art, and introduced in his pictures the human figure and living animals. He became celebrated for powerful scenes of the chase and the terrific struggles between wild ani- mals, or between eager hounds and savage beasts. The example in the Museum shows him in his second method; " Lions chasing Deer," are vividly presented by his vigorous brush. David Teniers, the Elder, (1582-1649), spent some years in Rome, where he was influenced by Adam Elsheimer, the painter of finicky figures in highly finished landscapes. After his return home he chose his subjects from peasant life, in which he did not reach the height of his more talented son. " A Dutch Kitchen " is a familiar subject from his brush. Caspard de Crayer (1584-1669), the contem- 124 Ube Hrt of tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum porary of Rubens, who still maintained his individ- uality, generally painted biblical subjects, although the example here presents " Alexander and Diog- enes," in their famous tub-interview. De Grayer always showed ready draughtsmanship, glowing and still truthful colour, and dramatic action. Cornelis de Vos (1585-1651) does not present the occasional grossness of the figures of Rubens, and in his portrait work comes closer to the greater refinement of van Dyck's later work. His " Por- trait of a Young Lady," and the " Mother and Children," have many of the characteristics of the portrait work of his contemporaries in the North Netherlands, among which that of satisfied com- placency is readily distinguished. Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678) reminds one in much of Rubens, but reveals himself as a coarser, simpler, and less sophisticated talent. A " Sketch from Sacred History," and " The Visit of St. John to the Infant Jesus," carry fully his characteristics, notably a deep and richly glowing colour scheme. " The Philosophers," two men standing behind a large globe, as if in argument, is also attributed to him. The pupil, who at least as a portrait painter disputed the palm with his master Rubens, was Anton van Dyck (1599-1641). It is fortunate that the Museum is in possession of a work which PORTRAIT OF JAMES STUART, DUKE OF RICHMOND AND LENOX. By Anton van Dyck. TTbc Jflemisb ipiafntinas 125 was painted by van Dyck when still entirely under the sway of his master. This is an allegorical figure of " Neptune," in which the god is seen rising from the waves beneath an overhanging cliff. It must have been produced during the artist's visit to Italy, right after leaving the Rubens studio, when he fell under the spell of Titian's work. The torso of Neptune, classic in its proportions, bears still the heavy, full-blooded, rounded outline which he must have frequently copied in his apprentice years. But the mark which stamps the artist of emi- nence and genius soon asserted itself. Only retain- ing the technical facility which no better school could have taught him, van Dyck soon obtained his individual stamp by his constant quest for elegance and distinction. And again the Museum is for- tunate in possessing what may be considered the highest perfection of van Dyck's art in this respect. This is the " Portrait of James Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lenox." It is the supreme expres- sion of grace and elegance, refinement and breeding, charm and delicacy. It was painted in the height of his power, and of this portrait, and of some of those he painted of Charles I, and of his children, it may be truly said that they must be classed among the most finished works ever produced by art. In his " Portrait of Baron Arnold de Roy van 126 Ube Hrt of tbe /iDctropolitan /IDuseum Ztiiderwyn " we find still traces of riiggedness, less of the suspicion of effeminacy which flavours his latest works; and I would, therefore, place its pro- duction in the artist's transition period, after his first stay in England and before he left for his seven years' sojourn there, which was cut short by his early death at the age of forty-two. The only quality lacking in the summing up of van Dyck's capacity is the one which places him one step below those who shine in the first rank in the Pantheon of Art. He lacked the creative genius, invention, dramatic instinct. We have seen it in the " Neptune," we may see it in all the works he wrought before he came to England as a por- trait painter — with all their brilliancy of colour and force of drawing the most famous paintings of this period are only timid copies of what Rubens might have done. It may have been an insight into this lack of originality which led Rubens to advise him so strongly to devote himself to por- traiture. And one of the occasional lapses of crit- ical judgment we discover in Sir Joshua Reynolds' Discourses on Art is where he regrets that van Dyck did not devote himself to history painting, thinking that he might have excelled in that de- partment. But history painting requires inventive- ness in composition, in which van Dyck was de- ficient, and his best work was done from the living Ube dflemisb paintings 127 model, to which he merely added the embellishing graces of his own courtly deportment. A " Portrait of a Man," by Jacob van Oost (1600-1671), indicates the ready influence van Dyck's manner exerted on contemporary por- traitists. The most characteristic Flemish painter, and in his subjects nearest to the common people, was David Teniers, the Younger (1610-1690), with whom the great Flemish traditions of the 17th century close. A pupil of his father, he was more influenced by Rubens, to whom he owes his effects of colour, the transparency of his tones, the fineness of his touch. His pleasing manners, together with his talents, enabled him from the first to associate with men of note and position, and he occupied a much higher social standing than was customary with painters of the genre he most favoured. His subjects were fairs, markets, pothouse merry- makings, guardrooms, and also landscapes. The influence of his uncle " Hellish " Breughel (his first wife was the daughter of " Velvet " Breughel) led him to attempt many a scene from the realms of fancy, such as witches and incantations, with the grotesque and droll figures, of which the " Temptation of St. Anthony," in the Museum, is a worthy example. He is seen at his best in " A Marriage Festival," the most characteristic of his 128 Ube Hrt ot tbe Metropolitan /Museum compositions. The dancing peasants, the feasting merry-makers at table, and the little touch of reality in the brawling men, set in a sweeping landscape that in its amplitude gives a sense of air and free- dom to the crowd of people depicted — it all shows the artist's dexterity in his grouping of colours, brilliant, distinguished, harmonious, with a tech- nical freshness and straightforwardness in means and intent. Then he is the most perfect repre- sentative of the realistic school, and his pictures have the impartiality of a mirror held up to Flemish life, full of the buoyancy of animated, healthful existence. He was less successful when he attempted reli- gious or historical subjects ; his lack of finer senti- ment, of exalted imagination, of spiritual leaning, make these ventures but mediocre productions, sometimes even bordering on the absurd. Teniers was sent to England by the Governor of the Spanish Netherlands to buy at the dispersion of the collection of Charles I, all the Italian pic- tures he could get hold of. He set himself also to make copies of the originals, in which he was eminently successful, only a trained eye being able to distinguish the one from the other. Two of these copies, from landscapes by II Bassano, are in the Museum. An animal painter, fully the equal of Frans Ubc jflemisb paintings 129 Snyders, was Jan Fyt (1611-1661), of whom we have three canvases with dead game, partridges, woodcock, and a hare. He exhibits a fine obser- vation of nature in a pleasing colour scheme, executed with the utmost delicacy. Two pupils of Teniers, David Ryckart (1612- 1661) and Gilhs van Tilborgh (1625-1678), painted genre subjects in their master's manner, but inferior in execution. Both are represented here. Adam Frans van der Meulen (1632-1690) be- came court-painter to Louis XIV, on account of his skill in painting battle scenes. He accompanied Louis on his campaign in Flanders and sketched numerous scenes of battles, sieges and encamp- ments. From these he made a large number of pictures, most of which are in the Louvre and at Versailles. A " Combat of Cavalry " gives an excellent idea of his faithful rendering, treated with much sense of atmosphere and of the picturesque. The landscapes by Cornells Huysmans (1648- 1727) are rich in colour and well executed in the prevailing Italian style. A half dozen examples of the work of Jan Horemans (1714-1790) bear witness to the decay in which the Flemish school had fallen. Conventional mannerisms, mechanical picture-making — these are the characteristics of the art of the period. 130 Ube Hrt ot tbe /IDetropolitan /IDuseum The Flemish school had completely lost its char- acter, and especially in the following century it became but a faint echo of French painting. But it is not necessary, as has been done in the Cat- alogue, to draw a distinction, and call the men of the 19th century the Belgian school because the country's name was changed. This nomenclature they themselves, proud of their Flemish forbears, would never have relished. Although the art centre in Belgium fluctuated between Antwerp, the capital of Flanders, and Brussels, the capital of Brabant, the art expression remained the same; and when it rose above mediocrity, as it did in Hague, Clays, Willems, and Stevens, it was because of a return, in a measure, to Flemish traditions. The academic schooling of the end of the 18th century is shown in works by Leonard de France (1735-1805), by Balthazar Ommeganck (1755- 1826), and by Henri van Assche (1774-1841). Eugene Verboeckhoven (1799-1881) was the first Flemish or Belgian painter who had consid- erable vogue in the time that the Dusseldorf School, with its punctilious execution and finicky finesse, was the most popular. His favourite subjects were those shown in the Museum : a " Stable Interior, with Sheep and Poultry," and landscapes with cattle. While the Romanticist revolt against the aca- Ube f lemisb paintinos 131 demic spirit of David and Ingres infused new- blood in the French art world, the Antwerp Academy followed the old academic traditions, adding thereto the anecdotal phase which was com- ing to the fore. Baron Gustaaf Wappers (1803- 1874), director of the Antwerp Academy, shows this in his large canvas, " Confidences," where two girls, his daughters, breathe the sentimental spirit which so often makes this class of pictures mawkish. His successor at the Antwerp Academy, Baron Leys (1815-1869), almost reaches the exquisite finish of a Holbein or a Gerard Dou in his genre subjects. His examples in the Vanderbilt collec- tion are of the best work he has produced. The history and genre painter Louis Hague (1806-1885) possessed greater virility — note his guardroom scene — but he was surpassed by that other historical painter Louis Gallait (1810-1887), whose " Death of Counts Egmont and Hoorne " is world-famous. Three paintings by Gallait are in the Vanderbilt collection. Paul-Jean Clays (1819-1900) was justly cele- brated for his marines, of which a notable example is found here. The " Celebration of the Freedom of the Port of Antwerp, 1863 " is a large canvas, full of animated shipping, colourful, and with due transparency of water. Jean Robie (1821-1902), the eminent flower 132 Ube Hrt ot tbe /IDetropolitan /IDuseum painter, has an example here in which we must admire the beauty of colour arrangement, but miss the airy flimsiness, the lightsome grace of the flowers of the field, " the children of summer." It is a matter of taste, forsooth. Many used to like the stiffly, solidly constructed florist's bouquets with stamped-paper borders of a generation ago. Such will find Robie's flower bunches more beau- tiful than nature, especially when they spy the pearly dewdrop fascinatingly suspended from a waxed-paper leaf. They find their tastes gratified to-day in the work of Paul de Longpre and many lady floral painters. Others prefer the more modest counterfeits of nature such as Monet or Robert Reid have given us. Florent Willems (1823-1905) studied especially the Old Masters, after his talents had shown them- selves during his apprenticeship with a picture re- storer. When but seventeen years old he attracted considerable attention, and a picture of his was hung in the Salon when the artist had barely turned twenty-one. Such precocity, however, did not end in a fruitless after-life, for the name of " the Bel- gian Meissonier," which has been given him, attests the rapid progress which Willems made in his art. His minuteness of detail is combined with ease of handling the colours, which are subdued and rich ; the textures are given with wonderful fidelity ; Ubc iflemisb paintings 133 and his deftness in the handHng of the shadows denotes the master in chiaroscuro. The values of tones in the gowns of his figures should be espe- cially noted for their truth. Two excellent exam- ples may be studied here : " Preparing for the Promenade," and " The Dance, * La Pavane,' " in which portraits occur of the artist himself, Gerome and other friends. Alfred Stevens (1828-1906), after his studies in Paris were accomplished, acquired great fame with his graceful representations of elegant modern interiors enlivened with women's and children's figures. He became a master painter of beautiful women. There are four characteristic examples in the Museum. His elder brother Edouard (1822- 1892) was less famous. He generally chose sport- ing subjects. CHAPTER VIII THE DUTCH PAINTINGS Of the Dutch paintings there is a larger propor- tion of such as are worthy to be ranked with European Museum pictures. Some of the exam- ples by Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Vermeer van Delft, Albert Cuyp, and Maes are equal to the best work of these artists to be found anywhere. We are at once impressed with the clear line of demarkation between the Flemish and the Dutch schools. The latter became great through its na- tional feeling asserting itself throughout the 17th century; the school of Flanders, with the excep- tion of Rubens, van Dyck and Teniers, never reached beyond the first glory of the Ten Eycks and a few other Primitives. And if during the 18th century the world-wide reaction also affected Holland, its art reached in the 19th century again a height such as added new lustre to its bright records. The Museum has been in possession of an ex- ceedingly valuable painting, which was among the first purchase of old pictures made in 1871. Not 134 XTbe Dutcb paintings 135 being recognized it has lain in storage for thirty- five years, not even being mentioned in the cat- alogue. At last, in 1906, it was duly honoured, and is tableted as a " Crucifixion " by Cornells Engel- brechtsz. (1468-1533), the founder of the Leyden school and the teacher of the more renowned Lukas van Leyden. There are only two triptychs of Engelbrechtsz. preserved in the Lakenhal in Ley- den, and a " Crucifixion," in the Ryksmuseum at Amsterdam, that bears some resemblance to the one before us. It is a curious early painting with its stiff and angular figures. Two paintings by his pupil Lukas van Leyden (1494-1533) are of surpassing interest. "Christ presented to the People " is the original of the pic- ture that is catalogued in the Belvedere, Vienna, as a copy. The platform, raised in a public square in the city of Jerusalem, carries the Christ in a group of six persons, two of whom draw aside the purple robe and show Him to the people. The foreground is filled with richly dressed persons, commenting on the scene, while the windows of the houses around the square are occupied by spectators. Lukas, who was as famous an engraver as a painter, himself etched a plate after this painting in 1510. The other example is one of a series of tempera paintings on linen, illustrating the history of Joseph, which series was seen in a house at Delft by Karel 136 Ube Brt of tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum van Mander, and recorded by him in his " Het Leven der Schilders." This picture represents the incident when Joseph's blood-stained coat is carried to Jacob. Maarten van Heemskerk (1494-1574) — for as such he is known in the history of art, and not as Martin van Veen as the catalogue gives it, this being his father's surname — was the pupil of Jan van Scorel who first introduced portraiture in Holland. The " Portrait of his Father," by which van Heemskerk is here represented, has already that realistic touch of character painting in which the later men so greatly excelled. Maarten was a most industrious worker, designing stained-glass win- dows, which art was then in the ascendency, as well as etching, engraving and pendrawing, whereby he amassed a considerable fortune. A peculiar pro- vision in his will may be considered a personal idiosyncrasy — not so by those acquainted with the typical Dutch sentiment, still existent among the lower classes, which considers a childless marriage a spiritual visitation, whereas the crown of the mar- ried state is found in the blessing of offspring. Van Heemskerk, then, had been twice married, both unions remaining childless; and for that reason, it is said, he left a trust fund from which yearly a sum should be given to two brides, who would consent to have their marriage ceremony take place Uhc Dutcb paintings 137 on his gravestone — not an onerous condition, if we remember that, according to the custom of the times, he was buried in the church. This provision was carried out for over two centuries, the last couple being married under these conditions in No- vember, 1789, as the records show. A " River Scene with Boats," by Jan Willaerts (1577-1664) — the name Adam in the catalogue is erroneous — presents this rare painter in a calmer view than his battle scene of Admiral Heemskerk's victory of 1639, in the Ryksmuseum at Amster- dam, which is the only example of this earliest marine painter in any of the Netherland galleries. Although born in Antwerp he went early to Utrecht where he learned his art, and became a member of the local Guild. A loaned painting, entitled "Christ Blessing; surrounded by Donor and his Family," is given to Antonis Mor (1512-1576), with a query. This is an exceedingly interesting question to solve, and if it should be decided that Mor did paint this triptych, the Museum may boast of showing a work of the utmost rarity. Mor was a portrait painter; one of a Goldsmith in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, from his brush being one of the finest portraits in that museum. He had been formed in his native Utrecht under Jan van Scorel, whereby his early work shows the dry, angular method of his 138 Zbc Hrt of tbe /iDetcopolitan /iDuseum teacher. While in Italy he was much impressed with Titian's work, and developed an individual style of portraiture which excels in warm colour and roundness of form, more indicated by the manage- ment of the colour than by the sharpness of line. In England he painted Mary Tudor's portrait, and was made Sir Anthony More. In Spain he became King Philip's court painter as Antonio Moro. Wherever his work is to be seen — in Hampton Court, Paris, Vienna, Brussels, St. Petersburg or The Hague, he is signalized as one of the greatest painters who had thus far appeared. Not until half a century later do we meet with the portrait painters of the Golden Age of Dutch art; the first one being Michiel Jansen Mierevelt (1567-1646). A "Portrait of a Lady," of his hand, a half-length, turned slightly to the left, is the only example we have here of the forerunners of Hals and Rembrandt. Mierevelt, Moreelse and Ravesteyn contributed much to the lustre of the 17th century. Mierevelt must be ranked below Ravesteyn, although his portraits excel in simplicity and truthfulness, and are full of character. The greatest portrait painter of the Dutch school, the one who is placed according to individual prefer- ence as the greatest master in portraiture, was Frans Hals, of whom the Museum shows sufficient Ubc Butcb Ipaintinos 139 examples to enable us to determine him a master of masters. Frans Hals (1584-1666) came from an old burgher family of Haarlem, the archives there men- tioning the family name for two centuries before his birth. Through the stress of the times his parents left the city some time after it was taken by the Spaniards, and Frans was born while they were in exile in Antwerp. It is plausible to assume that his early years were practically wasted, that the unsettled condition of the family as refugees, con- stantly waiting to return home, had its effect on the young man in preventing him to prepare himself for any life-work, and that then the seed must have been sown for that regretful irregularity of life, of which later we hear so much. That the accounts of this have been greatly overdrawn must, however, be conceded. Although Frans was intemperate and improvident, he was no mere wine-bibbing sot, as he has been called. It is true that he was repri- manded for drunkenness by the magistrates of Haarlem, and for " mishandHng " his wife. But this early matrimonial venture seems to have been an unfortunate one, and soon after the death of his first wife he married Lysbeth Reyniers. Since they lived together for nearly fifty years we must sup- pose that she made allowances for his habits and 140 Ubc Brt of tbe /IDetropolitan /iDuseum tactfully restrained him from too many excesses. The fact that Hals was granted intimate association with the best citizens of his town ; that he produced works that show sureness of touch, the illumination of genius, unclouded and unshackled ; that even as an octogenarian he painted two portraits (the authorities of the " Old Men's Home," in Haarlem) that show no feebleness, no diminishing power, no decrepitude in the facile touch, but are painted with an eye, not in the least dimmed to the purity and brilliancy of colour — all this proves that this good- natured Bohemian, not burdened with any over- weening anxiety to drain his vitality by excessive labour, was still sufficiently endowed with that industry which is the perquisite of genius. His jolly bon-vivant nature may have often led him past his studio-door to the pothouse — when he was at his easel he was a man to be respected and honoured for what he did, for few have done more. Nor were his spendthrift habits altogether the cause of his decline to poverty, so that in his last years the city-council provided him with a pension of two hundred Carolus guilders. His art was not quite understood in his time, and it was ill-paid. This lack of appreciation continued for generations. Even to within fifty years ago his paintings could be bought for a song, and as late as 1852 the " Portrait of Himself and Wife," in the Ryksmu- Ubc E)utcb paintinQS i4i seum, brought at the Six van Hillegom sale only $240. Only then the tide turned and he was ac- corded his true place among the foremost painters of the world. When we study the work of Hals we note that no man has ever surpassed the Haarlem genius as a technician. His manner was bold, imperial, its power subdued and graded according to the impor- tance of the parts, but above all of an ease and assurance, without correction or emendation, that verges on the miraculous. Here he dashes a full- loaded brush, there he flows his colour in smooth tints along the folds of gown or collaret, but always with a superb freedom and breadth. There was progress even in his magical touch, whereby the sparkling virtuosity of his earlier years developed towards greater refinement, harmony and sobriety in his latest painting, expressing himself ever more concisely, and yet more clearly. The vitality, the frankly human side of his portraits, strike us because the character of his sitters has been appar- ently recognized without searching, keenly caught on the self-revealing instant, and transmitted to the canvas so that it pulsates with life, life itself. Yet never with any vulgar trickery for illusionary deceit — anything but that. His work is frankly painting. His broad dabs and dashes, unlike the mosaic and marquetry effect of his modern imita- 142 xibe Hrt of tbe /IDetropolitan /iDuaeum tors, produce the ego of the person, with the laugh or smile that reveals the soul. His colour is rich, but gradually becomes mel- lower, and his palette creates a chromatic scale with subtle intensity. How colour can speak he showed in his flat-painting, from which Manet and Whistler drew their inspiration. How colour can model, aye sculpture, he showed in his tones and values. He did not attempt the romanticism of light-effects, of chiaroscuro — the only quality in which Rembrandt surpasses him. Only for a few years, between 1635 and 1642, he seems to have experimented with this new idea, but he soon abandoned it, and adhered to his own conception of the light problem, which ignored the possibilities of strong contrasts. His lighting is uniform and evenly distributed, a sub- dued daylight that did not affect the harmonious assertion of each shade, well-tempered and dif- fused. Of his best period are the portraits of Heer and Vrouw Bodolphe, both dated 1643, loaned by Mr. Morgan. They are typical characters of the Dutch bourgeoisie, the man staid, firm and yet good- natured ; the woman serious, virtuous and self- satisfied. The mastery which Hals had attained is shown in the manner in which he subordinates his richest masses of black with the greatest delicacy to the flesh-tones. The " Portrait of a Man," in the PORTRAIT OF A MAN. By Frans Hals. Ubc Dutcb ipaintinGS 143 Marquand collection, I would place at least ten years earlier. It is painted more ruggedly, but with a vitalizing crispness of touch. " The Wife of Frans Hals," in the same collection, belongs again to the late forties, and was painted at least fifteen years after the famous group of himself and Lysbeth, in the Ryksmuseum. The " Hille Hobbe van Haarlem " is a replica of the one in the Berlin Gallery. Of his elder brother. Dirk Hals (1580-1656), one of the first to devote himself to genre painting, there is a small panel, " The Smoker," in which he, more than was usual with him, tried to imitate his brother's manner. Hence it used to be ascribed to the younger man ; but it lacks the brio which Frans infused in his work. The colour is not as crisp, nor the drawing as assured. There is some hesitancy, some searching in the handling which is never found with his more brilliant brother. A few other portrait painters of the early 17th century are shown. Of Daniel Mytens (about 1590-1656) we find a life size portrait of " Charles I," in the Hearn collection, one of several which he painted during his sojourn in England, where he imitated van Dyck, assuming also to be his rival in royal favour. Not succeeding in this he speedily returned to The Hague. His work outdid van Dyck's in its apparent effort to please — he cer- 144 Ube Hrt of tbe /iDetropolttan /iDuseum tainly bestowed greater care on the accessories of costume and the like. Cornelis Janssen van Ceulen (1590-1664) also went to England, where he remained for thirty years, painting a large number of portraits in van Dyck's manner, and acquiring a certain finesse of pose, as may be seen in his half-length " Portrait of a Lady." He is weakest in his flesh-tones, which are pallid, the shadows being a lifeless gray. After his return to Holland he improved greatly under Rembrandt's influence. Abraham (not Adrian) de Vries (1601-1650) belonged to the Leyden Guild, but later found his domicile in The Hague, where this " Portrait of a Dutch Gentleman " was painted. Rembrandt (1606-1669) is represented by three portraits. Rembrandt becomes the Supreme Master of the art of painting by the power and excellence of all those qualities that make the great artist. In some of these he was equalled by other men — Titian was as great a colourist and designer. Raphael had a more refined colourscheme, it may be claimed — but then the question arises whether beauty alone is not inferior to beauty combined with strength. And in this, in vigorous beauty Rembrandt surely surpassed him. Hals, Velasquez and Whistler might be ranked higher as portrait painters — yet Ube H)utcb paintings 145 they never produced anything better than the portraits in the " Syndics," than " The Gilder," of the Havemeyer collection, " Jan Sobiesky," of the Hermitage, or " Rembrandt's Mother." In one respect Rembrandt is the acknowledged peer of all the world. No one, before or after him, ever entered as deeply into the secret of the marvellous effect of light and dark. He was the first to develop to perfection the concentration of light and the dif- fusion of luminosity from the deepest shades. This juxtaposition of light and shade did not lie, as with Caravaggio, in the brutal opposing of livid whites to opaque blacks, but rather in the blending by imperceptible gradations of the most brilliant light with the deepest shadow, bathed in an ever luminous atmosphere. Thus Rembrandt's light, at which many imitators and followers have essayed to light their own torches, has become the supreme, unmatched product of his incomparable genius ; and he became, and always remained, the foremost to depict " the poetry of chiaroscuro." Note his colour. He did not use the gamut of pigment with more or less harmonious abundance, as the Venetians did. His palette was too reserved and simple. But his masses of hue and tint are kneaded through the figures he paints, so that colour, not line, moulds his solid forms with singu- lar vivacity, and his sparkling brush adds brilliancy 146 Zbc art ot tbe /KetropoUtau /iDuseum that dazzles. It is the paramount order of all his qualities that makes Rembrandt the " King of Painters." Rembrandt taught many pupils. Of the few he taught while still in Ley den, Gerard Dou became the most famous. From 1630, when he removed to Amsterdam, until about 1642 he had a large number in his studio, many of whom shine prominently in the lower constellations of that golden age. Of these we may mention Moeyaert, Koninck, Lievens, Backer, Bol, van der Heist, Flinck, Victors, van den Eeckhout, Fabricius, Maes, Vermeer van Delft, de Hooch and Metsu — all men who made a name for themselves. When his financial misfortunes overtook him the Master had not the heart to de- vote himself to his " painter-boys," as they were called. Only in his declining years, when quietly settled with Hendrickje Stoffels and his son Titus on the Rozengracht, do we hear of one more, Aert van Gelder, working with Rembrandt. There was no pecuniary benefit attached to having pupils. Most of them paid for their tuition by preparing canvases, cleaning brushes, and grinding and mixing pigments, the last not an inconsiderable task since prepared paints were then unknown. The pupils were further generally provided with their midday meal at the master's table, some even lodged with Ube 2)utcb lC>aintina6 147 him, and the only reward the master received was their assistance in commissions and the akruistic honour of having a large following. One of the two bust portraits by Rembrandt in the Museum the younger man was painted (1640) in those happy days when Saskia was his help- meet and the Master was in the hey-day of his fame. The other one shows how little his powers were warped by his many cares and troubles for it is dated the year before his death. There is a marvellous simplicity in the manner of painting, while the remarkable vitality of these men have a compelling force. In all the portraits of men which Rembrandt has painted, he stamps upon the features his own never failing dignity of character, imbues them with his own nobility. " The Adoration of the Shepherds " is catalogued as of the school of Rembrandt. It is more likely to be a copy of a picture in the National Gallery, in London, made long after Rembrandt's death, and not by any one of his direct pupils. A landscape, " The Mills," formerly attributed to Rembrandt, is now marked " School of Rem- brandt? " The Master added landscape to his sub- jects after Saskia's death in 1641. He was as characteristic in these subjects as in all his other work, displaying the same fulness of design and 148 Ube art ot tbe /IDetropolitan /IDuseum facility of expression as we find in his etched land- scapes. The painting before us is an interesting subject. Since the greatest of the 17th century Dutch painters were contemporary we need not follow the years of birth punctiliously, but the rather group them according to the principal subjects in which they expressed themselves. From among the portrait and figure painters of this period we find here the work of Bartholomeus van der Heist (1613-1670), a bust "Portrait of a Dutch Burgomaster," and a half-length " Por- trait of Jan van Male." These canvases are typical examples of van der Heist's portraiture, which was very popular in his time. Although trained by Frans Hals, and later by Rembrandt, he did not possess a moiety of the talents of either. His por- traits are faithful transcripts of nature, but they lack what the French call enveloppe. His strength lies in robust simplicity of conception, vigorous solidity of method, and unfailing carefulness — yet leaves us cold withal. Even his group pictures — and who has not heard of his world-renowned " Peace Banquet," in the Ryksmuseum? — are only aggregrates of individual portraits, without co- hesion; with an attractive colour scheme, and pa- tient and persevering precision as to details, but only breathing accomplished mediocrity. Ube 2)utcb paintings 149 We will leave Sir Peter Lely, and Sir Godfrey Kneller, although catalogued under the Dutch school because born in Holland, to be considered with the English portrait painters, with whom they rightly belong. The young Gerbrandt van den Eeckhout (1621- 1674) became Rembrandt's closest imitator, espe- cially in the colour and chiaroscuro of his small biblical subjects, so that many of his works have been carelessly ascribed to the Master. Generally he missed, however, the profound depth of feeling and the poetical imagination which vivifies Rem- brandt's work. A " Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah " is from Gerbrandt's brush. Samuel van Hoogstraten (1626-1678), best known for his " Inleiding tot de Hooge School der Schilderkunst " (Introduction to the University of the Art of Painting), an instructive and entertain- ing volume, formed himself at first entirely by Rembrandt's example, but a trip to Italy modified his style, making it more pleasing to the crowd, and more productive to himself, but destructive of his permanent fame. The " Portrait of a Gen- tleman and Lady " is a fair example of this so- called " pot-boiling " style. Of greater renown was Nicolaas Maes, who had a distinct transition from a genuine and serious manner, assimilated in his master's studio, to a 150 TLbc Hrt of tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum gradual succumbing to Frenchified taste, sapping his Dutch characteristics. The " Portrait of the Duchesse de Mazarin " is of his latest period, while his " Portrait of a Woman " is of some years earlier. Neither one does justice to the serious painter of old women, such as may be seen in the t Ryksmuseum. In these nothing appears trivial; subtlety of chiaroscuro is united to vigorous colour, in which harmonies of red and black sometimes pervade the picture in subdued tones; the figures are finely drawn, and their action is perfect. All this was at last diluted by a desire to please, although even at the end he produced some portraits worthy of his early training. A " Portrait of a Dutch Admiral," by Aert van Gelder (1645-1727), Rembrandt's last pupil, is an early work that does not bear many signs of the artist's later eccentricities. While he possessed a fascinating charm of colour, admirable conduct of light and shade, and a rich and spirited brush, he had a tendency to slovenly drawing, resulting in uncouth forms. He also amused himself by apply- ing his pigment with thumb and fingers and the handle of his brush, which, as Hoogstraten put it, " had not an unpleasant effect, if you stood far enough away." The last one of the 17th century Dutch portrait painters shown here is Karel de Moor (1656-1738), Ubc Dutcb iPaintinas 151 a pupil of Gerard Dou, whom he followed in the high finish of his pictures. In his portrait of " A Burgoriiaster of Leyden and his Wife " he acquitted himself well according to the demand of his time, when the painting of trifling externalities was demanded as well as the likeness to be taken. He was more original in his large historical and biblical subjects, which are cleverly composed, the figures correctly drawn, the colour clear and transparent. While " genre painting " had been introduced by the Venetian Bassani and Carpaccio, the Dutch readily adopted this kind of art expression and gave it definite rank and importance. It was the story- telling picture, dignified and ennobled by the man- ner of its execution ; and the Dutch " Little Masters " — so-called because the size of their masterpieces was usually small — gave especial dis- tinction to their home-life. One of the first of these genre painters was Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685), of whom we have a familiar " Old Fiddler," a subject which the artist treated many times. The strolling musician is performing before the door of a farmer's cot- tage to the delight of the group of children around him, although the three dice-throwers pay little attention to his screechy notes. As usual there is an excellent arrangement of the figures, the painting is done with great spirit and fine finish, but the best 152 xtbe Brt of tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum point is the fresh, sparkling manner in which sun- light plays with the shadows. His humorous mise- en-scene is a natural, artless portrayal of the life of the common people. A small panel, " The Smokers," is one of those apparently trivial glimpses into the interior of a pot-house, which may often be confused with those of his fellow-pupil in Hals' studio , the Flemish Adriaan Brouwer. Ostade's treatment of these topics is, however, less boisterous, more good-natured, and with all its burlesque less gross, and distinctly amusing. His pictures have technical freshness, melting colours, and deft application of light effects. The absence of these more refined traits in a little panel, called " A Smoker," also ascribed to him, leads one to suggest Brouwer as its author. The greatest of Frans Hals' pupils is least like him. Yet Gerard Terborch (1617-1681), in his original and individual manner, is among the peers of the masters of the 17th century. He was the aristocrat in the St. Lukas Guild, and he has given us an intimate acquaintance with the private life of the patrician class of the Holland of his time, the family-life of the Dutch merchant-princes. The " Portrait of a Gentleman," in the Museum, is hardly sufficient to illustrate the wonderful talent of Terborch, although it gives some idea of his excel- lent drawing, his velvety colour, correct modelling. Ube H)utcb ipaintinos 153 and the elegance of the well-bred beau-monde. A recently acquired " The Courtyard of a Blacksmith Shop " is ascribed to him, but one is not prepared to agree with this. Of Terborch's only pupil of whom there is record, Caspard Netscher (1639-1684), we have two small canvases, a " Portrait of a Dutch Lady " and " The Card-Party." However talented, Net- scher never rose to the highest rank in art. He was very popular in his time among the upper classes, whose indoor-life he painted ; his strongest claim to distinction being his mastery of texture painting, notably of silks and satins. As far apart as the poles in subject matter was the work of Terborch and Jan Steen (1626-1679), although in one respect they had the same character- istic — a certain naivete to depict character, an unconscious spying upon the salient traits of their subjects; Steen choosing these among the low and gross, as Terborch did among those who occupied the seats of the mighty. A " Dutch Kermesse " gives a typical scene of the hilarious crowd Steen loved to paint. The jolly gathering before the inn, revelling to their heart's content, were his own boon companions, and if we look sharp we will recognize very likely in some bearded fellow or other Steen's own genial features. Such were his favorite subjects. Indoors or out- 154 XTbe Hrt of tbe /IDetropoUtan /IDuseum doors he paints them with waggish, droll satire, and whimsical good-humour. There is never a mali- cious sneer upon his lips ; and even in the picturing of his wildest orgies, as well as in his somewhat coarse and vulgar chronicles of guilty folly, he always points a moral. It is not at all beyond the bounds of possibility that Jan Steen, despite the scenes of wassail in which he so often portrays him- self as taking part, was himself abstemious. How else would it be possible for a man to paint in a comparatively brief career almost five hundred pic- tures, the last better than the first, and surely not any bearing evidence of the trembling hand of the confirmed drunkard? If we look for a mind back of the product, we must accord to Jan Steen, after viewing the large array of his compositions, a supe- rior mentality, sympathetic, philosophic and benefi- cent-satirical. Add to this almost faultless execu- tion, in which wilful exaggeration is still kept under perfect control ; a deep, strong, juicy colour- ing, and a treatment of light and shade that makes him a true member of the great school to which he belonged — and many will agree with me that Jan Steen is one of the trio, with Hals and Ruisdael, who stand nearest to Rembrandt. A picture called " The old Rat comes to the Trap at last " — a rather coarse portrayal of the manner in which an old libertine is caught at his tricks — xrbe S)utcb paintings i55 which was bought in 1871, has always been ascribed to Jan Steen. Recently the tablet has been changed to " Esaias Boursse, figures by Jan Steen," the rea- sons for which are not apparent. The canvas is a remarkably good copy of a genuine Jan Steen, which I have seen in a collection in Holland. In fact the dull reds and greens — colours which were typical of Steen's palette — and the general excel- lence of the work make one almost think that Steen himself painted this as a replica. It is thoroughly in the Rabelaisian spirit of our roguish philosopher. A " Kitchen Interior," bought only a few years ago as a " Jan Steen," was soon discovered to be void of all traces of the masterhand. The colour is raw and crude, and the drawing lacks the smooth roundness of the Leyden master. In some ways it bears resemblance to the work of Nicolaes Moeyaert, yet is scarcely good enough to be sad- dled on him. The new attribution, giving it to Adriaen van Nieuwland (1587-1658), a little-known and unimportant painter of Amsterdam, hardly solves the problem. Pieter de Hooch (1630-1677) must be ranked very high among his brethren, because of his suc- cessful solution of a problem of his own creation, which no one else has ever solved in such masterful fashion. He aimed to introduce different light- effects through open doors and windows, often 156 Ube Brt of tbe /iDetropoUtan /iDuseum opposing outdoor and interior light in the same composition. One of the most valuable of the many paintings which Mr. George A. Hearn has given to the Museum, is an " Interior," by de Hooch. The lines of the composition, and the dexterous manage- ment of the light through the front door, side- w^indow, and the door leading to the next room, are identical with his "Messenger," in the Ryksmuseum of Amsterdam. The difference lies only in the class of dwelling the artist portrays. In the Amsterdam painting we see the front hall of a patrician man- sion, a young lady seated at the casement window, and a child entering the front door, which gives view of the stately houses across the city canal. In our picture the front hall is of a burgher home in a provincial town. The housewife is seated at the window, and a little girl enters carrying a milk-jug. Through the door we view some of the gabled houses across the street. In both pictures a large tree in front of the door throws leafy shadows to add to the play of light, which brilliantly illuminates the houses in the perspective. There is a vibrant harmony in the subdued colouring of our fine panel, an unobtrusive placing of figures, so that the scene breathes a sentiment of peace, tranquillity and do- mesticity. Still we will always hark back to his unparalleled pictorial expression of the subtleties of sunshine. Ubc Butcb paintings 159 time that he spent four years to paint a lace jabot. The last one of the genre painters here is Cornelis Dusart (1660-1704), whose little panel, "Under the Trellis," although less fine or forceful than the work of van Ostade, still points to this Haarlem painter's instruction. Some of the landscape painters of the 17th cen- tury Dutch are represented, but not by any ex- traordinary examples. Cornelis van Poelenburg (1586-1667) remained faithful to the end to the Italian method of his master Adam Elsheimer. Of graceful style, his attractive little cabinet-pieces fell greatly to the taste of his public. They generally represent little figures bathing, dainty, beautiful in line, clear and tender in light effects, but giving more or less the impression of effeminacy. A typical example is in the Museum. Jan van Goyen (1596-1656) was the first to choose landscape art for itself alone. He chose, more than Cuyp or van de Velde, to portray with truthful fidelity the picturesque scenery of land and stream, and trees and cabins. While at first he painted in the finicky manner of his master Esaias van de Velde, he gradually became broader and freer in his treatment. This evolution was accom- panied by a new manner thoroughly his own, in 160 Zbc Hrt of tbe /IDetropolitan /IDuseum which he subordinated colour to tone. He kept himself to a brown or gray key, with tones between sometimes leaning towards a reddish warm-yellow, then again towards a bleached-yellow, gray-green, or bluish-gray. Although this peculiar, individual refinement lays him open to the charge of man- nerism, it invests his work with a special charm. He became one of the very great painters of air and space, with a wonderful reflection of sky in his quiet water reaches. His picture " The Moer- dyk," as well as his " Panoramic View of the Environs of Haarlem" — the latter dated 1646, and out of his best period — are worthy examples. A recently acquired landscape, " View of Rhenen," is not as characteristic in colour nor composition. The full signature " V. Goyen " militates somewhat against its authenticity, since the artist when he did sign his pictures, generally was satisfied with " VG " with or without the date. Pieter Molyn (1600-1661), London-born, but a member of the Guild of Haarlem when only six- teen, painted in van Goyen's manner with a some- what finer touch and more suppleness of handling. His " Landscape with Cottage " is a characteristic Dutch scene, for he eschewed any foreign mise- en-scene. As important as these two was Aert van der Neer (1603-1677), who painted waterscapes, by prefer- Ubc Dutcb ipainttnos i6i ence reflecting silvery moonlight, or the fiery glow of a conflagration, and also winterscenes with fig- ures on the ice. The " Sunset," by this artist, in the Museum, is an unusual subject, and the more interesting. A lake, surrounded by long reaches of meadowgrass and clumps of trees reflects the tender, luminous light of the low-setting sun. Two hunters have come to bag some of the ducks that dot the water. A picture, '' The Farrier," bought in 1871, has only recently been catalogued under his name — one might say with but slight cred- ibility. Salomon van Ruysdael (1600-1670) came from Naarden, where he was born, to Haarlem and en- tered the Guild there. His younger brother Izaac had preceded him thither to deal in art. His artistry justifies the assumption that, like van Goyen, he emanated from the studio of Esaias van de Velde. At first their art ran on parallel lines, Salomon's being somewhat cooler in colour. About middle- age he widened his horizon, became firmer of hand and stronger in colour. Still later we find him endeavouring to emulate his nephew, Izaac's son, the renowned Jacob, but with little success. His two examples in the Museum, a " Dutch Kermesse " and a " Marine " are of his middle period. Jan Both (1610-1652), with his brother Andries, followed Poelenburg to Italy, and strongly imbibed 162 Tlbe Brt of tbe /iDetropolttan /IDuseum there those influences which later were to bring ruin to the Dutch school by eliminating its national characteristics. An " Italian Landscape " shows the distinction between the two tendencies that were to develop. A strong leaning towards Claude Lor- rain is also discernible in this canvas. With Philip Wouwerman (1619-1668) the land- scape painting forms no mean part in the compo- sition. He had learned from Jan Wynants, doing his master full credit. Especially is his foliage verdant and clear, and his light-effect is peculiarly charming. He devoted himself, however, greatly to the study of the horse, which he pictured as the farm animal or the battle charger, a white horse generally serving as his principal mass of light. He was master of the form and action of these animals, and became so facile that he could dispense with the use of models. " The Halt " is a typical panel from his prolific brush. Nicholas Berchem (1620-1683) was Haarlem- born, and a pupil of van Goyen. After his journey to Italy, the influence of which is visible in all his landscape settings, he settled in Amsterdam, where his improvident habits caused his wife to take charge of the exchequer, allowing him a few florins at a time for pocket-money. He adopted his surname from the nickname he received on account of the mountains (Dutch: bergen) which trbe S)utcb paintinas 163 always appear in his pictures. These pictures are remarkable for their tasteful composition, enriched with architectural ruins, and enlivened with charm- ing groups of figures and cattle. They are care- fully finished and at the same time free in hand- ling, with a warm colour scheme and brilliant light- ing — as may be seen in the little canvas before us, " Rest." The first of the really great landscape painters of the school was Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691), and the Museum is fortunate in possessing a large " Landscape with Cattle " in his best manner. The epithet ** the sunny-hearted " is understood when we regard this glowing, luminous canvas. The golden mantle of eventime has fallen on the coun- try side, and the night-milking is in progress. We have an opportunity to note that Cuyp has rightly been placed among the foremost of cattle painters. Still he excelled in landscape, and where the great Ruisdael with his gigantic strength often produces a sense of gloom and solitude, Cuyp with his poetic spirit gives such happy, unstudied combinations of arrangement that his works become pas- toral poems. Another " Landscape with Cattle," somewhat smaller, is of the same period. It pre- sents more figures, and in the vapoury distance a view of his beloved Dordrecht is shown. It would, however, need several more canvases to 164 Ube Hrt of tbe /Metropolitan nDuseum appreciate the many-sidedness of this great master's talents. In his earher years he painted still-life, game, fruit and fish, with a skill, a refinement, a feeling for texture and colour, which places him above any of the artists who devoted themselves exclusively to such themes. Later he painted also genre subjects with equal facility and strength. Izaac van Ostade (1621-1649) soon left the in- teriors which he had learned to paint in his brother's studio, for out-of-doors inspiration. The animated 'scene " Winter in Holland " was painted after he had come fully to his own, but it has the peculiar brownish tint caused by discoloration of the inferior pigment he used. His brushing is free and broad. In this winterscene we have a veracious view of the life and enjoyment to which the frozen rivers and canals of Holland give play. The work of Emanuel Murant (1622-1700) is extremely rare, only one example being in the Dutch public galleries, in the Boymans Museum of Rotterdam. The landscape before us, called "The Farm" (more likely a country-inn) shows the careful minuteness of his work, the skilful and life-like manner of arranging the figures in the composition, and his warm colouring. He was a pupil of Wouwerman. Johannes Lingelbach (1623-1674) has a peculiar mixture of Dutch and Italian manner, his best part XTbe S)utcb paintings 165 being clever draughtsmanship; wherefore he fur- nished frequently the small figures in the paintings of his brother-artists. His " Battle-scene " repre- sents his latest work. Another Italianized Dutch- man, Willem Romeyn (1624-1693), was a minor artist, whose " Cattle in Repose " is in the Museum. The greatest of the Dutch landscapists was Jacob van Ruisdael (1628-1682). He was the son of Izaac, the framemaker of Haarlem, and he entered his uncle's studio, whose son, also called Jacob, was but an indifferent fellow-pupil. To distinguish his work from that of his cousin and of his uncle, our Jacob adopted the spelling of his name by changing the double i, or y, into a single i, to van Ruisdael. An early journey to the northern forests of Germany gave him the material for those paintings which he thought might strike the popular fancy, since such scenes had been done by van Everdingen with great success. But neither these wild scenes of mountain torrents dashing over rocks, nor the marvellous views which he gave of his own country, were appreciated, and despite his pro- ductiveness — for over 450 of his works are cata- logued — he came to want. The members of the Mennonite community of Amsterdam, of which sect he was a member, secured admission for him in the almshouse of Haarlem in 1681, where he died the following year. 166 Zbc Hrt ot tbe /iDetropolitan /Museum Ruisdael's paintings surpass anything that has ever been produced in landscape art, because they are the work of a man who expresses some lofty and sustained thought in the most forceful lan- guage. They are the work of a man of mighty mind, who thinks, and is unique in his expression. They are simple, serious, strong and with sustained force. They are deeply subjective. We discover in all of Ruisdael's work, whether in his mountain- torrents, dune-stretches or seapieces the reflection, the domination of his own personality — not by limitation of power, but by inclination of choice. His own melancholy character found response in the broken, subdued and diffused light of nature; he was more moved by the sight of a stormy sky and the shudder of great trees tortured by the gale — just as Corot loved the pale light and silver- gray of the dawn, and the song of the lark. It was not a limitation of vision, but a choice of sen- timent. His " Landscape," in the Museum, does not represent him in the fulness of his power — even so it indicates the profound, grave mind that made landscape richer in character, deeper in feel- ing, more tense in expression than the work of any other landscape painter. Abraham Storck (1630-1710) pictured, besides turbulent or quiet waters also city views, with some talent. A " Seaport," here, is representative of Xrbe Dutcb paintings 167 his work. Of Johan van Huchtenburgh (1646- 1733) there are two canvases, "Repose after the Hunt " and " A Siege," whereof the latter is the most characteristic, as it also shows plainest that the artist built his style chiefly on Wouwerman. Only one example of the 17th century Dutch marine painters is found here. It is a recently acquired " Calm Sea," by Simon de Vlieger (1612- 1663), who carried on the advance of marine paint- ing, until it was soon to find its fullest expression in Willem van de Velde, the younger, to whom belongs the palm for sea-pieces. Several of the famous still-life painters are represented. They brought the painting of nature morte up to a high pitch of perfection, especially in getting the effect of light upon these objects, pots, pans, china, stuffs, fruit, flowers, dead game. Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1600-1683) shows in his " Still-Life " tasteful arrangement of the oysters, lemons, grapes and wineglass on the green-covered table, all given with depth and truth of colour. Fish was the specialty of Abraham van Beyeren (1620- 1674). Jan Baptist Weenix (1621-1660) was the most gifted in this branch of art, though his versa- tile powers led him to produce creditable portraits, and, while sojourning in Italy, pictures of seaports, one of the latter being in the Museum. Nor is Willem Kalff (1621-1693) represented by this 168 Ube Hrt of tbe /Ilietropolitan /IDuseum work in which he excelled, but by a cottage interior. Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750) displayed admirable taste and judgment in the grouping of flowers, which she depicted with accuracy and harmonious colouring. A small panel here bears witness to her proficiency. The 18th century was barren of art in Holland, only a few practitioners, following foreign tenden- cies, remained. But with the beginning of the 19th century art revived. At first it revealed the same academic traits as in France and Flanders. B. C. Koekkoek (1803- 1862) adhered to this style to the end. Despite the example set to him by his younger brethren, he continued to the last to paint his photographic landscapes, so strongly reminding of the old Munich and Diisseldorf schools. The three examples of his brush, ''Winter Landscape; Holland," "Sun- set on the Rhine," and " Winter Scene in Holland," are thoroughly characteristic. The same tendency may be seen in the landscape setting which Wouter Verschuur (1812-1874) gave to his pictures, which is tight and of little interest. He excelled, how- ever, in the painting of horses, in which he dis- played all the knowledge Wouwerman possessed. His " Horses in a Stable " demonstrates him to have been a first class animal painter. J. B. Jongkind (1819-1891) was among the first Ube Dutcb paintings i69 to take part In the modern Renaissance. He had studied with the academic Schelfhout, but when in Paris he learned from Isabey the secret of romantic colour. Soon he developed a manner all his own. While retaining his residence in France, he spent his sketching summers along his native coasts and infiltrated his work with the Dutch spirit. His " Sunset on the Scheldt " has a subdued though brilliant colour expression. A. H. Bakker-Korff (1824-1882) followed more the minute style of the early Mieris. He is famous for his delicately brushed interiors, in which he displays elderly ladies gossiping around the tea- table. In the Museum example, " Bric-a-brac," one of these cronies, with a white cap on her head, is seated among a confusion of artistic objects. Christoffel Bisschop (1828-1904) was born in Friesland at a time when the Frieslanders could scarcely distinguish between an artist and an acro- bat. When he covered his school books with draw- ings it provoked the horror of his parent. But after his father's death, his gentle mother allowed him his bent, and we have now the records of that picturesque northern province that shine and sparkle with gem-like gleam in their rich, strong colours. " The Sunbeam " gives a view in watercolour of one of these beautiful Frisian interiors with its antique furniture. 170 XTbc Hrt of tbe /iDetropolitan /IDuseum The Nestor of modern Dutch art is Joseph Israels (born 1824), one of the greatest masters of this age, and in Holland the worthy successor of Rembrandt. At first he sought, without great success, to find recognition with historical composi- tions; but when illness drove him to seclusion in a little dune village near Haarlem the turning-point came. His mind was inflamed with the poetic beauty of simple humanity, by the picturesque cot- tage interiors and types, by the beautiful marine views and the rolling background of the golden dunes. While these early presentations of his favourite subjects show yet some tightness of hand- ling, they are already bathed with a new and poetic light in which he places his outdoor figures. It is the real light of the long evening, when a bluish haze descends over nature with the evening dew. We see this light in the beautiful example " The Bashful Suitor," painted after he had also attained more freedom and suggestiveness in his drawing. In his interiors he began to denote the chiaroscuro which was revealed to him in his early years by Rembrandt. His colour became also richer and deeper, and with advancing years he became broader and broader in his brushwork, and gained more atmosphere, and ever nobler style. His " Expecta- tion," a young peasant woman preparing baby's out- fit to fill the wicker-basket at her side, is rich and THE BASHFUL SUITOR. By Jnsepli Tsrriels. mmt^ ■ EF p H^^^^^^^u^^^^ BHH I^PP^^!^^ f . mm 1 SPRING. By Anton Mauve. Ube Butcb patntlngs i7i juicy of palette; while the "Frugal Meal," in the Vanderbilt collection, is one of his typical interiors, which so many others have followed in portraying. Not until the fifties do we see both Johannes Bosboom — of whom the Museum strangely does not possess a single example — and Israels dethron- ing entirely the historical and romantic views which had so long trammelled the school of their country, and bringing forth an art, truly racy of the soil. With them came Anton Mauve and Jacob Maris. Anton Mauve (1838-1888) had also to move away from academic training before the example of the broader treatment of Joseph Israels, and the reality of nature's lights as depicted by the Maris brothers, enabled him to infuse his own gentle, sympathetic, kindly character into his landscapes. Note his " Spring " and his " Autumn " — rarely have such transcriptions of nature been given, breathing such tender feeling, peace and quietude, a revelation of the serene, happy pastoral life of the Dutch peasant. The art of Jacob Maris (1837-1899) may be less sympathetic, it is more robust, with more grandeur of expression, but not more technical skill. Only a small watercolour, " Canal in Hol- land," is in the Museum, which hardly gives the right impression of his genius. Jacob Maris may lack the poetry of Mauve, the deep spiritual feel- 172 XTbe Hrt of tbe /Metropolitan /iDuseum ing of Israels — on the other hand he is the richer Golourist, and above all the greatest sky-painter Holland has produced in the 19th century. He is remarkably broad in his handling, and with daring freedom he generalizes details to bring forth the due proportions of beauty in colour, merged into atmosphere. Thereby he reveals the marvellous splendour of the fleeting spirit of landscape, that appeals to us, and grips us with overwhelming force. His elder brother, Thys (born 1839), as he calls himself to boast of his Dutch allegiance though resident in London, is the most original of Dutch painters. His earlier work shows pictorial features with fine colour, perfect tone and poetic realism. Of such is his " Reverie," in the Museum, where a young girl in a low-toned, olive-coloured dress is seated with a distaff in her lap. After 1880 he drew away from any school expression, and took a unique stand in mysterious aloofness. We find him revelling in dreamland, and his fairy-like pictures assume a weird, fantastic expression, elusive, vague, strangely suggestive, even haunting. They are the visionary fantasies of a poet's brain. A watercolour by Albert Neuhuys, a character- istic Dutch interior, closes our review of the Dutch paintings. CHAPTER IX THE GERMAN PAINTINGS In the history of German painting there have been a few very great names — Diirer, Holbein, Bock- lin, perhaps two or three others. But that history cannot rival the history of Italy and of the Low Countries. German painting cannot be said, in its past or present state of mediocre attainment, ever to have rested on historic laurels. In a measure the 19th century has brought forth some men above the ordinary, as Menzel, Leibl, Lieberman, Lenbach ; but even the best cannot be placed in the same rank with the best men of foreign schools. Even Diirer was more of a thinker than a painter, and only really great in his engraving; while the art of Holbein is rather Dutch than German in its essential quality. Teutonic art was slow to feel the influence of the art currents surging about on the south and the west; and while it at last heeded the examples set, it could not free itself from the enmeshing net of the literary and philosophic habits of the German mind. Diirer alone was an independent creator; Holbein and, less vigorously, Lucas Cranach the Elder did 173 174 Ube Hrt of tbe /IDetropoUtan Museum show signs of individuality, but two centuries elapsed before a German poet arose to take up the work of the German painter — for it is not unjust to say that it was Goethe who sounded the clarion call in the valley of dry bones. There, however, we lay the finger on the very spot of the inherent weakness of German art. It is, and always has been, a literary art per se. German painters have always listened too much to what was said by outsiders. Lessing, Winkelmann, Hirt, Goethe, down to Max Nordau have told them how to paint — and the poor painters, overpowered by so strenuous an argument sink themselves in attempt- ing to realize the profound theories of their mas- ters, the critics. Even today, the philosophies of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche inspire the highly sym- bolic, brutally dissecting art of the moderns. Ger- man art has always been mentored, from Goethe to Ibsen — even as the weakness of Royal Academy art lies in that it is Ruskinized. And if the dictates how to paint could not be com- prehended, the German artists, following the technic of others, at least heeded the literary pedagogues in what to paint — and the art of the raconteur found expression in pigment, and became a reflec- tion of the village tales of Keller and Renter. By some obtuse process of reasoning they sought their salvation in the written word — and we have the Ube German paintings 175 painted anecdote, or landscapes, not as found in nature, but as described by the poets, even as Knille's favourite " Venus and Tannhauser " is only an operatic scene. German art has always been an affair of the studio, until in the latest secession movement a revo- lution took place against discursive painting, and a desire was shown to be alone with nature — but what would you? Did it give us nature with its thousand intimate promptings? By no manner of means. On the contrary, exaggerating the faults of the plein air school of France — just as Michel- angelo's followers exaggerated his own exaggeration — they went to the other extreme, and, abandoning " soul " and " sentiment," they gave glaring con- trasts of coloured daubs and farfetched light-effects — in short, a chemical colour-analysis. It is beyond cavil that where Art follows dictates, it comes to naught. Art must be free and spon- taneous, and inspired by life, not words, to be last- ing. Hence we see that the art of the last century had scarcely reached its height when decay set in; and the paintings, of which so many are in the Museum, however popular in their day, have ceased to stir or even attract us. It is true that beginners in art appreciation, not able to understand the beauties of light and colour, 176 Zbc Hrt ot tbe /iDetropolitan /IDuseum grasp with avidity at a tableau which tells them in so many words what they ought to call beautiful — the story, the sentiment, the sentimental, the pathos. And that such art, no matter how much we may deride it, for the ignorant is still the last word to be uttered is proved by the following of the English Royal Academy and the modern French anecdotal painters — but its too earthly realism, devoid of any idealistic inspiration, soon palls and cloys. German painting has never risen to the dignity of a school in its highest sense. Here and there indi- viduals have sporadically arisen who in their per- sonal way have asserted themselves. A few primi- tifs, Meister Wilhelm of Cologne and Wohlgemuth were followed by Diirer and Holbein. After these there has been a Hans von Marees, poet and mystic, who had a temperament that had much in common with that of Burne-Jones. Bocklin, one of those unaccountable figures that spring up like Turner, was the one genuine romanticist. Menzel, a realist and draughtsman, trod more conventional paths ; but with Piloty in command at Munich, and Anton von Werner at Berlin we can only recognize groups of men among whom a Meyer von Bremen, a Defregger, a Bodenhausen are preeminent. We have not, however, the right to condemn their anecdotal art altogether. What seems to us the Zbc German paintings 177 height of conventionaHty was not such in the time it was executed. It was then genuinely expressive of a prevalent order of ideas intelligently held and sin- cerely believed in, a view of art as positive and genuine as any other set of principles — of which we may not have grown tired. And if the art of these men had in it the seed of weariness for those who are simply out of sympathy with its aim, its ideal, it does not in the least reflect on the sincerity, the honesty and even the accomplishments of its practitioners. The hope of German painting lies still in the future — and there are indications that this future may not be far distant. So then — we stand before the choice to fill an entire volume with a recapitulation of the stories we find depicted by the German paintings, or allow you to make your own story from each canvas, and these are so plain that he who runs may read. We will, therefore, refer to such paintings as stand out eminently, and group together what remains. A most interesting painting is a primitif, assigned to the Austrian school of the 15th century. This painting, bought in 1871, was on exhibition for a short time after the Museum was opened in Central Park, but was strangely withdrawn, and has for twenty-five years reposed in the storage room. For- tunately it is again on exhibition, and presents a 178 Ube Brt ot tbe /IDetropolitan /IDuseum delightful problem for experts. There is much in favour of ascribing this diptych to a Teutonic school, although its first impression is one of northern Italy. Since no stories of hagiology correspond with the scenes portrayed, these may be representa- tions of Bible characters, executed in more or less native surroundings, which we know to have been the Germanic point of view, as it was the Flemish. Thus the first scene may represent John the Baptist in the wilderness, surrounded by wild beasts; and the second scene on that panel his beheading, trans- posed in such surroundings as were familiar to the artist or suggested by his imagination. The right wing may represent the miracle of water being turned into wine, and the reviving of the daughter of Jairus by Christ, dressed as a Bishop — a presen- tation which is not rare in early German wood engravings. The characteristic dress of the young gallants in the foreground may perhaps form the readiest means to place the locality of the artist, and it should not be surprising if some Swabian or Bavarian master with Italian training were found to whom this unique altarpiece may be assigned. The " Head of an Apostle " would be a rare example of Diirer's tempera painting, if its attri- bution, rightly queried in the catalogue, were cor- rect. We come with full assurance to the " Portrait of PORTRAIT OF A MAN, By Hans Holbein, the Younger. trbe eerman ipaintiugs i7§ a Man," by Hans Holbein, the Younger (1497- 1543). It represents a young man, twenty-two years old according to the inscription, which also bears the date 1517. He is dressed in the costume of his period, of the weakhy, fashionable class. The back- ground, which is the angle of a wall, has a frieze around the top, probably derived from an engraving of Mantegna's school. The painting is done in oil on paper, which is very unusual, although a picture in Basel, " Adam and Eve," by Holbein, of the same year, is also done on paper, and probably points to Holbein's experimenting with this material. According to the date Holbein was but twenty years old when he painted this portrait — evidence enough of his wonderful precocity, as it exhibits in every way his essential characteristics of design, and contour of the figure, so fully exemplified in his " Georg Gyze," now in Berlin. In Holbein we find a portrait painter of wonderful capacity for exact and absolute truthfulness to life. When he depicts a man he thinks of nothing else but his model; he isolates him; he places him before us in unbiased, objective truth, with unfailing acuteness of individ- ualization. There is no " make-up " in Holbein's portraiture. There are no preconceived ideas which he wishes to deploy, but as plainly as is possible with the brush he depicts natural refinement or ugliness as the faithful historian records the facts. But he was 180 Ube Hrt of tbe /iDetvopolttan /iDuseum more than a historian; he was at the same time a powerful artist, whose manual skill is incomparable. The delicate perfection of his execution is marvel- lous. His vigorous drawing that equals that of the most learned masters has an almost classic restraint, which is wanting, indeed, in the work of Diirer. In his colouring, only surpassed in richness by Titian, he has a keen sense of the values of tone relations. His flushing flesh palpitates with the life- blood coursing under the skin. Nor did the exact portrayal of the human coun- tenance include the whole of Holbein's talent, although it constitutes an essential part of his genius and of his work. He also had a taste for beautiful allegories, and his idealism led him to decorative paintings of supreme excellence, notably his two friezes, the " Triumph of Riches," and the " Tri- umph of Poverty." These decorative paintings are unfortunately all destroyed, and are only known from the drawings that have been preserved. Still he was not a dreamer of dreams, his flights of fancy were not of long duration, and willingly did he come back to his delineation of men and things as he saw them. A less powerful personality than Diirer, he was a far superior painter, and never has he been surpassed or even reached in his supreme place in Germanic art. A " Portrait of Archbishop Cranmer " is a fairly Zbc (Berman ipaintings 181 good contemporaneous copy of a work Holbein painted during his stay in England. Lucas Cranach, the Elder (1472-1553), Diirer's and Holbein's contemporary, was only second to them in proficiency, following, however, more the linear design which is apparent in all the work of the men who combined painting and engraving. His work looks fantastic, odd in conception and execu- tion, sometimes ludicrous, and has always an archaic appearance. Still his pictures, with their Flemish technic, are typical of his time and country, and possessing strong individuality may well be ranked among the most interesting paintings of the German school. Like Diirer he was an intimate friend of Luther, whose portrait he painted several times. The " Portrait of a Man " — whose identity has not yet been discovered — is a characteristic example of Cranach's style, which sometimes lacks proportion, as we note in the way this half length is crowded in the frame. Cranach ordinarily signed his pictures and prints with a crowned serpent. A " Madonna and Child " is provisionally attrib- uted to Lucas Cranach, the Younger (1515-1586), who closely followed his father, but was a weaker painter. Only one painter of the i8th century is shown, Christian Dietrich (1712-1774). He was a child of his period, painting almost all subjects with equal 182 ube Hrt of tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum facility, and in any style or manner he chose to imitate. His " Surprised " and " Christ healing the Sick " illustrate this to the point. With the 19th century there started in Germany a so-called " revival of art," which like many another revival did not amount to much. It was brought about by the study of monumental paint- ing in Italy, and the taking-up of the religious spirit in the pre-Raphaelite manner. There are no examples of this movement here. Towards the middle of the century came that senseless imitation of detail in nature, carried out along the lines of the severest academic technic. Some artists became followers of the romanticists of France; until only towards the close of the cen- tury men arose who were less affiliated with the German art traditions, and sought as individuals to work out their own style and method. Of the various groups of artists shown in the Museum — who differed very little from each other — we note first the Diisseldorf group, the earliest of which was Johann Wilhelm Preyer (1803-1889), whose greatest fame rests on his still-life painting, especially of flowers and fruit, done in a masterful manner, with careful finish. His daughter, Emilie Preyer, of whom we have some fruit-pieces, is some- what broader in handling. Karl Wilhelm Hiibner (1814-1879) has a colourful and expressive canvas, Ube German paintinas 183 called " The Poacher's Death." It is said that when this painting was exhibited, in 1847, in various places in Germany the impression produced by its realistic presentation was so profound that a success- ful movement was started for a humane change in the German game-laws. Andreas Achenbach (1815-1890)" was a strong and vigorous naturalistic painter, sometimes even forsaking the mannerisms which held sway, and to which his son Oswald (1827-1905) more closely adhered. Each has an Italian subject here. A " Holy Family," by Karl Miiller (1818-1893), Pro- fessor at the Diisseldorf Academy, presents a pecu- liar mish-mash of incongruous styles. Wilhelm von Kaulbach (1805-1874), trans- planted the academic Diisseldorf methods to Mun- ich, where he became the director of the local Academy. His " Crusaders before Jerusalem " is an example of his preference for historical composi- tions ; also demonstrated by his successor Carl von Piloty (1826-1886). In the latter's " Thusnelda at the Triumphal Entry of Germanicus into Rome," the story is told with transparent fidelity, while the best part of the art of the period, its thorough and care- ful drawing, must be appreciated. Friedrich Voltz (1817-1886), in his "Landscape with Cattle," gives a punctilious performance in a perfunctory way. Mihaly de Munkacsy (1844-1900), the Hun- 184 ube Hrt ot tbe /IDetropoIttan /iDuseum garian by birth, is only placed in this coterie because of his having studied at Munich — his style was more French. He was by far the strongest man that came from the Munich school. His genre is spirited, powerfully suggestive, and eliminating its didactic proclivities by the force and boldness of the technic. His " Last Days of a Condemned Man " established Munkacsy's reputation, and his " Christ before Pilate " has spread his fame world-wide. His " Pawnbroker's Shop," in the Museum, gives an excellent idea of his manner. Franz von Defregger has a " German Peasant Girl," such as he frequently put in the setting of his meetings between peasants and city- folks. Gabriel Max, also an Austrian, the painter of the well- known " Lion's Bride," has here " The Last Token — A Christian Martyr," of equal popular interest and message of sentiment. Max is a splendid ani- mal painter, whose figure work is adequately expres- sive. Hans Makart (1840-1884), whose enormous " Diana's Hunting Party " has for long been one of the clous of the Museum, was thoroughly French in ideas and methods. The life-size figures disport themselves with grace and abandon, the colouring is rich and harmonious. Eugene Jettel ( 1845-1901 ) had the impressionable mind which acquired influ- ences wherever they touched him. His " Marsh in Ube German paintings 186 North Holland " has the Dutch atmosphere, just as many other landscapes of his brush reflect Barbizon manner. A Bohemian, with Munich training, Vacslav von Brozik (1852-1901), was more inter- ested in historical work, his huge canvas with " Columbus at the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella " being arranged like the dramatic climax of a the- atrical scene. C. G. Hellquist (1851-1890), of Swedish birth, was also a Munich man by training and choice of manner, as may be seen in his histor- ical canvas, " Peter Sonnavater and Master Knut's opprobrious Entry into Stockholm in 1526." Among those in the Berlin wing of the Diisseldorf school we find first the one in whom all its tenets have been most scrupulously concentrated. This is Meyer von Bremen (1813-1886), whose canvas, " The Letter," needs no explanation, as to subject nor execution. Carl Becker (1820-1900) was more ambitious in his literary godfathers, taking a scene from one of Goethe's plays for his subject, while Gustav Richter (1823-1884) aims still higher in an allegory of " Victory." Plain and matter-of-fact in its presentation, and attractive in the colourful rendition, which lithography has copied to a nicety is Riefstahl's (1827-1888) "Wedding Procession in the Bavarian Tyrol." Adolph Schreyer (1828-1899), although a pupil both of Munich and Diisseldorf, was not always 186 Zbc Hrt ot tbe /IDetropolitan /iDuseum bound with their shackles. When Schreyer's name is mentioned the mind reverts to an almost endless army of Arabs galloping across the plain, all put upon convenient parlor-size stretchers and all painted from the same palette. But he did better work. He was, when he cared to be, a painter and a draughts- man of bold conception. In his early period, when he painted Wallachian scenes, the Cossack of Rus- sia, or the peasant of Poland, he was more sincere in his work than when later le pot au feu made him turn out his Arabs at the dealers' command. A single Wallachian example, " Abandoned " — a horse standing by a wrecked wagon over the bodies of his mate and his master, on the marshes of the Danube — and several Arabian subjects give ample opportunity to compare his different styles. There are six or eight examples of the work of Ludwig Knaus. His most popular picture has always been " The Holy Family, Repose in Egypt " — although one need not to expect any local colour on account of the subtitle. It is a charmingly sweet ensemble of a lovely woman with pretty cherubs. Anton Seitz and Ferdinand Schauss have also to tell their stories in paint, and do this with simplicity and sentiment without any clumsiness of expression. F. A. von Kaulbach, who after Lenbach's death took the lead as the German portrait painter, was more colourful and versatile than Lenbach, but H o ^ O 'u Pi C H^ o o X o trbe (Betman |p»aintinas 187 without the latter's powerful, characteristic features. An ideal " Girl's Head " is the example of his brush in the Museum. Only two of the men who at the present day are instilling the hope of the generating of a national school are represented here. Hans Thoma has a canvas " At Lake Garda." Thoma looks backward towards the days of Altdorfer, who in some respects was the forerunner of Turner. He is the most German of painters and a son of the Black Forest, a dreamer and a poet, a master of idyls. More tran- quil than Bocklin he takes refuge in a certain archaic ingenuousness, and he presents his naive and charming landscapes with a delightful and almost childlike freshness. His colour may be occasionally dull, and his drawing defective, he still depicts his rural themes with loving beauty. More vigorous than he is Heinrich Zugtl, the most brilliant painter of animals, who has an aston- ishing technic and a wonderful freshness of colour. His " Oxen going through the Water " reminds one of the Spaniard Sorolla y Bastida in its forceful pre- sentation and vivid execution. CHAPTER X THE SPANISH PAINTINGS Most of the few painters of note which the Spanish school has produced are represented in the MetropoHtan Museum, except the greatest of them all, Velasquez, whose work is only indicated by copies or school pictures, A recent acquisition gives us even a glimpse of quatrocento Spanish art, of which little has been discovered. In fact, it is but a few years ago when a Spanish writer, Seiior Sanpere y Miquel, revealed to connoisseurs the existence of a flourishing school of painting in and around Barcelona throughout the 15th century. The example in the Museum is an ancona of this school, an altarpiece dedicated to Saint Andrew, and attributed to Luis Borrassa. We must draw on the information given by Mr. Roger E. Fry, the Museum's expert, in regard to this Primitif. The school of Barcelona, or of Catalonia to give the name of the entire district, was quite distinct from the Spanish school proper. The Spanish school had been born of the Church, and. reli^ipu 188 Ube Spanlsb Ipafntinas 189 was its chief motive. An ascetic view of life in- spired it. Not a pietistic, fervent and devout, as much as a morose, often ghastly tenet. It bore the marks more of an ecclesiasticism by blood and violence, than of Christianity by peace and love. The Catalans looked, however, by preference to Provence and Italy than to Spain in their racial, political and social sympathies ; and the origin of their school must rather be traced to Avignon. While the Popes were confined there (1309-1377) many Italian artists followed them, and especially Siennese artists impressed their style upon the Limousin districts, and the founders of the Catalan school clearly derived their inspiration from Simone Martini and others. Thus Siennese forms, Siennese technic, and to some extent Siennese colour pre- dominate in their work till well on into the 15th century. The first of the artists of this group of Barcelona which Sefior y Miquel mentions is Luis Borrassa, who flourished in the early years of the 15th cen- tury. A few of his retablos, painted by him be- tween 1396 and 1424, are still in existence, which show an artist who, following the main lines of Siennese trecento art in the larger compositions, gives rein to a quite individual and original fancy in the smaller subsidiary scenes. In one respect he seemed even to have been in advance of the con- 190 Ubc art of tbe Metropolitan /IDuseum temporary Italians, who were still conscious of con- ventional traditions. Borrassa showed to be in more intimate touch with the life around him, and dis- plays a greater realism in the features of the persons he painted. The altarpiece in the Museum came from the Church of Perpignan, near to the Catalan border, and bears a striking afifinity to the altarpiece of St. John the Baptist, in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, in Paris, which is accepted by Seiior y Miquel on internal evidence as Borrassa's. Still the attribu- tion of our altarpiece is by no means established, since too little is known of this primitive school to adjudge with certainty on any example that might be found. The same might be said of another most interesting altarpiece, lent by Mr. William M. Laffan, which belongs to this school and period. Next in order of our review is a large "Nativity," by El Greco (1548-1614), " the Greek," for he was born on the island of Crete, where he was called Domenikos Theotokopuli. Early he was taken to Venice, and there learned his art in the school of voluptuous colour, and became Titianesque in style ; although Tintoretto must have had great influence on his manner. Being still quite unknown, the work that he did in Venice until his twenty seventh year has been ascribed to various Italian artists, despite the peculiar characteristics which even then distin- ALTAR PIECE DEDICATED TO SAINT ANDREW. Attributed to Luis Borrassa. Ube Spanisb paintings i9i guished his brush. In 1575 he was probably brought to Toledo to paint the reredos in the Church of Santo Domingo de Silos, and he never left the Spanish city for any length of time, dying there forty years later. An alien will frequently emphasize the national traits of his adoption more strongly than is done by the native himself — thus " the Greek " has been called more Spanish than the Spaniards. The austere asceticism of Spanish character is strongly reflected from all El Greco's work, but exaggerated to a degree, and one detects therein an extravagant mannerism. Without going so far as to say, with Carl Justi, that he painted Hke a visionary, taking for revelations the distorted fancies of a morbid brain, we still must wonder at the gauntness and grimness of his elongated figures, which in their exaggerated line and harsh colour make decidedly uncanny and ghostly pictures. It is natural that work of such impression is scarcely attractive, at first glance at least, its flavour is too strong, it is too bizarre and racy in quality to be enjoyed by every one. Still there are certain features about his work which make it naively new and strangely modern. In his patchy colouring, in his flat masses, we recognize the first of the impressionists in the broader sense. We find also a new, and hitherto unknown, tonal quality in his work, smoky blacks 192 Zbc Brt ot tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum and dingy whites, which Velasquez owed to him and later developed into " silvery tones," after leav- ing the hot and unluminous colour he had learned from Herrera. " The Nativity," in the Museum, is one of the extreme examples of El Greco's art. In draw- ing, colour and composition we find here one of his most characteristic performances. In spite of El Greco's eccentric style he left some followers from his studio, Maino, Tristan and Or- rente, who rank among the best Castilian painters; but it was not until half a century later that the great master arose who alone has lifted Spanish art to an eminent place. Before Velasquez the art of Spain had only tenta- tively assumed characteristic national features. In the early days the struggles of the country for political existence, as well as the frequent contests with the Moors, tended to retard its artistic devel- opment. When art spoke it was a faint echo and in feeble imitation of Italian and Flemish masters, it was more derivative than original. The power- ful influence of the Church, the narrow bigotry of the people and their rulers, and the terrors of the Inquisition stamped it, and tended to depress. Classic art was unknown, the study of the nude was forbidden, and in the religious paintings, which alone prevailed, fervent fanaticism, often morose. Ube Spanisb paintings 193 ghastly and horrible, was the inspiration. The in- fluence of Flanders loosened somewhat the gloomy thralls, and later, in the 16th century, Florentine drawing and Venetian colour aided the liberation from the yoke of the Church. Velasquez (1599-1660), the great realist, with transcendent art, gave the true poetry of painting. His motto was Verdad no pintura, truth not paint- ing, and Luco Giordano called his work " the theology of painting." If theology means knowl- edge of the sublime, the appellation is apt. In summing up his characteristics we note that the two periods of the Master's painting are divided by his first Italian journey in 1630. Even in his first period the vital creative power emerges, not the result of mere imitative observation but native breadth and dignity in treatment, massive and secure in construction. In his second period there is an added lightness, unity and force of tone, a more decorative character and an increase of atmospheric effect. Yet had he died during his first visit to Rome it might have been said, without exaggera- tion, that he had spoken his last word, and that, young as he was, he had lived to see his art fully ripened. Throughout his work we find that often he had no real sense of colour, the more surprising when we reflect upon the unfailing instinct for colour 194 Ube Brt of tbe /Metropolitan /iDuseum shown by his Moorish contiguousness. His draw- ing was always admirable, correct and unrestrained ; some of his portraits are modelled very broadly and softly, without a sharp mark or a hard edge, when he smudges so subtly as to convey no sense of direct handling; the surfaces slide into each other in a loose, supple manner. Or again he gave his figures bold, rough-hewn planes, which give them the force and vigour of firm chiselling. Velasquez had a mastery over his materials un- equalled, his colouring was clear and clean, he sel- dom used mixed tints. He was gifted with the art of simplification, with an economy of pigment, whereby the texture of the canvas becomes visible, enhancing the delicate effect. He husbanded his whites and his yellows, which tell, sparkling like gold, on his undertoned backgrounds. He painted with a rapid, flowing and certain brush, using those long ones of which Palomino speaks. Velasquez was the great discoverer of values, that is, according the just amount of light to the colour represented, which gives an object painted a peculiar intensity of illumination and appearance of life; while his power of painting circumambient air, his knowledge of lineal and aerial perspective, and the gradations of his tones, give an absolute concavity to the flat surface of the canvas. Yet in all his painting there is an absence of art Zbc Spanisb ipaintiUQS 195 and effort, which is the culmination of knowing how to do a thing. This was the result of his severe discipline in the studios of his masters, Francisco de Herrera and Francisco Pacheco. Par excellence, Velasquez was an objective painter. His work is free from the slightest, ten- dency to substitute cleverness for truth. He never frittered away his breadth or sympathetic effect by superfluous finish to mere accessories. He never " faked." He did everything bravely, with an utter absence of self-assertion or pose. There is no show- ing of the artist. The idea never enters his head that his own individual trick with the brush could have an interest for any human being. The three portraits in the Museum, which for- merly were attributed to his brush, are now rightly relegated to be school-copies. Still they give us, at second hand, an inkling of the Master's art. Francisco de Zurbaran (1598-1662), of whom we have a " St. Michael, the Archangel," was born the year before Velasquez. His work is in the eclectic manner of Caravaggio, and was undoubt- edly influenced in his later years by his contempo- rary Bartolome Esteban Murillo. Murillo (1617-1682) was the greatest religious painter of Spain, and always one of the most popu- lar, not only in his own, but in other countries. His great popularity is likely to be ascribed to a ten- 196 Ubc Brt of tbe Metropolitan /iDuseum dency towards insipidity which he displays in most of his work. His " St. John the Evangehst," in the Museum, represents the Saint seated on a rock in a bare landscape, against a lurid background of dark gray. His eagle, holding an inkpot, is seated alongside the inspired writer. Most painters, even the greatest, show an altera- tion, if not always progressive, in their manner of painting — so it was with Murillo. He, at least, underwent a purging of both phrase and manner. Many of his earlier paintings are cold and sombre in tone, sad in colouring, black in the shadows, jejune and trivial in character and expression. This early style is known as his estilio frio, or cold style. His next phase, known as the warm style, estilio calido, is marked by deeper colouring and strong contrasts of light and shadow ; but the light is actual light and the plastic forms are well de- fined. Murillo's last style, peculiar to himself, is known as el vaporoso, from a certain vaporous or misty effect that it produces. It was the result of his effort to overcome the heaviness, opacity and hardness of a solid impasto, and with a freer and looser manner he produces now his effects by a variety of tints melting into one another, and he dematerializes his figures while still retaining their highly mundane and sensuous existence. His most famous productions are those in which the manner XTbe Spanisb paintings 197 of his middle period is becoming influenced by this later searching for misty effect. It is plainly seen that the example before us was painted in his latest manner. One of the followers, possibly a pupil, of Velas- quez, Mateo Cerezo (1635-1685), has here the " Portrait of a Cardinal," which has Httle distinc- tion of original attainment. Not until a century later an artist of eminence appeared again in the advent of Francisco Goya (1746-1828). A " Portrait of Don Sebastian Mar- tinez," and another man's portrait, loaned to the Museum, do not give a very extended view of this artist's versatile talents, devoted to religious sub- jects, portraits, figure work, but especially satirical compositions which gave him the name of " the Spanish Hogarth." The " Don Martinez " is an unusually careful and serious work, more precise in drawing and more constrained in brush work than was his wont, while the " Don Mocarte " is freer in handling and has more intense characteriza- tion, and must hence be an earlier work. Goya gradually changed his style to an austere and scrupulous precision of outline. A " Jewess of Tangiers," also of his brush, has more of the fire and vivacity of his early manner. The 19th century artists invariably echo the pre- vailing Parisian mode of painting, only occasionally 198 Ube art of tbe /iDetropolltan /iDuseum harking to Castilian and Andaliisian models. Leon y Escosura (1834-1901) followed his natural bent towards historical research to furnish the genre he mostly painted. His " King Philip presenting Rubens to Velasquez in the latter's Studio " is a scene skilfully handled, the poses are natural and easy. He was not a stranger to New York, where he visited several times to paint portraits and local subjects. One of these shows an auction sale in the, now defunct, Clinton Hall, in 1876. Mariano Fortuny (1841-1874) had a brilliant career during his short life. When only sixteen years of age he won the Prix de Rome at Madrid. His " Portrait of a Spanish Lady " is one of the most artistic paintings in the Museum. It is painted with sincere searching of the highest expression of art, without any claptrap or any substitute of clever- ness for truth. There is nothing supercilious about this dignified interpretation of nature. The relative values of the black gown and the deep olive back- ground are given in a masterful manner. His Arabian scenes have more of a staccato tendency, in which nature is cajoled and forced and bedizened to add to attractiveness. The short life of the gifted Eduardo Zamagois (1842-1871) was the romance of the Qiiartier Latin. He combined the satire of Goya with the wit of a Frenchman, and preached his pictorial ■ ^^Sr^^T^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^I^I^^^^I^^^^^^H K.:!v5 Zbc SpanfBb paintings 199 homilies with the eloquence of Bossuet, and the precision of his master, Meissonier. He was a mas- ter of the grotesque at will, but appreciating more fully the picturesque, he was a mocker without a grimace. He was brilliant without false glitter, audacious in his invention, yet disarming animad- version, because the point of his arrow was not poisoned. In " The King's Favourite," in the Van- derbilt collection, the artist introduced the portraits of several of his brethren of the brush. The genre of Frangois Domingo concerns itself most with guardrooms. Several of his easel pic- tures are here. Jose Villegas followed his master Fortuny to a certain extent, sometimes surpassing him in gorgeous colour. He has a thorough knowl- edge of the human figure, as seen in " Examining Arms," and a fine talent for composition, to be noted in " A Spanish Christening." Martin Rico (1850-1908) is best known for his Venetian views, which have always enjoyed unbounded popularity. With Rico the sun is always shining, Venice is never dirty, even the sails on its fishing boats seem- ingly are freshly washed, starched and laundered. He has been able to find many picturesque nooks in the Lagoon city — as who would not ? Withal, he paints these neatly, full of colour, and in a purely decorative vein. Emilio Sanchez-Perrier has also here a lagoon of Venice, in much the same manner. 200 Ubc Brt of tbe /IDetropolitan /IDuseum One of the most popular paintings in the Museum is the " Boatmen of Barcelona," by V. D. Baixeras, an admirable composition with strong colour, a realistic impression. This 20th century has, however, brought to the fore a few Spaniards who may yet redeem all the past, and reveal a truly national spirit. Garrido, Ricardo Canals, Guirand de Scevola, G. Bibao, Jaime Morera, Eliseo Meiffren, Sorolla y Bastida, and Ignacio Zuloaga are most prominent. The latter two are represented in the Museum. Of So- rolla we have three representative canvases, " The Bath, Javea," " The Swimmers," and " Portrait of Senora de Sorolla." This artist is a light-painter. Heat and light were never more powerfully repre- sented than in his shorepieces. The sun fairly seems to pour light and heat upon the blinding sand. The greatest skill is required to paint this, for if clear whites are used the effect is chalky and the sense of heat is lost, while if the highest notes of colour are adulterated or neutralized to an appreciable de- gree, the vividness is gone and the sense of light is lost. The technical methods which Sorolla uses to reflect the effulgence of light from his canvas are simply marvellous. His figures are gay and lithesome. The swimmers in the sparkling water are instantaneous in movement. Ignacio Zuloaga, whose " Mile. Breval as Car- Ube Spanisb ipatntinas 201 men " is in the Museum, is if anything still stronger, more juicy, and richer in his figure-work. He re- minds of the best of Goya's figure pieces, of the best in Velasquez' " Weavers," of the best in Mu- rillo's celebrated beggar-boys — it is, indeed, figure grandeur naturelle. New forces have arisen in Spain that will be its later glory. CHAPTER XI THE FRENCH PAINTINGS In point of numbers of artists represented the French section is best suppHed. Examples of ahnost one hundred and fifty painters are shown, as a result of which not any national school of painting in the Museum may be studied as completely in every phase of its art expression. We have here the 17th century classics, the prominent 18th century men with the exception of Fragonard, some of the Academicians and of the Romanticists, all of the Barbizon group, and most of the men that come after. Greater names than of those we find here are missing; nevertheless, the various art currents are sufficiently represented, so that these may be followed, if only in the work of the lesser men. The earliest French example in the Museum is the part of a polyptich which undoubtedly comes from the Avignonese school, which had its origin in the influx of Italian artists in the 14th century. With many Italian traits these three panels possess marked French peculiarities, the French saint St. Giles being one of the subjects. The other two 202 Ube ifrencb paintings 203 panels represent " The Expulsion of Devils from Heaven " and " The Mission of the Apostles." This Italian influence was farther north com- bined with Flemish tendencies to shape the early French painting of religious subjects, and also of portraits, the most famous artist of the 16th cen- tury being Frangois Clouet. While the French artists of this period adopted all they could learn from the Italians, the Flemings, and the Hollanders, they still manifested some independent spirit in the intellectual manner in which they coordinated and constructed these materials. For one thing they seemed to have given preference to flat-painting, so that Wilkie observes that their pictures had the appearance of outlines filled up. With the next century this intellectual evolution asserts itself more fully. The drift had been more towards Italian eclecticism, to which the men of Flanders also were succumbing. This is seen in the work of the three brothers Le Nain (early 17th century), of whom a school picture, "Men- dicants," is in the Museum. Although this ten- dency is also strongly marked in the mythological paintings of Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), this artist was the first in whom French genius asserted itself in painting. We observe with him an altered attitude towards the landscape setting, which is less emotionally symbolic and decorative, as it is with 204 Ubc Brt ot tbe /iDetropolitan /IDuseum the Italians, and is revealing more realistic traits, even in classic severity and purity of style. This is only superficially shown in three school pictures of rather poor quality. These poor performances, savouring in some way of the flavour of a master's spirit, but bearing plainly the earmarks of imitation, were once accredited to the higher talent — but to call a goose a swan does not change the breed of the bird. His brother-in-law, Gaspard Dughet, whom he adopted as his son, and hence known as Gaspard Poussin (1613-1675), was strongly influenced by Salvator Rosa, while at the same time endeavouring to follow the noble, classic style of Nicholas. But mannerisms and painting-tricks were the natural consequence of an intensely facile brush and fecund imagination, which detract materially from the artistic value of his work. The " Landscape with Figures " is a typical production. Just as fully imbued with the Italian spirit was Jacques Blanchard (1600-1638), whose "Venus and Adonis " clearly shows to have been painted under Titian's spell. The man who did the most specific service to French art, and to all landscape art in fine, was Claude Gellee, called after the district in which he was born, Claude Lorrain (1600-1682). This is the more remarkable because Claude cannot be con- Ube ifrencb painttnos 205 sidered to have proclaimed his message in his mother-tongue. He used a foreign dialect, for his work is Italian, his composition, his subjects, his figures — which are poor at that — are painted in the style of the land where he lived from his early- manhood. Classic ruins, seaports, pasture lands, herds and herdsmen, piping shepherds, dancing peasants, gods, saints, banditti, sportsmen — he painted these, and not impeccably. His landscapes are seldom, if ever, true to colour; his foliage is smeared and dragged ; there is little harmony in his expression; and the composition of his pictures is stilted, forced and overstudied. But to all this there was added a new revelation. He was not " the father of landscape art," as he has been called, for Titian and other yenetian painters had before his day from time to time painted land- scape pure and simple. Claude Lorrain's greatness, his real merit lies in that he was the first — not only in priority, but well-nigh preeminently — to grapple seriously with the problem of sunlight and atmos- phere. And in this his influence is still felt. He was able to define separate distances and unlimited space by the soft vapour in which he bathed his scene ; to make leaves quiver, and fleecy clouds float across the sky by the circumambient air; to depict the brilliant and vivid working of sunlight. Only Turner, and he alone, has ever surpassed Claude 206 Ube Bet of tbe /iDetropolitan /IDuseum Lorrain in defining the magic, transforming power of the sundisk. Yet even here the discerning may- pause, for where Turner analyzes this sunhght, sacrifices everything to it, and catches its real radi- ance, Claude crowns the mysteries of his light with severity and repose, and considers the object illumin- ated quite as worthy of his skill as the light itself. It cannot be difficult to trace in the " Italian Seaport" which the Museum owns — a beautiful example, with its golden glow of sky — the various characteristics that have been enumerated. The next century brought that group of painters whose charm still lingers. They are the Minor Masters, men born of their time, and reflecting the spirit of their age. It was an artificial age of re- awakened paganism, of frivolous and trivial graces, of elegant amusement and vivacious desire, ushered in by the light-hearted, pleasure-loving regent, Philippe, Duke of Orleans — a transition from the majesty of Louis XIV and the 17th century, to the gaiety and gloss, patches and rouge of the reign of Louis XV. Watteau (1684-1721) was its embodiment. Do we not find in his life the fatal contrast, the mor- dant irony of the life of his period? All the fes- tivals of pleasure which he painted, the lightest and latest fancies, a paradise of gay dresses and shep- herd pastimes amid enchanted shades, the sunny Uhc ifrencb paintfnos 207 stage with Gilles and Pierrot and Columbine, with Scapin and the Doctor, with Arlechino and Scara- muccia — all those cunning catches and quirks of look and gesture which he touches with the happiest art and insight, all this spark of genius and poetic vision, to cover the dark mood, petulant sarcasm and unhappy spirit of a poor wanderer, always rest- less, impatient, dissatisfied, and dying just when youth was passed. Even as the enchanted world of the frivolous court, the glittering extravagance and entrancing fashions but lightly gilded and veiled th^ despair of poverty and starvation, the gross and sordid existence of the masses, which in the whirl- igig of time would hurl the great Revolution to scatter these Olympian divinities, and replace the half-overgrown, smiling Pan with the guillotine. Only a few paintings of this period are owned by the Museum, but fortunately several have been loaned which give a partial survey of the 18th cen- tury French art. Watteau's genre (only a Portrait by him is shown) and Fragonard's matchless work are still lacking, and some of the other canvases here are but copies. Still belonging to the colder atmosphere of the reign of Louis XIV were Rigaud and Largilliere, both superior to the portraitists that followed. They are more impressive, always dignified, Rigaud even possessing scope and style, while Largilliere had 208 Ube Hrt of tbe /IDetropolitan /IDuseum still breadth of execution, not yet lost in the con- fectionne manner of later artists. He has also a more unctuous colouring, a clear-cut brilliancy of modelling. The " Portrait of Marie Marguerite Lambert de Thorigni," by Nicholas de Largilliere (1656-1746), has vivacity, daintiness and wit, with some insight into character, later to be replaced by insipidity. Jean Marc Nattier (1685-1766) already shows in his portrait of " Princesse de Conde as Diana " the ideal to which portraiture was reaching — the ideal of the frivolous society that flocked to his studio to be made beautiful, whether they were or not. And so he gave innumerable charming visions of pretty, budding and blooming ladies with soft, caressing eyes, clad in sumptuous gowns or coquet- tish deshabilles. He was the most accomplished court-painter — with all that this implies. Entirely in Watteau's style was the work of Pater (1696-1736). An excellent copy of his "Comical March," in the collection of Lord Pembroke, en- ables us to know how near he came to the sparkling manner, with less refinement of colour, of the greater master. Frangois Boucher (1704-1770) possessed the same sportive and abandoned freedom, with a vibra- tion of atmosphere that blends the hues of his palette. His " La Fontaine d'Amour," " Les tlbe jfrencb ipaintfngs 209 Denicheurs d' Oiseaux," and " La Toilette de Venus " have all indefinable charm, veiled and subtle poetry, glances and smiles of gallantry, vague mur- murs of a summer night's dream, garlands of roses that become circlets of kisses. Noel Nicolas Coypel (1692-1734) was a some- what lesser light ; yet his " Venus with Sea-nymphs and Amours," keeps us still dreaming in that chance spot that has no place on the world's map, where is eternal indolence, where eyes grow drowsy, where love is the light, and visions fill the indefinite horizon. Francois Drouais (1727-1775) was another popu- lar and fashionable portrait painter of the 18th cen- tury. He showed great care in his accessories, and cannot be held blameless of flattery. A " Portrait of the Emperor Joseph II of Austria," the brother of Marie Antoinette, and a portrait of " La Comtesse d'Hornoy de Fontaines " — especially the latter — are characteristic of the art of his period, an art which loved sinuous, capricious, rich and unsymmetric forms, searched for tender, evanescent colours, and in all and everything avoided violent sensations. An art which, added to all qualities of competence, facility, grace, elegance, possessed one, and that cleverness, to a superlative degree. With Greuze and Chardin (the latter not repre- sented) we leave the fetes galantes, the rouge and 210 XTbe Brt of tbe /IDetropoIitan /IDuseum beauty-spots, and return to nature — if nature is meant to be life divested of its humours or heroics. For it was not a return to naturaHsm. Greuze's pre- vaihng fault was an artificiality as pronounced as in any of the frivolous and sensual allegories of Boucher. Only his artificiality concerned itself with the choice of his moral subjects, and with their wearying monotony. The cause of his temporary popularity was the reactionary trend of his ideas, overflowing with good and generous impulses and tender emotions; in his exaltation of the virtues, the strength and honour of the middle classes. He was the painter par excellence of young girls, always the same, and always charming, which he created with such personal cachet, that his name has even become attached to the type. Three such heads by Greuze (1725-1805) are in the Museum. Only in the heads of children, of bewitching girls, and especially of that transient and ephemeral love- liness wherein the woman's beauty is just beginning to work its wondrous transformation in the con- tours of the child, he was the unmatched master. He sinks to a lower rank when we consider his genre pictures, in which he shows himself a senti- mental moralist — not the moralizing of Hogarth, who lays on the lash with wholesome sternness; rather the preachments of a snivelling stage, which Zbc ifrencb paintlnas 211 protests to overmuch — with the tongue in the cheek. Even in his best pictures of young girls he often allows this play to the gallery to vitiate his art. One of the best-known instances is his " Broken Pitcher," of the Louvre, in which, with a rare sub- tlety, with a suggestiveness the more unpleasant because so decently veiled, he insinuates the unripe- ness of sweet youth that has not in it the elements of resistance to temptation. With Jacques Louis David the reaction was com- plete. The art of Louis XV had become flippant, careless, licentious; moreover the rights of man were asserting themselves against the despotism of the few. Art reflected the spirit of time and people — as it always does ; and classicism, the stern line, the heroic subject, the exalted spirit found expres- sion. It is true that a composition of David is the perfection of convention, regulated by rule and by rote; that the academic system is fatal to spon- taneity; and that it possesses an elaborateness and complexity which confuse; that it was a calculated and carefully poised art — but it was a revolt against the sensuous art of painting. The century of that tender and great immortal, Watteau, had passed ; the amiable frivolities of Boucher were for- gotten ; the mock virtue of Greuze had become dis- tasteful; the simple domesticity of Chardin did no 212 Ube Hrt ot tbe /IDetropolitan /iDuseum longer suffice — and a barren neo-classicism, aca- demic, doctrinal, respectable, with its pseudo-heroic, patriotic philippics took the place. A few examples of this period are in the Mu- seum. Of Charles Vernet (1758-1836) we find here " A Roman Triumph," which embodies all the principles which David inculcated. It is a pageant of ancient Rome at the triumphal entry of a Caesar. His gold chariot is drawn by prancing white horses, surrounded by all his retinue of centurions, standard bearers and soldiers of his guard. Charles Vernet's son, Horace (1789-1863), in his " Preparing for a Race," exhibits, with his father's classicism, the overpowering influence of romanti- cism, which was soon to put the school of David aside. Also affected by this romantic movement was Frangois Granet (1775-1849), with his *' Bene- dictines in the Oratory." But fully in the academic style was Ary Scheffer (1795-1858), Holland-born but residing in Paris from his youth. His " Peter's Repentance " was painted as late as 1855, yet ex- hibits no departure from the austerity of academic tenets. At first painting small genre, he became later more ambitious, executing large figure pieces, in which he showed a strong leaning towards the pathetic and emotional vein. His taste was refined and elevated, his drawing correct, but he lacked the genius whereby David infused the fire of life into Ube fxcncb paintings 213 an art which in his followers is merely coldly rhetorical. Pierre Prud'hon and Georges Michel are the links between the last days of classical supremacy and the rise of romanticism, of which they are the pre- cursors. Prud'hon (1758-1823) possessed deeper poetic insight, but his romantic inspiration is still constrained and regularized by classic principles of taste. His " Assumption of the Virgin " displays his grace and lambent colour — a beautiful mother- of-pearl and opalescent tone underlying his exqui- site violets and graver hues. His more suave and graceful line, the greater harmony and distinction of the mass, a wider spontaneity set him apart from the restrained and restricted methods, even of In- gres and Flandrin. The same we recognize in Georges Michel (1763- 1843), whose lofty landscapes often reach dramatic grandeur. The " Old Chateau " has the magni- ficent sky with rolling clouds, which may be re- garded as Michel's signature — the only one he ever used. With the entrance of the 19th century came the era of noble discontent, the dawn of revolt. And revolt always stirs, awakens, calls forth action. In art it was the reaction against the too sculptural tendencies of the academicians, in whose hands art had become a thing of metes and bounds, and 214 Ube Hrt ot tbe /iDetropolttan /iDuseum measurements and geometric theorems — the an- chylosis of artistic smugness. Gericault and Delacroix led the fray. There is here no example of Gericault, but in " L' Enlevement de Rebecca," by Delacroix (1798-1863), a scene from Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, we find all the colour, dramatic action, strength of expression, bold sub- jectiveness of the new cult. Delacroix strode across the pallid face of contemporary art scattering a splendour of colouration such as had not been seen since the Renaissance. Well did he own : " All that I know I took from Paolo Veronese." He greatly admired Rubens, the warmth, the movement, the throw of his figures and the draperies, the fresh- ness of tone, the life of the flesh, the magnificence and pomp ; but Veronese taught him the luminosity of shadows, the vibration and modulation of his tones. In the " Sultan of Morocco, with his Officers and Guard of Honour," his prismatic colouration, his Saracenic splendour, his combined firmness and expressiveness of design, are palpable. One of his pupils, Alexandre Bida (1812-1895), was an artist of the utmost distinction, whose fame rests chiefly on the fine drawings he made for the periodicals of his time. His " Massacre of the Mamelukes " is in the spirit of the romanticists but with a very decided turn towards realism. While the colour of Alexandre Decamps (1803- Ube ^rencb paintings 215 I860) is less strenuous as with Delacroix, his orien- tal landscapes and figures gain in harmonious depth. His " Bashi-Bazouk " and " The Night- patrol at Smyrna," on the one hand, and his " Ital- ian Family " on the other, are examples of two phases of his art. Eugene Isabey (1804-1886) was less guarded or reserved, he has more brio than any of the roman- ticists. With a colour scheme, sometimes lurid in its intensity, he combines a patchy facture, a broad, slightly spotty brushwork, that adds strength and volume to the ensemble. Still even the small figures in his " A Banquet Hall " are indicated in such a masterful, summary manner that not one loses his freedom of pose or movement. The opulence of the decorations give further play to the artist's mar- vellous texture painting. Right at his elbow stands Adolphe Monticelli (1824-1886), as voluptuous in colour, but, alas, lacking a sane supervision over his phantasmagoria. "Dames de Qualite " and "La Cour de la Prin- cesse " are two canvases, called and chosen, out of the many fanciful dreams which he produced in his dissolute, disordered life. Thomas Couture (1815-1879), still a romanti- cist with a classic temperament, and not heeding the call of realism which was already being heard, had shown in one work, " Les Romains de la De- 216 TLhc Hrt of tbe /iDetropolitan /IDuseum cadence," in the Louvre, the height of inspiration he could reach. The study for a large canvas, never completed, ordered by the French Govern- ment, " Volunteers of the French Revolution, 1789," which is now in the Vanderbilt gallery, plainly shows that he would not have duplicated his only great success. Yet aside from this work on which his fame rests, he has done work that shows deeper feeling, if not more masterful in- vention. Take his "Day Dreams," in the Wolfe collection — a performance which has gracious strength, firmness and sureness of execution, and a general, impressive beauty. The young lad, re- laxing from study by blowing soap bubbles, sees in these the future he dreams of; it is inscribed on the paper reflected in the mirror before him: " Immortalite de I'Art," and in the laurel wreath hanging on the wall behind his head. It may have been a recollection of his own youth and its long- ings, which inspired this canvas. While the colour of the romanticists never quite lost its influence on French art, and constantly re- appears in the men that follow, there appeared a group of painters during the thirties, who added thereto a poetic strain, which has made these Bar- bizon masters stand out supreme in 19th century French art; only rivalled a generation later by the Ube jfrencb paintinas 2i7 Giverny school, totally differing in aim, but, never- theless, as salient in its influence. Landscape art was neglected by the romanticists; what there was of it had a most conventional stamp, and was of a truly insipid kind. But in the salon of 1824 there appeared three pictures by the English artist John Constable, sent there by a French con- noisseur. " The Hay Wain," now in the National Gallery, was one of these. These paintings, them- selves inspired by the great Dutch landscapists Ruisdael, Cuyp and Hobbema, were a revelation to French artists, and served to point them to nature as the source of true inspiration. Then the dark- ness of studios was left behind, and certain artists betook themselves to Barbizon, a village on the west- ern outskirts of the forest of Fontainebleau, where they essayed to interpret landscape, no longer in its linear, outward appearance, like a piece of scenery, but nature visualized through light and atmosphere. And added thereto was a certain sub- jectiveness, an expression of personal moods and individual feeling, from which arose their wide divergence in style from one another. J. B. C. Corot (1796-1875) began painting under the influence of the classic school, and to the end of his life he was never anything but a classic ro- manticist. His classicism did not consist in that 218 Ube Hrt ot tbe /IDetropolitan jflDuseum he introduced ancient architecture in his earHer, somewhat severe landscapes; or in that he peopled these with nymphs and dryads, as he often did in his middle period; but it meant a refinement, a subtle interpenetration of sensuousness and severity. And this serene and cultivated effect makes his art, with all its fairy-like blitheness, a fortiori as classic as the Greek. Those who visited the Centenaire Exposition of the World's Fair of 1900 must have been amazed at the range of subjects which Corot has treated. Outside of France it is little known that he was not circumscribed to green and gray arboured pas- torals, idyllic, full of freshness. Only occasionally a canvas is seen with those shifting shapes, silhou- etted against the sunset glow; and more rarely do we hear of his " St. Jerome," his " Flight into Egypt," his " Baptism of Christ," with its nine life-size figures. Yet in these he showed his metier, albeit not with the zest, the enthusiasm he gave to his out-doors work. It must have been a good fairy that took him by the collar from behind the counter in the draper's shop, and led him to listen to nature's morning hymns, himself to give song like the sky-lark. A " Classical Landscape," in the Vanderbilt gal- lery, shows him in his earlier manner, when he still sought rigour and breadth and deeper colour. Later Xlbe ifrencb paintings 219 — note his " Ville d'Avray " and " Road to Paris " — he simpHfied his manner and grasped the mys- teries of Hght and air. Then the leaves of the trees are vibrating in the breeze, and the many-hued barks, the thrilhng rays of early sunlight, produce the subdued harmonies which gave him name as " the silvery." " The Sleep of Diana," recently acquired, is one of his important canvases. This painting — and its pendant " Orphee Saluant la Lumiere " — were painted as panel decorations for the palace of Prince Demidoff. It is a night scene; the full moon sends its beams through the leafage to play around the sleeping form, as the cherubs are watchfully hovering over her. Modulated with systematic un- obtrusive simplicity and unwearied variety the sil- very light filters through, and hides itself in every nook with imperceptible gradations. And what sublime spaciousness in the sky, flecked and dashed with trembling shafts in breaking, mingling, melting hues. It is a fantasia to the midnight hour by the sweet singer. J. F. Millet (1814-1875) was the stronger man — if strength be uncompromising and vigorous ad- herence to personal ideals, when these are furthest emancipated from and opposed to popularly accepted routine and formulary. The keynote of his art lies in his own expressions : " To characterize the type," 220 Ube Hrt of tbe /IDetropoUtan /iDuseum and " Nothing counts but what is fundamental." And he did this in such largeness of style, such monumental conception, that, although his art has undoubtedly a literary side, this sentimental appeal is always subordinate to his pictorial potency. His superb feeling for colour alone would make him a painter rather than a story-teller, even though every one of his peasant subjects not alone repre- sents, but proclaims loudly, all that is noblest and most pathetic in that peasant life with its deeper meanings and larger truths, its dignity of labour, its poetry of common things. If we halt, and point to the heaviness of his painting, how painful and laboured his workmanship, that he is occasionally crude, hard, and even dirty, and often uncertain — these are shortcomings, not failures. There are no defects in his presentment of the grandeur of rustic life, and the beauty of creation; subjects which he denoted with instinctive and absorbing interest. The Vanderbilt collection has no less than six oil paintings and two pastels of the master. The most famous of these is " The Sower," which was first exhibited in the Salon of 1850. It attracted considerable attention, diverse criticism, and the un- bounded admiration of the younger artists. Theo- phile Gautier, the only critic who recognized its rare merit, thus spoke of it in his review of the Salon: Xlbe ffrencb ipaintinGS 221 " The night is coming, spreading its gray wings over the earth; the sower marches with rhythmic step, flinging the grain in the furrow. He is gaunt, cadaverous, thin, under his Hvery of poverty; yet it is life which his large hand sheds. He who has nothing scatters, with a superb gesture, the bread of the future broadcast over the earth. On the other side of the slope, a last ray of the sun shows a pair of oxen at the end of their furrow. This is the only light of the picture, which is bathed in shadow, and presents to the eye, under a clouded sky, nothing but newly ploughed earth. There is something great, of the grand style, in this figure, with its violent gesture, its proud ruggedness, which seems to be painted with the very earth that the sower is planting." All the other examples breathe the same nobility of thought, the same severity, the same restraint. To him the old maxim of Boileau may be applied : " Nothing is beautiful but truth." Theodore Rousseau (1812-1867) was, with Mil- let, closest identified with the forest of Fontaine- bleau — Millet as interpreter of human life, Rous- seau as interpreter of the woods. He was the most advanced of that group whose treatment of nature was both realistic and poetically idealistic. His was the personal gift to snatch from nature with a nervous and precise glance all of its instanta- 222 XTbe Hrt of tbe /IDetropolitan /iDuseum neous aspect, its brilliant harmonies, its sudden brightness, the quintessence of its hidden beauties. One quality is to be added to his endowment which was not possessed to such extent by any of the other brethren — force. No one has rendered with more firmness, with a more vigorous penetration, the expression of force in nature. The intimate, the sweet, the comfort, the charm, the gentleness of landscape had no appeal for him — the immovable, the hard, austere and severe in rustic life captivated and held him. The sturdy oak is his by predilection. Rocks and gnarled treetrunks, not the transitory weeds and undergrowth, arrest him ; and these he fixes upon canvas without any fickleness of emotion, but with the synthesis of power. Where he wills to express mobility, transitoriness, variety of emo- tion, he reveals it in his skies. " The Edge of the Woods," in the Wolfe collec- tion, expresses these thoughts to the full. The puissance, the freshness of colour and elegance of line, as well as the impression of solitude make us think of Ruisdael. Other wood-interiors by Rous- seau, in the Vanderbilt collection, have the amber tones and the heavier touch that recall the savoury technic of Cuyp. There are ten examples in the Museum that enable us to study this master. Diaz and Dupre also came to Barbizon after having worked at the Sevres porcelain factory. xrbe jfrencb paintings 223 Dupre was stronger in his skies. Diaz could better read the book of trees. In Narciso Diaz de la Peiia (1809-1860) tingles the southern blood of fire and colour. Before he knew Fontainebleau he had loved Paris, and models, and gaudy frippery. But his artistry idealized his Bohemia; and his nudes in floral bowers, with cupids disporting and whispering tales of love, possess the richness of Correggio's palette. There is a chromatic flight, a wonderful colour scheme, a warm tender tint in his small figure pieces. A half score of canvases in the Museum display the variety of his metier. Jules Dupre (1811-1889) has the same decorative quality. The examples of his work show the fe- cundity of his colourful eye to draw from riverside or forestedge, from autumn-tints or summer-glow the harmonious and sympathetic hues that have such subtle and supreme significance. The mastership of Constance Tro3'-on (1810- 1865), the bluff and bold painter of the herd, sug- gests that the longer one seeks to escape from the call within the surer the grasp when the natural bent has free course. His early pursuit of porce- lain-painting, and later of landscapes, did not debar him from the eminence he reached as the dramatizer of the bovine race. His " Holland Cattle " and " On the Road " are characteristic examples. 224 Zbc Hrt of tbe /iDetropolitan /IDuseum C. F. Daubigny (1817-1878) was the youngest of the Barbizon men, but stands nearest to Corot, the oldest. Little of Delaroche's training, though it gave him a sound technic, is found in his work. His attitude towards nature was one of affection for, rather than absorption in her. His is a style of subtle refinement, directed by an eye peculiarly receptive of the faintest harmonies and the most tender beauties of the scenes he portrays. The local colour of his " Oise " banks has the dominant qual- ity of the soft springiness of the green sod, the reflecting, placid water, the freshness of the air, the scent of the earth, and the vibrating chords of light. There are three of his paintings in the Wolfe collection, and a beautiful " Evening " in the Van- derbilt gallery. Charles Jacque (1813-1894), the last survivor of that coterie, was in early life a soldier, an en- graver on wood, and an etcher. By choice he became a painter of rustic life, with a predisposi- tion for the humble farm-animals. His early expe- rience as an engraver gave him a firm and precise hand, while his vigorous strokes make his com- position bold and decisive. In a " Landscape with Sheep " we miss the usual green tone of his work, the picture being more gray in colour. Of the two interiors of sheepfolds, the one in the Wolfe col- lection is especially rich and golden. Ube frencb paintinos 225 Another tendency had meanwhile been develop- ing. The study of nature was step by step divest- ing itself of its poetic subjectiveness, and becoming closer, more searching. Its presentation was aimed to be more objective; with less romantic illusion, it became more real. The realist's devotion was to life and the world as they actually exist, not for what they suggest. Then also the spirit of modern- ity asserted itself in a certain sort of eclecticism, different attitudes were assumed ; nature was being analyzed, dissected, as it were, and certain phases taken for the more emphatic expression of the realis- tic spirit. This has been the essence of French art, and of the art expressions everywhere, during the latter half of the 19th century. How diverging the practice — we need but place Meissonier alongside of Monet, both realists to the core, but from differ- ent view points, and eclectics more. We will first consider the landscape painters — although it must be remembered that in France it is generally assumed that to devote oneself ex- clusively to any one branch of painting is to betray limitations, and there are few painters who would not resent being called landscapists. Those who devote themselves to landscape have generally es- sayed with more or less success the painting of figures or genre. Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) was the most em- 226 Ube Brt ot tbe /IDetropolitan Museum phatic realist. His aim was to paint nature, not with photographic cleanHness, but with all its kinks and scars. Hence he has been called brutal in his treatment, and a materialist. This does not define his character with exactness. Rather it indicates that the critic has missed the elemental nerve force that was back of Courbet's personality. He loved " the firm basing of the earth," saw nature un- adorned, and gave the plainest possible view of its inherent aesthetic quality. His " Coast scene," and his landscape " Effet de Neige," illustrate magnifi- cently the possibilities of his faculty, his broad and masterful generalization. He vivifies the various phenomena of nature, he dignifies its most super- ficial extraneities, his defiant realism lends distinc- tion and significance to his ensemble. Henri Harpignies (1819-1909) has done stronger work than is shown in his " Moonrise " — but who- ever heard that a picture " painted to order " brings out the best there is in a painter? Still this has a note of tender sentiment; but Harpignies has gen- erally a more virile strain in his make-up. A "Bathing Scene" by Eugene Boudin (1825- 1898) has his earlier naturalistic treatment, which in his later work is much overshadowed by his deeper searching for a prismatic colour-solvent, which brings him close to the Luminarists. Little need be said about Felix Ziem (1821- Zbc jfrencb painttnas 227 1908). He found his public early with his one subject, Venice, and by preference the Piazza of St. Mark. Here we find this favourite spot in a state of inundation — without any undue shock to our expectation, for it is the same Ziem and the same Venice, forever and a day. Pelouse (1838- 1891), and Pokitonow, a Pole, born about 1840, show real nature, in an attractive garment, duly furbished. Cazin (1840-1900) was the greater man. His " Early Morning " attests that personal view he takes of nature, which he studies for its phenom- ena of light and air, and, as in this case, with an atmosphere drenched with dew. He has a true sense of style, and a thoroughly individual colourscheme, the range of which is not very extensive, but very sweet and tender; not weak and insipid, however, but as positive as if it were more vivid. Alphonse Legros has been called " the greatest of the modern academic artists," which he is not ; rather should he be called one of the true natural- ists. But why hackle about terms ? His " Edge of the Woods " is sober and dignified, indicating even in pigment, his unequalled dexterity with the needle and burin. Emile Renouf and Jan-Mon- chablon are landscape painters that please the fancy of a large public. Hence it is unnecessary to de- scribe their excellence — if it were possible. 228 TLbc art of tbe /iDetropoUtan /IDuseum But the French school of the second half of the 19th century is most numerous in its figure and genre painters. The French social instinct, and the aesthetic ideas the French are enamoured of, may account for this. Many of these genre painters are more schooled in traditional adequacy of ex- pression, and in the rhetoric of technic, than per- sonally inventive and individual. This makes most of their paintings seem monotonous, and of some, who essay to step out of the traces, eccentric. Still the inborn aesthetic and artistic quality of French art, which is always charming, even if superficial, distinguishes it from the expressions of English and German art of the same nature. The reason that French anecdotal painting is far and away ahead of the Diisseldorf and Royal Academy kind, is because the French construct with taste and selec- tion; they aim at elegance and perfection of style. They are rarely perfunctory, and never common. They express intelligent ideas, rather than banal, formal conditions. The earliest of the realistic genre painters was J. L. E. Meissonier (1815-1891). He can only be appreciated to the fullest extent in his small figures and interiors we find in the Museum, such as the brothers van de Velde in their studio, another artist of the time of Boucher at work at his easel, or those readers in their study. His militarism Ube jfrcncb paintings 229 made him delight in picturing soldiers and generals — but then the artist commences to beguile our credulity. Such soldiers and generals never existed save in the realm of the milliner's bandbox; even dress parade could not produce the aggregation of punctilious neatness he would hoodwink us into accepting. When Meissonier, however, endeavours to soar into heroics, as in " Friedland, 1807," we are affronted with having our gullibility taken for granted. Surely no one would take a microscope to a battlefield — the number of gaiter-buttons being the most appalling thing about the picture. " Fried- land " is an unreal aggregation of beautiful units. The insistence on detail, the exhaustive accuracy in non-essentials, take away the impression the en- semble is meant to produce. Even the monot- onously expressed enthusiasm of the defiling cuir- assiers only reminds one of a well-trained body of supers in a theatrical spectacle. But Meissonier was truly great in his small panels, which have a legitimate and authentic affinity with some of the Dutch *' little masters." In these he displays the same exquisitely delicate perfection of workmanship, the careful precision of painting, the exact delineation, the same marvellous digestion of concrete fact. It is singular that with all his love for the beauty and harmony of colour, for delicacy of touch, for the faithful rendering of costume, he 230 Ube Hrt ot tbe /iDetropoUtan /iDuseum almost completely excludes woman from his work. This void cannot well be explained ; whether it was fear at not being able to do justice to the subject, or the acceptance of the adage that " good wine needs no brush," we know not. The better-known and more important artists will first fix our attention. Eugene Fromentin (1820- 1876), an able art critic and writer, as well as painter, is wholly admirable in his Oriental scenes; his " Arabs crossing a Ford " and " Arabs watering Horses " give us a pictorial view of Africa in beau- tiful colours, and highly animated by cleverly dis- posed Algerian Moors. No one knew better than himself that his technic was not always what it should be, that his horses are not so perfectly drawn as those by Schreyer — still he excels this more conventional and inferior painter by a greater ful- ness of rendering, which is more impressive in its quiet dignity than the more boisterous charges of the German artist. Gerome (1824-1904), the romantic reaHst, is well represented by three or four oriental subjects, a " Sword Dance " and views of Cairo, and one of his historic genres which, while not as famous as his " Eminence Grise," is as skilfully and satisfactorily composed, with all the relative values of the rich colours admirably, even beautifully observed. This painting represents the " Reception of the Prince of Ube frencb iPaintinGS 231 Conde by Louis XVI," and was painted to order for Mr. W. H. Vanderbilt. Gerome's pupil, Charles Bargue (1840-1883), painted in the same style, as may be seen in " A Bashi Bazouk," in " Footman Sleeping," and in three examples in the Vanderbilt gallery, of which his " Playing Chess on the Terrace " is his last and perhaps his best work. Few modern painters have enjoyed greater popu- larity than W. A. Bouguereau (1825-1905). With Cabanel and Henner he attended Picot's studio, the artistic descendant of Ingres. His works may be divided into three groups, the religious, the pretty treatment of the nude, and his conventional, cleanly dressed peasant children, whereof his " Brother and Sister," in the Wolfe collection, is an example. The religious pictures — the " Mater Afflictorum " in the Litxembourg is the best of these — are no less prettily sentimental, faukily faultless, vacu- ously peaceful, than his adorable goddesses and cupids and woodnymphs. The artist was a firm believer in his own meth- ods, which he followed from the first and never abandoned. The new tendencies which sprang up in the sixties never influenced him in the smallest degree. He resisted these tendencies as night- mares, and referring to one of the modern apostles he would frequently remark : " Puvis de Chavannes 232 Zbc Hrt ot tbe /iDetropoUtan /Museum m'empeche dc dormir." From the first to the last his brush was as smooth in colour as it was pain- fully accurate in modelling and drawing. To him the Dutch and Flemish were all wrong, and Whist- ler to his mind was the genius of the unfinished. The technical part of Bouguereau's art is not above reproach. With all his skill in draughts- manship he still lacks the vigour of line which gives life; and the smoothness of his demarkation makes the human form, as he portrays it, flaccid and limp. Likewise his colour has often been over- rated. His admirers extol it greatly, yet it is nothing but the white, the carmine and the umber as the studio receipt for " flesh " gives it. None of the finer effects are ever known to him. His porcelain models look all alike — soap, rouge and cold Qream. In fact, it has been said that his effects suggest that before he painted his model she painted herself. He never catches the acci- dental gleams and shades of light shimmering through the interstices of green foliage upon his nymphs; and even the naked feet of his peasant women seem to be made rather for elegant boots than for rude sabots. Only in his children, which, if overclean, are always charming, he strikes a slightly deeper note of sincerity. In the Vander- bilt collection we find also a conventional " Going to the Bath." r" " -1 '"'^^''SH'*! fTW" '„-.; *—;.,'■"••"■ ,' •"' ;• - • - —-«-. 1 -. ■>. . -~ r 'ffl^ii !;rj ^^^^Bp r ■ li 'A :«. - /mL 1 K^B WS^^Mm am. IMKte'^ll o o <: o o >> w . oi ffl M £5 9 M X <; '-' w •- g c/i « w W o w w H &4 O in H H o Ube jEnglisb paintings 26i feel a tugging — in the portrait of Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse, in Grosvenor House, London — but it was that famous actress more than Sir Joshua who put the spiritual element in it. In this Reynolds is supreme — accepting his lim- itations, and having the wit to perceive that the only service the public demanded of an artist was the record of the faces and figures of themselves and their friends, he gave the best that could be given of what was asked for. And to a world of fashion, taste, refinement, he gave their clearest reflection. He did not aim at the sublime, he did not affect the " grand style," but with heartfelt pleasure and whole- souled devotion he rendered perfect portraits of cultivated English gentlemen, the gentler graces, full of amenity, of English womanhood, and the familiar and irresistible charm of children with their winning smiles and wondering eyes. In the paint- ing of children he was never perfunctory — note his " Master Hare," in the Hearn collection — and these set the crown on Sir Joshua's work. We will further follow the portrait painters, born in this 18th century. George Romney (1734-1802) has now taken a place beside Gainsborough and Reynolds in the affec- tions of the collector, where shortly after his death one of his portraits was sold for a guinea and a half, despite his popularity during his life time. Recently 262 Zhc Hrt ot tbe /iDetropoUtan /iDuseum a Romney portrait sold in London for over $50,000, that could have been bought fifty years ago for a few pounds. Such the vicissitudes of fame! Romney's infatuation for Emma Lyon, also known as Emma Hart, later Lady Hamilton, is well-known. It resulted in about two dozen por- traits of that notorious but bewitching woman, in which she appears as Circe, a Bacchante, Calypso, a Magdalene, and so on. The Museum possesses her portrait as " Daphne," in the Hearn collection, and shows, as a loan from Mr. Thatcher Adams, her portrait as " Ariadne." Three other portraits of Romney's brush are also here. Few painters have been more essentially artistic than Romney ; he had the pictorial eye — some- thing which does not always coincide with painter s talent. But he lacked the persistency of effort which would have trained his hand to reproduce what he saw with more consistent excellence. His best work ranks with that of Gainsborough and Reynolds, but most of his canvases reveal a fine frenzy soon burned out, an impulsive inspiration abandoned before it was expressed. When sufficiently interested to com- plete what he began, there was no man who grasped more the fleeting sprite of beauty, whose feeling for the winsomeness, gaiety and coquetry of women led him to show these with a tenderness unsurpassed. Without any training — as readily seen in his de- Ubc Englisb iDaintinga 263 fects of drawing, his lack of skill in composition, the flatness and thinness of his colouring — he still possessed inborn gifts of taste and grace to produce the indescribable charm, the strange evanescent spirit of femininity. If any man worked by the divine afflatus it was Romney. Portraits by John Russell (1745-1806), and by Robert Pine (1742-1790), denote the prevailing taste and technic. Pine died in Philadelphia, where he had settled to paint a large historical painting of the Revolutionary period, which was never accom- plished. His " Mrs. Reid as a Sultana " has refine- ment and good technic, but is somewhat strained and lachrymal in the facial expression. Another trio of artists, born within a few years of each other, occupy the step next to Gainsborough, Reynolds and Romney. These are Beechey, Raeburn and Hoppner. Sir William Beechey (1753-1839), represented here by his " Portrait of a Lady " and " Portrait of H. R. H. the Duke of York," enjoyed uninterrupted favour as the painter of the fashionable world. His lines are svelt, suave, flowing; there is sweetness and tenderness in his female, elegance and grace in his male portraits. They are the ideal of dexterous and clever accomplishment, superficially faultless, externally pleasing, and by their charm warding off profound analysis. 264 Ube Hrt of tbe /IDetropoUtan /Ibuseum Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823) was the stronger man. Originally a goldsmith, finding his first suc- cess in miniature painting, this doughty Scotsman developed himself from a broad, perhaps somewhat vague treatment, to the highest stage of refine- ment and expressiveness. His " Portrait of Wil- Ham Forsyth," in the Hearn collection, is one of the finest products of his brush, which is saying enough when we add that it is on a par with his canvases in the Edinburgh Gallery, where alone this greatest Scottish master can be adequately appreciated. Tech- nically he was the best painter of this 18th century, one who in the handling of the brush was to the manor born. His notion of colour was that of a modern Frenchman. In grasp of his material he has been put in the scale with Hals and Velasquez. While Lawrence in London was sinking portraiture to insipid prettiness, Raeburn in the north with nat- uralistic simplicity was unsurpassed in virile quality and suggestion of dignity. In John Hoppner (1758-1810) the inherent de- fects of British art, its sentimentality of feeling and superficial technic, come already prominently into notice. The three portraits of women, which we find here, show the chief trait that led to insincerity — the desire to please. This was aided by un- doubted facility in working, and a native taste for XLbc JBwQliQb paintinas 265 beauty; still a certain depth of expression may not be denied him. Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) reached the apogee of the spirit of his time. He flattered its vanities, pampered its weakness, and met its mer- etricious taste. He almost made a trade of being a courtier, thereby to please his sitters. With excep- tional skill and happy facility he painted the artificial and pretentious crowds that flocked to his studio. But this facility became formulated, and his skill stiffened into mannerism. While his best work was done before he was twenty-five, the stress of calls for his brush hurried him into carelessness, and the easiest way to satisfy all demands was to follow a ready-made recipe. That his genius contrived to make such a shortcut to glory speaks well for his tal- ents. It must have been a pretty good prescription, for it cannot be denied that even to this day many French and American portrait painters have taken leaves out of his notebook, and large hints from his flashy facture. Opie's remark that " Lawrence made coxcombs of his sitters, and his sitters made a coxcomb of Lawrence," must be set down as the vapouring of a jealous rival; there is too much technical merit in much of what he has done. Few painters have had truer feeling for the living qualities of flesh, or for 266 Ube Hrt ot tbe /iDetropoUtan /iDuseum the intrinsic harmony of lines and colours. Take his portrait of " Lady Ellenborough " — as a paint- ing it is a joy, bewitching in its loveliness, its grace of contours, the charm of its colouring. His " Por- trait of the Rev. W. Pennicott " shows him to have at times left all artificiality and the " blandishments of his pencil " for greater strength and sincerity. The calm face, the gentle eyes, the serenity of the features make this an unusual performance. The Irish painter. Sir Martin Shee (1769-1850), succeeded Lawrence as President of the Royal Acad- emy. His " Portrait of Daniel O'Connell " is an excellent character study, suggesting mobility of countenance and fiery temper. The self-portrait of George Harlow (1787-1819) is in the Lawrence style, showing an attractive, somewhat hectic face. The promise of his career was cut short when this talented artist died at the early age of thirty-one. Contemporaneously there was developed, under the leadership of John Crome of Norwich, an in- fluential school of landscape painters, called the Norwich school. John Crome, known as " Old Crome" (1769-1821), a keen student of nature, painted English scenery with simplicity and power. Although inspired by the Dutch landscapists — his dying words were, '* Dear Hobbema, how I have loved you!" — he never quite understood their methods, for his handling is often dry and man- ENC.I 1^1 I I.AM )S(AI'i;. By Thomas Gainsborough. MIDDAY MEAL. By George Morland. XTbe Bnalisb Ipaintfnas 267 nered. His " Hautbois Common " is more luminous than " The Landing," which is deeper in tone. His most notable follower was John Sell Cotman (1782-1842), of whom a "Coast Scene" and an " English Village " may be seen. In these, and in the " Willows by the Watercourses," by James Stark (1794-1859), and in the "Landscape," by George Vincent ( 1796-1832), the last of the Norwich group, we note a certain hardness of rendering and stilted- ness of composition, which only can be ascribed to the usual pitfall of followers, to exaggerate defects and minimize the commendable qualities of their exemplar. None of these men, for instance, attained to the force and richness of colour which charac- terized " Old Crome." Vincent alone improved later through Constable's influence. Before we consider this artist we must notice the work of George Morland (1763-1804), his elder by thirteen years. In his " Midday Meal " all the best qualities enter for which this artist has become famous. It is a rural scene of extreme simplicity and realism, in which his favourite pigs are shown — no one has ever been able to render the scrubby hides of these porkers as convincingly. Although Morland care- fully studied the works of other painters that ap- pealed to him, he never borrowed from their inspi- ration. He was always original, both in choice of 268 XTbe Brt of tbe /Metropolitan /iDuseum subjects and manner of painting. A dissolute life led him to choose often subjects of little nicety; more frequently we find him depicting the rusticity of English peasant life with their barnyard animals. His love for children made him introduce these with delightful naivete in his scenes, sometimes even making them the centre of interest, as in " Miss Rich building a House of Cards." The reports of his excesses, although most likely much overdrawn, as is usual in such cases, are not without founda- tion, for his life ended in a sponging-house at the age of forty-one, as a result of prolonged dissipa- tion. The chain of great landscape art has been Claude, Ruisdael, Constable, Barbizon, Giverny — the fu- ture alone can tell the next link. John Constable (1776-1837) bridged the gap of a century. The artificiality of the then popular style of land- scape painting was repellent to Constable, who alone of English landscapists of his day sought for a faithful representation of nature, with its ever- changing effects of light and shade. That this was antagonous to prevailing taste he himself perceived. " My art flatters nobody by imitations," he used to say, " it courts nobody by smoothness, it tickles nobody by politeness, it is without either fal-de-lal or fiddle-de-dee; how then can I hope to be popu- Ube BuQlisb ipatntinas 269 lar? " And he added, " There is room enough for a natural painter, for the great vice of the day is bravura, an attempt to do something beyond the truth." But he had faith in himself, and remained true to his ideals. His popularity came when the French first recognized in his canvases the breath of purer air of nature's freedom. The striking innovation Constable made, which it took the public so long to accustom themselves to, was his relative position towards the sun in paint- ing. The ordinary practice had been for the artist to paint with the sun behind him, out of the picture, low down on the horizon, suffusing the whole land- scape with a golden haze, producing those effects which Claude and Cuyp rendered so finely. Con- stable, on the other hand, liked better to work with the sun high above his head, out of the canvas, but still in front of him ; and painted almost always under the sun. This produced a sparkle and glitter of white lights upon his foliage, whereby he indi- cated the reflection of light after rain in the count- less drops of moisture upon the leaves. This his adverse critics pronounced as spotty, splash}- and meaningless, and dubbed it " Constable's snow." Although for pecuniary reasons he, at first, occa- sionally painted portraits — and two of these are in the Museum — this was not his penchant nor his pleasure. He strove to be nature's interpreter — a 270 Tlbe Brt of tbc /iDetropolitan /iDuseum sincere, studious, unflinching interpreter ; and no one has ever caught the exact character of the EngHsh summer which he always painted, its hreezes, its heat, its heavy colouring, so marvellously. No one has ever given us so devotedly true, without yield- ing a jot to preconceived theories of harmony, the English sky with its heavy cumulus and drifting rain-cloud, sun-shot or showery. There is not one single landscape in the Museum which for mastery of nature's effects, for truth and beauty, can com- pare with the " Bridge on the Stour," the beloved river of his native Suffolk, that hangs in the Hearn collection. Even the other three landscapes, copies though they be, still give at second hand some faint impression of the beauty of " that trinity of silver, ivory and a little gold," as " the Valley Farm " has been described. Much has been written about Constable's art; it has been unjustly depreciated by some (including Mr. Ruskin) ; but his claim to be considered the founder of the school of a faithful landscape art must stand accorded. Although Sir Augustus Callcott (1779-1844) — knighted at the accession of Queen Victoria — as a pupil of Hoppner devoted himself at first to por- traiture, he soon turned to the more congenial land- scape painting. His being called " the English Claude " was rubbish, and the fulsome flattery of XTbc lEnaltsb IPaintlnas 271 some sycophant. His " Landscape " here is attrac- tive, somewhat negative in colour, and obtaining certain mannerisms which are, however, not dis- pleasing. The " Landscape," by Patrick Nasmyth (1787-1831), has more of the Dutch Wynants in it, than either of Hobbema or Constable. It is, nevertheless, an able performance, and fully entitles him to a prominent position among the " British Minor Masters." Richard Parkes Bonington (1801-1828) was more French than English, having been educated in Paris, and having studied with Baron Gros. His " Sea Coast " and his " Normandy Coast Scene " impress one with the transition from the academic to the romantic. The figures which he introduced in his composition lead me yet tp speak of Gains- borough Dupont (1767-1797), a nephew of Thomas Gainsborough. Dupont made more of his figures than of the landscape wherein he placed them — vide, " A Girl with a Cat," formerly ascribed to his uncle, but possessing scarcely any of the Master's accomplishments. Another figure painter was Robert Haydon (1786-1846), a man obsessed by inordinate vanity, imagining himself the greatest historical painter of the age, yet being nothing but a half-barbaric classicist. His " Napoleon at St. Helena " is a painting that generally attracts atten- tion. The reason for this may be that many seek 272 zbc Hrt of tbe /IDetropolttan /iDuseum to find in this large, empty canvas artistic qualities which do not appear at first glance. Once a visitor, standing before the painting, was overheard to say, " I wish he would turn around and show us that ' imperturbable gaze ' the catalogue speaks of. I would dearly love to know what that looks like." The reflection of French tendencies is visible in the work of William Etty (1787-1849), as it is in most of the genre painters of his time. Etty was one of the best colourists among them, and in " The Three Graces " he shows his characteristic bril- liancy of handling and fine feeling for the quality of paint. J. M. W. Turner, born the year before Consta- ble (1775-1851), must be considered by himself alone. His place is altogether above the plane of those we have just been considering. The express purpose of Ruskin's " Modern Paint- ers " was to prove Turner the greatest landscape painter the world has ever known. Although it may have been timely when published to refute the attacks of blind critics, Ruskin's analysis of Turner and his art, despite the impassioned brilliancy of its rhetoric, is too much of a partisan, too little that of a dispassionate critic to avail us now. A real esti- mate of Turner and the principal elements of his genius is better had from his own work than from the glowing pages of " Modern Painters," so prone Ubc JEwQliBb painttUGs 273 to inconsequent digression, and so frequently self- contradicting — truly a splendid medley. A comprehensive survey of the paintings left by Turner to the English nation for the National Gal- lery, of those only a few years ago rediscovered in its basement and now in the Tate Gallery, and of a large number of his masterpieces gathered in public and private collections, bring the following conclu- sions. A born painter, Turner at first followed precedent, drew accurately, kept his colours sub- dued, but was heavy in handling his paint. Grad- ually colour becomes more insistent, the lights have a transparent radiance, even become brilliant, the shadows luminous with variegated hues, his drawing is more suggestive and tender. Then his landscapes become troubled and dramatic. He is preoccupied with the analytical division of light and he enters the realm of optical impressionism. Until at last his ripened powers run riot in apparently wanton extravagances of mere technical and chromatic audacity, but still vitalized by a power of genius, before which we stand appalled, even if we do not always understand. Technically Turner was an excellent painter, but reckless experimenting makes him unequal, and unsafe to follow. He often becomes summary, " neglige " as Fromentin called it ; and with all the brilliancy of his colour, he is often crude and violent, 274 Ubc Hrt of tbe /iDetropoUtan /iDuseum and occasionally hot, heavy or dull. The very excess of his colour makes him often fall down. Only in his w^atercolour painting he was unques- tionably the greatest master who has ever lived. Three of his watercolours, in the Vanderbilt Gal- lery, are the last word spoken in this medium. The oils " Grand Canal, Venice," and " Saltash " belong to the middle period. They are idealized transcriptions, for Turner rarely grasped the iden- tity, more the sensation, the spirit of locality. The " Venice " has the true Venetian colour, worked up to the utmost brilliance the palette will allow, the forms sketched, yet sufficient. In " The Fountain of Indolence " there is a higher flight of fancy and colour, a blue and gold and crimson still further carried to opulence and sensuous delight. " The Whaleship," in the Wolfe collection, fitly represents the acme of his art. Here is a phantomlike ship; the dark bulk of the dying leviathan, spouting blood and water mingling in mist and foam; a splendour of hues and tints flashing through the wetness of a lifting ocean- fog. I can conceive that the impres- sion of this painting upon one to whom art is not intelligible, is like the sensation of one who does not comprehend music on hearing the love-duet in "Tristan and Isolde" — uplifting, inspiring, rav- ishing; we don't know how, nor care. In the stagnant period between Constable, Turner, ^be JEnglisb paintinos 275 Etty and the Preraphaelites, a few men only escaped the general contagion of drowsiness. John Phillip (1817-1867) was one of these. His "Gossips at the Well " is a reminiscence of his sojourn in Spain, full of excellent drawing and lively colour. Erskine Nicoll (1825-1886), whose "Paying the Rent" is here, paints subjects of the David Wilkie genre agreeably, in an academic way. The fame of Sir Edwin Landseer (1802-1873), who during his life received flattery amounting to adulation, has dwindled to the normal praise ac- corded to a painstaking, serious, industrious artist of limited powers. Known as the most popular animal painter in England, his name cannot fitly be mentioned with the really great animal painters, like Potter, Snyders, Delacroix, Troyon, or even Rosa Bonheur. His art was sentimental, anecdotal, often leaning to mawkishness; his technic was painfully polished and showing the weakness of overelabora- tion. Only occasionally did he carry his sentiment beyond platitude, as in " The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner," in the South Kensington Museum, in which he almost humanizes the old dog's grief. In such pictures as " Alexander and Diogenes," in the Museum, the petty introduction of human sense in animal instincts mars and disturbs the broad effects of nature. The indifference shown for many years by the 276 Zbc Hrt ot tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum general public towards the work of G. F. Watts (1817-1904) forms a striking contrast with Land- seer's celebrity, and is a fit commentary on the value of a popular estimate. To compare Watts with Landseer is as absurd as to place Gulliver before a Lilliputian in a trial of strength. It is true that the painter of " Sir Galahad " was also literary, but his art did not tell a story, it conveyed thoughts. With singleness of purpose he constantly aimed, as he himself expressed it, " to paint pictures, not so much to charm the eye as to suggest great thoughts that will appeal to the imagination and the heart, and kindle all that is best and noblest in humanity." He was, if the paradoxical form be allowed, an ideal realist. Thus, when he paints Death, it is not the Greek idea of Death — the destroyer, of the grim and grisly spectre of Diirer's " Dance," but rather the Angel of Death — inevitable, inexorable, irre- sistible, but stripped of the dread and horror with which painters have loved to invest it. We may question his technic, that he is not always fortunate with his colours, leaving them stringy and impure, or muddy and morbid — the result of his " playing with paint " — we can never question the ideas he strove to put on canvas. Somewhere, in one of his letters, Lowell speaks of having been to hear a lecture of Emerson's, and, while admitting that it was a rather incoherent w\ 1 ^^-■^^ ■ 1 " f ^tfC"„ ,-;:^ #»^ 2ggM tI ^^^^' 4«?- £ ■ V i %|fetel; M ^b p 'i P^ ■•■ ' ■ W^ ''".:':'' ■ J""m^ 1* Mmb^I/, m '■^Avay^a^MWMga •>)^^j5'-"'v, v.,..-,,-^>'-. ^^ wHHp ,"'^ i •<^SH ""'^Irt: ^ J-^l f0w:- /^^ . Ube lEnolisb ipatntings 277 performance, he adds that one could not help feeling that something fine had passed that way. It was the same with Watts. He had a deep fund of inspiration, and a noble spirit to cheer and comfort mankind with exalted ideas. This makes his portraiture unusual. It shows a strongly marked individuality of an impersonal kind. Never stooping to that most popular of all portrait painters' colour mediums — flattery, he searched studiously for realizing the sitter's habits of thought, disposition and character; at the same time according to facial resemblance all that was required. His wonderful array of canvases which he gave to the National Portrait Gallery, in which he commemorated the statesmen, poets, and other public men of the Victorian age, bespeak his high place as a limner of men. His " Ariadne in Naxos," in the Museum, is a fine example of that idealism that conveys lofty thoughts, eloquently expressed. Watts was very little affected by the movement which started some time after he had commenced painting. About 1847 the Brotherhood of the Pre- raphaelites was founded, which has left so powerful an influence on English art. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) was one of the most notable of this fraternity, for his strong, mystical and poetical imagination, and the richness of his colouring. 278 TLbc Hrt ot tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum Their object was to oppose the modern system of teaching, and paint nature as it was around them, with the help of modern science, and " with the earnestness and scrupulous exactness in truth of the men of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries." It was a short-lived attempt to abandon all artistic conventions, and to substitute for them the pains- taking and accurate portraiture of natural facts. It is, perhaps, rather unnecessary to put the ques- tion as to whether the Preraphaelites would really eventually have conquered, if they had carried on their crusade against narrow-mindedness to the bitter end. They received the support of Ruskin, who was quite ready to break a lance for the literary significance of a man like Rossetti ; for the moral importance of a Ford Maddox Brown or Holman Hunt — without being able to grasp their artistic potentialities. Ruskin theorized the movement, ex- plained its basis and its aesthetic principles of faith — which none of the members of the group them- selves had any idea of, or adhered to. They soon left their champion critic to defend his theories, which it had never been in their mind to practise. In fact, all of the brotherhood, with the single ex- ception, possibly, of Holman Hunt, outgrew their first principles, without entirely forgetting the ben- efits derived from them. As for Rossetti, the only one of the Preraphael- Ube Bnalisb patntin^s 279 ites represented in the Museum, he soon abandoned the early traits of execution for a decorative for- mula and the study of colour and sentiment. He was the painter-poet par excellence. The artistic value of his work lies in the supreme intensity of spiritual expression, even if he neglects the element of pure form. His poetic spirit would have us see in the " Lady Lilith " the image of Adam's first wife, according to the Talmud, which Rossetti him- self describes in the House of Life as a snare to men. H we lack the wings of Pegasus to scale Olympian heights we may easily forego this poetic flight, and still admire this reclining woman for its richness of colour that flashes and glows like a jewel, or the fragment of some gorgeous painted window. Sir John Millais (1829-1896) can scarcely be said ever to have belonged to the brotherhood, although he is usually counted with them. At first he manifested some interest in their ideals, he may be said to have somewhat flirted with their senti- ments, but he was soon regarded by them as a renegade and apostate. Although he devoted some inventive effort to his subjects in his earlier years, he soon lost this in his evident desire to paint for money, and found a ready way in an unceasing stream of pretty women and children. Occasionally there were glimpses of the old Millais, of which his 280 Ube Hrt of tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum " Bride of Lammermoor," in the Vanderbilt col- lection, is an example. Lord Frederick Leighton (1830-1896) was the high-priest of sestheticism. There is little or noth- ing of the mystic or the didactic in his art, which only exists to create beautiful images. Striving to make his colour beautiful he plunges into a maze of varied tints, of broken tones, of an affluent and luxurious gamut of an over-burdened palette — dainty, luscious, decorative, highly polished, scrupu- lously smooth, if you please, but lacking the quie- tude, the fulness and the depth of a true colourist. The enchanting grace of form was his passion, the contours of a woman's back, the softness of a woman's limbs, the sweetness of a woman's eyes, and the languor of a woman's love — these are the subjects of his pencil. But constantly pruning away human imperfections, continually obliterating " the baseness of the earth," striving for delicate correct- ness, smoothness and softness, he robs his work from every appeal to sympathy, from every human consanguinity, from any bond to stir emotion. Thus his " Lachrymae," one of his last works completed in the fulness of his powers, beautiful though it be, will never make us weep. His " Odalisque," treated with courageous purity, is one of art's love- liest creations — only this, and nothing more. This sensuousness of form is less visible in the LACHRYMAE. By Lord Frederick Leighton. Ubc Bnalisb paintings 281 work of Sir Laurents Alma-Tadema, a painter who is nearest akin to Leighton in artistic spirit. He chooses more the exalted Greek ideal. Theirs is a pursuit of art, rather than its enriching and en- nobling. The half-dozen examples of Sir Laurents's brush, in the Vanderbilt collection, have more classic austerity than the sugary and often mawkish senti- ment of Lord Frederick's compositions. It will, of course, not be necessary to point out Alma- Tadema's painting of marble — which is the first (perhaps the only) thing true Philistines look for in his canvases. Aside from this his work gives a distinctly aesthetic, close to intellectual pleasure. George H. Boughton (1834-1905), an English- man trained in America, generally sought his sub- jects among the picturesque scenes and characters of old New England. " A Puritan Girl " is a good example of his work. His " Edict of William the Testy " is one of his more important pictures from Knickerbocker times. Walter MacLaren's "Capri Life; The Embroid- erers " is pleasing and conventional ; P. Wilson Steer's " Richmond Castle " more modern in treat- ment, with a strong Monet influence. CHAPTER XIII THE AMERICAN PAINTINGS It must be understood that the American Section is not alone intended to have aesthetic value, but to have some measure of educational interest in endeavouring to present an historical review of all known American painters up to the men of the present day. Besides these works of the early Americans we have the collection of works by living American artists, founded by Mr. George A. Hearn, to which he has already given over fifty canvases. This col- lection, together with the contemporary American paintings already owned by the Museum presents an array of work which stands well the comparison with that of modern artists of other nationalities. Although far from complete — for at least a half- hundred men have produced work as good as that of the majority represented here, and better than several — still the examples which have been se- lected prove that present-day American art cannot 282 Ube Hmerican paintings 283 be passed over slightingly ; that the day of a patron- izing consideration is passed. The G. A. Hearn collection is a dignified presenta- tion of the claims of modern American art — which has suffered greatly from those who protest too much, who with neurotic Chauvinism would have all American art supreme — the artists them- selves (at least the mediocre ones) being the chief sinners. American art will never be pushed into the front-rank by loud pretensions, and the befud- dling and cajoling of those who give the tone in picture-buying. None of the earliest American artists excels greatly in his art. Stuart was a good portrait painter, and Copley occasionally did creditable work. For the rest there is nothing to boast of in the products of the latter part of the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries; which is not surprising when we consider the nation's embryonic state. Frontier-fighting and city-building give little time for the nourishing of aesthetic ideals. Still for sentimental reasons the collecting of examples of the early work must be regarded as a creditable effort. The first painters of any note had British training, and naturally exhibited the conventional character in vogue in England among the second rate painters. Jonathan B. Blackburn (1700-1760), of whom we have a " Portrait of Theodore Atkinson," will not 284 XTbe Brt ot tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum detain us ; and " The American School," by Mat- thew Pratt (1734-1805) is, as far as merit goes, on a par. This stilted group with ill-drawn figures gives a view of Benjamin West in his studio, cor- recting the work of a pupil. Still as the first-known American portrait group it is of interest. Benjamin West can scarcely be considered to belong to the American school, since he left New York at the age of 22, and after a few years' travel settled in London, where he died at the age of 82. But it is a peculiarity, not rare in occurring, that while foreign-born painters who come to reside in the United States are greedily taken into the fold, natives who expatriate themselves, often giving up their American citizenship, are still considered to belong to the American school — a pretty good example of Jingoism. The work of Benjamin West (1738-1820), shown in a religious and in a symbolic subject, calls for no comment. It is in the pure French aca- demic style, which leaves us cold no matter how ardent the subject. It may be interesting to insert here an opinion of the work of West, expressed by a contempora- neous art critic, which shows that it is possible to judge of work correctly, even without the perspect- ive of years. This critic wrote thus West's artistic obituary : " He had great power ; and a reputation Ubc Hmerican paintinos 285 much greater than he deserved. His fame will not increase, it will diminish. His composition is, gen- erally speaking, confused — difficult of comprehen- sion — and compounded, about in equal proportions of the sublime and ordinary. He was prone to exaggeration ; a slave to classical shapes ; and greatly addicted to repetition. His capital pictures are often deficient in drawing; and yet, extraordinary as it may appear, his drawings are generally fine, and in some cases wonderful. His execution sel- dom equalled his conception. The first hurried, bold, hazardous drawing of his thoughts was gen- erally the best; in its progress, through every suc- cessive stage of improvement, there was a continual falling off from the original character in the most material parts — so that, what it gained in finish, it lost in grandeur, and what it gained in parts, it lost in the whole." And the writer goes on to declare that West's " Death upon the Pale Horse " is " feeble, commonplace, absolutely wretched." All this was written in the face of West's unpre- cedented popularity at the time — but the " per- spective of years " has spoken the critic, not popular estimate, true. To J. Singleton Copley (1737-1815) we owe the portraits of notable men of pre-revolutionary times. His portraits of Miss Mary, and of Mrs. Elizabeth Storer, and those of Mr. and of Mrs. Isaac Smith, 286 Ube Brt of tbe /TCjctropolitan /iDuseum are dry and hard, without atmosphere; defects which even adhered to him after he had been abroad in middle-life. His later portraits possess a certain distinction of bearing, while his colour, faulty though it be, was still in advance of that of any other native painter. Charles Wilson Peale (1741-1827) painted more portraits of George Washington from life than any other artist; one of these, a life-size, full-length, being in the Museum. He was also a pupil of West, retaining all the peculiarities of his early instruction to the end. His son Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860) painted the "Portrait of Mr. John Finley " — rather cold, formal and wanting in fleshiness. The most prominent of the early portrait paint- ers was Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828). While work- ing in London for twelve years as a fashionable portrait painter, and for five years in Ireland, he fell into the way of Romney and Gainsborough, closely reaching their excellence. When at the age of thirty eight years he returned to New York (in 1793) he became at once popular, and had many sitters. Two of the portraits he painted at this time, those of Don Josef de Jaudenes y Nebot, the first Spanish Minister to the United States, and of Dona Matilde Stoughton de Jaudenes, his American wife, are in the Museum. His art was still Eng- Ube Hmerican paintinos 287 lish, with elaborate attention to the costume, and lacking the broader and softer manner which devel- oped soon afterwards. Akhough both these sitters are evidently posing, the pose is at ease in the man, and rather pleasing in the woman. The faces form the best part ; they show a masterhand ; the rest is of a skilled and clever craftsman. The inspiration in painting Washington's portrait seems to have given liberation to his power. Wash- ington sat for him the next year, in the fall of 1795, when Stuart painted a head showing the right side of the face. The artist expressing himself not satisfied, the President sat again for him in the spring of '96, when Stuart painted the full-length portrait which he sold to the Marquis of Lansdowne (still called the "Lansdowne Washington") and another head showing the left side of the face. This is the famous " Atheneum head," now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Although Stuart later, with the glibness of social equivocation, assured the Lansdowne family that theirs was the only original portrait he had made of Washington, having destroyed the others, it is also known that he sold the first head to his personal friend Colonel George Gibbs, of New York, making also four or five replicas therefrom ; and that he kept the third head, from which he made copies whenever he needed the money, which was quite frequently. 288 Ube Hrt ot tbe /IDetropolitan /IDuseum This " Gibbs " portrait passed to the Colonel's sister, Mrs. Charming, whose son, Dr. William F. Channing, sold it to the late S. P. Avery, from whom the Museum acquired it. Comparing this famous portrait with the Boston Atheneum head, it is apparent that the Gibbs-Chan- ning portrait is the more faithful presentment of the man, whereas the Atheneum head is more ideal- ized. The advance in Stuart's portrait work is further visible in the two busts of Judge and Mrs. Joseph Anthony, Jr., and in the portraits he painted after he removed to Boston, those of Mr. David Sears, and of Captain Henry Rice, who served in the war of 1812. Another Washington portrait, painted for Daniel Carroll, of the District of Columbia, in 1803, has been given to the Museum by Mr. H. O. Havemeyer. The traits for which Stuart is most to be praised are the vitality and character he infuses into his portrait, and the excellent colouring when he is at his best. Then his flesh glows and is transparent. But he neglected composition, caring for nothing but the heads, slighting all details. A portrait of " Lady WilHams and her Child," seen without the artist's name, would strike us as being a conventional picture by a rather poor painter. But the tablet tells us that it is by Ralph Ube Hmerican paintings 289 Earl (1751-1801), and the art-writers declare him to have been " one of the strongest of our native American portrait painters of the 18th century." And in the face of this poor performance I cannot quite agree with them. Col. John Trumbull's (1756-1843) "Portrait of Alexander Hamilton " must be greatly admired, for it is one of the best portraits he ever did. After working under West in London, he came home, and executed historical paintings for the Capitol in Washington. His historical work is a feeble imita- tion of West's grandiose style, and for his portrait work I would refer to his " Governor Clinton " in the New York City Hall — a most awe-inspiring spectacle; only a whit less dreadful than Morse's " Lafayette," which also hangs in the City Hall. One would almost feel like admiring the art-con- noisseurship of the various Mayors and Boards of Aldermen of the City of New York of the past, who were so parsimonious in their support of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Being constantly confronted by such images as this Trumbull and this Morse, one cannot blame them, when Art was mentioned — they would have none of it. Washington Allston (1779-1843) was a land- scape painter with melodramatic tendency — see his " The Deluge," in which the gloom and desolation seem even worse than it must have been. When 290 Ube Hrt of tbe /Metropolitan /JOuseum he essayed figure work, of which we have an exam- ple in his " Spanish Girl," he is glaringly at fault in drawing and colour. One cannot help thinking that the boldness and the fervour of his composition are artificial, elaborated with great care and much difficulty, not at all like proceeding from an inward, fiery spirit that flashes into spontaneous combustion, whenever it is roused. Little need be said of M. H. Jouett (1783-1827), John Neagle (1799-1865), S. F. B. Morse (1791- 1872). Portraits by these men are in the Museum. Morse at least shows here that he was not always as bad as displayed in the New York City Hall. Thomas Sully (1783-1872) was called the "Sir Thomas Lawrence of America," which is a fair, but not complete commentary on his artistic pow- ers. It is not known that Sully had any intercourse with Sir Thomas during his nine months' stay in England. Still his general style is similar to that of the famous painter of English women. If any- thing Sully was the better artist. His women have not that elegant foppery, nor that exquisite flattery we find in the work of Lawrence, although there is flattery enough in Sully's brush. The " Portrait of Mrs. Katherine Mathews " is a fair example of his work; the three male portraits indicate greater strength. The "Flower Girl," by C. C. Ingham (1796- THE AMERICAN SCHOOL. By Matthew Pratt. ^ Imgn^yaaa ^^^^^^BM<£%y,"\ jHf ^I^ ' ^^^^^^^^^^^1 IHh ^^_BM^ ^^. '^H^H ^^^^^^H imiHi ^^^^^^^^^u>>> M ^^w .j^m-^'Niillfi i^^ug^ ^^^^^HV ' J^r^^ ^^m ^HJ^^^B ^pl pW; Hflp^ 14 w T^'^%- f^¥_ ^^K> J^^ >^ 3^ EBhI ^^^^^^^^^^^^BL^ ^.:^^^^^^^r^ iff . Vk, ..^^BI^^Hflfl ^^^^^^m^Q ^IH FLOWER GIRL. By C. C. Ingham. tlbe Hmerican paintinas 291 1863), declares the loosening of English influence, and the greater leaning towards French convention. In this colourful panel we even detect the pains- taking accuracy of the Dutch still-life painters. Henry Inman (1801-1846) painted President Mar- tin van Buren, and, during his sojourn in England, the actor William Charles Macready, in the char- acter of Macbeth, which is a strong piece of char- acterization. W. Page (1811-1885), C. L. Elliott (1812-1868), G. P. A. Healy (1813-1894), Joseph Kyle (1815-1863), all were portrait painters of merit, without an astonishing display of talent. They have portraits in the Museum of some interest. Daniel Huntington (1816-1906) outlived his associations with these earlier men, and painted por- traits to the last, without being much influenced by later propaganda. His " Mercy's Dream " has been a favourite household-decoration, by engravings, since it was painted in the 50's. It is very pretty. Emanuel Leutze (1816-1868) was the strongest exponent of Diisseldorf training, with all that this implies. His " Washington Crossing the Dela- ware " is an heroic story, well-told. The stagnation of artistic feeling, and the stilted- ness of its expression, so manifest in the landscapes of the time, as we shall see later on, still continued to find expression in figure and portrait work. The Americanized Giuseppe Fagnani (1819-1873) ex- 292 ube Hrt of tbe /IDetropoUtan /iDuseum emplifies this in his presentation of the Muses, which were portraits of society women, and are supposed to represent types of American beauty. George A. Baker (1821-1880), Jacob H. Lazarus (1823-1891) showed in their portraits a style which we have now outgrown — they are altogether too documentary. We must now go back a few years to witness the start of landscape painting. Unlike portraiture landscape art does not seem to have been fostered at first by foreign training. It was a spontaneous expression, more national, perhaps, than any art movement that has taken place in this country. The adaptable, facile American soon went far afield for his inspiration, and after foreign travel he has almost invariably returned a Diisseldorfer, a Dutch- man, or a Barbizon painter. Even to-day, when paint-tubes are imported from Paris, ideas come with them. It was not so with these fore-runners of American landscape art. Doughty, Durand and Cole. And even the much maligned Hudson River School, with all its similarity to Diisseldorf meth- ods, still retained its national impress in the ruddy autumn glow and other local qualities of its can- vases, which astounded incredulous Europe when it saw them. Doughty, the path-finder, chipped the trees, and the rest followed his course. It was to present nature as it was — truly with a narrow vision, blind to many of its subtleties, but still na- Zbc Bmerican paintings 293 ture, pure and simple. They might have profited much if they had but known all that had been dis- covered in landscape art, for Constable had wrought, and Fontainebleau had spoken. But they did not know, the great traditions of the past were a sealed book to them, and they searched, and explored for themselves, and without help found. And out of them, out of their conventions, out of their discov- eries, their imperfections, grew Inness, and Wyant, and Martin, and Murphy, and Shurtleff — as con- trasted with those who paint American landscape in a Barbizon or Dutch way. Two paintings by Thomas Doughty (1793-1856) are still somewhat weak and finicky, hesitating in expression. Asher Brown Durand (1796-1886) is stronger — in his " In the Woods " even sterner. He was an able artist, who also painted portraits acceptably. Thomas Cole (1801-1848), Enghsh- born, died near Catskill, N. Y., and many of his canvases bear scenes of that picturesque region, one of which, " In the Catskills,-' is found here. The " Oxbow " of the Connecticut also shows his sin- cere feeling and love for the romantic aspect of nature. Foreign travel diverted him somewhat from the simplicity of his earlier work, and rocks and trees became mixed with symbolism, whereof the " Titan's Goblet " is a good example. Several men followed their conventions, and those 294 Ube Btt of tbe /iDetropolitan /IDuseum who clung nearest to their methods, without making any progress, have been grouped under the name of " the Hudson River School." There is much sim- ilarity in their work, only a few topped the average mediocrity. John W. Casilear (1811-1893) and J. F. Kensett (1818-1872), the brothers Hart, William (1823- 1894) and James McD. (1828-1901), and J. F. Cropsey (1823-1900) have the characteristic land- scapes that go by the school-name I mentioned. Frederick E. Church (1826-1900) sometimes rose above the commonplace of the traditions he fol- lowed, as in " The Heart of the Andes," which is considered his masterpiece. " The ^gean Sea " smacks of the school to which he belonged. Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) was born in Germany and had studied at Diisseldorf before he emigrated. The similarity of art expression between the Diis- seldorf and Hudson River schools is apparent in his work. Still he sometimes felt heroic striving, and he surely expressed this in his fine canvas " The Rocky Mountains." Still a few genre painters among these early men claim our attention. They owed at first a little to foreign training, and they sought in a modest way to give some native expression to the domestic man- ners of the Americans. William S. Mount (1806-1868) was one of the Zhc Hmertcan paintings 295 first to essay these pictorial anecdotes. His " Raf- fling for the Goose " reminds one of a Wilkie or a Nicol. He alone had native training. Edwin White (1817-1877) went to Paris and Diisseldorf. *' The Antiquary " represents him here. Henry Peters Gray (1819-1877) also painted genre in a foreign way; but the stories he tells are not im- pressive, notwithstanding the appealing titles, as : *' Cleopatra dissolving the Pearl," " Wages of War," and " Greek Lovers." Edward Harrison May (1824-1887) has a "Mary Magdalene," and a "Brigand," which were very much liked; they are smoothly painted. Thomas W. Wood (1823- 1903) always retained his old-school manner, which still should demand respect and attention. This is not wasted on his " War Episodes," a triptych that presents scenes of a generation ago with intense feeling, and by no means deficient either in colour or execution. Also the " Corn-Husking," by East- man Johnston (1824-1906), who was well-known as a portrait painter, and whose style was founded on Diisseldorf study, has local colour. But although there are subjects that few save our countrymen have attacked — the negro, the Indian, the Rockies and Niagara, the treatment of such sub- jects or localities must not be considered to have created a national school. While many of these artists, whose exploits to 296 ^be art of tbe Metropolitan /iDuseum us seem now so poor and meagre, were still work- ing, men were appearing here and there to whom American Art in its widest national sense, may look as champions for more serious recognition. George Fuller, William Morris Hunt and George Inness produced work that has withstood the corroding influence of passing fads, and which to-day is recog- nized, far more than in their life-time, as expressing the highest ideals. George Fuller (1822-1884) was not wanted by the National Academy of Design, when he returned from his studies abroad. Apparently he had not learned enough; he had not sufficiently adopted foreign manner, so dear to the heart of the old Academicians ; he showed the temerity of trying to be himself — a cardinal sin in their eyes. So Fuller retired to his father's farm at Deerfield, Mass , where he painted his own visions of nature as dreams, for his was a dreamy temperament. His " Nydia," his " Hannah " may be vague in out- line, they are the result of his groping to express his thoughts in that poetic cnveloppe, in which they are so elusively shrouded. More of an artist than a painter, his canvases have the distinction of personal feeling. William Morris Hunt (1824-1879) certainly learned his technic from Alillet, but in every other way is nothing but himself. His " Bathers," or > H tfi Z Ui n 1-1 fc HH Q <; o QJ w O u < w Pk Zbc Hmectcan paintinas 297 " The Girl at the Fountain," are spirited and vigor- ous. The " Girl " has grace of natural pose, the " Bathers " a morbidezza that is masterful. Hunt's place in art can never be overestimated, for his power of personality made him exert tremendous influence on the students that flocked around him. George Inness (1825-1894) was a pure product of his own talent; his art was wholly a matter of inward growth and development ; his work was all original, all of his own soil. He never knew the men of Fontainebleau until his own art was fully formed, and only then recognized in Corot, Rous- seau and Daubigny men who were solving the prob- lems he was working out in much the same way. All he got from them was encouragement and re- newed enthusiasm to persevere. Still his occasional European trips were helpful in a broadening of his methods of painting, and a strengthening of his hold on the mysterious heart that stirs the universe — a deeper insight into the beauty, the glory, the sub- limity of nature. Note his " Peace and Plenty," in the Hearn col- lection — what a panorama of nature is there spread before us ; a landscape of autumn with its imperial vestments of purple, crimson and gold; the slum- berous silence brooding over drowsing, wheat- stacked fields; fertile meadow lands bearing bread beside the watercourses; a cunning hand with 298 Ube Hrt of tbe /iBetropoUtan /iBuseum witching sorcery, with magnetic power draws us to worship and give thanks, for the barns shall have plenty, man shall be fed, and all is well with the beautiful world. All the landscapes of Inness bear his individual stamp. They are the reproductions of what is pal- pable and material, seen in an emotional and spir- itual mood. He mingled colour, light and air — especially moisture-laden air — and these alone, bound in balanced harmony, passed through his poetic brain, and subtly showed with a burst of quiet splendour the earth rioting in its own richness, or convulsed by the coming storm. A few of the later men, whose work is ended, must now be considered. Next to Inness in land- scape art stand Wyant and Martin. Alexander H. Wyant (1836-1892), at the age of twenty one, visited George Innes in New York, and received then that lasting impression which opened his eyes, and ever after enabled him to see the beau- teous visions of nature, serene and unadorned. Nor did the few years he spent at Diisseldorf in the least affect him. The stamp had been placed on the char- acter of his art, and it was indelible. His four land- scapes in the Museum are like the four strings of a violin, each one a different note reverberating to the touch of the gentle master. The three landscapes by Homer D. Martin (1836- Ube Hmerican paintings 299 1897) are as musical, but in a different key. An- other mood is back of the poetic vision, another light dwells in the eyes of the artist's imagination. And who will choose between these hymns of na- ture's glory that set our souls vibrating? Of a far different temperament was Thomas Hovenden (1840-1895), an accomplished painter, indeed, who preferred prose to poetry. His stories have generally a sentimental streak in them. " Breaking Home-ties " was, therefore, one of the most popular paintings at the Chicago Fair — it is now in Philadelphia. This feeling is not lacking in "Jerusalem the Golden," found here; the hymn being played by the young lady at the piano in the shadow, to cheer the reclining young lady in the red armchair, who, if she needs that kind of music, must be far from convalescing, as the catalogue sur- mises. In fact, the problem is so perplexing that we forget entirely to notice the excellent light effects in this room. His " Last Moments of John Brown " may be called patriotic sentimentality. The kind of emotion it will arouse will, however, depend greatly on which side of Mason and Dixon's line one is standing. It is a most offensive canvas to the many Southern visitors to the Metropolitan Museum. R. Swain Gifford (1840-1905), who clung for a long time to the Hudson River school, broadened considerably in his later years, and painted some 300 zbc art of tbe /IDetropolitan Museum fine landscapes, far better than his " Near the Coast," in the Museum. Theodore Robinson (1852-1896), in many of his works, especially in " The Girl and Cow," a gift of Mr. W. T. Evans, shows the real benefit the Im- pressionist doctrines may convey to those whose individual strength repels ill-digested imitation. He, too, revelled in light, and analyzed it with subtle intuition, growing emotional at every sunburst ; but he kept colour and composition well in hand, and produced paintings that are not only attractive, but ennoble the most commonplace scene. Robinson had the faculty to impress one with the spontaneity of his expression. His work always seems to be done au premier coup. He possessed the true tonal- ity of nature, the green of leaves and grasses, toning with the tints of the treebark, with the white and dun of the animal's hide, and the rosy cheeks of the peasant girl. That same totie of nature is found in his " Winter Landscape." J. H. Twachtman (1853-1902) does not owe more to the Giverny school than Robinson did, but he followed it closer; there is more of Monet in " The Waterfall " than is consistent with an individual cachet. It is a peculiarly pleasing ca- price, with tintillating colour, vibrating light, and full of atmosphere, where we stand on the border- land between illusion and reality. Ubc Bmerican jpaintings 30i Robert Blum (1857-1903) let fall his brush just when he had completed his initial effort at the highest perfection of art — the magnificent mural paintings in Mendelssohn Hall, illustrating the " Moods of Music." His " Japanese Candy Ven- der," in the Museum, is full of colour, with exact- itude of line, and a charming sense of foreign parts. Standing alone in a niche of the temple of fame is James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), whose work, tardily enough, is now honouring the Museum. To write here Whistleriana would be but repeating what is known, for few there be who have not sometime or other read about this unique genius. Suffice it to point out that lovely little watercolour, " A lady in Gray," a harmony in one chord. Two of his Nocturnes are here, the " Noc- turne in Green and Gold " and the " Nocturne in Black and Gold," both of the Cremorne Gardens night-series. By sheer dint of gazing our confused perception becomes aware of an orgy of precious stones set cunningly. The mysterious shadow masses evolve into colour-harmonies of penetrating power. The purple hollow of the night is peopled with golden caravans seen by the spent sparks of an expiring rocket. That is Whistler. The remainder of the paintings in the American section are by living men. They are being selected — for they are constantly being added to — with 302 Ubc Brt of tbe /iDetropoUtan /Museum consummate taste, and more notably, with cath- olicity of spirit. I will only mention a few of these living men, who have attained to acknowledged greatness, leav- ing the rest to speak by their own works — surely with greater eloquence than I can command. In John La Farge the country possesses that rare phenomenon, a great colourist, who expresses in the language of colour all the emotions of the human soul. And yet, we scarcely think of him as such because of the many-sidedness of his character. His horizon seems to be unlimited. Life in all its aspects whispers to him the secrets it would have him reveal by his brush. Whether we see him in his flower-paintings, which Fantin-Latour could not match, or in his Oriental scenes, in his figure- work, or rise with him to the sublime height of his mural paintings — he is always the master, who has placed an indelible mark upon American art. Only one of his small Samoan subjects is in the Museum, but there are vast wall spaces on which the Master might yet sing one grand song to the Glory of the Arts. It has been said that " Winslow Homer typifies in painting what Walt Whitman does in poetry, and Abraham Lincoln in statesmanship." If so, he is the typical American painter — and those who know will not gainsay. There is no locality in his ma- 4 UM Hmerican patntinas 303 fines, nor do we find specific subjects that might not with equal truth be assigned to almost any part on the globe under the temperate zone. But Homer becomes typically American in that he is not an imitator; in that he hoes his own row, and ploughs his own field in his own way ; in that he abjures conventionalism and goes straight to the mark, clean-cut, with extreme individualism, and distinctly modern. And though all this applies with equal force to men of other nationalities — that only goes to prove that art knows no boundaries ; and that Homer is to be called a typical American painter is to distinguish him from other American painters who might as well be French, Dutch or Irish. Homer's " Cannon Rock " is one of the greatest works he has painted. A colossal breaker with creamy foam and intense, translucent sheen is comb- ing over to pound upon the iron shore — a rock like a mosaic, a wave like a diamond crest. His " Gulf stream " comes nearest telling a story to any picture he ever painted. But it is a gripping one. The wrecked fishing-boat, without rudder or sail, is rolling in the trough of the swell; on the tipped deck a negro is stretched in the resignation of despair, while sharks sport around waiting for their prey. An ominous significance is found in the water- spout approaching on the horizon. But the paint- ing! What colour, what tonality, accentuated in 304 Ube Brt of tbe /IDetropolitan /IDuseum contrast by that touch of vermiHon upon the hull. Here indeed is a master-brush, and a master-mind! And there are still other examples of his in the Museum. Wm. M. Chase is fitly represented by the two subjects he knows best to paint. There is a mag- nificent still-life of " Fish," which van Beyeren could not have bettered ; and his portrait work may be seen in " Carmencita," and two other portraits of women. Chase's portrait, by Sargent, who is still by cour- tesy claimed by the Americans, is a virile, sincere performance. There are Sargents and Sargents, but this portrait is not the work of a virtuoso. Nor can we make that charge against the Marquand portrait. Sargent is a consummate technician, who works with astonishing rapidity — and alas, some- times falls into the resultant snare. But even after this is said we stand admiringly before the work of one who knows colour, values, drawing — every- thing that makes the painter, and has the observing eyes that makes the limner of portraits. That other portrait painter and mural painter of renown, John W. Alexander, has that within his reach, which is the prize of the Masters. I may only bid you look at his " Study in Black and Green," a fine picture. To single out a few landscapes, we turn to " The J (• ^^^V'^'^'A'*^ Ik^ 'ff' *' i u^ . ^ .f - ... i:f :J ^^1 m MB t Ubc Bmerican ipalntinas 305 Old Barn," by J. F. Murphy, foremost in the rank of American landscape painters. A canvas of his has the effect of a day in the country, when one smells the fresh earth, and the breezes of field and forest drive the city-smoke out of the lungs. There is always art, there is always quality in his work — a stream of elegance, a thrill of style, a hint of the unseen. His is not a topographic study of detail, but of the more subtle qualities of the law of enveloppe, and of values. Horatio Walker handles his brush broadly. His colour is always rich, pure and true, whether inclin- ing to the sombre and deeper notes, or to brighter keys, when it is joyous and vibrating, full of the intimate charm of sunshine. His " Sheepfold " here is one of his tender passages, while at other times he can be rugged, bold, energetic, with large- ness of style and vigour of composition. But this must suffice. Critical comments on the work of our own men, still living, and many yet in a formative period, must not be demanded in a work of this kind. Enough to record that pictures may be found here of the Bostonians, Ben- son, Tarbell, Thayer and Tryon. Also of Elihu Vedder, De Forest Brush, and Blakelock; and of those somewhat spiritually related artists, Albert P. Ryder and Arthur B. Davies. There are pic- tures here by Carlsen, Charles H. Davis, Shurtleff, 30G Xi;f3e Hrt of tbe /IDetropoUtan /iDuseum Bunce, Crane, Dessar, and Dearth; and a magni- ficent marine by Waugh. Whittredge, Schofield, Bogert, Daingerfield, Ranger and Loeb are repre- sented; as also Boggs, Julian Alden Weir, Robert Reid, Charles H. Miller, Kendall, Volk, Mary Cas- satt, Sartain, Parton, Williams, C. Y. Turner and Smillie. The Museum has also owned for some time the work of Maynard, Eakins, Wiggins, Marr, Picknell, Will Low, Coffin and Fitz. We will find in many of these canvases the skilled eye and the trained hand ; in others the gropings of talented seekers after truth. These men tell us their stories with the pathos of colour, with the delicacy of chiaroscuro, with the suggestion of form — all elements the artist perceives in nature, or vainly wishes to improve upon by imagination. Of very few of these artists the last word of fame or failure could now be written ; and we must wait until the balance is struck between the favour that placed their work in their present surroundings and the ultimate verdict of critical analysis. CHAPTER XIV METALWORK The department of Metalwork is rapidly pre- senting an exhaustive survey of artistic work in gold, silver, bronze, brass, iron and pewter. As far back as 1873 the Trustees made a begin- ning with this department, one of the most valuable in the Museum by reason of its educational use — by ordering reproductions in metal of objects in the South Kensington Museum. Such electrotype, or galvano reproductions are so skilfully made that it is nearly impossible to detect at sight the replicas from the originals, so that the large number of reproductions in the Museum serve all the purposes of the originals in foreign museums. Thus we find perfect duplicates of many treasures of the gold and silversmith's art that otherwise would be lost to the local artist and artificer. The South Kensington Collection consists of beakers, bowls, tankards, spoons, forks, knives, ewers, candlesticks, salvers, plateaux, chalices, 307 308 Ube Hrt of tbe /IDetropolttan /iDuseum vases, inkstands, incense holders, statuettes. Pres- ident Marquand was greatly impressed with the value of these reproductions, and he had copies made for the Museum of Russian metalwork from the Imperial collections and from other sources. Thus there are superb examples of Muscovite house- hold, table and ornamental plate. Important among these is a magnificent set of a gold toilet service, used by the Empress Anna Svanovna, of Augsburg work of the middle of the 18th century. Further there are objects found in the tombs of Kertch in the Crimea; works of gold, in "early Russian," found in the North East of Russia, and to the South East of Siberia; specimens of old German and Russian plate ; some English work presented by the Earl of Carlisle when ambassador to Russia in 1663 ; an equestrian statuette of Charles I of Eng- land, of Augsburg work, presented by Charles to the Czar; a silver centrepiece of English work by Paul Lamerie (1733); and a miniature tazza, of chalcedony mounted in gold, elaborately chased in figures and groups, and attributed to Cellini. These collections of reproductions have con- stantly grown, so that we may study here the golden treasure of Nagy Szent Miklo's, found in Hungary in 1799, and now in the Imperial Art History Museum, Vienna; and the so-called Hildesheim treasure. This consists of 38 silver vessels found /iDetalworft 309 near Hildesheim in Germany, in 1868, and now in the Royal Museum of Berlin. The oldest piece is a patera, or dish, of parcel gilt, with two flat han- dles, having a figure of the seated Athene in high relief in the centre, which dates probably from the first century before our era. There are several two-handled drinking cups of silver parcel gilt, exquisitely chased, with figures in relief, besides vases, ladles, stewpans and a tripod, all attributed to the Augustan age. There is also a series of reproductions of Irish metalwork. Long before the introduction of Christianity, the pagan Irish practised the art of working in bronze, silver, gold and enamel, in which they displayed great mastery over the metals, and admirable skill in design. The art came to its highest perfection in the 10th and 11th centuries, after which it declined for want of encouragement. Some of the most remarkable as well as the most beautiful and elaborately ornamented objects in the National Museum of Dublin have been reproduced for this department. The Ardagh Chalice is an exquisite example of Celtic ornamentation, of the end of the 10th cen- tury. The Tara Brooch is ornamented with amber, glass and enamel, and the characteristic Irish filigree or interlaced work, and is of the same period as the Ardagh Chalice. Several other brooches of 310 Ube Hrt of tbe /iDetropoUtan /IDuseum different designs allow one to trace the progressive methods by which the pin was made to hold fast. The Cross of Cong, of wood plated with metal, and covered with elaborate ornamentation of pure Celtic design, was finished in 1103. St. Patrick's Bell, of the 5th century, is protected by an elaborate shrine, made in the beginning of the 12th century, which is a fine example of goldsmith's work. Of the 12th century we find the reproductions of several shrines, usually of bronze, set with gold, silver, jewels, etc. There are also Croziers, or Pastoral Staffs, of bishops or abbots. Electrotype reproductions of Mykenaean metal- work, including specimens of the art of the pre- historic Greeks, in various metals, were made from originals in the National Museum of Athens. These include inlaid daggers, a silver bull's head with gilded horns, cups from Vaphio, and many fingerrings and other small ornaments. The department is almost as rich in original work. Some of the articles in gold will be referred to in the chapter on Gems, but where the gold- smith's art and not the graver's is preeminent we must refer to it here. In the days when war or pestilence brought hard" times, it was easy to melt up gold or silver ware and turn it into coin. Many masterpieces were no doubt destroyed in this way. As recently as 1714 w u < o w c/T H H w O w Q W I— » w (A O /IDetalvvorft 3ii Louis XIV of France had all the silver used in his royal palaces melted in the mint to meet the ex- penses of an unfortunate war. Church ornaments were protected to a certain extent by their sacred nature. The most valuable pieces have come down to us through excavations of tombs, or from the discovery of secret hiding places where the treasure was buried to protect it from marauding enemies, and the hiding place forgotten. Thus we have several ancient Greek gold ornaments, chiefly of the Roman periods, found in tombs at Saida, Haifa and Tarsus. Others were found at Sidon and Bagdad. A gold necklace found in a Greek tomb near Smyrna, dated 400-300 b. c, is composed of 29 pearls, 22 gold heads and two cylinders of fine granulated work. A winged figure (Cupid) serves as a pendant in the centre. A number of these pieces of ancient Greek jew- elry are of extraordinary beauty and importance. They include a diadem, a necklace, a pair of ear- rings, a fingerring, seven rosettes in the form of small flowers, and nineteen beads from a necklace, all of them being of the pure yellow gold which was customarily used by the Greeks for their coins and for the better class of their jewelry. The design and the execution indicate these to be of the 4th century b. c, or in the highest development of the Hellenic period. 312 Ubc Brt ot tbe /IDettopoUtan /iDuseum The decorations of the diadem are entirely re- pousse, hammered into low but carefully modelled reliefs. The figures of Dionysos and Ariadne, seated back to back, form the centre from which a series of scrolls, each enfolding a small female figure, no two alike, runs out terminating in a con- ventionalized " palmette " pattern. The necklace consists of a closely woven braid of fine gold wire, from which amphora shaped pendants are sus- pended by rosettes and intertwining chains. The rosettes especially are remarkable for delicate work- manship. The single rosettes are unique in the careful manner in which the minutest details, pistils and stamens have been imitated. We must further notice a pair of spirals of pale gold, the use of which cannot be ascertained, as they are too large for fingerrings and too small for bracelets, being about one and a half inch in diam- eter. The ends are decorated with balls in which human heads appear of a distinctly Hebrew type, so that they may be regarded as Phcenician work. There is also a Greek gold ring on which a dancing girl is engraved. The figure is of a type of the 5th century b. c. A Greek gold ring, the bezel of which measures % in. in diameter has engraved a fully draped woman, standing by an incense- burner. It is of the 4th century b. c. A collection of classical Greek jewelry, dating IRISH PLATE, 1757. REPRODUCTION OF THE ELEANOR GRILLE IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY, BRASS BOWL, INLAID WITH GOLD AND SILVER, SYRIAN. /iDetalworft 313 between 400 and 300 b. c, consists of a bridal wreath, composed of oak, myrtle and hawthorn leaves and flowers; a wreath of ivy leaves, called by the Romans " Corona Triumphalis " ; a crown "with figures in relief and an inscription " Of Idy- teia, Priestess of Demeter " ; a necklace of exquisite granulated work with pendant. Only recently the Younghusband expedition to Thibet has produced a large number of art objects from the Llamissaries. From these three antique Thibetan priestly helmets, profusely decorated with Buddhistic symbols, have found their way to the Museum. They are made of copper, hammered out from single pieces, then encrusted with medal- lions. These, with the brow bands and earguards were overlaid with gold. Their form is curiously archaic, and suggests exotic influence, early Indian, and possibly even Greek. The decorations are, however, purely Mongolian. One of these is here and there encrusted with crystal and turquoise. Noteworthy among the objects in gold is the modern " Adams Gold Vase," an exquisite example of American goldsmith art. All the materials, the gold and the hundreds of precious stones with which it is studded, are indigenous. Among the objects in silver we note first the " Bryant Testimonial Vase," perhaps the finest piece of repousse ever made, which was presented 314 Ube Hrt of tbe /iDetropoUtan /iDuseum to the poet on his eightieth birthday. It is a mag- nificent example of the dexterity of the American sih^ersmith. The abundance of its decorative designs reminds one of the rococo period of the late Renaissance. Silver seems to have been a form of domestic extravagance earliest indulged in. After domestic utensils had long been made in copper and pewter, silver became the coveted material for beakers, tankards, dramcups, flagons, plates and dishes. Among these objects we will single out a silver Knight's cup, enamelled with gold, dated 1561; a silver beaker, marked " van Schaick, 1604," proba- bly of Knickerbocker times; some pieces of old English silver; an early American silver tea set of four pieces, of 1825; and an Irish silver flat- top tankard of the time of Queen Anne. There are also reproductions in sterling silver, and exact facsimiles of the originals, of some Irish dish- rings, or punch-bowl stands of the 18th century. Some of these are plain with pierced patterns and without ornament. The later ones are pierced, and chased with animals, flowers, scenes, etc. A 16th century Italian altarpiece of silver is enamelled and studded with precious stones. The forerunner of silver for domestic purposes was pewter, selected because the inferior value of the metal protected it against destruction, and its /IDetalvvorft 3i5 extreme malleability and its soft colour appealed to the art-workman. Pewter is simply tin tempered with lead, copper, bismuth and antimony, the proportion being dif- ferent in different countries. The bluer the colour the more lead is in its composition. It relies for its pleasing appearance on its form, on the quality of the alloy, and on its colour. The period of the most showy development of pewter began in France about 1550, and Frangois Briot was its most celebrated worker, although Lyons was known for its excellence in pewter ware as early as 1295. By 1600 the Niirnberg workers entered the field with richly worked plates and plat- ters, many designed for ornament on the heavily carved dressers of the middle classes, in imitation of the gold and silver plate which was displayed by the wealthy nobles. Augsburg became also famous for its pewter. The Flemish workers of the 17th and 18th centuries often produced work of great delicacy and beauty, their best coming from Ghent. The " rose and crown," although a mark thought to belong to English pewter, is found on Dutch, German, French and Flemish ware. A large collection of this continental pewter is here on exhibition, with a few pieces of English and American make. There is also a Japanese pewter jar. The pewter used by the Japanese contains 316 Ubc Hrt ot tbe /Metropolitan /iDuseum so much lead that it was susceptible of much work- ing, and engraving was used as a form of decora- tion. Bronze is an alloy of copper, zinc and tin, copper forming about 85 per cent of the weight. This alloy can only be poured into sand-moulds. The imitation bronze, most used for commercial pur- poses, is spelter or zinc, and can be cast in metal moulds, which open to take out the casting. The Japanese method of casting has also been followed in the Western countries. The model is made in hard vegetable wax with a core of clay, and cov- ered with a mixture of clay, charcoal and sand, tempered with water, so as to be very plastic and capable of readily taking the minutest impressions. " Jets " for the introduction of the melted metal, and " vents " for the escape of air and gases are put in place, and the outer crust of clay of consid- erable thickness at last surrounds the model. The whole is subjected to intense heat, which bakes the clay and melts the wax which runs out, leaving the exact space for the metal to fill up. The pieces produced in this way are called a circ perdue. Barye always made his first model in wax, and had the first casting made from it in this manner. This first casting was kept as a pattern to make the moulds for subsequent copies. Specimens of early Roman bronzes are shown, /IDetalworft 3i7 which include a ring uniting two hons' heads face to face, a lamp with double handle, a mask of a lion's head, tripods, disks, statuettes, sacrificial shovels, etc. The Japanese and Chinese who are masters in all arts connected with metalwork, used different alloys which they colour in endless variety of shades. The Japanese Shakudo, or dark-bluish bronze, sometimes nearly as dark as blue steel, contains lead in the alloy, and is stained with cinnabar. We find here examples of such coloured Japanese bronzes, and also vases, kettle and winevessel made in China. Of singular attraction is the handicraft of the ironsmith. From earliest times iron was chosen for its toughness, its elasticity, its flexibility and endurance, and it was wrought into all kinds of useful and ornamental forms. As to the antiquity of the art of the blacksmith, the reference in Gen- esis to Tubal-Cain as the artificer and instructor in iron and brass carries its own significance. It is to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance that we must turn for the greatest achievements. The decorating of hinges, locks and straps for chests was practised as early as the loth century. Iron embellished doors and gateways, and the de- signs for presses and chests, grilles, windowgrat- ings and fastenings, wall-anchors, firedogs, became 318 Ube Hrt of tbe /IDetropoIitan /IDuseum in Gothic and Renaissance times truly remarkable for the genuine spirit of art they express. Cast- iron never can compare with wrought-iron, forged and chiselled with artistic feeling. After the Re- naissance art-smithing declined to the Baroque and Rococo periods, when it became so over-orna- mented as to lose the quality of the material. The designs then have not quite the interest or charm of those of the mediaeval period. Of English smithing there is a copy of the beau- tiful wrought-iron grille or grate to the tomb of Queen Eleanor (died 1290) in Westminster Abbey. It is made of the same material, the scrolls being forged and the stamped work pressed into pre- pared moulds. It consists of eleven panels resem- bling hinge-work, riveted to the face of a plain, rectangular frame, to which the arching or herse form was given, and surmounted by a row of trident spikes, used as prickets. The easy flowing lines of the vine pattern is followed in nine of the panels. We note also some Chamberlain's keys, gilded and chased. Of Gothic and early Renaissance German work, we have keys, lockhandles, key-hole plates, candle- sticks, scroll-work, caskets, armourer's tools, and some exquisite work from old Niirnberg. Of the Baroque and Rococo period, hinges, clasps and /IDetalworft 3i9 straps ; and of the late Renaissance table-knives and forks, skewer-needles, etc. The art of other nations may also be studied. There is a wrought-iron Dutch chest of the 17th century, and one of the early 19th century; a metal coffret, and a wrought-iron chancel-gate of the 14th century, from France; a pair of chiselled Milanese iron brackets of the 16th century; and wrought- iron kitchen utensils of the 17th and 18th centuries from Spain. Saracenic metalwork is distinguished by its fre- quent use of damascening. This was done by placing two sheets of different metals, copper and steel or silver, in which at different places holes were cut, not corresponding with those in the other plate. The two plates were then hammered to- gether, the metal of the one filling the holes in the other plate. Designs were frequently cut out, and filled with the other metal in like manner. The Japanese also were expert in this work, as may be seen in their armour. Of the Saracenic metalwork there is a variety of specimens, waterjars, trays, urns, lamps, bowls and boxes. The Mosil style of decoration of the 13th century is characterized by the lavish use of figures of men and animals. A cognate collection is the one of Spoons, donated 320 Ube art of tbe /IDetropolitan /llMiseum by Mrs. S. P. Avery. The introduction to the catalogue of this collection is an exhaustive and erudite essay on the subject. The collection ranges from a Roman spoon of white metal to the latest designs. All the earliest spoons have pear-shaped bowls. It was not until the latter part of the 17th century that they began to elongate toward the egg- shaped spoon of the present time. The collection includes a complete set of Apostle spoons, with the thirteenth, or " Master " spoon. Also wooden Apostle spoons with metal handles, from Norway, are found here. All styles, from the 16th to the 19th century are illustrated. A large collection of modern souvenir spoons are reminiscent of a fad of some years ago. ARMS AND ARMOUR While the collection of Arms and Armour of the Metropolitan Museum may not be compared with the inexhaustible collection of the Historical Museum at the Johanneum, Dresden, or the Wal- lace Collection at Hertford House, London, it, nevertheless, presents a respectable array of the work of the armourer, the German Waffenschmidt. The integral parts of the collection are the one formed by Mr. William J. H. Ellis, of Ellerslie, Westchester, England ; the Dino Collection, formed by Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, Due de Dino; /iDetalworft 321 the remarkable Bash ford Dean Collection of Jap- anese Armour; and periodical additions made by purchase or gift. There are several pieces of ancient armour in bronze of great interest — a Casque from Capua, of the 6th century b. c. ; a Greek cuirass, of the 5th century b. c. ; a conical shaped Sicilian casque, simply formed and having the characteristics of the 4th century; several Roman casques of the 3d century b. c. ; and an Etruscan bronze waist-band and fastener. Of a bronze corselet of the Hall- statt period, of the Celtic or Italipte type ( from the 5th to the 7th century a. d.) only seven specimens are known to exist. Its form is archaic, straight in the back and sides, and low in the shoulders. The ornamentation consists of repousse tubercles, characteristic of the Hallstatt epoch. Of the same style and period is an early bronze casque. Of two fine antique bronze helmets one is Greek, of the pointed-cap or pilos type, perfectly plain in shape and without decoration. The other one appears to have belonged to one of the Teutonic tribes which invaded Greece and Northern Italy, as it has on each side the hollow projection for the insertion of horns which these barbarians wore. The arms used in the middle ages were of the greatest variety. In the early part of the feudal 322 Ube Hrt ot tbe /IDetropolttan /IDuseum period, and up to the reign of Charles VII of France, who was the first to organize regular com- panies, the armies were composed of the serfs of the different vassals, and as each man had to equip himself, uniformity was out of the question. Old tapestries and miniatures in book illumination show the manner of equipment when this became more uniform. The body was protected by a tunic or coat of leather, or by a rudimentary coat of mail; a pointed metal cap served as helmet ; and the arma- ment consisted of the bow, the spear, and a long flat sword. Later the helmet became cylindrical in shape, rest- ing on the shoulders, and large enough for the head to move freely. It had openings or slits for sight and breath, and was called a heaume. The arms were hatchets and battle axes, metal balls covered with spikes swinging by a chain from the end of a club, and other formidable weapons. By the time of the Crusades a more convenient helmet, called the bassinet, replaced the heaume, and plate armour gradually developed, until it attained the state of perfection of the 14th and 15th centuries. Its component parts were a cuirasse, made in two pieces, closing round the body like a box; a gorget to protect the throat ; brassards or armpieces ; pieces forming a sort of skirt below the cuirass, called faudes; cuissards or thigh pieces ; leg and /IDetalworl? 323 knee pieces, shoes and gauntlets. The helmet, called an armet, was composed of a cap, a chin- piece, and a visor, which, being hinged at the sides, could be raised or lowered at will. Long after the invention of fire-arms armour was still worn, but the helmets were replaced by metal caps with wide rims of diverse shape to pro- tect the face, neck or ears. They were called bour- gignotte, morion or cabasset, and the peculiar caps of the French arquebusiers of the 16th century were called salades, on account of their similarity with salad-bowls. The halberd was really a long-handled axe. The heads had a great variety of fanciful forms, occa- sionally decorated with gilding, the blade being fre- quently perforated with ornamental devices. Ulti- mately the halberd became purely a decorative weapon. The partisan was somewhat similar, yet quite distinct. Piques, faucardes, Guisearmes were also in use. Specimens of all these various parts of armour may be seen here. The art of the armourer became peculiarly Ger- man after the Middle Ages, and even in the best catalogued collections many armours, and espe- cially swords, are ascribed to other countries, when they came originally from the renowned Niirnberg masters, or from Colman, the famous armourer of Augsburg, who died in 1516. Dresden had 324 XTbe Hrt ot tbe Metropolitan /iDuseum also, in the 18th century, a celebrated gunsmith, Erttel. A specimen that attracts deserved attention is a complete harness for man and horse, of German workmanship, dating from the times of the Thirty Years' War, about 1630 — which is rather a late date for armour, especially the panoply of the horse being then discarded. A cap-a-pie armour of Niirnberg is of 1590, and a " jousting armour " or " tilting suit " is of the same period. There is one of the so-called " fluted " suits which came into fashion in the reign of the Emperor Maximilian, after whom they are also named. Their glancing surface gave better resistance to the opposing weapons, and therefore allowed of lighter weight. They date from the beginning of the 16th century. Most of these " fluted " specimens to be found in public or pri- vate collections are made up of different suits — helmet and gorget, palettes, vere and vam braces, gauntlets, jambs and sollerets are often gathered from different equipments. Complete Maximilian suits, built by the same smith, are of the utmost rarity. An armour, decorated with battle scenes in re- pousse, and damascened, denotes the introduction of this style in German armour after 1515, although such decoration was practised long before by Italian /IDetalworft 325 armourers. The one before us is from Augsburg, 1580. A Swiss corselet of the landsknecht type (about 1580), an iron gorget of the 17th century, black morions with raised bands of the Bavarian type of the late 17th century, bring us to an inter- esting collection of swords. There is an early sword, a panzerbrecher (late 15th century), with a long handle, short-branched guard, and a long, stout blade, triangular in sec- tion; a landsknecht sword, with irregularly out- lined pummel, and the original handle (fusee) of boxwood ; and a Gothic sword with a long blade, of the 15th century. An old-German inscription on a two-handed sword indicates it having belonged to a guard of a Duke of Brunswick. One sword has the handle and straight transverse guard which is characteristic of the 13th century. There are halberds, tilting lances, a 14th century pole-axe, a shield (Rondache), a curious double Korseke, and an ahlspiess (15th century) with its original ron- dell. Of fire-arms we find a pair of inlaid Saxon wheel-lock pistols (late 16th century) ; a pair of flint-lock pistols, with revolving barrels (18th cen- tury) ; a wheel-lock rifle, the stock richly inlaid (16th or early 17th century). A Crossbow, beau- tifully inlaid, of Tyrolese workmanship, is from the latter part of the 16th century. Together with it is a bunch of well-preserved bolts, or quarrels, 326 Ube Brt of tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum with the winder by which the heavy steel bow was set. A Partisan, with engraved blade, rosettes and hearts, is Venetian of the 15th century; a Runka is 16th century Italian; and a Plastron with two tassets is Swiss of the same period. A cap-a-pie, and a half-armour are Milanese, while a basinet with visor, an armet and rondelle are English. The Chinese and Japanese used armour up to a recent date. The Japanese armour is made of metal and lacquer. The helmets are heavy and very fantastic in their ornamentation. The visor consists of an iron mask, made hideous with mus- taches and beard of horse-hair. The flexible parts of the armour consist of lacquered bands strung together with silk after the fashion of Venetian blinds. In the civil war in Japan in 1859, these arms were still used by the old conservative party, which was defeated. Since then all modern im- provements have been introduced. An example of such primitive armour dates from the 8th century. There are complete suits of the 13th to the 16th centuries, and several almost com- plete suits of the 16th and 17th centuries. There is a magnificent and extremely rare complete armour of the early Kamakuro period (1200 A. D.), with its wide Kusazuri, falling apron-Hke from the corselet, its broad neck-guard of the hel- /IDetalwork 327 met, and the great ear-guards which roll outward from either side. This specimen shows the ex- quisite workmanship of the Japanese armourer as he used steel, bronze, leather and silk, as well as the graver for decoration. Various types of breastplates, headpieces, masks, arm and shoulder-guards are shown. There is a helmet made by Nagazon Kotetsu, a celebrated sword-armourer who flourished about 1660. The cranial portion is dome-shaped, representing doubt- less the sacred egg, the Buddhist symbol of immor- tality ; the apical point has been developed into a rudimentary hachiman-za, an opening typical of Japanese helmets, through which the head of the wearer was supposed to come into contact with heavenly influences. A Corean helmet of the 17th century is in the form of a low sugar-loaf dome. The browguard is shaped in the shape of shells, and surface of the cranial dome has been chiselled, leaving a delicate tracery in relief. The neckguard is of many deli- cate steel laminae unlacquered. A modern Japanese helmet (or hachi) of iron bears close resemblance to the headpieces of the Ashikaza period (1336-1600) with modern orna- mentation of plumblossoms and the sixteen-petalled chrysanthemum, which indicates that it was worn by a noble of the first rank. A deeply rounded 328 XTbe art ot tbe /IDetropolitan /iDuseum war-hat, repousse, from a single piece of iron, is in the form of a resting devil-fish (octopus) with its tentacles retracted. It dates from the late 18th century. Japanese swords are made of iron on which a steel edge has been welded. They are often exqui- sitely wrought, and vary in size from large double- handed blades to the short hara-kiri knife. The sword-guards are of iron or bronze, and always finely wrought and decorated, as may be seen in a large number of specimens. The scabbards of these swords are of wood, lacquered, or covered with paper or leather. CHAPTER XV WOOD WORK The art of the woodworker was barely illustrated until the Georges Hoentschel Collection was placed on exhibition, covering work of the Gothic period and of the 18th century. Supplemented by gifts and from other sources there is now being brought together a department of the Decorative Arts as applied to woodwork or furniture which promises to become one of the most important in the Mu- seum's collections. A tentative survey of the woodworker's art in various countries may already be had, the French work forming the best supplied section. Taking up first the specimens of carved work from France we can trace these from the 15tli cen- tury Gothic, through Renaissance to the period of Louis XVI. In the' 15th century the Gothic lost its pure form of the arch, and the simplicity of line, and became more flamboyant, eliminating any impression of heaviness. Geometrical lines and delicately depicted foliage melt into each other and 329 330 Ube Brt ot tbe /iDetropoUtan /iDuseum produce a restless, flickering play of line, with higher relief. A fine example is a seat with a baldachino. Its ornament consists of the so-called " parchment scroll " pattern, which intended to break the smooth surface by the play of light and shade afforded by relief, even to a delicate openwork pattern in the baldachino of the seat. We find further a set of choir-stalls, beautifully carved. Two panels of choir-stalls with carved saints belong to the 14th century, the Golden Age of the Gothic style. In the later domestic and ecclesiastical furniture we notice ornament becoming more exuberant and riotous, as seen in chest-fronts, in fine examples of decorative tracery (among which is the " linen- fold pattern"), and in an interesting Reredos, the carved screen for the back of an altar. Of the Renaissance of the 16th century there is a cabinet, crowned with a pediment and enriched with small marble panels. The four doors are carved with graceful female figures bearing musical instruments. There are also cabinets of 1547 to 1560, and chests of the same period. The beau- tiful, rich and sumptuous style of decoration is shown in various garlands, festoons, brackets, screens, balustrades, chairs, tables, doors and panels. Eight pilaster fronts are among the most perfect Wiootf morft 331 and exquisite examples of wood carving in exist- ence. These are sculptured from designs by Sa- lembier, a notable designer and engraver in the time of Louis XVI. He excelled in " sculptures in the fiat," and these panels bear witness to his elegance of style, being carved with foliage, vases of flowers, torches, caryatides, cups, birds, fowls, grotesques and monograms. The panels were originally painted and gilt, but have been successfully cleaned so that one may now study the crispness of the carving and the full modelling. Under Louis XVI Reisener and David Roent- gen (represented here) made beautiful furniture in rosewood, tulip and maple, with gilt-bronze fittings by Gouthiere. There is also a large quan- tity of ormolu decorations, such as were affixed to furniture, made by the most famous designers of the period, which will offer artisans an inex- haustible supply of suggestion and inspiration. Buhl-work was made by the brothers Andre and Charles Boule in 1680, and consists in a veneer of tortoise shell, inlaid with copper, of which we find some examples. Less exhaustive and more as a nucleus the art of the English cabinet makers of the 18th century is shown. Two tendencies are to be recognized, one indicating the Dutch, the other the French influence. Dutch influence is shown in the cyma 332 Ubc Hrt ot tbe Metropolitan /iDuseum curve, carried out in all parts, producing the cabriole or bandy legs, terminating in bird's claws and ball-feet, and in the use of the slat. The French influence is divided between Louis XV and Louis XVI styles. To the former belong the Chippendales (up to about 1770), the distinguish- ing features of which are the use of Rococo scrolls, and the bow-shaped back. The Sheratons belong to the later style. In comparison with the French the Dutch and Flemish furniture seems somewhat simpler, and the carved features slightly heavier. Marqueterie was made principally in Holland and consists in different-coloured woods laid one into the other. Some famous cabinets and panels illustrate this peculiar style. An antique sleigh, which type is, however, still in use, comes from Holland. German cabinets and wardrobes of the 16th and 17th centuries, and a unique cradle are truly char- acteristic. Their decorations show the revolt against Gothic influence and style. Swiss woodwork of the 16th, 17th and 18th cen- turies shows little variation in style, indicating a loyalty to tradition which is characteristic of peas- ant-work. The design is not very highly devel- oped and is suggested by natural surroundings, the flowers of the Alps, edelweiss, harebells, gentian and Alpine roses being the chief motifs. The back is D H W H I— I CD Moot) Ximorft 333 typical of Switzerland, an opening in the centre allows the chair to be easily lifted. The complete woodwork of an 18th century room comes from Flims, Switzerland. Italian Renaissance furniture remains unsur- passed for fineness of proportion, beauty of relief and outline, and dignity of design. There are two chests, or marriage coffers, with gesso work, a com- position decoration both painted and gilt. Two other chests are of carved wood, one early Floren- tine with its severe lines, the other later Venetian with richer decoration. We note also a cradle of the first half of the 16th century; a casket, inlaid with pearl, and painted, of the 15th century; and the front of a cassone or chest, representing the taking of Salermo by Robert Guiscard, probably of 1420. It is a fine example of decorative paint- ing in bits of flat colour, strongly accentuated by the frequent use of black. There are not many specimens of American fur- niture, which is to be regretted. The styles of the Georges came over in colonial times to America, but instead of being affected at once by continental influences, especially the Empire style, as was the case in England, the English styles in the colonies vv^ere carried out to greater perfection. Note- worthy are a ladderback chair, American make, with five horizontal slats, instead of four, the usual 334 XTbe Brt of tbe /IDetropoUtan /IDuseum number. In carving and surfaces it is equal to the best English work of the period. Following the chests-of-drawers which came into fashion about 1680, American cabinet makers made what is usually called a " high-chest " of drawers (haut- boy), in reality a set of drawers placed upon legs, six turned or four bandy-shaped legs. A six- legged piece, made about 1750, illustrates this style. To indicate the breadth of choice we may turn to some Arabian woodwork, with ivory inlay ; a carved and gilded wooden stairway, Spanish work; and Persian work in the doors from the Palace of Ispahan, which was built by Shah Abbas (1587- 1628), one of the most enlightened and progressive rulers of that time. It was called the " Palace of the forty Columns," and a pair of painted and lacquered doors from the principal hall of the palace may be studied here. The decorative treat- ment reminds of the late 13th century tapestries in Europe. It consists of seated figures upon a dark flower-strewn ground, the framework having sprays of flowers, each petal and leaf delicately out- lined with gold. Lacquer work is eminently Oriental. The Chi- nese and Japanese lacquers are made with the resin extracted from a certain tree. The gum, soft and transparent when fresh, turns black and hard on exposure to the atmosphere. The gum is some- Wioo^ morF? 335 times mixed with gold, and sometimes gilt only on the surface. The Chinese red lacquer is made from cinnabar, which is carved after the successive layers applied to the piece have become thick enough. It is called lu-chu (the fiery dragon) or Sou-chou. The foundation is woodwork, and sev- eral magnificent examples of this curious work may be seen. A Japanese Buddhist shrine, and a Bur- mese shrine of Buddha indicate the marvellous fecundity of artistic invention in decoration of the Oriental artists. One of the world's wonders is the profuse carving on the temple of Nikko. The three monkeys, to represent sight, hearing and speech, so much in evidence there, are also found in some of the specimens in the Oriental section. A fine example of Sou-chou lacquer is an ancient ancestral tablet; while carved rosewood, a Daimio chair, and various other articles proclaim the art of the Japanese woodworker. One of the latest additions to the Museum's treasures has been a magnificent Chinese twelve- fold screen, of the K'ang-hsi period (1662-1722), which is a masterpiece in colour, design, and tech- nique. It represents the Summer Palace in Pekin, with the Emperor sitting on the throne and watch- ing the dance of two girls. CHAPTER XVI CERAMICS The term Pottery used in its widest sense includes every production of the fictile art, and comprises all kinds of earthenware and stoneware, as well as porcelain, its highest achievement. The word Cer- amics is said to be derived from the name of Keramos, the son of Bacchus and Ariadne, the prototype and protector of the potters' art. The basis of all pottery is clay. This clay is shaped in moulds or " thrown " on the wheel (usually a block of gypsum) to make it adhere. When the clay is shaped and dry it is baked in a furnace, and when it comes out it is called biscuit. Dipped in a bath of glaze (composed of water in which the ground glaze is kept in suspension by constant agitation) the glaze that has formed a sediment all over the biscuit is melted or fused by a second passage through the fire. The decorating is done before or after the glaz- ing. In the majolicas of Italy and in some of the faience of France the decoration, which consists 336 Ceramics 337 of different vitrifiable colours, is applied after the piece has come out of the bath containing the glaze. When applied after the glazing the piece is put back into the muffle and heated sufficiently to melt the glaze to absorb the colour. Pottery without glaze is called terra cotta. Majolica and some European faience have a thick opaque glaze. Per- sian faience, and German and English stoneware have a vitreous and heavy, transparent glaze. Pot- tery with thick opaque glaze came originally from the near-East. When the Moors came to Spain they brought with them the advanced method to decorate ware with effects of metallic iridescence, due to the partial reduction of the metallic oxides used as colours during their passage through the muffle. The pieces made up to the latter part of the 2nd century are termed Siculo-Moresque, this method having been in practice in Sicily since 827 b. c, those made in Spain after the 2nd century are called Hispano-Moresque. The decorations of the palace of the Alhambra are among the finest productions of Malaga, where the best work was done. Later a factory was founded at Majorca, whence the name Majolica passed to Italy, in the northern part of which, in Tuscany, its manufacture reached great perfection, especially under the Medici. In the cinque cento the progress of the Italian 338 Uhc Brt ot tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum potters was remarkable. Such artists as Raphael made designs for and even painted on pottery. Porcelain is the highest achievement of earthen- ware. It is particularly Chinese, even its English imitation being called " china." All Chinese porcelain is essentially composed of two elements — the white clay or Kaolin, the unc- tuous and infusible element which gives plasticity to the paste, and the felspathic stone or petuntse, fusible at a high temperature, which gives trans- parency. The felspathic stone is a white compact rock of slightly grayish tinge. Powdered quartz and crystallized sands are often added to the two essential materials for coarser ware. This is said to be indispensable for the proper development of the single-coloured glazes. The glaze (yu) of Chinese porcelain, applied after the first firing, is made of the same felspathic rock mixed with lime to increase its fusibility. The glaze may also be composed of pure pegmatite, finely crushed. The crackling of the glaze, cover- ing the porcelain with a network of miniature cracks, is done not accidentally but by a careful process. Porcelain may be divided into two classes — 1. Hard paste, contaiwing the two natural elements in the composition of the body and the glaze; and 2. Soft paste, where the body is an artificial com- H u u a H i/i w l-t a u q" w < a U N3 N < H i-l O Ceramics 339 bination of various materials, sand, lime and alka- line substances, agglomerated by the action of fire, in which the compound called frit has been used as a substitute for the felspathic rock. No soft paste has ever been made in China. It was used in France before the ingredients of true porcelain were known, and its manufacture contin- ued afterwards as pate tendre. True hard paste porcelain must have a white, hard, translucent body, not to be scratched by steel, homogeneous, resonant and vitrified, exhibiting when broken a curved fracture of fine grain and brilliant aspect. If the paste is not translucent it is stoneware. If the paste is not vitrified it is terra cotta or faience. The secret of the manufacture of this magnifi- cent ware was first revealed to Europe by Pere d' Entrecolles, a Jesuit missionary, in 1512. Some thought that it was composed of bones, eggshells, fishscales and sundry other curious ingredients, which had to be buried for one hundred years. Wherefore Dr. Johnson derived the word porce- lain from pour cent ans. The proper derivation, however, is from the Portuguese porcella, a small pig, also a shell, and the first cups which came from China, for their shell-like appearance, were called by that name. Not until two centuries later (in 1711) did 340 Ube Brt of tbe /IDetropolitan /iDuseum Johann Friedrich Bottger by accident discover the existence in Europe of Kaolin. This discovery led to the erection of a factory at Meissen. A disloyal workman took the secret to Vienna, in 1720, where the Royal Factory was established. The factories of Meissen and of Vienna have always been noted for the manufacture of small groups of figures known as biscuits de Saxe. The collections of Ceramics in the Metropolitan Museum cover well-nigh every branch of the pot- ter's art, from its earliest products to the latest creations of faience. The first purchase, which started the department, was made in 1879, of the collection of Mr. S. P. Avery. Many other collections and gifts have en- riched the department, so that specimens from all parts of the earth may be studied. The crown of all, however, is that marvellous collection of Chi- nese Porcelains which Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan has loaned here, which is second to none in the rarity of its specimens and their beauty and splendour. The most practicable division in which the col- lections may be discussed is a topographical one, which is more or less followed in the arrangement of the Museum's examples. The Chinese section will first attract our attention. According to legendary records porcelain was already manufactured in China under Huang-ti, Ceramics 341 who commenced his reign in 2697 b. c. This is, however, beheved to have been only earthenware, possibly glazed. Real porcelain was not manufac- tured until the Han dynasty, which held the throne of China from 202 b. c. to 220 a. d. It reached a notable degree of excellence under the T'ang dynasty, which ruled from 618 to 906, when porce- lain received its popular name of Yao. The ear- liest porcelain extant dates from the Sung dynasty, 960-1279. It is invariably in monochrome, either of uniform or mottled tint, or blue and white. After an interval of retrogression under the Yuan dynasty, 1280-1368, we find the art making great progress under the Ming dynasty, 1368-1644. Special attention to decoration in blue under the glaze was given to work done in the first half of the 15th century, which work has a brilliancy of colour never afterwards quite equalled. At the same time a brilliant red colour was introduced, while in the latter half of the century the use of enamel colours commenced. Under the last Manchu dynasty the art was again revived about 1700. In 1727 Nien-Hsi-Yao be- came the maker of the famous Nien porcelain, graceful in form and of fine workmanship. Arti- cles of small dimensions such as snuffbottles, wine- cups, vessels for washing pencils, etc., were also made of an opaque, white vitreous ware, decorated 342 Ube Hrt of tbe /IDetropoUtan riDuseum with a brilliancy of colour which makes the work of this period the most highly prized. In all the centuries in which this art has been practised in China, there are some half dozen periods in which the art flourished preeminently, and whose products may be considered to excel. These periods were, Ch' eng Hua (1465-1487), Wan Li (1573-1619), K' ang Hsi (1662-1722), Yung Ch' eng (1723-1735), Ch' ien Lung (1736- 1795), Tao Kuang (1821-1850). Of the old Sung and Ming porcelains which sur- vive the greater proportion belong to a class which is known as Celadon. The name is used to describe both a class and a special colour, a peculiar sea- green, produced by the introduction of a small quantity of protoxide of iron into the glaze. It owed its origin to an attempt to copy the much prized green jade. Marco Polo, writing in the 13th century of the wonders and beauties of the Court of Kublai Khan, speaks of this beautiful green porcelain. The colours used in China are powdered glazes made with a lead flux. They were five in number, intending to signify the five jewels of the Buddhist paradise : a deep purplish blue, derived from cobalt and manganese silicates; a rich green, from copper persilicate ; a deep yellow, from antimony ; a sang de hocuf red, from copper mixed with a deoxidiz- Ceramics 343 ing flux; and a charming turquoise blue, obtained from copper combined with nitre. The so-called " hawthorn " porcelains are divided into three groups according to colour : blue, black and green. Only one red hawthorn is known, which is in the Morgan collection. There is no hawthorn, however, in the decoration of any of them, the flower after which it is called, being the wild-plum blossom. The Chinese dark coloured, reddish-yellow stoneware is known by the Portu- guese name hoccaro, the brown variety as Kuang yao. The study of the decorations on Chinese porce- lains is of farreaching significance. The charac- ters, personages, birds and beasts are strange symbols of mystic meaning. We note for instance three kinds of dragons, the Lung of the sky, whose office is to guard and support the mansions of the gods, and who is the peculiar symbol of the Em- peror, the son of heaven; the li of the sea; and the kiau of the marshes. Often a chilin is seen ■ — a rhinoceros with head, feet and legs like a deer, which is the emblem of good government and length of days. The feng-huang is a strange bird, with a long flexible neck, and is emblematic of immor- tality, like the phoenix. The tortoise, knei, de- notes strength and longevity, the carp, literary per- severance which attains to fame. 344 Ube Hrt of tbe /iDetropoUtan /©useum It is impossible to single out any of these ceramic treasures of the Orient in the Morgan collection above another. The general remarks that have been put down may in some way guide, and they may, even but poorly, illustrate these delicate reso- nant bodies which display the marvellous skill of the potters of Cathay. In the Japanese section we observe the distinc- tion between the ceramics of the Flowery and of the Middle Kingdom. Blue enters into all, or nearly all, of the variegated glazes of the Chinese, the dominant shade of the Japanese resembles either a ruddy amber or a rich, translucent treacle colour. There are also specimens of the golden-brown glazes of Zeze (Omi), the lustrous amber glazes of Takatori (Chikuzen), and the ceramics of Seto, Shino, and Satsuma. The latter is among the best known of the Jap- anese wares. It is of a creamy-white paste, soft enough to be easily bitten by a file. Imitations are made at Otta, Awata, and at Kioto. Kioto gives also its name to an inferior ware, though pleasant in texture, which is extensively made for the export trade. The Kutani ware made in the province of Kaga is either red and gold or green and yellow. The Hitzen ware, also called the Azita and the Imari — the names being those of the province, of the factory, and of the port whence it is exported BOWL OF RAKKA WARE, PERSIAN, 13TH CENTURY. Ceramics 345 — has blue under the glaze and red upon the glaze. The pottery of the ancient Egyptians and Greeks has already been discussed in the chapter on Anti- quities. We turn, therefore, to the ceramics of the Near-East, where we find the Mesopotamian or Persian ware that began with the 9th century. It has lustrous charm of colour, a smooth and flexible sense of form, and naive presentation of subject illustration. The Rakka ware — bowls of a rich, iridescent greenish-blue, and decorated with arabesques, floral designs or inscriptions — is the oldest ware in the history of the mediaeval ceramics of nearer Asia. The highest development in this ware of Rey, or Rhazes, not far from Teheran, dates from about 1200. Figure representations are introduced, to- gether with the customary conventional ornament. A faience cup with Cufic inscription dates from the 13th century ; while a green and black jug, and blue and black bowls are a century later. Veramin, known especially for its beautiful lustre tiles, succeeded at the end of the 13th cen- tury to Rey's place. These tiles are of two types, in lustre, and in unglazed colours. The decora- tions show the narrow range of the emotional life of the Persians, the pleasure of combat and the pleasure of rest thereafter, with music, wine, poetry 346 Ubc Hrt ot tbe /IDetropolttan /iDuseum and companionship. Three panels, consisting of 112 enamelled tiles, formed part of a dado in the Palace of Forty Columns at Ispahan, ff6m which building we have already seen some lacquered doors. The figure decoration is the usual scene of gallant life, painted by a Persian Watteau, who knew his Hafiz and his Omar. Two Sultanabad mural tiles and several well-preserved bowls and vases are much earlier in date, while the contin- uance of Persian faience is shown in a Koubatcha dish (Turkish) and a Bokhara plate of the late 18th century. The art was carried by the Moors to Spain, whence we possess many Hispano-Moresque tiles, plaques and plates. Some rude Alhambra graffiti and later articles indicate the paucity of the style of decoration, which consists principally of scrolls, arabesques, borders, and large and small mock- Arabic inscriptions. There is the " Spur " band design ; the " flowers and leaves " pattern, on dotted ground with delicate spiral stems intermin- gled with bryony leaves ; the " gadroon " border, and so on. Retaining most of the progenitive art are the Spanish lustre tiles of the 16th century. The development of Ceramic art in Italy came through the earlier wares of Syria, Persia and the lustre wares of the Saracens. Most characteristic of its products has been the Majolica ware, a spe- PERSIAN ENAMELLED TILES, FROM THE PALACE OF FORTY COLUMNS, ISPAHAN. Persian, i6th Century. Ceramics 347 cies of fine pottery clay, thickly and opaquely enamelled, and glazed with a pliimbiferous glaze. Andrea della Robbia added oxide of tin to the glaze, producing a beautiful white, durable, stanni- ferous glazing. Later Georgio, by a combination of mineral colours, produced fine iridescent ruby and gold tints. The Marchese Genori, at Doccia, near Florence, makes majolica by the same pro- cesses that his ancestors have used for three cen- turies. He has also the old moulds of the old royal factory at Naples, known as " Capo di Monte," which ware, in sculpturesque high relief, is locally very popular. In this section there are, besides the many examples of pure majolica, large plateaux (bacili), decorated with scenes from bibli- cal history or classical mythology, with amatory figures, mottoes or coats-of-arms, that were solely used for embellishment of the sideboards or wall of palace or monastery, Diruta plates show de- cided Moorish influence. Further we note Gubbio lustred ware of the 16th century, and a small Caffaggiolo plate embellished with a grotesque de- sign in polychrome against a deep blue ground. Also a deep blue Faenza (Casa Pirota) plate, dec- orated in various enamels with a central coat-of- arms supported by putti, and surrounded by a border of grotesque designs in that exceedingly decorative style of enamelling commonly known as sopra 348 Zbc Brt of tbc /iDetropolttan /IDuseum azzuro; a pair of richly lustred Gubbio dishes (tazze) of the raised paste variety, from about ,1535; an interesting pair of Caltagirone (SiciHan) vases ; and an Urbino plate representing the Rape of Proserpina, decorated in the richest colours of the factory, heightened by an over-glaze of mother- of-pearl lustre. A plate by reason of its Raphael- esque decoration is attributed to the hand of Orazio Foulana. A valuable plaque of Capo di Monte represents " Ceres instructing in the Arts of Hus- bandry." Later Italian artists found their way to France, some with the Medici, under whose auspices a fac- tory of earthenware was opened at Gien, which still exists, using the three towers of the crest of that family as a trademark. A factory at Nevers imi- tated the wares of Venice, particularly those of Oriental character, with lapis lazuli grounds, veined with white and ornamented with grotesques in yel- low. Factories, of whose products examples are found in this section, were also established at Lille, Apry, Rouen, Sceaux and Limoges. Among the names identified with French pottery none is better known than that of Bernard de Palissy, whose personality is as well marked in the history of earthenware as Benvenuto Cellini's in that of metal work. His peculiar style con- sisted in general in attempts to copy natural objects Ceramtcs 349 to decorate his wares. The glaze on his pieces is extremely brilHant, whereby his startHng facsimiles of fish, coral, seaweed, shells, crabs, etc., actually look " wet." The strong enamels he used for grounds and for painting the backs of his pieces are called jaspes, on account of their similarity in colour to jasper and green marble. Several plates of this famous ware are shown. The rarest of all French earthenware is called Henry Deux, or faience d'Oiron. The paste is a pale yellow, having a soft creamy tone. The dec- oration consists of brilliantly coloured earths or pastes, which are baked into spaces cut away in the clay forming the ground work of the pieces, and may be compared to champ leve enamel. A few years ago a piece was sold at a sale at Chris- tie's, which was attended by representatives of all the great European museums and of the wealthiest collectors to battle for this piece of Faience d' Oiron. It brought a little less than £10,000. So far as known there are but 53 pieces in existence, of which Mr. Morgan owns one of the finest, a circular salt-cellar. In 1786 Kaolin was discovered at Limoges, where a factory with royal privileges had been in existence since 1664. The manufacture of French porcelain became then possible, not only at Limoges but also at Sevres, whither the St. Cloud factory, 350 XTbe Hrt ot tbe /iDetropolitan /iMiseum organized in 1702, had been transferred in 1756. The Sevres factory is a government institution, as is well known, and its products originally could not be purchased but were used to furnish the royal palaces, or as presents to friends of the State. Since the Second Empire private individuals have been allowed to purchase these products, but they are never sold to the trade. The Sevres which are found in the crockery shops are the hlancs, or un- decorated pieces. In these the usual mark S, accompanied by the last two figures of the year in which they were made, is cancelled by a sharp cut across it. These pieces are decorated by outsiders in a manner that closely resembles the real Sevres, and often the cut across the mark is filled up. The genuine ware has, however, also the guilders' and the painters' marks. Several examples of this mag- nificent ware are in the collection. A peculiarly French feature in ceramics is the so-called pate-sur-pdte, which consists in figures modelled in low relief in transparent enamels on coloured grounds. The original hard stoneware of Germany and Flanders is known as gres de Flanders. The dec- oration consists either of lines cut into the paste which, retaining more glaze than the flat surfaces, appear darker after the firing (which mode is called Ceramics 351 graffito), or small lumps or beads of coloured en- amel are fused on the surface of the glaze, termed jezvelled. When these two are combined it is called decoration en camdieu. After the discovery by Bottger that the white clay or Kaolin used by the Chinese was to be found in Saxony, European porcelain has attained more and more perfection, although it cannot be com- pared with the Oriental products in translucency and resonance. German porcelain figures were made at Meissen by Kandler, and at Nymphenburg by Bastilli. At first these were uncoloured. Kandler was unsur- passed in the geniality and strength of modelling, Bastilli supreme in his expression of elegance, tem- perament and plastic grace. Two Nymphenburg figures, a lady and a gentleman in Chinese costumes, seated on conventional rococo scrolls, are truly lifelike. An example of the Dresden ware of the Marcolini period (about 1796), may also be seen. The Hochst porcelain factory, in Nassau, turned out remarkably fine work. A group of Hochst porcelain, " Sylvia," two figures, delightfully mod- elled and coloured, is a rare example. Only one other copy is known to exist, which is in the Louvre. A " Royal Berlin " vase, and " Old Royal Berlin " platters and cups, a salt-glazed jug, and 352 Ubc Brt ot tbe /ll>etropolitan /iDuseum steins from Bayreuth are representative of the work of the German potter. A piece of " Copenhagen " is not frequently met with. It is a hard paste porcelain, made since 1760, having for its mark three waving or rippling lines, supposed to represent the waves of the sea. In Holland stone ware was soon replaced by the imitation of Chinese " blue and white," which the Dutch traders were the first to import from the Orient, Delftware is well-known, but here only represented by a few Delft tulip vases, plates and figurines. There is, however, a fairly complete collection of Dutch tiles. While the English at first imported their pot- tery, the stoneware of Staffordshire soon assumed national characteristics. Examples are found in the Museum of old English stoneware, Stafford- shire Chinaware, printed ware. Lustre, Leeds salt- glaze ware, and English jasper and granite ware by Adams, Palmer, Turner and Wedgwood. Jas- per is an opaque, impure variety of quartz, of yellow, red and some dull colours. Among the Wedgwood pieces is a square blue and white jasper pedestal, dating from 1775, with ornamentation after designs by Flaxman, consisting of rams' heads and griffins, and gracefully modelled figures of Juno, Ceres, Peace and Plenty. Examples of the rare green and white, and blue and white jasper Ceramics 353 are exemplified in medallions and plaques, made by Adams, the contemporary and imitator of Wedgwood. Minton and Copeland have made what is called English majolica, which is harder both in substance and colour than the Italian. After the introduction of porcelain into Eng- land its factories soon became famous. Among the best known English porcelains is the Lowes- toft, a hard-paste made in Suffolk from 1757 to 1804, which is one of the most admired, with rich borders in which festoons are a common de- tail. The Worcester is a soft-paste made in 1751, noted for a peculiar mottled quality of the blue pro- duced by firing. It has been called Royal Worces- ter since a visit of George III to the factory in 1788. The marks are a crescent, or some seal marks copied from Chinese porcelains. Later a combination of four W's was used. The Derby is a soft-paste porcelain made since 1751, very trans- lucent, and the blue very brilliant. It comes in unglazed biscuit ware, in figures and in groups. The letter D and the name of the potter " Blow " were used as a mark, while a crown has been added since 1830. The Chelsea, a soft-paste porcelain made since 1735 is the most admired of the old English porcelains. The Bow, made at Stratford- 354 Ubc Hrt of tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum le-Bow near London, is perhaps the earHest. Its mark is a bent bow with an arrow on the string. The Swansea, made from 1814 to 1820 is ranked by some as the most perfect porcelain in England. Its mark is the word " Swansea," combined with a trident, or two tridents crossed. In 1710 Wedg- wood started his celebrated factory, which later produced some of the finest porcelain ware; his relief-plaques being especially famous. The work by Spode, Davenport, and Copeland is equally re- nowned. A few blue-glazed plates are the only examples of the work of the American potter, whose ac- knowledged superiority in modern ceramics is not demonstrated in the Museum collections. CHAPTER XVII GLASS The manufacture of glass is of the first interest among the useful and ornamental arts. The art is one of the oldest which has been handed down from ancient to modern civilizations, and the col- lections in the Museum illustrate the history of the manufacture of glass with scarcely an interrup- tion, from the invention of the art down to our own day. It always has been an open question who invented this manufacture. Flavins Josephus ascribes the discovery of glass to the Jews, as the result of a forest conflagration when with the assistance of the sand in the soil glass came into existence. The Egyptians knew its making 4000 b. c, as may be seen in wall-reliefs of that time in which glass- blowers at work are pictured. The Chinese knew it of ancient times, and with the poetry of the East believed it to be the solidified breath of the Sacred Dragon. The process of glass making consists mainly in 355 356 Ube Hrt of tbe /iDetropoUtan /iDuseum what is termed " blowing." The fluid " mass," or elements from which the glass is made, is gath- ered at one end of a long pipe, and forms into a bubble by blowing at the other end. The bubble of hot glass is commonly shaped by an iron mould, which opens like a box with a hinge, the breath of the blower pressing the glass against the inside of this mould. When cooled it is finished by grind- ing and polishing. Goblets and the like are made without a mould, the shell, foot and stem being worked separately. The stems of wine glasses are " balluster " stems, " airtwist " stems, " cut " stems, etc. Classification is easier by the stem than by the bowl, for stems have been found to be more closely allied to definite periods. The oldest method of engraving glass is with the diamond point, whereby as much free artistry is shown as in work with the etching needle on copper. The method in general use, and brought to perfec- tion in England and Bohemia is holding the glass against a rapidly revolving soft-iron wheel impreg- nated with diamond dust and oil. In later years hydrofluoric acid has been used to grave on inferior glass. The Byzantine artists added enamelling and gilding to the modes of decoration known before their time. A large and superb series of ancient glass may be studied here. There is Phoenician glass of (Blass 357 unique form in yellow and blue colours, and unguent vessels from the 8th century b. c. ; some ancient glass found in the vicinity of Tyre; a blue glass bottle from Egypt ; and an unguent vessel of alabastron, from Memphis, Egypt, of about 600 B. c, decorated with festoons in various colours. We proceed further with a late Imperial Roman Cinerary Urn, of black glass with varicoloured bowl. Persian glasses with graceful necks, Saracenic glassware, Byzantine coloured glass bottles, a Val- lencian water bottle with the arms of the Duke of Segorbia, and some other mediaeval examples bring us through this period to the magnificent product of the Venetian blowers. There is a beautiful selection of delicate and graceful work. Speci- mens may be seen how in the 16th century the Venetians introduced threads of opaque white glass worked through the mass of the transparent sub- stance. These vases are called vasi a ritorti if the threads go only in one direction, and vasi a reticuli if they cross each other. If different col- oured glasses are introduced they are called mille- fiori. Specimens are here of the Murano products, when the Venetian furnaces were at the zenith of their fame. Also of that lost art to make the gilding of glass transparent — only to be found in old Venetian glass. The gilding of to-day is al- ways opaque. 358 TLbc Brt ot tbe /IDetropolitan /iDuseum The real Bohemian glass, which became world- famous, probably had its origin in the art of rock crystal cutting, imported from Italy. It soon be- came the rival of the productions of Venice. Its strong colours and bold outlines of decoration con- trasted with the light lacework of the Venetians. It was very light, as the mass contained no lead. At the beginning of the 17th century the quality of Bohemian glass improved, becoming purer and whiter, owing to the substitution of potassium car- bonate for sodium carbonate in the manufacture. The form became more solid, more in keeping with the decoration it received, as shown in the Pokale (goblets) of the period. The light kind was blown, the more massive cast in wooden moulds. The greatest artists in Germany were the Schwanhardts, father and son, who produced mar- vellously engraved specimens. About the middle of the 18th century large quantities of Doppelzvand- glasser mit Zwischen-V ergoldung were made. Ruby glass, coloured with copper or gold, was invented in the 17th century by a German named Kmeckel. It was revived in the late 18th century, but not with success. Just as Bohemian had ousted Venetian, so in its turn it was eventually ruined by the English flint glass which, containing a large percentage of lead, has the power of decomposing light — a property Glass 359 possessed neither by the former varieties nor by rock crystal itself. French, Russian and Spanish glass present characteristic differences. Little is shown of old American glass, although many bottles half a century old have interest and charm. Of these are the old golden, red, or brown- amber log-cabin bottles, barrel-bottles, the long amber ear-of-corn bottles, and the opalescent Bun- ker Hill Monument flasks. It is gratifying to note that the most wonderful product of the modern glassworker, the Favrile glass of Louis C. Tiffany, vies with the finest work of Venice or Bohemia. Objects, endless in variety of texture and colour, lustrous as the most brilliant opal, novel and classic in form have been produced as the result of almost twenty years of experimenting. A distinct and beautiful branch of the art of glassmaking has been the creation of stained glass windows. The charm of the early mediaeval glass windows lies in the kaleidoscopic patterns, present- ing, as it were, an illuminating wall mosaic. While the dark lines are unobtrusively introduced the aim has been to present brilliancy and harmony of the colour scheme. The earliest specimens of these win- dows were made of glasses the body of which was coloured, and not of glasses stained on the surface only, as was subsequently done. The manufacture of stained glass felt strongly 360 Ube Hrt of tbe /iDetropoUtan /IDuseum the influence of the Renaissance, and gained in beauty what it lost in strength and vigour. The in- vention of cutting glass with the diamond, of enam- elling gold on glass, and important modifications in the working of lead, had also great influence on the work. After the Renaissance the art gradually- declined, until of late, in France and England, modern products somewhat indicate a revival, which, however, scarcely may be considered to rival the beauty of the appropriate line and colour where- with the mediaeval artist sought to fill the open spaces. It is conceded that of modern work Amer- ican opalescent glass, with its wonderful glow of colour and the depth of tone of which it is capable, can produce the finest results, exceeding in beauty and workmanship that of any other country. Although no stained glass window of American artistry is at present in the Museum to demonstrate the personal development notable in opalescent glass, and the native individuality in this branch of art, there are on exhibition a few pieces of stained glass of great interest. There are a couple of examples of the Nether- land school of 1500-1545; a Flemish window in the style of the mannered Brussels painters of 1530; a small Italian window, dating from the middle of the 16th century; a pair of French win- dows of the 17th century, representing the " An- ©lass 361 nunciation " ; three small German windows of the later 16th and 17th centuries; and two large Ger- man windows, painted, presumably, at Trier shortly after 1500, thereby forming a connecting link be- tween the Mediaeval and Renaissance. The intro- duction of yellow tints in these German windows, which do not occur before the end of the 15th century, enables us to place their date. The figures represented are clear and distinct in design, simple and strong, and very decorative. An example of a modern French window shows the pleasing and fantastic art of Luc-Oliver Mer- son, a master in this branch. It is called " La Danse des Fiangailles," and presents in luminous colours and a wealth of detail a picturesque scene of the epoch of the Renaissance, with dancers stately moving to the sound of strange instruments. CHAPTER XVIII GEMS AND ARTICLES DE VERTU The engraving of gems was considered a rare art among the ancients. The lapidary's work from the earliest times was sought for first to serve as an amulet, talisman, or charm; the later use was that of a signet for securing by means of a seal of clay what now would be locked. Eventually the seal, always cut intaglio, was used for attesting documents and subscribing to their contents. From Chaldsean times on, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Egyp- tians, Greeks and Romans used these small stones. During the Middle Ages the art was in abeyance, while in the Renaissance it exerted itself princi- pally in the making of portraits and the engraving of larger stones in cameo. The stones used for these purposes were among the Assyrians the black and green serpentine. The Chaldaeans used chalcedony, the Egyptians for their scarabei a slaty stone easily cut. Serpentine was used at first by the Greeks, but later the more noble chalcedony and sard. Green chalcedony be- 362 (Bems an& Hcticles ^e Dertu 363 came the celebrated jaspis or jasper of the Greeks and Romans. Amethyst, which is rock crystal tinged more or less purple by oxide of iron was used by every nation of antiquity, while sardonyx was also in request. The Romans, who after the Augustan era invented the cameo, preferred the onyx, because of its dark and white layers, which throw out in bold relief a while head, say, against a black background. As to the early subjects engraved on these stones it is apparent that the chief object of the gem, whether cylinder, cone or scarabeus, was that of a talisman to conciliate the favour of the deity whose image or symbol was portrayed. When the stone became more intended for a signet, the deities and sacred animals made place, in the reign of Alex- ander, for portraits, although heads, single figures, and animals were still in use. The Greeks also introduced the wearing of the signet on the finger- ring. With Augustus portrait engraving became common, his own portrait being used as the State- seal. In the _ later Roman times, mythology fur- nished many subjects. The Museum possesses a wonderfully complete collection, which its first President, John Taylor Johnston, purchased from the Rev. C. W. King, of Trinity College, Cambridge, a distinguished authority upon antique gems. This gift has since 364 Ube Hrt ot tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum been amplified, so that the glyptic art of the lapi- dary is well covered, and all that has been said is amply illustrated by one or more specimens. From among the wealth of gems we may especially note: A cameo representing a Nereid riding upon a Triton, which is a fine example of cameo cutting. The figures bear a close resemblance to some in the reliefs from the great altar at Pergamon, and must date from the Hellenistic period. A Mykensean gem of onyx is lenticular in shape with an intaglio design of two bulls lying down. It is a characteristic specimen of gem cutting of Myken^an art (1600-1400 B.C.). Its greatest diameter is % inches. The figure of a flying Nike, of chalcedony, the head, arms and wings being missing, is an exquisite example of freehand cutting in hard material. The artist has taken advantage of the opaque quality of chalcedony by making the parts of the drapery which are clear of the figure much thinner than the body, so that when held against the light the figure itself is clearly and solidly silhouetted, and the flying drapery rendered translucent. It is of the late Greek or Roman period, and measures 2% in. in height. Gem cutting is in a measure related to coin cut- ting. All the attractions which coins have for the aems an& Hrticles t>c IDertu 365 numismatists may not have an appeal for us. Their scarcity, their imperfection, the pecuhar conditions of their issue may be passed by, since we study these small disks principally with an eye for their beauty of design and execution. In the thousands of coins which the Museum has gradually acquired, we will find this quest amply gratified. The glyptic art of coins may be studied as it was practised in Syria, Greece and Rome, Egypt, Arabia, East India and Japan. Byzantine, Cufic and Chinese coins all offer interesting features. For the art of the coinmaker, as of the medallist, may well be called Sculpture in miniature. The low relief in extremely small compass enforces even more than in miniature painting the perfection of draughts- manship. The greatest artists have given them- selves to the engraving of medals, coins, dies, etc. To mention Saint-Gaudens as an example in this connection is to indicate the importance attached to this branch of art. The Greeks took pains to exhibit in their coinage the best expression of their art. The Romans in- troduced the adaptation of these metal disks to the conferring of honour, or to serve as souvenirs, aside from their use as currency. In the Renaissance this custom was generally followed, Vittore Pisano, Matteo de' Pasti, and Pastorino being among the most famous names of medallists that occur. In 366 xrbe Brt of tbe /iDetropolitan /IDuseum the 17th century the art attained great popularity in the Netherlands, where not a single event above the ordinary passed w^ithout a medal being engraved in commemoration. When in the 18th century the screwpress was invented, whereby thousands of medals could be struck from one die, there was still greater incen- tive given, and it is known that Napoleon had more than a thousand medals struck to commemorate the events of his life. Many of these are in this collection, together with some by the most noted French medallists Oscar Roty, Alexandre Charpen- tier, and by other modern workers. Further exam- ples are found among the medals and other testi- monials of Cyrus W. Field, given him in honour of laying the Atlantic Cable. The decorations of the Imperial Orders of Japan, in gold, silver and bronze, several of these jewelled, and most of them enamelled, also illustrate the subject. The artistry displayed in the embellishment of watch cases, by engraving, enamel, encrustation with jewels — the wealth of invention lavished upon them, has always had a strong appeal to the collector of gems. The invention of the coil-spring at the end of the 15th century, which did away with the weights, soon led to the manufacture of pocket-clocks, called watches, from the Saxon waecca, to wake. The Gems ant) Hrticles ^e Dertu 367 first practicable watches were made by Peter Hele, of Niirnberg in 1490, and were called Niirnberg eggs, on account of their shape. In the time of Queen Elizabeth watches were in common use, and made in various designs, such as crosses, skulls, acorns, pears, purses, and other shapes. The most celebrated watch makers of this period were An- dreas Heinlein of Niirnberg, Finelly at Aix, and John Limpard and Bougeret in London. An en- graver and designer of the latter part of the 16th century, Theodore de Bey, had a great influence on the ornamentation of watch cases. The various methods of decorating watches are well illustrated in the collections of Mrs. George A. Hearn, and in the Drexel and Sternberger collec- tions. We find here beautiful specimens of re- pousse, enamelled, engraved, chased cases, as well as those watches which were enclosed in artfully wrought mandolins, butterflies, beetles, lyres, etc. Fans belong to those articles de vertu, which may well be classed among preciosa for their artistic daintiness. They were known to the ancients, and played a great part in the ceremonies of the Oriental nations. The flabellifer or fan-holder of the Ro- mans was equal in importance with the standard- bearer. The 18th century was the century of the fan. It was a sentimental and voluptuous century that 368 Ube Hrt ot tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum recalled the Olympian goddesses to brighten the refined sweetness of its intimate and joyous life. Its spirit is reflected in the fans, as it is in the songs of Rolli, the plays of Metastasio, the flowing tunes of Pergolesi and Tomelli. Especially in France, where then politics, letters and manners scored their greatest triumphs, the artistic fan was produced in the most graceful and delightful exam- ples. It was decorated with pearls, and spangles, and painted scenes of gallantry, many inspired by Watteau and Fragonard. The folding fan, the small and fragile instru- ment of feminine grace, such as we know it to-day, came originally from China. The sticks forming the frame were made of metal, tortoise shell, ivory, mother-of-pearl, or lacquered wood, in innumera- ble designs of cutting, carving and engraving. The paper, linen, cambric or lace spread over the sticks was painted, or embroidered, or decorated in some other fashion. The greatest artists have produced exquisite fan paintings, as Lebrun, Boucher, Wat- teau, Baudry, Ingres, Isabey, and a host of others. The most interesting fans to collectors are those known as Vernis-Martin. A carriage painter, named Martin, who flourished in 1745, produced a varnish which equalled in hardness and durability Chinese lacquer, thereby fixing permanently ex- quisite watercolours on the thin ivory surfaces, and (Bems anC) Brticles De IDertu 369 the simple words vernis par Martin became highly prized. In the Miss Lazarus collection a fine exam- ple of the Vernis-Martin fan may be seen, as well as a number of other 18th century styles. But if the women have their articles de vertu, the men are not behind as they put a little box to their nose and sniff up a thousand delightful dreams. These snuff-boxes demand the art of the cutting of precious stones, of goldsmith and silver- smith, of polishing, varnishing, and every manner of wood and ivory, horn and tortoise shell work. It may be one of Vienna porcelain, mounted in gold, with a cover painted by Smart or by Cosway. It may be a box by Petitot, that rare and excellent miniaturist. If so, it will gleam no doubt with precious stones. Or by Joaquet, the man who in 1736 made plaques of onyx and cornelian, and other hard stones, and enclosing them in most ele- gant gold cases, made snuff-boxes better than they were made at Dresden. Such cunning workman- ship was displayed by the makers. There was Speth, the German, who made masterpieces of lapis-lazuli, mounted in gold ; Weiland, with re- pousse silver work; Jouache, with parcel-gilt silver. Or we may find a box with battlepieces painted by van Blarenberg, or flowers painted by Christiaan van Pol, of Haarlem. Think of the malachite boxes in gold mounts, of the Louis Seize style; 370 XTbe Brt ot tbe /IDetropolitan Museum or shell-shaped boxes of rock crystal in fluted gold mounts of Louis Ouinze order; or gold boxes cov- ered with Vernis-Martin; or boxes with stained mother-of-pearl panels made by Drais, of Paris, and painted by Degault. Among those in the collection of snuff-boxes at the Museum you will recognize some from this description. CHAPTER XIX TEXTILES LACES Textile fabrics — the products of the loom and the needle for practical use or pleasing decoration, obviously demand attention in forming an art museum. The study of textiles is often subdivided into tapestry, carpet-weaving, mechanical weaving of fabrics of lighter weight or woven stuffs, embroid- ery and laces. These headings are useful to ob- serve in our treatment of the vast collections of textiles now found in the Metropolitan Museum, which are gradually rounding out into a complete survey of this art. Especially after the Fischbach collection was purchased, illustrating the most im- portant periods in the history of the textile arts, the hitherto somewhat meagre collection of stuffs has attained a development equal to that of the lace collection. This Fischbach collection com- prises nearly 3000 pieces, representing chiefly Eu- ropean weaves from the 15th to the 18th century, stuffs of the Renaissance of Italy, Spain and Ger- 371 372 XTbe Hrt ot tbe /IDetropoUtan /»useum many, and those of France of the periods of Louis XIV to Louis XVL There are also excellent ex- amples of mediaeval work, of Coptic and Peruvian weaves, and an interesting group of Japanese bro- cades. The Coles collection of tapestries and the Morgan gifts amplify this department in other directions, while the Nuttal and Blackborne collec- tions of laces make this section matchless for com- pleteness. We need not go into details as to the process of weaving. The earliest was, of course, hand weav- ing, where the woof was worked on the warp in worsted or silk from spindles. When loom weav- ing came in use, there were two kinds of looms — high warp looms, or Haute Lisse, where the design was above or behind the weaver, and low warp looms, known as Basse Lisse, with the design under the warp. High warp looms have been known in Europe certainly since the 9th century. Tapestry is popularly considered to cover those great rectangular wall hangings which at the end of the Middle Ages were a luxury almost solely restricted to princely houses. These hangings were highly prized. The favourite subjects were natu- rally scenes from court life with all their splendour and pomp of costume. Beautiful textiles had been used to ornament the Church of St. Denis as early as 630. There is a legend that in 732 a tapestry Ueitiles— Xaceg 373 establishment existed between Tours and Poitiers. At Beauvais the weavers of Arras were settled at the time of the Norman ravages. In the 10th cen- tury German craftsmen worked successfully, and in the 12th century, under Church auspices, the tapestry industry rose to its highest perfection. In the 13th century the work was in a flourishing con- dition in France, while Flanders or Burgundian tapestry was famous in the 12th and 14th centuries. These tapestries, after the Middle Ages, fall into two groups : an earlier group, principally woven at Arras at the time of the Burgundian dominion, about 1430-1480, and a later one of Brussels origin, from 1480-1520, which became the culmination of Flemish art, after which Italian influences deprived it of national feeling. Arras was the town in Flanders celebrated for the beauty of its work. This famous factory was founded prior to 1350, and the van Eycks, Mem- linc, and Rogier van der Weyden were among those who designed its cartoons. A magnificent series of the product of its looms is the Morgan set of Gothic tapestries. There are five pieces, two of these subdivided as double pictures, representing the Seven Sacraments. They are filled with life size figures, with a conventional background of a stencil like pattern of fleur-de-lys. They have an harmonious scheme of colours — Gothic greens, 374 tlbe Hrt of tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum reds and yellows, in rich variety. The type of the lettering, of the costumes and their details, closely place the date of their manufacture in the first quarter of the 15th century. Originally they formed very likely the choir decoration of a cathe- dral. There is also a splendid piece illustrating the story of Esther, with rude but vigorous figures and expressive gestures. The colouring is as strong and rich as the stained glass of the period, with a flat, purely decorative treatment. As early as 1441 tapestries were executed in Oudenarden, usually composed of green foliage, and known as " Verdures." The names " Ouden- arde " and " Verdure " became interchangeable for this class of tapestry, which represented woodland and hunting scenes, and was also called " Tapestry Verde," as alluded to by Chaucer. To the Brussels period belong two hangings por- traying biblical subjects : the " Slaughter of the Innocents " and the " Presentation in the Temple." They are intensely dramatic and rendered with naive force. Three allegorical subjects and a hunt- ing scene belong to the best period of the Brussels looms. The figures, with plastic modelling, have become more elegant and refined in expression, thereby losing something of force and power. They show quite a sense of perspective. Among the Coles tapestries the five scenes from the lives DEATH OF CLEOPATRA, BRUSSELS TAPESTRY, 17TH CENTURY. textiles — Xaces 375 of Anthony and Cleopatra are excellent examples of this period. The pieces are all signed with the mark of the Brussels factory, the double B (Brus- sels and Brabant) divided by a shield, and further with the names of the weavers, Jan van Leefdael and Gerard van der Stecken. They are of the middle of the 17th century. It is reliably supposed that Rubens designed the cartoons for this set. The general tones are yellow, golden and claret browns, with touches of deep blue and dull green. We know that at the height of the fame of the Brussels factory the Raphael tapestries were made there by Pieter van Aelst, under the order of Pope Leo X. But in the 16th and 17th centuries the Italian influence came with its aimless scrolls to detract from the dignity of churchly ornament. Sincerity counted for less than effect, as seen in the method then creeping in to paint the faces and hands in the tapestry, instead of letting the weav- er's work speak for itself. A fine example of this later work is found in the set of four scenes from Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered," which is Italian work of 1739. The Gobelins work was inaugurated in Paris in the 15th century under Jean Gobelins, a native of Rheims. In 1630 the works were established at Fontainebleau, where Watteau and Boucher made designs. Gradually its technical perfection resulted 376 Ube Hrt of tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum in artistic decline. The pictures differed little from those painted on coarse canvas, and all feeling for the material was lost, so that the naive charm of the original workers ceased to be a part of the produc- tion. Very little tapestry was made in Spain up to the time of Philip IV. Gutierrez, the interior of whose factory was represented by Velasquez in his paint- ing " The Weavers," became a well-known worker. Rugs and carpets are in fact but tapestry, more substantially woven for heavier ware, although in the Orient they are used both for floor covering and wall hanging. The names indeed were used promiscuously. A table cloth in mediaeval times being called a " carpett," and often worked with pearls and silver tissue. Chinese rugs are on a par in age and artistry with the better known Persian rugs. They should not, however, be compared with the latter, but more truly with other products of Chinese art — paint- ings, porcelains, and bronzes, in which similar prin- ciples of decoration are used. Chinese rugs differ from the Persian in material, weave, design and colour. The design is mostly of straight, geometri- cal forms in which the hooked fret takes the place of the curves of the Persian arabesques. The pat- tern of the field is simpler, often with round and oval forms, which are very rarely found in Persian textiles — Xaces 377 rugs. They are also lighter in colour, nor do they ever present the striking contrasts, such as deep red and green, or red and yellow of the Persian carpet. The best Chinese rugs appear to belong to the Ch' ien Lung period (1736-1795). The motifs of the design — the dragons, bats, literary implements, are characteristic of the porcelain decoration of the period. Other rugs show Persian influence in the lotos flower and the Tree of Life, or Horn. An early 17th century rug here is of exceptionally fine design and workmanship. A Persian Hunting Carpet in the Museum is of great importance. It is attributed to Ispahan, and to date from the 16th century. It has a green bor- der with spiral tendrils bearing flowers, buds and leaves, amongst which are birds of gay plumage. The field is covered with foliage and flowers, with wild animals, natural and symbolical, on a red ground. A large central medallion of yellow con- tains figures seated under flowering trees, drinking and playing musical instruments. It is a magnifi- cent specimen of the travelling rug the nomad Persians took with them on the hunt. We note further two small rugs from Asia Minor with a geometric foliage design in the centre, and a border design based in the Cufic characters. Such were highly prized on the Italian palaces of 378 tXbe 2lrt ot tbe /iDetropoUtan /iDuseum the 16th century, as seen in paintings of the period. A Smyrna carpet in red and blue, with a centre shield and corner sections, and a small Ispahan rug with a characteristic Chinese cloud design, and a velvet prayer-rug, embroidered with gold, must not be passed. The Moors introduced the art of carpet weaving into Spain in the 12th century. The carpet in- dustry of the Spanish Renaissance is illustrated by some examples which declare the gradually superior influence of Italian design with its cheerful har- monies over the hard, cold colours of the Moresque inspiration. When we come to the woven fabrics of lighter weight we find the number of specimens almost bewildering. In no other art expression is there as much similarity between the Oriental and the Occident as in textiles. The products of the loom from the fifth to the fifteenth century, of China, Byzantium and Central Europe — of the most diverse peoples, have remarkable points of corre- spondence. This was caused by the interworking of influences upon each other. The antique Roman art of weaving was continued in the Coptic stuffs of Egypt, as the old Assyrian art melted into the Sassanidian (old Persian). A prehistoric fabric from the Bodensee (Lake Constance) and a piece of Egyptian painted linen Xlextiles — Xaces 379 of the 18th dynasty (about 1200 b. c.) are the oldest pieces in the collection. Coptic stuffs are also shown dating from tlie 4th to the 8th century. They resemble closely the much later tapestry weaving. Many are woven in coloured patterns, on some of these the Birth of Christ is told. A 6th century Sassanidian silk piece further illustrates this period. From the 4th to the 7th century these arts have still lessening individuality, until the transportation of the silk industry, in the 7th century, from China to the Mediterranean brought the styles still closer together. The Byzantine stuffs (7th to 10th cen- turies) show in part the legends of the Christian Church, with suggestions of antique motives, and also free and significant imitations of the old Per- sian motives of animal and hunting scenes. From the 10th century on the Arabian design spread east and west, with a pattern of smaller proportions, in which often anim^al and vegetable forms are ar- ranged in rows and interwoven with arabesque and geometrical bands. An interesting specimen, showing the difficulty of solving the problem of placing and dating the stuffs, is an effective piece, with reversed eagles and gazelles. Like pieces in European museums have been called Persian, Syrian and Italian, with dates varying from the 11th to the 14th century. 380 Ube Hrt of tbe /iDetropoUtan /IDuseuin The Syrian attribution, with the 12th or 13th cen- tury date, is held by the curator, Dr. W. Valentiner, to be the most probable. In the 15th century the Italian textile industry became wholly independent, and the stuffs of Genoa and Venice were accepted all oyer Europe. Its patterns no longer presented the former variety, but became limited to one, the pomegranate in divers variations. When the art became active farther north in Europe, especially in Germany, various patterns appear, somewhat influenced by the earlier Byzan- tine conceptions, together with the old lion, griffin and other patterns. But the Arabic influence be- came also in Central Europe ever stronger, spread- ing as far as the Netherlands and the Baltic Sea, until Italian art when liberated from the bondage of the Orient, in its turn infused its spirit eastward, whereby a charming combination resulted of Italian grace and Oriental conventionalism. Of this Ital- ian-Arabian style a few pieces show the artistic grace of animal forms. Gold brocades, made in Italy in the 14th century, have Oriental richness of decoration together with individual expression and unsurpassed fertility of invention. The taste for allegory and symbolism, which is so evident in much of trecento painting, is reflected in the designs of these textiles. The XTextiles — Xaces 38i Italian brocades and velvets of the 15th century have as a typical decoration leaf -shaped panels, in- closing pomegranate devices usually combined with serpentine stalks or ogival framings. These stuffs were much copied in the paintings of the period. The textiles of the 16th century show a leaning for increased richness of effect, with prodigality of ornament, which led to the small " all-over " pattern. The Venetian damasks are especially to be noted. Their patterns were freely imitated in the Lyons brocades. In the 17th century the fabrics became over- elaborated and too-opulent. The styles of the 18th century brocades of Lyons are distinguished by their light colours and delicacy of pattern. In the Louis XIV period the earlier decorations were yet followed. With Louis XV we find a growing taste for picturesqueness in the designs of wavy ribands and floral garlands, or zigzag stems decorated with sprays of flowers. Stripes combined with spots of small flowers or sprays, and flower baskets, dainty rakes and wa- tering-pots, reminding of the pastoral delights of the Petit Trianon, mark the style of Louis XVI. At the beginning of the 19th century we meet the classical severity of the Empire style with its wreaths and tripods and medallions. Then France 382 Zbc Hrt ot tbe /IDetropolitan /iDuseum dominated the styles of most other European coun- tries. The manufacture of silk was an imperial mon- opoly in Rome under Justinian. Two monks had brought silk worm eggs from China in hollow walking sticks, in 550, from which the entire Euro- pean silk industry dates. After the art of silk weaving was introduced into Sicily from the East, the industry spread through Palermo to Southern Italy, retaining much of its Oriental character. Farther West the art was received through the Moors in Spain, French silks were not of great prominence until the 16th century, while those of the Netherlands led all others as early as the 13th century. Velvet and Satin do not appear until the 12th and 13th centuries. Baudekin, a silk and golden weave, was used largely in altar coverings and hangings, such as dossals. By degree the name became synony- mous with " baldichin," and in Italy the whole altar canopy is still called haldachino. The materials used as ground work for mediaeval embroideries were very rich. Samit was shimmer- ing and woven of solid flat gold-wire. Ciclatoun was a brilliant textile, and Cendal silk is spoken of by early writers. Fustian and Taffeta were often used in important work of embroidery, as also were Sarcenet and Camora. Ueitiles — Xaces 383 In the Middle Ages the leading needleworkers were often men, but the jfinest work was certainly accomplished in cloisters and the nuns devoted their vast leisure to this art. The so-called satin-stitch was executed in long smooth stitches of irregular length, which merged into each other. When exe- cuted on linen the covered surface was often cut out and fastened on a brocade background which style of rendering was known as applique. This is illustrated in a Spanish wall curtain of heavy blue linen with an applied design in yellow and green linen, outlined with a heavy cord. This dates from the second half of the 16th century. The pattern presents a convolution of ornamental scrolls in late Renaissance style, with an armorial shield as the central motif. A quaint piece of em- broidered linen of Indo-Portuguese origin from the early 17th century has a pattern of narrow bands with a symmetrical arrangement of branch- ing leaves and flowers, with birds and animals alternating. In the broader bands are horsemen and footmen in Spanish costume, some with rifles. The piece is shaped like an apron. An embroidery, called Point d' Hongrie has delightful nuances of yellow, blue and lilac flames. An embroidery, padded with cotton, was called " stump " work. It was made extensively in the 16th and 17th centuries. In Sicily coral was used 384 zf)c Bi't Of tbe /iDetropolttan /iDuseum in embroideries, as well as pearls. Coral work is called Sicilian work, though it was also executed in Spain. Among the thousands of specimens we find the work of the loom and needle of every European country represented. Of Oriental work we find also a Chinese silk tapestry with a design depicting a boating party of Chinese gentlemen, a Tsuduri- Ori coloured silk hanging with the Japanese design of Howo birds and peony flowers, and two Yoko- Zuna (champion wrestler's) Aprons, which are the last word in technical perfection. LACES The Collection of Laces of the Metropolitan Museum is one of the finest, if not the finest in the world. When the Nuttall collection was pre- sented it became among the foremost. In this col- lection of almost one thousand pieces some thirty two countries are represented, covering an area from the Orient to England, from Norway to Mad- agascar, and from Mexico and Yucatan to Brazil and Paraguay. With the addition of the Black- borne collection, recently purchased, the Museum collection has been placed in the first rank, as it contains nearly three thousand pieces more than half of which antedate 1800, including some of THE LACE ROOM. msi^rMW^ m JUDITH AND HOLOFERNES, NEEDLEPOINT; PUNTE IN ARIA, VENETIAN, ABOUT 160O. UcxXWcs - OLaces 385 the rarest antique laces, which were bequeathed by Mrs. Hamilton W. Gary. A survey may be had of all the intricacies of lace work from its beginning to the present time. The specimens are exposed in the galleries with a symmetrical decorative effect of line and colour, neither trivial nor too rigid to be in keeping with the grace and delicacy of these beautiful fabrics. Lacemaking is the youngest of the textile arts, its period of highest development does not go back farther than the last part of the 16th century, and may be considered to extend to the latter part of the 19th century. A rough chronological division may be made into Late Renaissance (late 16th and early 17th century), Baroque (17th century), and Rococo (18tli century). Lace generally consists of two parts — the ground and the pattern or " gimp." The gimp is either made together with the ground, as in Valenciennes, and in Mechlin (Malines), or sep- arately, and then either " worked in " or " sewn on," applique. Some laces are not worked on a ground. The flowers are connected by irregular threads, overcast (with buttonhole stitch), and sometimes worked over with pearl loops (picots). This method is followed in the points of Venice and Spain, and. most of the guipures. Lace is divided into point and pillow. The first 386 z\)c Hrt of tbe /Metropolitan /iDuseum is made by the needle on a parchment pattern, and termed " needle-point." Point also means a par- ticular kind of stitch, as " Venice point," '' Brus- sels point." Pillow lace is made by twisting and crossing the threads (on bobbins) around pins stuck on a pillow to form the pattern. Venice was celebrated for her point, while Genoa produced almost exclusively pillow lace. One fine Venice lace, the richest and most complicated of all points, is made with all the outlines in relief formed by means of cotton placed inside to raise them. An infinity of beautiful stitches are intro- duced into the flowers, which are surrounded by pearls of geometric regularity, the pearls being sometimes "scalloped" (campane). This is the "Rose" (raised) Venice point, so highly prized, and so extensively used for albs, berthas, collar- ettes, and costly flounces. The term " guipure " is now so variously applied that it is impossible to limit its meaning — silk twisted around thick thread or cord was its original meaning. The modern Honiton (English) and Maltese lace are called guipure. From cutwork developed reticella. In this the grounding is almost entirely cut away, or the threads withdrawn, leaving only occasional supports for the design which, in the earlier pieces, is always geometric. Uexttles — Xaces 387 When the workers gradually realized that no frame work was necessary, punto in aria was evolved, which gave more freedom of design, and floral patterns with scrolls became possible. The brides developed into the fine net-ground- ing (reseau) of the 18th century laces. The de- signs present two kinds of flowers — those made with the needle, called point a l' aiguille, and those made on the pillow, point plat. Among the Italian specimens of the Museum collection a great variety is shown in the different classes. Early Italian bobbin laces illustrate the work of the different provinces. In these early laces there are many designs in which animal life figures, but as a rule the effect produced is one of balance. In later work the motives are apt to be scattered through the design in an irregular way. A magnificent example of this is a repre- sentation in thirteen panels of the story of Judith and Holo femes, in the free-hanging, clearly out- lined, foliated pattern, punt a in aria. Another specimen of punto in aria is a beautiful example in three large points in which the worker has wrought with exquisite delicacy the snowy petals of the edelweiss. The earlier typical geometrical pattern, reticella, is also shown. The gorgeous Baroque laces made at Venice have characteristic scroll patterns, and are rich in figured pieces. 388 Zbc Hrt of tbe /iDetropoUtan /iDuseum Venetian points are shown in the three varieties, "Flat," ''Rose," and " Gros " point. The most delicate of laces are two pieces of " Point de Venise a reseau." Further we note fine examples of net- work, the punto ricamento, and the punto avorio from the Val Vogna; cutwork embellished with punto reale and punto riccio; drawn work from the shores of the Adriatic; needlepoint edgings in coloured silk from Ragusa ; examples of filet ; and tape lace and bobbin-made guipures in imitation of Venetian point. Next in importance to the Italian laces are those of the Netherlands. The character of the Nether- land laces is not so free and lineal in pattern as the Italian, but they are more picturesque in giv- ing contrasts between light and dark. Prior to 1665 nearly all Flanders laces were known under the name of Mechlin. The laces of Ypres, Bruges, Dunkirk, Antwerp and Courtrai, according to Savary, passed under that name. Old Mechlin is one of the prettiest of laces, fine, trans- parent, and effective. It is made in one piece, on the pillow, with various fancy stitches introduced. Its distinguishing feature is the flat thread, which forms the flower, and gives to this lace the char- acter of embroidery. It was most used for trim- ming, and for rufiles at women's sleeves and men's cravats. It is of all laces the easiest to copy in FLEMISH BOBBIN LACE. LACIS OR PUNTO RICAMENTO, FRENCH OR ITALIAN, i6TH CENTURY. NEEDLEPOINT, ITALIAN OR SPANISH, EARLY 17TH CENTURY. Uertiles — Xaces 389 machine-made lace. Its design is in general floral in character. Brussels lace is the most exquisite, filmy, airy fabric. Its thread is of extraordinary fineness. The best quality of thread is spun in underground rooms, as contact with the dry air causes it to break. It is this fineness which makes real Brus- sels so costly. It is worked both needle and pil- low, the needle-point being superior to the pil- low-made. Brussels lace is worked upon by differ- ent persons, some work the flowers, others the ground, etc. — seven distinct persons perform the various details of its creation. Antwerp is remarkable for only one type of peasant lace, the Pottcn Kant, so called from the representation of a pot of flowers with which it is always decorated. These various laces are worthily shown in the collection. The early French laces are difficult to be distin- guished from the Italian, because Venetian artists introduced the art in France (about 1670). Later they reflected the temper of the new age in exquisite refinement of design and technique. We note the luxurious bouquets and ornate designs of the bal- dachino curtains of the Louis XIV period, the neat and small all-over flowers of the Louis XV and the straight lines interspersed with flowers and gardening utensils of the Louis XVI period. 390 Ubc Brt ot tbe /Metropolitan /iDuseum The famous Valenciennes developed from the filmy Brabant lace. This, as well as the different styles of Alengon and Chantilly, Argentan and Point de Sedan are well represented. Notable is a flounce of Point de France of the 17th century. In England the first record of cut work, opus scissum, is found in Oueen Elizabeth's time. She was exceedingly fond of the fabric, but did little to foster it at home, purchasing largely the Flemish or Italian product. Some of the best pieces of ■ cut work (piinto togliato or point coupe) are shown in a chalice veil of the early 16th century, exquisite in design and technique. Lacemaking was introduced into Devonshire by some Flemings, refugees from the persecutions of the Duke of Alva. Honiton lace, so called from the town where they settled, preserved its Flemish character. The peculiarity of Honiton is its being made in sprigs, made separately, and joined by purlings, or by the needle in various stitches. Honiton is well represented here, together with a beautiful example of Carrickmacross cut work, which is among the finest guipure that Ireland has produced. A piece here, so delicate in texture and pattern as to resemble closely the finest Carrick- macross, differs only in the outlining stitch, which is solid buttonhole, and in the many needlepoint ornaments of the intervening spaces. textiles— Xaces 391 The scope of the collection is so extensive that it is only possible to call attention among the wealth of examples to only a few specimens, and to give this general outline to indicate what may be found here. But in addition one will find Dalmatian needlepoint, of the 19th century; Slovak drawn work and cross-stitch embroidery, of the 18th cen- tury; rare pieces of Burrato, of the 17th, and Abruzzi, of the 18th century, of Italy; Spanish blonde, and black work, as well as Manilla lace; and Russian network. CHAPTER XX VARI^ MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS THE HEBER R. BISHOP COLLECTION OF JADE WASHINGTON, LAFAY- ETTE AND FRANKLIN COLLECTION SUN-DIALS AND CLOCKS THE LIBRARY THE BENE- FACTORS. There are various collections in the Museum which it has not been convenient or analogous to consider in the foregoing chapters, but which by reason of their importance and value must not be passed by. We will first discuss the MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS The broad conception which the Metropolitan Museum has of Art is demonstrated in the admis- sion of this section, which properly might be con- sidered to be an adjunct to a national conservatory of music. Nevertheless, the sister-art of Music is treated here to the extent of the formation of a collection which is the largest of its kind in the world, possibly with the exception of the one 392 IPari^ 393 attached to the Brussels Conservatory, in Belgium. An early gift from Mr. Joseph W. Drexel of harpsichords, mandolins, violins and other stringed instruments, brought to the Museum the Collection gathered by Mrs. John Crosby Brown. Later additions have completed the survey, so that at the present we may view the entire range of sound producers — the primitive musical instruments of barbarous and semi-savage races, as well as the instruments used in every continent, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania and America. It is impossible to give in this volume an exten- sive description of this section of the Museum's treasures. It must suffice to point out the various subdivisions of this vast subject, which are all illustrated by characteristic specimens. Turning first our attention to the instruments used in Europe from the earliest time to the present day we find these systematically divided. And first we note the Stringed Instruments without a keyboard. Those with open plucked strings are shown in the different styles of Harp; those with the strings over a sound-box are represented by the Mandolin, Guitar and Nofre (lute). The in- strument in which the strings were struck by two small hammers, held in either hand was the Dul- cimer, the parent of the Clavichord, called in Ger- many the Hackbret, and in France Tympanum. 394 Zbc Brt ot tbe /iDettopolitan /iDuseum The Viola, the Vielle, and Hurdy-Gurdy had the strings bowed — the hurdy-gurdy by a wheel pass- ing over the strings. The entire family of the Violins belongs to this section, in which the grace- fully shaped Violes d' Amour, and the Viola di Bordone will attract attention. Among the stringed instruments with a keyboard we find again first those with plucked strings, the Psaltery, Spinet, Virginal and Harpsichord. Those with struck strings are the Clavichord and the Piano. The bowed strings are found in the Clavicle. The next section comprises the Wind Instru- ments — first those zvithoiit a keyboard. The Whistles comprise the Galoubet, Flute Douce, Flag- eolet, Ocarina and Transverse Flute. The Reeds, both beating and free, are represented by the Chal- umeau, last used by Gliick, to be succeeded by the Clarinet, established by Mozart. The Saxophone, the Bassoon, the Piccolo and the various Bagpipes, including the French Musette du Nivernais, belong here. The Oboe is an instrument with double reeds. The instruments with cup-mouthpieces include the Trumpets, Helicons and Horns. To the Wind Instruments with a keyboard be- long the Melodeon, Seraphine, Harmoniphon and t)ad« 395 Organ ; and to the automatic ones the Barrel-organ and the Serinette. Next come the instruments with vibrating mem- branes — Drums, MirHton, Flute Eunuque and Tambourines; and then the sonorous substances — Musical Glasses, Glass Harmonica, Xylophone, Castanets and Bells. This classification according to musical standards may in a measure be followed also in the instru- ments of the other countries. There we will find, however, for anthropological reasons certain classes much extended and others less numerously repre- sented. Strange forms of the instruments will often add to the interest. An historical group, including some prehistoric instruments, and exhibits illustrating the construc- tion of the principal forms of instruments follow; and the whole is rounded out by a most complete and valuable collection of musicians' portraits. THE HEBER R. BISHOP COLLECTION OF JADE Those who visit the magnificent collection of Jade in the " Bishop Hall " at the Museum will agree that the best way to consider this wonderful array of precious specimens is as a unique and altogether separate subject. It might have been included in the Chapter on Sculpture, or again the 396 Zbc Hrt of tbe /iDetropolitan /IDnseum Chapter on Gems could have contained it — its interest partakes of both. Jadeite and Nephrite, although chemically two distinct minerals, are so much alike in appearance that only the microscope could detect the distinc- tion, and both are known under the general name of jade. The colour, which is often changed by additional mineral properties, ranges from grayish, greenish, bluish, or yellowish white tones to various shades of green, sometimes appearing quite black. Emerald green, the fei-ts'ui of the Chinese, is the most highly prized both for its beauty and its rarity. The principal quarries of jadeite are in Upper Burmah ; Nephrite is found in Turkestan, and in Switzerland, Silesia and Austria in Europe. Alaska has a jade mountain, and boulders have been found in the State of Washington and British Columbia. New Zealand and New Caledonia, Mexico and Central America have produced the mineral. From earliest times it was used as a material for implements, weapons and ornaments in all these places, but China is preeminently the country of jade. The Chinese have always esteemed it as more precious than jewels, being classed by them as the first of precious stones. It ranks with them as the most perfect material in creation. Its vague translucency and the delicate finish of which it IDari^ 397 was susceptible made it desirable for their highest expressions of art. The glyptic artist rendered birds and flowers, the soft flexibility of the lotos, the graceful elegance of the floral spray and foliage as well as the Imperial phoenix and dragon with unctuous charm and sumptuous elegance. The Chinese ornamented jade by sculpturesque carving; in India it was also used as the base for mounting precious stones, as the old Delhi gem- encrusted pieces show. Only of recent years the lapidaries of Europe have begun to employ jade for artistic creations, of which several rare examples are shown in the collection. The one thousand numbers included in the Bishop collection display first a mineralogical section in which samples of the minerals are shown from every known place where they may be found. An archaeological section presents specimens of imple- ments, weapons and ornaments in which the mate- rial was wrought. The remainder of the collec- tion embraces the art objects upon which the utmost resources of the glyptic art have been lavished. These have been gathered from China, India, Annam, Europe and New Zealand, and comprise every conceivable object of limpid beauty to which the material lends itself. Vases from China, with graceful lines, elegant shape, and patiently carved decoration; perfect boxes of soft sheen with jew- 398 XTbe art of tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum elled decoration from India; and the modern work of Europe — they all give the highest presentment of sensuous charm and artistry. THE WASHINGTON - LAFAYETTE - FRANKLIN COLLECTION During the long residence in Europe of Mr. William H. Huntington he made a very large and valuable collection of works of art which have special reference to Washington, Lafayette and Franklin. This collection includes several hundred objects, statuettes and busts in bronze, pottery, porcelain, paintings, about 3000 prints and engrav- ings, medallions and medals in various metals, and other articles. It forms as a whole a remarkable illustration of the tributes of art, other than great ornaments, to the character and achievements of the men whose memory America cherishes. The portraits of Washington are well represented in the Museum's collection of paintings, the Hunt- ington Cabinet displays a number of others in min- iature, engraving and print. There are also a number of medallions and prints of Benjamin Franklin, not all like the commonly accepted por- trait which is followed on the United States postage stamp. As a curiosity mention should be made of a French porcelain statuette of Franklin, inscribed with the wrong legend " George Washington." IDarlx 399 SUN - DIALS AND CLOCKS An interesting collection of timepieces, besides watches, had for its nucleus the collection of sev- enty sun-dials and calendars, given by Mrs. Stephen D. Tucker. Sun-dials or " gnomons " were the first instru- ments used in measuring time, and there is but little doubt that the obelisks of the Egyptians served this purpose. Clepsydras or water-clocks and sand-clocks came next in order ; candle-clocks were also used, their invention being attributed to Alfred the Great. The first portable clocks were made by a German named de Souabe, and are supposed to date from 1300, but not until 1480 do we find mention of a clock made so that " he might carry it with him to every place whither he might go " — in other words, a watch. Chime-clocks are first spoken of as belonging to Margaret of Valois in 1577, and clocks with auto- matic moving figures were soon after made at Augsburg, Germany. The father of English clockmaking was Thomas Tompion, of London, a famous clockmaker, who lived during the last half of the 17th century and died in 1713. He and William Clement made long-case clocks as early as 1680. A peculiarity of these clocks is that the dials were square, and the wooden hood which covered the dial and works 400 Ubc Hrt of tbe /iDetropolitan /iDuseum had to be lifted off to permit the clock to be wound. The first pendulums were called " bob pendulums " because they swung so far to the side that it was necessary to cut slits in the side of the case to allow them to swing free. Many clocks which started with bob pendulums were later supplied with long pendulums. As to the dials, those of the period of William III and of Queen Anne were enriched by beautiful engravings, and the metal was not only of brass but of silver as well, and there were ornaments of ormolu in the form of figures and scrolls. Not a scrap of the face was left undecorated. On the extreme edge was placed a border of leaves or a herringbone pattern. The whole interior of the hour-circle was filled with flowers, scrolls and set patterns, either engraved or etched, and about the winding holes were extra circles and wreaths. Among the earliest in the collection is an horizon- tal table clock made by William Prins of Rotter- dam in the late 17th century. A clock face, by John Draper of London of the early 18th century, and a miniature long-case clock, by John Coonan of Edinburgh, of about 1755, should be noted. THE LIBRARY A Museum without a library is like a carpenter's kit of tools in which the spirit-level is missing. < H 6^ O m Ui H 1-1 Ph o o n XOaxix 401 The exhibits of a museum are valuable to show the beauty of style and execution of works of art — their value is enhanced when a well-selected refer- ence library enables us to study the history of these works, and gives us a fair insight into their relative value by comparison and collateral information. Such a library need not cover the scope of an insti- tution for books as such. But as no person inter- ested in law would be satisfied without having access to a specialized law library, nor any organ- ization of engineers would be deprived of its scien- tific books, so no art museum can do without an art library. This contains reference works for the museum staff, for students, and for those whose interest in the exhibits urges to seek more extended information. The Library is also the appropriate depository for incunabula and manuscripts, for reproductions of these, and for photographs of the thousands of art objects not in the Museum but of equal if not of greater value that need to be known to lend greater appreciation of what is on exhibition in the galleries. It must house those specimens that show the art of illuminating manuscripts, of typo- graphical development, and of book binding. In the Metropolitan Museum Library there are beautifully illuminated manuscripts — note the one on vellum " De Civitate Dei." There is a magni- 402 Ube Brt of tbe /IDetropolttan /iDuseum ficent reproduction of " II Breviario Grimani," the prayer book that rests in the St. Marc Library of Venice, with its miniature paintings by Gerard Horebout, Alexander Benning, Livinus van Lae- tham, Mabuse and Memhnc, The collection of photographs is constantly in- creasing, and their arrangement, indexing and cat- aloguing is done in a way which makes for easy reference to any subject. The gathering of art text books, the tools for the study of art, is judiciously pushed so that every subject covered by the Museum exhibits can now with more or less thoroughness be advantageously studied. THE BENEFACTORS I may be allowed to consider it a gracious duty and privilege to close this book with a reference to the munificent donors who have made the Metro- politan Museum of Art what it is to-day. Passing reference has been made to a few — this should not exclude mention of many others whose liber- ality has contributed to the Museum's growth. Prominent among those who gave the first impetus to the Museum's work were its first Pres- ident, John Taylor Johnston, with Wm. T. Blod- gett, Frederick W. Rhinelander, Rutherford Stuy- vesant, Richard M. Hunt, H. G. Marquand, Robert Hoe Jr., Richard Butler, G. P. Putnam and Lucius Dari^ 403 Tuckerman. One of the first loans was made by- Mr. Martin Brimmer, the first President of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Mr. Samuel P. Avery soon took an active and inestimable interest in the Museum's welfare, and with the advent of Gen. Luigi P. di Cesnola an energetic regime set in which in fairness must be regarded as having given the young plant new vigour and ambition. Although criticized for an autocratic tendency, only partly hidden by diplomatic suavity the first Director of the Museum infused vitality and force into the efforts to have the Museum answer its pur- poses — it passed from its experimental stage, and its future became fully assured. During the first ten years of its existence the Metropolitan received many donations. The do- nors of the most important gifts were William B. Astor, John Bard, John Taylor Johnston, H. G. Marquand, Morris K. Jessup, Samuel G. Ward, Gouverneur Kemble, Thomas Kensett, Mrs. F. Schuchardt, W. H. Webb, Miss Elizabeth Warne (England), the Estate of Mrs. Sarah Ann Ludlum. The success of the first decade inspired hopes which the second decade fully justified. In 1881 Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt presented to the Museum almost 700 original drawings and sketches by old masters; Mr. Richard M. Hunt gave a large and fine collection of casts of works 404 XTbe art ot tbe /iDetropolitan Museum of art ; and Mr, James Jackson Jarves donated his valuable collection of glass, comprising a series of beautiful illustrations of the revived art at Murano (Venice), and the achievements in Europe down to the present time. This was augmented by the purchase for $15,000, provided by Mr. H. G. Marquand, of a collection of Grecian, Roman and Mediaeval glass. By the gift of $6,000 from the President, John Taylor Johnston, the Museum acquired the famous King collection of Engraved Gems. A gift of Mr. Joseph W. Drexel of a number of Egyptian en- graved stones and pottery seals complemented this display of the art of the lapidary. Mr. Drexel laid also the foundation for the Museum's coin collection by presenting a fine assortment of gold, silver and bronze coins, from Egypt. Mr. H. G. Marquand supplied frequently funds for the in- crease of the Museum's collections, and for the much-needed endowment of the Library. In 1883 a bequest ($75,000) of Mr. Levi Hale Willard laid the foundation for the magnificent collection of models, casts, photographs, engrav- ings, and other objects illustrative of the art and science of architecture. In the same year Mr. Wm. H. Huntington donated his collection of works of art which have special reference to Washington, Franklin and Lafayette. IDarta^ 405 Besides bequests of Mr. S. Whitney Phoenix, Mr. Wm. H. Huntington, Mr. WilHam E. Dodge and Mr. Levi Hale Willard, the Museum Trustees received, in 1886, a bequest of $100,000 by will of Mr. Wm. H. Vanderbilt. That same year his son Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Judge Henry Hilton, Mr. Horace Russell, Mr. Junius S. Morgan (London), Mr. Wm. Schaus, and Mr. George L Seney increased the collection of paintings with valuable canvases. The next year the Museum re- ceived the magnificent collection of paintings of Miss Catherine Lorillard Wolfe, together with an endowment fund of $200,000. In 1889 Mr. H. G. Marquand, who had become the President of the Board of Trustees, donated a collection of paintings by Old Masters and artists of the English school of the highest value. A very important acquisition during that year was the col- lection of nearly 300 musical instruments, formed and presented by Mrs. John Crosby Brown, to which she made later many valuable additions. The principal donations made during the second decade, beside those already enumerated, came from the following donors : Mr. W. T. Evans, Mr. Wm. H. Osborn, Mr. F. E. Church, Mr. S. L. M. Barlow, Mr. Alphonse Duprat, Mr. Robert Hoe Jr., Mrs. Charles A. Peabody, Mrs. J. D. Smillie, Mr. George W. Thorne, Mr. James F. 406 Ubc Hrt of tbe /iDetropoIitan /IDuseum Sutton, Mr. Adolph Kohn, Mrs. Falconer, Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, the Hon. Levi P. Morton, Mr. John Jacob Astor (the Astor Collection of Laces), Mrs. Lucy W. Drexel, Mrs. Josephine Banker, the Misses Lazarus, Mrs. Alfred Corning Clark, Mr. Erwin Davis, Mr. James Douglas, Mr. George F. Baker, Mr. H. O. Havemeyer. With the close of the year 1891 the Metropolitan Museum of Art may be said to have attained its majority. The formative period had been one of great difficulties, entailing much anxiety and hard work on the part of its founders, but thanks to their unselfish and sacrificing labours the institution had gained strength year by year, and had enlarged its scope and magnitude. New friends continued to come forward, and the third decade opened with the magnificent bequest of Mr. Edward C. Moore. It comprised a very large collection of objects of metal work, ivory, textile fabrics, glass, pottery, terra cotta, jewels, basket-work, etc., mostly an- cient, mediaeval and Oriental. The bequest of Mrs. Elizabeth V. Coles contained many valuable tapestries and other textiles. A fine collection of Chinese and Japanese pottery was presented by Mr. Samuel Colman, and President Marquand in- creased his many benefactions with a rare collec- tion of European porcelain. In 1896 the Ellis collection of arms and armour IPari^ 407 was presented by Mr. A. van Home Ellis, and Mr. George A. Hearn commenced to show his interest in the Museum by donating several valuable paint- ings. The principal benefactors of the third decade were: Mr. James A. Garland, Mr. William F. Havemeyer, Mr. Edward D. Adams, Mr. George H. Story, the Hon. Cyrus W. Field, Mr. George A. Lucas, Mr. Charles S. Smith, the Estate of the Hon. Hamilton Fish, Miss Helen Gould, Mr. T. J. Blakeslee, Mr. Louis Ehrich, Mr. W. T. Evans, Mr. Bradley Martin, Mr. Collis P. Huntington, Mr. John S. Kennedy, Mrs. Samuel P. Avery, Mr. John D. Crimmins, Mr. J. Ackerman Coles, Mr. Charles F. McKim, Lyman G. Bloomingdale. The new century has had already several glad surprises for the Museum. The Jacob S. Rogers bequest of over four and a half million dollars has now provided a large annual income from which additions are made to the collections. At the death of one of the Trustees, Mr. Heber R. Bishop, the Museum received his very valuable collection of Jade, and $55,000 for its installation in the Museum. Mr. George A. Hearn has provided a fund of $150,000 for the upbuilding of the collec- tion of paintings by American artists, and Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, after assuming the Presidency of the Board of Trustees, not only loaned his 4U8 Ube Hrt ot tbe Metropolitan /iDuseum marvellous collection of Chinese porcelain and the Hoentschel Collection, but has acted the Maecenas of the Museum in various ways. Mr. D. O. Mills donated in 1905 to the Museum a collection of over 4000 antique objects, known as the " Farman Collection." In 1908 Mrs. Mag- dalena Nuttall presented her invaluable collection of laces. Many of the benefactors of the first three de- cades added to their gifts, and to their number a long list must still be added : Miss Margaret John- ston, Mr. William H. Redding, Miss Georgina Schuyler, the Estate of Joseph H. Durkee, the Estate of Henry Villard, Mr. Charles B. Curtis, Mr. Alfred Duane Pell, Mr. William C. Osborne, Mr. J. Henry Smith, Mrs. Frederick F. Thompson, the Estate of Mrs. Augustus Cleveland, Mr. Victor D. Brenner, Mr. John J. Cadwalader, Mrs. John Jay Chapman, Mr. Bashford Dean, Mrs. Emma Matthiessen, Mr. W. J. Baer, Sir WilHam van Home, Mr. Harris C. Fahnestock, Mr. James Still- man, Mr. F. S. Wait, Mr. Hamilton W. Cary, Mr. Robert W. de Forest, Mr. S. S. Howland, Mrs. Stephen D. Tucker, Miss Margaret A. Jones, Mrs. Amelia B. Lazarus, Mr. Thomas P. Salter, Mr. D. C. French, Mrs. Ridgley Hunt, Mr. James Loeb, Mr. Isaac N. Seligman, Mr. Henry C. Frick, Mr. Garrett Chatfield Pier. IDari^ 409 Many other liberal-minded friends of the Arts have contributed to the growth of the number of objects on exhibition. Through this munificence, which may serve as an incentive to still many others, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is grow- ing into an institution that stands alone in the world — in ambitious aim combining the mission of the National Gallery of London with its South Kensington Museum; and reaching for that aim, not by perfunctory, official Government aid, but entirely by the free-will offerings of its friends. THE END. IFtibei Achenbach, Andreas, 183. Achenbach, Oswald, 183. Aelst, Pieter van, 375. Aime-Millet, 70. Albani, 108. Alexander, John W., 304. Algardi, Alessandro, 61. Aliston, Washington, 289. Alma-Tadema, 281. Angelico, Fra, 88. Antinous, 48. Apelles, 45. Arras, 373. Ashur-nasir-pal, King of As- syria, 38. Athene, 41. Avery, S. P., 403. Baixeras, V. D., 200. Baker, George A., 292. Bakker-Korff, A. H, 169. Barbieri, Giovanni, 76. Bargue, Charles, 231. Barnard, George Gray, 65. Baroccio, Frederigo, loi. Bartlett, Paul Wayland, 66. Bartolommeo, Fra, 100. Barye, A. L., 69, 316. Bassano, Francesco, ^^. Bastien-LePage, 237. Bastilli, 351. Battista, Giovanni, 99. Baudry, 368. Becker, Carl, 185. Beechey, Sir William, 263. Bellini, Giovanni, 92, 99. Benjamin-Constant, 245. Benning, Alexander, 402. Benson, 305. Berchem, Nicholas, 162. Berenson, B., 7, 94, 104. Berne-Bellecour, 243. Bernini, 58. Besnard, Albert, 237. Bey, Theodore de, 367. Beyeren, Abraham van, 167. Bida, Alexandre, 214. Bierstadt, Albert, 294. Bishop, Heber R., 407. Bisschop, Christoffel, 169. Blackburn, J. B., 283. Blairsy, L. L., 71. Blake, William, 80. Blakelock, 305. Blanchard. Jacques, 204. Blarenberg, van, 369. Blesius, Henricus, 116. Blodgett, W. T., 9. Blum, R., 81, 301. Bode, Dr. W., 7. Bogert, 306. Boggs, 306. Boilvin, 243. Boldini, Giovanni, in. Bologna, Giovanni da, 57. Boltraffio, 7. 411 412 irn&ei Bonheur, Auguste, 246. Bonheur, Rosa, 246. Bonington, R. P., 271. Bonnat, Leon, 235. Borglum, Gutzon, 67. Borglum, Solon, 67. Borrassa, Luis, 189. Bosboom, Johannes, 171. Boscoreale Frescoes, 33. Both, Jan, 161. Botticelli, Sandro, 90. Bottger, J. F., 340, 351. Boucher, Francois, 208, 368, 375- Boudin, Eugene, 226. Bougeret, 367. Boughton, G. H., 281. Bouguereau, W. A., 231. Boule, Andre and Charles, 331- Boutigny, 244. Bramantino, II, 91. Branchiday Sculptures, 40. Bredius, Dr., 7. Breton, Jules, 234. Breughel, Jan the Elder (Velvet), 118. Breughel, Jan the Younger, 119. Breughel, Pieter the Elder, 78, 118. Breughel, Pieter the Younger (Hellish), 118. Brion, Gustave, 235. Briot, Frangois, 315. Brock, Thomas, 74. Bronzino, Angelo, 100. Brouwer, Adriaan, 152. Brozik, Vacslav von, 185. Brush, De Forest, 305. Bugiardini, Giuliano, IQO. Bunce, Gedney, 306. Burne- Jones, E., 81. Cabanel, Alexandre, 233. Cagliari, Carlo, 107. Caillebotte, 248. Callcott, Sir Augustus, 270. Calot, 79. Campagnola, Domenico, 76. Canova, Antonio, 58, 63. Carlsen, Emil, 305. Carpaccio, 99. Carracci, Annibale, 78, 108. Cary, Mrs. Hamilton W., 385. Casilear, J. W., 294. Cassatt, Mary, 306. Castiglione, ^^. Catena, Vincenzo, 102. Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, 35. Cazin, 227. Celadon, 342. Cellini, Benvenuto, 56, 308. Cerezo, Mateo, 197. Cesnola, Gen. Luigi di, 403. Cesto, Cesare da, 76. Ceulen, Cornelis Janssen van, 144. Charpentier Alexandre, 366. Chase, W. M., 304. Chippendale, 332. Church, Frederick E., 294. Cima da Conegliano, 99. Civetta, 117. Clairin, 243. Claretie, M., 248. Claude Lorrain, 79, 119, 204, 269. Clays, Paul-Jean, 131. Clouet, Frangois, 203. Cofifin, W., 306. Cole, Thomas, 293. Coles, Mrs. Elizabeth V., 406. Collection, Heber R. Bishop, 395- . Collection, Blackborne, 384. Collection, Mrs. John Crosby Brown, 393. Collection, Mrs. E. V. Coles, 372. Collection, Cullom, zi- Collection, di Cesnola, 7, 9, 12. irnC>ei 413 Collection, J. W. Drexel, z^T. Collection, Ellis, 406. Collection, Farman, 14. Collection, Fischbach, 371. Collection, G. A. Hearn, 84, 282, 367, 407. Collection, Hoentschel, 329. Collection, Wm. H. Hunting- ton, 398. Collection, James Jackson Jarves, 404. Collection, King, 404. Collection, Miss Lazarus, 369. Collection, H. G. Marquand, 84- 405- Collection, E. C. Moore, 406. Collection, J. P. Morgan, 344- . Collection, Mrs. Magdalena Nuttall, 2,7'2, 384- Collection, Sternberger, 367. Collection, Mrs. Stephen D. Tucker, 399. Collection, C. Vanderbilt, 84. Collection, Miss C. L. Wolfe, 84. Colman of Augsburg, 323. Constable, John, 80, 268. Coonan, John, 400. Copeland, 35.3. 354. Copley, J. Singleton, 285. Corot, J. B. C, 217. Correggio, 78, loi. Costa, Lorenzo, loi. Cosway, 369. Cot, P. A., 242. Cotman, John Sell, 80, 267. Courbet, Gustave, 225. Couture, Thomas, 215. Coypel, Noel Nicolas, 209. Cozens, 81. Cranach, Lucas the Elder, 181. Cranach, Lucas the Younger, 181. Crane, Bruce, 306. Crawford, Thomas, 64. Crayer, Caspar de, 123. Cristus, Petrus, 115. Crivelli, Carlo, 97. Crome, John, 266. Cropsey, J. F., 294. Cuyp, Aelbert, 163, 269. Dagnan-Bouveret, 233. Daingerfield, 306. Dalou, Jules, T})- Dannat, W. T., 244. Daret, Jacques, 115. Daubigny, C. R, 224. Davenport, 354. David, Gerard, 115, 116. David, Jacques Louis, 211. Davies, A. B., 81, 305. Davis, Charles H., 305. Davis, Theodore M., 95. Dawant, A. P., 244. Dean, Bashford, 321. Dearth, 306. Decamps, Alexandre, 214. Defregger, Franz von, 184. De Forest, R. W., 116. Degault, 370. Delacroix, 214. Delia Robia, Andrea, 53, 347. Delia Robia, Luca, 53. Deming, E. W., 67. Desgoffe, Blaise, 242. Dessar, L., 305. Detaille, 243. Diaz de la Pena, 223. Dietrich, Christian, 181. Diffidente de Ferrari, 87. Dino, Due de, 320. Domingo, Frangois, 199. Donatello, 53. Doughty, Thomas, 293. Drais, 370. Draper, John, 400. Drexel, Joseph W., 393, 404. Drouais, Franqois, 209. Drury, Alfred, 74. Dubois, Paul, 70. Dughet, Gaspard, 204. Dupont, Gainsborough, 271. Dupre, Jules, 223. 414 •ffnbex Dupre, Julien, 237. Durand, A. B., 293. Durer, 79, 178, 180, 276. Dusart, Cornelis, 159. Dyck, Anton van, 106, 124, 253- Dyke, John C. van, 256. Eakins, T. W., 306. Earl, Ralph, 289. Eeckhout, Gerbrandt van den, 149. Egypt Exploration Fund of London, 14, 15. Elliott, C. L., 291. Ellis, W. J. H., 320. Elsheimer, Adam, 123, 159. Engelbrechtsz., Cornelis, 135. d'Entrecolles, Pere, 339. Erttel of Dresden, 324. Escosura, Leon y, 198. Etty, William, 272. Evans, W. T., 300. Eyck, Hubert van, 112. Eyck, Jan van, 112, 115. Eycks, the van, 373. Faes, Peter van der, 253. Fagnani, Giuseppe, 291. Fichel, B. E., 241. Field, Cyrus W., 366. Finelly, 367. Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, 90. Fitz, B., 306. Flavius Josephus, 355. Flaxman, 352. Ford, E. Onslow, 74. Fortuny, Mariano, 198. Foulana, Orazio, 348. Fragonard, 368. France, Leonard de, 130. French, D. C, 68. Frere, Edouard, 241. Frere, Theodore, 241. Frick, H. C., 98. Frizzoni, Signor, 95. Fromentin, Eugene, 230, 273. Fry, Roger E., 94. Fuller, George, 296. Fyt, Jan, 129. Gainsborough, Thomas, 80, 257: Gallait, Louis, 131. Gardner, Mrs. John L., 98. Gautier, Theophile, 220. Gay, Walter, 244. Gelder, Aert van, 150. Genori, Marchese, 347. Georgio, 347. Gerome, 230. Ghiberti, Lorenzo, 51. Ghirlandajo, 90. Giambono, Michele, 98. Gien, 348. Gifford, R. Swain, 299. Gilbert, Alfred, 74. Giordano, Luca, 109. Giorgione, 76. Giovanni di Paolo, 87. Girard, Firmin, 243. Girtin, 81. Giustiniana Marbles, 32. Gliick, 394. Gobelins, Jean, 375. Goujon, Jean, 58. Gouthiere, 331. Goya, Francisco, 197. Goyen, Jan van, 78, 159. Gozzoli, Benozzo, 90. Granet. Frangois, 212. Gray, H. P., 295. Greco, El, 190. Greuze, 210. Grolleron, 243. Gross, Prof. Ernst, 2. Guardi, Francesco, iio. Guercino, 76. Gutierrez, 376. Hague, Louis, 131. Hals, Dirk, 143. Hals, Frans, 138, 247. Harlow, George, 266. Harpignies, Henri, 226. Hart, W. and J. McD., 294. 1In^ex 415 Havemeyer, H. O., 288. Hay, Hon. John, 8. Haydon, R., 271. Healy, G. P. A., 291. Hearn, George A., 10, 156, 407. Heem, Jan Davidsz. de, 167. Heemskerk, Maarten van, 136. Heinlein, Andreas, 367. Hele, Peter, 367. Hellquist, C. G., 185. Heist, Bartholomeus van der, 148. Henner. J. J., 234. Henri Deux, 349. Hermann-Leon, 243. Hobbema, 266. Hochst, 351- Hogarth, Wm., 253. Holbein, Hans the Younger, 179, 252. Homer, Winslow, 302. Hooch, Pieter de, 155. Hoogstraten, Samuel van, 149, 150. Hoppner, 79, 264. Horebout, Gerard, 402. Horemans, Jan, 129. Houdon, J. A., 59, 68. Hovenden, Thomas, 299. Howard, W. Stanton, Pref- ace viii. Hiibner, K. W., 182. Huchtenburgh, Johan van, 167. Huysmans, Cornelis, 129. Hunt, Richard M., 9, 403- Hunt. Wm. Morris, 296. Huntington, Daniel, 291. Hyatt, Anna V., 68. Hypostyle Hall, Karnak, 35. Ingham, C. C, 290. Ingres, 79, 368. Inman, Henry, 291. Inness, George, 297. Isabey, Eugene, 215, 368. Iscnbrant, Adrian, 117. Israels, Joseph, 170. Jacque, Charles, 224. Jacquet, 243. Jan-Menchablon, 227. Jettel, Eugene, 184. Joaquet, 369. Johnston, Eastman, 295. Johnston, J. G., 95. Johnston, President John Taylor, 8, 10, 37, 363, 402. Jongkind, J. B., 168. Jordaens, Jacob, 78, 124. Jouache, 369. Jouett, M. H., 290. Justi, Carl, 191. Kalff, Willem, 167. Kandler, 351. Kaulbach, F. A. von, 186. Kaulbach, Wilhelm von, 183. Kemeys, Edward, 68. Kendall, J. S., 306. Kensett, J. R, 294. Kephisodotos, 30. Keramos, 336. King, Rev. C. W., 363. Klopas, 44. Kmeckel, 358. Knaus, Ludwig, 186. Kneller, Sir Godfrey, 252. Koekkoek, B. C, 168. Kyle, Joseph, 291. Laetham, Livinus van, 402. LaFarge. John, 302. Laffan, W. M., 190. Lamerie, Paul, 308. Landseer, Sir Edwin, 275. Largilliere, 208. Lawrence, Sir Thomas, 265. Lazarus, Jacob H., 292. Leandre, Charles, 79. Lebrun, 368. Leefdael, Jan van, 375. 416 •ffn^ex Lefebvre, Jules, 242. LeGros, Alphonse, 79, 227. Leighton, Lord Frederick, 74, 80, 280. Leloir, 243. Leiy, Sir Peter, 252. LeNain, Brothers, 203. Leo X, Pope, 375. Lerolle, Henri, 244. LeRoux, Hector, 241. Leiitze, Emanuel, 291. Lewin-Funcke, A., 74. Leyden, Lukas van, 135. Leys, Baron Henri, 131. L'Hermitte, Leon, 236. Limoges, 349. Limpard, John, 367. Lingelbach, Johannes, 164. Lippi, Fra Filippo, 88. Loeb, L., 305. Lombrino, TJ. Lorrain, Claude, 79, 119, 204, 269. Lotto, Lorenzo, 102. Low, Will, 305. Mabuse, 252, 402. MacLaren, Walter, 281. "MacMonnies, Frederick, 66. MacNeil, H. A., 67. Madrazo, Raymundo de, 244. Maebius, Prof., 2. Maes, Nicolaas, 149. Maitre de Flemalle, 115. Makart, Hans, 184. Mancini, Francesco, no. Manet, E., 142, 246. Mantegna, 76, yy, 93. Maratta, Carlo, 108. Maris, Jacob, 171. Maris, Thys, 172. Marr, Carl, 306. Martin, Homer D., 298. Marquand, President H. G., 10, -iT, 308, 404. Massaccio, 89. Massys, Quentyn, 115, 116. Mauve, Anton, 171. Max, Gabriel, 184. May, E. H., 295. IMeissen, 351. IMeissonier, J. L. E., 228. Memlinc, 373, 402. Merle, Hugues, 241. Merson, Luc-Oliver, 361. Messina, Antonello da, 98. Metsu, Gabriel, 158. Meulen, A. F. van der, 129. Meyer von Bremen, 185. Michel, Georges, 213. Michelangelo, 55. Mierevelt, Michiel Jansen, 138. Milano, Giovanni da, 86. Millais, Sir John, 279. Miller, C. H., 306. Millet, J. F., 219. Mills, D. O., 14, 408. Minerva Medici, 42. Minton, 353. " Modern Painters," by Rus- kin, 272. Moeyaert, Nicolaes, 155. Molyn, Pieter, 160. Monet, Claude, 248, 249. Montepulciano, di, 88. Monticelli, Adolphe, 215. Moor, Karel de, 150. Mor, Antonis, 137, 252. Morelli, 7. Morgan, President J. Pier- pont, 10, 340, 349, 2,12, 407. Morland, George, 267. Moroni, 102, 104. Morse, S. F. B., 290. Mount, W. S., 294. Mozart, 394. Muiredach, Cross of, 50. Miiller, Charles, 241. Miiller, Karl, 183. Munkacsy, Mihaly de, 183. Murant, Emanuel, 164. Murillo, 195. Murphy, J. Francis, 305. Myron, 42. Mytens, Daniel, 143. •ffnbex 417 Nasmyth, Patrick, 271. Nattier, 208. Neagle, John, 290. Neer, Aert van der, 160. Netscher, Caspard, 153. Neuhuys, Albert, 172. Neuville, de, 243. Nicol, Erskine, 275. Nieuwland, Adriaen van, 155- Nordau, Max, 239. Nymphenburg, 351. Obelisk, Alexandria, 18, 27. Ommeganck, Balthazar, 130. Oost, Jacob van, 127. Opie, 265. Orcagna, Andrea, 50. Ostade, Adriaen van, 78, 151. Ostade, Izaac van, 164. Oudenarden, 374. Page, W., 291. Palissy, Bernard de, 348. Palrner, E. D., 67. Panini, Cavaliere, 109. Pantheon, 35, 49. Parmigiano, 78. Parthenon, 35, 41. Parton, A., 306. Pasini, Alberto, no. Pasti, Matteo de', 365. Pastorino, 365. Pater, 208. Pausanias, 44. Peale, Charles Wilson, 286. Peale, Rembrandt, 286. Pelouse, 227. Perugino, 78. Peselino, 88. Petitot, 369. Pheidias, 41. Phillip, John, 275. Picknell, 305. Piero di Cosimo, 90. Pilon, Germain, 58. Piloty, Carl von, 183. Pine, Robert, 263. Piombo, Sebastiano del, 105. Pisanello, 87. Pisano, Nicole, 50. Pisano, Nino, 61. Pisano, Vittore, 365. Pissaro, 248. Pliny, 45. Poelenburg, Cornelis van, 159- Pokitonow, 227. Pol, Christiaan van, 369. Pollajuolo, 89. Polykleitos, 32, 42. Poussin, Gaspard, 204, PoLissin, Nicolas, 203. Powers, Hiram, 64. Pratt Matthew, 284. Praxiteles, 43. Predis, Ambrogio de, 91. Preyer, Emilie,. 182. Preyer, J. W., 182. Prins, William, 400. Proctor, A. P., 68. Prud'hon, Pierre, 213. Puvis de Chavannes, 239. Pyrgoteles, 45. . Raeburn, Sir Henry, 264. Raffaelli, 235. Ranger, H. W., 306. Raphael, 76, 78, 100, 375. Reid, Robert, 306. Reisener, 331. Rembrandt, 78, 144. Remington, Frederick, 67. Renoir, 248. Renouf, Emile, 227. Reynolds, Sir Joshua, lOi, 106, 126, 259. Rhazes, 345. Rhinehart, W. H., 64. Ricci, .Sebastiano, 109. Richter, Gustav, 185. Rico, Martin, 199. Riefsthal, 185. Rigaud, 207. Rimmer, Wm., 68. Robert-Fleury, Tony, 243. Robie, Jean, 131. 418 UnDei Robinson, Dr. Edward, 12. Robinson, Theodore, 300. Rodin, 71. Roentgen, David, 331. Rogers, Jacob S., 407. Romano, Giulio, 91. Romeyn, Willem, 165. Romney, George, 261. Rooses, Max, 7, 121. Rossetti, D. G., 277. Rossi, 85. Roth, F. G. M., 68. Rethenstein, W., 81. Roty, Oscar, 366. Rousseau, Theodore, 221. Rowlandson, 79. Roybet, 243. Rubens, P. P., 106, 119, 126, 214, 257, 375- Ruisdael, Jacob van, 165. Ruskin, John, 80, 241, 260, 270, 272, 278. Russell, John, 263. Ruysch, Rachel, 168. Ruysdael, Salomon van, 161. Ryckart, David, 129. Ryder, A. P., 305. Saint-Gaudens, Augustus, 64, 365. Salembier, 331. Sanchez-Perrier, Emilio, 199. Sano di Pietro, 86. Sansovino, 56. Sargent, John, 304. Sartain, W., 306. Sassoferrato, II, 108. Scarabs, 17, 18. Schauss, Ferdinand, 186. Scheffer, Ary, 212. Schenck, Auguste, 246. Schofield, E., 306. Schreyer, Adolph, 185, 230. Schwanhardt, 358. Scorel, Jan van, 136, 137. Scudder, Janet, 68. Segorbia, Duke of, 357. Seitz, Anton, 186. Sevres, 350. Seymour-Haden, 81. Shah Abbas, 334. Shee, Sir Martin, 266. Sheraton, S32- Shurtleff, R., 305. Siren, Dr. Oscar, 86 Sisley, 248. Skopas, 43. Slingeland, Pieter van, 158. Smart, 369. Smillie, W., 306. Snyders, Frans, 123. Sodoma, 7. Solari, Christoforo, 55. Sorolla y Bastida, 200. Souabe, de, 399. South Kensington Museum, 307- Spanish Artists, Modern, 200. Speth, 369. Spode, 354. Stamina, Gherardo, 88. Stark, James, 267. Stecken, Gerard van der, 375. Steen, Jan, 153. Steer, P. Wilson, 281. Steinlin, 79. Stevens, Alfred, 81, 133. Stevens, Edouard, 133. Storck, Abraham, 166. Story, W. W., 63. Stuart, Gilbert, 286. Suardi, Bartolomeo, 91. Sully, Thomas, 290. Tanagra, 23. Tarbell, 305. Teniers, David the Elder, 123. Teniers, David the Younger, 127. Terborch, Gerard, 152. Terpsicles, 40. Thayer, 305. Theotokopuli, Domenikos,i90. UntJCX 419 Thoma, Hans, 187. Thornhill, Sir James, 253. Thorwaldsen, 63. Tiepolo, 78, 109. Tiffany, Louis C, 359. Tilborgh, Gillis van, 129. Tintoretto, II, 106. Titian, 76, 105. Tompion, Thomas, 399. Torbido, 102. Toro Farnese, 47. Tnvulzio, Prince, 95. Troost, Cornells, 78. Troyon, Constance, 223. Trumbull, Col. John, 289. Tryon, D. W., 305. Turner, C. Y., 305. Turner, J. M. W., 80, 206, 272. Twachtman, J. H., 300. Tyndall, 2. Valentiner, Dr. W., 380. Vanderbilt, C, 403. Vanderbilt, W. H.. 405. Vedder, Elihu, 305. Veen, Martin van, 136. Velasquez, 106, 192, 247. Velde, W. van de, 78. Veramin, 345. Verboeckhoven, E., 130. Verdures, 374. Vermeer van Delft, Jan, 157. Vernet, Charles, 212. Vernet, Horace, 212. Vernis-Martin, 368. Veronese, Paolo, 107, 214. Verrocchio, Andrea, 7, 54. Verschuur, Wouter, 168. Vibert, 243. Villegas, Jose, 199. Vincent, George, 267. Vinci, Leonardo da, 7, 91, 100. Vivarini, 85, 103. Vlieger, Simon de, 167. Volk, Douglas, 306. VoUon, Antoine, 242. Voltz, Friedrich, 183. Vonnoh, Bessie Potter, 68. Vos, Cornelis de, 124. Vries, Abraham de, 144. Walker, Horatio, 305- Walker, Robert, 253. Walpole, Horace, 260. Walter, Edgar, 66. Wappers, Baron Gustaaf, 131. Ward, Dr. W. Hayes, 15. Warner, Olin, 64. Watteau, Antoine, 79, 206, 368, 375- Watts, G. F., 276. Waugh, 306. Wedgwood, 352. Weenix, Jan Baptist, 167. Weiland, 369. Weir, J. Alden, 306. West, Benjamin, 284. Weyden, Rogier van der, 115, 373. Whistler, J. A. McN., 81, 142, 232, 301. White, Edwin, 295. Whittredge, 306. Wiggins, C, 306. Wilkie, David, 80, 203. Willaerts, Jan, 137. Willard, Levi Hale, 35, 404. Willems, Florent, 132. Willett, H., 92. Williams, Ballard, 306. Wilson, Richard, 81, 256. Winckelmann, 4, 47. Wolfe, Miss Catharine Lor- illard, g, 405- Wood, T. W.. 295. Worms, Jules, 241. Wouwerman, Philip, 162, 167. Wyant, Alexander H., 298. Zamagois, Eduardo, 198. Ziem, Felix, 226. Ziigel, Heinrich, 187. Zuloaga, Ignacio, 200. Zurbaran, Francisco de, 195. 6 5 C8 8 inc. uiNivtrcoii i i_iDrxMrxT This book is DUE on the last date stamped below co> m MAY 9 196e RECETv LD-UR ED L n i-N r> J IS. AUG B 1912 m SEP ^(?7> (/). .^^i?^, Physlcff Library 2 S 1972 ^930 iioO^ I'ovm L-9-20m-8,"3'; uc SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FAC LI A A 000149 224 8 ,(,'•: