**''• — *'A,^*~-~-~^*~^r~m~~~~M^-TT^r^^ — r-rr*T<»MllWfiiiiim:illiniir

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

The Great Masters
in Painting and Sculpture
Edited by G. C. Williamson

CARLO CRIVELLI

THE GREAT MASTERS IN PAINTING AND
SCUI-I'TCRE.
The fofowint; Vo'.umc; liave bun issued:
BERNARDINO I.UINI. By George C. Williamson, Litl.D., Editor
of the Series.
VELASQUEZ. P.y R. A. M. Stevenson.
ANDREA DEL S\RTO By H. Guiv.ess.
LUCA S1GN0RELLI. liv M \uo Cruttwell.
RAPHAEL. By H. Strachiv
CARLO CRIVELLI. liy G. M Neil KusiiForrH, MA., Classical
Lecturer, Oriel College. Oxford.
CORREGGIO. By Ski.wyn Bri.kton, M.A, Author of " The Renais
sance in Italian Ati. ' March i.
In /'V/jra/ttw.
DONATELLO. P.) 1 1 . ¦ r »- Rea.
MICHAEL ANGELO. By Ciiarlrs H i son., Keeper of the
N.i'ional G. tilery of British Art.
I HE BROTHERS P.ELLIVI. By S. Arthlr Strong, M.A .Librarian
to the House of Lords.
TURNER, liy Charles Ii \n is Bell, M.A., Assistant Keeper of the
Ash'n 'le.in Museum.
MEM1.INC. By W. H. Jake. Wf me. late Keeper of the National Art
Lil'i.iry.
II. GRtCO. By Manlel B. Cossi \ Litt.D., Ph.D., Director of the
Musee Pedagogique, Madrid.
PERUGINO. By G. C Williamson, Litt.D., EJiur of the Series.
REMBRANDT. By Malcolm Lell-
FRA ANGELICO. By Laxgton Dolglas, M.A.
FRANZ HALS. By Rev. G. S. Davies, M.A.
Other* tff j.\\\yn:

LONDON: GEORGE BELL ,S; SON'S

//>.

CARLO
CRIVELLI

BY

GriVUNEIL RUSHFORTH, M.A.
CLASSICAL LECTl'KER. ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFOKD

LONDON
GEORGE BELL & SONS
1900

PREFACE
CRIVELLI can hardly be said to provide a very attrac
tive subject for the biographer, owing to the paucity
of material. Up to the present time the account in
Messrs Crowe and Cavalcaselle's " History " has re
mained the most complete treatment of the painter, and
in its main features their careful compilation leaves little
to be desired. The present volume is an attempt to
put together all that is known about Crivelli and his
works. One great deficiency may be acknowledged
at once. No additions have been made to the scanty
documentary evidence about the painter which has up
till now been available. It is possible that a diligent
search among the archives at Ascoli, and the other
towns with which Crivelli was connected, might reveal
some further information. For such researches I have
had_ neither time nor opportunity^ All that I have
been able to ascertain is that of this nature there exists
nothing obvious or known to the local authorities.
In default of more original information we are under
considerable obligations to Amico Ricci, who, at a time
when Crivelli's pictures were being scattered from their
original home in the Marches, either from his own
knowledge or from information which he had collected,
preserved in many cases the memory of their original
positions and other important facts about them.
The interest taken in Crivelli in our own country
should be stimulated by the unrivalled collection of

PREFACE
his works in the National Gallery. Its principal fault
is that it represents too exclusively the middle and later
stages of his development. Another defect might be
more easily remedied. For purposes of comparison
Crivelli's pictures ought to be supplemented by ex
amples of his pupils' works. If the two panels of
Vittorio at South Kensington could be transferred to
the National Gallery from the dark corner which they
at present occupy, their significance would at once
become apparent, and ever)- student would profit by
the opportunity thus given for comparison.
I must express my thanks for much valuable infor
mation about Crivelli especially to Dr Frizzoni and
to Mr Berenson. But, above all, I am indebted to
Mr Charles Loeser, who throughout has given me the
benefit of his accurate judgment and wide knowledge
of Italian art. To his encouragement and counsel I
owe much. I have also to thank the owners or cus
todians of pictures who have allowed them to be repro
duced in this volume, or have placed any information at
my disposal.
I would add that the publishers of this volume, in
order to make it as complete as possible, arranged
with Mr Houghton of Florence, at considerable ex
pense, to go to the Marches and photograph many
pictures which have never before been reproduced.
G. McN. RUSHFORTH.
Oxi'ork, Ve.r ///.';¦ i 1899.

CONTENTS

V AGU

List of Illustrations ix
Bibliography . xi
Chapter I. Crivelli's Masters i
II. His Life . io
III. His Characteristics . . 24
IV. Early Works . 38
V. Later Works  55
VI. His Influence  78
Catalogue of the Works of Crivelli . . 85
Unidentified Pictures . . . . . .118
Chronological Table of the Pictures . . 119
Index  . . 121

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Virgin and Child . Mr R. Benson's Collection
frontispiece
Altar-piece, by Antonio Vivarini (1464) Rome, Lateran 6
Virgin and Child . . . Macerata 16
Altar-piece (1473) ... . . Ascoli 18
Altar-piece, by Petrus Alamanus (1489) . Ascoli 20
The Annunciation (i486) . . . National Gallery 22
Virgin and Child. (From the Altar-piece,
(1476) ) . . . National Gallery 26
Virgin and Child (1482) . . . Rome, Lateran 28
St. Jerome and St. Augustine . . Venice, Accademia 32
Virgin and Child .... . Verona 38
Massa Fermana 40
. Sir F. Cook's Collection 42
Lord Northbook's Collection 44
. Ancona 44
St. George and the Dragon Mrs J. L. Gardner's Collection 46
The Dead Christ supported by Angels National Gallery 48
Virgin and Child . . . Brussels 48
Virgin and Child . . . Pausula 50
Christ and S. Francis Milan, Museo Poldi-Pezzoli 5 2
Altar-piece (1476) . National Gallery 54-55
St. Peter (from a Drawing) . Mr C. Loeser's Collection 56

Altar-piece (1468)
Virgin and Child
Virgin and Child
Virgin and Child

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

The Magdalen  Berlin Gallery 58
Madonna and Saints (1482) . . Milan, Brera 60
Virgin and Child . . South Kensington Museum 62
Vision of the Blessed Gabriele Ferretti National Gallery 64
Pieta ..... Mr R. Craws/lay's Collection 66
Pieta ... . . Rome, Vatican 68
The Crucifixion  Milan, Brera 68
Madonna and Saints — The Infant Christ
giving the Keys to St. Peter . . Berlin Gallery 70-7 1
Madonna between St. Jerome and St.
Sebastian .
The Coronation of the Virgin (1493)
Virgin and Child
Altar-piece, by Vittorio Crivelli .
Altar-piece, by Vittorio Crivelli .
Virgin and Child, by Vittorio Crivelli.
an altar-piece)
The Coronation of the Virgin, by Ber
nardino di Mariotto . . .Perugia 82
St. Thomas Aquinas. (From the altar-piece
(H76) ) • ... National Gallery 88
St. Dominic. (From the altar-piece (1476) )
National Gallery 90

National Gallery

72

Milan, Brera

74

Milan, Brera

76

S. Severino

78

Torre di Palme

78

(From

Torre di Palme

80

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Berenson, B. "Venetian Painting at the Exhibition of
Venetian Art. The New Gallery, 1895." London.
Referred to as " Berenson, Notes."
Berenson, B. " The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance."
Third Edition. London and 'NewYork, 1898. Index of
Works, p. 106.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle. "The History of Painting in
North Italy." London, 1871. Vol. i. 82. Referred to
as "C andC"
Kugler. " Handbook of Painting. The Italian Schools.''
Sixth Edition by Sir A. H. Layard. London, 1891.
Lafenestre and Richtenberger. "LaPeinture en Europe."
"Le Louvre." "Venise." Paris. No date. Referred
to as " L. and R."
Lanzi, L. "Storia Pittorica della Italia." Bassano, 1818.
Vol. iii. 21.
Layard. See Kugler.
Morelli, G " Italian Painters," etc. Vol. i. 275.
Orsini. " Guida d' Ascoli." Perugia, 1790.
Ricci, A. "Memorie Storiche delle Arti della Marca di
Ancona." Macerata, 1834. Vol. i. 205.
Ridolfi, C " Le Maraviglie dell' Arte." Second Edition.
Padua, 1835. Vol. i. 49.
Waagen. "Treasures of Art in Great Britain." London,
1854-57-
The Winter Exhibitions of Works by the Old Masters at
Burlington House are referred to as "R. A." followed
by the year.
The Exhibition of Venetian Art at the New Gallery in 1894-95
is referred to as "Venetian Exhibition."

CARLO CRIVELLI
CHAPTER I
crivelli's masters
Carlo Crivelli is one of those painters about whose
life hardly any information, traditional or otherwise,
has come down to us. But about his artistic origin,
with the exception of one questionable statement,
there is an absolute blank ; and we are reduced to the
necessity of making his pictures tell their own story
about the masters under whom he studied, and the
school to which he belonged. These are conditions
which expose the inquirer to many dangers and tempta
tions ; and the greatest care must be taken not to go
beyond the facts contained in the pictures, or to allow
the imagination to usurp the place of legitimate in
ference. Fortunately in the case of Crivelli some at
least of the inferences, and perhaps those of most im
portance, are so clear, that we may feel some confidence
when we make them that we have got near to the truth.
Crivelli, as we shall see, whenever he signed a picture,
never forgot to remind the world that he was a Venetian.
Here then is our starting-point. When we consider that
he left Venice early in his career, never apparently to
return, we cannot doubt that as an artist he meant by
this insistence on his place of origin to emphasise the
A

2 CARLO CRIVELLI
fact that it was there that he had learnt his art. The
conditions of place then are settled. What about the
conditions of time?
A number of Crivelli's pictures have come down to us
which, partly from the dates inscribed on them, partly
from their characteristics, may be classed as early works.
IrxJJac_jnatter of time then, our starfinp-onint is the fact
that the earliest date i"ng^r;hprl "1 a picture by Cri'velli
.is 1468, and that a picture which, though early in style,
is by no means elementary. Crivelli may well have
begun his artistic career as far back as 1460. Who
were the masters in painting in Venice and its neigh
bourhood at that period, and were there any other local
influences within the range of which Crivelli is likely to
have come ? When these questions have been answered
we must go on to inquire how far the style of those
masters and the traces of those influences can be dis
covered in Crivelli's early works.
The most siipernrial glance at Crivelli's pictures
would tell us that he has nothing in common with
what is known as Venetian art proper^ thf ct"^ of
the Bellini and Giorgione, of Titian and Tintoret But
long before the Bellini, Venice had its painters with
a character and tradition of their own. While it is
probably true that all Italian art is ultimately indebted
to Byzantine inspiration, this influence was more direct
in the case of Venice than elsewhere. At a time when,
on the western side of Italy, the older forms of painting
were being endowed with new life and undergoing a new
birth, Venice with her Eastern connections preserved
the aftlstic traditions of ^oTJstluitinople. But Venice
could not remain for ever unaffected by the astonishing

CRIVELLI'S MASTERS 3
progress which was being made by national Italian art,
and early in the fifteenth century we find the old
Venetian school in process of transformation under the
influence of Ujnbrian and Veronese masters.* This
new generation, reinforced perhaps by the infusion of
a^G^rnan_.el£meiit^ad-its--ieadin^ in
^_th&_Vivarini of Mnrano. They, in their turn, were
affected by the new centre of artistic teaching which
had lately sprung up in ParliiR, associated—with-- the
name of Sqiiarcione. Under the influence of each of
these elements, the old Venetian school, the painters of
Murano, and the school of Padua, Crivelli directly or
indirectly came ; and we will endeavour now to show
how his early pictures provide the evidence for this
statement. The very form of many of Crivelli's works is
suggestive of the atmosphere in which he was trained
at Venice. Though by no means confined to Venice,
the old Venetian school, with its Byzantine traditions,
had a special liking for the " Ancona " — the altar-piece
consisting of many single figures, each in its separate
compartment ; with the gilded framework forming a
more or less elaborate architectural setting for the
whole. Such an obstacle to composition of a wider
scope was speedily got rid of by the more progressive
schools, but at Venice it remained longer ; and for
Crivelli, whose special achievement it was to per
petuate in a more modern form all that was best in
the Byzantine tradition, it was peculiarly appropriate.
We shall observe that even he, as he advanced,
* It was in 1420 that Gentile da Fabriano and Pisanello were invited
to decorate the Doge's Palace,

4 CARLO CRIVELLI
abandoned the system of composite altar-pieces for
pictures in which the figures are grouped in a single
composition. Still, much of his best work is enshrined
in anconas. Many of the tall narrow panels by his hand
which have come down to us no doubt originally formed
part of such structures ; and even where this is not the
case, the form of the panel recalls its origin, and reminds
us that Crivelli felt most at home when dealing with the
isolated and statuesque figures which form the attend
ants on the central scene in the typical ancona.
Thp earliest statement about the artistic origin of
Criy-clli-is-that of the seventeenth-century., writer Ridoifi,
who says that he wag the pppj] nf Tacobello del Fiore.*
But we know now that Tacobello was dead_by I44Q.T so
that Crivelli cannot have been his pupil. Ridolfi's state^
ment therefore must be taken as a general expression of
Crivelli's obligations to the old Venetian school of which
Jacobello was a typical representative. As the recog
nised head in his day of the profession in Venice, he
was a prominent personage ; but of the two works pre
served there, the only one which has even a superficial
resemblance to Crivelli's style — "Justice between Michael
and Gabriel " (Accademia, No. 15) — really only recalls it
in the use of raised gilt ornaments, a feature which is
common to all early Venetian art. The suggestion of
Crowe and Cavalcaselle t that it is rather to Giambono
that we should look among the older painters as
* Ridoifi, Maraviglie, i. 49.
T Racolta di documenti inediti per servire alia storia della pittura
Veneiiana. Pi of. Taolctti Pietro di Osvaldo. Padua, 1895. Fasc. ii.
p. 9.
$ Crowe and Cavalcaselle, i. 8;.

CRIVELLI'S MASTERS 5
Crivelli's teacher, though the dates present no difficulty,
does not lead to any more definite result.
Meanwhile, as we have said, new life was being
infused into the old Venetian art, by the school of
painters settled at the neighbouring town of Murano.
The decided advance shown by Antonio Vivarini is
apparently due to external influence ; on the one hand,
to that coming from the professional visit to Venice
about T/j7.n nf Gentile Ha Fabriann and Pisanello, and,..
on the other, to his partnership with a painter of German
origin, who seems to have brought with him the
traditions of the school of Cologne. While preserving
many of the superficial characteristics of the old
Venetian school, such as the use of gilt ornaments and
the general decorative character, the results of this
advance may be summed up as an increase of grace
and dignity in the figures, a distinct effort after char
acter in the heads, and improved drawing. A character
istic example of the partnership is the altar-piece of
1443 (" St. Sabina and other Saints "), in S. Zaccaria,
Venice, where the central panel is thoroughly German,
while the side figures remind one of Pisanello. Ap
parently by 1450, and therefore before Crivelli can have
come under its influence, the partnership ceased ; and
we must look to such a picture as that of 1464 in the
Lateran, signed by Antonio Vivarini alone, for an
example of the master as he knew him. That he did
know him, the very circumstances of the case make
more than probable. The painters of Murano were
at this time so unquestionably at the head of their
profession in the Venetian world, that a young painter
growing up there, as we believe Crivelli to have

6 CARLO CRIVELLI
done, between the years 1440 and 1460, must, almost
inevitably, have been in some sense their pupil.
Ngw, can we find any traces of Crivelli's raasler_in
Antnnln VJYarini'g pane]* .J2L_14J24_L The >'OUthful
figures in the lower tier, with their smooth, round faces,
seem to be a survival of the German influence. On the,
other hand, the strongly marked characteristics of the
half-lengths in the upper tier are a feature which may
be ascribed to Antonio himself; and here we seem to
find the suggestion for the still more strongly individ
ualised types of Crivelli. It is not, however, so much
to any precise features that we must look for analogies
with Crivelli. It is rather in the general character of
the figures, severe and earnest, in their traditional
attitudes, and in the arrangement of the ancona as a
whole* that we must look for the forms with which
Crivelli's education made him familiar and which
reappear in his own works.
One figure in the Lateran altar-piece — the St.
Christopher in the lower tier — is markedly different in
style from the rest In looking at it we are remfnded
of nothing so much as some of the forms in "Mfmtegna's
earliest altar-piece, dated 1454. and now in the Brera.
In other words, it is decidedly Paduan in character.
We shall hardly be wrong in attributing this new
element, directly or indirectly, to Antonio's younger
brother, Bartolommeo Vivarini, whose pictures reveal
very considerable obligations to the school of Padua.
What was this school which could thus strongly impress
* The carved figure .if St. Anthony is exceptional, and one may be
suspicious whether il is original here. A panel with the Virgin and Child
forms the usual centre.

Anderson photo]

[Lateran Gallery

ALTAR-PIECE (1464)
(By Antonio Vivarini)

CRIVELLI'S MASTERS 7
the leading Venetian painters, and did its influence
extend to Crivelli?
About, the .same- -period when the _Muranese painters
were infusing new life into Venetianart the neighbour^-
¦jng town of Padua, jas—the centre of a., parallel— but
quite distinct mnwmpj^ triar traditionally associated
with the name of Squarcione. Everyone wiioJias_ev.en.
a superficial acquaintance with the history of Italian
ajt- hac reaH nf hig journey to Greeny of the drawings
(presumably of antiquities) that he brought back with
him, and of the successful and popular art school that
he established at Padua. What truth there may be in
the first of these statements it is difficult to say. The
distinctive features, it is true, of the works of the artists
who came from his school (Mantegna is the best known
instance) are the clear-cut, plastic character of the
figures, as though they were copied from statues, and
the introduction of architectural adjuncts and ornaments
derived from ancient remains. The . models for the
latter, however, are Roman rather than Greek, an_d an
abundance of them was ready to hand in Squarcione's
day in North Italy. The collection of statues which
we are told he possessed, a term no doubt including bas-
reliefs and architectural fragments, was probably derived
from this source. This interest of Squarcione's in
ancient sculpture coincided with, even if it was not
partly due to, another source of influence. In 1444
Donatello came to Padua, and his bronze reliefs for the
high altar of S. Antonio at once attracted great atten
tion and powerfully impressed the local artists, not only
by suggesting plastic treatment in painting generally,
but by providing definite models for certain artistic

8 CARLO CRIVELLI
forms. A very common ornamental feature in Paduan
pictures is the festoon of fruit or flowers. Familiar as
this was from hundreds of Roman altars and sarcophagi,
there can be little doubt that it was Donatello who
popularised the festoon. An obvious example on an
early work produced under his direction is the tomb
of John XXIII. (dated 1426), in the Baptistery of
Florence. Whatever may be the truth as to the exact relation
of these various influences, it is now generally agreed
that Squarcione was the manager of an atelier where
models and facilities for instruction were provided,
rather than a great artist surrounded by a circle of
disciples. This view is based mainly on the fact that
hardly any pictures by him exist, and on the very
inferior character of those that do. Yet there must
have been some strong personal influence at work to
impress on the school such an extraordinary individ
uality ; for, in spite of the great difference in merit
between such artists as Mantegna and Zoppo, nothing
is more remarkable than the uniformity of character
istics which make a Paduan picture recognisable almost
at the first glance. Combined with the features
derived from the school of Venice, these characteristics
are so marked in Crivelli that we require no traditional
or documentary evidence to prove that at some time he
was a member of the school of Squarcione. We need
not illustrate this at length, for nearly every picture of
his bears witness to it, in the plastic forms, the festoons
of fruit, the marble thrones and other architectural
accessories. It might be suggested that he learnt the
lesson through the medium of the Vivarini, for they,

CRIVELLI'S MASTERS 9
as we have seen, especially after Bartolommeo became
associated with his brother (and that in 1450, before
Crivelli's time), show considerable traces of Squarcione's
influence. But the traces are so much stronger in
Crivelli that it is only reasonable to suppose that he
came into personal contact with the Paduan school.
One piece of evidence will suffice. It is safe to say
that among the pictures in the National Gallery there
is only one painter whose productions could possibly
be mistaken for Crivelli's, and that is Gregorio
Schiavone. And on one of his pictures there (No.
630) Schiavone has added to his signature the signifi
cant words " disipuli Squarcioni," " pupil of Squarcione."
Crivelli, on the other hand, is equally justified in describ
ing himself as "Venetian," for he never forgot the
impulse which he had derived both from the old
Venetion school and from the painters of Murano ; and,
with much in common, he develops on quite different
lines from the greatest product of the Paduan school,
Mantegna. Nevertheless, the Paduan was the most
important outside influence under which he came ; and
while his vocation was to perpetuate under improved
and modernised forms the old Venetian tradition,
nothing contributed more to the enrichment and en
nobling of that foundation than the lessons which he
learnt in the school of Squarcione.

CHAPTER II
HIS LIFE
With the exception of one or two facts, we start on
our inquiry into Crivelli's life with no better sources of
information than were at our disposal in our investiga
tion of his artistic origins. Until some documentary
evidence is unearthed, we have to rely ultimately on the
pictures and what they tell us, for reconstructing
Crivelli's personal history as well as his artistic career.
Under these circumstances the facts which we can
collect are, naturally, very few and very general. Let
us see what the)- are.
First, as to the date of Crivelli's birth. In the absence
of any definite statement we must make an inference
from the dates which he sometimes appended to his
signature. The earliest is on the altar-piece at Massa.
and the year is 146S ; the latest is I4Q3. on the
" Coronation," in the Brera, an interval of twenty-five .
years. But the picture at Massa cannot be Crivelli's
earliest work. As wc shall see when we come to
examine it, while containing indications of immaturity,
on the other hand it already possesses in a definite form
the characteristics which we may describe as Crivellian.
In other words, it pustulates a course of development.
The probabilities are that Crivelli's strongly pronounced
individuality would assert itself earl)-, and quickly

HIS LIFE ii
emancipate itself from the fetters of mere imitation.
Still, there must have been a period, however short, of
discipleship ; and if any of Crivelli's earliest produc
tions had survived we should no doubt see in them less
of himself and more of his masters than is the case with
the picture at Massa. If we were able to accept it
as authentic, the Berlin " Pieta," with its un-Crivellian
character, would be an illustration of what we mean.
As we cannot, we must be content with the " Madonna "
at Verona, which, though its authorship could never be
a matter of doubt, presents more points of contact with
Schiavone {i.e. with Squarcione) than any other of his
existing pictures.
We may then suppose that Crivelli began his
career as a painter not later than 1460, and that he
was then about the age of twenty.* As the latest
dated picture is of 1493, we might infer that he was cut
short by death in the zenith of his career at the age of
about fifty. This is exactly the impression which the
dated pictures of 1491-93 convey. Though not in every
respect his finest works, they show him at the height of
his powers ; and while they contain all the indications
of maturity, there are none of decay.
Crivelli, in signing a picture, never omitted to describe
himself as " Venetus," and this must be our warrant for
believing that Venice or its district was his place of origin
and his earliest home.f This is confirmed by the fact
that the picture which everyone agrees in putting first
* Mantegna was twenty-one when he painted his earliest known picture.
t The only place where we can localise the name is at Milan. The
ancient family there produced a Pope, Urban III. (1185-87). On Protasio
Crivelli see below, p. 79.

12 CARLO CRIVELLI
in the chronological list of his works— the "Madonna"
at Verona — is the only existing one the provenance of
which can be traced to Venice. It may also be noticed
that his persistency in calling himself a Venetian is
quite in keeping with the most important fact in his
life, his early departure from Venice (never, so far as
we know, to return) and subsequent residence in the
Marches. In that district, without either a great city
or an artistic tradition which might compete with the
fame of the Queen of the Adriatic, we can imagine that
the title " Venetus " brought with it a prestige and even
a commercial value that was not to be despised. The
pupil of the Vivarini might feel that such credentials
would give him a better chance of success until his own
merits could speak for themselves. And after success
had been achieved, he might naturally still insist with
some pride, on the fact that he belonged by origin to
the great northern city.
We are next brought face to face with the question,
Why did Crivelli settle in the Marches? Apparently
there was little to attract thither a young and rising
painter. There were no princely patrons of the first
rank, no town of first-class importance like Venice or
Milan or Florence. Above all, the district had been
little if at all affected by the great movements in art
which had stirred the North and West of Italy. Why,
then, should a painter of such conspicuous ability and
independence as Crivelli at once displayed desert the
atmosphere of the capital for (so to speak) that of the
provinces? Why should he leave the high road to fame
for one of the byways of Italian life?
In the entire absence of evidence, traditional or

HIS LIFE 13
documentary, various conjectures might be put forward
by way of explanation. The simplest — to mention only
one — would be that the original home of Crivelli or of
his family was in the Marches, that he was sent to
Venice and Padua, the nearest and most important
art schools, to get his training, and then returned to
the district where he was known and where he might
look for employment by the churches and monasteries.
His description of himself as "Venetus" would not
necessarily conflict with such a theory, for it would then
only emphasise his connections with the Venetian
masters which, as we have seen, is, after all, the real
significance of the title. But it is useless to dwell on
conjectures which can only be recommended by prob
ability, and are unsupported by the evidence of facts.
Thrift only fact within our knnw1eHo-e which rnnlH be
hrpi^t fnrnrorrl ag gneroreqfinp- a pnggihle ev-planarinn
JS the existence at PaUSula nf an altai-.piere Uy Anto»rn
yivarini dated 1462.* Pausula, as we shall see, was in
the centre of the district which contains Crivelli's
earliest work in the Marches. He may then have
come there as the assistant of the Vivarini, and been
induced to stay by the prospects of employment in a
region where there was little to fear from the competi
tion of rival artists.
Whatever may have been the reason, the removal of
Crivelli to the Marches was of momentous importance
* S. Pietro. Winter Choir. Only six panels remain. The ancona,
which belonged to the high altar, was no doubt dismembered when
the tenth-century church was destroyed to make way for the present
structure. The date 1462 is given on the authority of the MS. notes
on the church by the Preposto Bartolazzi. Some of the figures suggest
that Bartolommeo had a share in the work.

14 CARLO CRIVELLI
as the determining fact of his career. Fixed as it were
in a backwater of the stream of artistic progress, he was
able to pursue his own ideals and methods untouched

'Pergola

R.rTitenza.

O^CTTC dl
Tzlme

MAP OF CRIVELLI'S COUNTRY

by the distracting influences which would have affected
him in other parts of Ital)-. One of the most obvious
characteristics of Crivelli's art is its permanence and

HIS LIFE IS
uniformity. Almost at once he achieved his style,
and though we shall be able to trace a certain amount
of development in it, the change is relatively very small.
In the main, no doubt, this is due to his strong individ
uality. But something must also be attributej^ttr his
freedom from external influences. What he might have
become in different surroundings it is useless to speculate.
He might have been greater, but he might also have
been less. He would hardly have been the Crivelli
whom we know. Let us rather believe that he found
his vocation in that sphere in which he was so eminently
successful ; and that the task to which he devoted him
self, the preservation and elevation of all that was best
in the old Venetian tradition, was the one for which he
was best qualified.
Having brought Crivelli into the Marches, a new
source of evidence gives us some information as to his
movements there, and that is the _provenance of the

pictures, where it is known, taken in connection with
their dates and style. It would not, of course, be safe
to assert that a picture was always painted at the place
for which it was ordered. Indeed, in one case, that of
the altar-piece formerly in the Franciscan church at
Macerata, the signature which has been preserved tells
us that the work was done at Fermo (see p. 104). But
when, partly from dated signatures, partly from con
siderations of style, we begin to draw up a chronological
list of Crivelli's works, and then find that the pictures of
a particular period, which are either in their original
positions or of which the original positions are known,
belong to a circle of towns in a limited district, the
inference is irresistible that the artist resided in that

16 CARLO CRIVELLI
district at that particular time. The Chronological Table
at the end of the volume will illustrate this. Starting
with the earliest dated picture, the altar-piece of 1468,
we note that it still remains at the place for which it
was painted, Massa Fermana, some twenty miles from
Fermo. In 1470 there is the " Madonna" at Macerata,
which, as the signature states, was painted at Fermo.
Near to it in date comes the " Madonna " which has
always been at Ancona, almost within sight of Macerata.
Rather later is the picture still in S. Agostino at
Pausula, between Macerata and Fermo. Finally, there
are the scattered panels (the most important being those
at Brussels) of the altar-piece which we know was painted
for the Franciscan Convent at Monte Fiore, near Fermo.
These are the only pictures of this period of which the
original positions are known ; and, if their evidence is
worth anything, it shows that in the years between
1468 and 1473, when a series of pictures belonging to
another district begins to make its appearance, Crivelli
was at work in the region between Ancona and Fermo.
Coming from the North it was quite natural that the
northern district of the Marches should first detain
him. And, taking a suggestion from the signature at
Macerata, we may suppose that his headquarters were
at Fermo.
In order to make such an argument conclusive it
would be necessary to know the original position of
every important work belonging to the period. While
future research ma)' discover the facts about a few more
pictures, for the present the clue in many cases has been
lost, and so far our reasoning must remain imperfect.
It would, for instance, be of crucial importance to know

[Macerata

VIRGIN AND CHILD

HIS LIFE 17
the original home of Sir F. Cook's Madonna, more
nearly related than any other to the pictures at Massa.
If it were found to have belonged to the district between
Ancona and Fermo our theory would be strikingly
confirmed. It is obvious that, as it became more
certain, this local theory might be applied in some
cases to help us to fix the place of a picture in the
chronological list, no unimportant consideration with
a painter who is in some respects so equal and uniform
as Crivelli. The panels of the Monte Fiore altar-piece
(i.e. Brussels, Nos. 16-17, and National Gallery, No. 602)
would, on internal grounds, naturally be classed with
the early pictures ; but — assuming that our argument
will stand — it is important to be able to infer from their
locality that they were actually painted before 1473,
the year when Crivelli moved to Ascoli.
For this residence at Ascoli, which began apparently
about 1473 and lasted till 1487, the pictures themselves
must again be our principal evidence. To begin with,
there is the important ancona of 1473 which has never
left the cathedral of Ascoli. For 1476 there is the
great altar-piece, now in the National Gallery (No. 788),
which came from S. Domenico ; and to the next year
belongs the " St. Bernardino " in the Louvre, which was
originally in the church of the Annunziata. For the
same church was painted, in i486, the Annunciation,
now in the National Gallery (No. 739). It will be noticed
that between the last two pictures there is a considerable
gap, which at present we are unable to fill up. The
four pictures named above are the only ones which,
with our existing information, can be traced to Ascoli ;
unless, indeed, the "Crucifixion" of the Brera (No. 189)
B

1 8 CARLO CRIVELLI
be the picture mentioned by Ricci as preserved in his
day in the canons' residence adjoining the cathedral*
We are, of course, not obliged to believe that Crivelli
never left Ascoli during this interval. Indeed, there
is one fact which suggests that he did make an
excursion northwards. The only other dated picture
of this middle period of which the provenance is quite
certain, is the triptych in the Brera (No. 283). It was
painted in 1482 — i.e. within the interval referred to
above, and we know that it came from the Dominican
church at Camerino. With this community Crivelli
appears to have had some intimate connection, for he
painted at least three pictures for them, two of which
are in the Brera — viz. the triptych of 1482, and a
" Madonna " (No. 193), both of them masterpieces. The
third may be the " Crucifixion," in the same collection, t
Such important works almost imply a temporary resi
dence at Camerino. Once again we must remark that
nothing but the discover)- of new facts about the origin
of other important pictures belonging to this period (the
three great " Pietas " are good examples) would give
us any certainty about the painter's movements.
Some confirmation of Crivelli's absence from Ascoli
before he painted the '" Annunciation " of i486, may be
thought to be found in the following circumstances.
That picture brings us into contact with one of the
rare historical facts belonging to Crivelli's life.
Ascoli, situated on the northern frontier of the
* Ricci, i. 213. See also Index of Works.
t This is the statement of the official catalogue (p. 67). According to
Ricci (i. 210), from the Duomo Vecchio of Camerino ; but it is not quite
clear that he is referring to the same picture.

[Cathedral at Ascoli

ALTAR-PIECE (1473)

HIS LIFE 19
Neapolitan kingdom, was nominally included in the
Papal States. But at this time the temporal sovereignty
of the Popes, especially on the eastern side of Italy, was
far from having attained the stage of consolidation which
it reached later. Ascoli was to all intents and purposes
an independent city, keeping up a constant hostility
with Fermo on the one side, and presenting a constant
object for acquisition to Naples on the other. About
the year 1482, under the influence of Prospero Caffarelli,
the most important of its line of bishops, the city came
to terms with Sixtus IV. In return for an annual tribute
and the acknowledgment of his suzerainty, the Pope
issued a Bull in favour of the citizens, conferring on them
municipal autonomy, together with the power of life and
death. Everyone was satisfied, and a new phrase —
'' Libertas Ecclesiastica," " Independence under the
Church " — was invented to describe the new state of
things. The arrival of the Charter was celebrated with
special rejoicings on March 25th, and henceforth the
Feast of the Annunciation was kept as the town festival,
in which a procession to the church of the Annunziata
was a prominent feature. The municipality determined
to commemorate the event by a new altar-piece repre
senting the " Annunciation " for the chapel of the Palazzo
Comunale in the Piazza del Popolo. The work was
entrusted to Crivelli's pupil Petrus Alamanus, and it
still hangs in one of the state rooms of the later Palazzo
in the Piazza Arringo, where we may read its signature,
" Petri Alamani Opus," and the date " Anno Sal(utis)
Christian(ae) MCCCCLXXXIIII . . . Libertatis an(n)o I."*
* The Virgin and the Angel kneel facing one another in front of an
architectural background. Between them are the town arms, a view of

20 CARLO CRIVELLI
Darkened though it is by time, it is far from being
an unfavourable example of that generally contemp
tible painter. Nevertheless, it is incredible that, if the
master had been available, the work would not have
been given to him rather than to the pupil. This con
sideration gains greater weight when we find that in
i486 Crivelli did execute, at the order of the town
authorities, the beautiful " Annunciation " now in the
National Gallery. It was destined for the church to
which the annual procession was made, the Annunziata ;
and, like the altar-piece in the Town Hall, the words
"Libertas Ecclesiastica" were inscribed below it If
we supposed that Crivelli only returned to Ascoli about
1485, we could understand why he executed the second
commission and not the first But, after all, we are
here only dealing with conjecture, and it is perhaps
more important to notice that his selection to paint
this memorial picture is some evidence that at the time
he was regarded as a regular member of the community.
The order would no doubt be given, if possible, to a
citizen, or at least a resident*
In 1487 Crivelli left Ascoli for Fermo, it is said at the
invitation of Count Lodovico Vinci. This statement
rests on evidence which Ricci obtained from the archives
of the Vinci Family at Fermo.t Remembering the
Ascoli, and the words " Libertas Ecclesiastica." The full date inscribed
at the bottom of the picture, " Libertatis anno i. mense xii. die xxiii.
mensis Februarii," shows that the first year of " Liberty" began on March
25, 1483.
* Petrus Alamanus was actually a citizen of Ascoli, for in one case he
has described himself in his signature as " Civis Assulanus." The picture
(" Virgin and Child") was formerly in the Barker collection. — C. and C.
i. 98, note 4.
t Ricci, i. 314. C. and C. i. 96, note 1. Ricci says that he was

HIS LIFE 21
reward which Crivelli received from Naples three years
later, presumably for political support, we might con
jecture that intrigues were already on foot to betray the
town to the king, and that Crivelli had made Ascoli too
hot to hold him. Whether this were the case, or
whether he simply went away in disgust at the party
in power, Fermo would be just the place where he
might look for more congenial surroundings, for Fermo
and Ascoli generally took opposite sides on every
question. However, the ostensible reason for his de
parture appears to have been the invitation of Count
Vinci. The results of this visit, on which he was
accompanied by his relation and pupil Vittorio Crivelli,
were a number of pictures, which in the time of Ricci
could still be traced to Fermo. The only one which
it is now possible to identify with certainty is the great
picture at Berlin (No. 1 1 56A) of the " Infant Christ giving
the Keys to Peter surrounded by six Saints," four of
whom are Franciscans. It belonged, as we have shown
elsewhere (p. 99), to the Minorite church at Fermo.
Apart from other considerations, on mere grounds of
style no more appropriate date could be assigned to it
than this. Its character is mature, not to say late. On
the other hand, as we shall see presently, the form of
signature {i.e. the omission of " miles ") shows that it was
painted before 1490. The years 1487-90 then provide,
approximately, the correct date.
In 1490 the anti-Papalists got the upper hand in
Ascoli, and called in the Neapolitans. Crivelli evidently
accompanied by his brother Ridolfo. Of this person we know nothing ;
but the two anconas by Vittorio (one dated 1491), which were formerly in
the possession of the Vinci family, were no doubt connected with Carlo's
visit.

22 CARLO CRIVELLI
did not regard the revolution unfavourably, and he may
even have given it his active support, for Ferdinand II.
of Naples (at that time Prince Ferdinand of Capua)
conferred on him the honour of knighthood* What
ever its object, political services or artistic distinction,
it intensely gratified the recipient, who henceforth never
omitted the title " miles " (knight) from his signature.
In one case only (" Virgin and Child," Brera No. 193)
another form appears : " eques laureatus." On grounds
of style we might well put this picture last on the list
of Crivelli's works, and, taking this fact together with
the change in form of the title, we may reasonably
suppose that the latter indicates a new and superior
honour.! It is apparently connected with the laurel
wreath, the traditional reward for all forms of artistic
distinction. It is curious that Crivelli painted no more pictures
for Ascoli after 1490. Five works of this period have
come down to us, and we know where four of these
came from. They are towns in the region to the north
west of Ascoli, such as Fabriano and Camerino. It is
useless to conjecture what this may imply with regard
to Crivelli's movements. In any case, it appears that
he did not live to face the counter-revolution at Ascoli
in 1496, when the town became finally Papal. The
* An extract from the patent, dated April 9, 1490, is given by Andre-
antonelli, a seventeenth-century historian of Ascoli, who apparently had
the original before him. The later authorities (Ricci, i. 228, C. and C. i.
93) copy from him. The authorities at Ascoli do not know of the existence
of any such document at the present day.
t The suggestion is made by Layard (Kugler, i. 343). The reading
" laureatus " is certain, but the older books gave it as "eques auratus,'' a
confusion with a well-known but different title.

Hanfstaengl photo] {National Gallery
THE ANNUNCIATION (I486)

HIS LIFE 23
latest dated picture is of 1493, and we must suppose
that he died about that year. We have already shown
that, in all probability, he had scarcely passed the prime
of life. After his reputation became established he
must have been a prosperous and important personage
in his own country, for he was able to charge substantial
prices, a fact of which, in one case, the donor determined
that posterity should not be ignorant (see p. 91).
Such is the meagre record which, at least for the
present, must do duty as a life of Crivelli. We cannot
but regret that the facts are not only scanty, but also
of so superficial and external a character. Of the man
we know nothing. Yet, as we look at his pictures and
see that firm hand and those mingled types of strength
and beauty, we feel that we may have missed a striking
and interesting personality.

CHAPTER III
HIS CHARACTERISTICS
It is not the purpose of the following pages to dwell
upon those superficial and general characteristics of
Crivelli, which must be obvious to anyone who has
made acquaintance with a number of typical pictures
by him — let us say those in the National Gallery. His
love of gold and splendid accessories, his unerring
outlines and anatomical forms, the general impression
conveyed by his figures of religious seriousness varied
by gentle grace and, more rarely, by profound emotion
— these are aspects of his art which must be apparent
to all who have bestowed upon him more than a passing
glance, and to which justice has already been done by
previous writers. In these days, when the forms and
methods of the oldest Italian painters have become
tolerably familiar, there is little fear that even an
archaic art like that of Crivelli will not be sufficiently
appreciated. We are less likely now than formerly to
hear his forms described as wooden, and his types as
grotesque or affected. Leaving such considerations we
shall be more usefully employed in regarding his art
from the historical point of view, and in endeavouring
to discover whether his pictures reveal the stages of
development and progress through which he passed.
First we may say a few words about Crivelli's 24

HIS CHARACTERISTICS 25
subjects. The small half-length " Madonnas '' were no
doubt executed for private patrons. But his typical
productions are the large anconas containing several
panels (generally ten, with, sometimes, a predella)
rUgfmprl fnr r-v.nrrr.pg Their arrangement is tolerably
uniform. "The Virgin and Child" in the centre are
flanked by four full-length saints. Above is a cor
responding series of half-length panels, the central one
being usually the " Pieta," or some other representation
of the dead Christ. The saints are chosen from a
limited series. First we get those of greatest import
ance to the Christian Church, such as St. Peter and
St. John Baptist. Next we have the patrons of
the particular town or church. Finally, inasmuch as
Crivelli's chief employers werp  trip rf>liginn<; nrrlfM-q
there are the monastic saints, the Franciscans and
Dominicans being largely predominant. The frequent
presence of St. Jerome is due to the same cause, for he
was regarded as one of the patrons of the monastic
life. The strongly individual character of Crivelli's style
might lead a superficial observer to say that of all
painters he changed the least. Crivelli's Madonnas and
Saints we might be told can be recognised anywhere.
His unerring outlines, and bony forms alternating with
graceful refinement and strong emotion ; above all, his
love of colour and splendid accessories recur inevitably
in his works at every period of his career. All this
is perfectly true. Crivelli reached his settled style
surprisingly early, and in the main he never departed
frbm it. When once his character has been grasped he
is the easiest of all painters to recognise at a glance ;

26 CARLO CRIVELLI
and it is seldom, signature or no signature, that a
question can arise whether a picture is by his hand or
not, or, if it does arise, that the answer can be doubtful.
And yet if we look more closely we shall discover that,
together with this conservatism, there were certain lines
of progress on which he moved, and which, generally
speaking, distinguish the pictures of one period from
those of another.
The most important and striking aspect of a painter
is, as a rule, his system of arrangement and composition.
Crivelli painted but few subject pieces : most of his
work is in the form of ancona panels, where each saint
appears in a separate architectural framework. The de
velopment and perfection of these isolated figures may be
said to have been Crivelli's principal aim during his
artistic career, and the form in which he achieved greatest
success. It is only rarely that his attempts to express
strong emotion move us, as in the case of the versions
of the " Pieta," belonging to Mr Crawshay, and to the
Vatican Picture Gallery. More commonly they are
rather suggestive of the effort after that which was
perhaps beyond his reach. But when dealing with single
figures confined to separate panels he was not exposed to
this temptation, and all his best qualities have full scope.
Calm dignity, strength of chara<-tpr gentln^0? ^"^
grace, can all be treated by him with perfect success
apart from the disturbing elements of emotion and
.action. Masterpieces of this kind are the saints of the
lower tier of the great ancona in the National Gallery
(No. 788), and the " St. Emidius," at Ascoli. So success
fully did he develop the single figure that, apparently,
he began to produce such panels separately and apart

H anfstaengl fiho to]

[National Gallery

VIRGIN AND CHILD
(From the A liar-piece, 1476)

HIS CHARACTERISTICS 27
from a composite altar-piece. Much of Crivelli's work
has come down to us in the form of these tall narrow
panels containing either a Madonna or a Saint.
Some of them no doubt originally formed parts of
anconas which have been broken up, but others seem to
have been always isolated. The " St. Bernardino " in the
Louvre, and the " Magdalen " at Berlin, with the figures
turned as it were towards a centre, might indicate that
they belonged to a dismembered ancona. But the
signature at the bottom of each (not to speak of the
kneeling donors in the first) shows that this is im
probable, for Crivelli always inserts it in the central
panel where there are several. It is, of course, possible
that there might be replicas of panels in a great ancona ;
but even so their elaborate finish and fine quality would
show that Crivelli gave them all the importance of
independent works.
The form of the ancona is at once ejeoaentary,
archaic, anrJcc^venti_onaI. The isolation of the figures
in separate panels is a complete obstacle to anything
like unity of composition. As a matter of fact, the
figures in any ancona of the early Venetian school have
little relation to one another, and Crivelli evidently felt
himself at perfect liberty to treat them as separate
units, and not as parts of a whole. But as time went
on this no longer satisfied him. Perhaps, too, some
knowledge of what was being done by other painters
may have influenced him. In any case, we find him
in his later works abolishing the separate panels, and
grouping his saints around the central subject within a
single frame, so as to form a composition in the proper
sense. The transition to the single picture is formed by

28 CARLO CRIVELLI
the triptych, where the side panels contain pairs of
saints (as in the Brera picture), in close relation to the
central figure. But all the larger pictures of his later
years, of which the great Berlin altar-piece is a typical
example, are free from any sub-divisions. Some have
the Madonna attended by only two saints, but others,
such as the " Coronation " in the Brera, are almost
crowded with figures. One cannot feel that Crivelli
was ever quite at home in those attempts at more
elaborate composition. The pairs of saints which we
have mentioned, especially those in the Brera triptych,
are much more successful than e.g. the effect pro
duced by the " Coronation " in the same gallery. In
other cases, attendant saints, though not divided from
the central group by any framework, have no more
relation to it than if they occupied a separate panel.
Look at the self-centred Sebastian of the Odoni altar-
piece in the National Gallery (No. 724). In spite of
himself, Crivelli was always reverting to what we must
regard as his true vocation, the production of isolated
figures undisturbed by action or emotion. As com
positions, his most successful efforts were undoubtedly
his " Pietas." Almost the only subject picture which has
come down to us — the "Annunciation," in the National
Gallery — does not, charming as it is, reveal any powers
of composition proper. The scenery, indeed, is arranged
in an ingenious and interesting manner, but the figures
of the principal group have little or no relation to it.
A much higher level is attained in the rare predella
scenes, those of the Odoni altar-piece in the National
Gallery (No. 724), being the best examples. Yet
even here we must observe that the subjects are just

yS-GAROU-'CRIVE J  VENETJJtiAi1 {Lateran GaUery

Hanfstaengl photo] VIRGIN AND CHILD (1482)

HIS CHARACTERISTICS 29
those which admit of symmetrical and conventional
treatment.
In the use of accessories Crivelli shows a marked
tendency as time goes on to increase their splendour
and elaboration. His pictures in this sense become
more and more purely decorative. Landscape back
grounds occur more frequently in the earlier than in
the later part of the list of his works. We are not
speaking of the rare cases in which Crivelli depicted an
event in the open air, such as the " Vision of Gabriele
Ferretti" (National Gallery, No. 668), or the
"Crucifixion" of the Brera (No. 189). These are
necessarily placed in a landscape. But among the
formal compositions which have the Virgin for their
central figure, perhaps the latest, with a landscape back
ground, is the " Madonna " at South Kensington. In the
later works we get a plain or patterned gold surface, or
else elaborate architectural and textile backgrounds.
Whether there be a landscape at the sides or not, a
narrow strip of stuff nearly always hangs behind the
Virgin, often covering part of the throne. Here again
we find an illustration of the tendency towards elabora
tion. Till well on in his career, Crivelli almost always
represents this hanging as of plain watered silk.* The
latest dated picture on which it may be observed is the
Lateran " Madonna," of 1482. So regular a feature is it
in the earlier and middle periods, and so completely is
it absent in the latter, that it may be used (though it is
* It is generally of a peculiar colour, not easy to describe. Hence con
siderable variety in the descriptions of a particular picture. Red, lilac,
violet, are all more or less imperfect attempts to represent it. We have
usually called it " pale red."

30 CARLO CRIVELLI
seldom necessary) to confirm the date of a picture.
About the middle of his career, a hanging of brocaded
stuff begins to make its appearance. The "St.
Bernardino,'' of 1477, in the Louvre, is one of the
earliest instances. As time goes on this ousts the
simpler material and becomes increasingly elaborate.
We will only mention one other instance of Crivelli's
increasing love of elaboration, and that is in the archi
tectural accessories. The Virgin's throne in the earlier
pictures is of comparatively simple construction and
without much carved enrichment The only important
exceptions are the ancona at Ascoli and Sir F. Cook's
" Madonna." It is more elaborate in the pictures of 1476
and 1482 (Lateran). In the Brera triptych of the latter
year the throne has become a much more important
feature, adorned with coloured marbles, and enriched
with carvings and many members. The later instances
are all of the same character. Nowhere are the archi
tectural features more richly elaborated than in the
National Gallery "Annunciation" (i486). In this re
spect it should be compared with the earlier version
now at Frankfurt, and also with that at Massa. The
series of pictures with the Pieta subject provides
another set of instances. Compare the marble front of
the tomb in the Vatican " Pieta " with that in the " Dead
Christ supported by Angels," of the National Gallery.
With so much that was jrrhaic and conventional in
his art, Crivelli had nevertheless a real appreciation for
and .searching after realism in its proper place. We
need not dwell on the living characterisation and
individuality of so many of his figures, particularly on
the variety and truth of his representations of the

HIS CHARACTERISTICS 31
Divine Child. Pur jt; is in the sphere of animai and
jyggetahle ljfe that the seeking after realism isjnost^
apparent. Few of his pictures are without those
accessories of fruit and flowers, the decorative effect of
which he understood so well ; and they are all studied
from nature. And we notice that he is not content
merely to introduce his fruit in formal festoons, or his
flowers in vessels of glass or painted ware, though these
themselves are rendered with patient accuracy ; but
the flowers sometimes lie, as they have been plucked, on
the steps of the Madonna's throne, and single pieces of
fruit are placed, with a curious simplicity of effect, juST
where the beauty of their colour or surface will tell
best. His love for such things comes out again in his
substitution in some cases of festoons of real fruit for
the ordinary bas-reliefs on the face of the marble steps
of his thrones (cf. the Brera triptych and the Odoni
altar-piece). We may notice in passing that it is this
same realistic tendency which leads him so often to
represent his marble surfaces as cracked and fractured.
But it is perhaps in his representations of animal life
that this interest is most striking. He is careful, however,
to restrict it to landscape scenes, its appropriate place.
Fruit and flowers may be introduced as purely de
corative objects amid the most formal surroundings.
Animals can only be used for the same purpose in an
idealised form ; and the parallels in the animal world to
the use of fruit are the conventionalised dolphins and
elephant heads that appear in some of his architectural
ornaments* Animals represented in their natural
* The frieze with elephant heads occurs three times— in the Brera
triptych, the " Magdalen," at Berlin, and the "Virgin in Ecstasy," of the
National Gallery.

32 CARLO CRIVELLI
forms must be placed in natural surroundings. It is,
therefore, only in the comparatively rare landscape
scenes that we find them — e.g. the ducks in the " Vision
of Ferretti," and the animals round St. Jerome in the
predella of the Odoni altar-piece. The latter especially
are surprisingly truthful studies of animal forms and
attitude, quite in the spirit of Pisanello, and perhaps
not altogether unconnected with him. St. John
the Baptist, even though isolated in the panel of an
ancona, is generally represented in a rocky land
scape. It is therefore quite in keeping to introduce (as
in the instance in the National Gallery) a natural bird
seated on the twig of a leafless tree with its back to the
spectator — evidently a favourite study, as it reappears
in the " Vision of Ferretti." On the other hand, when
St. Jerome stands alone, or grouped with other saints
round the throne, his lion, both in size and treatment,
assumes a conventional and heraldic shape, to remind
us that we are no longer in the open air, and that it is
a formal attribute of the saint. We need only refer to
examples in the National Gallery and at Venice.
This part of the subject may be concluded by a word
about Crivelli's landscapes, of which we may say
generally that they are not realistic in the same degree
as his representations of natural objects. As we have
shown, the landscape background does not grow more
frequent with him as time goes on. Interesting as its
details are, he preferred the broader effects of rich stuffs
and precious marbles. When he has introduced it, the
foreground, whether rock or grass, is treated in a
thoroughly conventional way. The distance is more
real, and recalls with curious fidelity the effect of the

H anfstaengl photo\ [Accademia, Venice
ST. JEROME AND ST. AUGUSTINE

HIS CHARACTERISTICS 33
country of the Marches, with its endless succession of
steep isolated hills, all carefully cultivated. But the
treatment in detail is very much like that of the early
Flemish painters or of the miniatures of manuscripts,
with its conventional town, country road, and rounded
trees. Crivelli seldom omits the leafless tree which
he seems to have brought with him from North Italy.
It may have been an invention of the School of
Padua* A very few words must suffice for the treatment of
Crivelli's technique. About the methods of the old
masters we have so little information that we cannot do
more than consider the results which we possess in their
pictures. In the case of Crivelli, the inferences are
fairly obvious. Fr°m the beginning to the end of his
career he always painted in tempera, to which, as
Crowe and Cavalcaselle remark, he "clings with a
desperate fondness at a time when all painters were
trying oils" (i. 89). But he used it with a perfection
which has never been surpassed. Without any marked
tendency towards flatness, he has no strong contrasts of
light and shade; and his effects, especially in drapery,
are mainly produced by the juxtaposition of elaborate
patterns with broad surfaces of colour relieved by simple
hatching. The use of gold, either applied to a fiat
surface or in the form of raised ornaments, need only
be alluded to. Out of these materials, Crivelli built
up his pictures with patient and painful care. He was
never careless. We cannot think of a picture of his
which could be described as hurried or superficial. The
result is that his clear tones and enamel-like surfaces
'* It appears in Squarcione's altar-piece with St. Jerome at Padua.
C

34 CARLO CRIVELLI
remain to-day as perfect, save for accidental abrasures,
as when they left his hands.
With such slow and painstaking methods, it was not
to be expected that Crivelli would be a prolific painter.
We may think that the number of his pictures is very
small, and yet we could hardly expect more. For the
twenty-five years which approximately represent his
life as a painter, we possess rather more than fifty
pictures. Let us suppose that half as man)- more have
perished or otherwise disappeared. That would give
us a production of just three works a year ; and, when
we think of the labour and care to which every panel
in existence testifies, the estimate is not unreasonable.
Quite in harmony with this conception of him as a
worker is the fact that few if any of his pictures bear
traces of the handiwork of assistants. In quality they
are astonishingly uniform. Orders, no doubt, came in
plentifully as soon as his reputation was established,
but apparently he only undertook those which he could
carry out with his own hands. The rest were assigned
to Vittorio and Petrus Alamanus. We have been
saved from much confusion in consequence.
Finally^ffi£_xrmst-say- a word about Crivclli'-s rank as
an artist JWherLQiir attention _i.s. concentrated on a
single painter there is a danger, especially in the case of
one like Crivelli, whose isolation makes comparisons
difficjilt-that our judgment on him may be too partial,
and therefore we should be unwilling to say anything
which might appear exaggerated or paradoxical.
Crivelli had certain obvious limitations, existing partly
in his circumstances, partly too, we may believe, in
himself. Those limitations do not .

HIS CHARACTERISTICS 35
simply. By an archaic style, we generally mean the
style of a school or of a painter at an early stage of its
historical development, and this only indirectly affects
the greatness of a particular artist. A great artist may
appear archaic as compared with the future progress of
his art, but as compared with his contemporaries he is
in advance of his time. The relatively elementary
resources which were at the disposal of Giotto do not
obscure the fact that he was one of the greatest artists,
not only of his own, but of any age. But it is quite
a different matter when archaism is the result of a
deliberate conservatism, when it falls behind the times,
and, as we might say, becomes conscious instead of
being the simple and natural form of expression. It is
inconceivable that an artist of the very first rank should
be a reactionary, and it cannot be denied that, in_this
sense. Crivelli is a reactionary. It may be true, as we
have pointed out, that local circumstances were partly
responsible for his remaining so little affected by the
art-movements of his time. But not less perhaps was
due to his own character. As we have insisted more
than once, the vocation which he chose, or which was
imposed upon him, was that of bringing to all the per
fection of which it was capable the old Venetian art.
In that he showed himself great. The scope was
limited^the treatment of the isolated figure from a
point of view at once ideal and decorative. And in his
raethods^-- the use of-gald^aild^hejnedium of. tempera —
he was equally loyal to the old traditions, because, no
doubt, he felt that they were the best adapted to his
purpose. But, given those ideals, and given those
methods, we can only say, with his greatest works

36 CARLO CRIVELLI
before us, that performance could no farther go. .He
J>urns_ up all the resources of Byzantine practice. The
ornamental possibilities of the mosaics, the use of gems
and of the precious metails, jhg feeling for beautiful
surfaces, all receive in him the highest employment, that.
can be given them in painting.
At the end of the last century Crivelli's pictures were
still to be found for the most part in their original
homes in the churches of eastern Italyr unsought for by
collectors, and noticed only in the briefest way by the
historians of Italian art. With the age of the Revolu
tion, and more particularly with the establishment of
the Ngp_f>jer>nir: kingdom of Italy, a change came.
Convents were suppressed, and pictures were swept
together into the great collections. A number of
rqvplli'.g. works went to Rome, and still more to the
Brera at Milan where some of them found a permanent
home while others wandered still farther afield. After
1815 the process of removal was accelerated by the
growing interest in the works of the Italian " Primitives."
D' Agincourt, in his " Monumens," published in 1823, was
the first to give reproductions of some of Crivelli's
pictures. When once he became known, his decorative
character and fine workmanship made him peculiarly
attractive to one class of collectors. Among them
Englishmen were prominent, and there was a time
when, excluding the Brera and the National Gallery,
the collections of Mr Alexander Barker and of the
late Lord Dudley contained between them most of
the finest Crivellis in existence. But the supply was
limited. By the middle of this century practically all
the available pictures had come into the market. On

HIS CHARACTERISTICS 37
the other hand, the acquisitions of public galleries on
the dispersal of the two above-named collections still
further diminished the number of fine specimens within
the reach of the collector. The result has been that,
with a steady advance in the estimation of Crivelli,
there has been a constant decrease in the supply ; and
the increasing prices that have been paid in recent
years for such pictures as have come into the market
are the measure of the value which is now set upon
them. At the Dudley sale in 1892 the great altar-
piece by Crivelli approached most nearly in price to
Raphael's " Crucifixion."* * 7000 guineas were paid for it.

CHAPTER IV
EARLY WORKS
WHICH is the oldest picture by Crivelli in existence?
Is there any picture which belongs to the time before
he left the region of Venice for the Marches? In
answer to both questions we can produce the " Virgin
and Child " now at Verona. In the first place, it is
the only picture which we can trace back to Venice,
for apparently, after he had once left it, Crivelli did
no more work for the city whose name was never
absent from his signature. But while the provenance of
the picture is evidence about the painter's residence,
its style bears witness to a corresponding period in
his training as an artist While nearly all his works
testify more or less directly to his derivation from the
Vivarini, this one above all others, demonstrates his
connection with the school of Padua. The setting
of the picture and the accessories would by them
selves be sufficient to prove this. It was in the school
of Squarcione that architectural structures of coloured
marbles forming a framework or background for the
figures originated. The realistic treatment of the
ruined wall on the left, as well as the festoon of fruit,
suggest the same influences. But there is another
point of view. Morelli was the first to remark that
this picture recalls the types of Gregorio Schiavone. 38

A li?iari photo}

[Verona

VIRGIN AND CHILD

EARLY WORKS 39
But Schiavone, as we have seen (p. 9), is the pupil
through whom we are brought nearest to Squarcione,
the head of the school. It is in the child-types, with their
curious pinched up features, that the connection is most
apparent. The only example of Squarcione which is
even plausibly available for purposes of comparison —
the Lazzara altar-piece at Padua — shows the same
peculiarity in the heads. But, while dwelling on these
elements, we must not forget — and the observation is
important in the case of an artist of such strong in
dividuality — that the picture, and especially its principal
figure, the Virgin, is already thoroughly Crivellian. We
note, too, the hanging of watered silk, and the brocaded
mantle covering the head. The expression of the
Virgin's face has been considerably affected by the
alteration in the arrangement of the hair. Except
for this, it contains the germ of the Crivellian type ;
only the features are broader and less refined, just as
in the hands the anatomical structure is not insisted
upon and the fingers have not yet obtained that slender
tapering form which became so characteristic with him.
It was a curious fancy to represent the actors in the
" Flagellation " scene on the left as children. The figure
grasping the column is a reduced copy of the Infant
Jesus standing in front of the Virgin.
If we were able to believe in the signature prominently
inscribed on the predella with the " Pieta " at Berlin
(No. 1 173), we should have to discuss and account for
another primitive work by Crivelli. But, as we have
explained elsewhere (p. 100), it cannot be brought into
relation with anything that we know about him. On

40 CARLO CRIVELLI
the one hand, it is not the Crivelli with whom we are
familiar ; and, on the other, it suggests neither Jacobello,
nor the Vivarini, nor Padua. The landscape with its
rows of round bushes and curious pyramidal trees, cut,
as it were, in layers, which occur again in Crivelli's " St.
George," and in the " Madonna " at South Kensington,
together with the brocade mantle in which the female
saint on the right is enveloped, probably suggested the
name to the person who thought to confirm his attribu
tion by clumsily inserting a signature.
The region of Fermo, as we have seen, witnessed
Crivelli's earliest activity in the Marches. At Massa,
half-way between Fermo and Macerata, there is still
preserved the picture which he finished in 1468 for
the parish church of S. Silvestro. Originally painted
for the high altar, when taste changed it was rele
gated to the bell-room, where it suffered a good deal
of damage. At the time of Crowe and Cavalcaselle's
visit, it had been removed to the sacristy, and later
was in the priest's house, but for many years past
it has hung in the Sindaco's office in the Municipio*
The ancona is of a simple form, and apparently nothing
has been lost ; but the architectural framework — if there
ever was one — has perished, and the panels present a
very bald appearance. As a work of art it is one of the
least attractive of Crivelli's pictures. The figures are
stiff, and the colour is dull, though this may be partly
due to the treatment which the picture has received.
But it is of great importance as the earliest dated work,
and as forming the connecting link between what we
* Mr Alexander Barker made an unsuccessful attempt to buy the
picture about i860. Brancadoro, Notizie di Massa, p. 50.

wuHS H

EARLY WORKS 41
may call his Venetian stage and his fully formed and
characteristic style.
" The Virgin," though weak and characterless as com
pared with his later examples, is already of the refined
and delicate though rather melancholy type, with which
we shall become familiar. Crivelli has yet hardly
learnt to bring the mother and the Child together by
those tender glances and caressing attitudes which are
so exquisitely expressed in some of his later works.
The Virgin here seems to have little interest in the
Child, or anything else. But, with all its defects, the
type is a notable advance, and the affinity with his
later Virgins is unmistakable. On the other hand, the
Child as clearly belongs to the Squarcionesque type,
which appears in the Verona picture. The accessories
are the usual ones in the early pictures ; a simple
marble throne, and a hanging of red watered silk.
The four saints flanking the central panel present
the same characteristics. They are unmistakably
Crivellian, but they are still only on the way to that
strength of characterisation which he was so soon to
reach. Take, for instance, the St. Silvester, and com
pare it with the later version of the same type,
the St. Peter, in the National Gallery altar-piece
(No. 788). It is the same model, and, making allow
ance for the fact that the one is on the right and
the other on the left of the central panel, the pose is
identical. On the whole, the St. Silvester is the best
of the Massa panels, but if we put it by the side of
the St. Peter, it appears at once less strong and less
interesting. The head of the Silvester is fine, but it
has not the sort of grim fascinating power of the St.

42 CARLO CRIVELLI
Peter. Notice, too, how in the latter the formal and
rather uninteresting straight line of the cope and its
orphrey has been improved by being caught up under
the right arm. St. Lawrence, again, is comparatively
weak in character, though elaborate care has been spent
on his vestments. St. Francis touches a higher level, and
compares favourably with later examples of the same
theme. The Baptist, with his bony, anatomical forms,
set in a rocky landscape, decidedly suggests Padua.
The four scenes in the predella, not to speak of their
having suffered considerably, are, on the whole, ugly
and elementary. The " Crucifixion," with its clumsy,
formless Christ, and grotesque weeping Virgin is
typical. The figures in the " Flagellation " are better
drawn, and the scene is animated and well finished.
The " Resurrection " has been much damaged, but enough
remains to show that it is far behind the similar subject
in the Northbrook collection, which cannot have been
painted many years later. The three gabled panels
which originally crowned the ancona, display an equal
lack of skill. The dead Christ in the centre shows
little feeling for anatomy or sense of form in the body,
and the arms and hands are poor. The " Annunciation,"
the earliest version of a subject which Crivelli developed
later with great elaboration, is better in drawing, but
without much interest.
This is the oldest ancona of Crivelli's which has
survived, but it can hardly have been his earliest
attempt at that form of picture. As in other cases, the
figures seem to have little relation to the central panel
or to one another ; a deficiency inherent in the form of
the ancona, which Crivelli only partially got over when

Hanfstaengl photo} [Sir F. Cook's Collection
VIRGIN AND CHILD

EARLY WORKS 43
he abandoned it later for groups of figures on a single
panel. The picture which presents the closest resemblance
to the altar-piece of Massa, is the " Virgin and Child "
belonging to Sir F. Cook. But, as Mr. Berenson
remarks,* it is more advanced in type and character
istics, and must therefore be placed after it. The
picture at Massa has suffered so much that it is
hardly fair to compare its dulled and sombre surface
with the bright and clear tones of the picture at
Richmond. Originally there may have been less
difference between them. The composition is simple
enough. It is a tall, round-topped panel, in which the
Virgin, seated on a throne, holds the Child standing on
her knee, while the small figure of a donor kneels
below. The types of both mother and Child at once
recall those of Massa. But the Virgin's features, though
they have something of the same vacancy, are more
refined and expressive. The Child is still of the type
which we may call Squarcionesque. But when we
come to the accessories, their elaboration is such that
we might be looking at a picture of Crivelli's latest
period. The Virgin indeed, as at Massa, wears a plain
blue mantle with a narrow gold border ; and behind the
throne is the hanging of red watered silk which is a
regular feature of the early works. But the throne
itself, with the fantastic dolphins which form its arms
and frame its arched and inscribed head, has only
one parallel till a much later date. No better instance
could be given of the way in which Crivelli sometimes,
as it were, anticipates himself. * Notes, n.

44 CARLO CRIVELLI
We next come to a group of Madonnas which, while
of a decidedly early type, show an advance on the
Massa and Richmond pictures, and must therefore be
regarded as subsequent to them.
First, we may place the " Madonna " at Ancona.
In some respects it presents analogies with the one
at Verona. In both she is enveloped in a bro
caded mantle coming up over the head, and the
sash round the Child's waist is arranged in the same
peculiar way. Both, too, have a landscape background
and a festoon of fruit. On the other hand, the heads
and the action show distinct progress. The Virgin has
lost the look of vacancy, and her eyes are fixed with
interest and affection on the Child, who also displays
more life than we have hitherto seen. The Virgin's
left hand is stiff and affected, but the action is more
expressive than in the earlier cases. The Child, how
ever, still bears evident traces of its derivation from the
Squarcionesque type.
Later, we think, than the Ancona picture, though
nearer to it, perhaps, in date than anything that we
possess, comes Lord Northbrook's " Madonna." The
design is very similar. The landscape background, the
curtain, the festoon of fruit, are almost precisely the
same. But the marble balustrade in front is of more
elaborate workmanship, and for the first time Crivelli
has introduced, in the right hand corner, the fracture of
which he became so fond, and, in the left, a fly, repre
sented with minute accuracy. The Child, though not
a particularly successful creation, is more natural and
less " Squarcionesque.'' Above all, the Virgin, though
her look cannot be called expressive, has more refine-

[Lord Northbrook's Collection

VIRGIN AND CHILD

Anderson photo}

VIRGIN AND CHILD

[A ncona

EARLY WORKS 45
ment and charm in her features than any that we have
yet seen. She is the prototype of that Crivellian type
of beauty of which the Virgin in the Brera triptych is a
good example.
The Macerata picture for its early date (1470) is
surprisingly advanced. The Virgin's features have
that suggestion of melancholy which is illustrated
again by the Lateran picture. The Child is well
drawn, and of a not unpleasing type, with chubby
face, and full, curling hair. It has nothing of the
Squarcionesque character. The action is simple and
direct ; the expression of a moment of pure affection.
The fingers are not strained from their natural position,
and it is noticeable that, as in other early examples,
they have not that attenuated form of which later he be
came so fond. The exaggerated foreshortening of the
Child's foot also appears in some of the earlier pictures.
In its types, which are really all that is left for com
parison, the Macerata picture comes closest perhaps to
Lord Northbrook's " Madonna," but it has also points
of contact, as we shall see presently, with some later
works. Any comparison of the accessories has been
made impossible by the mutilation of the picture.
High as it may be ranked for unaffected charm, we
think that Mr Berenson is scarcely justified in calling
this " the loveliest of all Crivelli's Madonnas." *
Somewhere in this group a place must be found
for the Stonyhurst " Madonna." The elaborate per
fection of the brocaded drapery and of the decorative
accessories, together with the animation of the Child,
show that it does not belong to the earliest stage.
* Notes, 11.

46 CARLO CRIVELLI
On the other hand, the almost expressionless features
of the Virgin resemble most nearly the type of the
Madonna at Verona. But, on the whole, we must
assign it rather to the end of the period than to the
beginning. The last of the group of early Madonnas, and in
some ways the finest, is the picture, dated 1472, belong
ing to Mr Benson. The effect is archaic and almost
Byzantine, but its merits are very great. Though
on a comparatively small scale the decorative effect
is superb. The Child's head is heavy, and inferior
to that of Macerata, but the action is lively and
realistic. The great charm, however, of the picture
is the Virgin. Her features are not beautiful, and the
drawing of the hands might be criticised. But if ever
grace and dignity were conceived and executed by
Crivelli they are here. Pre-eminently does this Virgin
possess all that we understand by " distinction." Taken
separately, the turn of the head and the action of the
fingers might be called affected. But they do not
offend as parts of the whole, so perfectly has the artist
defined the ideal that was before his mind. A curious
feature in the picture is the treatment of the drapery.
The folds of the brocaded mantle are more elaborate
than anything which Crivelli had yet attempted, and
they are expressed by clear-cut lines without any
shadow. It must be regarded as an experiment which
Crivelli did not repeat. There is no further trace of it
in any of his known works.
We shall probably not be wrong in associating
with these early pictures the very fine " St. George
and the Dragon," now at Boston. The picture,

[Mrs J. L. Gardner 's Collection
ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON

EARLY WORKS 47
with all its lavish use of raised gilt ornament, which
Crivelli later restricted or abandoned,* nevertheless,
shows few traces of the elementary stage. The ac
tion is extraordinarily vigorous and full of life. The
dragon has been transfixed by the lance in the act of
making its deadly spring. St. George, rising in the
stirrups, and grasping his sword in both hands, is about
to deal the final blow. The concentrated expression of
the face, with the open mouth as if uttering some
imprecation on the monster, is admirably suited to the
action. The horse rearing, with head averted from the
dragon, shares in the excitement of the supreme
moment. The composition is ingenious and original.
The interest of the scene is largely increased by the
foreshortening of the horse, which seems to bear down
on the spectator. Mr Berenson has well compared this
picture with the interesting one of the same subject by
an unknown painter at Brescia, but there we see at once
how comparatively tame is the side view of the scene.
To the same period we may also ascribe Lord North
brook's " Resurrection." The composition is of the
familiar and conventional type which Crivelli had
already utilised in the predella at Massa. But in work
manship, as well as in elevation of feeling, there is a
notable advance on the earlier version.
To this first period of residence at Fermo we may
assign a now dismembered altar-piece, of which im
portant fragments are in the National Gallery, at
Brussels, and at High Legh Hall in Cheshire. We have
already explained (pp. 16-17) the grounds for believing
* Compare the treatment of the similar scene in the predella of the
Odoni altar-piece in the National Gallery (No. 724).

Hanfstaengl photo] [Brussels Gallery
VIRGIN AND CHILD

EARLY WORKS 49
with the feeling of life. Those of Macerata and of Mr
Benson were indeed distinguished from the earlier
pictures by the same quality, but here we get it in an
ever higher degree. The Virgin's eyes are no longer
half closed, nor is her expression either melancholy or
abstracted. The Child, of the fully-developed type
which we have seen hitherto only at Macerata, turns its
face towards the mother with a look which is animated
if not _pasiliy£!y_ mischievous. Crivelli by no means
always adhered to the types which he had here created.
Especially in the case of the Virgin his tendency is to
revert to the melancholy and abstracted type, however
refined and softened it may become in later instances.
Perhaps this picture may be regarded as the most
successful example of ' its particular type. We may
further note among the accessories the first occurrence
of the treatment of the face of the marble steps as a
sculptured frieze ; a form of decoration which becomes
quite regular in the later pictures. It was not, however,
an invention of Crivelli's, for it appears in Bartolommeo
Vivarini, and no doubt originated at Padua.
Were we not in possession of the facts about its
provenance, the " Dead Christ," in the National Gallery
(No. 602), would hardly in itself suggest an immediate
connection with the panels at Brussels. It is true
that it has indications of a relatively early date,
in the simple architectural forms of the tomb, and in
the piece of red watered silk which hangs over its front.
The boy-angels have the same fully-developed type of
features as the Child at Brussels, and the treatment of
the hair is much the same. But both in action and in
the expression of a kind of reverent sympathy, not to
D

SO CARLO CRIVELLI
speak of the treatment of the drapery, they are far
beyond anything that we have yet met with. The
picture, in fact, illustrates how thoroughly appropriate
Crivelli's conceptions always are, when he had once
become master of his art. Here we get side by side the
quiet cheerfulness of the Virgin and Child, and the deep
pathos of the attendants on the dead Christ We may
add that the form of the latter shows an immense
advance on the gable panel at Massa, the only previous
example of the subject The tone of this beautiful
picture is surpassingly clear and brilliant
With this group of pictures we may associate the
striking " Madonna " at Pausula. We know from the
signature on the Macerata picture that Crivelli was
at work in the Fermo district in 1470, and with
this work, especially through the allied " Madonna " at
Brussels, the picture at Pausula has definite analogies ;
particularly in the broad, flat clear treatment with little
or no shadow, and sharply-defined outlines, and also in
the type of the Child. But it is by far the strongest of
the group, and in any case marks a distinct advance on
anything which we have yet examined.
The composition is quite unlike anything that
Crivelli had yet, or indeed ever produced, and is
decidedly original. Framed is a mandorla or vesica of
winged cherub heads, the Virgin is holding the Child to
her bared breast ; a motive common in all stages of
Italian art, but unique among Crivelli's surviving
pictures. The crowned and majestic mother, of a type
which is less tender and more grand than most of
Crivelli's Virgins, looks down on the Child, who glances
at the spectator with head thrown back and action

[Pausula

VIRGIN AND CHILD

EARLY WORKS Si
full of life and reality. Noteworthy, too, is the broad
and effective treatment of the drapery. We cannot tell
how the composition was originally completed, for at
some much later period (seventeenth or eighteenth
century) the sides of the panel have been daubed over
with angels, and a background of clouds. Damaged
and disfigured as it is, and hanging in a mean and
narrow sacristy, this picture cannot fail to strike the
spectator as one of Crivelli's most monumental and
impressive works.
While the ancona of 1473, still in the cathedral of
Ascoli, indicates, as we have seen reason to believe,
the beginning of a new episode in Crivelli's life, it
does not reveal any great advance on the works which
we have just been considering. It is, indeed, the most
elaborate existing work which he had yet produced,
and we have only to compare it with the altar-piece
of Massa in order to see that the five years between
them have been marked by decided progress both
in skill and conception. And yet, when we take into
consideration the Macerata and Benson " Madonnas "
(only to mention those of which the dates are certain ;
the contrast with the works at Pausula and Monte
Fiore is still greater), we must confess that, for so im
portant a commission, the result is disappointing. On
the whole it falls short of the promise of the later pro
ductions of the residence at Fermo. The Virgin is a not
unsuccessful attempt after that refined and delicate ideal
which was one day to be realised in the Brera triptych.
But the redeeming feature of the whole is the panel
which contains St. Emidius, the patron of Ascoli. In
one sense the most important figure in this assembly of

52 CARLO CRIVELLI
saints, Crivelli evidently concentrated all his efforts
upon it. Calm, dignified, self-contained, the saint,
through all the elaborate magnificence of his episcopal
vestments, remains a character and a personality.
Whether Crivelli created this youthful beardless type,
or whether he inherited it from tradition or older local
works of art, it is interesting to notice that it became
fixed for the presentation of St. Emidius. Only one
other example from Crivelli's hand has reached us, in
the "Annunciation," of the National Gallery, where he is
represented with far less elaboration and distinction
than in this his earliest attempt, though the likeness is
unmistakable. Formerly there must have been other
examples in pictures at Ascoli which have disappeared.
But the type thus created reappears not only in the
work of Crivelli's pupils, but also in the beautiful silver
statue of the saint made in 1487 by Pietro Vanini and
still the property of the cathedral.*
The other figures do not call for much notice, but
we may observe that St Peter, though presenting
the familiar Crivellian type, does not wear the triple
crown as in the later examples. The "Pieta" panel,
which occupies its usual place in the centre of the
upper tier, is the earliest complete treatment of the
theme by Crivelli which has come down to us. It will
be enough to say that it is the prototype of the
Crawshay and Panciatichi versions, and that it is as far
from attaining the truth and pathos of those master
pieces as it is inferior to them in skill of composition.
* See Milanges <T archlologic et cf histoire, 1S97, p. 99. A later example
showing the same type is a seventeenth-century painted wooden statue now
in the Baptistery.

[Musco Poldi-Pezzoli, Milan

CHRIST AND ST. FRANCIS

EARLY WORKS S3
One may notice how this picture, especially the
central panel, in a way sums up the past and antici
pates the future work of Crivelli, not only in the types
but also in its details. The elaborate throne, the
brocade hanging, the background of cherub heads,
are all features of his later style.
Before leaving this first period of Crivelli's activity, we
may refer to a group of pictures which present certain
features in common and appear to belong to it. They
are all of small dimensions. The most interesting is
the panel in the Poldi-Pezzoli Museum at Milan, which
represents the Saviour appearing with the instruments of
the Passion to St. Francis, who kneels before him and
receives in a chalice the stream of blood from the
pierced side. The facial types have a meagre look
which suggests relationship with those of Schiavone.
And the accessories — the ruined wall treated realisti
cally, the column, and the landscape seen through an
arch on the left — all provide points of contact with the
"Madonna" at Verona. It is true that the hanging
behind the Cross is not of watered silk but of brocade.
But it is curious that its treatment is exactly the same
as that of the Virgin's mantle in the Verona picture,
the design being expressed by dark lines on a light
ground. The effect produced by the elaborate
patterned brocades in the later pictures is quite
different. The instances are so obvious that it is
unnecessary to specify them.
The forms which appear in the small " Dead Christ
supported by Angels" in the Louvre (No. 1269), are
very similar. And, generally, the signs of early date
are even more obvious and definite, Not to speak of

54 CARLO CRIVELLI
the watered silk hanging, the angel on the right
reproduces the features of the Child in the Ancona
picture. There can be little doubt, in fact, that we
must date this panel earlier than the Monte Fiore
version in the National Gallery (No. 602). It illustrates
another common feature of these small panels — the
way in which the high lights are strongly defined.
On the two panels representing the "Annunciation " at
Frankfurt, obviously an early version of the picture of
i486 in the National Gallery, we shall have more to say
when we come to the later picture. Here it will be
enough to point out the similarity in types and treat
ment with the pictures we have just been discussing.
But the Virgin has a beauty and charm which bring her
into comparison with some of the best examples in the
succeeding period.

Hanfstaengl photo}

ALTAR-PIECE (1476)

[National Gallery

CHAPTER V
LATER WORKS
By the year 1475 we may consider that Crivelli had
perfected his art. Though we shall find plenty of signs
of progress up to the end of his career, it is not untrue
to say that there was little left for him to learn. His
ideals had been fixed, and his methods had been tested.
All traces of the elementary stage have disappeared.
His hand is no longer cramped by lack of skill, or his
conceptions by the models received from his masters.
The earliest dated work of the fully developed style
is the great ancona in the National Gallery (No. 788),
painted for the Dominican Church at Ascoli in 1476.
For the details of its history we must refer to our
index, but it is important to remember that the four
panels of the highest tier do not belong to the
original altar-piece. They are pretty, but have not the
strength and character of the other portions. Other
wise they are not a bad match, as there is nothing to
point to any substantial difference in date.
Turning to the original nine panels, any one familiar
with Crivelli's pictures will notice how many of his
types are here exhibited. The Virgin, with her high
arched eyebrows, small mouth, and hair tightly drawn
back from the forehead, reappears in many pictures.
Seldom has Crivelli represented her with a more charm-
55

56 CARLO CRIVELLI
ing smile. The St. Peter is the St. Peter in the Brera
picture of 1482, and a favourite model of Crivelli's.
One of the finest panels is the St. Andrew, with its
grand head, strong lines, and powerful drawing. Crivelli
is here at his best in his hard and severe style. Not
less remarkable for power of characterisation is the St.
Thomas Aquinas, or the St. Francis for its expression
of intense feeling. The St. Stephen is more formal, and
less interesting. On the lower row the Baptist with its
hard lines and severe forms has the same merits as the
St. Andrew. The landscape in which he stands should
not be passed over, with the stream flowing at his feet
and the tree stems broken off so as not to interfere with
the gold background which sets off the upper half of the
figure. The St. Peter still shows that free use of raised
ornament and imitation gems which Crivelli gradually
dropped. The corresponding St Peter in the Brera
picture of 1482 is not so heavily overladen. The strong
feeling for naturalism which is often prominent in
Crivelli's best work is well illustrated by the infant
Christ, fast asleep with one hand under his head, while
with the other he grasps his mother's middle finger —
a picture drawn from the life. The St Catherine is not
a remarkable figure, but St. Dominic is admirable in its
expression of piety and humility, and in the person
ality with which Crivelli has invested it. Finally, one
may notice how this altar-piece is characteristic of the
two elements in Crivelli, sternness and severity, illustrated
by the St. Peter and St. Andrew, and the delicate grace
of the Virgin and St. Catherine. However diverse their
origin, both styles were absorbed and transformed in his
overmastering individuality, and made entirely his own.

[Mr C. Loeser's Collection

ST. PETER
(From a Drawing)

LATER WORKS 57
This will be a convenient opportunity for discussing
the only known drawing by Crivelli — the " St. Peter,"
belonging to Mr Loeser ; for its analogies with the
forms of the altar-piece of 1476 are closer than those
of any other picture. We may regret that we have
no other examples by which to test its character,
but- on internal grounds we see no reason to doubt
its authenticity. That it is " Crivellian " there can
be no question. On the other hand, its severe and
hard aspect is characteristic of Crivelli himself, but not
of his pupils. In draughtsmanship and technique the
drawing is perhaps disappointing ; but when we place
it beside the unerring outlines and enamel-like surfaces
of his finished panels we must remember the difference
of the conditions under which, the first sketch is made
with the pen, from the slow and deliberate processes by
which the complete picture is built up. There is
nothing in this drawing really inconsistent with its
coming from Crivelli's hand. Finally, we must not
forget that it has suffered in various ways, and reaches
us somewhat blurred and disfigured. The reproduction,
it need scarcely be added, does not improve matters.
The head is obviously that favourite model which we
find in the " St. Silvester," at Massa, and more definitely
in the St. Peter of several pictures. In the versions of
1476 (National Gallery, No. 788) and 1482 (Brera, No.
283) the type is more strongly marked than here, but the
likeness is unmistakable. For the forms of head and
hands, as well as for the drapery, we would compare
especially the " St. Andrew," and the " St. Thomas
Aquinas," in the National Gallery. The technique is
simple, the modelling being generally expressed by

58 CARLO CRIVELLI
variations in the compactness of the straight hatching.
Cross hatching is only sparingly used.
Somewhere between the great altar-piece in the
National Gallery and the Brera triptych we may place
the " Magdalen " at Berlin. Of the two, it has perhaps
a closer affinity with the former. A point of contact
in detail with the latter is the design of the frieze on
the step, with cherubs set in volutes of conventional
foliage which terminate in elephant heads. The same
motive may be seen in the Brera picture on the small
portion of the step which appears in the left-hand
panel. But, apart from this, the " Magdalen " has all the
qualities which distinguish Crivelli's art at its best and
most characteristic moment — precision, grace, and refine-
ment, with an elaboration of detail which never becomes
excessrver" The features, with all Crivelli's peculiarities —
thrrtong and pointed nose, the almond-shaped eyes, the
high arched eyebrows — have nevertheless a kind of ex
quisite beauty. The elaborate arrangement of the hair
may be compared with that of the female saints in the
National Gallery altar-piece. The hands are very
characteristic of Crivelli's "precious"' style, and grace
ful in spite of the affectation. The festoon of small-
leaved plants and flowers is unique, and quite in keeping
with the general effect of delicate refinement which is
the keynote of the panel.
We have a dated picture of the next year (1477) in
the " St. Bernardino," of the Louvre, also painted for a
church at Ascoli. St. Bernardino was a familiar figure
in the Marches, and he is conceived here under the
well-known portrait type. The result is impressive
in its way, but it does not attain to the personality

Hanfstaengl photo] [Berlin GaUery
THE MAGDALEN

LATER WORKS 59
or the charm of the " St. Dominic " in the National
Gallery. There is an absence of relief, a quality in
which Crivelli is not usually deficient ; and the severity
of the drapery becomes almost uninteresting. The
hanging behind the saint is of brocaded stuff, the
second dated example that we have met with. The
small figures of the donors, and the signature, appear
to indicate that the panel, in spite of its shape, never
formed part of a composite altar-piece.
In 1482 he painted the "Virgin and Child" now
in the Lateran. Here Crivelli appears in his most
pleasing aspect, a combination of exquisite sentiment
and rich decorative effect. The Virgin has nearly
the same features as in the picture of the same date
in the Brera, which we shall consider next. But here
both she and the Child are pervaded by an air of
pathetic sadness. With regard to the minor details
of the picture, we may note that the form of the throne
is like that of the example of 1476 in the National
Gallery, and that for the last time in a dated picture
we find the watered silk hanging. The festoon of fruit
at the top of the picture is not without interest. It is
reduced here to a perfectly simple and naturalistic form
— two branches, one of the long-shaped Italian apple
and the other of plums, tied together. It is a good
illustration of the way in which Crivelli appropriated
and impressed a character of his own upon the sugges
tions which he received from outside. If we compare
the festoon in the early picture at Verona we shall see
it in the fuller and more formal shape in which he
acquired it at Padua. Here he has given it quite a
fresh character. Other examples are too obvious to

60 CARLO CRIVELLI
specify. Finally, we may notice how interest is im
parted to the step under the Virgin's feet by the
fracture in the marble and the signature cut into it
like an inscription.
In the same year (1482) Crivelli painted one of his
finest pictures for the Dominican Church at Camerino,.
which originally contained some of his best work. (Cf.
Brera, 193, etc.) The altar-piece in the form of a
triptych is now in the Brera (No. 283). Crivelli
never did anything better than this. All his capa
cities for strong drawing, the grouping and attitude
of his figures, the expression of dignity and grace, and
general decorative effect, are here seen at their
highest. And for the first time we get the figures
not isolated in their separate panels but united in a
single composition in which each takes its proper
place. If this was Crivelli's first experiment in that
direction, it was perhaps the most successful. Even
taken individually, the figures in power of expression
show an advance on the picture of 1476. In the central
panel, indeed, and in that to the left we get the Crivelli
to whom we have been hitherto accustomed with his
range from the severe form of St. Peter and the earnest
St. Dominic to the refined and thoughtful features of
the Virgin and the natural attitude of the Child playing
with a bird. But when we turn on the right to the St.
Peter Martyr and San Gimignano (to call him by his
familiar Italian name) we reach a higher stage of
achievement. Here, for the first time, in these noble
figures, full of earnestness and devotion, so true in
drawing as well as expressive in their pose, we find
the perfect and complete artist, It is seldom that he

Hanfstaengl photo} [Brera Gallery, Milan
MADONNA AND SAINTS (14S2)

LATER WORKS 61
reaches the calm dignity expressed in the S. Gimignano,
hardly ever again the intensity of unaffected devotion
displayed by St. Peter Martyr. This is the high-water
mark of Crivelli's powers as an artist. He never quite
rose to it again.
Among the accessories of the picture we may note
as signs of maturity the elaborate throne of coloured
marbles, and the face of the steps treated like a frieze.
We have already remarked (p. 31) upon the way in
which the decorative objects on the lowest step are
represented naturalistically. It shows how every form
of elaboration which the fancy could suggest was
lavished on this picture. Notice, too, on a ledge of
the throne the roses in a glass, a trick of execution
which he has introduced more than once in his later
works. It is balanced on the right by a basin of
majolica filled with fruit. The use of raised ornament is
almost confined to St. Peter. It has a certain appro
priateness in helping to emphasise the hieratic character
of the figure which it was the artist's intention to
express — " Like some old priest in antique finery —
Stiff cope and jewelled head."*
Partaking of the features of the " Madonnas " of 1476
and 1482, and probably coming between them in date,
though perhaps nearer to the latter, is the pretty
"Virgin and Child" of the Gallery at Buda-Pesth.
The Virgin's head is very characteristic, and of
the more cheerful Crivellian type. The Child is
not so attractive. The throne tends to elaboration.
* Poems by A. C. Benson.

62 CARLO CRIVELLI
On the other hand, we get the hanging of plain watered
silk. Altogether it is one of the most, pleasing among
Crivelli's works of the second rank. To the same class
and period belongs the charming " Madonna " in the
Jones Collection at S. Kensington.
Hitherto we have known Crivelli almost exclusively
as a painter either of isolated or symmetrically grouped
figures, or of subjects (such as the "Pieta") which
demand symmetrical treatment For the first time in
the "Annunciation" of i486 in the National Gallery
(No. 739), we come across a subject piece proper. It
is interesting enough to make us regret that he did
not leave more works of the kind behind him. Perhaps
there was little demand for such pictures among his
regular employers, who asked for the conventional
composite altar-piece.
We have already dwelt on the history of this picture
(p. 20). Its design shows no little skill. In the
earlier versions which have survived (at Massa and
Frankfurt) no great difficulties of composition could
arise, for the Virgin and the angel are in separate panels
of small dimensions. Here the scene was to form a
single composition. He might have placed it, like so
many other painters, in a room or a garden or any other
simple enclosed space. But this was not enough for
Crivelli, whose characteristic it was to impress with
his own individuality everything that he touched.
Taking a suggestion from his earlier (Frankfurt)
version, he has ingeniously combined a charming
interior with a long street scene giving room for an
extraordinary display of incident and detail. On the
right we see the Virgin kneeling in her chamber. The

Hanfstaengl photo] \s. Kensington Museum
VIRGIN AND CHILD

LATER WORKS 63
house in which she dwells exhibits all the wealth of
architectural ornament which we have noticed becoming
increasingly prominent in the pictures of this period.
At the same time the rich detail is saved from becom
ing too formal or monotonous by the introduction of
various objects in the loggia, of which the most strik
ing are an Eastern carpet and a peacock. Below, the
interior with its furniture carries the eye away from the
regular lines of the pilasters which frame it. Outside
in the street, the foreground is occupied by the kneel
ing figures of the angel and St. Emidius who holds a
model of the Ascoli in his hand. There could not be
better examples of what we may call Crivelli's
"exquisite'' style, which is only just saved by its
refinement from mere prettiness and affectation.
This angel is a poseur if ever there was one.
Beyond, the street presents a series of incidents
suggestive of the tendency to naturalistic treatment
which is such a curious accompaniment and contrast to
his ordinary conventional manner. The group talking
with a friar at the house door on the left with the child
peeping round the corner of the balustrade, the citizen
who passes along bent on business, the dandy who
shades his eyes from the sun and looks up at the house,
the figures on the arch, and the people walking in the
open space by the town walls beyond, make up a
picture of real life unequalled among Crivelli's works.
The execution is not less masterly, with its trans
parent colour and delicate use of gold to heighten the
effect of the accessories.
Of course, this is not Ascoli as Crivelli saw it, any
more than we are to suppose that his world was full

64 CARLO CRIVELLI
of the gorgeously dressed models who figure as his
youthful saints. The scene, in fact, is at once real and
ideal. Those to whom the aspect of the old Italian
towns is familiar will recognise the towering houses, the
narrow street, the arch that spans it, and on the arch,
as we see so often, the attempt to reproduce a garden
with plants in pots and caged birds. But Crivelli has
ennobled and idealised all this till it has become a scene
such as never existed at Florence or Venice, much less
at Ascoli. The rough stone houses have become
marble palaces, the bridge a triumphal arch, the rude
flower-pots sculptured vases ; while the sordid figures
which were no doubt as frequent a sight in Italian
towns then as now, have made way for decorous and
graceful forms. All the elements of scene in short have
been transformed so that they may do honour to the
event which is taking place in the foreground. As a
matter of fact the accessories absorb so much of our
interest that we are liable to forget the " Annunciation."
But to say that the picture produces an effect of
unreality, would be to test Crivelli's art by an unfair
standard. It was enough for him, and it should be
enough for us, that he has given us one of his most
beautiful and interesting pictures.
Subject pieces by Crivelli are so rare that this will be
an appropriate place for considering another example
in the National Gallery, the " Vision of the Blessed
Gabriele Ferretti " (No. 668). But we have pointed
out elsewhere (Chap. II.) the grounds for believing that
it was painted between the years 1484 and 1490, so
that if there is an)' truth in that argument it cannot be
far removed in date from the "Annunciation" of i486.

Hanfstaengl plioto] [National Gallery
VISION OF THE B. GABRIELE FERRETTI

LATER WORKS 65
The "Beato" has been reading or praying, at the
entrance of a cave near a church, in a quiet country
spot from which a road leads to a town in the distance.
Suddenly in the sky the Virgin and Child appear in
glory. He has laid down his book, put off his sandals,
and kneels in prayer and adoration. The subject is
simple, but nothing could be more complete and
satisfactory than the treatment. There is nothing
grotesque or unnatural either in conception or drawing
to detract from our enjoyment, and the details are
finished with admirable minuteness. The masterly
treatment of the drapery, the perfection of the forms,
the architecture, the sense of spaciousness in the land
scape, all point to the maturity of Crivelli's art. The
type of the saint, both in expression and features, finds
perhaps its nearest parallel in the earlier St. Francis at
Brussels. The landscape, for general effect, is one of
his best, though the treatment of the rocks and of the
foreground is still conventional. The most striking
objects in it are the leafless tree stems, the counterpart,
as it were, of the hard and bony human figures of which
he was so fond, and therefore an illustration of his love
for anatomical forms. His seeking after realism again
appears in the two ducks painted with minute precision.
In contrast to them we get the festoon of fruit at the
top of the picture, illustrating the conventional and
decorative aspect of his art. No picture of his suggests
more completely both the range and the limitations of
Crivelli. We have already observed that a scene connected
with the Passion, formed a regular part of every ancona,
but these subjects appear to have had a special attrac-
E

66 CARLO CRIVELLI
tion for Crivelli in his middle and later periods. Pecu
liarly suited for symmetrical arrangement, they also
provided a field for the display of anatomical knowledge
and for the expression of intense and passionate feeling.
At the same time they did not exclude the introduction
of magnificent accessories. Nothing could be more
splendidly decorative than the Vatican " Pieta," or more
intensely pathetic than the Panciatichi and Crawshay
versions. The " Pieta " was a specially favoured sub
ject, on account of the convenience with which it could
be adapted to the shape of a lunette, forming the top of
an altar-piece. The smaller examples (e.g. Mr Craw-
shay's) show by the shape of the panel that they
originally formed the centre of the upper tier of an
ancona, an arrangement which occurs regularly in the
composite altar-pieces which have escaped dissolution.
They therefore belong to the period when Crivelli had
not yet abandoned this form for the large single panel
compositions to which he became addicted in his later
years. It is with pictures of the latter type that the
large lunette " Pietas " must have been originally com
bined ; though, apparently, in the only case in which
they are at present united (Brera, Gall. Oggiono, No. i),
there was no original connection between them. But
in spite of these differences in date, we may well con
sider all these Passion scenes together, for they all
belong to the mature stage of his art.
Let us begin with the older form, of which Mr Craw-
shay's " Pieta" is typical. Comparatively small in size,
its decorative effect is not to compare with that of
the large lunettes, for its tone is low and sober, and
the accessories are of the simplest kind. But in the

[Mr R. Crawshay s Collection

PIETA

LATER WORKS 67
expression of emotion it is by far the finest of the
series. Both in forms and in feeling the Vatican
" Pieta " comes nearest to it. Both are remarkable for
their display of sincere emotion, but when we com
pare the figures one by one, the palm must be given
to the earlier version. Perhaps there is little to choose
between the two Virgins. But the grief of St. John
and the Magdalen in Mr. Crawshay's picture is more
real than in the other case, because it is less exagger
ated. And the look of death on the Saviour's face
could not well be surpassed. The smaller picture, too,
makes up by far finer drawing for what it loses in de
corative splendour. On the whole, it is not too much
to say that this was Crivelli's masterpiece in his treat
ment of this subject.*
We will next consider the lunette " Pieta " in the
Vatican, the forms and types of which show a close
relationship with those of the last picture. The
spectator is at first almost carried away by the depth of
the colour and the surpassing richness of the decorative
effect, yet the strength of the picture lies in its expres
sion of emotion. If it does not quite attain the level
of the Crawshay " Pieta " in this respect, it is neverthe
less of very great merit. The body of the Saviour is
about to be laid in the tomb, and for the moment it
rests on a board placed across the sarcophagus and
covered with a piece of drapery which also forms part
of the hanging in the background. The moulding of
the body is far less satisfactory than that in the earlier
* As I have not been able to see the Panciatichi version, I have not
discussed it here. Some remarks on it will be found in the Catalogue
pf Works, p. 103.

68 CARLO CRIVELLI
version, but the head is fine. Of the attendant figures
the most successful expression is that of the Virgin,
with her mingled look of speechless sorrow and affec
tion. The Magdalen and St. John, with open mouths
and contorted features expressive of their unrestrained
outburst of grief, are neither so unaffected nor so
impressive. Sometimes the pathetic and the grotesque
are separated only by a narrow interval, and in this
case Crivelli in his searching after expression has gone
near to confusing them.
The accessories are superb both in design and execu
tion. The cherub heads are meant apparently to float
in the air, but they are so thickly set that they produce
the effect of a background of burnished metal — a
magnificent variety for the ordinary gold field. The
whole picture is extraordinarily brilliant in colour and
strong in relief. The lighted candle in its elaborate
candlestick on the right is perhaps intended to indicate
that the scene takes place at night.
By the side of these " Pietas " we would place the
"Crucifixion," in the Brera (No. 189), on account
of the similarity of the types. The female figure
to the left of the Cross has the same rather un-
pleasing features as the Magdalen in the two " Pietas,"
and we therefore assume it to be the same per
son, though one would have expected the Virgin in
this place. The long hair and the absence of the
Virgin's typical head-dress, point to the same conclusion.
The Christ is of the same type as in the last two
pictures, and not inferior to the best of them in drawing
and expression. On the other hand, the emotion of the
two figures at the foot of the Cross, while it has all the

Alinari photo]

PIETA

[Vatican Gallery

Alinari photo] [Brera Gallery, Milan
THE CRUCIFIXION

LATER WORKS 69
disagreeable features of the other examples, has not the
same strength or reality. The faces seem fixed in an
expression of peevish discontent rather than over
powered by an outburst of grief. The gold ground of
the upper part of the picture above the sky is unique,
and not easy to explain. The landscape is one of the
most delightful we possess. It is just such a prospect
as may be seen from any of the hill-towns in the
Marches. If this picture fails in the expression of the
Magdalen and St. John, its drawing and execution
entitle it to a high place among Crivelli's works.
Though it may be separated from these pieces by
several years, it will be convenient to place beside them
the lunette " Pieta " in the Brera. We may do so with
the more freedom because there is no reason to suppose
that it had any connection originally with the " Corona
tion " of 1493, which it now surmounts. A superficial
glance will show the difference in types and style
between them. But while the " Pieta " naturally takes
its place beside the other representations of the same
subject with which it has obvious affinities, it must be
regarded as the latest of the series, and placed at the
very end of Crivelli's career. The type of the Magdalen
reminds one of the latest " Madonna" in the Brera (No.
193). The whole scene is more academical and less
real than those which we have been considering. All
the passion has gone out of the faces ; the attitudes are
more affected and the expression is more formal. In
draughtsmanship and technical execution it is one of
Crivelli's most perfect productions, but the general
effect suggests a maturity verging on over-ripeness.

70 CARLO CRIVELLI
With 1487 begins what for convenience of arrange
ment we may call the third period of Crivelli's
career. In his life it is marked by his visit in that
year to Fermo, and by the knighthood conferred on
him in 1490. The pictures, too, which have survived
from those years form a group with some special
characteristics. Though we need not believe that he
entirely abandoned the production of anconas with
many panels, the most important works of this period
which have come down to us are groups of saintly
personages combined in one composition and united
within a single frame. This indicates that Crivelli, in
fluenced perhaps by contemporary works of art which
came to his knowledge, was no longer contented with
depicting isolated figures in separate frames. So far
it marks an advance, though we may doubt whether
his art gained much by it Still, while we feel that
perhaps his best work is to be found in the pictures
of the older form, we must acknowledge that the
results of the new departure are often magnificent,
and that his hand has lost nothing of its power.
First, and in some ways the finest of the series,
comes the great picture at Berlin (No. 11 56 A)
which was lost to this country at the Dudley sale.
Originally at Fermo, and with no mention of the
knightly dignity in the signature, we may safely
assign it to the period 1487-90. (See p. 21.) The
subject is the Infant Christ giving the keys to St.
Peter in the midst of an assemblage of local and
Franciscan saints. The types of the Virgin in these
later pictures do not possess the charm of the earlier
ones. The features are more mature and common-

Bfiiun, Clement & Co. photo

[Berlin Gallery

LATER WORKS 71
place, and the one before us is no exception. The
Child, on the other hand, shows us Crivelli at his best,
exquisitely natural and graceful. St. Peter has not
the rugged force of the old model with which we
have become familiar (p. 41). Of the other saints,
Louis and Bernardino follow the lines of the well-
known portraits ; while we get a new and very charac
teristic type in the Bishop who is prominent on the left
— probably St. Alexander, one of the patrons of Fermo.
The composition is simple and satisfactory, in so far as
the space is well filled, yet free from monotony. But
the two saints, peeping as it were round the corners
of the throne, are hardly a successful or dignified idea.
As a whole, the picture depends for its effect on the
interest of the heads, and on the decorative effect of
the magnificent fabrics in- which the chief saints are
vested. Nothing could surpass the execution of this
superb picture.
To the same period belong the two panels with pairs
of saints now at Venice, which are said to have been
originally connected with one of Crivelli's latest works —
the " Virgin and Child," of the Brera. (See pp. 108, 1 14.)
Whether this be the case or not — and the idea does
not receive much support from the style of the panels
— we get a point of contact with the Berlin picture in
the strongly-modelled features of St. Augustine, which
almost reproduce those of St. Alexander (if it be he). St.
Jerome, again, recalls exactly the same type in the Odoni
altar-piece, of the National Gallery, which we shall con
sider next. The lion at his feet is a fine example of
conventional, we might almost say heraldic, treat
ment. The St. Peter and St. Paul of the other panel,

72 CARLO CRIVELLI
damaged as it is, rank among the noblest of his figures.
Altogether, though there may be more ambitious and
splendid, there are no finer examples of Crivelli's mature
stage than these fragments.
Of the five signed pictures which we possess, painted
by Crivelli after his knighthood, three are dated, and the
date of one more is probably settled. There remains
the " Madonna between St. Jerome and St. Sebastian "
in the National Gallery (No. 724) — the altar-piece
painted for the family chapel of the Odoni in the
Franciscan Church at Matelica. In spite of the
perfection of its execution and the splendour of the
decorative parts, there are few pictures by Crivelli
which impress us less by their sentiment. The Virgin
once more illustrates the defects of his later concep
tions of her ; while the Child, who blesses St. Jerome,
is even more lacking in life and character.
St. Jerome, indeed, is a noble and dignified figure,
but who could believe in the St. Sebastian here pre
sented ? As a study of costume the figure is interest
ing, reproducing every detail with minute fidelity, and
bringing before us the model of a well-dressed young
man of Crivelli's time. But the features are of an ignoble
type, and the attitude is suggestive only of self-conscious
vanity. Instead of a devout attendant at the throne,
we seem to get a dandy posing for the admiration of
the spectator. In short, this is no saint, like the San
Gimignano of the Brera triptych, but only a faithful
reproduction of the artist's model. For once Crivelli's
gift of characterisation has been overpowered by his
interest in the accessories.
When we turn to the scenes of the predella we seem

Hanfstaengl photo] [National GaUery
THE MADONNA BETWEEN ST. JEROME AND ST. SEBASTIAN

LATER WORKS 73
to enter a different world. The St. Catherine on the left
is not remarkable, but the remaining four scenes, while
they exhibit Crivelli at his best as a draughtsman, are
also full of animation, of feeling, and of realism. Crowe
and Cavalcaselle long ago drew attention to the merits
of these panels, and their praise is not excessive.
" Crivelli never concentrated so much power on any
small composition." The most interesting is the " St.
Jerome in the Desert," with its naturalistic representa
tions of animals to which we have already referred
(p. 32). But the powerfully drawn saint and the
treatment of the landscape are not less remarkable.
The "Nativity" is far finer than the similar scene in
the Strasburg Gallery, of which it reproduces the
essential features. The types in the " Martyrdom of
St. Sebastian " are not very pleasing, but the action is
full of vigour. The saint recalls the small figure in
the Poldi-Pezzoli Museum at Milan, a work apparently
of Crivelli's maturity. Finally, the " St. George '' repro
duces the design of the early masterpiece on the same
subject (see p. 46), and with only less power and
animation. We notice the absence here of the use of
raised gilt ornament which is so prominent in the earlier
version. Generally speaking, this has not quite the
freshness and fascination of the work of those first
years, but the resources of the artist have increased in
the interval.
The National Gallery, where the works of Crivelli's
latest period are, if anything, over-represented, contains
in the " Madonna with St. Francis and St. Sebastian "
(No. 809) the earliest dated picture executed by Crivelli
after his knighthood. The year is 1491. There is

74 CARLO CRIVELLI
little of interest about it, for, though important it is
not one of his most successful conceptions, and it has
not even the technical perfection of the Odoni picture.
The Sebastian, however, is a graceful and attractive
figure. Messrs Crowe and Cavalcaselle persuaded
themselves that the "combination of energy and
smorphia" exhibited by this and other pictures of the
same period point to '' an intimacy between Crivelli
and Alunno" (i.e. Niccolo da Foligno). Really, there
is little ground for such a suggestion. This picture, it
is true, both in treatment and tone, differs to some
extent from his characteristic style. But this, if it be
the result of external influence at all, which in the case
of Crivelli we may safely reduce to a minimum, may
be attributed as much to the effect of general contem
porary progress in art as to acquaintance with the work
of any particular painter. In any case, Niccolo's pictures
suggest that he learnt more from Crivelli than Crivelli
learnt from him.*
To the next year (1492) belongs the masterpiece in
the National Gallery ^No. 906) known as " The Virgin
in Ecstasy," but which rather presents (as the ap
pended text shows) the idea which is the foundation
of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, com
bined with the " Coronation " of the glorified mother.
It is intended, in fact, to bring before us not the
historical mother of Christ so much as that mediaeval
conception of the mystical being of Ecclesiasticus and
the Book of Wisdom, existing from all time in the mind
of God as the instrument of the Incarnation, and return-
* Niccolo's altar-piece of 1499 at La Bastia, near Assisi, bears evident
traces of Crivelli's influence. See below p. 81.

[Brera Gatlery) Aliian

THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN (1493)<

LATER WORKS 75
ing to share the glory of her divine Son. Crivelli has
expressed with rare distinction that combination of
humility and awe with a sense of personal dignity
which befits this ideal of the Virgin. In herself she is
an imposing figure, but she is absorbed in the divine
influences which mould her destiny. Never did Crivelli
come nearer to the grand style than in this magnificent
conception. For the first time we find here in the Virgin a new
type of features which we shall notice in others of these
latest works. It may be described as more academical
than the naive, girlish Virgins of the earlier time. The
flying angels are also new, and remind us of similar
figures in Umbrian art. It is possible that Crivelli may
have received them from that source. Considering the
nearness of Umbria to the Marches, the likeness of the
forms can hardly be explained as a mere coincidence.
We seem to come back to a lower level when we turn
to Crivelli's latest dated picture, the " Coronation," of
1493 in the Brera (Gall. Oggiono, No. 1). Everything
here is characteristic of his most advanced style —
the unity of composition, the wealth of detail, the
abandonment of the gold background for a sky, and
the elaborate design of the sort of altar-table on
which Christ and his mother are enthroned. Con
sidering the results which Crivelli had previously
produced, the types are singularly immature. The
Christ and the Virgin are not among Crivelli's most
successful productions, though their action is appro
priate, and the effect of the draperies magnificent.
On the right, St. Francis has an unnatural con
tortion of the head which we noticed in some of the

76 CARLO CRIVELLI
early pictures ; the Augustine (or Bonaventura) is
commonplace, and the Sebastian far inferior to the San
Gimignano in the other Brera altar-piece. The emaciated
John the Baptist on the left is less impressive than the
figure of the great altar-piece in the National Gallery,
while the youthful soldier saint behind belongs rather
to Crivelli's pretty than to his noble types. The St
Catherine alone can be classed among his nobler pro
ductions. The general effect of the picture is crowded
and lacking in dignity so far as composition is concerned,
though in richness it is unsurpassed. The angel choir
in the air is a more elaborate instance of the presence
of those (perhaps) foreign elements which we noticed in
the nearly contemporary " Conception," of the National
Gallery. The form of God the Father in the latter
picture is also reproduced here with little variation.
The form of signature ("eques laureatus"), as we
have seen (p. 22), justifies us in placing the "Virgin
and Child," of the Brera (No. 193), later than any
of the above works. There is nothing in its style or
character opposed to such a conclusion, and indeed
it cannot be separated from the other pictures by any
considerable interval. It is one of the finest of the
whole group, and as a work of art forms a worthy con
clusion to Crivelli's career as a painter. The Virgin is
a grand and statuesque figure of the type with which we
have become familiar in these later pictures. That she
does not rise to the level of the "Conception" of 1491
is due to the nature of the subject. The mother with
her child upon her knee, if not less queenly, is more
human, as she should be. Nothing could be finer than
the pose and magnificent drapery of this figure. The

[Brera Gallery, Milan
VIRGIN AND CHILD

LATER WORKS 77
child is less successful. The canopy of the throne is
formed by arches of fruit and foliage, full and rich in
design. As a whole, nothing more satisfactory was ever
produced by Crivelli.
Here we conclude our survey of the existing works
by Crivelli. And, at the end of it all, what is the im
pression left on our minds ? "A disagreeable, but most
talented painter " is the verdict of the principal modern
historians of Italian Art* The depreciatory epithet
we can hardly accept. That side — and it is only one
side — of Crivelli's genius which expressed itself in his
feeling for strength of character and strength of emotion,
led him sometimes to delineate types which are severe
rather than beautiful, realistic rather than attractive.
But genuine art can never be unpleasing, and all
Crivelli's productions are in the truest sense artistic.
His forms may be hard, but they are never repulsive.
Let us rather be content to say that in everything he
did we feel the true artist. Would that it were possible
to lift the veil which conceals the mystery of his
personality and see the man behind. Perhaps we
should discover not only a great artist but also a great
character. * Crowe and Cavalcaselle : "History of Paintmg in North Italy," i. 95.

CHAPTER VI
HIS INFLUENCE
With such strongly-marked individuality of style it
might have been expected that Crivelli would leave a
school of imitators behind him. As a matter of fact we
know by name only two painters who worked in de
pendence on him, and their dated pictures are not later
than the latest of Crivelli's. Their names, as they are
given on their signed productions, are " Victor Crivellus,"
whom we may therefore refer to as Vittorio Crivelli,
and " Petrus Alamanus." To one or the other of
these we can attribute practically all the pictures
not by Crivelli's hand though often passing under
his name, a number of which are to be found in
English collections, and still more in their original
home in the Marches. They are readily distinguished
not only from Carlo Crivelli — to whom, it need scarcely
be added, they are immeasurably inferior — but from
one another. When once their characteristics have
been grasped, they can never be mistaken. We have
included an example of each among our illustrations
in order that the student may become familiar with
their peculiarities.
Vittorio Crivelli, who was evidently the relation, and
may have been the brother of Carlo, like him, adds
" Venetus " to his name. The earliest date on any
78

ALTAR.PIECE
(By Vittorio Crivelli)

[S. Severino

ALTAR-PIECE
(By I 'ittorio Crivelli)

[Torre di Palme

HIS INFLUENCE 79
of his pictures is 1481, the latest I490. His figures,
whose smooth round faces are easily recognised, have
at their best considerable charm and grace, and even
dignity. The ornamental details and drapery also show
care and skill. But the drawing, especially in critical
points like the hands, is often lamentably weak, and his
personages are totally lacking in the character and force
which distinguish the productions of Carlo. He is seen
at his best in the beautiful ancona at Torre di Palme,
which, though unsigned, exhibits precisely similar types
to those of the recognised Vittorio at Falerone. His
faces are distinguished by a special melancholy, which
is apparent in nearly all his works, but was gradually
carried to a disagreeable excess. When once the peculiar
expression of these lachrymose Virgins and saints has
been impressed on the mind there is no easier painter to
recognise. That expression is produced by large and
melancholy eyes and a singularly unpleasant turning
down of the corners of the mouth. A fairly full list
of his rather numerous works is given by Crowe and
Cavalcaselle (i. 96).*
We are hardly justified in assuming that Petrus
Alamanus was a foreigner, though his name, like that
of Giovanni d'Alemania, Antonio Vivarini's partner,
points to a German extraction. In any case he came
from Venice, for in one instance he has signed himself
* The Crivelli of Venice must not be confused with a certain Protasio
Crivelli of Milan. Mr Loeser has pointed out to me the existence of a
"Madonna" by him in the De Somzee collection at Brussels, signed
" Protasius Chribellus Mediolane(n)sis pinxit, A° Dm. 1500." Its general
character seems to show 1 descent from Foppa and Borgognone, though
the facial types do not recall any Milanese master. In any case there is
no suggestion of Carlo Crivelli,

80 CARLO CRIVELLI
" Petrus Venetus " * ; and we may suppose that he
followed Crivelli when he left the North to settle in
the Marches. On one picture he was proud to style
himself " discipulus Maestri Karoli Crivelli," and the
words "civis Assulanus," which he has added to his
name on another, show that, like his master, he became
a permanent resident in Ascoli.t The only dated
pictures are of 1488 and 1489. It may seem a
harsh judgment, but it is no exaggeration to say that
there is nothing good in him. His compositions are
servile and unintelligent reproductions of his master's
motives. The drawing is invariably bad, and the
decorative accessories show, as compared with Crivelli,
an immensely inferior hand. His heads have not even
the individuality, unpleasing as it is, of those of Vittorio.
A room in the Municipal Gallery at Ascoli contains
several of his pictures (two signed) which have been
collected from the churches of that town. It would be
waste of time to go through the list of his pictures,
which there is no excuse, under any circumstances, for
confusing with those of his master.
The fact that Crivelli's only known assistants or
pupils were of this character, and that neither of them
came from the district, proves how poor in painters
the Marches were. But if the Marches were barren
of all artistic activity, there were districts bordering
on them to the north and west with local painters who
might be influenced by the striking personality of
* On a picture belonging to Mr Foulke of Paris. See Berenson
Notes, p. 12.
t Crowe and Cavalcaselle, i. 98, note 4, where a list of his works is
given.

[Torre di Pah7ie

VIRGIN AND CHILD
(Bv Vittorio CrweJH

HIS INFLUENCE 81
Crivelli. Those who had once seen his pictures were
not likely to forget them ; and, without going farther,
there were specimens ready to hand in the little group
of towns to the north-west (e.g. at Camerino and
Fabriano), where Lorenzo di S. Severino may have
made their acquaintance. In any case there is a trip
tych of his (dated 148 1) at Pausula* where, as we have
seen, Crivelli had already been at work. Little is
known of Lorenzo, who appears to have been a rather
older contemporary of Crivelli ; but his pictures show
that, while he had nothing to teach the Venetian, he
was perceptibly influenced by him. The types, e.g. of
the Virgin and Child at Pausula, show it, and the apple
which lies on the step of the throne points in the
same direction. The picture by him in the National
Gallery (No. 249) is not without similar suggestions,
and here again a cucumber and apple are introduced
for decorative purposes quite in Crivelli's manner.
Westwards, across the Apennines, we come to the
region of the Umbrian painters, and among these
Niccolo da Foligno with his strongly -defined and
characterised types and expression of emotion presents
obvious analogies with Crivelli. Some have gone so
far as to see traces of Niccolo's influence on the later
work of Crivelli.t Such suggestions are not easy to
substantiate, and, on the whole, we are inclined to think
that the effect was in the other direction. In age they
were apparently exactly contemporary, but Crivelli has
the stronger individuality of the two, and was there-
* S. Pietro. Winter choir.
t C. and C. i. 91, 95, citing e.g. No. 807 in the National Gallery, and
the Vatican "Pieta."

82 CARLO CRIVELLI
fore less likely to be influenced by the other. The
resemblances between them are partly perhaps to be
explained by a similarity in character and concep
tion, different as their artistic origins may have been.
But beyond this, some of Niccolo's later pictures present
characteristics which can only be explained by direct
suggestion from the work of Crivelli. Of such a character
is the ancona at Bastia, near Assisi. Not only have
the figures quite a Crivellian air, but there are the usual
cucumbers and fruit lying on the step of the throne.
To the next generation belongs a curious painter
Bernardino di Mariotto, otherwise known as Bernardino
of Perugia, who owed perhaps more to Crivelli than
either of the painters we have mentioned. Originally,
no doubt, he learnt his lesson in the Umbrian school
proper, and hence (though the mistake should never
have been made) he was long confused with Pinturicchio*
But soon after the beginning of the sixteenth century
he settled at S. Severino, and then perhaps it was that
he became acquainted with the works of Crivelli in that
neighbourhood. To judge by his pictures (of which
those in the Gallery at Perugia are the most character
istic examples) what attracted him in the older painter's
works was their decorative character (especially the use
of gold ornaments) and broad flat treatment. His types
are quite peculiar to himself, and not specially agreeable.
Those of the " Coronation," which we have included
among our illustrations, are quite typical.
* See the German edition of Crowe and Cavalcaselle by Dr Max
Jordan (Leipzig, 1871), iv. 316. Berenson, "Central Italian Painters," 152.

A li7iari photo}

[Perugia Gallery

THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN
(By Bernardino Di Mariotto)

CATALOGUE OF THE WORKS OF
CARLO CRIVELLI
AND OF CERTAIN WORKS ATTRIBUTED TO THE
ARTIST, ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE
GALLERIES IN WHICH THEY
ARE CONTAINED

NOTE
The measurements of the pictures are given, in most cases,
in metres and centimetres, with the equivalents in feet and
inches. The height always precedes the width.
Where numbers are given thus [No. 6.], they are the
numbers of the Catalogue of the Gallery. These cannot of
course be guaranteed, as alterations are not unfrequently made
in the arrangement of the pictures.

CATALOGUE OF WORKS
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.
BUDA-PESTH. Virgin and Child. Wood (round top).
The Virgin (crowned, and wearing a gold brocade mantle),
seated on a marble throne, with the right hand supports the
Child standing on her knee, while the left touches the stalk
of an apple which he is holding. The back of the throne
is formed by square sculptured pillars rising from volutes,
and supporting a decorated architrave. In front of it hangs
a strip of watered silk with a festoon of fruit at the top.
Patterned gold background. On the face of the step under
the Virgin's feet, " Opus Caroli Crivelli Veneti."
From the Esterhazy collection.
C. and C. i. 93, note 2.
BELGIUM.
BRUSSELS, ROYAL GALLERY.
Virgin and Child. Wood, r82 x 0-55 = 6 ft. x 1.9J. [No.
16.] The Virgin (crowned, green and gold mantle over red
dress), seated on a marble throne, holds the Child (green
dress with gold border) standing on her knee. White
watered silk hanging behind. Gold background. On the
face of the sculptured step at the bottom of the picture
is inscribed " Carolus Crivellus Venetus pinsit."
This and the next picture, together with the " Dead Christ
supported by Angels," in the National Gallery [No. 602],
and the predella panels at High Legh Hall, formed part
of an altar-piece in the church of the Frati Conventuali
85

86 CATALOGUE OF WORKS
Riformati at Monte Fiore, near Fermo. (See p. 48.) They
came into the possession of Cav. Vallati at Rome, from
whom they were purchased for the Brussels Gallery in 1862.
St. Francis. Wood, 1-82 x 0-55 = 6 ft. x i.gj. [No. 17.]
Standing, turned to left. He opens his habit to show the
wound in his side. Gold background.
See last picture. The panel has apparently been widened
on either side.
BRITISH ISLES.
LONDON, THE NATIONAL GALLERY.
Dead Christ supported by Angels. Wood (round top),
o-7 1 x 0-55 = 2 ft. 4J x 1.9^. [No. 602. J
The dead Christ (half-length), supported by two boy
angels on the edge of the tomb, over the front of which
hang a white cloth and a piece of red watered silk. On
the cornice to left " Carolus Crivellus Venetus pinsit,"
Gold background.
Formed part of an altar-piece (to which the two pictures
at Brussels also belonged) in the church of the Frati Con-
ventuali Riformati at Monte Fiore, near Fermo. (See p. 48.)
Perhaps the " Pieta" mentioned by Ricci as being, when he
wrote, in the possession of Professor Minardi at Rome.
Bought at Rome from Cav. Vallatiin 1859.
Ricci, i. 209. C. and C. i. 90, 91, note 1.
The Vision of the Blessed Gabriele Ferretti. Wood,
1 -38 x o-86 = 4 ft. 7! x 2. \o\. [No. 668.]
The Beato, in Franciscan habit, kneeling to right, with
hands joined in prayer, and looking up at the Virgin
and Child appearing in the sky (right upper corner) in
a mandorla, framed by winged cherub heads. His clogs
are lying on the ground behind him, and an open book
in front, near which is " Opus Karoli Crivelli Yeneti." In
the loft-hand bottom corner a small piece of water with
two ducks. Behind him (left) a rocky hill, and to the right

BRITISH ISLES 87
a church across a road which leads to a distant town. A
festoon of fruit hangs across the sky at the top of the picture.
In fine condition.
Gabriele Ferretti, Superior of the Franciscans in the
March of Ancona, died in 1456. Under Innocent VIII.
(1484-92) his body was found incorrupt, and was deposited
in a sarcophagus in the church of S. Francesco ad Alto at
Ancona. We may reasonably conjecture that this picture,
exhibiting as it does Crivelli's fully-matured powers, was
painted for the church of S. Francesco, for which he had
previously painted the "Madonna " still at Ancona, and in
commemoration of the discovery of the body.
It came into the possession of Mr Alexander Barker, and
was purchased from him in 186 1.
C. and C. i. 91 and note 2.
The Virgin and Child between St. Jerome and St.
Sebastian. Wood, 1 -49 x 1 -07 = 4 ft. 11x3.6. The pre
della scenes are 0-29= u| in. x 0-36= 14^ in. (Nativity),
0-32 = 13 in. (St. Jerome and St. Sebastian), o-2i =8J in.
(St. Catherine and St. George). [No. 724.]
The Virgin (crowned, wearing blue and gold brocade
mantle which comes up over the head, and pink dress) holds
the Child (nude save for band round waist ; coral charm)
seated on her knee, with left hand resting on an apple,
while the right blesses St. Jerome (left), dressed as a cardinal,
and pointing with one hand to the model of a church resting
on two books which he supports with the other. At his
feet a small lion holding up right paw pierced by a thorn.
To the right stands St. Sebastian (cloth of gold cloak lined
with pink, green doublet, and buff hose), holding an arrow
in his right hand, while his left rests on the hilt of a sabre
which hangs from his belt. On the floor behind him, a bow .
The Virgin is seated on a marble throne with cloth of gold
hanging. On its upper ledge a swallow is perched. The
throne is flanked by high marble screens adorned by brocade
hangings, fruit, and vessels of flowers and fruit. Gold back
ground. The face of the step below the Virgin is decorated
with festoons of natural fruit. To the sculptured face of

88 CATALOGUE OF WORKS
that on which the saints stand are attached, in the centre
the escutcheon of the Odoni family (cheeky of eight argent
and gules : on a chief or, a demi eagle displayed sable,
crowned and beaked or, langued gules), and (right) a cartel-
lino with " Carolus Crivellus Venetus miles pinxit."
Predella (from left to right), (i) St Catherine (half-
length, crowned), with palm and wheel. (2) St Jerome kneel
ing before a crucifix in a rocky landscape, with animals ;
town to left. (3) The Nativity. The Infant Christ lying on
the ground, adored by the Virgin and St Joseph ; the ox
and the ass close by. (4) St. Sebastian, bound to a pillar
in a room, is being shot at by archers. (5) St George on
horseback killing the dragon.
The condition is excellent. Painted for the Odoni Chapel
in S. Francesco, Matelica, where, apparently, it still was
in the time of Ricci.
Bought from Count Luigi de Sanctis of Matelica 1862.
Ricci, i. 214. Lanzi, iii. 23. C. and C. i. 94 and note 1.
The Annunciation. Wood, 2-07 x 146 = 6 ft, 10^x4 ft.
io£. [No. 739.]
A street scene. To right a house with elaborate architec
tural ornaments and an open loggia above with birds and
flowers. Through the open door is seen the Virgin kneeling,
while over her head floats the Dove which has descended
from the sky in a ray of light piercing the wall. On the
base of the pilasters flanking the door is inscribed " Opus
Karoli Crivelli Veneti i486." In the street outside, facing
a window, kneels the angel, with lily in left hand and blessing
with the right. Beside him kneels St. Emidius, in cope
and mitre, holding a model of the town of Ascoli. To left
steps lead up to a house-door where a small group is talking.
The street is closed by a richly-decorated arch through
which is seen the city wall. Several small figures passing
to and fro. On the face of the step at the bottom of the
picture are the words " Libertas ecclesiastica" between three
escutcheons : in the centre Pope Innocent VIII. ; right, the
town of Ascoli ; left, Prospero Caffarelli, Bishop of Ascoli.
P.tinted for the Convent of the Annunziata, at Ascoli, by

Hanfsta engl photo}

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
(From the Altar-piece , 1476)

[National Gallery

BRITISH ISLES 89
order of the municipality, to commemorate the charter of
1482. (See p. 20.) It remained in the domestic chapel of
the Frati till 181 1, when it was removed, by order of the
Government, to Milan, and deposited in the Brera. After
181 5 it passed into private hands, and formed part of the
Solly collection, whence it came in 1847 to Mr Labouchere
(Lord Taunton), who presented it to the National Gallery
in 1864.
Ricci, i. 213. Waagen, ii. 419. C. and C. i. 90 and note 2.
E. Luzi, " La Cattedrale Basilica di Ascoli Piceno " (Ascoli
1894), 28.
Ancona in Thirteen Compartments (the Demidofif altar-
piece). Wood (round - topped panels throughout, and
patterned gold back grounds), 4-82 x 3-15 = 16 ft. x 10.6.
[No. 788.]
I. Lower tier (full-lengths). (1) Central panel, 1-55
x 0-63 = 5 ft- 2 x 2.1.
The Virgin (crowned, pink and gold mantle over blue
dress), seated on a marble throne, lifts a veil from the Child
asleep on her lap. Pale red watered silk hanging behind.
Below is inscribed "Opus Karoli Crivelli Veneti 1476."
Side panels, 1-43 x 0-40 = 4 ft. 9x1 ft. 4.
Left (2) St. Peter in cope and triple crown, holding book
and keys in right hand, and cross in left. Raised ornaments.
(3) St. John Baptist, standing by a stream in a rocky land
scape, and pointing to a scroll on which is "Ecce Agnus
Dei Ecce qui." Right. (4) St. Catherine (jewelled ornament
in hair, blue robe over pink and gold brocade dress), holding
palm branch and wheel. (5) St. Dominic. Right hand on
breast. Left holds book and lily.
II. Middle tier (half-lengths). From left to right.
o-6o x 0-40 = 2 ft. x 1 ft. 4.
(1) St. Francis, with joined hands, looking upwards. (2)
St. Andrew, looking at the open book which he holds with
his left hand. His right holds a wooden cross which rests
on his shoulder. (3) St. Stephen, in pink dalmatic, holding

90 CATALOGUE OF WORKS
book in right hand and palm branch in left Stones on his
head and both shoulders. (4) St. Thomas Aquinas, holding
model of church in right hand and book in left. On his
breast is a medallion with the sacred monogram.
III. Upper tier (full-lengths). From left to right. 0-87
x 0.26 = 2 ft. 11 x io1.
(1) St. Jerome, as a cardinal, with book in right hand
and model of church in left. The lion at his feet (2) St
Michael, in armour, treading on the dragon which he is
about to strike with an uplifted sword in his right hand.
His left holds a pair of scales in the lower of which is a
weight, and in the higher two small nude figures (represent
ing souls) of a man and woman. (3) St Lucy (green robe
over gold dress), holding palm branch in right hand and
a plate, with her eyes in the left. (4) St Peter Martyr, in
Dominican habit, with joined hands. A knife is fixed in
his skull, and his breast is pierced by a sword.
The panels of the lower and middle tiers formed an altar-
piece originally in the church of S. Domenico, Ascoli, where
it was still to be seen when Orsini wrote his Guide (1790).
It was gone by the time of Ricci (1834I, who suggests that
it was then at Rome in the hands of Sig. Grossi. As a
matter of fact, when d' Agincourt published his work in 1823,
portions of it at least were already in the collection of
Cardinal Zelada, who is supposed to have added the panels
of the upper tier. From Rome it passed to the Rinuccini
collection at Florence, and in 1852 to the Demidoff collection
in the Villa San Donato. Thence it went to Paris, and
was bought for the National Gallery from Mr G. H. Phillips
in 1868.
Seroux d'Agincourt, " Histoire de l'Art par les Monumens,"
pi. cxxxviii. (the central panel). Ricci, i. 211. Lanzi, iii. 23.
C. and C. i. 87 and note 3.
The Virgin and Child between St. Francis and St.
Sebastian, ^'ood, 1-73x1-45 = 5 ft. 9x4.10. [No.
807.J The Virgin (crowned, wearing blue mantle lined green,
over pink dress), seated on a marble throne with red and

H anfstaengl photo]

[National Gallery

ST. DOMINIC
(From the A Itar-piece, 1476)

BRITISH ISLES 91
gold hangings, holds the Child (nude save for a piece of
red stuff round the waist) on her lap. To the left stands
St. Francis, presenting the donatrix, apparently a nun
(black dress and white veil), who kneels at her feet. A
snail is crawling on the pavement near them. To the right
St. Sebastian, bound to a pillar, and pierced with arrows.
Background of hanging? (brown with white pattern). On
a cartellino in front, "Opus Caroli Crivelli Veneti Miles
1491." At the bottom of the picture is inscribed, "Almae
consolationis matri Mariae priores posterosq(u)e miserata
suos Oradea Joamnis aere proprio non modico dicavit " :
which may be rendered, " Oradea Joamnis (?) in pity for
the past and future members (? of her family or convent)
dedicated (the picture) to Mary the gracious mother of con
solation, at her own expense, which was considerable."
Were it not for the presence of St. Francis, one might
conjecture that this was the picture (" Madonna between two
saints") mentioned by Ricci as recently {i.e. about 1830)
sold from the convent of S. Domenico, Fermo.
Bought by Richard, ind Marquis of Westminster, at
Rome in 1841, and presented to the National Gallery by
his widow in 1870.
Ricci, i. 214 (?). Waagen, iv. 93. C. and C. i. 95 and
note 1.
The Virgin in Ecstasy (The Conception). Wood,
1-89 x 0*90 = 6 ft. 3 x 3 ft. [No. 906].
The Virgin (blue and gold brocade mantle over pink and
blue dress) standing with joined hands in a semi-circular
recess in a low marble wall decorated with sculpture. On
it are placed (left) a jug with roses and carnations, and (right)
a glass vase holding a lily. Pink hanging behind. Above
her head two flying angels hold a crown and a scroll with
the words, " Ut in mente Dei ab initio concepta fui ita et
facta sum " (" As I was conceived in the mind of God from
the beginning, so was I also made ").
At the top of the picture is seen the half figure of God
the Father with outstretche4 hands ; the Doye below. At

92 CATALOGUE OF WORKS
the bottom (left) is inscribed " Karoli Chrivelli Veneti Militis
pinsit 1492." Gold background.
The surface has suffered in places.
Ricci describes a picture of this subject and date as in
the church of S. Francesco at Pergola, but the National
Gallery Catalogue states that 906 came from the Malatesta
chapel in S. Francesco, at Rimini.
It came into the possession of Mr Alexander Barker, and
was bought at his sale in 1874.
Ricci, i. 215. C. and C. i. 92 and note 2. Berenson,
"Venetian Painters of the Renaissance." Large paper
edition. Photogravure facing p. 12.
St. Catherine and St. Mary Magdalen. Wood, each
panel 0-36 x o-i8= 1 ft. 21 x "j\ in. [No. 907.]
Full-lengths, with the usual attributes, standing in arched
marble niches. The Magdalen (red mantle lined green over
blue dress) is the same composition as the larger figure at
Berlin. St Catherine crowned with pink and gold brocade
mantle lined blue over pink and gold dress.
From Mr Alexander Barker's sale, 1874.
Waagen, ii. 127. C. and C. i. 95, note 2.
SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM, JONES
COLLECTION.
Virgin and Child. Wood, 0-46x0-33=181x131 in.
[No. 665.J
The Virgin (half-length, red dress, gold mantle with
raised ornaments and green lining, coming up over head,
on which is a veil and a circlet of pearls) holds the Child
(nude save for red band round middle and white girdle),
who grasps an apple with both hands. Behind, pale red
watered silk hanging with festoon of fruit above. Landscape
background. On the top of the ledge in front are a carna
tion, violets, and a fly ; and on its face " Opus Caroli
Crivelli Veneti."
Of the finest quality, and in perfect condition.

BRITISH ISLES 93
St. Jerome and St. Catherine.
In one of the side rooms of the Italian Court are two
round-topped panels with three-quarter lengths of St. Jerome
and St. Catherine, on gold backgrounds, "ascribed to
Crivelli." From the Soulages collection.
They are difficult to examine in their present position,
but appear to show the characteristics of Vittorio Crivelli.
C. and C. i. 98, note 3.
There is no picture at S. Kensington corresponding to
the Madonna and Saints by Vittorio mentioned in C. and C.
i. 98, note 3.
LOUISA, LADY ASHBURTON.
St. Dominic. Wood, 0-94 x 0*27 = 38 x 1 1 in.
Full-length, turning to left. Lily in right hand, book in
left. Gold background.
Collection of Cardinal Fesch, Rome. Davenport-Bromley
sale, 1863.
Exhibited, Venetian Exhibition (No. 88).
Berenson, Notes, 12.
St. George. Wood, 0-91 x 0-32 = 37 x 13 in.
Full-length, in armour, facing the spectator. Broken
lance in left hand. The dragon behind. Gold background.
Collection of Cardinal Fesch, Rome. Davenport-Bromley
sale, 1863.
Exhibited, Venetian Exhibition (No. 86).
Berenson, Notes, 12.
R. H. BENSON, Esq.
Virgin and Child. Wood, 0-94 x 0-42 = 38 x 17 in.
The Virgin (pale red dress under gold brocade mantle
lined with green coming up over the head, which is covered
with a white veil), seated on a red and white marble throne,
supports the Child (gold dress with white sash) standing on
her lap. He is making an energetic movement to the

94 CATALOGUE OF WORKS
right with outstretched arms, the left hand blessing. Be
hind, a hanging of pale red watered silk (nearly the same
colour as the Virgin's dress). Two pears and a fly on the
marble step (which is fractured) of the throne. On its face,
" Carolus Crivellus Venetus pinsit 1472." Patterned gold
background. The attitude of the Child apparently shows (as Mr
Berenson remarks) that this is the central panel of an ancona.
Fine condition.
G. H. Marland's sale, 1863. W. Graham 's sale, 1886.
Exhibited R.A. 1875, 1887 ; Venetian Exhibition (No.
32). C. and C. i. 86, note 1. Berenson, Notes, 12.
R. CRAAVSHAY, Esq.
Pieta. Wood (round top), 0-67 x 0*59 = 27 x 24 in.
The dead Christ supported in the tomb by the Virgin
(left), whose arms are round his neck, and St Mary
Magdalen, behind whom the head of St. John appears.
Half-lengths. Gold patterned background.
No doubt the centre of the upper tier of an ancona Uke
that at Ascoli.
Bisenzo collection, Rome {as Mantegna). Dudley sale,
1892. Exhibited at the Art Treasures, Manchester, 1857 ; R.A.
1871. Venetian Exhibition (No. 87, and in Illustrated
Catalogue). Waagen, ii. 135. C. and C. i. 91 and note 4. Berenson,
Notes, 12.
L. MOND, Esq.
St. Peter and St. Paul, Wood, 0-87 x 0-44 = 35 x 18 in.
St. Paul (left) with sword and book. St. Peter (right)
with keys and book. Full-lengths. Gold background.
From F. R. Lt-y land's sale, 1892.
Exhibited R.A. 1882.

BRITISH ISLES 95
LORD NORTHBROOK.
Virgin and Child. Wood, 0-35 x 0-23= 14 x 9 in.
The Virgin (white veil with circlet of pearls, blue and
gold brocade mantle) holds the Child, who is seated on a
cushion placed on the marble balustrade in front, and grasps
with both hands a goldfinch. A fly to the left. Behind, a
pale red watered silk curtain with festoon of fruit. Some
of the same stuff is spread over the balustrade under the
Child. On a cartellino, "Opus Karoli Crivelli Veneti."
Landscape background.
W.Jones' sale, 1852.
Exhibited R.A. 1894 ; Venetian Exhibition (No. 42, and
Illustrated Catalogue).
Waagen, iv. 95. C. and C. i. 92 and note 3. Berenson,
Notes, 11.
The Resurrection. Wood, 0*50 x 0-70= 1 ft. 8 x 2.4.
Christ stepping out of the tomb, blessing with right hand,
and holding banner in the left. Three soldiers asleep.
Landscape background.
Early in style, the treatment recalling the similar scene
in the predella of the altar-piece at Massa.
Exhibited Venetian Exhibition (No. 50).
Waagen, iv. 95. C. and C. i. 82, note 3. Berenson,
Notes, 12.
St. Bernardino of Siena and S. Clare. Wood,
°"35 x o'i7 = 1 ft. 2 x 7.
St. Bernardino holds a book and medallion with the
name of Jesus. St. Clare holds a lily. Full-lengths.
Exhibited Venetian Exhibition (No. 302).
C. and C. i. 92, note 3. Berenson, Notes, 12.
SIR C A. TURNER.
St. James. Wood, 0*94 x 0-28 = 3 ft. 1 x 11.
Full-length, turning to right. Pink robe over blue under
garment. A pilgrim's hat hangs at the back of his neck.
He holds a staff and a book. Gold background.
Purchased from Mr Fairfax Murray. Formerly in the
possession of Mr Coleridge Kinnaird.

96 CATALOGUE OF WORKS
HIGH LEGH HALL, KNUTSFORD, CHESHIRE
(LT.-COL. H. CORNWALL LEGH).
Eight Panels with Christ and Apostles. Half-
lengths. Gold backgrounds. Wood (round top). Each
panel, 0-29x0-21 = 11^ in. x 8|. The panels represent:
(1) Christ holding the orb, (2) St. Peter, (3) Apostle with
a scroll, (4) with pen and open book, (5) with a large
cross, (6) with a book, (7) with a scroll, (8) with a book.
These panels formed part of the predella of the altar-piece
in the church of the Frati Conventuali Riformati at Monte
Fiore, near Fermo, to which the "Madonna" and "St.
Francis," at Brussels, and the " Dead Christ," in the National
Gallery, also belonged. (See p. 48.) They were purchased by
the late Mr G. Cornwall Legh from Cav. Vallati at Rome
about the same date as the others. The remaining four
Apostles were not in Vallati's hands, and their fate is not
known.
OXFORD, UNIVERSITY GALLERIES.
St. Catherine. Wood (round top). 0-73x0-41 = 2 ft. 5
x i.4|.
Three-quarters length, turned to left. Crowned and
wearing gold brocade mantle over a blue dress embroidered
with gold. Right hand holds a palm branch, and rests on
the wheel ; the left holds a book. Gold background.
A characteristic example of Vittorio Crivelli.
Castellani sale, 1884. Fortnum collection. Thence to
Oxford, 1899.
RICHMOND (SURREY), SIR F. COOK.
Virgin and Child. Wood (round top). 1-27x0-50 =
4 ft. 2 x 1.8.
The Virgin (dark blue mantle with gold border, lined
with yreen, over red dress) supports the Child (pink dress)

BRITISH ISLES— FRANCE 97
standing on her knee and holding an apple with both hands.
The marble throne on which the Virgin is seated has arms
formed by conventionalised dolphins, and a round top
framed by dolphins and inscribed, "memento mei mater
dei regina celi letare" ("Remember me, Mother of God.
Rejoice, O Queen of Heaven "). Below this hangs a festoon
of fruit. A bright red watered silk curtain appears at the
sides. Gold background. On the floor to the left is the
small kneeling figure of a donor (apparently an ecclesiastic)
and a gold crown (raised ornaments).
Previously in the Dudley Collection.
Berenson, Notes, n.
STONYHURST COLLEGE, LANCASHIRE.
Virgin and Child. Wood (round top). 1-63x0-66 =
5 ft. 4x2.2. [No. 45.]
The Virgin (dress and mantle of gold brocade), seated on
a throne, supports the Child (nude) standing on her knee.
On the halo round her head is inscribed, " Ave Maria gratia
plena Do[minus tecum]." On the step of the throne is a
fly, and on the pavement below (left) a glass bottle with
carnations, and two apples. More fruit to the right. The
throne is of rather elaborate character, and its upper part
is draped. Some cherub heads appear at the top.
This appears to be a rather early work by Crivelli. The
expressionless type of the Virgin recalls the Madonna at
Verona, while the Child suggests analogies with the picture
at Brussels.
Purchased at Rome about 1820, and presented by the then
Dowager Lady Arundel.
FRANCE.
PARIS, LOUVRE.
St. Bernardino of Siena. Wood, 1-95x0-61=6 ft.
5 x2 ft. [No. 1268. Salle des Sept Metres.]
Full-length figure of the saint (life-size, and of the well-
known portrait type) with staff under right arm, which points
to a medallion with name of Jesus (right). Left hand holds
G

98 CATALOGUE OF WORKS
a book. Behind, a low marble dado, and a strip of yellow
brocade, at the top of which two groups of fruit are suspended.
At the feet of the saint kneel two small figures of the donors
in lay costume. On the face of the step on which he stands
is a cartellino with " Opus Caroli Crivelli Veneti, 1477."
The panel has been split in the right hand bottom corner.
Originally in the church of the Annunziata, Ascoli.
Afterwards in the collections of a" Agincourt and Cardinal
Fesch. Bought for the Louvre at the Campana sale in 1862.
Mus6e Napoleon III. No. 113. D'Agincourt, " Histoire
de l'Art," pi. clxii. (under name of the Beato Jacopo della
Marca). Ricci, i. 213. C. and C. i. 88 and note 1. L. and
R. Louvre, 68.
Dead Christ supported by Angels. Wood, small.
[No. 1269. Salle des Sept Metres.]
The body, resting on the edge of a marble tomb, is
supported in an upright position by two infant angels.
Behind hangs a strip of watered silk, which reappears on
the front of the tomb. Gold background.

GERMANY.
BERLIN MUSEUM.
St. Mary Magdalen. Wood, 1-52x0-49 = 5 ft x 1.8.
[No. 1 156.]
Full-length figure richly dressed, supporting the box of
ointment shaped like a tankard (raised gilt) in her right
hand, while she holds up her mantle with the left. She
stands on a step in front of a low marble wall. Behind,
a hanging of watered silk with festoon of flowers.
Patterned gold background. The face of the step is treated
as a frieze, with cherubs' and elephants' heads conven
tionalised. On a cartellino, " Opus Karoli Crivelli Venet[i]."
An R has been substituted for K by mistake.
Solly nilltction, 182 1.
C. and C. i. 93, note 3.

GERMANY 99
Virgin and Child with Saints. Wood, 1-91 x 1-96 =
6ft.3x6-5. [No. 1156A.]
The Virgin, crowned and enveloped in a brocaded mantle
which comes up over the head, seated on a marble throne,
holds the Child on her lap, who presents the keys to St.
Peter kneeling (left). The triple crown on the floor in
front with an apple near it. To the right, St. Louis of
Toulouse in a green cope, with large fleurs de lys in the
pattern of the brocade, holding pastoral staff, book, and
mitre. Behind him (left) a bearded bishop ( ? St. Augustine,
St. Bonaventura according to the Berlin Catalogue) with
mitre, cope, and pastoral staff, and (right) St. Bernardino
holding a crystal reliquary of the Precious Blood, and pointing
with right hand to medallion with the name of Jesus suspended
above. To the left of St. Peter a bishop (probably one of
the local patrons — e.g. St. Alexander) in cope and mitre
holding book, palm branch, and pastoral staff. Behind
him (right) St. Francis, and (left) a Franciscan (accord
ing to the Berlin Catalogue, Giovanni di Capistrano, who
preached a crusade against the Turks ; died 1456) hold
ing a banner with a red cross on a white ground.
Behind the Virgin a hanging of brocade and a festoon
of fruit, the ends of which are held by two boy angels
seated on the cornice of the throne. Below the one
to the left hangs a cucumber. Background formed by
a brocaded curtain behind the figures. Above it, sky.
At the bottom of the picture, " Opus Caroli Crivelli
Veneti." Painted, according to Ricci, by order of Vincenza Paccaroni,
during Crivelli's visit to Fermo in 1487, for the church of
the Minori Osservanti there. C. and C.'s statement that
it was in the Dominican Church is a mistake due to a mis
understanding of the words of Ricci. It would have been
incredible that a picture containing so many Franciscan
saints, and not one Dominican, should have been in a
Dominican church. In spite of this the Berlin Catalogue
assigns it to the Dominican church at Ascoli. In the time
of Ricci it had disappeared from Fermo, and is described
by Rosini as being at Rome,

ioo CATALOGUE OF WORKS
W. Conyngham's sale, 1849. Lord Dudley's sale, 1892,
whence it went to Berlin.
Exhibited R.A. 1871 and 1892.
Ricci, i. 214. C. and C. i. 90 and note 3. Rosini, "Storia
della Pittura Italiana" (Pisa, 1839), pi. lxiv.
PietA between Saints. Wood, 0-36 x 1-27 = 1 ft. 2\ x 4.2.
[No. 1173.J
The subjects are framed in three low arches, resting on
square marble pillars. Centre, the dead Christ supported
in the tomb by the Virgin and St John. Right, a female
saint enveloped in a brocaded mantle, and holding a book
and palm branch Left, St Jerome, with open book and
crucifix on the ledge in front of him, beating his breast
with a stone. Landscape background. On the face of the
pillars supporting the central arch, "Opus Karoli Crivelli
Veneti." Apparently a predella. At the end of the last century it
was in possession of Girolamo Zanetti at Venice.
Solly sale, 1821. Tlience to Berlin.
No one would ever have imagined that this picture was by
Crivelli, but for the signature. It cannot be explained by
that "closer acquaintance with the lesser stars" of the
school of Squarcione which C. and C. saw in it (a suggestion
which is repeated in the Berlin Catalogue), for it has none
of the characteristics of that school. It is equally remote
from the work of Crivelli's imitators. The signature must
therefore be regarded as a forgery. Mr Berenson suggests
that the real author may have been Matteo Cesa.
Zanetti, "Delia Pittura Veneziana" (second edition, Venice,
1792), 26, note. C. and C. i. 84 and note 2. D'Agincourt,
" Histoire de l'Art," pi. clxii.
HERR BRACHT.
Virgin and Child. Wood, small.
Beneath a plain marble arch the Virgin (half-length) holds
the Child seated on a cushion on the balustrade, grasping
an apple with both hands while he looks at the spectator.
An apple and a cucumber hang from the upper corners of

GERMANY 101
the picture. Both Mother and Child have circlets of pearls
round the head. The Child is almost a replica of the one in
the picture at S. Kensington.
Mr Berenson has kindly pointed out the existence of this
picture to me.
FRANKFURT-AM-MAIN, STAEDEL GALLERY.
The Annunciation. Wood. Two hexagonal panels, the
upper and lower sides being curved inwards. Each 0-54
x 0-38= 1 ft. 10 x 1.3J. [Nos. 33 and 34.]
(1) [No. 34.] The Virgin seen through the open door of
the house kneeling (to left) in her chamber before a book
open on the desk. Rays of light come towards her through
the window. (2) [No. 33.] The Angel, blessing with right
hand, and holding lily in left, kneels (to right) in front of a
house. The town wall seen through an arcade in the back
ground (right). The composition contains most of the
essential features of the ''Annunciation," in the National
Gallery. Acquired in 1832.
C. and C. i. 92, note 3.
STRASSBURG, PICTURE GALLERY.
The Adoration of the Shepherds. About 0-20 x 0-30
= 8 in. x 12. [No. 217.]
In a landscape the Virgin, at the entrance of the stable,
kneels with joined hands before the Infant lying on the
ground. St. Joseph is seated asleep to the left. The ox
and the ass are between them. On the left an angel is
leading the shepherds to the group. In the distance (right)
they are again represented, with the angels appearing in
the sky above them. On the left of the central scene, a
portion of a ruin, behind which a road with figures leads to
a walled town.
C. Loeser in the " Archivio Storico dell' Arte" (Ser. II. vol.
ii. August 1896) impugns the authenticity of this picture.
We have not seen the original, but, judging from the repro
duction, the analogies which it presents with the corre
sponding "Nativity," in the predella of the National Gallery
picture, No. 724, incline us to disagree with this view.

102 CATALOGUE OF WORKS
ITALY.
ANCONA, PINACOTECA PODESTI.
Virgin and Child. Wood, 0-21 x 0-15 = 8Jx 6 in. [No.
The Virgin, in a brocaded mantle drawn over the head,
on which is a circlet of pearls, supports the Child with her
right arm, while her left hand touches his left foot The
Child holds a bird by string in his left hand, and the yolk
of an egg in the palm of his right. Behind, a hanging of
pale red watered silk, with a festoon of fruit at the top. On
either side a landscape with figures. On the ledge of the
balustrade in front rests an open book (right). On its face,
" Opus Caroli Crivelli Veneti."
Originally in the church of S. Francesco (in the sacristy
when seen by C. and C). Minute finish.
C. and C. i. 92 and note 2.
ASCOLI, DUOMO (CHAPEL OF THE SACRAMENT:
left wall).
Ancona in ten compartments in two tiers, with a predella.
Wood. It is fixed rather high, in a bad hght, and is not
easy to examine. The Ancona measures about 3x2-75
= 9 ft. 1 o x 9. 1 .
The principal panels (all full-lengths) have, in the centre,
the Virgin seated with the Child, who holds an orb. Right,
St. Paul and St. Emidius in mitre and cope (raised orna
ments). Left, St. Peter (without the triple crown), and St.
John Baptist Above, in centre, the Pieta. Right, St.
George and St. Barbara (or Ursula). Left, St Jerome and
St. Catherine. These are half-lengths. In the predella are
small half-lengths of ten Apostles (the two outer ones
apparently lost), with Christ in the centre blessing and
holding orb in left hand. Gold backgrounds throughout
Below the Madonna is " Opus Karoli Crivelli Veneti
MCCCC 73."
The picture has never left the cathedral, but was no

ITALY 103
doubt originally painted for the high altar, and formerly
hung in the apse. It appears to be in fairly good condition,
but throughout the flesh tints have been covered with opaque
varnish. The fine frame has been much damaged.
Ricci, i. 211. C. and C. i. 87 and note 1. E. Luzi,
"La Cattedrale Basilica di Ascoli Piceno" (1894), 50.
BERGAMO, GALLERIA LOCHIS.
Virgin and Child. Wood, 0-45x0-33 = 1 ft. 6x1.1.
[No. 129.]
The Virgin, crowned ; mantle of gold brocade. The Child
holds an apple. Behind, a hanging and festoon of fruit.
Landscape background. On the ledge in front, fruits.
Signed " Opus Karoli Crivelli Veneti." The Virgin's mantle
abraded. Otherwise in good condition.
C. and C. (i. 93 and note 1) suggest that this may be
the picture mentioned by Ricci (i. 227) as in the Casa Lenti,
Ascoli.
FLORENCE, PALAZZO PANCIATICHI.
Pieta. Wood (round top). One third of life-size. About
o-6o=2 ft. high. [No. 101.]
The dead Christ in the tomb supported by the Virgin,
the Magdalen, and an angel. Gold background. Inscribed,
"Opus Caroli Crivelli Veneti, 1485."
" Colour reddish and not free from retouching " (C. and C).
This picture is now practically inaccessible.
Mr Berenson writes : " It is intensely passionate in
feeling, gorgeous in colour, and all in all one of Carlo's
masterpieces." For the form of panel compare Mr
Crawshay's " Pieta."
C. and C. i. 90 and note 1. Berenson, Notes, 12.
MACERATA, BIBLIOTECA COMUNALE (PINA-
COTECA).
Virgin and Child. Canvas, 0-60x0-42 = 2 ft. x 1.5.
[No. 36.]
The Virgin (rather more than half-length ; white veil, red

104 CATALOGUE OF WORKS
dress, and blue mantle lined green with gold ornaments)
holds the Child with both hands against her cheek, while
she looks out from the picture. The Child (yellow dress
and white girdle) has his arms round her neck. Blue back
ground. The background is repainted, and there is a good
deal of abrasion and patching of colour in the drapery :
e.g. the green lining of the Virgin's mantle has lost its folds.
The heads, etc., though injured in places, are free from any
damaging re-paint.
Attached to the back of the picture is an irregular square
of canvas containing the original signature, " Karolus
Crivellus Venetus pinsit Fermis, 1470." The letters are
black on a slate-coloured ground. The colour is the same
as that of the step on which the signature is inscribed in
the picture at Massa. The picture (which is an oval) and its
signature are the only surviving fragments of an altar-piece
in the church of the Minori Osservanti, where it was seen
by Lanzi before the fire of 1799. Like all Crivelli's pictures
this was presumably on wood, and has been transferred to
canvas. But as the canvas of the signature appears to be
the same as that which appears through the abrasions in
the painted surface of the picture, and of a finer texture
than the backing (which is square), it may originally have
been painted on canvas applied to the panel, like the
predella of the altar-piece at Massa.
Lanzi, iii. 23. Ricci, i. 212. Berenson, Notes, 11.
MASSA FERMANA, MUNICIPIO.
Ancona in five compartments, crowned by three smaller
ones with gabled tops, and a predella. Wood. The
measurements are as follows : —
Centre panel : 1-05x0-44= 3 ft. 7 x 1.51.
Side panels: 1-05x0-34= 3 ft. 7 x i.i1.
Centre gable : 0-5 1 x 0-28 = 1 ft 81 x 1 1.
Side gables : 0-37 x 0-19= 1 ft. z\ x 71.
Compartments of the predella : 0-28 x 0-44 = 1 1 in. x 1 ft. 5^.
In the centre the Virgin, in pink dress and blue mantle
(now almost black) with embossed gold border and olive

ITALY ios
green lining, on a marble throne, supports the Child
(yellow dress and white girdle) seated on her lap (right),
who blesses with the right hand and holds a gold orb in
the left. Immediately behind the Virgin hangs a narrow
curtain of red watered silk. On the top ledge of the
throne, fruit. A small votive taper is attached to the step
below, on the face of which is inscribed, "Karolus
Crivellus pinsit hoc opus m-cccc-lxviii." Right, St.
Silvester (turning to right), in triple crown and cope,
holding a book and pastoral staff". The gilt ornaments
are raised. St. Francis receiving the stigmata. Rocky
landscape. Left, St. Lawrence, in red dalmatic with
raised gilt ornaments, holding a book and the gridiron.
St. John Baptist in a rocky landscape holding cross-staff,
and a scroll inscribed " Ecce Agnus Dei qui tollit." Gold
backgrounds throughout. In the centre gabled panel, the
dead Christ upright in the tomb ; the Cross behind. Left
panel, the Virgin kneeling at a desk with open book, in
a walled court on to which opens (left) a door, showing
within a bed with red coverlet. To the right, the Dove,
emitting rays and a tongue of fire (raised gilt). Right
panel, the Angel Gabriel (embossed gilt wings, lily in
left hand, right hand raised) kneeling in walled court
facing an open door. Predella (beginning from the left) : —
(i.) Agony in the Garden. Undulating wooded landscape.
(2.) Crucifixion. Mary and John on either side of the
Cross, flanked by two mounted soldiers. Wooded hills in
background. (3.) Flagellation. In a room with central
pillar supporting the ceiling, to which Christ is tied. Two
executioners with scourges. (4.) Resurrection. Christ,
holding the cross-flag, and blessing with right hand, steps
out of the tomb. Rocks behind, and distant landscape at
the sides. Sleeping soldiers in front.
There are no traces of re-painting, but the surface has
been destroyed in many places. There is a large fissure
at the base of the panel with St. Lawrence, and a good
deal of abrasion at the base of that with St. Silvester. The
bottom of that with St. Francis has been quite eaten away
by worms, and the left corner shows the large hole through
which the bell rope referred to by C. and C. formerly

106 CATALOGUE OF WORKS
passed. The paint has quite disappeared from the left-
hand bottom corner in the Resurrection scene of the
predella. The rest, and the gables, are in fair preservation,
though showing some gaps. In the abrasions on the
predella the canvas stretched on the panel beneath the
paint can be seen. It is of the same character as that in
the Macerata picture. (See above.) There are no traces of
it in the principal panels. The architectural framework
was apparently simple, but something must have been lost
from the upper portion.
Painted for the Parish Church (S. Silvestro) by order of
the patron, Count Azzolino of Fermo (Ricci, i. 207). In the
sacristy when seen by Ricci and C. and C, who add : " It
used to be in the bell-room, where, however, it received
damage from the ropes." For the last twenty years it has
hung in the Sindaco's office in the Municipio. The gables
are detached. Mr Alexander Barker made an unsuccessful
attempt to purchase it about i860.
Ricci,. i. 207. C. and C. i. 86 and note I. Cav. Vin-
cenzio Brancadoro, "Notizie Storichedi Massa" (Monte-
giorgio 1895), 22, and note 39. Berenson, Notes, 11.
MILAN, THE BRERA.
The Coronation of the Virgin. Wood. Life size.
[No. 1, Sala F (Galleria Oggioni).]
Christ (crowned, and in red brocade robe), seated on a
throne raised on an altar-like base with elaborately carved
front resting on cherub heads, holding sceptre in left
hand, with the right places a crown on the head of the
Virgin, who is seated beside him with hands crossed on
breast over a robe of green brocade. Two flying angels
support a hanging behind the figures, above which God the
Father (surrounded by cherub heads, which also appear
at the sides of the hanging) bending forward touches with
either hand the crowns of Christ and the Virgin. Between
them is the Dove. Right, St. Francis, St Bonaventura
(mitre and red robe) looking at a small crucifix, and St.
Sebastian holding an arrow. Left, St John Baptist with

ITALY 107
cross-staff, and scroll ("Ecce Agnus Dei"), St. Catherine
with the wheel, and St. Geminianus (?) holding banner.
Behind, a brocaded curtain, above which in the sky appear
four angels playing on instruments. On the face of the
marble step in front, on a cartellino, "Carolus Crivellus
Venetus miles pinxit M.CCCCLXXXXlll." Below this to
the left is inscribed, "Tpe. Fr. Iacobi de Fabro et Fr.
Angeli Deserra comitu guardianus completa fuit." The
last two letters of " guardianus " have been re-painted, but
read no doubt originally guardianum, so that the whole
will read : " Tempore Fratris Iacobi de Fabriano et Fratris
Angeli Deserra comitum guardianorum completa fuit."
The tone of the picture has become dulled (as compared
with the other Crivellis in the Brera), but is generally in
fair condition, in spite of a few worm-holes and splitting of
the paint at the joinings of the panels.
Originally in the church of S. Francesco at Fabriano.
In time of Ricci, it had been bought by Cav. Pietro Oggioni
of Milan, who left it by will to the Brera in 1855.
Ricci, i. 228, note 27. C. and C. i. 95 and note 3.
Pieta. Wood. A Lunette. [Same number as last.]
The dead Christ in the tomb supported by St. John (red),
the Virgin (blue mantle), and the Magdalen (red). The
body rests on a transverse board covered with drapery.
On the ledge of the tomb, beyond St. John, is an open book
on a desk, with ink pot, pen case, and a lighted candle
beside it. Beyond the Magdalen, the box of ointment, and
a small votive taper. Behind, brocaded drapery, and two
cherub heads. Background of sky.
This lunette is now attached to the " Coronation," but
as its breadth does not exactly correspond to that of the
latter, the connection is probably not original. The
character of the figures also is different, for while the
heads in the " Coronation," in spite of its late date, belong
to Crivelli's earlier style, those in the Pieta are of his latest
type and less characteristic of him, reminding one of
ordinary Cinquecento art. The prevailing tone is red and

108 CATALOGUE OF WORKS
gold, and very brilliant. C. and C. remark : " This was the
very best, as it was the last work of a disagreeable but most
talented painter."
C. and C. i. 95.
The Crucifixion. Wood, 2-18x0-74=7 ft- 2 x 2-S-
[Sala II. No. 189.]
The dead Christ on the Cross. Below (right), St. John
dressed in yellowish green under a red robe, with left hand
on the Cross. Left, the Virgin (or Magdalen), in pink
dress and blue mantle, with clasped hands. Both are
looking upwards, with faces expressing grief. Behind, an
undulating landscape, with a city (Jerusalem) in the middle
distance. The sky ceases abruptly at the height of the
middle of the figure on the Cross, and the upper part has
a plain gold background.
Originally in the Dominican church at Camerino.
Taken to Milan, apparently about 1810. In fairly good
condition. A few worm-holes, and some bits of paint
chipped off the surface of the St. John. Bright tone of
colour, the landscape being especially light and clear.
The judgment of C. and C, " a poor work," is not justified.
Ricci, i. 210. C. and C. i. 92, note 1.
Virgin and Child. Wood, 2-19x0-75 = 7 ft. 2x2.6.
[Sala II. No. 193.]
The Virgin (crowned, blue and gold brocade mantle over
red dress) with the Child (pink dress holding a pear) on
her lap, seated on a marble throne, the canopy of which is
formed by arches entirely covered with fruit and foliage,
within which is a piece of brocade. Gold background.
On the lowest step of the throne is a vase with lilies and
roses. To its face is attached a small votive taper and a
tablet with " Karolus Crivellus Venetus eques laureatus
pinxit." Originally in the church of S. Domenico, Camerino,
whence it came to Milan in 1 8 10.
Good condition.
Ricci, i. 206. C. and C. i. 94 and note 2.

ITALY 109
Virgin and Child with four Saints. Wood. A
triptych, 2-18 x 2-20 = 7 ft. 2 x 7.3. [Sala VI. No. 283.]
Centre panel. — The Virgin (crowned, in mantle of blue
and gold lined with green) holds on her lap the Child (blue
dress), who grasps a bird with both hands. Elaborate
throne of coloured marbles ; on the middle ledge a glass
with flowers, and a basin of fruit. Behind, a red hanging,
with festoon of fruit at top. Right panel. — St. Geminianus
(red and blue) holding a red and white banner in his right
hand and a model of his town in the left. Behind him, St.
Peter Martyr, in the Dominican habit, with joined hands ;
a sword in his breast and knife in his head. Left panel. —
St. Peter in cope and triple crown, with cross in left hand,
book and keys in right. Behind him, St. Dominic with
joined hands, book, and lily. The faces of the marble steps
are treated like friezes with elaborate bas-reliefs, the lower
one (fruit, cherub heads, and skulls) coloured natural-
istically. Raised gilt ornaments and patterned gold back
grounds throughout. On a cartellino at the bottom, " Opus
Caroli Crivelli Veneti M.4°.8II" (=1482). The 8 made
like an X has led Ricci wrong.
Painted for the church of S. Domenico at Camerino.
Taken to the Brera in 1810. The surface shows a few
cracks. Otherwise in good condition, the tone being extra
ordinarily bright and clear.
Ricci, i. 206. C. and C. i. 89 and note 2.

SS. James, Bernardino, and Pellegrino. [Sala VI.
No. 294.]
SS. Antony the Abbat, Jerome, and Andrew. Wood.
[No. 295.] Each panel measures 0-24 x 0-59 = a.\ x 1. 1 1 \.
Half-lengths on gold ground, not divided by any frame
work. Apparently a predella. Perhaps that mentioned by
Ricci as in possession of Sig. Salvatori at Porto di Fermo,
Inferior work, if by Crivelli.
Ricci, i. 227. C. and C. i. 92 and note 1.

no CATALOGUE OF WORKS
MUSEO CIVICO, DELL' ACQUA COLLECTION.
St. John; St. Bartholomew. Half-lengths. Gold back
grounds. Presented to the Museum by Dr Levis, who had acquired
them from the collection of the Counts Castelbarco near Milan.
MUSEO POLDI-PEZZOLI.
Christ and St. Francis. Wood, 0-20x0-13 = 8 x 51 in.
[No. 20.]
Christ, supporting the cross (on which hang two scourges
and the crown of thorns) with his right arm, while the hand
exhibits the pierced side, stands in front of a ruinous wall
partly concealed by a curtain (yellow and green), which
also extends over the ground in front Before him kneels
St. Francis, holding up a chalice to catch the blood which
flows from the pierced side. To the left is the column of
the flagellation, with the rope still attached to it. Against
it rest the spear and reed with the sponge. Beyond, through
an arched opening, appears a landscape with a walled town.
St. Sebastian. Wood, 0-42 x 010= 1 ft. 4| x 4. [No. 78.]
St. Sebastian bound to a tree. Landscape background.
Minute finish.
PAUSULA, S. AGOSTINO (SACRISTY).
Virgin and Child. Wood, 127 x 0-84 = 4 ft. 2 x 2.9J.
Within a mandorla of cherub heads (alternately red and
green, picked out with gold), the Virgin (crowned, in pink
dress and red robe of gold brocade) looks down on the
Child (light green dress with white girdle), whom she holds
to her bared breast. The rest of the panel has been painted
over mucli later with angels on a background of clouds.
The condition of so much of the original surface as exists
is generally good, but there are some abrasions in the lower
part.

ITALY in
ROME, LATERAN, PINACOTECA.
Virgin and Child. Wood (round top). About 1-35 x
0-32=4 ft, 6 x 1.1.
The Virgin (crowned, red dress and blue and gold mantle,
lined green, which comes up over the head), seated on a
marble throne, supports the Child (green dress and white
girdle, string of pearls with coral charm round neck), who
stands on her lap and holds an apple by its stalk in his
left hand. Behind, hangs a strip of watered silk with
intertwined branches of apples and plums forming a festoon.
Figured gold background. On the marble pace below the
Virgin kneels (left) the small figure of a Franciscan friar.
On the face, which is fractured, " Opus Caroli Crivelli
Veneti 1482."
C. and C. i. 89 and note 1. Morelli, "Italian Painters,"
i. 275, note 3.
Virgin and Child with four Saints. Wood. Five
panels. About 0-90 x 1 -50 = 3 ft. x 5.
Centre. The Virgin (gold dress, dark blue mantle with
gold border and green lining), seated, holds the Child
(yellow dress), who has in one hand a string to which a
bird is attached, in the other apparently the yolk of an
egg (rf- Ancona). A small figure of the donor kneels at
her feet. Across the curtain at the back are suspended
some yellow leaves. In the side panels SS. Gregory,
John Baptist, John the Evangelist, and Jerome. On the
frame is inscribed, " 1481 die ultima Iulii."
Originally in the church of S. Agostino at Grottamare.
Taken to Rome by order of Gregory XVI, 1831-1846.
An old inhabitant still remembers his father, a carpenter,
packing up the picture to be sent to Rome.
Morelli describes this as a work of Crivelli, and " power
ful in drawing." C. and C.'s remark is, " of a sharp glowing
colour, false in drawing, and probably by assistants of
Crivelli." We may safely say that it is not by his hand.
C. and C. i. 88 and note 2. Morelli, " Italian Painters,"
i. 275, note 3.

112 CATALOGUE OF WORKS
VATICAN, PINACOTECA.
Pieta. Wood. A lunette, ro6 x 2-03 = 3 ft. 6 x 6.8.
The dead Christ in the tomb, supported by St. John
(right), the Virgin, and the Magdalen (left). The body
rests on a transverse board covered with a piece of brocade,
which forms a hanging at the back. On the ledge of the
tomb, beyond St. John, is a lighted candle, and by the
Magdalen the box of ointment. The background is formed
by winged cherub heads, heightened with gold. " Opus
Caroli Crivelli Veneti " on the cornice of the tomb, under
St. John.
C. and C. i. 91 and note 5.
DON MARCELLO MASSARENTI.
Virgin and Child between St. Francis and St. Jerome.
Half-lengths. I insert this on the authority of Mr Berenson, who has
seen the picture.
TORRE DI PALME, S. AGOSTINO (otherwise S.
GIOVANNI BAPTISTA).
Ancona, in twelve compartments, with predella. Round
topped panels and gold backgrounds throughout. Wood,
1-65 x 1-36 = 5 ft. 6 X4.6. The full-lengths of Saints in
the side panels are 0S5 x 0-29 = 2 ft. 10x11; and the
half-lengths above, 0-50 x 0-27 = 1 ft 8 x 10.
Centre. — The Virgin (crowned, in blue dress and gold
brocade mantle), on a throne, holds the Child seated on her
lap. He has a yellow dress with white girdle, and a circlet
of pearls round the head, and of red beads round the neck,
and blesses with the right hand, while the left holds a
flower. Behind, a curtain of gold brocade with a festoon
of carnations. The arms of the throne terminate in elaborate
candelabra. Apples on the top ledge.
Side panels.— Right, St. Paul (red robe) holding sword
and book. St. Augustine with mitre, in red and gold cope,

ITALY 113
holding pastoral staff and model of a church. Left, St.
Peter (tiara and gold cope over red dalmatic) holding book
and keys in right hand and cross in left. The gilt orna
ments are raised, as also e.g. in the St. Augustine. St.
John Baptist (patron of the parish) in red robe, holding a
cross-staff to which is attached a scroll with " Ecce Agnus
Dei." Upper tier. — The three central panels project like a bow
window above the Virgin. In the centre, Christ, nude save
for a loin cloth, standing. The stream of blood from the
pierced side flows into a chalice. The panels on either side
represent two angels (full-lengths, in embroidered tunicles)
in adoration.
Half-lengths in the side panels. — Right, St. Nicholas of
Tolentino (a saint of the order Eremiti di S. Agostino, to
which the Church belonged), in black habit, with star in
his right hand and book in left. St. Catherine (red mantle)
crowned, and holding palm branch in right hand and wheel
in left. Left, St. Jerome represented as a cardinal, holding
model of church in right hand and open book in left ;
St. Sebastian, nude to the waist, with hands bound behind
his back, and pierced with arrows.
Predella. The risen Christ, and the twelve Apostles. All
half-lengths, in 13 small compartments.
Considerable portions of the surface have been destroyed
on the Virgin's mantle (right side). The rest of the picture
appears to be in fair condition. The tone, especially of the
central panel, is very clear and brilliant.
The Ancona has always remained in S. Agostino, and, as
the saints selected show, must have been painted either
at the order of, or as a present to the Eremitani who then
occupied it. It was originally in the apse behind the
high altar. In 1891 it was moved to its present position
against the north wall near the entrance, and enclosed in
a glass case. The Parocco Gasparri narrates with
considerable spirit in the pamphlet cited below, the
attempt made in 1888 by the authorities at Fermo to
remove the picture, and the successful resistance of the
people of Torre. He plausibly connects the picture with
Crivelli's visit to Count Lodovico Vinci at Fermo in 1487
H

114 CATALOGUE OF WORKS
(see above p. 20), and shows from documents that, at least
in the early part of the sixteenth century, the Vincis possessed
a garden at Torre.
This picture has always passed under the name of Carlo
Crivelli ; but we know that Vittorio was working for the
Vinci family at Fermo about the same time (C. and C. i.
96, note 1), and as the types are precisely those which
we find in his better works, we may safely ascribe it to
him. The Child, e.g., is the counterpart of the boy angels
in the picture at S. Francesco, Fallerone (C. and C. i. 97,
note 3. Photograph by Cordelia of Fermo). In drawing
and sentiment it is far superior to his ordinary works, and
(especially the central panel) may be regarded as his master
piece. Ricci, i. 209. C. and C. 1. 95, note 3 (both as a work of
Carlo). Domenico Gasparri, " Illustrazione del Polittico di
C. Crivelli in Torre di Palme" (Fermo, 1897).
VENICE, ACCADEMIA.
1. SS. Jerome and Augustine.
2. SS. Peter and Paul. Wood, (round tops). Figures
life-size, 2-8o x 0-73 = 8 ft. 3x2.5. [Sala V. No. 103.]
(1) St. Jerome as a cardinal, holding two books on which
rests the model of a church. St Augustine (Gregory, L. and
R.) in cope and mitre, holding book and pastoral staff.
Below him, looking up at St Jerome, is the lion with its
left paw pierced by a thorn. Above, a six-winged cherub
head. Gold background. (2) The left side of the picture,
with half of St. Peter, has disappeared, leaving the panel
exposed. He is reading in an open book, while St. Paul
(red robe over green), with his left hand resting on a sword,
looks over his shoulder. Two books on the floor at his
feet. Above, a six-winged cherub. Gold background.
Originally in S. Domenico, Camerino. (1) Apparently
went to Milan with the other pictures from S. Domenico
early in the century. (2) Till recently in the possession
of the Marchese Servansi Colli at S. Severino.
These panels must have flanked the centre of a large

ITALY 115
altar-piece, but they do not exactly correspond, and no
doubt the other two Fathers of the Church were represented
in one, and perhaps two more Apostles or Saints in another
panel. L. and R. say : " Panneu lateral d' un triptyque dont
le sujet principal, la Vierge et l'Enfant J^sus, est au muse"e
Brera a Milan" {i.e. No. 193). The style, however, is not
the same. L. and R. Venise, 44.
Four Saints. Wood. Separate panels. 0-70x1-60 =
2 ft. 4 x 5.4. [No. 105.]
Beginning from the left : St. Roch as a pilgrim (pink
and green) pointing to his wound. St. Sebastian bound to
a tree and pierced with arrows. St. Emidius, in mitre and
red cope over blue dalmatic, holding book and pastoral
staff. St. Bernardino of Siena with eyes fixed on the
medallion with name of Jesus hanging above him. Under
his left arm a book and staff. Behind each figure a brocaded
hanging. Acquired in 1890 by the Accademia from the Pericoli
family of Rome. Previously in the Aosta collection at
Genoa. A typical example of Vittorio Crivelli in his better style.
Some illiterate forger has added " Opus Carolus Crivelli "
below the figure of S. Bernardino.
L. and R. Venise, 44. " Archivio Storico," 1890, 159.
VERONA, MUSEO CIVICO (PINACOTECA).
Virgin and Child. Wood. [No. 351.]
The Virgin (half-length) in gold brocaded mantle which
comes up over the head, standing with hands joined in
front of the Child. He stands on a cushion placed on the
ledge of the marble parapet in front, pointing with the left
hand to three small figures of children kneeling on the
ledge (right), and holding the cross, crown of thorns, and
scourge. To the left, another group of similar figures,
consisting of the Infant Christ (a replica of the larger
figure, but nude) standing by the pillar of scourging, and
three others, representing soldiers, with the nails, spear

116 CATALOGUE OF WORKS
and reed, and ladder. Behind the Virgin, a hanging of
pale red watered silk (which also appears on the parapet
under the Infant), and a festoon of fruit on which two
bullfinches are perched. Architectural background, con
sisting of a half-ruined wall with arched opening on either
side, and decorated above with coloured marble shafts,
between which, immediately over the Virgin, a third arch,
in which are two boy angels playing on musical instruments,
and a vase of flowers. Sky background. Through the
opening on the right is a landscape with a town and the
Crucifixion in the distance. On the front of the parapet
at the bottom of the picture, " Opus Karoli Crivelli Veneti."
Originally in the Convent of S. Lorenzo, Venice. Thence
through the Craglietto {in time of Ricci) and Barbini-
Braganzi collections to the gallery of Verona.
It is obvious that the Virgin's hair is not in Crivelli's
manner ; and as a matter of fact it has been re-painted, the
original treatment being still discernible beneath. Otherwise
in good condition.
Ricci, i. 225, note 4. C. and C. i. 82 and note 3.
Morelli, " Italian Painters," i. 276.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
BOSTON, MRS JOHN L. GARDNER.
St. George and the Dragon. Wood, 0-90x0-46 = 3 ft.
x 18J in.
In a rocky landscape, St. George, in armour, mounted
on a rearing horse, having pierced the Dragon with his
lance, is about to strike it with a sword uplifted above his
head with both hands. In the distance to left a walled
town, in front of which is a small figure of the princess in
prayer. To the right, landscape with road and trees.
Gold background.
From F. R. Ley land's sale, 1892, to the collection of Mr
Stuart .)/. Samuel. Thence to Boston.
Exhibited R. A. 1882, Venetian Exhibition (No. 40, and
in Illustrated Catalogue).
Berenson, Notes, 11.

CATALOGUE OF WORKS 117
DRAWING
Only one drawing by Crivelli is known. It is a three-quarter
length of St. Peter (0-20x0-15 = 8x9 in.) in pen and ink.
The figure has been carelessly cut out along the outline with
scissors, thus coarsening its aspect. The features are
blackened. This drawing is in the possession of Mr C. Loeser of
Florence.

UNIDENTIFIED PICTURES
Among the pictures mentioned by Ricci and others which
at present are unidentified, the following appear to be the
most important. The places are those given by the authorities
who mention them.
Ascoli. Canons' residence attached to the Duomo. " Cruci
fixion," with the Magdalen. Signed and dated 1487. (R. i.
213 ; C. and C. i. 95, note 3.)
Ascoli. Capella del Palazzo del Governo. " Annunciation."
Signed " Opus Karoli Crivelli Veneti." (R. i. 227 ; C. and C.
i. 95, note 3.)
Venice. S. Sebastiano, attached to Convent of S. Lorenzo.
" St. Fabian," in episcopal vestments. (Ridoifi, i. 49 ; C. and C.
i. 82, note 3.) One would expect a St. Sebastian as a pendant
to this. Venice. S. Sebastiano, attached to Convent of S. Lorenzo.
" Marriage of St. Catherine." (Ridoifi, i. 49 ; C. and C.
i. 82, note 3.)
Force. Principal church. " Madonna,'' signed. Belonged to
a triptych which was in S. Francesco. (R. i. 209 ; C. and C.
i. 95, note 3.)
Atri. S. Francesco. "Virgin in Ecstasy." The Trinity
above. Apparently a replica of National Gallery, 906. Signed
"miles." R. i. 214; C. and C. i. 95, note 3, who wrongly
compare it with the " Coronation," in the Brera.
Monte Fiore, near Fermo. Franciscan church. (1) " St. Peter
Martyr." Full-length, corresponding to the "St. Francis" at
Brussels. (2) Five "Apostles," from the predella. (See High
Legh Hall.)

118

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
Out of rather more than fifty existing works by Crivelli,
some of which, now separated, were originally combined, only
thirteen are dated. A certain number besides contain historical
and other indications which fix the date to within a few years
with tolerable certainty. Considerations of style must determine
the places of the remainder. In some (perhaps most) cases
the decision is fairly obvious. We have not attempted to
assign a place to every known picture by Crivelli. All the
more important ones, however, will be found in the following
hst. When a picture is no longer in its original place, the
latter is, when known, added in brackets.
Virgin and Child. Verona. (Venice.)
1468. Altar-piece. Massa Fermana.
Virgin and Child. Sir F. Cook, Richmond.
1470. Virgin and Child. Macerata. (Painted at
Fermo.)
Virgin and Child. Lord Northbrook. London.
Virgin and Child. Ancona.
Resurrection. Lord Northbrook.
St. George. Mrs J. L. Gardner. Boston, U.S.A.
1472. Virgin and Child. Mr Benson, London.
Altar-piece. (Montefiore, Fermo.)
1. Virgin and Child. Brussels, No. 16.
2. St. Francis. Do. No. 17.
3. Dead Christ with Angels. National Gallery,
No. 602.
4. Predella with Christ and seven Apostles.
High Legh Hall.
Virgin and Child. Pausula.
119

120 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
1473. Altar-piece. Duomo, Ascoli.
1476. Altar-piece (Demidoff). National Gallery, No.
788. (Ascoli.)
Virgin and Child. Buda-Pesth.
St. Mary Magdalen. Berlin.
1477. St. Bernardino. Louvre. (Ascoli.)
1482. Virgin and Child. Lateran.
1482. Virgin and Child with four Saints. Brera.
(Camerino.)
Virgin and Child. S. Kensington, Jones
collection.
(1484-92.) Vision of the B. Gabriele Ferretti. National
Gallery, No. 668. (? Ancona.)
1485. Pieta. Pal. Panciatichi, Florence.
PietX. Mr R. Crawshay, London.
Later than the last two, but with similar types, comes —
Pieta. Vatican.
Crucifixion. Brera, No. 189. (Camerino.)
i486. Annunciation. National Gallery, No. 739.
(Ascoli.)
(1487-90.) Virgin and Child with St. Peter and six
Saints. Berlin. (Fermo.)
SS. Jerome and Augustine, SS. Peter and
Paul. Venice, Accademia.
(1490.) Virgin and Child with SS. Jerome and
Sebastian. National Gallery, No. 724. (Matelica).
1491. Virgin and Child with SS. Francis and
Sebastian. National Gallery, No. 809.
1492. The Virgin in Ecstasy. National Gallery, No.
906. (Pergola or Rimini.)
1493. Coronation of the Virgin. Brera. (Fabriano.)
Virgin and Child. Brera. (Camerino.)
PietX. Brera.

INDEX

Alamanus, Petrus, his Annuncia
tion at Ascoli, 19 ; assistant of
Crivelli, 34, 78
Annunciation, The (Nat. Gallery),
17, 18, 20, 28, 30, 52, 54, 62 ;
(Frankfurt), 30, 54, 62;
(Massa), 42, 62
Ascoli, Crivelli's residence and
work at, 17 ; ancona in the
cathedral, 17, 30, 51 ; the
"Libertas Ecclesiastica," 19;
The Annunciation, by Petrus
Alamanus at, 19; Crivelli's
Annunciation painted at, 20 ;
the Anti-Papal revolution at,
21 ; counter-revolution at, 22
Barker, Mr Alexander, 36, 40
Bernardino di Mariotto, 82
Christ and Apostles (High Legh
Hall), 47, 48
Christ and S. Francis (Milan), 53
Camerino, Crivelli's work at, 60
Conception, The (Nat. Gallery),
74. 76
Coronation of the Virgin (Brera),
10, 28, 69, 75
Crivelli, Carlo, his masters, I, 9 ;
liking for the " ancona," 3 ;
mfluence of the Vivarini on,
S, 6 ; influence of Squarcione,
7, 9 ; meagre fact's of his life,
10 ; Venice his place of origin,
II ; removal to the Marches,
12 ; probable headquarters at
Fermo, 16 ; residence at
Ascoli, 17 ; work at Camerino,
18 ; The Annunciation painted
at Ascoli, 20 ; removal to
Fermo, 20 ; knighted by Prince
Ferdinand, 22 ; probable date
121

of his death, 22, 23 ; his char
acteristics, 24-37 ; his subjects,
25 ; his anconas, 26 ; more
elaborate compositions less
successful, 28 ; increased
elaboration of accessories, 29,
and of architecture, 30 ; use of
fruit and flowers, 31 ; and of
animal forms, 31 ; his land
scapes, 32 ; his technique, 33 ;
his rank as an artist, 34 ; in
creasing value of his pictures,
37 ; survey of his work, 38-
77 ; his only known drawing,
57 ; his influence, 78-82
Crivelli, Protasio, \\n, 7973
Crivelli, Vittorio, 21, 34, 78
Crucifixion, The (Brera), 17, 18,
29, 68 ; (Massa), 42
Dead Christ supported by Angels
(Nat. Gallery), 30, 47, 48, 49,
54 ; (Louvre), 53
Donatello, at Padua, 7
Fermo, Crivelli's work at, 15, 16,
40, et seq.
Flagellation, The (Verona), 39;
(Massa), 42
Gentile da Fabriano, 5
Giambono, 4
Giovanni d'Alemania, 79
Infant Christ giving the Keys to
Peter, The, 21, 70
Jacobello del Fiore, 4
Lorenzo di S. Severino, 81
Macerata, altar-piece at, 15, 16, 45

122

INDEX

Madonna. See Virgin and Child
Magdalen (Berlin), 27, 3m, 58'
Massa Fermana, altar-piece at, 10,
16, 30, 40
Monte Fiore, altar-piece painted
for the Convent at, 16, 17, 47,
48, 54
Murano, the school of painters at,
3. S
Nativity, The (Nat. Gallery), 73 ;
(Strassburg), 73
Niccolo da Foligno, 74, 81
Odoni Altar - piece, The (Nat.
Gallery), 28, 31, 32, 72
Padua, the school of, 3, 7 ! its
uniform characteristics, 8 ; its
influence on Crivelli, 33, 38
Pausula, altar-piece by Vivarini at,
13 ; Madonna by Crivelli at,
16, 48, 50 ; triptych by Lorenzo
di S. Severino at, 81
Pietas, by Crivelli (Berlin), II, 39 ;
(Mr Crawshay), 26, 52, 66 ;
(Vatican), 26, 30, 66, 67; (Nat.
Gallery), 30; (Ascoli), 52;
(Panciatichi), 52, 66 ; (Brera),
66
Pisanello, 5
Resurrection, The (Massa), 42 ;
(Lord Northbrook), 42, 47
St. Andrew (Nat. Gallery), 56, 57
St. Bernardino (Louvre), 17, 27,
30,58
St. Catherine (Nat. Gallery), 56,
73 ; (Brera), 76
St. Dominic (WaX. Gallery), 56, 59
St. George and the Dragon (Boston),
40, 46 ; (Nat. Gallery), 73
5/. Emidius (Ascoli), 26, 51 ; (Nat.
Gallery), 52, 63
St. Francis (Massa), 42; (Brussels),
48; (Milan), 53; (Nat. Gal-
lery), 56, 73 i (Brera), 75
St, Gimignano (Brera), 60, 6i

St. Jerome (Nat. Gallery), 32, 71,
72 ; (Venice), 32 ; (Berlin), 71
St. John the Baptist (Nat. Gallery),
32, 56 ; (Massa), 42 ; (Brera),
76
St. Lawrence (Massa), 42
St. Peter (Nat. Gallery), 41, 56, 57 ;
(Ascoli), 52; (Brera), 56, 57,
60, 61 ; (drawing), 57
St. Sebastian (Nat. Gallery), 28, 72,
73; (Milan), 73; (Brera), 76
St. Silvester (Massa), 41, 57
St. Thomas Aquinas (Nat. Gallery),
56, 57
Schiavone, Gregorio, 9, 11, 38, 53
Squarcione, his influence on Crivelli,
3. 7. 8, n, 39.47
Vanini, Pietro, silver statue of
St. Emidius by, 52
Virgin and Child (Verona), II, 12,
38, 53; (Ancona), 16, 44;
(Pausula), 16, 48, 50; (SirF.
Cook), 17, 30, 43; (Brera,
No. 193), 18, 32, 69, 71.76;
(South Kensington), 29, 40, 62 ;
(Lateran), 29, 45, 49 ; (Lord
Northbrook), 44 ; (Macerata),
45. 49. 51 : (Stonyhurst), 45 ;
(Mr R. Benson), 46, 49, 51 ;
(Brussels), 48, 50; (Nat
Gallery, No. 788), 55 ; (Buda-
Pesth), 61
Virgin and Child with Saints
(triptych, Brera), 18, 30, 31,
51, 60; (Berlin), 70
Virgin and Child between St. Jerome
and St. Scbastian(WaX.. Gallery),
72
Virgin and Child between St. Francis
arid St. Sebastian ( Nat. Gallery),
73
1'irgin in Ecstasy (Nat. Gallery),
3 1". 74. 76
J'isiaii of Gabriele Ferretti, The, 29,
3-. 64
Vivarini, Antonio, and Bartolom-
meo, their influence on Crivelli,
3. 5. 6, 9. 13. 38. 4°, 49

W. H. WHITE AND CO. LTD,
RIVERSIDE PRESS, EDINBURGH

MESSRS BELL'S
Publications on
Art and Architecture

SANDRO BOTTICELLI. By Herbert P. Horne. With
about 40 Photogravure Plates. 225 Copies only, printed on
hand-made paper. Crown folio. ,£10, 10s. net.
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI : An Illustrated Memor
ial of HIS Art. By H. C. Marillier. With 30 Photo
gravure Plates, and 170 other Illustrations, including a large
number never before reproduced. Small folio. ,£5, 5j. net.
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN and his Work. By Malcolm
Bell. With 8 Photogravure Plates, and 74 other Illustrations.
Containing also very complete lists of the known works of the
Artist, including his Etchings, and giving all particulars of date,
size, exhibition, etc. Small colombier 8vo. 25.?. net.
FRENCH PAINTERS OF THE i8th CENTURY. By
LADY Dilke. With 11 Photogravure Plates, and 64 Half-Tone
Illustrations ; containing a number of pictures never before re
produced. Limited Large Paper Edition, fcap. folio, with extra
Illustrations, £2, 2s. net. Library Edition, imp. 8vo, 28s. net.
THE PRE-RAPHAELITE PAINTERS, THEIR ASSO
CIATES AND SUCCESSORS. By Percy H. Bate. With
7 Photogravure Plates, and 84 other Illustrations. Small colom
bier 8vo. £2, 2s. net.
SIR J. E. MILLAIS, Bart., P.R.A. : His Art and Influence.
By A. Lys Baldry. Illustrated with 87 reproductions in Half-
Tone and 2 Photogravure Plates. Large post 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.
SIR EDWARD BURNE -JONES, Bart. A Record and
Review. By Malcolm Bell. With over 100 Illustrations.
Fourth Edition, entirely revised, with many new Illustrations.
Large post 8vo. 7$. 6d. net.
FREDERIC, LORD LEIGHTON. An Illustrated Chronicle.
By ERNEST Rhys. With 83 Illustrations and 12 Photogravure
Plates. Small colombier 8vo. 25s. net.
ALBERT MOORE: His Life and Works. By A. Lys
Baldry. With 8 Photogravures and about 70 other Illustrations.
Small colombier 8vo. 21s. net.

Messrs Bell's Books
THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH: His Life and Works. By
Mrs Arthur Bell (N. D'Anvers). With 57 Illustrations,
including 6 Photogravures. Small colombier 8vo. 25s. net.
WILLIAM MORRIS: His Art, His Writings, and His
Public Life. By Aymer Vallance, M.A., F.S.A. With 60
Illustrations and Portrait. Third Edition. Imperial 8vo. 25J.
net.
VANDYCK'S PICTURES AT WINDSOR CASTLE. By
Ernest Law. Crown folio, with 30 Plates in Photogravure.
£6, 6s. net.
RAPHAEL'S MADONNAS, and other Great Pictures.
By Karl KXroly. With 9 Photogravures and 44 other Illus
trations. Small colombier 8vo. 2ij. net
MASTERPIECES OF THE GREAT ARTISTS, a.d. 1400-
1700. By Mrs Arthur Bell (N. D'Anvers). With 43 Illus
trations, including 8 Photogravures. Small colombier 8vo. 21s.
net.
THE ART OF VELASQUEZ. A Critical Study. By R. A. M.
Stevenson. Printed on hand-made paper, with 25 Photo
gravures and 100 other Illustrations. 4to. £2, $s. net
MASTERS OF MEZZOTINT : The Men and their Work.
By Alfred Whitman. With 60 Collotype Plates. Small
colombier 8vo. £2, 2s. net
THE ROYAL GALLERY OF HAMPTON COURT ILLUS
TRATED : being an Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the
Queen's Collection at that Palace, with Descriptive, Biographical,
and Critical Notes by Ernest Law, B.A. Revised, enlarged,
and Illustrated with 100 Plates. Fcap. 4to, white buckram.
30J. net.
THE GLASGOW SCHOOL OF PAINTING. By David
Martin. With Introduction by Francis H. Newbery. With
60 Illustrations. Crown 4to. iqt. 6d. net
ETCHING IN ENGLAND. By Frederick Wedmore. With
50 Illustrations. Small 4to. Ss. 6d. net.
THE BASES OF DESIGN. By Walter Crane. With 200
Illustrations. Medium 8vo. l&s. net.
LINE AND FORM. By Walter Crane. With numerous
Illustrations. Medium 8vo. [In tlie Press.
MEMORIALS OF CHRISTIE'S. By W. Roberts. With
80 Collotype and other Illustrations. Royal 8vo. 2 vols., 25*. net.
REX REGUM : A Painter's Study of the Likeness of Christ
from the Time of the Apostles to the Present Day. By Sir
Wyke Bayliss, F.S.A., President of the Royal Society of British
Artists. With numerous Illustrations reproduced from the
Original Paintings. Post 8vo. 6s. net.

on Art and Architecture
WESTMINSTER ABBEY : Its History and Architecture.
With 75 large Collotype Plates from recent photographs, many of
which have been taken expressly for this work. Historical text
by H. J. Feasey, accompanied by an Architectural Account of
the Abbey Buildings by J. T. Micklethwaite, F.S.A., Architect
to the Dean and Chapter, and an Appendix on the earlier
Sepulchral Monuments by Edward Bell, M.A., F.S.A., 250
copies only. Large imperial 4to. ,£5, 5j. net.
A HISTORY OF RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN
ENGLAND, a.d. i 500-1 800. By Reginald Blomfield, M.A.
With 150 Illustrations drawn by the Author, and 100 Plates
from Photographs and old Prints and Drawings. Imp. 8vo.
2 vols. 50J. net.
A HISTORY OF GOTHIC ART IN ENGLAND. By E. S.
Prior. With about 300 Illustrations by G. C. Horsley. Imp.
8vo. 3 1 s. 6d. net. [In the Press.
ARCHITECTURAL STUDIES IN FRANCE. By the late
Rev. J. L. Petit, F.S.A. With more than 250 Illustrations. New
Edition, revised by Edward Bell, M.A., F.S.A. Fcap. 4to. 15J.
NOTES ON IRISH ARCHITECTURE. By the Earl of
Dunraven. Edited by Margaret Stokes, Hon. M.R.I.A.
With very numerous Illustrations. Imp. 4to. 2 vols. ,£8, 8s.
THE PRINCIPLES OF GOTHIC ECCLESIASTICAL
ARCHITECTURE. By M. H. Bloxham. With numerous
Illustrations. Eleventh Edition. 3 vols. Crown 8vo. 22s. 6d.
A TREATISE ON STAIRBUILDING AND HANDRAIL-
ING. Intended for the use of House and Ship Joiners, Builders,
Architects, and Students. By William Mowat, M.A., Science
Master, School of Science and Art, Barrow-in-Furness ; late
Examiner in Ship Joinery to the City and Guilds of London
Institute, and Alexander Mowat, M.A., Science Master,
School of Science and Art, Barrow-in-Furness. Imperial 8vo.
With numerous Illustrations.
LATER RELIQUES OF OLD LONDON. Drawn in Litho
graphy by T. R. Way. With Introduction and Descriptive
Letterpress by H. B. Wheatley, F.S.A. Demy 4to. 21s. net.
SUBURBAN RELIQUES OF OLD LONDON : North of the
Thames. Drawn in Lithography by T. R. Way. With Intro
duction and Descriptive Letterpress by H. B. Wheatley, F.S.A.
Demy 4to. 2\s. net.
RELIQUES OF OLD LONDON on the Banks of the
Thames and in the Suburbs South of the River.
Drawn in Lithography by T. R. Way. With Introduction and
Descriptive Letterpress by H. B. Wheatley, F.S.A. Demy 4to.
2 1 s. net.
THE BOOK OF SUN-DIALS. By H. K. F. Eden and
E. Lloyd. Third and much enlarged Edition. With numerous
Illustrations. Imp. 8vo.

Messrs Bell's Books
A BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL DICTIONARY OF
PAINTERS AND ENGRAVERS. With a List of Ciphers,
Monograms, and Marks. By Michael Bryan. New Edition,
revised and enlarged, by R. E. Graves and Sir Walter
Armstrong. 2 vols. Imperial 8vo, buckram. £3, 3s.
CONCISE HISTORY OF PAINTING. By Mrs Charles
Heaton. New Edition, revised by Cosmo Monkhouse. $s.
LANZI'S HISTORY OF PAINTING IN ITALY, from the
Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the
Eighteenth Century. Translated by Thomas Roscoe. 3 vols.,
y. 6d. each.
DIDRON'S CHRISTIAN ICONOGRAPHY. A History of
Christian Art in the Middle Ages. Translated by E. J. MlLLING-
ton, and completed, with additions, by Margaret Stokes.
With 240 Illustrations. 2 vols. ioj.
VASARI'S LIVES. A Selection of Seventy of the Lives.
Edited and annotated in the light of modern discoveries by E. H.
and E. W. Blashfield and A. A. Hopkins. Illustrated. 4 vols.
Pott 4to. 36J. net.
CUNNINGHAM'S LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT
BRITISH PAINTERS. A New Edition, with Notes, and
Sixteen fresh Lives, by Mrs Heaton. 3 vols., $s. 6d. each.
HISTORY OF BRITISH COSTUME, from the Earliest Time
to the Close of the Eighteenth Century. By J. R. Planche,
Somerset Herald. With Index, and upwards of 400 Illustrations.
Ss.
FAIRHOLT'S COSTUME IN ENGLAND. A History of
Dress to the End of the Eighteenth Century. Third Edition,
revised, by Viscount Dillon, V.P.S.A. With above 700
Engravings. 2 vols., sj. each.
LECTURES AND LESSONS ON ART. By the late F. W.
Moody, Instructor in Decorative Art at South Kensington
Museum. With Diagrams. Eighth Edition. Demy 8vo. 4s. 6d.
THE ART OF SKETCHING FROM NATURE. By P. H.
Delamotte, late Professor of Drawing at King's College,
London. Illustrated by 24 Woodcuts and 20 Coloured Plates.
Royal 4to. 2 is.
INTAGLIO ENGRAVING, PAST AND PRESENT. By
Edward Renton. Fcap. 8vo. Illustrated, y. 6d.
THE ANATOMY AND PHILOSOPHY OF EXPRESSION,
AS CONNECTED WITH THE FINE ARTS. By Sir
Charles Bell, K.H. Seventh Edition, revised, with numerous
Illustrations. $s.
LEONARDO DA VINCI'S TREATISE ON PAINTING.
Translated by J. F. Rigaud, R.A. New Edition, revised, with
numerous Plates. 5*.

on Art and Architecture
FLAXMAN'S LECTURES ON SCULPTURE, as delivered
before the President and Members of the Royal Academy. With
Portrait and 53 Plates. 6s.
LITERARY WORKS OF SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
With a Memoir, etc., by H. W. Beechy. 2 vols., y. 6d. each.
AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF ARMS AND ARMOUR.
By Auguste Demmin. Translated by C. G. Black, M.A. With
Index and nearly 2000 Illustrations. 7s. 6d.
HOLBEIN'S DANCE OF DEATH. Printed from the Original
Woodblocks of Bonner and Byfield. With an Introductory Note
by Austin Dobson. 32mo, cloth, half parchment, gilt top.
2s. 6d. net.

Ex-Libris Series
Edited by Gleeson White
The volumes, printed at the Chiswick Press, in Imperial i6mo
size, are profusely Illustrated.
ENGLISH BOOK-PLATES: Ancient and Modern. By
Egerton Castle, M.A., F.S.A. With more than 200 Illus
trations. Third Edition, iar. 6d. net.
FRENCH BOOK-PLATES. By Walter Hamilton, F.R.H.S.,
F.R.G.S. New Edition, revised and considerably enlarged, with
nearly 200 Illustrations. 8s. 6d. net.
GERMAN BOOK-PLATES. By Count zu Leiningen-
Westerburg and G. R. Dennis. [Preparing.
AMERICAN BOOK-PLATES. By Charles Dexter Allen.
With 170 Illustrations, including 9 copper-plates. 500 pp.
12s. 6d. net.
LADIES' BOOK-PLATES. By Norna Labouchere. With
numerous Illustrations. 8s. 6d. net. Special gilt binding, lay. net.
BOOKBINDINGS, OLD AND NEW. Notes of a Book-Lover.
By Brander Matthews. With numerous Illustrations. 7s. 6d.
net.
MODERN ILLUSTRATION. By Joseph Pennell. Illus
trated with 172 Drawings by modern artists. 10s. 6d. net.
THE DECORATIVE ILLUSTRATION OF BOOKS, OLD
AND NEW. By Walter Crane. With 150 Illustrations.
10s. 6d. net.
DECORATIVE HERALDRY. By G. W. Eve. With 188
Illustrations, ios. 6d. net.

Messrs Bell's Books
THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY. Reproduced in 79 Half-tone
Plates from photographs of the work originally taken for the
Department of Science and Art. With an Historical Description
and Commentary by Frank Rede Fowke, of that Department.
Imperial i6mo. 10s. 6d. net.

Connoisseur Series
Edited by Gleeson White
PICTURE POSTERS. A Handbook on the History of the
Illustrated Placard. By Charles Hiatt. 150 Illustrations.
Demy 8vo. I2.T. 6d. net.
JAPANESE ILLUSTRATION. Being a History and De
scription of the Arts of Pictorial Woodcutting and Colour Printing
in Japan. By Edward F. Strange, M.J.S. 8 Coloured and
80 Black-and- White Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.
THE ART OF THE HOUSE. By Rosamund Marriott
WATSON. Numerous Collotype and other Illustrations. Demy
8vo. 6s. net.
BRITISH HISTORICAL PORTRAITS. H. B. Wheatley.
71 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. ios. od. net.
PORTRAIT MINIATURES. By G. C. Williamson, Litt.D.
194 Illustrations. Demy Svo. 12J-. 6d. net.

Practical Designing Series
PRACTICAL DESIGNING. A Handbook on the preparation
of Working Drawings for Carpets, Woven Fabrics, Metal Work,
Wall Papers, Stained Glass, etc., showing the technical method
of preparing designs for the manufacturer. Freely Illustrated.
Edited by Gleeson White. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 5-r.
ALPHABETS. A Handbook of Lettering, compiled for the
use of Artists, Designers, Handicraftsmen, and Students. By
Edward F. Strange. With 200 Illustrations. Third Edition.
Crown 8vo. ss-
MODERN ILLUSTRATION : Its Methods and Present Con
dition. By Joseph Pennell. With 171 Illustrations. Student's
Edition. Crown Svo. 7s. 6d.

Bell's Handbooks

of the

GREAT MASTERS
IN PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.

Illustrated Monographs on the chief Painters and Sculptors of
Ancient and Modern Times.
Edited by G. C. Williamson, Litt.D., author of "Richard
Cosway and his Companions," "John Russell, R.A.,"
"Portrait Miniatures," etc.
The object of this Series is to supply short biographical and critical Mono
graphs, sound in matter, adequate in illustration, and artistic in form and
workmanship. A list of the artists' works in the chief galleries of Europe will
be appended to each volume, with Descriptions and Notes. Also a Biblio
graphy and Chronological Summary of the pictures. There will be about 40
Illustrations in each volume and a photogravure frontispiece.
POST 8vo. PRICE Ss. NET.
BERNARDINO LUINI. By George C. Williamson, Litt.D.
VELASQUEZ. By R. A. M. Stevenson.
ANDREA DEL SARTO. By Miss H. Guinness.
LUCA SIGNORELLI. By Maud Cruttwell.
CORREGGIO. By Selwyn Brinton, M.A., Author of "The Renais
sance in Italian Art."
RAPHAEL. By H. Strachey.
FRA ANGELICO. By Langton Douglas, M.A.
CARLO CRIVELLI. By G. McNeil Rushforth, M.A., Lecturer in
Classics, Oriel College, Oxford.
THE BROTHERS BELLINI. By S. Arthur Strong, M.A.,
Librarian to the House of Lords.
MICHAEL ANGELO. By Charles Holroyd, Keeper of the National
Gallery of British Art.
REMBRANDT. By Malcolm Bell.
MEMLINC. By W. H. James Weale, late Keeper of the National Art
Library.
MURILLO. By Manuel B. Cossio, Litt.D., Ph.D., Director of the
Musee PeMagogique, Madrid.
TURNER. By Charles Francis Bell, M.A., Deputy Keeper of the
Ashmolean Museum.

Bell's Cathedral Series
Edited by Gleeson White and E. F. Strange
Fully illustrated, well printed. Crown 8vo, cloth, is. 6d. each.
Now ready.
CANTERBURY. By Hartley Withers. Third Edition, revised.
37 Illustrations.
CHESTER. By Charles Hiatt. Second Edition, revised. 35 Illustra
tions.
DURHAM. By J. E. Bygate. 44 Illustrations.
EXETER. By Percy Addleshaw, B.A. Second Edition, revised. 35
Illustrations.
GLOUCESTER. By H. J. L. J. Masse, M.A. 49 Illustrations.
HEREFORD. By A. Hugh Fisher, ARE. 40 Illustrations.
LICHFIELD. By A. B. Clifton. 42 Illustrations.
LINCOLN. By A. F. Kendrick, B.A. Second Edition, revised. 46
Illustrations.
NORWICH. By C. H. B. Quennell. 38 Ulustrations.
OXFORD. By the Rev. Percy Dearmer, M.A. Second Edition, revised.
34 Illustrations.
PETERBOROUGH. By the Rev. W. D. Sweeting, M.A. Second
Edition, revised. 51 Illustrations.
ROCHESTER. By G. H. Palmer, B.A. Second Edition, revised. 38
Illustrations.
SALISBURY. By Gleeson White. Second Edition, revised. 50
Illustrations.
SOUTHWELL. By the Rev. Arthur Dimock, M.A 38 Illustrations.
WELLS. By the Rev. Percy Dearmer, M.A 43 Illustrations.
WINCHESTER. By P. W. Sergeant. Second Edition, revised. 50
Illustrations.
YORK. By A. Clutton- Brock. Second Edition, revised. 41 Illustrations.
In the Press.
CARLISLE. By C. K. Eley.
ST. PAUL'S. By the Rev. Arthur Dimock, M.A.
Preparing.
BRISTOL. By H. J. L. J. Masse, M.A.
ST. DAVID'S. By Philip Robson, AR.I.B.A.
ELY. By the Rev. W. D. Sweeting, M.A.
WORCESTER. By E. F. Strange.
CHICHESTER. By H. C. Corlette, A.R.I.B.A.
ST. ALBANS. By the Rev. W. D. Sweeting, M.A.
RIPON. By Cecil Hallett, B.A.
ST. ASAPH'S and BANGOR. By P. B. Ironside Bax.
GLASGOW. By P. Macgregor Chalmers, 1. A., F.S.A. (Scot.).
Uniform with the above Series.
BEVERLEY MINSTER. By Charles Hiatt.
ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH, CANTERBURY. By Canon
Routledge.
WIMBORNE MINSTER and CHRISTCHURCH PRIORY. By
the Rev. T. Perkins, M.A.
WESTMINSTER ABBEY. By Charles Hiatt. [Preparing.
TEWKESBURY ABBEY. By II. J. L. J. Masse, M.A. [/« the Press.
W. If. WHITE AND CO. LTD., RIVERSIDE TRESS, EDINBURGH.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 01301 5301